There Was No Road
‘Where should I go?’
‘Indeed…’
I had the option of returning to Boguinea… But there were no more monsters over there.
And since the Blue Moon of Salvation had caused the rain, returning now might look suspicious.
I wanted to move in a way that seemed natural.
That man at reception had looked at me oddly for merely making an appearance.
If they found out that I was here to spy on them, I would be attacked by assassins before I knew it.
And there was no guarantee that I would be able to make them leave me alone the next time.
In that case…
‘Just go straight along this road.’
‘Understood! …But where does this road lead to?’
‘I don’t know. But I’m sure that it leads to a town. I just don’t know what it’s called.’
The route that I chose went passed Ordarion in the opposite direction of Boguinea.
That way, it would just look like I stopped by Ordarion, while I was on my way to someplace else.
They wouldn’t know what I had been up to.
‘So, I’ll just take you to the town then!’
The Proud Wolf said as he increased his speed.
…Now, I just needed to wait for the slimes to give me information.
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‘…It’s a dead end.’
After we had run for quite some time, we hit a dead end.
It was a very deep ravine.
But the map really had shown a road here…
I wondered about this as I scanned the area.
And then…I saw something man-made that was close by.
“Is that…a bridge?”
Well, it was the remains of what was a bridge at one point.
But it was broken now, and there was no way to cross it… It had been a hanging bridge before.
From what I could tell, it had been destroyed rather recently.
‘What should we do?’
‘Indeed… Is there a way to go around?’
This road was even on the guild map. It was supposed to be one of the main roads.
It was hard to think the destruction of such a route would be ignored.
And so I sent the slimes out to search the area…
‘There is none!’
‘Nothing over here either!’
Apparently, there was no way around.
Perhaps the Blue Moon of Salvation had decided that destroying the bridge was in their best interest.
But…I just couldn’t turn back now.
While the bridge had been put over a ravine…it did not seem so deep that couldn’t climb down.
I guess…we could use brute force to continue.
‘We’re going to continue on our way. Surely you can cross, even without the bridge?’
After I said this, the Proud Wolf peered over the edge.
And then he shouted in a powerful voice.
‘This is nothing! Please get on my back!’
So it was nothing for the Proud Wolf after all.
This guy. He seemed so weak sometimes but he had incredible athletic ability…
‘All right, here I go! …But…if there are any strong monsters, please protect me!’
He said as he began to run down the cliff.
It was steep enough that I was sure a human would get injured if they attempted it…but he moved without hesitation.
It was almost as if he was running on flat ground.
While we moved…the slime on my shoulder began to shout.
‘It’s a monster!’
‘It looks so strong!’
So there were monsters here after all.
But… The surface of a steep cliff was not a good place to be fighting monsters.
Any distractions could lead to a dangerous misstep.