Chapter 126: The Journey Is Harsh in This Era, but I’m Taking It Seriously [6 Hours Since Onahole Ban Began]

After walking for a while until the place we fought the slimes was completely out of sight on the horizon, it was time for lunch.

We had bread, cheese, and dried meat, so we could eat while walking, but we decided to take a break and eat by the roadside.

Fortunately, I was stronger not only in physical and magical attack power but also in stamina, so I walked for a long time — longer than I ever had in my life — without my legs tiring.

The temperature was slightly chilly, but eating bread in the middle of this vast wasteland under the sun was rather nice. I had walked just enough to feel like a picnic.

"Iya~ You’re going well. I thought you’d get tired quickly and want to rest, but you’re surprisingly used to walking."

"I don’t really like walking, but talking while walking was fun."

"Well, depending on how tired you are, it’s better to talk when you can. Traveling with companions is hard if you can’t talk cheerfully. Speaking of which..."

"Was something wrong?"

"Nn~? Not really. We gather people heading the same way to reduce the risk of being attacked by bandits or monsters."

Yeah. We were exactly that. More people meant it was harder for bad guys to interfere.

Esty-san stretched her legs, leaned back with both hands on the ground, and looked up at the sky.

"In my case, as long as the attackers aren’t beastmen like dogs or horses, I can just dump my luggage and run. After seeing Masharu-san’s kick just now, I’ll be honest — if I got attacked by a fast bandit, I was planning to use Masharu-san as bait to escape."

"Ah~"

I see.

At that time Esty-san didn’t know Shepa was coming along.

That meant the reason a young woman decided to travel with a man was because she thought she could run away from me, and if she got attacked by bandits, she could use me as bait.

"Masharu-san is strong, so will you protect me?"

"I don’t mind."

"Iya~ Your answer is so kind and innocent. I only gave you a slight upward glance, and you replied so casually..."

"No, well, I want to be gentle with girls."

"If the journey ends safely, I’ll let you touch my body."

"Ah. Please remember that line. I didn’t say it was a lie. Absolutely. If it was a lie, I won’t forgive you. You saw my kick just now, right? With that leg power I’ll chase you down. I’ll definitely let you touch. Um... let’s see, it’s not Ram or Lute... Right. It’s Mars. Swear by the god Mars."

"That enthusiasm is intense. Mars is the god of commerce, so it doesn’t apply here. For promises it’s the god Prometheus."

"Then swear by Prometheus. And ’I didn’t say it’ means ’I didn’t say it,’ right?"

"Yeah... I’m fine with that, but don’t twist the words so conveniently. I said you can only touch me with your hand where I allowed. Nothing more."

"Damn..."

"’Damn’ is what? Where and what exactly do you want me to let you touch?!"

While I was joking with Esty-san, Shepa, jealous, clung to me.

"Masharu, you can touch my ears and tail!"

"Yeah yeah, good boy, good boy."

I was hesitant to touch a girl’s body because it was sexual, but ears and tails didn’t require any hesitation.

After finishing the last of my bread, I started touching Shepa all over. Her tail was shorter and had shorter fur than the others, but it felt bouncy and nice when I grabbed it.

As I was playing with Shepa’s tail, Esty-san, inspired, took out her own tail and started touching it herself. The golden fluffy one was the same as Shepa’s.

The tail was as thick as her thigh. Among all the beastmen I’ve met so far, it’s the most plump... I want to touch it sometime.

While I was staring at Esty-san’s tail, Shepa, jealous, grabbed my hand and nibbled repeatedly on the base of my little finger.

After that we just lounged around. It wasn’t wine making us dizzy, but we wanted to space out after eating.

In Montvant the bells rang every two hours, so lunch break was also two hours.

Even though I wasn’t working, my internal clock had already become tuned to wanting a two-hour lunch break.

I spread out my dirty mantle, lay on it with Shepa, and took a light nap.

Esty-san was also wrapped in her own mantle and sleeping.

After about two hours on our internal clock, we finished the break and started walking north again.

A little later Esty-san, as if remembering, started talking.

"I shouldn’t say this before the first night, but traveling lightly is nice... Even if the destination is the same, the reasons and purposes for traveling are different, right?"

Ah. The continuation of the lunch conversation.

"People who travel usually have deep reasons tied to their lives. For example, suppose a sick person believes that touching the afflicted part of someone in a certain town’s holy person will cure them. But, well, long travel is hard for a sick person... Gradually they lose energy... Well, to put it bluntly, I think to myself ’I’ll dig a hole to bury that person,’ and it makes me hate myself."

"I see. Esty-san is experienced with travel, so you can tell whether someone will reach their destination or not. Therefore, you can’t just stop someone who you know will fail..."

"That’s right. If a journey can be stopped by others, they wouldn’t have set out in the first place. People whose villages were wiped out by monsters, for example, are typical cases."

"Yes. It’s tough. At first everyone cooperates to seek a new land, but at some point you’ll have to abandon the elderly or children. Then a mother who can’t abandon her child will leave the group, or she’ll cry and repeat ’I love you’ while abandoning her child... Yeah, all kinds of things."

"Travel with someone who has such a reason... isn’t a conversation kind of atmosphere..."

"Well, traveling isn’t something you should do. The person I was just talking about shouldn’t have traveled. It was only a two- or three-hour walk from Montvant, right? The traveler didn’t die on the way, but just before arriving at Montvant. If they had walked a little longer, they might have been saved..."

It’ll probably take several hundred years for travel to become a mere tourist pleasure in this era.

The English word "travel" comes from the French "travail."

In modern French, "travail" means "work," but in the past it meant "pain" or "suffering," and travel is suffering...

Also, "travail" has the meaning of "great deed."

I see. In this era, traveling for years to a holy land is both painful and a great deed.

My journey might be the first step toward the great deed of founding the Masharu Kingdom.

Still, I’m seriously doing a fantasy adventure that has nothing to do with erotica.

That’s right.

I can do serious things without thinking about anything erotic!