Book 3: Chapter Third Requirement of Rescuing a Princess: “Carry out the Adventure Trip”

“Sun, wake up. It’s time to pitch camp.”

I was dreaming a dream in which I was lying down on grass wet from rain that had just fallen. As I was thinking about using fire magic to roast the grass dry because of my discomfort, I was blurredly woken up by Leaf and slid off his back. When I became a little more lucid, I finally realized Leaf was completely wet all over… So that wet grass was Leaf.

Fortunately, he woke me up. Otherwise, even as a good person, once he was roasted medium rare he would have probably erupted with fury, right?

While this was going on, Austin had already started assigning jobs. “Mike, you go hunt with Ann. Everyone’s tired. Eating some fresh meat is very helpful for recovering stamina.”

Mike accordingly gave a nod.

I really didn’t know what kind of status this Austin held to actually directly use Mike’s name. I was a little puzzled. In the Monastery of the God of War, even the highest ranked warpriest should be ranked lower than the Son of the God of War, so directly addressing the Son of the God of War by name was very impolite.

After receiving their assignment, Mike and Ann left swiftly and promptly while Austin stayed in the same spot and continued to distribute the jobs. He turned and courteously asked Leaf, “Elmairy, can you help start a fire and cook our food?”

With a smile, Leaf nodded. “No problem.”

“Then I’ll set up the tents.” After he finished speaking, he turned to me with a smile and said gently, “Sun Knight, you’re in charge of gathering firewood. Is that all right?”

“Of course.”

I smiled in response. I was about to call out to Leaf before I left for the forest to gather firewood, when the sound of multiple howls from wolves drifted over… Both Leaf and I took a look at the thicket. At night the thicket was so dark that we couldn’t see what was hidden within. Occasionally the underbrush would move a little, with no hint as to what kind of animal was hidden inside, and from time-to-time came the calls of unknown animals.

Leaf’s complexion changed as he very worriedly turned to me and said, “Let me gather the firewood instead, Sun. You can just stay here and start the fire. As for cooking… Wait until I return to start.”

I, of course, nodded my head, but not because I was afraid of the howling of the wolves just now. Once I break away from places populated with other people, I can use magic to protect myself. Plus, wolves aren’t capable of protesting that it’s against the rules for the Sun Knight to use magic.

What I was actually afraid of was…the mosquitoes in the forest! I only had one pair of gloves left. If these went to waste too, I’d have to peel Leaf’s gloves off his hands.

I nodded to Leaf and he said, “I’ll leave Austin in your care.”

As I heard this, I caught the strange expression that came over Austin’s face. He probably doesn’t think that I have the ability to protect him!

Leaf did not leave as swiftly and promptly as the two before him. First, he gathered a few branches from his surroundings. He then took out his spare bowstring and tied it to either end of one of the branches. Next, he gathered dried branches and dead leaves into a pile. He then picked up another branch… This process sounds complicated, but simply put, he was helping me prepare all the necessary items I needed to start a fire. All I was responsible for was going forward and rubbing the fire-starting tools he had prepared for me.

After all the preparation, he handed me the branches that were tied with his bowstring and asked a little worriedly, “You know how to use this fire-starting tool, right? You just wrap the bowstring around the other branch once, and then you start twisting it… You should have no problems with this, right?”

Sometimes I truly feel that Leaf is the momma of the “good, warm” faction of the Twelve Holy Knights, while Ice is the momma of the “cruel, cold-hearted” faction. One is a busybody who loves to help other people take care of every single trifling matter, while the other is one whose cooking is superb without comparison. The two of them together would be the perfect mother.

Considering Leaf had carried me for twenty-four hours, I nodded my head and opened my mouth to reply, “Please do not worry, Brother Leaf. Even though the night is not blessed by the God of Light’s gracious concern, Sun will nonetheless not let down Brother Leaf’s expectations.”

Leaf nodded and then left, though he looked back three times before he actually walked into the forest.

After Leaf’s departure I lowered my head to look at the fire-starting tools in my hand, truly feeling a bit frustrated with myself. I mean, if I used fire magic it wouldn’t just start a fire, it would even be more than enough to cause a huge forest fire. Yet there had to be a warpriest there with me, making it so that I had no choice but to play the part of the Sun Knight…who doesn’t know magic!

