Eleven days passed by without incident after we returned home. I figured today would be yet another uneventful day as usual.

The only thing different from normal so far was that the giant ogre gave Amber a sheet of paper after coming over to retrieve the army supplies from the back of the shop. After reading it for a while, Amber came over to me while waving the paper up and down at the same time.

"Blaze, take a look at this."

I took the sheet of paper from Amber.

"This looks like… random complicated scribbles? I can't even recognize this writing. Did you invent a new secret language?"

"…"

"What?"

"It's upside-down."

"…Oh."

It was a pamphlet of some sort, and everything on it was written in the common language's alphabet. I've been too used to seeing things written in another alphabet here lately that I didn't think I would ever see the old writing system that I normally used.

"Was this smuggled over from Kitrod?"

"Yes."

Ignoring the matter of how or when it was smuggled over, I read the contents of the pamphlet. The top half was a short discussion about war weariness and opinions about what the army should do, while the bottom half was titled "important news," which I didn't think were that important in the first place:

- Dragon wreaks havoc at border!

- Soldier miraculously escapes from captivity! Buy the next weekly issue of the Gadubi town newspaper to read about his escape from the territory of demons!

- Minimum age for army conscription lowered from 15 to 14.

- New research concludes dogs can breed with foxes.

- Badoth army attack patterns seem to have changed recently. Royal capital now seeking skilled tacticians and analysts.

"I don't think any of the information on this thing is useful, Amber."

"There's a flip side."

Unlike what I just saw, the information on the other side was a lot more relevant:

Inquiry: Have you seen this person?

An alchemist in Trabath town has recently gone missing. He is rumored to be a specialist in fire magic. A possible link with the Badoth army is suspected due to the enemy's recent pyromania and usage of enchantment stones.

This suspect is now wanted for questioning. If found, immediately give notice to the local police.

Description of suspect: About 20 years old. Medium build. Medium length, messy red hair. Hazel eyes. Light color skin. Unsociable. Possibly a pedophile. Name unknown.

"Oi. I'm not a pedophile!"

"I didn't write that."

"Well, I know that. But I want to make sure you don't take everything written on this pamphlet for granted and start thinking of me as some sick bastard."

"I never thought that."

"I was too poor to afford an assistant, so I always had to stay inside my shop to look after it and hardly ever had the chance to go outside and socialize with others. And my sales were poor, so I had to go advertise my products to others. I just chose to advertise to young adventurers all the time, since they lacked combat experience and were more likely to be injured. I'm definitely not an unsociable pedophile!"

"…Okay."

Come to think about it, I think I talked too much. Amber didn't even say anything implying she thought of me as a degenerate, but I probably made it seem like I was one by giving a short speech to refute what was written on the sheet of paper.

One thing slightly bothered me, though. Why did they even have to include the word "messy" when describing my hair?

"Amber, what do you think of my hair?"

"Bedhead."

"Hm? Does that mean my hair looks unsightly?"

"…"

"Amber? What part of it looks bad?"

"So, where are we going tomorrow?"

"Hey, don't change the subject. Please let me know why it looks bad."

"The commander told you to take a break, right?"

"Stop ignoring my question! I don't want to look bad in front of the townsfolk, you know!"

In the end, she didn't tell me what was wrong with my hair, so I just combed it a little and gave up. I suppose I shouldn't be taking advice from homeless self-proclaimed barbers in the slums anymore.

One thing was certain, however: I was now a wanted man in Kitrod. Well, I had no intentions of returning there anyways, so I couldn't really care less.

Back to the matter at hand, today was the 26th day since I first came to Badoth. Commander Mavuto didn't want me to risk my life on the battlefield again like two weeks prior, since he wanted me to be able to continue supplying the army with a large amount of items on most days. Thus, I was expected to go on a four-day vacation tomorrow, when it would be the southern province's turn to send reinforcements to the border.

"General Denato did give me a note saying he wanted me to visit some time, so why don't we head west tomorrow."

"Sure."

"Could you find us a map, so I can plan the trip?"

"Okay."

General Denato was the governor and leader of the army of the southwestern province. Apparently, he thought highly of me after I got dragged into a fight against a dragon, and he left me a personal note saying I owed him a beer and should visit him in Mitana city some time. His province's rotation at the border isn't supposed to end until two days from now, so I'll probably visit a town or two along the way, then meet him in Mitana city on the third day, and finally head back home on the fourth day. I just need to check a map to make sure all this was feasible.

Amber came back about twenty minutes later with maps of the southern and southwestern provinces, each about two meters in width and height. They were… surprisingly detailed. Every major road in and between towns were drawn, and there were relatively detailed markings on the height of the terrain and locations of all ramparts.

