As soon as we started travelling, Lord Corinth began asking the names of various things.

It was indeed inconvenient to communicate using only gestures. I also wanted to learn the language Lord Corinth was speaking myself.

Lord Corinth then proceeded to grab some plants and seemed to be examining each of them. He took a look at a wide variety of plants.

He seemed to be looking for ones suitable for eating. After some time, he pulled out some plants and collected them.

Those are called Poto. They are often served in meals as a side dish. I didn't know they were actually buried on the ground.

Lord Corinth seemed to be twenty five years old. He certainly looks younger than that though.

When I attempted telling him my age as well, I felt troubled because I didn't have enough fingers. But Lord Corinth soon counted until seventeen with his fingers and I nodded to confirm. In truth, I would be reaching seventeen half a year from now, and am still sixteen years old. However, I wanted to seem as much of an adult as possible in front of Lord Corinth for some reason.

Suddenly, a Big Boar appeared from within the mountain.

Not good. It was not too large, but it was really agitated. A Big Boar in this state was quite dangerous.

Lord Corinth stood in front in order to protect me, and the moment he unsheathed his sword, the enemy was easily felled – with just one slash too.

The moment the boar was defeated, three Grayhounds appeared.

This was truly bad. I could not serve as help at all as I am now.

However, Lord Corinth easily defeated them as well. Two of them even had their heads sent flying with just a slash each.

I would never have believed a Grayhound could be defeated in a single sword swing if I didn't witness it myself.

He butchered the Big Boar in mere moments. And after recovering the meat, he started walking while looking as if nothing worthy of note had happened earlier.

He dropped the bodies of the Grayhounds straight down into the valley's depths without even recovering their magic cores. But I guess he didn't think much of their magic cores to begin with. Such high standards.

When we managed to discover a river, Lord Corinth gestured for us to go down towards it. He might be looking for a place to stay the night. And dinner as well!

My body felt a little strange since yesterday. I felt really hungry for some reason. It would not be an exaggeration to say I was totally famished.

We managed to collect meat earlier, so tonight's dinner would definitely be meat! The food wrapped in a metallic sheet was also delicious, but its amount was too lacking.

I looked at the recovered meat, and found there were several types. I am really looking forward to eating them.

Lord Corinth seemed to be a capable chef as well. He proceeded with cooking preparations with an expert air. What impressive skills.

It would be good if I could also a.s.sist him somehow… Ah, that's right! I shall light a fire with magic.

He cut up the black colored meat and dipped the pieces on the river's waters. Was he trying to chill them?

He then proceeded with cutting up the rest of the meat. His cutting techniques rivaled those of a professional chef's.

Afterwards, he headed towards the river waters once again, but suddenly threw his knife mid-way. Amazing! He just killed a large fish with that throw. I see. So the purpose of setting down the meat there earlier was in order to bait such a fish.

He also cut up the fish in no time. It has been a while since I have eaten fis.h.!.+

Lord Corinth finally began cooking. He took out some bread, cut them into slices and put some previously prepared fish meat on top of them. I was curious about how he would cook it further, but it seemed to be finished with just this. We would be eating fish raw?!

I finally willed myself to try one bite after seeing Lord Corinth enjoying his meal. Delicious! I didn't think raw fish could taste this delicious! I started eating wholeheartedly.

All the dishes that were served afterwards were absolutely excellent. It was embarra.s.sing, but I seemed to have eaten more than Lord Corinth did.

Lord Corinth seemed to want to tell me something after the meal. He pointed at my foot, then gestured that we should not proceed with travelling on the road again for now. It was something of the sort.

Considering what happened yesterday, the condition of my leg truly wasn't that good.

He was likely telling me that I needed some rest. When I asked how long it would take with some gestures, the answer he gave was about fifteen to twenty days.

I would not readily agree, if not for my present state. I wanted to reach Gotania as soon as possible, but I also did not want to ruin my body any further.

