Chapter 141

It’s now been…uh, how many days since we left Replant?

“I think it has been ten days?”

“Really?”

It was a little vague, as we had made detours and all, but if Daniela said it was, then it must be so. I had wasted two days, but Daniela had been climbing the mountain during that time…so perhaps the journey felt longer for her. Neither of us had ever spent so much time camping outside.

Still, today would be our last day descending this mountain. It felt very safe traveling along an actual road, and it allowed us to make good progress. So we were quite relaxed at the moment. And so I decided to reveal the other discovery I had made at the ruins. The delay was caused by the automated doll, which happened to easily draw much more attention.

“Ta-da!”

“Hm? Well, it does suit you.”

“Hehehe. In fact, I have a pair for you as well. Here.”

“Thank you. However, my eyes are quite fine.”

“Well, don’t be like that.”

I pushed and pushed until Daniela put the frameless appraisal glasses on. Her hair was almost more platinum than blonde, and her asymmetrical, punkish short hair made her beautiful face even cooler. Now, how would some intellectual eyewear add to that…

“Hmmm… These are false lenses then. What do you think? Do I look good?”

“Me like.”

“You missed a few words there…”

What destructive force… So this was my Shambhala…

“…Huh?”

“What?”

“These glasses…oh, wait a minute.”

Daniela was looking around with the glasses still on. Her eyes fixed on the rapier that hung on her belt. After a while, she understood what it meant and then she looked up at me in a awkward motion that reminded me of a rusty gear.

“Oh, Asagi…this…”

“Yeah, they’re appraisal glasses. I found them.”

“You…this is a great discovery…”

Daniela’s lips were trembling as she slowly told me about what I had found.

“These appraisal glasses… Such things would usually be locked away in the back of the most secure treasure rooms of kings.”

“Not too surprising… These things will tell you what everything is. Like that grass over there. Let me see… ‘Yori grass. Perennial Plant. The roots can be used to stop bleeding.’ It’s so useful.”

“That is an understatement. Things that have been unknown up until now, things that we believed in, such things could be turned on their head… That is why they must be kept safe. If it is able to expose everything, then there will always be people who will find that very inconvenient…”

If some swindler claimed his pot was an antique and very valuable, these glasses could prove that the claim was false. Yes, a swindler would not like these.

But what if it was something much larger? Like a holy sword that was passed down through generations of kings… These glasses would see through it all.

It could be the root of much chaos or cause friction between kingdoms.

These glasses would be capable of all that.

The appraisal cheat was almost a standard in other worlds. It was a way of gaining knowledge of things you were seeing for the first time. And it showed you how to make the most of it in an efficient way.

It was the right of the protagonist.

However, I never saw myself in that way. After all, this world had its own Hero, who had been summoned. Matsumoto. And yet here I was, with this cheat item.

Thinking of it like that, it was rather scary. What if these glasses ended up involving me in something horrible? A chill ran down my spine. This was the kind of pressure that protagonists were supposed to deal with.

And they probably could deal with it. And overcome it.

But that wasn’t me. I knew that better than anyone.

“Daniela, what do you think we should do with them?”

“It is quite simple. These are not things that should be allowed to circulate in the wild. We should use them as little as possible.”

“What about letting go of them completely?”

“No. It would be much worse to let the world see them.”

“Hhhh…I see…”

It was a time bomb. An artifact that a powerful Hero was supposed to have that had fallen into the hands of a convenience store clerk…

“The fact that it can be used by anyone is what is dangerous. It is a treasure that children and adults could use… People would die for such a treasure.”

“…Well, I suppose it’ll just take up space in my bag then.”

“We must use it ourselves in secret…”

I had already decided that the ancient elves of the ruin were major perverts. The fact that they had such tastes while also creating such things as this was scary to think about. It was insane.

“An age of advanced magic, huh…crazy.”

“Aye. One should not be careless with their gifts.”

