They had tents and sleeping bags for the night.
Yakumo had asked Eriri to purchase the sleeping bags for him.
Modern camping equipment was generally quite reliable.
Himmel and the others had obviously never seen anything like it.
“This one is… slightly too long for me.”
Eisen stroked his beard while looking at the sleeping bag in front of him.
It was already the shortest model Eriri had been able to find.
There weren’t any child-sized sleeping bags available.
As for how Eriri managed to buy them so quickly…
That was actually very simple.
She opened the chat group before going to the mall.
Then she left a restroom, bought everything she needed, found an empty corner, reopened the group, and uploaded the items.
Time stop was wonderful.jpg
This was another use for the chat group’s abilities that Eriri had discovered.
She wasn’t sure how long the feature would continue working.
When she activated the group’s time-stop effect, Eriri could choose between freezing absolutely everything except herself or merely stopping the passage of time while allowing existing things to remain active.
“I guess whoever designed these never considered dwarves.”
Yakumo explained with an awkward laugh.
Once Eisen zipped himself inside, a large section at the bottom of the sleeping bag simply lay flat and empty.
“It’s also rather restrictive.”
“It would make responding to an attack at night inconvenient.”
“But as a blanket for warmth, it is excellent.”
After testing the sleeping bag briefly, Eisen climbed back out.
“If the wilderness didn’t contain magical beasts, I imagine this would be extremely popular.”
Eisen touched the weapon beside him.
A double-bladed axe as tall as he was.
“But for me, being able to react immediately is more important.”
“I didn’t think it through.”
Yakumo realized he’d taken things for granted.
This was a world filled with magical beasts and demons.
What happened if they were attacked at night?
Would they first need to struggle their way out of their sleeping bags before fighting?
The whole party could potentially be wiped out during that delay.
“No.”
“This isn’t Yakumo’s mistake.”
“We simply never explained it to you.”
Himmel stepped forward.
“We’re the ones with experience traveling.”
“We should have told both of you these things beforehand.”
“And thank you.”
Himmel gave him the same reassuring smile as always.
“You went out of your way to think of all this for us.”
“Now let’s decide the watch schedule.”
Heiter was already beginning to look sleepy.
“I’ll take the first half of the night.”
Eisen volunteered.
“If anything happens, I’ll alert everyone.”
“Then I’ll take the second half.”
“I sleep very well.”
“Only getting the first half of the night shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Then we’ll leave the first watch to you, Eisen.”
Heiter gave him a quick greeting and prepared to crawl into the tent.
“Oh, right.”
Yakumo suddenly remembered something.
“Frieren, you’re not allowed to stay up all night reading grimoires.”
“Go to sleep properly.”
“And you’re absolutely not allowed to sleep in tomorrow morning!”
“Gnh…”
Sure enough, Frieren immediately looked miserable.
Yakumo had struck directly at her weakness.
Frieren loved sleeping in.
She could easily sleep straight through until noon.
“If you dare refuse to wake up, I’ll surround your face with onions!”
Yakumo had no intention of spending the first morning of their adventure trying to drag Frieren out of bed.
“So Frieren is afraid of onions?”
Himmel looked at her with great interest.
It was unclear what he had just started imagining.
“No…”
Frieren pitifully begged for mercy.
She reluctantly stuffed the grimoire back into her suitcase.
She had originally planned to read until four in the morning.
Apparently that plan was no longer possible.
“I should have volunteered for the first watch.”
Frieren muttered.
“If you took the first watch, you’d still sleep in tomorrow morning.”
Yakumo replied without mercy.
“I’ll stay up with Eisen for the first half.”
“I don’t need that much sleep anyway.”
Perhaps that was another side effect of the game system.
As long as Yakumo performed the act of sleeping at some point, the actual duration didn’t seem to matter much.
He wouldn’t experience mental fatigue afterward.
And as his INT continued increasing, the effect became increasingly obvious.
Perhaps his mental strength had grown so powerful that he no longer became tired easily.
But then…
What was Frieren’s excuse?
“You really don’t need to stay up with me.”
“Keeping watch alone isn’t boring.”
Eisen sat cross-legged beside the campfire, where sparks occasionally crackled into the air.
“I simply want more time to study magic.”
Yakumo answered.
“Compared to Frieren and Heiter, I’m still a mage who only recently began learning properly.”
“I can’t even guarantee I’ll be able to fight alongside everyone later in the journey.”
“Now that we’re traveling together, I don’t want to hold everyone back.”
“Besides, whether it’s meditation or study, both are extremely beneficial to me.”
The system was still the same system.
His skills hadn’t changed on paper.
But as Yakumo himself improved, he had begun noticing subtle differences.
For example, the projectiles from Fire Arrow were becoming faster.
He could also cast them more quickly.
That reminded Yakumo of modified private servers where skill animations had been sped up, resulting in higher attack frequency.
So perhaps his skills hadn’t been left completely unchanged after all.
Maybe he simply had to continue developing them himself.
“I see.”
“Actually, I think you’re a rather strange person.”
Eisen lowered his head and suddenly spoke.
“Frieren agreed to travel with us because Himmel persuaded her.”
“Himmel believes in her strength.”
“But you…”
“You seemed to believe in us from the beginning.”
“You joined without needing any convincing at all.”
“Himmel isn’t famous.”
“And if your only reason involved the Hero of the South, you’ve already delivered his message.”
“So I don’t fully understand you.”
“I’m a warrior.”
“I tend to speak directly.”
“So I won’t hide what I’m thinking.”
“Why did I join…?”
Yakumo honestly hadn’t thought about it very deeply.
They were the protagonist party.
So he joined them.
And Himmel had invited him.
“Maybe because…”
“Traveling with all of you feels like it will become an unforgettable journey.”
Yakumo finally summarized his feelings.
If this party had focused only on efficiency…
If every decision had been about reaching the Demon King as quickly as possible while ignoring everything else…
Yakumo wouldn’t have joined.
But every member of this party was a genuinely good person.
This journey would someday be remembered as a collection of awful, ridiculous memories that nevertheless remained impossible to forget.
That meant it couldn’t truly have been an awful journey.
And that sounded much better than staying in one place and burying himself in magical research alone.
At the end of the day…
Yakumo wasn’t someone who could remain shut away in one place forever.
“An unforgettable journey…”
“Hmph.”
“That certainly sounds like something Himmel would pursue.”
Eisen lowered his eyelids as though resting them.
“But that doesn’t sound bad.”
“Eisen…”
Yakumo suddenly interrupted.
“Your beard is hanging over the fire.”
“It’s about to catch.”