Semi-retired Adventurer Lives Leisurely

Chapter 20: Departure

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The day arrived when we’re heading off to the Capital.

 

I woke up earlier than usual, and checkEd my things I’ve packed for the trip.

 

Well, I’m just taking everything.
It’ll be a waste to pay for a room I’m not staying in, and I got rid of everything I can’t take with me on the trip.

 

Mr.
Nord kindly offered to keep my stuff stored here, but this is a typical process for me who moves from location to location, so I kindly declined his generous offer.

 

I don’t think anything will happen, but just in case something does come up, some sort of trouble, finding a different job, or any other reason why I wouldn’t be coming back to Flowtier, I need to be prepared.

 

Henry: “That’s everything.”

 

I take my stuff and head down stairs.

 

Several customers were in the dining area enjoying their breakfast special.
Instead of Lana, Mrs.
Linda was serving the customers.
She carried the baby on her back as she worked.
She plans to help out in the hours when the customers are few.
The baby is not crying and is happily enjoying the ride.

 

Linda: “Good morning, Mr.
Henry! I’ll get you your breakfast.
Just sit wherever you want!”

 

Henry: “Thank you, ma’am.”

 

I saw that Lana was sitting down eating breakfast at one of the tables as the customers did, and I sit across from her.

 

Henry: “Morning, Lana.”

 

Lana: “Good morning, Mr.
Henry.”

 

Henry: “Are you all packed and ready? Did you check if you forgot anything?”

 

Lana: “Yes, I checked 3 times, so I shouldn’t have forgotten anything.”

 

3 times? Well, I can’t blame her.
It’s her first trip to step outside this city.
Anyone would be extra cautious in that case.

 

Linda: “Here’s your breakfast! Eat right up!”

 

Henry: “Alright, great! It’s here.”

 

Linda: “Since it’s Lana’s departure, we made it a little extra special today.”

 

It’s true.
There’s an extra sausage, the soup has more ingredients, the salad has cheese sprinkled on top, and there’s an extra piece of bread.

 

This looks delicious.

 

I immediately start digging in.

 

My engines start revving up, and I feel pumped for the day.

 

<<<<>>>>>

 

We ate breakfast, and said our farewells to Mr.
Nord and Mrs.
Linda.

 

I escorted Lana to the community horse carriage stop.

 

Cyril: “Morning, Henry.
Good morning, Lana.”

 

Henry: “Morning, Cyril.”

 

Lana: “Good morning.”

 

We greet Cyril who always arrives early.

 

Henry: “Is Jend… never mind, I see him.”

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Cyril: “Yeah, he’s friends with the person giving us a ride and is talking to him.”

 

Oh yeah, it was Jend who made the reservation.

 

The driver of the carriage looks really young too.
He looks like he just reached adulthood this year.
But if he’s being trusted with his own carriage, I’m sure he’s been doing errands and trained for this role for a while now.

 

Cyril: “Well, I don’t know about you, but I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep last night!”

 

Henry: “What are you doing? You should be sleeping when you can.
Don’t I keep reminding you that the role of the adventurer requires that you sleep in any place at any time as soon as you're given a chance?”

 

I remember that she had a hard time sleeping when we were out camping.
She doesn’t fall asleep that quickly.

 

Cyril: “I know what you’re saying, but I’ve always had trouble sleeping the night before a big trip.
It’s just how I am!”

 

Henry: “It’s not something to be proud about…”

 

Cyril: “What about you, Lana? We’re you able to sleep?”

 

Lana: “To be honest, no, I had a hard time falling asleep last night.”

 

Cyril: “Righ~t? See! It’s normal!”

 

For not sleeping, she’s really energetic.

 

Cyril: “OH! Teo’s here! HE~Y! Overe he~re!”

 

Cyril waves her hand wildly at Teo.

 

All the other passengers are wondering what’s going on and look at her, but she doesn’t care.

 

At the Grandes Church, the adventurers have gotten used to Cyril, but I wish she would be a little more attentive to her surroundings.

 

Henry: “Hey, keep it down.
You’re drawing attention to us.”

 

Cyril: “What? What do you mean?”

 

Henry: “Why you..”

 

Teo, who was being waved at, sprinted towards us.”

 

Teo: “Cyril! That’s really embarrassing! Could you not do that!!”

 

Cyril: “Wha~t, sheesh, you and Henry both…”

 

Lana: “Haha…”

 

Lana’s trying to mend the atmosphere with an awkward laugh.

 

Henry: “Alright, we’re all here so let’s get inside.”

