「Onward to Raratoia」part 1

A group was moving through a forest filled with tall and thick-trunked trees, trying not to stumble on the roots covered with moss.

The sky in the east had already started to brighten and little patches of sunlight were seeping through the foliage.

I was carrying three sacks filled with gold coins over my shoulder, and a “clang clang” sound was mixed in with the whispers of the tree leaves.

We were in the center of Canada forest, the home of the elves.

In this world that I was dropped into, I was given the form of my game character, and as I went about in a dizzy I somehow wound up helping the elves in their mission.

Yet, I had not even an ounce of regret for my actions. It’s only natural for a j.a.panese person to want to help the disadvantaged elves and beastmen in this world.

Probably.

The elven woman walking in front of me was a rare dark elf. She had smooth lilac skin, long white hair, and her ears were shorter than those of normal elves. Her tall frame was wrapped in a leather corset over somber clothes and her limbs overflowed with enough s.e.x appeal to attract the eyes of any man.

Her name was Ariane Glenys Maple. She was one of Maple’s warriors, which was the capital of Canada. A thin sword hung at her waist, and she also possessed strong spirit magic.

Her chest bounced up and down with every step, her b.u.t.tocks bobbed with every movement, and I had a perfect view from behind… but all of a sudden she stopped and focused her brilliant golden eyes on me.

Somehow, she seemed to have noticed my stare────

Like I said, the body I got when I came to this world was the same one from the game I had been playing.

My whole body was covered in detailed, white, full-body armor that wouldn’t be unusual for a mythical knight to wear.

A pitch-black mantle fluttered in the wind and the inside of the mantle looked like a starry night sky.

On my back, I carried a large, heavily engraved round shield and a two-handed sword that emitted a divine aura.

However, inside this suit of armor was only the body of a skeleton.

Therefore, this body had no eyes. Only the pale blue light of the dead existed in my eye sockets.

For her to still be able to sense my stare, the senses of a woman were  truly frightening.

While thinking about such things, the voice of two other women was heard from behind.

“I’ve used too much mana. I won’t be able to use spirit magic for a while, would you happen to have a weapon I could borrow?”

“I’m tired〜. I need to take a rest somewhere……”

The two women were covered in a gray and black cloak respectively and were bringing up the rear. They had straight blonde hair with a greenish tint, and the characteristic long ears peeped out between the strands. One’s skin was opposite of the dark elf Ariane’s pale complexion, her name was Senna and she had an overall slender figure and sharp eyes.

The other one had a tender expression that Senna lacked and short cut hair. Her name was Oona.

A short while ago, both of these elven women had been the prisoners of Diento’s feudal lord. Because the two barely had any clothing on, Ariane and I had given them our cloaks so they could cover themselves.

We got a heap of gold coins from the castle of Diento’s lord, and I was carrying all three bags worth of it over my shoulder. Since I had my hands full, the two of them were on guard for the monsters that roamed the forest.

“We’ll reach the river Rydell soon. Once we reach the riverbank we’ll take a break. Afterwards, our destination will be only a little farther upstream.”

When Ariane turned around to inform us, I was able to see the tall cliff which overlooked the riverbed that I had pa.s.sed by before.

As the wide river came into view, the tree line receded and the surroundings became brighter.

The daylight had was getting stronger, with the morning sun illuminating the forest, and the level of sunlight that penetrated the foliage was gradually increasing.

I lowered the sacks of gold coins on a suitable rock while the other three had found their own places to sit and rest.

It truly was a pleasant place.

The wind blow across the bank of the river and caused leaves to rustle. Mixed in were the cheeping of birds and the occasional cry of a monster; in this place, we calmly spent our time.

Ponta, who had been on my head until now, jumped down to get a drink of water before she soaked her forepaws in the water and started playing around.

Ponta was a fox-like animal that was about 60cm in length. Though she had the face of a fox, her tail made up half of her body and was the same shape of a cotton ball. However, the form of her legs gave her the impression of a giant flying squirrel. Her soft fur was light green on her back and pure white on her underbelly.

According to the elves, she was a rare animal called a spirit beast and was commonly called a fluffy fox. It was apparently rare for a spirit beast to take to a person, though I seemed to have tamed Ponta smoothly by feeding her, even if that was questionable at best.

When I turned my attention upstream to the riverbank where Ponta was playing, I noticed some huge dragonflies nearby. They were almost two meters long and hovered above the water surface with their tails sticking into the water.

Occasionally, one of the huge dragonflies would raise their tail out of the water with a fish attached and skillfully hold the fish in the air as it began to feast upon it.

“Those are dragonfly. They won’t attack unless you approach them during the breeding season.”

When she noticed me staring, Ariane explained the nature of the huge dragonflies to me. They only attacked in the breeding season, but……

This thick forest seems to have a variety of monsters living in it. In fact, we frequently encountered monsters when we were making our way here.

The three of them repelled them without much difficulty, but Senna seems to have used a considerable amount of mana along the way.