It would be counterproductive if I pushed myself and ended up being unable to walk once more.

I had no choice but to endure for twenty days. I nodded in agreement.

That's good. I managed to convince Cleria.

Well then, there's still a bit more to go until evening, but there wasn't enough time to scout out the surrounding woods. Since there's a riffle nearby, all we could do right now was to take the opportunity for a quick bath.

To be honest, I did a lot of physical work yesterday, so I sweated buckets and currently don't feel so good. I also wanted to wash my clothes and underwear.

I gestured towards Cleria in order to let her know of my intentions. She turned beet red and gingerly nodded. Why'd she blush? Well, she's at that age, I guess.

I walked towards the river shallows with my formal uniform and some cloth in place of a towel. It kinda sucks that I lost my spare work overalls yesterday. I started to take off my clothes and took a pa.s.sing glance towards Cleria. She panicked and hurriedly turned away. Well, I don't really mind getting seen by a kid.

I immersed myself in the water. Fu~h! That feels great. The water's about 120 centimeters deep. The river was flowing at a slow pace. I brought my head down on the water as well. It's a shame that I didn't have any shampoo or body-soap with me. Does Cleria have some? I also took the opportunity to wash my uniform.

My body temperature lowered after five minutes of soaking myself, so I decided to get out of the water. Cleria still had herself turned away. I wiped my body with some cloth and put on my underwear directly after squeezing the water out of it. I didn't have any spares, so it couldn't be helped. It should dry up soon anyway. I put my uniform on next. It kinda felt strange because I've always been wearing work overalls for several days.

Cleria sensed that I've come out from the river and turned around, only to gape at me absentmindedly as soon as she saw me. She seemed to be quite surprised because of the fact that I changed into an officer's uniform.

This uniform's design was revamped five years ago, after going for one hundred and fifty years without any revisions whatsoever. The Imperial Military got unusually fired up about it, and commissioned the current number one fas.h.i.+on designer in the entire galaxy to improve the uniform's aesthetics. It turned out looking pretty cool.

But anyway, would Cleria also take a bath as well?

Lord Corinth conveyed something surprising to me. He apparently wanted to bathe in the nearby river.

To think he would do such a thing in front of a lady! I thought as such, but immediately reconsidered. This was not the capital, and Lord Corinth is a travel companion and not one of my subjects. He was free to take any actions he deemed necessary. Moreover, separating from each other in the current situation wasn't wise. There was a danger of encountering vicious monsters such as Grayhounds after all.

Lord Corinth mostly likely disregarded his sense of shame in order to be able to protect me immediately in case of such an event. I am sorry to let Lord Corinth experience something so shameful because of my weakness.

He seems to have finally gotten out of the water. I was surprised to see Lord Corinth's present appearance. He wore a different set of clothes from the ones he had on before. Silver and gold tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs were generously used to accentuate his current crisp, black clothing.

I was a military uniform. It was of course a design I haven't seen before, but my intuition judged it to be so. What exquisite tailoring! I could even feel a sense of majesty. The quality of the fabric used was beyond me!

Until recently, I had only vaguely felt that Lord Corinth was a part of the n.o.bility. But judging from his current appearance, it was possible that he was a high ranking aristocrat – a marquis at the very least. No, it was also possible that he was a part of the royal lineage. This once again reminded me of how unfathomable Lord Corinth was.

I had been thinking of doing so after seeing Lord Corinth bathing earlier, and finally decided to bathe myself. The last time I took a bath was seven days ago, and my entire body was caked with dirt and dried blood.

I conveyed my intentions to Lord Corinth. He reminded me to cry out in case anything out of place happened. He then turned away.

No, at least help me to remove my belts and armor first please. I pointed out all fourteen belts to Lord Corinth in order for him to remove them. I then had him take off my armor as well. I was wearing clothes properly under the armor, so it was fine. It seems Lord Corinth was really curious about my armor.