Since I couldn’t use magic, I resigned myself to using the fire-starting tools Leaf gave me. After taking in a deep breath, I rubbed, rubbed again, and rubbed, rubbed, rubbed some more…with not a wisp of smoke. My palms hurt from the rubbing… I really want to use magic!

But no, Austin was staring at me. Although, I was very suspicious about how he could put up a tent in such speed while still staring fixedly at me the entire time. Shouldn’t it be against the rules for a warpriest to have this kind of skill?

I continued rubbing. Rub… Rub… Oh, there’s some smoke! Must add some more enthusiasm and rub faster— The smoke went out…

“…” In my entire life, I had never, ever wished I could use fire magic so much.

But I couldn’t, because Austin was still staring at me. Damn him! Why can’t he earnestly focus on building his tent instead? Or get the need to pee? Even if it’s just lifting his head to look at the sky, or to admire the stars, that’s good enough. Just give me a second—a second is all I need to use fire magic to ignite the dried branches in front of me!

But he just had to stare fixedly at me without even blinking!

By this time Austin had already finished setting up one tent, but he didn’t continue on with the second one. Instead, he placed the tent-building tools he had in his hands down.

All right! Does he finally need to pee?

However, he didn’t walk toward the forest, but instead slowly came up to my side, reached out his hand, and somewhat grudgingly said, “Sun Knight, please let me start the fire!”

I silently gave the fire-starting tools to Austin and then, in retaliation, it was my turn to stare fixedly at him without letting up. Don’t you dare secretly use magic to start the fire! Warpriests aren’t supposed to know fire magic either!

All I saw was him calmly rubbing, and smoke appeared. Rub, rub, rub, and sparks appeared. Rub some more, and the fire started.

“…” Those fire-starting tools must have something against me!

After that, Austin picked up a few branches and began building a rack for barbecuing the meat.

Although Leaf was the last to leave, he was the first to return. When he spotted Austin starting the fire and building the rack, he stared blankly before he took the firewood he had gathered over to the small fire and began adding firewood. While he did that, he said, “Thanks for all the trouble, Austin. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

Austin smiled in response and said, “It’s nothing, merely starting a fire. Looks like the Sun Knight doesn’t come out on adventures much.”

“If I remember correctly, this is actually the first time Sun has left Leaf Bud City?” While adding firewood with one hand, Leaf turned his head to look at me. “Right?”

Maintaining the perfect smile on my face, I nodded.

“I see.” Austin’s sudden realization showed in his expression.

Leaf hurried to add, “As the leader of the Holy Temple, Sun is busy, so he doesn’t have much time to leave the Holy Temple.”

Austin smiled as he spoke. “That’s actually a little different from us. Mike is the one with the most decision-making power, but normally there aren’t too many matters that require his input, so most of the time Mike is more like a spiritual leader.”

Actually, we operate the same way too. I normally don’t have too much I have to do—and even if I do, I throw it at Storm for him to handle; I only do it when I’m required to show up in person, like this case with attending the royal families’ wedding.

“So that’s how things work. No wonder you all commonly call him Mike. Not a lot of people address us Twelve Holy Knights directly by our names.” Leaf glanced at me and said, “Especially Sun. Except for Knight-Captain Judgment and the Pope, no one may call him directly by his real name!”

Austin smiled and explained, “That’s not the case. Even in the Monastery of the God of War, there aren’t many people who dare address the Son of the God of War by his name. Ann grew up with Mike, so as childhood friends she directly calls him Mike in private, but she still respectfully calls him the Son of the God of War in public. As for why I can also call him directly by his name, that’s because Mike is my son.”

Hearing that, both Leaf’s and my eyes grew wide, but we soon relaxed. Even though Austin only looked around thirty, maybe he used magic to maintain his appearance, so we wouldn’t know for sure how old he was. Since my teacher and the Pope both did so as well, it was not all that alarming.

“May I ask exactly what your age is this year?” Leaf asked somewhat curiously.

