Chapter 81 : Road to Laserna ・ Day 1 (Evening)
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“We will rest here today! Everyone, begin the preparation!”
We had one more break after lunch before we reached our campsite for tonight. Taking out my pocket watch to check the time, I saw it was still a little after 18.00. Summer had a longer daylight so the sky was still bright. The natural light helped us in preparing our meal and setting up our tent for us to rest into.
“I’m going to take out my tent this time.”
“Yeah. Please do, Ren.”
Sig-san wrapped his arms around my body and helped me down from Oscar. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I went ahead and took my tent and table set from my bag. The three of them quickly helped me assemble the tent and fixed a canopy over our table set.
There were two tents around one big tent that I assumed was Francesca-san’s tent. I guess they must be separating the tents for the servant by gender? Not far from where the horses were resting at, there was a tent for the guards.
We decided to set up our tent beside Francesca-san’s tent so her tent was protected by the guard and our tent on both sides.
“Excuse me, Ren-dono. About the watch duty during night time…”
“Ah~ I will come as Luce’s representative. Ren-chan and the others can focus on preparing dinner~”
“Then I will go to set up [Barrier] around our campsite.”
Tad-san came with an apologetic look on his face in which Chris-san immediately volunteered to come as our representative.
During the Calhea quest, I had our tent covered in four layers of barrier and I also did the same when we were on our way back to Pedrell. Back then, we didn’t connect the barriers to William and the others in case something happened and they had to run for safety.
But this time, there were a lot of carriages and non-combatant civilians we had to escort. Which was why, even though I would be putting up barriers as per usual, we still needed people to take turns standing watch throughout the night.
“【Barrier】… Okay, I’m done here.」
Just like what I did during lunch break, I drew a line using some tree branch I found and imagined a barrier enclasping us within those lines. This physical line was just a border marker though, even if someone were to step on it and the lines disappeared, the barrier would still be intact.
I wished I could make my barrier more noticeable with a curtain-like shape but currently, my barrier was still colourless and transparent. I had only ever used [Barrier] when we were camping outside so there was no need to make them visible but maybe I should try to add color on my barrier next time I cast it?
“Do you have any requests for dinner?”
I asked Fer-san and Sig-san, who took their time to follow me while I drew lines on the ground. We were on our way back to our tent since I had already finished casting [Barrier].
“I want meat.”
Sig-san, who was walking on my right side, said as he gently stroked my head.
Sig-san really loved meat, huh? If he were a rabbit beastman, would he like vegetables more? Maybe a sparrow beastman like Ari-san loved something like rice and peanuts? I will ask her the next time I meet her so I can make her something she likes when I come to her place.
“Sig, you always want meat… But since we had a refreshing lunch today, maybe a hearty meal like what Sig-san wanted would be great?”
Since Fer-san also agreed with Sig-san, I’ve decided to choose something meaty for our main dish. I wonder what kind of meaty dish I had in my magic bag…
“Then let’s have miso beef steak for dinner.”
For miso beef steak, I began the preparation by making slits cut into the meat to help the flavour penetrate deeper. For the marinade, I mixed miso, sugar, soy sauce, sake, grated garlic, honey and something that resembled mirin. I let the meat marinate for three days before I grilled them. With this method, even cheap meat could become tender and juicy.
Not to mention, miso steak went really well with rice! Of course I’d add rice for our dinner. Well miso steak was also a perfect companion for sake but we were in the middle of a quest so we shouldn’t drink alcohol. Maybe I should make miso steak for them again after we returned to Pedrell so we could eat them together with sake and rice.
“Oh! Sounds like we’re going to have a lot of meat tonight!”
“Just like what Sig-san requested! Also…”
I had this baked shrimp and broccoli. For this dish, I slightly boiled the broccoli and the shrimp. After straining the broccoli and shrimp, I added my homemade mayonnaise. Mixed them together, put them in a heat resistant casserole and topped them with another layer of breadcrumbs and mayonnaise before I baked them in the oven.
For the vegetables, I had this simple salad which consisted of tomato, lettuce and cucumber. Lastly the soup, I think an onion soup would be great. Okay, I think this much food should be enough for us?
