Chapter 184: That Which Achieved Success And Refuses To Step Aside I (1/2)

【186th day】

『Okay~』

The children replied cheerfully.

We decided to hold the second hot-dog fair at the flame religion's dining hall. The line queuing up in front of Tyutyu and Rutsuko-san was made up of adults involved with the flame religion, while the line in front of me was made up of children.

Many of these children are the orphans of adventurers.

The flame religion takes them in and raises them to adulthood.

Some of them become official members of the flame religion, but most choose to follow in their parents' footsteps and become adventurers themselves. Not a few of them ironically cause the same situation to occur.

But that is that, and this is this, and I'm not so arrogant as to feel pity for the futures of others.

「The dark sauce is meat and beans, and it's pretty spicy. The yellow sauce is full of vegetables, and it's tangy and spicy. The red sauce is mild and full of flavor. It's easy to eat, so I recommend it for you all」

「The dark one~」

「Tch」

It got off to a bad start.

After that, I took the children's orders one after another.

I tried to subtly steer them towards the red sauce, but when I took a look when it was over――――――

「There's leftover red sauce again, huh?」

「Yeah-nya」

There was even more red sauce left over than that time at Gladvain-sama's dormitory. I didn't do anything stingy like limiting each person to one hot-dog. I had prepared four portions for each person, but even so, there was some left over. There had been no repeat customers for the red sauce.

To top it off, there was red sauce left over even when there were only children.

Why?? I've even made it less spicy so that it's more kid-friendly……

「As I thought, Onii-chan is ”that”, isn't he?」

「Yeah, I agree」

My sister and Lanseal were eating hot-dogs a short distance away.

「Ea, what do you mean by ”that”?」

Rana asked her sister with hot-dogs in both hands. For the record, one had the dark sauce and the other had the yellow.

「Well~, Onee-chan, I was just thinking that Onii-chan sure likes kids~」

Hey, Ea. I can tell what you're implying with that statement.

「I just assumed he didn't hate children when he brought Maria back with him」

「What did you say? I'm not a child, you know? Rana, I want a bite of that one with the dark sauce」

「It's a bit spicy though. Are you sure?」

「I should be fine if it's just one bite」

Maria took a bite of Rana's hot-dog. Though she did only take one bite, it was a big one.

「Woah, it's got a grown-up taste to it!」

She had a pained look on her face and hurriedly washed it down with some sweet potato tea with milk. It was a very child-like reaction. But the children of the flame religion had eaten it without any trouble.

Why?? Do the people of this city have weird taste buds or something?

「Souya, these hot dogs are pretty delicious. Especially those with the yellow sauce」

Regure was on her sixth hot-dog. Moreover, all of them had been with either the dark or yellow sauce.

「You know, that's not very good for the babies in your belly……」

「Hey, aren't you misunderstanding something?」

「Eh?」

She was giving me a look of heartfelt astonishment.

「Do you think that you can raise children with only good things? No, you can't. Be it sour, sweet, bitter, or painful, it's only after they've experienced it all that they can finally mature as a person. Do you think that they can become great people by only eating tepid food while they're still in the belly?」

「Ummm, well………」

What to do?

It's because I get where Regure is coming from that I don't get it. Is this good prenatal care? Am I the one in the wrong?

「Dear me, well well, what a splendid little one you have there. Could it be twins?」

Seeing Regure's belly, the priestess of the flame religion exclaimed joyfully.

「Hmm? Oh, you've got a good eye」

「I can tell. I've helped hundreds of people with their pregnancies」

The old priestess was as experienced in life as she looked.

「So, are they Souya-san's?」

「Ack」

Priestess-sama, I can't help but choke at those words.

「What do you think, Lanseal?」

「I suspect so」

「Enough, you all. As the first wife, I'll raise the children no matter whose they are」

Rana puffed out her big chest and proclaimed smugly.

Umm, aren't you going to trust me?

「Priestess-sama, she's my friend's wife. I have nothing to do with―――――」

「There you go again~ Don't say stuff like that~」

Regure caught hold of and wrapped herself around my arm.

Stop it!!! There's quite a lot of people watching!!!