 

Cyril: “Yes~sir”

 

We head to the carriage where Jend is talking to the driver.

 

The carriage is meant for 5-6 people, and the size is smaller, but it’s well taken care of.

 

Jend: “Hey Henry.
G’morning.”

 

Henry: “Morning Jend.
And let me introduce you.
She is…”

 

Lana who was standing behind me steps forward.

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Lana: “Good morning! I am the daughter of the Bear’s Keg Inn! My name is Lana.
Thank you so much for your assistance.”

 

She greets and bows to Jend and the driver.

 

You can tell she’s used to greeting strangers from her work at the inn.
She didn’t hesitate or show any fear even meeting unknown men for the first time.

 

Jend: “Ah, yeah.
I’ve seen you around, but it’s the first time we spoke, huh? I’m Jend.
I’m in Henry’s party and am an adventurer.”

 

Lana: “Yes, I’ve heard.
Mr.
Henry’s always talking about how reliable you are.”

 

Hey now.

 

Henry: “Lana, you shouldn’t be sharing other customers' information like that.”

 

Lana: “Hehe, I’m sorry.”

 

Well, I’m sure she wouldn’t share anything that would be damaging, but it’s just embarrassing.

 

Jend: “Really, Henry? Thanks”

 

Henry: “….sure.”

 

So… awkward.

 

Cyril: “Lana, Lana! What does Henry say about me?!”

 

Lana: “Um…well…”

 

Cyril jumps in on the conversation and throws the question at Lana.

 

Well, if it’s Cyril… It won’t matter.

 

I give Lana a slight nod to let her know it’s okay.

 

Lana: “Well, Mr.
Henry says you are questionable and disappointing in many ways, but your ability as a sorceress is incredible.”

 

Cyril: “HENRY! Why you!!”

 

Cyril begins throwing a fit and grabs me by my shirt.

 

Cyril: “Disappointing how?! Huh?! How could a girl this cute ever disappoint you?!”

 

Henry: “Just like this! This is what I’m talking about!”

 

Cyril is grabbing me by the collar and shaking me around.
I try to push her away by her face.

 

Cyril: “Fine! We’ll leave it for now.
I’m definitely going to revise that opinion of yours to ‘WOW THAT CYRIL, SHE’S SUCH AN AMAZING GIRL!!’ Like that!”

 

Henry: “Yeah, that’s never going to happen.”

 

…but my opinion of her isn’t that low.
Yeah, her physical combat abilities and skills, plus some other essential adventurer skills she needs to learn is maybe at a civilian level, but her magic is completely on a different league.
At the very least, there is no one in Flowtier that can replace her.

 

Granted, her strength is completely overkill for the level of demonic creatures in this area, but if we’re dealing with the highest-tier demonic creatures that won’t die no matter how many times you kill them, then Cyril’s OP spells will tip the table to our advantage.

 

Teo: “Lana, what about me?”

 

Lana: “He says how useful you always are.”

 

Teo: “Useful? Like a tool…?”

 

Lana, that was poorly worded and will cause misunderstandings, so could you reword that?

 

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“Excuse me for interrupting your conversation.
Could I introduce myself?”

 

The driver who was standing there unnoticed looked relieved to finally get our attention.

 

Jend: “Oh, sorry Will.
I didn’t introduce you.”

 

Will: “Oh, that’s okay.
I was just worried about making sure we depart on time.”

 

Oh yeah.

 

Looking around, the other carriages are starting to depart.
It’s so that they’ll arrive at the next town before sundown.

 

Will: “Well, let me introduce myself.
It is a pleasure making your acquaintance.
I am Will.
I will be your Carriage Driver until we reach Northerntier.

 

Will elegantly bows.
He’s tall, handsome, and every movement is smoothe and elegant.
Are all carriage drivers like this?

 

Oh, we better introduce ourselves too.
We’ll be on a long journey together so being courteous will go a long way.

 

Henry: “A pleasure meeting you.
I’m Henry.
I am in the same party as Jend, and I’m also an adventurer.”

 

Will: “Oh, I know.
You’re very famous around these parts.
There are not many Heroic Warriors who’ll come all the way out here.
I’ve heard that you’re the real deal.”

 

Henry: “I have some skills.”

 

Not to brag, but from a third person’s point of view, I do have skills compared to other adventurers.
At the frontlines, they put me on the 1st tier list the past 5 years.

 

Well, now I’m just picking off really weak prey lazily.

 

And we finish the introductions and load up onto the carriage.

 

Will: “Okay, we’ll be off now~!”

