July 3rd, 4:00 p.m.
We departed from Kilnarc and
arrived at the village of Bowden without incident.
The village of Bowden was a
small village with a population of about 300, surrounded by a three-meter-high
wooden fence. However, the wooden fence was damaged in some places and did not
do much to prevent monsters from entering the village.
There are about ten inns in
the village, as it is an inn on the Ars Road, a major highway, but they do not
appear to be very affluent. This may be due to the fact that there are many old
people and few children and young people walking around the village, and that
the old people have tired and resigned expressions on their faces.
I asked Guy about this.
“I heard that monsters often
haunt this area, so they can’t expand their fields. I also heard that if it
wasn’t worthwhile as an inn-centered village, it would have been abandoned long
ago. …So, I guess young people who don’t see any hope for a better life in
the village have left.” (Guy)
I wondered why they weren’t
hunting monsters.
“Why don’t they hunt monsters as
we do in our village? Besides, I’m sure they could hire mercenaries here.
…Why don’t they do that?” (Zack)
Guy shook his head and
explained that Rathmore Village was the exception.
“Rathmore Village is special.
Without strong people like the former lord and Walt, there is no way we can
stand up to the monsters. Even if we hire mercenaries, they are not attached to
the village and will only do the work they are paid for…” (Guy)
Without a powerful commander
like my grandfather, and without good soldiers at the core like our squires,
even a bunch of ordinary villagers would be no match at all for a slightly
stronger monster, say an orc.
I heard that even Rathmore Village
had quite a difficult time at first, so it would be impossible for a village patrol
group to stand up to the monsters.
A larger village would
probably have a branch of the Adventurer’s Guild, but since this is such a
small village, there is no branch here. The guild probably sends out constant
requests to subjugate monsters, but the distance from both Kilnarc in the south
and Thornbrough in the north, where the guild has a branch, keep adventurers
away from the village.
Requests to hunt strong monsters
is an extremely dangerous work, and the rewards are high, but for the weaker monsters,
the rewards are lower. For this reason, few adventurers bother to come to this
village, which is far from the town. If the village were affluent, they could
probably add to the rewards, but this small village does not have the capacity
to always add to the rewards.
The villagers, too, believe
that since the merchants come to the village regularly and that as long as they
are escorted by mercenaries, their safety is assured inside the village. If
this is the case, they may have concluded that it is enough to do business with
the merchants without expanding the village forcefully.
However, with such a small
village, they have their hands full just producing their own food. Therefore,
food for the merchant caravan would have to be bought from outside. Naturally,
the cost of the food is added to the cost of the inn, but the money does not
flow back to the village farmers. In the village as a whole, the inns do not
generate surplus profit, and the village does not develop in the end.
(If it were a fortified city
like Kilnarc, there would be a little more room for development, but as it is
now, the merchants are just keeping the village alive. Moreover, in this
village where information is coming in from the outside, young people don’t see
a future here and are abandoning it. Maybe they could have managed if the
village had a lord, but in a village without a leader, they are just trying to
live day by day. I guess they think they have to do something, but they don’t
have the leeway to do anything concrete. …When you think about it, our
Rathmore Village is a blessed village…) (Zack)
With these thoughts in mind,
we proceeded through the village.
The village itself is about
500 meters square, and the inns are clustered in the center of the village.
The wagons headed east from
the inn. There was a square of about 100m square, or rather a grassy field,
where the wagons were supposed to be parked.
After parting with Norton and
the other merchants, the four of us went to look for an inn.
The inns were all old
two-story wooden buildings, and we had no idea which one was the best. Guy said
he rarely came to this area, so we were at a loss.
While we were struggling,
Byron, the captain of the escort team, approached us and said,
“If you haven’t decided on a
place to stay, why don’t you stay with us? They don’t have a lot of rooms, but
it’s one of the better ones.” (Byron)
I signaled that I would leave
it to Guy with his eyes. He answered for me.
“I’ll leave it to Byron.
Two rooms for two people, please.” (Guy)
Byron nodded and led the way.
