"…Sorry about the bad name calling earlier."

Having finally decided that the silence was too unbearable, Amber broke the silence once we reached the edge of the forest.

"It's okay, I didn't take it to heart. Sorry for pissing you off earlier."

"You did it for a good reason, so I forgive you."

I should keep it a secret that I was only aiming to get Amber out somehow. I didn't really care about the other two.

"Well I'm glad you kept Casath alive! I'd go insane if he died!"

With such a carefree attitude, Hanung leapt onto my back and hugged me. I didn't even think there was space for her to do that in this carriage, given how we stuffed it full of almost unconscious bandits, but apparently she was able to do it anyways.

Her hug felt surprisingly comfortable - her feathers made it feel like I was being wrapped in a warm soft blanket. She was also surprisingly light, so I didn't feel like she would break my back or anything.

"Achoo!"

The only downside was that she was too large, so a lot of her feathers kept tickling my face, so my nose got a little bit irritated. She let go of me after I sneezed, which made me slightly disappointed. I wanted to enjoy that feathery hug a little more, but was too hesitant to ask.

"The things you said earlier… You didn't really mean it, did you?"

"The stuff I said about not caring about any of you three?"

"Yes… You have a tendency to bluntly state what's on your mind."

"Well… It's not wrong to say that what I said wasn't a lie."

"Should I call you a heartless jerk again?"

"I might lack emotional attachments to you all, but since you're working as my shop assistant and the other two are hired help, I do still feel some responsibility towards keeping you all safe."

"I don't know if I should feel annoyed or relieved over what you just said."

"Well, I'll let you think whatever you want to think. As for me, I'm going to lie down and rest now. Wake me up when we reach Dasota town."

"…"

There was just barely enough space left for me to lie down and doze off. There was still a somewhat awkward atmosphere between us, given the events that took place earlier, so the two girls just left me alone. Amber and Hanung just idly chatted during the couple hours it took for us to get to our destination.

* * * * *

The town of Dasota was at the base of a tall mountain where the long West river started flowing. Ignoring the poor naming sense the people here had for landmarks, the river with its countless turns and bends was estimated to be over 900 kilometers long, and it had a width of 30 to 50 meters and a depth of 8 to 12 meters at most parts. The river flowed all the way to the ocean, provided fresh water to and connected several towns and cities in its path, and had a gentle current that allowed going upstream with ease, so it was of strategic and economic importance to the people in the southwestern and western provinces.

Strong residents were thus needed to protect the river from harm, although I had no idea what sort of harm could even come to it in the first place. Conveniently, Dasota town had suitable conditions for large flower meadows to grow, so there was an abundance of insects and bees here. As a result, almost all residents of this town were either harpies or Ursines, a race of large and muscular bear-like people. The Ursines, in addition to their duty of protecting the river's source up in the mountains, mainly produced honey for the kingdom by harvesting the overabundant beehives in town. The harpies assisted with hunting harmful insects and animals that might jeopardize the honey trade, and also helped the Ursines by patrolling the skies around the river upstream to identify potential threats. Again, I had no idea what sort of threats would even be present here.

I imagined this place as being where Hanung came from, but the lack of reptilians in town, as well as Hanung and Casath's denial suggested otherwise. Apparently, their homeland was in the east.

Despite this place being called a town, it was more like a village with a relatively small population of around five hundred. Because of the large stature of its Ursine residents, and the fact that the harpies could move about quickly, the buildings in this village were large and spaced very far apart, giving the impression that the village was much larger than it actually was. As the population was so low, an organized governance system was not necessary, so the person in charge of the town was the town elder, who was automatically regarded as the village chief, and was assisted by a group of volunteers that helped keep the peace in town.

We were stopped by some of the patrolling Ursines when we arrived in Dasota. They were wary of us at first due to the heavy load we had, but they recognized a few of the bandits since they matched descriptions given by travelers whose parties got raided by them that came to town. Seeing how they were nicely subdued, he quickly opened up to us and greeted us very warmly.

The village chief was nearby, so we were taken to him. As we didn't have any particular reason to keep the bandits around, we left them with the chief and his peacekeeping volunteers unconditionally. What will happen to them was of no concern to us, so we didn't bother asking whether they'd become slaves, prisoners, or something else.

Given how they had been causing trouble in the forest for years, however, there was most likely some sort of bounty on the bandits' heads. While none of us requested a reward for their capture, the chief felt that receiving some bounty targets unconditionally would be unfair to us, and insisted that we stay in town while they go through a pile of documents to determine how much we should be rewarded. I declined the monetary offers, but because of the chief's insistence, we settled on accepting an ample amount of honey-based products this town was known for, and on touring the town's workshops instead. It probably wasn't a bad idea to rest here for a few hours, anyways, since the horses had been on the road for almost half a day already.

