Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, if I find one cockroach, I know that there would be thirty more hiding somewhere nearby. So I always spray insecticide around, rounding up entire herds. It would be good if you could do the same with thieves--”

After we left the town, we had a peaceful journey for three days--but, for two days after that, we were attacked three times by thieves.

Because they were all small scale groups, with 7 - 8 people, we had Arisa attack preemptively with Shock Wave, then the Beastkin girls would capture the thieves--who I would execute.

Since we didn’t need money from the bounties, we just stored the weapons and other items that could sell for money.

At the first battle, I had asked Mia to be the one who opened the attack with an Area of Effect Spell--which was called Acid Mist--but it was much too gruesome, so I suggested that if she needs to use a spell of that type again, she should use her much more clean Blind Mist.

Of course, I could have killed them all right away, but it was sufficient with just the Beastkin girls, I watched from the wagon with Arisa, Mia, and Nana.

“We’re not getting into my favourite template situation--” Arisa muttered, probably because we had been attacked twice already today.

 

“Templa?”

“Is that delicious?”

 

Tama and Pochi were confused by Arisa’s words.

She just shakes her head and lies down on the wagon’s floor with her arms over her face--Tama and Pochi copy her, thinking it’s some kind of game.

 

“Which template would that be?”

 

“Usually, shouldn’t the template be that the thieves attack a carriage which has beautiful women or a rich man, and we come in to save them while looking cool?”

 

Yeah, that’s what I expected.

 

“Arisa.”

 

“What is it, Mia?”

 

“Rich man.” Mia points at me.

 

“Beautiful women.” Mia moves her finger, pointing at all the girls.

 

“A blind spot! We are the people who should be saved according to the template!” Arisa groans, holding her head and sitting in a slumped posture--she had to get up from laying down to do so, but she seemed to like the theatrics.

Mia looks satisfied with the reaction--she doesn’t show much of an expression as always, but when I look closer, she is smiling slightly.

Pochi, Tama and even Nana mimic Arisa by holding their heads while looking troubled--Nana seems to be struggling a little to copy the expression, resulting in a strange look on her face--but let’s just leave her to her fun.

***

“Master, it’s the blue men!” Lisa called to me from the driver’s seat.

I stand up from where I was sitting back against the board separating the driver’s seat from the wagon--causing Liza to look like she was going to get up as well; she had been sitting right next to me since we started travelling, only moving when the thieves attacked. She was very close to me, not quite allowing our shoulders to touch, but she looked very pleased.

I gestured Liza to sit again and then went around using the skirting board to join Lulu out on the driver’s seat.

What Lulu means by ‘Blue men’, are the Earl’s territorial soldiers--she calls them that because their clothing is completely blue, and their armour is even painted blue--strangely, most of them have blue eyes as well--I wonder if they get chosen because of that.

 

“We are the knights of Kuhano, take me to your leader.”

 

“I’m the leader, my name is Tek,”

 

“Oh? You’re rather young. This highway is often frequented by thieves--it’s dangerous to travel without escorts; go back to the town and hire some guards.”

“Thank you for your concern, I have excellent bodyguards, so it’s fine.” As I speak, Liza shows her face from a gap she opens in the curtain.

Liza, that slightly predatory grin--and leaking bloodlust--is impressive…and making me strangely aroused--

“Hmm, that’s quite the strong-looking escort you have. But, you should keep your escorts outside the wagon, so they can see any approaching thieves.” After finishing his advice, the knight quickly checks my ID.

The knights return to their patrol while looking satisfied.

***

“Tada! Am I cute?” Arisa asks while spinning around in front of me--she is wearing a one piece, which has frills on her sleeves; when she wears that and coupled with her violet hair, she really looks like a character from a fantasy movie.

“Well, yeah, your cute--beautiful even.” This isn’t flattery, with her wide violet eyes, and violet hair--coupled with her nice body, she could easily win beauty contests.

“Ehehehe,” She looks slightly surprised at my words, then blushes slightly while smiling so widely that it threatens to split her face.

 

“Cute?”

“Look.”