“Thirty-five.” The age that Austin gave us fit with his appearance perfectly.

“…” Both of us fell silent. Leaf promptly got to the main point and asked, “Then how old is Mike?”

“Twenty-one.”

Even though the Son of the God of War was two years younger than me, which kind of surprised me, what surprised me even more was that thirty-five and take away twenty-one would have to equal to fourteen, right? Add the ten months needed for pregnancy… Didn’t that have to mean that the man in front of my eyes actually conceived a child when he was thirteen years old?

Doing this and that with a woman at the mere age of thirteen… I thought that was the privilege of nobles! Since when could even warpriests, who are supposed to be virtuous, be that amorous?

Austin blinked and said, “Right, this is a secret, so don’t go spreading it around.”

The looks Leaf and I were wearing must have looked a bit strange. Letting other Churches hear about their secrets is…a bit too negligent, isn’t it?

When he saw our expressions, Austin started smiling openly. His smile truly did resemble the Son of the God of War’s. After a moment he explained, “This secret is a publicly known one in the Monastery of the God of War. You only need to ask around a little to find out, but even though everyone knows, no one will go around exposing it, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

I see. It’s pretty much like “the Sun Knight is a perfect person.” Even though everyone sort of knows that there is no perfect person in this world, they still believe in it completely.

At this time, sparse sounds echoed from the forest not far from where we were. The three of us looked toward the forest together, not too concerned since we were quite a distance from the inner forest. To an adventurer team of our caliber, this kind of place was no more dangerous than being within the Church.

Mike and Ann walked out of the forest. On Mike’s shoulder hung the corpse of a wolf.

Once they reached the camp, Mike handed the wolf over to Ann. Ann, with indescribable joy, took the wolf and walked over to the side of the lake. It looks like she left to cook that piece of “dinner.”

Mike took a look at the current state and asked with furrowed brows, “The tents aren’t up yet?”

Austin smiled slightly and said, “I’m sorry, my hands are too slow.”

Hearing this, Mike displayed a strange expression. I was completely able to understand why. Just now, Austin only spent five minutes to set up a tent. He took no more than a minute to start a fire, and was able to build the barbeque rack in another minute. He could only be described as super fast with his hands.

Presumably, Mike must be fairly familiar with his own father’s style of action, so that was why he displayed that skeptical expression of his.

Mike took a pot out from his own bag and set about inserting a long branch through the two handles of the pot. While he did this, Austin and Leaf continued chatting, and Mike occasionally added in a word in response.

I had little interest for a conversation between three men, so I turned to look toward the lakeside. Hehe! I am much more interested in a cute and sweet babe—even though she wore armor and carried two one-handed axes… How in the world is she going to cook that huge wolf that is half the size of a human…?

It just so happened that I was watching just as the wolf got thrown into the air. As expected, with her crazy strength, Ann was a warrior strong in the fire element. Although the wolf was very large, it was as if she were throwing a small pebble. After she threw the wolf, she put her hands behind her back to retrieve her two one-handed axes. By this time, the wolf had already fallen down to the height of two people stacked on top of each other. With a powerful jump, Ann jumped to the wolf’s height. Slash, slash, slash. In the dark of the night, only two quick streaks of silver light could be seen before the wolf suddenly disintegrated into several chunks, landing on the ground one after another. I even heard a “thunk” sound; a sound that resembled a large mass of something falling to the floor. With the dusky sky, I couldn’t see very clearly, but I could venture a guess. That was probably a chunk of internal organs…

Under the moonlight, Ann rinsed off her one-handed axes with water from the lake. Replacing them on her back, she hummed a lively tune, squatted by the lakeside in a motion that was no less than elegant, and washed the dozen or more meat chunks that were red with blood. After washing the meat chunks she pulled a long, red and white, string-shaped thing from the messy pile of internal organs and began washing it.

I then decided…to turn my head back and watch the conversation between three men instead.

“I wonder who kidnapped Princess Alice…” Leaf was in the middle of saying with a doubtful tone. Concerned, he added, “I hope whoever abducted the princess will treat her well!”

