1.14 The Journey to the city

The forest will be a dangerous place to travel during the night so we will travel until the evening and camp in the plain area at the end of this forest. We have a portable magic stove and camping equipment. The weather is fine so camping outside won't be a problem and we have monster warding light that keeps the monsters away.

After we passed the forest, Andrew stopped the carriage near a small pond and said, "Hey Jabal, let's camp here tonight."

Jabal got down from the driving seat and replied, "Okay, I will take things out of the cart."

Andrew got down from his driving seat too and said, "You guys can get down too, all this ride must be tiring for you."

We got down from the carriage and started stretching our bodies. We were in the middle of the grassland and there were few trees around the pond but we were camping a bit far from them since ponds at this kind of place attract wild animals.

Andrew looked towards Marina who looked a little gloomy and asked, "Marina, you look little unwell. Is everything alright?"

"Y-yes, it's just that I haven't ridden a carriage for this long before, so I have a little headache." she replied.

The carriage ride, in fact, was very tiring. The roads here were not paved and the carriage didn't have any shock-absorbing equipment.

"Let me set the tent for you and you can rest. We have 4 tents so 2 of us need to share each," said Jabal taking the camping equipment out of the carriage.

Jabal set the first tent for Marina and Sistina since Marina wasn't feeling well and we set the rest of the tents.

The tents were easy to use because they had some magical equipment already set in them like magic light and magic heater and could be easily set up by putting mana through it. They were comparatively bigger than normal tents from the earth and had a little more space inside.

Nina and Andrew started cooking food while the rest of us sat around the magic heater listening to the stories Jabal was telling. Marina and Sistina weren't here because Marina wasn't feeling well and Sistina was keeping her company.

"Once when we were coming back from the city we camped around these parts, late at night the people on watch heard some noise and when they looked towards it, a large herd of wild buffaloes was coming towards us. we ran away towards a tree and climbed it while the horses ran towards the pond. We barely managed to survive that day but our tents were crushed. Luckily, the village was our next destination so we managed to reach there without much problem."

When Jabal was telling his story, Ronald and I were listening carefully since it sounded pretty fun while Arica was looking sleepy. She was probably tired too.

After Nina and Andrew finished making the stew, we called everyone including Marina for the dinner. We used small bowls and spoons for eating the stew. I don't remember ever going camping in my past world, I didn't have anyone to go with, so I am enjoying this very much.

"Marina, are you feeling a little better?" I asked looking towards Marina who was eating slowly.

"Y-yes, I think I will be fine after a little rest," She said with a small smile on her face.

I think she will be alright after resting tonight. Andrew was about to say something so we turned our attention towards him.

"We are going to stay on watch in turns. Ronald and Nara will stay in watch first and after a while Jabal and I will replace you. Nina and Arica will replace us after that."

Andrew and Jabal took the hard part of the job. It was our turn first so we talked about the city and he told me various things he knew like the city library is under the Academy and it is free to use for the Academy students. We stayed on the watch for around 4 hours while everyone was asleep. After that Andrew and Jabal replaced us.

When we woke up in the morning, Arica was asleep while Nina was still awake, she probably fell asleep during the watch. We had bread and jam at breakfast. Marina was feeling better again so we started our journey early.

We traveled across the plain land which was a lot less bumpy than the forest. Since this path was used by many villages it was a bit easier to travel in.

"Everyone we will have lunch in the tavern in the nearby village that is just up ahead," said Andrew from the driving seat.

After around half an hour we arrived in a village, it was smaller than our village with around 50-60 houses. As soon as we stopped a man came out of one of the houses. He was wearing farming clothes and had bunny ears. He was probably the Rabbitkin people that I read in one of the books in the library.

He came closer to the carriage and said, "If it isn't Andrew, how are you old friend?"

Looks like Andrew and this man know each other.

"I am well my friend, how are things here?" He asked getting off the driving seat.

"Not too bad, the weather has been good for growing vegetables," the man replied.

Just as they were talking, Jabal got off the cart and joined them saying, "Hou... Jin you look well, man."

We got off the carriage too and Andrew introduced us to him and told us that he was Jin, the Village chief of this small village. He and his wife also ran a tavern together.

While we were talking, a woman with bunny ears came out, she looked a bit fat but had a beautiful chubby face and brown hair.

"Nira, we have guests, we need to prepare rooms for them," Jin said when he saw her come out. It looks like she is his wife.

"Oh, it's Andrew and Jabal. Welcome to our house," she said looking at us.

"No no, we are going to the city so we need to move soon. We are only here for lunch," Andrew replied.

The woman looked a bit disappointed when Andrew said that we were not going to stay but she quickly replied, "I will start preparing right away, you guys get ready."

We went inside and sat around a table. The table was long with many chairs so we all could sit around easily.

We listened to them talk for some time and after some time Nira brought the food to the table. It was fried rice with vegetables. It looked delicious and tasted very good.

After we finished eating we said our byes to them and left. When we got back on the road it was already afternoon so we rode the carries till the evening. In the evening we decided to camp in the open area outside the forest.

We had dinner similar to last night, stew. We also fried some goat meat that Nira gave us in the village earlier as a gift before we left. The watch duty was somewhat similar too except we decided to be on watch duty in the morning and Arica was replaced by Sistina.

We woke up early for the watch. Everything was going normally during the watch except once when a fox appeared out of nowhere. Ronald chased it away by throwing a stone at it.

We decided to resume the journey early next morning. Everyone including Marina had gotten used to traveling in the carriage by now.

We all talked about various things we heard and read about the city back in the village. The environment that was gloomy since we started our journey changed back to normal, so we had fun during our travel from that point.

It was evening when we reached the outskirt of the city. The city looked massive compared to any place I had been in this world. It was almost as big as Tokyo from my previous world. It was getting dark so the Magic lights were lit all around the city. It worked because of Lightstone that used to glow when mana is passed through it. Looking it from far reminded me of the cities in the earth but up close it was totally different.

We had to wait in the line because there were many carriages in front of us for asking permission to get into the city. We had to pay a copper coin per carriage to get in the city every time we pass through the main gate. There were guards wearing metal armor with swords in their waist outside the gate. The charge was only for the carriages and people could go in for free if they showed their identification.

After a while, we got permission to enter the city from the office after we paid the toll and got in from the entrance gate of the city.

Next Chapter: The Singha City.