Chapter 78: Life on the Road

That was true. If Viktor were traveling alone, he could use his teleportation magic to go almost anywhere. He only had to travel on foot when heading somewhere he had never visited before.

Under those circumstances, there was rarely any reason for him to cook and eat outdoors like this.

Even while camping, if he really needed something, he could simply teleport to the nearest city and buy it. There was no way his cooking skills would improve under those conditions.

As for the people of this world, they generally did not cook at home very often. That did not mean they never cooked, of course, but buying prepared food from shops was extremely common.

Perhaps that was partly because there were so many people who made a living selling prepared dishes. There was also a surprisingly wide variety of prepared-food shops, so Qiu Nuoya thought it was actually a pretty convenient system.

Tonight’s dinner was a soup made with Dire Wolf’s meat. The meat was a little tough, but the longer he chewed it, the more its savory flavor came out.

Yes, it was delicious.

As Qiu Nuoya sipped his soup, a strand of hair fell loosely across the side of his face. His hair had gotten quite long. He would have to cut it soon.

He brushed it back, but after doing so several times, Viktor came over beside him holding a simple hair tie.

"Would you like me to tie your hair back?"

"I’d rather cut it. Do you think I could cut it myself?"

"Would you really cut such beautiful hair?"

"But it’s getting in the way. Come to think of it, your hair is long too, Viktor. Doesn’t it bother you?"

"I’m used to it by now. Besides, people say that magical power resides in one’s hair, so most mages tend to grow their hair long."

Oh? So that’s how it worked?

Thinking back, Qiu Nuoya realized that almost every mage he had met so far had indeed had long hair.

"Maybe I should grow mine out..." As Qiu Nuoya said that while tugging lightly on his bangs, Viktor gathered a small lock of his hair between his fingers and kissed it. "I think you’d look good with any hairstyle, Nuoya."

Warren who had been eating across from them froze with a startled expression.

Igor merely gave an awkward smile and said nothing.

"Viktor! Don’t do things like that in front of everyone!"

"Would it be all right if there were no one else around?" Viktor smiled sweetly.

The meaning behind that smile left no room for argument. Qiu Nuoya lost his words and could only stammer awkwardly.

It was true that Viktor had already declared his intention to pursue him, but did he really have to make suggestive comments like that in front of everyone?

It was so embarrassing!

"Then perhaps next time we’re alone..."

Seriously, he really doesn’t hold back at all!

"We’re not doing anything even when we’re alone! Just tie my hair!"

Still smiling brightly, Viktor began arranging Qiu Nuoya’s hair. Before Qiu Nuoya knew it, Viktor had tied it into a rather cute style.

It certainly kept his hair out of the way, but there was no way Qiu Nuoya could do this himself.

"From now on, I’ll tie Nuoya’s hair every morning, so you should grow it out." Viktor looked extremely pleased with himself.

Every morning, huh?

Well, if he simply left his hair alone, it would keep growing anyway. If he decided to grow it out, then this was probably what would happen.

Viktor clearly wanted him to keep his hair long. Qiu Nuoya was still undecided about whether he actually wanted that.

After they finished eating and the sun went down, they set up camp. Ideally, they would stay at an inn, but some of the distances between cities were simply too great, so camping was unavoidable.

Normally, adventurers camping outdoors would take turns staying awake to guard against nighttime attacks. However, once they secured a place to sleep, Viktor would set up a defensive barrier, and Qiu Nuoya would create a slime barrier around the outside of it. That allowed them to sleep safely without keeping watch.

Perhaps because slimes had almost no offensive power, their defensive abilities were surprisingly high. The higher ranked species of slimes in particular were notoriously difficult to kill despite producing few useful materials. Adventurers generally avoided them whenever they encountered them. After all, slimes did not normally attack people.

Mochi was currently evolving into one of those higher species. After being attacked by an orc, Mochi had once reverted to an ordinary slime. However, throughout their journey, Mochi had gradually absorbed other creatures.

Qiu Nuoya had also been feeding Mochi monster organs almost every day, even though ordinary slimes were not supposed to eat such things.

As a result, Mochi had become somewhat more aggressive, which left Qiu Nuoya rather bewildered.

[ Nuoya～ If someone attacks us, it’s okay if we eat them, right? ]

[ Eat them, eat them～ ]

[ I only want to eat the tasty ones～ ]

The slimes all said whatever they pleased and seemed genuinely excited about staying on night watch.

Normally, they slept inside Qiu Nuoya’s robe while everyone was awake, so apparently they had plenty of energy to spare. Since the slimes were so happy about it, Qiu Nuoya had simply told them, "You can do whatever you want."

However, there were times when Qiu Nuoya would look outside the barrier in the morning and find the ground thoroughly trampled.

Whenever he asked Mochi what had happened, all he ever got were vague reports.

[ I ate something tasty～ ]

[ I want to eat more. ]

That made it very difficult for Qiu Nuoya to figure out what had actually happened.

If something ever managed to break through the slime barrier, Viktor’s defensive barrier would activate. If a monster or bandit was strong enough to get that far, they would have to deal with it themselves.

Fortunately, nothing capable of breaking through Qiu Nuoya’s slime barrier had appeared so far. So, their journey remained completely peaceful.