Austin then said in a quiet voice, “May the God of War protect the princess. We actually do not know much either. The princess was abducted without a single soul knowing. Once the royal family discovered what had happened, there was only a letter left at the scene.”

As he spoke, he took out the aforementioned letter and looked like he was about to hand it to Leaf. However, when he saw that I was paying attention to the conversation, he instead handed the letter to me. He sure is a person who pays quite some attention to etiquette.

“May the God of Light’s radiance take care of Princess Alice,” I said as I took the letter and began reading it. Leaf probably knew I didn’t like talking very much at the moment, so he simply moved near me and read with me, saving me from having to explain it to him later on.

The contents of the letter were very simple. Threats, enticement, kidnapping for ransom… None of that was in the letter. It very simply explained that he had taken away the princess and that if we wanted her safe return we were not to utilize the army nor were we to distribute a bounty notice. We could only have the Son of the God of War personally lead an adventurer team to hunt him, and if we defeated him, then we would be able to bring the princess back.

Could it be that this person’s goal isn’t the princess, but rather a conspiracy directed at the Son of the God of War? I thought somewhat suspiciously. Why else would he specifically have the Son of the God of War start an adventurer team?

But if that’s the case, why not have the Son of the God of War come by himself? Why ask him to form an adventurer team? Or could he have been worried about the Son of the God of War not going if he were asked to go alone, since his status is equal to that of a princess’? Hmm… If this letter is real, then it’s not strange that the queen would force Leaf and me to accompany him.

In fact, having the two of us accompanying them might even be the condition for the Monastery of the God of War to agree to let the Son of the God of War help rescue the princess. With the Sun Knight and the Leaf Knight involved then, first, as part of the Twelve Holy Knights, our strength must be greater than most, and second, if the opponent is plotting anything, they would also have to keep in mind that they would be angering the Church of the God of Light as well… Grrr!

I reflected so much that my stomach protested its hunger, but thankfully the sound wasn’t too loud. After I returned the letter to Austin, I asked doubtfully, “Sun is of humble talent and shallow learning, and was therefore unable to see where the letter pointed out the location of the princess. Yet, the children of the God of War have not once hesitated about our future path. Could it be possible that you have already received whisperings from the God of War?”

Seeing everyone’s expressions from hearing my words and not understanding them, Leaf quickly explained, “Sun means that the letter doesn’t say where to go to find the princess, yet none of you seem to be hesitant about which direction we should take…”

At this moment, Ann happened to walk toward the camp while carrying a bunch of meat chunks. She cut into the conversation to explain, “That’s because the princesses of the Kingdom of Moon Orchid all carry with them enchanted objects that allow people to trace them.”

I nodded my head. In sudden realization, Leaf said, “I see.”

Even though I still had a lot of suspicions, none of them were fit to be posed as direct questions, so I kept them inside my heart, waiting for a chance in the future to continue unearthing secrets.

In the following moments, Leaf cooked the meat while Austin used the pot to boil a bunched up—and thoroughly red—knot of internal organs. When we saw that pot of red and white stuff, Leaf and I both revealed strange expressions.

Seeing our expressions, Austin smiled and said, “Internal organs are very nutritious. Eating them will make your body healthy and strong!”

Compared to the Son of the God of War’s way of cooking, by merely throwing the internal organs into the pot and adding water, Leaf spent much greater effort on cooking the meat. He took out an entire box of seasoning. Salt and pepper were the most basic, but in addition to these two bottles, the box held at least another ten bottles.

Ann, Austin, and Mike’s eyes were spinning as they watched. Unable to keep quiet, Mike asked, “What are these?”

“Seasoning! How can we eat without seasoning?”

Leaf answered in a somewhat shocked way, and then took out a bottle of seasoning from the box. As he sprinkled the seasoning on the roasted meat, he explained, “This is powdered rosemary, good for taking away the tangy taste of meat. Once the meat is almost done, it’ll just need a bit of wormwood, pepper, and salt before it’s ready for us to eat—or maybe not pepper, but garlic powder instead? Wormwood is good for preservation, so that we can bring the meat we don’t finish on the road with us—it won’t go bad for days. However, lemon verbena can enhance our appetites and help digestion. Which ones do you prefer?”

