17-2
Conquering the Wasteland of the
Farthest End
Translator : PolterGlast
The next day, we
proceeded west in the Aureus
family's carriage.
「W-Wait,
wait, wait! After all, something's strange, right!? What's going on!?」
「It's
the usual.」
「Umu,
I've gotten used to it too. It's the usual.」
The coachman and the
knight Aureus were, naturally, suspicious of the carriage advancing at
double the rapid speed. But this is just how it is.
「No, by
'the usual', what kind of daily lives are you guys living!?」
「Hmm...
It's surely Zirant-sama's divine protection. Zirant-sama is cute
like a singer in the Imperial Capital, but actually, she's a great god.」
Within my mind, Zirant
raised a happy laugh. It seems being treated on the same level as a singer was
a compliment to the self-proclaimed Evil Dragon.
「No, I
don't get the meaning! This is incomprehensible to Ore-chan! No, no, no,
no, no matter how you look at it, this is too fast, right!?」
「Yeah,
roughly double the speed, I suppose.」
There is something I
noticed after traveling together. This man named Aureus, somehow I can't
hate him. He's cheerful, caring, and easy to interact with.
「What
should we do, Aureus-sama...?」
「What
do you mean, what should we do... We have no choice but to keep going like
this... Ah damn, it stands out so damn much, damn it... Hahahahaha, but you
know, it feels pretty good, damn it!」
There was a thrill
to the carriage rushing about at double speed. The middle-aged knight, having
opened up, finally raised a laugh and—
「Well,
if it's the usual, it can't be helped...」
Threw common sense
away. Me aside, it's a journey with Sigrun. Common sense has no value.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆
Thus, right before
noon on the second day, we reached the Wasteland of the Farthest End. It is a
barren land where hardly any plants or trees grow. A withered, lonely earth
welcomed us.
「Aureus-sama,
please be safe...」
「Yeah,
thanks for bringing us this far. You be careful on the way back too.」
Proceeding further
through the lonely earth, it was around the time the sun rose due south. The
wasteland turned into a white desert area. Since the wheels would be swallowed
by the sand and couldn't advance any further, we sent the coachman and the
carriage back, and decided to proceed through the desert just by ourselves.
We advanced across
the dry sand earth. The climate was mild, but the deep sand robbed us of our
footing. The meaning behind why those middle-aged adventurers said they
couldn't keep up, I finally understood it now...
「Heeh...
So that bastard died.」
The topic shifted to
the incident with the knight Codwall.
「Umu,
it seems divine punishment fell upon him!」
「Ore-chan
was also approached by him with investment talks, but before it even smelled
fishy... It's sad, but there's no surplus money in our territory... That was my
only interaction with him. However, why did that guy die?」
「That's
the interesting part! One day, when he checked his storehouse... it was empty!
Every single piece of his personal wealth, uprooted!」
「Uwa,
scary... Thieves?」
「Not
thieves, chivalrous thieves! The money that the bad guy earned through bad
methods was snatched away by righteous chivalrous thieves!」
「Heeh...
That's quite something. To put it mildly, that guy was a piece of shit, so it
serves him right.」
It's somehow uncomfortable...
Sigrun and Kachua were praising our crime. I certainly thought
divine punishment should fall upon him, but that end was too miserable. That
was probably because Yord was that crazy, affected by the magic sword he
received from the Abyss Demon Noble, but...
「No,
seriously, he was an unlikable guy... He was looking at the young folks in the
Knight Order with weird eyes too, well, never mind that... Hey, ain't there any
more interesting stories from the Imperial Capital?」
「Umu,
leave it to me! Let's see... Tell him the story of Erin Port, Kachua!」
「That's
leaving everything entirely to others!」
Suddenly, I became
worried about the condition of that boy knight. Even if his body recovers,
after receiving such abuse, the mental scars will remain. Will he be alright?
『Shinza,
look ahead, enemies. The remnants that settled in the Wasteland of the Farthest
End have appeared; warn them.』
So you're
deliberately going out of your way to let me take the credit, huh. It feels
calculated, but now isn't the time to be complaining about it.
「It
seems enemies have appeared; we intercept.」
「Heeh...
Oh, it's true, they've come.」
「Fuhaha,
this is it, this! It really makes me feel like I've returned!」
「Such a
hometown, I (Atashi) don't want it...」
When swords, bows,
and Shovels were drawn and emitted light, the monsters of the Farthest
End stopped hiding and revealed themselves. Bizarre wild monkeys affected by
the Abyss, boars with three horns, and somethings resembling humans. The bodies
of all of them were darkened, and every single one of them had an abnormal
growth, with one extra or one less body part.
