“Well, let’s go back to the Royal Capital then.”

“Yes, please take care of me.”

“He has other requests and I don’t want to add to his workload. The blacksmiths from the Royal Capital and Gust are good enough, let’s leave it to them.”

“Tell them I can pay for it later. I’m sure it’ll be fine if you say it’s from the lord’s son.”

“Yes. I’ll pay for it since it’s our own equipment.”

The two sisters, Luciel and Luciela, with their large baskets on their backs, returned to the royal capital from Dragon Island, and I felt a little sad.

“So, Lars is going to the Rubber tree. Are you sure you want to go alone?”

“Yeah, if I’m right, it’s quite a hassle to collect them. If I’m right, it’s quite a hassle to collect them, you can get skin rashes if you touch them directly.”

“You sure know it well ……[Appraisal] showed that for sure. And I know it’s not food, but what do you use it for?”

“I think I can make something that will be useful. You guys continue with your training.”

I said, and Fath-san opened her mouth.

“You can take Makina with you, she’s not in top form yet. We’ll just have to fight in shifts until the sun goes down.”

“Are you sure?”

“I want you to practice the Thunder Penetrating Palm, but you should rest until your magic recovers.”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

“Ah, then I’ll go with you–“

“You’re supposed to be training, Kudelica. Look, fight with the Freeze dragon.”

“Eehhhhhhh ……”

Kudelica tried to follow, but Tigre-sensei grabbed her by the collar and dragged her away, and Ryuuze said to me with a laugh.

“It seems like you’re going to do something interesting, so I’m looking forward to it, okay? Rather than that, I’d like to have a fight with you too.”

“Sorry, I’ll accompany you when this is over.”

“No, the Wyvern Angriff will come with us, don’t worry. Luciel told me where it was, and Nora remembers it.”

“Yes! Dedite-kun will be going too, so if it turns into a fight, it’ll be fine!”

I turned down Roza’s offer, who was kind to me despite the way she spoke, and we headed for the mountains with a combination of Me and Makina, my brother and Nora.

By the way, there were bananas and pineapples among the things that Luciel and the others brought back, and besides rubber trees, there was a mahogany tree. I thought about turning it into furniture or something and selling it, but I’m not really in the mood for that right now, so I put that on hold.

We also collected some flowers, and considering the fact that many of the plants live in the tropics as they are called in the other world, I think that this mountain might be a volcano.

But there was no smoke when I saw it from the sky, so it must be a dormant volcano. If that’s the case, can we get that stuff that we need to make rubber? Thinking about this, I rode on the back of the wyvern to the rubber tree.

“Is this the right place?”

“Yes, thanks Angriff.”

As Nora patted Angriff’s back and thanked him, I took out my dagger and peeled the bark off the tree.

“Oh, that’s the dagger I bought when I was a kid. How nostalgic.”

“It was pretty expensive and I used it when I fought Retzel, so I have a lot of feelings for it.”

“It looks like an ordinary tree, but we can harvest something from it, right?”

As I was talking to my brother, Makina entered the conversation and I nodded, this time scratching the tree. In order to make sap drip and collect it in a bowl, make two scratches, as Y-shaped or diagonal scraping is the basic method.

“We’ll set this up …… and.”

“Oh, there’s white liquid coming out!”

“Don’t touch it, Nora. I think it’s called detox or something like that, but it’s not good for our skin.”

“Yes!”

…… It’s still a secret that it was called latex when I used [Appraisal] on it.

“It’s accumulating. What is Lars going to do with it?”

“I’m going to boil it down a bit, but I’m going to need some ingredients for that.”

“Hmm. Is it in the knowledge you have before you were reincarnated?”

“Yeah, it’s not too warm around there, I think? .”

I shoot a spell to break a nearby cliff and get what I need.

“There it is, sulfur.”

“It’s a weird smelling rock. ……”

“But it smells like the hot springs I went to with Luciel-chan and the others?”

“Yes. It’s a little higher up, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it’s a volcanic stone, and if you can boil it together, it’s supposed make something interesting ……”

“It’s supposed, huh.”

