Chapter 699 : At the Frontier I

Chapter 0699 At the Frontier I

Translator: Jay_Forestieri

Editor: Tseirp

“This is definitely a barren wasteland, but there is a road, isn’t there?”

“That means people are traveling through here.”

“There must be merchant caravans and the like. Which means the economy is developing. Which means...”

“Means there’s good food.”

Ryo loved delicious food, and Abel did too.

After the two of them left Bondrin Village, where they had exterminated the salamander, and passed through two more villages of roughly the same size, this was where they were now.

The mountain range that had risen high to the north and south was now far off to the north.

As for the south side, there were no mountains in sight at all.

As scenery, it could no longer really be called the ‘Corridor’.

“But there’s nothing in Abel’s knowledge about this area, right?”

“Yeah, I don’t know anything about it. The small states east of the Union have always been highly volatile.”

“Volatile?”

“They’re born and they perish, merge and split apart.”

“What a true example of impermanence...”

Ryo gave a small shake of his head at Abel’s explanation.

The party continued along the highway for a while.

It was not quite to the level of a caravan, but they began seeing wagon carts.

“There are more merchants besides us. This is a scene we never saw in the villages up until now.”

“It is indeed a scene we never saw, but... we are not merchants.”

Abel corrected him with a sigh.

Still, he understood.

If someone looked at the two of them with their two beloved horses and the trail of carts behind them, they might well mistake them for ‘merchants’.

Yes, what followed them were the ice carts... ten of them.

While crossing the wasteland known as the ‘Corridor’, half of them had already ended up in the party’s stomachs.

“So if we’re starting to see wagon carts now, that means we should be able to reach a big city before we eat through all the food in the carts, right?”

“Didn’t Ryo say the food in the carts was originally for Andalusia and Feiwan?”

“I-I did say that, but... we had no choice but to eat it too as an emergency measure! There was no helping it!”

Yes, while passing through the ‘Corridor’, it had been mostly a wasteland with neither monsters nor even animals.

The villages they had stopped at here and there had been built around places where water gushed up like an oasis, and the residents were barely able to manage food production for themselves.

So Ryo and Abel had ended up dipping into the food in the carts...

“I was the one who said we shouldn’t.”

“Yeah, and Ryo was the one who started eating them without hesitation, saying it would be fine and fine and fine.”

“But we’ll actually be able to reach a city now, won’t we!”

“Yeah. Good for you.”

Ryo looked exactly like the sound effect ‘hmph hmph’—huffing in a sulk—while Abel shrugged.

It was already afternoon when something unusual... no, something imposing appeared before the eyes of the party moving along the road.

“Is that... a rock mountain?”

“Yeah. There are watchtowers too... it’s a kind of fortress.”

What Ryo and Abel saw was a fortress-like city built into several rocky mountains, complete with watchtowers.

“It looks like the road continues down around the lower side of the mountains... but I can see something like a gate.”

“Yeah, there is one. And there are people who look like guards... well, their clothes are all over the place, but they are definitely there. Everything about this is different from the villages we’ve passed through.”

“A city with military force...”

“What do we do? Keep going and enter the city? Or stop here and turn back? It just feels a little fishy.”

“Fishy?”

“Yeah.”

Abel nodded.

Even while they were talking, the party kept drawing closer to the rocky mountains.

Watchtowers had been built near the summits, but on the way up there were also holes carved into the rock, and they could see people with bows and arrows keeping watch over the road.

There were also spear-bearing men around the gate.

In Bondrin Village, the villagers had carried spear-like tools with the ends of wooden shafts sharpened, but these were nothing like that...

“They’re carrying proper weapons.”

“Yeah. And for some reason, they seem really tense.”

“Really? Isn’t this what city security is like?”

At Abel’s words, Ryo tilted his head.

They were guarding the city to prevent suspicious people from entering.

It seemed natural that they would be tense... but.

“If there were no tension in relations with the surrounding area, it would not be like this. Most people come here for trade. That is good for the city folk, and if the economy turns over well, the taxes collected increase too, which means the guards get proper pay. So they ought to welcome visitors, not be all tense.”

“Well, that makes sense.”

Since Abel’s explanation was perfectly reasonable, Ryo nodded as well.

“But sometimes I want Andalusia and co to be able to sleep on proper straw bedding.”

“Yeah...”

“So I want us to stay in a proper, nice inn.”

Ryo made his case, thinking of Andalusia.

Abel also wanted to honor that wish, but...

“However, what about money?”

“Huh?”

