Ever since the postwar era, when the Demon Kings began to rise, the land called Hokkaido had changed a little.
One Demon King moved the earth, while another controlled the weather, rewriting local climate conditions to make the land more comfortable for themselves. These days, there were supposedly even places where flowers bloomed like spring in the dead of winter.
But Hokkaido was huge.
In most areas, winter basically sealed the land under snow, and once you left the cities, you ended up walking through blizzards. Even so, if you were going near the <Black Territory> controlled by Demon Kings, mountain paths were far safer than roads.
They lowered the risk of being found by a Demon King or their servants.
And for the time being, my destination was at the end of a mountain path too.
“Hey.”
After an hour of walking the mountain trail—or maybe two hours had already passed.
The first one to express concern was Sera Pendragon. This was why sheltered girls were a problem. She spat the words out along with a white breath.
“Hasn’t this whole setup been weird for a while now?”
“Weird?”
I stopped there and turned back toward the three of them. All three had huge packs on their backs, so exhaustion showed heavily on their faces. On top of that, they were moving through snow in full gear, wearing mountaineering overjackets.
Unfamiliar terrain drained stamina all by itself. It might be about time for a break.
“What’s weird about it?”
I sat down on a rock nearby and took out the canteen hanging from my waist. Inside was warmed tea. A tiny mouthful was enough.
While I was at it, I looked up at the sun. It hung low, and the sunlight was unreliable. It simply cast white light in silence over the mountain slope.
Still, it was good that the sky was clear. It was possible the Demon King in this area was controlling the weather. Lord <Fissured Holy Icon>, who supposedly had a vast foundation in Hokkaido and controlled the clouds, was far too famous.
Once we stopped walking, I could tell how silent the mountain was. Maybe the snow absorbed sound. I steadied my breathing a little and savored the feeling of hot tea passing down my throat.
“Don’t underestimate winter in Hokkaido. This area is inside a Demon King’s sphere of influence, so the weather conditions are being affected pretty heavily. Even this is better than it was before the war.”
“That’s not what I mean!”
Sera shouted. She threw down her pack and dropped heavily onto a nearby rock too.
“Why are we the only ones carrying baggage, while you’re dressed that light, Mr. Yashiro? You said we’d rotate.”
“We are rotating. Among you.”
“You’re not in the rotation.”
“Listen.”
I tapped the hilt of the bastard sword hanging at my waist.
“It’d be bad if I, the strongest member of this party, wore myself out carrying baggage. I have to stay alert too. Honestly, I don’t even want this role. Just carrying luggage would be easier.”
That was why I had wanted to bring Joe the <Salt>. If it were Joe and me, the baggage would be more compact, and I could relax while carrying it. As much as it pissed me off to admit it, when it came to outdoor encounter battles, Joe was stronger than me. Or rather, he could maneuver in those situations with more of an advantage.
“So that’s why you will all carry the baggage without complaining.”
“Actually, is this really a Demon King’s sphere of influence? In a place this huge, isn’t the chance of running into servants pretty low?”
“Mm. Not really.” This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
The one who answered Sera’s question was Yukine Indo.
She lowered her pack, which looked like it might be bigger than she was, somewhat roughly onto the snow, then sat down in the corner of a nearby rock. Indo wore a white overjacket for snow-mountain camouflage, and once she stopped moving like that, even her presence thinned. Her rough breathing, however, showed she was at least somewhat tired.
“Some Demon Kings in the <Black Territory>... can sense our position.”
“There you have it. Indo, I’ll give you five well-done points.”
“I did it.”
Indo clenched her fist expressionlessly. I laughed despite myself. She was too serious.
“Even if she’s retired, that is what a former local staff member says. No harm in being too careful.”
“Precisely!”
All of a sudden, Shirogamine raised her voice as if insisting on her own existence. I had no idea where this girl’s stamina came from. She seemed more energetic than Indo and stood firmly with her legs planted. Since she was an idiot, there was even a chance she simply did not feel fatigue.
“This too is a gift from Master, in the form of a trial! By carrying these, our legs and hips will be trained as well. That is how it works, yes? I understand!”
“No, I wasn’t really thinking about that.”
More to the point, I doubted that putting them under a stupid load for just a day or two would have any major effect. But Shirogamine would not let it go.
“Then you are training us unconsciously! As expected of a gifted teacher!”
“I’m not giving you well-done points.”
“How unfortunate.”
Shirogamine went quiet for just a moment. But while I drank another mouthful of tea, she started talking again.
“However! If I think that tonight, after all this fatigue, a hot spring and Hokkaido delicacies await us at an inn, then I can endure it! It is fine!”
“Huh? An inn—hot springs? Is that for real?”
“Hokkaido delicacies?”
Drawn in by Shirogamine, Sera and Indo both opened their eyes wide. For a fleeting moment, they seemed to forget their exhaustion.
That was when I knew I had to hand down a cruel declaration to them.
“No.”
I muttered it like I was spitting the word out.
“There is none of that. None.”
There was silence.
“To begin with, the place we’re heading to isn’t an inn.”
“No! We are this deep in the mountains, so I assumed there must be some phantom hot-spring inn! Master, you toyed with my feelings!”
To begin with, I did not have that kind of money. I might have said something careless to get Joe the <Salt> to come along, but I had no time to come all the way out here and leisurely soak in a hot spring.
“I mean, it’s not like I care.”
Clearly disappointed, Sera Pendragon stood. Her white breath came out long, like a sigh.
“I wasn’t expecting that kind of thing from you anyway, Mr. Yashiro.”
“Rude little brat. I’m confiscating five well-done points.”
“What the hell are those, anyway?”
“Hmph.”
Shirogamine laughed through her nose.
“What a pity, Sera. Those are the sort of things one may think in one’s heart, but does not say aloud. By all means, continue worsening his impression of you at that pace.”
I deliberately stayed silent. Needless to say, Shirogamine did not possess any well-done points for me to confiscate.
“Anyway, we’re hurrying on. I want to arrive before sunset.”
“Where?”
The one who asked was Indo.
“There shouldn’t have been a Northern Bonfire garrison base around here.”
“You know this region well?”
“A little. I know the map.”
“That means you know it really damn well. Five more well-done points.”
“I did it.”
Indo clenched her fist again. I brushed the snow off my composite-polymer pants and slowly stood.
“Then you know there’s a small church up ahead, right?”
“Yeah. An unmanned one.”
“A friend of mine—no, I don’t want to call him that. An acquaintance took it over and uses it as his ‘garage’ for making money around here.”
In reality, he was one of the regulars at Ed Silas’s bar. He was, as expected from a man in the Hero business, unquestionably a piece of shit. The people around him called him the <Priest>. If we were lucky, we would get some of the food he had stocked away. If we were unlucky, we could at least get out of the wind and snow.
However, there was also a worst-case scenario.
That would be if he was holed up in the church that served as his “garage” for some kind of job.
If things went badly, that bastard <Priest> was even worse than Ishinoo the <Musician>. He was the kind of man who would have been nothing but a serial killer if he did not have a Hero license. There was a possibility he would strip us of everything we owned while we slept and attack us for “fun.”
If that happened, it would be a pain in the ass.
But as usual, the only thing I could really do was pray.