Chapter 50 (1/2)

Chapter 50 – Journey to Fluud

The morning of the 30th, the time is 7:50am.

I’m currently at the depot in front of the Royal Capital’s eastern gate.

In front of me is this time’s client, Afgar Vesta-san.

And right now, I’m troubled.

「Like I’ve said na, ojou-chan. You ain’t s’posed to lie. Look, I’ll keep silent ’bout this, so quickly return it to the owner na.」

「Even though I’ve already said this many times, I’m the owner! This card is also mine!」

Right, it’s that exchange.

Furthermore, this time’s opponent is quite tough, or rather, he’s completely ignoring my story.

Up until now, people understood when I displayed my adventurer’s card, but it seems this person thought I picked up or stole this card.

I wonder, have we been exchanging like this for around ten minutes?

「kaー, Ojou-chan is stubborn na! This ain’t a game! If you remain persistent, I’ll hand you over to the guards!」

Who’s the stubborn one!

「Might you be, Afgar Vesta-san?」

A dignified voice was heard from far away.

Afgar-san turned towards the direction of the voice.

I can’t see from my position because of the carriage’s shadow but…… it seems to be a woman from the voice.

「I received this time’s escort commission, I’m Mary Mersol. My party behind me has also received the same commission.」

「Aah, I’m Afgar. Nice to work with you.」

Those people appear to have accepted the same commission it seems.

「By the way, is there some sort of trouble? Also, there should be five people if I’m not mistaken. Where’s the last person?」

「n? Aah, it ain’t a big deal but… Just a kid telling a lie about receiving this commission na. It looks like the last person still hasn’t come yet. Really, even though I’ve said our departure is very soon…」

Are you still saying that?

「Like I’ve said, I formally received this commission from the guild, haven’t I said this many times!」

I’m sure you just don’t believe it.

「Is that the child who was saying that?」

The voice of the leader-like woman appeared from the carriages shadow.

「Aah, I’m sorry but, could you somehow drive her away?」

Although Afgar-san said something, that woman and I didn’t move.

Where do I feel I’ve seen…?

「「AAH!?」」

Our pair of voices overlapped.

「The person who always helped me at the commission board!」

「The guild’s angel!」

Eh?

I have a feeling a heard some strange words but…

No, leaving that aside.

「This is perfect! Please explain that I’m an adventurer, onee-san! No matter what I say, he wouldn’t listen to my story!」

If it’s this person, then she’d know I’m an adventurer!

「Onee-san…. Onee-san huh, that’s nice…. ufufufu.」

Oh? Hey…? O~i?

「Mary, what happened? Oh? This kid is…」

hyoi, from the shadow of the onee-san called Mary, a different woman appeared.

「It’s the child that always jumps up and down by the commission board.」

Wai-, always? I haven’t done that recently you know?

「What’s this? You girls, are you this ojou-chan‘s acquaintance?」

「

Aー, rather acquaintance, we just recognise her. Because this child, is famous in the guild.」

What do you mean by famous? I haven’t done anything to attract attention you know?

「The trouble you were just talking about, was this child?」

「Yeah, she said she received the commission from the guild na. She also showed me the card but, I think she just picked it up from somewhere right?」

「Ahaha, the card and certificate, could you show me it for a bit?」

I handed over my adventurer’s card and commission certification to the lady.

「Hm~m, Sakura Fujino, 15 years old, ah, so you’re 15 years old. Human race, rank is D. You’re already rank D? It hasn’t even been a month right? Isn’t that too fast?」

「Well, various things happened…」

「Various things you say…. n, the certificate is genuine as well ne. The thing this child said, it’s true you know. It seems she received the commission.」

I received my card and wooden tag back.

「Oi oi, even you’re saying things like that? The card and certificate as well, weren’t they just picked up or stolen?」1

「Aー, that’s impossible. Don’t you know about it? The glyphs won’t show on the adventurer card unless the originator allows it you know? In addition, this child receives commissions at the guild almost every day.」

Ah, now that you mention it, there was that sort of function ne…

I had completely forgotten about it.

「Eh? That means, this ojou-chan is an adventurer, and came here after accepting the escort commission?」

「Didn’t I say that from the beginning?」

「I’ll say this while we’re at it, I’m 15 years old as well.」

「Eh? 15 years old you say, seriously? You’re even smaller than my 8 year old niece ya know?」

「nー, well I was surprised as well at first ne. Since it’s written as so on the card, it shouldn’t be a mistake.」

Afgar-san grumbled for a short moment, but when he finally calmed down, he suddenly turned his body in my direction and lowered his head.

「I’m sorry! Even though ojou-chan has been tell the truth this whole time, I arbitrarily decided you were lying from the start… I’m a failure of a merchant.」

It was me who was surprised at this.2

「Please raise your head! I also forgot about the matter of the card… I understand, so it’s fine already.」

At that moment, the bell for the 4th koku sounded just on time.

「Look, it’s already time for departure. Let’s quickly prepare.」

Taking advantage of that, I change the topic.

「n, aah, that’s right. Well then, I’ll go check the on carriage. You guys can introduce yourselves.」

Aah, that’s good. If he continued to lower his head like that, it would’ve been hard on my mentality3.

