We walked downstream along the riverside, and soon the landscape opened up and the fields spread out over the land.

　It was still in the off-season, though.

　The only thing I could see was a series of squares of dirt.


　...... It's kind of dreary.


　It's a good idea to be able to have a good idea of what you're looking for.

　I'm not sure if it's because the people of the village are building the dikes.


　Cackle!


　Just as I was thinking this, I came across a dozen or so kids playing on the side of the road.

Hey, kids.

　I'm going to ask to be taken to an adult around here who knows what he's talking about: ......


Wow!

Caw!


　But when the kids see us, duh, they run away and hide in the shadows of the main house.

　Tsk.......

　It's cheeky to see them whispering and glancing at us and occasionally laughing at each other colloquially.


'Oi! Girls! It's chocolate!


　With that, Garcia approached with the goods in a friendly manner.

　Perhaps because the sight of them looked like a hentai, the children fled further back towards the building.


'Oh no - ......'

　He's pretty seriously depressed.

　This guy.... he's not as kid-friendly as he looks, right?


You said it yourself yesterday, didn't you?

What?

They say country people are very cautious.

Ah, .......


　The further we go, the more houses we see, the more houses we see, but if we look carefully, we can feel the eyes of the villagers staring at us from inside the houses.

　Still, as we get closer, they slam! And he closes the doors and windows.

　Also, if you listen carefully, you can hear them whispering to each other.

　In contrast to the village of yesterday, it was a village with a sense of closedness to strangers.



　Garcia's image of the 'country people' would be such people.

　Maybe it's also the experience of having a hard time with the villagers of an unfriendly rural village in the business of travel so far.

　But it's not cautious, it's more like 'all the villagers are ignorant of people.



For example, what if there was a man from Nakamura who was a lumberjack?

　I muttered.

'But that doesn't mean I'm going to take that guy to 'Kimura' yesterday and expect him to go well?

Oh, that's what my husband was talking about yesterday. It's a good idea to have a good idea of what you're going to do if you're going to be a good candidate for the job. That's definitely true.


　Garcia is indeed a quick-witted merchant, and he immediately guessed what I wanted to say.


'It's the same with adventure parties. For example, if you want to 'make the strongest party in the world,' theoretically, if you have a 100-man team of 10 of the world's top 10 swordsmen, 10 of the world's top 10 wizards, 10 of the world's top 10 healers and ......, then of course you're going to be the strongest. But in reality, it doesn't work that way. Because if these guys don't think, 'Let's have a party together,' a party doesn't become an organizational unit.

I see.

''If it's a unit of [territory], it's going to be even more complicated... Even a party of five or ten people forming a team of five or ten people, relationships are a lot of work, but from now on, we'll have to organize 2500 people in a territory. If we look at each one of them too much as a discrete entity, we will surely fail. Probably, villages and industries have to be seen as a balance between developing an intermediate organization and showing off the abilities of individuals.''

　I seemed to say to Garcia, and I told myself that I was going to say it.


　Well, we walked further down 'Nakamura' .......

'Excuse me,'

......

　I mean, it's too closed off.


　We decided to give up interacting with people in "Nakamura" and went further south, because it would not make sense for us to stay in this village.

　We wanted to visit other villages, but it was difficult to do so because we were in unfamiliar territory and there was no guide.

　As the sun was shining in the west, we decided that we'd better head for the harbor for tomorrow.

　We headed west along the coast on the flatlands.

　When we arrived at the harbor, it was completely dark.


"We're going to camp today.

Do you have a sleeping bag?

"It's good.


　Yes.

　I'm a former adventurer, and Garcia is a traveling merchant.

　If push comes to shove, I'm not afraid to say I'm not afraid of such outdoor means.


　In the darkness, the lantern's orange 《dai dai dai》 flickers in a bong.


　Well .......

　That's right, I'd like to sleep under a roof if possible.

　At any rate, I honestly thought that I'd like to live a comfortable life as a [lord] as soon as possible .......



　◇



　The next day.

　The ship arrived a little overdue, but she arrived safely.

　Since the sun rises, the desolation of this harbor is so obvious that I was even worried about the ship coming to such a place, so I was relieved when I stepped into the wooden, but massive circulator.


　By the way, I heard that this ship can't go to 【Teito】 directly.

　I heard that you have to go back to【Skahama】once again.

　I thought ...... was a bother, but it seems that the Great King of the Far East has a policy of "not building a port in the imperial capital", so there's no choice.



　Thus, after a three-day and two-night journey on a wooden boat, when we arrived in Skahama, Garcia said: "Sir.

''Sir. Do you need to rewrite the title of the [deed] to the territory yourself?

'Oh? Why?

If possible, I'd like to stay in Skakama and visit my clients. For a merchant, Sukahama is better than Teito. Wouldn't your husband be able to go to the Imperial Capital all by himself?

　So I had to part ways with Garcia here for a while.


Let's see, the train to Teito leaves for ...... at three o'clock, so you still have about two and a half hours to go. You can get to the station by going straight down Sakuragi-dori Avenue. I'm going to stay at the Yellow Crane Tower, so I'll meet you there when I get back. Okay, I'm leaving.


　Train or .......

　Yes.

　In this Far East, there's a [magic railway] that's limited to the 'Imperial Capital - Skahama', but it's been laid down.

　Sekai's most advanced technology, a magical railway.

　It's a symbol of the development of magic technology in the last 100 years.



　Of course, I've ridden on magical trains in other civilizations, but this was my first time on a train in the Far East.

　Life is not always bad, isn't it?

　I was excited to be able to ride the train.


　I spontaneously headed for the station, but it was only 1 o'clock when I bought my ticket.

　What should I do?


What should I do? Buy it for me.


　Then I was approached by a boy selling cigarettes and newspapers in the street.


He said, "Well, give me some ...... paper cigarettes. Then you can call me 'brother,' boy.

"Love.


　And so on, while I buy a cigarette, I wish I could read the newspaper.

　If you think about it, I haven't been exposed to the information in "Sekai" for a few days now.


　But I couldn't read this 'Far Eastern Letter'.

　I wish I had a newspaper for adventurers, and I looked for a nearby store or something, but I couldn't find one.

　To tell the truth, I should have known where I could read the Adventurer's Newspaper for sure.

　But I didn't want to go there now if I could .......

　But I turned my foot to it.

Adventurer's Guild Far East Office

　It was.