In the Land of Leadale - Volume 4 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - Daily Life in the Village, Restocking, a Journey, and a Disquieting Shadow

“Phew, that was indeed terrifying.”

“I’m not convinced. Didn’t I say it’s just a spell that temporarily changes your appearance?”

Skargo, who had returned to his usual handsome self after a night as a hideous Zhu Bajie pig, was enjoying breakfast at Cayna’s house upon her invitation.

Cayna, of course, had been the one to insist that he eat at her place. She’d realized she couldn’t allow Skargo to fall in love with Marelle’s amazing food, and so she’d rushed to invite him over for breakfast.

Cayna’s only objective was to prevent the quality of the food from giving Skargo reason to relocate to the village, church and all. Because if he did that, Cayna’s burgeoning anxiety would never cease so long as she lived here. After all, there was no question Skargo and his entourage would flock to her like moths to a flame.

The only other person eating with Cayna and Skargo was Luka. Roxine and Roxilius normally joined in under the family rule that everyone should eat together, but because they had a guest over, the two werecats were more than happy to serve the food instead. The menu was the same as usual—bread, salad, soup, fruit—which begged the question of whether having someone serve the food was even necessary.

Roxine glared at Skargo before retreating into the kitchen; Roxilius stood at attention nearby, occasionally refilling drinks or correcting Luka’s table manners.

Luka was still too shy to engage Skargo in conversation, but she had started calling him “Big Brother”—a bit of welcome progress as far as Cayna was concerned.

Flattered by this moniker, Skargo cast Oscar—Roses Scatter with Beauty out of habit, effectively snuffing out any warm fuzzies Cayna felt. She stopped him with a glare every time he started up again. Old habits die hard.

Skargo succumbed to his mother’s stares with a dry laugh. Unless he treaded lightly, Cayna would smite him with her Cursed Outfit Technique just as she had the night before. And his upcoming conference would likely end in failure if he showed up as a Zhu Bajie pig, leaving his role as emissary—not to mention his reputation as High Priest—in shambles.

“Mother Dear, I very much hope you won’t turn me into that again…”

“Then quit using your Effect Skills for every little thing and just have a normal conversation. It makes no difference to me how you use them for work, but are you totally incapable of talking to your own mother without busting out these effects all willy-nilly?”

“No, of course not.”

“Although I guess I don’t have much room to talk, having left you to your own devices for two hundred years. Your future wife’s got her work cut out for her.”

Cayna put her hand to her cheek. The next instant, Skargo opened his arms wide, and a flower backdrop appeared behind him—which he quickly dispelled after a single steely glare from Cayna.

“…Pardon me,” he apologized with a light cough.

Cayna felt a huge headache coming on. Twenty percent of her worries had to do with Felskeilo’s future should a force like Skargo marry into the royal family; the other 80 percent was over how much Myleene would suffer if she ended up having to handle him. Wedding bells weren’t exactly ringing just yet, but from what Cayna could tell, Myleene was hit with a severe case of first love. Considering Cayna had essentially encouraged this situation, she had no right to complain. But if the princess insisted on marrying for love, Skargo’s proclivities were going to be a huge hurdle.

“Mother Dear.”

“Uh-huh?”

Having finished his meal, Skargo dabbed at his mouth, his face quite serious. That gesture alone would render any unassuming woman lovestruck and squealing, but as Skargo’s creator in every sense of the word, his pretty-boy looks had zero effect on Cayna.

“You mentioned something about a future wife just now. Might you have someone in mind?” he asked.

“…Now I’m not so sure.”

“Whatever in the worrrld are you unsure about?! Whoever you introduce me to, Mother Dear, I, Skargo, vow to love and protect them with all my heart and soul!”

Skargo stood up and clutched his chest against a backdrop of white roses, his determined gaze focused somewhere off in the distance…

…only for Roxine to smack him in the face with a tray, sending him flying into the wall with a wham.

“Master Skargo,” said Roxine, “you are frightening the young Lady Luka. I ask that you refrain from your comedy routine.”

“…?!”

“Cie, aren’t you the one who just startled Luka?” Cayna pointed out.

Roxine was spinning a face-dented tray on her finger. Luka was staring speechless between where her stepbrother had just been standing and where he currently remained stuck in the wall. Roxilius remained standing at attention, nodding wordlessly.

Scared by how accustomed she’d grown to ruckus first thing in the morning, Cayna put a hand to her cheek and sighed.

“Well then, I bid you farewell, Mother Dear.”

“Yep. You’ll probably be fine, but be careful on the road back.”

“Yes, yes, certainly. Although I must say it is a pity that I cannot show you the fine man I have become.”

“In what universe would an envoy bring his mother with him to a conference…?”

The knights accompanying Skargo thumped their breastplates in assertion that they would ensure his safe passage. They didn’t seem to be part of Shining Saber’s forces; Cayna was relieved that none of them referred to her as “the captain’s fiancée.”

After refreshing himself with magic following breakfast, Skargo had announced he would be departing for the national border within the day. Four carriages were waiting for him, the lead carriage so gaudy that it was impossible to miss. The entire delegation consisted of Skargo, ten knights, four civil officials, and several attendants. Such missions were typically flanked by a superfluous number of personnel, but since they were traveling with the High Priest, they kept the pomp to a bare minimum. In other words, little flavor and more substance.

Personally, Cayna thought Skargo was much too eager to share the delegation’s sensitive information, but she could sense his trust in her and decided to hold back rebuke. Instead, she watched the rare spectacle of Skargo panicking terribly as Roxilius dug into him about leaking secrets.

“By the way,” Skargo began, “Mai-Mai would be thrilled to meet Luka. If she had not been directly summoned by His Majesty, that sister of mine would have surely taken the initiative and paid a visit.”

“Huh. Thanks, Skargo. You’re right, I should definitely introduce her to Mai-Mai, too.”

“Think nothing of it. Well then, Mother Dear. Let us meet again when the opportunity arises. Do take care, Luka.”

With these parting words, Skargo waved lightly before stepping into the carriage. Cayna fondly watched the delegation depart. After they disappeared from sight, she crossed her arms and murmured, “Maybe Mai-Mai feels kinda left out?”

Mai-Mai’s job required her constant presence at the Academy, so opportunities for her to meet Luka in the remote village were few and far between. If Mai-Mai couldn’t come to them, they would have to come to her. Cayna had settled into her new home just days ago, but she didn’t think an occasional bit of travel would be a problem. She considered bringing Luka with her the next time she went shopping.

Cayna had started calling Luka “Lu” after the incident with the White Dragon, but only because Roxine suggested, “Why don’t you call her something a bit more familial? You are her family now, after all.”

It took Cayna a while to actually put this into practice, though. She spent half the day deliberating over whether to give Luka a nickname until Roxilius finally had enough. The only reason she made any progress at all was because he dragged her over to Luka.

“Um,” Cayna began.

“…Uh-huh?”

“So, L-Luka…”

“…Uh-huh.”

“Can I call you Lu?”

“…Uh-huh!”

Cayna’s face lit up like a Christmas tree, and she pulled Luka into a tight embrace. Behind them, dead-eyed Roxine and Roxilius collapsed to the ground in exhaustion; they’d been worried to death that this exchange would end up taking hours.

Cayna had gotten used to daily life in the countryside; she gradually renovated her environs just like she used to do with her base in Leadale’s Offline Mode. Of course, she always checked with the village elder or the other villagers before starting anything.

First, she improved the fence that kept the village safe from invaders. This fence was enchanted with a special charm that kept some of the monsters out.

Cayna began clearing the brush from the outside of the fence but was soon assaulted by the vegetation’s wails, so she had Roxilius take over.

He mowed down trees and plants with such ease that the villagers thought he looked like a demon on a cleaning frenzy.

Next, an Earth Spirit leveled the uneven ground. The five-meter-tall chess pawn uprooted trees and smoothed over the soil with the fluidity of a real pawn moving across a chessboard. Cayna turned the pile of felled trees into lumber with her Craft Skills and evenly distributed them to each household.

She decided to hold off on any expansion, however. According to the village elder, the extra land would only go to waste since the village’s population was in decline. Moreover, the area was managed by nobles, and apparently they didn’t allow the village to expand their arable land.

“Wow,” said Cayna. “So this land belongs to nobles…”

“Yes. They aren’t too fussy about rules however, so we do ask for their input,” the elder replied.

“Hmm. What’s the name of these nobles?”

“They’re the family of Baron Harvey.”

“…Huh?”

The name immediately sounded familiar, and then Cayna’s jaw dropped in sudden recognition.

Unless she misheard, the Baron had the same last name of Mai-Mai’s husband, Lopus Harvey. Paying the Harveys a visit would be easy enough given her daughter’s connections, but a mere adventurer like Cayna couldn’t just go barging into aristocratic affairs. She slightly regretted even asking who oversaw the land, and Cayna thought it would be best to let the elder negotiate with the Baron’s family.

Meanwhile, she felt the fence’s enchantment wouldn’t hold out against ogres like the ones from a few days prior, so she set up an extra layer of protection. Cayna placed stone stakes several meters apart outside the fence, set gargoyles atop each one, and modified their appearance.

Standard gargoyles resembled goblins with bat wings, but in Leadale, you could adjust them to look however you wanted. Cayna decided to turn these particular gargoyles into snow bunnies. With a few finishing touches—bodies made of snow mounds, bamboo leaves for ears, and small, red berries for eyes—the gargoyles were complete.

