“Thank you, Leo. Now we won’t scare as many people on the road!”
“Wuff.”
As Leo had a very friendly personality, scaring people would not have been her intention.
And while people were often scared of her, I doubted she enjoyed being seen as an object of fear, and I didn’t want that either.
…Besides, just look at how cute she is…
“Wuff. Wuff.”
“Hmm? What is it, Leo?”
“Wuff-wuff. Wouu!”
After that, we continued to run parallel, but at a short distance, with the road. But then Leo suddenly started to slow down and bark as if to tell me something.
“Hmm. I suppose it’s fine then.”
Away from the main road, where there were trees that Leo could hide behind, we stopped.
“So, what’s the matter?”
“Wuff. Wuff! Wuff.”
“I see… That time already… I wanted to go a little farther…but it cannot be helped.”
Behind the trees, I got off of Leo’s back and listened to what she had to say.
Apparently, due to running so much, Leo was hungry.
I looked up and saw that the sun was high in the sky… As for my watch…it said that it was midday.
So it was no surprise that she was hungry then.
“All right. Let’s eat here.”
“Wuff! Wuff!”
After deciding this, Leo started to wag her tail happily.
She must have been very hungry then… From the mansion to Ractos. From Ractos to here. She had been running a lot.
I petted Leo appreciatively and then unstrapped the baggage from her back.
“Uhh…food…”
“Wuff?”
I untied the cloth and looked at the food supplies that Sebastian had prepared.
Leo peered from behind me as well.
She was curious and hopeful over what we would eat for lunch… But considering it was stuff like portable rations, she really shouldn’t get her hopes up so high…
Those things usually don’t taste very good.
“Oh, here it is. …Hmm. I’ll have to thank Sebastian when we return.”
“Wuff. Wuff.”
I took out a few different bundles and unwrapped them.
There was bread, and quite a lot of sausages.
Also, leather flasks that contained water and soup…
With all of this, we could have something like a proper meal.
So it wasn’t portable rations… Well, there was some dried meat. So there might also be portable rations, in case the journey was longer than expected.
“Leo. Help me gather some wood.”
“Wuff.”
And so Leo and I gathered the fallen branches around the trees.
The bread was one thing, but we wanted to cook the sausages… But as we didn’t have a pot, we wouldn’t be able to heat up the soup…
“That should do. All right, Leo. If you would be so kind.”
“Wuff! …Wooo…. Grau!”
After gathering enough branches, I stacked them together to make a bonfire.
As it was just to heat some food, we didn’t need that many branches.
I asked Leo to light the fire, and then I used some branches to skewer the sausages and place them nearby.
I watched Leo, who waited happily as she watched the sausages cook.
“All right, they look good now. Here, you can eat these.”
I gave her permission, and then Leo quickly picked up one of the sausages and ate it.
I also started to eat some bread.
There was meat and vegetables inside of the bread, and it was every bit as tasty as the food we ate in the mansion.
“Maybe Ms. Helena cooked this. I’ll have to thank her when we get back.”
“Wuff. Wuff.”
I muttered as I ate. Leo nodded in agreement as she devoured her sausages.
Her tail wagged busily, suggesting that they tasted very good.
About an hour passed, and when we were finished with our soup, bread and sausages, I packed our things so we could continue our journey.
…Though, Leo looked like she was still hungry… But since we were still traveling, I didn’t think it would be good for her to eat until she was full…
She will just have to wait until we returned to the mansion, and I could ask Ms. Helena to prepare something special for Leo. It was with such thoughts that I put out the fire.
Once I was certain that the fire was properly extinguished, I climbed back onto Leo and set out once again.
“Ah, turn left here…we need to move away from the main road.”
“Wuff.”
After going a little farther, we left the main road, like the map suggested, and headed towards the road to Range village.
Unlike in Japan, the main roads were not connected to small villages.
The roads weren’t even paved in this world.
“It’s quite close to the forest, huh…”
After going west from the main road for a while, we then headed towards the east.
Further on, there was a forest. And while it wasn’t to the same degree as the fenrir forest, it looked very dense.
As the map showed detailed terrain, I knew that there was a forest nearby, but I didn’t realize it was this close.
If Range village was this close, then perhaps they worked in forestry.
“Wuff!?”
“What is it, Leo?”
I was clutching onto Leo and just starting to get used to the speed enough so that I could take in my surroundings, when Leo suddenly slowed down again.
What happened?
“Woooo…”
Leo stopped and began to growl.
This reaction… I had seen it in the fenrir forest… When we encountered the orc…
“Wooo…wou. Wou! Grau! Grau!”
“I see, I see.”
Leo was telling me that there was danger. Apparently, there were a few trolls up ahead.
“Wooo.”
Leo continued to growl guardedly as she slowly advanced in the direction that the trolls were.
“Leo, I know I’m always asking this, but can I leave this to you?”
“Wuff!”
I asked Leo to deal with the trolls, and Leo nodded assuringly.
She then continued a little farther until I was able to see the trolls as well.
“There they are…just like the ones we saw before.”
Giants that were over three meters tall and wielded clubs.
But as Leo had already defeated them by the time we arrived, this was the first time I was seeing them standing.
While they weren’t the ones who had been tormenting Sherry, I still felt a sense of hostility towards them.
“Sorry to rely on you every time, Leo.”
“Wuff!”
Leo barked as if to say that I shouldn’t worry about it, and then she stopped so that I could get off of her back.
She wouldn’t be able to fight at her best if I was still riding her.
I also unstrapped the baggage from her back. Then I waited.
While the trolls were up ahead, they had not noticed our presence yet.