“The food is ready now but… Chris-san is not done yet?”
“I’m back~ Wow~ Everything looks delicious!~”
“Whoa! Please don’t hide your presence if you want to hug me from behind! I was so surprised…”
“Fufu~ Sorry~ I will tell you about the night watch while we eat, okay?~”
I already finished setting the table but Chris-san hadn’t returned yet. Just when I was wondering what I should do, suddenly someone hugged me from behind. I-I thought my heart was going to stop…!
I reprimanded Chris-san for it but I was sure he’d do it again in the future…Though I wondered what was the result of their discussion about the nightwatch.
「「「Thank you for the food.」」」
“Yes, let’s dig in~”
I began to eat the miso steak along with rice.
Yup, it goes really well with rice!~
“…. Mmhm! So delish~ Oh and, about the watch duty. Since Ren-chan already set [Barrier] for us, we only need to keep guard in a group of two. Each group will have two hours of keeping watch before they could return to rest in their tent. We will start the watch duty at 20.00 up to 06.00 morning so there will be five pairs in total~ For tonight, our group only had to contribute one pair~ We are the second group so we will start our shift at 22.00 and Mel-san said he’d leave the combination for the pair to us~”
Chris-san explained to us as he took a bite out of the baked shrimp.
I’m glad the barrier I cast seems to be helping us in this quest…
20.00 meant that we had to go to bed in an hour and half. It was summer time so the sky was still pretty bright but I guess by 20.00 the sky would’ve already turned dark? What should I do… I didn’t know if I could do it right or not but I wanted to try keeping watch. Not to mention, I didn’t have to be alone!
“I want to be on watch duty if I can. I can use [Root] and [Sleep] so I think I’ll be able to manage.”
“No. You must be tired today since you’re doing something you’re not used to doing, right? Just leave it to us.”
“Not used to doing?”
I didn’t have any offensive magic but since I already set a [Barrier], people who I didn’t authorize wouldn’t be able to get in. If they were stuck on the outside of [Barrier], I thought I’d be able to incapacitated them with [Root] but Sig-san told me to rest for today.
But.. What did he mean by something I was not used to?
“Ren-kun, you might not be aware but today is the first time you ever made such a big [Barrier], right? That is something you’re not used to doing. To top it all off, you never travelled with so many people like today, right? I think it’d be better for you to have plenty of rest tonight.”
“Hmm… Then I will take up on your offer and rest for tonight. Well if something happened with the [Barrier], I’d know anyway.”
Ah, they were right. This was the first time I ever travelled with someone other than the three of them. Or rather, this was only my second trip ever including the Calhea request. I was still a beginner in all senses. I should just gratefully accept their offer and have plenty of rest instead. If something were to happen I’d wake up anyway.
“Yup, yup~ You should~ As for us, maybe we will decide it with a rock-paper-scissors?~ The person exempted from watch duty tonight will be staying alone with Ren-chan but~ You understand, right?~ In a place like this… There’s no way anyone would….. Right?~”
“H-huh?! W-well of course?!”
“Sig, you are weirdly agitated…”
Chris-san’s words made our mood turn weird even though he didn’t say it explicitly. When we were returning from Calhea, there were no other people beside us so I didn’t mind it but this time, there were plenty of other people. If someone were to touch me…. Also why did Sig-san stutter…? If he tried to kiss me tonight… I will kick him in the balls! I didn’t want to do anything risque in a place like this.
“Fuuh… Thank you for the food~ As I expected, Ren-chan’s food is soooo delish~”
“I’m glad you like it. When you say something like that, it makes me feel that all that time I spent cooking is very worthwhile!”
“Those guys look pretty jealous too, don’t they?”
“Huh?”
All that food, even the salad, had been completely wiped clean. I was very happy when Chris-san expressed his gratitude while rubbing his completely flat stomach.
Sig-san said that while pointing his thumb toward the guard party and true to his word, they were staring at our direction.
“I made a lot of food so I didn’t mind sharing it but if I shared it with them, the excuse we said to Francesca-san regarding eating the same food would go for naught.”
