Summary of the last chapter in three lines

Arezel cries.

The road loops.

Souta unlocks it.

「Since you canceled the trap before, I feel that the darkness in my heart also went away!」

「No, that’s just your imagination.」

「Hauu.」

Souta cuts off Arezel's attempt to lighten the atmosphere.

The darkness remains unchanged. It’s still hard to know if it’s day or night.

「This darkness and that trap might be caused by two different people.」

「Really?」

Arezel, who thought both the darkness and the trap were caused by the same culprit, asks Souta with a surprised expression.

「I can’t say it with certainty … … However, the quality of magic power is somehow different. And compared to the looping trap from before, this trap is too blatant, but it’s also a cunning trap at the same time. Covering the entire forest means it’s trying to erase its presence. By doing so, its purpose is also concealed.」

Souta narrows his eyes and tells his thoughts.

Arezel draws a breath from the change in the atmosphere.

「That’s just an idea. I don’t understand it myself. In the first place, this might just be a natural phenomenon, not caused by anybody.」

「Whichever it is, if it actually covers the whole forest, it’s tremendous, isn’t it?」

「That’s right. Though if it doesn’t actually hurt us in any way, the cause doesn’t matter… Anyway, I'm already hungry.」

With the day being dark day and night, Souta is grasping the approximate time with his biological clock. Right now, it’s about dinner.

「Now that you mention it, I'm also hungry.」

Once she remembers about her hunger, Arezel’s stomach rumbles.

「Uuu, that’s embarra.s.sing.」

「It’s almost time to go to bed. timewise, we need to make the camp now so we don’t sleep too late.」

「Wait a bit, I'll look for a suitable place.」

Souta stops the carriage, descends from the coach seat, and goes into the bushes.

Arezel also gets off from the carriage, but she stays there just as Souta instructed.

「I-I understand, but please come back soon.」

She clings to Ed as she feels anxious from being left alone.

Souta is looking for enough s.p.a.ce for them to make camp and parking the carriage.

After walking a bit, there is a clearing where the trees don’t grow, but it's overgrown with gra.s.s. Souta puts his hands on the ground and channels his magic power.

Souta maintains the ground using earth magic.

The gra.s.s is dug out and buried with the soil.

And then with earth magic, he levels the ground by breaking up the soil and spreading it around. After repeating that several times, there's now a circular s.p.a.ce in the forest.

It takes time, but a small square is formed.

「Like this …… This is the method that the elder told me.」

Not only in the woods but also in hot and cold places, there are methods for each. They were instructed by the gnome hero.

「Ummm, have you find the place?」

When Souta's recalling his past and looks into the distance, Arezel, who got impatient, comes along with Ed.

Because Ed followed Souta’s smell, they can arrive quickly.

「Hm? Ohh, you have come. I’ve found it, you can rest easily in this place.」

Souta moves a bit to show Arezel the s.p.a.ce that’s hard to see because it’s hidden behind his body.

「Woahh, that’s amazing. To find a place like this! 」

Arezel is impressed when she sees the place that has been leveled before.

「I added a bit of work, after that … … put the barrier stone in the four corners around this s.p.a.ce.」

Souta puts a barrier stone so that it surrounds the square, the stone is bigger, and the quality is also higher than what he thrown into the kidnapper carriage, so its effect is also high.

「With this, it should be more secure. And now… Should we have our dinner?」

After lighting the bonfire, Souta puts down three furs around it, and then he takes out meals from the magic bag and arranges it on each fur.

He prepares a meal in a bucket for Ed, and in the tray for him and Arezel.

「The one using the bucket is for Ed, so that’s your seat Arezel.」

Souta pops down and points to a fur.

「Err, is it fine? To receive this much.」

Arezel also sits down on the fur, but she hesitates to eat and doesn't touch the food.

「Don’t worry about that and eat, it’s not so expensive, I’ve also stock quite much of it.」

The meals served for Souta and Arezel are bread, fried vegetables and meat bought at the street stalls, along with the simmered vegetable soup.

Because Souta had bought a large amount of each, the dimensional storage had a lot of food.

「Well then, please excuse me …」

Arezel pierces the meat on the container with a fork and carries it to her mouth.

「Hot! Ehh? Hot? 」

「Oioi, are you okay? Eat slowly since it’s hot. I mean, the steam is still coming out, so you should know it’s hot.」

「B-But since you took it out from the bag, I thought it would be cold …… Is that bag special? 」

She asks while pointing at the magic bag that Souta put under his armpit.

「You've never heard of it? It’s a magic bag that stops the flow of time of whatever is inside it. Since it’s pretty rare, can I ask you to keep this a secret? 」

Souta puts his forefinger on his lips.

「A-Amazing … For some reason, I'm always surprised since I met Souta-san.」

「Well there are various things, it will help me if you don’t pursue them deeply.」

「I-I know, I won’t ask deeply and I won’t divulge anything to Master about my life’s benefactor!」

Arezel makes a fist with her right hand and strongly declares.

「Anyway, let’s go to sleep after we finish. It’s almost midnight. If we don’t sleep soon, our bodies’ rhythm might collapse.」

「Y-Yes. Hot! 」

Feeling that Souta asks her to hurry, Arezel burns her mouth again.

「… Just eat slowly. Here, drink this water.」

Arezel receives the water poured into the cup.

「Y-Yes. Fuu-haafuu-fuuhh.」

After drinking the water and the tongue that numbed from the heat recovers, Arezel continues to eat.

This time she does it slowly.

After he confirms it, Souta begins to eat.

That night they lay their bodies on the fur, wearing blankets, and go to sleep.

There is a warm air in the forest, the dark forest also illuminated by the light of the bonfire, and so the two are able to sleep soundly.

t/n: for some reason, the thing that comes up to my mind first for the last scene is a couple of man and woman stranded in icy mountain and trapped in blizzard, etc etc, you know what happen

also, i’m back home, i’ve been out for 2 weeks already without game, so let me play for a while, there won’t be any release on wednesday, next chapter will be either on next week or this friday, it’s depend on when i will go out again

if you still want your chapter but still want to respect my gaming time, pray that the game i play now bores me, though it probably won’t happen (it’s one of the tales of series)