Chapter 53: Chapter 53: Sudden Rainstorm
A lion’s body, speaks the Common Language... and swears like a sailor.
Ron had a nagging feeling he must have seen it in some work from his past life, but he couldn’t remember clearly.
"In any case, you should all come rest at our trading post for a bit. We need to go back and recuperate as well. Then we can go check the location you mentioned. We might even be able to find your cargo."
Since he didn’t have any immediate leads, and everyone was in poor condition, Ron could only suggest Sulina and her companions return to the trading post to rest and wait until tomorrow.
"Alright. Our horses have probably all been eaten anyway, and it’s not like we have anywhere else to go," Sulina said, left with no other choice.
"But please, you must clear a safe passage through the Delusional Land as soon as possible. If—if you can really pull it off, countless merchants and guilds will be willing to pay a high price for the right of way!"
The bandits in the Gobi Desert are at least somewhat reasonable. Most of the time, you can just pay them off to avoid disaster. You might even be able to hire one of the gangs as bodyguards to ensure your caravan passes safely. But the monsters here in the Delusional Land don’t quite agree with that sort of transaction.
If Ron and his party could truly accomplish this feat, all those towns that preyed on timid traveling merchants could kiss their business goodbye.
However, Ron remained noncommittal. They were still just lingering on the outskirts; they knew next to nothing about what sorts of beings existed deeper inside. Very few people had ever emerged alive from the depths of the Delusional Land. What these merchants called "crossing" it was really just skirting along the edges.
...
"Healing Potions, Blazing Fire Glue, poisons..." Once they were back at the trading post, Sulina and her companions settled into their guest rooms while Ron and the others got busy. He asked Lavinia to help him quickly concoct a batch of portable Alchemy Potions—some for healing, others for combat.
Ron also planned to learn a couple of common spells from Lavinia to be prepared for any surprises.
Victoria, frowning, took a walk around the nearby village built by the locals. When she returned holding a shield cobbled together from scrap wood, her brows furrowed even more deeply.
"This thing would never stop a griffin’s claw, though I’ve only ever heard stories about those creatures."
"I’d be happy to lend you my tower shield, but you probably couldn’t lift it," Aive said without looking up, using some borrowed soap to wash her clothes.
In addition to incantations, Casting sometimes requires coordinated gestures and materials; otherwise, it’s easy for the magic to fail. Therefore, most Casters avoid carrying heavy armor and shields, opting for a light robe like Ron’s.
Even if Victoria could lift the tower shield, her inability to cast magic would leave her as a half-baked Warrior, and her role as a Priest would be completely finished.
"Forget it. I’ll make do with this," Victoria said, pulling out the guest registration form from a few days prior. "I’ll have to make a trip back to Fromm when I get a chance."
As for the other two, there wasn’t much to prepare. For Sera and Delaford, being healthy and well-rested was the best preparation they could ask for.
"Oh, are you all heading out?" Sulina asked the next morning, greeting Ron and the others as they gathered by the door.
Her gaze fell on Victoria’s "shield." The latter clearly noticed the Bronze Dragon Descendant’s stare and turned away, flustered, urging Ron to hurry up and get going.
"You don’t have to be so embarrassed. This is just the normal life of an Adventurer, not like being a city guard, right?" Aive said comfortingly. "When I was at my most desperate, I had to ’borrow’ some farming tools from a field on the roadside to use as weapons for a quest. We’re actually doing pretty well right now."
"But you’re hardly the one to be comforting anyone, are you?" Ron glanced at her. "A certain someone’s gear is probably the most valuable in the whole party, right?"
"You get what you pay for!" Aive retorted, one hand on her hip. "If it weren’t for me, all the loot you’ve scraped together would have been spent on Healing Potions!"
That much was true. In their many battles against overwhelming odds, it was thanks to Aive stubbornly holding the line up front. Otherwise, Victoria and Sera alone would never have been able to maintain their defense.
Ron, the Mage, would have had no ground to stand on at all. At least his spell preparation would have been simple—just max out his Shield Magic.
The constant bickering along the way was one of their party’s regular features. Unfortunately, the heavens did not cooperate. After half a day’s travel, the sky suddenly grew grim. Lightning tore across the overcast expanse, followed by a low rumble of thunder from the distant horizon.
The storm had arrived.
"Ugh! I hate this awful weather!" Sera shook the water from her body, irritated as a cat. "This place is no different from the north! The rain just comes out of nowhere!"
"My clothes are sticking to me!"
"That’s because you’ve never seen the autumn rains—Fromm is too arid," Victoria said, raising her "shield" to block the downpour. "A ceaseless, pitter-pattering drizzle that goes on for months. Now *that’s* annoying."
She despised guard duty during that season. It didn’t matter whether you wore tall boots or short ones, you couldn’t escape it. The moment you got back to the barracks and took them off, the smell was enough to drive everyone out of the room—and it would still be raining outside.
"The weather in Rose City is nice, though. Lots of handsome men and beautiful women use the rain as an excuse for a romantic stroll, and then my family’s tavern makes a killing," Aive said with a grin. "Besides, in that weather, my mom couldn’t wander off—and the stories she tells are just as good as her scones!"
Ron could sense a clear distance from Sera and Victoria. For two people who didn’t come from such happy homes, Aive’s fond memories dealt a critical hit of emotional damage.
"We didn’t have scones to eat back then," Delaford mumbled. "But rainy days are good days! Prey can’t see as well and they’re less active. It’s the best time to hunt!"
Ron didn’t join the conversation. He had spent his childhood in the south and his youth in a northern town before heading south again for his studies, so he had experienced both torrential downpours and endless drizzles. If he had to say, he really disliked the rainy season in autumn and winter—the rooms were freezing, and cleaning lab equipment in the cold was a special kind of hell.
The ultrasonic cleaner in the lab was his favorite thing to use during those times. Though its constant BUZZING was annoying, the water inside was usually not too cold.
"This must be where they were attacked," Aive said, her eyes piercing the curtain of rain as she pointed to a pitted field beside the road.
A carriage lay overturned there, by the side of the road. It looked as if it had been violently torn apart, its broken planks scattered everywhere.
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