"Food, drinks, camping supplies... Yosh, everything's complete," I muttered.
Luke and I had just finished checking the supplies we had previously loaded into the wagon.
"Nothing left behind, right? If that's the case, all we need to do now is wait for them to come out," Luke said.
While waiting for the two of them, we went back inside again to chat a bit with Sikiyomi-san.
She was initially a little confused when she heard that we were about to leave, but we told her that we would come back again later.
A-as for the timing... we couldn't really predict it, because after arriving in Riruyo, we might end up having business on another continent.
Even so, Sikiyomi-san didn't stop us. Instead, she supported us and wished us good fortune as a hero party.
Even the fact that Hime and Yuu-chan were heroes didn't seem to surprise her that much. Had she somehow guessed it from the beginning? No way.
—
The two of them finally came out of their room and approached us.
"Are you all ready? Alright then, let's go," I said as I stood up from my chair.
The four of us immediately left the inn, with Sikiyomi-san following behind us.
I figured she wanted to see us off. Even though we didn't ask her to, if that was what she wanted, then it wasn't a problem.
Before Hime and Yuu-chan got inside, Sikiyomi-san said something to us.
"All four of you, be careful, okay? I've heard that the elves in Riruyo don't really like dealing with humans," she said.
"But well, I'm sure you'll be just fine," she added.
Hime simply gave her a smile before getting inside.
The same went for Luke and me as we took our seats in the front, leaving only the task of making the horse move by pulling the reins we were holding.
"See you again, Sikiyomi-san," I said.
"We'll definitely come back someday," Luke added.
Sikiyomi-san nodded gently at us, which meant we were free to leave now.
Luke and I began pulling the reins, setting the wagon in motion and leaving Sikiyomi-san's inn behind.
From a distance, I could see her going back inside after watching us depart.
Our relationship with her over these past few days had grown quite close, so it was probably natural for her to feel a little lonely.
——
Since we planned to go to Riruyo by passing through Velmoria, we headed once again toward the gate that connected the two cities.
It was the same gate we had passed through when we first arrived in this city, because if we exited through the other gate, we would end up on the road leading to Centram.
As usual, our wagon was inspected by the guards stationed there, to the point that one of them even went inside.
At this point, it was basically the same situation as back then.
"Sorry, but we still have to inspect the inside. It's a procedure that has already been established," said one of the guards beside us.
"It's fine. After all, this is also a form of security, right?" I replied, returning his apology.
The guard who had gone inside eventually came out and approached us.
"There are no suspicious items. Their group is safe. Wait a moment—are you Luke-san?" the man asked.
Huh, how did he know about Luke?
I turned to look at Luke's reaction, and he seemed happy to see the guard.
"Oh, you're one of the people who joined my unit in the forest, right?" Luke asked.
"That's correct. If you're with these people... does that mean they're your party?" the guard asked again.
"Yes. We're planning to head to Riruyo at the Guildmaster's request," Luke answered.
"S-sorry for the interruption, then. You're free to go," he said.
We got back onto the wagon and finally left the city of Vannis.
To be honest, I was quite curious about the neighboring city, Danvis. I wanted to know what kind of attitude its leader had.
I also wanted to know what kind of problem existed between Marcen-san and the leader of Danvis—what could have caused them to hate each other so much.
When Marcen-san talked with Luke and me, he seemed perfectly normal, as if he didn't have any issues at all.
"How about we stop for a bit over there? The road looks wider than before," Luke said, pointing at the road ahead.
"You're right. Let's stop there," I replied.
After stopping, Luke and I stood guard outside while watching through the window opening.
We stopped on purpose to wait while Hime checked her magic orb, just in case something happened.
At the same time, Hime wanted to try out a new spell, though I didn't know about that.
She used a world map and placed the magic orb on top of it, then chanted a spell—or the name of a spell—that didn't stick in my memory at all.
When she finished casting it, she lifted the orb and looked at the map—
"Ah, it worked~" she said while gazing at the map.
"You're right. This makes it much easier to see now, doesn't it?" Yuu-chan said, looking relieved.
Hime then handed the map to me, and I showed it to Luke as well. He seemed to immediately notice that something was different about it.
"These markings... don't tell me this map can detect threats from the Abbys just like the magic orb?" Luke asked.
"Something like that. What do you think?" I asked.
"This is extremely useful!" he said.
Satisfied, I returned the map to Hime and resumed driving the wagon.
There were no signs of Abbys-related threats anymore, aside from Virosia and the islands to the north of it.
Because of that, we could head straight to Riruyo without needing to deal with Abbys-related matters elsewhere.
——
Night had fallen, and we stopped near a village located about seven kilometers from Necvalion.
We were only allowed to stay on the outskirts of the village, because the villagers were afraid that we might be bad people—or possibly nobles who wanted to seize their farmland.
Well, that was also new information to me regarding how nobles treated villages like this.
It was already close to midnight, so we decided to rest until morning.
Luke and I were still capable of taking our party all the way to Necvalion, but—
"No. If you two insist on continuing, I'll personally knock you out," Hime had said earlier.
"If you end up falling asleep, we could get into an accident, right?" Yuu-chan had added.
Under the pressure and insistence they gave us, we eventually gave in to their opinion and took turns standing guard.
They were definitely worried about us, which was why Hime had practically forced us to rest.
I understood what she meant... but still... whatever.
I want to sleep right now.