Chapter 1: Somehow we found a place to live

With ogre Kuro’s grace of letting us accompany him, I, Saphate, began departing from the royal capital Parma where I’ve spent many years.

I still couldn’t digest the fact that I was disowned and kicked out of my house while being unable to help those townsfolk who were burdened with unbearable taxes.

With my meagre savings in hand, although I am worried about my future, I need to focus on making a living for now. Even though it seems impossible, I can only prepare myself to move forward.

Cat-woman Oonya, a former maid at the mansion who unbelievably decided to quit her job there and continue to serve me, was really tired with all the preparations she had done. Hence, as soon as we started our journey, she rested on my shoulders with a slight push and started sleeping. Seeing her defenseless, sleeping face made me smile instinctively. However, at times I thought I could feel an extremely piercing gaze from Eldena who sat just opposite to Oonya. Was that my imagination?

It took about 20 days to reach the remote town of Green Convent from the royal capital, Parma.

Probably, the first three days were extremely uncomfortable for me while I was trying to get used to shaking of the wagon.

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Oonya seemed to worry about something initially but after 4 days or so, her mood began to improve.

Eldena took my records from my luggage and got completely immersed in them.

Although there were a lot of unusual things from the capital city, watching her calmly reading a book in a moving wagon concerned me.

On the 5th day on the highway, I was overtaken by a wagon train from the royal capital.

It seemed like they were in a hurry, so Kuro gave way, but for some reason, Oonya was staring at the wagons with a stern look.

”What’s the matter?”

”No. Nothing nya.”

Oonya smiled while saying so, but she still seemed to care about the wagon train somewhat.

Approximately one week after leaving the capital, the width of the road became visibly narrower. There were almost no caravans passing by each other, only Kuro’s wagon train[1] was moving forward endlessly.

”There aren’t many post towns from here onwards. Well, even though we need to sleep outside, there’s food, so don’t worry.” Saying that Kuro laughs lively as usual.

On 14th Day,

”I will take a short cut from here.”

Having said that, Kuro took a detour from the highway and entered the steep mountain road.

”This is an old highway. Now that we have a highway that bypasses the hillsides of the mountains, people rarely use this one.” Hearing Kuro’s words,

”…I know that there was an old highway… but it’s the first time I’ve actually taken it.” Eldena, who is from Green Convent, was also looking around in an unusual manner.

”There are ruins of an old village just after entering the forest from here. It used to be a small post town, but everyone moved near the new highway, and now no one lives here”

Looking closely in the said direction, I could see something like a wall of a house in the gap between the trees.

It had a lot of vines around it, and I couldn’t tell it was the wall of the house unless I looked carefully.

About 6 days later, we could see a huge castle wall in front of us.

“It looks like we made it to Green Convent. This time it didn’t rain so it was a much smoother journey than I expected.”

Kuro laughs lively as usual while saying so.

While looking at the castle wall, I wonder if my new life will start here… Kuro who took me to this point was a little bit sentimental. ”Safate, I happen to regularly visit this remote place. Let’s drink when I visit the next time.”

He said so and smiled at me.

”That’s right. At that time, I’ll be giving you a treat for sure.” Replying to Kuro, I smiled back.

However, the smile on my face disappeared almost immediately.

”So, Mr Safate. You have been issued a ban on access to all frontier cities, so I can’t allow you to enter the Green Convent.”

At the entrance gate to the town, three guards gathered near me, while I was getting my cargo checked, and said that.

Listening to those words, Eldena entered between us and glared at the guards. ”I, Eldena, the eldest daughter of the Greenpott family that serve under the Feudal lord Groupe, am his guardian. Is that still a no?”

Despite those words, the guards were visibly upset, ”And, anyway, this was a strict order from the royal capital…”

Against the attitude of these guards, Eldena said, ”You aren’t the one to talk”. Then she told us to wait for a while and rushed towards the remote town with great speed.

A few hours later,

Eldena returned with a visibly uncontrollable rage.

Based on what she said, a notice came from the Royal House of Lords to ban me from entering the town.

I immediately understood what had happened.

