Chapter 49: The Holy Sword Highway

Chapter 49: The Holy Sword Highway

Part 1

The day before we left the Dorudia village.

Eris and Minitona were fighting.

I don't think I even need to say the result but it was Eris's complete victory.

I think it's as expected.

Eris is at the level where she can keep up with Ruijerd's training.

If a younger girl who hasn't specifically received any kind of training ends up as the opponent, they can't even be called an opponent in the first place.

It's bullying the weak.

This is where it would be good if I put in a word of warning.

I already knew that Eris was that kind of child, but she's soon to be 14 years old.

If you say 14 years old, it's still a child, but it's not an age where you indiscriminately beat up your opponents.

However, how then should I put it.

Up until now I've never stopped Eris' fights.

Even when it came to the fights in the adventurer's guild, I just left the majority of them to Ruijerd.

I wonder what I could say after all that.

Maybe I should put it as, "Adventurers and village girls are different."

"Tha...that's wrong, Minitona is the bad one."

The one who made such a claim is Terusena.

According to her story, it seems Minitona tried to stop Eris who said she was planning to leave after the rainy season ends.

Eris seemed to be happy that she wanted to stop her but explained why she has to continue her journey.

With Minitona who was being selfish, it was a development where Eris gives an explanation.

It's opposite from how it is normally.

After a little while the discussion continued.

At the start both of them were calm, but eventually disputes started up.

Minitona started making thoughtless remarks.

Those thoughtless remarks included Ghyslaine and myself.

After hearing that it seems Eris tried to endure it with an angry face.

It seems like she wanted to respond with a calm feeling.

In the end it seems the one who first laid their hands on the other was Minitona.

She sold the fight to Eris.

It's an act of courage. Almost worthy of respect.

It's something I can't imitate at all.

Even though I say that, Eris ended up buying into that fight.

Without mercy, as usual, she beat her to a pulp.

"Eris."

"What!"

Then here I took a good look at the circumstances.

First off Minitona.

Even though she lost it seems she's considerably excited with heavy breathing.

Even after Eris beat her down, it seems her will has not been broken.

Eris can break the will of full grown adults.

She's not a woman who goes easy.

In other words that means...

"It seems you properly went easy."

"Obviously."

Eris looked the other way while saying that.

With the old Eris, even if it was an opponent who was younger, any opponent that comes at her would be beaten without mercy.

Since I'm the one saying it, there's no mistake.

"Normally, you would do something worse right?"

"She's my friend after all."

After taking a look at Eris's face, her lips curled up with a sour look, it was a face of one that was repenting their crimes.

Hmm.

It seems she does at least regret hitting her a bit.

It's something that the Eris until now would never have done.

It seems Eris may have become a bit more of an adult these past three months.

In the places where I'm not watching she's properly growing up.

In that case there's only one thing I have to say.

"It would be best if you reconcile with her before we leave tomorrow."

"No way."

Still a child, huh.

Part 2

The last day, we were busy preparing for the journey, so I didn't meet with Holy Beast-sama.

I thought the criminal would let him out again, but for some reason Holy Beast-sama never appeared.

In exchange, in the middle of the night there were two intruders.

"Ah!!"

A small scream and a loud sound of something bumping.

With those two sounds – as one would expect – even I was awakened.

Recently, it feels like I've been slacking a bit too much, so I raised my body and grabbed my staff that was left at my side.

It's a bit too crude of a presence for it to be a thief.

Ruijerd should have long since realized it.

Humu.

"Terusena, move more quietly nya."

I let go of my staff.

That would be the reason why Ruijerd was silent.

"Sorry Tona, but it's dark."

"If you focus your eyes well you can see nya... Ah!"

Again, there was a sound of something banging.

"Tona, you alright?"

"Ouch nya."

However, they seem to think they're whispering but the volume is so loud I can almost hear everything.

I wonder what their objective is.

Money, or maybe fame.

Otherwise maybe they are after my body I wonder.

Not really though...

It's most likely Eris after all.

"Ah, was it here nya?"

"Sniff sniff? It seems a bit different."

"Don't mind it nya. In any case they're sleeping nya."

