At the side of the long road leading away from the city was the meeting place for the caravan escorts.

Before reaching the rendezvous point, however, some unknown feeling urged me to turn around, looking at the soaring city walls.

This was probably my last time looking at this city, which had become our base camp for the last one month.

The entire city was encircled by a massive defensive structure, it looked to have been built using a kind of grey brick, likely the same type of primitive concrete that Ancient Rome had used to build the many city walls.

An integral part of the defensive function of the structure, the top of the wall was arrayed with battlements featuring both merlons for defending against enemy archers as well as crenels for defending archers to fire their own arrows through.

It looked like the people of this world relied on such fortifications to defend against external threats to the city; Both human and magic beast alike.

Although it looked impressive enough, considering the vital role it played in defence, I had to say it didn’t seem that reliable. Increasing its size would do nothing; its fundamental flaw was its fragility.

(Anyway, worrying about this is meaningless) I thought as I turned back. The city's defensive capability wasn't my concern, after all. Spending any more time pondering the city's defence was a pointless endeavour.

...Or I might just worried about the others.

In the end, I continued to walk until I saw an empty space before me, where people had already begun to gather.

Standing there were a number of people dressed in rather fine clothing as well as roughly twenty who were armed. In total, there were some dozens of people as well as a handful of wagons. It had already reached the scale where it could be considered a small, mobile village.

Caravans. In Earth, similar things had existed. Dealers and smugglers would join together to protect themselves and their goods when passing through the dangerous spots, hiding from authority or local crime lord.

Though, in this case, we couldn't bribe the magic beasts to let us pass.

Anyway, if I was leaving the small difference aside, the caravan leader was typically a merchant responsible for transporting goods between cities, who engaged in this business as a livelihood. Other members of the caravan included those who joined his banner as well as unaffiliated merchants who joined for the journey. At least with respect to the transportation and cargo appearance, there wasn’t really anything that stood out as being different.

However, if I needed to spot the particular difference it was the guards. As far as I could see, my eyes revealed only armoured warriors and mages, one of them was a female swordswoman, who somehow, wearing bikini-armour.

It only had thin metal straps and it was barely covering her breasts. What’s more, the part on the bottom was made with a risque angle that only covered the important bits.

Ahem... it seemed like I got distracted.

It seemed like the Knights would only move if it was the nation matter, or if it had something to do with public order inside the wall or war.

And considering we'd been moving around with a numerous amount of knights, as such, even though the adventurers this time was numbered more than 20, I felt that this wasn't enough. Though, if this was Earth, I would say this was quite a substantial force.

As a side note, I heard the lowest ranked noble alone would only move if he had minimum 10 knights. The sheer difference between the nobles and the commoners was a testament to the differences between the aristocrat and normal people.

Not only was the level of discrimination in this world considerably high, but many dangers were also present that were not to be found in Earth. In Exceed, without suitable martial force, travel between cities and kingdoms would be impossible. I guessed that was the reason people started doing job as adventurers and mercenaries.

Anyhow, I'd already considered the circumstances, travelling between cities in this world including of following bonuses such as the paved road, unavailability of water source or lodgings, and monster attack. I bet there was no tourism business in this world.

(Now I starting to wonder if this world has insurance or retirement fund.)

Oh, by the way, teleportation magic was incredibly rare and limited in this world. So even though Lambda didn't seem like it, his level must be quite high.

While thinking about the list of potential business. I made my way toward a particular merchant who was dressed in two-tone dark blue and black jacket with attached contrasting black sleeves, hat, pants & belt sash.

From the description I'd been given at the guild when accepting the request, this appeared to be the man who had assigned the mission.

"Can I help you?" Asked the merchant.

"Oh, I'm one of the adventurers from the adventurer’s guild. I’m here to present myself as one of the escorts for this caravan. My name is Karasuma Eiji, thanks for letting me working under your banner."

The man first saw my business-like introduction with a look of suspicion, but his expression changed as I showed him my status plate.

Karasuma Eiji 15 Year old Male Affinity Time Level 11 Strength 73 Intelligence 92 Dexterity 81 Charisma 97 Constitution 72 Wisdom 101 Skills: Fast Forward (O) Slow Motion (O) Foretell (L) Book Chronicle (L) Language Comprehension (D)

"Oh, It's a pleasure to know someone as strong as you join us. I’m Duncan, the one who’s organized this journey. You're the who knows healing spells and medicine I presume? Thank you for accepting my request." 

I took the outstretched hand in a handshake, signalling the start of our business.

Then again, he didn't even bother to check whether or not I could use a healing spell. Maybe status plate really meant everything in this world huh.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Suddenly, however, Duncan looked at me while rubbing his cheek.

"For a young one with high-status, you seem to know about manner and politeness huh”

"Oh? why's that? but thank you, I still need a lot to learn about that matter though." I replied with an unfeigned smile. Then again, considering I got surrounded by cheat like people, there was no way I could think myself as high-status one.

"Mm-hmm. Yeah, no matter how I look at it, I can’t see you as a cheeky brat."

To tell the truth, Duncan might mean students from the Earth. That was certainly how I truly felt after seeing some of them thought they were better than the people of this world. My impression at them? I actually didn't care as long as they did their job. And couldn't blame them either, considering greed and pride was one of the human nature.

"Haha. I’m not actually that fond with them, either."

But for the sake of making him happy.

"Well, if I have to be honest with you, it seems we have something in common. Any time I have to interact with those types, they always give off the feeling that they’re superior to me." 

Duncan's face clearly showed he was remembering something annoying.

"I have to say it might be true."

My words marked the end of our conversation and Duncan returned to join the other merchants. He definitely had other matters to take care of, and definitely a man who talked a lot. Well, we were about to set out, after all. It was natural that he would be busy at this time as the one in charge of the caravan.

