Chapter 83: Chapter 83: Friend

Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

We got all caught up in the talks of our sudden purchase of a villa, but then I remembered we have other things to do.

I pulled 12 kobold furs from out of Haster’s shoulder bag.

Later on, I was told that I looked like a baby monkey climbing on its parent at the time though…

“Miss Remy, we have one more thing to take care of. I heard you could buy this fur from us.”

“Kobold furs? You’ve got quite a few, too. Just how many battles did you all get into today…?”

In response to her question, I meet eyes with her and start counting on my fingers.

To be honest, we were seriously fishing tons of spots at a quick pace, so I didn’t actually remember.

“Uhhh, kobolds three times, and the seaweed thirteen times I think?”

“No Alec, the kobolds should be four times.”

“Sir Alec, I believe the seaweed was… twelve times, wasn’t it? There were four times in the morning, and eight in the afternoon.”

“Then sixteen times in total I guess?”

“… Pardon?” ((T.L. Note: spoken in English))

Miss Remy got a distant look in her eyes when she heard how many battles we fought. The surrounding adventurers also had surprised looks on their faces.

… Wait a minute, English?

“The limit for normal adventurers is five battles in a day at best, you know? And you tripled that? So that’s how you cleared it in four days.”

Five times sounded like a small amount, but they are basically battles of life and death. Both sides are desperate, so it should take some time.

Moreover, there’s plenty to do after the battle, like healing, collection, and searching the area for more enemies to boot. There aren’t going to be as many encounters as in games.

Sixteen in a day makes it seem like we were on some standard battlefield somewhere.

On those points, we don’t tend to take any serious injuries, our enemy search is done in a single spell, and we made beelines straight for the next battles, so we were able to handle an unbelievable number of battles.

“I thought you had run into a huge flock of them, and that let you gather such an amount, but I guess it was something else, huh?”

“Umm, that’s actually a company secret kind of thing.”

“Company? Well, every party has some skill they want to keep secret, so I won’t ask any further, but… Just so you know, if it’s an useful method, the guild may be willing to buy it off you, okay?”

“… Hm?”

The [Sonar] spell is certainly useful. Together with [Olfactory Enhancement], if two casters split their parts, they may be able to handle it.

However… These are dangerous spells.

At the very least, [Olfactory Enhancement] was dangerous enough to see through Haster’s (attempted) cheating!

And [Sonar] would be an extremely useful spell for robbers. After all, it would allow them to see what was happening on the other side of up to 50 centimeter thick walls.

Besides, we aren’t exactly hurting for money anyway… Keeping this quiet is probably the right choice.

“Very sorry, but we really would prefer it stay a secret.”

“Really? Well, so be it. Okay then, we’ll take the kobold furs at 70 silver coins each. With twelve of them, that makes 840 silver coins. How about it?”

“That’s plenty. It’ll serve as payment for our inn until we move in.”

“Would you like that with gold coins? Or silver coins only? You could also deposit it here at the guild if you want?”

“A deposit?”

Moving money around is an important issue in a world like this with so few types of coinage.

If you were like Mister Elric, heading somewhere with no connections to make deals, you would need cash to do it with, so carrying gold and silver coins around would be necessary.

But for adventurers, that could be enough extra weight to be fatal.

It’s not hard imagining how nonsensically dangerous lugging around a purse, weighing who knows how many kilograms, on an adventure would be.

So apparently the guilds have come up with a way to handle assets for people, allowing them to deposit the money in one city, and withdraw it in another.

“No need for a deposit right now. 6 gold coins, and the rest in silver please.”

6 gold coins, and 240 silver coins.

This is plenty heavy enough, but having smaller values is convenient in daily life.

We split the money between the four of us, with 1 gold coin and 50 silver coins each, leaving the remaining 2 gold and 40 silver for inn fees.

We have three rooms, so it should be enough for three days in them. That should be plenty until we move in.

“Right, and this is the payment. If there’s anything else to point out… Ahh, I suppose you could just ask Levy, huh?”

“I suppose so. It is reassuring to have her around.”

At my words, those around us clicked their tongues like they were ready to puke.

For a moment I wondered if those guys were here, but it seems that wasn’t the case.

I guess that “betrayed her party and let them be annihilated” suspicion is pretty deeply rooted.

The atmosphere made it clear that if we continued our conversation, it would just lead to a quarrel, so we quickly rounded things up and decided to head back to the inn.

“Oh, hold on. If you’re going back to the inn, could you pass this along to her?”

Miss Remy pulled a single bottle out from under the counter and handed it to us.

The brand on the bottle is… A brewery from the Matala Alliance to the east? That should be some pretty expensive stuff.

“Oho, some good liquor, huh?”

“Minors shouldn’t be drinking, Al. And could you give her this letter for me too?”

“A letter? What’s it—“

“Don’t look! Sheesh, do you lot have no sense of privacy?!”

I’m sorry. The sex life I’ve had lately made me say goodbye to that sort of thing, so…

“Well, if she shares with you, then you can go ahead and drink it, but make sure you give it to her, okay?”

“Relax, we don’t intend on being that thoughtless.”

