Another journey. A leisurely rickshaw ride.

Apparently, after an incredible amount of trial and error, they somehow succeeded in making miso and soy sauce.

Believe it or not, they even had natto… Despite not having any rice.

Japanese food without rice is… kind of rough in various ways. They've tweaked it a bit to go with manju dough, but still, it really needs rice…

… Honestly, I'm starting to think it might be worth increasing rice production just to export it to Wakoku. Not just regular rice, but glutinous rice too—for dango and daifuku. Food is important. Maybe I should send them some rice to study.

… Wait, hold on.

I can just use the dungeon's functions to eat Japanese food anyway.

I can have rice, mochi, dango, and daifuku using DP, so there's really no need for them to research anything. I guess I'll just leave things as they are… though maybe I'll let them have a little bit more.

Was this Wataru's plan all along? No… surely not. But this definitely feels like an effect of his [Super Luck]. Fine, I'll play along.

Anyway, having once again recognized the strategic commercial importance of rice, I took a bath and enjoyed the bedding at the inn. Oh, and the bath? Wataru and I had the big bath all to ourselves.

… As for the bedding—while it can't beat the divine bedding, it still felt more luxurious than the bedroll I usually used.

Maybe I should buy one for myself.

Breakfast was manju again. The filling this time was grilled eel in kabayaki sauce.

Oh, this one works. The sauce soaked into the manju dough, giving it a nice meat-bun vibe. An eel bun, I guess.

After finishing breakfast, we left the inn.

"Thanks for waiting, Kehma!"

"Oh, you're wearing sandals today, Rokuko?"

"I've had enough of those clunky geta. Sure, I liked how I could cling to you openly, but they were way too hard to walk in."

"… You can cling to me normally, y'know."

"I fully intend to!"

With a smug grin, Rokuko cheerfully clung to my arm.

"Wataru-saaan? Where are we headed today?"

"Ah. Today, we're going to a town near the village that's been suffering damage from the Yamata no Orochi. I'd like the two of you to wait there while Kehma-san and I handle things quickly."

He sounded pretty confident he could handle it even without me… and honestly, I'd rather stay in town too…

"Which is why—I've arranged this for our transport today!!"

What he had prepared… was a rickshaw.

"… Wataru, you're pulling this, right?"

"Yes. You three are going to ride while I pull you."

"We joked about having Wataru pull the carriage when we were heading to Pavuera, but I didn't think he'd actually go through with it…"

"That's exactly where the idea came from! Thinking it over, I realized I can run faster than horses anyway…"

Apparently, we were originally supposed to borrow a horse-drawn carriage, but he changed plans last minute. Can't believe they agreed to that.

"So come on! Hop in!! It's a three-seater!!!"

"Alright then, Rokuko, you sit in the middle. Nerune and I will sit on either side."

"Huh? It makes more sense if you sit in the middle, with Nerune and me on the sides—it's better for balance."

"I'll sit in the middle~—so I can crack the whip on Wataru if needed, okay~?"

I didn't have a strong preference either way, so Nerune—who seemed keen on that particular bit—ended up sitting in the middle.

… And while the speed was great, the shaking was awful. Rokuko and I ended up secretly sitting in the [Storage] dungeon while just faking it the whole time. Don't tell anyone.

We arrived at the target town a little after noon. It was smaller than Alcowel.

"Come to think of it, wouldn't it have been faster to just ride in Wataru's [Storage] and let him run solo?"

"Huh? You can put living things in [Storage]?!"

"Sure can. Otherwise, how would you store plant seeds and the like?"

Wataru looked shocked.

"Now that you mention it—!?"

Seems he really didn't know.

"I just assumed it wasn't possible…"

"I've heard merchants in the Holy Kingdom use slaves who've learned [Storage] to store massive inventories."

"That's… common knowledge!?"

"It can even be used to preserve people near death using the time-stop feature, so it's worth learning."

"… I wonder if there are people who've stored their ancestors (or themselves) like that to pass them down?"

Could be. I wouldn't be surprised.

"Like Hero Ishidaka or some godlike figure being preserved for the future… Hah! Maybe you, Kehma-san, as the founder of Beddhism, will be preserved too!?"

"Oh, nah. I plan to become a god eventually, so I'll be immortal without needing preservation."

"Wait!? Seriously!?"

"The divine beddings are for that exact purpose… Look, Rokuko is Haku-san's little sister, right? So she's gonna live a long time just like Haku-san. Get it now?"

"Ah… I see. So it's to stay with Rokuko. That's some love, man."

Wataru nodded, satisfied.

"If we can use it consecutively, maybe you should aim for godhood too, Wataru… I bet Nerune will live a long time too."

"Eh? Nerune-san isn't human?"

She's a dungeon monster, after all. Considering the dungeon-spawned mice live forever, Nerune probably does too… something like that.

"Hmmm, well, in that case, maybe I'll borrow the bedding from you sometime. But I also heard there's something called [Divine Armaments], so aiming for godhood on my own could work too!"

"Divine armaments, huh? Didn't know that was a thing."

Apparently, this world has all sorts of paths to divinity.

"Ahh~, If Wataru dies and I live on, I'll be sure to put your corpse to good use, so don't worry~?"

"… … If you become a necromancer, please make me your minion!"

"That sounds fun too~!"

… Is that really okay…? Well, if they're both fine with it, I guess I can let it slide.