“Senna, use my sword for now own. I still have enough mana left.”

Since Ariane notice that Senna was running low on mana, she took the sword from her waist and handed it to her.

I was looking at this when I remembered something; I hauled one of the sacks filled with gold coins in front of me and rummaged through it. Buried between the gold coins was a single sword.

It was something I found when we infiltrated the feudal lord’s castle to save Senna and Oona. The sword was a masterpiece-grade item, the handle was garnished with the head of a lion that had deep red jewels in place of eyes. The eponymous  『Sword of the Lion King』.

I completely forgot about it when I threw it into the sack.

“Ariane-dono, you could use this if you like.”

Since I was already completely equipped thanks to my knight role-play, I offered the sword to her. She widely opened her eyes when she received the sword.

“Is it okay? This is a very good sword.”

“Hun, I don’t mind. It was gathering dust in the lord’s castle. Besides, I already have this……”

Saying so, I held up my one meter long, two-handed greatsword. What I was showing her was the mythical grade weapon 『Holy Thunder Sword』.

She looked surprised for a moment before she wordlessly unsheathed the sword in her hand to inspect the grip and blade, and once she was finished she nodded before sheathing it again.

“Thank you, Arc. This will be helpful.”

Her full lips lifted into a smile as she thanked me and put the sword on her waist.

“We’ll end our break soon and continue our trek upstream.Arc, can I ask you a favor?”

“Sure. You all should hold onto me while I carry the luggage and transfer us up the river.”

I said this while I was picking up the sacks filled with gold coins I had been sitting next to. Ponta seemed to have noticed what was happening since she used spirit magic to glide from the riverbed to her usual spot atop my helmet.

Confirming that everyone was holding on to me, I focused my attention upstream.

“【Dimensional Step】”

It was a support-magic skill that allowed me to perform short-range teleportation, and in an instant the entire scenery changed. I set the target a while ago, and we now stood at the upper reaches of the river.

“Hum, that’s a convenient spell〜. Why didn’t you use this a while ago when we were in the forest?We could have gotten a lot farther by now〜”

The short-haired elf Oona was muttering this while she was looking at our new surrounding.

The riverbank we had been resting on moments before was now a considerable distance downstream from our current position.

“The range is limited in areas like forests, where the visibility is lacking.”

While the magic was convenient for travel, it can only move to an area that you can visually perceive. The ground of the forest we had just been in was full of undergrowth, cliffs and marshes. One wrong step could have meant the end, so using the skill there was prohibited.

“Is that so… Still, it is really convenient〜”

Oona contently gave that relaxed praise many times as I continued to transfer us upstream.

It didn’t take that long before we arrived at a river fork.

Coming from the northern Wind Dragon Mountains, the river split into two at this location.

It appears that the river splitting off is called the Riburute river.

It was very wide, and judging by the color of the water it was quite deep as well. Since the current seemed to be very strong, you’d normally have the cross it further upstream than this.

The reason we were here was to meet up with the four others elves and their guide before setting out for the elven village Raratoia.

While looking around, I saw the silhouette of people emerging from the trees near the Rydell riverbank.

An elven man in a beige cloak walked out while being cautious of his surroundings, and when they saw us, four elven girls ran straight to us.

The warrior Danka had been with us when we a.s.saulted the kidnappers’ base, and had been left to look after the girls.

Since the girls were running at me, I bent to down on one knee to receive them.

At that moment, Ponta jumped from my head and sat on the ground in front of me. The elven girls surrounded Ponta at once.

……Seems like Ponta had all of the popularity.

“You’re earlier than expected…… I take it that we’re bringing this armored gentleman along?”

Danka asked Ariane the question in a low voice in pa.s.sing, once he saw me pretending to take a break in order to cover up my kneeling.

“Thanks to his help a disaster was avoided…… There are also some other circ.u.mstances the require him to meet with Raratoia’s elder.”

“……Don’t bother the old man too much……”

Danka gave that simple reply to Ariane before he closing his eyes and mouth.

She patted down her white hair and simply said; “I know.”

“Then, since there’s no time lets proceed. Arc, could you please take us across the river?

With the pat on the shoulder that accompanied the question, I rose to my feet.

Since it’s just crossing a river, I can simply use 【Dimensional Step】to transfer to the other side. While it’d be impossible to take everyone at once, it should be doable in three trips.

First, the four young girls were transferred to the other side and instantly started to diligently move about. Though they fell victim to Ponta’s cuteness, they still seemed capable of surviving in the wilderness.

After crossing the river without much difficulty, we plunged into the depths of the forest.

In addition, I was still carrying the sacks of gold coins over my shoulder; everyone besides me was an elf and was more or less capable of using spirit magic, so there was no danger even if a monster appeared while we traveled.

Ponta could also use wind spirit magic, and occasionally flew up to fetch nuts and fruit. Thanks to that we weren’t troubled for food and were able to quickly eat while taking breaks along the way……

When the sky was dyed in a deep red and the forest’s shadows thickened, we finally arrived at our destination.