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「M~mh…… Ugh, so cold.」

It’s really chilly in the morning, probably because we’re entering the winter season.
From the fatigue and the warm bath yesterday, I really thought that I would fall asleep immediately but I couldn’t quite sleep.
A part of it might be because I’m not sleeping on my usual bed, but I guess it’s really because Ruti isn’t by my side……. And this is after just one day. If I wasn’t given flight permission and was forced to travel on foot, I would probably be a mess by the time we reached this town.

「Hm~n! Ah~h. Good morning.」
「Gooauh~ mohing~」

That yawn…… It looks like Nera-san had a full night’s rest. She looks really refreshed after stretching.
This is bad. We’re going to enter the mountains today but at this rate, I might just be dead weight.

「Natsuki-san, are you alright? You seem quite sleepy, but…」
「I couldn’t sleep much even though I was really tired…… I’ll wash my face for a bit.」

Generally, I would make water with magic or Breath but the cold well water during this season should wake me up, so I quickly change my clothes and head to the well.

After washing my face, I feel a bit more awake. And so, we had a light breakfast and discussed our plan for today.

『Are you still sleepy? The plan was to do some on-site investigation today but we did arrive drastically earlier than scheduled, so it’s fine even if we only rest for today, alright?』
『No, it’s okay. I promised Ruti that I’ll be back soon, so this much is nothing.』

『Well, as I said earlier, we do have some leeway in our schedule. So if I judge it to be too much for you and order you to retreat, please just listen to me, alright?

Now then, about our next course of action, as I can use concealment magic, we will head to the target location while using that. Natsuki-san, I will need you to fly us there again, okay? It is approximately 2 days on foot but just as it did when we arrived here, it shouldn’t take us too much time.
After roughly flying over the area, we will land and find a suitable place to rest, then we will investigate on foot.
We should always move as a 2-man unit. Do you have any questions so far?』

『About concealment magic, wouldn’t we be unable to see each other and such?』
『No, that won’t be an issue. After all, this magic is one of my specialties.』

It’s rare for Nera-san to say so with a slightly confident tone, she’s probably really good with it.
She might have been chosen for this mission exactly because of her expertise and also because of this magic.

『Huh? Since you can use some amazing magic like that, wouldn’t have it been fine for Ruti to come along as well? 』
『……. It would have been great if that was the case.』

Wha? Nera-san quickly lost her confident look. Does this mean…?

『I can only completely conceal two people, including me. Any more and the effects and timespan would worsen exponentially. I’ve been practicing it for a long time already but…….』

Ahh, as I thought, it does have a weakness. Still, she said completely conceal, right? Making even just two people absolutely impossible to detect is already amazing enough, though.

When she finally recovered from that, we left the town and flew away after Nera-san cast concealment magic on me.
We didn’t even have that much speed but we reached the mountain range in about an hour. I already realized it yesterday but air travel is really insane. Flying would definitely be banned if the bandits were to utilize this method to attack. Now I can see why people would attack a flying target with no questions asked.

We roughly observed the suspected location from the air. Still, there’s surprisingly a lot of trees, so I can’t really figure out much.

『There are a lot more trees than expected, it’s difficult to see. However, that might be why they constructed a hideout here in the first place.
Natsuki-san, let’s just land and check the area on foot.』
『Roge~r.』

For now, we flew back to the plains, had a short break as planned, and continued the investigation.
From here on, we’re walking…or rather running. With that, warm up tim~e! First, shake your bod~y, on~e, tw~o, thr~ee, fou~r.

『What is that? Exercise?』
『Ah, it’s a warm-up exercise back in my hometown.』

There are also some warm-up exercises in this world but Nera-san is probably curious because it’s different.

『Hm~m, come to think of it, I haven’t heard about your hometown before. Natsuki-san, where were you from?』
『Ah~h, yeah, it’s somewhere a bit far…… It’s going to be a long story, so maybe some other time, okay?』

I could just honestly tell her about it but I’m not really sure if she’ll believe in me, you know? Ruti instantly believed my story but it’s not as if everyone will.

After warming up, we ran all around the suspected locations and thoroughly investigated the area. Since these places are suspected to begin with, practically all of them looked suspicious. Still, we couldn’t find a hideout-like place anywhere.

『That’s strange. Considering the extent of their movements, it should be somewhere around here, and yet……』
『I’m not really on board for this but we have no choice but to comb the whole area, don’t we?』

Frankly, the mountain range is really big. With just the two of us, who knows how many days it’ll take just to go through this big thing.

『As you’d expect, that’s clearly unrealistic. It can’t be helped, let’s extend the scope of action from the suspected location by a bit and go over them once more.』

Hm~m, that’s probably better than just combing the whole mountain range. Together with Nera-san, we retraced our steps and checked one more time.

We searched until sundown, but in the end, we couldn’t find it today, so we went back to the town.
Do they really have a hideout in the mountain range? But there were some reported cases already, so they should be hiding somewhere.

『It seems like it’s going to be a long mission. Let’s investigate and reevaluate the possible locations…… Natsuki-san?』
「Yesh, am~phwayke~」

The next morning, I lost consciousness for a bit while we were making plans. I couldn’t sleep much yesterday too, so I’m really, really sleepy.

Ah~h, I want to go home and see Ruti already……