I went to the waterside with a change of clothes. Lord Corinth had his back turned to me and was busy examining my armor. I took off my clothes and went in the water. It has been a long time since I properly cleansed myself.

It felt great. I thoroughly washed my dirt filled and blood soaked body and hair. I then washed my used clothes next.

I felt refreshed. It was the first time I had felt so happy while cleansing my body. I went out of the water and got dressed.

Lord Corinth seems to have noticed I had gotten out of the river as well. But when he turned around and looked at me, he made a very surprised face. I hurriedly checked my appearance. I was wearing half pants designed for knights and a tunic. I do not think them strange. Why is Lord Corinth so surprised?

It seems Cleria also wanted to bathe. That's good. Cleria's body still had dried blood sticking all over it. She seemed to have tried removing some of it, but her face and hair still had some sticking on them.

Oops, she seems to want me to help take off her armor. Oh, that's a lot of belts. Guess you really can't wear these alone. Her armor felt strangely light when I took them off. I already noticed it when I examined the protectors yesterday, but even her torso armor was quite light.

(What's it made of?)

[…Unknown.]

Huh? Nanom was unable to a.n.a.lyze this thing?

[Please ingest a sample.]

Eh? Ain't that kind of bad? This was Cleria's after all. Would a piece from the back of the armor work? I sc.r.a.ped a really small portion off and swallowed it.

[It seems to be a metal alloy of some sort.]

Uh, okay. So you can't give me any other details huh? It looks like stainless steel but it's unusually lightweight. I have no choice but to ask Cleria later. I cleaned the dirt off the armor pieces with a cloth.

She seems to have finished bathing. When I turned around, I saw a whole different girl from before.

Eh? Cleria!?

She turned so beautiful to the point that I would've mistaken her for another person.

Her brunette hair was vibrant and her skin was milky white. She had lovely and elegant features fit for Miss Galaxy.

She changed so much just from was.h.i.+ng some dirt off? It was like a complete make-over man! Women really were fearsome.

It's already evening.

It's time to sleep. I had Cleria lie down first, cleaned up after the meal, picked up some firewood, threw them inside the bonfire and had Nanom take charge of guard duty.

I woke up at dawn as always. There were still a lot of fish and boar meat left, so I grilled them all before they went bad. We'll have the rest for lunch.

Cleria was attracted by the smell of grilled meat and fish and woke up as well. The menu is the same as yesterday's. I refrained from making raw canapes this time.

Cleria's appet.i.te was tremendous right from the morning, but there was enough grilled meat to go around, so I packed the rest into a bento for lunch.

After cleaning up, I helped Cleria put her armor back on and set off once again. I wanted to look for a place suitable for a base camp upstream, in a direction away from the road. You really can't resist the benefits of being near a river.

We walked for about three hours along the riverbank. [There is a large opening in that direction.] Nanom suddenly announced.

There was a wide s.p.a.ce between two large rocks nearby. Rather than a cave, it was more of a gap made between two large rock walls.

I cautiously entered inside. I had to bend low in order to squeeze myself in, but the interior was tall and wide enough for people to stand. It was about 5×5 meters by my estimate.

Unfortunately, there was a ten centimeter opening on top of the formation. If it rains, water would soak the place.

But you could say it was convenient in daytime as well, because sunlight would seep in from the opening. There was also an area which would s.h.i.+eld us from the rain further in, so we should be able to make do.

It's pretty nice overall. Yep, it's great. If we put some obstacles near the entrance, it would serve as the perfect base.

Was this place okay with Cleria? I gestured to ask, and she nodded in reply. For the meantime, let's stay here. If we encounter any problems, let's just look for another place.

First, let's think of ways to block off the entrance. Well, the only options available would be stones or making a fence from wood.

We left all our luggage inside and went out with only weapons in hand for some recon. I found another riffle about 50 meters upstream that was perfect for bathing. There were also some fish swimming about in the water.

