Chapter 25
G-good morning, everyone. Sorry I'm late.
The next morning.
After having an early breakfast at my usual inn, I headed for the carriage stop in the Central District.
The four people I was supposed to meet—Surena, Porta, Nidly, and Salikatz—were already there, so it seemed I was the last to arrive.
Damn, this is awkward right from the start.
Was it a mistake to stick to my usual breakfast routine?
"G-good morning, Gardenant-san!"
"G-good... morning..."
Porta's energetic greeting and Nidly's stiff, nervous one rang out in turn.
Salikatz-kun seemed nervous, too, and only gave me a slight bow. I made a mental note that he was the quiet type.
This old man actually has a fair bit of experience with kids, you know.
"All right, let's get going. Everyone, get in the carriage."
"Yeah, let's go."
At Surena's cue, we all climbed into the carriage that had been prepared in advance.
When I traveled back and forth to Bidden Village, the Leberio Knights had provided the carriage, but this one apparently came from the Adventurers' Guild.
Dungeons generally aren't close enough to a town to reach casually, so apparently the guild usually covers transportation costs for training trips and assignments like this.
As expected, the Knights and the Adventurers' Guild had plenty of money.
It was a level of hospitality I never would have imagined back in Bidden Village, where I lived.
Once everyone was aboard, Salikatz, who was driving, gave the horse a signal.
The scenery slowly began to move, and the carriage rolled smoothly along the cobblestones.
"Huh. The adventurers themselves act as coachmen?"
"Adventurers often travel long distances. Knowing how to handle a horse is a basic skill."
Surena picked up on my muttered remark.
Well, they couldn't make a living taking jobs only within the city, after all. They'd be in trouble if they couldn't handle a horse when they needed to go on an expedition.
"Are we going all the way to the Azalamia Forest in this carriage?"
"Yes. Carriages can't travel through the forest itself, so we'll go as far as the outskirts. From there, we'll walk."
Once again, she was the one who answered my question.
Surena really was used to this. This probably wasn't her first time accompanying rookie training.
That brought another question to mind.
Did they really need me?
I mean, I'd been wondering that from the start. Wouldn't Surena alone be more than enough to look after three rookies?
It was strange enough that she'd recommended me to the guild, but even if I accepted that recommendation, I still couldn't understand why they needed two supervisors.
"By the way... Is there some rule that says more than one person has to accompany training like this?"
So I decided to ask.
Surena hesitated slightly, unlike before.
Then she answered in a low voice—quiet enough for only me to hear.
"...The rules say there must be two Platinum-Rank adventurers, or one adventurer of Ocean Rank or higher."
"I see. I still don't see why I'm needed, though..."
They really don't need me, do they?
As the carriage rattled over the cobblestones to a steady rhythm, we continued talking.
"Sensei, haven't you heard? The monsters have been acting a little strangely lately."
"...That's news to me. In what way?"
I hadn't heard a thing.
More importantly, wasn't that exactly the sort of problem adventurers or the Knights should handle? Don't drag some nondescript old guy like me into it.
"There have been successive sightings of large monsters in areas where they normally don't appear. The guild has sent out investigators, but... the truth is, we still haven't found the cause."
"Hmm... That's troubling."
Wait, what? That sounds bad.
I wasn't knowledgeable about monster or animal behavior, but I'd lived in a village for a long time, so I knew a little about how things were supposed to be.
All creatures, humans and monsters included, have their own established ranges.
You could call them territories.
They weren't divided by precise borders like countries, but barring some extraordinary circumstance, their ranges generally didn't change.
That's why we can define their distribution in terms of their habitats.
If those ranges were shifting, it meant that something abnormal was happening in that area. Or something was wrong with a particular individual or group.
That was the natural conclusion.
And the Adventurers' Guild still hadn't figured out the cause.
Hmm. This is ominous. I hope nothing strange happens.
"That's why we've been assigning more people than usual to rookie training, in case of unforeseen circumstances. Naturally, that means we're short on high-ranking adventurers, so we thought we could ask for your help this time."
"I see... I understand the circumstances. Thank you."
I understood the situation, but not why they'd chosen me.
Shouldn't this be something the Leberio Knights or Mage Corps coordinate with the guild on?
I couldn't help but wonder.
"Does Allucia... I mean, the Knights, know about this?"
If there was something ominous going on with the monsters' movements, it wasn't something the kingdom could ignore. In that case, the Knights and Mage Corps should have been informed.
"I believe the information has been passed along. Citrus should know, but..."
"Hmm..."
Well, if Allucia knew, then there shouldn't be a problem.
The reason she hadn't told me was probably that she didn't consider me a combatant she could deploy directly. I was an instructor, not someone who fought on the front lines.
I didn't want to fight, either. I had no desire to be a burden to everyone.
The carriage continued to rattle rhythmically as it left the capital.
The capital, Baltrain, could be called a fortified city, surrounded by tall ramparts.
Since it's fundamentally impossible to eradicate monsters, people everywhere surround their towns with walls like this. Naturally, the capital's walls were on a different scale. In rural villages, these walls might be no more than fences.
Step outside the walls, and the scenery wasn't much different from what you could see around Bidden Village.
The only real difference was the extent of human activity; otherwise, inside and out, everywhere was much the same.
The carriage traveled along a well-trodden road, different from the capital's cobblestone streets.
Although the land was officially recognized as part of the kingdom, the area where humans could live safely was surprisingly limited.
Of course, humans did their best to expand it, but not every citizen could fight.
Managing a place and ruling it are two different things. In that sense, the Adventurers' Guild managed the Azalamia Forest, but certainly didn't control it.
The places that had been fully brought under human control became villages, then towns, then countries.
And, ironically, it's because the lands under human control are still developing that people with jobs like mine can make a living.
"In the end, peace really is the best thing."
"Being able to travel the world without danger would certainly be ideal."
Surena chimed in after my remark.
The time until we reached the Azalamia Forest passed in perfect tranquility.