They stopped in front of my door, then I heard the sound of it opening and them coming inside.

They started to timidly look over the room, and then our eyes clearly met as I was sitting on my bed.

"Nya...!"

"What's wrong Tona... Ah."

Minitona and Terusena were there.

Wearing a one-piece made of thin fur.

There was a hole where the butt is and their tail was showing its face from the back.

It was the beast races' characteristic pajama appearance.

Truly lovely.

"What's going on this late at night? Eris' room is next door."

I said it in as low a voice as possible.

"So- sorry nya..."

As they were saying that they moved to close the door then suddenly stopped.

"Come to think of it, we never gave our thanks to you nya."

"Ah, To- Tona?"

Tona said it as if she remembered it, they returned back into the room.

Terusena was following behind her.

"Thank you for saving us nya. I heard that I might have died if you hadn't used healing magic on me nya."

That's right.

Those injuries were pretty dangerous.

They were injuries which would have long since broken my will.

I think it was pretty amazing how she managed to continue with that sort of resolve in that situation.

"It was an easy matter to resolve."

"Thanks to that there's no scars remaining nya."

While saying that Tona grabbed the edge of her one-piece and flipped it upwards showing me her beautiful natural legs.

However, because the room was dark I couldn't see any deeper.

It seems like you could see, but you cannot.

Kishirika-sama, why did you not have a demon eye that allows one to see in the dark??

"Tona, that's disgraceful?"

"It's fine since he's already seen it once anyways."

"However, old man Gyes said it, human race males are in heat all year around, so if you get close to them carelessly they'll attack you."

In heat all year.

He says such rude things.

Though it's not wrong.

"Besides, if he gets excited over seeing my body then isn't that favorable to repay the favor? Nya?! It's chilly!"

"How long do you intend to keep the hem of your skirt raised?"

I wasn't looking at Tona's legs at that time.

While wiping a cold sweat away I grabbed my staff that was sitting at my side tightly.

From the room next door, I could sense something like sharp killing intent leaking out bit by bit.

"*Co...cough* I have received your gratitude. Eris is in the room next door, so if you will please."

They may be children, but they shouldn't be carelessly showing that there are no scars.

It would be trouble if they were attacked by a dangerous old man who has a hobby of playing doctor.

"I see, but really, thank you nya."

"Thank you very much."

The two bowed their heads and then left the room.

After a short period I slowly moved over and put my ear against the wall.

In the next room I could hear Eris in a displeased voice saying "What do you want?"

The usual pose with her arms crossed entered my mind.

Tona and Terusena's voices were a bit hard to hear.

No, Eris' voice is just too loud.

While listening in excitement, Eris' voice gradually became calm. Updated from novelb(i)n.c(o)m

It seems things will be alright.

I felt relieved and returned to my bed.

It seems like they continued to talk all night long.

I don't know what they talked about.

Tona and Terusena are both still nowhere near good at human language.

Eris as well has learned a little bit of Beast God language, but it's not enough to have a conversation.

I wonder if they are able to properly talk.

I felt anxious about it, but the next day, while seeing us off Eris was holding Minitona's hand while crying.

It seems they were able to reconcile.

Excellent, excellent.

Part 3

Holy Sword Highway.

That is a highway that cuts in a straight path through the Great Forest.

Once upon a time, the Saint Milis created this Highway which is overflowing with magic power.

Even though the surroundings are flooded with water, only the highway is dry; also, it seems not a single monster will approach this highway.

We are going to move along it in a carriage we received from the Dedorudia race.

They prepared anything and everything we would need for the journey.

Carriage + horse.

Travel expenses (5 Milis Gold Coins + 5 Milis Silver Coins).

Consumable goods.

Since this is the case, even without returning to Saint Port, we should be able to make it to the capital of Milis.

Alright, let's depart.

Just as that development was happening, for some reason a monkey faced man came along.

"Weell~, I was just thinking it was about time I return to Milis. It was just in time. Take me along as well."

Newbie Gisu, while saying that, shamelessly jumped on and joined us.

"Oh, if it isn't Gisu?"

"You are following along as well?"

There were no complaints from the other two with me.

