SIAW Vol. 1 Chapter 11
Chapter 11 – Traveling Salesman, Nowhere in Sight
It has already been one month since I first arrived in this village.
After Misha came up to me with her bizarre request for “advice”, Sasha has been acting suspiciously behind the scenes. Apparently, she has already convinced their parents, and her father even told me “I entrust my daughter to you!”. I said that I’m still thinking about it, but there are rumors that it’s already decided.
It feels like they are trying to drive me into a corner, so I would like to leave as soon as possible…but the traveling salesman hasn’t come yet.
More than a month has passed since his last visit: apparently, this never happened before. The elder and the other villagers were all worried.
～
Today, when I returned from the usual hunting, the elder called me to his house. When I arrived, I found Sasha’s whole family, Jeet, Zlatan and even Misha waiting.
“I’m sorry to make you come here so suddenly. It’s about the traveling salesman, Soran. As you know, he hasn’t arrived yet.”
So started the elder, and everyone nodded..
“Thanks to the recent hunting, we have more meat than before, thus we are using more salt as well. Because of that, some families have already run out of their stock. There are various possibilities behind this delay, but we can’t just sit here waiting for Soran to arrive. At the moment, the villagers are sharing their salt between each other, but we need to hurry.”
The increase of meat brought about a salt crisis…hmm.
“If Soran isn’t here by tomorrow, I wish to ask the people here today to go to the town of Ronda. Ranga, you said that you wanted to register Jeet and Zlatan in the adventurers’ guild, so this is the perfect occasion, isn’t it?”
Ranga definitely wants to make everyone have their adventurers’ card, so they can increase their magic power capacity too.
“This way you can go to Ronda too, Tenma, but I would like to ask you to come back to the village once more after that. Ranga and Sasha will go together, so they want to take Mei too, and in that case, we need someone to watch over her on the way there and back. You will be paid, of course. Could you please take on the task?”
If it’s for Mei’s sake, I’ll gladly do it!
“I am indebted to Sasha’s family, so I don’t need any reward, really.”
“Truly…? I am very thankful. Sasha, ask the villagers what they need from the city.”
The fact of finally being able to go to another town made me happy.
Once I visited it, I could go there anytime by myself, so I had no need to hurry.
Misha was going to join us too, though, so I feared they might be planning some new trick…
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Two days later, in the early morning…
Sasha, Misha and Mei boarded the horse carriage. Ranga’s trio and I walked in the front and back of the carriage, to guard it.
In the end, the traveling salesman Soran never showed up.
In the horse carriage there was a great quantity of pelts, mainly from all the Horn Rabbits we hunted recently, with some Forest Wolf ones. We were going to sell them in town, to earn as much as possible to buy all the goods the village needed.
Our group proceeded smoothly: eventually, we reached the grasslands I first appeared in after the reincarnation, and we stopped for a rest. It was Mei’s first time in the city, so she was extremely excited. Sasha too was looking forward to shopping in the city for the first time in a while.
～
Right after we resumed our march, I noticed something strange in the Map skill.
In the forest ahead of us there was a massive pack of Forest Wolves. It was divided in several groups, but numbered around 300 in total. In the pack there also were many evolved versions of the monster.
They were still far from the road from now, but if we proceeded on the scheduled route they were possibly going to notice us.
I was still mulling over whether to tell anyone or not, when Sasha suddenly shouted.
“There’s a carriage knocked over…! It’s probably Soran’s!”
Sasha urged the horse to a faster pace. I quickly followed and we soon reached the carriage lying on the side of the road. There was no horse to be found, nor any human presence.
“This is Soran’s carriage, I’m sure of it…the luggage is scattered everywhere, but I can’t see him or his escort adventurers. Maybe they were attacked by monsters and were forced to run away?”
I doubted they had run away. The harnesses showed the type bite marks that Wolf-type monsters would leave, and there were marks of claws and fangs on the carriage itself. Even more of a problem was the fact that the Forest Wolf pack had noticed us and was gradually circling to surround us.
“Stay alert! A pack of Forest Wolves is coming!”
Everyone was still examining the carriage, and reacted with surprise.
Misha turned towards me with a look of annoyance. We had practiced such sudden attacks several times before, so she probably thought this was training too. Ranga had a similar look on his face too.
You’re all too careless! Group together immediately and stay on your guard!!
“Sasha, Mei, go back inside the carriage. Misha, you watch over them! They’re coming from the right…Ranga, stay next to the horse. Jeet, Zlatan, you two stay on the side of the carriage! I’ll climb on top of the carriage and hold them back with Throwing. Ranga, you and the others keep your cool and finish them off!”
I gave everyone clear orders and they hurriedly complied. The pack was still not in sight yet, so they were still a bit suspicious.
As soon as the formation was complete, the Forest Wolves appeared.
Their numbers gradually increased, soon enough reaching two dozens. In the rear of the pack there was a larger wolf, surely the evolved version of the monster.
“It’s not training!? W-Why are there so many…?”
Misha finally realized the gravity of the situation.
Because of the great number of monsters, Jeet and Zlatan grew pale and started shaking slightly. Inside the carriage, Sasha hugged Mei tightly, scared. Ranga seemed nervous, but he was focused and did not show any signs of fear.
