Chapter 35

After eating to her heart’s content, Daniela was now in a deep sleep inside of the tent.

I was feeling an almost nostalgic fatigue as I sat there and mixed a pot of soup. Of course, this was not a late night meal. This was breakfast.

Nothing had happened after that. No, really. I just sat down there, bored and trying to fight off my drowsiness. The rain that we had expected to continue, had stopped by early morning. The sun was just starting to show above the grass on the horizon.

I put the large spoon on one of the rocks surrounding the bonfire and headed towards the tent. She really needed to wake up already.

“Daniela…Get up…”

I was so tired that I couldn’t muster much energy for this. She was sleeping in a bundle of blankets as I shook her shoulders. I was quite sure that I could remain unfazed now even if I saw her naked again.

“Mmm…Oh, Asagi…”

“Yes, it’s me…get up…”

She rubbed at her blurry eyes and slowly got up.

“Wash your face, eat breakfast, clean up…then wake me up when you are done.”

I say as I collapse next to her. I really shouldn’t pull all-nighters anymore… I was no longer nocturnal… I could feel my consciousness fade as I close my eyes. Thankfully, I sensed that Daniela had stood up and gotten out of bed. Good night.

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I hear someone calling my name. Softly, swaying. I feel myself moving up and down at an even rhythm. My consciousness returns.

“Mm? Are you awake then?”

I hear Daniela’s voice. I open my eyes to see if it really is her. It was strange, but the first thing that I saw was the back of Daniela’s head.

“Mnn….what the…”

“You must be able to walk then. If you are no longer sleeping?”

I hear this, and my awareness begins to sharpen. Then I realized what was happening.

“Daniela…I did tell you to wake me, but I don’t remember asking you to carry me…”

“Hehehe. You were in such a deep sleep. I could not bear to wake you up. Besides, it was my fault for oversleeping. I did it as an act of repentance. However, you are quite heavy.”

I tap her on the shoulder to make her stop walking. There is a loud ringing of metal as my feet land on the ground. So she had equipped me with my weapons. That must have been tiresome.

“Uh, thank you.”

“It is fine. Do not worry about it.”

She says with a smile.

I look up at the sky and check the position of the sun. It was near the halfway point between the highest point and the horizon. That meant that I slept for two to three hours. Then I look at our surroundings. It is still nothing but grass. I fix the positioning of my sword and then we are ready to move on.

“Kept you waiting.”

“Are you trying to sound impressive with that voice?”

Yes, this is one line that you have to say in a deep voice.

Now, it was time to continue the journey. There was a gentle breeze as we walked in the plains, side-by-side. It seemed that the warm sunlight that shone down on us was a promise of a pleasant journey.

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“Asagi, it is over there!”

“Leave it to me!”

The grass wolf snarled at me with glimmering eyes before my foot landed in its jaw. It had just enough time to screech in pain, then my sword slammed into its forehead.

And that was that.

I look over to Daniela, she held her mother’s weapon, the ‘Rapier of the Tree of Life and Death.’ It had gone straight through the neck of the other wolf.

“Good work.”

“You as well, Asagi.”

We lightly bump fists. It was a gesture that I started doing with Daniela after she saw me do it with Beowulf. It gave us a good, strong sense of comradery.

Apparently, the proof of killing a grass wolf was the claws on its front paw. Unlike the fangs of forest wolves. I make a mental note of this as we remove the claws.

“What about the fur?”

“Yes… We should skin the ones with the least amount of damage.”

I nod and begin to search the bodies. The one that I had just killed had a massive cut on its face. Well, I guess I could use the skin from the neck down, I think as I cut off the head and run my short sword through its belly. Grass wolves could not be eaten, so there was no need to drain the blood. I was getting used to doing this. Not only wolves, but there was that one time I also hunted a deer in the forest.

And so after fighting like this several times, and storing their parts in the hollow bag, we eventually filled up all of the space that the raw meat had once taken. I inform Daniela of this, and she says, “Then we should take only the claws.” And so we left the rest of the remains there and continued on our journey.

On the fourth day, we camped in an area that was close to the forest. We would have to plunge right back into it tomorrow. Forests made me think of forest wolves and goblins, but I wasn’t sure what monsters lurked in this one. For some reason, I was a little excited as I stayed up on watch duty. As I listened to the crackling of firewood, I recalled an old friend in the other world who said that his hobby was camping. He had really liked the mountains, I think as I look around me. There were mountains in the far off distance, barely visible in the moonlight. Were those the same mountain ranges that could be seen from Fhiraldo? I had never seen a map of this world and was not sure.

Time continued like this for a while, and just as the moon was slightly past its peak, I woke up Daniela. Thankfully, she would get up a lot more quickly these days. Perhaps it was a difference in awareness between sleeping at an inn and outdoors.

I tell her that there was nothing unusual yet, and curl up into the blankets. I was sure that I would get a good sleep. Good night. We would enter the forest tomorrow. I needed to be prepared…

“Asagi, get up. There are monsters.”

I am pulled out of sleep. Damn it. What did I have to do to get some sleep around here… I grab the sword that was next to my head, then rush out of the tent and use Presence Detection. And then I detected the monsters, they were so close that it was strange we couldn’t see them yet. I had a feeling that they were grass wolves. I slowly unsheath my sword and follow after Daniela. There is a rustling in the nearby bushes that is clearly not from the wind. I stare at it as I brandish my sword. Ready when you are.

Daniela creates a ball of wind in the palm of her hand. Then she looks at me with a nod before, swoosh…there is a quiet sound of rushing wind as it shoots into the bushes. Predictably, grass wolves jump out in front of us. There were four of them.

Daniela dashes out in front of me and I quickly follow. She stabs the wolf that is running in the lead with her rapier, then I cut down the second who has run past her. The third wolf jumps towards me now, but Daniela quickly spins around and blocks it with her blade. In the meantime, the fourth tries to fall upon Daniela but is obstructed as my sword is thrust into its path.

Then I sense that Daniela is using magic behind me. Swoosh. The sharp sound of something cutting the air rings and I hear the death cry of another grass wolf. There was only one wolf left now, and it did not look eager to continue the fight. It turned on its paws and dashes back toward the bushes. I and Daniela would deal with this with magic. I kept it a secret to Daniela, but I thought this sword and sorcery style was rather awesome.

I would use the same ice bullet that I made before. It was easy to imagine. My right hand held my sword as it was extended towards the grass wolf. Then I created a bullet of ice at the tip of my forefinger and imagined it firing. The hammer fires within my brain and the ice bullet flies.

There is an exceptionally loud cry as the last grass wolf falls to the ground.

“You did it, Asagi.”

“Yeah, that worked well.”

I look back at Daniela with much satisfaction. Then she cocks her head to the side.

“Uh, Asagi.”

“What?”

“Did you cut your hair?”

I nod with a slight chuckle and feeling of exasperation over her noticing so late. Then we begin to collect the grass wolves’ claws.