NOVPUB
Chapter 82: The Tin Knight and The City of Struggle (1)
Even after holding a funeral for the father and daughter, the party couldn’t immediately leave the Garden.
The two horses they had brought with them had neatly ended their lives during the battle against the tree.
Even the famous horses that had achieved the feat of using a booster on the carriage had no way to resist the intense fragrance of the super-fusion warp evolution opium poppy that easily transcended the common sense of the species. The party had no choice but to bid them a solemn farewell.
Naturally, they needed another means to move the luggage that the horses were supposed to carry.
Dorothea suggested, “Even if it’s not a proper carriage, couldn’t we make a simple cart?”
There was wood to use as material scattered around, and there were carriage parts that had surfaced along with the lake bottom rising.
Cutting things was mostly possible using sword energy, and when the Tin Knight slapped with his palm, it was as good as a hammer.
The party immediately set to work.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Crack!
Immediately failed.
“Hey! Tin Can! Can’t you control your strength!?”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says his hand slipped!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ argues that skill proficiency originally increases through repeated failures!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ prides himself that now that he knows the knack, there will be no more failures for him next time!]
“Do you know how many times you’ve said that!? You’ve already broken three wheels! Get out of here!”
The Tin Knight’s crafting ability was at a level that could only be described as disastrous.
That rough-and-ready handiness that had been used to cook camping meals with the meat of beaten-up thieves was fully demonstrated this time as well.
Along with the carriage parts that were somewhat usable, Dorothea’s plan was mercilessly shattered.
Adelaide suggested, “Um, in a novel I read, there was a part where the protagonists tamed forest animals and made them friends. Since this place is vast, wouldn’t there be animals that could substitute for horses?”
The question of whether it wouldn’t be better to have undead move the luggage instead was meaningless.
The witch strongly opposed, saying that while it might be fine in a secluded forest out of sight, if they did such a thing when moving into urban areas, they would immediately be branded as an evil organization.
It was a truly futile resistance given that the party’s alignment was already close to chaos, but the witch also had the strongest voice in the party. Adelaide’s “alternative” was smoothly accepted.
The party immediately began recruiting new companions and...
“Ah, here. Would you like to try eating thi—“
-Squeeeeeak!
Scurry!
This time, too, they failed.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ marvels at the water deer’s swift escape ability!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ evaluates that it must have been properly educated by its parents, seeing how it doesn’t follow strangers offering food!]
“Ha, haha. Ahaha. Novels and reality sure are different, huh...? No, even so, there’s no need to be so terrified as if seeing an otherworldly horror...”
Adelaide had a vacant look in her eyes, like a doll.
Although she was drooping like wet seaweed, this was actually partly her own doing.
Originally, even a mad dog that snarled and rageg, treating people as less than its own claws, trembled before a dog trader.
Even if not as much as the Tin Knight, the wild animals were unlikely to approach her friendly after she had performed hack and slash on countless beasts during their stay in the Garden.
Moreover, with the Tin Knight sticking close by her side, to the surviving animals, it must have looked like the Demon King and one of his Heavenly Kings standing side by side.
Sophia suggested, “Adelaide. Could I borrow your hands for a moment? Ah, yes. Sir Tin. Sir Tin, you can supervise from the side. You don’t need to touch anything. Please don’t touch anything.”
The Tin Knight, who would drive efficiency into the negative if put to work, was the first to be excluded from the task. Indeed, she was a capable woman above the shoulders.
Sophia had Adelaide gather two Y-shaped branches of appropriate thickness and similar shape, then used a few other branches and tough vines to weave them together.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ exclaims that it’s an A-frame carrier! There’s an A-frame carrier!]
Fortunately, the third operation did not fail. It was truly a party that made even moving one piece of luggage quite difficult.
Among the materials collected from the forest, those with small volume went into Dorothea’s pouch, and large and heavy ones were neatly stacked on the A-frame carrier shouldered by the Tin Knight.
The most noticeable among them were the pieces of wood emanating intense mana.
“Um, is it okay for us to take these as we please?”
“Of course we should take them. It’s wood that has absorbed mana and life force while serving as the center of the Garden for hundreds of years. It’s perfect as material for staffs, and it’ll be useful for making other tools too.”
The tree, which had been a deep green when fighting the group, was slowly turning black after the battle ended.
The texture, which had been soft and pliable, was gradually hardening, feeling more like metal than a living thing.
It was to the extent that even processing it into an appropriate size was difficult without emitting sword energy.
“Well then, we’ve packed everything. Let’s go now.”
With Dorothea’s declaration as the starting point, the party set off.
***Hindler, a mercenary active in the northern part of the Lydia Empire, grumbled, “Damn it. I’m starving to death. Hey, don’t we have anything to eat?”
“We do. There’s grass on the ground over there. Go graze.”
