Chapter 79: Night Flight

I headed back to Rosenne, and Jake and the others went off to the dismantling yard, while I ordered an ale at the dining hall and sat down at an empty table.

It was still a little before sunset, so there were plenty of vacant tables, but there were several groups with unfriendly looks in their eyes.

I took a small sip of ale and bit into some skewered meat when the men who had been sitting at a table in the back walked past me.

Since I’d been stopping by morning and evening these past few days, the number of people openly staring had decreased, but the sticky, lingering gazes still made me uncomfortable.

Experience told me that nothing good ever happens at times like this.

And sure enough, just as I expected, the men from earlier came back carrying refills. Instead of returning to their original table, they plopped themselves down at mine and looked me over as if licking me with their eyes.

“You look like you’re making pretty good money, kid.”

“Don’t recognize your face in this town, but how about we go hunting together once, as a little greeting?”

“Judging by the look of you, you’re probably E-rank—maybe just barely D-rank.”

They were the sort you find anywhere, and it wasn’t worth the effort to respond, so I silently took a gulp of ale.

A hand reached out, grabbed a skewer of meat from my plate without permission, and took a bite.

“Just because your earnings are low doesn’t mean you get to take food from someone else’s plate without asking.”

“Oh? Got a big mouth on you, don’t ya?”

Some familiar faces entered the dining hall, but I pretended not to notice and took another small sip of ale.

“Say something! You can’t even accept our greeting?”

“We’ll take care of the greetings instead.”

“Don’t recognize your face—where’d you drift in from?”

“Leon, don’t let punks like this look down on you.”

“Well, I am a mage, you know. I’m not very good at swinging weapons around.”

“No, no—you’re scarier bare-handed.”

At that, a chill ran through the air, and the color drained from the faces of the men sitting around me.

“Oh? Olga-san and the others are here?”

“Yo. Lindy, making good money?”

“Thanks to Leon. Did something happen with those people?”

“They seem to be hungry. Apparently my skewered meat looked tasty.”

“Even if they didn’t know who you were, that’s pretty fearless.”

“You guys would be wise to disappear from this town as soon as possible.”

“If you make enemies of Leon and Olga’s group, it won’t be long before you’re goblin food.”

“Am I really that violent?”

“The rumors about you going on a rampage in Kreis have reached here too.”

“Didn’t think you’d actually gotten into it with the Warrens Trading Company.”

“They say you went wild with the sub-master’s approval—and the town guard’s.”

“I kind of wanted to see you really lose it, Leon.”

“Alright, you lot—we’re taking these seats. Clean up properly and get lost.”

The moment Olga ordered them to, they jumped up, wiped the table with their sleeves, hurriedly returned their mugs, and scurried out of the dining hall.

“If we sit here, we’ll just get in everyone’s way. Let’s move to the back, Leon. Jake, you guys too—let’s have a drink together for the first time in a while.”

The incident in Kreis hadn’t reached the royal capital, and even so, both the capital Leclerc and Rosenne were five cities away from Kreis. Still, this was troublesome.

From this city, Lynas was also five cities away, and if my reputation reached there too, that would be bad.

I didn’t care so much about my father, but if my mother or sister heard about it, who knows what they’d say.

I’d better find out exactly what kind of rumors were circulating.

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Jake and the others sat at the table next to where Olga’s group had claimed seats. I sat down in the chair Lindy pulled out for me, and Olga’s group immediately started teasing me.

“If I sit at an eight-person table packed with seven huge guys, I’d get buried. Sitting next to Lindy gives me a bit more space. So—what kind of rumors are going around?”

“Some guy who came from Kreis was talking about the trouble at the Warrens Trading Company.”

“They’re a grain merchant, and they’ve got a big shop in this town too, as well as in neighboring Korche and Folka. I hear Korche was their original headquarters.”

“She was loudly telling everyone how you alone stormed the Warrens branch and wrecked it, while the sub-master of Kreis and selected men watched.”

“I thought it was just drunken nonsense, but she said it was a young, small guy.”

“The story was that while the sub-master and guards watched, furniture and curtains went flying out the windows—and eventually even people were thrown out.”

“When I heard that, I knew it had to be you. And they said the inside was a total mess, with piles of dead bodies.”

“It sounded like a drifter’s drunken rambling, but when I heard ‘small guy’ and ‘wind mage,’ it clicked.”

“So tell us—why weren’t you arrested after rampaging like that, even if it was sub-master approved?”

“Yeah, yeah! Didn’t the sub-master and town guards storm the branch?”

“When people are flying out of windows, your wind magic is the only thing that comes to mind.”

“So… Olga-san, you all believe it?”

“We know you hold back when hunting. If you went all out and still weren’t punished, there had to be a reason.”

“Especially if the sub-master and guards approved it.”

