Chapter 122 Heart Pounding Vacation ③ 

Part 1

The carriage stopped, I waited until I heard that it was fine to go outside and stepped on the ground for the first time in a few hours.

The sun was setting, the world was dimly lit and the moon was shining brightly in the twilight vermillion sky.

We could hear the sound of a river flowing down nearby.
This was probably a place where travelers used to cross the Garest Mountains.
Unlike the surrounding area, trees had been cut down and there was an unnatural open space that was not only enough for us to park our carriage, but also enough to house up to 3 Party to camp here.
Of course, we are the only guest here today.
And it had probably been a while since someone stayed here.

Sytry, who had been devoting herself into fieldwork with Liz, had her cheeks redden because of her excitement, and raised black fangs that were about thirty centimeters long and still covered with bits of flesh here and there, as if she was showing off her treasure.

“Please look at this, Cry-san! These are the fangs of a General-Class Troll! It’s a valuable item that is rarely found even in this vast Garest Mountains! They’re a bunch of rampaging kids and even Hunters have trouble with them, so they rarely appear on the market! Usually, they’re found deep in the forest, but even if it’s an old road, I can’t believe they would attack us.
It’s an high-class product that is OK even if it was either boiled, grilled, or scraped!”

Trolls are a subspecies of Monsters that ranks alongside Orcs, Goblins and Oni11.
Trolls have an abnormal huge body, strength and toughness making them one of the most formidable Monster of its subspecies.
I didn’t know that they appeared in the Garest Mountains, but those subspecies of Monsters operate in a fairly wide area and trolls’ natural habitat should be the forest, so it wouldn’t be strange if we encountered some.

At her side, Liz raised her arms in a satisfactory manner and stretched her back.

“Mmmh…… Aaah…………… Haaaa…… Enduring everything for this was worth it! Even though there were hardly any Monsters when we were here last time.
I knew it, Cry-chan is the best!”

“…… Well, you know…… Because last time we were here, Oni-chan was with us.”

“Anthem-Nii, do stand out…… Well, even if Monsters does come out, Luke-chan and I will be fighting over it……”

I wonder what you think I did for you to say that…… 

Said Liz in a happy mood.
A few meters away, the three men that Sytry hired were sitting on the ground, half-dead.
Their expressions were obstructed as they were looking downward, but blood was sticking on their armor and cloak, and their well-trained body didn’t have any strength left.
The gap between them and my childhood friends is terrible.

’

When Liz and the others just became Hunters, they would go limp after whenever they encounter an accident (Such as the appearance of a powerful enemy, natural disaster, etc…), but since when did they start to stop worrying about those things like this?

And should I feel relieved or sad that my childhood friend has grown up to be so strong?

“By the way…… Onee-chan, you rampaged too much.
Don’t make a mess! You will cause trouble for the people coming after you!”

“Who cares ‘bout that! The people coming after us will probably be Arnold, right? This road looks like a road that people rarely pass through, so isn’t it fine? Cry-chan lifted the ban on fighting because he wanted this, right?”

“No, I didn’t want this, though……”

In the first place, it is unlikely that Arnold and his companions will succeed in tracking us down.
Rather, isn’t it more likely that we will be ambushed in the Imperial Capital…… After all, I have to bring back Luke and the others with me, one way or another.

Despite having a light conversation, Sytry’s hands never stopped working.
She started a fire, fed the horses that had been walking all day, and prepared the camp for tonight.
Her moving without any pause showed that she was used to doing this on a regular basis.

However, Liz was most certainly not playing around either.
While whistling, she kept an eye on her surroundings, but in the first place, Sytry doesn’t like people interfering with her work.
When we were together in the Party, Sytry and Lucia were in charge of setting up the camp, while Luke, Liz and Anthem were in charge of hunting and keeping an eye on the surroundings.
I was in charge of making sure that everyone was doing well.
…… You could say that I had nothing to do.

