Well, trouble started early this morning.
The Tomboy Princess and the Boy Knight attempted to participate in today's morning training. I wouldn't have much of an issue with just the Boy Knight attempting to participate, but the princess was also demanding to participate. What a pain. Their demands were such as "We also want to learn how to fight" or "Just try to fight us". I did my best to ignore this, but there is a limit.
Because there was no avoiding it, I had to think of something that the Princess could do without putting her, the client, in harms way. I mean, with a single finger I could cause her instant death, though I have no intention to do so.
Like it or not, I had already predicted this might happen and had made a request to the sisters to make some female training clothing for the Tomboy Princess.
I made sure to heavily imbue her clothing with heavy physical resistances. Even if I were to slap her lightly, there shouldn't be any injuries, even with her weak body. With that, I pitted the Boy Knight and the Tomboy Princess against each other. I already knew that the Boy Knight would hold himself back as much as possible for the Princess, so the risk against him is lower than anything else possible. Though the Princess may be getting the hang of using a wooden sword, she has a total lack of discipline. It really is a major issue that she probably isn't even aware of.
After the sparing started, it may have taken a while, but the Boy Knight began to fight back slightly. After watching his moves, it's obvious that there is too much of a reliance on his [Job] corrections.
Certainly, following a [Job]'s path will increase your abilities. Increasing the level by killing monsters and growing stronger is commonplace. Even so, based on his movements, this boy is a vanguard type, capable of a multitude of different actions. He certainly has the capability to fight evenly with a normal Ogre, though none of those exist here. Finally, it comes down to one's ability to use the sword abilities that pertain to one's [Arts] and one's [Profession].
Naturally, one could easily become selfish if you only think about becoming stronger through experience, and in that way, many people have. But this boy seems too young to be affected by it and seems to be mentoring the Tomboy Princess, as well as going easy on his swings to make them easily defendable.
Even so, one could see that the Boy Knight was taking his job seriously. I was surprised at how hard he was drilling the Princess, she was covered with sweat and panting. It looked like she was enjoying it though, so I think it's probably a good thing in the long run.
The thought had dawned on me that the reasoning for his efforts were to ensure the Princess's safety in the future.
Well, the morning training is at an end. Dhammi-chan, Redhead, Wind Lord-chan, and the Princess went to swim and wash off in a river nearby. For the moment, the men can simply wipe the sweat off until it's their turn, though the Princess seemed to want me to escort her to the river and keep watch. Sigh, can't be helped. At the very least, none of the other girls had an issue with my presence.
The river was clear and reflected the sky as an image upon the water's surface. The scenery of the entire location was quite nice as well, though the roads and plains of the Sternbild Kingdom were far more dangerous than the Forest. Still, there haven't been any monsters that are stronger than Hind Bears during our entire trip, so there was no need to worry.
We have already agreed that since the highway is the shortest route to take, it was obvious to travel down it to the Royal Capital.
According to the detailed map that the Boy Knight possessed, our forest was rather small, the tags for it on the map were Shirisuka Forest "Inhabited by a variety of monsters; it is famous for its large waterfall and hot springs". The map details locations such as the location of the Fomor tribes, a species of Giants, details on the craftsmen village we passed through on our way to the Fortress City Trient, and multiple mountain clusters. A multitude of dungeons were also listed on the map. These dungeons also apparently caused a great deal of trouble for the surrounding areas, though it really isn't my problem unless someone wants to hire me, of course.
I start categorizing the map's locations as we progressed. There were several Boruforu, though as there weren't enough for the whole group, I didn't bother and let the familiars eat their fill. While looking at the map, I realized that we had taken Route 13 to get to the Fortress City Trient and are currently on Route 7, the shortest path towards the Royal Capital Osvel.
Ever since I accepted this mission, I had begun making plans for escaping the Royal Capital should anything go wrong. The worst case scenario would be that only myself and Ogakichi-kun would be able to survive. Dhammi and the Lord-classed members would have a chance, but with the full force of the [Royal Army], we might lose several key members in the escape. As such, I needed to keep vigilant and prepare for anything.
But for now, we are the escort team hired by the Princess to escort her to the Royal Capital. As long as we hold this title, there should be no risk to further attacks from would-be adventurers. I'm sure my imagination is going wild on the risks, but one can never be too cautious when approaching unknowns.
At any rate, I attempted to speak with the Boy Knight for awhile, but he wasn't too keen on speaking with me. It probably had something to do with the Princess currently having climbed back onto my shoulder again.
Anyway, we were making good progress towards our destination. Though the roads up ahead were pretty worn and showed signs of age. It really wasn't a problem in particular.