Black Iron Magician

Shurabaaaaaaaaa

Chapter 51 Carriage Trip

Tazarnia, a neighboring country in the west, is a country that has a close relationship with Adelheit since long ago. Many large countries are secretly trying to take possession of Adelheit, which is a small-sized country but rich in magic and magic item industries. On the other hand, Tazarnia, which has been able to build friendly relations for a long time even without Nell’s overwhelming force, is a rare case.

It is said that Tazarnia, with its vast granary and rich national power, tried to make diplomatic contact with Adelheit in the past by trading rather than by force. In the past, Adelheit did not have many convenient tools as it does now, but it still had more technology than any other country. However, the repeated defenses were costly, and at one point the country was quite poor. It’s impossible that the King wouldn’t welcome the offer of food supplies from other countries. Thus, with Adelheit providing magic items and Tazarnia providing food, the two countries are said to have continued to have good ties until now. There are many events such as joint training for knights and soldiers, and festivals are held between the two countries.

And then, near the national border with Tazarnia, two self-proclaimed Demon Kings have appeared. In an emergency, soldiers from both countries would be deployed to defeat the Demon King. However, even though it’s near the border, the exact location is slightly inside Adelheit. If this were in the vicinity of an enemy country, the country would have set the self-proclaimed Demon Kings to the enemy’s side, but that’s not the case this time. The King also does not want to bother Tazarnia, the friendly nation. He wants to manage the situation with the country’s power alone as much as possible. When such trouble occurs, it is our Great Nell who has a role to play.

「They should have let Hero-kun do the job.」

「Did you say something?」

「Nah, just me talking to myself.」

「?」

There’s no point in complaining about it. I don’t know how strong the Hero is, but if I want to be certain, I will choose Nell after all. The Great Nell who’s relied on and has achievements, she’s rarely a tyrant and occasionally a maiden. Oh, when I put the facts side by side, she’s also difficult to handle. Her future husband will definitely have a hard time.

By the way, the trip to that neighboring country by carriage takes days. It’s about three days to go there and another three days to return. Of course, it will be a waste if do nothing in this period, so I’ll have Haru and her friend do some training they can do in the carriage. Mainly, training in the direction Haru is not good at.

「Shishō~, you said I didn’t have to read anymore~…… ah, except for the cookbooks!」

「You can’t fight or do physical training in the carriage after all. Above all, there are things you can gain from that. You know, this and that on the mental side.」

「Your persuasion is ambiguous!」

「Come on, I’ll do it too, so let’s do our best together, Haruna!」

Haru tried to resist, but Chinatsu persuaded her and now she’s doing her using her head. Haha, I kinda expected this, so I put books in my bag enough for her to study for several days. She can read as much as she wants.

Now, let’s raise your magic skill!

――――Bon!

Ah……

Well, although there were some troubles, the trip is generally going well. Even if Haru’s head reached its limit, she recovered completely by sleeping a bit thanks to Pleasant Sleep skill, which indirectly led to raising its level. As for Chinatsu, she continued to read through the books smoothly. It may be that the 『Calculation』 skill makes her head works faster, but as Haru said, she was excellent from the start. Haru is trying hard desperately, but it seems to be quite difficult to catch up with Chinatsu.

「Danchō, let’s take a break.」

The carriage stopped. As for Haru, this break time is the time she has been waiting for. After all, she can move around and train as much as she wants at this time. Her dying figure in the carriage is like a lie and now she looks like a fish that has found water. Well, we have Nell and Chinatsu here, so she can have enough mock battles.

But training wasn’t the only thing Hal had to do. It happened during the lunch break.

「Hey, what is this?」

「It’s soup!」

What Muno-kun cooked and served was just salt and ingredients boiled in water. It wasn’t edible, of course. Since he raised his hand and took the initiative to do the cooking, I thought he was confident in his skill. No, he sure had the confidence. It’s just that it was completely not accompanied by the expected result. The unfortunate one is Elder Daganov, who first drank the saltwater soup as a taster and then coughed badly.

Looking at his back that was being rubbed by Canon, Nell quietly said this,

「…… Haruna, Chinatsu. I order you to do the cooking. Prepare something to eat as soon as possible.」

After that, we barely waited from when Haru started cooking until the food was served.

She calculated the number of days remaining for the ingredients loaded in the carriage (her calculation is fast in such cases), and completed the cooking in no time. It seems that Chinatsu also had many opportunities to learn how to cook from Haru, she assisted her with smooth cooperation.

「Ara, it’s delicious.」

「D-Did you make this from those ingredients? I’ve never had such delicious food.」

「Ooh, it gently permeates this old body…」

「Haru-dono, I’m very sorry! You made this delicious food even though I was so disappointing!」

It was well-received, so Haru and Chinatsu were put in charge of cooking for the entire trip. Although the time for training was shortened due to the cooking time, I guess it’s fine since Haru and Chinatsu seemed to be enjoying themselves. Well, they can just be more active after we arrived at our destination.

The difficulty for me was at night when it was time to go to bed. At night, when the only light that illuminated the area was moonlight and bonfires, we would take turns in pairs to stand guard. Even though Nell’s expedition is a high class, it’s not exempt from something like this. Nell, the leader of the group, will keep watch when the turn comes around, and so will we who accompany her. It was said that the first would be from the knights, so Elder Daganov and Muno-kun took the role. Then, the rest of the members are going to sleep. But――

「H-Hey… Deris, what are you doing?」

Nell questioned with a trembling voice, even more than when Muno-kun made saltwater soup. In her line of sight is me and Haru (already sound asleep), who’s clinging to my neck beside me. Haha, I forgot about this hugging pillow thing because of the shock in the morning. What should I do, I want to cry so badly. Canon’s gaze that’s as if saying ‘I knew it’ is hurting me. I have to think of a way to break through this situation…!

「I was keeping silent about this, but to tell you the truth… Haru can’t sleep without a hugging pillow!」

I made a pose as if I foresaw something like this.

I prepared myself to overcome this situation.

「D-Deris-san, there’s no way――」

「Zzz…」

「――Ah, come to think of it…」

「Chinatsu?」

「She was like this when were sleeping in the same room yesterday. She was always sleeping with her pet, Pero, and that habit hasn’t healed yet… I think Haruna asked Deris-san as a substitute.」

「I-Is that so? Then, it can’t be helped. Deris, don’t do something that will cause misunderstanding, okay?」

O-oohh. Thanks to Chinatsu, I managed to survive! In a situation like this, it’s a miracle that it ended with only a warning from Nell. Chinatsu, I will repay this favor in the near future…

Three days later after going through that kind of shuraba, we arrived at our destination, the national border fort.

You can google ‘shuraba’ in case you don’t know