“We only have money that can be used in the Eastern Countries, right?”

“Ah...”

Ryo was left speechless by Abel’s point.

Yes, they were no longer in the Eastern Countries.

It must have been a long time since any major trade had been conducted with the Eastern Countries.

Which meant money from the Eastern Countries probably would not be accepted.

“Then there is no choice. Abel will...”

“I’m not going to attack some bad merchant.”

“Y-you preempted me...”

Ryo frowned.

But then Abel seemed to think of something.

“A merchant, huh... well, I suppose there’s no helping it.”

“So, the Righteous Swordsman Abel is going to attack corrupt merchants and, as a bonus, seize the money they’ve saved up...”

“No matter how you look at it, that would be an illegal act.”

“It is not for selfish greed. It is to help the oppressed people, and the powerful Abel must rise up!”

“In that case, you’re handing all the stolen money over to the people, right?”

“I-I mean, part of it would need to be kept as necessary expenses for our operating funds...”

Ryo’s desperate excuse.

Abel gave a small shake of his head.

While they were having that conversation, the party arrived at the gate under the rock mountain.

“The security is pretty heavy.”

“Yeah, their clothes are still all over the place, but their weapons, spears and swords and such, are proper enough.”

“They’re... showing cards.”

“Merchant Guild cards, probably.”

Ryo watched the guards checking visitors, and Abel answered while looking at the cards the visitors were presenting.

“I only have an Adventurer Guild card, though...”

“That should do just fine. You got this.”

“...Huh? What about Abel?”

“Like I’d have one. I’m retired as an adventurer, remember?”

Yes, Abel was a former A-rank adventurer.

“Abel, please just say you are a sixth-rank adventurer from the Eastern Countries.”

“That wouldn’t mean anything here, though...”

Yes, this was no longer the Eastern Countries.

“So Abel is my baggage carrier, then, as a C-rank adventurer?”

“I’m a little dissatisfied, but there is no helping it. I will accept that.”

“No, actually Abel is the hungry swordmaster. He’d endure any hardship for the sake of eating something delicious, right?”

“If I am a hungry swordmaster, then Ryo is a gluttonous magician.”

“A gluttonous magician... I already have some pretty nice nicknames, like the Silver Duke and the Icefall, you know... ‘gluttonous’ is a bit... I mean, in other words, that just means a greedy eater, right?”

“Greedy eater Ryo. It suits you perfectly.”

“That is not cool at all...”

Ryo frowned and gave a small shake of his head.

After a while, it was their turn.

“I’m Ryo, a C-rank adventurer.”

Saying that, Ryo held out his Adventurer Guild card.

“An adventurer? Not a merchant?”

While taking the guild card, the man who seemed to be the guard captain asked suspiciously, glancing at the line of <Dollies>.

“This is food for ourselves and the horses. Does being an adventurer mean we cannot do business or something?”

“No, anyone can do business. As long as you can prove your identity, there’s no problem even if you’re an adventurer.”

After answering Ryo’s question, the captain carefully examined the guild card.

“Knightley Kingdom? Affiliated with Rune?”

“Yes. Um, is there a problem?”

“No, when you say Knightley, that’s a western great power, right? And its affiliated adventurer is all the way out here in the eastern fringes?”

“Yes, there were various reasons... We’re on our way back to the kingdom now.”

“Hm.”

The captain looked Ryo over from head to toe.

Ryo was wearing his usual smile.

Yes, the kind of smile Abel called a ‘people charmer’.

After looking at Ryo, the captain shifted his gaze sideways.

To the man standing just behind Ryo at an angle...

“And that man?”

“I’m the baggage carrier for the C-rank adventurer Ryo.”

“Huh?”

At Abel’s answer, the captain replied in a bewildered voice.

“...A baggage carrier?”

“Yes, a baggage carrier.”

Abel repeated the same answer to the captain’s second question.

It was not unusual for adventurers to form a party with a baggage carrier.

In fact, for solo adventurers, it could be said to be common.

They would have a baggage carrier transport things like the meat of monsters they had exterminated.

However, the man before them did not have the presence of an ordinary baggage carrier.

Even so, since the employer, the adventurer, had shown his guild card and was taking full responsibility for the baggage carrier, the guards could not act unreasonably.

“Well, fine. You understand that the adventurer who hired the baggage carrier bears full responsibility for the baggage carrier’s actions, correct? If anything happens, C-rank adventurer Ryo, you are responsible.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Then you may pass. Welcome to Zaarash Fortress.”

And so, the two men and two horses entered Zaarash Fortress.

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