Chapter 93: Kanpan and Acceleration
A band of thieves claimed the area near the road leading to the Kingdom of Elde’s port town as their territory.
“Boss, think any good prey will pass by today?”
“The important thing is to wait patiently. I told you before what happens if you misjudge your prey.”
“You mean the story from when you operated along the border between Luresia and Elde? We’ve heard it plenty of times.”
The boss nodded solemnly.
“Right. It hasn’t even been a month, but I’ll never forget that ‘thing.’”
“Yes, yes… Hm?”
“Listen seriously. My former subordinates challenged a running ‘thing’ without knowing what it was because I misjudged our prey. It ran them over and killed them. You must carefully observe your opponent—”
“B-Boss! Something is coming this way!”
“!? Th-That’s!?”
The boss froze in shock.
It was the monster that haunted him and appeared in his dreams every night.
No—the “thing” racing down the road now was far larger than the one he had witnessed, roaring deafeningly as it hurtled forward.
“Th-That is…”
“Is that the thing you told us about, Boss…?”
“N-No! It’s much bigger than the one I know! Tell the others never to lay a hand on it!”
“Y-Yes, sir.”
The subordinate followed his boss’s orders, yet he also had doubts.
The thing certainly possessed great size, speed, and flashiness.
But although the band had once suffered a blow, it had now grown into a group of nearly a hundred.
If they cooperated and used traps effectively, could they not win?
Just as he thought that, he saw something.
“I-Is that a herd of wild earth dragons!?”
A group of more than a dozen wild earth dragons burst onto the road.
Domesticated earth dragons were gentle and obedient, but their wild counterparts were the exact opposite.
Their bodies had grown powerful to survive the harsh wilderness, and their claws and fangs were sharp. Even skilled adventurers struggled against these troublesome foes.
If they attacked this band of confident thieves, the thieves would not last a moment.
“G-GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?”
The “thing” struck the earth dragons, sent them flying, broke their bones, and crushed them beneath its tracks. They died in an instant.
Numbers made no difference.
The simple destructive power produced by its mass and speed slaughtered nearly ten earth dragons together in a single moment.
“…That’s even scarier than your story, Boss…”
It was a terror that words alone could not convey.
Only seeing it with his own eyes allowed him to understand the despair one felt before an existence overwhelmingly superior to oneself.
“…I’ll follow the boss from now on too.”
The subordinate renewed his resolve.
The bandits later collected the meat of the earth dragons that had been run over and cooked it into a delicious meal.
One could not survive as a bandit without being resilient.
◇ ◆ ◇
“Didn’t we just run over and kill something that looked very much like an earth dragon?”
“Eight, I think you should visit an eye doctor. Those did not merely ‘look like earth dragons.’ They were earth dragons.”
Raphiel responded to my complaint without the slightest remorse.
“They suddenly ran into the road, so it was their fault. Besides, wild earth dragons crunch human heads like rice crackers. They are creatures that must be exterminated.”
“They do?”
“Yes.”
“Then I suppose it couldn’t be helped.”
“It could not.”
If it couldn’t be helped, then it couldn’t be helped.
I thought we should at least eat them, but we were in a hurry.
Even if we drained the blood from that much earth-dragon meat, the trailer was already packed with food and had no room left to carry it.
This time, we had no choice but to leave them behind.
Fortunately, earth-dragon meat, bones, and hides apparently sold for a high price, so someone passing along the road would surely make use of them.
“Hey, Onii-san. I’m getting tired of eating kanpan. My back really hurts too.”
“Mm… It makes me thirsty…”
Eve, seated on my lap, and Ryu, sitting in the center seat, voiced their complaints.
“That kanpan is food we prepared for the adventurers, so please don’t eat it.”
“What? Giving the adventurer guys something that dries out their mouths would only trouble them.”
“No, kanpan is amazing.”
Kanpan was one of the great foods Japan had given the world.
It came vacuum-sealed with an oxygen absorber, allowing it to be stored for five years. Eating the included rock candy encouraged saliva production and prevented thirst.
It was also highly nutritious.
Its hardness made one chew repeatedly, stimulating the satiety center of the brain and making it good for one’s health.
“My grandpa said his great-grandfather, who experienced war, went as far as declaring, ‘Anyone who mocks kanpan is no Japanese.’”
“But I’m not Japanese.”
“…True.”
As we talked, Raphiel’s beloved vehicle steadily approached the only port town in the Kingdom of Elde.
“Eight, the port town will be visible once we cross that hill.”
“We arrived rather quickly.”
“This is nothing before my driving skills. …Hm?”
At that moment, a large group of adventurers came running toward us from the top of the hill.
“A considerable group of people who appear to be adventurers are approaching.”
“Maybe they’ve never seen a car and think we’re a new species of monster?”
That thought alarmed me, but some of the adventurers running toward us operated around Papel Village.
They knew us well, so they should not mistake the tractor for a monster and attack us.
“—!”
Then I saw Rorondo, a regular at Tsurugi Hachi.
He was at the head of the approaching adventurers.
“Rorondo!”
“—Run!”
“Hm? Is he saying something…?”
Although still some distance away, Rorondo frantically waved his arms and shouted with all his might.
When I listened carefully, I heard him clearly.
“Boss, run! A vast horde of monsters suddenly emerged from the sea and attacked the port town!”
At that very moment, hundreds—perhaps thousands—of monsters appeared over the hill, pursuing Rorondo and the other adventurers.
“Eight, what shall we do?”
“Honestly, I desperately want to run away, but I want to rescue Rorondo and the others!”
“That is one of the things I do not dislike about you.”
Raphiel stepped on the accelerator, and the vehicle surged forward.