My father, Gapoli, who disowned me, has considerable influence in the House of Lords.

He must be harassing me again using his authority.

For the time being, I offered water to Eldena and told her to calm down.

”… This is a mess that you had to bear because you came to a place like this on my suggestion… I don’t know how to express my apologies…”

I consoled Eldena, who was about to start crying, that it was not her fault.

”Hmm… young master. I’m sorry, but I’m leaving for a while, nya.”

Unexpectedly, Oonya bows greatly and walks toward the castle wall.

”A little bit of flower picking!”[2]

Saying that, she seemed like she was talking to the guards to lend her their washroom.

At the same time, under the shade of a building near the gate.

“…..We managed to not let him (Safate) into the Green Convent (this town).”

“It is a punishment by Gapoli-sama[3].

“Serves him right.”

“… stupid guy. If he just listened to Gapoli-sama, he could have lived comfortably.”

“……Well, where does he wants to go next time? We need to find out and interfere as per Gapoli-sama’s order.”

“Hmmm, so that’s the matter, nya.”

The dubious duo who were whispering to each other were suddenly startled by the voice from behind them.

”Aren’t you from the wagon team that we passed by on the fifth day after leaving the royal capital, Nya? I felt a strange glance so I remember it well.”

Having said that, the tail of Oonya stretches abnormally and wraps around the necks of two people.

”……yo, you…aren’t you just an ordinary cat person…”

”……Elemental cat person? …that legendary demi-human warrior…”

”…I won’t forgive anyone who hurt my young master, nya… you bastards.”

A few moments later.

She ditched those two restrained guards in the shade and thought “While deciding to protect young master, this misstep… I have to be more careful, nya.” Oonya’s face didn’t have the usual smile, it was grim and dull.

In front of the castle gate.

When Oonya returned, I said,”For the time being, I can’t bother Kuro so I’ll take my luggage off here.”

Eldena was agitated by my words, ”…Will you wait a little longer? I’ll definitely convince everyone. So…”

Despite her telling me that, I understood that it was quite difficult. ”I’m happy, but I can’t bother you or your family or acquaintances anymore.”

Eldena choked on her words and hung her head down in disappointment.

”No matter what you do, you can’t drag a wagon without a horse.”

Saying that, Kuro brought an old horse.

”It’s a year old, but it still has a lot of vitality[4]. Please consider it as a token for farewell. If it’s about 6 days, you can continue to travel irrespective of day or night.”

While saying so, he set the horse to my wagon. Kuro and his group entered the Green Convent with an apologetic look.

As expected, it was somewhat sad that he didn’t have the usual lively laughter.

”What are you going to do now? If it’s a small remote town in a small region nearby, you can enter without problems… why not go there anyway?”

Eldena’s proposal seemed like the best move at the moment but…

There’s my father to deal with.

Just like in the case of Green Convent, I can’t let go of the possibility that he is already doing something.

As I was thinking about this, suddenly, the words said by Kuro a while ago crossed my mind.

“ . . . . . If it’s about 6 days, it’s okay to proceed irrespective of day or night. . . . . .”

”Ohh, so 6 days, huh?”

As I said, Oonya and Eldena looked at me with a dubious expression. Then, we went back to the same route we travelled with Kuro’s company.

On the way, we entered the mountain path used by Kuro and travelled for 6 days.

In the end, we reached the ruins of that town in the forest.

It was the same ruins of the post town that Kuro told me about while on our way to Green Convent.

For the time being, the three of us divided the work and examined the village, the total number of buildings was 11. Among them, five buildings could be used after simple repairs. One of them was made by hollowing out the trees in the forest, and it was a structure that you wouldn’t even know at a glance that it was a house. From the top floor, you can see the surrounding area far away. Near the village, there was a plot of land that looks like a field and a stream for drinking water.

”For the time being, this place might be just right for me.”

Oonya happily nods at my words.

”Please leave the cleaning to me! Nya! I will soon clean it up so that young master can stay, nya!”

Then, she took out the cleaning tools from the luggage and started working immediately.

Somehow, it seemed that I had secured a place where I can live, I thanked Eldena for all of this.