“Ren-kun, you’re really kind but I think it’d be better if you don’t share it with them. If you share your food with them, I’m sure she will severely scold them afterwards.”
Ahh… Fer-san must’ve been referring to the owner of the penetrating gaze I had been feeling for. Her tent was located in front of the guard team’s tent and I could see her staring from the window of her tent. She’d stared at Sig-san with a dazed look before her gaze fell on me, who was sitting beside Sig-san. She then would glared at me with her whole might. This pattern kept on repeating multiple times, I truly applaud her persistence.
Hmm.. Surely she’d say something like,”You dare take charity from my love rival?!”
I didn’t want to stir any discord so I swore in my heart that I wouldn’t give them the food I made.
“… Ren-kun, will you sleep together with me tonight?”
“Ah, Fer-san won the rock-paper-scissors?”
“Indeed.”
After we finished with our meal, I was in the middle of putting the cutlery that we had cleaned using [Clean] into my magic bag when the three of them left the table in order to play a rock-paper-scissors game. Seemed like they had already finished with their game. Fer-san approached me with a big smile on his face.
“Haaa… I guess he’s better than Sig…? If Sig-san were to win, I don’t think I can let him stay in the same tent with Ren-chan~”
“Excuse me?! As a man who’s living according to the lower part of your body, you’re even more dangerous than me, Chris!”
The two losers of the game were poking at each other with snarky remarks but they seemed to be having fun. I didn’t really understand what they were talking about but they seemed to be on good terms with each other which was great.
“Ren-kun, we’re going to set up another [Barrier] around the non-combatant’s tent for extra safety measurement, okay?”
“Ah, okay! Then I’m going to stay here and continue with the clean up.”
“Then we will see you later.”
Fer-san tenderly stroked my cheek before he went to Francesca-san’s tent.
Casting extra [Barrier] would be great for safety reason. I heard the non-combatant civilians like the maids could do a little bit of magic but [Barrier] made by the three of them would work better as an extra safety rope…
We didn’t know what might happen in a situation like this so yes! Better be safe than sorry.
I watched their retreating figure as I continued with the clean up.
Chapter 81 : Road to Laserna ・ Day 1 (Evening)
ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー
“We will rest here today! Everyone, begin the preparation!”
We had one more break after lunch before we reached our campsite for tonight. Taking out my pocket watch to check the time, I saw it was still a little after 18.00. Summer had a longer daylight so the sky was still bright. The natural light helped us in preparing our meal and setting up our tent for us to rest into.
“I’m going to take out my tent this time.”
“Yeah. Please do, Ren.”
Sig-san wrapped his arms around my body and helped me down from Oscar. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I went ahead and took my tent and table set from my bag. The three of them quickly helped me assemble the tent and fixed a canopy over our table set.
There were two tents around one big tent that I assumed was Francesca-san’s tent. I guess they must be separating the tents for the servant by gender? Not far from where the horses were resting at, there was a tent for the guards.
We decided to set up our tent beside Francesca-san’s tent so her tent was protected by the guard and our tent on both sides.
“Excuse me, Ren-dono. About the watch duty during night time…”
“Ah~ I will come as Luce’s representative. Ren-chan and the others can focus on preparing dinner~”
“Then I will go to set up [Barrier] around our campsite.”
Tad-san came with an apologetic look on his face in which Chris-san immediately volunteered to come as our representative.
During the Calhea quest, I had our tent covered in four layers of barrier and I also did the same when we were on our way back to Pedrell. Back then, we didn’t connect the barriers to William and the others in case something happened and they had to run for safety.
But this time, there were a lot of carriages and non-combatant civilians we had to escort. Which was why, even though I would be putting up barriers as per usual, we still needed people to take turns standing watch throughout the night.
“【Barrier】… Okay, I’m done here.」
Just like what I did during lunch break, I drew a line using some tree branch I found and imagined a barrier enclasping us within those lines. This physical line was just a border marker though, even if someone were to step on it and the lines disappeared, the barrier would still be intact.
I wished I could make my barrier more noticeable with a curtain-like shape but currently, my barrier was still colourless and transparent. I had only ever used [Barrier] when we were camping outside so there was no need to make them visible but maybe I should try to add color on my barrier next time I cast it?
