Over the Hill

Our car, carrying all of us, left Astrantia and headed for Akimenes along the highway.

To our left was the huge cliff we had climbed, and to our right ran the irrigation canal we had dug during construction.

It seemed water was already flowing through the canal.

Under the blue sky, the car traveled along an unpaved dirt road. There wasn't even any gravel, so it would be a real problem if it rained.

This thing is four-wheel drive and even has a differential lock, so it should be fine on somewhat rough roads.

"Let's cross over the hill~ Whistling as we go~"

I hummed the song—apparently, its copyright had expired.

"Still, since we're going all the way to the royal capital, I wish I could have had Anemone wear her new robe and Primula her new jacket."

"If they're spun from insect thread, it cannot be helped. They're such luxury items that ordinary people cannot even wear them."

"Kenichi knows so many songs, too!"

"Yeah, I suppose I do."

Back in my original world, I had lived surrounded by music. I knew quite a lot of songs—not just popular ones, but children's songs as well.

I had never actually counted them, though.

"Quack, quack!" "Baa-aah!"

We all sang together at the top of our lungs inside the car. The lyrics were probably easy enough to understand in this world too.

There didn't seem to be any ducks, but there were goats, so we could change the duck part of the lyrics to chickens and have them go cock-a-doodle-doo.

We were all laughing and making a commotion inside the car when Nyamena suddenly said something strange.

"Boss! I really don't like this after all! You becoming a government official and everything!"

"What brought that on all of a sudden? Are you still hung up on what we were talking about earlier?"

We had been discussing that in the city of Astrantia.

"That tiger doesn't understand you at all, Kenichi~. You're not the kind of person who would do a job like that, nya."

"Right, right. I'd hate a troublesome job like that. Life should be bright and fun! The Whatever Brigade's motto: Life—Enjoyment and Excitement!"

"What language was that?" "Who knows?"

After we had driven for a while, a large lake came into view on our right.

It was a fairly large lake called Lake Kazura. Apparently, the irrigation canal I had dug with Ko○tsu-san drew its water from here.

But the lake in front of our house was much larger. In terms of my original world, it was probably about the size of Lake Biwa, only round.

About an hour and forty-five minutes after that, the city of Akimenes came into view.

Did every city have walls? Akimenes had stone walls too. The city was only a little larger than Astrantia.

It was a city where wooden and stone buildings stood side by side. Like Astrantia, the tallest buildings were only three stories high at most.

Since there were no tall buildings, the sky felt just as wide everywhere.

We continued driving straight into the city. Just as in Astrantia, the residents' curious gazes were drawn to the vehicle they had never seen before.

"Ha-ha, we're quite popular."

"Of course we are. Even the royal capital doesn't have cars that run without horses, nya."

"I've never heard of one either. And at this speed! We might even reach the royal capital today!"

"We probably could if everything went smoothly, but we're not in a hurry. Even the king can't expect us to arrive today."

According to Primula, the shortest delivery time for letters and such was—one night, two days.

That was accomplished by beastfolk couriers, making it the fastest possible way to deliver a letter.

The letter I received from His Majesty the King was probably sent by this express courier service.

However, it was expensive and could not carry much, so ordinary letters were transported by horse-drawn carriage along with other goods and took about a week.

"Primula, don't they have carrier pigeons?"

"Pigeons? What are those?"

Ah, so this world didn't have pigeons.

"You use birds' homing instinct to have them carry letters."

"Um, please tell me more."

I explained the principles of carrier pigeons to her.

"Can that be done with any bird?"

"It needs a strong homing instinct, be easy to tame and raise, and have the speed and stamina to fly long distances. I imagine only a few species would qualify."

"But if we used them, we could increase the speed at which letters are exchanged...?"

"Well, yes. If we found a species suited to it, they should be able to carry a letter from Astrantia to the royal capital in a single day."

"That fast?!"

Apparently, carrier pigeons in my original world averaged more than seventy kilometers per hour, with top speeds exceeding one hundred kilometers per hour.

Beastfolk could reach sixty kilometers per hour—nearly eighty for brief bursts—but their cruising speed was only around thirty kilometers per hour.

According to her, this world had no aerial mail service using people riding wyverns or dragons.

"Besides ordinary letters, they could also be used to report the state of a battle back to the home country during wartime."

"What about that magic tool for talking to distant places that Kenichi lent us during the Shaga incident, nya?"

"That only works over a few leagues."

