Kid Bandits and a New Village

Satou here. Every time I watch the treasure-hunting TV show Hidden Cash in Your Home, I can’t help thinking, Their taxes must have been murder that year. But then, my taxes are bad enough as it is.

“Take this, sir!”

Pochi’s short sword stabbed at the leg of the thieves’ boss.

“Don’t underestimate me, little girl!”

The boss raised his ax high overhead to crush her.

“Mrrr.”

“Hiyaaah!”

At that moment, an arrow from Mia’s short bow and a stone from Tama struck the man’s arms, disrupting his attack on Pochi.

“Grr, that’s enough out of you, you—”

Even as he staggered back, the boss tried to intimidate us, but then Arisa’s Psychic Magic spell Mind Blow came out of nowhere.

The man lost consciousness immediately and slumped to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Once Arisa’s magic had knocked out all the thieves, we stripped them of their weapons and tied them up with rope in the middle of a meadow near the main road.

“So what’re we going to do with these fellows?”

“Well, what would people normally do in this situation?”

I didn’t know the answer to Arisa’s question, so I responded with one of my own, about the standard practices of this world.

Since all the bandits we’d met so far were ordinary villagers without a bounty to their name, we’d just knocked them about a bit, disarmed them, and sent them scurrying away with the help of my “Coercion” skill and Arisa’s Fear Magic.

“If they have caused trouble, the usual practice is beheading. If you bring the head of a thief to a town or city guard, you will receive a reward for their extermination.”

Liza was the one who answered my question.

That’s a pretty violent way to handle things. I’d prefer a method that’s a bit more peaceful, if possible.

“What if they haven’t caused any trouble?”

“Then one generally brings them to the city alive. In that case, the thieves will be sold to slave traders as criminal slaves, and the person who apprehended them will receive half the price in addition to the reward.”

So in the latter case, the city increases their labor force in addition to protecting the peace. This probably worked because of the “Contract” skill.

“Should we bring them back to the town we passed by earlier, then?”

“No, let’s just dig a hole and toss them in it.”

The bounty columns of the guards in that town had just as many outstanding major crimes, like sexual assault and murder, as the thieves did, so I didn’t want to go there. They could drum up false charges to take away our carriage or cargo or, worse, try to do something to the kids.

“All of them?”

“Yeah. I have a spell that’ll make it easy.”

As proof, I used my Pitfall spell to create a hole under the thieves that they wouldn’t escape from easily.

Now that our safety was secured, I dismissed the Shelter wall that was protecting Lulu and the carriage.

I’d asked Lulu to look after our horses and vehicle while we took care of things, but now she was wearing a dispirited expression.

“Are you all right, Lulu?”

“Y-yes…”

Such a gentle girl was probably shocked to see people wounded in battle.

As she sorted through our spoils, Tama found something of interest and brought it over to me.

“Gabo fruuuit?”

In Tama’s hands was a root vegetable, about the size of a fist, that looked like a red miniature pumpkin.

To my memory, gabo fruits made up for their gross taste by being nutritious and easy to cultivate, so it was no surprise that they’d be grown in the Muno Barony.

However, since they were a favorite food of goblins, they were only supposed to be grown in cities or other walled-in areas.

Checking the town we’d just passed, I found that they were being raised in huge quantities. According to the map, about two-thirds of the area of the town had been converted into fields.

Normally, this wouldn’t be too surprising in a territory as plagued by famine as this one; still, I couldn’t help but suspect that there was more to it, since there was a demon masquerading as a magistrate.

Searching the map for goblins, I found five or so small settlements of demi-goblins in the large forest near Muno City. Each settlement was comprised of only thirty goblins or so, and they weren’t close together, so I concluded that they probably weren’t being bred deliberately.

What’s the difference between a goblin and a “demi-goblin,” though?

Since “demi” usually referred to some kind of subspecies, it had to be a particular subspecies of goblins. Monster subspecies would be strong, but they were all only between level 1 and 3, so they wouldn’t pose a problem for us.

At any rate, that was probably enough information about gabo fruits and demi-goblins for now.

I put the sorted loot in Storage, and we left that area behind us.

After another two days of travel, we began our sixth afternoon since entering the Muno Barony.

This time, we encountered a troublesome band of thieves.

“Oh? It’s those kid bandits we heard about a while ago.”

“…Yeah, seems that way.”

Five young girls were lying across the road, blocking the carriage’s path.

I get that they’re trying to stop us and all, but even recklessness should have its limits.

“Don’t move! There are ten shooters aiming at your horses from the woods.”

A young boy emerged from the forest, threatening us in a cracking, prepubescent voice.

Liza stopped her horse in front of the kid bandits to guard the carriage, while Nana moved to protect Lulu and me in the coachman’s stand.

