Chapter 65: A Long Journey Begins in the Home Garden – Part 3
“This way, Your Excellency Elisabeth.”
“……This is…”
As the reports had suggested, all that lay before her was an expanse of bare land. The marshland that had once existed here had vanished, completely transformed beyond recognition.
Elisabeth, the ruler of Arcel, had personally declared that she would investigate, and now she was here with her retinue to see the place for herself.
“So… until recently, this really was a marsh, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, Your Excellency. There’s no mistake about it.”
It had been many years since she last visited this marshland. For a fleeting moment, she wondered if the land had been secretly reclaimed while she wasn’t looking—but that theory seemed unlikely. Even if it were true, questions would remain: who would undertake such a task, and for what purpose? Yet compared to the impossibility of the marsh vanishing in just a few days, this idea seemed far more grounded in reality.
“Hmph… and this, then, is the invisible wall…”
Upon reaching a certain point, the investigation team encountered a mysterious barrier. Strangely, the cleared land continued just ahead, yet some unseen force blocked their way, preventing any further advance.
What was more, the barrier didn’t end; it stretched continuously, surrounding the entire area.
“Perhaps it ends at a certain height,” one of the soldiers speculated.
“Indeed. Let us test it,” Elisabeth replied.
One of the more confident soldiers stepped forward, picking up a stone. From a height of roughly two meters, he tossed it upward, gradually increasing the height with each throw. Eventually, when the stone reached about five meters, it vanished into thin air.
“As I thought… it seems the height tops out around five meters.”
Elisabeth nodded, a gleam of satisfaction in her eyes, and continued her examination with renewed determination.
◇ ◇ ◇
Several hours passed as we traveled by carriage. More precisely, it was by horse—and with the garden in tow—that we steadily made our way toward our destination.
We had encountered a few monsters along the way, but most were dispatched before they even got close, thanks to Sarassa’s magic or Anny’s precise long-range archery.
“Buhiii!”
“Monster ahead on the right! An orc!”
“Ahhhh! Those brawny arms!”
“This is not the time to get excited! If you won’t handle it, I will!”
“W-Wait… let me at least strike with my own hands… Lightning!”
“Buhiiiiii!?”
…For a moment, I could have sworn Sarassa’s personality briefly glitched or something… but it was probably just my imagination.
By the way, her specialty is lightning magic, one of the most powerful offensive spells in existence. It consumes a tremendous amount of mana, yet Sarassa possesses a gift called Source of Mana, which drastically accelerates her mana regeneration. Because of this, she can unleash lightning attacks without worrying much about depletion.
Truly, she was a B-rank adventurer on par with Shifa herself.
“In contrast, our lazy little girl over here…”
“Onii-chan… what’s for dinner tonight… mmmnn…”
She had been like this ever since we set out. A complete rookie, she hadn’t fought a single monster and had left even the watch duty entirely to her seniors, sleeping soundly through it all. I couldn’t help but worry whether she was really cut out to be part of this party.
“Get up already.”
I pinched both her nose and mouth simultaneously.
“……!～～～～!?”
“Finally awake, huh.”
“Buhah!? W-What are you doing, Onii-chan!? I was dreaming about choking on meat and nearly suffocating!”
“Sounds like quite the pleasant dream…”
At last, she opened her eyes. I was about to tell her to make up for lost time and work hard, when Shifa glanced back at us.
“The target inn town is in sight. Let’s stop here for today.”
The sun was still high in the sky. Though we had expected to arrive in the evening, it seemed we had reached much earlier than planned.
“Yay! Then let’s go home!”
Though it was called an inn town, it was really just a sparse village with a few old inns.
Older inns often had large rooms filled with multiple beds, with several people sharing a single bed. Some were so spartan that there were no beds at all—just sleeping on the floor.
Ordinarily, travelers would have no choice but to make do and stay in such inns. But we didn’t need to worry about that.
We veered off the road to a secluded spot, out of sight. There, we used the garden’s transfer magic.
In an instant, the hours-long journey by carriage felt like a lie. We were back in my home garden in the blink of an eye.
“Even from that far away, we made it back safely…”
“…This feels almost like teleportation magic, doesn’t it…”
Yes, I was relieved to be back. I had worried that the distance might be too far to manage, but that concern was completely unfounded.
“Hhhiin!?”
The sudden change in scenery startled the horse. Since we couldn’t leave it behind, we had transferred the carriage along with it.
“Nyaa!”
“Pii!”
Milk and Pippi, sensing our return, came rushing from the far end of the garden.
“Hhhhiinnnn!?”
Seeing them, the horse panicked, as if it thought it was about to be eaten, and let out a great shriek while thrashing wildly.
“Easy, easy… it’s alright. Calm down.”
Shifa soothed it, and the horse slowly settled, though its eyes still watched Milk and Pippi warily.
Perhaps animals can sense the difference between monsters and friends.
“Hey, you mustn’t scare them like that.”
“Nyaa…”
“Pii?”