Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi
chapter-344

Aegir POV–

「Please give it up.」

「Don’t be rash.」

I make preparations for the journey while Celia and Myla try to convince me otherwise.

Armor would get in the way, so let’s wear some thick clothes instead.

It doesn’t snow much in the south, but I’ll take a hat in case.

As for weapons…… the longsword and Dual Crater stands out too much.

I would hate to lose them, so maybe it’s better to leave them behind and carry a normal sword.

「Are you listening!?」

「You’re ignoring me, aren’t you!」

The prevalence of fire pox is declining, but I should take some medicine in case. With demand also decreasing, we should have some spare.

Money…… I won’t be there for long so I’ll grab a little. If I’m going to sleep outdoors, I’ll also need a blanket.

Hmm, I have quite a bit of luggage, although I can probably just pile it on Schwartz.

「Now now, calm down. I’ve already decided I’m going.」

「Understood. Then Myla-san please take care of the place while I’m gone.」

「I keep telling you to stop―― eh!?」

Celia’s attitude flips and she stands beside me after putting a coat over her shoulders.

Even though she was protesting, she had already completed her own preparations.

「It can’t be helped if Aegir-sama insists on going. Then the least I can do is accompany you. Now, let’s go.」

「You tricked me!」

No need to get angry, I’ll be back soon.

「You two are free to do it whenever you want during the trip then! It’s always Celia-san…… I also want……」

I hug Myla and steal her lips.

「Sorry. If I take you along as well, it will delay the training.」

And then Leopolt would nag me.

「I’m counting on you, Myla.」

Myla puts a hand to my cheek and slips her tongue in my mouth.

The kiss which should have been over after a few seconds at most ended up becoming an intense spit-swapping one lasting several minutes.

「Puha…… I understand. I can’t come because I’ve been entrusted with an important task. Unlike a certain someone.」

「Mu!」

Myla smirks at Celia who is trying to get in between us and then the two of them have a stare off again.

「There is no task more important than protecting Aegir-sama. Please do your best with Leopolt-san.」

If they’re together for any longer, they’ll start fighting.

Let’s depart now.

「Going as a pair is attractive…… if I have to consider escort though…… umumu.」

「Let’s have 200 girls accompany you.」

Celia gets upset when Myla interrupts.

I should take someone else besides Celia.

As an escort, Christoph is no good. He won’t be useful in battle and only food costs will increase.

「Then maybe Mack?」

「Unh.」

Mack just so happens to be around, but he apologetically lowers his head.

「You can’t go? Did something happen?」

He isn’t a coward. I don’t think he would be unwilling without a good reason.

「My child was born. I want to stay here a little longer.」

「What?」

「It’s with that black elf. She gave birth the day before yesterday.」

Oh, that elf who chased Mack all the way from her village.

She’s probably living with him right now.

If he told me earlier, I would have given him a congratulatory gift.

「……it’s complicated.」

According to Mack, the child is healthy but is a half-elf who has lighter skin than the mother.

This guy has darker skin than the mother. Which means the man who impregnated that black elf is――

「Looks like my seed won.」

Mack doesn’t seem to mind and is intending to raise the child as his own.

What a respectable man. I would probably go crazy with jealousy and start impregnating other women left and right at random.

「Well, in that case, I don’t mind. Stay behind as long as you want.」

I feel a twinge of pain in my heart.

I’m leaving behind Melissa who just gave birth to a child.

「Melissa-san will be fine. We have plenty of people at home to look after her.」

That’s a relief. I should stay quiet and leave so she doesn’t worry.

「Then take Gido. He’ll be helpful.」

「Yeah, you’re right.」

Gido’s original duty is to protect me as part of the escort unit anyways, so he won’t say no.

Also I don’t have to worry about him tattling on anyone if anything happens during the trip.

I hold several of his weaknesses after all.

