9-12. Bornean Forest
Satou's here. You can discern those who like to ride amusement park's vehicles and those who don't from their screams. Different people have different suitabilities of course, but perhaps they can enjoy it because they trust those game machines.
◇
After we've crossed the mountain range, the airship ark descends on a narrow grassland between the forest and the foot of a mountain.
"Ah~, it's finally the ground."
"Oh Arisa, wasn't it just half a day long."
"But, I hadn't thought that it would be shaking that much."
What Arisa's saying is true.
There were more strange air currents than I thought, so the shaking was worse than I expected. Thanks to [Canopy] magic, we didn't experience the effect of temperature fall and atmospheric pressure change, but since the [Air Control] couldn't absorb the radical change of the air current, I couldn't prevent the shaking.
"E, earth nanodesu."
"Yes, it's the mother earth."
As the result, Pochi and Liza look a bit pitiful.
They fall down to the ground with a plop. The eyes of the two are a bit unfocused. I didn't shake the ark this time though. Rather, it might've been better if I supported it to prevent the shaking.
Maybe I should had let them sleep like the horses that I gave sleeping medicines.
Arisa and Mia seem like they had motion sickness, they looked a bit unsteady. I gave them some anti-motion sickness medicine, but it didn't seem to work well.
Nana is operating like usual. Even now, she's poking on a little flower below that's swaying from wind.
Tama seemed like she was really enjoying the unexpected shaking, she was frolic from the beginning to the end that now she's like a child who has just gone to an amusement park, drained of her battery. She's currently sleeping on the grassland with a satisfied smile.
Lulu was afraid and looked like she would get motion sickness, but she screamed, "Kyaa kyaa" as I caught her on my arm like she was riding a jet coaster, she was smiling until the end. I didn't have any objection since her flushed cheeks was cute.
There's still a long time until the nightfall, but since everyone is totally exhausted, I decide to camp here today.
There's no monster in Bornean forest, but there are some on the boundary here. However, there's no particularly strong monster around, so I leave Nana to guard everyone.
I've found the mithril vein I've always yearned for in the mountain range, so I'm going there to mine it. Since the mitrhil vein is quite deep at one kilometer below the ground, I make a shaft until the depth of my goal after using 4-5 [Mud Wall]. I don't know how much will the mithril decrease after refining it, but several tons of it are probably enough. If it's not, I can just come back here.
It's still a while before it's time to prepare for dinner, so I fly around the mountains, gathering things like clays for making earthenwares, stones for building, and rare earth minerals. There are also gold and silver veins, but there are too little gold per square meter area, so I won't touch it. I can just melt old gold coins if I need some.
◇
There's an unexpected guest when I've returned to the camp ground as the sun begins setting.
Even if I said guest, it's not a person. It's an unicorn living in Bornean forest. Unlike the unicorns in Muno forest, it looks like a zebra with its stripes instead of a white horse.
The unicorn and the hornless are getting along well as they eat the horse fodders I've made myself.
"This is?"
"Mutual love."
"Two hours ago, it came wandering about and they began to flirt. Riajuu, or rather RiaJUU, die."
"I won't subjugate or capture it since it's not hostile, but what should we do with it?"
Arisa curses them dejectedly, but please don't pick a quarrel with even unicorns. After telling Liza that she doesn't need to subjugate it, I begin to prepare for dinner together with Lulu.
Tonight I'm making tofu hamburg steak as the main menu per Mia's request. I also make chicken-less chicken rice, potatoes, and custard puddings. I was going to make fried prawns and sausages, but I made fried bamboo shots, and macaronis instead. Finally, I stab the shaped chicken rice with toothpicks adorned with flags, and it's complete.
"You're really diligent~ after characters bento, now it's kid lunches eh."
"Cute."
"Peerless and wonderful~"
"Yes nanodesu! If just hamburg is the strongest, it'll be peerless with this many additions nanodesu!
Pochi has recovered enough to make you think her exhaustion a few hours ago is an illusion. Her tail isn't enough to show it as she's even swinging her arms. I'm glad that she's excited, but she could faint if she's too excited.
"Master."
"What is it?"