Of course, the boy was bluffing. I had already determined with a map search that they didn’t have any bows or slings. They were holding stones, but we could easily handle a few kids throwing rocks at us.

I warned Liza and Nana not to act unless things got dangerous.

“Give us some food if you value your lives!”

The boy’s brash request might have sounded impressive if it weren’t for the debate that followed.

“Yeah, especially your potatoes!”

“Shouldn’t we tell them to give us jerky instead?”

“I wanna try some bread.”

“Anything is fine, as long as it isn’t weeds.”

“Shut up, you dummies!”

“Takes one to know one, dummy!”

“Just be quiet!”

As the peanut gallery chimed in with their requests, the whole mood was ruined.

I didn’t mind giving them food, but I’d like to get the road cleared first if possible.

“Private Pochi, Private Tama, you’re in charge of getting those little girls out of the street. Don’t hurt them, though, okay?”

“Aye-aye, siiir!”

“Roger, sir!”

Tama and Pochi gave a military-style salute they’d learned from Arisa, then jumped out of the carriage.

I got down as well, picking up one of the kids who was blocking our path and gently tossing her toward the children in the woods. The other kids scrambled frantically to catch her.

As I looked for the next kid, I noticed Pochi and Tama had neglected their road-clearing duties in favor of plopping down next to the girls and peering into their faces.

“They look hungryyy.”

“Rumbly tummies, sir.”

Tama and Pochi rummaged around in their pockets and started feeding the girls whatever scraps of dried meat and baked goods they could find.

“Meat?”

“It’s yummy!”

“Thank you.”

The young girls raised a little cheer in unison.

Then Pochi and Tama noticed me watching them. With a few shifty glances, they quickly hustled two of the girls off to the side of the road. One of the remaining two panicked and hurried after them into the forest.

“No fair! What about us?”

“I wanna eat meat, too!”

In the woods, the kids started bickering among themselves.

“Get alooong?”

“Y-you mustn’t fight, sirs!”

Even though they’d caused the conflict in the first place, Pochi and Tama were doing their best to mediate.

I thought I’d call them back and get the carriage moving, but one girl was stubbornly staying in the road, refusing to take the hint.

She looked like she could be in middle school, but the AR display told me that she was the same age as Lulu, so technically she was a teenager.

“Are you going to head back into the forest yourself, or would you prefer me to throw you?”

Despite my slightly harsh words, the girl remained facedown and unmoving in my path, as if nothing on earth could budge her.

I started to lift the prone girl by her girdle but had to stop partway through.

Her hand was stuck in a root that was embedded in the road. Yanking her up would probably hurt her, so I took a knife from my belt to free her.

“L-let go of Totona!”

The apparent leader came rushing out of the woods with a club in hand.

Ignoring him, I cut the root that had trapped Totona, lifted her up from the road, and hefted her over my shoulder.

Liza made to move toward the boy frantically waving his club, so I stopped her with a motion of my hand.

Just as he swung at me, I plucked it out of his grip and knocked him down with a gentle push from my foot. This dazed him for a moment, so I picked him up by the belt and tossed him into the woods toward his friends.

I threw the girl Totona in after him.

When I returned to the carriage, Arisa handed me a meal that she’d taken out from our bag of holding, so I placed it on the side of the road.

Kids though they were, they’d still attacked us, so we gave them some of the more unappetizing rations.

As we resumed our journey, Liza made Tama and Pochi kneel in the carriage as she scolded them.

Apparently, slaves were strictly prohibited from giving away their master’s belongings without permission.

I didn’t think it was a big deal, since it was only snacks, but I’d entrusted Liza with their education. I didn’t want to undermine her, so I decided to reassure them later.

Mia was riding Liza’s horse in her stead.

As the lecture continued in the background, I opened the map to check out the next leg of our journey.

First, we would cross the river ahead and proceed west on the road bordering the large forest on the other side. We’d reach the back road that led into the heart of the forest in about three days. Since the side road seemed too narrow for the carriage to traverse, we’d have to procure more horses in the town near the forest.

The more pressing problem, however, was the mysterious militia of old people on the bank of the river.

They’d probably come from the nearest village to fish, but the lack of young people among them struck me as a bit odd.

“Are you worrying about those children from earlier, by any chance?”

Arisa sat down next to me, acting rather like a counselor.

“No, now I’m worried about this elderly army.”

“…Elderly?”

Surprised, Arisa tilted her head with a confused expression.

It was a cute gesture coming from a little girl, but I would never hear the end of it if I said as much, so I kept that to myself.

“Yeah, elderly.”

I patted Arisa’s head as I repeated the statement.

After the encounter with the kid bandits, our carriage traveled on for about two hours until we arrived at the riverbank.

The elderly group that I’d detected before was still there.

