“It’s so tasty…”
Says Richard, and Sete and the other knights all nod. And of course, so does Hikari.
We’re eating bread and cream stew for dinner. The knights are all soaking the bread in the stew because they saw Hikari do it.
Afterwards, we chat with our stomachs full.
“I see. So you’re traveling while looking for someone?”
“I’m only helping.”
“But an elf… Sorry, but I haven’t heard of her. But I do know that slaves were protected and taken to Altair. Some stayed there because of their circumstances, so there’s a chance the one you’re looking for is there.”
When I ask more about how that worked, he tells me the slaves’ backgrounds and history were concealed to take them to Altair, so they don’t know exactly who’s there.
He says he’s had the opportunity to interact with a few of them due to his job, but they were always coming and going, so it’s hard to get a good grasp on everyone. And if an elf was taken there when he was off duty, he wouldn’t have heard about it.
“Are you sure it’s all right to tell me this?”
“All the knights know about this, even if we don’t talk about it very much.”
I think the good food has loosened his tongue, but is that really not a problem?
“So that’s why you want to go to Altair… But you really do need the permission of the feudal lord to go there.”
Says Richard, and the knights sitting around the fire nod.
“Still, slaves… You’re traveling around with girls, but wouldn’t it be better to go around with stronger men? I mean, I’m a guy too, so it’s not like I don’t get it.”
Says Sete, and the younger knights raise their voices too.
“There’s deeper circumstances behind it. And one of them is ready to be freed, and we just need to take care of some formalities.”
We’ve been in such a hurry, that we forgot that Sera is ready to be freed from being a combat slave.
“Really? Then you should do that soon. Slaves draw attention, and I’m sure it’s not pleasant for her either.”
“That’s true.”
Richard is right. It’s not like Sera is a slave because she likes it. We need to talk about this as soon as we get back. That was my bad for not taking care of it sooner.
We keep talking, but when Hikari looks like she’s dozing off, we decide to go to sleep.
The knights are going to take turns keeping watch, and I’m going to sleep in the wagon with Hikari. I’m glad that I get to take it easy, but I’ll use Parallel Thinking to stay alert anyway.
And by using Parallel Thinking, I can also use Space-Time Magic while I sleep and increase its proficiency.
“Good night, master.”
Says Hikari as she lies right next to me.
She’s not clinging to me, at least for now. Is that a sign of growth? It feels a bit lonely, but let’s not tell her that.
I use Map and Presence Detection before going to sleep, and don’t see anything other than the knights and horses.
They say the place where the bandits are supposed to be is two days from here.
◇ ◇ ◇
Two days go by, and we reach our destination. We’re going to camp here for today and see what things are like here.
If they’re here and come to attack us, we just have to beat them back. But if that doesn’t happen, we have to go to the mountain where they’re supposedly living.
We want to avoid going there, because we’re disguised as traveling merchants and it’ll definitely look suspicious if we head to the mountain.
As for disguising ourselves as adventurers, there’s really nothing of value around this area, so no adventurers go out of their way to go to the mountains.
It’s precisely because almost no one goes there that the bandits made it their nest.
“So?”
“No good. We can’t really tell from here.”
The knights’ answer to Richard’s question is simple, but it can’t be helped.
The mountain is too far to be seen with the naked eye, and if they are hiding there, it won’t be in a place that’s easy to spot.
And even if I expand Map, it still doesn’t show me any bandits.
“What if we don’t find any bandits?”
What happens to this quest if we don’t take down the bandits?
I actually thought it would be easier to find them, but in reality, if I approach the mountain to use Map, they’re going to get suspicious.
Not to mention that the whole reason why the knights are disguised as merchants is so the bandits come to us and we don’t have to go to their territory.
“We’ll stay here for a few days, pretending that one of the wagons is broken, and if they still don’t come, we could do a little scouting around the mountain. And if we still don’t find them… We’ll just have to go back and report that we couldn’t find the bandits.”
The knights all think that it’s too dangerous to raid the mountain with so few people, mostly because we don’t know exactly how many bandits there are.
They aren’t here to defeat the bandits no matter what, and I have to follow along with that.
I want to believe the feudal lord will understand if we tell him that, even if we end up not taking the bandits down.
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Thx for chapter I don’t think sera will want to stop being his slave a nd break that connection. Also wasn’t it mentioned before that even if he wanted to free her they would have to pay her cost, there is no way they got that
Pay to whom? MC already paid 500 gold for her to slave trader. Sera need to pay to MC to be freed.
Yeah this was mentioned after the 2 reunite they mention the difficulty with freeing her, he can’t just say ah she’s not my slave any more be free. He would need to be fairly compensated I think that is why those 2 girls were primarily dungeon diving with mc team but no way they got enough for her cost
MC mentioned that between the two girls and himself they already have enough (half the price he paid for her) in order to free her. Why they haven’t done so is because the author likes slavery, I guess.
Thanks for the treat.