LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 65- Caravan
During the five day long trek, I skimmed through my memories of the anime a few times in hope of finding any useful information about this world’s human society.
Regrettably, there was none. The anime’s focus was either on Kumoko in the Great Elroe Labyrinth or Shun’s group in the royal capital and academy.
Except for the little bit where Kumoko cosplayed as a divine beast in Sariella, almost nothing was mentioned about the social setting of the world.
But that doesn’t mean this little review was a waste of time though. On the contrary, it actually served as a well-needed reality check for me.
The days I spent fleeing from dragons and undead really messed up my perception of strength.
After going through the fights shown in the series, I realized that I’m actually pretty strong by the standards of this world!
Like, I just compared my status to those shown in the anime and discovered that I’m already well into the ranks of the legendary class monsters.
Not only that, I can also hold myself against all other monsters of the same rank with relative ease. Well, except for Miss Demon Lord, of course.
If I cleverly utilize all the cards I hid at the bottom of the box and pull out all stops, I could easily reduce a city to a mass graveyard in mere minutes.
That would attract the attention of a furious Mr Dragon God and maybe even the current Hero though, so I’d rather not participate in any such wide-scale stunts at the moment.
It’s not like I’m a fan of indiscriminate killings, y’know?
Wouldn’t it be more interesting to mess with the elves or pick a fight with a few ancient dragons rather than killing a few weak humans?
I’m not being arrogant here. Evolution just grants monsters waaay too much of an advantage over humans!
Already reached your full potential and unable to progress anymore? Just shed your body and get a better one!
Low growth rate? Yeaah… you might wanna go on a few mass murder sprees so that you can get your next evolution as soon as possible!
I mean, just look at me! I hatched just a few months ago, yet my stats are already higher than 90% of this world’s creatures!
My ruler skills and titles might have played a huge role in this rapid ascension, but no matter how you view it, they’re still part of my strength.
By making the best out of them, I became this strong just by slaughtering a few hundreds thousands of weak marine creatures.
So it’s quite difficult for me to arouse any interest in humans, y’know? The psychological discomfort factor also prevents me from killing them unless it’s the last resort.
What about elves, you ask? Those are a whole ‘nother story!
Fucking with arrogant, prideful, and obnoxious pricks is and will always be an incredibly fun activity everyone can freely indulge in!
I’m getting side tracked again here.
Basically, what I wanna say is: I’ve made much more progress than I expected in a short amount of time.
So as long as I don’t mess with some specific beings or enter certain restricted areas, I’m pretty much free to do whatever I want.
That’s why my attitude towards this whole first contact with humans thing is quite carefree.
From now on and until Oka is born, I’ll view everything as just another part of a long-term sightseeing trip.
Think of my time with humans as a short roleplay game where my goal is to create a solid human identity in case I need it in the future.
That’s why even though I could just teleport to the suspected caravan, I followed behind the tracks in a very leisurely manner.
But that doesn’t actually mean I took a long time to catch up. In fact, the first carriage entered my sphere’s range in pretty much no time at all!
God damn, I love system stats!
Taking a quick look at Sage’s clock, I’m surprised to learn that only six hours have passed since I came across this road.
Since that was in the afternoon, then those humans should soon stop and begin their preparations for the night…
And sure enough, the first human appeared in my sphere just a moment later. He was squatting next to a tree, setting up what I assume is an alarm of some sort.
There were a few more bells and a bag of powder in his knapsack, likely a monster replant of some sort.
Taking a few more steps forward, I saw even more adventurers through my sphere.
A group of them was busy setting up tents, another one was making bonfires and preparing cooking utensils, and the last was responsible for tending to the horses.
Overlooking all of that was a rough-looking middle-aged man in a light, worn out set of leather armor.
He had a huge two-handed sword sheathed on his back and two small round shields attached to his forearms.
Judging by how the other guards are treating him, I temporarily designated him as the escort team leader.
Honestly, this guy’s image just screamed berserker, so it was really hard to believe he’s actually a leader figure at first.
Also, his getup looks kinda strange, but hey! Who am I to judge? I myself am a loli that uses a pair of bizarre self-created weapons, after all.
Standing next to him was whom I’d assume is the leader of the merchants.
He wore an ill-fitting expensive suit over his plump body… his getup basically screams I’m an isekai greedy merchant.
However, the sharp gleam in his wise eyes says otherwise. My intuition tells me this man is undoubtedly a veteran with decades of experience in the profession!
I unhurriedly walked up behind the two men, bypassing all alarms and traps the adventurers had using my sphere.
Not a single person batted an eye at the clearly unknown girl with weird colored hair casually strolling through their camp, all because I had Mischief on.
I tried to listen in on their conversation, but as expected, I didn’t understand a word.
Yeah… this is just a waste of time. I might as well go inspect the caravan and search for a way to learn the language.
As far as I can see, this caravan consists of a total of ten luxurious horse-drawn carriages and three normal ones.
The former were all loaded with a variety of spices, silks, and fabrics, which I guess are the merchant’s, while the latter were pretty much empty, probably for the adventurers.
The wares were of incredibly high quality though. Well, that’s if the analysis results I got from Sage and Appraisal are to be trusted.
Connecting the dots, I came to an obvious conclusion. These merchants are most likely part of a famous chamber of commerce that specifically deals with nobles.
They’re proper bigshots, basically!
Continuing along that line of thought, I can safely assume that their hired escorts should be very strong among humans, right?