Since they were equipped with magic rhymestones, they’d automatically accumulate the MP needed to awaken whenever they were inactive. This way, Cayna could cut down on the time needed to refill them with the MP that kept them operational.

Humans and animals wouldn’t find the gargoyles threatening; if anything, they looked more like a bunch of slapdash ornaments. But when activated, these bunnies were strong enough to make quick work of any local ogres.

A strained smile appeared on her assistant Roxilius’s face. This amount of protection could keep even a fortress safe. “Lady Cayna, might this be a bit excessive?” he asked.

“Not at all. Life comes at you fast in this world. You can never be too careful.” Cayna put her hands on her hips in a show of pride; Li’l Fairy assumed the same self-satisfied pose atop her master’s head. She seemed in full agreement with Cayna’s assertion. Pity that no one else could see her, though.

“Besides, Rox, this gives you one less job to do,” Cayna added.

“What use am I if I’m without any work…?”

One of Roxilius’s jobs had been to patrol the village’s outskirts and eliminate any dangerous monsters. He and Roxine had divided any duties Cayna wasn’t involved in amongst themselves: The latter handled the household affairs, while the former took care of the property.

“The kids are still cleaning the bathhouse as punishment. You’re helping with that, too, right?” Cayna said.

“Well…yes.”

Just then, Roxine showed up. She and Roxilius exchanged momentary glares before she turned to Cayna. “Lady Cayna, I have a favor to ask.”

“Sure, what’s up?”

“…Should you really be so quick to dole out favors to your attendants?” Roxine’s tone quickly turned to exasperation.

Cayna smiled uncomfortably. “I mean, I’ve just been leaving you two to handle all the usual chores. I’m happy to help with anything if it makes life better for either of you.”

Roxilius and Roxine looked at one another and shrugged. There were mutual mumblings of “She’s a hopeless case” and “Even ideal masters have their limits.”

“Well, I can’t say how much better my life would be for it, but I’d like you to temporarily halt any restocking,” said Roxine. “I need to calculate how long our current food stores will last.”

“Oh, okay. Yeah, go ahead. I guess we better stop using Cooking Skills, too, right?”

“Yes, I would appreciate it.” Roxine bowed her head and returned to the house.

“What were we talking about again?” Cayna asked Roxilius.

“We were discussing my work, although I have no objection to following your every order.”

“A job for you, huh…?”

Cayna sank deep into thought. Eventually, she decided to suggest that Roxilius build an all-purpose storage room. The villagers were initially supposed to build it, but it was better to give the job to someone with nothing else going on. She could use rhymestones to control the humidity and temperature if need be, so there was no need to build individual cellars.

“Hey, the goats will need a stable for nighttime and when it’s raining, right? And the barrels of beer will be fine in my Item Box, but we should also have somewhere to store the whiskey since it tastes better with age.”

These proposals all came from Kee, but Cayna figured she should give Roxilius work to do as a “master worth serving.”

The chickens would roam the village. Marelle had told Cayna that she was free to look in the bushes and take whatever she found whenever she needed eggs. The villagers weren’t too concerned about the freshness of their eggs, so some would occasionally get an upset stomach. Kee suggested they come up with a method for sorting the eggs quickly.

“Understood. I’ll get started straight away,” Roxilius replied with a smile, satisfied to be entrusted with this new duty. He bowed respectfully and set to work on building a shed that very day.

Since most of his skills were combat-oriented, he excelled in manual labor.

Without a Craft Skill like Building: House, Roxilius couldn’t construct buildings in the blink of an eye like Cayna could. She had tried giving him a scroll so that he’d learn, but it didn’t help. Instead, he started from scratch using large carpentry machines and processed wood to construct the storage space from the ground up.

Cayna didn’t expect Roxilius to do all the work on his own, so she created golems to move heavy loads and construct in high places. If they’d started building in the center of town, it would have drawn attention whether they wanted it or not. Since villagers with free time on their hands dropped by to help on occasion, it was completed much sooner than anticipated.

The final product was a two-story shed. The second floor was quite cramped, and half of the first floor was taken up by a stable that would fit perhaps two goats. Wooden rails extending from the second floor to the other half of the first floor allowed you to roll barrels sideways and then down between the two stories.

“What do you think, Lady Cayna?”

“It kinda looks like this one game where a gorilla throws stuff at you…”

“Huh?”

Roxilius appeared satisfied with the results, but Cayna’s uncomfortable smile said she felt otherwise. Also, this setup was oddly familiar. Nevertheless, she treated the villagers who helped them to whiskey as thanks for finishing the job. The drunken men dragged in Roxilius, and it wasn’t long before they had a raucous drinking party on their hands. Siblings, wives, and children came to collect the men who had sunk into a drunken stupor in the middle of the afternoon. It disturbed Cayna a bit that Roxilius returned to his butler duties the very next day without the slightest hangover at all.

Meanwhile, Roxine was polishing her housework skills.

Per Cayna’s orders, she had stopped using Cooking Skills since they wasted too many ingredients. She then asked the village wives for help and learned basic cooking techniques. Cayna and Roxilius were shocked by this turn of events given how well they knew Roxine’s personality.

“Don’t be foolish,” Roxine told them. “We can’t afford to maintain a lavish lifestyle if we plan to settle in this village. In order to raise Lady Luka properly, we must learn to adjust our standards accordingly.”

“You have a totally decent opinion?!”

“Why are you so shocked, Lady Cayna? You said so yourself, did you not?”

It was true Cayna had told Roxine to let Luka be herself, but she never expected Roxine to put so much thought into it. That motivated her even further to raise Luka.

She also had something else on her mind.

“So what do you think?” Cayna elbowed Roxilius.

“Unlikely as it may be, I simply can’t shake this feeling,” the werecat acquiesced, his gaze downcast.

Roxine was the real concern. She didn’t look any different, but something about her felt off.

Cayna took the werecats’ summoning bells out of her Item Box and rang Roxine’s lightly.

“Maybe the real one will come out if I ring it again?” she said.

“That one might be a fake, too…,” Roxilius replied.

“Well that’s no help.”

“What are you talking about?!” Roxine interrupted. Cayna and Roxilius examined her with an audible Hmmm.

“It’s just, you haven’t been nearly as sadistic lately, so we thought you might be a fake,” Cayna said.

“Huh?”

A vein in Roxine’s temple throbbed. Cayna had a bad feeling about that; Roxilius was looking up in thought and didn’t notice she’d taken a step back.

“Oh, so you were thinking you’d just switch out the bitchy cat and—?!”

Roxine’s petulant grumblings were interrupted by the clanging of metal. Roxine, who had drawn her weapon to unleash her power, had been cut off by Roxilius.

Roxilius’s weapon was a common, one-handed sword. Roxine’s was a hatchet. Not only that, it was a rare Tragic Night: Jason Blade. Cayna remembered giving it to Roxine when she asked her for it since Cayna didn’t use it anyway. She never imagined that the werecat would end up using it to kill a coworker.

“It seems the time has come for us to settle things once and for all!” Roxilius declared.

“Hey now! I can’t have you guys waving weapons around!” Cayna shouted.

Scraping and screeching rang out as sword and hatchet crossed. Although their skill sets differed, their strengths were about equal, so there was an ongoing struggle for dominance. Cayna had tried telling them to get along, but just like in the game, they broke out into fights at the most trivial comments. Now even she wondered whether she’d teased Roxine too much this time. It was quiet as long as the two didn’t move from their crossed weapons.

Just as Cayna thought to herself she should probably stop the fight before things got too serious, she heard a withered voice call out, “What’s going on…?” behind her.

“Oh, Mimily. Something the matter?” Cayna asked as she turned around to find Mimily staring at them in shock.

“‘Something the matter?’ Shouldn’t I be asking that?” the mermaid retorted.

A sword-wielding butler and hatchet-wielding maid engaged in ferocious combat was undoubtedly a shock to anyone unfamiliar with their usual pattern of behavior.

“Oh, this? Just a little difference of opinion.”

“One that’s turned to bloodshed?!”

Cayna shrugged as if this was just part of an average day. Mimily’s head throbbed. Anyone else would call this carnage. Given how calmly Cayna was watching this fight unfold, Mimily couldn’t help but think she was something of an oddball. She’d always had an inkling, but now Mimily was really starting to believe that Cayna was highly unusual.

“Guess I oughta let them blow off steam once in a while.”

“That’s the problem here?”

Mimily pointed at the savage scene with a trembling finger, but Cayna just smiled awkwardly and clapped her hands. It wasn’t just her imagination that Cayna’s idea of arbitration was more like feeding koi fish.

“Okay, you two, that’s enough for today. You’re upsetting the audience.”

“Ack?!”

“Ngh?!”

Unbeknownst to Mimily, a coercive power hit Roxilius and Roxine with pinpoint accuracy. They immediately put away their weapons and straightened their posture while Cayna shot them a spine-chilling smile. And all this transpired the moment before Mimily turned back around.

““W-we’re very sorry.””

“Right, great. You can’t fight just because Lu isn’t around.”

The brutal atmosphere dissipated, and Mimily stared at the shamed pair in confusion. She couldn’t really understand what had just happened since she hadn’t spent much time with the two, but she wasn’t about to step into another household’s affairs. After all, the maid and butler appeared to have turned frightening awfully fast.

“So what brings you to our home all the way from the bathhouse?” Cayna asked.