As I was feeling relieved, the voice of the lady from just now appeared.

「Is it alright to call you Sakura-chan? I’m Meriana Schuzlbal. Meriana is fine. The bow is my forte. And, Mary Mersol over here is a swordswoman ne. That male beastman over there is Bolt Mardeano, and that other man is Sindhi Melano ne. We’ve all formed a party together, everyone is D rank. Best regards during these five days ne.

Meriana-san introduced the remaining members.

「Ah, yes. I’m Sakura Fujino. I look forward to working with you all.」

After exchanging a brief introduction, Afgar-san’s voice was heard.

「O~i, we’re leavingー.」

It seems we’re ready for departure.

「n, then shall we get on the carriage? Hey, Mary. You coming?」

Meriana-san dragged Mary-san while she was still staring at the sky and boarded the carriage.

The carriage was a wagon with two canopies attached to it, it was fairy large.

Afgar-san was the coachman, one person could sit beside him, and the remaining four people could board the open luggage s.p.a.ce.

Sindhi-san sat by the coachman’s seat at the beginning, and Bolt-san was in charge of guarding the rear.

The remaining three people, chatted in the open s.p.a.ce.

Since this was my first escort commission, I was taught various things.

I was also taught other things like the troubles of a female adventurer, and the stuff I should be careful of.

According to their story, there’s very few female adventurers, it seems there are less than ten ~ twenty percent of them.

It appears there were many discriminations and animosities, or even s.e.xual hara.s.sment towards female adventurers in the past, however the guild strengthened the punishments and made various improvements, and it seems to have become considerably better.

However, those kinds of consciousness are still around even now, women are often looked at lightly even when they receive commissions.4

Besides that, I was also taught advice for travelling.

Well, such as not to approach places with bad public order, or investigate as much as possible for the places you’ll be going to for the first time, and things like not getting involved with suspicious commissions, I felt like there was a lot of fundamental advices.

For some reason, Mary-san persistently said things like ‘if a stranger calls out to you, don’t follow them’, or ‘don’t accept food from a stranger’…  Why was that?

Although we had a rest and lunch on the way, the first day pa.s.sed by without incident.

Evening, probably around 6 o’clock. We decided to camp out beside the forest.

Bolt-san and Sindhi-san constructed the tents, Mary-san drew water, and Meriana-san and I gathered firewood

I did a few round trips, and collected firewood for tonight’s portion + a portion for myself to use.

The reason why, it’s because it seems everyone has their own preserved food and water for dinner.5

In other words, the portions of the dishes I’ll make will be guaranteed for myself and I won’t get bothered, was what I thought.

Although I didn’t have the time for lunch, since there’s time for dinner, I think I’ll at least make some soup.

Everyone gathered around the bonfire after their preparations were done, I separated a little and made a fire on my small stove.

I then filled a pot with water, as one would expect, it can’t be pa.s.sed as soup stock but, I teared some dried meat and bacon, cut them into small pieces, then boiled them together with vegetables.6

Though it would be convenient if there were something like instant soup stock…

After thoroughly heating the vegetables, I flavoured it with herbs and spices, and it’s completed.

I transferred it to a mug and matched it with some bread, and that’s dinner.

I lightly washed the pot that was used for the soup, then I filled it with water again and placed it over the fire.

It’s for the after meal tea.

When I began to eat my dinner, everyone else had finished eating.

As I restlessly ate dinner by myself, Meriana-san peeked at me with great interest.

「Isn’t it troublesome to go out of your way to cook? It’s impossible for me. Although it’s certainly nice to have soup, it’s quite troublesome don’t you think? Oh? This bread Sakura-chan is eating, you also ate this at lunch right? It’s being easily teared off but,eh? It can be eaten without water or soup? What is that? Is Sakura-chan actually an amazing muscleman?」

That’s a little, annoying.

It’s troublesome if someone began one-sidedly talking when you’re eating right?7

I think having a lively meal is different from a noisy one.

Furthermore, because she’s bending her body forwards in order to peek, it’s extremely difficult to eat.

Ah, a strand of hair slightly went into my mug!

「I just want to eat delicious things. So I cook for myself as well. I don’t think that it’s troublesome. Also, regarding the bread, it’s a secret.」

I reluctantly answered.

The reason why the bread is a secret, is because I think it’ll be incredibly troublesome if I talked about it.

「Ehー, even if it’s only that, it’s amazing ne. As for me, all my meals are the same. Every day during a journey, it’s preserved food you know? Ne, ne, that bread, even a bite is fine, let me eat some okay?」

「Wait, you’re close! That’s no good, since this is my meal!」

「Isn’t that fine, don’t be so stingy~. Just one bite, even a crumb is fine! Okay? Pleasee~」

「I said that’s no good, ah, wait, please don’t pu-, ah!」

basha

Aah, the soup is…. Even though there was still half left…

「acha~, sorry ne~?」

Even if you apologize here…

「What happened?」

Maybe she was curious because of the noise we made, Mary-san approached.

「Meriana you, again…」

When Mary-san saw the spilled soup on the ground and the fallen mug, she seemed to have understood the situation.

「Ahaha, I’ve done it.」

From the conversation, it seems something similar has happened several times.