Chapter 6

The next morning, I woke up to the aroma of coffee.

Sister handed me a cup of coffee with a "Here you go!"

The bitter taste woke up my drowsy mind.

It seemed that the preparations for our departure were already complete while I was sleeping.

Mea, unlike yesterday, was wearing ankle-length pants and a long-sleeved shirt under a thin leather dress. I think this was the result of Sister's sewing last night.

The moccasin-like shoes she wore on her feet were made by me. I think they turned out pretty well for something I made on the spot.

She had a bag with a strap around her waist. Although it wasn't the best, it should be fine for carrying things.

And on her back... she was carrying the short dagger that Samiel had held.

Mea seemed to notice me staring at her.

"Thank you, big brother!"

She said and hid behind Sister.

I had always wanted a younger sibling, and now my wish had finally come true.

Feeling happy, I couldn't help but pat Mea's head, but Sister hit me on the head with the handle of her mountain herb sickle.

"Don't bully her!"

She had a "Don't touch..." look on her face.

In situations like this, it's best to change the topic.

"Are we leaving now?"

"Yes. It will take a whole day, so we need to hurry and get ready."

There wasn't much to prepare.

I returned the borrowed knife to Sister, slung my backpack, and picked up the mountain herb sickle, and I was ready to go.

After drinking the portable food with coffee, I poured the remaining hot water from the pot into the stove to extinguish the fire.

We left the house and headed to the elder's house first.

It was still early morning, but the elder was standing in front of his house.

"You're leaving, I see. If you leave at this time, you should arrive by dusk.

Go straight down the southern road. ...And take good care of Mea."

"Understood. We'll be on our way."

Sister said this and started walking towards the southern path of the village.

There were no guards at the exit gate, but after we pushed it aside to leave, we put it back in place.

The path was just wide enough for a cart to pass.

The surrounding area was filled with fields where various vegetables I didn't know the names of were growing.

A gentle downhill path wound through these fields.

Sister walked in front of me, holding Mea's hand. Mea's long tail swayed from side to side as she walked, which looked kind of cute.

Before I knew it, I was humming along with the swaying of her tail.

"You're in a good mood! ...Be careful, the grasslands ahead are where Gartl sometimes appear."

"Sure, no problem. I'll cover the back."

Sister turned around, perhaps noticing my humming, and gave me a warning.

Looking around again, I saw that the terraced fields became more irregular as the slope of the path increased. Compared to near the village, the difference was clear.

It felt like the fields had been gradually cut out from the south of the village.

There was a large rock in the middle of the path, with a few trees growing around it.

There were signs of a campfire near the rock, suggesting it was used as a rest stop for the village, as the elder had mentioned.

It was around noon. We had walked quite a distance, but I wasn't very tired because it was mostly downhill.

Sister suggested we stop for a meal, so we took a break at the rock.

We gathered some dry branches and made a fire using the remains of the previous campfire.

After searching my backpack and telling Sister there was no food, she took out a paper-wrapped package from her backpack and handed it to me.

Inside were instant rice, miso soup mix in a tube, and some dried meat like beef jerky. It was enough for three people for about two days, but I suspected there was more in the backpack.

I looked at Sister curiously.

"For now, this is all we have. I brought about a month's worth of food, but we don't know what will happen, so we need to save some..."

I was lectured.

Indeed, that's true... but I really want to eat a lot of meat once in a while.

In the middle of this, Mea exclaimed, "Look!" and pointed to the grasslands with her spoon. She was holding a Sherpa cup in her other hand, so she must have used the spoon.

"What?" Sister looked in the direction Mea was pointing with a small pair of binoculars.

"Akito, some meat is running this way. Get ready!"

I finally saw what was happening.

A few small pig-like creatures were being chased by Gartl.

Seeing Sister preparing her crossbow, it seemed she intended to kill the pig-like creatures. In that case, my job was to defeat the Gartl and claim the pig-like creatures for ourselves.

As the pig-like creatures passed by the rock, I jumped at the Gartl that were chasing them, swinging my mountain herb sickle.

I landed on the back of one and killed it, then got up and hooked another Gartl with my sickle and threw it away.

Since Gartl have a habit of jumping at anything that stops moving, I ran and hit the head of the next target. I then struck the neck of a roaring Gartl, breaking it.

I looked around to make sure there were no other Gartl.

As I was catching my breath, Mea ran down from the rock in the direction the pig-like creatures had gone. Sister followed her.

I confirmed to myself that it was the right tusk and took the tusks from the Gartl. They were valuable for trading.

When I walked over to Sister, she was in the middle of bleeding the pig-like creatures.

She had removed the organs, cut the veins in the neck and legs, and hung them from a tree.

"Good timing. Could you cut that branch to make a simple sled...?"

"Sure, just a moment."

I cut the branch Sister pointed to with my kukri knife, trimming the extra branches to form a Y-shape.

I then tied the bled pig-like creature to the sled. This way, the two branches would serve as the sled, and we could drag it by holding the long branch.

Looking closely at the pig-like creature, I noticed a small horn on its forehead, like a unicorn.

When Mea hit it with her short dagger, the horn popped off at the base.

From the way she carefully stored it in her bag, I realized that the horn was the valuable part of the pig-like creature for trading.

After that, I was dragging the pig-like creature down the hill of the plain.

The two people ahead of me were walking lightly, laughing and talking from time to time, but I wasn't feeling any of that ease.

There were Gartl watching me from a distance, so I was on high alert to make sure they didn't take the meat I had obtained.

As the sun began to set, we finally saw the village in the distance.

It was much larger than Mea's village.

The village, which seemed to have over a hundred houses, was surrounded by a sturdy log fence, and even the gate was visible.

It appeared that this path led directly to that gate.

As we got closer, the size became more apparent.

The gate had a tower on top. The roughly made double doors, which could be split like a log, were wide enough for a cart to pass through even with one door open.

A man in leather armor, with a stern face, was guarding the gate with a spear about two meters long.

As we tried to drag the pig-like creature through the gate, the guard suddenly blocked our way.

"Hold it, I don't recognize you... Where are you from?"

"We're from the upper village. The elder said if we can defeat Gartl, we can come to the lower village and become hunters."

Sister answered politely.

"The upper village... Ah, that settlement. Yes, we do have a guild here. If you can get a child of Inegal on the way, you can become a fine hunter. Alright, you may pass!"

The guard said this and opened the path for us.

"Thank you. By the way, could you tell us where the guild is and where we can sell this Inegal?"

"The guild is at the crossroads straight ahead. Look for the shield sign. The butcher is on the left side of the way. The sign with a bone-in meat should be easy to spot."

"Thank you."

We thanked the guard and immediately went to the butcher to sell the Inegal, the pig-like creature.

Indeed, the sign was a bone-in meat.

We sold the Inegal for one silver coin, but we kept one hind leg for ourselves. Even so, the butcher seemed to expect a good profit from the skin and meat.