For example, he stole the virginity of the girl who works at his favorite restaurant, also he gave a splendid accessory to an older prostitute for her birthday, and he stayed overnight with some girls he hit it off with at a bar last week. If I mention any one of those to his wife, things will get chaotic.

Of course, I’m not a tattler either. As long as he keeps my affairs secret as well, that is.

「Most of Aegir-sama’s affairs have been found out. What’s more surprising is the fact that you’re trying to hide them.」

Going with just these two will be fine.

I’m not going on an unknown adventure, I’m only visiting a country next door.

I should be expecting mainly bandits and maybe a few monsters. It’s not a big war or anything, and I can just run if I find myself at a disadvantage.

Rather, going as a large group makes us more conspicuous and exposes us to more danger.

「Let’s take Alice too! On the off chance we get surrounded by a large army, she can open up an escape route!」

I don’t know if we’ll be fine when we actually get surrounded, regardless it’s a good idea to take her out once in a while.

Worst case scenario, I’ll get Schwartz to protect her.

「Then I will go let them know. To prepare, Alice will need 30 minutes―― Gido will need 40 seconds.」

Celia runs off.

In the meantime, let’s pass the time by snacking on a skewer in town.

「Do you want to believe in God?」

「Don’t you want to rely on the power of Altair?」

No wonder that girl passing out hand-drawn flyers looked familiar.

It’s Altair’s shrine maiden, Remia.

Even Altair is silently distributing the papers too.

「Are they looking for followers now that the temple is finished?」

I agreed to build the temple after a strong plea from Altair and Remia.

With that said, the building itself is only slightly larger than a regular two-story dwelling and has no ounce of majesty.

The walls were painted white so they would stand out a little from the surroundings.

Altair and Remia were overjoyed, and they did their best in bed, so it was worth building. The cost wasn’t anything much either.

「Adolph was going on and on about different things though……」

After agreeing to conditions like reporting to the domestic affairs department whenever they want to do any soliciting or events, reporting whenever a criminal gets involved, and getting raided mercilessly if any promises were broken―― he finally consented.

「Believe in God and let’s be happy together.」

With the completion of the wooden two-story temple decently exposed to the sun, they finally start recruiting others to join, but things don’t seem to be going well.

「Altair? Aah…… I’ve prayed before, but what do you mean by joining a religion?」

「I just like worshipping beauties. You’re good looking too. For you, I wouldn’t mind worshipping a little at a shrine.」

「That’s not what I mean, I’m talking about having Altair as the absolute existence in your life――」

The citizens of Rafen are the same as me, we don’t follow the concept of believing in a single God.

They believe when they want to believe, and when the problem is resolved, it’s normal for them to say goodbye.

I would think most people in the Central plains are like that, which is why the girls are struggling.

「Evil spirits and vengeful ghosts will disperse with one touch from the power of Altair! That is how mighty of a power it is!」

「Blessing…… do my best……」

Remia projects loudly while Altair also strains her voice as best she can.

Their praiseworthy efforts make me want to join, but Adolph has warned me not to.

「I’ll go listen to what they have to say.」

I hear another familiar voice―― this time coming from Andrei.

Altair’s face lights up, but she’ll be wise to be careful.

This guy isn’t interested in some God, he’s an infidel who’s only approaching because of your childlike looks.

（I-is this true? A sublime God exists who has the power to exorcise any kind of evil spirit? I’m joining!）

I’m seeing lots of people I know today.

Casie is inspired by what she heard.

By that logic, she would be scattered the moment she joins. Will she be okay?

In the end, Remia sniffed out Andrei’s hidden motive and kicked Andrei away. Casie could not be seen and so she decided on her own that she became a believer.

I feel like I can now understand why Casie gets tricked by men when she was alive.

Just the other day, she bought a stone that apparently extends one’s lifespan from holding it.

I have plenty to say, the first thing being I’ve never seen a ghost who gets scammed before.

While all that was going on, Celia comes back with those two and Schwartz.

「Alright, time to go.」

This will be a quick trip back and forth.

