One hour later, near the Billy Lanson Forest.
I finished cleaning up all traces of our camp. This way, even if adventurers came to the area, they would have difficulty discovering signs of our encampment in the short term, unless they were players with advanced detection skills who were good at finding clues. Unfortunately, such players were few and far between.
"Stay here and don't move around. I'm going to rent some mounts."
Trafalgar instructed us. Billy Lan was a baronial territory, so it must have stables. Nominally called stables, horses were just the most common mounts in human kingdoms—any mount could be purchased or rented at the stables, provided they had them.
"Riding horses, meow?"
"Horses are too slow. We'll take dragon turtles."
"Aren't dragon turtles even slower, meow?"
"...Is your brain filled with slime? We're taking the waterway."
Trafalgar looked at Carol Cat with exactly the same expression one would give to Aqua. (TN: Konosuba.)
Dragon turtles were giant turtle-type creatures that lived in the ocean. In the real world, their size would be comparable to a small truck. Dragon turtles had smooth, hard shells and could be tamed. Although they moved slowly on land, if taking waterways, dragon turtles were mounts that could carry many people while providing a stable ride.
Coincidentally, Billy Lan Baronial Territory, where we had arrived after escaping with spatial transfer for a while, was located upstream from Baron Hurst's Territory. If we rode dragon turtles downstream, we could reach Baron Hurst's Territory before dark, which would be much faster than riding horses.
"I don't know the terrain of the Kingdom of Michel!"
"This is common sense. Villages can't be built in places without water sources. Don't you know that all cradles of civilization are in places with water sources?"
Carol Cat couldn't out-argue Trafalgar and looked ready to pounce and bite him. Trafalgar quickly jumped aside.
Speaking of which, those claw marks on Baron Trafalgar's body couldn't possibly be...
"We'll have to have lunch on the dragon turtle's back. It's inconvenient to fish while moving, so is there any food you'd like to eat? I'll buy some when I go to Billy Lan Baronial Territory to rent the dragon turtle."
"I have lunch prepared..."
I was about to volunteer, but all three of them—Sigrdrífa, Trafalgar, and Carol Cat—suddenly twitched at the corners of their mouths.
"No, Anna... let's skip that..."
"That might have been the most peculiar breakfast of my life."
"I still think... chimeras aren't edible, meow..."
Sigrdrífa and Trafalgar's refusals were at least tactful, but Carol Cat had already started clutching her stomach to express strong discomfort.
"Eh? When everyone was eating, they all said it was delicious..." I was devastated. "I went to great trouble to hunt in the nearby forest."
"Hunting some wild rabbits would have been fine too. It was a bit too extravagant."
"Are chimeras really edible, meow? I heard chimeras are composite beasts made from fusing many different creatures."
"They're edible!"
I vigorously defended my cooking skills.
"If you remove the head and tail, they're edible. Crunchy, tastes like chicken, and has many times more protein than beef..."
"Anyway, I'll buy some normal food."
Trafalgar left with these words and hurriedly escaped. I felt my cooking skills had been seriously questioned. To handle emergency situations where I might be stranded on a deserted island with my master, my wilderness survival skills were at Lvl. Max, yet they were saying chimeras weren't edible... As long as something was alive, I could cook it, even dragon race creatures.
Trafalgar's figure quickly disappeared. Since he and Carol Cat were both players, they could communicate coordinates through private messages.
I made Lily a hooded coat that could conceal her face, but we still needed to avoid contact with other adventurers as much as possible. Trafalgar would bring the dragon turtle to the river near Billy Lanson Forest, and then we would board the dragon turtle together and head to Baron Hurst's Territory.
"Carol Cat."
"Meow?"
"Please accept my apology for my previous rude behavior."
I bowed slightly. Although it had been necessary caution, since Carol Cat hadn't betrayed us, I needed to express my regret for my rude treatment.
"It's okay, meow~ Anna is always so polite, but I want to become Anna's friend, so if Anna treats me like a friend, I'd be happier, meow~"
Friend, huh...
Carol Cat had given me a difficult problem. What attitude should one have toward friends?
"By the way, while Trafalgar isn't here, should we discuss whether to do this?"
Carol Cat opened the quest panel again. The quest description was very rough, but there was a note at the bottom.
[You can share this quest with other adventurers through information sharing]
This quest could be shared, similar to the time-limited quest issued by Duke Borgia. This quest could be accepted by multiple adventurers simultaneously, rather than being a unique hidden quest.
"What do you mean, Carol Cat?"
"If we share the information, Duke Borgia won't be able to sit still either, meow."
The facts that Lily had experienced were big news worthy of newspaper headlines and would definitely cause a sensation among adventurers and NPCs.
"What does Anna think?"
"This would be equivalent to betraying Baron Trafalgar's expectations. He hopes to preserve Duke Borgia's reputation until the truth is clarified."
"But if we make it public, we could at least gain more allies... right?"
Carol Cat glanced at the quest reward column that showed "None (Unknown)" in large letters and couldn't help but add an uncertain question at the end.
"Yes, but Duke Borgia has already classified Lily as someone related to the Demon Lord... We have no way to determine how many people will believe testimony narrated by someone labeled as a criminal."
Even winning over Trafalgar had been a gamble, let alone betting that all adventurers would believe Lily's word alone. Lily had been on the run for so long that Duke Borgia might have already purged the evidence from Reunion Castle. Although we could publicly demand that Duke Borgia produce the children he had taken in to put him under suspicion, Duke Borgia might be holding an undetermined trump card.
Sigrdrífa and I understood that Duke Borgia's classification of Lily as someone related to the [Demon Lord]...
Might not be pure slander.