"What do we do next?" Eleonora asked with a trace of excitement.
Rayleigh glanced at her, feeling somewhat helpless at the state she was in, then answered.
"First, we need to get new transportation. We aren't that far from Orario, but it's not close enough for women and children to walk there on foot."
His words made all four of them nod.
Two seconds later, however, Welf suddenly protested in dissatisfaction, "I'm not a kid!"
"I didn't say you were," Rayleigh replied casually.
"Oh. Then that's fine."
And Welf actually believed him.
Phobos looked at the boy being fooled with a gentle, motherly expression.
Inwardly, she thought it was fortunate that they had escaped.
Otherwise, in noble circles, it would have been strange if this child wasn't tricked like an idiot.
"If all we had to do was walk, our legs wouldn't exactly fall off. The problem is that we'd be caught before reaching our destination."
As he spoke, Rayleigh's tone grew a little more urgent.
He took a deep breath, steadied his breathing rhythm, then frowned slightly.
"Something's wrong."
"What do you mean?" Phobos asked.
"My Reiat-my Mind is recovering abnormally slowly."
"Isn't that completely normal?" Lulune looked speechless as she gestured with both hands. "You changed the weather of an entire city and fought who knows how many times in a row."
In her eyes, that was not something a Level 3 should be able to do at all.
Even if the strongest Level 3 mage in the city came here and saw what Rayleigh had done, they would probably wonder whether they were still dreaming.
Something like that was probably only possible for Nine Hell in Orario.
Rayleigh rejected her explanation.
"No. My recovery speed is usually much faster than this. And I have Spirit Healing as a Development Ability. This situation isn't reasonable."
"Hey, hey, seriously? Don't tell me you were poisoned?"
"Poison?"
Rayleigh paused.
Suddenly, he remembered when Marius had shone that magic item on him.
It probably was not poison.
Otherwise, the power of Kaidō would have cleared it away.
Besides, as far as he knew, there were very few poisons capable of affecting a Shinigami's spiritual body.
Rather than poison, this was probably some kind of debuff...
No, this was not a game.
How could there be such a thing as a debuff?
Was it a curse?
Rayleigh felt a chill in his heart.
In this world, curses were an extremely special form of spellcraft, and there were very few methods to remove them.
If it had come from the great magical nation of Altena, then even a curse would not be strange.
The fact that Rakia had obtained something like that was probably "thanks" to Altena's internal conflict.
The structure of the world was changing every moment.
But Orario, standing at the far end of the continent, remained detached from all of it and barely felt those changes.
"Don't worry," Rayleigh said, calming the others. "Other than my Mind recovery slowing down, there don't seem to be any other issues with me. At least, not right now."
With that, he began moving with the four of them.
Lulune walked beside him while holding the map.
"There's a market about fourteen kilometers from here. We should be able to get a carriage there."
"Good. Then we'll head there first."
Rayleigh made the decision.
The group immediately set out without stopping.
Among them, Eleonora and Welf had both received Falna.
As for Rayleigh and Lulune, that went without saying, both were upper-class adventurers with titles.
The result was that Phobos became the one slowing them down.
After sealing her divine power, all she had left was her breathtaking beauty.
Her stamina was no different from that of a delicate woman.
"At this rate, we'll be too inefficient! Lulune, you carry her," Rayleigh said.
"Eh?"
The moment Lulune heard that she had to carry a Goddess, her face filled with panic.
Her gaze drifted to the side, not daring to look directly at Rayleigh.
She pressed the tips of her index fingers together in front of her chest and muttered, "Um, well, I-I'm not very strong. And... and I'm too short!"
At first, Rayleigh thought she was making excuses.
But when she mentioned the height problem, he realized that it was indeed true.
"Looks like I'll have to trouble you then, Lord Adventurer."
So he walked over to Phobos.
"Please don't tease me."
Rayleigh crouched down with his back to the goddess.
Phobos wrapped her arms around his head, crossing her hands in front of his chest.
Rayleigh only felt a heavy softness press against his back.
Then, by instinct, he lifted both hands and supported her thighs to keep her from falling.
Two different kinds of softness attacked his brain at the same time!
'This was seriously difficult to stay calm through.'
After a brief pause, Rayleigh began moving with Phobos on his back.
And once he took several steps, he realized he had been thinking far too simply.
The real stimulation had only just begun.
Also! This goddess was doing it on purpose, wasn't she?
And she kept making strange sounds!
'Tch.'
After realizing she was teasing him, Rayleigh 'hardened' his heart and said, "Pick up the pace."
Then he took the lead and started running.
...
Even if the goddess nearly got thrown off, he kept a firm grip on her thighs.
After traveling like that for more than three hours, the group arrived at the market.
There were not many people here.
The moment Phobos's figure appeared, she immediately drew the attention of everyone in the market.
"That person is a god!"
"A god!"
"It's a goddess!"
Seeing these people's reactions made Rayleigh remember when he had first arrived in this world.
He knew that people in this world were aware that the gods had descended to the Lower World, but not that many had actually seen a god with their own eyes.
And yet, even if they had never seen a real god before, the instant they saw Phobos, they understood what she was.
That was the special aura of a god.
Many people dropped to their knees to welcome Phobos's arrival and a few only bowed in greeting.
Lulune found a merchant and tried to arrange a carriage back to Orario.
Rayleigh and the others waited nearby.
Since they were hungry, they began eating food from the market.
Of course, none of it tasted particularly good.
Dry cheese, hummus, and flavorless bread, all wrapped in some kind of nameless herb leaf before being eaten.
Rayleigh casually took two bites.
Seeing the difficult expressions on their faces, the merchant explained.
"Storage conditions are limited. These are the only things we can bring with us. For safety reasons, we usually avoid hunting in the wild."
"We'd like to eat meat too."
Though this place was called a market, in reality, it was only a caravan formed by traveling merchants briefly stopping here.
There were around fifteen carriages in total.
Each of them was doing a different kind of business.