WE TOOK A TRIP ON THE LOCAL CARRIAGE LINES
Even though it was a sunny day without a cloud in the sky, everything was cast into shadow by an enormous shape looming overhead.
I wasn’t all that surprised, though. I knew a leviathan when I saw one—probably either Vania or Fatla.
The leviathan finally landed in an open field. Ten minutes later, Fatla came over to the house in the highlands alone. Ah, so it was Fatla. I still couldn’t tell them apart when they were in their leviathan forms.
“Hello, pardon me. It’s just me today.”
“I don’t mind at all. What’s up? Come on in.”
I brought her to the dining table. She was the most official-like girl I knew, so if she was here, she probably had a bureaucratic request for me.
“I came today to suggest you take a look at this project. I wasn’t sure if you could read Demon, so I translated it into human words for you.”
Fatla handed me a piece of paper.
LOCAL CARRIAGE LINE JOURNEY
REACH YOUR DESTINATION ON AN
EXCITING FOUR-DAY, THREE-NIGHT TRIP!
“…What is this?”
That was honestly how I felt. I wasn’t expecting something like this to land in my lap.
“Do you know of The Carriage Line Journeys books?”
Nope, should I?
“No. What, isn’t that a book for demons?”
Then Shalsha appeared.
“Mom, The Carriage Line Journeys is the name of a novel series that was very popular in the human world. There are still some hardcore fans around.”
“Oh, right… I don’t really know much about that stuff… What is it about?”
“The main characters, two men and a woman, are going on a pilgrimage. Along their travels, they happen to meet in a shop and find that they get along well, then decide to travel together. But they decide that just going around and looking at the sacred sights isn’t interesting enough, so they come up with a rule: They are to decide on a destination and then challenge themselves to reach it in four days and three nights using just their feet and the local carriage lines.”
While carriage lines weren’t as prevalent in Nanterre as they were in Halkara’s homeland, there were still some around. They were essentially buses—large carriages that could carry a lot of people.
Without any trains or cars, carriages were necessary to link towns that were a bit more distant. Not only did this world have hardy horses to pull carriages, but it also had other creatures to help, like the behemoths.
“Huh. So what’s so interesting about these books?”
“It’s difficult to explain, but if I had to, it would be that the story is realistic. The three main characters argue regularly, and their failures have genuine impact. The carriage lines mentioned in the story all existed at the time of writing. The author might have actually taken these journeys.”
“Wait, the characters don’t take the same four-day, three-night journey over and over, do they…?”
“Each volume portrays a different journey. In the first volume, they reach the holy site they originally intended to visit, but then they continue to plan for the next one. Thirty-five volumes were published.”
Holy crap, that’s a lot…
“Also, these books left a strong impression on the demon king—”
Oh no. I have a bad feeling about this.
“—and she wanted you to join her group of three to do a local carriage line journey in real life.”
A plan like this means we’ll be traveling, huh…?
It sounded like Pecora really wanted to do it. Four days and three nights? That was a long time.
“Give me some time to read the series before I give my answer. If it’s good, I’ll do it.”
“Indeed. I believe it would be quicker for you to understand the rules by looking over it yourself instead of having me explain it to you. I shall teach you a spell to summon me, so please give me a call when you’re done reading it.”
After that, I spent my pockets of free time reading the books.
In short, the rule was that you could only use the carriage lines.
By paying just a bit of money, you could get a carriage to run even if it didn’t normally. With a generous fee, one could also go right to their destination. If this were Japan, then it would be like a taxi.
But that was not allowed. We had to use the carriage lines. Which meant that since it was difficult to travel long distances in one carriage, we’d have to transfer.
For some reason, it was fascinating—there was the fear when a transfer didn’t go so well, the joy when a carriage line they weren’t aware of coincidentally came to pick them up. By the time I realized it, I was so into it that I’d read the second and third volumes, too.
The trio failed a lot, like sadly watching as the carriage going to their stop departed seconds before they arrived.
Their journey itself ended in failure rather often. A happy ending wasn’t always guaranteed, so the tension pulled me in more than I anticipated.
A little while later, I used the demon-calling spell to summon Fatla. She didn’t land in the bath and wind up soaked like Beelzebub usually did.
“I’ll do it. The books were good.”
“I am happy to hear you agree. So who will your third be?”
