CH 24

By the time we reached the well, it was raining heavily.

“Look at Nyango, passersby are staring at you with their eyes wide open.” (Zeol)

No wonder the townspeople were surprised to see us driving the carriage without getting wet in the heavy rain.

When we arrived at the village chief’s regular inn, I created a roof between the carriage and the entrance to the inn with my void attribute magic.

“This guy is surprising. Can you really do something like this with void attribute magic?” (Kidai Chief)

“Grandpa, my feet…” (Olivier)

Water began to accumulate on the road, so I created a [Shield] and turned it into a walking board about 10 cm thick.

Of course, the surface is made of a non-slip material.

“How about that Miguel, Nyango is quite useful.” (Village Chief)

“This stuff is useless except on rainy days.” (Miguel)

Except for Miguel, the other three seemed to like my void magic.

Among them, Olivier sends me sparkling glances, but Miguel seems jealous and will surely lead to something troublesome, still, I hope he moderates his actions.

Olivier, who is the granddaughter of the chief of Kidai Village, will be attending a school in Ibouro starting in the spring.

Even though she commutes to school, it takes half a day by horse-drawn carriage from Kidai Village, so she will be staying in a dormitory.

When Miguel heard about this, he said he wanted to go too.

It seems that there is an academic test for transferring to a new school, and if he does not get a certain score, he will not be transferred in the second grade and will be admitted as a new student.

It doesn’t matter, it seems that tomorrow Miguel will go to Ibouro’s school to take the test.

Well, I guess it is more convenient for Miguel who wants to spend time with Olivier.

From the village chief’s point of view, whatever the reason may be, he may think that Miguel’s selfishness will be corrected by living away from his parents.

As for me, I would be very happy to see the eyesore Miguel disappear from the village.

These stories are what I heard inside the carriage with my eavesdropping skill using void magic.

Neither Mr. Zeol nor the four people in the carriage seem to have noticed, and the sound quality is quite clear.

I would have no complaints if I could see the images, but even in its current state, it is very useful magic.

We will continue to work on making it smaller and more sensitive.

In the inn, we are separated from the village chiefs.

We need to be by their side to protect them, but I heard that there is a skilled security guard at the inn.

“Hey, Nyango, come with me for a minute.” (Zeol)

“Where are we going?” (Nyango)

“The guild tavern.” (Zeol)

“I will accompany you.” (Nyango)

Mr. Zeol turned down the village chief’s invitation to dinner and headed to the guild’s tavern to gather information.

The early evening hours are a time for adventurers who have finished their work to exchange information with each other, and as the hours get later, the drinks get to be too heavy and the conversation will not stop.

From the inn, I created a large [Umbrella] to protect us from the rain, and I made a foothold to match Mr. Zeol’s walking pace.

People on the street are looking at us with surprised expressions again, but they seem to think it is Mr. Zeol who is using magic, so they don’t look at me.

“It’s a very convenient magic. With this, going out in the rain won’t be a problem.” (Zeol)

“We catkins have trouble drying our fur when it gets wet, you know.” (Nyango)

“I see. So, it is a magic born of necessity.” (Zeol)

Following Mr. Zeol through the guild door, the inside was filled with the smell of wet beasts.

Even in towns, adventurers do not wear umbrellas.

In the village, many use raincoats made of waterproof cloth soaked in sap, but many seem to use leather cloaks.

It seems that the guild is filled with the smell of wet leather and wet beastkin.

Even in the rain, adventurers who have completed their requests seem to be gathering here, and low whispers are echoing.

Among the adventurers, there were some young ones mixed in who looked to be about the same age as me, but they were quickly quieted down by the veterans around them, who stared at them when they raised their voices a little too excitedly.

Apparently, the adventurers’ guild in Ibuoro is not in easygoing fantasy mode, but rather ruthless.

Mr. Zeol turned to the bulletin board where the request forms were posted before heading to the tavern.

I would have liked to have seen it when I came to register too, but I got tangled up with a Deerkin adventurer and had to run away after getting my guild card back.

