The beast tamer exiled from the hero’s party and the cat eared girl from the strongest race meet
There’s basically no standard way to travel to the Western Continent, which is the territory of the demons.
Well, that’s only natural.
If you set up a route that connects your own country to enemy territory, it could end up being used against you.
That’s why there are no bridges, and ships aren’t commonly used either.
“So in the end, we’ll have to use a boat, right?”
For the moment, we moved to the edge of a huge river and started discussing possible options together.
“Yeah. I agree with Yuki. A boat is our best bet.”
“Exactly. Since this isn’t a cliff or anything, we can cross it with a normal boat if we really want to.”
“However, there are two problems.”
“The first problem is—who’s going to accept such a dangerous job as taking us to demon territory?”
“The second problem is—even if someone agrees to take us, unless we do something to the boat, we’ll probably be spotted before we even land and get sunk.”
“In that case, why don’t we just go by air?”
“…You’re not thinking of riding on my back, are you?”
Tania made a face like she absolutely hated the idea.
She’s mellowed out quite a bit recently, but…
She’s still basically very proud.
She’s said it before—she hates being treated like a carriage.
So, I don’t want to force her.
Well, honestly…
“Sure, riding on Tania’s back might be easy, but it would stand out like crazy, wouldn’t it?”
“Keeping it a secret would be very difficult.”
“Hmph… I thought it was a brilliant idea.”
“Too bad. My back isn’t that cheap.”
“But we have ridden before—”
“T-That was because of the emergency with Iris! Anyway, no! No riding on my back! Like Rain said, it would stand out, and we might get shot down before we even land!”
She’s right.
If a dragon suddenly flew over, the obvious response would be to attack it.
That would completely defeat the purpose of sneaking in.
“So, we’re back to using a boat?”
“I could walk on water, you know?”
“Huh?”
“Like… stepping across it, one step at a time.”
“…”
“…”
“Let’s just try to arrange a boat somehow.”
“…I got ignored…”
Iris puffed her cheeks in frustration.
Sorry, but that method only works for you, Iris.
“If that’s the case, why not leave it to us?”
Yuki volunteered.
“You have an idea?”
“I’ll borrow a military ship.”
“I can handle the piloting.”
What a reliable duo.
Still, being able to casually borrow a military ship…
It really reminds me that Yuki is a prince.
“But won’t a ship still stand out? It might be less noticeable than riding on Tania, but since there aren’t other ships around, it’ll still draw attention.”
“What about concealment magic?”
“It exists, but completely hiding the ship would be difficult. If it was just Sora and the others, no problem, but hiding the ship as well… that’s tough.”
“Then even using a boat might not work…”
If we were heading in to start a fight, it wouldn’t matter if we were seen…
But this time, the mission is to rescue the kidnapped people.
Stealth is the priority—if we stand out, it’s all meaningless.
“What about borrowing a fishing boat instead of a military one?”
“Would that fit all of us?”
“Hmm… probably not.”
“If we use several smaller boats, it won’t really be much different.”
“What about going even smaller—like one person per boat?”
“Do such boats even exist?”
“That would be difficult too…”
A small boat…
One per person…
“…Hey, Yuki. Just to confirm, this isn’t actually a river ahead, right? It’s the sea?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. That’s right. It looks like a huge river since it’s between continents, but technically, it’s considered the sea. The water’s saltwater, too.”
“I see… In that case, this might work.”
I quickly run a plan through my head.
There are some uncertainties, but…
The odds of success look pretty high.
“Rain, did you think of something?”
“Yeah. If it works, we can cross to the Western Continent without being seen—far more reliably than by boat.”
“Whoa! That’s amazing!”
“Is there really such a convenient method? I can hardly believe it…”
“Well, if Rain says so, then there must be something. He’s always coming up with crazy ideas and making them happen.”
“Indeed. Lord Rain does go a little mad sometimes.”
I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or an insult…
But whatever.
Right now, what matters is crossing to the Western Continent quickly and saving the kidnapped people.
And we have to crush the Four Heavenly Kings’ plan, too.
“Let’s head back to town and make preparations.”
“Preparations? For what?”
“To buy bait.”
――――――――――
The sky was unfortunately overcast.
Not a single ray of sunlight was shining through.
On top of that, a thick fog had rolled in.
Just a few meters ahead, everything was shrouded in white, leaving visibility practically at zero.
Under normal circumstances, these would be terrible conditions for crossing the sea…
But for us right now, this was almost ideal.
With fog this dense, the chances of being spotted were extremely low.
If we were on a ship, maybe we would’ve been found, but…
“Wow… these little ones are amazing.”
“Even while carrying us on their backs, their speed hasn’t dropped at all.”
“And it doesn’t feel unstable either… yeah, this is incredible.”
Tania, Iris, and Yuki all spoke with smiles.
“A-Are you sure this is safe? They won’t suddenly chomp down on us or something, will they?”
“Wh-Whoa whoa whoa whoa!? These tiny vibrations are really intense… this is kinda dangerous in its own way…”
Sora and Luna, on the other hand, were having mixed reactions.
I guess they’re just not good with things like this… not quite a vehicle, but still something to ride on.
“Still, I never thought we’d actually be riding dolphins…”
Gray gave a wry smile.
That’s right… we were heading for the Western Continent riding on dolphins.
Of course, these were ones I had tamed.
Wild dolphins would never just let us ride on their backs like this.
“Using dolphins instead of a boat… seriously, who even comes up with ideas like that? We’ve been together for so long, and you still manage to surprise me.”
“Fufu, if there’s no boat, then ride a dolphin… that’s the vibe I’m getting. As expected of the outrageous tamer.”
“Who taught Iris to call me that?!”
Comments
Post a Comment