Billy frowned when he saw a carriage waiting for them on the exit of the town. It seemed that Edward had bought that for that kind of occasion. The driver was just a random citizen of their town, so Billy and Sarah will have to protect him too. It was part of the work...
"This looks quite luxurious," Anna said.
"All the carriages I used are like this…" Billy said. "Maybe Jean really wants to befriend our people. I find it hard to imagine all the carriages being like this."
"What kind of person is he?" Anna asked.
"I only talked with him indirectly two times… so I am not sure," Billy said. "Considering what he asked us to do, Though. I would say that he is a ruler who would do anything to keep his territory."
"Well, I suppose it doesn't matter much," Anna said. "The places we are going to check are far away from the center of the state, and they are on this side of the land."
They were close to that river… Billy imagined that only small towns would be located in such an area, but it was hard to say. Still, he realized that cultivating herbs near the border of a hostile state wasn't a good idea.
Aside from Billy and Anna, the others didn't talk much. The healers were a bit wary of Sarah, and for that matter, Sarah wasn't a chatterbox. Regardless, the carriage decreased the trip duration by half, and all they had to do in exchange for that was to look after the two horses pulling it. Fortunately, the driver had also been trained to do that.
In any case, once they crossed the bridge, Billy left the interior of the vehicle and sat close to the driver to keep an eye on the surroundings. Meanwhile, Sarah kept her eyes open on their back. Billy didn't warn anyone of anything, but she realized that he was on guard for a reason. Regardless, the group traveled south for a while, and Billy eventually felt the nostalgic smell of the ocean. Soon they would have to turn around and go North, but first, they decided to check a town that cultivated some herbs inside some caves. That was a weird place to grow herbs, even more so close to the ocean. Maybe Billy could hunt some monsters using his Water Manipulation near the sea and…
"Wait a minute… why did I get experience while I was in the dungeon and didn't get any when we were building the bridge?" Billy frowned upon that thought.
While he assumed a support role most of the time, he still killed some of those fish when he was experimenting with his magic. Naturally, the monsters of the dungeons are created by the core using the guardian as a basis, but was that the only reason? Something felt off… Regardless, the group reached the town of Karine. It had been named after its founder. Speaking of names, Billy learned recently that the previous one was called the Silverbreakers dungeon town. It was also the name of Gerald's guild. It didn't seem like a bad idea to give the name of a place to the first group that clears the dungeon.
In any case, that town in which they were visiting was pretty small. Smaller than the dungeon town Billy visited last month. The buildings were all made of stones since the sea breeze would probably damage anything else. Aside from the commerce of herbs, the people there also lived by fishing. It seemed like dangerous work, but Billy could see some boats and some big harpoons.
"Do you know where we can find the people responsible for cultivating the herbs?" Billy asked.
"They are supposed to be in the biggest building in the center of the town," Anna replied.
It didn't take long for them to find it, but then while they were crossing the town, Billy felt that something was off, and he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Some people were looking at him and his black steel bracers. Was it because of that?
After a while, the group found the building where they found some healers waiting for them. As expected, they didn't look too happy in sharing the fruits of their labor… even though Anna and the others would be paying for the knowledge and some samples of the herbs.
"While we can sell the herbs and the methods to use the herbs and cultivate them, do you have a place to do so?"
Anna didn't reply. She would try other methods to cultivate those since there was no cave in the area they lived. There weren't even mountains around. In any case, the healer who asked that soon had a surprising answer.
"If it just a dark place that they need, we can make some sort of underground cultivation room," Billy said.
"We can?" Anna asked.
"Yes, they can," Billy said while looking at Sarah.
"... I am sure you can do it as well," Saran said. "If it is just an underground place, we can build it and put some pillars to make sure that it won't collapse."
Anna nodded. Building a hole while using their magic would be easy for the people who built that bridge in four months. In the end, the group spent a day there learning about the methods of cultivation and the things they shouldn't do. Billy also took some notes for his grandmother. While he was teaching her how to read, it still would take a while for her to be able to do that.
During that time, Billy didn't drop his guard even for a moment. Even at night, he didn't get a wink of sleep. Something was telling him that there was something weird with the town, but he never realized what it was, and eventually, they left.
Weird in that place.
"Maybe it is just my imagination…" Billy thought while they were leaving the town.
It wasn't…
