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Only Michelle and I heard about the commission Gadius offered us, so we had to discuss it with Finia and Cloud too just in case. Since this would be a work-related conversation, we couldn’t do it at the usual dining hall. As such, I had everyone gather in my room and discuss the current commission there.

“And so, Mr. Temuru is going to the Holy Tree Kingdom of Forneus and wants to hire guards for that.”
“Forneus… That’s pretty far.”

At my explanation, Finia took out the map and expressed the biggest concern. It would take about a month to reach Forneus from here. Reaching the capital, Berith, would take about two, or even close to three if you took it a bit slow.

So far, we haven’t traveled for so long, so Finia, being the cautious person, was firstly worried about that.

“Yeah, it would be quite a long trip. And our first experience of its kind. But thinking about the future, it’s probably better that we do it.”
“The future?”
“Yes. We are Adventurers, so we would have to go on expeditions, right? So having no experience in long-distance journeys would leave us quite lacking.”
“And only being able to work locally would leave a bad impression on our clients too.”

Cloud backed up my opinion. He seemed to be in approval for this time’s expedition. For now, at least…

“Frankly, it’s hard to say whether the preserved foods would last that long.”
“It would mean we would have to hunt on site. And resupply at towns on the way. It’s important to plan our trip according to that.”
“We have to plan even more accurately than before, or we would drop dead on the road… Is what you are trying to say, yes?”
“Right.”

Of course, as long as we found prey, I could take it down one way or another. With Michelle along, we would hardly be troubled with food during the trip. With her current skill, she could easily shoot down even vultures at max speeds.

From here to Berith, we needed to go through Raum’s forest area and the mountain range at its border, as well as the grasslands that stretched beyond it, all of which were regions with plenty of game.

It wasn’t an environment that would trouble us in regards to food.

“Problem is… Water.”
“Since you can use Purify, Finia, we can drink even muddy water. But if we want to travel in good spirits, we would have to secure a lot of water.”
“Shall we buy a carriage? That way, we can put water barrels on it.”
“Hmm…?”

Temuru did have a carriage too. But it would probably be filled with commodities of trade. It wouldn’t be bad to have our own carriage. Rather, it’s strange that we didn’t have one until now. We had gained enough experience to warrant one.

“Certainly, I believe it’s time for us to get our own carriage.”
“Our income has been stable lately too.”
“Then I want a personal horse too!”
“You’re getting ahead of yourself, Cloud.”
“Whyy!?”

Still, Cloud had a point. Given his heavy equipment and role, he would tire out the most during a long journey. Also, him rushing to the battle also increased the safety of the rest of his comrades. To supplement his mobility, it was a good idea to have him ride a horse.

“But yes, you have a point… Okay, let’s splurge here and get a two-horse carriage and one more horse.”
“Yay!”

We would buy the carriage with horses and also buy one horse for Cloud. With three horses, even if one of them got injured, we would have one in reserve. Naturally, buying a living creature came with the maintenance costs, but it was easy to cover with our current income, having become fourth-rank.

“That aside, Finia and Cloud, you two need to be careful about something else.”
“Something else?”
“Yeah. Forneus is the headquarters of the World Tree Religion. In other words, the discrimination against half-demons is the worst there.”
“Oh…”
“Since we’re going to a place like that, we need to think of a plan to hide your horn too.”
“…I see. No one has been looking at me that way, so I didn’t think of that.”
“You’ll probably face difficulties there. Even knowing that, do you want to accept this commission?”

At my words, Cloud hung his head and started muttering something. He was most likely imagining the abuse he’d face based on his past experiences.

But after a while, he raised his face, and his eyes were filled with determination.

“I’ll come. It’s probably a request I don’t have to take, but this is also experience. Besides, I know from Raum and Stollar that there aren’t only cruel people out there.”
“Even though you might go through a painful experience?”
“If I know it beforehand, I’ll be more prepared compared to facing it without knowing… That’s why Teacher Gadius gave us this request, right?”
“Something like that.”

It seems that Cloud had seen through Gadius’ intentions.

“Umm, what did you mean about me needing to be careful too?”
“Finia, you are an elf, so it wouldn’t be like Cloud. The problem instead is your dagger.”

The dagger on her waist released its true worth with a keyword. And that keyword was problematic.

The Holy Tree Kingdom of Forneus used to be a kingdom called Naberius. The one who broke the World Tree during that age was—the God of Destruction Yuuri. Though it was to defeat the Demon Lord that had terrorized the world at the time, Naberius was thrown into chaos when the center of their faith was broken. They failed to maintain their national policy and changed into the Holy Tree Kingdom of Forneus.

The keyword to make Finia’s dagger oscillate was, Praise the God of Destruction. It was proof that the God of Destruction had personally created this magic item. Without this, Finia with her lacking strength could not output sufficient lethal power. At the very least, her attacks would be fended off even by leather armor.

“In other words, if you bring it there and people get to know about it…”
“Yikes, I can already see I’ll have an even worse time than Cloud.”
“Right? So you got to be careful, understand?”
“Yes…”

Finia hung her head and answered affirmatively. It appeared that no one was against taking this commission. And thus, we decided to head to the Holy Tree Kingdom of Forneus.