When I searched Shangri-La, I found twenty-watt amateur radio equipment for sale, but there was no way I could sell that.

Besides, it required a huge antenna to use.

People were gathering around our slowly moving car in Akimenes because of its novelty, but when the beastfolk noticed the black Forest Cat sticking its face out of the car, they hurriedly pressed their hands together in prayer.

"This city seems to have a lot of dogfolk."

"I come here sometimes, but I hate this city, nya."

"I don't come here very often either."

Since this wasn't an urgent journey, we got out of the car to look around Akimenes's market and stored it in my Item Box.

Parking was always a problem with a car, but with an Item Box, there was nothing to worry about.

Several draisines were running through the city, but Dalia was the only place producing them for now. The farther they traveled from Dalia, the more expensive they became, and fewer people bought them.

Before long, businesses might appear that copied them and produced their own versions, but the Marrow Trading Company was already working on the next model.

Since this world had no patent system or anything similar, you had to stay one step ahead to make money.

Apparently, there was also a plan to sign a contract with merchants in the royal capital and establish a workshop to produce the new model.

That's Marrow-san for you. He really keeps moving forward.

"The selection isn't all that different from Astrantia's."

"No, it isn't."

We were getting a little hungry, so we bought skewers from a street stall. They had simply been grilled and sprinkled with salt.

I took some pepper out of my Item Box and sprinkled it over them.

"Here, I'll put some on yours too."

"Much obliged."

"Nya!"

"It's delicious!"

We all bit into our skewers, though we had no idea what kind of meat it was. It seemed more like chicken tenderloin than meat from a beast, but...

According to the beastfolk, it was lizard.

"Just sprinkling a little pepper on them turns these skewers into a feast. I can't stop, nya."

"That's right, nya."

"Since the spice syndicate in Astrantia has been dissolved, food like this might start being sold in the market there too."

"Yes, it might."

I removed the unpeppered meat from a skewer and fed it to Bell. Bell gulped it down in one bite.

Whenever I was with a Forest Cat, merchants gathered around and asked me to sell Bell to them—but of course, I refused.

Well, a Forest Cat that was accustomed to humans must have been that rare.

As we wandered around the stalls, I noticed one shop whose owner was using something familiar to calculate prices: an abacus.

Many diamond-shaped wooden beads were lined up on it. It was a little large, but there was no mistaking its shape—it was an abacus.

I gave the shopkeeper a little money and asked him about it. In this world, you couldn't get any information without paying for it.

Being stingy with money never led to anything good.

"Shopkeeper, where did you get that calculating device?"

"Oh, this comes in from the Empire. It flows here from the city of Sobana, near the border with the Empire."

According to Primula, two cities stood directly beside each other on opposite sides of the border.

The one on the Empire's side was called Donkres Westendstadt, while the one on the kingdom's side was Sobana.

"It's so convenient once you get used to it that I can't let it go."

"I feel the same way. When I taught my father how to use one, he showed great interest as well."

"Well, the Marrow Trading Company could probably make the same thing."

If craftsmen in Dalia could make it, there was no need to pay a high price to import it from the Empire.

However, the abacus used in the Empire had probably been designed by that person who had been transported to this world.

Since this world had no patent system, inventing things like this didn't make you any money.

Still, if you were recognized as having made a major contribution to society through inventions, like the Marrow Trading Company, you could earn the right to bear a family name and gain prestige.

And that would certainly improve your financial situation.

While I was at it, I asked for the locations of several tool shops in the city.

I visited several of them, but they were all misses. Finally, I went to the last one.

When I thought of tool shops in this world, I pictured the cluttered stores run by the old man in Dalia and the old woman in Astrantia, but...

The shop I visited was surprisingly neat. It was a two-story stone building with glass windows set into the first floor.

I went inside. The interior was bright and stylish, a complete contrast to the old man and old woman's pitch-dark shops. Still, it was a little disappointing that it lacked the sense of excitement I felt in those tool shops.

"Hello~"

"Welcome."

The shopkeeper was a young woman with wavy chestnut hair. She wore a dark-purple, tight-fitting dress with a plunging neckline and a decorative sash wrapped around her waist.

Was she a mage too? Whenever I saw someone dressed a little flashily like that, I assumed they were a mage.

Everyone who had come with me looked around the shop curiously, while Bell sat and waited near the entrance.

"Can I help you find something?"

"I'm looking for magic tools and grimoires."

