Claire Hill stepped out of the gates of Aclair and passed by the guards who stood by it. Besides her, Alicia and Via did the same. And then out came a carriage dragged by two brown horses with a man at the helm.

"Tress huh? Haven't been back there in a long time," The man said, voice deep. His face was shadowed by a straw hat, blocking much of the sun, but it was clear he was a dark-skinned individual. Rather than lanky or fat like she had expected a typical isekai carriage-handler to be, he was fit in the right places and looked no older than forty or so. His black hair was long and braided till it fell behind and reached his waist, and he wore a leather outfit akin to something a dagger wielder would be expected to wear. Laid beside him was a staff, however.

Her eyes shined gold as she glanced at him.

[Name: Boris Melt

Race: Human

Strength: D+

Speed: C

Mana: C-

Skills: Track (D), Bash (C)

Overall: C]

He was not overpowered. At all. She supposed this would be a normal status screen for most people of this world.

"I haven't been there before," Via said as they boarded the vehicle, "And I'm guessing neither have these two."

Alicia nodded.

"Indeed we have not." Claire replied and thought, 'How interesting.'

The carriage had been provided by the adventure guild for the request. A state of emergency, they termed it. And the driver, a Mr. Boris Melt, was a hired helper by the guild—a former adventurer who was now a staff of Aclair's branch. The Ice Queen was a bit surprised all these were provided for free.

Then again, she was being paid 3 gold coins to simply protect the transport until they reached their destination and the man would also take them to the outskirts of Tress at no cost to them. Those were terms she couldn't decline.

Plus.

As Clara Stone had put it.

It was the village the Hero of Heart had passed through that needed the supplies. Supposedly, though the townspeople survived, beasts had broken houses, storages, destroyed crops, and some stores. They were glad to be saved but had sent an urgent plea of help to the nearest city, Aclair, using a familiar akin to the 'Blood Raven' Claire and Alicia had encountered once before.

It being a village that also supplied a portion of Aclair's foods—the mining city etched in a mountain couldn't grow its own crops—the heads of the city had quickly agreed, opened their emergency storage up, bought some daily necessities, and handed a request over to the adventure guild.

And thus, here they were, upon a dirt road carved through flowers and grass and headed for the forest ahead. The carriage was covered in a tent and they rode within, boxes of crates surrounding them as the vehicle bumped here and there.

"Oh oh, if you haven't been there, then you all might like it," Boris spoke with a chuckle, "It's quite a beautiful place. Especially its capital. Technically speaking, actually, Aclair is part of it so I suppose you're already in Tress. Though, it's more of a city-state to itself."

Claire sat cross-legged and Alicia sat beside her.

"Oh?" She said as she rolled her jacket down slightly and allowed her nape to be fully shown. She didn't even know city-states were possible in an isekai. "Is that so?"

Alicia's fangs naturally bit into the base.

"Mhmn," An unconscious sound leaked from Claire's lips.

". . ." Via was somewhat speechless, arms crossed. She couldn't decide if she was allowed to watch the two or not. Hell, allowed or not, she couldn't decide if she even should. Murmuring something beneath her breath, she turned and stared at the front of the carriage—the man and the horses visible.

He was smiling, seeming to enjoy the conversations.

"Of course," He said as he kept his eyes forward, "Aclair is a rare city. It has a dungeon, for one, something only capital cities usually do. But seeing as it was etched out of a mountain, it was far too small to be a capital of any kingdom. And thus, the people who settled there founded it as a sort of proxy city-state for Tress. The kingdom protects it, and most of Aclair's wares are sold to it—the ores mined. Making a somewhat unique relationship, don't you think?"

"Interesting. . ." Claire muttered as Alicia continued to suck her blood, "You seem to know quite a bit, Mr. Melt."

He nodded. "Of course."

"Do you get around a lot?" Via chimed in, most definitely looking away from the two girl's display of affection, was it? Or was the vampire actually hungry? She didn't know that Claire was simply powering up her partner.

"Nope," Boris replied, "Not one bit."

". . ."

". . ."

He laughed, "I usually just sit in Aclair running tasks for the guild. I just happened to be able to handle carriages and horses, while having a tracking skill—dunno how the heck they found out—and so they threw this task at me. Damn them, I was on vacation, you know? Two weeks scratched off just like that."

He spent a few more seconds cursing his employers then shrugged as he held the reigns of the vehicle and sighed.

"Well, who knows, getting out isn't bad once in a while. It'll be a new story to tell my daughter. She's grown bored of the old tales of my adventure days." He stroked his beardless chin. "Plus, this request seems pretty important. Coulda refused but who the hell wants to sit still and watch villagers starve to death?"

As Alicia licked her lips in content, Claire thought Mr. Boris Melt had his ways but he wasn't wrong. It might indeed be a tale worth telling. A part of the request they had been handed also wished for an investigation into the beast horde that had stamped over to the village of Cron, after all.

LotsChrono

And now, the chapters on this site have caught up with those on Wattpad.