They weren’t even fishing in the river—there were just eight or so of them keeping warm around a fire.

In fact, the river was almost completely dried up, with only a few pathetic trickles of water in the middle, so I guess fishing would have been impossible.

Since the river looked like it had once been fairly wide, an earthquake or something must have changed its course.

The elderly group noticed us, but they made no move to react.

At first glance, they looked homeless, but camping out in such a dangerous land would normally be suicide.

I was a little intrigued, so I stopped the carriage on the opposite side of the road from them and brought Liza with me as an escort to go make contact with them.

As a peace offering, I’d brought a bottle of liquor and some smoked bear meat.

I’d figured out during my Item Box test in Sedum City that I could create a sort of smoke box inside it, which was how I’d made this smoked meat.

Unfortunately, since there was nowhere for the smoke to escape, most of the meat had gotten over-smoked and developed a strange taste and smell. This smoked bear meat was one of the few successful results.

“Hello there. The sunshine is warm today, isn’t it?”

“Oh-ho, a merchant, is it? What business might you have with an old man like me?”

When I spoke to the man who seemed to be the leader, he gave me a surprisingly polite response.

The other elderly folk were ordinary enough, but this person projected a degree of status.

On top of being level 13, he had the skills “Etiquette,” “Calculation,” and “Penmanship.” Perhaps he had once been a civil official in the service of some noble.

“Please pardon me for intruding. We stopped our carriage to refill our water supply in the stream and happened to notice all of you here, so I simply thought I would come and greet you.”

It was a lame excuse, but they probably wouldn’t mind.

Before the leader could respond, the other old people all started talking at once.

“Awful polite, aren’tcha? Just think of us geezers as a coupla rocks by the roadside.”

“S’true. We can’t even admire the river till we go home to heaven anymore.”

“And if we return to the village, we’ll just be a burden on our sons an’ daughters.”

“If we’re meant to sell our grandkids, I’d rather the gods just take me right here.”

“But yer always welcome here if ya got some food?”

“Boy, if I ever eat another meal, I might just float up to heaven with happiness.”

“Ain’t that the truth.”

I guess instead of abandoning their elderly on mountains like in those old folktales, they abandon them at rivers here?

“Now, now, don’t make that face. It’s all right,” an old woman chimed in, eyeing me with concern.

I have the “Poker Face” skill, so she shouldn’t have been able to guess my feelings from my expression, but something about my aura must have given it away.

“Right. We left th’ village on our own so there’d be less mouths to feed.”

“An’ if us geezers get outta the way quicker, then maybe those poor gals won’t have to sell themselves.”

“Yeah, ’specially since the chief was sayin’ there ain’t been many merchants buyin’ slaves lately.”

So without anyone to buy their daughters, now they were sacrificing their elderly?

Apparently, monsters rarely attacked near this river, so they were simply waiting here quietly for their lives to run out. They didn’t know why this place was safe from monsters.

The map showed the remains of a fort on the mountain behind the riverside camp, so maybe that was why.

“Well, I brought this as a sign of friendship.”

I handed the wine and smoked meat over to the leader.

He distributed it right away to the other old folks, who were practically mad with glee.

You would never guess that their statuses read Starving and Overworked from this display of energy.

“Oh-ho-ho, it’s booze, I tell ya, booze!”

“What a heavenly smell, sonny!”

“How many years’s it been?”

“Oh-ho, there’s some nice meat here, too!”

“C’mere, sir merchant, why don’t you ’n’ your lovely guard there join us by the fire?”

“Looks like we’ll get to make one more good memory afore we die.”

“’S it all right for us to eat this ’fore them kids come back?”

A few of these comments were a little morbid, but overall everyone seemed happy.

That last remark from one of the old ladies was probably in reference to the kid bandits we met earlier.

“We still have extra supplies, so I’ll give you some more before we go.”

“Well, that’s awful kind of ya. Now, have a drink!”

I accepted the little teacup of alcohol offered by one of the old men and knocked it back.

“Oh-ho, the boy can drink!”

As I shared a few rounds with the elderly folks, I had them tell me rumors about the area and such.

According to them, the kid bandits were serf children who’d been driven out of a nearby farm village to reduce the number of mouths to feed.

Since I didn’t end up needing a guard, I sent Liza back to the others to have them set up camp. We’d planned on resting a little way up the stream on the other side anyway, so it wouldn’t be a big deal to do it here instead.

I asked Liza to prepare enough wheat porridge and a stew of sinewy meat and potatoes to feed a large number of people. My reasoning was that the old folks didn’t normally eat much, so the wheat porridge would help with digestion while the stew would fill them up. The sinewy meat would take longer to chew and feel especially satisfying.

This would involve peeling a lot of potatoes, so the younger kids were helping with that as well.