"Unfortunately, I don't have any worthwhile items. I do have Explosion, though..."

"I already have Explosion."

The woman had seemed rather indifferent, but she twitched at that. Perhaps she had thought I was just browsing, then caught the scent of money.

"Has the registered owner been changed?"

"Yes, I had it done in Astrantia."

"Is that old woman still alive?"

"She is. Do you know her?"

"Most mages know one another, more or less."

Then I might as well ask about that person too...

"Do you know a mage called Platinum Almeria?"

"Hm? They say she disappeared about ten years ago and hasn't been seen since. Are you connected to her?"

"Something like that."

I gave her a little money as well and chatted with her about various things.

"I heard a major subjugation took place here. What was the target?"

"Oh, a Lesser Dragon. The people here couldn't handle it, so an Archmage-sama came all the way from the royal capital."

"Hey, Nyamena, is a Lesser Dragon different from an ordinary dragon?"

"The size and firepower are completely different. Some people call them dragon imitations, but subjugating a Lesser Dragon is still a difficult task."

"Then the person who defeated a dragon in the Empire accomplished a truly great feat."

"Of course! They defeated a real dragon for the first time, didn't they?"

And yet, they had all their profits taken away. What a raw deal. I really did need to be careful around royalty and nobility.

"Is that Forest Cat tame?"

"Yes, Bell's a good cat."

"You must be quite something."

The truth was, I had no idea why Bell was so attached to me.

I bought several magic stones that repelled insects from this shop, along with a parent-and-child direction finder set they happened to have. They would be convenient to have.

For example, I could carry the two receivers while Anemone carried the base unit, or I could install the base unit at home, allowing us to determine our positions relative to each other.

That would let me deal with it if Anemone failed to return from a hunt or went missing.

Well, with beastfolk around, we could track her by scent, so we didn't strictly need it. But people did say that it was better to be safe than sorry.

Once we had finished eating and shopping, we decided to leave Akimenes.

We all climbed into the La○d Cruiser P○ado, passed through the city gate, and set off along the highway again.

"What is the next city called?"

"Iberis. Since it is the city next to the royal capital, it is quite large."

Beyond Akimenes, there were no large, deep forests like those around Dalia and Astrantia, only small patches of woodland scattered across a vast breadbasket region.

The Echinacea Bear Duchy, where the city of Iberis was located, seemed to be fertile land.

Apparently, Iberis was a major city with a population of about three hundred thousand, second only to the royal capital's one million.

With a city that large, maintaining the infrastructure must have been difficult. The fact that it was still functioning might mean they managed it with magic or something.

It seemed that sewage could be purified with stones called water stones as well. Magic really was not something to underestimate.

Along the way, we overtook a carriage that looked like it belonged to Sogaram, the corrupt merchant from Astrantia.

They had apparently passed through Akimenes. Were they heading for the next city, Iberis, or going all the way to the royal capital?

But that matter was already over between us.

As we drove along the highway stretching straight through the breadbasket region, Iberis came into view after about two hours.

The car's clock showed that it was past three in the afternoon—but the time was only a rough guide. In a world like this, knowing the time approximately was good enough.

If we continued straight through Iberis and headed for the royal capital, we would probably make it before the gates closed, but there was no need to push ourselves.

Even outside the tall city walls, houses stood in rows, unable to fit inside, but many of them were crude.

It was probably what people called a slum. If there were so many people, then there were naturally many people living like that as well.

"Many of the people outside the walls seem to be unemployed day laborers or farmers who have left their land."

Primula explained the situation in the city to us. Apparently, she had visited both this city and the royal capital before. As expected of a young lady.

"Dalia and Astrantia had poor districts inside the walls, though."

"There are so many people here that they have spilled outside the walls."

"Is the royal capital like this too?"

"I have not visited the royal capital recently, but the last time I went, it was in an even worse state than this."

"Do people think they can somehow get by if they go to the royal capital? They should go somewhere like Baron Northpole's territory in Dalia instead..."

"The journey to Dalia is difficult. Traveling costs money, after all."

Hmm... I kept thinking about it in terms of my original world's standards.

A hundred kilometers was nothing by car, but here the only means of transportation were horses, carriages, and walking. Riding in a carriage required a fairly expensive fare.

If you traveled on foot, it would take more than a month. You would need money for food along the way, and if you failed to reach a city, you would have to camp out despite the danger of monsters and bandits.

