Chapter 78: A Place with No Hollows

The town near the rough spot was large. They had a self-governing organisation, and the royal family was much more influential here than in Lentforce. The Prince had said he still had some arrangements to make, but he had basically finished it by the time I woke up. Therefore, we only stayed in that town for two days.

“Apparently they escaped towards Kaylie…”

The investigation confirmed what they had expected; the enemies weren’t from Wester. However, it wasn’t possible to investigate this on a large scale even if they used the self-governing organisation and sent messengers everywhere. No matter if they were in Kaylie or another town, they couldn’t pursue the enemy anymore if they entered Kingdom. The size of Frontier was deadly for criminal investigations.

Although, since there wasn’t much to gain from Frontier, there was little merit in committing crime.

“That’s why there are more bad guys in Kaylie and the fief capital than Lentforce,” Kyaro told me this.

“If this were the capital, I would have mobilised the army, but I only enlisted a small number of people for mobility, and it backfired on me…” I heard the Prince mutter.

“Heapsh of peopwe can’th pashsh,” I tried to say the thing that bothered me.

“Five onwy. Heapsh imposhshibwe.” (Five only. Heaps impossible.)

There are only five huts, so 50 people won’t be able to sleep in them. The Prince looked like he had been hit in a sore spot.

“Uoah. That’s true, but I could have got them to stay in this town, or they could have gone ahead of us. There are many alternatives.”

“Coshth money.” (Cost money.)

“Uooaah. Leila, you, you know.”

Well, I’ve said what I want to say, so I’ll go build some blocks. Even so, I understand that the west part of Wester wouldn’t last if Farland were to attack.

However, no matter what country they belong to, if they can only live in this town located in Frontier, they might not have any patriotic feelings towards their country.

“Why is a baby also worrying about money? Gosh.”

That’s true. Let’s not say thoughtless things from now on.

The Prince moved energetically even though he was worried, and sent messengers to the fief capital as well as the border town, Kaylie, to get progress reports and request that the incident be investigated. Of course, he also conducted an investigation in this town and found out that people who are thought to be the enemies had stayed at the inn until a few days ago.

“Apparently they stayed in this inn.”

The Prince was quite angry when he found out about this. There were five people. They stayed at this inn for about two weeks and had messengers coming and leaving daily.

“They had their meals in their room, and had hoods on even on hot days, so I don’t know what they look like. I did think they looked suspicious, but a guest is a guest,” the boss at the inn only said that as if he was troubled, but it seemed like he didn’t think that they were residents of Wester.

After all the arrangements were made, we were able to relax a little in this town.

“From here, we’ve arranged an itinerary so that we can get to the capital in the shortest time possible. There aren’t any seas or mountains, but there are a lot of big towns. Now, let’s go!” The Prince said, and we finally headed to the capital. I think he made it lengthy so that I could hear it. He’s unexpectedly kind.

We went through a prairie that had completely changed since it was autumn. It was far from Wellington Mountains, and I couldn’t see the sea at all. The prairie which seemed to continue on forever looked like a golden sea.

Bart and his crew became restless when we travelled through here for a few days.

“What’s wrong, Hunters?” This Prince doesn’t call people by their names easily.

“Well, I can’t feel any signs of people following us since the attack.”

“I got that report.”

The Prince thought Bart’s words were strange.

“We’ve been to Kaylie before, but this is our first time in this prairie.”

“So what?”

Bart was unusually vague.

“There’s barely any Hollow presence here.”

“Hollow presence?”

I also felt that. The Hollows were a common existence even before I went to Lentforce, and while I was living in Lentforce. The shocks and prickles on my skin have steadily faded a few days after we passed the rough spot.

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“It is. Yeah, I guess hardly any Hollows show up in towns.”

Every time we got to a new town, Bart and his crew would take a look around, and they would take me with them if they had leeway.

“Can you believe it? The new part of town and the places where poor people live don’t use Rhodolite building materials.”

“Really?”

“People don’t mine for Rhodolite if they’re not along Wellington Mountains, but isn’t that too careless?”

Kyaro and Clyde are carpenters, so they were probably worried about things like that.

“I can’t believe that there’s a place like this in Frontier.”

They also had a lot of farmland because they didn’t have to worry about Hollows much. The residents seem to be living comfortable lives without any discomfort. But I saw the slums while I was being carried by Bart, and the gap between the rich and the poor was much more intense than at Lentforce.

“There are magicians too.”

“I also felt that. I became a hunter. I’ve also been to Kaylie, and I wanted to become a competent hunter, but I didn’t think that there would be this much of a difference just in Wester alone.”

Bart began to say when we came to a town which was halfway to the royal capital, “Prince, can we stay outside of town today?”

“What are you saying? It’s dangerous.”

“Well, I haven’t felt the enemies’ presence in the past week. And, I’m curious about what’s going on with the Hollows.”

“I’m going too!”

“Lei thoo!”

Alistair and I spoke. Because I’m curious about what happens to the Hollows now that we’re far from the mountains.

“You-! When you’ve just been kidnapped-!” The Prince pinched my cheeks with both his hands.

“Whath’re chu doing?” (What’re you doing?)

“It’ll be fine if you come too, right, Prince? With your guards,” Bart, who had been wary along the way, said lightly. Is he saying that we should feel secure about a hunter’s intuition?

“We’re taking Alistair since he wants to be a hunter. Lei also has the barrier box with her, so we’ll be taking her.”

“Yay!”

“Ai!”

Bart isn’t someone who would say selfish things, so he must be bothered by something.

To fulfil Bart’s wish, a large-scale search was carried out on the day to see if anyone was lurking near the town, and then we finally received permission to hunt.

“I’ll be joining you.”

“I really didn’t think you would come, Prince.”

Along with annoying people.