Chapter 258: I Was Only Away for a Few Dozen Minutes, Yet When I Returned to the Bus Carriage the Number of People Had Somehow Increased…

I left the royal capital, passed through the cluster of tents, crossed the wheat field, and cut across the grassland on my way back to the bus carriage.

When I reached the top of the final gentle hill before the bus carriage, I noticed something abnormal.

"Wh-What is that..."

On the side of the bus carriage, a picture of a capybara so realistic it could be mistaken for a photograph had been drawn.

When?

It had been dark so I hadn’t noticed, but it hadn’t been there when we left the Glans, right?

This morning I had also walked away from the bus carriage, so I hadn’t noticed at all.

It was far too realistic.

Cabbages, apples, and green grass were drawn in the background, and those too looked so real you could almost smell them.

Could the painting techniques of this world produce something like this?

Even if it were possible, there were only two people among us capable of such a thing. And the only one with a motive to draw a capybara was one person.

When I reached the bus carriage I spoke to Lucia, whose location I didn’t know, with my heart.

’Lucia.’

’What is it?’

’There’s a capybara drawn on the side of the bus carriage.’

’Nn. I drew it yesterday when I put the bath on top.’

’Ah! Now that you mention it, the light-up sound at that time was "Kapi!" instead of "Pika!"’

’Because Masaharu and the female knight said they would draw a crest so people would know who it was, I imitated them.’

’I see. Certainly this makes it obvious at a glance that Capybara-sama is riding, so it’s clearly our bus carriage.’

’Nn. Even if we get lost, people can tell by the scent and the appearance.’

’Scent?’

’Unn. Masaharu can’t tell, but for beastmen a strong scent is drifting around.’

’Convenient. There are also many children who can’t read, so this is good.’

In front of the bus carriage, including the children who looked like they might get lost, everyone was eating.

Rui, who had transferred yesterday, seemed to be being looked after by Dura-san.

I headed toward Esty-san, who was beside the bus carriage.

Esty-san had either already finished eating or was putting it off; right now she seemed to be preparing for business. She was taking luggage out of the cargo bed under the bus carriage, checking the condition and numbers, and packing them into baskets.

From today everyone would be very busy, but the busiest would especially be Esty-san.

As the one most familiar with Lowblec, Esty-san would lead everyone and guide them around the city today. After that, she would sell the furs she had brought from Margolant to make money, and with that money buy other goods.

Rafilia-san had also been to Lowblec before, but she only knew the area around the church.

Iria also knew the state of the city to a certain extent, but she needed to recruit Crito participants together with me.

Therefore, Esty-san in the morning was extremely busy with guiding and business.

"Esty-san. Here. Due to various circumstances I received gold coins, so please use them for something."

I took the gold coins out of my arm covers.

Since Esty-san understood money and prices the best, if I left all the money to her she would put it to effective use.

"These are Lowblec gold coins. Twenty of them. Such a large sum—what happened?"

"I rescued a girl who was being attacked by bandits and this is the thanks."

"Hoaah. Amazing. In that case I’ll buy clothes for Rui-san, and use the remainder effectively for something."

"Yes. But since there are gym uniforms and bloomers, clothes can wait."

"You just want to see her thighs, don’t you?"

"How rude. I also want to see her butt."

"Really, Masaharu-san is faithful to his desires. But appearing like that in the royal capital will stand out too much, so clothes are necessary."

I parted from Esty-san and went to Rafilia-san, receiving bread and soup. The saltiness of the dried fish had soaked into the soup and it was exquisite. Delicious.

We had also brought food. There were probably small animals in the forest right next to us, but again it was the king’s private forest, so hunting without permission would get us scolded.

We had also brought grass for Capybara-sama. I had thought it would be fine to freely eat grass, but according to Iria it was not allowed. Grazing lands were properly designated, and shepherds and cowherds let their animals eat grass only in permitted places.

Besides, because it was winter, rather than feeding them withered grass it would be better to bring green grass from the Glans settlement, so we had brought plenty.

Incidentally, grass did not increase with Rafilia-san’s skill. Probably because Rafilia-san did not recognize green grass as food.

"Hm?"

While lining up in the second-helping queue and stroking Mī’s throat from behind, I felt a strange sense of discomfort.

Huh?

Rafilia-san was distributing food. Letree-san was helping beside her.

The Lian sisters were receiving second helpings of soup. Behind them were two capybara girls, then Mī, then me.

