Hrrmmm…
“Uuu…have we arrived?”
We arrived at our destination. I looked at Raphtalia, who was still kind of collapsed, and let out a sigh.
It seemed like she was doing better than before, but high speeds were still to tough for her.
“We got to the cabin.”
Firo, who looked like she still hadn’t run enough, stopped the cart and shook her legs.
Raphtalia swayed back and forth looking like she didn’t feel well.
“Okay, let’s start loading the lumber.”
The lumberjack came out from the cabin and helped us load it onto the cart.
I also help him with his logging process. Due to the shield’s skill, the quality rose.
For a while, we worked on getting Raphtalia used to cart travel while transporting lumber. My shield also reacted to the lumber so I absorbed that while I was at it.
Kypress shield unlocked.
Recedar shield unlocked.
Kypress cypress shield
Ability unlocked…equipment bonus, woodwork skill 1
Recedar shield
Ability unlocked…equipment bonus, beginner woodworking recipes
Both of them were wood shields. It seemed that these two trees were the main source of lumber in this world. Kypress had a strong scent similar to cypress trees in my world. Recedar looked similar to cedar but it was odd because each time the grain of the wood was different.
Well that doesn’t really matter.
A few days later.
Bang bang bang.
In order to turn the cart into a carriage, I toiled away with a wooden mallet.
Thanks to the woodworking skills 1 I unlocked the other day I was able to guess at what to do to improve its performance.
I added to the frame above the cart, now I just needed to stretch a thick cloth on top of it.
Ryuuto Village’s reconstruction was progressing well. It had gotten to the point where they should be fine even without our help.
The villagers had also seen me changing the cart into a carriage and helped me with it.
“Alright, that should do it.”
“We finished it.”
The villagers who had helped me finish the carriage celebrated with me.
A filolial is going be moving it but it’s still a carriage[1]…well whatever.
“Thank you for helping me with this.”
“No no, hero-sama helped us in a lot of ways. We are sorry that can not help you with more than something like this.”
The villagers…they had a good smile on their faces while they were helping me.
Even if I had saved their lives, I can’t take advantage of their kindness. However, right now I’ll just honestly accept their gratefulness.
“I’m happy that you say so.”
“We’re you going to start peddling?”
“We’re really going to be more like a jack of all trades. We’ll go from village to village, city to city, selling goods and transporting luggage and people.”
“Right…”
It seems that, as should be expected, the idea didn’t hit off with the villagers.
Well, from how Motoyasu talked it’s true that it didn’t seem like something heroes would do.
Even I wasn’t sure of how successful we would be, but we have Firo so we should use her.
“Hm? Wow…the cart turned into a carriage.”
Firo, who had been playing while in human form, was surprised at how big the cart had become.
“Am I going to pull this?”
Firo asked with her eyes sparking.
“Yeah, that’s right. From here on you’re going to pull this carriage and run around the kingdom.”
“Really!?”
Firo’s voice rose with excitement.
Though I would think that pulling heavy things around was a terrible job…
“We really are going to do this aren’t we.”
Raphtalia muttered gloomily.
Raphtalia, who still hadn’t completely fixed her motion sickness, seemed like she couldn’t get on board with the idea of travelling in a carriage.
“You’ll get used to it eventually. Be patient until then.”
“Okay.”
I faced Firo and, over and over, made sure she had it.
“Firo, what’s your job.”
“Umm, my job is to pull the carriage to wherever master says.”
“Yeah.”
“And if I see that guy with the spear I should kick him.”
“That’s right.”
“The second part is wrong! What does that mean?”
Raphtalia seemed to think something was weird and raised an objection.
“What…why are looking at me like I’m the weird one?”
If we see Motoyasu then we kick him. What’s weird about that?
If we talk to him each time it will never end.
“Alright, well then it’s time to start peddling. I’ll be hiding inside the carriage, so when we get to the first village or town start selling things Raphtalia.”