I wondered if they were acquaintances and asked.

It seems when I wasn't looking Gisu was properly laying the groundwork with those two.

He joined along with Eris, Tona, and Terusena to tell them about interesting stories and also joined in with Ruijerd and Gustav telling stories of the good old days.

It seems he used his usual wiles of working to someone's nature and the two want to make up for that.

In a place where I can't see.

Which is why those two were willing to accept him so easily.

"Alright, then let's depart!"

Along with Ruijerd's shout, the carriage started to move forward.

While looking back at the beast races that came to see us off, Eris was still shedding tears while looking at Minitona and the others, it's a bit of a moving feeling.

However, in my heart, there's something still a bit unsettling remaining.

It's Gisu's fault.

If he wanted to come along, it would have been fine if he had just said so from the start.

Even if he didn't move around so suspiciously in the background like that.

If he had just normally asked, I had no reason to turn him down.

"Hey-hey, senpai. Don't glare at me like that."

Inside of a carriage moving at quite a speed, I was making a face filled with discontent.

While laughing with a broad grin, Gisu came close to my ears.

"The one who gave a hand towards senpai's love was me, you know?"

Then for some reason he started to talk about something odd.

Helper in love.

Now then, in the end, these past three months, whether it be dog ear girls or cat ear girls it ended with me being unable to lay my hands on any of them.

There was no development with Eris as well.

I did end up getting along better with Gyes more than at the start, but just that.

Is that love?

Don't say stupid things.

I don't have those sorts of interests.

"Helper in love, what do you mean?"

"I helped you meet with Holy Beast-sama, didn't I?"

It was a party with six members, everyone aside from him could only do a single thing, it seems they were all clumsy people.

The Gisu of that time had a pet phrase of, "You guys really can't do anything besides that."

It seems that party still managed to do quite well even though it was pretty distorted.

However, one day, it seems one of the women from the party told Gisu she wanted to learn cooking.

If you want to catch a man start by catching his stomach, it seems that it's effective in this world as well.

Gisu said it couldn't be helped and taught the woman cooking.

Whether it be because of the cooking or whatever.

That is unknown, but as a result the woman stuck to the man and just like that got married.

The two left the party and went off to somewhere.

After everything, if two important individuals suddenly drop out, the party interior became rough.

The party was filled with a spiral of fights and disinterest, they were unable to properly complete any jobs, and quickly disbanded.

Even though that's the case, Gisu is a man who can do anything.

He has no talent with the sword or magic, but everything other than that he can do.

Therefore, he thought he would quickly find another party.

The result was a crushing defeat.

Gisu of that time, was an adventurer with a bit of a name for himself.

Even though that was the case, there were no parties that would take him in.

Gisu can do anything.

If it's something that adventurers can do, then pretty much anything.

In other words it's that everything that Gisu can do, is something that anyone else can do as well.

If it's a high rank party, all members will generally split up the miscellaneous jobs.

Gisu realized it.

That he had no place other than in that party.

Since it was filled with clumsy guys, he could be there.

After that, Gisu left the business of an adventurer halfway.

It seems he decided to live his life a player (gambler).

"That's why you know. Women are no good for cooking."

It's a jinx.

Is what he added on.

If you were to ask me, Gisu's jinx doesn't matter at all.

I think it would be fine if you were to teach something like cooking.

This soup is good.

Just a single sip of this soup is enough to make the inside of my mouth have a "shubidubadahhan" kind of feeling.

It's to the point where I want to be taught as well.

Since that's the case, I decided to throw out a life boat.

"I understand that newbie ended up with misfortune, but the woman who was taught cooking ended up happy right?"

Since that's the case teach us, is what I was thinking.

Then Gisu waved his head.

"I don't know if the woman ended up being happy or not. I haven't met her since."

But, Gisu was laughing to himself.

"As for the man, he was happy, or maybe not..."

Therefore, it's a jinx I guess.

After seeing him with a depressed expression, I felt like I couldn't say anything more.

The soup that should have been good, lost a bit of its flavor.

Ruijerd, won't you hurry and come back...

Part 7

A certain day.

By the side of the road at one of the specified points, we found a strange stone monument.