“Oh, um, I came for some bread,” Mimily replied.

“Bread?” Cayna tilted her head in confusion. She obviously knew what bread was, but she had no idea why Mimily was suddenly saying she came to pick some up.

Mimily normally ate meals provided by the inn. However, she had been through a tough learning curve during her time there. Initially, no one in the village knew anything about mermaids. Cayna had left Mimily in the care of the village elder and Marelle, both of whom struggled with what to do with the mermaid. They figured she’d be fine serving food at the inn since she looked human from the waist up, but it turned out they hadn’t given this quite enough thought. Who would’ve guessed the inn’s patrons would turn pale and collapse at the sight of vegetable soup?

According to Mimily, her hometown’s staples were seaweed and algae. Mermaids didn’t eat fish, but shellfish were perfectly edible. After taking this into account, Marelle focused on making soups full of leafy vegetables to get villagers used to the concept bit by bit before eventually earning Mimily’s trust. Once things had calmed down a bit, Cayna visited the inn and heard only a few idle complaints.

Considering all that Mimily had gone through, Cayna became a little upset with herself when the mermaid mentioned bread. She felt bad that she’d been so busy lately, running around looking for projects to do for the village, that she hadn’t taken the time to check in on Mimily.

Roxine, however, responded to Mimily’s mention of bread with, “Ah, that.”

She withdrew into the house temporarily and brought back a basket with a cloth over top before saying to Mimily, “Shall we get going?”

Feeling curious, Cayna decided to accompany them while Roxilius chose to stay home.

Their destination was an empty house near the public bath. There, they found several other women waiting with plates and cloth-covered baskets just like the one Roxine was carrying.

“Oh, Cayna came with you, too?”

“What a sight for sore eyes. Will you be helping us today?”

“Umm, what’s everyone here for?” Cayna asked. She had trouble answering the women since she had no clue what was going on.

As she stood there confused, several women took the covers off their baskets to show her the contents: several round, palm-sized white objects.

“Did you not know we’re going to bake these, Cayna?” one woman asked.

Cayna thought back but had no recollection of this.

It seemed that Roxine was using this empty house for her own personal event. Several stone ovens like one might see in a pizza shop were lined up in the room. It was at this point Cayna finally figured out what they were being used for. She remembered always seeing cooking scenes like this on TV when she was bedridden.

“You’ve been making bread?”

“To be more precise, I’ve been teaching them how to create leaven, which we then use to bake bread. I had Lux make the ovens,” Roxine answered matter-of-factly.

The villagers mostly baked a salty, hard, dark rye bread that could be softened by dipping it in stews and soups. The bread Cayna’s household made with the help of Cooking Skills was a perfectly soft roll. When Roxine had brought some of this to the village, the women—Marelle included—were amazed. They said it was a delicacy, the kind of food only nobles ate.

In response, Roxine made yeast using the berries she’d harvested from the village’s outskirts—a bit of knowledge she seemed to have picked up outside of the game’s hardware. Cayna asked Roxine where she had learned such a thing, but Roxine claimed she didn’t even know herself. It was as if Roxine had been equipped with some sort of external knowledge database.

“Well, it’s not like I’ll get a straight answer from you anyway, if even you yourself don’t know where that info came from,” Cayna concluded, giving up on the idea of pressing her for further information. “Besides, I’d just end up with a migraine.”

“A wise decision indeed,” Roxine replied, and an indescribable expression came over Cayna’s face. After all, Roxine’s vague response was the very reason why she decided not to think about this too much. However, she did wonder if her maid was intentionally dissing her. And considering this was Roxine, that was all too likely.

Nevertheless, Cayna was happy to see Roxine voluntarily contributing to the village’s food culture. This change in Roxine, who never showed interest in anyone outside her immediate circle, astonished Cayna.

Since the ovens used firewood, the method was to light several at once. The current season presented no issues, but everyone would have to conserve wood once winter rolled in. Rather than warm each home individually, it was more efficient to burn a fire in one place.

“Now that you’re here, Lady Cayna, we won’t need to use firewood,” said Roxine.

“I was wondering why you didn’t say anything when I followed you here,” replied Cayna. “You had every intention of putting me in charge of the fire, didn’t you?”

“I cannot deny that.”

“Some maid you are…”

Roxine’s straightforward answer made it seem like a completely premeditated crime.

Mimily paid for meals via her laundry services, so she came to this gathering to take advantage of the shared bread.

Cayna reluctantly summoned a Fire Spirit to light the ovens and adjust the heat as Roxine instructed. However, watching the Fire Spirit in the hole beneath each oven raise one hand in the air and create a particular hero’s signature pose with the flames was incredibly strange. The women were just baking bread, so using the Fire Spirit for this purpose felt totally wrong. Cayna didn’t use magic rhymestones because you couldn’t adjust the temperature well with them and they could run out of gas quickly if they were too small.

“I bet Opus would burst out laughing if he saw me doing this.”

“You may well be right.”

Even Kee sounded exasperated.

Cayna attempted to get by without leaving the village for half a month but started running low on supplies. Roxine’s estimations were right on the nose.

The biggest contributing factor was the large volume of food they were consuming. This included the seasonings as well as the wheat used primarily for bread, which was a dietary staple. Since Cayna’s household didn’t have their own field in the village, they couldn’t grow their own wheat. They could get food from Marelle in a worst-case scenario, but that would put Roxine in a bad mood. Vegetables weren’t an issue since Roxilius had charmed the local wives; they gave him some of their own in exchange for small tasks. The meat caught by the hunter Lottor was divided evenly among the villagers, and Roxine brought back whatever animals she took down while gathering wild strawberries and plants.

There was also the matter of clothing and accessories.

Once the house was built, Cayna had made a large number of cloth-based items. Cayna herself hadn’t been sure how much they’d need on a daily basis, so the quantity she had purchased had been completely inadequate. As she obeyed Roxine’s demands of “I’d like a curtain here” and “A rug would be good here,” Cayna ran out in no time. Luka also used fabric for her sewing practice, so the household truly did use up a great deal. Although processing items had its many uses, doing so also required materials. No matter how mighty one’s skills might be, you couldn’t create something from nothing.

“Hmm. I knew it—we’ll have to go to Felskeilo or Helshper and buy some more.”

It looked like she also had the option of reaching out to Lux Contracting and ordering from Sakaiya directly. However, it would take her goods over ten days to arrive.

“Come to think of it, I’ll also need fodder for the goats,” said Cayna.

“Do not worry on that matter,” Roxilius assured her. “As long as they do not disrupt the village’s crops, it seems they are free to eat the weeds and grasses. We can always feed them hay as a stopgap measure.”

“I’ll…walk the goats,” Luka added.

Cayna planned on keeping goats for their milk. Roxilius had apparently found out from the villagers the best way to care for them, and as soon as Luka heard this she volunteered to help as well.

“Shouldn’t that be my job?”

“Your miscellaneous chores are our duty, Lady Cayna,” Roxilius replied.

“Besides, shouldn’t you be looking for Opus?” Roxine asked.

“…That’s true. I wonder if that jerk’s still around.”

Opus’s existence seemed questionable, but Li’l Fairy was the key to finding him—at least, that’s what Cayna thought. She needed a way to communicate with the fairy, something she hadn’t quite figured out yet.

Li’l Fairy popped out from Cayna’s hair and beamed. The fact that only players could see her was a source of frustration.

“You’re one big swirl of mystery, too,” Cayna told the fairy as she watched her flit about happily.

Li’l Fairy was slightly under twenty centimeters tall and could fit in the palm of Cayna’s hand. She had long, light green hair and blue eyes, and the four wings sprouting from her back were a translucent light green. Her face looked like that of a ten- to twelve-year-old human girl. The fairy lived in Cayna’s hair, and when she did come out on occasion, she was usually all smiles.

Cayna and the other players could touch her, but she seemed to pass through everything else. The fairy was sensitive to noise and hid at any intense or loud sound. She didn’t need to eat and smiled every morning as she watched everyone eat breakfast. Even windy days had no effect on her, and she could always sit on Cayna’s shoulder with ease. Cayna had no idea if Opus ever named the fairy, so she simply dubbed her Li’l Fairy. Since the fairy glowed with a faint phosphorescence every time Cayna used her skills or magic, she wondered if she was connected to the game’s system.

“Yeah, there’s gotta be some connection.”

It seemed that the change in the system Cohral had talked about had happened right after Cayna met the fairy, and she’d also acted strangely back when Cayna used Special Skill: Oracle. It might even be possible that Cayna wouldn’t have been able to use the skill without her. Based on his actions during the game, Cayna had a sneaking suspicion Opus was an administrative player. Not that she had any proof.

“Did Opus purposefully leaving you behind have something to do with the system?”

She had a feeling the truth went far deeper. After all, Li’l Fairy’s response to this question was to immediately turn to Cayna and puff up her cheeks before turning away haughtily to sit on Cayna’s shoulder.

Cayna felt like she offended the fairy in some way. At this point, though, she could do nothing more than talk to her, pat her head, and apologize in earnest. By the time the fairy had cheered up and was flying around in happy circles, Cayna went back to her room and collapsed into bed from mental exhaustion.

A knock soon came at the door, and Cayna sat up listlessly. “Come in,” she said.

Luka popped her head into the room, then went inside and walked over to Cayna.

“Mommy Cayna…”

“What is it, Lu?”