Leaf looked somewhat distressed as he willfully turned and asked everyone. Everyone looked on with wide eyes and could not say a single word.

As for me, I was used to this. Although Leaf wasn’t as good as Ice at cooking, he was a fan of seasoning. Even when eating bread, he has to sprinkle on at least two types of seasoning. Without seasoning, Leaf might even die of starvation.

But, things like seasoning aren’t cheap at all, so he practically spends all of his salary on buying seasoning. As a result, Leaf can be said to be the poorest among the Twelve Holy Knights; poor to the point that if the Holy Temple’s kitchen took a vacation for a day, Leaf would have nothing to eat.

Thankfully, even with nothing to eat, there would still be Ice’s sweets to fill his stomach.

However, every time Ice sees Leaf add seasoning on his sweets, his expressions would turn as cold as ice—no wait, Ice always bears an ice cube face, so how should I put this—ah, I should say his expressions look like “he could eat Leaf right then and there even without adding any seasoning.”

“No wormwood,” I answered simply.

Leaf smiled and said, “Almost forgot. Sun, you hate the bitter taste of wormwood the most, so I’ll use lemon verbena instead?”

Noncommittally, I nodded my head, since I didn’t know what kind of thing lemon verbena was. In fact, I couldn’t even say how wormwood tasted either, but since it bore the word “worm,” this type of seasoning was forever rejected by me.

After Leaf finished sprinkling the seasoning, he still refused to rest. He looked at the pot of internal organs, pondered for a bit, and then took out an exquisite bottle from within his box. As he gently and cautiously sprinkled it into the pot of internal organs, he explained to everyone, “This is saffron, a very expensive seasoning, but it’s the best for simmering soup.”

They seemed to understand and not understand as they nodded their heads, even showing some disapproval. From their expressions, it looked like they couldn’t care less whether or not seasoning was added… Ah! I snickered a little.

The meat finished cooking and the internal organ soup finished boiling. As the three took a bite of the roasted meat, ladled out a spoonful of soup, and swallowed slippery internal organs, their expressions completely changed!

It was a good thing that wormwood, with its great preservative effect, was not used on that meal…because there wasn’t any meat left that needed preserving.

There’s a reason Leaf has been a poor man all this time!

Within this kind of thicket, someone must keep watch at night. After we finished eating dinner, under Austin’s delegations, Leaf and I were responsible for the first shift. After us was Mike by himself, and last came Ann and Austin.

Once the three of them entered their tents, I turned to Leaf and said, “Leaf, it’s not all that dangerous around here. There is no harm in you leaning against the rock and taking a short nap. It’s enough for me to keep alert by myself.”

For some reason, Leaf looked a little frightened. He very carefully took measure of me from head to toe before he smiled and said, “All right, then you can take a turn and sleep later!”

Absentmindedly, I murmured, “No need, I think I will be busy for quite some time.”

Leaf showed a puzzled expression as he looked at me.

“Go to sleep,” I urged him with a smile.

Leaf leaned against a large rock and fell asleep. After around twenty minutes, I thought that the people in the tent must have fallen asleep too, so I promptly asked in a low voice, “Leaf… Leaf, are you asleep?”

Leaf’s body jolted a little, and then he immediately opened his eyes. When he discovered that nothing was amiss around him, he asked suspiciously, “Is something wrong, Sun?”

“So you haven’t actually fallen asleep.” I instructed him seriously, “Once you fall asleep, remember to tell me.”

“…”

Leaf closed his eyes once again and quietly mumbled, “I’m asleep.”

“Ah, good.” I nodded my head and said matter-of-factly, “Since you’re asleep, you won’t know what I’m doing.”

“…”

I walked back to the tent and fished out a pile of bottles and jars from my luggage…but these weren’t seasonings, they were materials for my face mask.

Before Leaf carried me, I had walked for an entire day. Even though I had tried my best to walk in the shade, my skin was still exposed to too much sunlight. If I didn’t hurry and use my facial mask to remedy this, I would need to spend even more effort in the future on whitening my skin.