We head south from Rafen, then advance southwest through Malt, then proceed to Alteria the former capital of Altair.

I actually wanted to check out Vandolea as well, but thought the ash near Dard mountain would impact the speed of our journey.

Near Malt-South Yuguria Border.

「Wow, the disease had such a large effect.」

The situation south of Malt was terrible.

Even though the disease was greatly reduced by cold temperatures, dead people won’t come back to life.

「From first glance, a village of this size should have about 50 people living here…… this is tragic.」

Ten or so people survived and many houses became deserted with their entrances sealed.

「I’m glad I didn’t take Celestina down here.」

She would bawl her eyes out if she saw this.

「……by the way, why is Natia-san here?」

Celia seems a little unhappy.

「I want to visit new countries too.」

Natia was waiting for us in front of the gates.

The adventurous girl heard about our plans from Schwartz.

That damn blabbering perverted horse.

「It’s a bit dirty, but I’ll take it.」

「Uwah, you’re-! Have you no shame!?」

Celia yells angrily.

「Who’s going to complain when the entire family is dead?」

「Why are you bringing this woman along too!?」

Sekrit goes behind a house with a sealed entrance to where the newly created graves are――seven for the entire family―― and casually takes away a porcelain pot.

「It looks like it’s going to rain today. The spices are going to get wet if I leave them in a cloth bag.」

「…… leave it. That thing was meant as an offering to the dead.」

Sekrit tosses the vessel as if she lost all interest in it.

Natia quickly catches it and returns it to the grave.

I didn’t intend to have Sekrit accompany me either.

We were leaving the inn of the first town we stayed at and she happened to be there.

「It’s boring without you in the mansion. Let me join too.」

She already brought her own horse, plus I feel responsible that she still doesn’t fit in with everyone in the mansion. Maybe the reason she left was because she doesn’t feel at home, so I allowed her to come.

「This woman isn’t that kind of person! Let her be punished!」

「Fufu, if some curse of the dead was going to get me, I’d be long gone by now.」

There are few in this world who have killed as many people as Sekrit has.

If those victims haven’t laid hands on her, then no one is going to do anything after she defiles a grave.

Well, I can’t really speak of other people.

「Oh yeah, there was something like that in your place. Kuku, that was pretty funny.」

She probably means Casie.

Nonna and the others don’t like Sekrit.

However, they’re afraid of doing anything to the visibly aggressive woman, so they got the immortal Casie to do it for them.

It resulted in utter defeat. Casie tried sneaking into her bedroom only to come flying back to my room, crying her eyes out until morning. To this day, nobody talks about what happened.

「You were fine when attacking Zilpureheart with her. Get along this time too.」

I pat Celia’s head.

「……I’ll listen since Aegir-sama says so.」

When I pat Sekrit’s head, she brushes my hand away.

「I won’t kill her.」

「Bitch, even after Aegir-sama pat you!」

Celia tries to sweep Sekrit’s legs.

But that was easily avoided and she falls over after getting her own pivot leg swept instead.

This is coming from the one who agreed.

「I’ll get along too.」

I’m not worried too much about you, Natia. The problem is between Celia and Sekrit.

「I’ll get along.」

Natia says it one more time and brings her head close, so I give her a pat too.

I look over to Alice and see she’s quietly riding on Schwartz.

She seems fine, but her face is flushed and her body is trembling occasionally.

Schwartz must have realized something and is making the ride unnecessarily bumpy.

「How strange, I was sure I bought it…… mmm.」

Gido is fumbling through his things beside me.

「We’re going to be eating lunch outside today, so I bought a carrot to make soup…… I remember putting it in here.」

That’s probably stuffed inside Alice right now.

Today’s soup will have to go without carrots.

There really is nothing at the former Malt-Altair border, now Malt-South Yuguria border.

After the ordeal with the disease, the already undermanned border security has become even more sparse, and since the South Yuguria side likely sees no possibility of an invasion from the small nation of Malt, only a few patrolling soldiers riding horses pass by from time to time.

