14-14. Bolhart (1)
Satou's here. Meeting a friend in an unexpected place makes for a lively conversation. There were even times when the day ended before you realized it even though you met at noon.
◇
"What a wonderful scenery."
"Yes, this must be the famous great river of Oyugock Dukedom."
Princess Shistina replied to Zena.
Our small airship is currently going upstream in the sky above the great river.
The other girls are also enjoying the scenery from the viewing deck.
This place is protected with [Canopy] magic, it's a safe design that won't even let their skirts flipped by the wind.
"Nice view~?"
"Tama, that place is dangerous nodesu!"
"It's awright~"
While that may be so, Tama, doing a daunting pose on top of the thin railing is a bit.
"Master, it's a flock of migratory birds so I report."
"Nn, flamingos."
Nana and Mia are pointing to a flock of fatty pink colored birds that are crossing the large river.
They're a bit different than the flamingos I know, but they're probably the flamingos here.
Arisa who was looking at the spectacle listlessly suddenly looks taken aback and then she swings her arms.
"Those who are free, look to the port side!"
"Arisa? That's the starboard you know?"
Lulu corrected Arisa's mistake.
Looking at Arisa's awkward expression and her theatrical tone, it must have been some kind of parody.
"Master, I caught two birds for now, I wonder if they're delicious roasted whole?"
There are two flamingos with wired harpoons on Liza's arms.
--Liza, too quick.
"If I'm not mistaken, it tastes like chicken, should we barbecue it?"
"Yes! Once I've drained the blood, I'll strip off the beautiful feathers."
"Yeah, I'm counting on you."
I've eaten some flamingo in a trip abroad back then, but I never thought that I would get to eat it in another world too.
We arrived at the grapevine mountains in the evening of the day.
There was still some time until the ships cruising the large river stopped coming, so we went to the herd of Sky Deers in the neighboring summit to kill time.
"Prey~?"
"Pochi will catch them this time nodesu!"
"You can't."
"Pochi can't nanodesu?"
"Yup, you can't."
The beastkin girls wanted to hunt the sky deers, but since I had a little debt with the Sky Deers, I told them not to.
The slightly downhearted Pochi looked cute, but I can't yield here.
Afterward I negotiated with the management of the Phantom Firefly Cavern's service and got the permission to directly cruise in the cavern by half-submerging the airship in the water.
"Oh my! This place is the famous Phantom Firefly Cavern isn't it! Mrs. Litmaiya boasted about it when she got married."
"Hee, that stiff principal did huh~"
While the princess who came here for the first time and Arisa were conversing about a common acquaintance, they look around the Phantom Firefly Cavern.
Zena-san who also saw the cavern for the first time looked at the ceiling too much, she lost her balance and fell back.
"Kya"
"Are you alright?"
"Y-yes! Thank you Satou-san."
Supported by me, Zena-san seems to be embarrassed with her blunder, she looks really bashful.
"Kuh, he naturally raised a flag!"
"Mwu, guilty."
Arisa and Mia muttered something, but everyone was able to thoroughly enjoy the Phantom Firefly Cavern without any trouble.
It's possible to enjoy the time here no matter how many times you come here huh.
◇
After we had done greeting the viceroy of Gururian city, we changed our clothings to commoner clothes and took a walk around the city.
We're split into several groups since it'd be too conspicuous if we were in one large group.
The ones who are with me are Arisa, Lady Karina and Sera.
"Is this gururian? I like ankoromochi more desuwa."
We got some huge adzuki beans after defeating plant-type monsters [Adzuki Shooters] during our leveling in the labyrinth, so there was a time when I made some koshian and ankoromochi.
That reminds me, her face was full of bean jam along with Pochi and Tama wasn't it.
"Y-you're eating it with bare hands?"
"That's right! You don't split them with chopsticks, the right manners to do it is by heartily biting them whole!"
Arisa instills some manners to the bewildered upper-class Sera.
She pushes her face asking for me to wipe the bean jam around her mouth.
Geez, what a hopeless girl.
"I did this to service Master."
....Don't lie.
I stopped Sera who looked like she was going to follow Arisa's nonsense, and wiped Lady Karina who was too late to be stopped.
For some reason, Sera who should be spotless looked vexed. It's a mystery.
"Ah! Noble onii-chan!"
A little girl who was cleaning a hardware store found me and then happily ran to me.
....Who is she again?
"Look, she was one of the girls who rode in our carriage when we came to the city back then."
I recalled her with Arisa's help.
Ah, come to think of it, we did let a pair of villager sisters who were looking for employment to ride in our carriage.
"Is your big sister healthy?"
"Un, she is!"
The little girl's line of sight was locked on to the gururian that I was eating, so I let her eat it.
She's in the middle of her work, but a mouthful should be fine.
"Yummyy!"
I intended to only give her a mouthful, but since it looked like she was even going to eat my hand, I gave her the whole gururian.
"Now then, Master, your hand please."
I pinned and stopped Arisa who was going to lick the remaining red bean paste on my hand.
Sera presented a handkerchief, but I used life magic [Soft Wash] to clean the paste instead of dirtying the handkerchief.
The little girl and Arisa said, "What a waste!"
The two must have different meanings of that.
An acquaintance showed up from the hardware shop that the girl was working at.
It's Galhar-shi, the dwarf magic shop manager who helped me in defeating the [Golden Wild Boar King], I'm greatly indebted to him.
The big sister villager girl came out from behind him, but I'll leave it Arisa to talk with her.
I lightly put up my hand to respond the villager girl big sister who bowed her head.
"It's been awhile Galhar-san."
"If it isn't Satou-dono!"
Galhar-shi firmly shakes my hand for the reunion.
Thinking it was strange that he came out of a hardware store instead of a magic shop, I asked him about it.
"The shopkeeper here has a hobby y'see. I came here to challenge him in an 『Arithmetic Game』. I couldn't do it at all when Driar-shi became a mayor, but he, Jojori and I learned 『Advanced Arithmetic』 under Driar-shi you see."
Galhar-shi had a faraway look toward the sky while saying, "It was fun."
I asked him about his plan after this, it seemed that he's going to take a carriage to Bolhart city by the request of a merchant friend.
"I plan to go to Bolhart city too, would you like to go together?"
"Is it alright? Then maybe I should take the ride."
Since he readily consented like that, it was decided that we were to go together but--.
"Eh? Airship? Personal airships, aren't those only the Boruenan Light Ships? Eh? Is it because of Misanalia-sama?"
--And so he was panicking for the first half of the trip.
I feel like I somehow did a bad thing.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah sorry for troubling you...."
After drinking a jug of ale, he changed back to his dandy calm state.
"S-so, are you going to Teacher's forge in Bolhart city?"
"Yes, there's that too.... I've got my hands on some God Metal (Orichalcon), so I plan to present them to Dohar-shi."
"God Metal (Orichalcon)? The one manufactured by High Elves-sama?"
I wonder if it's known as something High Elves created?
Even without High Elves, you can manufacture them as long as you have some philosopher's stone and high level skills.
In fact, I can manufacture them just fine.
"No, I got it from a little connection of mine."
"Beautiful.... So this is God Metal (Orichalcon). The ultimate metal used to create sacred treasures."
I showed him an Orichalcon Ingot while saying so, and then Galhar-shi muttered alone like he was thinking hard.
"If we have this, then teacher will surely....Jojori...."