Volume 3 - CH 2

Resting in a room in the inn, we woke up to Selen’s cry.

And Teto and I got up slowly, made milk with a steady hand, made sure her diapers were clean, and so on, because we were used to it by this point.

「Waaaa!」

「I’m glad I can use barrier magic. If I don’t soundproof it well enough, it will bother other customers.」

At the time I set up a soundproof barrier in the whole room for the baby’s crying during the night, I think that’s when I could really feel the existence of the barrier the most.

Fundamentally it’s because I’ve lived with the stance of never taking an attack.

Also, Teto was the most active when the baby cried at night. As a little girl, my body frankly craved sleep, so at night I slept firmly.

Instead of me who was like that, Teto took care of Selen at night.

「Selen is being targeted by someone, so she can’t be left in the orphanage, so it seems we’ll have to raise her at this rate. Sorry. I’ll be burdening you, Teto.」

「Why are you apologizing, Majo-sama nodesu? It’ll be more fun with more people!」

Teto laughed happily at me, but it became necessary to think about having more people.

「Well I wanted to head to the 【Empty Wilderness】, but I wonder if that will be impossible until Selen grows up.」

I didn't plan to take a baby with me to kill monsters, and I think I could get by for now with the title and savings of a B-rank adventurer.

Besides, I didn't want to leave Selen because it was possible that the people who attacked Selen would attack again.

「Majo-sama, if you want Teto to, it’s okay to go on an adventure alone nodesu. Your part can be earning money.」

「I don’t dislike that idea. But on the other hand, I'm a little worried about leaving Teto alone with the baby.」

After ending our conversation, Teto and I had breakfast at the inn before going to the adventurer’s guild.

When Teto and I walked into the guild, there were some people there who knew us. When they saw that I was carrying a baby, they were even more speechless.

「Hello.」

「Chise-san, Teto-san, it’s been a while! Have you returned?!」

「Yeah, we’ve been going to other towns for a while and I ranked up in the dungeon city. So I wanted to go give a greeting at the guild」

Saying that while handing over my guild card, when we had left town a year and a half ago, what had been D-rank had risen to B-rank, so the congratulations came along with concerns.

「Sure, I know you beat the ogre, but were you crazy to level up so quickly to B-rank? Even though you're in your growing period, Chise-san hasn't grown at all. Yet, why do you have a baby!?」

「No, promotion to B-rank requires money and hunting dungeon monsters, so this is the result of standing on the front line during a dungeon stampede. Regarding my height……maybe there’s no choice but to say it’s my constitution. Also, this child isn’t my baby, she’s a child entrusted to me.」

Simply, a child who had been attacked by someone and survived, but when I told him that Teto and I had decided to raise her, I got a few surprised expressions.

「Are you going to be an unmarried mother? What amazing resolve. And at only 13 years old」

「Um……can’t I at least be like an older sister?」

It was too much of a power word, and my thoughts couldn’t keep up.

Meanwhile, Selen seemed to feel comfortable taking a nap in Teto’s arms.

She particularly has her face buried in Teto’s large boobs, so I definitely recognize that it feels good.

And I was a bit annoyed that I wouldn’t be able to give that calming feeling with my chest.

「It’s not like that……actually, I was discussing and decided to raise Selen, so I want to rent a house in town. Also, would there be a job I could do while raising Selen?」

I understood the conditions he heard were good. The guild should, however, be able to do something about it.

If not, I would start raising Selen at a general store selling miscellaneous goods created with 【Creation Magic】, and I hoped I could go to investigate the 【Empty Wilderness】 I was reincarnated into in my spare time.

「In order for the two people who went up to B-rank to stay in this town, I will do my best to back you up!」

Then we talked about what we could do.

I could use general magic to attack, use general magic to heal, do general housework, and mix potions. Teto told him she was good with swords and earth magic.

Then, when I was waiting in the corner of the guild’s bar, a trio of adventurers, perhaps returning from a quest, appeared in the guild and found us.

「Ah, Chise-chan and Teto-chan!」

「Ah………Lyle-san, Anna-san, John-san」 (T/N: I uhh. Kinda didn’t expect we’d see these guys again, but I stole the translation for their very simple names from the first translator :D Check v1c10 for their first appearance if ya need your memory jogged)

「Chise-chan. Did you forget our names for a moment?」

I’m sorry I couldn’t remember the names right away, and while tilting his head in Teto’s direction as if asking who, he was curious about Selen.

「I heard that you came back with some problems yesterday, but is it that baby?」

「Yes, we’ve decided to raise this child entrusted to us.」

「Really, you're still so small, but you have so much guts……」

While wondering if that was a compliment, I talked with them about our story after we left the town.

The receptionist onee-san returned to Teto and me, who were talking to Lyle and the others.

「Currently there’s no work that meets the needs of you two. Would you perhaps be able to wait?」

「Got it. Maybe I’ll continue to live in the inn for a while, but I’d like to rent a house somewhere in order to raise Selen.」

I bowed my head, took Selen with me, and left the adventurer's guild to go back to the inn. I took some money out of the guild card before I left, so we should be fine for a while.

After returning to the inn, I spent the night taking care of Selen.

Meals were brought to the room, so I gave a small tip to the inn’s daughter, and had her close her eyes regarding Selen.

And when it was time to go to bed, I slept with Selen on the bed.

POV: ???

We had failed to assassinate and kidnap the subject. Although we had cornered them and were about to take the next step of bringing them down, we felt strong mana and thinking it was reinforcements, so we pulled back.

It was adventurers who had happened to pass through by chance, and the woman seems to have died while entrusting her baby to the adventurer. For our purposes, whether it was kidnapping or killing the target, it was necessary to secure the body.

But the troublesome thing was that because the adventurer had a large magic bag, all of the corpses and items left behind were recovered. At the very least, we thought it would be good if I could recover that woman’s body, but it wasn’t possible.

All of them, including the bodies of our comrades, were delivered to the guards under the lord of this town, the Margrave, so there wasn’t anything we could do.

At the very least, the kidnapping of the baby had to be completed—

Thinking that, we invaded the inn in the middle of the night when people fell asleep, and tried to carry out the assassination.

(T/N: Please understand that the author is literally using kidnapping and assassination almost interchangeably ;-; I swear I’m just being loyal to the text)

But—

「It’s impossible. There’s no chance」

There was always a barrier over the entire room of the inn. It was a barrier with multiple effects like soundproofing, blocking, and alarm.

To maintain it while sleeping, it looked like that small woman had a lot of skill.

And while we were looking over from the next building to check the situation indoors as much as possible—

『If you intend to disturb Majo-sama and Selen’s sleep, I won’t forgive you nodesu!』

Another woman was awake and seemed to deliver her voice with some sort of magic, a magic that vibrated the roof tiles.

「Is it a specter……!」

Before we reached this town, we weren’t easy going.

We were looking for an opportunity to assassinate the adventurers that protected the child so that we would not be noticed.

Nevertheless, one person always kept a barrier even when sleeping or waking up. The other person looked like they were resting, but continued to stay alert without sleeping for the past few days.

We knew they were B-rank adventurers because of what was said in the adventurer's guild. They had killed an ogre or something similar, but it was even scarier than that… It had already been started, and if we spent a lot of time our organization would be ruined.

However, trying to protect and raise an unfamiliar baby, there should be a chance to take advantage of that friendly personality.

「Be ready, we have no choice but to decide……」

The men’s muttering melted into the darkness.

(T/N: doing this while low on sleep…pretty sure I didn’t see any pronouns actually indicating that the POV was from like. A group. But this last line implies it so :DDDD)