“Master, you do have a weakness for alcohol…”

“By the way, I noticed Al looks like the younger one, but Bern calls him “Master,” huh?”

Yeah, Alec does look like the older one, so I’m sure that feels a little off.

“He’s the one who taught me the basics of swordplay, and above all he saved my life.”

“Wow. Come to think of it, you two are carrying your swords. But you fought sixteen battles, so be sure to maintain then, got it? If you aren’t careful, they could reach their lifespan in a single day otherwise.”

“But of course. Our lives depend on it.”

“Bern is one-armed, so Al should be sure to handle his sword for him—“

“It’s fine, I’m already used to it.”

Of course their actual weapons aren’t those mass produced swords though.

Sentinel and Cleaver wouldn’t see much reduction in power even if their blades did chip.

More importantly, the holes in our cover are probably gonna come out if we stay much longer, so we should hurry and take our leave.

Miss Remy, who worried about every little thing for us, waved her hand lightly as we left the guild.

~*~

“Welcome back, how’d ya’ll do today?”

“It went great. We got our full registrations.”

I showed off the newly obtained registration card to Levy, who had finished her supper in the dining hall ahead of us.

“Wha, ya’ll done cleared it already?! Ya got 34 of ’em today?”

“36 actually. Yuuri’s new spell was very useful.”

“Hmhmm!”

I was feeling rather proud, okay? I brought my hands to my hips and stuck out my chest.

“Sis, hurry and take a seat. Let’s have some food first.’

“Sir Alec, what about our bags?”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about that. I’m seriously starved—“

“Oh, here. I guess this is from Miss Remy.”

… Don’t ya’ll be ignorin’ me.

I took my seat, slightly teary-eyed.

“Miss Levy, what’s the letter about?”

“Hn, just a sec.”

The paper rustled as Miss Levy opened it and took a look.

We made our orders during that time… Except there wasn’t actually a menu; the meal was set, as dinner was part of the inn cost.

I did want to order one extra item though maybe?

After making our orders, we returned our gazes to Miss Levy, who now had tears running down her cheeks.

“Wha, what’s wrong?”

“Naw, it ain’t nothin’… Just a bit moved by a deep friendship is all.”

According to her, the letter contained words of celebration about her return. The alcohol was a gift of that celebration.

“I came along here two years ago. Weren’t nothin’ but a rookie who didn’t know right from left, an’ she gave me some good lessons. She’s the one who got me that party too.”

“That party” must be her friends who were annihilated by a trap.

“For someone like me, who can be kinda absent-minded, she picked a nice group o’ big-hearted people. An’ they were pretty happy ’bout it too. I still feel a little regret ’bout it.

“… I mean, swords, magic, traps, I can do ’em all, ya see? My partners were pretty darn happy ’bout it too, saying things like “we got ourselves a good scout” and all.

“Us all, we got along well, went explorin’ the labyrinth practically every day. We got better an’ better thanks to that… Probably why I got careless…”

She sniffed loudly, and gulped down her cup of alcohol.

With the cup drained, she unstopped the bottle, and refilled the glass.

“Ya want some too Haster? Pretty good stuff right here.”

“Please.”

“… Remy’s close in age, an’ our names are alike, so we talked a whole bunch ever since. When I made that mistake, an’ practically retired inside, she’d visit me pretty often….

“It was painful, an’ I practically ran from the city. I was actually kinda embarrassed to be meetin’ her, but… Guess I was worried ’bout nothin’. She’s actually really glad I’m back.”

“That’s great… A toast to friendship.”

“Ta friendship.”

Their two glasses clinked together.

Since Haster was on the battlefield before, he must have some feelings toward this kind of topic.

I watched the two continue drinking together solemnly after that… While I ate my cuisine without saying anything.

Er, though it wasn’t just me, okay? Alec and Marle just chowed down as soon as their food was served too.

“Well, us children aren’t going to understand an adult conversation, right?”

“Yuuri, are you not an adult?”

“Being able to choose when to say that is what’s good about my age.”

“Master’s pretty good to be drinking on an empty stomach. I would be drunk in no time if I did that.”

“Read the mood, you guys…”

Haster gave us a dirty look.

Hey come on, I can’t drink with you. And besides, I’m really tired from the constant battles all day.

As evidence, I present Marle, whose manners are usually very good, eating at an amazing pace.

Those of us not drinking quickly finished our meals, and got up from our seats. I want to hurry and wash all this sweat off in the bath.

“Miss Levy.”

“Hn? Yeah?”

“I’ll lend that to you as a drinking partner. However, keep your hands off, got it?”

“So I’m a “thing” now…?”

“Haha, I ain’t a match for Yuuri. Ya’ll just relax, puttin’ my hands on someone else’s property is against my principles.”

“Says the former phantom thief…?”

I’m not going to forget you tried to steal Yig until the day I die, you got that?

Though I feel like I do tend to die a lot actually…

And so, I had the rare experience of sleeping alone.

Well, I can handle a bit of discretion like this.

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T.L. Note: The next chapter is a supplement to this one, and thus very short.