I left Camilo's place and headed home. This time, in addition to the usual ironstone, charcoal, salt, and wine, I bought some dried root vegetables and a little pepper. When I left the city, I bade the guards a goodbye. Thinking about it, it was a good thing that my colleague wasn't on duty, because it was hard for him to know that there were only two of us today, when there are usually three of us.

　On the way back, we took more time than usual, and proceeded with caution. In the end, it was much later than usual, but we made it home without any problems.
I'm home.
Oh, Eizo, welcome home.
Welcome home.
　I asked Samija and Diana to help me carry in the luggage I had brought. While Samija and Rike carried the iron and stone into the workshop, Diana and I carried the salt and wine into the kitchen. While we're doing that.
"Oh, is that pepper?
　Deanna notices the pepper.
"Yeah. I found it at Camilo's, so I bought some. I don't want to use a lot of it, but it definitely improves the taste.
"Oh, so you've eaten pepper before, have you?
Oh.
　Oh, shit. In this world, pepper is not extremely expensive due to regional differences (at least not as expensive as gold of the same weight), but it is a high quality product because its cultivation is limited due to the climate. It is not common for people to have eaten them. What you just said was not something that a person who just happened to have eaten it would say.
"Well, I have a family name, "Tanya," which I usually don't tell anyone about because I have a "reason. "Eizo Tanya" is my full name.
I had a hunch since you can do magic, but I guess you're right.
Even though he has a family name, he has his reasons, so it's impossible for my family to travel for the Amur family.
　In the first place, even if a house with the same name existed, it would not be my house, so there would be no house for me to travel to.
Do the other two know about it?
"In a manner of speaking. I told them to keep it a secret, so I don't think I told Deanna either. You should keep it a secret too, Deanna. It could get you in trouble.
I know, I know. I'm a family man myself, so I understand how troublesome it can be.
I see.
　And that's exactly what I'm in the middle of.
Okay, are we done with this?
Yeah.
Can I count on you for dinner tonight?
Yeah, sure.
　I was deeply relieved when Deanna said that with a smile.

　That evening, I added a little cracked pepper to my soup. That evening, I added a little cracked pepper to my usual soup. I also served some salted meat that had not been salted for a long time, grilled, and sprinkled with a little pepper.
Oh, that's good!
　Cámara is overjoyed. Beasts are almost self-sufficient, so they don't use things like pepper. In the first place, they preserve the food more by drying it, and they don't use salt as much.
As the master said, it's different and delicious.
　Rike was also pleased. Rijke's family also used salt for preservation, and never used pepper. The dwarf man laughed, saying that he was a glutton and would go bankrupt if he used pepper.
The dwarf man laughed, saying that he would go bankrupt in no time if he used pepper. I think I like it better this way.
　It was Diana who said that. I heard that some aristocrats have dishes that taste only of pepper. I'd rather not try that.
　I don't know if there is a stable supply of pepper, but I'll try to buy some when I can.

　The next day. As soon as I finished fetching water in the morning, I headed for the entrance of the forest. After the other three have eaten breakfast, they will go to the workshop to work on their shortswords and longswords.
　I continue through the forest. The forest is always quiet, but today it is even quieter, perhaps due to the early morning. It's as if the forest hasn't woken up yet. As I walk alone through the forest, my footsteps seem to be getting louder and louder. Since I'm alone today, I can move quickly even though I'm on alert, using only my knife and shortsword for self-defense. I feel that my quickness is making the noise louder, so I tend to slow down and continue toward the entrance of the forest.

　Eventually, I arrived at the entrance of the forest much earlier than usual. I climbed one of the nearest trees. Even as a child, I hadn't done much tree climbing, but with cheats and installations, I managed to do it. If you stay here, you can hide yourself while watching the street.
　So I stayed put and watched the road. It was good at first, but after half an hour, my not-so-young body began to suffer. But if I move around, they'll know I'm here. So I move my body little by little.
You look like a sniper. ...... You're actually doing pretty much the same thing.
　I thought to myself as I waited.

　During the next hour, there were several passersby, none of whom were waiting for me. Finally, after another hour, I saw the person I was waiting for. The person I was waiting for came from the city, scampered around not far from me, and when he saw that no one was around, he hid something in the bushes by the forest by the side of the road and walked away toward the city.
　I made sure that he was out of sight and that no one was approaching, so I quickly got down from the tree and ran to the bushes. There was a sack there, so I retrieved it and quickly went back into the forest, out of sight of the road, to check the contents of the sack. Inside the bag was a small piece of paper and a light green ribbon. On the paper was written, "Did you check? on the paper.


　I wrote "confirmed" on a piece of paper with a pen I took out of my pocket, went back into the bushes, tied a light green ribbon around it where it would not be visible from the street side, and hid the letter a short distance away. All that was left was to return to the forest and go home.

　This was the method of communication he had decided to use with Camilo. Camilo is a man who makes sure that the people going from the city to the capital and the people going from the capital to the city are switched every day. So, they communicate by hiding letters in the bushes along the road. A person going from the city to the capital hides a letter in one of the bushes around here. When I receive it, I will hide the reply with a ribbon in the bush where it was originally hidden. A person going from the capital to the city will collect the letter based on the markers and deliver it to Camilo.
　It's a bit of a hassle, but this way I can contact Camilo once a day, and I don't have to go to the city, and he doesn't have to leave the city. However, in case of an emergency, Camilo will show up in person. At this time, it is no longer a matter of witnessing.

　Now, the preparations for helping Mr. Marius are complete. Now it's up to me to answer the call.