“Right…I understand.”
Outside of the Ryuuto Village area, I’m still famous in the bad way, so if I enter into negotiations without care, sell-able items won’t sell.
So I ended up putting Raphtalia in charge of sales and negotiations.
Raphtalia’s looks will help out a lot with this. Plus it’s not like she’s shy, it should be fine to expect her to be a good saleswoman.
“Well then let’s head out.”
We finished getting ready, put all our luggage in the carriage, and Firo started pulling.
“Ah, hero-sama.”
“Hm? What is it?”
The Ryuuto villagers were gathering for our departure. One of them, a man who was in his prime and had conspicuously good clothing, stepped in front of me.
“I am the lord to whom the king has entrusted Ryuuto Village. Shield hero-sama, thank you very much for everything you have done until now.”
“Don’t worry about it, this village just happened to be a good place for our base.”
“….take this.”
The lord hand me a single page of parchment as he said this.
“What’s this?”
“It is a trading permit. It should serve you well if you are peddling.”
“Trading permit?”
“Yes. In this country, when you conduct peddling, in each town and village you must pay a certain amount of money to the residing lord.”
…..I guess that’s how it worked. Well, I could use my status as a hero to…wait due my bad name it would just make it worse.
“You can use the trading permit with my seal on it for this. As long as you have this, you essentially will not have to pay. Please make use of it.”
“Um…is that okay?”
“Yes. If I were to not offer something corresponding to your actions, I would not be able to face the villagers.”
Thinking about it this area is a farming area close to the Melromarc Kingdom. It’s a convenient route for commerce so being a lord here means you have need a fair amount of influence and dignity.
I caught the eyes of the Ryuuto villagers by keeping the damage from the wave to a minimum. When my bad name spread, he must have lost favor with the king, but he endured it for the sake of the villagers….but his face is bright in spite of that.
“…in consideration of your bad name, this will help your business not fail.”
He was offering it out of good will, so I honestly expressed my thanks.
“Thank you, I’ll make use of it.”
“Have a good trip.”
“….yeah. I’ll come back.”
“We shall also work so that we may be of help to hero-sama’s work.”
“Make sure to keep it to a level where your not trying the impossible.”
“Yes!”
As so we set out on our journey as a jack of all trades.
To start off we sold medicine.
We didn’t have as many, but we sold it for cheaper than the market.
The eyeball (!) worked as a remedy and nutrient supplement. This alone was higher level than basic medicine so it sold for a high price.
And at villages we stopped at we bought herbs with our earnings, then turned them into medicine during the trip.
Firo was fast, so in a day we could basically reach the next village, but there were times we would camp in the field.
When that happened, we stopped the carriage, made a campfire, and had dinner.
“Master! There’s a space next to me! Let’s sleep together!”
Firo patted the ground while in her monster form, trying to get me to sleep next to her.
“It’s hot next to you.”
It seemed like Firo wanted me to sleep with her. It might have been since I ordered her not to turn into her monster form at the inn, but while in the field she was even more selfish.
Well, in the field there’s no one to cause trouble for so it’s okay once in a while but…
“Firo, you must really like Naofumi-sama.”
“Yep! I won’t lose to you Raphtalia Onee-chan.”
“Why did it go in that direction!?”
Raphtalia’s and Firo’s relationship was complicated. They seemed to be on good terms, but also on bad terms, they would sometimes argue.
Firo’s just a kid so I don’t know why she gets so worked up.
Ah, Raphtalia’s essentially a kid too. I guess their mental ages are the same.
“Okay okay. Hurry up and go to sleep you two. I’ll wake you when the when it’s time to change watch.”
“Aaah, you’re treating me like a kid again!”
“That’s right! Please don’t treat me like a kid.”
“That’s right, both Raphtalia and Firo are all grown up.”
“You definitely aren’t really thinking that!”
“Yeah! That’s mean master!”
We had that kind of stupid conversation, and continued with our peddling.