 

The carriage starts miving.

 

We leave Flowtier and hit the roads.

 

We’ll have very little to do going forward, so I sit down and open a book I bought for the trip.

 

<<<<>>>>

 

At first, Cyril, Teo, and Lana were excitedly looking at the window.
It was their first carriage ride, and many things caught their eyes.

 

But the scenery remained the same.
There were only plains as far as the eye can see.
They got bored after a while and began small talk among each other.

 

Cyril: “Lana~, do you have someone you li~ke?”

 

Lana: “Um, not really, no.
I don’t have too many boys my age except the few who went to school with me.”

 

Cyril: “And Teo… said you didn’t have anyone you like before, right?”

 

Teo: “Yes.
What about you, Cyril?”

 

Cyril: “Me? Fufufu.
There’s a whole line of men who ask for my attention, but I haven’t met anyone who’s even close to my standards.”

 

Teo: “…please don’t lie.”

 

Cyril: “Hey Teo, I’m trying to show Lana how well-rounded and mature I am, so could you please follow along?”

 

Wait, is a woman who tells a man that’s interested in her, “You’re way below my standards” is a mature, well rounded woman inside Cyril’s head? What kind of madness goes on inside of that head?

 

But I feel so out of place.
I should head up to where Jend and Will are.

 

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Lana: “Wait, what about Mr.
Henry? I thought you two got along really well.”

 

Cyril: “Ummm… well… yeah, that’s true.”

 

Cyril looks over at me.

 

I guess I wasn’t forgotten.
They started talking about romantic things, so I thought they just shut me out of the conversation.

 

Cyril: “He’s not a bad person, but if he wants to be my boyfriend, he’ll have to earn more favor points from me.”

 

Henry: “Who says I wanted to be your boyfriend?” Cyril: “See? He just lost some favor points right there~”

 

Yeah, what’s that to me anyways!

 

Henry: “Since we all have very little experience in the romance department, why don’t we switch subjects and talk about something else?”

I’m really hoping that this girls talk atmosphere changes, even just a little.

 

Cyril: “Well, let’s see~.
Will said we’ll be going to Northerntier, but isn’t the Capitol further?”

 

Henry: “Yeah… oh, did I not explain the route to you guys yet?” Cyril: “Nope.”

 

Oh, that was my mistake.
I dropped the ball.

 

If you’re going to the Capitol from Flowtier, there is really only one route, and I didn’t think about letting them know.

 

Henry: “So you know about Northerntier, right?”

Cyril: “Yes, it’s the biggest town in this area, correct? They call it one of the cities of the four corners?”

 

Henry: “Yeah, that’s right.”

In the Alvenia Kingdom, there are 5 main cities.

 

The first is where we are heading, the Capitol of Centralio.
And there are 4 large cities surrounding it in the North, South, East, and West.

 

So these four cities are called the Four Corner Cities, and among them, the one closest to Flowtier is the northern city of Northerntier.
That is our current destination.

 

Henry: “It’s about 4 days on horse carriage to Northerntier.”

 

We left in the morning, and we’ll arrive at the next town before nightfall.
We’ll repeat that process until we arrive at Northerntier.

 

Henry: “And after we arrive there, we’ll use the Teleportation Gate to get to the Capitol.
It’s a little expensive, but it’s actually no different compared to the fees you’ll pay for the carriage ride to the Capitol anyways.”

 

Cyril: “The Teleportation Gate? I heard rumors about it.
I believe I’ve used it…once? But that was a long time ago, and I don’t remember it very well.”

 

? Oh yeah, I remember Cyril telling me that she came to Flowtier as a child.
If she came from some place far, there’s a good chance that she used the Teleportation Gates on the way.

 

The Teleportation Gate is something the country put all of its resources into to complete.
The masterpiece of a magecraft is one of the most complicated spell inscriptions and requires a ridiculous amount of magic energy.

 

It takes 10 first-rate mages to control.
Because of that, it costs an arm and a leg to use, but you’ll be able to instantly teleport between cities in return.

 

In the Kingdom of Alvenia, they utilize the Teleportation Gate for the Capitol and its Four Corner cities for the citizens to use.

 

Henry: “So that’s why we’re only going to Northerntier by carriage.”

 

Cyril: “What is Northerntier like?”

 

Cyril keeps asking questions, but Teo and Lana are curious too.

 

I’ve only spent a little time there on my journey to Flowtier, but I can at least tell them what I know.

 

<<<<>>>>

 

And like this, our journey on the horse carriage began.