But… they’re so weak though!
Their stats range from 500 to 800 at most, except for the berserker dude who has over 1000 in his defensive and offensive stats.
Is my guess wrong…? Maybe those fabrics aren’t so expensive and this caravan is actually just a regular one?
Hmmm? What’s that?
I was about to stop meaninglessly snooping around when a large inconspicuous ‘crate’ placed at the back of the last loaded carriage drew my attention.
The reason why is because it isn’t actually a crate, it’s a small iron cage disguised as one!
Its four sides were covered with boards made of an expensive type of wood and a few layers of shiny expensive-looking fabric were placed atop of it.
This expensive getup is probably there just to scare off anyone who considers inspecting it. Messing with nobles in a monarchy is a one way ticket to hell, after all.
The thing is, this disguise is totally useless against my sphere. I saw through it as if I was looking through crystal clear glass.
Inside the cage, there was a malnourished little girl, not more than ten years of age, sitting on the ground with her back leaning against the iron bars.
She barely had any clothing on, and her body was littered with numerous hideous-looking scars.
All four of her limbs were chained to the bars and a heavy iron collar was wrapped around her neck, as if she was some kind of feral animal.
But let alone struggle, her body didn’t even twitch.
If it wasn’t for her shallow labored breathing and the barely noticeable undulations of her chest, I would’ve thought I was looking at a corpse!
The expression on her face -or rather lack thereof- is one I had never thought I’d see outside of movies and anime.
She just stared at the ground with dead eyes and a numb expression, as if her soul was sucked out of her.
Looking at that childish but pale and lifeless face, I suddenly felt very uncomfortable for some reason.
Deep inside me, I believed that such a childish face shouldn't never have such an expression on it...
This scene was inhumane even by my standards, but just a peek at her status explained everything.
The words Half-Demon were glaringly displayed right next to her race entry.
Knowing about the deep enmity between humans and demons, I’d be the dumbest fucker out there if I didn’t understand what’s going on.
I don’t exactly know where they’re bringing her to, but I can roughly guess how she got here in the first place…
After roughly grasping the ins and outs of the situation, I made a split second decision to take her for myself after I’m done with the caravan.
Hey! Don’t give me that weird look! I’m not a lolicon nor am I doing this out of the goodness of my heart, okay? And I certainly won't be opening an orphanage for lost kids!
This girl is just way too valuable to be used as a fat noble's plaything or as entertainment in some gladiator arena battle.
Right now, she’s just a living corpse that feels nothing but despair, or in other words, she’s prime material for training an unconditionally loyal subordinate!
If I rescue her, protect her, and give her some love and care, she’d end up worshiping me as her one true god sooner or later.
Sure, that’ll take a lot of time, effort, and resources, but I believe it’s worth it.
Her demonic bloodline gives her higher than average stats while also guaranteeing a beautiful appearance when she grows up.
This makes her very fitting for the role of a battle maid or a strict secretary.
You see, as my strength increases, so will my responsibilities. I’ll eventually have subordinates of my own, and maybe even an entire organization to manage!
However, that means I’d actually need to spare some of my time to manage all of that stuff.
And that’s just unacceptable! I hate managing stuff. In fact, I hate the concept of having responsibilities in itself!
I don't like being restricted…
Luckily, the solution to this dreadful issue was delivered to me on a silver platter!
This is definitely a real life example of a godsend! It’s certainly not from D though.
... Also, maybe she can be my friend? I've been feeling very lonely for a while now.
I checked the girl’s body using Sage, then proceeded to heal her internal injuries with magic. Not all of them though, just a few of the more serious ones.
Wouldn’t want those guys outside to discover it and increase the intensity of whatever abuse they’re inflicting on the poor girl, after all.
Her labored breathing gradually eased, and soon her dull eyes were drooping as she drifted off into the happy dreamlands and away from the hell which is reality.
Not wanting her to experience any bad dreams, I use a high-level Heretic Magic spell to nudge her subconsciousness towards the happy side of her memory, literally driving away the nightmares.
Now, she’s guaranteed to experience the sweetest dream her mind can currently weave.
This is amazing for a good deed of the day, right?!
Grabbing a few cheap-looking garments and an oversized brown cloak, I stealthily use a Short-Range Teleport to get inside the cage.
Judging by their small size, these garments were presumably prepared for the little half-demon girl, so they perfectly fit my petite little body.
I just need to smear some dirt around the edges, make a few tears here and there, create a long staff out of my spikes, and I’ll have a perfect magical hermit outfit!
Personally, I’d prefer it if there was a pointy hat, so that I could go for a witch getup.
Unfortunately, those guys didn’t have one of those, forcing me to temporarily make do with the hermit one.
I’ll definitely sew myself a majestic pointy hat in the future though! Just you wait for it!
Adjusting my posture to a comfortable one, I place my arms on her forehead as I slowly invade her brain in the most delicate manner I could.
I don’t wanna accidentally turn my future maid into a vegetable, after all…
Before long, bits and pieces of information start flowing into my head, but the speed my brain processed them at was just too slow.
So, I ordered Sage to watch the outside world for me before I entered a state of meditative sleep in order to accelerate my processing speed.
Ideally, I would’ve already learned both the language and the world’s common sense before anyone comes to check on her…
I’ll definitely take her away before anything worse happens. Until then, I’ll do my best to ease her physical pain.
Please, hang in there, little girl!