I even perspired a whole lot. If I didn’t shower tonight, I’d for sure be smelly without comparison tomorrow. As the perfect and graceful Sun Knight, emitting a stinky odor… Could I even be called the Sun Knight then? I might as well be called the Supreme Stinky Knight!

That was why I was currently fishing out from my luggage the items I needed for bathing and for my facial. In order to fit in all these items, the outer appearance of my luggage alone was two times the size of Mike’s and the others’. If I hadn’t stuffed some in Leaf’s luggage too, I probably would have given up on setting foot outside just from lifting my luggage. No matter how cute Ann was, she would not have swayed me.

But now, having to make haste, being under the sun all day, being unable to start a fire, plus needing to apply a facial mask every day, all these were enough to make me regret that I had been momentarily possessed by “Ann,” actually promising to come on this adventure.

I sighed, but I did have to come out on at least one adventure eventually. It wasn’t just that Ann was very cute. It was also because I once promised my teacher that I would go on an adventure at least once… Thinking back, when my teacher got around to the lesson about how the perfect Sun Knight should conduct his graceful survival in the wilderness, just hearing that I needed to apply a whitening facial mask every day, learn how to find material for the facial mask in the wilderness once I used up my stock, how to gracefully start a fire, how to gracefully make haste on the road, how to gracefully bathe in the outdoors… Having these pointed out to me was enough to make me almost cry.

When my teacher saw that I looked like I was about to cry, he smiled and said, “Child, this is a necessary lesson. As a Holy Knight, it might be unavoidable for you to have to leave on an adventure one day. As the Sun Knight, even if your team members are all filthy and stink all over, almost like savages, you must still be exceptionally graceful!”

I protested, “But Teacher, it can’t be that ‘the entire continent’ knows that the Sun Knight is an adventurer?”

That was the first time I questioned my teacher. This made my teacher blank out, ponder a bit, and grudgingly answer, “I think no one knows that! Who knew you would hate the adventure lesson this much? All right, you don’t have to learn how to adventure.”

Praise the God of Light’s benevolence! I couldn’t be more touched than I was at that moment. It was the first time in my life that I had praised the God of Light of my own volition.

My teacher sighed and said, “If you continue like this, you will become a church hermit.”

“Teacher, what’s a church hermit?”

“A male knight who hides away in the Holy Temple all day and never leaves, who only knows how to steal a look from the windows at the female clerics from the Sanctuary of Light next door, yet is afraid to go hit on them. Once you get a day off, you can go to the hallway near the Sanctuary of Light and take a look. The windows are completely occupied by church hermits! You don’t want to become like them in the future, do you?”

A little awkwardly, I mumbled, “But… I… I think being like that wouldn’t be too bad?”

My teacher vehemently and angrily said, “You useless person! Your teacher has at least fifty lovers, if not one hundred. As my student, you actually want to become a church hermit? No! Swear to the God of Light right away that you will for sure leave the Holy Temple in the future to go on an adventure. If you don’t, I will seal all the windows in the hallway near the Sanctuary of Light, and then I will announce to the entire Holy Temple that I sealed those windows because of you.”

“…”

At the time, in order to avoid the wrath of all the church hermits from the Holy Temple, I was forced to swear to the God of Light that I would for sure go on an adventure, but who would’ve thought that on the first day of the adventure I would already want to go home…

Now I could only hope that we would find Princess Alice soon so that I could return to the Holy Temple early to be a church hermit. As I mixed my facial mask, I implored the God of Light within my heart, let me return to the Holy Temple as soon as possible to serve You!

After I finished mixing the facial mask, I walked to the lakeside, hoping to apply my facial mask and bathe at the same time, but when I reached the lakeside, I felt something strange. There was actually something with an overwhelming fire element within the thicket. Normally, thickets should have mostly wood and water elements…

I twisted my head to look, just in time to spot a pair of scarlet eyes from within the dark thicket. As I was contemplating whether or not I should shout for Leaf, that thing with the pair of scarlet eyes nimbly jumped out of the thicket— It’s a demon wolf!

A demon wolf’s appearance is like that of a wolf and dog, except it has an additional three red horns on top of its head. Because of this, it’s called “demon wolf” or “demon dog.” It is a type of demon beast.

