It took me about thirty minutes to make it back to the ruins.
I didn’t notice when I was using Transfer, but Shuuza and the others actually ran further than I thought.
And that’s because I kept taking potions until they didn’t work anymore.
“How far did you go? I was worried. Hikari isn’t doing well.”
I follow Rurika’s eyes, and see Hikari holding on to Mia. It feels like her expression is murky too.
When I tell them I went after them using Transfer, they seem a little taken aback, and when I tell them Shuuza exploded himself, they say ‘him too?’.
Apparently when the battle was dying down over here, as soon as they started checking the corpses for any clues, they spontaneously exploded.
Some people got hurt, but Mia and others healed them, so there wasn’t much damage done.
After this, we exchange information, and I’m told by Rizalie that the ruins will be closed off temporarily.
She seems very apologetic, and bows, but we learned everything we wanted anyway, so there’s no problem.
Maybe we could have found something else if we investigated more, but I don’t really think that would happen.
She looks very relieved after seeing we don’t have a problem with that.
She then complains about the researchers, who do have a big problem with that, and leaves. Her expression was kind of scary when she was complaining about them.
“Closed… Maybe that will help the food problem in Nahal a little.”
It looks like Chris is more worried about Nahal than the ruins.
Depending on how exactly they’re closed, I want to believe that too. That might not be so easy if people hear it was attacked and that drums up more interest.
“Well then Miss Rizalie, thank you for everything.”
“N-no, I’m sorry for getting you involved in all that trouble.”
We’re supposed to be thanking her, but she looks humbled instead.
Apparently she fully sees Chris as a VIP. They don’t know Chris is an elf, so it has to be just the pendant.
“What route are we taking? Are we stopping by Nahal first?”
We’re planning to finally head to the demon king’s country, but we need to stop by a town and resupply.
We can ignore the main road and head straight to Margari, but I ask just to check.
“Let’s go to Margari. We… Don’t have to go to Nahal.
Says Chris, and Rurika and Sera nod.
When I ask why, they say that if they stop there again, it’ll be hard to leave.
Not to mention that we can’t restock on food there, so we should just keep moving forward.
Also, the path from the ruins to Margari isn’t a main road, but it’s a grassy field, so there are medicinal herbs to be picked.
“We learned that in the adventurer guild.”
Says Rurika proudly, and the other two look at her with lukewarm expressions.
She doesn’t notice, so let’s leave it at that.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Are you all right, Hikari?”
“…Yes.”
“If you have a problem, don’t hold back.”
Hikari seems to be doing better with each passing day, but she’s still not fully herself. She only eats half of what she normally eats, and always needs to be with someone.
Maybe seeing Shuuza brought back her lost memories. There are times when she suddenly looks anxious too.
I decide to talk about this with the others.
Sera is particularly angry, probably because after hearing Yutaka’s story, she can imagine how Hikari was treated.
Incidentally, I told Rizalie and only her about where Shuuza and the others came from. But I also told her I’m not a hundred percent sure, and she asked me not to tell anyone else.
It’s up to the higher ups in the republic whether to look for evidence or leave it be. I don’t think we need to get involved with it any more.
If Elesya finds out where Chris and Hikari are, we will need to deal with it… Leaving aside whether or not we can, we might have no choice but to do it.
But why did they attack the ruins in the first place? Yutaka talked like he left all sorts of things there, so did they figure there were things there that are inconvenient for them?
Maybe they were after the things found there, like the sort of rare magic items that are found in dungeons.
It’s been eight days since we left the ruins, and we’ve reached one of our stops, Margari.
I put away the golems when we’re still far from the town, and we enter.
One of the good things about crossing through a grassy field was that the golems were active the whole time.
Some of us tried to ride the canine one, but it’s unstable and uncomfortable.
Then we stock up on food in Margari, stay the night, and keep going to the next town, Alconite.
After spending a night there too, we’re almost in the territory of the Borsheil Empire.
There’s no border city between the republic and the empire. We keep following the main road, but there’s no checkpoint or anything either.
At first I think that means we can just come and go freely, but when we reach Alconite, which is near the border, we see watchtowers. There are also a lot of soldiers stationed here.
Apparently the same goes for towns on the side of the empire that are near the border.
That means that the actual border between these countries is an empty wasteland.
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Thanks for the treat.
Wow they certainly made progress a t end of chapter