Esty-san was probably in her early twenties. She had the kind of face you’d expect from a science class at an industrial high school. Even though she’s a fox girl and I have a preconceived notion, her eyes looked like she was using her womanhood to the fullest to toy with men. The lipstick made her lips look a little seductive somewhere.

However, Esty-san had the opposite of a fox-like face — she gave a mischievous, failed-child smile.

"Haah. Why did she get caught...? I thought I was tricking the dog girl’s nose with this charlway perfume on my hair."

"Charlway♪ Strong-smelling charlway♪"

It’s not quite "Far away," but I sang it anyway. I think I heard the word somewhere. Is it curry powder? Spices?

"What was that just now?"

"It’s a song that’s been passed down in my hometown."

"Hoh. When I sell my charlway perfume, I might have my dog girl sing it too."

She said it jokingly, but it sounded like she meant it seriously.

In this era there’s no internet, no TV, and even no technology to print posters, so merchants have to use loud voices or instruments to advertise what they sell.

"By the way, we’re drifting off-topic, but I doubt it, but Shepa-san, you look pretty young, right? Did you really figure out I’m a fox from my smell?"

"I’m not Shepa-san. I’m Shepa!"

"Exactly, Shepa-san."

"No! I’m Shepa!"

"Ahh, Shepa-san."

"Nooo~! Hey Masharu, Esty-san is teasing me!"

"Aha ha. Sorry, Shepa-san. When I saw the two of you, I got the urge to do some acting too."

"Mou~"

The conversation was all over the place, but that was probably just Esty-san’s way of traveling.

She was probably trying to relieve the boredom of walking through this uninteresting wasteland and raise our closeness at the same time.

"Anyway, Shepa-san. You’re right that I’m a fox, huh. I want to use this as a reference, so could you tell me why you noticed?"

"I didn’t notice you were a fox."

"Nn~? Then did Masharu-san realize I’m a beastman? What kind of nose do you have, mister?"

"No, I didn’t. Yesterday Letree-san, another dog girl, noticed it from the lingering scent."

"From my lingering scent? You and I didn’t even scratch each other’s backs or have even a little conversation, so how did you notice?"

"Yeah."

"Haa~ That’s an amazing dog nose, isn’t it. I put this perfume on my hair to fool the dog girl’s nose, but you weren’t fooled at all. I’m surprised."

I see. Letree-san’s nose is really good. She’s not just an erotic widow. Not only could she smell charlway perfume, she could tell from Esty-san’s lingering scent after just a little conversation over a meter away. That’s insanely good. If her nose is that good, she probably already noticed that someone was leaking piss all over the church... I really want to ask what she thought.

We kept walking and chatting casually. After a while we reached a road about 3 meters wide paved with stones. The stones were cut quite cleanly and continued north and south as far as we could see.

"This road was supposedly made a long time ago by human troops invading the demon country. If you go north on it you reach the Frozen Sea. We don’t know if the legend about the demon country being on the other side of the east is true. Well, we’ll use this road to head north for now."

"I understand."

Hmm.

Come to think of it, I’ve never heard the country’s positions from anyone.

There are several continents here, and I don’t know how much humanity knows about them. If there are any continents or islands that haven’t been discovered yet, I wouldn’t mind taking one whole one.

"What’s on the south side of this highway?"

"Oh? Masharu-san really doesn’t know anything about this country."

"I know there are lots of cute girls like you in this country."

"Going south leads to the capital of this country, Rowburg."

"How many days is that?"

"Let’s see. Walking it would take two weeks. With a horse girl it’d be three days."

"I see. So Marglant is farther away?"

"Nn~? Who knows. You can get to the capital quickly using the highway, but the straight-line distance to the capital is probably much farther."

Straight-line distance means the distance ignoring terrain, i.e. the direct distance.

Hmm. Two weeks on foot means if I walk 20 km a day, that’s about 300 km. That’s not something I can casually do.

"Also, there are checkpoints along the way, so you might have to wait a few days if you’re unlucky."

"Ah~"

I’m not the kind of suspicious person who gets caught at checkpoints. If I were to go, I’d have to sneak in by leaving the highway.

"Also, we’ll have to cross a big river, so it’ll cost a lot of money. You can’t board the boat without paying the ferry fee, and bridges have tolls."

"Ah~ I’m completely broke..."

"Wait!"

Hm?

Shepa suddenly stopped.

Her dog ears and tail were slowly, small, and rising.

"There’s something bad ahead!"

Shepa pointed forward and twitched her nose.

Even if I looked in the direction she pointed, I couldn’t see anything.

"Nn~ I can’t see anything... How about you, Esty-san?"

Esty-san stopped, stared intently forward, and twitched her ears and nose.

"I can’t tell either."

"It smells like rotten meat."

"Ah~ That’s a shame."

Esty-san sighed and started walking, so we followed.

"Um, what is it?"

"Smelling rotten meat means there’s a dead body of a living creature. Since it’s along the roadside, the chances of a wild animal are low. Probably a traveler who was attacked by a monster. On the other hand, if it’s a monster that was counterattacked, that would be better... For now, I don’t sense any monster presence, so let’s proceed with caution."

"Understood."

After walking about 100 meters, Esty-san let out a small "Ah."

"Oh my, you’re really good at this, Shepa-san. Now I finally smell it too. If you hadn’t told me earlier, I might not have noticed yet. Too bad, it’s a traveler."

Another 100 meters.

"There’s a magic crystal monster over there. They sometimes fall around here. Well, no need to worry, let’s keep going."

She said "no need to worry," but Esty-san’s walking speed seemed a little faster. What’s the matter with her?

I can’t tell at all, but apparently there’s a monster ahead. Esty-san doesn’t seem especially cautious, but "magic crystal monster" sounds tough and scary...

After another 100 meters, I could see something moving 300 meters ahead. After another 100 meters, I finally realized what was moving — multiple things, about 200 meters ahead beside the road. They were translucent green spheres the size of basketballs.

The closer I got, the more they looked like the weak monsters that appear in the early stages of fantasy RPGs — slimes.

Unlike encounter-based games, monster encounters aren’t sudden. Shepa had noticed them more than 500 meters away. Dog girls really are amazing.