Ch.78Mother, sister, let’s go to the riverside

‘Bang!’

When the magic bullet from the single-action revolver hit the chest of the outlaw who had attacked with the intent to kill innocent adventurers, he collapsed on the spot without even a scream, dying instantly.

After confirming there were no other gang members around, I turned over the corpse to search for anything valuable, when the outlaw’s face, blood streaming from his eyes and nose, turned toward me and grinned unpleasantly, revealing yellowed teeth.

“Aaaah!?”

The unexpected development startled me awake inside the large tent I shared with Jessica and Seti.

After engaging in a shootout with a group of desperados we encountered in the forest and spending time dealing with the aftermath, we hadn’t managed to reach Riverside by sunset.

We had set up camp in a suitable location and turned in early, but now I had embarrassingly woken up from a nightmare with a start.

“Will…? What’s wrong?”

“Intruders?”

Jessica and Seti, awakened by my shouting and commotion, asked with concerned expressions.

I gestured to stop Seti, who had already grabbed her spear and was about to stand up.

“It’s okay, Seti. Just had a nightmare.”

“A nightmare?”

“I dreamed about a corpse suddenly opening its eyes. Probably because of our zombie troubles at Evernight Mountain.”

As I lay back down, Jessica and Seti withdrew their hands that had been reaching for their weapons.

“Will, is this your first time killing someone?”

“Hmm?”

“I’ve heard that people who experience killing for the first time often suffer from nightmares due to psychological shock. I thought that might be what’s happening to you.”

“I suppose…”

It’s certainly the first time I’ve shot and killed someone.

Back on Earth, I never had occasion to commit murder, and even after coming to Grantis, while I’d pointed a gun at people a few times, I’d never actually killed anyone.

I had disarmed Jonathan’s gang by shooting the guns out of their hands, and although I shot that big guy during the duel at Cotton Tail in a rather unfortunate spot, I didn’t take his life.

When the sudden shootout broke out, I shot to kill without hesitation due to the immediate danger, but now that the tension has eased, suffering from the shock of killing… that’s certainly plausible.

“It is my first time killing someone. As Jessica said, I might have been a bit shocked by it.”

“That’s probably it. When it first happened to me, I couldn’t even eat properly for days.”

“Many beastfolk also struggle after fighting lycanthropes.”

“Lycanthropes… you mean the monsters that are mutated beastfolk?”

“Yes. They look no different from beastfolk with strong feral traits on the outside.”

Lycanthropes refer to monsters that are a mix of human and beast, with the famous “werewolf” being a typical example.

I’m not sure about the criteria for distinguishing between beastfolk and lycanthropes, but considering that beastfolk who kill lycanthropes suffer from trauma, there must be enough similarity for them to be considered kin.

“I guess one can only get used to this through experience?”

“Hmm~ Personally, I think it’s dangerous if you become too accustomed to it with experience.”

“That’s true…”

Becoming accustomed to killing as experiences accumulate essentially means losing resistance to taking human lives.

“How did you overcome it, Jessica? Any special training?”

“Time helps to some extent, but you can never completely lose the aversion to killing someone. In severe trauma cases, some seek psychological counseling or mental treatment, but…”

“But?”

“I don’t have knowledge in that area, so this is about all I can offer you right now.”

Saying that, Jessica loosened the bodice of her dress and gently pulled my head to embrace me.

As my face buried in her soft, ample bosom, the familiar scent of her skin tickled my nose.

“Jessica?”

“Just stay still like this. Everyone has memories of being held by their mother, so they say a woman’s embrace like this provides emotional stability.”

“Jessica’s being unfair doing this alone. I want to do it too.”

“Then Seti, would you embrace him from the front? I’ll do it from behind.”

“Yes. I’d like to try.”

As Jessica released her arms from around my head, Seti got up, completely removed her top, and embraced me, stroking my head.

“Hehe, aren’t you treating Will too much like a baby?”

“It’s fine. Mom said Dad really likes it when she does this to him.”

Sandwiched between the two women’s bosoms, I couldn’t think straight with the soft, warm sensation enveloping me from front and back.

Though Jessica’s were exceptionally impressive, making Seti’s look relatively smaller by comparison, Seti’s chest was by no means inadequate.

They were certainly superior to both Mina’s and Phyllis’s.

“Um… both of you, I appreciate the thought, but if we stay like this, rather than feeling calm, I’m going to…”

“Get excited?”

“It’s okay. I’ll accommodate you if that’s what you want, Will. Titania isn’t even in the sky tonight.”

