Onward to Spartia

The sun rose, and the pitch-black sky finally brightened enough to see.

Azu stood and filled her lungs with the crisp morning air.

Then she slowly let it out.

The sunlight was warm on her skin.

Azu didn't mind this feeling. The air that marked the start of a new day.

"Azu-chan, could you fetch some water from the stream?"

"Sure. I'll be right back."

Azu pulled out a large waterskin and headed for the nearby stream.

She brought her sword along, just in case.

This wasn't the safety of a town. You never knew what might happen.

The stream near the cave was only about as wide as Azu's palm, but it served well enough for filling a waterskin.

She held the opening against the current and let the flowing water do the work.

It was a bit cold, but pleasantly so.

She wanted to splash her face to shake off the drowsiness, but she'd been told that wasn't a good idea without purification magic.

Come to think of it, Elza had used a purification miracle before they'd gone into the lake that one time.

Azu checked that the waterskin was about half full and lifted it.

The weight would have been too much for an ordinary girl, but by now Azu had gained considerable strength from hunting powerful monsters.

Still, it was awkward for someone her size to carry. She tied the opening shut and hefted it in both arms.

The stream wasn't far from the cave.

She was almost within sight of the cave when something to her right caught her eye.

A single tree stood there. And hiding behind it, a rabbit was watching her.

Azu stopped. She let go of the waterskin and moved her hand to her sword.

The waterskin hit the ground and water began leaking, but Azu ignored it.

The rabbit emerged from behind the tree, revealing a large horn growing from its forehead.

A Horned Rabbit.

Vicious and carnivorous despite its small, innocent appearance.

The Horned Rabbit was coiling power into its hind legs.

Azu waited for the moment it would spring.

The Horned Rabbit leaped.

Ten of Azu's strides separated them, but the creature closed that distance in a single bound.

It was aiming for her neck. The carotid artery.

Punch through a major blood vessel with that horn, and size didn't matter.

Azu read the Horned Rabbit's trajectory precisely, drew her sword, and lopped its head off as it closed in.

The Sealed Sword Grungaus and Azu's blade work performed exactly as intended.

The rabbit's head went spinning through the air, followed by a trail of blood.

Azu sidestepped the spray, then grabbed the body by its hind legs and held it up.

With the neck pointing down, the blood drained out.

Bleeding it like this removed the gamey smell from the meat.

She'd gotten herself a nice catch, but then she noticed the waterskin on the ground, its water being steadily absorbed into the dirt. Azu sighed.

In the end, she handed the bled rabbit to Elza first and went back to fill the waterskin a second time.

"Starting the day in style～"

Elza said cheerfully as she took it.

She'd joked that if it had been a Headhunter Rabbit instead, it would have been Azu-chan's head flying. Not exactly a funny one.

Azu finished refilling the waterskin and went to help Elza, who had already finished butchering the rabbit.

All Azu had to do was tend the fire and boil water.

She watched the lidded pot.

The water came to a rolling boil.

This pot was for drinking water.

Once it was boiling, she moved it onto a flat rock.

She filled the cooking pot with water and set it over the fire.

Elza added herbs and wild greens she'd foraged nearby, along with the Horned Rabbit's meat.

"Azu-chan, when you're traveling like this, you should look for edible plants and cook them like this. It helps prevent illness."

Elza taught Azu which herbs and greens were safe to eat.

Azu had done plenty of foraging back in her old life, but the plants in this region were different from what she knew.

Eating nothing but meat, especially smoked meat, would throw your body off balance and make you sick.

In the worst case, that alone could kill you.

Nutritional imbalance was something a healing miracle couldn't fix. You had to manage it day by day.

Elza felt Azu's upper arm.

"Mm. You're filling out nicely. When we first met, you were pretty skinny, Azu-chan."

"Was I?"

Now that she thought about it, Azu had been eating a lot more lately.

She didn't think she'd gotten fat, but still.

In truth, when Master had first met Azu, she'd been on the verge of malnutrition.

The slave merchant had fed her properly, at least, and by the time the two met, her condition had improved considerably.

But if Azu had been sold any later, the damage might have left lasting effects.

Azu knew nothing of this. She busied herself skimming the foam off the surface of the broth.

Simple, repetitive tasks like this were her favorite.

The only seasoning was salt. They'd have to hope the rabbit gave the broth some flavor.

Alexia woke up first.

She took a cup of hot apple vinegar from Azu, then glanced over at Master, still asleep.

Alexia walked over and started nudging him in the back with her foot.

"Wha… Alexia-san! That's a bit…"

"This is what he gets for being the last one up."

Azu rushed to stop her, and Master finally began to stir.

"Something's wrong with my back… Did I not have enough blankets underneath?"

He rubbed at his back, puzzled.

Azu couldn't exactly tell him about Alexia's kicking, so she just handed him his drink.

She apologized to him over and over in her head.

Alexia, meanwhile, was sipping her drink without a care in the world.

She'd apparently taken a liking to the hot apple vinegar.

After that, Elza ladled out the soup into bowls and passed them around.

They dipped the stale bread into the soup to eat it.

A simple breakfast, but having rabbit meat in it made all the difference.

When Elza mentioned that Azu had caught it, Master praised her.

They put out the fire, collected the Horned Rabbit's pelt and horn, and finished their departure preparations.

"Right. Let's make it to Spartia today."

At Master's word, they set off once more.