Chapter 95.1: Campground

◆Black Haired Sage; Chiyuki

I was riding on the gryphon's back, looking at the warriors preparing the campground below me.

Though it was still too early to make the camping preparations, we might not make it in time if we didn't prepare our camp right now.

The camping ground was a place that used to be a country.

If the country still existed now, there might be around 500 citizens living in the country, but it was already gone.

The reason why the country got destroyed remained a mystery.

But, the crumbled ramparts that had already lost the people it was supposed to protect were filled with decay all over the place over long years of being exposed to nature. Though this was indeed a perfect campground.

The problem was the fact that it was too narrow to accommodate all the warriors.

Seeing that there was not enough space, most warriors decided to camp outside the ramparts.

But then, they didn't seem to be discontent about this situation.

Was it because most of them were used to staying outside of the ramparts?

I could see naked warriors laughing with each other.

Many of them weren't even wearing decent equipment.

Well, that might be a normal situation for them since many of Thors' warriors were used to not wearing proper clothes.

They, who were hailed as berserkers, had a creed to not wearing protectors.

Well not that I'm gonna object to their creed, but they should at least wear underwear.

That's why I had trouble with where to look at.

Rino and Nao were laughing upon seeing me in such a state.

How could they be so calm about this?

I mean, not even Shirone was perturbed by the such spectacle.

According to her, theirs were rather cute.

The moment I heard that my imagination went wild and imagined that she must've seen something far more terrifying in the past, but then again, I was too afraid to ask.

Besides, Shirone wasn't here right now.

She went ahead and flew towards the Algore Kingdom, the closest place to this camping site. Naturally, she didn't leave before telling us that she wouldn't enter Nargol.

Well, she might return by tomorrow.

「Reiji-san, I think it's about the time for us to land. I'm quite tired.」

Rino, who rode on hippogriff along with Nao, said so to Reiji.

Rino's endurance was quite low, thus she quickly got tired even just by riding a hippogriff.

「Okay, Rino. Let's get down and get some rest, Chiyuki.」

Reiji was smiling as he spoke to me.

「Understood. Let's descend first, I have something to ask to General Portos about our arrangements.」

After Reiji, who rode on a pegasus, nodded to me, we decided to land on the plaza of this country.

「The smell is so nice. It seems they prepared a more sumptuous feast than usual.」

That was the first thing that Nao said after descending from our mount.

She was drooling. I pointed it out to her quickly.

The camp builders who had finished building the camp were now preparing dinner.

Camp builders weren't warriors; they were camp specialists employed by the Velos Kingdom.

Their main job was transporting goods, making meals, and taking care of us.

I saw one of them taking out salted meat from a wooden box.

This world also had the same preserved food as ours. Things like pickling in salt or simply drying.

But different from our world, many use magic instead of machines to create preserved food.

In this regard, this world's preserved food was far superior compared to our world since there was no drop in the quality of the preserved food..

But, since there was only a small number of mages who could use this magic and their meagre amount of mana on top of that, the most they could do is preserve it for three months.

For that reason, the majority of preserved food in this world was made without this magic.

The problem was the fact that the food made without preserving magic tasted really bad. It was really salty amd the hard bread was really hard and tacky so it was literally impossible to eat such bread without dipping it into some sort of soup first.

I tried to eat one of such preserved foods before and gave up due to its unappeatizing nature.

「If it isn't Hero-sama. We've already prepared tent for your group.」

A woman who built the campground approached us and called out to us when she noticed us.

This one was the one in charge of taking care of us.

King Eclas of Velos designated a special caretaker for us.

Different from the camp builder, those who aren't used to journeys were riding in the carriage. Thus, their clothes were neat and tidy.

Moreover, the king even prepared a caretaker for the gryphon and pegasus, a cook, and even prepared a bed for us.

They really went all out to provide hospitality.

It seems Eclas had a high expectations for us to solve this problem.

But, I had no idea whether we could answer his expectations or not.

「Thank you very much.」

The girl's cheeks were dyed red upon seeing Reiji replying with his usual refreshing smile.

Yeah, this development isn't amusing at all.

「Well then, I've to go to General Portos for the regular report.」

「Yeah, I'll leave that matter to you, Chiyuki.」

I, who didn't want to show my sulking face to this d*ckhead, decided to head to General Portos' tent first.

Well then, where can I find him I wonder?

When I was looking for the camp builder in the open space, I saw a pair walking toward me.

「Eh? If it isn't Remus-kun? What are you doing here?」

The one who approached me were Remus and Charis of Red Bear mercenary.