Obviously, no inspections are being done, and the few travelers and peddlers are passing through as if no border exists.

「This is so careless…… it’s better to be cautious.」

Celia comments, and the experienced adventurer Natia also nods.

I’m thankful that border security isn’t strict, but that breeds a different problem.

It would be a different story if not a single person passed through, however with peddlers and travelers here and there……

「Hyahah! Leave everything you have behind!」

「Ooh, look how hot the girls are! If you don’t want to get hurt, you’re going to let us have a go at them!」

……idiots like these show up.

「Now then, what should I do?」

There are ten of them, no horses. They have some crude swords, short spears, and wearing either leather armor or fur…… typical bandits in a remote region.

At the very least, I don’t want to stand out by fighting wildly until I reach my destination.

They seem too dumb to be persuaded so intimidating them is probably the ideal method.

「Gehehe, oooh a dark-skinned beauty. This kind of tight-looking girl’s asshole…… huh?」

Blood squirts out from the neck of the man who tried to reach for Sekrit.

Her two swords sliced the left and right side of the man, who died after the red liquid sprays out like a street performer doing water tricks.

「D-damn youーーー!!」

「I guess we’re fighting.」

With one already killed, intimidation and persuasion are not options anymore.

My eyes narrow as I transition into killing mode.

Five people are behind the man who died and four more are scattered behind them.

They’re clumped together and aren’t using any projectiles so the ones we face first are the four in front.

On our side, we have Sekrit in front, with the fully prepared Celia and I slightly behind.

Alice and Natia are behind us and not quite ready yet, while Gido is beside them with his sword drawn.

「Gido, stay where you are and protect those two! You, fall back a bit to where Aegir-sama and I――」

Celia’s judgement is correct, but I ignore it and step forward.

I don’t mean to embarrass her or anything.

「Hah, the second one!」

Sekrit takes a huge step and swings her right sword down toward the head of one of the enemies.

The man raises his sword to block the attack in a hurry, but doesn’t expect the slash from Sekrit’s left sword at his vulnerable body, causing his guts to spill out.

It’s clear she is purposely going against Celia’s instructions and charging.

「Take this, bitch!」

Another bandit approaches Sekrit from behind.

She reacts as if she knew he was there and bends her body to avoid his sword.

Her upper body bends far enough to touch the touch the ground.

I’m impressed by her flexibility every time I see it in action.

「You’ll be the third.」

Sekrit grins at the man who missed his target.

That smile almost makes her seem like the grim reaper.

She repeatedly unleashes attacks with her two swords, forcing the man to dedicate his entire attention to defense.

With the difference in number of swords he can’t do anything about, the man cries in panic as he desperately attempts to block a barrage of diagonal strikes to his head and thrusts to his body.

「C’mon, you’re going to die if you don’t block well.」

She’s completely toying with him.

If she was serious to begin with, that guy’s head would have been cut off in one swift blow.

「You’re no fun. Time to end this.」

She makes three quick thrusts to the man’s thigh, abdomen and throat, then finishes the man with a sword to the back of the head as soon as he begins to fall down.

「I got you nowーー!」

Sekrit’s exaggerated movements created an opening for another man to jump in from the side with a spear.

With that much weight behind it, Sekrit will probably have trouble deflecting it with her strength.

「What do you think you’re doing to my woman?」

So I kick the man to the ground.

「Hmph!」

I swing my sword down on his head before he could get up.

The sword I’m using is made of high quality steel and is lighter than my longsword but lighter than my Dual Crater.

I’m not used to this blade yet so I wasn’t able to fully slice through.

It might have been fatal against a more skilled opponent.

「I guess he’s still finished either way.」

Instead of splitting the man in half, the sword stopped at the part below his nose.

Regardless, he shouldn’t be living after that.

「Stupid, you’re going to die next time.」

I warn Sekrit.

「I knew from the beginning you were going to come.」

She smiles and adjusts the grip on her sword.

