44 Volume 2 Chapter 0: Arc 2 Prologue

(Walson)

The wheels gently came to a stop. It's been a couple days since we left the village of Saddin, the village which was full of our memories is now far away beyond the horizon. We can't see it anymore.

It's getting late, so we stopped the wagon and started the preparations to make camp… Actually, I can let Rifle pull our wagon in the morning, and use the redstone mechanism on our wagon to let it keep moving during nighttime. Even though this, without a doubt, will be much faster, but we have no reason for doing that.

From the experiences of previous travelers and adventurers, including camping at night and getting supplies, it will take about a month to get to the Capital from the Village of Sadin, by horse wagon.

But our wolf wagon is way faster than normal horse wagons. Plus, we don't have to stop to get supplies, so if nothing goes wrong, we can get to the Capital within 60%, or even less, than the regular time.

Back to camping, I grabbed two bathtubs made of iron, and some wooden planks from my inventory as a folding screen. And with that, there are two separated bathrooms! One for men, another for women, of course. All you have to do is to pour hot water into the bathtub, and you can take a bath.

Grace, who already got the fire up, is sitting beside the fire looking at an undone meat

And the adventurer quartet, they are talking and laughing while they're building their own basic tent. Well, I have to let them sleep outside of the wagon, because there's not enough space for them. Wagon is for Grace and Melon.

For me, I don't care about my bed. Give me a blanket and I will be able to sleep on the driver seat just fine on my own.

Thanks to Rifle, we don't have to guard at night. We only need to keep the fire up. Well, this is one of the advantages to letting Rifle pull our wagon.

Not only monsters, even robbers won't attack us. I'll have to say sorry to any of you guys who want to see exciting fighting scenes like that; but with Rifle around, no one will purposely look for trouble with us.

Think about it, If you're a robber, you see a strange wagon, and see that it's a giant wolf pulling it, will you want to attack it? No way!

Too bad for me, I wanted to give our security/guarding system a try. Such as a cannon that shoots iron ingots, powered by redstones, wind magic stones, and gun powders.

Melon have told me that there were people riding horses with weapons approaching, but retreated after they saw us. But how did she knew, here's what she said, "I know there are man horses by their sound of steps and their smells, I hear clanks, this means they have weapons, and they were looking at us from a high place for a long time, so they should be robbers or bandits."

I found out that Melon is now like a scout. Wait no, a scout doesn't do 1 v.s. 10 fights. She showed us how well she fights from the last robber attack back in the village.

And she didn't use the [Band of the Bold] on their face at that time. If she did… uhhh, it will definitely not be very comfortable if you get punched, and it explodes from inside of you. Because of this, I have told Melon not to use them until real severe problems appear.

After we finished our camp work, I came to the fire pit. Melon, Grace, and the adventurer quartet are already in their respective spots. Everyone is talking enthusiastically, each with a well-done meat skewer in their hands.

For Grace and Melon, it's their first time to leave the Village of Sadin, and they're really curious about what the outside world looks like. So they were really focused on the stories from Kulontan, the swanker of the fours.

And his partners make fun of him sometimes, or refute some of his more ridiculous claims, making others laugh with their antics.

But I couldn't get into their conversations, so instead of sitting with them and being awkward, I went to lie beside the wagon and listen to them with a piece of bread I grabbed from my inventory.

"By the way, Mr. Gabab, can you tell us more about the mission all of you accepted this time?"

"Oh, about that, I only know we need to help them find and eliminate a lower grade [Ground Dragon] that had been defeated and repelled by the [Diva of the Wind]. We didn't want to accept it because the risk is very high. But the mission is from the Capital's guild, so we can't reject it."

"Diva of the Wind?"

"She is a grade-S adventurer, a really powerful girl like a hero! I've heard that she'll be leading this mission..."

Hmm… When the conversation initially started, Melon always seemed to be very interested whenever they're talking about the life of being an adventurer.

Looks like she really is interested in being one. Thinking about her abilities, it will not be a problem to become a high-grade adventurer in the guild… I've asked her before, but she rejected me.

I actually want her to live life in her own way, independently, and not only live as my slave. I don't think I've ever treated her like a slave... yet she always kept the mindset of one. I'll have to talk to her a little more about this.

…

…

After dinner, There are only some embers in the fire pit now.

I'm sitting beside the fire, with a stick, roasting marshmallows, because I'm bored. After everyone else took their time to clean up in the bathrooms, I'm going to put away the bathrooms. So we can leave right after we get up in the morning, without wasting time on packing stuff.

It's eleven o'clock. I started to feel tired after driving all day. I look at the ashes in the fire pit, and my eyelids are heavy as lead.

... I don't know how much time has passed, but after a while, I woke up because I heard scufflings.

Then I see Grace sitting next to me. With a jacket, which I think was going to cover me.

She found out I was awake, "Walson... get a cold if sleep here..." Grace said.

That's odd, she just talked to me? These days she just turned around or walked away when she saw me, like I'm something dirty...

Or why do you think I chose to eat alone? Because I don't want things to get awkward.

"It's alright, I can still drive you to the Capital even if I'm sick," I pushed her hand aside, the hand with the jacket, "You're one to talk, keep the jacket. You don't want to sneeze on the first day of school, right?"

I feel impatience welling in my heart for no reason. Shoot, I dropped the marshmallow into the pit, now it's gone.

"...That's not, what I mean," Grace frowned.

"Sorry, I didn't mean that," I shrugged my shoulders, "Then, what's up?"

"...Nothing, just, Walson, is cold to me."

Cold?

You tell me I'm cold? What the heck! Who is the one that brought people to share my secrets, and said "I can't hang out with my boyfriend" like it's my fault, then use me as an errand boy!?

"...I want to, make up, with Walson, like Melon..."

"Like Melon?" I raised my eyebrow.

"...Walson and Melon, are good... and have gifts..." Grace is stammering again, it took me a few seconds to understand her sentence.

The gift she said, is a decorative little sculpture made from Millenium Fairy Wood. I made that when I was bored while driving these days. It is like a talisman for safety, but just for symbolic meaning without anything else special about it.

So all those words you said just because you want a gift? I mean, you don't have to beat around the bush though.

"Of course I have a gift for you, for thanking you for traveling with Walson's Travel Agency."

I've also made another one for Grace. For wishing Grace's school life being alright, or maybe I'm wishing for something else. I was wondering how am I going to give it to her, but it seems like Grace came for it before I even ask.

The sculpture is carved like a Sakura Petal; if she doesn't like it...

"Please tell me if you don't like it, Miss Grace. I will be happy to remake one," I stood up, tossed the sculpture to Grace. And she looked at it as the sculpture as it fell onto her thighs.

"Walson, I did not…."

"'I'm going to sleep, good night." I have totally no mood now. I climbed into the driver's seat.

So, all you wanted, is just a gift.

...Hey, you better get excited, I still have an unfinished staff for you.

I pulled out the magic cloth and stared at the magical letters inscribed on it. I want to fall asleep quickly, so I drank a Mana Potion, forcing myself to produce mana to my maximum capacity. And I grabbed my charcoal pen.

I collapsed gracelessly on the driver seat finally after running out of mana.

How long will our team relationship last? I wondered,

…

…

Probably, until you don't need me anymore.