Jin and his friends were eating porridge for breakfast. They decided that solid food is not good for a stomach that has not eaten for days.
Also, <> is surprisingly popular with Erza and the others.
Jin had pickled plums, Erza had tsukudani (food boiled in soy sauce made by Aqua) of small fish, and Saki had oshinko (Japanese pickles). And Hannah had pickled plums just like Jin.
Guth tried them all and seemed to like the pickled plums.
"Well, it was delicious. We were lucky to have Nido's help.
"Why don't you stop calling me that ? I'm not used to being called that, so it bothers me.
"Well, you can call me Goose instead of Minakata-dono.
"Okay, I'll call you Goose. Okay. ...... goose."
"That's fine, Jin."
Saki and Erza and the others were to treat him in the same way.
Goose's skin color is quite light if you look closely in a well-lit place. His father's blood must have been strong in his veins.
He is of medium height, a little taller than Jin. His face is similar to his father's, and he looks somewhat like Erza, Saki, and the others.
"We'll leave after breakfast. Goose, where is your luggage?
Jin asked,
"Nothing. I'm all alone. I've lost everything else.
The answer was very difficult to respond to.
Jin, what are you going to do with this tent?
Saki asked Jin, who had finished breakfast and was getting ready to leave.
"We can take it apart and put it on the roof of ......."
The roof of a car is designed to hold a lot of stuff, after all.
It is hard to deny that the tent looks rather big-headed if we load the tent components on the roof.
In particular, the frame made of light silver is long.
We sent most of the rice and other goods from the town of Miyako to Horai Island using the warp gate, so the inside of the car is clean, but now the roof is starting to look clumpy.
"Well, that's about the size of it."
Unlike in modern Japan, we won't be passing under a railroad guard, and we don't want to go into any alleys, so we decide to continue on with this for now.
Jin thought that if Goose disappeared, he could send him back through the warp gate.
"Oh, that's a nice ride! I knew it would be different if we used gutta-percha."
"Do you know gutta-percha?
Jin asked, and Goose nodded knowingly.
"Of course. I'm a naturalist. But you call it gutta-percha in Huso, but you call it gutta-percha there, don't you?
"Yes. Do you know that this kind of elastic resin is generally called rubber?
"No, I have never heard of it! I see. Rubber. That's easy for you to say, isn't it?
So you mean you've ridden in a carriage before?
"Yes. In Fusor we use horse-drawn carriages to transport goods and people.
"So horses are commonly used here? I heard that the number of horses in Mitsho has been decreasing due to an epidemic or something.
"I know that from what I've heard. Fortunately, it seems that it didn't spread in Huso."
Jin and Goose seemed to get along well and exchanged many stories along the way.
Erza was watching them from the back seat, and Saki called out to her.
"Erza, are you crowning your fiancee stolen?"
"...... No. No, maybe not. But ...... he looks a bit like my brother Rai."
"Oh, does he?"
"Nuh. It's not his face, but the way he talks to Jin bro.
"Yeah, I can kind of tell."
And what about Hannah?
"Hannah, look, there's a flower blooming over there."
"Where is it? I can't see it!
"On the right, about 500 meters in front of you, on the lower right side of the rock".
There was a spring near the marsh, so we had udon noodles, which were more popular than we had expected.
Of course, the water quality was tested.
"Oh, this is delicious!
Goose, who seemed to have recovered completely, ordered another bowl of udon.
"Me, too!
Hannah is also showing her daring spirit.
The udon noodles, which she had boiled in large quantities, were all gone in no time at all.
"Well, Jin is a good cook. I can only cook simple things. ......"
"No, I just boiled the udon. ......"
And the car starts running again.
After six hours of driving, a marshland appeared in front of them.
"We're finally on a cyclo-marsh.
Goose looks relieved.
Meanwhile, Jin and the others were impressed by the marshland in bloom.
"This is magnificent!
"Wow, this place is ......!
"...... is beautiful."
"So many flowers!"
The marsh itself was still dominated by the color of dead grass, but white flowers and yellow flowers were popping up here and there, adding color to the scene.
"Mizubashou?"
The white flowers looked similar to the Mizubashou that Jin knew.
Mizubashou? We call it "white cayou. There is also a red cayou, which blooms a little earlier in the year.
"Hmm, I wish I could have seen it."
There is a related species of Mizubashou in Japan, called Zazensou, which blooms in early spring with azuki red flowers, but Jin seemed to be unaware of it.
"Then what about those yellow flowers?"
Jin is not that familiar with plants. He only knows about common flowers and plants he happens to know. He takes this opportunity to ask Goose a number of questions.
"The yellow flowers are called 'strisses,' aren't they?"
It looked similar to a flower called Ryukinka, which grows in Oze and other places along with Mizubasho (a type of Asian skunk-cabbage).
"Well, you know a lot about it, don't you?
"Yes, I can handle this kind of thing!"
"Well, what about that tree with white flowers?"
"Hmm? ...... yeah, it's a magnolia.
What's that?
That's a Murasaki Azalea.
Guth knew what he was talking about. He answered all of Jin's questions, one after another.
And through Reiko, the old man also increased his knowledge.
"Oh, I think we should take a little more to the right. There are many wetlands around here, and it will be troublesome if we get stuck."
"Okay. Edgar, please.
Okay, sir.
Edgar swerves a little to the right. The ground is definitely getting wetter.
At this rate we should be in Uln in less than two hours.
At our current average speed of about 15 kilometers per hour, it would take us about that long.
"Birds come to the cyclo-marshes, too. Right now is the time of year when the summer and winter birds are switching, so we only see resident birds.
"There are also quite a lot of insects. Dragonflies fly in the summer.
"The water in the marshland is shallow, so there are almost no fish.
We listened to Goose's explanations and continued on for two hours.
"Oh, we can finally see it. That's the village of Ulun.
Under the darkening sky, the village of Ulun, at the southern tip of the Huso country, came into view.