The next morning, Dahlia went out to the woods outside the royal city .

Even if one called it collection, it was just a light plan to gather stones and sand close to the highway . She did not have high expectations for the results .

In the tower, she could not calm down considering Tobias might visit again, and getting asked by acquaintances about the canceled engagement was depressing too .

As she would never meet someone like that if she went to the forest, for the time being, she planned to have a change of pace for the day .

Dahlia went by a horse carriage, but since she was alone, she decided to splurge a little, so she rented a trained eight-legged horse Sleipnir with a strong metal door carriage .

The rental fee was quite high, but when moving, this Sleipnir could apparently send small monsters and thieves who came to attack down with one kick .

Also, if one went to the door behind the coach’s seat, hid inside the carriage and blew the whistle there, it seems that the Sleipnir will return to the capital all by itself, without being instructed by the coach .

When Dahlia went to book the carriage, she just rented it without hesitation because it just got a cancellation .

At first Dahlia was running the Sleipnir timidly, but there were no problems . Rather, she felt comfortable as if it the eight-legged horse was making it easy for her .

Under the blue sky, the voices of the birds overlapped and the wind swayed slowly through the trees .

Although there were some b.u.mps in the road to the forest, the road width and the conditions were good . Above all, a good carriage was still comfortable to ride .

It was said that almost no monster came out from near the royal capital to the destination forest .

However, as taught by her father, to always be prepared, Dahlia had put a stone-throwing magic stone against monsters in her jacket, and she also had equipment for self-protection . Even if a human thief came out, she was in a shape where she could deal with them .

When Dahlia confirmed that there was no one around, she pulled out a bottle of white wine from the bag and drank directly from the bottle .

After she took several sips, she let out a big breath . It was an ill-mannered way of drinking, but it was something Dahlia wanted to do once .

The stress of the past few days was surprisingly heavy .

Dahlia felt that she could finally take a deep breath .

If she went this way, there was a slightly wide strip of river beach .

Pick some stones there, and while looking at the river, let’s have a quick lunch-as she thought about it, a flock of birds screamed high-pitched from the forest to her side and flew away .

The eight-legged horse Sleipnir, stopped with a neigh and lifted the front right foot to look at the forest . Apparently, this was the stance it takes when alerted .

A noise was heard from the thick bush on the right side of the travel direction . It’s not the sound of a small animal .

A bigger animal, or maybe even a monster .

Dariya clasped the stone-throwing magic stone against monsters tightly .

“… finally, the road …”

It was a human being that came out of the bushes with a faint voice .

However, he was bathed in blood from head to toe .

“Wait, are you okay ?!”

“… Can . . ive me …wa . . water? ”

The man with both hands and knees on the ground had a faint voice and couldn’t say his words properly .

Dahlia hurriedly brought a water bag from the carriage .

“Drink this!”

The man who received it lowered his head lightly and drank the water from the leather bag at once, as if breathing was a waste of time .

“I’m alive again…thanks”

The man fell on the spot .

The breastplate armor was still there, but the shoulders part and the back part was ripped off . The clothes he wore was also tattered, and his left shoulder and upper arm were gouged out deeply by several wounds . Anyway, his whole body was dyed red with blood .

“Are you all right?!”

“I’m fine … the blood is mostly from the monsters … got separated from my comrades… from the mountain, ran for two days …”

In the direction that the man barely managed to point his finger to, was the top of a mountain covered with snow .

Coming from that mountain, Dahlia could only say that he was lucky to have survived .

If he had comrades to be separated from, then he might be an adventurer .

“Wait a moment”

Dahlia entered the carriage once, took out a potion out of the luggage, and transferred it to a wooden cup .

“here you go”

“Thank you……”

After the man received the cup and took a sip, his eyes bulged out .

“Isn’t this a potion ……!”

“Yes, it’s already open, so please drink it to the end”

Potions will spoil after being opened .

Dahlia tried to put it in a cup, as he might hold back from drinking it if he saw it was a potion, which seems to have been the correct choice .

The price of one potion was five large silver coins . From Dahlia’s perspective, it was a 50,000 yen medicine .

It might seem a bit expensive, but it was effective in recovering from injuries . You couldn’t weigh that price against a life .

“I am sorry … I will pay you back when I return to the capital city”

The man lowered his head, drank the rest and took a few deep breaths .

It was strange how the wounds on the upper arm slowly healed as if being wound back in time .

“Thank you . I feel better . ”

The voice seemed to be fine, but because the man’s face was full of blood, changes such as the complexion couldn’t be confirmed .

“I’m late introducing myself . My name is Wolfred of the Knight’s Monster Subjugation Unit . Since I’m the youngest child of a lower n.o.ble, please don’t mind formality and call me Wolf . ”

The man was a knight of the monster-subjugation unit which belong to this country .

In this world, there were monsters here and there .

Usually, adventurers beat them and they went to the market as resources such as meat, skin and bones via the adventurers guild .

However, when it was judged that the monsters were dangerous when they were too close to human habitats, or when the number of monsters was too large, or when a strong or a large monster was found, the country’s monster subjugation unit would be deployed .

In this world, the threat of many or even large monsters was like a natural disaster .

Dahlia heard that because they were fighting against such monsters, the monster subjugation unit had only quite strong individuals .

“I’m a citizen, Dahl . I do all sorts of things . ”

Dahlia said as she cut her name to make it sound like a man’s name .

Today Dahlia wore her father’s coat loosely . On top of that, she had black hat with all her hair hidden, black frame gla.s.ses, a choker that could turn her voice low, and throat covered with a gauze scarf .

There was a possibility that she would be attacked in the forest as a lone woman, so it was a counter measure .