「Black-Haired Sage-sama, we're in the middle of distributing meal. I mean, we have to confirm that no one is stealing others' meal, and Charis came along to help me.」

Thus, the girl in bikini armor beside him nodded to me.

「I see, that's a serious matter indeed. But, I guess it's okay if it's being taken care of by you,Remus-kun.You're more suited for a desk job after all.」

「No way...」

Remus' face flushed red as I praised him.

Well, he must've had quite a hard time due to his fairly handsome visage.

I got to know Remus during this march.

I mean, being a member of a muscle-headed group of mercenaries who could read, write and calculate was already rare, not to mention his unique features that made it hard to forget about him.

I mean, managing a group of muscle-heads was a truly tough job.

I got this feeling that the one who truly supported the Red Bear Mercenary group was actually him.

Unfortunately, he was too frail to be a warrior.

Though I couldn't see his upper-half since he wore clothes-something that Thors' warriors would never do- he was clearly lacking mucle.

I came to worry about his safety as the only normal human amongst the group of almost-naked-muscle-brains.

Nevertheless, the person himself didn't seem to have any intention to quit the mercenary group. And the reason for that might be the girl beside him, Charis.

I mean, Charis was an adorable girl.

Her tanned skin gave her this healthy vibe.

In addition, Charis was the warrior of the war goddess, Amazona.

Thanks to Beast's Inspiration she was really powerful despite her slender figure.

And no male warrior of her age could match her.

And despite losing against Shirone, I knew that she was really skillful warrior.

And that said Charis seems to be put in bad mood upon seeing Remus blushing from hearing my praise.

Quite a charming smile she got there.

「That aside, where are you going to go, Sage-sama?」

「Uhm, I'm in the middle of looking for General Portos' location. Do you happen to know his whereabouts, Remus-kun?」

「Ah, you should be able to find him right beyond this point.」

Remus was pointing at a certain direction as he spoke.

「I see, thanks. Now this third wheel is going to leave.」

The two couldn't hide their shock the moment I said so.

And then, their faces rapidly turned red like boiled octopus.

It was truly an envious relationship.

That's why, let's get away from them as fast as possible.

Thus, I left the two.

I followed the direction pointed out by Remus and found the tent immediately.

Reason being, there were so many soldiers around which made it different from the freedom fighters' area.

General Portos' tent was made in order to compensate for the broken ramparts.

General Portos himself was staying outside the ramparts while the area behind his tent was used by non-combatants such as the camp builders who came with us.

General Portos brought around fifty or sixty soldiers with him.

It seems they were staying outside of the rampart too.

I was guided to General Portos' place by a soldier who I asked about the General's whereabout.

His tent was much more splendid than the other tents around.

When I entered the tent, General Portos and the others had already gathered.

「If it isn't Black-Haired Sage-dono. Just when I was wondering about you. Come here please. We've been waiting for you.」

The plump man donned in splendid armor told me to come inside.

This plump man was the one who led this army, General Portos.

Though he seems to be a knight from a prestigious noble of Velos, his appearance suggested otherwise.

I mean, he looked like your normal, plump, middle-aged uncle which you could find everywhere instead of a general once he took off his armors.

I mean, I doubt he could even ride a horse with such a plump figure.

「Ma~n, we really owe much gratitude to Hero-sama and co for making it possible for us to arrive this far.」

The people who were gathered in this place nodded along with Portos' statement.

「Your Excellency is right. In some way, those fellas who can't protect order are worse than goblins who raid at night. The red bear mercenaries led by Arcas-dono are better than most though.」

The old man beside Portos added such remark.

The name of this old man with sharp glint in his eyes were Hornes.

He was the leader of the Velos' freedom fighter association.

Velos kingdom's freedom fighter association was different from Teseshia city's freedom fighter association, You couldn't join the organization unless you're Velos Kingdom's citizen.

Velos' freedom fighters were also participating in this mission and they were led by Honess.

And the one referred as "those fellas" by Honess were the freedom fighter from outside of Velos.

In fact, the freedom fighters who participated in this campaign were divided into two groups.

The freedom fighters who had citizenship, and the ones who didn't.

And majority of the warriors belong to the latter.

Though the former received proper training could protect the order, the majority of the latter type couldn't do the same.

Well, since they lived a life in which they had no idea when they would die, they live without care about tomorrow.

As soon as they got their payment, they would use it to buy booze or women. They had no savings at all.

If there was something that they wanted to have, they rather stole it.