“Should I shove it in your mouth?”
Hindler heaved a deep sigh.
Damn. How did I end up in this situation?
It had been almost three years since he left his hometown on a whim, tired of farming day in and day out.
His ambition to become a renowned adventurer ended the moment he was defeated by a plump mouse that had grown fat from eating and sleeping well in the city, and after being hired as a porter for another adventurer party and getting caught touching their luggage, it came to a physical end.
After being kicked out of the guild and wandering here and there, he was hired by a mercenary group about a year ago.
His dream of making a name for himself as a veteran battlefield mercenary if he couldn’t succeed as an adventurer flew away miserably during his first “mercenary job”.
Breaking into empty houses. Extorting money from peddlers. Freeloading in villages under the pretext of dealing with magic beasts.
That was right. The place Hindler had joined was a mercenary group in name only, but in reality, it was no different from a band of thieves.
The mercenary captain who had recruited Hindler said that opportunities for their main job were not frequent, so this was a side job they had to do to make a living, but from Hindler’s perspective, this clearly seemed to be their main job.
The reason was obvious.
It was because pretending like this, even if it was just a facade, irritated the Empire less than openly acting as thieves.
The Empire was a military powerhouse.
In the eastern part of the continent where the power and influence of the state were weak, bandits might take over cities and plunder decent domains, but if one did such things in the Empire, one’s belly would be split open and their head hung on a pole the next day.
However, even the Empire didn’t have unlimited human and material resources, so while they dealt decisively with issues that they thought were like “This bastard is getting cocky?” they showed a lukewarm response to issues that were more like “Haa, these things keep popping up no matter how much we deal with them. Tsk tsk.”
It could be called a kind of survival strategy to get beaten a little less by the terrifying big brother and to be a little less noticeable.
“Hey, hey, everyone wake up! A ‘guest’ is coming!”
At the mercenary captain’s words, the bandits—no, mercenary members who had been sprawled out here and there like carelessly discarded socks, slowly got up.
The place where they were waiting was called Lampe Gorge No. 4.
It wasn’t... a strategic point that had to be passed through to move from the northern part of the Empire to the west.
Such places had proper gates, so they weren’t places where people with fluid occupations like them could dare to set up camp. no𝚟𝚙u𝚋.c𝚘m
But there was still a road passable by carriages here, and occasionally, travelers did pass by.
And those travelers were the main customers of their mercenary group.
Looking at the travelers approaching from far away, the members whispered, “Three women and one man?”
“Isn’t that a porter rather than a knight? What’s with all that luggage he’s carrying?”
“He’s wearing armor, isn’t he?”
“Wow, damn. What’s with that black woman in the middle? Look at her figure.”
Hindler frowned and carefully observed the travelers.
They were members with unique characteristics one by one. The most eye-catching and the one who fit the description of “beauty” was the woman in black clothes, but the other two weren’t far behind in terms of looks. If pressed, it was an area where evaluation would differ according to preference.
It was puzzling why such fair-skinned people were walking like that without even a carriage.
But what actually caught Hindler’s attention wasn’t the women, but the knight.
It wasn’t because Hindler had any special preferences.
What he focused on was the luggage the knight was carrying.
...That’s not a weight an ordinary person could handle?
Although it was difficult to know his exact height because he was wearing armor, the knight looked to be at least 180 cm tall.
And the height of the luggage the knight was carrying was at least twice as tall as the knight himself. Moreover, judging by the many wooden blocks piled up, it didn’t seem to be light luggage either.
“Hmm.”
The mercenary captain also seemed to recognize that the opponents were not ordinary, letting out a thoughtful sound.
Feeling an ominous premonition, Hindler hoped the captain would call for a “business suspension”, but the others seemed to think differently.
“Captain.”
The members gazed at the captain with intense eyes.
They all looked shabby and haggard from not eating properly.
While it sounded plausible to say they were doing side jobs skillfully within a range that didn’t irritate the Empire, such “delicate jobs” didn’t come by easily.
The day before yesterday, they had to let a merchant group surrounded by an escort battalion pass by, yesterday they had to pretend not to see a group of knights and mages in visibly luxurious attire, and yesterday they tried to do business with a madman whose eyes were rolling, but failed without even getting to speak because the madman moved too quickly.
The mercenary group itself wasn’t that large, so they were barely hanging on by hunting or gathering, but if they didn’t show some “results” soon, dissatisfaction was about to explode.
In the end, the captain made the decision Hindler didn’t want.
“Hey there, ladies!”
“Huh?”
The bandit mercenary group blocked the path of the group.
They were just short of ten people, but since the opponents were only four, there was no problem surrounding them.
The mercenary captain said with a glib expression, “The road ahead is dangerous with many bandits and magic beasts. If you’re okay with it, how about we escort you?”
