Chapter 1621 - Lost High Elf ②

I brought Fors-san to a cafe with a chic atmosphere. I thought that since Fors-san is an Elf, it would be better to bring her to a wooden cafe, one brimming with nature, but then, I also thought that there would be many such places in Rigforeshia, so I just chose to bring her to a brick cafe.

……Well, there’s also the fact that this was simply the closest……

[Good gracious, what a nice atmosphere this place has. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, but you really do have great taste. The fact that you can easily choose places with this kind of ambiance shows how experienced you are in the field of romance. I’m older than you in age, but I guess experience is important in this kind of thing.]

[Haha, thank you…… So, Fors-san. In the first place, why did you end up in Symphonia’s Royal Capital when you were planning to head to Hydra Kingdom? Did you simply have business to attend to over here?]

I was almost bewildered by how extremely poor her sense of direction is, considering she was supposed to attend Hydra Kingdom’s Founding Festival, but ended up here in Symphonia’s Royal Capital…… but upon closer recollection, she did say how she headed to Hydra Kingdom ahead of time for another errand, so there’s a significant possibility that she got lost and ended up in Symphonia’s Royal Capital for the sake of that errand.

[No, my errands ended in the neighborhood of my house though? Ah, I suppose you have misunderstood me. Simply because I’m reclusive by nature, even stepping outside of my home is quite unusual for me. Since I was going to go out of my home anyway, I decided to do my errands outside on my way to the Teleportation Gate leading to Hydra Kingdom. Well, that was what I was planning but……]

[That’s strange, isn’t it? If you were acting according to those assumptions, you wouldn’t have had the need to leave Rigforeshia in the first place, right?]

This is different from that time in the Six Kings Festival. She wouldn’t have to travel to the Teleportation Gate leading from the Human Realm to the Demon Realm, she would just be walking to a Teleportation Gate for traveling within the Human Realm, which is located within Rigforeshia.

Of course, Teleportation can be expensive, but it’s hard to believe that Fors-san wouldn’t be able to afford the cost of teleportation. In fact, from what I heard, she herself was planning to use the Teleportation Gate for her travels but……

[No, to begin with, my first errand involved gathering various herbs. Although it was quite close to my home in Rigforeshia, I still ventured outside and harvested them in the forest. So far, everything was going smoothly but……]

[You got lost in the forest and never made it back to Rigforeshia in the first place.]

[Your discernment ability truly is admirable. Yes, that is exactly the case. Given that I’m prone to getting lost even on regular paths, there’s no reason for me not to get lost in the forest…… Well, even though I may be referred to as the “Sage of the Forest”, such title is because of my proficiency with Nature Magic, not because I know the forest inside and out. Well, I usually procure supplies from shops, but since I was heading to Hydra Kingdom anyway, I thought I’d take the opportunity to get some exercise, given my usual lack of physical activity, and things ended up like this…… Thanks to that, I got far more exercise than I expected, so I suppose it was a success in a way, wasn’t it?]

[Isn’t it more like a total failure?]

It seems that due to a spur-of-the-moment decision, she ended up venturing outside from Rigforeshia when she could have stayed there, and as a result, she got lost in a nearby forest and ended up in this predicament.

It’s something I heard from Neun-san, but it seems that Fors-san tends to become absentminded when her research is involved. She impulsively puts her ideas into action, so she might casually go somewhere or deviate from the path to gather things that seem useful for her research, which leads to her ending up getting lost.

[……So, what happened then?]

[After quite a long time, I managed to get out of the forest, but I had apparently ended up near the side of the forest opposite of Rigforeshia, where I saw a different road. So, if I tried to go back to the forest and return to Rigforeshia, I would most likely get lost in the forest again. If that’s the case, if I walk along the well-developed road, even if I don’t arrive in Rigforeshia, there’s a good chance I’ll arrive in another city or town. Then, I would either ask for directions there or use their Teleportation Gate if available.]

[……There’s some stuff I’d like to throw a tsukkomi about, I understand your logic. Certainly, if you walk along a main path, you will eventually reach a relatively large town or a city.]

[Yeah, and that’s how I arrived here…… a big city.]

[Wait a moment there. How far do you think it is from Rigforeshia to the Royal Capital…… There should be several big towns before you get here, right!?]

[Well, even I find it strange, but the first place I arrived at really was Symphonia Kingdom’s Royal Capital. Well, I think I know the reason why it happened. I was walking along the road, you see, when I found some materials that might be useful for my research, and I got so absorbed in collecting them that I got off the road. A slight incident it was.]

[Rather than just a slight incident, isn’t that totally the main reason why you got lost!?]

Deviating from the main path and heading straight to the Royal Capital, a distance equivalent to crossing multiple mountains…… Moreover, for her to actually manage to completely bypass all the towns and cities in between and reach the Royal Capital, she’s quite skillful at getting lost. I now understand what Neun-san meant when she said she thought it was like Fors-san was getting lost on purpose.

<Afterword>

Serious-senpai : [Even though her speed is slow, it was a distance that even Anima took without sleep and rest.]