There were more and more things in my hollow bag that I could not unleash onto the world. Honestly, I wanted to empty my bag on Matsumoto. That bastard, where was he? If he would only come and take it all away.

We stopped to take several breaks as we descended. By the time we reached the base, it was getting dark. The area here was rocky ground, and there were many boulders that looked like they had rolled down the mountain. That made me very apprehensive of camping close by.

“Shouldn’t we move out a little further before setting up camp?”

“If you think so, Asagi.”

Daniela nodded. I felt bad, as we were quite tired now. However, it was better safe than sorry, and so we moved away from that spot.

After walking for some time, the boulders became smaller and rounder. And I also heard the sound of a small river. There was a river close by. As it was not raining and there was no fear of a flood, we decided to set up camp here.

I took out the tools for creating a bonfire from the hollow bag. Once it was set up, the area was filled with a warm glow. I sighed as I was reminded of how much this calmed me down. Daniela sat down next to me, and so I leaned my head on her shoulder as we stared into the flames.

“This is nice.”

“Aye…hey, Asagi.”

“Hmmm…?”

I stared at the side of her face as it was illuminated by firelight.

“I am hungry.”

“…”

I sighed at her ever unwavering tendencies and then stood up and pulled out the pot from the hollow bag. I had promised to make her something delicious, and this darkness was not enough to stop me from opening Bistro Asagi tonight. There wouldn’t be any pasta, but I would serve some soup and something roasted.

First, I gathered some water from the river and boiled it. I had found that you could always get by with some hot water in this world. While the water was boiling, I pulled out a cutting board to the side and cut the vegetables. It was large, random chunks, but big was better. And no one cared. Well, I did prefer smaller chunks sometimes.

I pushed the vegetables aside for now and took out the meat. I chopped that up too and threw it into the pot. Then I added salt and some mysterious sauce. Once it was bubbling in just the right way, I dumped the vegetables in. Then I set the lid on and let it stew.

In the meantime, Daniela had gone into the bag and was now biting on some meat skewers. Was she that hungry…? I’m working so hard over here…

“Hm? What is it?”

“Nothing…”

“?”

Yes, it was cute when she tilted her head like that… Well, I suppose this was business as usual for her. I decided to leave it alone. My fragile heart could not take any more.

As the soup was on the fire, I pulled out some more meat. These I cut into smaller pieces and put on metal skewers.

I had these made a long time ago by Chief Aragira from Fhiraldo.

He had called them estocs, but these were churrasco skewers. Well, that was harder to explain, so I didn’t mind…

And to these meat skewers, I added an original condiment I had made with a combination of herbs and spices I had bought. And then I stood them up around the fire. At the end of the day, I had done a little research on this cooking thing. This condiment would really bring out the taste. I had made it when I was really starving for something spicy, and this was sure to get us panting.

Daniela threw her finished skewer into the fire and muttered.

“We have really traveled together for quite a while now…”

“Uh…yeah. Has it been three or four months?”

“I think it has been a little longer than that?”

To be honest, our days were so eventful that it was hard to keep track.

“You know, Asagi. I told you before, but what I want, is to see the world.”

“Yeah. I want to see it too. There has to be a reason that I was brought here. And I’m so glad you’re here with me.”

I turned the skewers around to cook the other side.

“What scene do you imagine will be waiting for us at the end?”

“I don’t…know. I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure we will be there together. Looking at whatever it is.”

I imagined the moment as I stirred the contents of the pot.

“I was alone when I started this journey. But now you are here next to me. I am truly happy about that.”

“Hey now, you’re making me blush.”

“Hehe. Well, thank you for everything.”

The soup was ready now, and I filled Daniela’s bowl and handed it to her. Daniela accepted the bowl and stared at it.

“I put my heart and soul into making that. And it’s good.”

“Aye, thank you.”

I filled my own bowl and sat next to her. Daniela blew over her soup before slowly bringing it to her lips. After taking a sip, a smile blossomed on her face.

“It is delicious.”

“That’s a relief.”