Luka hugged Cayna’s leg. Cayna picked the girl up and took in the child’s warmth.

“Were you talking…to someone?” Luka asked.

She must’ve overheard Cayna apologizing to Li’l Fairy. After a moment’s thought, Cayna set Luka down next to her.

“Uhh, well. I might’ve mentioned this before, Lu, but I can see fairies.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And I made one of those fairies mad at me. I was apologizing just now.”

“Mm…?”

Luka didn’t seem to follow. After all, she couldn’t see the fairy herself. It was hard to believe in something you couldn’t see. Fairies in storybooks were visible only to children, but in this case it was practically the opposite.

“Are fairies…scary when they’re mad?”

Cayna pondered Luka’s question for a moment. The easier answer would be, “They’re a bunch of meanies!” but if she made Li’l Fairy mad again, it’d only wind up being more work for her.

“Uhh, well…they’ll pull your hair while you’re sleeping, take your fork when you’re eating, and sit in the middle of the page when you’re reading a book,” Cayna replied, choosing her words carefully as she gauged the fairy’s reaction.

Li’l Fairy plopped herself right on Luka’s head and stared at Cayna, which made Cayna more than a little nervous. She was still in the realm of gentle ribbing, but if provoked, the fairy might shoot a magic spell in a random direction, something Cayna was eager to avoid.

Luka looked sad, so Cayna patted her head and said, “It’s all right. Watch this!” She then cast Illusion Magic. Small bits of phosphorescence gathered from around the room to converge right in front of Luka. They gradually took a humanoid form and solidified to become a second Li’l Fairy. It was a carbon copy of the real one, so the size was exactly the same. It was impossible to touch since it was an illusion, but Luka could without question see this “Li’l Fairy.”

Luka stared wide-eyed for a few moments before reaching out her hand, which passed right through the illusion.

“Oh, sorry, Lu. It’s just a picture, so you can’t actually touch her.”

“This is…a fairy?”

The illusion spread her wings and arms as if she were flying. The real one gleefully struck the same pose.

Luka gazed curiously at the two smiling fairies.

“This fairy looks the same as the one that flies around me. The real one is right next her making the same pose,” Cayna explained.

Luka looked between the illusion and the empty space that the real fairy occupied and giggled softly.

“Show me…the real one someday…”

“Sure. I promise I’ll introduce you.”

Cayna spent the rest of the day chatting with Luka until they eventually fell asleep together. The next day, Luka asked if there was any way to keep the fairy illusion around.

“Hmm. I guess it’s not impossible. But what for?”

“I want Latem…to sculpt her.”

Cayna couldn’t help but sympathize with poor Latem for the huge request he was about to get. She’d cheer him on but wouldn’t help him out of this one.

Cayna used the Copy skill to print the illusion on a piece of paper and handed it to Luka.

“It’s fine that you want him to create a model of her, but be sure to help him out, okay, Lu?”

“Uh-huh!” Luka replied giddily. She was no doubt eager to hurry up and invite Lytt to come along, but the three kids wouldn’t be able to meet all morning.

After Cayna finished eating, she gave orders to Roxilius and Roxine.

“I’m leaving the house to you two for now. No fighting.”

“In a worst-case scenario, I can gather provisions from around the outside of the village,” replied Roxilius.

“You’d only gather meat,” Roxine scoffed.

Elineh’s caravan visited the village just once a month or so, which Cayna hadn’t factored into her recent move. That further contributed to her household’s heavily depleted stockpile.

Roxilius and Roxine had apparently anticipated this situation, as they were actually having a civil discussion for once.

“That was sooner than expected,” Roxine stated.

“I didn’t think we’d have these shortages,” Roxilius replied. “Since our water and fire are supplied by magic, we should be consuming less fuel than other households.”

“I imagine it has to do with our food consumption.”

“Indeed. Lady Cayna is used to three meals a day, after all.”

“I think it would be best to split breakfast and lunch into a total of 1.25 meals.”

“Yes. Two and a quarter meals seems reasonable.”

“I think that’s a fine idea. So two for us ladies and a quarter for the mangy cat.”

“Aren’t you the one who should be on a diet? Scaling the fence must be quite difficult for you now.”

“Hsss!”

“Shaaa!”

Cayna had just warned them not to fight, but fighting came as naturally to the two as breathing. She couldn’t take her eyes off them for a second.

Just as Cayna felt a migraine coming on, Luka stepped between the pair before they could come to blows. Moved by what a good little girl Luka was, Cayna patted her head and showered her with praise.

“Are…we going out…?” Luka asked.

“Yup, that’s right. You still have to meet Mai-Mai.”

“Who’s…Mai?”

“She’s my daughter—and your new big sister!”

As Cayna tossed a whiskey barrel onto the shed’s second-floor rail, a thought struck her. If all that needed doing was loading barrels up and down, there was no need for a ladder; she could just use the Leap skill. Luka had been very curious about the whole process, so Cayna leaped to the second story with Luka in her arms. The little girl seemed to enjoy watching the barrels roll down the rails with a thunk, thunk.

The magic rhymestones installed in the shed kept the humidity and temperature consistent. Kee had crunched the numbers since he knew how these things worked, but because he was merely a disembodied voice, Cayna had to do all the installations herself.

“All right, that should do it for today.”

Cayna held Luka and leaped down to the first floor. Li’l Fairy wiped the sweat from Cayna’s brow as if to say Good work. The fairy had more time on her hands than anyone else in the village, with Cayna at a close second.

Once Cayna put Luka down on the ground, Luka told her, “I’ll go…help Cie,” and went over to the house. She couldn’t quite pronounce Roxilius and Roxine’s full names, so they’d said she could call them by simple nicknames: Roxine became “Cie” and Roxilius became “Li.” Luka voluntarily helped Roxine with housework; cleaning the bathhouse with Roxilius became her punishment.

As Cayna wondered what to do next, she heard the sounds of a ruckus entering the village. There was a host of neighing horses and rough footsteps, as well as the thuds of wagon wheels along the ground and the clamor of people coming together all at once. Even if they’d been apart for some time, she knew all this meant that a good friend had just arrived.

Elineh’s caravan had appeared for its usual visit. Their timing was perfect, since she had been at a loss for what to do about her stockpile issues, so Cayna headed on over.

As always, the caravan crew unloaded luggage and set up simple stores in the plaza by the entrance of the village. The sharp-eared villagers had already begun gathering and waiting in anticipation for the shops to open.

Cayna greeted the crew with a polite bow and looked around. She soon spotted her target, Elineh. He was chatting with Arbiter and the other caravan members in a corner lined up with wagons.

“Hello, Elineh.”

“Oh, Lady Cayna. It has been quite some time.”

“Hey there, miss.”

Elineh and Arbiter greeted Cayna warmly when she waved and headed over to them.

“Ah yes, I have the goats and chickens you requested from Sakaiya, Lady Cayna,” said Elineh. “An attendant has gone to deliver them.”

“That’s great. Thank you very much.”

“Think nothing of it. This is business, after all. I have already collected the transport fee. The goods you ordered are higher than the market price and have earned me quite a profit.”

Judging from Elineh’s ear-to-ear grin, Caerick must have paid him a little extra. Cayna was well aware that goats and chickens themselves didn’t have too high of a transport fee, so her expression turned sour.

“He’ll be in trouble if word gets out that he tends to trivialize cost and has no desire to make a profit,” she said.

“C’mon, the guy’s showing a little devotion to his grandma! Just take it,” Arbiter replied.

“……”

The moment Arbiter called Cayna “grandma,” the temperature around them instantly dropped. Elineh and the co-captain quickly backed away from him, and the next moment, he found himself under the spotlight.

“I beg your pardon, Arbiter. What did you just call me?”

“Hold on, just wait a sec! Calm down! Okay, I take it back! It was a figure of speech! A figure of speech! I’m sorry, I was wrong, I’ll never say it again, forgive me!”

Before he knew it, Arbiter was surrounded by a wall of water that was smooth as polished glass. Even though it was a warm day with the sun shining bright, that spot alone was cold as a jail cell in midwinter. Arbiter let out a flurry of panicked, wailing apologies.

Cayna had intended to merely rake him over the coals a bit, so she soon released Arbiter from his watery prison. He clutched at his chest.

“This is why I always tell you to think before you speak,” his co-captain admonished.

Arbiter got a taste of Cayna’s frightening powers after she cornered him with such swiftness that he couldn’t even hope to flee her clutches. Feeling the sun’s warmth on his skin once again gave him a momentary reprieve before he was attacked from another angle.

“Honestly, sir, you truly are hopeless. Commenting on a woman’s age forfeits any right to complain, even if you are stabbed repeatedly from behind,” the co-captain said as he brandished his short sword. When Arbiter instinctively paled and froze up, the co-captain cheerfully told him, “It was a joke.” However, his sword stayed right where it was.

Cayna left the co-captain to take his stress out on Arbiter and began discussing matters with Elineh.

“You wish to come with us to Felskeilo?” Elineh asked her. “That’s all right with me, although I thought you had your own methods of instantaneous travel.”

“I’m bringing some people with me, so I was thinking we could take a leisurely trip in the wagon.”

“In that case, you’re welcome to join us. How can I ask for anything more than having a powerful mage to accompany us on our journey?”

Elineh readily accepted, but something else seemed to be worrying him. He furrowed his brow.

“Having said that, I’m afraid the wagons don’t have much room for sleeping. You will likely have to sleep outside in the hammocks again. Is that all right?”

