Someday Will I Be The Greatest Alchemist?-Chapter 394: A stopover on the way home

The carriage drawn by Tsubaki casually ran along the highway.

If we were just going back to the Sanctuary, we could have teleported, but for some reason, we decided not to return directly but instead make stopovers on our way back. Yes, it was decided before I even knew it.

By the way, Golan-san and Doganbo-san went ahead and teleported to the Sanctuary. They said that they’ve already been away from alcohol production for too long.

Then, at everyone’s request, we would go to Samandour Kingdom, but the route from Gnomstoll Kingdom to Samandour Kingdom was quite problematic.

We could have taken the road through the savage lands from the Sanctuary to Samandour Kingdom, but from Gnomstoll Kingdom, the only routes would be through the former empire of Sydnia or Triaria Kingdom. With that being the case, our only option was the route through the former empire of Sydnia.

Without Golan-san and Doganbo-san, our members were relaxed inside the carriage…… finally…… finally it was like a honeymoon.

「Its far worse than I imagined.」

「Everyone looks dispirited.」

What Sophia and Maria were talking about was were the expressions of t he people in the village we stopped by a while ago. Upon entering the former Divine Empire of Sydnia, what we saw from the few towns and villages we stopped in, everyone uniformly had dark expressions.

The former Divine Empire of Sydnia was provisionally governed by Valkyra Kingdom and Lomaria Kingdom. Samandour Kingdom and Gnomstoll Kingdom were aiding with goods.

Knight orders from Valkyra Kingdom and Lomaria Kingdom were going around on patrol mainly in large cities to preserve public order, though it seems that not only the bandits but also the lack of adventurers delayed the extermination of monsters which cause plenty of damage to crops.

To begin with, while the Divine Empire of Sydnia had an Adventurers’ Guild branch, the adventurers who wanted to avoid war had fled to other countries. When the country collapsed, perhaps because the knights from the adjacent countries intervened, the number of adventurers didn’t increase to satisfactory levels.

Request forms were sent out to the adventurers guilds in adjacent countries, and there were those who were dispatched for monster subjugations, but even then, it seemed it was difficult for adventurers who once made it their base to come back.

「The Goblins and Kobolds have multiplied considerably.」

「Orcs and Ogres may have made colonies and multiplied as well.」

In hopes of helping the people of former Sydnia, we talked about hunting all the monsters that we could on our way to Samandour Kingdom. As a result, I used a magic device to suppress Tsubaki’s overwhelming presence, and we traversed the main road in a way that made it easy for us to be attacked, and out they came. A large number of monsters attacked.

Naturally, we subjugated with a search and destroy tactic.

Once in a while, Kaede detects goblin settlements, so we really ended up making detours, but goblins were like C [1(cockroaches)], so if you find one, you have to assume that there’s a hundred more and be very scrupulous with exterminating them.

「There probably aren’t any beginner adventurers in Sydnia who would hunt goblins.」

「It was originally knights and soldiers who belonged to church who exterminated the monsters.」

Just as Sophia said, the former Divine Empire of Sydnia subjugated monsters without the help of adventurers and by only using the church’s battle prowess. The goblin subjugations were also part of the training of novice knights and soldiers of the chruch. As such, with the adventurers escaping from this country when it was on the brink of collapsing and when their ranks crumbled, they had no fighting force capable of dealing with not just the bandits but also the monsters.

「The knight orders from Valkyra Kingdom and Lomaria Kingdom routinely exterminate monsters and go on expeditions to subjugate bandits, but the adventurers didn’t come back.」

「Isn’t that serious? Right now, the savage lands are all the rave for adventurers.」

Maria was saying that adventurers couldn’t be counted on. Recently, several new towns have been completed in the Savage Lands, and the movement of goods and people were active. Sanctuary procurement, or rather, the Sanctuary bubble. Naturally, there were plenty of jobs for adventurers, from escorting merchant troupes to subjugating monsters or escorts around the city and the surroundings of the roads.

「But hunting goblins, kobolds, and wolf type monsters no longer taste good.」

「Well, just give up on that. We aren’t entirely unrelated to the collapse of Sydnia.」

Even if it’s Goblin Generals and Kings, we don’t have the time to be gathering proof of subjugation anymore. We just go straight to burning and burying them. I understand Akane’s complaints, but it’s true that we doomed them to their fate even if the former Divine Empire of Sydnia was the true cause, so I think a little bit of the duty falls onto us.

「Ah, I see a village…… is it being attacked?」

「Tsubaki!」

Sophia spotted a village not so far off from the road, but it looked like it was being attacked by something. I yelled to Tsubaki, and she sped up fiercely.

***

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