The wagons rattled and rattled and rattled and rattled as we made our way through the city roads built into the rolling hills.

　We had left the city of Yughannotes and were headed for the city of Invahannes, which is said to be populated by beastmen.


　It was well sunny and the sun was warm, so it was nice to feel the wind coming through the hills and hitting our faces.

　The trees were thick in places for a while after we left Jughannotes.

　But that was only yesterday, and from today, the third day of the journey, it has turned into hilly terrain.

　Occasionally, they would pass a troop merchant who seemed to have loaded up in Invahannes, or even some adventurers who were probably on their way to Ygghanotes.


　It was a hurried journey to check for sightings of Abyssal Walkers in various locations, but flying on poorly paved city roads with deep ruts carved into them here and there could damage the wagons at worst.

　This made it difficult to increase the speed of the wagons.


'Idyllic: ......'

It's peaceful.


　Noelia, who was in the loading bay, was answering my murmur as I sat on the guru's seat in preparation for the demon's attack.


　Even though it is a frontier and the traffic of people is less than in the royal capital, there are hardly any demons to be seen around the roadway.

　There was a reason for the lack of demons on the roads.

　Since the roads that connect the cities are very important places for transporting goods, the adventurer's guilds in each city regularly send out requests to kill monsters around the roads.

　That's why you don't have many opportunities to encounter demons on the roads.


''Quee!


　Dimol, who was flying above and following us, had found a demon to feed on and was swooping down into the meadow with a cry.

　To prevent him from being mistaken for a wild pterodactyl and being shot by adventurers and city guards, Dimolu has his horse coat tailored and fitted with the large coat of arms of the Enestrosa family.

　So far, displaying the coat of arms of the great aristocratic Countess of the Frontier has kept him from being suddenly shot at by adventurers and troopers passing by on the street.


''It looks like Dimol has found his bait. I never thought that pterosaurs were such friendly creatures. Master Lloyd seemed to be very curious about it as well.


　Susana, who was holding the reins as a guru, was impressed with Dimol's appearance.


　She was the maid of the Enestrosa family who had asked Lloyd to accompany her as a chaperone against traveling with Noelia.

　When Lloyd asked me to accompany her on her journey, a mere maid, not an adventurer, I felt uneasy about what would happen, but seeing how she seemed to be adept at piloting a wagon and doing outdoor activities, and how she handled everything with ease, I felt that it was a no-brainer.


I'm sure you're not the only one who's taken a liking to Dimol. The horse's coat and the saddle for the horse were tailored specifically for him.


　When the Abyss Walker was spotted, Lloyd had repeatedly praised me for being able to move swiftly to the forest of the demon world with my Dimol.

　I'm sure that the fact that I can move faster than a cavalry horse and that I can conduct extensive reconnaissance from above must have tugged at Lloyd's heartstrings as he prepares for a major attack.


'Since it's that father, he must have realized the usefulness of the pterodactyl. I'm sure he might be taking Master Gawain with him to Yasbah's hunting grounds to capture his own personal pterosaur by now. I won't be surprised if all the members of the Knights have turned into pterodactyl riders when they return to Yuguhanotes after their journey.

'Yes. I'm sure Master Lloyd would do it.

Oh, sure, a frontier count could have done that.


　Noelia was right, that Lloyd would have told the knights to capture the pterodactyl.

　But I hope there aren't a lot of injuries because I was told that I was the first to try the pterosaur usage method Gawain found and succeeded: .......


　However, if all the knights of the frontier county family became pterodactyl riders, the speed of travel should increase dramatically, right?

　If they could fly day and night concurrently, they could get to Abyss Falls in no time.


''But pterodactyl movement has a lot of problems: ......

　Dimol is more girthy than normal, so it can fly even if it's loaded with heavy things, but with a pterosaur's physique like Gawain rode, it's probably barely able to carry a single heavily armed knight.

　Besides, moving with a pterosaur would be much more wear and tear on the rider than on a horse.

　If you ask me if I can travel a long distance and fight immediately, I can only say that it's impossible unless I use body strengthening magic to strengthen my body.

　That's why this trip is based on the lessons learned from the day and night flight, and I'm using a wagon instead of traveling long distances by Dimol.


I've had the pleasure of riding with Mr. Flick on several occasions, so I've nailed a few words to your father about the problems. But I'm sure he's still going to capture them.


　It seems that Noelia had already told Lloyd about the problems with the pterodactyl movement.

　She must have felt the same as I did in that day and night flight.