Elineh’s expression turned apologetic, but Cayna replied, “That’s totally fine,” and waved her hand with a smile. “I have my own wagon this time. I got it from your store.”

“Ah, the one you purchased the other day. I hear you’ve made some marvelous renovations. It’s become quite the talk of the town.”

Rumors traveled eerily fast. Those were merchant networks for you.

“People are talking about it even though I only rode it once, from Felskeilo to here?”

“A sensible person does not judge an item based on its rarity alone. What matters most is how well it serves one’s purposes.” Elineh suddenly drew close. His expression was serious; his tone changed. “Please take care, Lady Cayna. Many are after this wagon of yours. I hear several nobles have already set their sights on it. If you do travel outside this village, perhaps you might be better off going to a neighboring nation?”

Cayna looked at him blankly for a moment, then murmured, “Ah, right, right,” and struck her fist against her palm. A cunning smile rose to her face. For those who knew her well, such as Exis, the malice in that smile and the chaos it so often brought were cause for much concern.

“The great and mighty nobles, huh?” said Cayna. “That sure does sound like an interesting quest…”

“‘Quest’?”

“Ah, nothing, just talking to myself. Anyway, I really do appreciate the warning, Elineh. If I hadn’t known, I’m sure something ridiculous would have happened.”

“Yes, please be careful. After all, I would be very troubled if something were to happen to a dear customer.”

“Right, duly noted. I’ll keep an eye out. I wouldn’t want to worry you.”

Elineh put a hand to his chest in relief and left Cayna. However, he didn’t seem to realize that his idea of “being careful” was drastically different from hers.

After listening to them from nearby, Arbiter shot Cayna a reproachful look as she giggled.

“Hey, miss.”

“What is it, Arbiter?”

“If somethin’ goes wrong in the capital, just lemme know. I’ll get in touch with my old workplace.”

Cayna’s eyes widened. She laughed softly and replied, “Thank you very much,” with a dip of her head. “Wow, Arbiter, you’re super nice. Makes me wonder if there’ll be a natural disaster tomorrow.”

“Hey now! Is that what you say when people are tryin’ to be nice?”

“I kid, I kid. I’ll just go ask Mye for help if I get stuck in a jam.”

“Don’t you dare go botherin’ the princess, dammit!!”

The other mercenaries started causing a stir when they noticed Arbiter chasing Cayna around and waving his spear at her. But since their co-captain—who was normally the first to mediate whenever a fight broke out—decided not to get involved in this two-person game of tag, they simply watched the events unfold. Needless to say, as soon as Arbiter directed his spear tip at them and yelled, “Quit lookin’ at us like that!” the men scattered like baby spiders.

Cayna managed to escape the ghastly game of tag that had unfolded and headed for the inn.

She greeted the villagers who had just finished eating and were on their way to the fields, and then entered the building.

“Good morning!”

“Ah, if it isn’t Cayna,” said Marelle. “Mornin’.”

“Good morning, Miss Cayna,” said Lytt.

Cayna exchanged greetings with the mother-daughter pair and approached the counter. “Mind if I have a quick word?” she asked Marelle, who tilted her head in puzzlement. Cayna asked if she could borrow her daughter.

“Borrow Lytt?” said Marelle. “I hope you’re not recruiting her for your beer-brewing business.”

“No, no. I’m taking Lu to meet my older daughter, and I thought Lytt might like to join us. It doesn’t seem like she has many opportunities to visit the capital, so I figured this would be a good learning experience for her. Would that be okay with you?”

“Hmm. Well…”

“What if I have Cie help you out with the inn? Or maybe I can give you a barrel of beer for free?”

Lytt froze in confusion. Marelle glanced between her daughter and Cayna, but finally caved to their earnest stares.

“You sure know how to make a deal, Cayna,” she said with a sigh. “All right, I accept. You can take Lytt with you.”

“I’ll have Rox bring you a barrel a bit later. Okay, Lytt, time to start packing for our trip. We’ll be traveling with Elineh’s caravan.”

“Huh? Huh? Whaaaa?!”

Lytt didn’t comprehend what was happening. Dumbfounded, she blinked her eyes in a fluster, and Marelle patted her back to calm her down. Marelle had heard Elineh’s caravan was spending the day in the village before departing tomorrow.

“You’re going with Mr. Elineh?” Marelle asked. “Well, I would’ve said yes a lot sooner if you’d mentioned that.”

“Hmm, really?”

“Really. Why wouldn’t I be more worried at the thought of you three girls going off on your own?”

When Marelle put it like that, Cayna could see where she was coming from. Marelle had never seen for herself what Cayna was capable of, so naturally she was nervous about Lytt accompanying her.

Cayna flexed her arm and made her case to Marelle in order to put her at ease.

“You have my word that I’ll eliminate any harm that might get in Lytt’s way. You have nothing to worry about. Besides, we’ll be using my wagon this time. And Rox will also be with us, so we’ll be perfectly protected.”

Roxilius was only half of Cayna’s level, but his combat abilities alone made him a worthy defender.

At her mother’s urging, Lytt went off to prepare for the journey. Once she was out of earshot, Marelle bowed her head. “Thanks for this, Cayna. She’s in your hands now.”

“Don’t be silly, Marelle. I owe a lot to Lytt. Plus, she’s my friend. Of course I’ll keep her safe.”

“It’s like the village is back to its old lively self ever since you showed up.”

“I feel a little bad for turning the place upside down. I’m afraid the elder might keel over.”

Cayna shrugged, and Marelle burst into laughter. Her husband, Gatt, poked his head in from another room to see what all the commotion was about and joined in the laughter when he heard the reason. Lytt came back with a small rucksack that contained a change of clothes and tilted her head in confusion when she saw the adults in stitches.

Elineh and his crew would be departing the following day, so Cayna told Lytt to meet her by the caravan early that morning. After checking that Lytt was adequately prepared, Cayna left the inn. She had invited Latem as well, but he didn’t get permission to go since Lux was still mad at his son for the previous runaway incident. He seemed upset, but he was most likely already familiar with big cities since he was born in Helshper.

“In-invite me next time, ’kay?” he asked with a tight smile. He probably would have acted more like his usual self if his mother, Sunya, wasn’t right behind him, monitoring him to see if he might say something careless.

Cayna had initially chosen Roxilius to accompany them, given his good social skills, but Roxine insisted she take his place.

“If you three ladies will be traveling together, then I shall join you. An oaf like him doesn’t understand the inner workings of a woman’s heart. It would be extremely unwise to bring him along.”

“But there’s gonna be lots of people. You’re okay with that, Cie?”

“If you are referring to the worthless insect rabble, I shall not grow hostile. If push comes to shove, I can simply spray insecticide.”

An easy-enough solution, although Roxine was essentially making terroristic threats. But since Cayna wanted to take Roxine out of the house every now and then, her proposal couldn’t have come at a better time.

Roxilius offered no objections, although his scary murmurings of “I wonder how many she’ll turn to trash beyond all recovery…” left quite an impact on Cayna.

“Please look after the house, Rox. And before we get back…”

“Yes, I understand. I am to accept the alcohol and magic tools that are to be delivered from Helshper. Worry not—it will be done.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

Roxilius bowed respectfully, and Cayna answered with a light wave of the hand.

Hopefully their trip would prove uneventful, but if Luka ended up in any sort of danger, there would be no quelling Cayna’s resulting rage.

“Opus was always good at dealing with this sort of thing.”

Not that she could ask him for advice now. Cayna wound up wracking her brain over how to avoid the nobles’ unreasonable demands.

Roxine, meanwhile, was taking care of their luggage with Luka, who stared wide-eyed as Cayna clutched at her head and mumbled to herself.

The next morning, each member of Elineh’s caravan went slack-jawed when Cayna rolled in with her wagon. Of course, Lytt, who had arrived early to wait for them, was no exception.

“H-hey, miss… Whatcha got there?” Arbiter asked, pointing at the horse head neighing behind Cayna. Though it produced the typical sounds an actual horse would make, the horse-shaped head was not part of a real animal—it was made of wood and had a grain finish. Even Arbiter had seen horse golems in his line of work before, but never one with a blinking, braying head.

It stuck out from driver’s seat. The fact her wagon ran on no horses at all was fundamentally strange. That technically made it just a plain cart.

Luka rubbed her eyes sleepily as she popped her head out from the loading bed. Realizing she had the attention of the entire caravan, she jolted and ducked back inside.

“This is my wagon. Something wrong with it?”

“““……”””

Where to begin? There wasn’t anything specifically wrong; its very existence was the issue. Elineh’s mouth twitched even though he’d already heard the rumors describing this wagon.

“Pardon me, Lady Cayna,” he said. “This is the wagon we discussed previously, correct?”

“Yes. The very same.”

Fascinated members of the caravan surrounded the covered-wagon golem and observed it closely. For the most part, the covered wagon was ordinary and no different than the way it had been when Cayna first obtained it. What was different, however, was the wooden horse head sticking out of the driver’s seat, which was the focal point of this golem. Every vital point was embedded with a magic rhymestone, but it was the head that unified the wagon and allowed it to move. It also guaranteed a pleasant ride.

A barrier spell behind the curtain kept the interior at a comfortable temperature. The cushioned interior was big enough for three grown adults to sprawl out and relax, and the wagon itself barely swayed when in motion, thanks to a spell that eased the jolting of the wheels and axles. If any nobles knew of these features, they would surely try to snap up the wagon at once. But there was a catch: This wagon needed a little something extra in order to function properly.