Jessica’s seductiveness, using the fairy legend that Phyllis had told us about, was awakening the lycanthrope within me.

What restrained that impulse wasn’t my firm reason, but another desire to savor this heaven of being surrounded by Seti and Jessica’s bosoms just a little longer.

Waa… I’m a baby gunslinger…

“That was a formidable power…”

“Was it that good?”

“Ah, I don’t even remember when I fell asleep. This is the maternal power of you two…”

The next morning, I recalled the sensation from the previous night as I watched Jessica and Seti shyly adjusting their clothes.

That feeling of healing deep in my soul from the soft skin against my face and the faint sound of heartbeats…

The shock of first killing? Nightmares of reviving corpses?

I declare that such things hold no meaning whatsoever in the presence of a woman’s bosom.

Pioneer Era Year 102, April 2nd, Cloudy.

After a simple breakfast, we departed and finally arrived at the Fourth Western City, Riverside, after about 2 hours and 30 minutes of travel.

“Wow…”

“This is impressive. The city is built right up against the river.”

Water is the most important element for human survival, and that’s no different in the otherworld of Grantis.

While finding a “mana vein” with perpetual magical energy supply is sufficient to maintain the Great Barrier, considering the need to supply drinking water, daily water for residents, and irrigation for farmland around the city, a “mana vein with accessible water nearby” is the optimal condition for building a western city.

Oxville, Ambers Ranch, Zemest, and Karoon Farm all drew water from nearby streams, and several magical pump facilities were installed, utilizing the characteristic that underground water veins are often found near mana veins.

Around the Third Western City, no rivers or streams could be found, but thanks to underground water veins that were abundant compared to other cities, they could supply enough water for residents’ daily use.

However, the water situation in this Fourth Western City, Riverside, is on a completely different level from the previous cities.

Although we’re still too far to gauge accurately, the width of the river adjoining the western side of the city is at least 50 meters, perhaps close to 70 meters.

“With these location conditions, it’s no wonder they built a city here despite the distance from the Third Western City.”

“Almost no mana veins were discovered west of Cotton Tail Trading Post. If they couldn’t build a city here, western pioneering would have stagnated, or they might have had to find routes going far south or north.”

“It truly became a bridgehead sustaining western pioneering. But how do people cross to the other side of the river?”

“From here, the city blocks our view, but when you exit through the western gate, there’s a large bridge.”

“I didn’t know that. If I had known, I wouldn’t have had to swim across hanging onto a plank.”

“Wow… you really risked your life going east. I’ve never even tried swimming.”

Admiring Seti’s tale of bravery when she ran away from her village to become an adventurer, we headed toward Riverside’s eastern entrance.

Unlike other cities where showing a license card was enough for easy entry, here they conducted a thorough inspection of belongings, supposedly to prevent people coming through Cotton Tail Trading Post from bringing in illegal items.

“What’s in this bag?”

“Ah~ That bag contains materials and components used for magical crafting.”

Thanks to having placed the artifact we found in the ruins in the bag containing Mina’s tools and materials, we were able to pass through without arousing suspicion.

It reminded me of the saying about hiding a tree in a forest.

“No suspicious items. You may pass.”

“Ah, thank you for your work.”

The first thing visible upon passing through the entrance was the main street paved with blue decorative bricks.

Looking more closely, most buildings in the city were made of stone, not simply stacked but tastefully decorated with colored tiles for accent or embedded natural stones, creating a cheerful but not excessive appearance.

“Eee…eeeek!? It’s a Wildcat!”

Before I could admire the cityscape, a scream pierced my ears. Turning my head, I saw a hunched, white-haired old woman backing away with a terrified expression, staring at Seti.

“Ah, I’m…”

“Aaaah! Sheriff! Help me! Sheriiiiiff!”

As Seti tried to take out her Frontier License card, the old woman ran away screaming for the sheriff, pale with fear.

Shocked by this blatant display of hatred—the first she’d encountered since her adventurer debut—Seti drooped her ears and tail. I stroked her head to comfort her.

“It’s okay. People like that will come around eventually.”

“Let’s work hard and become famous. So that when people think of Wildcats, adventurer Seti is the first name that comes to mind!”

“Yes… thank you, Will, Mina.”

“Sigh, making such a fuss over a Wildcat, not even a Water King. Anyway, we need to submit the pistol we recovered from the forest, so we should head to the sheriff’s office first.”

If we clear up the misunderstanding in the sheriff’s presence, that old woman might feel reassured too.

With that thought, we followed the path the old woman had taken toward Riverside’s sheriff’s office.