So-called demon beasts are beasts that are able to use magic. The dragon that everyone’s familiar with is also a type of demon beast, a rare demon beast of the highest level.

However, demon wolves aren’t particularly high-leveled. Their agility isn’t much different from a normal wolf, but they can use the horns on their heads to send out fireballs to hurt their enemies.

How can there actually be a demon beast that can use magic near the forest? Even though demon wolves are a low-level type of demon beast—I furrowed my brows, seeing the demon wolf pounce my way.

With the basin of facial mask in my left hand, I extended my right hand toward the demon wolf. A streak of ice blue, chilly air billowed toward the demon wolf. This is advanced water elemental magic—ice magic. As its name implies, it’s magic that can turn the opponent into a huge chunk of ice… I secretly learned this from Ice. After all, he’s also fairly busy, so he can’t always make blueberry shaved ice for me to eat. Sometimes it’s so hot that I can’t stand the heat, so I have to resort to my own devices. I put a little effort into learning ice magic, and then I made shaved ice for myself.

Even though the demon wolf also spit flames at me, and fire does trump ice, it’s only when both sides have around the same power that fire can trump ice. As for right now… Hah! I coldly smiled as I watched the demon wolf, which had been pouncing toward me, slowly turn into a chunk of ice in midair. Then, with a “clunk,” it fell to the ground.

Snap!

That was the sound of a branch being stepped on…

Alerted, I turned around to look, but blinked. “Leaf?”

Leaf just stared at me and apologetically smiled as he said, “I woke up because I felt something unusual.”

With that said, he looked at the demon wolf on the ground that had turned into a popsicle.

I explained soberly, “This demon wolf suddenly sprang out. It sprang out so quickly that it tripped on a rock, fell, and died from falling.”

“…” Leaf couldn’t speak for a moment, and then he tried to remind me, “But it’s frozen.”

“Ah!” I suddenly realized this. I shook my head and sighed as I spoke, “Before it died, it probably didn’t want to end up eaten—digesting in someone’s stomach—so it used magic to freeze itself.”

Leaf couldn’t speak again, and he didn’t continue to ask practical questions like, “Does a demon wolf of the fire element know how to use ice magic?” or “Can’t something once frozen be unfrozen for eating?” He merely glanced at the basin of facial mask in my hand and said somewhat exasperatedly, “I see. I’m going back to sleep.”

“Go to sleep quickly. Not enough sleep is a huge taboo among beautiful people.”

“What?”

I revealed a brilliant smile as I said, “I said, not enough sleep will hinder us in rescuing the beautiful princess.”

Leaf nodded his head and obediently went back to the camp, returning to the side of the large rock to sleep.

Afterward, I leisurely took a bath, applied my facial mask, and then switched with Mike for the next shift before returning to my tent to sleep.

Over the next few days…

Whenever we needed to make haste on the road, I would climb on Leaf’s back and sleep twenty-four to forty-eight hours, depending.

Whenever we needed to pitch camp, I would be responsible for staring off into space.

Whenever I needed to keep watch at night, it was my time for applying my facial mask and taking a bath.

Except for there being too many mosquitoes, it being bothersome to apply my facial every day, missing Ice’s sweets after meals, and sleeping too much during the day, which resulted in not being able to sleep at night, there was nothing much I could find fault in with this kind of adventuring lifestyle.

While we ate dinner, I actually heard Leaf mention that we once ran into bandits, another adventurer team assailed Ann, and demon beasts came to attack us while we were on the road. However, all of that was easily taken care of by Mike and Ann in person, so there had been no need to rouse me.

I heard that the bandits didn’t even have a chance to speak their opening lines. Once Ann, with one foot, kicked down the tree by the side of the road that two people had been hugging, the adventurer team ran off and disappeared without a trace. As for the demon beasts, they all turned into dinner.

As I ate the meat of the demon beasts and listened to Leaf recount what had happened during the day, I ignored the disdainful gazes that the three person group from the Monastery of the God of War shot at me.

Yup, an adventurer’s life isn’t as bad as I thought it’d be!

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