Side Story 3: Visiting a Remote Island 04

It was early morning on the seventeenth day since our departure from Bulbora.

The large merchant ship of the Lucille Trade Association arrived at the last stop before our destination.

Man, it’s not even over yet and it still feels long. We generally stopped to resupply every two days or so, but there was one instance where we had to sail the open seas for a whole week without land in sight. Really drives home the importance of advance provisioning.

Apparently, there were alternate routes with ports for resupplying, but our priority was speed, so we skipped them for the shortest route possible.

The first stretch of our voyage had us sailing directly south of Bulbora, located in the western part of Jilbard. Then, we proceeded east while occasionally resupplying at the island nations along the way.

That brought us to the continent of Platta, located southeast of Jilbard and southwest of Gordicia. After resupplying at the northern edge of Platta, we traveled almost nonstop to the southern tip of the easternmost continent of Capul.

There were no islands suitable for docking between Platta and Capul, making it a notoriously difficult area.

From here, it will take another five days without resupply to reach our final destination, the Hagane Domain.

That makes a total of 22 days compared to the initial estimate of 30 days, so I guess it’s on the faster side. Apparently, we were fortunate enough to avoid major delays due to heavy storms, attacks from large sea monsters, unfavorable winds, etc.

We did encounter a small storm, but luckily it happened while we were docked at Platta. Our departure only needed to be delayed by a single day.

「Fran-san. We will be departing tomorrow morning, so you are free to do whatever until then.」

「Got it.」

It’s a little before sunset, so that gives us about half a day of free time.

「Then, I’ll look around the town.」

『Yeah. Let’s hit the market.』

「Woof woof!」

Our current location was Elrigo, the southernmost city on the continent of Capul. A massive hub belonging to the Kingdom of Orlantos that served as the gateway for trade between the nations of Capul and the other continents.

To me, it felt pretty similar to Bulbora. It seems to be about the same size.

That said, the architectural style was completely different. Bulbora looks exactly like how the Japanese would imagine a standard medieval European city, while Elrigo felt more like Greece.

Apparently, this region produced a lot of white stone, so that’s what most of the buildings were made of. Also, as a wealthy trade city, it had the luxury to focus on decoration and appearance, with carvings and murals adorning the columns and walls.

This gave the city an atmosphere similar to a blend of the Parthenon and towns of Santorini. That said, it’s just my impression. Not like I’ve actually been to Greece.

「What’s this?」

「Woof?」

Fran and Urushi walked through the unfamiliar town with excitement. Unsurprisingly, their first stop was the first food stall in view.

Well, I predicted this would happen the moment I saw the lines of stalls on both sides of the main street,

「Oh? First time in this town, missy? This here is one of Elrigo’s specialties—skewers of deep-fried seafood! Plenty of shellfish and squid around here. Just put them on a skewer and fry them in the fat of a Death Sea Otter!」

The Death Sea Otter was an otter monster home to these waters. Despite its cute appearance, it has a threat level of D. Your average adventurer can’t afford to underestimate it.

It doesn’t give good meat, but it yields a large amount of high-quality fat, and its fur is traded as a luxury item. Furthermore, the areas around their nests contain dense mana due to their excrement, making them the ideal environment for seafood to thrive.

「Want one?」

「I’ll take two.」

「Woof woof!」

「Here! Thanks for your patronage!」

Fran and Urushi took the fried scallop skewers, which disappeared into their stomachs in the blink of an eye. Guess it was that good.

（Master! Let’s buy more!）

（Woof woof!）

Ultimately, it took us about an hour to get through the 100 meter long stretch of food stalls.

And so, we finally arrived at the Merchant Guild standing at the center of town. It seemed to be the size of a small palace. As expected of a city famous for trade.

There were many people going in and out, and I saw members of the Lucille Trade Association among them. One of the men, who I think was Rengill’s secretary or something, seemed to be issuing a hurried series of instructions.

Thinking there might be some kind of emergency, Fran decided to speak to him.

「What’s wrong? Did something happen?」

「Ah, Fran-dono. It’s nothing major, just an unexpected setback in procurement.」

Elrigo was renowned as a trading city for many reasons, but the quality of its medicinal herbs was said to be particularly famous. The city ranked among the top five herb producers in the world.

Naturally, the Lucille Trade Association intended to purchase these herbs as well, but it seems the ones they wanted had practically vanished from the market. The few still in circulation were priced several times higher than normal.

「Honestly, what in the world is going on…? Oops, I shouldn’t be complaining to you.」

「It’s fine. I hope you find them.」

「Thank you very much. By the way, you mentioned you were headed to the Adventurers Guild, correct? You can reach it going down this street.」

「Nn. Thanks.」

A shortage of medicinal herbs? Maybe someone is trying to buy them all up?

We followed his directions and eventually reached our destination. It took quite a while as Fran kept snacking along the way.

The towering building located next to the outer gate was the Adventurers Guild of the trading city of Elrigo.

However, from what we heard at the stalls along the way, there were actually three branches of the Adventurers Guild in Elrigo: the main branch next to the north gate, one next to the port in the southeast, and one for taking monster materials next to the west gate.

It’s not uncommon for cities to have multiple branches, but I found it unusual for the main branch to be so close to the gate.

In villages or towns, it made sense to place the Adventurers Guild near the entrance. This prevents the usually violent adventurers from walking around and causing trouble. Also, there are fewer sanitary issues from them carrying dead monsters all over the place.

However, a growing town results in an expansion to the city walls as the town spreads outwards. As a result, the guild inevitably gets swallowed up into the interior.

It’s not uncommon for a building that was once right next to the gate to eventually end up at the center of the city.

I know this because the same exact thing happened to Alessa and Bulbora. As a result, the guilds there established branches closer to the gates for handling monster materials.

Well, not that we actually used those branches. Dimensional Storage was just too convenient. In our case, appraising everything in the main building was just faster and more reliable.

Back to the subject at hand, the main branch of the Elrigo Adventurers Guild seemed very strange compared to what I usually saw. Perhaps it’s the result of the city coordinating with the guild during expansion.

『Alright, let’s go take a look.』

「Nn. Coming in.」

「Woof!」

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