Some minutes after I arrived, the caravan set off without delay.

My journey was off to a good start. If the rest of the trip could continue without any unwanted problems, that would be fantastic.

What was left to us now was to make our way to Thiban while keeping an eye on the caravan. When it came to how far we had to travel, I had already investigated the matter thoroughly beforehand.

Travelling time between Fallford and Thuban was somewhere around 3 or 4 day trip, depending on the weather and the encounter rate with Magic Beast, we might arrive slightly later. If I had to say, comparing to the proximity and the technology, the time it took to travel between these cities could still be seen as relatively short.

For the trip, we were splitting into the three-man party on each side, and one man for the rear and the front. I, myself had been positioned at the left end of the caravan; My companion for the rest of my journey would be the bikini swordswomen and an old wizard.

Those who had more trust such as veterans adventurers and mercenaries, led the way and protecting our back, while I and the others were responsible for keeping watch over the cargo.

In the end, even though someone had high status, I guessed experience and fame still played an important part in leading the team.

At least our safety still seen as the priority, we'd been informed that if something was to occur, we needed to prioritize the safety of human lives over the cargo itself.

As the trip first began, we were mostly kept to ourselves, keeping an eye on the wagons, horses, and our surroundings, until the bikini swordswomen broke the silence.

Accompanied by the gentle sounds of the horses' hooves against the road, the turning and creaking of the wagon wheels, and the gentle breeze blowing across the grass, the three of us chatted with one another.

Slowly but surely, however, because their ages were so close as well as the fact that they were colleagues engaged in the same task, the conversation between us gradually grew warmer... or brutal, depending on how others perceiving it. 

"And that's how I get the title Ogre Slayer." Said the Bikini swordswomen; Mathilda.

If I wasn't wrong, ogre was a giant humanoid creature, they were mostly a subhuman race rather than a magic beast, but to hear her telling this kind of killing story with a smug face, I just assumed the human didn't consider other humanoid race as people. 

"Mm-hmm." 

I only nodded at her story...To tell the truth, I still not sure whether or not I should praise her or look at her with a disgust.

"...That's all? We're talking about the ogre, you know?" Said Mathilda.

...Maybe my reaction was a little bit too weak; Weak enough to annoy her pride. Well... considering I never seen or met an ogre before, I didn't know what to expect. The best information that I knew about ogre was it was big and humanoid. 

"Ah, sorry. I'm still imagining about how did you defeat the ogre."

"Hahaha! You don't need to imagine it! It wasn’t like I did it on my own, you know? But if you're curious, of course, I split them with one slash!"

There was no sign on modesty in her word and she said it with a casual tone. Nevertheless, if what she said was true, then she must be a rather incredible person.

During this time, we walked on the stone road through near the forest.

"And the Goddess Terminus?" Said the old wizard, Irijahr.

...Somehow, he was asking about the Six from out of the blue.

"Ah, she is the master of day and night, the one who controls the sun to rise at the dawn, and the moon to rise at the dusk."

"Hmph... someone really did his study huh." 

Rather than a jealous tone in his grumpy face, I could say this was the way he praised someone.

As they walked, Irijahr himself explained the doctrine of the Six temples. We’d a short discussion about the church, and it seemed, it was rare for someone who had an affinity to learn about the other gods, except the one that corresponded to their ability.

Comparing to what I'd heard from Lamda and the priests, Irijahr explanation was somewhat more methodical.

"And that's why channelling the magic power is almost equivalent to borrowing the god power, while weaving the mana strains is equivalent to requesting the permission to use their power."

At some unknown point to me, it seemed she had raised a point of interest toward me, and right before I responded to Irijahr's words, she suddenly moving her face in front of mine, almost felt like she wanted to kiss me. 

"Hmm..."

Mathilda pondered as she looked at me.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, it’s just weird... from what you’ve said, you don't know about ogre but know a lot about magic and gods. Are you perhaps... a runaway noble?" Said Mathilda.

"Well... rather than a noble, I would say he is a runaway acolyte." Said Irijahr.

And somehow the direction of the conversation changed to how I was a noble, running away from my house to looking for my long-lost loved ones. Or I was an acolyte, under the secret mission from the temple to deliver a sacred magic item.

Either way, there was nothing special happened on the first day.

Our journey had gone off without a hitch. We had encountered neither bandits or Magic Beasts, and even inclement weather, which could slow our pace drastically had not occurred. Instead, we'd simply continued along our way, staying at small post stations along the road.

If there was anything to be unhappy about, it was only the small portion sizes for meals. This, however, was obviously something I had been aware of before even setting out, and so it wasn’t really worth mentioning.

From what I’d heard from the merchants in the caravan, if we were going at this pace, we would arrive for less than three days.

And with the sheer number of people, keeping a watch at night wasn't a bothersome problem either.

Though, on the second day, when we were circling around a large basin, one of the carriage's wheels suddenly broke. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and the carriage just suddenly shook fiercely when the wheels broke. Continuing would be dangerous, so we had to spend the rest of our day repairing the carriage.

While we were resting, the wind was blowing westward. The gentle, refreshing breeze blew past my body, bringing with it the air of this other world. Mild and untouched by pollution, the thought of didn't need to follow anyone rule or order really set my heart at ease.

The weather seemed to be giving its blessing, wishing us a smooth and uneventful trip, an atmosphere without the least hint of danger. At a time like this, I really felt this was far better than living a luxurious life with an ankle monitor.

When suddenly...

"…?"

Did I just hear a shout?

While the sound hadn’t come from that far off, it hadn’t been that close either. Before long, I heard the sound of footsteps and saw a robed young girl ran toward us. The look on her face was undeniably severe, perhaps owing to the ominous circumstances.

"De-demon! ...It's the demon!!"