Nana is looking at me with eyes that look very dissatisfied. Since Nana seems like she would go on a rampage, I've restrained her with [Magic Hand] ahead of time. It's unfortunate that there's no tactile sensation.
I've made everyone's shares properly this time. Nana also has one of course. I've especially added all three kinds of the flags for Nana's plate. She probably won't rampage now.
"Keen insight. Praising master for having made something truly wondrous."
I'm glad that Nana is also satisfied. Arisa grumbles, "I'm not a kid.", but it seems it's just spoken words.
Since I feel sorry for them if there's no meat, I pile up wyvern karage on another plate. I use wyvern meat that I've pickled with liquor soup since yesterday. I hear Liza is saying, "It's even more delicious than yesterday.", so I'll use seasoning for wyvern meat from now on.
With this kind of menu, it's easy to tell their habits of eating food; Tama starts from her favorite ones, while Pochi and Mia start from their least favorites. Although the food on the large platter are Pochi's favorite too, so she's eating it.
"Satou, delicious."
"Nn."
I reply Mia who's unusually speaking using two words by mimicking her.
To Mia who firmly demands another helping, I serve it. Pochi and Tama who have finished eating earlier after battling for karage with Liza present their plates while saying, "Another~", "Another nanodesu." when they see that scene.
When the big pot that I've prepared with chicken rice becomes empty, everyone is full as they sprawl on the sheet for sleeping while patting their stomaches.
I leave the cleaning up to Liza and Nana as I begin to make a simple electric fan.
Even though we're beyond the mountain range, we shouldn't be located that far to the south, so we've become a bit sweaty, I'm making the fan to make our sleep more pleasant. By the time I realized that I could just use [Air Control] to create some breeze, I had completed the electric fan.
◇
The next day after breakfast, I asked Mia the way to enter Bornean forest, but since she had never gone out of the forest, she didn't know.
Then, I guess I should ask someone who knows.
I search Mia's parents, Lamisauuya, and Lilinatoa from the menu and mark them. Now then, I guess the one I should contact is the mother.
I invoke [Telephone] magic with Lilinatoa as the target. This magic won't be properly invoked if the other party doesn't want to talk. It's good that it can't be used to attack with prank calls.
"Who?"
The reply is a voice that sounds exactly like Mia's. Only I can hear this voice. It's certain since I've tested it with Lulu and Pochi before.
"Pleased to meet you, I'm Satou, a human. I'm sorry for calling you with magic--"
Right at then, Lilinatoa-san's voice cuts in.
"My! Satou-san you said?! Are you the one Dohar's mentioned? That's right isn't it! Then, perhaps you've brought Mia along? You've brought her right? --"
She's talking like a machine gun, just like Mia is when she's drunk.
I'm made to listen to her for five minutes straight without any chance to talk back. Looks like they know my name from Dohar-san's message. I'm glad the words that Mia's said in the dwarven hometown like "Mutual love", or "Eloping", aren't taken seriously by them.
In contrast, the letter from Seryuu city's manager-san, Yusalatoya, hasn't arrived yet. It seems Dohar-san employed magic transmission which made his message arrived first.
They're going to pick us, but they don't know our position, so I shoot a fireball to the sky as a signal.
A little while after the fireball has disappeared, two elves appear from the forest that has been divided in front of us.
They're wearing green clothes like the elves in the picture books.
""Mia""
"Laya, Lia"
Parents and child who call each other with their names are hugging.
Really, this is quite a moving scene.
Arisa is pulling the sleeves of me who's being moved as I watch the reunion.
What? Even though it's at the good part?
"Hey, they're Mia's parents right?"
"That's right."
"But you know~"
I understand what Arisa is trying to say.
Mia's parents look like they're only slightly older than Mia, they look younger even compared to Lulu. They seem to be a race who grow slowly, Hayato will be delighted.
The father's face looks exactly like the elf manager-san at Seryuu city. They might be blood-related, their population is few after all.
"Satou."
"Thank you."
"My, Satou-san right? You're Satou-san aren't you. You're younger than I thought? You're young aren't you--"
I greet the parents whom Mia introduces.
Nevertheless, the father seems like a taciturn person like Mia. There's no middle way between this couple, it's really hard to talk with them.
We're going to enter the Elves' hometown as we're invited by Mia's parent.