It was quite a distance from my mansion in the Village of the Great Tree to the Great Tree Dungeon to the south.
It was roughly a bit over two kilometers.
Whether that was considered close or far was a matter of perspective.
Personally, I felt it was a little too far.
Furthermore, from the entrance of the Great Tree Dungeon to the teleportation gates leading to Village Five and the hot spring area, it was about a fifteen-minute walk to each.
Whether that was close or far was also a matter of perspective.
Personally, I felt it was a little too far.
To be honest, during the winter, traveling to Village Five or the hot springs had become a bit of a chore.
I wished it could be a little more convenient.
However, there were security concerns to consider.
We had agreed on those locations at the very beginning, so I had no complaints about the layout itself.
Still, there were those who went to Village Five for work and others who headed to the hot springs at night.
Spending so much time just going back and forth felt like a waste.
So, I decided to propose a shuttle carriage system.
First, I planned a single route for round-trip travel between my mansion and the entrance to the Great Tree Dungeon.
I wanted this to be a scheduled service with fixed departure times.
Next, I planned two routes from the entrance of the Great Tree Dungeon to the locations of the teleportation gates.
For these two routes, the carriages would wait at the entrance and depart as soon as passengers arrived.
Upon reaching the gates, they would drop off the passengers and return to the entrance empty.
To maintain security, travel inside the dungeon would be strictly one-way.
I wanted to get these three routes operational.
I convened a Conference of Races and shared my thoughts.
I expected we would have a series of discussions and hoped we might get at least one route running by next year.
That was not the case.
Construction on the carriages began immediately.
Since the mountain elves and I were working on them with almost everyone pitching in, they were finished in no time at all.
...Wait.
Did we actually need to build new ones?
There were already several carriages in the Village of the Great Tree.
We had four wagons for transporting harvests, two open-top carriages, one luxurious roofed carriage, and even a camping carriage.
I had intended to just use the open-top ones as they were.
"Let us build proper carriages," the mountain elves insisted.
They were enthusiastically diving into the work, so I figured it was fine to let them.
One was completed in just a few hours.
It was a passenger model equipped with suspension.
We had left the sides open for easy boarding but included a roof for protection against the rain.
In terms of size, it could seat seven people, including the driver.
Next came the test drive.
Before that, however, a dispute broke out between the horses and the centaurs over who would get to pull it.
The horses seemed to have won this round.
Looking quite satisfied, the horses pulled the carriage with impressive strength.
Yes, there seemed to be no problems there.
Next, we built the dungeon carriages.
Since they were for use underground, a roof was unnecessary.
To allow for tight turns, we made the chassis smaller.
It was a four-seater without a driver's seat.
The result looked like a four-wheeled cart with seats bolted onto it.
Because the design was so simple, it was finished in an hour.
Then came the test drive.
This time, instead of the horses or the centaurs, the lamias who lived in the dungeon volunteered to pull it.
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"Yes. It would be a great encouragement for us to be given a formal duty. By all means, let us do it."
I had intended to leave it to the centaurs, who loved pulling carriages, but if the lamia race was this motivated, I was happy to leave it to them.
The lamias didn't pull the carriage with their hands; instead, they gripped the frame with the tips of their long tails and pulled.
They had more than enough power.
Hmm... the sensation was different.
The vibration was minimal; it was incredibly comfortable.
The carriage reached the teleportation gate in about five minutes.
Even though Kuro’s and Zabuton’s children had gone ahead to clear any obstacles and ensure the shortest possible route, that was still remarkably fast.
I was satisfied.
With this new system, one could travel to Village Five in about ten minutes by transferring between carriages.
I had assumed the ones who would be happiest were Yoko and Saint Seles, as they commuted every day.
However, it was the village women who were the most delighted.
The system gained a massive reputation for making the hot springs so much easier to reach.
It seemed everyone had felt the walk was a bit too long.
Production of the dungeon carts was increased, and there were now eight in operation.
The lamias alone weren't enough to handle the demand, so some of Zabuton's children who had grown quite large, as well as members of the giant race, were working hard to pull them as well.
I should gather everyone who helped with the carriages and hold an appreciation party for them soon.
A short while after the carriages began operating, visitors arrived at Village Five.
They were a group that had come to collect the dwarves currently held in the jail.
They were dwarves as well.
First, they apologized for the lawlessness and rudeness of their kin.
As compensation for the trouble caused, they delivered four large barrels of ore to Village Five.
Yoko had been planning to release the prisoners as requested, since the jailed dwarves had been expressing remorse.
However, things took an unexpected turn.
The dwarves who had come to collect them didn't actually ask for their release.
"You aren't going to take the prisoners back with you?" Yoko asked.
"We wish for them to be punished in accordance with the laws of this village," they replied.
"Then, what exactly did you come here for?"
"To offer our apologies and deliver the compensation. And also..."
One of the dwarves presented an axe to Yoko.
"This is an exquisite piece of work," she remarked.
"I forged it myself."
"I see. Is it an offering?"
"You may treat it as such, but I have a request."
"What is it?"
"I heard that there are weapons using Magic Iron Powder in this village. Is that correct?"
"Umu. The price is somewhat high, but they are sold in the shops."
"Are they forged here?"
"...Something like that."
"Then, I want you to show this axe to the one who forged those weapons."
"Will that be enough?"
"It is fine. We are staying at an inn on the south side... I believe the name was?"
"Near the foot of the mountain is the Cat's Eye Inn, and halfway up is the Foxfire Inn," Yoko informed them.
"The Cat's Eye Inn, then. That is where we are staying."
With that, the group of dwarves departed.
In the Village of the Great Tree, the ones forging equipment using Magic Iron Powder were Gatto and his two apprentices.
As he examined the dwarf's axe that Yoko had sent over, Gatto was visibly fired up.
"Village Head! This is a letter of challenge!"
To my eyes, it looked like an ordinary axe, but apparently, the message was clear to him.
"Give me a place to prove my skill!"
And so, the match was set.