 

Tama and Pochi come from the other side of the wagon, wearing similar clothes as Arisa, while asking.

They spin around like Arisa did.

 

“Pochi and Tama are beautiful too.” I smile at the two.

 

“Wai!”

“Yay!”

 

They are very pleased with my words, and seem to like it when their skirts float because of them spinning--they continue spinning around and around, until they get dizzy.

“Since you’ve bought some fabric in the town, I tried adding frills to the clothing we have.”

“You’re quite skillful.”

“Well, I’m experienced with making clothes for myself--I came from a rich family and would go to Comicon almost every year!” She looks proud, before suddenly freezing.

When I turn around and look, Nana is posing.

 

“Master, am I cute?”

 

Cute!

 

Or should I say, hot.

 

“Nana! Wear some clothes--only look like that for Master at night--” The last part was muttered, and Lulu looked a little embarrassed, her skin flushing, as she obvious remembered the fun night at the inn with Liza.

Lulu picks up the clothes that Nana left on the ground, and then covers her with it.

Nana wears drawers like everyone else on her lower half, but she seems to be trying to show off a new bra; I didn’t see anyone selling those in the town, so it’s probably something Arisa made.

 

“Arisa, you’re really skillful.”

 

“W-Well, yeah.”

 

It seems Arisa is weak to being praised.

 

“Master, am I cute?” Nana asks again.

“Yep, you’re definitely cute--or rather, sexy. Please don’t thoughtlessly take off your clothes with everyone around--and if you are in a city, don’t take them off in front of someone of the opposite sex,” I pause, “Except me.”

I grin at her when I say the last part, but Nana nods seriously--Arisa, Lulu, and Liza grin at me, Mia nods as well.

“Yes, master.” Nana seems to be satisfied with the, “Sexy”, comment, and obediently puts on the clothing Lulu gives her.

If Lulu didn’t act, I probably would have fixedly stared at her without moving--even though I’ve seen them fairly often, they are a treat to the eyes every time.

That’s why I shouldn’t feel slightly disappointed because of Lulu’s quick reaction speed--though, it would have been nice if she were slightly slower--

“Did you only make clothes for three people?” I ask Arisa, getting back to the topic.

“Yup, it’s impossible to make clothing for everyone at once, and since Tama and Pochi were staring at my prototype with such excitement, I made it for them first.”

“Next, for me.”

“Yes, yes, the next one is for Mia--Lulu, Liza and Nana will be after that, it’s fine right?”

“Yes it’s fine.” Liza nods.

“Yes.” Nana only answers with a single answer, but she looks pleased.

“I wouldn’t look good in such fancy clothes.” Lulu still has a hangup about her looks. I wouldn’t expect it to go away quickly, and I’m glad that it didn’t interfere with our time at the inn.

“It’ll look good, I say--right, should I add frills on your apron? You’ll look like a young wife.”

It’s rare to be there for girl’s talk, it relaxes me as I watch them having fun.

***

“Satisfied?” Liza asks, talking about the food she made.

 

“It was delicious.”

“Haa, blissful.”

 

The three Beastkin girls are sitting back against the wagon, while I’m compounding beside them.

Recently, Nana and Mia have been helping with the clean-up, so they’re busy at the moment.

I crush the Magic Core with my fingers, and then put it inside the mortar. Normally, you would need a tool that looks like a nutcracker, but I don’t particularly like the tool, so I don’t use it. Nowadays, I crush the Cores with my fingers--since it’s just the girls and I, I don’t really bother hiding it--I trust them, and they already know about my storage.

The Beastkin girls just swore to take the secret to the grave, and muttered something like ‘As expected of master’, ‘expected.’, and ‘Master, cool!’.

Mia just said, ‘I’ll keep your secret! I swear on the World Tree, and on the name Bornean, no words of this to those you don’t appoint shall pass my lips until the day I die!” She spoke Elven, and long sentences--her words seemed to be some kind of ritual, and she glowed green as she spoke, a small symbol appeared on her forehead for a second--before disappearing again.

Lulu swore to keep the secret, and then muttered that it explained so many things she thought were slightly weird.

