「Forward March!」
The unit began to march in succession.
「Whoa, this is quite a jolt…」(Kazura)
While rocking at the walking Rata’s back, Kazura put his feet on the Rata’s side to balance himself.
Thanks to the saddle he wouldn’t fall down, but since there was no stirrup, it was hard to brace his feet.
If he would be riding like this for a long period of time, then it would be quite tiring.
「Kazura-sama, if riding in the Rata is unpleasant for you, then we will quickly prepare the wagon for you, so do not hesitate to inform us.」(Havel)
Havel, who led the reins, made an immediate response to Kazura’s words and forwarded a proposal to him.
However, what he meant by preparing the wagon, was by making the soldiers carry the tent and supplies themselves.
If Kazura replied, “prepare the wagon!” They would surely execute this order, but there was no doubt that the soldiers would look at him with cold eyes.
Compared to that, although it was more or less tiring, jolting atop of the Rata’s back seemed much more comfortable.
「Ah, no, it is fine like this…… Umm, but there is something that I want to know.」(Kazura)
While softly refusing Havel’s proposition, Kazura took this conversational opportunity to ask several question for Havel.
「Yes, you can ask me anything.」(Havel)
Havel, who was pulling the Rata’s rein, looked up to Kazira with a sociable smile. While having a somewhat good impression of him, Kazura continue his talk.
「Previously, I had heard that all off Arcadia is suffering from a large scale drought, but is there any other problem in this country besides food shortage?」(Kazura)
Although Isaac and Havel only entreated Kazura to help them relieve the severe famine, there wouldn’t be any harm to know beforehand if there were any other major problems.
On the occasion that Isteria’s feudal lord, Nelson, acknowledged that Kazura was Greysior, then it would be inevitable that he would be consulted not only about the famine but also about other problems.
In that case, to have some understanding about the domestic situation so that he could think of some countermeasure might be not something bad either.
「Other problems beside food shortage… Sometimes, heavy floods happened and caused a big problem. Every year, we lifted up prayers and offerings to Suipsior-sama and request him so that the flood won’t happened, however the difference between when the wishes were heard and when it didn’t were very extreme. We not only pray to Suipsior-sama, but we also maintain the river so the damage from the flood wouldn’t increase, but it would be useless when the heavy rain fall.」(Havel)
Hearing Havel’s story, Kazura recalled the story about flood that Valetta told him before.
In Valetta’s story, at the rainy seasons, the river would be overflowed and a flood would happen, but this occurrence seemed to not be limited only to Grisea Village.
For the flood to be a major problem inside Arcadia, then that means that the flood control technology was undeveloped so they couldn’t successfully formulate a countermeasure for it.
To lift up prayers and give offerings to the god of water, Suipsior, to deal with the condition, was, to Kazura, a useless unscientific countermeasure, however this was the norm of this world.
「Flood, is it?...... This is really a big problem. Is there still any other problem?」(Kazura)
「Yes, other than the flood, there is a strange disease that broke out amongst the sailors……」(Havel)
Thus, while Kazura was in the middle of travelling to Isteria he heard many things from Havel who lead the reins. His head was filled with preparation for the countermeasures of the various problems that occurred in the Arcadia.
✦✧✦✧
Kazura received explanation from Havel about the various problems that were occurred in Arcadia while rocking atop the Rata for 4 hours.
The unit that Isaac commanded had stopped marching to pitch the tents.
The sun had greatly slanted in the sky, maybe in 2 hours the darkness would soon envelop everything.
While en route, they had several 10 minute breaks interposed between travel, however since Kazura was always atop the Rata, he grumbled that his buttocks hurts.
After Havel helped him get down from the Rata, Kazura stretched his waist while rubbing his buttocks. Valetta, who followed behind him, approached him together with Valin and give him a leather canteen with water.
「Kazura-san, you must be tired. Here, please drink some water.」(Valetta)
「Thank you very much. Riding a Rata is surprisingly tiring……」(Kazura)
Kazura, who was completely exhausted after riding for a long time, gave his thanks to Valetta as he received the canteen and gulped down the water.
At Kazura’s surroundings, the soldiers unloaded the tent and cooking implements from the wagon and then began to make camp preparation in a hurry.