Chapter Eleven: Travel by Carriage
A few days passed, and the local governor gave us a new carriage as a present. The whole village gathered to be there when we received it, and there was a party at which everyone cheered for us.
If you wanted to move a Filolial, you needed a carriage… or something like that.
“Thank you.”
“You’ve done so much to help us. We’re just sorry that we can’t do more for you.”
The villagers were all smiling as they helped me load up the carriage.
I couldn’t let them spoil me, even if they wanted to. Still, I needed to honestly express my gratitude.
“Thank you for saying that.”
“You’ll be trying your hand at being a traveling merchant?”
“Yeah.”
I didn’t know whether or not I would be successful with it or not. But I was lucky enough to have Filo with us, so it seemed stupid not to put her to work.
“Huh? A carriage!”
Filo had been running around and playing as a human and was surprised to see the new carriage.
“Am I going to pull this?”
Her eyes were flashing with joy.
“That’s right. You’re going to pull this thing, and we’re going to travel all over the country.
“Really?!”
She squealed in excitement.
Didn’t she realize she’d have to lug a heavy carriage around? I don’t see what was so exciting about that…
“So we are really going to do it?”
Raphtalia muttered, sounding depressed at the prospect.
She hadn’t quite gotten control over her queasy stomach, so the idea of traveling by carriage was not terribly appealing.
“It might be tough at first, but you’ll get used to it.”
“Okay.”
I looked over at Filo and looked her over carefully.
“Filo, what’s your job?”
“Let’s see… I’m supposed to pull the carriage and go where you tell me to go, Master.”
“Right”
“And if we meet that Spear guy, I’m supposed to kick him.”
“Exactly.”
“That last part’s not true!”
Raphtalia had her arms crossed, like she was going to right all the wrongs in the world.
“What? Why are you looking at me like I’m weird?”
If we see Motoyasu, Filo would kick him. What was weird about that?
Oh well, I couldn’t entertain every one of her complaints.
“All right! This is the official start of our traveling merchant life. I’ll hide in the carriage. Raphtalia, when we get to a new town, you start selling our wares from the front.”
“Oh, all right…”
My poor reputation was still alive and well out in the world beyond Riyute. If I were in charge of the sales, we’d never sell anything—who would want to negotiate with a criminal? It only made sense to put Raphtalia in charge.
Raphtalia was pretty, and she had the personality for it. She wouldn’t be shy.
“Shall we be on our way?”
“Oh, Hero.”
“Huh? What is it?”
“Please, take this…”
The governor handed me a piece of parchment.
“What’s this?”
“The commercial bill of passage that we discussed earlier.”
“Oh yeah…”
With the bill of passage in hand, I’d be able to sell my things in different towns without having to pay the local governors any tariffs. It would make my life much easier. Now, whether or not these local governors should really be charging the heroes to pass through their towns… that’s another story altogether.
I mean, Motoyasu clearly thought that way.
“Travel safely.”
“Thanks. We’ll be on our way now.”
“I hope we can help you out more in the future. You’ve done so much for us.”
“Just don’t push yourselves too hard.”
“Okay!”
And so we left Riyute behind and started our new lives as traveling merchants.
The first thing we tried was selling various medicines.
We didn’t have a huge selection prepared, so we set our prices lower than the typical market price.
We started with healing medicine and nutritional drinks. They were both better than just your average medicines and drinks, and so I set the price a little higher than our other products.
Then we would stock up on herbs and supplies and leave for the next village—I’d use our time on the road to compound new medicines.
Filo was really fast, so we almost made it to the next town in a single the day, though there were times that we had to stay camped in the wilderness. On nights like that we would stop the carriage, build a fire, and have dinner under the stars.
“Master! There’s room next to me! Come sleep with me!”
We’d finished eating, and Filo transformed back into her monster form and was tapping the spot on the ground next to her.
“It’s too hot sleeping next to you…”
Filo still wanted to sleep with me every night. I’d ordered her not to turn into a monster when we were at an inn, so she took the opportunity whenever we camped out.
Granted, we were alone out there, so there was no one she could inconvenience…
“Filo, you sure do like Mr. Naofumi, don’t you?”
“Yeah! I like him even more than you do, Big-Sister!”
“Don’t call me that!
Her problem was with big-sister?
“Then what should I call you?”
“Hm… how about Mommy? I was there when you hatched from your egg, and I’ve known you the whole time! Seems fitting, doesn’t it?”
“I dunno… Big-Sister!”
They kept fighting amongst themselves, like they couldn’t decide whether they were friends or enemies.
Filo was just like a little kid, so she couldn’t help but get too serious about things.
Actually, I guess she really was a little kid. And she acted like one.
“Okay, okay, both of you should get to bed. When my shift is up, I’m going to wake you!”
“Stop treating me like a little kid!”
“Yes! Mr. Naofumi, you treat me like a child!”
“Oh, whoops! I keep forgetting how grown up the both of you are!”
“You don’t mean it!”
“Yeah, Master! You liar!”
But they really were like children. And I’d decided to be a parent to them both.
“I want to help you keep watch, Master!”
Filo picked up some rocks and started rubbing them together over random grasses in a loose approximation of my mortar and pestle.
“Ew! It smells funny!”
“Yeah, it does.”
If you could make medicine from random grasses, it wouldn’t be so hard, would it?
“Why isn’t it working?”
“You can learn some things just by watching, but others take a little more practice.”
“Is that why you can’t pull a carriage?”
“Why do I have to pull a carriage?”
“Why are you and I different?”
“What’s wrong with being different?”
Just like a kid… she’d attack anything she could think of.
If we just kept going back and forth with questions, then eventually she’d get confused and have to give up.
“Argh… Master is so… so stupid!”
“Who are you calling stupid!” We kept at it for a while, and I was able to get some work done too.
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