''Well, as for Lloyd-sama who seems to be going out of control over the pterodactyl, Knight Commander Mais-sama will stop him. More importantly, since Dimol has grabbed the bait and is coming back, shouldn't we take a break for lunch soon?


　Susana, who was holding the reins, suggested a break for lunch.

　The sun was already just above us, telling us that it was lunchtime.


'Right. Let's take a lunch break soon.

'Let's do it. Susana, I think that shade tree over there would be a good place to rest.

Yes, sir. Please wait as soon as the wagons are pulled in.


　Noelia indicated that there was a good-sized tree growing just ahead, providing shade from the sun.

　When we pulled the wagon up there, we decided to start preparing our lunch.


　Dimoru came down to us and offered us a spring gazelle that he had caught.


'Dimoru doesn't eat them by himself, does he? I've heard that wild pterosaurs prey on themselves.


　Susana, who was starting to prepare lunch, was again impressed when she saw Dimolu, who was still waiting to offer me his catch.


'Yeah, it seems that I'm the absolute top of the heap for Dimol, so even if I take it myself, I won't eat it without permission, and he asks for permission.

Wow, I didn't know pterodactyls could do that.

Yeah. Besides, if I tell them not to attack me, they'll understand and they'll be smart enough to understand.

Queue!


　Dimol seems to understand that he has been praised, and he squeals as if he is pleased.


　Although pterodactyls were a weak category of the strongest living dragon species, they were still a dragon species, but their physical strength and intelligence were incomparably higher than other wild animals.

　Because of this, it is said that dragonkind are not easily turned into demons by the mana mist.

　However, that doesn't mean they can't turn into monsters, and once they do, they turn into the most troublesome monsters known as demonic dragons.


　The demon dragons that Alfinae and I defeated were originally old dragons that lived in the mountains near the capital, but now that they have become demonic dragons, they are as strong as the magical beasts Cerberus.

　It had become my daily routine lately to observe Dimol in various ways on a regular basis so as not to let him become such a demonic dragon.


''Really, Flick-sama is taking good care of Dimol, isn't he? He also takes care of her by himself, and to be honest, I'm jealous of him. ......


　Noelia stopped preparing the meal and looked at Dimol and me.


　Come to think of it, Noelia also said something about trying to take care of Dimolu.

　She'd love it, and Dimoru would be fine with her wiping him down and feeding him.

　If I'm not around, I'll have Noelia, who seems to want to do it this time, take care of Dimolu.


'Well, do you want to do Noelia too?'


　When Noelia's face seemed to have hardened upon hearing my words, her gaze turned in the direction of the day after tomorrow, and her cheeks suddenly turned red.


　S-, I wanted to take care of Dimol so badly that I was so upset.

　If you wanted to do that much, you should have let her do it earlier.


It's a good thing that you're still prepared for ...... that kind of thing all of a sudden.


　Noelia's cheeks were turning even redder, and her words were sluggish, far from her usual inflectionlessness.


'No, I'm the one who's sorry. I didn't know Noelia was that bothered by it ...... Sorry it took me so long.

'What?　Huh?　Ho, really now here: ......

'Yeah, let's do it now. I think we should do these things right away, in my opinion.


　I know for myself that holding back from doing something you want to try is the worst thing you can do to your body.

　You should try it as soon as you're interested.

　It's a good thing I've learned how to use magic.


'What?　Huh?　Are you sure?

Ah, let's start with the spring gazelle, which is Dimoru's food. Dimorphs have a surprisingly weak chewing power, so you have to cut them into smaller pieces before they can be swallowed.


　I sloshed the carcass of a leaping deer antelope (spring gazelle) that Dimol held out in front of Noelia.


''What?''


　Noelia was tilting her head at my actions.


'Because, Noelia, you can't help but want to take care of Dimolu, right?


　Noelia froze with her head tilted back.

　After a moment, he started to move.


'Yeah, yeah!　I wanted to do it so badly!　Soooo, I see. So the Dimol has to be cut into small pieces of meat? Yah, I'll try.


　With a hunting knife in hand, Noelia deftly peeled and rustled the skin of a leaping deer antelope (spring gazelle).


I'm sure it will be quite difficult. We have to work hard on many things.''


　We were making food for Dimoru when we heard Susana let out some kind of sigh behind us.


''Kueye!''


　And I can't help but feel that Dimol is reacting to that sigh from Susana.

　The two of them seemed to want to say something, but I think Noelia is very good at making food.


　With that in mind, I decided to focus on making food for Dimolu and our lunch.