“…One time, I was surrounded by skeleton monsters, and I thought for sure I was a goner—”

“This ol’ story again?”

The leader’s face was red from the liquor as he started to speak, and another old man interrupted him.

“Was this back when the territory was a marquisate?” I asked.

“Yes, that’s right. Back then, undead monsters were springing up all over. It was like they were rising from the shadows of buildings.”

“You must’ve been lucky to survive.”

“Well, strangely enough, the monsters only attacked nobility or soldiers who attacked them first.”

So the Undead King Zen hadn’t attacked people indiscriminately.

“But the real danger came after that.”

“What happened?”

“The marquis burned down the whole city to get rid of the monsters.”

“…That seems excessive.”

“It was indeed… Huge flaming shells rained down on the city, burning up monsters and citizens alike. That was the real hell on earth…,” the leader said in a trembling voice. It really was amazing that he’d survived such a calamity.

“Then was the current Muno City rebuilt after that?”

“No, I wasn’t in Muno City at the time.”

Apparently, the one who’d abducted Zen’s wife wasn’t the marquis himself but his younger brother. Thus, Zen had attacked the city where the marquis’s brother was serving as viceroy.

“Still, any weapon used to burn down an entire city must have been truly terrible.”

“Yes, the Magic Cannon in Marquis Muno’s castle was inherited from an ancient empire.”

“An ancient empire?!”

So it’s an ancient empire this time? Now there’s a key phrase. My fantasy-obsessed middle school self would be swooning right about now.

I wonder if this Magic Cannon is different from the one in that anti-dragon defense tower Zena showed me back in Seiryuu City?

“Oh yes, before the Shiga Kingdom was founded…”

To summarize the leader’s somewhat tedious explanation: The ancient civilization in question was an orc empire that had existed before the Shiga Kingdom was founded, stretching from then–Muno Marquisate to present-day Ougoch Duchy to the south.

And with the Magic Cannon installed, Muno City was on the front line of the battle between the demon lord that ruled the Orc Empire and the hero of the Saga Empire.

…Wait, so this Magic Cannon could be fired in the city?

It probably used a mana source for power, but if it could attack a city that was dozens of miles away, it sounded like my Meteor Shower spell.

“However, the Magic Cannon is gone now. The Undead King was said to have destroyed it when he killed Marquis Muno.”

By the time the leader’s captivating tale was finished, the sunset was casting long shadows over the camp.

“Hey, geezers, we brought some food.”

“It’s not weeds today!”

Covered in leaves and spiderwebs, the kid bandits came tumbling out of the woods behind the fire, where I was sitting with the old folks.

“Hey, it’s the guy from before!”

“You didn’t come to take back the food, did you?”

“He got here ahead of us!”

The other kids spotted me among the elderly and crowded anxiously behind their leader.

Can’t they see we’re having a relaxed little banquet over here?

“Oh, masterrr, dinner is all ready!”

“Have Liza bring it over, please. Let’s eat together.”

I’d already discussed this with the old folks’ group, so the kids were the only ones caught off guard.

Liza and Nana carried a large pot over to us and placed it beside the bonfire.

I’d made a whole bunch of wooden bowls during our stay in Sedum City, so there would be enough for a group of this number.

Even after the old folks and my own party had served their portions, the kid bandits made no move to line up for food.

“You don’t like wheat porridge?” I asked. The boy in front was still radiating hostility, so I addressed the girl next to him instead.

“Nuh-uh, I love it.”

“Then come eat with us.”

Despite my invitation, the children were still guardedly keeping their distance.

“Come on now, children, eat with us.”

“Have a seat already, sonnies.”

When the old men held out bowls of porridge to them, they finally gave in to temptation and timidly accepted some food.

“Y-yummy!”

“It’s not weeds at all!”

“Whoa, somethin’ else smells good, too.”

“There’s meat in this stew over here!”

“For real?”

“You’re right, it’s meat!”

With a rather strange comment among their cheers, the children began devouring the meal gleefully.

“Make sure you chew thoroughly before you swallow, or your stomachs will pay for it later,” Arisa advised.

“This little lass is right, you kids better chew up good. We may never get to eat like this again, y’know.”

“Don’t say such dark things in the middle of a meal, fool!”

The old guy followed up with an ominous remark, but the old lady next to him whacked him in the head.

Just then, Pochi, who was the first to clear her plate, started a war with a single sentence.

“Seconds, please, sir!”

The young bandits jolted with nearly audible tension at the word.

As the one eating closest to the pot, Nana nodded expressionlessly and doled out more food to her.

Having already finished their food, a few of the young boys gnawed on their spoons a little as they enviously watched Pochi receive seconds.

