The Peerless Kobold - Chapter 217 - Follow The Trail To The Northern Plains Part 2

In this age, the time that governs people’s lives is often managed by the Holy Church for the purpose of worship. Each church has adopted several time-telling devices such as a sundial which operates based on the movement of the sun, a fire clock which measures time by how the candles melt, and a water clock with a planetary gearing system which is powered by the flow of water among others.

In other words, there is a time difference between cities and towns because of the uneven precision of these clocks.

If I remember correctly… The clock in the Warren cathedral is a state-of-the-art mercury clock which has been created after inviting scholars and engineers from the eastern countries which the duke’s attendant claims that it never freezes in winter and always tells the time with high precision.

After a while, the ringing stopped, and just after the mage who was behind the knight that the captain called cast their magic, the captain’s voice echoed throughout the square while creating huge vibrations in the air.

“It’s time. I think everyone is already gathered. So from here, we will head to Grau village, follow the trail to Valley Ants’ nest, and battle. That’s all. Prepare to move out!!”

The guards moved out first, followed by the knights on horseback who were surrounded by foot soldiers as they left the city square. Following this, Grace also called out loudly to the adventurers.

“Everyone, each party will come together with the others to form a unit! For now, we will head to Grau village to escort the transportation corps!”

“Let’s get this over with and have a drink with the reward money, shall we? Let’s go!!”

Her partner, a warrior clad in metal armor, moved among the crowd as if he didn’t feel the weight of his equipment, and encouraged the adventurers to move out. During that time, another party waved to us as they approached.

“Good morning, Muriel!”

“Oh Eina, long time no see.”

“Ares, looks like we’ll be working together this time too.”

“That’s very reassuring, Zachs.”

Muriel held hands with a fellow female mage in a friendly manner, while Ares and Riberto lightly tapped the shoulders of a dark-skinned, rough-looking warrior in greeting, but… Who were they?

I was feeling alienated as I was the only one who was unfamiliar with these new faces when a fair-skinned female warrior approached me with a smile.

“Umm, are you the temporary member working as Mirea’s replacement? Nice to meet you, my name’s Reedy.”

“Oh, yes, Ares recruited me… I’m Archer.”

While I was talking with the woman who had a soft atmosphere about her, her attention was caught by the small fox in the leather bag by my waist, and even the slender man who was carrying a bishop’s staff was looking my way, so I looked at Muriel and silently asked what to do.

“N~, maybe we should get a move on too.”

When I checked our surroundings at her prompting, the last of the guards and most of the other adventurers had already left the plaza following the transport corps, and Grace was already glaring at us as if she were telling us to “hurry up already”.

“… Yes, I guess we should.”

It was terrifying to be glared at by a beautiful lady so I meekly nodded and left the plaza with Zachs and the others.

As expected, there were no powerful monsters that could attack a large group outside of the city, so the different units proceeded without any problems, and we arrived at Grau village by sun down.

Since the escaping villagers were attacked outside the village, there were barely any blood stains left inside the village and there were no bodies found since they had been cut up by the ant’s strong jaws and taken back to their nest. Therefore, there were no traces left behind of the cruel attack, but… by the way Riberto was scowling and saying something under his breath, I had an idea that it had left quite an impression on him.

After confirming the various other damages to the food supply and livestock, the teams spent the night in Grau village and proceeded to the northern plains the next day by following the trail of broken grass and the giant ants’ huge footsteps and closed the distance to our destination which was their nest.