It reached about knee-high and there was a strange emblem carved into its face.

A single letter was surrounded by seven emblems.

If I remember correctly, the letter in the center in Fighting God language would be "seven".

The other emblems I feel that I might've seen somewhere or not...

I decided to ask Gisu and see.

"Hey newbie, what is this stone monument?"

Gisu looked at the stone monument and nodded with an Ah.

"That is the, [Seven World Powers]."

I see, the Seven World Powers.

"[Seven World Powers], what is that?"

"It means the seven warriors who are known to be the strongest of all in this world."

It seems that around the time the second great human-demon war ended, a person known as the Technique God decided to make this.

The Technique God was said to be the strongest being of that time.

The ones that person decided, in regards to this world, the strongest seven names.

This stone monument is something for the sake of confirming that supposedly.

"If I remember correctly, if we're talking about that then danna should know more about it. Danna!"

After Gisu called out to him, Ruijerd who was nearby looking over Eris' training walked up to us.

Eris fell to the ground there she lay with her arms and legs stretched out, and was breathing deeply trying to catch her breath.

"The [Seven World Powers], huh, that's nostalgic."

Ruijerd narrowed his eyes while looking at the stone monument.

"Do you know about it Ruijerd?"

"When I was young I was one of the countless that trained and aspired to be included as one of the [Seven World Powers]."

While saying that Ruijerd was looking far into the distance.

Considerably far into the distance.

Far, far away...

Exactly how far back was this??

"What exactly is that emblem?"

"Those are each of the individual's crests. It still reveals the current seven names."

Ruijerd pointed to each of them one by one and taught us the current seven names.

The current seven names are:

Position One "Technique God",

Position Two "Dragon God",

Position Three "Fighting God",

Position Four "Demon God",

Position Five "Death God",

Position Six "Sword God",

Position Seven "North God",

it seems that's how they're lined up.

"Ohhh. But, [Seven World Powers] is something I've never heard about before?"

"The [Seven World Powers] were well-known up until around the time of the Laplace Campaign after all."

"Why did they stop using it?"

"It was because during the Laplace Campaign there were some large changes and half of them went missing."

It seems, excluding the Technique God, all of the [Seven World Powers] of the time were participating in the Laplace Campaign.

However, among them three died.

One of them went missing.

And one of them ended up being sealed, was the outcome.

It seems the only one who survived with all limbs intact was the Dragon God of the time.

For the time being, those known to be the strongest started rising and entering the ranks and several hundred years after that, those who stole the seats of [Lower World Powers] were quite far from the word "strongest".

Even more so, currently, the whereabouts of Four of the higher ranks are unknown.

Technique God. Missing.

Dragon God. Missing.

Fighting God. Missing.

Demon God. (Laplace) Sealed Away.

Those who were certainly known to be the strongest of the higher ranks, weren't around in regards to the rankings.

Since that's the case, [Seven World Powers] were gradually abandoned and forgotten from the memories of the people.

Or something along those lines.

Incidentally, the reason why the Demon God Laplace was never removed from the ranking was because he didn't die, but was just sealed away.

"Exactly how many people are there that lived during those times?"

"Well now. Even 400 years ago it was becoming suspicious whether the Technique God even existed."

"In the first place, why did the Technique God even create this sort of ranking?"

"It seems that. [In order to find someone who can defeat me], there was that sort of story, but I don't know the details."

As if it's a profound ranking I guess.

"This stone monument is considerably old; since that's the case, it could be that the rankings have already changed by now, couldn't it."

After I muttered that, Gisu shook his head.

"No, it seems that it will automatically change with magic."

"Eh? Is that the case? How?"

"How would I know."

It seems that is the case.

The letters on the stone monument automatically change.

I wonder exactly how it works.

There are still a lot of things I don't know about the magic of this world.

If I go to the magic university, I wonder if I'll be able to learn about things like that.

In any case, [Seven World Powers], huh.

Just as I was thinking there were a large number of people who stink of cheats in this world, I don't feel like I can keep up at all.

Well, it's not like I'm aiming to be the strongest in the world either way.

I'd rather not get very involved with the strongest.