* * * * *

"…And this is where we process beehives. The wax and honey we obtain from them gets sent to all the other workshops in town."

While only around half a dozen Ursine workers were in this workshop, there was a literal mountain of hundreds of beehives piled up in the center of the place.

"Wouldn't the number of beehives eventually deplete if you're harvesting this many?"

"The meadows are too vast, and the bees have no predators here other than the harpy residents, so more beehives are being created than we can harvest."

"Would they even replenish if you brought the hives as a whole back, though?"

"We try to leave the part of the hive with the queen intact on the trees, so the hives can restore themselves eventually."

Now that he mentioned it, several hives did have slightly odd and dented shapes.

The chief then suddenly pointed at one of the workers.

"Now, watch as one of our workers cuts a hive open to collect the honey inside."

The Ursine worker used a machete-like tool in his hand to cut the hive he was holding, about five centimeters from the bottom. As the bottom chunk of the hive fell into the vat he set below, a thick golden liquid dripped down from where the cut was made. Once the honey stopped dripping down, the worker made another cut into the hive, about five centimeters from the previous cut, and another stream of honey came out of the cut.

By the time the worker began his third cut, the afternoon sun shone through the windows of the workshop, illuminating the hive he was working on. Under the gentle sunshine, the third flow of honey glistened brightly, making it look as though a stream of gold was coming into the vat. Such a mesmerizing sight looked rather mouth-watering.

"I can't help but notice that the honey from each hive seems to have a slightly different color."

"Ah, yes, the flowers that the bees feed on make them produce different types of honey. Part of what makes our town's honey so special is that every batch tastes slightly different."

I hope ruined or bitter tasting honey wasn't mixed into each batch.

"Oh? What's this?"

It was typical for a few bees to linger around a harvested hive, but one of the workers picked up a hive with too many bees flying around to count.

"Seems like someone accidentally brought back a hive with a queen inside."

As though not giving a care in the world about there being a swarm of bees inside, the worker Ursine unexpectedly sliced open the beehive he was holding. Sensing danger, I quickly grabbed Amber and Hanung's arms and ran out of the workshop, dragging the two along.

Damaging a beehive with a queen inside most likely meant that the swarm of worker bees would be provoked. The sight of the worker slicing open that beehive made me realize that the residents here had no idea what was considered safe for other races, since the Ursines and reptilians like Casath had such thick skin that the bees couldn't sting them in the first place. As for harpies like Hanung, I was told they preyed on the bees themselves, so bee stings probably had little to no effect on them as well. Speaking of which, why did I drag Hanung with me?

In any case, the bees that came out of the beehives naturally tried to attack their surroundings, but because everyone else was immune to them, the bees started chasing the three of us as we were running out. Since the workshop was built right on the West river's bank, I was able to jump into the river with the other two in tow before the bees could reach us.

Avoiding a bee attack by jumping into a river sounded like a great idea in theory. In practice, it was a completely different matter, since I never learned how to swim. Also, in the same manner as how cats hated water, Amber seemed to also be bothered by being submerged, and didn't appear to know how to swim either. Hanung, on the other hand, was essentially a giant bird with waterproof feathers, and was so light that she couldn't sink at all, even with the weight of Amber and I pulling her down. Thus, the harpy girl was our only lifeline in this ten-meter-deep section of the river.

It was hard to recall what happened next since I was so close to fainting out of fear of drowning. What was certain was that about five minutes after we went into the river, Casath was able to bring all of us back on shore. Amber wanted to claw my eyes out, but was too tired to do so. Hanung had dozens of bee stingers stuck on her, but luckily she didn't seem to be affected by the bee venom in any way. Apparently, being separated from Casath caused her to be so spaced out that she hardly even noticed the pain from getting stung in the first place.

"Why did you even jump into the river?"

"I wanted to keep us safe from the bees."

"You could have just closed the workshop's door after running outside…"

"…Oh."

Wow, I'm an idiot. The workshop's windows weren't even open, so closing the door after I dragged the other two outside would have prevented the bees from flying out.

Needless to say, our tour of the honey collection workshop was cut short by this incident. Since Casath was the only one in our group who was fully immune to bee stings, the chief decided to cancel the visits to a couple more workshops where one would most likely encounter more bees.

"Why don't I show you the pastry workshop instead? They make very delicious honey cakes and cookies there."

"Will there be bees there?"

"It's deep enough inside town that you won't find any flying around."

"That would be nice. Some pastries would be great for a late afternoon tea, I guess."

And so, the chief led our group far away from where any bee could be found.