“To be honest, this thing eats up magic like crazy. It practically needs an external MP tank,” Cayna explained.

The average person would end up fainting if they used spell after spell and depleted their MP all in one day. Unless you were someone like Cayna, who boasted an inexhaustible supply, it was impossible to keep the wagon running from the village to the capital.

Many people in the group worried about Cayna and warned her to keep an eye out for any nobles who would want her wagon for themselves. But there was no time to waste by standing around and taking in Cayna’s vehicle; Elineh’s subordinates promptly got the caravan set up, and they were soon on their way. As the villagers saw them off, Lytt spotted her mother among the crowd and waved excitedly. Luka also leaned forward out of the wagon to wave at Marelle. When Cayna joined in and waved, too, Marelle returned the gesture with a strained smile.

“Now, if you don’t mind me.”

“Come on in.”

Once the caravan began to depart, Elineh visited Cayna’s covered wagon. He was all smiles and made it very clear they weren’t going anywhere until he could have a look. Cayna had no reason to refuse him, of course, so she gladly welcomed him aboard.

“Goodness… You really don’t feel the swaying at all, do you?” he said incredulously.

Sitting on one of the many cushions that covered nearly the entire floor, Elineh marveled at how little vibration they felt beneath them.

The cushions were the results of Luka’s sewing practice. Roxine’s training seemed to place more emphasis on creating things than patching up clothing. The shapes depicted in the center of the cushions weren’t entirely clear, but this made them even more enjoyable to look at.

Luka and Lytt opened up the back curtain and sat next to each other, their eyes agleam with curiosity as they watched the scenery pass them by. Roxine stood at attention making sure they didn’t fall.

Everyone’s luggage was suspended on hooks placed along the wall of the covered wagon. This was mostly a decoration meant to dispel any suspicion. Cayna had her own Item Box, of course, and Roxine did as well, so they kept the luggage in the wagon to a minimum.

Cayna took out a small table, upon which Roxine soon placed cups of black tea. Elineh’s eyes went wide with surprise as he was offered a drink that seemed to come out of nowhere.

“I’ve always wondered, Lady Cayna—where do you and your friends store all these things?”

“Oh, it’s an ancient art of sorts. I don’t think there’s a way to learn it anymore.”

“I see. That makes it all the more interesting…”

Cayna couldn’t tell anyone about her Item Box. She’d learned that calling it an ancient art kept people from prying any further.

“I wonder if there will be any vacant inns in Felskeilo this time of year,” Elineh said, changing the subject when he suddenly realized there were more urgent matters at hand.

“‘This time of year’? Is something going on in Felskeilo?” Cayna asked.

“Yes—ah, but of course you wouldn’t be familiar with it. It’s called the River Festival.”

Since Cayna had told him when they first met that she was from the middle of nowhere, Elineh wasn’t the least bit surprised she didn’t know about this festival and proceeded to explain in detail.

Unlike most other cities, the royal capital of Felskeilo was bisected by a great river: the Ejidd River. Consequently, the city depended on this river for survival. Felskeilo citizens lived shoulder to shoulder with the water; its benefits and adversities shaped them as people. Thus, they held this festival annually in the royal capital to offer the river their gratitude.

“The most exciting event is the boat race at the end of the festival. Anyone, old or young, can participate. The race is just two simple laps around the sandbar, but each year it remains a highlight that has you on the edge of your seat.”

“Really? I’d like to see that.”

“I myself participated with friends many times as a child.”

“Huh? You did, Elineh?”

Cayna worried that his small kobold frame would have put him at too much of a disadvantage. Yet the smile on Elineh’s face as he fell into his vivid childhood memories told her that he enjoyed being momentarily transported back to another place and time.

“I was always eliminated in the preliminary round, however…”

“Oh dear…”

Elineh smiled awkwardly and scratched his head, but he didn’t look the least bit upset. In fact, he seemed perfectly content. Cayna could tell this vignette from Elineh’s life brought back happy memories.

“But despite all my failures, that race helped me learn the joys of teamwork.”

As Elineh described his youth in earnest, Cayna couldn’t help but smile, too. He was different from his usual self, and she found it rather interesting.

Noticing Cayna’s grin, Elineh looked down sheepishly.

“Goodness…look at me, rambling on and on about my younger days. Do keep this between us, Lady Cayna.”

“I will. That side of you is safe and sound with me, Elineh.”

Cayna looked over at Roxine, who had been listening in, and the werecat nodded lightly. Roxine would never tell a soul. Cayna couldn’t think of anyone the maid could tell even if she wanted to.

“Hmm. So it’ll be hard to find a room, huh…?” Cayna wondered aloud.

Since she now had a human child with her, she doubted she could stay at her usual inn. The guests she’d met there didn’t seem to take too kindly to humans.

Maybe she could use the inn she had arbitrarily chosen when she brought Luka along last time. It was a pretty classy establishment near the river. She remembered paying one gold coin for a night. However, even though money wasn’t an issue, Cayna wasn’t into such fancy places, so she decided to forego that option.

“What do you say I show you somewhere you can stay?” Elineh offered.

“Huh?”

Elineh’s offer took a moment to register with Cayna; her mouth hung wide open. She had assumed his company didn’t dabble in real estate.

Elineh was proposing she rent a vacant house that his company used. Incidentally, he told her, it was quite normal for merchants to be involved in a variety of merchandise. Elineh’s company handled quite a bit of real estate that ranged from small cottages to entire housing complexes.

“I’ll lend you a one-family house.”

“Are you sure that’s all right?”

“Of course. And should you take a liking to it and want to use it as a home base in Felskeilo, I can certainly make the proper arrangements for purchase.”

“Well, I’d at least like to try before I buy. But I’ll gladly take you up on your rental offer.”

After that, he instructed her on proper precautions before settling into the home. They would draw up a formal contract after arriving at Elineh’s company.

There were only two rules: Don’t break the equipment. Clean the house after use.

“That’s it?” Cayna asked.

“Yes, although we do strictly enforce them. You must reimburse us for anything you break.”

“Understood. We’ll clean the house top to bottom and return it to you in prime condition,” Cayna replied with utmost confidence.

Elineh smiled pleasantly. “When you say that, Lady Cayna, it makes me fear I will end up with a brand-new house altogether.”

“What’re you talking about? I mean, sure, I could do that, but I won’t. That would be a lot of work.”

She could use several skills in her arsenal to make a weathered home good as new. However, since doing so would require her to use both MP and HP, she’d be completely wiped out by the time she was done. Cayna personally thought the idea was full of disadvantages and therefore was not something she wished to do at all.

She tried to ask for as much detail about the River Festival as she could, but since Elineh would be making the rounds as a sponsor, he didn’t know much beyond the main events.

“I believe Sir Arbiter would be more helpful in that regard.”

“Huh, I see…”

She enjoyed spending the rest of the day discussing Felskeilo from a merchant’s perspective with Elineh until they reached the first campsite.

Luka and Lytt naturally couldn’t keep up with such conversation, and Cayna found the two peacefully fast asleep together in no time.

Just as Roxine was putting a blanket over them, the caravan stopped for a short rest. Elineh took this opportunity to apologize for “overstaying his welcome,” and he alighted from the wagon golem.

Then, as they camped along the main road that night…

Several bonfires were lit since their group was quite large, and everyone had dinner. Roxine was a big hit with the merchants in Cayna’s circle after exhibiting her culinary talents.

Just as Cayna was thinking that it’d be nice if Roxine was able to get along this well with others, Arbiter approached her group with a bottle of alcohol in one hand. An unpleasant look appeared on Roxine’s face, and she brusquely got to her feet.

“Well then, Lady Cayna. I shall look after Lady Luka and Lady Lytt. Please do your best to care for the inebriated.”

“Thanks, Cie. Good night, girls.”

“Good night, Miss Cayna!”

“Good…night…”

Arbiter was still sober, and he didn’t give the slightest reaction when Roxine dealt him the low blow. His gaze shifted between the children returning to the wagon and the bottle; he seemed to be deliberating over whether to have a drink. He noticed Cayna’s giggling and called out to her.

“H-hey, miss!”

“I don’t mind if you drink. We all need ways to relax. What’s holding you back?”

“Uh, I’m pretty sure that maid of yours hates me…”

“Cie’s like that with everyone. She’s really softened up a lot recently.”

“You call that ‘soft’? How?”

Arbiter scowled, and as he watched Roxine’s receding form slip into the night, he started gulping down the beverage.

“Phwaagh! That one hit is what I live for. I’ve been reborn.”

“…‘One hit’?”

She figured one bottle and one drink were essentially the same thing for anyone who loved alcohol.

Cayna brought out roasted beans and grilled, salted fish from her Item Box to pair with it. She had bought them during her last shopping trip in Felskeilo and stocked up when she got hooked on several flavors. Ever since summoning Roxilius and Roxine, Cayna had been eating her favorite foods without even having to ask for them, so she completely forgot to take these out.

“Man, these are some good snacks. You make these, miss?” Arbiter asked.

“No, I bought them a little earlier.”

Arbiter’s face turned strange at her honest answer, and he sniffed the beans and fish.

“Don’t seem like they’ve gone bad.”

“They’re perfectly edible. I guarantee it,” she assured him.

