A night after the nightmarish yukadon incident that I didn't want to
remember; we had left the village first thing in the morning, crossed
the mountains without a hitch, and arrived at the commercial city
Afraal in the evening.
Perhaps I should say as expected of me, the pig seemed to have no
memory of the kabedon and think that he fell asleep in the middle of
the meal.
Well, it left a lifelong trauma on me, though!
If the pig had taken away my first kiss too, I would have turned him
into minced pig before taking my own life in the middle of nowhere
so as to erase my existence!
Good grief, I couldn't let my guard down nor leave any opening!
"Now, shall we check into an inn? It's getting dark too, so let's start
the investigation for tomorrow."
Anyways, I urged the pig with my usual saintess smile.
But.
"Bu-buhi~… s-so hot…"
"..."
Why are you worn-out already!?
You were doing nothing but being rocked in a carriage, weren't you!?
Rather, though it's low leveled, don't you have "Fire Resistant"!?
Just who do you think went out of her way to have you acquired it in
Magrid!?
Push yourself a bit, will you!?
I couldn't stop myself retorting inwardly, but I'd be disqualified as a
saintess if I even let a hint of it showed up on my face.
Hence, with a goddess-level graceful look on my face, I showed
concern for the pig. "A-are you okay, Porco? I heard that the
temperature will drop soon, so let's move to the shade of the tree for
now. Here, let me help you."
"I-I'm sorry for the trouble…"
――Plop.
"..."
S-sweaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?
◇ ◇
The next morning.
We were riding on a carriage heading to the sandstorm region where
the goddess of wind was said to be residing.
It was all thanks to Porco. After the temperature dropped, he
became reenergized and immediately went out to collect information
as if to redeem himself. Not long after that, he came back with
information of the whereabouts of the goddess of wind.
What, you can do it if you try, can't you? so I had praised his efforts
inwardly but,
"W-wheeze~…"
"...Haah."
I knew he'd make a sorry sight again during the day.
I'd told to wait at the inn expecting this to happen, but he insisted
with his useless sense of chivalry: "No, I wouldn't be able to excuse
myself if something were to happen to you, Saintess-sama!"
And now look at him, he seemed to be on the verge of becoming a
whole baked pig…
Geez, this's exactly why I told you to wait at the inn…
As that thought ran in my mind, the carriage arrived at the sandstorm
region.
According to the people of Afraal, the goddess of wind was inside
the sandstorm, but those who set foot inside would be deprived of
their sense of direction and never be able to come back.
It was probably a barrier of sort.
Now, how do we get in… as I was wondering in my mind, the pig
came next to me while sweating buckets.
"Ha-hafuu~… I-is this the rumored sandstorm…?"
"Y-yes, it seems so, but… are you okay?"
"Hahaha, this much is… ah."
"Eh?"
At that moment, the pig lost his footing and rolled down the sand
slope.
"S-Saintess-samaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!?"
"Hey, pig—I mean, Porcoooooooooooooooo!?"
And so, the pig continued to roll away and rushed straight into the
sandstorm without stopping.
Ahh mou!?
Now that it has come to this, I've no choice but to chase him, don't
I!?
Hence, I hurriedly ran after the pig but,
"—Mm? How did you find about the loophole in my territory? Who
are you?"
"…Huh?"
Before I knew it, a woman taking kids along stood in front of us.
Huh, where was this…?
Rather, there were so many kids!?