After looking around a bit, I haven't managed to find materials suitable for blocking the base entrance. Wait, there's a fallen tree with a large enough trunk about 150 meters ahead, near the riverbank. It doesn't look durable enough to be used for long, but I'll check it out anyway.

When I observed closer, the tree really did have a fairly thick looking trunk. It felt like this tree had stood in this area for a considerable amount of years before finally toppling over. It's thickness was just right, but it's length was about 10 meters long.

If I had a tool specialized in cutting trees on hand, it would've posed no problem. But I don't have such a thing with me. It even seems I would have a tough time even with an axe due to the thickness of the trunk. It would be too difficult and time consuming with just a knife. A sword isn't exactly suitable either.

I pulled out my sword anyway and tried hitting it with just the tip. When I did so, the blade ended up sinking halfway.

Wow, this sword sure is sharp! I didn't even put in a lot of strength in that swing. I swung it down with a little more force next. This time, the sword blade got buried fully inside. It would be too inconvenient to do this repeatedly.

If I swung it down with full force every time, there was a chance the sword would chip and break.

Huh? This situation seemed kinda familiar…

Come to think of it, there was a scenario similar to this one in the game.

That RPG had a turtle monster which would rebound most attacks if you only hit it with plain sword slashes. It was a stage where either you defeated the monster first or your sword gets broken in the battle.

I remember I got a lot of swords broken in that particular stage.

But if you master the control of Ki, you would be able to pa.s.s the stage without your sword getting broken in the process.

That's right! I remember now. There was a technique I learned in order to pa.s.s that stage.

Corinth-style Swordsmans.h.i.+p Hidden Technique – Final Blade

This was a special technique which would infuse Ki (life energy) from within the body to the blade of a sword in order to buff its attack and cutting power.

Aaargh! That embarra.s.sing name! Really man, what was I thinking back then dammit!?

What's up with the whole Ki (life energy) thing anyway? The developers were having too much fun designing that game.

I remember the days when I desperately tried to copy that skill from an NPC master and managed to obtain it after countless rounds of trial and error. It felt kinda nostalgic and made me want to try it out right now.

I closed my eyes and took a stance with my sword. I sensed the life energy within my body, controlled its flow and guided it up my arms, towards the sword blade… Just kidding!

I was just kinda playing around. But when I opened my eyes once more, my sword released a blinding glow.

(What the heck's going on!?)

[Unconfirmed. But we have managed to pick up an unknown energy signature.]

Again with that stuff huh. Did I really manage to activate Final Blade?

I tried lightly slas.h.i.+ng the trunk with my sword. The tree was easily cut up without offering any resistance whatsoever.

Oi, oi! What the heck's up with this man? I stared intently at the glowing sword blade.

Even Cleria should find this surprising! When I turned towards her, I found her oggling the tree trunk and not my glowing sword. Huh? You're concerned about that?

(This is weird, isn't it?) I asked Nanom.

[It's abnormal.]

Yep, thought so. Well, I ended up cutting it anyway, so whatever. Let's make full use of it then. I rolled the log all the way over to our new base.

When we arrived back, I tried to think of the best method to use the thing. Guess I'll just have to use some strength to move it aside whenever we go out. There wasn't any point to using it to block the entrance if it could be moved away easily anyway. It's length was close to 1 meter, and it looked quite heavy.

I had Cleria go in first and followed afterwards while pulling the log to seal the entrance. I'm glad we managed to find something nearby. Cleria would have a hard time moving this thing. The thickness of the trunk fit the entrance nicely. The remaining gaps don't exceed 20 centimeters in width. Dangerous creatures would be unable to easily enter with this.

When I turned towards Cleria to ask for her opinion, she nodded while seeming impressed.

Ok. With this, security is set.

Since it was about ten in the morning already, I decided to have an early lunch. The food tasted alright, even when cold.

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