Since most of the people who become adventurers are of large races, the place where the request form is posted is high and difficult for me, a catkin, to see.

Using [Step], I raised my gaze to the same height as Mr. Zeol.

“Oh, so you created a foothold.” (Zeol)

“I can’t see very well unless I do this.” (Nyango)

“Got it……” (Zeol)

The majority of the requests posted on the bulletin board are for monster subjugation.

There are many farms around the city of Ibuoro, and it seems that there are almost daily requests to subjugate the monsters that prey on livestock.

The market price for killing goblins and kobolds is about five silver coins, and even orcs cost about one large silver coin.

In Japanese yen terms, one silver coin costs about 1,000 yen, and a large silver coin is ten times that amount, so it is cheaper than you might think.

“I don’t think that subjugating monsters is very profitable…” (Nyango)

“Hmm? The only thing written here is the commission fee. If you sell materials, meat, and magic stones, you will get money for them. Goblins are useful only for their magic stones, but for Kobolds you can sell their fur and fangs, and for orcs, you can sell their meat. If you kill a black orc and sell the whole monster, you can make about five large gold coins.” (Zeol)

“Oh, really? You can make that much money?” (Nyango)

“However, if you don’t bring back a huge orc, you won’t make any money.” (Zeol)

“Oh, yes, that’s right. To sell them, you have to bring them in, don’t you?” (Nyango)

It is impossible for even a large adventurer to bring back orcs from the forest or mountains by himself.

If it takes too long, or if the blood is not drained or otherwise handled poorly, the purchase price will drop by that much.

In addition to subjugating monsters, you can receive many requests to escort merchants and travelers.

The daily allowance for this work is five or six small silver coins, with rewards for success, battle rewards, etc. added to the daily allowance.

“The longer the distance, the better the rate for escort work. It is not unusual for adventurers who are mainly engaged in escort work to do the work of another client on a round-trip basis. Some adventurers enjoy traveling at their own leisure while accepting requests.” (Zeol)

“Well, that sounds more fun.” (Nyango)

“Well, as long as nothing goes wrong… Well, not only monsters but also bandits targeting merchants may attack. Fighting against humans, where you risk your life, is a nerve-wracking job.” (Zeol)

“I see……” (Nyango)

If you are fighting against monsters, there is less guilt, and even if they use their heads, there is a limit.

But when you are dealing with humans, you have to deal with those who are as cunning as you are or in some cases more cunning than you are.

And no matter how evil they are, killing humans comes with a sense of guilt.

It certainly doesn’t sound like an easy job.

After taking a look at all the requests on the bulletin board, Mr. Zeol turned his attention to the tavern.

As we passed through the door, I saw that the floor was an adult space with cigarette smoke wafting through the air, mingling with the aroma of alcohol.

The atmosphere was filled with charming voices and laughter, a complete change from the tense atmosphere before the reception.

On the floor, several beautiful ladies were walking around handing out drinks and food.

“Nyango, don’t make the mistake of touching any of these women yourself.” (Zeol)

“Huh? Yes… why, what do you mean?” (Nyango)

“The women in the tavern belong to the guild tavern patrons, and anyone who touches them without permission is…” (Zeol)

“Everyone’s enemy… is that what you mean?” (Nyango)

“That’s right.” (Zeol)

Since the adventurers are all burly men, one would think that sexual harassment would be the norm, but it seems that there is some sort of gentleman’s agreement.

Is it like the unwritten rules of the otaku in my previous life, or like the naive male judo club members?

Mr. Zeol settled down at the counter instead of a table on the floor.

“Give me an ale, Nyango, what about you?” (Zeol)

“Milk for me, please.” (Nyango)

I told him what I ordered, and after a pause, the surrounding bursts into ungraceful laughter.

“Hey, hey, did you hear that? Did that kitten got lost?” (Adventurer)

“Isn’t he an illegitimate child of that old tigerkin over there?” (Adventurer)

Well, it seems that the fantasy tropes hold true in this world.

It was worth it for me to order a little more loudly.