My brother chuckles, but it’s more likely that I won’t succeed right away since my knowledge is subtle and I’ve never done it before.

After that, we took the latex we’d collected, along with the crushed sulfur, and boiled it down in a pot we didn’t need to make rubber–

“I made it round for now, but I wonder if it’s right?”

–When the sun had set, the prototype ball was finally ready.

“It’s round. I think Luciel is good with throwing weapons.”

“But it doesn’t look very powerful.”

“It’s not that kind of weapon. Watch me.”

“Wow!”

When I slammed it on the ground, it bounced vigorously and flew high into the air.

Yes, this is what is called a super ball. I remembered that I had done an experiment to make a superball with citric acid and latex liquid as a summer vacation craft.

“Lars-niichan, lend me that!”

“Here.”

Aina’s eyes lit up and she begged me to lend it to her, and Tilia-chan and Ash started to get excited. 

“…… Did you want to make that?”

“…… Wouldn’t it be better to play with them after the battle is over? “

Teacher gave me a quizzical look, and I hurried to explain myself.

“No, no, that’s not it! That rubber material is useful for preventing slippage and lightning. It would be great if you could sew it into your sword handle or armor.”

“Does that mean my Lightning won’t work?”

“I think it would make it less effective. Overconfidence can lead to carelessness. If the lightning is strong enough, it can melt rubber.”

“I see …… It’s a good indicator of power ……”

Makina’s eyes were shining in a different way, but for now, I’ll just muddle through with a friendly smile …… The moment I thought that–

“Ash!?”

“Lars-niichan, Ash ate his balls!!!”

“What!?”

It’s true that they’re the size of the palm-size, so it’ll probably get stuck in Ash’s throat!?

“Hey, Ash, throw up! Throw it up!”

“Kuo ……”

“This’ll hurt a little ……!”

I turned Ash down impatiently and tapped him on the back to stimulate him, and the superball rolled down.

“Kuon ……”

“W-Was he okay?”

“Yeah, I got him to spit it out, so it’s okay ……”

“Thank God ……”

“Well, this is why you can’t just put away rubber-made tools in some random place.”

“Kuoon.”

As I stroked the Ash’s back, who was biting my hand in my arms as if he was scared, they all nodded repeatedly.

“Oh, yeah, that’ll work, right?”

I put Ash on Radia’s back and went to work on the ball again. Since I’m at it, I’m going to make a ball that Ash won’t accidentally swallow.

And–

“Here, Ash, you won’t swallow this if it’s this big.”

“Kuon?”

I made a ball big enough for Ash to hold in both hands and rolled it around, and he jumped at it timidly.

“Kuoon♪.”

“It seems like he’s not scared!”

“Yeah, I’m glad. I mean …….”

I saw Ash playing with the ball by himself, hugging it, trying to hold it, rolling it over, and sometimes chasing it. Makina muttered to herself as she watched Ash roll around. 

“…… He’s so cute.”

“You’re right …….”

We had a soft spot in our hearts for Ash, who exuded the cuteness typical of a baby animal.

“Kuoon♪ …… K-, Kuon!?”

Ash was surprised when he noticed us staring at him, but it was cute too.

He came over to me, rolling the ball around and twitching his little tail, asking me to play with him.

“Alright, let’s just play! Ash, can you get the ball from me?”

“Kuon!!”

“Ah, I’ll play too!”

“Me too♪!”

“Aina too! Come on, Shuu.”

“Arf!”

“That looks fun, count me in.”

When the ball game started like that, the Freeze dragon opened his mouth as if he was dumbfounded.

“Well, isn’t it fine. It’s important to take a break too.”

“You’re right♪ Fufu, that looks fun.”

“I think I’ll go too, I have to play with Tilia once in a while!”

After playing until late, everyone, tired from their training, fell asleep and slept soundly.

It was a time of rest and happiness.

The Founder Apollos …… I’ve never seen his face before, but I will defeat him to continue this peace. That’s what I thought.

And then, a month after the training, things start to move–