The management committee’s arrival

 
 ”At last, we’ve arrived.”
 ”Ahahaha! Yes we have, Princess.”
 
 The ship the management committee of the Grand Festival of Sorcery boarded gradually approached the royal capital. They are headed for the Carcel Kingdom, where the Grand Festival of Sorcery is planned to be held next year.
 
 ”After running into that sea dragon, I’m glad we didn’t encounter any other monsters like that.”
 ”Ahahaha! No, no, truly. But that boat was amazing. The only people on board were a young man and an unusual familiar, and yet he managed to kill such a sea dragon.”
 ”Yes, that’s true. Thanks to him, we were saved.”
 
 Heim spoke with Toa, admiration showing on his face as a smile snuck through. After that, their ship stopped by at different towns, then afterwards, they came to this Carcel Kingdom.
 If they had continued on their way, they would have arrived in about three days, but because of the detour, they ended up spending about ten days getting there.
 And that was an unfortunate result for the kingdom —
 
 ”Ew, wh-, what is that smell?”
 ”Fu-, fumu. It’s not the smell of the sea, but a really difficult smell to describe. Even a knight’s armour that’s been left on for a month smells a little better.”
 ”… Heim. How long have you been wearing that armour?”
 ”Ahahaha! Don’t worry, it’s only been about 20 days.”
 
 Hearing this, Toa distanced herself a little from Heim.
 
 ”Hmy, gnose iz, getting uwinkled.” [TL: i.e. “my nose is getting wrinkled” while scrunching her nose]
 
 Entering the bay, as they got closer to the harbour, the smell got stronger. The committee members and sailors on board were also pinching their noses while fanning away the air with their hands.
 ”What on earth is going on?”, the committee members were somewhat uneasy.
 Then the ship pulled up to the docks and, with Toa and Heim leading, the committee members disembarked in succession.
 
 ”W-, welcome to our cheese town—, no, please, I can’t find the words to thank you enough. The one who will be serving as your guide is me, the Minister of Construction, Dowal.” [TL: in case I didn’t choose good enough words, his tone has taken a complete 180 into absolute respectful mode. Also, it didn’t translate well, but he accidentally said “smelly town” instead of “thanks for coming to our town”. I instead went for “cheese” XD]
 
 At the harbour, the minister greeted the group with a tight expression. To the harsh slip of the tongue and such, Toa unconsciously let slip a wry smile. There’s certainly no mistake that it’s a stinky town.
 
 ”Expressly coming to, receive us, thank, you. Uhm, sorry for being sudden, but can I ask a question?”
 
 Toa asked so while somehow managing to keep her expression fixed. The smell was so strong that it was even difficult to smile, but she managed to not damage her appearance as a committee member and a princess.
 
 ”… what you want to say, I somewhat—”
 ”Ahahaha! This stinks so bad! What the h**l is going on?”
 
 Dowal spoke as though he knew what Toa was going to say, but an unrestrained voice cut him off. It was Heim, Toa’s escort.
 
 ”Gu-, just now, we discovered a slight problem with the sewage pipes in the royal capital…”
 
 Dowal answered in a slightly flustered tone. “That is”, “hm”, and light groans.
 
 ”A slight problem resulted in a smell this bad?”
 
 Heim looked at Dowal with suspicion and asked again. Indeed, the situation in the royal capital has become more than just a little bad.
 
 ”A-, anyway, the smell will immediately, with magic, oi! Hurry up, produce wind!”
 
 Dowal ordered the magician who had accompanied him there. The magician constructed a magic formula, and a magic circle produced wind. Thanks to this, the smell got much better.
 
 ”Ooh! The smell disappeared.”
 ”We can move around if we’ve got this, huh.”
 ”Th-, thats right thats right. This is what we call our country’s superior magic techniques.”
 
 Dowal said this, as though trying to promote his own country. However, Toa felt uncomfortable about what he said. In the first place, the kingdom was the cause of the smell, so it wasn’t something to boast about.
 Also, though it’s fine to rely on magic, the effective range is limited. If we continue doing it this way, we’ll need to reconstruct the magic once the effect wears off.
 This is probably why, though Dowal is boasting, the magician behind him has a grim expression.
 
 ”Come on, this way to the carriage. Let me guide you to the castle directly.”
 
 Dowal proposed that they head directly to the castle from the harbour, but Toa shook her head side-to-side.
 
 ”No. We don’t have much time here, so I think we’ll go inspect at once. For that reason, may I ask for a route through the town that will let us look around?”
 ”Ahahaha! That’s true. If we’re going anyways, why not just look at the capital while we do so.”
 ”Certainly, it would be double the effort to go to the castle just to come back again.”
 ”We still have some leeway with time. If possible, I’d like to go take a look at the stadium’s construction site.”
 
 Having heard this, a single bead of sweat ran down and flowed from his brow.
 
 ”… is there something wrong?”
 
 Toa asked him, noticing the heavy atmosphere coming off of Dowal.
 
 ”N-, no. I just thought that perhaps everyone was tired…”
 ”No need to worry. As we are, we could keep going till late at night. Ahahaha!”
 
 In contrast with Dowal’s evasive reply, Heim folded his thick log-like arms and gave a gallant laugh. On the other hand, Dowal’s expression became gloomy.
 
 ”I understand… In that case, let us head out…”
 
 Dowal’s voice faded away. Thus, everyone from the committee got in the carriage and headed for the stadium’s construction site, along a route that would give them a clear view of the town…