Nana responded with, “I shall hide Master’s secret!”

Now, back to the present.

I thoroughly grind the partially crushed Magic Core with the pestle, and put it inside a bottle--then I place the bottle alongside the others I had prepared before, arranging them by the ranks and purity of the cores; I didn’t forget to put labels on them.

Since the Magic Shop girl said that even in powdered form, the Magic Cores are unstable--so, I’ll try and test just how unstable they are.

I pour a few grams worth of powder on top of a wooden plank, and then pour Magic Power into it--just as I put in 1 point of MP, ‘bang’, it explodes--the three centimeters thick plank now has a hole all the way through it, cracks spread out radially.

Tama and Pochi, who were sleeping, jumped up and stared at me blankly. Arisa peeks out of the wagon, seeing that I was the one who did it, she sighs and rolls her eyes.

“I’m sorry for surprising you,” I apologize to all the girls, and went back to experimenting.

It seems to be several times more powerful than the same amount of gunpowder; especially since gunpowder just burns quickly, requiring confined spaces to generate pressure and explosions--while this just actively explodes.

I don’t really know much about guns, since I was only in the Army Cadets for just over a year, when I was sixteen--I have probably forgotten a lot of what I learned--though I still know how to march in time, and how to salute correctly.

Certainly, a normal person would die if a Magic Core explodes--if a higher rank Core explodes--it may be possible to level a city--If I were to experiment with the Core from one of the Dragons in my storage, well, this entire territory may be vaporized.

I take some of the Core powder from one of the bottles, putting some of the red powder onto a plate, and mix it with stabilizer. Since the stabilizer is white, the mixture becomes pinkish.

I put a small piece of paper on top of a Magic Bestowing Stand, and then carefully pour about 1 gram of the pink powder on top of it. I operate the regulation apparatus that is on one side of the Magic Bestowing Stand, setting it according to what the instructions told me.

Now, I just need to put Magic Power into the Magic Bestowing Stand.

Completion of the reagent takes about ten seconds for each 1 gram.

The Heads-Up-Display shows that it’s Reagent (Quality: Good).

I fold the paper around the completed reagent, in a way similar to origami as instructed, then put it inside a small bag. I’ll put them into storage when I’ve gathered enough.

Since I think I have the knack of it, I pour out 10 grams on my second try.

I stop after making 100 sets of reagents, each being 25 grams.

Next I use those reagents to make MP Potions, HP Potions, and Stamina Potions--around 10 of each. It doesn’t take a very long time to do this, and my speed is increasing as I get more practiced.

“Arisa, put these in your Item Box, use them whenever you need.”

“Aye!” Arisa makes a Tama-like response as she takes them from me and stores them.

Pochi and Tama, who see my tidying up the tools, begin to prepare the wagon for departure.

It’s Liza’s turn to be the driver this afternoon.

Since there doesn’t seem to be any thieves or beasts that are going to attack the wagon, I take the chance to just relax. I lean back against the separating board and just close my eyes--soon I hear a bit of noise, and then a weight lays on my chest, I don’t recognize the scent.

Opening my eyes again, I see that Nana is laying next to me with her head on my chest; she seems to be listening intently to my heartbeat--one of her fingers tap on the wooden floor in time to it. Tama and Pochi seemed to want to come over, but Arisa was distracting them with learning from the cards.

At first, Lulu sat near them, but when Arisa began to gesture--Lulu wandered over and sat next to me, she looked at Nana laying against me, and then looked a little embarrassed. After fidgeting for a few seconds, she shifted position slight, gently laying one hand on my arm, which was next to her.

I couldn’t help but smile at this.

She seemed to be getting less shy--It didn’t mean that her shyness was completely cured.

I reached up and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her against me, resulting in a surprised intake of breath from Lulu--and a quiet giggle from Arisa.

However, Tama and Pochi left the cards, thinking that this looked more fun, and lay down with their heads on my chest, and stomach respectively.

I still held Lulu’s waist, and she began to stroke my arm with one hand--slowly, hesitantly.

The wagon rattled on, under Liza’s guiding.