5-2. Journey 2 (1/2)

5-2. Journey (2)

Satou's here. Hiking is nice, isn't it. When you're surrounded by nature, fully inhaling the scents of the trees and the plants, you completely forget about all the unpleasant affairs at work.

◇

After I've finished taking care of the horses, I begin to compound for deodorants behind the wagon. I want to do something about the intense smells of the goat leather and wool.

During compounding, Liza come to ask if the meal is fine without soup since the firewood isn't enough. It's cold, and the black bread without the soup would be too hard.

I catch a sight of the Light Hot Plate beside me which I've used to heat water for compounding.

I decided to use this to help for cooking. After heating the soup with this, you could put the burning firewood until it's boiled. I'll leave the magic supply for Light Hot Plate to Arisa.

Still, I didn't think that gathering for fuel would be this hard. I should have bought them in Seryuu city.

I'll take out scrap woods from the Storage if we get in a pinch. The fact that the Item Box could only store item with particular size is a bottleneck.

◇

I, who have been making deodorant behind the wagon, could smell the nice aroma from the soup. The finished deodorant is in the form of a white powder. I put it in a small bag and it seems that you used it by mixing it together with the smell source.

I take out the goat leathers and wools from the storage and put them inside the Item Box in a small sack with the deodorant. Since they were too many to get inside, I leveled up the Item Box skill level to 4.

Liza comes to say that the meal is ready exactly right after I've finished my business even though she probably didn't watch me.

Now then, since the meal is ready I should call Pochi and Tama back.

I call them in loud voice.

Yup, let's buy a whistle when we get to a town.

I do have whistles in my Storage but it'd be disastrous if I blow it and make a kaijuu or an angel appear, so I won't.

”A prey nano desu~.”

Pochi comes back while boastfully presenting a rabbit on her hand. The ears are short for a rabbit. According the AR, it's called Short-eared Rabbit. Pochi is dirtied with grass and mud from the top of her head to her foot, but she's smiling nicely.

I relay the rabbit I've received to Liza.

I praise Pochi while stroking her head. Since I can't let her have a lunch like she is, I put water to a bucket and wash her face and arms with it. I've made this policy from the time we were in the labyrinth before we had meals, so when she's presented with the water bucket, she's splashing the water around. Lastly, she shakes her head to remove the water without using a towel. This habit of her is irreparable it seems.

”Meat~? I've brought it~.”

”Meat! ...nano desu?”, Pochi tilt her head in puzzle midway.

When I turn back, the thing that Tama holds is an about 80-cm high rat... or not. The AR shows that it's a rat-man.

The rat-man seems to be unconscious, but at least he's still alive.

”Tama, please let that one go.”

While looking a bit sad, Tama says, ”Prey~ No good~?”, she's coming here while tilting her head.

I almost allow it involuntarily, but let's not eat men. I should teach her about this gradually.

”You'll hurt your stomach, so no.”

”Aye~.”

Tama begins to spin on spot while still holding the rat-man. Then, she throws the rat-man across the meadow.

Oioi, that was too wild no matter how you look at it.

The rat-man has its HP decreased by a little, but it seems to be alive.

Since we treated him too rough, I decided to check if he has any external wounds. Before that, I scold Tama properly.

The rat-man doesn't seems to have any injury. According to AR, he doesn't have any skill, age 2. As expected of rats, they grow fast. He's grasping something that look like a ball of mud on his hand, but, since I have no interest on it, I leave it alone. It's probably this child's boxed lunch.

Since he only seems to have fainted, I put him on a meadow a bit away from our camp. I put several fruits beside him as a remuneration for the trouble.

On the other hand, Liza has quickly dismantled the rabbit that Pochi caught and she is grilling it now. The entrails that has been washed then properly cut into tiny pieces by Liza, and fried together with some herbs.

By the way, we're using a dead tree from the other side of the boulder found by Tama as the fuel.

”My stomach is hungry nodesu~.”

”Copycat is bad nano desu~.”

”Meat~ nano desu~.”

Arisa demands for lunch while imitating as Pochi. Pochi protests at her, Tama follows suit.

...this is slightly amusing nanodesu.

Since the rat-man doesn't seem like he'll wake up, we decided to begin our meal.

Liza holds out the biggest piece of meat.

I pass it to Pochi because she's the MVP this time. The second biggest one is given to Tama. She was no good with the prey, but she played an active role in securing the firewood.

The meat of the rabbit is tender and delicious. I don't know if whether this is because of Liza being good at cooking or the fresh ingredient, but good food is good food.

I'm offered the herb fried entrails, but since the meat is enough, I decline.

Kasakasa.

Even if I don't look at the direction of the sounds, I know from the radar that the rat-man who has awakened runs away. When I check on it later, the fruits has been properly taken away.

◇

I'm enjoying a tea break with Liza and Lulu after the meal.

Lulu pours me the tea. She was taught in the royal court even if it was just a small country, so the tea made by Lulu is on different level than the one I usually drank. Truly delicious.

Seemingly not at all dissatisfied when I praise her, even while acting humble, her face is smiling.

Arisa follows Pochi and Tama along to go on a sightseeing of the boulders. The person itself said, ”I'm surveying”, of course, but I could only saw pleasure trip on her mind from her tension.

I search the map while enjoying the tea's aroma.

I tried to look for rat-men, but the only rat-man around here is the child earlier. I wonder if he's a lost child?

From the map, there's a hidden village dozen of kilometer away southeast from here, so he's probably a lost child from a rat-man village outside of the earl's territory. Fortunately the lost child is running into the direction of the village, and the dangerous animals are only foxes, so he's probably going to be okay even left alone.