“Whoa, Pecora’s not forcing me to play along with one of her fantasies or making me go alone with her. She’s being faithful to the book… She’s awfully serious about this stuff…” Some people out there don’t play around when it comes to playing around. “So I get to choose?”
“Of course. Lady Beelzebub and I will decide the theming of the journey. And I will have Vania gather data, so rest easy. All you participants have to do is travel.”
Once Fatla was done with her work, she faithfully went back home. That was just her personality.
All right, who should I take with me? It would be unfair if I brought along just one of my girls…
Then Flatorte came walking down the hall.
“Maaaan, I’m so booooored.”
Oh, you are, huh? Perfect, then. Flatorte usually looked like she was bored, though…
“Flatorte, what would you say to a local carriage line journey?”
“What’s that?”
I didn’t think she’d know much about them, but that was fine. Actually, that was probably for the best. The game wouldn’t be much fun if I took along a girl who was really knowledgeable about the local carriages.
“Flatorte, there’s something I want you to do with me.”
Flatorte quickly gave the okay.
The next day, Flatorte and I rode on Fatla’s massive leviathan form to our starting point. She wouldn’t even tell us where it was.
We arrived at a rather lively town called Entulle, where Vania was waiting for us.
“Welcome! I will be putting together the records for this trip, so please face me and pretend you’re talking to the readers of the book!”
It was like we were recording for TV…
“We will now be starting our local carriage line journey. I’m Azusa, ‘Witch of the Highlands,’ and this is—”
“Flatorte. And taking carriages the whole way sounds exhausting. We’d get there right away if I flew as a dragon.”
“That’s against the rules. Plus, a tasteful traveler savors her journeys.”
I then sensed someone behind me.
“And Pecora, making her grand entrance! I hope we have a good time!”
“You sure are excited about this, Pecora…”
Her energy reminded me of an idol.
“Of course! We can recreate the journey on the local carriage lines! We will be able to experience all the laughter and tears, the kindness of strangers when we’re lost, and the troubles of terrible weather all for ourselves! This is the greatest thing for a fan of the original works!”
Her enthusiasm was on a whole different level… She must really be obsessed with these novels.
“Now that all three of you are here, I will be revealing your destination,” Vania said, handing us a map.
There was a circle around the provincial capital of Zenlev, which was three provinces away.
“You will be going to the Grand Zenlev Bridge here in four days and three nights! And please be sure to discuss rooming arrangements! We don’t want you to be stranded in a place with no inn!”
Yeah, I knew that from the books.
“Now please begin your journey on the local carriage lines! Oh, I will be watching from afar, so please don’t mind me.”
I would mind, but whatever.
And that was how our journey on the local carriage lines began.
“Now then, Elder Sister. What shall we do~?” Pecora peeked at the map.
“Since we can only travel on the local carriages, we should head for towns with lots of people.”
Places with bigger populations would have more demand for carriages in any world.
“I guess the biggest city near Zenlev would be here, Dontata.”
“If we went via Dontata, then we would run into the Iligierre Mountain Range. I doubt there are any carriages passing through the mountains.” Pecora was really serious about this. She knew a lot about this area, even though it wasn’t part of the demon world.
“Mountains? Can’t we just fly over them?” Flatorte still didn’t quite understand what we were doing here.
Like I just said, flying is against the rules.
“Miss Flatorte,” said Pecora, “I would appreciate if you refrained from getting in our way this time…”
Pecora seemed somewhat confused as to why someone like her was joining us. Did I choose the wrong person?
But Flatorte was already gone.
Where’d she go? If she wandered off to buy food for herself, this could be a problem…
I looked around and spotted her heading to a nearby waiting room that listed the carriage schedule.
“The next carriage is soon. We won’t have any time to eat at this rate. We need to be careful.”
Whoa, is she actually helping…?
Pecora inexplicably brought her hands up to her cheeks, swaying excitedly back and forth over Flatorte.
Huh? Don’t tell me Pecora’s got a new crush…
“How marvelous, Elder Sister. You’ve chosen someone who completely understands the original work~! Her head may seem empty, but she went right over to check the time schedule; she’s exactly like the precious comic relief, Natsgasha!”
Oh, I get it now…
Could I have subconsciously chosen someone who matched a character from the book?
No, I think it was just a coincidence…
We took our first carriage from Entulle to the neighboring town, Wosoota.