Storing them in her Item Box prevented any degradation, so there was nothing to worry about. However, Cayna doubted she could tell Arbiter as much.

“I heard from Master Elineh that this’ll be your first River Festival. That right, miss?”

“Uh, well, yeah. I mean, I’d only just left the countryside when you and I first met.”

“That feels like forever ago. You’ve got one hell of a presence.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cayna demanded. Arbiter took a swig of his drink and gave her a tight smile.

When she thought long and hard about everything she’d been through so far in Leadale, she realized she actually relished all these ups and downs. She felt much better and more alive than she ever did when she was stuck in a hospital bed.

As she ate her snack, she listened to Arbiter give a general overview of how to best enjoy the River Festival. The booths in the residential district were more leisurely and family-oriented than those on the main drag. There was plenty of fun to be had, but there were also plenty of pickpockets, so it was best to keep your wallet close. The boat race around the sandbar at the end of the festival was also worth checking out. Cayna wished Arbiter didn’t encourage gambling, though. He told her about the different types of entertainment that could be found at the festival in great detail. Half of these involved food and drink, so it was rather obvious where Arbiter’s interests laid.

“It’ll be my first time going to anything like a festival. I can’t wait.”

As soon as she said this, Cayna realized her slipup but couldn’t cover for herself. It was probably better not to say things that hinted at her time in “this world.”

“Don’t elves have festivals?” Arbiter asked.

“Y-yes, we do, but I’m a high elf, so…we can’t really join in and goof off with the rest of the elves.”

She relayed to him a sight she’d witnessed in one of the game’s quests. It was a specifically for high-elf players, and the mission was to successfully pull off an elf festival. The quest itself wasn’t very hard. The basic premise was that you had to eliminate obstacles that got in your way. But even if the festival went off without a hitch, the player could only sit on the throne and watch the festivities unfold. It left a sense of dissatisfaction that made one feel there could have been more to it, but it was a quest that seemed like it would have come from a player.

“That so, eh? I guess even you’ve got your own hidden troubles to deal with, miss.”

It seemed that she had fooled him. Cayna felt a wave of relief.

Arbiter cut a pitiful figure as he nodded along to Cayna’s explanation and tilted his bottle dramatically in order to lick the last drop of beer that trickled out. Unable to watch him any longer, Cayna handed him some beer from a small barrel she had set aside.

“Oh, is this…? Are you sure?”

“Seeing you struggle like that is just… Well…”

“Shucks. Sorry for kinda forcin’ you into it.”

Arbiter clutched the small barrel gleefully, and soon a couple of mercenaries appeared, lured in by the beer. They’d detected it in no time flat.

“Aghhh! You’re so mean, boss, keepin’ the good stuff all to yourself.”

“Shut it! This was a gift.”

News traveled in an instant, and soon enough even more mercenaries packed around Cayna’s bonfire. Members on night patrol duty who were unable to leave their posts could only look on in jealousy. They hoped Arbiter would save them some since he’d been given his share for free.

“Got any more, miss?” he asked Cayna.

“Nope.”

“““……”””

Part of the fun of traveling was watching the scenery change as it whizzed by, like on a train. Simply continuing down a forested road often grew tiring.

On a typical wagon ride, there wasn’t much else to do except stare out at the sights. Roxine had brought some picture books with her, but reading them now might make her nauseous. She decided to save them for bedtime stories once they made camp.

Lytt and Luka enjoyed quizzing each other at first, but Luka had only recently moved to the village and couldn’t get many answers right, so the game was over quickly. That was when Cayna took out a deck of cards.

It turned out there were all kinds of games in this world, although it wasn’t clear whether Leadale players or their Fosters were responsible for their spread.

They had playing cards, karuta, Hyakunin Isshu (Cayna was impressed this world still had each poem intact), Go, shogi, chess, Reversi, the Game of Life, mahjong—it really was a wide array. Cayna had spotted them for sale in a corner of Sakaiya, to her astonishment.

Even simple card decks or karuta were fairly expensive since they were printed on thick, high-quality paper. No doubt the people in the remote village couldn’t easily afford them. Elineh’s caravan sold similar products, but the villagers apparently didn’t go for them because on top of being pricey, they didn’t know how to use these items.

Cayna first spread out her cards to show the designs. The kings and queens were cutesy little cartoon characters, but otherwise it was a pretty standard deck. The only other difference was the Joker card, which was now depicted as a cartoon ghost. Cayna had heard from Idzik that the designs on these cards were geared toward children, and that the adult version had separate designs.

Still, Cayna had to wonder why the store manager himself had been attending to her in the board game section. She understood he had been showing hospitality, but the store employees had been shocked. She distinctly remembered how he had insisted he had better things to do. When Idzik eventually offered Cayna the card deck for free, she quickly turned him down and paid the full price, even though he insisted they could spare the expense.

“Okay, let’s first try a game called Concentration,” Cayna said.

Lytt was confused. “Concen…”

“…tration…?” Luka finished her question.

Cayna turned all the cards over and demonstrated how the game worked. Roxine helped out with the explanation, and soon they were ready to begin playing in earnest.

Cayna had always thought she had a poor memory, but her skills and high specs apparently made up for it. She’d matched up four pairs of cards and then purposely played a few unmatching ones so that the kids had a chance to get ahead. After Roxine got three pairs, she too picked several unmatching cards in order to test the girls’ memory. It seemed Roxine’s recall abilities were just as good as Cayna’s.

Aside from Luka and Lytt, Li’l Fairy also appeared to be having some trouble. Cayna had thought she was just spinning in circles over everyone to watch the game, but she would fly around certain cards with a smug look on her face, which guaranteed they wouldn’t be a match when flipped over.

“Number oooone!” Lytt cheered.

“N-number two…,” Luka stammered.

For their very first match, Lytt came in first and Luka in second. Cayna was third, and Roxine was fourth. From then on, Lytt and Luka continued to alternate between first and second place. The one time Lytt told Cayna and Roxine to get serious, the two took almost every card. Although they’d done as Lytt asked, it was a little immature of them to actually follow through.

The next card game they played was a version of Old Maid simply called Ghost, so named for the designs on the joker cards. It was a very odd feeling for those who knew it as Old Maid.

For this game, the outcome was obvious from the very beginning.

“Aww, come on! Why are Luka and Miss Roxine so good at this?” Lytt whined.

In three rounds, only Lytt had suffered crushing defeat. Luka and Roxine switched off between first and second, and Cayna was soundly in third place.

“I can tell…by your face,” said Luka.

“You are very easy to read, Lady Lytt,” Roxine agreed.

Lytt didn’t stand a chance against Roxine, who had a mean poker face, and Luka, who was still fairly inexpressive.

“Lytt, you grin way too much when your opponent is about to take the old maid—I mean, the Ghost,” said Cayna. “It’s a dead giveaway.”

“Nghhhhhh!”

Lytt moaned in frustration. Laughter erupted in the following match when Lytt pulled at her own face. The final outcome could only be described as unfortunate.

Leaving the depressed Lytt to Luka and Roxine, Cayna stepped down from the wagon. Kenison had asked her to come out and see Arbiter.

“What is it, Arbiter?” she asked.

The caravan had grown wary of something and was moving at a reduced speed. Cayna approached the mercenary group; Arbiter looked very concerned.

“Seems like we’re being followed by something that’s staying back at a set distance. Any idea what it could be?” he asked her.

“I can’t say I do, no.”

Cayna and her group had paid to come along and were thus treated as guests. Naturally, it also meant they were to be guarded. Even so, if asked, Cayna had every intention of helping guard and mount a counterattack. She had conveyed this when she joined the caravan.

“Well, hopefully it’s just bandits or somethin’,” said Arbiter.

“Captain…we’d better investigate their movements a bit more,” his co-captain chided.

Arbiter’s expression soured. It seemed that he’d been hoping to somehow avoid rebuke.

Cayna offered nothing in his defense, instead summoning a Wind Spirit and sending it in the direction that worried Arbiter. As she shared the spirit’s sight and searched the surroundings, she discovered a host of thieves stalking them.

“It must be because us merchants all travel at once whenever a festival draws near,” Elineh explained as he came by on his wagon. “They’re after our earnings.”

He shot a melancholy glance from the driver’s seat to where the bandits had apparently gathered.

“I do wonder where they pour in from each year…,” the co-captain grumbled as he rubbed between his brows. Bandits were no different from cockroaches, and they were treated just the same: as a scourge.

“They’ll most likely attack us under the cover of night,” Cayna said.

“We won’t wait till night. Let’s clean ’em up quick. You’ll help out, right, miss?” Arbiter asked.

“Sure thing.” Cayna was willing to lend a hand, but then when Arbiter suggested they just jump right in and drive the bandits out, she and the co-captain voiced their objections.

“We can’t do that,” Cayna insisted.

“Miss Cayna is right. To either capture or take out half their numbers, we will need to weaken the bandits’ forces. Rushing in without a plan will only give our opponents the advantage. If they escape, it will be our own failure.”

“Well, why don’t we temporarily halt their forces? Master Elineh, what if you pretend one of your axles is broken and need to stop?” Arbiter suggested.

“Pretending we’ll be immobile for some time? I do not mind. Since Lady Cayna is here, we can entrust her with our safety,” Elineh replied.

Arbiter then made a rather crafty proposal that made one wonder why he wanted to blindly rush in to begin with. Elineh himself was quick to give permission and went along with the idea like an old partner in crime.