Part 8

It took one month until we passed the Great Forest.

However, it was only a month.

In just a single month, we managed to pass through the entire Great Forest.

The path was nothing but a straight line, without a single monster.

Therefore, we were able to devote ourselves to moving, that is one of the reasons, but the performance of the horse was also good.

The horses in this world don't know what it means to get tired.

They can run for 10 hours a day straight without a break; moreover, the next day they won't feel a thing.

I wonder if they're using some sort of magic power or something.

We really passed through the forest in a smooth way.

If you were to speak of accidents, it would only be that I got hemorrhoids on the way.

Naturally, without telling anyone, I secretly healed it with healing magic.

In the name of training, Eris just kept standing on top of the carriage the entire time.

I said "it's dangerous" and to "stop it", but it was a balance sensation which had the feeling of "what's dangerous" about it.

I tried to imitate it, then the next day my legs were trembling.

Eris is amazing.

There is a valley to pass the Blue Dragon Mountain Range.

The entrance of that was an inn town.

The Dwarf race are managers of the inn district here.

There's no Adventurer's guild.

However it's famous as a blacksmith town, weapon shops and armor shops were all connected to each other.

The swords sold here are not only cheap but of high quality, is what Gisu was teaching us.

Eris was making a face as if she wanted everything, but it's not like we have surplus with our money.

After all, in order to cross from Milis to Central Continent, it's going to cost another fortune for a Superd race again.

We can't afford to spend wastefully.

The sword Eris is using now is not bad as well.

Although, I'm still a man.

Seeing all these grim swords and armor lined up, regardless of one's age, you'll feel excited.

Even though I say that, after all it's a problem of garments that look one's age.

The dwarf who was tending to the store said, "I don't think that suits you boy?" while laughing.

After I said even though I look like this I'm still intermediate level of the Sword God style, he was a bit surprised.

Well, we have no money, so it ended with just being made fun of a bit.

According to Gisu's story, it seems that this is where the highway forks into multiple paths.

If you continue East along the mountain, you'll supposedly arrive at a large town of dwarves.

If you head Northeast then you'll arrive at the elves' territory, and Northwest the halfling regions are spread out.

The reason this town doesn't have an adventurers guild is probably a problem with the location.

Also, if you head in the direction of the mountain, it seems there are hot springs.

Hot springs.

It's a topic that I hold great interest in.

"What's a hot spring?"

"Hot water from the mountain gathers up. If you bathe there, it feels really good."

"Ohhh... Sounds interesting. However, isn't this the first time Rudeus has been here? How do you know about it?"

"I- I read about it in a book."

I wonder if hot springs were mentioned in [Walking the World] the tour guide book.

If I remember correctly, I feel like they weren't mentioned in it...

However, hot springs, huh.

Sounds nice.

There's probably no yukata in this world but...

Wet hair, skin dyed in the color of cherry blossoms, Eris spacing out in the hot water...

The places known as hot springs are there.

No, I guess it's not really mixed bathing.

It would be different right?

Although, in the 1 in 10,000 chance that there is mixed bathing, I wonder what would happen.

It's something I have to make absolutely sure to check up on.

"Since it's just after the rainy season ended, the mountain side is probably in a terrible state right now?"

Just as I was hesitating, Gisu objected.

It seems if people who aren't used to walking in the mountains go, it will take quite a bit of time.

Since that's the case, we have to give up on the hot springs.

How unfortunate.

Part 9

The Holy Sword Highway entered into the Blue Dragon Mountain Range.

It was a path with a width that only about two carriages could pass through at once.

It was cutting the mountain in half.

The bottom of the valley.

However, maybe thanks to the divine protection of Milis, it seems that rock slides almost never happen.

If this path didn't exist, you'd have no choice but to take a huge detour in order to get North.

Even though there's almost never any Blue Dragons in these mountains, there are many monsters, so if you tried to pass through them it would be quite dangerous.

In such a place, there's a shortcut created where not a single monster will appear.

I understand the reason why Saint Milis is worshiped very well.

After three days we passed through the valley.

—

Just like that we left the Great Forest and entered the territory of the human race.