Hunting: The Dawning

Chapter 19: The Caravan from Minagarde

Paine was a merchant from Minagarde City.

Unlike the image of a pot-bellied and bejeweled merchant in the minds of most people, Paine was not tall. He had thick and large joints in his hands and feet, solid muscles and a swarthy complexion. He looked more like a fisherman than a merchant.

In fact, only the heads of large merchant guilds, who could make a large amount of gold coins fly into their pockets just by talking, would have the "sign of a successful person" like a fat belly.

Merchants like Paine, who led a dozen or so freight wagons and traveled on trade routes for their affiliated merchant guilds, had a much better living condition than ordinary farmers and small traders. However, since they traveled around cities and villages all year round to trade goods, they could hardly have too much fat.

Instead, they had a lot of muscle on their legs.

This kind of traveling merchant life, which wore out two pairs of shoes every month and was exposed to the wind and the sun, was certainly hard, but he still persisted.

In this world full of monsters and dragons, being a caravan merchant was a very dangerous profession. Examples of caravans being attacked in the wild and brutally slaughtered by monsters were not uncommon.

Some large caravans transporting valuable goods would hire monster hunters to accompany and protect them. However, the commission for hiring hunters to escort the whole journey was extremely high, and ordinary caravan merchants could hardly afford it.

Paine was a lucky one among caravan merchants because the route assigned to him by his affiliated merchant guild belonged to the relatively safe category.

This trade route started from Minagarde City, set off fully loaded with goods, passed through the coastal city of Melchita City, exchanged some goods and then turned southeast to sell them in Metabeta City in the Alcris region.

The one-way trip was nearly a thousand kilometers, and the round trip took nearly three months, but the profit was really good.

The most dangerous part of the whole route was the section from Minagarde City to Melchita City. The trade route almost passed by the Western Schreiter Forest Hills where monsters frequently appeared.

The closest distance between the two was less than ten kilometers.

It could be said that Paine and his caravan were also risking their lives to make money.

He was not a miser. He didn't have the morbid desire to collect wealth like many merchants, but he also had his own goal.

Paine was over forty years old and still unmarried. Few parents were willing to marry their beloved daughters to a man who was away from home all year round and might make his wife a widow at any time.

But he had an older brother who had taken good care of and loved him since childhood. The bond between the brothers was also very deep.

However, more than ten years ago, an accident made both his eldest brother and sister-in-law die, leaving only a two- or three-year-old orphan girl with no one to take care of.

Paine naturally adopted this niece and poured all his affection and love into her as if she were his own child.

After all, she was the only relative Paine had left in this world.

The girl was named Hayata, which meant "fragrant orchid" in the northern dialect.

Paine lived frugally. He only wore the most ordinary cotton and linen travel clothes worth three or four hundred z, but when he saw a beautiful little dress in the window with a price tag of two or three thousand, he would buy it without hesitation.

Speaking of his life goal, it was to save enough money before Hayata reached adulthood, buy a small building with a small front garden in "East Doruma", the most prosperous city in the center of the continent, and then find a good family for her to marry into.

After that, he would be willing to close his eyes immediately. Of course, it would be even better if he could hold a grandnephew or grandniece before closing his eyes...

Paine, who was thinking about something with his head down, was suddenly awakened by a shout.

"Uncle~ How long will it take to get there?"

A lively little head popped out from the top of the large freight wagon pulled by a herbivorous dinosaur.

The girl's pupils were light green like new shoots. Her soft brown long hair swung down along her cheeks and swayed with the bumps of the wagon, just like the girl's lively character.

Paine looked up. His eyes looking at his niece were full of doting, and his tone carried a little helplessness: "You're getting bored, right? I told you long ago that traveling with a caravan was very dull. You insisted on coming.

This is only the fourth day of departure. We haven't even reached one-fifth of the one-way trip yet."

Hayata pouted. Obviously, she was very dissatisfied with this answer. She turned over and jumped down from the high pile of goods. She grabbed the ropes binding the goods to slow down a little and then nimbly jumped to the ground.

The corner of Paine's eye twitched violently.

Compared to ordinary fourteen- or fifteen-year-old girls, was Hayata too... lively, active and agile?

On weekdays, he was away on business trips for at least nine months a year. Hayata stayed at home in Minagarde City and was taken care of by a nanny.

He had thought that Hayata would grow into a gentle and virtuous lady. Now it seemed that she lacked a little discipline?

Well, he couldn't bear to discipline her. If she was lively, so be it...

Thinking of this, Paine couldn't help but sigh heavily.

He was still too doting on Hayata. As long as she acted coquettishly and shed at most two tears, he couldn't help but agree to any request.

A month ago, on Hayata's fourteenth birthday, he promised to fulfill any one of her wishes. But who knew that the wish this child made was to travel with him on a business trip once?

"Slow down. Be careful not to fall!"

"Got it~!"

After reminding his niece, who had started running around among the carriages, Paine sighed again.

He must be crazy. How could he, how dared he bring Hayata to this dangerous wild?

A partner in the caravan patted him on the shoulder and said with a laugh that he was worrying too much. Although it was close to the Western Schreiter Forest Hills, hadn't nothing happened in more than ten years?

"Ha ha, your courage is even smaller than Hayata's. Those monsters have their own territories. This area of the trade route is not within their territories. There will be no problem."

Another companion also laughed. It was hard to tell whether it was a joke or a comfort.

Paine forced a smile, and his anxiety still lingered.

For the safety of his niece, he had originally planned to hire a monster hunter at his own expense to escort the caravan through this relatively dangerous section.

However, the hunting ban had not yet ended. The Hunter's Guild Hall in Minagarde City was as quiet as a library. Even the receptionist girls had gone home on vacation. He couldn't hire a single hunter.

The staff on duty advised him to wait for a while and come to hire hunters to escort after the hunting ban was lifted.

However, the schedule of the caravan was not something he could change at will. In the end, he had to set off as scheduled.

At present, all he could do was pray that this trade route, which had been safe for more than ten years, would continue to be safe.

Driven by the uneasiness in his heart, Paine quickly walked to the leading wagon and greeted. The old driver of the leading wagon quickly took out a map from his travel bag.

Paine carefully compared the surrounding terrain, calculated according to the traveling speed and time of the caravan, and finally determined the position of the caravan.

"At this speed, the caravan will be far away from this hilly area before sunset. Then we will enter the safe section. I hope everything goes well."

The old driver, who also looked a bit worried, nodded and kept lightly whipping the herbivorous dinosaurs pulling the wagon with the leather reins, urging them to move faster.

Unfortunately, the residual snow on the road made it difficult for the heavy wagons to speed up. The long caravan was as clumsy as an old and decrepit mammoth.

It was slowly moving forward.