Side Story 3: Visiting a Remote Island 02

「Our destination is the Hagane Domain. A small island in the far east belonging to the Hagane Shogunate.」

『Far east…?』

「Take a look at this.」

Rengill pulled out a large map and spread it across the table.

「Hoh?」

「Arf?」

Fran and Urushi peered at the map and started nodding, but I’m certain neither of them actually understood a thing.

『The one in the center is the continent of Gordicia, right?』

「Correct. And this here is our current location, the continent of Jilbard.」

Jilbard was to the west of Gordicia, and on the opposite eastern side, there was a landmass labeled the continent of Capul. If I remember correctly, many demonkin lived there.

However, Rengill pointed even farther east from Capul, to what at first glance looked like empty ocean. But no, there was a tiny island the size of a speck of dust.

「Here?」

「Yes. This island is officially an autonomous territory under the Hagane Shogunate, so we refer to it as the Hagane Domain.」

『I guess it makes sense for large countries to have colonies, but isn’t that awfully far away?』

The Hagane Shogunate possessed the divine sword Berserk, making them a powerhouse on par with the Holy Nation of Silard, vying for control of the northern continent. However, the Hagane Domain seemed much too distant from their homeland.

In addition to the distance, Capul lied in between the two, preventing a direct route by sea. If someone from the main country wanted to travel to the Hagane Domain, they would need to make a big detour around the entire continent of Capul. How did they even find the island in the first place?

Maybe they sent explorers to search for potential colonies, like the western nations of Earth’s colonial era?

「I’m not familiar with the details of their history, but it seems to have been incorporated as a territory a long time ago. There are hardly any taxes, and the people of the island don’t seem to care much about what country they belong to.」

『No taxes?』

「Indeed. I don’t know the exact terms of their agreement, but it seems to be a territory in name only. Even for outside merchants like us, the taxes are quite low.」

That’s very strange. Hagane went out of their way to claim the island as their territory, yet they don’t bother taking any of the benefits? Why would they do that? Since the Lucille Trade Association is doing business with them, the island must have some sort of specialty goods for generating profit.

「I do not believe there are issues regarding political stability. To begin with, the population is not that large, so their self-governing organization is rather loose. If anything, the problem would be the large number of powerful magical beasts inhabiting the area…」

「Strong magical beasts? I’m looking forward to it.」

「Woof woof!」

「I thought you might say that, Fran-san.」

Seeing Fran and Urushi with sparkling eyes, Rengill nodded with a wry smile. This guy has always understood Fran pretty well. In fact, he might have brought up this subject specifically to motivate us into accepting the request.

「Mana is dense around the entire island, so the level of the magical beasts is quite high. You can think of it as similar to a haunt. A great location to procure high-quality materials from powerful magical beasts.」

「I see.」

Fran already seemed set on taking the request. Still, there were a few things—rather, confirmations—we needed to make.

『Fran, you understand that we’ll have to spend two months on a ship if you say yes, right?』

「Nn.」

Fran has never hated ships, so she probably doesn’t even mind the long trip.

『Rengill. The request was for mock battles and nothing more, right?』

「Yes. That is what they have told me.」

『My power, or rather, the power of a divine sword, is not something to be used casually. If they want to see a divine sword in action, then I’m afraid to say we won’t be able to meet their expectations.』

「Their request included nothing like that, so even if they ask, you can refuse by saying it is outside the scope of the request. As for us, we would never side with them if it meant losing Fran-san’s trust. In any case, we can inform them in advance by bird, so I don’t believe such issues will arise.」

Accepting the request seems fine as long as we don’t have to use Divine Sword Release. Observing me up close is one thing, but if they want to see my full power then we’d have no choice but to refuse.

「Master, is it okay?」

「Woof.」

Both Fran and Urushi were getting fired up. Though in Urushi’s case, he might just be excited about getting the chance to eat rare and powerful magical beasts.

『Well, the Lucille Trade Association is handling all the mediation, so I don’t see any problem in accepting.』

「Yay!」

「Woof woof!」

「Thank you very much.」

After that, we received more detailed information about the Hagane Domain before departing the Lucille Trade Association.

On the way back to the inn, Fran was happily skipping along.

（Mock battles and magical beasts! I can’t wait!）

『Our departure will be in three days, so let’s get all the preparations done before then. I want to stock up on food.』

It feels like our chances of running into trouble skyrocket whenever Fran boards a ship. I have no clue why she’s still okay with sea travel given how often things go wrong.

I need to consider the worst case scenario. We might end up drifting off course for months or washing ashore on an unknown island. In which case, we can never have enough food.

Maybe we should visit the nearby haunt to stock up on meat. It’s been a while, but that’s where we got the premium meat we used for the cooking contest.

「Master. Let’s go to the Crystal Cage.」

I guess Fran was thinking the same thing. Well, I’m sure she’s just thinking about how we’d lose access to meat at sea, so she wanted to bring a lot with us.

『Alright, time to stock up.』

「Nn!」

For the next three days, we devoted ourselves to hunting in the Crystal Cage. We ended up with a huge surplus of all kinds of meat, so we had to deliver some to the guild.

『Alright. Now we’re fully prepared.』

「Nn. Lots of meat.」

「Woof woof!」

View the latest chapters at seeker142.github.io