“Do you have any requests for dinner?”
I asked Fer-san and Sig-san, who took their time to follow me while I drew lines on the ground. We were on our way back to our tent since I had already finished casting [Barrier].
“I want meat.”
Sig-san, who was walking on my right side, said as he gently stroked my head.
Sig-san really loved meat, huh? If he were a rabbit beastman, would he like vegetables more? Maybe a sparrow beastman like Ari-san loved something like rice and peanuts? I will ask her the next time I meet her so I can make her something she likes when I come to her place.
“Sig, you always want meat… But since we had a refreshing lunch today, maybe a hearty meal like what Sig-san wanted would be great?”
Since Fer-san also agreed with Sig-san, I’ve decided to choose something meaty for our main dish. I wonder what kind of meaty dish I had in my magic bag…
“Then let’s have miso beef steak for dinner.”
For miso beef steak, I began the preparation by making slits cut into the meat to help the flavour penetrate deeper. For the marinade, I mixed miso, sugar, soy sauce, sake, grated garlic, honey and something that resembled mirin. I let the meat marinate for three days before I grilled them. With this method, even cheap meat could become tender and juicy.
Not to mention, miso steak went really well with rice! Of course I’d add rice for our dinner. Well miso steak was also a perfect companion for sake but we were in the middle of a quest so we shouldn’t drink alcohol. Maybe I should make miso steak for them again after we returned to Pedrell so we could eat them together with sake and rice.
“Oh! Sounds like we’re going to have a lot of meat tonight!”
“Just like what Sig-san requested! Also…”
I had this baked shrimp and broccoli. For this dish, I slightly boiled the broccoli and the shrimp. After straining the broccoli and shrimp, I added my homemade mayonnaise. Mixed them together, put them in a heat resistant casserole and topped them with another layer of breadcrumbs and mayonnaise before I baked them in the oven.
For the vegetables, I had this simple salad which consisted of tomato, lettuce and cucumber. Lastly the soup, I think an onion soup would be great. Okay, I think this much food should be enough for us?
“The food is ready now but… Chris-san is not done yet?”
“I’m back~ Wow~ Everything looks delicious!~”
“Whoa! Please don’t hide your presence if you want to hug me from behind! I was so surprised…”
“Fufu~ Sorry~ I will tell you about the night watch while we eat, okay?~”
I already finished setting the table but Chris-san hadn’t returned yet. Just when I was wondering what I should do, suddenly someone hugged me from behind. I-I thought my heart was going to stop…!
I reprimanded Chris-san for it but I was sure he’d do it again in the future…Though I wondered what was the result of their discussion about the nightwatch.
「「「Thank you for the food.」」」
“Yes, let’s dig in~”
I began to eat the miso steak along with rice.
Yup, it goes really well with rice!~
“…. Mmhm! So delish~ Oh and, about the watch duty. Since Ren-chan already set [Barrier] for us, we only need to keep guard in a group of two. Each group will have two hours of keeping watch before they could return to rest in their tent. We will start the watch duty at 20.00 up to 06.00 morning so there will be five pairs in total~ For tonight, our group only had to contribute one pair~ We are the second group so we will start our shift at 22.00 and Mel-san said he’d leave the combination for the pair to us~”
Chris-san explained to us as he took a bite out of the baked shrimp.
I’m glad the barrier I cast seems to be helping us in this quest…
20.00 meant that we had to go to bed in an hour and half. It was summer time so the sky was still pretty bright but I guess by 20.00 the sky would’ve already turned dark? What should I do… I didn’t know if I could do it right or not but I wanted to try keeping watch. Not to mention, I didn’t have to be alone!
“I want to be on watch duty if I can. I can use [Root] and [Sleep] so I think I’ll be able to manage.”
“No. You must be tired today since you’re doing something you’re not used to doing, right? Just leave it to us.”
“Not used to doing?”
I didn’t have any offensive magic but since I already set a [Barrier], people who I didn’t authorize wouldn’t be able to get in. If they were stuck on the outside of [Barrier], I thought I’d be able to incapacitated them with [Root] but Sig-san told me to rest for today.