There was barely any time to transfer at Wosoota, but there was a carriage heading for Denbera, which was even farther west, so we hopped over and kept going.
Vania was riding in the same carriage as us, by the way, so it felt like there were four of us traveling together… She was sitting way in the back, though.
In the rickety carriage, I stared at the map.
Even though Pecora was so into this, I had been forced into the role of leader.
“The next province is just west of Denbera. I wonder if we can get there by carriage.”
Since it was a pain to get licensed in different provinces, carriage companies often changed over the line, apparently. That was also why we wouldn’t be able to cross into a new province by carriage alone, so we would probably have to walk. At least, that was what I read in the story.
“Gosh, now we can experience the frustration of carriage lines ending at the provincial border! How wonderful!”
She was way too happy for this mess.
But at the same time, if every stage of the journey was easily linked up by carriage, then we would just be riding them the whole time. There would be no drama.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say this plan hinged on whether or not we could get through the areas that weren’t connected by carriage.
“Hey, Flatorte, do you have any opinions?”
“Zzz, zzz…zzz…”
The carriage had rocked her to sleep…
“Incredible! Miss Flatorte is even sleeping in the carriage like in the books! Could she be pretending to be Natsgasha?!”
Pecora, being Pecora, was impressed by the weirdest things.
“No, I think it’s just a coincidence…”
We whiled away the hours until we eventually arrived at Denbera. Next, we wanted to go west to a town called Wententer in the next province over.
There was a Northern Atz Transport Carriage Local Line Information Booth, so I went to ask the receptionist. “Excuse me, we were hoping to transfer to another carriage that will take us to Zenlev. Are there are any carts going west?”
But the Northern Atz Transport Carriage receptionist gave us a troubled look. “My apologies, but there aren’t any carriages that go west of here…”
There really weren’t any! What should we do…?
Pecora also looked at the map with a sigh. “It’s about thirty gilro to Wententer from here. That’s not short enough to walk.”
* Thirty gilro was about thirty kilometers.
—But then Flatorte poked her head in from behind us.
“Hey, are there really no carriages at all?”
“Oh, um, yes… That is correct…”
“But it’s still a long way till the provincial border. There has to be something, right? It doesn’t have to be a carriage from your company.”
“Oh, in that case, the town runs community carriages that go to the border. They use smaller carts, so they only fit about ten people.”
So there was something!
“See? There are other carriages. Also, once we get to the next province, shouldn’t there also be companies over there running carriage lines?” Flatorte pressed on.
“Well…if I remember correctly, if you go down about two gilro from the pass at the border, there should be a carriage company called Thistle Knights’ Transportation running out of a place called Ceteri Community Hall toward Wententer…”
So we could walk to the neighboring province between those two points.
“Then that’s all you had to say. From the way you phrased it, it sounded like we would’ve had to walk all the way to our next destination. Well, maybe we didn’t really ask the right question, either.”
Flatorte seemed really mature.
I wasn’t expecting to see this side of her…
Afterward, while we were waiting for a carriage, Flatorte explained her reasoning. “Mistress, the human at the information booth was assuming we were regular travelers. Normally, you wouldn’t take every tiny carriage line you can from a place without many lines to begin with—you’d just hire private carriages. That’s why you have to explain your circumstances. So if you point that stuff out and ask, things will work out.”
“Wow… You’re really sharp today, Flatorte.”
“I take everything humans say with a grain of salt, that’s why. Blue dragons have historically always been tricked by humans…”
What happened there…?
“We have many stories of knights who told blue dragons to crouch down, saying they were too tall to see, before taking the chance to touch their horns.”
Oh right, if someone touched a blue dragon’s horns, then the dragon was obligated to serve them… Of course bad people would take advantage of that.
“There are also well-known stories of blue dragons who lost fifty million gold in get-rich-quick schemes.”
“You should be more careful! There’s no easy way to get rich!”
“Elder Sister, Miss Flatorte, since we have some time before the next community carriage, why don’t we eat lunch now?” Pecora suggested.
She was a ruler, so she probably wanted to eat somewhere nice.
“A popular style of cooking around here is pickling the dishes in a soup made from steamed river fish. Let’s eat that!”
“Hey, good idea. We should eat the local delicacies while we’re here!”
That is what traveling is all about!
But even after we went to the restaurant, Flatorte ordered grilled chicken.
