Chapter 11 - Grim Prospects (1/2)

Syltina simply sighed deeply after looking at the people that were moving about confusedly in front of her eyes.

“To think that they would volunteer members that don’t even know how to camp……”

The phrase “fed up” was already insufficient to describe how she felt. Even she hadn’t been this bad 2 years ago – is what Syltina thought to herself as a slight dizziness attacked her upon imagining how things would be in the near future.

The departure of those going on the purification journey was unimaginably plain and secretive, considering who the members heading off were. It was only natural. Three of the members (it would be 4 people if you were to include Kuroitsu) weren’t even part of the Rideiran Kingdom; furthermore, one of those three was someone who was previously exiled from the country. As one might expect, with these faces mixed in, they couldn’t be shameless enough to send them off with a grand parade-like event.

If Syltina were to give her opinion, if they were mindful enough to feel embarrassment at something like that, then she wanted to ask why they had called her back. To depend on someone that they had once exiled, and entrust her with something so important that it concerned the country’s future; that was not merely something to just be embarrassed about.

Well, regardless of what the country wanted to do, having left early in the morning before the sun even rose, Syltina’s group was sent off by the Royalty and a few nobles, as well as the country’s knights. After departing, Syltina and co. decided to head to the closest area of taint for the time being: “Rufhanna Village”.

Inside the horse carriage that they had been given as a means of transportation sat 3 people – Akari, Tedla and Fract, while Alhart sat in the driver’s seat. Syltina was straddled upon Kuroitsu, who had transformed into a black horse, and Miliane was riding Alhart’s beloved horse: “Karen”.

Rufhanna Village was situated in the southern part of the continent, at a distance that normally took 5 days by carriage from the capital. They switched horses in the villages along the way and travelled while matching Akari, who was unaccustomed to travelling by carriage. Even so, it was a place that would take a week at most to reach.

At this time, Syltina had thought that Akari would be the only one unaccustomed to travelling. She was made aware of her huge misunderstanding not long after leaving the capital.

“…………just where are all of you going?”

There were 4 gates that connected the outer wall of the capital to the outside. Amongst them, one faced the south and was called the “South Gate”. They had planned to exit from that gate, but seeing a certain group of three advancing towards the east, Syltina had to quickly stop them and correct the route of the carriage they had squeezed into.

“Unbelievable……you haven’t even memorized a map of your own country……?”

Understanding geography was a basic amongst basics. Seeing Syltina face-palm involuntarily, Kuroitsu neighed as if to comfort her.

This was the start of Syltina’s troubles.

-Oh, the carriage’s shaking makes my butt hurt. Oh, I’m hungry, can I eat something? Oh, I want to drink some cider, why isn’t there any? Oh, I also want to ride a horse directly instead of riding the carriage. Oh, when will we arrive at our destination? Oh, where is the inn that we will be staying at today? Oh, was there not a better quality carriage?-……….etc.

Do you guys think you’re going on a picnic!? Syltina wanted someone to acknowledge it was quite admirable of her for not screaming that.

Promptly ignoring all of it, Syltina simply continued forward. What eventually delivered the final blow to such a Syltina, was what had happened after they had secured a campsite as the sun began to go down.

“Al(1) and I will go around to procure some provisions and water. All of you may make a fire and rest.”

“Procure some provisions you say; but don’t we have provisions? What are you talking about?”

“‘What are you talking about?’, would be my line, Prince. The prepared provisions contain a lot of dried food which will be necessary in case of an emergency. In places where provisions can be procured, we collect them from there so that we can minimize the daily consumption of our provisions. Well, it’s a different matter if you plan on dying from starvation when it comes down to it.”

At Alhart’s words which completely showed how fed up he was, Fract’s face became red with anger.

“Al, don’t you think you could choose your words better? Geez. Now then, we will be going. Please try not to go too far from Kuro’s side.”

As she exchanged looks with Kuro, who had taken up his human form, he silently nodded. It was already explained that Kuroitsu was Syltina’s familiar. Akari had come asking how he had transformed and such, but then decided that it wasn’t particularly important and gave up reluctantly.

Now then, a fire can easily be created using fire attribute magic, and setting up a campfire is fundamental knowledge amongst the fundamentals of camping. There was no way they didn’t know. All that was left was to make sure they didn’t run out of firewood – is what Syltina thought when she left it to them, but when she finished procuring food and water from the surroundings and came back, the scene before her eyes somehow went past just making her shocked and angry. It went to the point where it couldn’t be helped even if she just laughed.

“……just what the heck are you all doing?”

Moving around in confusion in front of the piled up twigs that laid before them were Tedla and Fract. Behind them, in the shadow of the carriage, was Miliane carrying the staff she brought and using magic to light the area as she hesitantly watched the appearance of the two of them. Akari was inside the carriage ever since they had arrived, letting out a light snore.

“Um, making a campfire……”

“Making a campfire?”

“We were trying to light the fire, but-“

“It wouldn’t light.”

“Yes.”

“……Kuro. Why didn’t you at least try to help them?”

“What we accepted was to be the ‘Saintess’ guards’, correct? Kindly teaching some incompetent fellows how to make a campfire wasn’t included in the request.”

“Well, that’s true but……but, if they don’t learn how to at least make a campfire, then it’ll be troublesome from now on.”

If they were useless both in battle and in camping, then all she could do was sigh and wonder why the hell they had come along. There was a need to at least make it so they weren’t a burden when camping.

“Listen up, from here on out, I will teach you how to make a campfire. Please remember it in one go.”

After waking up Akari, who had been carelessly sleeping on her own, Syltina sighed as she said that.

“First, you tidy up the area where you will be making the campfire.”

As Syltina moved her hand a gale blew, tidying up a part of the ground.

“There, you dig a cooking stove.”

Kuroitsu, who had transformed into a big black dog, dug into the ground that had been cleaned up.

“Once you finish digging, line the bottom with stones and make a round circle of leaves right in the middle. Then, pile up the branches you picked up in the middle of those leaves. At this time, you need an ignition point, so open up one part of the bundle. Finally, once you finish piling it up to a certain degree, you set it on fire.”

Syltina exchanged looks with Miliane, who then used magic to light the fire.

“All that’s left is to make sure you don’t run out of firewood.”