But.. What did he mean by something I was not used to?
“Ren-kun, you might not be aware but today is the first time you ever made such a big [Barrier], right? That is something you’re not used to doing. To top it all off, you never travelled with so many people like today, right? I think it’d be better for you to have plenty of rest tonight.”
“Hmm… Then I will take up on your offer and rest for tonight. Well if something happened with the [Barrier], I’d know anyway.”
Ah, they were right. This was the first time I ever travelled with someone other than the three of them. Or rather, this was only my second trip ever including the Calhea request. I was still a beginner in all senses. I should just gratefully accept their offer and have plenty of rest instead. If something were to happen I’d wake up anyway.
“Yup, yup~ You should~ As for us, maybe we will decide it with a rock-paper-scissors?~ The person exempted from watch duty tonight will be staying alone with Ren-chan but~ You understand, right?~ In a place like this… There’s no way anyone would….. Right?~”
“H-huh?! W-well of course?!”
“Sig, you are weirdly agitated…”
Chris-san’s words made our mood turn weird even though he didn’t say it explicitly. When we were returning from Calhea, there were no other people beside us so I didn’t mind it but this time, there were plenty of other people. If someone were to touch me…. Also why did Sig-san stutter…? If he tried to kiss me tonight… I will kick him in the balls! I didn’t want to do anything risque in a place like this.
“Fuuh… Thank you for the food~ As I expected, Ren-chan’s food is soooo delish~”
“I’m glad you like it. When you say something like that, it makes me feel that all that time I spent cooking is very worthwhile!”
“Those guys look pretty jealous too, don’t they?”
“Huh?”
All that food, even the salad, had been completely wiped clean. I was very happy when Chris-san expressed his gratitude while rubbing his completely flat stomach.
Sig-san said that while pointing his thumb toward the guard party and true to his word, they were staring at our direction.
“I made a lot of food so I didn’t mind sharing it but if I shared it with them, the excuse we said to Francesca-san regarding eating the same food would go for naught.”
“Ren-kun, you’re really kind but I think it’d be better if you don’t share it with them. If you share your food with them, I’m sure she will severely scold them afterwards.”
Ahh… Fer-san must’ve been referring to the owner of the penetrating gaze I had been feeling for. Her tent was located in front of the guard team’s tent and I could see her staring from the window of her tent. She’d stared at Sig-san with a dazed look before her gaze fell on me, who was sitting beside Sig-san. She then would glared at me with her whole might. This pattern kept on repeating multiple times, I truly applaud her persistence.
Hmm.. Surely she’d say something like,”You dare take charity from my love rival?!”
I didn’t want to stir any discord so I swore in my heart that I wouldn’t give them the food I made.
“… Ren-kun, will you sleep together with me tonight?”
“Ah, Fer-san won the rock-paper-scissors?”
“Indeed.”
After we finished with our meal, I was in the middle of putting the cutlery that we had cleaned using [Clean] into my magic bag when the three of them left the table in order to play a rock-paper-scissors game. Seemed like they had already finished with their game. Fer-san approached me with a big smile on his face.
“Haaa… I guess he’s better than Sig…? If Sig-san were to win, I don’t think I can let him stay in the same tent with Ren-chan~”
“Excuse me?! As a man who’s living according to the lower part of your body, you’re even more dangerous than me, Chris!”
The two losers of the game were poking at each other with snarky remarks but they seemed to be having fun. I didn’t really understand what they were talking about but they seemed to be on good terms with each other which was great.
“Ren-kun, we’re going to set up another [Barrier] around the non-combatant’s tent for extra safety measurement, okay?”
“Ah, okay! Then I’m going to stay here and continue with the clean up.”
“Then we will see you later.”
Fer-san tenderly stroked my cheek before he went to Francesca-san’s tent.
Casting extra [Barrier] would be great for safety reason. I heard the non-combatant civilians like the maids could do a little bit of magic but [Barrier] made by the three of them would work better as an extra safety rope…
We didn’t know what might happen in a situation like this so yes! Better be safe than sorry.
I watched their retreating figure as I continued with the clean up.