「Next time, I’ll ram a sword up his ass!」

Celia and Gido are lined up beside us.

The five enemies behind us come in front, but there is nothing they can do to defeat us now.

In fact, they seem to be backing away despite having one more person than we do.

「I have no obligation to wait.」

They’re bandits who steal money and girls.

They should be prepared to face appropriate retaliation.

「Let’s go.」

We charge as four on my command.

The five enemies quickly point their weapons at us.

「Hmph.」

「Gugah!」

I swing down my sword with full force.

My steel blade easily slices through the wooden spear the man tries to block with and cuts into his face all the way down to his stomach.

Using an ordinary steel sword to smash skulls all the time will eventually bend the blade so I make sure not to cut so deep.

Instead of completely bisecting the enemy, I slice open throats and stomachs.

「Toh!」

「Guwaaah!」

Gido blocks the opponent’s sword in front of his face and then deflects the weapon to the lower left before lopping off the unguarded head of the bandit.

It’s a very basic move, but the fluidity in his movements show how much he has trained. He hasn’t just been cheating.

「You won’t hit me!」

「Uwah!」

Celia ducks under the horizontal swing of the enemy’s spear, then slashes the man’s calf.

She comes back up behind the enemy and then reverses her grip on the sword before delivering a final strike to the man’s side.

「Kuku, how interesting.」

「S-save me―― gyaah! Gueeh! Ugyaa!」

Sekrit crosses her blades to intercept the enemy’s upward slash, then twists sideways to yank the sword out of his hand.

In an instant, she spins around and unleashes a relentless series of slashes, the first of which cuts the man’s hands off.

The following slashes slices his throat, gouges out his sides, and chops off his right leg from the shin down.

Right before the man collapses to the ground, she decapitates him.

There should be one last……

「Uwaaaaah!!」

The remaining enemy runs away as fast as he could.

He already started running when the other four got attacked and is far enough away that we can’t catch him quickly.

「We’re going after him.」

It normally isn’t necessary to hunt down bandits, but these kinds of guys have surprising connections with those in the same business.

It would be trouble if we keep getting ambushed especially in an unfamiliar like this. That’s why the smart decision is to annihilate all of them here.

「……finish him?」

Alice holds her hand aloft, but I shake my head.

Our surroundings are grasslands, not to mention the winter has dried up plenty of plants.

Alice’s magic causing a wildfire in the fields is more problematic than bandits.

「……」

Natia draws back the string of her bow and pauses.

After living together with her for a while, I know that she’s quite reluctant to kill anybody.

She is aware that killing is inevitable during battle, whereas she considers shooting an escaping enemy from behind a distasteful act.

I jump onto Schwartz and chase after the man.

The perverted horse neighs unhappily, complaining how heavy the luggage is, while running half-heartedly.

Even so, the distance gradually closes enough to where I can swing my sword.

「H-help meeee!」

The man shouts.

I thought that was him pleading for his life, but I was wrong.

「Stupid idiot! Don’t come over here!」

「He’s gonna find us!」

「Damn Avin! I’ll beat him up later!」

Looks like that guy still has friends over in that direction.

Three people were hiding in the grass, probably planning on blocking us if we were to escape, however decided to wait when they saw the situation develop.

That was where the man was running.

「Calm down, it’s one on four! Let’s take him out and then skedaddle!」

Unfortunately, it’s only one on three.

I stick my sword out and pierce through the back of the fleeing man.

「Guaaaaah!」

「Bastard, how useless can you be!!?」

It seems people like this exist wherever I go.

I cut down the spear thrust at me by the hiding man.

「Take this!」

I hear a whoosh of wind accompany the second voice.

My hand instinctively grabs the arrow fired at me from the left, snaps it in half and then throws the pieces away.

So one of hidden guys has a bow.

「No way, he caught an arrow with his bare hands!? He’s a monster!」

「It’s over.」

I run my sword through the man’s eye for an instant death, then grab the arm of the archer.