“Hey, are you listening to me? This place is not for little kids—oh, that’s cold!” (Adventurer)

In another fantasy trope turn of events, a dogkin adventurer walked up to me and pelted me over the head with ale, but I used my void magic to make a rain gutter to return the liquid and send it right back down between his legs.

“Old man, are you looking down on me!” (Adventurer => Dogkin)

“Gahahahaha, you probably spilled ale on yourself. Are you sleep-talking?” (Zeol)

“This…” (Dogkin)

“And I didn’t do anything. It’s this Nyango that’s messing with you.” (Zeol)

“What… you little!” (Dogkin)

Perhaps it’s because I’ve come with Mr. Zeol, I don’t feel scared at all even if I face a dogkin adventurer who is much larger than me.

“To look down on me… Bufo, hey, what is this?” (Dogkin)

The dogkin tried to grab me, but I deployed my shield in front of him.

The dogkin, who hit his face as hard as he tried to punch, was startled and backed away, so I deployed the next trap.

“It hurts, it hurts… what is that it hurts… Damn, what’s going on?” (Dogkin)

With a fragile mass of air, I made a sharp stake-like object and deployed several of them around the dogkin adventurer.

They prick him when he moves but break quickly. When he was startled by the pain and reacted to it, another stake would stick.

The stakes were transparent, so it would appear to those around him that the canine adventurer was moving around by himself.

“Gyahahaha, are you dancing, Rodas?” (Adventurer)

“Wait, what, are you already drunk?” (Adventurer)

“Damn, this kid is… gyauu!” (Dogkin => Rodas)

The dogkin adventurer pulled out a knife, and I quickly blinded him.

Of course, it was a spherical [Thumbing] that did not rob him of his sight, but it was a bit harder.

The tavern was indeed quiet as the adventurer, known as Rodas, threw out his knife and crouched down.

Mr. Zeol quietly got up from his seat and, without showing any sign of effort, delivered a kick to Rodas’ tail end.

Mr. Zeol grabbed a groggy Rodas by the collar, dragged him to the entrance, and threw him out of the tavern.

The people who were drinking with Rodas looked at us, so I prepared void attribute magic so that we could act in retaliation.

“Gyahaha… Rodas, what a piece of crap!” (Adventurer)

“Oh, you’re named Nyango right?” (Adventurer)

“Master, let me treat this kid to some milk!” (Adventurer)

While I was puzzled by this unexpected turn of events, Mr. Zeol came back and tapped me on the shoulder.

“Nyango, being an adventurer is all about skill.” (Zeol)

“Huh… but that Rodas guy…” (Nyango)

“He’s a guy who gets knocked down in the tavern and thrown out. You know why?” (Zeol)

“Because it determines who wins and who loses…?” (Nyango)

“You’re half right. The loser gets his tail between his legs to make it easier for him to get home.” (Zeol)

“So that’s it……” (Nyango)

The unwritten rule of the tavern is that if you get thrown out, you lose, and if you lose, you go home like an adult.

“You~ you’re quite strong~” (Voice)

“Umyee… ye-yes.” (Nyango)

Suddenly, a whisper from the left, a blind spot, startled me and I turned around to see a bountiful mountain range in front of me.

Before I realized it, I had allowed myself to be approached by a lionkin miss working in a tavern.

“How old are you? Your future looks promising…” (Waitress)

“Well, um, I just turned eleven…” (Nyango)

“Hmm… Would you like this big sister to teach you something good?” (Waitress)

Oh, if you move close, it will touch, it looks like it will touch.

“Um, uh, um…” (Nyango)

“Sorry, but he’s still in the middle of a request, so you’ll have to do this another time.” (Zeol)

“Oh, dear me~!” (Waitress)

The lioness stroked my cheek soooo softly and then went back to her work.

The hairs on my back went sproing.

“Be careful, Nyango. That one will devour you up to your bones… or you’ll get chewed off.” (Zeol)

“Ugh…” (Nyango)

I am terribly sad, but I guess I will have to wait a little longer before I can climb the ladder of adulthood.

After this, while listening to the stories around me, Mr. Zeol told me various stories about his adventures.