“Well, you know I’m good at catching birds, right? In Korche, a marquis was asking for a large number of Chikki-Chikki Birds, and the dismantlers asked me to supply them. Then some guy claiming to be a messenger from Lord Warrens showed up, punched me out of nowhere, and demanded the birds. Naturally, I punched him back and ran.”

“But with Leon’s punch, that’d be like getting kicked by a mosquito.”

“There’s more after that, right? Keep going.”

“After I hit back, the errand men got mad and chased me, but when I lured them into the forest, they apparently went missing.”

Olga’s group burst out laughing, and Jake’s group joined in.

“If they sent men to you, ‘missing’ wouldn’t settle it.”

“Missing, huh. How tragic.”

“If you mess with adventurers, the outcome is…”

“So then the Warrens Trading Company started hounding me, but apparently the guild didn’t like them. They tried to force the guild to hand me over, but the sub-master of Kreis was delighted…”

“I see—so you were officially handed over to the Warrens Trading Company with the sub-master’s blessing.”

“If the guards were there too, that means the lord of Kreis was involved.”

“And the fact that the Warrens sign changed afterward means…”

“Someone higher up moved.”

“Sounds like the Warrens Trading Company was really hated. And by the way, Leon the Gentle Breeze—that’s a lovely nickname.”

At Lindy’s words, I almost sprayed my ale all over the place.

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I spent about ten days hunting together with the two parties—Strong Arm and Earth Shield—and before we parted ways, we made camp near Kreis.

I hurried into town and bought about three large stockpots, then asked Bold to freeze the water we’d collected in all three pots until it was rock solid.

In return, I gave him some liquor I’d swiped from the basement of a count’s mansion. It was something the count himself hadn’t cared for, but it was far better than anything I’d bought before.

As I poured it into everyone’s cups, they inhaled the aroma, let a little touch their tongues to taste it, and their faces immediately softened. Lindy, however, seemed to find it too strong and scrunched up her face.

So I crushed a bit of ice, dropped it into her cup, and added some water.

I put a large chunk of ice into my own special glass, drank it on the rocks with slow sips, and gnawed on the Chikki-Chikki Bird that had been prepared for us.

It was already a hot season, and on top of that we were having a drinking party inside the dome Lindy had made, so it was stifling.

Bold raised pillars of ice, but it wasn’t enough, so I wrapped the ice pillars in a gentle whirlwind, cooling them as a makeshift air conditioner.

“Well, well—when an earth mage builds the shelter, and an ice mage and a wind mage cool it down, even in summer it’s comfortable, and the booze tastes great.”

“Leon, where did you get such good liquor?”

“Ale is nice, but this is on a whole other level.”

“Isn’t Bold’s ice dome nice and cool too?”

“It is cool, but the ground gets soaked, and if you freeze it, it becomes slippery. You can’t relax and drink properly.”

“This was a gift. If you bought it, it’d cost over ten gold coins a bottle. It’s the kind of thing nobles and wealthy merchants savor carefully.”

“If you’re getting gifts like that, it means you’ve got a pretty good patron backing you.”

I don’t think you’d call a dead man a patron, but explaining that would take too long and be a pain, so I just brushed it off with a wry smile.

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The next day, everyone was a bit hungover, but after being pestered, I handed two bottles of liquor each to Olga and Jake before we parted ways.

I separated from them as they headed toward Rosenne, and I made it look like I was returning to Lynas by heading west along the Blange Highway.

Partway along, I stepped into the grasslands to the right, slipped into a patch of tall, dense grass, and took a nap inside.

I woke up to the noisy racket of goblins. Peeking out from the grass, I saw them chasing an injured brown sheep.

I felt a little bad about taking its food, but I swung the goblins around until their “color timers” ran out and left them there.

Figuring that beasts would take care of the cleanup during the night, I ate an early dinner and began preparing to depart.

After the sun set and the sky grew dark, I started flying north.

When the sun went down and the stars came out, I was already facing north, so until the moon rose I relied on stellar navigation, using the stars as my guide.

I didn’t climb to a high altitude, instead gliding quietly just above the treetops, flying safely while sensing the presence of things on the ground.

Night flying is comfortable—you don’t have to worry about being seen, and you don’t get scorched by the summer sun.

Even with clothes that regulate body temperature, wearing a hood and wandering around in summer draws attention, and having your head covered makes it uncomfortably hot.

When the moon began to rise, I kept flying north with it on my right, but before it reached directly overhead, I stopped flying and looked for a place to land.

I had no idea how celestial bodies moved in this world, and if I lost my sense of north and south, I’d end up completely lost.

My detection kept picking up a large number of big beasts, so I hovered, moved to an area with less prey, landed, immediately cast [Dome!], and took out my hut.

My destination was a little over ten days north of Rosenne, but even flying leisurely it should only take a day or two, so if I rushed I might overshoot it.

I’d wait for dawn, gain altitude, and search for the great grasslands while flying north.

For someone who can fly, the great plains and the rocky mountains are perfect landmarks—and I was grateful for that.