As I was contemplating bashing the guy’s head in with a rock――

「Hiieh……」

「Mu, a woman?」

I can’t be killing a woman.

I lightly twist the woman’s arm to make her release the bow, then drop her ass on the grass.

「I-I surrender……so please spare me.」

The other one is also a woman and she puts both hands up after leaving her bow on the ground.

「Of course. If you surrender――」

That was when the man I stabbed in the back earlier groans.

「Guh…… I also…… surr- guggh.」

Schwartz crushes his head with a stomp.

「If you surrender, I won’t kill you.」

I gently pick up the trembling women.

That Night.

「Aaaah! Dying――!! I’m dying――!! Hiiiiih――!!」

I’m holding the bandit woman down and swinging my hips.

She may be screaming, but I’m not raping her.

Normally, bandits who have surrendered would be handed over to some town, however I don’t want to go through the trouble and the women don’t want to be captured.

That’s why they agreed to spending a loving night together with me in exchange for being free.

「So thick! No more, I’m going to die!! I’m going to die from cumming!」

「Hahaha, I’m just getting started. I’ll make you feel even better.」

There’s meaning in getting them to reform too.

If I release them now, they’ll only go back to being bandits. If I impregnate them, they’ll stop doing any of that vulgar stuff, and once they give birth, they’ll search for a proper steady job.

「I’m cumming. Get pregnant!」

「Nooooo! Something really thick just shot out! I’m going to get pregnant!」

I slam my hips into her and ejaculate vigorously all for my noble goal.

The woman’s limbs stretch out tautly, piss starts leaking from her crotch and her eyes roll back into her head.

Celia is talking with the other bandit in the grass beside us.

「I-is she getting tortured…… am I next? Will I be killed?」

「She’s only getting fucked. Aegir-sama’s cock is extra large so she’s going to scream. Just wait patiently.」

「Large as in this much?」

「This much.」

「That’s as large as a foot! I’m really going to die!」

Fufufu, time to call the other girl.

「……」

Gido is looking at me like he wants to say something.

Two at the same time? Well, that will have to be after the girl consents.

And so we enter a small farming village within former Altair territory after reforming the bandits.

「There are traces of the disease still……」

The newly created graves in the cemetery stand out.

「It doesn’t look like they’re too poor.」

Men are working the stone mill to make flour, while the women and children are getting winter wheat ready.

They at least have the bare minimum to sustain their daily lives.

「More importantly, they don’t appear to be suffering.」

I don’t see faces of despair from losing their houses and their loved ones from the war.

Next, I’ll ask them directly.

「Excuse me miss. Can I bother you for a minute?」

I call out to a 15 or 16 year old girl carrying laundry.

「Pii!」

She ran away. Why?

「Your face probably looks scary. With how big and muscular you are, she might have thought you were going to rape her.」

Sekrit’s words make my shoulders slump in disappointment.

Alice, you take over.

「……’kay. Um…… I have something to ask…… ah!?」

The girl stops running when Alice approaches her stammeringly, but then a carrot falls out from under her skirt.

Wow, she wasn’t even wearing underwear?

「Piii! Pervert!」

Gido, you go.

「I have a question for you. It won’t take much time, do you don’t mind?」

「Ah, so handsome…… sure.」

How vexing.

When I was about to take out my dick to appeal again, Celia’s sharp senses instantly realizes my intentions and stops me.

Through Gido, we were able to hear lots from the girl.

As expected, the disease dealt the village a huge blow.

Their living conditions have gotten poorer, but they continue to improve day by day and they have hope for the future.

「Even though there was a small disturbance when the bishop was chased out of the village…… hearing what that person had to say, for some reason we feel reassured.」

She must be referring to Wilhelmina.

Apparently, she went around to every village in the remote regions and explained the new country she will be creating to all the residents.

Furthermore, she arranged for food to be delivered to them after she left at no cost until they could restore their lifestyle, which eliminated the starving people.