Originally, she came to investigate the magic stones around Green Convent and took care of me, so I didn’t want to bother her any more. I thought so, but, ”…I can conduct my research here too… So, I will live here as well.” Saying that, she began to carry her luggage with great enthusiasm. I could not help but accept her request while being overwhelmed by her enthusiasm.

For the time being, the house made of wood was the largest and had the least damage, so we decided to make it our first place of residence.

The floor plan was as follows:

1st floor has 1 living room with kitchen and 4 rooms. There is also a bath and a toilet, but they were in a state that needed repair.

On the 2nd floor, there was one living room and three rooms facing it. At the end of the living room, there is a spiral staircase leading to the rooftop observatory.

We decided to make each of the 3 rooms on the 2nd floor a private room. And it was decided to make the largest room on the first floor a room that can be used for research, rest of the rooms were to be used as storage rooms for the time being, after which we started cleaning up. The room was in a state where it could be lived in just by wiping it, but,

“Yes, yes! I’m wiping more and more!”

Both Eldena and I were overwhelmed by Oonya’s speed of cleaning.

Approximately half a day later, I managed to finish cleaning up the building, so I went to bring luggage from the wagon.

There was a magic box within the luggage that I wasn’t familiar with, but when I opened it, I found a lot of food, water, and miscellaneous goods in it.

Probably Kuro left it for us.

I was really grateful for his kind gesture.

After having lunch from the ration Kuro left for us in luggage, I set about repairing the bath and toilet.

Although I wanted to prepare our research room first, we needed both the bath and toilet to function properly to perform everyday tasks without any hassle.

Both the bath and toilet seemed to derive water from the nearby mountain streams, whose water gets collected into a large storage tank[5] and the head difference[6] makes it possible to supply water through a pipe. Unfortunately, the water supply pipe was damaged.

I was wondering what could be done and then I suddenly remembered that there was a glass tube in my research equipment that I could make use of. I tried it for the time being and it seemed to be usable despite some difficulties. As a precaution, I installed a purifying device with a magic stone between the pipe and the storage tank.

Since the inside of the tank was quite dirty, I thoroughly cleaned it with purification magic and then coated it using magic[7]. If I do this much, then there should be no problem.

The bathtub and the toilet seat were also repaired by a novice DIY carpenter, and then cleaned with purification magic and finished coating them.

By the way, this water system seems to have been connected to the kitchen, and the repair of this area has made it possible to make use of water in the kitchen as well.

Also, there was a magic stone water heating system in the bath, but the magic stone had expired and was no longer effective. For the time being, when I tried using the magic stone I brought, it seems that the system itself was not broken, and it was immediately usable. It seems that I can take a bath immediately from tonight itself.

When the sun was completely set, we managed to finish cleaning the house. Everyone was covered in dust, so I decided to take a bath first for the time being,

”Young master! I’ll wash your back, nya.”

”…You! Wait a minute!”

While I was in the bathtub, I was surprised when Oonya and Eldena broke into the bathroom. Was it some form of amusement for them?

After that, we ate a little luxurious meal prepared by Oonya.

”…Where are these ingredients from?”

”I used some of the dry ingredients I got from Mr Kuro, nya!”

To put it simply, Oonya made them so delicious even while using dry ingredients, even Eldena was surprised.

“For now, thank you for your hard work!”

Replying to my words, the two responded with a smile, and the three of us clinked the glasses with cheers!

In this way, my new life had finally begun.

Footnotes:

1. T/N: Kuro ‘s wagon is followed by other wagons for delivery. ↩

2. T/N: Just an excuse to leave. ↩

3. T/N: Sama is an honorific for individuals with authority. ↩

4. T/N: the actual translation was Horsepower. ↩

5. T/N: Although 水槽 refers to a large tank, its function is more like a reservoir. ↩

6. T/N: Head difference is the elevation difference between two points in a water body. As water flows from a higher level to lower level by means of gravity in an open channel, one can say that there is a head difference that makes the water flow. ↩

7. T/N: I’m not sure if it’s coated with typical inner lining or a coating of mana. ↩