“Hey, you’re not eating the local dish…?”
“Blue dragons always get tricked. We have a long history of being fooled into eating ‘local delicacies’ that aren’t tasty at all. I don’t order anything strange-looking.”
She sure was thorough…
“Also, I don’t really like fish.”
“That’s your main reason, isn’t it?”
The local dish had a peculiar taste to it, so I somewhat understood Flatorte’s excuse. I don’t know what I’d say if someone asked me if I wanted to eat it again.
Then we finally climbed aboard the community carriage.
It was definitely smaller than the previous carriages we’d been on until now, but we were the only ones riding it, at least.
While we were on the road, the driver struck up a conversation with us.
“Are you girls planning to walk over the provincial border…? Are you sure your legs are strong enough?”
“Well, once we cross the border, there aren’t any carriages immediately available, right? We have no choice but to walk.”
“Yaaay! We really are going to walk across the border! It’s like a dream come true!”
There was only one person who was excited that the carriage lines weren’t connected. Didn’t her happiness kind of render this whole thing moot? You couldn’t punish someone if they took it as a compliment.
The mountain pass was rough, but it wasn’t completely unclimbable. Actually, the reason it was rough for me was because I was holding Pecora’s hand the whole time.
“Can’t you walk on your own here…?”
“Aww~ But I need your support, Elder Sister~”
Whatever. At least she probably worked hard as the demon king.
“Oh, Elder Sister, I believe my feet are starting to hurt~ ”
“You’re so fake.”
I would ignore her obvious acting.
Now, once we climbed the pass, we just had to go down.
“Elder Sister, Miss Flatorte, please don’t miss the carriage stop.”
“Got it. Oh hey, maybe that’s it.”
We spotted a carriage stopped in the distance—and it looked like it was about to leave!
“This is bad! Lines like this only get a handful of carriages a day! We can’t miss it!”
But as I fretted, a gust of wind rushed past me.
Wait. It wasn’t the wind.
With a fierce burst of speed, Flatorte rushed after the cart!
“Wait! Hey, don’t leave! You have no passengers—let us on!”
She chased after the carriage at a speed unbelievable for a regular human, and the carriage driver stopped. It was a victory won through physical prowess.
“Phew, isn’t this a relief, Pecora?”
I thought Pecora might be happy about being back on the local carriage lines, but there was disappointment on her face.
“Elder Sister… Seeing Miss Flatorte run, I wonder if we aren’t solving our problems with brute strength…”
That…was possible…
We arrived safely in Wententer, a town in the neighboring province.
The Iligierre Mountain Range ran right along the north of it. There was a big town called Dontata about a hundred gilro past the mountains, which was a big step toward our goal of Zenlev.
The problem was that there probably weren’t any carriages going through the mountains. There were a few detours we could take, but we generally wanted to at least pass through one of the valleys.
I turned around to face Vania, who was tailing us.
“The main puzzle of this trip has to be how we’re going to clear the Iligierre Mountain Range, right?”
“Oh, I’m just here to record the trip, so please don’t talk to me or ask me any questions~”
Outsiders definitely had the most fun when it came to this stuff…
“Elder Sister, we cannot make a mistake in our choice of route here. Let us think carefully about this.”
“You’re right. We can probably catch one more carriage before the sun sets, but we can’t act too thoughtlessly… We wouldn’t want to end up in a village without any inns when night falls…”
Then Flatorte smacked me on the back. “It’s not too far. We could probably make it over if we start climbing now. We three can make it through without breaking a sweat.”
“What…? No way… Just reaching the foot of the mountains would take a long time…” It wasn’t like we could reach the trailhead in only ten minutes.
“No, there are still carriages headed to the trailhead. If we hurry from there, we can reach the other side before midnight. There also should be some huts for hunters to sleep in somewhere in the mountains, so we could borrow them and sleep there. We can make it! I know we can.”
“Is it a good idea to be running around the mountains late at night…?”
“The sky’s clear. I’m sure the moon will be bright enough. Let’s go! Let’s get to our goal!” Flatorte pulled me by the arm and right into a carriage.
“Hold it! We must consult and come to a decision together!”
Pecora chased after us and hopped onto the carriage to the trailhead—just as it started moving.
I can’t believe it… What should we do…?
We could jump out, but then we’d technically be stealing a ride… Should we get off at the next stop?
