第４５掘：人身事故？ (Part2)
"Is this like a carriage?"
Mauve and the others muttered this as they climbed into the back seat.
Well, calling it an evolved version of a carriage probably isn't wrong.
"Oh, Curse, come to the passenger seat. I need someone to guide the way."
"Understood."
Curse climbed into the passenger seat.
"...What is this chair? The ride is... too comfortable."
Hey, don't compare it to a wooden carriage.
"Still, Yuki. Can this lump of iron really move? No, even if it does, is it fast?"
"Just watch."
With that, I turned on the engine.
By the way, the engine doesn't use a key; it uses fingerprint and magical signature authentication.
A fusion of cutting-edge tech and magic security!
"Did you close the doors? I'm locking them now."
I don't want them opening the doors suddenly, after all.
I locked them from my side.
"This strange indentation... it acts as the lock, doesn't it?"
Rurua watched the automatic mechanism and checked the lock.
"Don't open them. We're moving now."
I gave them a heads-up and pressed the accelerator.
The vehicle began to move slowly.
Good, it seems there’s no damage to the engine or the chassis.
"Whoa. It moved, but at this speed..."
Mauve voiced his dissatisfaction.
"Alright, I'm picking up the pace."
I increased the speed from 10 km/h to about 40 km/h.
Any faster than that on this terrain and we might flip if the ground isn't perfectly level.
"Whoa, that's fast!?"
"Amazing."
"At this rate... we might not even need a week."
"It's incredible. To be able to travel safely while getting a good look at the scenery."
Driving alone is boring, so I turned on some music. I put on the theme from *Top G*—"Danger Z*ne." Personally, I think it’s perfect for driving, don't you?
"What is this sound!?"
"It's music. I was bored, so I turned it on."
"What do you mean, 'turned it on'? Are you playing it yourself?"
"As if. It's an application of the Call system. It has a feature to record and play back sound."
"Wow, that's luxurious."
No, without this, I’d die of boredom on long-distance drives.
I drove leisurely for a while.
Current speed: 70 km/h. Let's see, at this rate, I think we could clear the distance to another province in about an hour, right?
It’s nice that there are no road traffic laws. It’s a bit bumpy since it’s off-road, though.
"So, Curse. Which village or town do you think we should stop at? Of course, we'll get out once we're close. We're about to stir up some major trouble, so I’m not going to do anything that draws unnecessary attention."
"Let's see... at this speed, if we keep going straight, there’s a small town ahead. Kiris. It’s near the border between the Kingdom of Roschur and the Holy Nation of Litea. We’ll need to proceed on foot from there to cross the checkpoint and enter Litea."
"What do we need to cross the checkpoint?"
"Basically, money. There shouldn't be any other major issues... However, on schedule, it would take four days even by fast horse to reach Kiris. And yet, with this thing... we'll be there by the end of the day..."
Curse said this with a look of disbelief as he watched the scenery fly by.
"Hey, Yuki. Don't you need to let this thing rest?"
Mauve called out from the back seat.
"Not at all. This thing has plenty of speed left in it. Besides, it’s not a living creature, so it doesn't need breaks. If anything, the cold is more of a problem."
"Seriously? That’s insanely convenient."
"You guys just eat and drink whatever. It's past noon, right?"
"Yeah, we'll just help ourselves to some food."
Mauve said that and pulled a plastic bottle out of his bag.
"Hey, don't tell me that's alcohol."
"Idiot, Raiya! Shut up!"
That bastard. He’d hidden booze in a plastic bottle.
"Seriously, don't drink that. We’re bound to run into monsters, aren't we?"
"Yeah, this is a main road, so the strong monsters have been cleared out, but bandits and weaker monsters still appear. Mauve-san, please, stop that. And Yuki... he’s an amateur, after all. Sort of."
"Where am I an amateur?"
"Well, this is my first time outside, right?"
"Ha, I'm drinking and going to sleep."