Published: September 2, 2025
※8/16 Typo corrections made.
This is Satou. In games, the early journey is on foot, the middle by carriage, and by the end, it’s teleportation or airships—travel gradually becomes more convenient.
I had an acquaintance who said traveling by carriage was decadence.
If it’s not really an adventure, then it’s okay to take it easy with a carriage, right?
â—‡
Rattling and clattering, the carriage moved along the road winding through the hills.
“Ugh~”
“Meow~”
Every now and then, small animals like rabbits and mice peeked out from bushes near the road, and Pochi and Tama reacted eagerly as if about to leap out of the carriage. Each time, Liza grabbed their belts to hold them back. Though the carriage moved at just under 20 km/h, so even if they did jump out, it wouldn’t be enough to seriously hurt them.
“Pochi, Tama, don’t lean out or you’ll fall. Keep your backs against the coachman’s seatback.”
“Yes, understood!”
“Aye~”
Good responses came from the two positioned on either side of the coachman’s seat.
Of course, that would only last until they spotted something next.
The breeze was a bit chilly, but the sky was clear and the sunlight warm, making it very pleasant.
After leaving Seryu City, the forest at first was more like several clusters of woods. They had passed through that an hour ago, and now gentle rolling hills stretched out.
Occasionally, over the hills, shepherds could be seen with many sheep. In the city, they had only seen goat products, so there were sheep here after all.
Clunk. Clunk-clunk.
The carriage jolted as it crossed ruts in the road. From behind came Lulu’s small scream and Arisa’s grumble, but I let it drift in the wind, pretending not to hear.
The road curved to avoid the hills. It wasn’t paved with cobblestones, just bare earth. As a result, the wheel ruts scattered in multiple tracks. The horses naturally followed the path, but the coachman had to make subtle adjustments to avoid these ruts skillfully.
Though aided by skills, I still lacked the practical experience to smoothly dodge them all.
Arisa poked her head over Pochi’s, almost sitting on it from behind.
“Drive a little more carefully~”
“Don’t be unreasonable with a rookie coachman.”
I brushed off Arisa’s complaint lightly. Pochi looked annoyed at having Arisa on her head.
Oh, Pochi was retaliating—biting Arisa’s arm playfully with both hands.
“Hey, Pochi, stop! My sleeve’s getting all wet with drool~”
“Hamu-hamu, nya~”
As Arisa tried to pull her arm away, Pochi tumbled off the coachman’s seat toward the cargo bed.
“Don’t get wild now~” I warned lightly. The carriage was shaking, so it would be dangerous if they fell.
Tama watched Pochi and Arisa’s play eagerly, itching to join.
Ah, Tama jumped in.
Words like patience or endurance just don’t suit Tama, so it can’t be helped.
â—‡
This trip was turning out more leisurely than expected. Since it was a fantasy world, I thought monsters would randomly show up like in an RPG, but nothing had attacked yet.
Using wide-area search, there were no dangerous animals or monsters detected. At most, foxes appeared. Occasionally, wolf packs could be seen, but they were over ten kilometers away near a distant forest boundary, so there was no need to be on alert for now.
From what Zena said during our date, the military regularly hunts dangerous animals and monsters around Seryu City as part of their exercises, so that was probably why.
Seeing the young girls playing around in the back, Liza seemed to intervene. I was glad because I thought it might be time to stop them soon.
Lulu, who had sheltered near the front of the carriage after Liza got up, quickly sat just behind me.
Now that I think about it, I hadn’t really had much of a proper conversation with Lulu. Communication was important, so I decided to try talking to her.
“Lulu, are you okay with motion sickness?”
“Y-yes!”
She sounded quite startled, as if not expecting me to talk to her.