Kochugunshikan Boukensha ni Naru

I carefully opened the book that was handed to me and found the contents to be like a data book on monsters with accompanying illustrations. The monster illustrations looked like they were drawn with the utmost care and attention to detail. The information written includes monster locations, their habits, known weaknesses, the danger rank of said monsters, the parts you needed to take from each monster as proof of subjugation, as well as the parts you can harvest and sell. It even included the prices for the different parts. The prices of the materials listed were the ones applied ten years ago, but if there isn’t much fluctuation in the prices anyway, it’ll serve as a good reference after all.

“This is amazing! How much is this book, might I ask?”

“That’s a great question! It’s actually a whopping fifty thousand Guineas you know! As far as I remember, this branch has never sold a single one of these monster data books at all since I started working here.”

It really is expensive! It costs the same as the carriage. But by the looks of it, everything was illustrated and written by hand, so I bet producing even one copy will require a considerable amount of time and effort. And since the info inside was pretty detailed and useful as well, the price was understandable.

“What do you think, girls?”

“I definitely want one for ourselves if possible. Since we still have enough money, can’t we buy one?”

“I also think we should get it.”

Well, we did get back a hundred thousand Guineas earlier after all. And I can also use this book to learn even more about this continent’s writing characters. Let’s buy it then.

“We’ll take this.”

I handed over fifty thousand Guineas to Ami-san after saying so.

“Eeh!? …uh, yes, well… T-Thank you for your purchase.”

We went to take a look at the reference room Ami-san told us about earlier as well. We found that it was a room where the individual pages of a book that was similar to the one we purchased were posted along the walls. We couldn’t read the materials from a distance and had to come up near the walls to check them out.

Oh, we also have to greet Zaluke from the armor shop and Joe from the weapon shop as well after this. We visited those two shops and told their respective clerks about our decision to leave the city. We ended up being given tips on weapon and equipment maintenance, and even gifted maintenance tools for free.

We then made our way to the restaurant that serves the delicious stew and had our lunch there. The stew truly had great flavor.

“We managed to get a pretty useful book. We can finally start adventuring properly with this.”

“I’m also unfamiliar with the monsters roaming Starveek Kingdom, even though I’m from there. This book really is helpful.”

“We’ll need to set aside some time to read up on the monsters we can potentially encounter along our journey this afternoon.”

While eating, Cleria took a peek at the contents of the book and suggested it as such. That’s really expensive, so be sure not to spill some stew on it, okay.

After having lunch, we proceeded with shopping for some foodstuffs for our journey. We went to the market and looked for food and ingredients that won’t spoil easily. Anyway, I’ll go and secure some bacon, cheese, and butter.

“What else do we need?”

“The basic stuff would be jerky, toasted bread, and dried beans,” Elna suggested.

“I see. Well, let’s buy stuff with the assumption of not being able to procure new supplies for an extended period then.”

Come to think of it, I still haven’t checked up on the exact distance of our destination as well as the estimated travel time.

(Iris, please display the recommended course for our journey.)

『Will this route be fine?』

The course was displayed on a virtual window.

First, the closest city to the Great Demon Forest, which is our main goal, is a fortress city called Gantz. The journey will take approximately fourteen days. The displayed route also includes potential camping grounds, as well as villages we can come to for lodging.

I see. So, I guess, buying ten days worth of food and ingredients will be enough. I’ve already bought some flour and rice from Tarus-san’s store after all.

“According to my investigations, our destination, the fortress city Gantz, is about fourteen days away via carriage. We have some rice already, so ten days’ worth of food should be enough.”

“To think you’ve already found out that much. As expected of our party leader!”

“Well, yeah. I had to do at least this much, right?”

Uh, I actually just got the data from Iris, but I guess you can say I did technically investigate it.

After buying a good amount of jerky, toasted bread, dried beans, and veggies that looked like they would keep for an extended period of time, we finally made our way back to the inn. If we forgot to buy something by chance, we can just buy it right before departure.

We reached the inn and brought the stuff we bought inside our rooms. We were pretty tired from all of that, so we decided to drink some tea in the dining area.

“Now then, did we actually forget anything?”

“I don’t think so. Actually, I think the supplies we got are more than enough for a fourteen-day journey.”

As a person who knows a lot about this planet’s common sense and a good variety of useful knowledge, Elna was really reliable. Cleria, however, was completely immersed in the book we bought earlier.

After having some small talk with Elna for a while, the front door of the inn opened, and Sharon and Selena, who were each carrying several bags worth of supplies, entered.

“We’re back.” Selena greeted.

The two of them looked completely exhausted. They must have brought as much of the supplies they can carry from the escape pods.

“You could have just contacted me when you guys arrived near the city so I could have helped you bring that stuff back here.”

Uh, on second thought, I guess that wasn’t an option… It would have seemed too suspicious. The two girls hurriedly brought in the bags they were carrying. Anyway, let’s bring all of those inside their room.

“Selena, just what is all that baggage?” Cleria asked.

“They are supplies some of our helpers entrusted to us.”

We helped Selena and Sharon carry all the bags inside their room.

Sharon contacted me via a private channel afterward.

(We chose the supplies we thought would be most useful to us and brought them all back. Um… There are some things we want to hand over to Cleria and Elna as well. Can we?)

(Hm? What kinds of things?)

(Um, some spare electromagnetic bladeknives, clothes, and, um… underwear, and things essential for girls. Stuff like those.)

Hm. Yeah. I kinda had an idea about what she was getting at already.

(No problem. You can go ahead and hand those things to them.)

The two girls opened the empire-produced bags that were made out of high-quality synthetic fibers, and started arranging the supplies they bought on top of their beds.

“We wanted to give these things to you two, so we brought them over.”

After saying so, Sharon handed over the sheathed bladeknives to the two ladies.

“This–!? Aren’t these the same kind of knives as what Alan has!?”

“Yes, that’s right. They’re magic tools that can cut most objects. They can even easily cut steel, so be very careful when handling them.”

“These are magic tools? But they don’t seem to have any magic stones installed… It can’t be!? Are these Artifacts!?” Elna exclaimed in shock.

They were standard issue imperial military combat knives with blades thirty centimeters in length. They were designed to function only when something touches their edge, which serves as a power-saving measure.

“They’re not really something that valuable, but in order to maintain their sharpness, you’ll need to place them where sunlight can reach them every once in a while.”

“That’s… So these really are Artifacts…” Elna muttered while still sounding shocked.

“Thank you! Sharon, Selena. Can I try it?”

“Of course!”

Cleria took out a copper coin and brought the edge of the knife to it carefully. The knife ended up cutting the coin without any resistance. Well, that’s to be expected, of course.

“Amazing!”

“Cleria-sama! Let me try it as well!”

Elna received one half of the earlier copper coin from Cleria and cut it easily with her knife.

“Amazing… It’s not a magic sword. So it really is an Artifact. Cleria-sama, is it really alright for us to receive these?”

“It’s fine. We’re all comrades and part of the same party. Equipping our comrades with better weapons will lead to the overall safety of the entire party.”

“I understand. I will protect everyone with this. Thank you again, Sharon, Selena.”