Don't Burn Them! Even Witches Have Value!

”I’m exhausted... This is the last batch.”

While loading the fruits of her labor onto the cart and tying them down tightly, Elysia curiously sized up this bizarre vehicle that had been hastily built by the town’s carpenter at Lynn’s request.

To be precise, this was a modification of the donkey cart.

The wheels on both sides had been removed, replaced by two curved pieces of wood wrapped in leather whose surfaces were brushed with wax oil.

”This is a sled, a tool frequently used in places further north.”

Theodore, who was wearing a peculiar single-sided cylindrical monocle, recognized the object before his eyes while pondering over the piece of black stone exhibiting magical characteristics.

”There was a snowstorm last night. The Blackstone terrain combined with the iced-over roads indeed makes it very suitable to use a sled for transportation.

However, I heard that pulling a sled requires special livestock. Does this place have any?”

Faced with Theodore’s question, Lynn revealed a meaningful smile...

...

”Goddess of Wisdom above, I’ve heard that human-pulled rickshaws are popular in the large cities of Milan, but I didn’t expect it to actually be true.”

”I can’t stand it, this guy’s completely not human...”

”Hehe, Iyanna really wanted to play like this when she was little, but Mom wouldn’t let her.”

Under Theodore and Elysia’s disbelieving gazes, Iyanna looked excitedly at the harness strapped onto her body.

Originally, Lynn had also wanted to put the complete set of tack except for the saddle onto the wolf tribe girl, but he was stopped by Employee Number One’s terrifying wails.

”Theodore, Employee Number One can’t leave the house, but she can’t remain idle either. When I went to town, I negotiated a long-term purchase of wood with the lumberjacks. Please help me receive them.

Elysia, I’ll help you submit your death certificate and the firewood ashes to the Church in the city. Remember to cooperate well with our Chief Scientific Officer’s development work.

Oh right, there isn’t much food left at home, so I’ve decided to only eat one meal a day from now on. I hope you two can follow in my footsteps.”

Lynn tied a rope to a long wooden stick, and then he tied the ham bone Iyanna had gnawed on to the other end of the rope.

”Alright then, we’re setting off.”

As he dangled the bone in front of Iyanna, the modified sled, filled with high-quality charcoal and a normal person’s one-month food reserve, instantly sped off like a catapult.

Lynn quickly regretted it.

In short, he regretted it very much.

In the iced-over Blackstone Fief, a sled indeed had an advantage over a wheeled cart that would slip in the same terrain.

Then why hadn’t this vehicle from further north become popular in this place since ancient times?

The answer was very simple: because the snow layer here wasn’t thick enough.

And the roads here couldn’t be described as rugged and uneven. Rather, they were all full of potholes.

One must know, just the jolting of riding the donkey cart had made Lynn’s buttocks hurt up until now.

Then, if even the cushioning of wheels was taken away, and the one who was pulling the cart was an excited husky, what would happen?

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【E-Rank Battle Aura Fluctuation, the target is undergoing primary physical enhancement】

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”Stop! Stop! I’m about to! Die!”

The violently jolting wooden seat beat him crazily like a Stand user from a certain anime.

Lynn was about to lose even the strength to wail. He could only tilt his head back and try his best to open his mouth wide, attempting to let Iyanna hear his agony.

In fact, as long as he dropped the wooden stick in his hand, the wildly sprinting girl would stop... but as his eyes rolled back, he could no longer think of such a thing.

After all, when a person was in their most desperate moments, they would subconsciously tightly grasp the thing in their hands as their lifesaving straw.

Just like that, amidst a flurry of flying dust and snow, the people of Blackstone Town watched in shock as their new lord traveled in an unheard-of manner.

In this kind of remote place, such news would inevitably become a drinking story for a very long time.

And then, through the mouths of various imaginative storytellers, it would gradually turn into a new local ghost story rumor.

”Slow... Slow down! There’s a tree ahead! That’s a tree, ahhhh!”

”Meaty! Don’t run!”

The girl completely couldn’t hear her boss’s tragic screams.

Because in her eyes, there was only the bone in front of her bouncing up and down chaotically with the jolts.

In Lynn’s perspective, the scenery by the roadside flew by crazily, like a knocked-over paint palette.

And all he could do was continuously let out completely undignified high-pitched screams as he desperately held on to his consciousness…

Because he could feel that the black bread he had eaten for breakfast was tap-dancing in his stomach.

No, if he fainted, he would definitely throw it up.

Unless he died, he couldn’t be so wasteful...

————————

On the mountain road covered with a thin layer of ice, a convoy was slowly advancing.

Five horse-drawn carriages... to be more precise, reindeer carts, were methodically moving forward as they were pulled by tall, robust stags.

The emblem representing the Frost Merchant Guild was engraved on the sides of the carriages, displaying their affiliation.

”Your Highness Ai... Miss, we’re almost at the human city.”

On the middlemost reindeer cart, the burly man wearing a hood that concealed his head and face and was responsible for driving the cart spoke in a low voice towards his passenger at the back.

”Mhm.”

A cold, clear response came from within the carriage.

Just as the atmosphere was about to return to the dead silence that had lasted the whole journey, suddenly, the burly man abruptly raised his head while looking toward the direction of another small path converging from the woods ahead.

His face had three deep scars, as if carved by knives and axes, and his amber vertical pupils stared coldly over the path.

”Be alert, something’s coming.”

Under his command, the convoy immediately stopped. The foremost and rearmost vehicles shifted laterally, creating a defensive formation.

At the same time, a faint sound came from that small path.

It was the sound of violent collisions and friction between a hard object and the ground, as well as the sound of some medium-sized creature sprinting wildly on all fours... and a man’s howling?

”Ahhhhhhhhh!”

While everyone in the convoy looked at each other in dismay, the burly man who had been staring at the distance shouted in a low voice:

”It’s here!”

Amidst the sound of snapping branches, they saw a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives—

Swish—!

Accompanied by snow powder exploding into the sky, an afterimage violently rushed out of the forest path with the speed of a sudden thunderbolt.

It wasn’t a rampaging magical beast, nor was it a fierce bandit blocking the road.

Rather, it was a... person wearing simple brownish-yellow clothes, sprinting wildly on the road using both hands and feet?

Behind them, under the effect of tremendous centrifugal force, a sled threw out a perfect, but absolutely out-of-control, drifting arc at the intersection.

Before the crowd could get over their shock and react, the other party had already disappeared from the front of their field of vision.

The burly man remained silent.

He didn’t know how to evaluate the scene he had just witnessed.

But he did see one thing.

And that was that behind the cart-puller, a fluffy tail was exposed for a fleeting moment.

Thus, he turned his head slightly and looked at the carriage curtain behind him that had, at some unknown point, been gently lifted by a palm as white as jade.

”Your Highness, did you see it too?”

”You are to call me Miss this time... Yes, I saw it.”

The cold, clear voice carried a tone like winter frost.

”It was one of our subjects being driven like cattle by a human.”

In the dimness of the carriage, a pair of slender red eyes reflecting a dangerous arc of light abruptly opened.

”Damned humans...”

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T/N - Lol, serves the MC right. How could he make a cute wolf girl like Iyanna pull a sled full of charcoal? But since she was able to do it with ease, he better give her one whole ham later on, not just the bone he was dangling.

Also, it sounds like the MC already attracted the attention of royalty from the Frost Kingdom. That was fast. It’s only been 11 chapters. Let’s see where this goes. He did want sales channels to the Frost Kingdom as well.