Chapter 171: An Awkward Journey

The journey from Coalora to Oraria had been on foot, earning enough money along the way to cover their travel expenses. That was the normal way for adventurers to travel. Traveling by carriage was considered a luxury reserved for nobles, merchants, and others who had a certain amount of money to spare.

As adventurers, they sometimes accepted requests to escort such carriages, but it had never occurred to them to rent one for themselves. Qiu Nuoya found the idea rather exciting.

However, seemingly oblivious to his growing anticipation, Warren asked Igor, "Aren’t we going to ride Long this time?"

"Huh?"

"I’m not particularly good with horses, so I’d honestly prefer a carriage. But if we ride Long, it won’t cost us anything, and we’d reach the royal capital in an instant, right?"

That’s true!

"I thought about that too, but there’s also what happened last time. Long stands out way too much..."

That was true too!

Long was impossible to ignore simply by existing. If he suddenly started flying through the sky, there was no doubt he would frighten everyone along the road.

"It would be one thing if all that happened was that he attracted attention, but if you ride a dragon all the way to the royal capital, there’s a good chance people will mistake it for a dragon attacking the capital and start attacking you. You should absolutely avoid that."

"Haha, is it really that serious...? Come to think of it, just receiving information that a dragon has appeared is enough for the country to immediately summon high-ranking adventurers from all over and issue an order to subjugate it. I suppose they really would be on high alert."

"So that’s how it is. Then I guess we’ll have to use a horse-drawn carriage, or maybe just horses. What about you guys? Can you ride?"

Qiu Nuoya shook his head.

He had never had any experience riding a horse in his entire life. Then again, in modern society, he imagined that people who had actually ridden horses were probably a tiny minority.

But apparently, in this world, people who could not ride were the minority.

Warren and Viktor both nodded, which meant everyone except Qiu Nuoya knew how to ride.

You’ve got to be kidding me!

"Should I learn how to ride too?"

"Well, if you’re going to continue working as an adventurer, being able to ride would certainly expand the kinds of jobs you can take. Escort missions, for example, often require both riding and carriage-driving skills. But you’re a Tamer who can even tame a dragon, so I’m sure getting a horse to obey you should be easy enough, right?"

"Is that really how it works...?"

It was true that Qiu Nuoya was a Tamer, but horses were not monsters. He had also heard that the types of monsters a Tamer could control varied from person to person.

For example, Tamers who specialized in large magical beasts were apparently sometimes avoided by small animals. Qiu Nuoya had also heard that Tamers who were favored by reptilian monsters were not necessarily well-liked by beast-type monsters.

So there was no guarantee that just because Qiu Nuoya could tame a dragon, a horse would take to him as well.

At present, Qiu Nuoya could only control two creatures, a Slime and a dragon. He still had no idea what his particular strengths or affinities as a Tamer were, but Kinana’s Baekho had recently turned its back on him, so he certainly could not tame every animal with ease.

Besides, Qiu Nuoya was not particularly athletic, either. Even if a horse was willing to let him ride it, he had no confidence that he would be able to master horseback riding anytime soon.

"In that case, I guess we’ll have to go with a carriage. Let’s find out how much it would cost to rent one, or maybe we should consider buying one."

At Igor’s suggestion, they decided to head to the Adventurer’s Guild together.

Viktor had no particular reason to go to the Adventurer’s Guild, but as usual, he came along anyway. The four of them walked together, with Qiu Nuoya and Warren in front and Igor and Viktor following behind.

As they made their way down the street, Qiu Nuoya began to feel increasingly uncomfortable. It seemed as though people passing by were staring at them.

"Um... It feels like we’re getting a lot of attention. Is it just my imagination?"

"There’s no way it’s your imagination. We’re the party that conquered Dungeon Castle, a dungeon that had remained unconquered for years. There’s no way we wouldn’t stand out. Viktor is also naturally very noticeable because of his appearance, and then there’s me." Igor then pointed to the ears that poked up from the top of his head.

Beastmen were a normal part of this world, but they were still less common than humans. And as a bear beastman, Igor stood a head taller than most humans, so he certainly did attract attention.

"But right now, I think you’re the one getting the most attention out of all of us."

"Huh? Why?"

"Why are you asking that now? Of course everyone’s going to be interested in a beautiful boy who tamed a dragon and was important enough for the Saintess herself to come all the way here just to see you."

A beautiful boy...

Being described like that made Qiu Nuoya feel strangely embarrassed.

After all, his handsome face was a gift from God. It was not the face he had inherited from his parents or the face he had originally been born with.

In a sense, Qiu Nuoya felt as though this face were an avatar. The saying that even a beautiful face became boring after three days applied to him in a strange way. He had become so accustomed to seeing this face that it felt more like the face of a virtual-reality character he had been looking at for years.

Because of that, praise for his appearance never quite felt like praise directed at him personally.