"Um… Amber."

"Yes?"

"Are these military maps?"

"I'm not sure."

"Am I going to be in trouble for seeing maps that are these detailed?"

"Probably not."

"…"

Maps were important during times of war, after all. Provided that one had detailed information about a particular region, it would be relatively easy to figure out where an army could hide, what directions they could attack from, or where one could infiltrate to do a surprise attack. Because of that, detailed maps were often limited only to military generals and their strategists. The fact that a civilian like Amber could get a hold of something with this much detail made me worry about being placed under house arrest or imprisoned by the army for knowing too much.

"Anyways, let's take a look… We're here in Sachiru town, and general Denato invited me over to Mitana city, which is over here. Border Town is 100 kilometers south of us, so if this map was drawn to scale, then our destination is about 300 away. If we rent extra horses, then we can probably make it there in a little over a day."

"Are we making stops?"

"Well, I don't want to be on the road the entire time, and the horses might hate me if I decide on that, so I think we can make a stop here, in Dasota town where this big river starts. After that, we can travel along the river to get to Suva town, and finally cross the river to get to Mitana city. It's almost a straight line, so I think we'll be traveling at most an extra 40 or so kilometers. Does that sound fine with you, Amber?"

"Yes."

From the looks of it, Dasota was about 150 kilometers away, but requires traveling through a forest for about 30 kilometers, so it might take us an entire day. The rest of the path is on open terrain, so it should be much faster. We could have the spare horses pull the carriage for overnight travel to get to Suva, which was another 80 kilometers away, and then cover the remaining distance in about six hours since there seems to be a highway between Suva and Mitana. If everything goes well, I'll be able to enjoy myself for a day and a half before needing to return home.

"Could you go rent a large carriage and a few extra horses?"

"Sure."

Amber merrily trotted off somewhere, while I went upstairs to pack. After taking two changes of clothes and a few items for personal hygiene, I went downstairs to prepare some food rations. The food rations were probably unnecessary, but it was always a good idea to have some lying around in case we get hopelessly lost or stranded somewhere far away from a settlement.

I thought about bringing one suitcase for everything, but figured Amber might not be happy about putting clean and dirty clothes in the same place for days, and about putting her clothes in the same container as mine, so I ended up putting all my items inside a small backpack and readied a rucksack to put the food rations in. Amber could pack her stuff in another container.

* * * * *

"You want me to do what?"

"Come with us to the southwestern province for four days."

"But I-"

"Here's 50000 doviti. Don't forget to bring some clothes or snacks or anything useful for the road. It's going to be a long trip, after all."

"Okay."

According to Amber, the merchant group that rented our their large carriage and horses advised us to bring someone strong, or to travel in a large group. The towns on the road westwards were very far apart, so it would be hard to request help in a reasonable amount of time if our carriage broke down in the middle of the road. A porter of some sort was therefore needed to help transport our wares to another carriage or to the nearest town. Casath was the only strong person I knew of who would readily heed to my demands with a little bit of money, so I went all over town after the giant zombie left to tell him that we would depart the next morning.

Casath and Hanung have been in charge of a delivery service in this town for almost a month now. They were reluctant at first since I forced them to work, but the two ended up enjoying the job quite a lot. Thanks to their service, the volume of orders and deliveries in town increased by several times, so I'm quite certain the two must have hired some helpers at some point. Casath leaving town for a few days probably won't negatively affect the services in this town that much.

Regarding their relationship, I originally thought that the two were friends, but it turns out Hanung was Casath's half sister. I don't know how this was even possible, since Casath was a reptilian with alligator-like traits, while Hanung was a harpy. Both of their races gave birth by laying eggs, but other than that, they didn't have much else in common. Well, I really don't want to know how two siblings could be of different races, anyways, and some things were better off unexplained. Probably.

In exchange for a couple beers and a small cut of the profits, I left a crate of potions with the shopkeeper next door to sell for me during the time I was away. Turns out the townsfolk weren't too happy when I was dragged to the battlefield two weeks prior: most of my repeat customers had trouble meeting their needs at night without my vitality potions. The zombie ogre was still supposed to pick up one more shipment of supplies tomorrow, so I asked for my neighbor's permission to store the twelve crates in his shop, as well.

And with that, all my preparations for tomorrow's departure were done… I think.

* * * * *

Shortly after sunrise the next day, a carriage and a team of horses was brought to the front of my shop. We wanted to reach Dasota town as soon as possible, so Amber and I were already awake and quickly tossed our items onto the back of the carriage. After tying ropes between the back of the carriages and the spare horses, we departed towards the town's west gate.