In the case of n.o.bles, men often avoid getting on a carriage together with a single woman, so Dahlia decided not to explain that she was a woman .

At the very least, she should take this knight in front of her back to the royal capital with her carriage in a hurry .

“Dahl, I’m very sorry, but if you’re heading towards the royal capital, could I get on board? Of course I will pay as soon as I return to the castle . ”

“Of course, please get on!”

“Thank you very much . I appreciate it”

After a few blinks, Wolf rubbed his light brownish eye .

If you look closely, the white part of his eyes were red with blood .

“Ah, do your eyes hurt?”

“It’s getting blurry since the blood of the monster got in …”

If it wasn’t healed with the previous potion, then it wasn’t an injury, but possibly a poison or eye disease . Or, the blood still on his face might have flowed into his eyes .

“It’s better to wash it away fast . I think some monsters may cause blindness . ”

“Twenty gold coins in the temple … I’d like to avoid that if possible”

There were doctors in this world, but it was more common to have a priest in the temple cure the serious injuries . It cost money and the more serious the injury got, the more expensive it was, but it was a good thing that most injuries can be treated .

“There is a river nearby, so do you want to go wash it?”

“Please”

When Wolf stood up, Dahlia finally realized that he was quite tall . He looked a bit slender, but that may be due to the height of nearly 190 cm .

“I’m sorry there’s just the driver seat, but you can sit next to me”

Dahlia moved over to one half of the driver seat .

“No, I would dirty it, so I will walk to the river . ”

“Since it’s layered with water-proof fabric, it’s okay . ”

“Is that so? Well, I kindly accept your gracious offer . ”

Wolf sits on the very edge so that his clothes don’t touch her . However, the thick smell of blood came flowing off of him soon . In its current state, it would really be better to wash his whole body earlier rather than later .

Dahlia wished she had brought a water magic stone that could produce a certain amount of water, but she had only brought drinking water in a leather bag with preservative protection .

“This waterproof cloth is convenient, isn’t it?”

“Do you think so?”

For Wolf, it might be a casual comment, but Dahlia was terribly pleased .

Waterproof cloth was a magic tool she herself thought up and developed during her time in the academy .

There were no raw materials to make vinyl in this world .

Dahlia wanted a cloth with water repellent properties to make her dad’s raincoat, and after a lot of trial and error the waterproof cloth was born .

Blue slime was made into powder once, mixed it with chemicals and coating it on one side of the cloth, and then stuck it using fixation magic, it became the waterproof cloth made by Dahlia .

Thanks to that, for a while on the roof and in the garden, many kinds of slime were dried, and the jar on the floor contained the powder .

By the way, during the rapid popularity of waterproof clothes, it was said that adventurers over-hunted the Blue Slimes, and Dahlia felt if Blue Slime had a mind, they would definitely hold a grudge against her .

“When I just entered the knights, I coated wax on a camp tent or a cloak for rain-proofing . It’s a novice’s job, but it was so hard . If you forgot to coat it properly … it would leave a gap and the water came in . It was also hard to carry since the cloth had to be thick for the wax to be applied firmly . A while later, we this stuff called waterproof cloth, it was lighter and didn’t take much time to use . ”

“Is that so? It’s nice that it’s useful . ”

“The raincoat is good too . Oh, the raincoat is like a waterproof cloth, like a cloak with sleeves, but when it comes to using it, there are fewer people in the unit who get heat rash . Before then we were using a leather cloak even on a rainy summer day … ”

“A heat rash?”

Dahlia made the waterproof cloth, but she hadn’t thought about it .

“Yes, even if it was itchy, you can’t scratch yourself under the armor and it’s rare to be able to bathe at a campsite . When moving, let alone if it starts festering, it saps your concentration, so you can’t take it lightly . ”

It was a more serious reason than Dahlia thought .

When she heard the feedback of the one who was actually using it, Dahlia could see what needed to be improved .

Dahlia wanted to develop a more breathable cloth while maintaining the waterproof function, and hopefully realized an even lighter one .

“Sounds as if it would be convenient if there would be a lighter waterproof cloth with better ventilation . ”

“It would be nice if it were . But then, its durability would cause problems . ”

Durability must also be maintained, which might need to be tried out, including the new materials-as Dahlia thought about it, Wolf called her .

“I’m sorry to talk about private matters . Does Mr . Dahl gather herbs around here?”

“Yes, I was looking around . ”

“I’m really sorry, I got in the way of your work . ”

“There is no such thing . I intended to just take a general look today . ”

While the two patched things up, they finally saw the river .

It was an area originally created as a rest stop when travelling, so it was fairly plain and wide .

Dahlia parked the carriage in the open place and both went down .

Wolf went into the shallow part of the river and immediately washed his eyes and face . However, he also had dry blood, so it seemed difficult to get it off .

He continuously washed his face many times, and finally tried to raise his face .

Dahlia handed over the towel she had on herself .

“If you don’t mind it, please use this”

“Thank you”

He wiped his face with a towel and finally turned to Dahlia .

Seeing that face, her words disappeared .

The short hair, which was dirty with blood and dust until before, was a glossy ebony .

White skin without dullness, an overly contoured face, a high nose bridge, and small well-shaped lips .

Under the long eyelashes, the almond eyes like the work of an art were bright golden as a dark whiskey exposed to light, and he had dark pupils in the middle which reminded Dahlia of the starless night . 1

He was a beautiful young man who could compete for the 1st or 2nd place in the Dahlia’s current and former world .

Dahlia had not thought she wanted to date him, but it might not be bad if she put his portrait as decoration . 2

“Since animals may come due to the smell of blood, I will take a bath and wash my clothes . ”

Having said that, Wolf took off his armor and headed towards the center of the river .

Dahlia turned her back to the pattering sound of water .