405 Leave Me and Keep Pressing On
Morning arrived without trouble. I stretched as I left my tent.
I said my thanks to Chimera and didn't forget to pat its head before making preparations for breakfast.
(I got up feeling refreshed just before sunrise. Today's gonna be a fine day... yeah right.)
I lit up the portable stove as I sighed. Nothing good will ever befall me. Only stuff that would have turned into a huge fire if left alone do.
Like the matter with these ladies, I'm convinced handing them over to the federation as is would not end well.
The last few bandit and magic beast raids are still preferable compared to that ending.
Even if it keeps happening one after another, even if it's irritating me to no end.
Still better than the regret that'd come after the other option.
"...Good morning. I-is there anything I could help you with?"
Linda woke up. She got frightened when she saw Cat Chimera before apologetically offering her help.
"Hm? Nah, don't sweat it. Breakfast won't be ready for a while, you can lay down for now. Should help ease up fatigue."
I replied back. Looks like she couldn't sleep well, it's obvious from her tired face.
They cleaned the plates yesterday, so they still had appetite at least. But this is probably a mental stress.
Hence I told her to get more rest. Emptying your mind is the best way to recuperate from that.
However, Chimera's presence is probably preventing that.
So I took a lump of random meat from yesterday, gave it to Chimera and urged it to 'Go play somewhere'.
Chimera cried once, 'Meow', transformed into Tiger Mode, and then it ate up the lump of meat before running off into the plains.
Linda's eyes were popping up as she witnessed it all. No, she pretty much fainted.
I pushed her absentminded back into the tent, and said, 'good night'.
Then, the coachman spoke.
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"I-I've never seen such a magic beast in my life before... The amount of mana emanating from its small form was already tremendous... and it's even capable of shape shifting into different savage forms..."
I'm familiar with how final bosses in RPG tend to have three stages of transformation and such, so that fact doesn't really bother me.
But it's probably unheard of to the people in this world.
Yet it's not like I can give an explanation. I don't know a thing about how Chimera works as an organism.
Nor am I obliged to explain.
"Let's depart after breakfast and a short break. We gotta cover the distance we lost yesterday. I want to arrive at the town before today's end."
The distance between the last village to this town isn't actually that far. If this world had a car, a drive would take us there.
But cars don't exist here. It takes two days riding a stagecoach.
I don't actually know the precise distance but that's what I could gather from asking the coachman. We lost quite a bit of time due to the magic beast raid yesterday.
We can't get any later. So I tell the coachman this.
"I'll get rid of any issue that crops up along the way. Keep pressing on and leave me behind when I do. Gotta be ready to do that much if we wanna catch up with the lost time, no? I wanna get these ladies to their destination quick."
The coachman had a difficult expression on his face and glared at me before saying, 'I understand'.