He stops in front of an inn
and points, “Here it is.” He is right, the building and gardens are relatively
well kept, and it looks the nicest in the village.
This impression was not
changed when I went inside, and I was a little relieved to find a clean-looking
room.
(I wondered what I would do if
the beds were crawling with mites and lice, but this would be fine. Just the
fact that he introduced us to this inn made it worth the trouble I went through
with Byron.) (Zack)
After deciding to leave the
village, I asked around to Liddy, Guy, Hector, and other seasoned travelers.
Among their stories, many complaints about the inn, especially about pests,
were the worst.
When I lived in Japan, I was
in an apartment in the city, so there were no pests like mites. Bedding was
dried in the sun rather frequently, and pest control chemicals were sprayed
regularly.
In Rathmore Village, too,
there was plenty of nature around, but thanks to the cleanliness of the
servants, we were free from lice and fleas.
So I decided to see if I could
work some pest control magic.
The first thing I thought of
was a chemical spray insecticide.
It was something like Ba*san,
but I couldn’t think of an insecticidal ingredient, so I gave up on the idea.
The next idea was a warm-air
futon dryer. The idea was to use the Wind and Fire Attribute Magic to create
warm air.
It was completed, but since it
was a compound magic, it was near impossible to create a chant, and the MP
consumption was unnecessarily high. As I was about to give up, I happened to
see Liddy and she came up with a simple solution.
In other words, if I did it
alone, it would be compound magic, but if the two of us worked together, it
would be basic magic. To achieve this, I raised the temperature of the air and
asked her to move the wind.
This way, both of us have
spells for that. I can use pseudo-Peltier effect spell, so temperature control
is easy and MP consumption is low. Wind does not need to create a strong gust,
so Liddy’s workload is also reduced.
The two of us had practiced
many times and perfected the warm-air pest control spell.
Just to be sure, I used the
magic again today, but I am not sure if it killed the mites.
If I didn’t feel itchy
tomorrow morning, I would consider it a success.
Since we had some time before
dinner, we decided to practice swordsmanship with Guy in a nearby clearing.
Sharon also learns
swordsmanship for self-defense with Liddy, and the four of us work up a sweat.
As expected, just practicing
was a bit boring, so we began a sparring match using a nearby wooden stick as a
wooden sword.
My opponent Guy, unlike my grandfather
and Nicholas, Guy’s swordsmanship was self-taught and focused on speed. He
moves in small increments from side to side and takes advantage of a gap to aim
at vital points such as the neck, wrists, and knees. Since becoming a squire,
he has been learning swordsmanship from Grandfather, so his swordsmanship,
although self-styled, is quite developed.
My swordsmanship, on the other
hand, is the orthodox style that I learned from my grandfather. However, I have
made some modifications to it.
The biggest change is that I
have combined the enhancement of muscle power and reflexes under [Magical Combat].
Magical Combat is a technique
that channels magic power into the body and temporarily raises physical
abilities, but it is difficult to use.
It consumes a large amount of
magic power and cannot be used constantly. It is preferable to use it
instantaneously, like what I did with Byron, but when swords are clashing, the
fighters must concentrate on the fight, and there is almost no time to channel
magic power into the body.
Therefore, I train myself to
use my Magical Combat skills instantaneously when I am at a distance.
If I used it too much, my muscles
ache terribly. In some cases, I may even suffer from fractures. Muscle pain and
fractures can both be treated with Recovery Magic, but I become useless if
fractures occur at the critical moment. So, I am careful not to put too much
strain on my body and always train with an awareness on optimal magical
control.
Recently, I have become quite
adept at performing movements similar to the [Shukuchi], which I used on Byron,
as well as acrobatic movements like those of a top gymnast. For me, this is a
technique that can be a trump card along with magic.
While Guy and I were having a
mock battle, the mercenaries had gathered without our knowledge.
I wondered if Byron and the
others were going to train, so I asked them if we need to leave if we were in
the way.
Byron gave a small shake of
his head and then came over to me, bowing his head and saying, “Will you spar
with me?”