「Guard Kachua for me.」
「Got
it, bro! Wait, you guys are charging in!?」
「Yeah...
Because those two are that kind of people...」
Kachua,
please stop putting me in the same category as Sigrun. Sigrun
took the right wing, I took the left wing, and we charged into the enemies in
front of us. Instantly, the Valkyrie rampaged, and I could see the limbs of the
monsters being blown away.
「Uwa...
Ain't she stronger than Prince Georg...?」
Furthermore, Kachua's
peerlessly accurate bow shot out the monsters' eyeballs and pierced their
hearts. Against opponents not equipped with armor, it truly is a bow of death.
「Wait,
the little miss too, what the hell is that!? It's beyond the level of just
being good!?」
I was struggling to
choose a tactic at first. These guys aren't my specialty opponents either. Just
beating them down with brute force lacks finesse after all. So I thought about
it. I will become an antlion pit myself here.
「What
are these guys... They're the strongest, ain't they. Alrighty, Ore has
to show my good side to
bro too!」
It seems things are
fine on Kachua's side. The bizarre monsters were increasing in number,
but Aureus was reliably fulfilling his role as a guard. Normally, they
are opponents you can't defeat one-on-one. Sigrun, surrounded by such
folks, was hunting the enemies one after another, laughing and overcome with
nostalgia.
「Nn, I
don't see Shinza. Nn... Wh-what the hell is that?!!」
「Umu,
this is also the usual!」
「Uwawa,
the sand is swallowing the enemies!?」
Driven by rivalry, I
also rampaged. Activating the 30x power of the Shovel, I simply dug the
sand under my feet. Sand flows downwards. Aiming for the bait that is me, the
bizarre monsters swarmed, but one after another they lost their footing and
fell down towards me. Intercepting them according to the situation, once I had
gathered enough of the bizarre creatures, all that was left was to bury them. I
buried them one after another. With this, the clean sweep is complete.
「Are
you done over there too?」
「Umu...
To think you'd bury them all together... Shinza, right now, my heart is
throbbing for you, I can't help it!!」
「No,
the point where your heart throbs is kinda weird, Sigrun-sama!?」
When I finished my
job, the mopping up of the remaining folks was also finished. According to Sigrun's
explanation, the furthest end beyond this Farthest End of the world is
connected to that Abyss. Therefore, living creatures affected by it inhabit
this place in countless numbers like this.
「I
see... A man who smashes through logic and causes miracles... Worth betting on,
ain't he...」
We proceeded, aiming
for the further Farthest End. To settle down next to such an Abyss, what kind
of eccentrics are the people of Sigrun's hometown?
◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇
Along the way,
around the time the red sun was setting, we were hit by a sandstorm.
「This
is bad, let's hide behind the shadow of that sand dune! Uhyah, out of luck!」
「No,
wait a little.」
So I decided to make
a kamakura (snow hut) out of the desert sand. Normally it wouldn't harden, but
by compressing the dry sand with all my might, I created a dome-shaped space
with sufficient room. We somehow made it in time for the sandstorm. We
evacuated inside, and since it was already late that day, we decided to spend
the night there.
「With
this power, you see, Shinza protected Corin Village from the
Goblin army. Jumping out of the fort all by himself, becoming a decoy, drawing
the leader Hobgoblin, and defeating it!」
Kachua
happily showed off the incident at Corin Village with this. I was young
back then...
「With
that power, if he feels like it, he could build even a castle overnight... This
is also amazing, I'd want one bro per household. As a military man, I feel
infinite possibilities in bro.」
「Certainly!
If war breaks out, he'd be a cheat-level pawn!」
Even with the scary
noises of the sandstorm rampaging, with these cheerful people around, there was
no anxiety. Eventually, as the sun set, the storm calmed down, and since it was
a little cold, I slept using Kachua as a hot water bottle for the first
time in a while.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆
When the morning sun
rose and we slipped out of the sand kamakura, we saw a strange thing in the
western distance.
「You're
awake, Shinza! That's it, that right there is my hometown!」
That is apparently
the village of the Horned race living at the Farthest End. Only around the
village is there absolutely no dust floating. Unnaturally pure, a beautiful
world surrounded by trees in the middle of the desert was there.
「That's
the village that birthed you? A convincing level of absurdity.」
「Wahahaha,
this personality of mine is innate! It seems I've been like this since I was
three!」
「I
see... My sympathies to your parents then...」
「I have
neither mother nor father. I am an orphan!」
Sigrun's upbringing was casually harsh, but there wasn't a speck of seriousness. Since she was three, this personality... there's probably no mistake about it...
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