小嫂子的味道

\'No, that might not be the best idea,\' I thought, snapping myself back to reality.

While I can provide Challes with such injuries that will make him unable to attack us and also self-harm myself, then when those adventures will come to see what happened I\'ll state that a monster or a wild animal ambushed us.

But there\'s a catch, this might be an open area that is highly adaptable for monsters but the chances of even one of them appearing are slim to none. As are in open fields indeed but this is a major trading and traveling route which connects multiple cities to the capital.

And, of course, the kingdom had made sure to clear any monsters or animals in this area because they can harm the travelers which will not be good and the kingdom will see a backlash both in reputation and money—since some traders come here from other kingdoms also.

If I said I and Challes were attacked by a monster and by the time they came here to see, it vanished into thin air…that\'ll look hell suspicious as hell.

\'I need to think of something else; a way by which I can disarm Challes—in case he\'d regained his mana, and in a way that doesn\'t make me look suspicious.\'

"What are you spacing out at, kid? If you gonna take me there then do it quickly, I can\'t deny that it\'s cold in here," said Challes as he begin to stand up—his hands and legs still tied in the cuffs.

\'Cold, huh?\'

As he was on one knee and was about to stand up when "Gwahhhh!!" a scream came out of his mouth. "What the hell are you doing?" he shouted as he gritted his teeth and fell.

"Nothing major. Just freezing your leg so you won\'t cause any trouble later," I stated.

"How in the hell is that not \'major\'," he groaned as he held his right leg tightly with his hands.

This was okay. His pants will cover the ice burn I\'ll give him so it won\'t be a problem. According to loli_pop\'s novel, Challes\'s core fighting technique depended on speed and without his legs, he won\'t be able to do that.

He was not much of a mage so there was no problem with spells; even if he did try to do something with spells I\'ll manage it. His sword arts were a problem since I was not good at them but not it has been taken care of.

"Now, now, get up quickly. I haven\'t made it too cold so your leg won\'t fall off; it\'s just enough to keep you from pulling any moves," I said as I patted him on the shoulder and then jumped out of the wagon.

"I said that my mana isn\'t recovering, why you can\'t understand!!"

There\'s no need to answer that; I\'ll do what I think is right and will keep me alive. That\'s all it is, as simple as that.

I dissolved the stone chains which were keeping him chained to the ground but I let the hand and leg cuffs remain as they were.

"Come on, we shouldn\'t let them wait," I suggested and then dragged him out of the wagon.

At first, he fell to the ground but then realizing that there was no other choice, he slowly stood up.

"I don\'t need to tell you that what happened here should only remain between us, now, do I?"

"Tch…I\'ve said it before but I\'ll say it again; I don\'t want to involve others in this, so I won\'t tell anyone," Challes asserted as he looked at me with disgust and disappointment.

"Good, now let\'s go."

***

"Hey, Ichigo! You\'re back!" said Spene as he gazed upon me and Challes.

"Apparently, yeah."

"Mr. Slave, you\'re here too," he exclaimed; I don\'t know if he meant to be respectful or was making fun of Challes by calling him \'Mr. Slave\'.

Challes, however, never replied to them even when they showered him with multiple questions and tried to start a conversation. He just went near the tree—under which the bonfire was lit, and sat there leaning against its trunk.

Eventually, they gave up trying to ask anything. Though there was one thing I was wondering about, Xara—the girl who said to me to bring Challes here, never tried to talk to him, not even once.

There was another thing I was glad of also; they didn\'t ask me anything about him like, who he is and why I\'m carrying him around. They didn\'t ask me about my background either.

A part of it was probably because I didn\'t join their conversation—when even the driver was talking with them—and only replied with short words whenever they asked a question. Then after a few minutes, I went to sleep.

From what I found, we were camping under this tree and everyone except the driver was going to sleep there—the driver was going to keep a watch at night since while there was no threat of monsters here, bandits did sometimes attack.

And to my surprise, all of them really slept after an hour of talking and sharing stories with each other. I mean, no matter how trusted a person can be, how can you sleep without any care like this?

What if the driver killed them in their sleep and ran away with their money and stuff?

I, of course, haven\'t actually fallen asleep even when I said it before. I was just pretending to be asleep so that I won\'t have to answer their questions. I had already done that mistake in the wagon before and I was not going to repeat it.

Now, whether it be because of the driver or Challes; I was on my guard the rest of the night and never let loose of my consciousness even once.

And yeah, Challes also didn\'t sleep. I mean, he possibly couldn\'t have in that condition even if he wanted to, so…

Fortunately, nothing concerning happened at night and the next day, we left for the town once again.