But Flatorte had a great big smile on her face. “There is no need to worry, Mistress! I, Flatorte, ran a route around here in the blue dragon mountain marathon! We will reach the other side without getting lost! There are lots of ups and downs, but no dangerous paths! We should take this road!”
“…Fine. I’ll leave it to you, then.” Come on, I couldn’t rain on her parade! And this would get us to the goal, so it wasn’t exactly wrong. Walking wasn’t against the rules, so it shouldn’t be a problem…right?
“E-Elder Sister… Is this what we’re doing, then?”
“Neither of us really thought about how we were going to handle this. Flatorte’s the only one with an idea, and if she says we can do it, then we should follow her… I know it’s a game, and it wouldn’t be one if we didn’t give it our all to complete it…”
For a game to work, all players have to take it seriously. Like, if the opposing team suddenly busts out their dance moves during a soccer match and never tries to take the ball, then you’d win a million to nothing. But it wouldn’t be any fun to play or to watch.
Once someone decides not to take something seriously, the tension vanishes, and the whole thing feels pointless. So there was nothing wrong with what Flatorte was doing.
Vania’s comments behind us bothered me (“Oh, so they’re taking this route…”), but I shouldn’t have heard that anyway, so I ignored it.
Just before the sun set, we arrived at the trailhead, where the mountains loomed over us. Can we really climb over this…?
“Listen up, you two. I, Flatorte, shall lead the way! None of these steps are even that high. Let’s climb! We’ll pace ourselves, so you won’t wear yourselves out! Let’s go!”
Pecora and I followed after Flatorte as we ran along the mountain trails.
Her speed was nowhere near fast enough to be called a sprint, so keeping up with her was entirely possible. We never even ran out of breath, and we certainly never got tired enough to stop. Probably because we all had above-average stats.
This was way easier than the marathon I ran in junior high during my previous life. The whole time, I maintained a brisk jog—it felt like I was only two minutes into the race.
“Gah… Are these three sane…? I’m tired, so tired~ Leviathans don’t really run that fast…”
I could hear the chronicler’s voice from behind us, but I paid no mind since I wasn’t supposed to hear it. Keep up, Vania!
Five hours later, Flatorte came to a sudden stop.
It was so sudden that I bumped right into her.
“Hey, you need to warn me…”
“I’m sorry, but there’s a sign here you’ll want to see.”
There was indeed a signpost.
Hey, we could get to Dontata by midnight at this rate…
Dontata would definitely have inns, so we should start heading down.
“Everything will be easier than before from here on out! It’s easier to get hurt on downward slopes, but not for us! If monsters come out to get us, we’ll just kick them aside!” Flatorte grinned.
And so we reached Dontata before midnight and took three rooms, one for each of us—
On day two, we had a leisurely morning and took the carriage line to our goal, the Grand Zenlev Bridge.
“Yes! We made it! We did it, Mistress, we did it!” Flatorte held my hand and danced around.
Even if she wasn’t initially that enthusiastic about it, she was excited to have cleared the challenge.
But I was worried about Pecora.
“This is wrong… This isn’t what I… We missed the whole point…”
Pecora was almost shell-shocked. I’d never seen her like this before…
We’d moved at a breakneck pace, reaching our goal on only the second day. That wouldn’t be an issue if we took the challenge several times a year, but if it happened the first time, something was wrong with the plan itself…
Meanwhile, Vania had a hand to her forehead. “What should I do…? I have so many blank pages…”
Yeah, there wouldn’t be enough for a book…but it wasn’t my problem. This was the planner’s fault.
I patted Pecora on the back. “I bet we’re way under budget, so why don’t we go to a nice inn tonight and share a bed?”
Maybe that would lift her spirits.
Pecora widened her eyes. “What? You’re… Is that really…okay…? I won’t lose my throne in a coup or anything tomorrow…?”
“I don’t know much about the political climate of the demon lands right now, but you should be fine…”
Pecora was ultimately a pure girl, so she wouldn’t do anything bad to me.
When we lay down in the giant bed that night, she seemed to be in a much better mood, so I decided to consider the issue resolved.
On the way home, dragon-form Flatorte asked me a question.
“Hey, why was our course so easy?”
“Well… I’m pretty sure—”
I wondered if I could be honest about it. Meh, it’s fine.
“—it’s because we don’t actually use carriages.”
I mean, we had never needed them, right?
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