Chapter 16

I knew it. The people of this world basically don’t care about others.

A mother who continued to swing her whip, rebuking and blaming her child for its father not coming back home, let alone not praising that child for making an effort to do as told while desiring her praise.

A father who had a child with another woman since he hated his wife, just to nonchalantly come back once his wife croaked to take over the house and continue to insult his wife’s daughter with cruel slander.

A younger sister who flaunted the presents she got from her father while fully aware that her elder sister from a different mother was given nothing out of spite.

Servants who indifferently watched it all happen as if being unrelated bystanders.

The people of this world won’t move a single finger if it’s not for their own benefit.

Even the guy from before had taken a young noble lady, who didn’t know how society worked as she hadn’t even once visited the town close to her mansion, to a distant town while she still didn’t understand a thing, and quickly discarded her right there. I’m sure he hasn’t even considered for a single moment whether she’d be able to survive herself.

In that case, it’d have been better to remain in the mansion for another two years while gathering information from the nearby town and accumulating experience, before leaving the mansion after having put all preparations in order.

…I really botched this one.

After clicking my tongue, I put on my business smile and spoke up to the woman at the reception.

“Pretty lady, I’d love you to tell me a few things. Would that be okay?”

When I spoke up to her while emanating an aura of innocence, yep, imitating Primrose, the lady at the reception blushed.

…Wait, she’s blushing? Why?

…Well, whatever.

I asked her what I should do first after becoming an adventurer.

“…In other words, I’m G-Rank, so I should first take on requests available to a G-Rank, huh? The purchase is over there, and they’ll buy up all the materials other than the items specified in the request after an assessment.”

I see, I see, it’s the standard template. As G-Rank I can only collect things, pick up trash or clean. I’m good at cleaning since I can do it with magic, but currently I can’t stand the idea of doing work that would bring joy to the people of this world. And I’d be troubled if I felt an urge to kill them after they started to complain about my work being sloppy.

“I’ll take the collection requests. They’re permanent and don’t have a time limit, right?”

It’d be a pain if they had to be handed in before the day was over.

“Correct. But, if you take too much time, the freshness of the medicinal plants you picked up is going to deteriorate which might lead to the request failing.”

“Got it. So it’s okay for me to gather a bigger amount!”

“Eeehh!”

A big smile as service, and a big service for you as well, miss!

“…If you like I can contact a reliable party I know of, and introduce you to them?”

I got startled when she brought this up.

What’s with her voice that totally sounds like that of a local guide’s bribed recommendation to a certain shop…

“No, I have absolutely no interest in joining up with anyone! The people of this can’t be trusted after all!

I clearly turned her offer down. The lady looked disappointed.

“Eh…but…” She glanced sideways.

……I see.

“Thanks for your help, miss.”

“Huh? W-Wait a moment!”

After erasing my smile and coldly giving her my thanks, I left the place.

In short, the group she wanted to introduce me to was already awaiting me. But no thanks, I don’t want to go along with such a shady invitation.

After leaving the guild, I headed back the way I used before, arriving at the checkpoint.

“Ooh? Lad, you’re…”

I’m no lad, for heaven’s sake.

“I’m not a lad, but Indra. …Here you go, my adventurer card. I’d like to go outside. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

The official looked around while bewildered.

“Huh? Outside? And you say you’ll be back tomorrow?”

“I’m going to gather medicinal plants.”

“No, I mean, you’ll be back today then, right? The gate will be closed at night, so it’ll be difficult to come back here, you know? Wouldn’t it be better to wait until tomorrow morning?”

“I’m scared of what the people of this world would do to me if I were to spend the night in town, so no thanks.”

The official was taken aback when I answered him melodiously.