"……What do you think?" (Reina)
"…………" (Other 3)
Mile and the others looked thoughtful at Reina's question.
After that, after having a drinking party with the old people on the beach for about 3 hours, the "Crimson Vow" group left the seaside village, leaving the old people looking reluctant to stay.
It was clear that if the war continued any longer, the young people coming back from work would join the war and things would be terrible, so even the old men could not forcefully keep them back.
It was obvious what would happen if the young people in the fishing village saw them offering all-you-can-drink and all-you-can-eat meals with young girls. After all, most of the young girls from the fishing village had left the village and gone to port towns...
Because the children were located a short 2 to 3 hour walk away, their parents were unable to restrain them.
If only this was far enough from town to be held back.
Or if it's close enough to commute from the village.
...It was neither of those things, it was a poor village in a halfway position, and it was "somewhat".
They then donated the alcohol and food they had been serving to the elderly, and after walking about half way towards the port town, they camped for the night and had a discussion.
Since they were already full from the drinking party earlier, they decided to pass on dinner.
Neither Mavis nor Pauline spoke, so Mile answered Reina and summarized the situation.
"...First of all, there were fewer differences in language than I expected. There are slight differences in intonation and names, but if you say that we speak a rural dialect or that we came from a faraway country, we won't look suspicious, and we won't have any problems communicating with them. Body language doesn't change, and even if something happens, we'll say, 'This is how it was in my hometown. Excuse me.' is enough. Other than that, the types of monsters, the governance of surrounding countries, and the status of nobility are similar, and the hunter guild is almost the same as in the old continent. The rules are slightly different in the details, so you need to be careful. This is probably because guilds already existed before exchanges between the continents ceased, or perhaps after exchanges ceased, ships from one side reached the other side and various customs and systems were passed on..." (Reina)
Mile actually heard the truth from the nanomachines, but since there's no need to go out of her way to say it, Mile left it up to everyone's imagination.
As for the language, even in modern Japan, when you travel to rural areas, you can sometimes be spoken to by elderly locals who you can't understand at all, so it was much better than that. It could be said that there was almost no problem.
"And the thing I was most curious about out of all the information I heard was…" (Mile)
"The monsters are strong!!" (Other 3)
The voices of Reina and the others were all in unison.
"Yes...or maybe the human species is weak. The people I spoke to were fishermen, not people whose job is to fight monsters, so I guess I could tell from hearsay from others that the monsters were weak. It's possible that their strength is simply overestimated..." (Mile)
Hunters expressed the monsters they fight more strongly than necessary in order to emphasize their own strength. That was a common thing on the Old Continent, but the stories they heard from the old people earlier were far too exciting. Even if you thought about it from the common sense in the old continent...
"Well, they may be a little stronger, but goblins are goblins and kobolds are kobolds. It's not like goblins are stronger than ogres or ogres are stronger than ancient dragons, so it's not a big problem." (Reina)
"...Well, that's true, but..." (Mavis)
Reina is optimistic and says that it doesn't really matter, while Mavis seems a little worried.
After all, as a party leader, she couldn't ignore the element of anxiety, even if it was slight.
"It’s not like we're going to go on a monster subjugation mission right now, so shouldn't that matter be put on hold? Anyway, after this, we'll be registering as a hunter in the port town and listening to various explanations, and if we buy alcohol for a senior hunter, we'll be able to hear various stories from the field..." (Mile)
"That's true. It's pointless for people who don't know anything to make wild assumptions. For now, let's start by asking the local hunters." (Reina)
Reina always had a strong and bossy attitude so as not to be criticized by other hunters due to her age and appearance, but she was not stupid and was not needlessly stubborn. She readily agreed with Mile's opinion.
...Also, "Crimson Vow" was already used to monsters that were stronger than normal.
After that, they discussed future action plans and goals, and the customary "Japanese folk tale" began...
"We arrived……" (Mile)
The next day, the "Crimson Vow" group arrived at the port town while it was still morning.
"It's not a castle city..." (Mile)
Mile said that, but at this level of civilization, there weren't many local port towns that were walled cities.
In the future, if the importance of port cities increased, ship construction technology and ship-based weapons developed, and the means of invasion and attack from the seaside developed, the story would change, but for now, "the enemy will attack from the land side" would be "It's something that attacks us."
Therefore, the fact that the enemy was coming to this port town, which was the farthest place from other countries and was on the opposite side of the royal capital from the border, meant that the royal capital had already fallen, and this town must be destroyed. There was no point in spending a lot of money to turn it into a walled city.
In addition, because the town had no reason for an enemy country to send spies in terms of location, industry, politics, or military strength, there was free access to the town.
And since this was a dead end where there was only the sea from here onwards, there were no merchant caravans that passed through this town.
All the merchant caravans that came here were merchant caravans that carried goods to this town and the products of this town to the royal capital, other territories, and other inland countries, so taxes were preferential and quite cheap. Therefore, no one took the risk of trying to escape cargo, and there were no inspections.
"It feels like a port town, free and easy-going..."
"Ah, it looks like it’s a miscellaneous place, and it looks like it would be easy for outsiders to live there."
"Even someone who is a bit unusual can easily blend in without attracting attention."
"...Not bad for our 'Starting town'..."
It was still around 9 am, the second bell in the morning.
Entering the town, Mile and her group were standing on the sidewalk of the main street looking bossy with their arms folded, obstructing the people going to work, but no matter how you look at it, there was no one who would do anything wrong to these cute girls who were clearly outsiders and upperclassmen.
"It's still morning, but should we try to find a place to stay first? We started looking in the evening and found out that all the places were full, and we don't want to only find rooms left in questionable places." (Mavis)
"That's right. It would be a bit of a shame if the first inn on this continent turned out to be an outlier..." (Reina)
Mile and Pauline also had no objection to Mavis and Reina's opinion and nodded their heads.
In particular, Mile was particular about the inn...or rather, the receptionist at the inn, so she was planning to choose carefully.
And the other three knew this from the beginning...
"It’s here! Let’s do it here!!" (Mile)
"Okay, okay..." (Reina)
While Mile was having fun, Reina had a resigned look on her face.
You wouldn't know if a hotel is good or bad until you stayed there.
At most, you could judge from the cleanliness around the entrance and the number of customers coming in and out, and there was no way to know the quality of the food, service, interior design, or beds before even the first guest stayed there.
So, of course, Mile's only selection criteria was "Whether the receptionist was a young girl or a girl younger than herself."
Actually, for Mile, a fluffy little beast-kin girl would be the best, but the probability of such an inn being there was quite low, and she couldn't find one not far from the Hunter's Guild branch.
Mile repeatedly opened the entrance door, looked inside, looked at the reception counter, and then slammed the door shut, which was a bit of a violation of etiquette, but she probably didn't want to look any further. Even if it was pointless, she seemed to have given up.
Mile compromised and chose a place that was smaller than an inn, with a normal human girl around 7- or 8-years old poking out from the reception counter.
Of course, it wasn't a high-end inn for the aristocrats and rich people, nor was it a store with poor security conditions that was a hangout for people from low-level jobs..."generally" if you say.
It's not the business owner or the big manager, it's the lower-ranking manager or assistant who travels for work, or the hunter who earns a little bit more...from the top of C rank to the middle half of B rank. Beyond that, it's the kind of accommodation that people would stay at a better accommodation...
In other words, it is an inn on the same level as Lenny-chan's inn, which was the regular lodging of "Crimson Vow" on the old continent.
Yes, it was a suitable inn as a regular lodging for the new beginning of "Crimson Vow"...