“No need to be modest, you lot. If you want more, then go and get some,” Arisa said to them, noticing the situation.

As soon as they heard her, the children who’d already finished their food rushed up to Nana.

The other young boys and girls who hadn’t finished yet started wolfing down their food. A few of them started choking in their haste, and the older folks chided them to “chew yer food up right.”

“No need to rush if you want seconds. There’s plenty more,” I said, excusing myself.

We might run out of what we’d made at this rate, so I headed to the kitchen area by the carriage to make more food.

Lulu and Liza rushed over to help, and I used the Garage Bag to take some hydra meat out of Storage, cutting it into bite-size pieces and putting them on skewers.

At this point, it would probably be best to make two per person.

“D’ya need any help, then?”

“U-um, excuse me, but if we can help at all…”

“We’ll help!”

An elderly lady, the girl Totona, and a younger girl who seemed to be her sister came over to help out.

Thanks to the three extra pairs of hands, preparing the meat skewers for cooking took less time than I’d expected.

Figuring we might as well serve them freshly cooked, I returned to the bonfire with a tray of meat skewers on wire mesh.

“Yaaay!”

“Meat skewers, sir!”

Smelling the meat skewers as they started to cook, Tama and Pochi waved their arms overhead with joy.

The children who were eating their second helpings nearly dropped their spoons as they stared at the meat skewers Lulu was cooking.

Mia, always a light eater, moved to an area where the smoke from the meat wouldn’t bother her and started playing the lute.

Her joyful songs matched the atmosphere.

The shouts of delight from the children as they feasted on the skewers mingled with the music of the lute underneath the starry sky.

The children grew drowsy after they’d eaten their fill, so they began filing into a large ditch next to the bonfire.

I wondered how deep it was and peered into the hole. It was only about six feet, enough for the nine children to be concealed as they huddled together inside.

To ward off the wind, they put a mat woven from grass or something similar over the hole. The old folks had a sleeping pit of their own.

This looked terribly cold, so I offered them some brown wolf and bear furs that I’d been stockpiling in Storage.

We shared a meal together as friends. It should be all right for me to meddle just a little.

“Hey, Mister Merchant.”

“What is it?”

One of the boys approached me, the one who’d tried to protect Totona with a club. According to the AR display, he was her younger brother.

“This is for the food. And to make up for attacking you earlier today.”

The boy held out a smooth, wood-carved object. It looked like three two-inch wooden cubes, each connected to the other two.

When I accepted it from the boy’s hands, it was heavier than I’d expected.

According to my AR display, it wasn’t wood at all but a metal called Damascus steel. Upon closer inspection, there were several reddish streaks that might’ve been joining points.

With the help of my now neglected “Analyze” skill, I learned that it was an all-purpose Magic Key Apparatus, but I had no idea what kind of lock it might be for.

“Did you make this yourself?”

I didn’t think he had, but I figured it was a good prompt to find out where it came from.

“No, I found it on the mountain.”

“What’s that, sonny? I toldja never to go up there!”

One of the old men jabbed a finger at the mountain and scolded the boy in a spray of spittle.

Wondering if there was a dangerous creature up there, I checked the map.

There hadn’t been anything there during the day, but now the ruined fortress was full of thirty or more monsters like skeleton soldiers and a wraith.

The skeleton soldiers were around level 10, but the wraith was level 25.

In particular, the latter had the hereditary skills “Paralysis,” “Fear,” “Kin Control,” and “Life Drain.” It was even able to use Ice Magic.

Even if these things appeared only at night, it was alarming to think such dangerous monsters were so near these elderly folks and small children. There were also wild boars roaming the mountain, one of which was level 15.

“Is there something living on that mountain?”

This time I spoke to the old man who’d scolded the boy.

“The vengeful ghosts of nobles appear there at night. And during the day, a huge boar we call One-Eye wanders around there.”

“A large boar might be a good source of food, though.”

“Sure, if we could kill it. Three former soldiers once went into the woods to hunt ol’ One-Eye, and only one came back alive.”

The old man heaved a sigh.

So they regarded this boar as the master of the mountain, then.

We were getting low on boar meat anyway, so I decided we could pay a visit to the ruined fortress to help level up my kids.

The next day, we rode the four horses up the path leading to the fort ruins. We left the carriage down at the foot of the mountain.

Today’s missions were wild-boar hunting and exterminating the monsters at the fort.

My plan was that I would defeat the dangerous-looking wraiths with my magic or a Holy Sword, and the other small-fry monsters would serve as EXP for my kids.

Incidentally, the pairs on each horse were Nana and Pochi, Liza and Arisa, Mia and Lulu, and Pochi and me.

“Rest in peeeace?”

Sitting in front of me, Tama pointed toward a cliffside near the mountain road.

“What is it?”

“There’s booones.”

