Wallace’s group had apparently spent the night in a sparsely wooded area near the road, and when we reached the area, they called out to join us.

Still, it looks like we now have quite the large group, don’t we?”

“Wafu, woaoon garuoarua varufauoan.” [Yeah, if you include these guys we captured, then our numbers have quite grown.]

In other words, our main problem right now is the food supply. In the meantime, the distance we have to travel to get to Selkram is around 40km, so if we could figure out a reasonable route where we could also let the horses rest…

(It’s been one and a half-day, huh… it still depends on the horses’ condition and how they’re feeling, but we could probably get there by afternoon tomorrow.) 

The carriage we were riding on was stocked with three days’ worth of food for the five of us, Wallace, and the two Royal Coachmen. It was prepared by Glen, the second-in-command of the Magic Knights, which was packed in several burlap bags that contained hard bread, dried meat, and nuts.

While the rest of the food we had was taken from the Slavers’ luggage and brought by Lancer and the other members belonging to the walking group … So I guess we could have enough food if we could catch at least two medium-sized prey every day.

After I finished putting together my thoughts, I already felt sleepy and exhausted. If I am already feeling like this, then the others must be feeling the same…

(It’s been more than 10 hours since I woke up yesterday evening, so I guess this is the limit… Maybe I’ll go hunt after taking a nap.)

“Mr. Sacred Beast, I have already tied up the merchants who drove the wagons here just as you instructed.”

“Waoan.” [Thanks.]

At the campsite, we planned to rest until a bit past the afternoon, so I watched from the carriage as the merchants who drove the horses here were tied up.

“Woafu, gauakuan garuooou?” [Wallace, were you able to get any rest?]

“Of course, we were taking turns resting too. You must be getting tired too, so rest up while we take care of things here.”

Then, I guess I’ll have to let the two Royal Coachmen take care of the horses while we rest. And if Wallace is one of the watchmen… he was up all night too, but I guess I’ll have one of us go on watch too.

“Waofan woafa guuaruowan, waoan?” [I’m sorry Blazer, but can I ask you to keep watch with Wallace and the others?

“Won, waua garukuaru gaorufa fauoooaan.” (Sure, I got to sleep in the carriage on our way from the Capital, anyway.)

Come to think of it, he was doing his best to sleep in the rocking carriage on the way here yesterday. I did think he was doing it in anticipation of everyone’s fatigue peaking in the morning after the night raid, but…

“Gauh voruouan, garuruan kuaruo gaoruuonn, gurua?” (You knew I was conserving energy, so you had me board the carriage on our way here as well, didn’t you, Leader?)

“Kuaruh, garuwaon.” [Yeah, thanks. I’ll leave it to you, then.]

After I handed the food and leather canteen that we got from the illegal Slavers to the tall, skinny Kobold, I told everyone that we will be resting and camping in the woods until half-past noon.

“Kuu, wau, wafa kuruaa-n♪” (Ah, this spot kind of makes me feel nice.) 

Ax immediately found the perfect spot under the shade of a tree where the sunshine slightly filtered in from the gaps and curled up his big, blue body while lightly wagging his tail… Ever since we were children, this guy has always been good at finding a comfortable place to nap.

“Waoa, kuruuann.” (Then I’m going here.)

My sister also chose a shady spot with a nice, moderate breeze and curled up under the tree and hid her eyes with her bushy fox tail, while Lancer curled up beside her.

(I guess I should go to sleep too…)

But they seem to have taken all the nice places…

……………

………

…

It seems the Elder Kobold’s group who attacked the Slavers decided to take a nap here.

“Weruweia resutadi…” (What a curious scene…)

Outside the parked wagon, three races were working together to guard the surroundings: Human, Werecat, and Kobold. Because Elder Kobolds tend to have high intelligence, they may mingle with humans and Werecats without any problems…

As I recall, I was told that the dog people who were led by the Elder and High Kobolds also fought alongside us as Forest people in the battle of the Forest Garden against the Philand Republic before I was born.

In that battle, there was a promise of rewarding the Black Elves who were the main force who shed the most blood in the war, and there was a trend of gradually extending rights to them since we were a long-lived race.

Compared to the past, the types of jobs and living quarters that my Black and Bronze brethren could choose from had been gradually expanding already, so I thought the time was ripe for them to participate in the Central Assembly that governed the national government, but…

(No, that was a regretful move. No matter how you put it, I still made the wrong decision… This situation I’m in could only be identified as a consequence of that.)

Even if the concept was idealistic, it was still selfish of me to impose it through my power without regard to the currently established social structure. 

I have a lot of regrets. But just as Delphys said, I can’t deny the possibility that if I do something, it will deepen the conflict between us all.

(Maybe it’s a good thing I left the country even in this situation…)

Besides, I have always wanted to see other races mingling with each other even for just a bit.

(That silver Kobold seems to be able to understand the common language of this continent.)

There was a time when we Elves temporarily mingled with the humans after the war, and during that time, most high officials could understand the language and hold a proper conversation.

Of course, I was one of those people too… his words will probably be sent to me telepathically through that mask, so I will respond to him through the human language next time.