Our luggage was just two backpacks and one knapsack of food rations, which needless to say hardly took up any space. The carriage was tall enough that I could comfortably stand upright, and while it was not as wide as it was long, there was enough space for me to lie down in a spread eagle position without touching the sides. Some might say that renting such a large carriage was a big waste of money, but I wanted to ride as comfortably as possible. In a trip expected to take at least a day, I wanted to be able to lie down and sleep at times. Besides, Casath was joining us, too, and he's about one and a half times my size, so it's not like I was going to let all this free space go to waste.

In any case, I had no idea where Casath took residence in this town, so I told him to wait for us at the town's west gate. Let's hope that he didn't oversleep.

* * * * *

"You're coming along, too?"

"Yes!"

Hanung was also waiting at the gate with Casath. I suspected she might have wanted to come along after seeing her carry her own bag, and it became more obvious when that harpy hopped onto the carriage after Casath did.

"Just so you know, since I hired only Casath for this trip, you're responsible for your own travel expenses."

"That's fine, the money you gave him yesterday is more than enough."

"Alright, I guess there's no problem with you coming along."

She's just an oversized bird, so I can probably get her to perch on top of the carriage if I find the inside too cramped. That might have sounded a little rude, but I'm sure she won't complain since she owes me a favor after I got her a job to erase most of her debts.

And so, what was supposed to be a three-person trip ended up being one with four people on a lightly loaded horse-drawn carriage.

Oddly enough, Casath knew how to steer a carriage, so I had him hold the reins outside, while Amber, Hanung, and I sat inside. I was still a little bit drowsy from having to wake up early, so I decided to lie down and rest, while Amber and Hanung chatted with each other to pass the time.

After closing my eyes, I think I got about ten minutes of rest before hearing some shouting.

"Wow, the view here is great!"

Having decided that sitting around was too boring, Hanung apparently took off and flew around in circles about fifty meters above the carriage. She seemed to be excited about having an unobstructed view of the vast plains outside of town.

"Aren't you normally able to fly outside of town?"

I found it odd how she was so excited about flying around, so I stuck my head out of the carriage and shouted up to her. Harpies could fly around quite fast, so taking a short trip outside town wouldn't be an issue for someone like her. The merchants in town weren't pestering the two about their debts anymore, so it was perfectly acceptable to have her take a leisurely flight every now and then. Yet, she was acting as though this was the first time she flew outside of town.

"Um… About that…"

With a somewhat awkward look on his face, Casath turned to me to talk about his strange half sister. Ever since they were young, the two would almost always do every activity together, so they had a decent level of mental attachment. Such mental attachment from Hanung grew a bit too much after the two left their hometown, and it was found that the harpy girl would become so paranoid upon prolonged separation from Casath that she would suffer from anxiety and slight amnesia. As such, Hanung would never fly for leisure since her half brother could neither fly nor keep up with her movement speed, and she would also never let Casath leave her sight.

Being such a nice brother, Casath never complained directly to Hanung about her behavior, but he sighed and told me how he wished he could have just one full day to himself without getting bothered by Hanung every fifteen minutes.

"Well, at least you'll never have to worry about being alone."

"…"

Casath gave a long sigh in response to my joking remark.

A few minutes later, Hanung flew back down, landed on top of the carriage, and jumped back inside. She complained that it wasn't fun without friends up in the sky with her, but I had a feeling she only came back because she had stayed away from Casath for longer than she could endure…

Some time later, a forest entered our view. If I remember correctly, then we would need to cross through about 30 kilometers of forest roads, then Dasota town would be 20 kilometers away if we successfully leave at the forest's westernmost edge. I opened my backpack to take out the regional map that Amber got yesterday, then unfolded it to find information about the forest.

"Let's see… Amber, what does this say?"

"Just keep going straight."

"That's all? Nothing else?"

"That's it."

"…"

There were no charted roads around the forest area on the map. The only instruction written at that section was "just keep going straight," according to Amber. I hope that means that the road won't twist and wind much.

I looked around the map for a little while longer, and found that every single wooded area had no charted roads. It was as if the cartographer was a birdbrain who exclusively remained airborne while drawing the map, and thus never bothered figuring out what was under all the view-blocking trees.

Well, it was nice to know that there was an upcoming change in scenery, at least. I was getting bored of seeing endless patches of grass already. Since the two horses up front had already been pulling us for five hours, we switched them with the two spare ones travelling behind so they could relax themselves a bit right after reaching the forest entrance.