「Oh my, I guess we'll just have to leave it at that」

The priestess had an impish smile on her face.

This is bad. That's the face of an old lady who fully intends to gossip about this to all sorts of people.

「Priestess-sama, I'm telling the truth」

When I shook Regure off and tried to move towards the priestess……

「Oops, I'm sorry」

……I bumped into someone who suddenly appeared in front of me.

It was a woman with a hood hiding her face. I caught a glimpse of blonde hair. She had big breasts. It might just be my imagination, but the shape of her lips seemed familiar to me.

No, no way.

I must have been mistaken.

「Are you the one who made the sauces for the bread?」

「Huh? Oh, yes」

Her voice made my heart skip a beat.

It had a sexiness that was different from that of any other woman I had ever met.

「The dark sauce and the yellow sauce were both delicious. Both of them had unusual flavors that were quite novel. The red sauce was also delicious, but I felt let down because it wasn't spicy despite its color. The people of this region love stimulating flavors, so they may not like it very much」

「I see」

As I thought, it's not stimulating enough, huh? Maybe I should add a small amount of chili peppers.

「Now, if you'll excuse me」

「Thank you very much」

We moved past each other smoothly.

I found myself gawking a little at her cloaked back. I felt like I knew her, but I couldn't quite place her. It was the same kind of feeling I had experienced inside the dungeon the other day.

「Souya-san, may I have a word with you?」

「Huh, alright」

Beckoned by the priestess, I stepped out of the dining hall.

「I heard that you took care of our children yesterday, so I wanted to thank you」

「No, not at all」

It's not like I had tried to keep it a secret, so I knew she would probably hear about it sooner or later. This is also one of the reasons why I treated everyone to hot-dogs here at the flame religion's temple today.

「In addition to that, a man believed to be the advanced adventurer Cordis was found in chains last night, was he not?」

「Yeah, that happened」

Well, this is something that only I and a few others know about though.

「What's more, he was found in front of a troublesome place like the military police station」

「I know, right?」

Currently, Avarak is in the custody of the military police.

If he was found by the people of the Adventurers' Guild first, the state he was in would likely have been covered up. I made it harder for them to do that by placing another organization in between.

If he has any ”shame” as an advanced adventurer, no, as a person, he must want to hide the fact that he was defeated so badly and had his disgraceful appearance exposed by the likes of me.

And then, there's the unidentified person who had strung him up.

The middle-aged policeman who doesn't do any work hates trouble, so he'll probably hold off and ask the king for his opinion.

And that's when the Guild will make their move.

But the person in question, Avarak, would probably refuse their help.

The one thing I hadn't been able to figure out was who Avarak would turn to for help.

My guess is that it's the flame religion.

The priestess knows a lot of people. Even if he doesn't have a direct connection to her, he likely has a way to contact her.

「Because of that, there are some people who are waiting to speak with you. Would you spare them a moment of your time?」

「Of course」

It appeared that I was right.

I waved to everyone and excused myself. The pregnant woman had a face like she had realized what was going on.

（Leave it to me）

I put on the most intimidating frown I could muster to dissuade Regure.

I'm begging you, just leave it to me.

Following the priestess, I stepped out into the hallway and walked until we came to a large door.

「Do I need to leave my weapons with you or something?」

「Why would I ask that of you?」

「Well, I just thought you might」

Which means that she's neutral in this, huh? I was thinking that I would have to at least leave my katana with her though.

「I'll be outside, so please call if anything happens」

「Okay」

I left the priestess behind and entered the room.

Inside, I found the barkeeper.

「I'm here as the witness. I'm neither friend nor foe」

「Is that so?」

If he's neither friend nor foe, then he's an enemy, isn't he?

The room had been divided into two by a thick drop curtain that concealed the appearances of those in the back of the room.

There were five presences.

All of their presences were similar to Avarak's. In other words, their individual fighting strength was practically nonexistent.

When a person becomes this weak, they lose all sorts of emotions.

「Foreigner, let's cut to the chase. You know what this is about, don't you?」

「The matter of the advanced adventurer who was bloated with flesh and greed being strung up, I presume?」

「………………That's right」