「She firmly held the hand of a country girl like me. That was before the disease really settled down too.」

None of the adults speak poorly of Wilhelmina either.

All of those in the village believe that everything will be fine as long as they put their faith in her.

Basically, she is supported by the people of the remote region.

「Got it. Thank you.」

「It’s not like we don’t have problems though. The amount of monsters have increased lately, and we’re having trouble exterminating them after disease whittled down our manpower.」

Aah, I guess that will happen with fewer people.

Everyone has their hands full with farm work each day so a vigilante corps can’t be created.

「Yesterday, some of the livestock got taken too…… we have to do something.」

I look around and see a few holding crude spears and wearing fur armor.

I guess that’s the subjugation squad, and there are even young boys and girls mixed in too.

The lack of human resources seems very severe.

「The subjugation squad will be sortieing tomorrow and I’m not sure things will go well.」

I can’t just accompany them.

Let’s just pray for their success.

The Next Day.

「Aah, I slept well. How generous of him to let us borrow one house.」

With no inns in a remote farm village, I was wondering which house we can rent, but the village chief allowed us to have an entire house to ourselves.

It was cheaper than staying at an inn in your average town.

「……I couldn’t sleep.」

「……me neither.」

「……I was scared.」

Nevertheless, Celia, Natia, and Alice have bags under their eyes.

「There were new gravestones behind the house. The whole family who used to live in this house must have perished.」

「There were rattling sounds coming from the ceiling in the middle of the night……」

「I felt my ass being groped at night.」

The last one was me.

「Uuunnh. Kuaah.」

Sekrit stretches with a pleasant groan and then yawns.

It looks like she had a nice deep sleep. There’s no doubt she’s built differently than the other girls.

「Where’s Gido?」

I saw him sneak out last night, but I thought he was going to the bathroom so I went back to sleep.

That was when the door of the farm village house opened quietly.

Walking out was Gido―― and the girl from yesterday.

「Thank you very much. That was an amazing first time!」

「Mhm, it was good for me too.」

The two kiss briefly, and then the girl pulls back with a blush.

「……hah!?」

The relieved-looking Gido was greeted by the cold stares of Celia and the others as well as my jealous gaze.

Why didn’t he call me? I even let him fuck the bandit girl.

「T-that girl would have been too small for the chief――」

Monopolizing a tight hole for yourself? What a luxury.

「You’ve been cheating a lot lately. You’ll get what’s coming eventually.」

Celia takes note of something.

I think frightening things will happen when we return.

「Who cares about two kids making love. Can we depart now?」

Sekrit speaks out as she fixes her hair.

Sure, it doesn’t matter, but what you’re sitting on is a gravestone.

Don’t get into a fight with the villagers now.

After we leave this village, I’ll take a look at a few other places before going to the city.

This way, I’ll be able to learn more about the land ruled by Wilhelmina called the South Yuguria Empire.

When we head south out of the village, we encounter the subjugation squad from yesterday.

These guys are going south too?

「What a coincidence. We should travel together.」

No matter how they are classified, greater numbers means more power.

Bandits will hesitate when they see a larger force, and monsters will find it more difficult to approach.

There is one road so we should stay together until they tell us we’re in the way.

「I also followed caravans when I found them.」

Natia nods in agreement.

I want to hear more of your adventure stories later.

「The best way to avoid trouble is to flock together. Most smallfry do that in fear.」

Sekrit talks to herself.

「And those who make flocks their prey are usually formidable. Things are getting interesting.」

Sekrit looks at me and grins.

At the same time, one of the subjugation squad members shouts.

「Enemy sightedーー! Monsters have appearedーー!」

I don’t see anything in the direction of the pointing finger.

No, the finger was pointed in the sky.

「The sky?」

When I strain my eyes, several shadows fell from the clear sky.

「A giant bird―― and a person with wings?」

I draw my sword as I guess what I’m facing.

The sky, huh? What should I do, my sword doesn’t reach that high.