The Forest Wolf pack gradually tightened their encirclement.
Some of them crossed the road, attempting to go to the rear of the carriage, so I threw pebbles at them.
“Gwahr!!”
The pebbles hit, making the monsters yelp.
As if in response, the evolved wolf howled and the whole pack went on the attack.
The evolved wolf kept its distance, however, so I immediately started shooting the Forest Wolves with pebbles.
Some of them were hit, but those that managed to run through reached Ranga’s position. I struck those wolves with pebbles too.
In front of Ranga, two wolves were knocked down by my pebbles. He lost no time and pierced them with his spear.
One of them was probably fatally wounded, as it stopped moving completely.
The other, however, managed to run away, despite the heavy wound.
I then turned to the wolves I had shot down first : in front of the monsters still wobbling because of the light concussion I caused them, Jeet and Zlatan were standing there, shaking.
Are they too scared to move!?
“Don’t be afraid! I’ll protect you with Throwing, just thinking of finishing them off!!”
I shouted towards them, and Zlatan managed to overcome his fear and shouted.
“WOOOHHH!!!”
Zlatan forcefully swung his machete down on the Forest Wolf’s head.
He used so much power that the monster’s skull was cracked in two.
After seeing his comrade’s feat, Jeet started moving better too, and attacked one Forest Wolf after another, dodging their claws and fangs all the while.
I kept my eyes on them, but at the same time continued throwing pebbles at the monsters, at a speed that I never showed Ranga and the others before.
I shot down the wolves closest to Ranga’s trio, with enough strength to just stop their movements. On the other hand, I used more force on the wolves coming from behind or other blind spots: the ones I hit on the eyes stopped moving immediately, as their eyeballs were pierced and the resulting wound fatal.
“…I can’t believe it!”
Inside the carriage, Misha whispered to herself.
～
Soon enough, the number of Forest Wolves had been reduced to about ten.
Zlatan shouted again.
“WOOOHHH!!!”
While he was focused on the regular Forest Wolves, I used Throwing on the leader of the pack, the evolved version of the monster.
The boss wolf was probably only paying attention to Zlatan: it couldn’t dodge and the pebble hit it squarely on the nose.
“GWAHR!!”
The boss wolf couldn’t help but yelp in pain. It was probably more damage than expected, as the beast ran away. The remaining wolves immediately followed.
Ranga, watching the Forest Wolves flee, was released from his tense nerves and breathed a sigh of relief.
I raised my voice for everyone to hear.
“Just like training, never let your guard down!! We’re going back to the grasslands where we stopped before. Misha, please turn the carriage around. Ranga and the other guys should check the other carriage and transfer any useful goods to ours. I’m going to check the surroundings and pick up the Forest Wolves we defeated. Let’s hurry!”
“YESSIR!!”
Ranga and the others were worn out from the battle, but also thanks to the training they went through, they were quickly able to take on their tasks. A short distance away, Misha turned the carriage around and put it next to the toppled one.
I put the Forest Wolves we defeated in the Storage, and noticed that not too far away some other wolves were scouting our position. I threw pebbles at them and they ran away: according to the Map skill, the pack had gone quite a distance away from us.
From the traveling salesman’s carriage we recovered a few boxes containing items and salt vases. We also picked up the bags that probably belonged to the salesman or his adventurers. The rations had been ravaged already.
We also picked up the harnesses and Zlatan, with some help, stood the carriage back up.
The wheels weren’t damaged, so it could still move: we tied it to ours with a rope, but our horse was having a hard time pulling both carriages, so Zlatan started pushing it from behind to help.
～
Somehow, we made it back to the spot where we rested before without a hitch.
“Ranga, I think we should give up on going to the city today, and return to the village instead.”
So I proposed to Ranga, but Sasha answered faster than he could.
“That’s right, we shouldn’t go to the city with all this luggage. Let’s go back and ask the elder for advice first. Mei was also scared by the fighting. Don’t you agree, dear?”
There was no way Ranga could refuse: he simply nodded.
“Okay then, let’s skin the Forest Wolves we defeated. If we only take the pelts and Mana Stones, we won’t have as much luggage, and we can put the heavier stuff in Storage anyway, so the horse can have an easier time too,”
I took out the Forest Wolves from Storage and everyone — except Sasha and Mei — started working on them. Forest Wolf meat was hard and smelled bad, so we just tossed it into the grassland.
After about two hours, we were done. We had taken down 23 Forest Wolves in total. After a quick rest, we took the path back to the village.
Sasha and Mei were inside the carriage, as before, while the rest of the group walked in a formation around it. All the heavy luggage was in storage, so the horse proceeded normally.
～
We arrived back at the village at about noon, without other trouble.
We could hear the villagers, who spotted us returning from the watchtower, making a fuss already.
When we arrived at the gates, they were already opened for us to come in. Seeing that we were pulling another carriage behind ours, the villagers probably figured out what had happened.
We were thus welcomed back in a somber atmosphere.
The elder quickly joined us too. Ranga and Sasha explained what happened, and we brought the carriages to the elder’s house.