“Cry-san, is Ti-chan……”

“She is sleeping.
Seems like she was pretty tired.”

She must have hit her limit.
It seems that she loses consciousness from time to time, so it is better for her to take a good rest as Sytry and Liz are enough as additional escorts.
And about her nightmares…… I can do nothing about it.

’

Sytry smiled as she took out a portable pot and a large knife.

“Then…… It has been a while since we were with Cry-san, so I am going to make something copious.
I just got my hands on a lot of materials.”

“True…… I missed this a little……”

Until we added Eliza into the Party as a new Member, Sytry was the only one who was able to cook among us.

Sytry’s cooking is excellent.
It wasn’t like that at first, but she quickly became very good at it.
The seasonings are something you can buy in a store and the ingredients are animals hunted on the spot or wild plants picked around…… But, how do I say this, it really suits my taste.
Since I don’t leave the Imperial Capital that much, I didn’t have a lot of chances to eat it, but it might have been worth it to go outside of the Imperial Capital just to be able to feast on her cooking.

Somehow, I felt deeply moved and sighed while squinting my eyes.

Before we had established a Clan ―― When I was adventuring with them as their Party Leader, I was always about to die because of the stress of dealing with Monsters and Phantoms, harsh environments and Treasure Shrines.
But still, if you tell me if I only had bad memories about it, it would be wrong.
I was so talentless that nothing could hide it, but at that time, Cry Andrich was ―― Certainly a Hunter.

By doing this, I can remember the days when we were adventuring together, as if it was yesterday.

I was nostalgic for a while, but then I realized that Sytry was watching me, so I scratched my cheek and said.

“………… As I am just standing there.
I will go fetch some water.”

“………… Yes.
Please.”

’

“Ah, Cry-chan.
I’m going too! Maybe we can catch some fish, right?”

Liz quickly hugged my arm.
Sytry sighed in resignation at her sister, who hadn’t changed at all since the old days.

 

§

” ”

 

After a few minutes of walking towards the smell of water, the view opened and revealed a large river.
Water is important for people, animals and Monsters.
Without water, no living thing can survive.
The only exception are the illusions from the past 『Phantoms (Illusions)』.

“Yattaaa! So beautiful…… After all, this is what being a Hunter should be.”

Liz widened her eyes and happily looked around the riverside.
Perhaps the timing was right, there weren’t any Monsters in sight.
The river flow was much slower than what I had expected.
As the sun went down, the water surface was glittering as it reflected the dark night and bright moon.

“Does the water look okay?”

“Un! Looks like there are lots of fish!”

’

Even if it looked beautiful, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the water is drinkable.
A Hunter who had absorbed enough Mana Material won’t get a stomachache so easily, but it isn’t the case for me.
When Liz replied cheerfully at my question with her eyes shining, she stepped into the water without any hesitation.

We were at the top of the mountain.
The water temperature should be low, but that won’t make a Hunter falter.
As if she was feeling good, Liz stretched out her arms.

“So coooold…… As I’ve got some blood on me, I’m going to take a small dip!”

She started to take off her clothes right in front of me.
She threw the armor that was protecting her arms to the riverside and put her hands behind her back without any hesitation.
She removed her clothes, which was initially only covering her chest, unbuckled her belt, raised her legs and threw off her short pants.
Under the moonlight, Liz’s beautiful skin (Although I can only see her back) was exposed.
All that remained on her was a pair of black underwear that was covering a small area on her back.

She took off her clothes so naturally.
No matter how much of a Hunter you are, you are still a girl, so you should be a little more modest.

 

TL notes:

Thanks for reading!
Of course, there are some rare monsters coming out when you are with Cry! Looks like it is time for Sytry to restock her supplies of rare materials!
And woow, who would have thought that we would have Liz’s fanservice here! Need pic! XD
And it is nice to see a protagonist who isn’t flustering everywhere and doesn’t know where to look.
Tchao à plus!

Footnotes

Oni: An Ogre-like creature in japanese folklore demon.