Chapter 189:
Not a Single Person Was Left?
“Mr. Druid?”
“Hm?”
“I seem to recall asking for less food this time…”
“Ha ha ha.”
We were both carrying a wooden box of food—that much was no different from last time. But his container seemed just a tad bigger than it was yesterday. When she’d handed us the boxes of food before we left for the plaza, Druid’s mother had insisted, “Oh, just let me help you. Besides, you need more meat on those bones for your travels!”
Druid sighed. “Shurila probably told her to ease off on the food, but Mom must have thought we were refusing her help to be polite.”
Aha. So that explains why the boxes are bigger than yesterday. I was happy to receive a lot of food since it tasted so good, but a part of me was worried that we were imposing. Still, I was glad I had the common magic bag. When the weather was this hot, it was important to keep your food as safe as possible. I really was grateful to the person who’d given me the bag.
Once we got back to my tent in the plaza, I took Sora and Flame out of their bag.
“Sorry I kept you cooped up again today, but this’ll be the last time. Would you like to go to the forest tomorrow?”
The two slimes jiggled happily in reply.
Since rice’s popularity had spread much faster than we’d anticipated, Druid’s father decided around noon that day that we didn’t need to run our onigiri promotion any longer. He put out a sign that said “Sale Ends Today,” and the rumors must have spread quickly because we soon had a crowd of people pushing and shoving to get into the shop. Apparently, they’d mistakenly thought that the shop had entirely run out of uncooked rice for sale, so the crowd was a huge and frantic.
Druid’s father hastily put out a new sign that said “Rice can be purchased every day here,” which seemed to settle everyone down. The whole day really made me marvel over the power of gossip.
“I’ll just take your potions out. Here you go! Urrrgh…my hands hurt.” I squeezed way too many onigiri… I feel a dull pain whenever I move my fingers.
Sora and Flame began to eat their potions. I watched them for a while, but they both seemed to be doing fine. Gee, I’m so sleepy… As I sat there, looking at the slimes as they ate, my eyelids began to fall. I really must be tired.
Grr! Grrrr…
“Oh!”
A very loud noise sounded from my stomach and echoed through the tent. Only Flame and Sora were there to hear it, but I was still a little embarrassed.
“Um, I think I’ll go eat my dinner. See you both later.”
I had no idea my stomach could growl that loudly. Thank goodness I was inside my tent.
“Thanks for waiting for—oh! Hi, Mr. Mentor, Mr. Guild Master.”
When I stepped out of my tent, I found that an unfamiliar table and chairs had been set out in front of it. The wooden boxes we’d brought back with us were sitting open on the table. And, as I’d suspected, there was an awful lot of food. Thank goodness we had company.
As I looked over the three men, I saw a slightly tired yet mischievous smile on the old mentor and a somewhat annoyed frown on Druid. Then there was the guild master, who looked so exhausted that I was almost worried about him. I wondered what had happened.
“Sorry I was away. Um, where did you get the table and chairs…?” I might as well ask them the easy questions first.
“We had extra ones, so we brought them over. You can keep them. It’s a great set—since it’s magic, you can make it small.”
Hm? Did I mishear that? It sounded like they said the table and chairs were magic, and I could “keep them.” But I must have imagined that. They look awfully expensive.
“Isn’t that great, Ivy? These were my Master’s table and chairs, so it’s okay.”
Druid’s smile finally made it sink in. For some reason, his old mentor was giving me a very expensive magic item.
“Oh, no, sir. This is far too expensive for me to accept.”
“Oh, please, take it. I’ve got two more sets just like it. It’s to thank ya for your help today.”
My help today…does he mean the fistfight idea? I am a bit curious about how that turned out, but from the look on the guild master’s face, I’m kind of scared to ask. But…is this really okay? I’m pretty sure this is a very expensive magic item.
“See? Check this out. This is the table’s selling point.”
I looked where the old mentor was pointing. There was a magic item I’d seen before embedded in the table. It was a device that muffled your voices to outsiders. Huh? Wait a minute, is this item super rare?
“Master!”
“If Ivy’s gonna keep traveling, this item is a must. You’re gonna travel where there’s a lot of people around, aren’t ya?”
Oh! That must be why he picked this table for me. But it has to be incredibly expensive.
“You should keep it, Ivy. He gave me presents now and then when I was his apprentice.”
It made sense that the old mentor would give a present to his apprentice…but he’d really chosen this table with me in mind, hadn’t he?
“Um…thank you very much, sir.”
“Oh, don’t thank me. It’s no problem.”
Yikes…I just got a really valuable present I didn’t deserve. But I’ll admit I’ve been wanting a magic item that lets me have private conversations, so I’m actually really happy about this.
“Well, it’s grub time,” the old mentor announced.
“Of course, sir. Help yourself.”
The four of us began eating…and it was oddly quiet. Neither Druid nor the guild master seemed to have the energy to talk. Well, today was a really hectic day. Was it like that for the guild master, too? Or did something particularly bad happen? Gee…now I wanna know. Which means I’d better ask the most energetic of the three…
“Mr. Mentor, did you run into some problems today?”
“Hm? Oh, no, we were able to weed out the unqualified adventurers without a hitch. Something kind of unexpected happened, though.”
Something kind of unexpected?
“Turns out, all the adventurers we called in were pretty cringey. I never dreamed every single one of them would sign up for the fistfights.”
Yikes… All of them. Who’d have thought?
The guild master sighed. “Unbelievable, right?”
“Yes, sir. All of them is a bit unbelievable.”
So that was why the guild master looked so exhausted. It wasn’t his old mentor’s doing, it was the adventurers.
“When Druid told me the plan, I thought it would be a great way to scout out some talent. I never imagined not a single person would be left.”
The guild master had a very important job: nurturing adventurers. These people were to be the town’s next batch of veteran adventurers…their candidates for the next guild master… That must have been really hard for him to watch.
“Um, sorry you had to deal with that, sir.” Those were the only words I could give him.
“Thanks,” he sighed.
“Uh, this tastes really good, so please eat it. Eat this, too.” If he fills his stomach, maybe that will calm his nerves? Or maybe it’s a lost cause?
“What are ya gonna do about it, though, