After dinner, we were chatting over tea when Elise said, "Ryoma, have you
decided on what you want to do from here?"
"...I'm unsure, to be honest. Do I stay... or move elsewhere..."
My research had settled for now, my head finally cooling after seeing enough
slimes to fill an entire room. Meeting people like this also left me wondering
about certain things. Things like ingredients and seasonings for cooking.
...That's why I figured it was about time to go and see the world. But what
should I say? A child with an established background as an antisocial recluse
wants to go and see the world! That would be too unnatural... All right, it was
time to pull out the almighty excuse — the grandparents.
"...Grandparents told me... live happily in town... My current life... is content.
But I started to think... grandparents... might not wish for me... to live here..."
"Ryoma..."
A solemn air fell upon the room when Reinbach closed his eyes and said,
"Then... how about you leave the forest with us?"
"Huh?"
Huh, what was this person saying? Today was our first time meeting each
other, no?
"Our family is a ducal house. Covering the living necessities of one person is
no difficulty. Not to mention how it'd be a waste to have a talented tamer like
you hidden away so deep in the forest like this. You may not like towns, but
won't you try leaving the forest a bit?"
...I had never expected to receive an invitation like that. The others around
me were also giving me kind looks that said they agreed. Everyone was so kind,
it made my heart hurt...
"We will be going to stay in a town called Gimul tomorrow, then return home
in two months. It will be possible to return here, so would you like to join us for
our journey?"
"Journey..."
Thinking about it carefully, I knew nothing about this world... Though the gods
had given me basic knowledge, it wasn't as though I had seen things with my
own eyes. I hadn't even known what the outside world thought about slimes.
There may be many more examples like that.
...These people seemed like nice people, and it'd be better than being alone,
right? And if I didn't go now, I'd probably drag my feet for another 2-3 months
without moving...
"That... would be nice. I will probably cause you trouble... but would you
allow me... to join you?"
"Yes! So you're willing to come?"
"Because I myself... started thinking... about leaving the forest..."
"I see, I see. You'll have to prepare for the journey. Let's extend our departure
to tomorrow afternoon. Do you think you can get ready in that time?"
"Until morning is fine. If I use Item Box... I can bring it all."
"Oh my, you can use Item Box at that young age? That's amazing."
Really? I had heard that many people could use Item Box, though?
"Grandma said... it was useful, so I learned it. I was told... many could use it."
"Oh, no no. Even if it's basic magic, it's a higher element magic, you know?
While there are many people that can use Item Box, when you consider your
age that's plenty impressive."
Not again... Was I missing information somewhere? Or was the information I
had not adjusted for age? This meant I had to be careful not to mess up... But I
was also quite lucky to come across people who could supplement my general
knowledge like this.
"It seems like Master Ryoma has talents in areas other than magic too. You
have a very exciting future ahead of you."
"That's true. If you have anything you want to study other than taming magic,
let us know, okay? We'll teach you."
"Being able to study alongside Ryoma sounds fun."
"Thank you very much."
After wrapping things up with a word of thanks, Eliaria and her household
staff offered to help me, so we started with cleaning the worst room first.
"Whoa, what is this room?"
"It's filled with weapons and armor."
"Just sorting through all this is going to be hard work..."
"Is that a pelt at the back?"
"What are these bags in the corner that look like trash?"
I had brought them to the room I was using for storage. It had everything I
had gathered over the last 3 years, including the belongings of bandits and
things.
I sometimes cleaned the weapons and armor so those were organized to a
degree, but everything else was basically piled upon each other.
"Item Box... all of it. Everything... will be put away. The bags in the corner are
bandit loot."
"What's inside?"
"Dunno..."
"You mean you haven't checked? Defeating bandits without checking your
spoils is like risking your life for nothing, you know?"
"I wasn't really interested."
I responded to Hughes's words with a single phrase, but there were several
reasons for that. Firstly, most bandits' belongings were dirty and smelly, with
nothing of particular value. At worst, there would be nothing other than rotten
food and trash. Some of them had money, but that was worthless without going
into town... In the end, the amount of effort wasn't worth the gains, so at some
point I stopped checking them properly and just threw them in here after the
slimes were done cleaning.
"In that case, would it be better to examine the contents first?"
"True, it'd be better to just chuck it out if it's just trash inside. How about we
split up the separation and storage steps to get it done at the same time?"
I agreed to Araune and Jill's suggestions, so Eliaria and the two maids were
assigned the duty of separating the bandits' belongings. If I was tasked with
separating things, we wouldn't be able to get both jobs done at once.
Thus, we started working on throwing everything I had into the black hole.
From what I heard partway through, there was some surprisingly valuable
equipment, and the pelts would sell for a pretty penny too. Even more
unexpectedly, a bag containing a hefty 40 medium gold coins was discovered.
From what I knew, that was a fairly large amount of money, which I was
grateful for now that I was heading to the town.
However... Considering what happened with the slimes, the accuracy of my
knowledge was a concern. I should probably have them teach me the value of
things, just to be sure.
We continued to work while I pondered over such things, and once we were
done I had the cleaner slimes and scavenger slimes finish off the rest. I then
offered the now-clean room to the escorts of the ducal house to rest in.
"You sure? Do you have anything else you need help with?"
"No, the rest... can do alone. Just ingredients and medicines left."
"Medicines... shouldn't be meddled with by amateurs. All right, call us if you
need anything else."
"Thank you very much, Camil."
"It's fine, it's fine. We should be thanking you for the room. Having an
enclosed room to rest in is more than we could hope for."
After I gave them my thanks, everyone began to prepare to sleep. Now, all
that was left were the basic items the three gods had given me when I first
came to this world, as well as... That's right, could I bring my slimes along too?
There was no way I could leave them. I should ask. They should still be awake at
this time.
"Mister Reinhart, Lord Reinbach."
"What is it, Ryoma?"
"Can I... bring my slimes on the journey? There'll be... a total of 17 slimes."
"Of course. Nothing wrong with a tamer bringing his familiars."
"There's plenty of room in the carriage, we'll save some space for them."
Oh, that was a relief.
"Thank you very much."
When I said that, they smiled at me in reassurance. They really were
wonderful people. If I were to give an example in Japan, it would be like asking
someone who agreed to let me hitchhike if I could bring my 17 pets with me
too... Yeah, I definitely wouldn't agree. One or two was one thing, but 17 was
way too many. Not that I had a driver's license to begin with. I really couldn't be
more grateful to the duke's family... Oh yes, I should give my greetings to them
before I leave, too.
With that thought, I stood up and headed to the training room at the very
back of my home. The room itself was nothing but an empty space, but the wall
across from the entrance had statues of the gods carved into the rock. Idolatry
was not forbidden in this world, and creating your own statues of the gods
wasn't a crime either. It was even recommended in some areas, where the
most devout worshipers would use a miniature statue bought from the church
as a model to carve their own, little by little as they prayed every day.
I should seal the entrance with earth magic in case someone came along...
There we go.
Sitting cross-legged before the statues, I meditated for a few minutes before
opening my eyes and beginning to speak.
"Another day has passed safely. I'm sure you know this already, because
you're gods, but I'll be going out for a while with the guests who visited today.
Apparently our destination will be a town called Gimul... It's finally time for my
first journey after coming to this world. Now I can go to a church and keep my
promise. However, I don't know when I can come back again, so I'm taking all
my things just in case. If I don't end up returning... I'll make more statues in my
new place. See you later, then."
Once I was done, I stood up and unsealed the entrance to leave the training
room.
It seemed like the only ones I couldn't talk to normally were other people... If
I couldn't talk to the gods' statues, I would have noticed a lot earlier than I did.
Maybe I was nervous? Well, whatever... Now that everything was ready, all that
was left to do was wait for the morning and leave with my slimes. Time to sleep.
Thus, I crawled under the covers of my bed.
I wonder what the town's like...
My mind was so busy imagining the unseen towns, I found it a little harder to
sleep than usual