"Well then, thank you for your help." (Mavis)
Mavis gave a speech of thanks on behalf of everyone, and Crimson Vow departed with the villagers seeing them off. Mile's item box contained fish under 50cm that she didn't catch last time, as well as various kinds of shellfish and seaweed, squid, octopus, and so on. Apparently the squid and octopus wouldn't sell if they brought them to the port town, so the fishermen were grateful. When they were asked to catch some sea cucumbers as well, the villagers were shocked, as you would expect...
Anyway, now they should be safe for the time being as they left the coast and headed inland. Well, if they ran out, Mile could just use gravity control magic (Caverlight) to fall horizontally and came back to buy more.
"Finally, we are about to depart for the royal capital..."
"This is the beginning of a new legend for us! We'll aim to become S-rank and make a name for ourselves on this continent!" (Reina)
That's what Reina said, but...
"...No, if that happens, won't we end up with no place to stay again?" (Mavis)
"Ah……" (Other 3)
When Mavis pointed this out, Reina and the other two, were at a loss for words.
"Y-You're right..." (Reina)
"But, I want to do well... I want to show kids how cool I am, and become popular..." (Mile)
"I want to make money..." (Pauline)
And then there's Mile and Pauline, who were overflowing with desire.
Reina had already achieved her dream of becoming famous, publishing an autobiography, and having the name Crimson Lightning went down in history. Not only had Mavis not only not become a knight, but she had also achieved something that no one had ever been able to achieve, being appointed as a Holy Knight directly by Angel-sama, the highest title a knight could attain—Besides, the status of a "female Count" and the position of a "great hero who saved the country" were far superior to that of an ordinary knight. There's no need for her to desire status, position, or titles at this point. So, Reina and Mavis looked at Mile and Pauline with dumbfounded expressions on their faces...
Anyway, the four members of Crimson Vow headed for the royal capital. There was a stagecoach heading to the royal capital, but there were other passengers on board so the four of them couldn't just talk the whole time, plus there were too many things that would be embarrassing if others were to hear what they said. Besides, just riding in a carriage to the royal capital would be boring. The policy of Crimson Vow was that an adventure journey is not fun unless it is done on foot, you see and hear various things with your own eyes and ears, and you get involved in incidents.
"...Traveling on foot is tiring though..." (Pauline)
They agreed with that policy, but it seemed like it was physically demanding for Pauline. They put most of my belongings in Mile's storage (item box), and this was it. If they were to carry all of the luggage normally...
However, even if you're in a carriage, traveling on unpaved roads is hard on your butt and internal organs. The stagecoach, with its lack of suspension and poorly cushioned seats, was a real ordeal for Pauline. Pauline seemed completely unfit for travel.
"Shall I build a rickshaw and pull it with Pauline-san in it?" (Mile)
"How dare you expose such an embarrassing sight to all the people!" (Pauline)
Pauline rejected Mile's proposal. Even Pauline seemed to have a concept of "embarrassment" in that respect.
"We will finally arrive at the royal capital tomorrow evening. Today is the last night before we enter the capital, so let's stay at an inn instead of camping!" (Mile)
"Ah, well, it’s not a bad idea to get the latest information about the royal capital from the other guests at the inn. The guests heading in the opposite direction will know what the royal capital was like up until the day before… If you buy them a glass of ale, they'll probably tell you a story. I'll go with Mile's idea. Is that okay?" (Reina)
"I agree."
"Me too..."
Everyone agreed and decided to stay at an inn in the town, Crimson Vow, which was only one day away from the royal capital.
...The details of the journey from the port town to here will be omitted. It was just an ordinary day for Crimson Vow, with them receiving requests, Mile chasing cats, and searching for the inn with a young girl sitting at the reception desk, just like any other day...
"Well then, I'll go to the guild for now." (Reina)
It was almost evening when I arrived in the town. Therefore, they had no intention of accepting any requests, they just wanted to check the information board and the request board, and see what the Hunter-related situation was in the town near the Royal Capital—And the next day they would head straight to the royal capital.
The town was a one day walk from the royal capital. So was it a large, developed town? No, it was not. Because it was too close to the royal capital. Do you think the people, especially the young people, would want to continue living in this town when there is a developed and prosperous royal capital nearby?
It would be a different story if it took a month to travel by foot. The round trip took two months. Long journeys were dangerous and expensive. And you couldn't take that much time off from work either. If that happened, there's a high chance you'd never see your family again. However, if it's just a one-day walk, you could easily go back home if you took about three days off. This meant that families and relatives could not stop young people from leaving the town. They could not strongly urge them not to leave because they were told, "You can always come back home right away."
As a result, there were fewer young people in the town than in towns farther from the royal capital, and depopulation was progressing, which was a headache for the townspeople. As for shops, apart from food ingredients and cheap consumables, there were fewer large stores because there was a wider selection and prices were cheaper if you went to the royal capital. And of course, apart from simple requests with low fees, the majority of requests to the Hunter Guild, the more serious and higher paying ones that Hunters desire, were brought to the Guild branch in the Royal Capital, not in this town.
Not only skilled veteran hunters, but also beginners, cautious hunters who were stability-oriented, and young people chasing their dreams, many of them all belong to the Royal Capital branch. Therefore, there were many recipients of requests, and it was only natural that highly skilled hunters could take on requests at a lower fee than in this town. Therefore, the only requests placed in this town were things like odd jobs or exterminating vermin that were damaging fields, where it was cheaper to ask local hunters to do the job than to pay them a two-day round trip fee from the royal capital.
…At the very least, there would be no requests to exterminate hordes of ogres or exterminate goblin nests. Such requests were usually made by several veteran parties from the royal capital as joint orders, and in the first place, such requests were not made by individuals or this town, but rather by the royal palace, or were handled by soldiers of the royal capital army rather than the Hunter Guild. This place was close to the royal capital and was not a noble's territory, but a direct territory of the country...
...And before checking into the inn, Crimson Vow came to the Hunter Guild branch. It's evening, so the counter started to get busy with reports of completed requests and deliveries of harvested items. This was not a training trip or anything like that, so there was no loud greeting when entering. They opened the door quietly so the doorbell wouldn't ring too loudly and slipped in. It's a technique they had mastered for times when they didn't want to stand out. All the young female party girls had this technique.
Once inside, the member of Crimson Vow headed straight towards the information board and request board. Then, as everyone was carefully examining the board...
"You're late! I'm tired of waiting!" (Marcella)
"I received a request in a town along the way that took me away from the main road or onto a back road, so there was a possibility that we might miss each other, so I decided to wait in this town without moving…" (Aureana)
"Where on earth were you wandering around?!" (Monica)
"Ehhh! M-Marcella-san, Aureana-san, ... and Monica-san!! Wh-why are you here?!" (Mile)
That's right. It was the first reunion with Wonder Trio in a long time...