Behind me three more capybara girls had arrived.

A little farther away four more capybara girls were energetically gnawing cabbage with pleasant sounds.

Even farther away six capybara girls were in a circle feeding cabbage to Capybara-sama.

Fullru and the fairies, who did not need food, were nowhere to be seen. The gaps between the trees in the forest were sparkling, so the fairies were probably flying around.

Iferaski and Ranjou seemed to be running around the surroundings. Apparently it was better for them to divide a small amount of food into multiple meals, so they finished eating early. Their behavioral pattern was to take a walk, return, and then resume eating.

Mū and Shiro were eating on tree branches.

Shepa was licking soup that had stuck to Petit Letree’s cheek.

Was this the usual scene?

"Hey, Mī. Has anything about everyone’s situation changed?"

"Nya? Nothing has changed, nya."

"Is that so?"

Hmm. Mī didn’t seem to find it strange, but I felt a sense of discomfort. Was it because Rui had joined?

Was the sense of discomfort because a bloomer-wearing female high schooler was next to Dura-san, who was completely mimicking an average medieval European citizen?

Because the Lian sisters had left, the line advanced. The capybara girls were having their second-helping vegetables torn for them.

Hm?

...Ah!

"I got it!"

"What’s wrong, nya?"

"There are two capybara girls in front of the line and three behind. Over there six are in a circle feeding Capybara-sama. Over here four are gnawing cabbage."

"What about it, nya?"

"That’s a total of fifteen. There should only be twelve in total, yet there are fifteen!"

"Nyaa. Masaharu can do calculations—amazing, nya. Mī only knows that there are lots of little ones, nya."

"Even without being able to calculate, you should at least notice that the number somehow increased, right?"

"I didn’t notice, nya..."

Eeeeh...

The fact that no one pointed it out means it’s something we don’t need to worry about?

There are five dog girls with sharp senses of smell, so they shouldn’t fail to notice that unfamiliar children have increased...

I carefully observed the capybara girls whose faces were turned this way one by one.

That’s Kemolori, that’s Bara, that one over there is Laka.

Hm?

Hmmm?

The group of four gnawing cabbage—who are they?

One of them has her butt turned this way so I can’t tell who she is, but the three facing this way I have no recollection of. The one with her butt turned this way seems to be offering cabbage to the other three.

I had gotten to the point where the faces and names of all the capybara girls matched, but those girls look unfamiliar.

Because the line advanced I received soup while asking Rafilia-san.

"Who are those girls over there gnawing cabbage? The number has increased, right?"

"Yes. This morning Baka-chan brought them."

"Baka?"

Brought them?

What does that mean?

Baka is... the one with her butt turned this way, feeding the three unfamiliar girls?

While approaching that capybara girl after receiving soup, I spoke with my heart’s voice.

’Oii. Lucia.’

’What is it.’

’Those girls—I don’t recognize them.’

’They were by the river so I brought them.’

’I see. You brought them...’

It was an extremely simple answer.

’Did you make new friends?’

’Unn. They were swimming in that river over there.’

I see. They aren’t wearing slave collars, so these girls are wild capybara girls.

She happened to encounter them and invited them to breakfast.

Hm?

Something’s strange about these girls.

They’re small with round faces...

Their entire bodies are covered in brown fur, and they have small ears and charming round eyes so they look like capybara girls, but...

"Ah! They have tails!"

I could see it because I had come close, but on their butts they had flat tails like hanpen.

If they were capybara girls they shouldn’t have tails and their butts should be round.

"Hello, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you—"

"I’m Ooi Masaharu. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you—human—"

The fact that they didn’t give their names means they don’t have names.

"What race are you?"

"...Race—?"

Ah. The pattern of not understanding.

Major races like horse girls and dog girls have names defined by humans, but other beastmen are apparently lumped together and called mixed-breeds.

’Lucia. These girls aren’t capybara girls.’

’Eh?’

’Look, they have tails.’

’Aren’t they tailed capybara girls?’

’No, I don’t think they’re capybara girls. Overall they’re smaller and rounder. I think they’re related to mice so racially they’re close to capybara girls, but...’

Hmm.

I don’t have animal knowledge, so I don’t know.

Ah. That’s right.

Speaking of new companions, there’s Rui-chan who transferred yesterday.

I should ask that girl.

After stroking the heads of the three new faces, I headed toward Rui and Dura-san.