“Anyway, I’ll leave you to keep us safe.”

“Anyway, I shall leave our safety to you.”

“Why are you two in sync?!”

Arbiter and Elineh grinned and patted Cayna’s shoulders, while Cayna stood there in shock.

The co-captain issued orders one after the other, and the mercenaries moved into formation to stop the bandits from escaping. Cayna attempted to join the frontlines as well, but as soon as Arbiter said, “You’ve got kids. The last thing they wanna see is you caught up in a bloodbath,” she quickly fell back.

Instead, she showered everyone with buffs: Attack Power Up, Defense Power Up, and Acceleration Up. She also cast a healthy amount of Invisibility on the mercenaries who were assigned to carry out the ambush. When Arbiter saw his subordinates flowing with power from every pore in their body, he heaved a resigned sigh.

“I dunno why these bandits even bother when we have her around,” he said.

“This will undoubtedly turn out just like the incident at the national border,” the co-captain agreed.

They then fleshed out the details of the plan to thwart the bandits. After bouncing ideas off one other for a little while, the mercenaries notified the caravan, making sure to add that everyone needed to feign ignorance.

The caravan resumed its usual pace and continued on its way. Then, just as it reached the next campsite…

“Heeey! Hold on!” the mercenary acting as the decoy hollered so that everyone nearby could hear. The wagons stopped one by one. When the caravan came to a complete halt, the merchants poked their heads out of the wagons and asked what was going on. They were all cringe-worthy actors, but luckily they didn’t need to be star performers. All they needed to do was trick their target.

“Something’s wrong with this wagon axle. Someone, come help me out!”

This too was loud enough for everyone in the area to hear. Since the caravan was in the middle of the forest with nothing else around, the sound traveled a great distance.

The person they chose to be the decoy was apparently quiet by nature and not comfortable yelling. When Arbiter flatly told him, “It’s all on you,” he had accepted the role while smiling through his tears.

Not aware of the situation, Luka and Lytt leaned out the wagon to see what was going on. After Roxine’s gentle urging, they reluctantly returned inside.

Several people gathered around the mercenary who had raised the call. Half of them were illusions Cayna had created with magic; they were meant as stand-ins for the mercenaries who had been cast with Invisibility and were now entering the forest to carry out an ambush. The bandits, seeing so many of the mercenaries crowded around one section of the caravan, chose that moment to leap out from the forest in droves. They’d intended to take the caravan by surprise, only to be overwhelmed from their rear by the mercenaries who had been lying in wait.

“Gah?!”

“Gwagh?!”

“Wh-what the—?!”

Most of the defeated bandits had either died blissfully unaware of their failure or otherwise didn’t realize what was happening until right before they met their demise.

“I—I give up! I surrender!”

“P-please! Spare me!”

The survivors all quickly realized their situation, threw down their weapons, and surrendered.

“I can’t tell anymore if we’re playing dirty or not…,” said Cayna.

“No use pointin’ it out, miss,” Arbiter replied. “This is just how it works.”

“It’s rough when they swarm in like this,” Kenison added.

“You folks quit your rambling and tie them up already!” Arbiter yelled to his men.

“““Yessir.”””

The dead bandits were buried in holes right there while the survivors were captured so they could be taken to the capital. Their hands were tied behind them, and they were connected to ropes that trailed behind the wagons. To prevent any escape or resistance, a giant, double-headed snake that unsettled everyone was wrapped around the bandit group at their torsos.

Since Cayna was hesitant to let the children see the snake, she moved her golem wagon to the very front of the caravan.

“…Hey, miss, what’s that?” Arbiter asked.

“A goghoda. They say if one bites you, you’re dead before you can take even a few more steps.”

The snake occasionally gave the bandits a good lick with its long tongue and stared directly into their eyes, making the men’s faces go from a pale to deathly ashen color. A goghoda was a level-450 snake monster from the Underworld area; it often appeared as ornamentation around the arms and necks of the area’s devil midbosses. Since the snake enjoyed being an accessory, Cayna summoned it and asked, “Could you please be their accessory in place of this rope?” and it happily agreed. Cayna really wanted to ask the snake if it was happy that way.

Arbiter felt sickened after watching the whole thing play out from start to finish. Who would tie someone up with a snake instead of a rope?

However, since they were on a main road, the caravan couldn’t very well shock the passersby. Therefore, when given the order, the snake used a camouflage technique to disguise its body as a fat rope.

“Well, we’re almost to Felskeilo. We can take it easy from here,” Arbiter said.

The co-captain heaved a long, deep sigh as Arbiter quickly shifted into relaxed mode. By his look of resignation, this seemed to be an ongoing occurrence. Sensing his anxiety, several mercenaries patted the co-captain’s shoulder and offered to help him out.

“…Arbiter,” said Cayna.

“Hey, what’s up? Why the look of pity?”

“I really do feel bad for the co-captain, so let’s try and keep our focus.”

“It’s fiiine. As long as I’m a solid wall, me and my men can relax. There’s nothin’ to worry about!”

“I don’t think being a solid wall should equal abandoning your job,” Cayna pressed him solemnly. The mercenaries within earshot smirked.

Arbiter then beckoned Cayna to come closer. She was hesitant but obediently lent an ear.

“There’s something strange going on in Felskeilo. Be careful,” he whispered.

Cayna couldn’t hide her unease. He was being too vague; she had no idea she was supposed to be careful of. Arbiter was basically telling her to be ready for anything and everything.

However, the biggest question of all was how he had managed to get this information while accompanying the caravan.

The Felskeilo royal capital was as lively as ever. Several other groups were lined up and waiting to go through the east gate, but the caravan was immediately allowed passage once the influential merchant Elineh displayed his permit.

Cayna had dispelled the snake beforehand, and the bandits were handed over to the guards at the gate. A monetary reward would be sent to the inn where Arbiter’s group was staying. Cayna’s horseless golem wagon astonished the guards, but they let her pass without further questioning. It grabbed the attention of others in line as well, and they all watched it go by with shock on their faces.

“Darn it. I should’ve put it in my Item Box before we got to Felskeilo,” Cayna muttered.

She was hit with a wave of regret as soon as she saw just how people were staring wide-eyed at her mode of transportation.

“I think passing through this crowded street will be a bit hard on Lady Luka and Lady Lytt,” Roxine said, and with good reason. The main streets were much more packed than when Cayna first came to the royal capital. Passing through the crowds now would now take twice as long as last time.

Shop employees loudly touted their wares and attempted to entice people in. Others danced in the sun while onlookers cheered them on and clapped to the beat. Some people carried large loads on their heads and shoulders or worked together in threes to move cargo. There were shoppers, sightseers, adventurers, and patrolling knights. The streets were overflowing with people from all walks of life.

Carriages traveled down a separate road, but the road’s boundary line was vague, and for some reason people would dash out toward them from the pedestrian side. The caravan slowed to avoid hitting anyone, and as they moved along, the mercenaries arranged themselves to form a sort of wall.

Lytt and Luka had never seen such a conglomeration of people before, and their eyes sparkled in awe and wonder.

This was Luka’s second time to Felskeilo, but she’d barely taken in the sights on her first trip since she hadn’t been sure what was going on or how she was feeling. Cayna and Roxine observed with smiles on their faces as the two girls giddily asked, “What’s that? How about that?” in a way one might expect girls their age to act.

The caravan made its way through town and arrived at Elineh’s business. One wagon after another came to a halt behind the store where Cayna had earlier obtained her wagon, and employees bustled along in swarms as they transported their loads. They, too, were astonished to see the horseless golem carriage, but when the caravan merchants whispered, “Not a word to anyone,” they nodded and returned to work.

“We can look after your wagon for you, Lady Cayna. What would you prefer?” Elineh offered Cayna after she climbed down from the wagon and stretched.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to go that far,” she said. “Wouldn’t it terrible of me to put that much on you after you’ve already told me everything else you’re supposed to take care of?”

Once she made sure Lytt and Luka were out of the golem wagon, Cayna put it back in her Item Box. After seeing it disappear before his very own eyes, even Elineh, who had heard of such ancient arts, couldn’t hide his surprise. He didn’t question her further, but the look on his face made it clear that he was dying to know more. Cayna’s ability to stow away entire wagons was part of her charm.

Cayna quickly signed the lease for the house they would be renting, and just as Elineh offered to have an employee give them a tour, Arbiter appeared with a subdued look on his face. It was hard to believe he was the same person who just a short while earlier enthusiastically exclaimed, “I’m goin’ straight to the bar!”

“What is the matter, Sir Arbiter?” Elineh asked.

“I got a tip a bit earlier—looks like something weird is going on. I’m hearin’ there’s some worry about holding the festival.”

“What?!” Cayna cried.

She had thought the festival was already happening, but it turned out it was still in its preparation stages. The sponsors were aiming for a bright, fine day to hold the actual event.

“So the energy level hasn’t even hit its peak… What kind of situation could endanger the festival?” she asked.

“I already sent Kenison to the Adventurers Guild to find out. They’ll let us know once they’ve got further details, so you should let the kids take a break in the meantime,” Arbiter replied.

Luka and Lytt, whom Roxine had pulled away from Cayna and the group’s conversation, were now staring at her. The sparkle in their eyes hadn’t faded, and their expressions showed eager anticipation. Cayna couldn’t possibly forbid them from going out when they looked at her like that. She thanked Elineh and Arbiter, and the girls were led to a house not far from the Elineh’s business.