This Eroge Won't Make Me Fall!

"Busted, completely."

Keith said, kneeling down in front of the carriage.

"We can see that, asshole," Maria snapped.

The entire rear end of the carriage was crushed. The wheels of the carriage had turned into grated cheese while the bumper and the springs had either become a free pile of firewood or had gone far far away in the trees. If a mythical spring tree grows here in the future, one would know who to thank.

Keith dusted his clothes and stood up straight. All the bags with our luggage had already been pulled out, but there were seriously too many of them for us to carry back home.

As if to put salt on injury, it was just the time we had chosen a longer route that took five days instead of three to get to Apollon. There wasn't a particular reason behind it other than to check some new roads out which could be developed.

"We're already too far in, huh?"

The path back and the path to were both roughly two and a half days away. Taking all these bags along... it would serve as good training. Should I duck-walk as well, just to make it more effective?

Keith slowly started picking up some of the luggage and tied some around the horses. It would be too much weight for Blanc and Black to take not just the four of us and all the luggage as well, we still had to do something though. Just standing around was going to be the worst.

Just as Keith put up some of the bags on the horses, a crackling sound reverberated in the air.

All of us turned our gazes up.

A drop of water came stumbling down the air and landed right in the center of my brows.

In the blink of an eye, the single drop multiplied by dozens as an entire lake seemed to have been pouring down.

All of us were still looking up when I chanted the Honeycomb Defense and covered us, the horses, and the luggage in my shields.

"Just nice," I said. "Perfect timing."

"I mean, c'mon," Keith said. "Even for a novel, isn't this too contrived?!"

"Suck it."

The rain only grew more and more intense as the area around us was shrouded with droplets, the visibility taking a giant hit.

"I don't think it'll let up..." Lily muttered. All of us were dry with my shields, but it was a hassle to use them against the rain.

I couldn't keep all of them up for hours on end, for all we knew the rain would continue for a long time at this pace.

In the end, we decided to move. I picked up all our luggage and wrapped them in my shields while I covered the rest with a shield above them.

We had no choice but to leave the bits of the carriage behind as we made our way into the woods.

"You're like, a really convenient umbrella young master."

Keith was left in the rain.

We kept moving for a long while. As we had thought, the rain showed no sign of letting up and the woods showed no sign of ending. Getting lost wasn't a big concern for us since it wasn't woods in an unknown place. Walk deep enough and you'll be out the other side.

But the rain was a giant pain.

The sun seemed to have gone away and the dirt in our path grew muddy.

Would it have been better to just stay?

As that thought entered my mind, a voice called out to me.

"Young master..." Maria said. "Is that a house?"

I looked up and stopped in my tracks.

A run-down yet pristine house. Moss and vines grew out of its windows and the wooden logs making up its structure. All around, the trees had been knocked over and weeds and bushes had grown out instead.

On the sides, a shed was also left erect though with a few holes on its top, but not enough to not keep the horses safe.

I looked at all of them and pushed the door open.

There truly seemed to be no one inside as dust came rushing out at us.

"Alright! Jump in!"

Keith rushed to tie the horses in the stables while the other two dived into the house with me and the luggage. Keith came rushing back and slammed the door shut, leaving just us and the stale air inside the giant two-storeyed wooden house alone, hiding away from the tempest outside.

We all slumped down and sighed.

"Man was that tiring."

"I need to train more."

"Seriously though, isn't all of this too contrived?" Keith asked again.

"What are you talking about, it's nice."