Chapter 118: Preparing for the Encampment

Tauro set up two more of his prized tents, with fluffy furs laid underneath.

He gave one of the tents to the coachman and the other to the women.

The larger tent was to be used by him, Shin and Rumeya.

For light, Tauro had prepared a magical lantern, which was a powerful tool. It also ignited Leada’s merchant spirit.

It was a lantern that, when filled with scrap magic stones, triggered the magic “illumination”.

Unlike expensive oil, it doesn’t smell, it doesn’t cost much and it’s bright.

This was a product that every household wanted, so Leada asked Tauro to sign a contract with them! She was very interested.

For food, Tauro prepared freshly made vegetable and meat soup, grilled miso rice balls and pudding for dessert, which he took out of the “magic storage” and served to everyone.

Leada and the coachman were delighted with the sumptuous meal. They couldn’t believe they were camping in the wild.

“Oh, Leada. I’ll be sure to charge you for the expenses.”

Tauro joked with Leada, but Leada coughed as the soup she was eating went up her windpipe.

“Well, you’ll have to direct that to Marches-san who is in charge.”

Everyone laughed when she replied, emphasizing that she was only acting as an agent.

After dinner, it was standard practice to set up guard and take turns sleeping, but Tauro and his team, “ Black Golden Wings”, had Aeris.

Aeris, who had the skills of “Barrier,” used her barrier magic to create a ward around the tent and made it a safe zone.

Most monsters can’t get inside the barriers and won’t even try to get close and If someone were to enter or leave, Aeris will notice.

Aeris asked Tauro if he wanted to set up more traps in the barrier, but he declined, saying it wasn’t a good idea.

“Once again, you’re just awesome, Aeris.”

Rumeya praised her.

“That’s right! After all, I’m a specialist in the rearguard, an expert from the adventurer’s guild!”

Aeris was boasting, but Tauro didn’t want to interrupt her because he thought that she really was.

Dawn came without anything unusual happening.

The group happily ate the breakfast that Tauro had prepared beforehand and left immediately.

There was very little work to be done as the tents were packed away in a matter of seconds by Tauro’s “magic storage.”

At one point, going over the pass to O’circus had been a bad idea, but now it had become a pleasant itinerary.

Even Leada, who had been nervous at the beginning, began to relax and smile more.

In a good atmosphere, we spent the rest of the day safely in the camp and finally we were approaching the problematic pass.

“Nothing has been caught by my ‘presence detection’ so far.”

Tauro confirmed as he dismounted from the carriage and walked.

The other members of the team also walked on foot to flank each other as they approached the uphill slope in order to reduce the burden on the horses.

The slope was steeper than they had expected.

Since they didn’t have a lot of luggage on board, the carriage made its way up without any trouble.

It seemed that they would be able to run a lot faster when they encountered bandits and had to flee.

After a few hours of walking up the hill, Tauro’s ” presence detection” responded.

When I used my “true eye” to reflect a silhouette linked to my “presence detection”, I was able to confirm that ten figures were waiting for us at the top of the hill.

“Our opponent has the “ Spotting the enemy” skill. They noticed us before I noticed them.”

Tauro’s “presence detection” could detect the emotions of the other party, but its range of effect was narrower than that of “spotting the enemy”.

The three of them moved to the front of the carriage and climbed the hill ahead of the carriage along with Tauro.

“Truly, it’s just a mix of children. Hey, why don’t you just quietly leave the load and go away? That way, you won’t get hurt.”

The man with the sword, who seemed to be the leader of the group, was surprised to see the travelers, but he demanded in a familiar manner.

However, although there were many of them, only five of them had swords, the rest had clubs, two-handed axes for lumberjacks and some had sickles.

“Suke-san, Kaku-san, punish him just enough not to kill him.”

A distracted Tauro joked to Shin and Rumeya standing in front of him, imitating the old lord of Mito.

“Suke- san, Kaku-san?”

The two turned to look at Tauro with a “?” look on their faces.

“Oh, it was a joke. Anyway, they’re amateurs, so just punish them, not enough to kill them though.”

“Okay!”

The two of them nodded and hastily headed towards the unprepared bandits.

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