I followed Tama’s finger to something like an old rag caught in the rocks partway up the cliff, and sure enough, I could see flashes of white.

Nearby, I also caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a knife handle. As I squinted at it, an AR display popped up that read mithril dagger.

Ooh! I wasn’t expecting to find that classic fantasy metal in a place like this.

“Tama, take the reins for a minute.”

“Aye!”

I left Tama in charge of the horse, told the others I was going to recover the deceased person’s belongings, and headed down the steep slope.

Once I reached the outcropping, I stored the bleached skeletal remains and items trapped in the rocks. Thank goodness I didn’t have to touch things to put them in Storage.

Inside the satchel I’d found, there was a sturdy case with a number of books inside and a lever-like object made of the same material as the device the young boy had given me yesterday.

The books had some disturbing titles. There were two larger volumes, Magic Cannon: Noble Blood Maintenance Guide and Magic Cannon: Noble Blood Operation Guide, and three smaller ones that seemed to be ciphers of some kind.

These had to be connected to the Magic Cannon that the old folks’ leader had been talking about last night.

The lever I’d found was apparently a Magic Cannon Control Stick, so the Magic Key Apparatus the boy had given me yesterday must have belonged to this person, too—perhaps a member of the aristocracy connected to Marquis Muno.

These seemed like important, top-secret materials, but since the Undead King Zen had destroyed the Magic Cannon some twenty years ago, they were probably nothing more than collector’s items now.

It was still morning when we arrived at the ruins on the summit. The trip up had taken about two hours.

This former stronghold was larger than the fort at the border had been; it had probably fit two or three hundred people while it was still standing.

The steel portcullis had fallen, blocking the entrance.

Even with the combined strength of all four members of our advanced guard, it wouldn’t open.

Well, it was the main gate of a fortress, after all.

While everyone was focused on the portcullis, I hopped over the outer wall and turned the crank to open the gate.

As I crossed the wall, I felt myself breaking through some kind of barrier.

I stared at the spot where I’d felt the barrier, but I didn’t see anything. Unlike the barrier of the Forest of Illusions in Kuhanou County, this one seemed to have disappeared completely when it was broken.

We took a light lunch of warm soup and bread in the courtyard, then explored around the perimeter of the fort.

Most of it was overrun with weeds, but Pochi and Tama eagerly took up their tools and quickly cleared a path. We arrived in the rear garden area.

There, a few defenseless orange birds were pecking at some feed.

“Preeey!”

“There are eggs here, sir!”

The reason I’d steered us straight toward the backyard was that I’d noticed these birds on the map.

Just like the chickens in modern Japan, these birds couldn’t fly very well.

They were slow-moving, too, so Tama and Pochi could catch them easily.

The orange chickens were all large and plump, enough to hide Pochi’s face after she caught one. The eggs were a normal size, though, no bigger than your typical large chicken egg.

“Geh!”

“What is it?”

Heading toward Arisa’s fed-up voice, I found an area full of fresh parsley.

“Oh, parsley?”

“Who’re you calling parsley?! I won’t let anyone call me a parsley at this age! The least you could do is marry me until I become an adult, even if it’s just a common-law marriage, master!”

Arisa growled like an angry dog, frowning and jumping at me.

Lulu, who was nearby, widened her eyes in surprise at her sister’s behavior.

What, does “parsley” mean an unmarried single woman or something? I’ve never heard anyone say that before, but it sounds like something from a girls’ manga.

“I’m serious! And Lulu’s my sister, so you should marry both of—”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll consider it if you’re still single in ten years, all right?”

Arisa seemed to be heading toward an inappropriate comment, so I hurriedly cut her off.

“Really? It’s a promise, then!”

Arisa pumped her fists in a pose more befitting a triumphant athlete than a little girl, then dashed away.

“…How nice…”

My “Keen Hearing” skill alerted me to a tiny murmur from Lulu. I looked down and saw an earnest expression on her lovely face.

If she kept staring at me with those beautiful features, I worried I’d be tempted to set foot on the dark path of the lolicon.

Maybe that’s why I said such a stupid thing…

“Master, could I also…?”

“Sure, Lulu. If you’re single in ten years, too, I’ll marry you along with Arisa.”

“Yes!”

I got carried away and gave her an irresponsible reply. A hint of guilt needled my heart at the sight of such a huge smile on Lulu’s face.

Bigamy did seem to be allowed in this country, but I didn’t know if I’d still be in this world in five years, never mind ten.

I had arrived here suddenly, as if this were a dream; it wouldn’t be too surprising if I returned just as abruptly as waking up from one.

Besides, it wasn’t as though I didn’t have any attachments to my home world. Even if I was fated to stay here for good, I’d want to send letters to my friends and family first at least, so I was planning to go to the Saga Empire once everyone’s future plans were settled.

