“HIHIIIIIIN!!”

“BURURUAAAAAAH!!”

Two covered horse-drawn carriages ran through the road connecting the Royal Capital of Selkram and the Wilm territory. The sun had already set over the horizon, but the horses continued to gallop without regard to the surroundings. 

Their eyesight is rather sophisticated after all.

Even now, if you look at them from the front, both of their eyes will be shining in the darkness, just like us and Wallace who is a Werecat. Even though horses are diurnal, their eye structure is closer to that of nocturnal animals.

During my mercenary days, I was staring at the horse’s eyes that glowed at night when one of my companions who boasted of a specialized weapon that came from a small country in the Far East told me, “I heard there are reflective plates behind their eyes.”

Although it’s somewhat hard to see, it does not cause any problems in the horse’s activities even at night…

“I’m very sorry, Mr. Holy Beast! These guys are already at their limit!! They need to take a rest soon.”

“Garuaonn!” [Understood. Thank you for your hard work!]

After hearing my response, the coachman leaned back and pulled on the reins to gradually slow the horses down. The other carriage also did the same, and both wagons came to a stop.

Quickly pulling out the map from my pocket, I checked the locations of the rivers along the road and gave the man sitting in the driver’s seat some instructions.

“Guuvaaruwoga kuaruoooou, garugua guan.” [Let the horses drink and rest by the river; we’ll be returning in the morning.]

“That’s fine and all, but I’m a little apprehensive since we can’t do anything once a monster comes around and attacks us…”

… It felt ironic that the coachman voiced his worry about magical beasts to a Kobold like me who is technically one of those beasts.

Well, there are Goblins and Steppen Wolves around this area, so even if the coachmen are armed to protect themselves, I don’t think they are strong enough to beat them either.

“Woafuh!” [Wallace!]

As I jumped down from the carriage, I faced the carriage behind ours and called out.

“What is it, Mr. Silver?”

“Woga kyuuru, woruau guruoan… woruan.” [The horses are at their limits, so we’ll take it from here… please watch over them.”

“…”

Reflexively opening his mouth, Wallace was about to say something when he stopped and thought for a bit.

“… If I go with you, are you thinking that I could put the mother and daughter, Esther and Lilith in danger?”

“Won, guuoaru guruaoouuh.” [Yes, I am inclined to think that they will be effective hostages against you.]

It was better to pretend that there are monsters around and wait around here since there would be no consequences thereafter.

“… Got it. I would have liked to save them on my own after coming all the way here, but their safety comes first. I’ll be counting on you then.”

After I made sure that the Werecat Swordsman was convinced, I called out loudly to my four other companions who had already gotten off the carriages.

“Guruo, garuah!!” [Everyone, let’s go!!]

“Kuaaou, kuruu voruaaann.” (I’ve been itching to run since earlier.)

“Kuruu kuruaaan~” (I’m going to run to my heart’s content~)

The Spear-user and my sister who are two of the fastest Kobolds in my group were perhaps excited by the speed of the carriage, so I hated to rain on their parade.

“Gururuan gaofa kyuuan… voruouaan.” [If you did that, then you’ll be out of breath by the time we get there… I’d prefer it if you did that after our operations instead.]

“Woaoon voooan garuaaan, gurua?” (But if we walked there normally, won’t we get there around half past midnight, Leader?)

There should be no movements from the enemy as they should have made preparations and camped out before sunset. On top of that, we also rushed the horses to catch up with them and covered quite a distance…

“Wafu, gaon.” [Yes, that’s right.]

“Waoa, gauauon.” (Then we’ll go at a normal pace, got it.)

As Ax brought the conversation to a finish, we advanced to the road leading to Wilm territory, and not long after, we crossed the territory’s boundary line.

……………

………

…

As they have been on the road that connects the Royal Capital and Kelp city for most of the day, the three carriages composing the Merchant’s caravan stopped and cleared an area to build an encampment after they crossed the Wilm territory and advanced for about a dozen kilometers.

Their priority when camping was to take their meals first. Then, the first half of the guards would sleep almost immediately in preparation for their turn as night watchmen, while the second half was responsible for feeding their horses and the abducted slaves, after which they would stand guard for about six hours.

Then, after waking up the sleeping men in the middle of the night and changing the guards, the first group of night watchmen would go to sleep until the morning where they would continue their journey.

“There are only 2 hours left until we could switch with the other guys.”

“…”

One of the ruined-adventurer-turned-bodyguards who was a Spear user tried to talk to the man who seemed like a mage who was burning wood in the dug-up hole in the ground to keep the campfire burning to ward off the monsters lurking about, but the only reaction he got from the latter was a slight nod.

“You’re only wasting your time with him, he’s always so quiet.”

A young Swordsman armed with a Shield and Longsword interrupts him after watching their exchange from the side.  He seems to be a bit concerned about the wound on his left hand.

“What’s wrong, Zayed?”

“Well, I got bitten by the cat while I was feeding them…”

“Hahah, that’s unfortunate. Which one of them bit you?”

“It was the little shrimp that bit him. They’re so annoying, but… we can’t hit the merchandise, can we?”

The man called Saxe said sullenly.

“Now that you mention it, didn’t Mr. Selam get mad at you after you stabbed the mother in the shoulder when we captured them?”

“Yeah, well she was struggling and then bit me when I covered her mouth…”

Saxe shrugged as if to say, “oh well,” as his gaze landed on the Swordsman who was standing not far away.  

“Hey, Raios. I heard from Mr. Selam that you were a “silver” adventurer before… But just what did you do to lose your status?”

“…Looks like the booze has gotten into your head, please don’t ask me for details.”

“Oi Saxe. Don’t stick your nose where it doesn’t belong… Raios, you’re a very dependable comrade.”

In a word, as long as they had the ability, that was all that mattered, and in that respect, the weird mage may be good at his craft too. 

“…”

He catches a slight magical reaction in the “Surveillance” area magic he developed himself and sends a look towards the intruder.

However, all he found was a small fox, so he disregarded it and turned his gaze away…