The bright forest had a colorful layer of petals on the ground. As the golden sunlight permeated through the treetops, the foliage was dyed a warm yellow color, making the forest look like the inside of a treasure mound full of gold and colorful gems. The path we were traversing through seemed to be rarely taken, as there were very few tread marks on the soil. Perhaps because of that reason, however, the sounds of nature could be enjoyed to the fullest. The rustling of leaves, the chirping of birds, and the flow of small streams could all be clearly heard, for there was no interference from other travelers. Small wild animals, not accustomed to seeing travelers on this forest road, could be seen lurking in nearby trees and bushes with curious gazes directed at us strange large creatures, then continuing with their activities once we passed by. It was currently halfway through spring, and the forest was as lively as one would expect.

One small thing bothered me, though. Why has every place I've gone to been so peaceful? I thought that this place the Demon King's territory meant that there would be some disarray or chaos somewhere, but so far the public order has been much better than when I was back in Kitrod.

"We have law and order here too, you know."

"Hm?"

"If we didn't, the kingdom would have collapsed long ago."

As though Amber knew what I was thinking, she suddenly spoke up.

"…and it's hard for others to revolt when one rules with an iron fist, anyways."

"I'm sorry, did you say something?"

I felt like she said something important just now, but it was hard to hear since she muttered quietly.

"Oh, don't mind me. I was saying you might get to see some rowdiness in the eastern provinces."

"Sounds like I should avoid going to those places."

"You'll be safe, thanks to your personal connections, though."

"Is that so? Maybe I'll visit one of those provinces in our next break, then."

In any case, it was blissful to be able to enjoy nature like this. Back in Kitrod, forests would be the ideal grounds for monsters to live in as there was an ample amount of food, and inexperienced adventurers trying to hone their skills would often fall prey to monsters they could not defeat. Traveling in small groups like we were currently doing would have been considered an extremely stupid idea.

Here, the facts were the exact opposite: the so-called "monsters" were just larger and stronger than normal monsters that were raised for meat but managed to escape from farms somehow. They wanted to stay as far away as possible from the demon king territory out of fear of getting captured and brought back for butchering, and thus could hardly ever be found in the wild except when resting on their way down south. It was somewhat strange how such docile farm animals would turn into ferocious beasts after going south, but since these creatures had to cross the dragon infested great mountains that served as a natural border, nobody ever bothered investigating the cause out of fear of losing their lives in that nearly impassable place, and also because there was no merit in an investigation that would benefit the war enemy. It is therefore assumed that either the dragons living in those mountains or some mysterious artifact would bestow unnatural powers upon the farm animals when they cross the border, or something bizarre like that.

"There's something over there."

We were probably about 15 kilometers deep in the forest when Casath noticed a shadow ahead.

"Is that… a little girl?"

As we got closer, we could see a small demihuman sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree. Based on the tattered one-piece dress the person was wearing, I assumed that it was a girl. She was a Jackal, a race of people with human-like bodies and canine-like faces, tails, and short fur; in the case of the girl ahead of us, she had a wolf-like face and tail, and her fur was dark gray in color. She had a distressed look on her face, and her clothes were covered in dirt, suggesting that she was likely stranded or was trying to hide from something.

To avoid startling her, Casath stopped the carriage about 30 meters away. Amber was the first to jump out of the carriage, and she signaled for me to come along with her.

"She looks injured, so we might need your help."

"I sell potions that heal people. I don't perform the healing myself."

"Just come…"

Accelerated healing spells were advanced water or holy spells, which none of us could use. It would have been sufficient to have just Amber check up on that little girl, but I got off the carriage anyways since she kept insisting.

"Don't run! We're here to help!"

The girl shivered a bit and looked like she was about to run away from fear upon noticing us walk towards her, so Amber tried to calm her down from the distance. Thankfully, she remained put, and we quickly reached where she was sitting.

"Are you okay?"

"Sniff… I'm hurt."

She was on the verge of crying.

"What happened?"

"I… We… sniff… got attacked."

"By what?"

"Scary things! Waaah!"

As she suddenly cried out loud, Amber tried to comfort her by lightly patting her.

Casath and Hanung eventually came over to check up on the distressed little girl. I was going to comment on how at least one of them should stay and keep an eye on our horses, but right now didn't seem like an appropriate time.

"Well, I don't see anything scary around here."

"But… but…"

"Don't worry. The scary thing you saw probably moved somewhere far away already."

After a few more sniffles, the girl stopped crying and soon calmed down.

"So, can you tell us what you got attacked by?"

Had the girl not been crying earlier, we probably would have noticed the rustling sounds that kept coming closer and closer to us.

"Bandits."

Because of that, we failed to notice that a group of people was targeting us. Several nets were thrown on top of us as a dozen bandits jumped down from the trees or out of the bushes.