Well, I probably don’t need to worry about this too seriously right now.

If magic existed for summoning and sending people back, surely I could develop magic to allow me to move freely between the worlds within ten years.

Besides, there was no way Arisa and Lulu would stay single for ten years.

Oblivious to my innermost thoughts, Lulu pressed her hands to her cheeks and mumbled to herself.

“Hee-hee… A bride, huh?”

Miss Lulu, stop it with the heart-melting smile while it’s just the two of us, please.

I nearly gave in to desire for a moment, but I managed to hold out by calling on my sense of reason.

“Master, if you’d like, please come over here and look at this.”

Luckily, a call from Liza saved me from drowning in Lulu’s pinkish aura. I headed toward her with Lulu in tow.

After passing through an arch of withered roses, we found a water fountain among the sea of weeds.

“We suspected that there may be a trap, so nobody has approached it yet.”

“Good thinking.”

After praising Liza’s cautiousness, I investigated the fountain.

My “Trap Detection” skill wasn’t reacting at all, and I didn’t see anything on the map that looked like a trick, either.

“…I think it’s safe.”

After I gave my verdict, Liza proceeded toward the fountain as an advance scout, her spear still at the ready.

“Weeding brigaaade!”

“We’ll do our best, sir!”

Tama and Pochi popped up immediately and hacked away at the flora in the hall leading to the fountain. They were very efficient.

“Satou.”

Mia tottered over to us through the arch, her arms full of vegetables.

“Is that broccoli and celery?”

“Mm.”

They were a little different from the varieties I’d seen in Japan, but they were definitely some species of the familiar vegetables.

Apparently, they’d been growing in the same corner as the parsley.

“Maybe we should make a broccoli stew for dinner, then,” I suggested.

“Great.”

Mia gave an excited little nod.

The beastfolk girls caught three goats that were on the other side of the fountain, and Nana held a little orange chick in the palm of her hand with delight.

There were persimmon and plum trees growing in the backyard. The persimmons were sour, but I collected some of the fallen ones, figuring I could dry them out.

For a place that was supposed to be a den of undead monsters, this area was quite peaceful.

Clonk…clonk…

With a fully armed Liza leading the way, we strode into the entrance hall of the fort.

Tama and Pochi walked behind Liza, followed by Nana, Arisa, and Mia, and I brought up the rear.

The entrance hall contained a stairwell leading up to the second floor, where light leaked in through a window. It was the sort of place where balls might have been hosted.

Since the undead appear only at night, we’d decided to explore the fort during the day before the real battle at sunset.

The skeletal remains of a number of soldiers were strewn about the entrance hall.

Once night had fallen, these would probably begin to move.

I should probably put them in Storage in the daytime, then cremate and bury them later.

Glancing over, I saw that Lulu looked very anxious. Arisa and Mia seemed a bit nervous, too.

“Don’t be scared. It’s perfectly safe during the da—”

As I attempted to reassure them, the loud bang of a door slamming shut interrupted me.

At the same moment, specks of black appeared on the window and soon blotted out all the light from outside.

Shrieking, Mia and Lulu latched onto me.

With the aid of my “Night Vision” skill, I could see our advance guard team warily keeping watch in the darkness.

I took my Magic Lamp out of Storage and supplied it with some MP to illuminate the room.

“Kweh-heh-heh… Foolish vandals. You know not your place, daring to enter the secret base of the revival of the house of Marquis Muno.”

I couldn’t see the source of the voice. There was nobody on my radar but us.

Checking the map, I determined the enemy was one of the wraiths I’d noted last night. It was on the underground third floor of the fort. It hadn’t shown up on my map when we first arrived here, so I had no idea where it came from.

It was probably using a speaking tube or some occult-type means to make its voice reach this room.

“Prepare to become the cornerstones of the revival of the marquis’s house, at the hands of our faithful soldiers!”

Sure enough, as the wraith spoke, the skeleton soldiers that had been lying on the floor arose.

There were only three in this room, but more were approaching from other rooms, too.

“These enemies are strong, so take each of them on in pairs. I’ll handle the last one.”

“Understood!”

“Aye!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Orders registered. Switching to combat-doll mode.”

The four members of the advance guard promptly took action.

I’ve never heard of this so-called “combat-doll mode” before, though.

Arisa was snickering at my side, so she must have taught Nana some weird phrase. Of course, there wasn’t actually any change in Nana’s status information.

Once I’d taken out my target with a rock to the head from Storage, I watched over the advance guard’s battle.

The skeleton soldiers’ movements were jerky, but they attacked with fast overhead strikes. Those kinds of blows might kill you instantly if you let your guard down.