For example, Dalia and Astrantia were about a hundred kilometers apart. An express carriage traveling between the cities took two days, with one night spent on the road.

If you couldn't afford a carriage, you would have to spend several nights in a dangerous forest.

It would be fine if strong beastfolk or someone else capable of fighting accompanied you, but otherwise, you would have to hire guards.

That cost money. In this world, a poor person traveling to another region was literally risking their life.

That was why many people were born, lived, and died without ever taking a single step outside their homeland.

Once we passed through the city gate, we found ourselves on a fine stone-paved road lined with tall stone buildings. At a glance, I could see buildings four stories high.

Compared with Dalia and Astrantia, this city felt considerably more modern.

I turned the car into a side street, had everyone get out, and stored it in my Item Box.

Everyone warned me that going too far into side streets increased the danger, so I was careful. Apparently, that was common sense in this world.

"Well, shall we look for an inn...?"

"Hey, Blackie, let's look too, shall we?"

"Yeah, nya."

The beastfolk began making plans to look for inns separately.

"Wait a minute. Aren't we going to stay together?"

"Boss, there aren't any inns where beastfolk can stay together with humans."

"But there are inns where beastfolk can stay, right?"

"Sure, but they aren't very good inns. They're just cheap lodgings, you know?"

"Well, if we can't find a good inn, we can leave the city and camp outside."

"Haaah... Boss, you're really an odd one."

"What are you talking about? Aren't we family?"

"We are!"

"...!"

After hearing Anemone and me, Nyamena looked as though she was about to cry. Of course, beastfolk didn't have tear ducts, so no tears actually appeared.

"For now, let's go to the Adventurers' Guild here and ask them. It will be faster that way, right?"

"Yeah, nya~"

We gave an old woman selling things by the roadside a copper coin and asked her to tell us where the Adventurers' Guild was.

Apparently, there were two Adventurers' Guilds in the city. It really was a large city.

We headed for one of them, the South District Adventurers' Guild.

"So does that mean there are even more Adventurers' Guilds in the royal capital?"

"No. There is only one Adventurers' Guild in the royal capital."

Primula said something strange. A huge city of one million people had only one Adventurers' Guild...?

"What? How does that work?"

"There is no work for adventurers."

"Oh, I see..."

In other words, there were no forests, only farmland in every direction. There were no monsters or medicinal herbs, so there was nothing for adventurers to do.

The only jobs available were things like exterminating rats in the sewers and getting rid of pests.

For work like that, people could just do it as day laborers without joining the Guild.

"Even here in Iberis, the number of adventurers must be small compared with the population."

"I see. So being an adventurer is a rural occupation. But what happens if a dragon or some other huge monster appears?"

"In that case, Boss, the army comes out."

This duchy and the royal capital both had impressive knight orders, as well as armies including infantry.

"Then there really isn't much for adventurers to do. But in rural areas, even children can pick medicinal herbs to earn pocket money. Does that mean even that isn't possible around here...?"

"That is the result you see in that slum."

A large city had its advantages and disadvantages.

While discussing this, we arrived at the city's Adventurers' Guild. It was a four-story stone building with glass windows and an impressive entrance.

The interior was bright and spacious, with wooden floors. The pillars were stone, but the walls seemed to be covered with wooden boards.

We brought everyone to the front reception desk. A female employee wearing a red vest was seated there.

Every Guild had the same uniform, apparently. But once the beastfolk noticed the Forest Cat, they began gathering around us in a crowd.

"This registration tag... So you're the master of this Forest Cat-sama?"

A male catfolk with silver-tabby markings spoke to me. Apparently, he had noticed the silver registration tag hanging around Bell's neck.

"That's right. You may worship Forest Cat-sama if you like."

At my invitation, the sturdy-looking men began bowing and praying before Bell, who sat there regally.

"Is it difficult to encounter a Forest Cat in the forest?"

"Yes, nya~. Even if you go fairly deep into the forest, you rarely see one, nya~. That's why we leave offerings in the trees and ask one to come out, nya~."

And yet, all that ever came out were Black Wolves, which was why the catfolk became furious.

But if that was the case, there were no large forests left around here, meaning the chance of encountering a Forest Cat was zero.

No wonder they wanted to worship her. Once their prayers ended, the beastfolk looked incredibly happy.

――"Maybe luck will finally turn in my favor too."――That might have been what they were thinking.

Once it seemed the beastfolk had finished praying, we went to the reception desk here to ask them some questions.