While Pochi parried the heavy sword attacks with her small buckler, Tama aimed at the leg joints with her short sword.

Since Tama’s attacks were so light, a single direct hit wouldn’t destroy anything. Still, she persisted, and the fourth attack finally broke the joint.

The skeleton lost its balance and toppled over, and the two girls finished it off in a flurry of strikes.

Nearby, Nana managed to use her shield to parry an attack from a skeleton soldier wielding a large ax. With the help of her Foundation Magic technique Body Strengthening, she managed to keep up with her opponent, if only barely.

Luckily, Liza was on the scene, shattering the skeleton’s bones with a few rapid jabs of her spear. She appeared to be using the blunt end, not the tip.

When the dust settled, all three of the skeleton soldiers in the room were defeated.

The health gauges of the two shield users had declined slightly, but no one had any noticeable physical wounds.

There were more soldiers heading toward us from the other rooms, so we could probably take care of healing later.

All three of the beastfolk girls had reached level 14 as a result of this battle. Each of them received a new skill: “Strike” for Liza, “Thrust” for Pochi, and “Enemy Detection” for Tama.

However, they wouldn’t be able to use these freely until they’d had a proper rest so that their bodies could adapt to the new skills.

Even so, it had been a closer contest than I’d expected, so it might be wise to fortify the battlefield and make fighting a little easier.

With that thought in mind, I set about creating a barricade.

I wrapped a few poles in cloth and cast the Shelter spell to create a lattice for defense. It was a dome with an entrance and some smaller holes for attacking.

This would keep the rearguard safe while we fought.

Next, I thought I should do something about the lighting.

The Magic Lamp was illuminating the members of my party from behind, so their own shadows would hinder them as they fought.

“Mia, can you light the room?”

“Mm.”

Mia cast a new spell I’d developed.

“… Bubble Light Hotaru Awa!”

Several spheres materialized, like faintly glowing soap bubbles. The only problem with this spell was that the MP cost was high, since I’d used code from a Light Magic spell.

When I checked in on everyone now that the room was lit, I noticed that Lulu was wearing a dark, brooding expression.

Maybe the sight of the attacking skeletons scared her?

“M-master. I-is there anything I can do to be of help?”

Lulu clasped her hands in front of her chest, her voice trembling as she spoke.

Right… She had looked like she wanted to say something after we took care of those professional thieves, too.

I was glad that the normally shy Lulu had spoken to me of her own volition, but I couldn’t put her on the front lines without any kind of training.

While I contemplated how to convince her of this, she pleaded with me further still.

“I—I want to be useful like everyone else!”

“You don’t need to worry about that. You’re already useful, Lulu.”

That was the truth. I couldn’t have her believing she was useless.

Just before I could explain that everyone had their own roles, Arisa tugged on my sleeve. I looked over my shoulder at her.

“Master. Perhaps Lulu could try one of those Magic Guns you used before?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about those.”

We decided to give Arisa’s proposal a try. With that, Lulu should be able to participate in battle from a safe distance away.

I put the Magic Lamp on the floor, took out the spare Magic Gun from Storage, and handed it to Lulu. As a precaution in case of friendly fire, I put it on its lowest power setting.

“Aim this toward the monster. Then pull this bit—it’s called the trigger—and a Magic Bullet will come out from the end of the barrel.”

“R-right!”

I gave the Magic Gun to the nervous Lulu and had her do a test fire at a random pillar.

Her first shot completely missed.

“Lulu, you don’t need to be so tense. Try to relax.”

I moved behind her and put my hands over hers to demonstrate how to pull the trigger.

“Gently, like this. All right?”

“R-r-r-r-r-riiight…”

Hmm? Lulu’s face was so red that steam was practically coming out of her ears.

Right. I’d forgotten, since she’d gotten used to me lately, but Lulu was still pretty uncomfortable with men.

“Sorry, sorry. I was too close.”

I stepped back, and Lulu gave a despairing little “Ah…”

If I was a pubescent boy like my current appearance indicated, I might have fallen in love with that voice.

However, since I’m around thirty years old on the inside, the majority of what I felt toward Lulu was the protectiveness of a guardian.

So, although she was looking up at me with a strangely sexy expression, I remained deliberately serious and had her do another test fire.

She took to the Magic Gun faster than I’d expected, and after a few more tries, she had the hang of it.

However, since Lulu’s magic ran out after just two shots, she had to depend on potions to recover it.

Arisa and Mia wanted to use the Magic Gun, too, so I let them practice while Lulu was taking a break.

With our newly established barricade, the next battle was much easier.

Lulu, Arisa, and Mia took turns using the Magic Gun to attack the skeleton soldiers, then finished them off with spears or stones. Any time one of the soldiers tried to attack with a long weapon, I forcibly yanked it from their grasp.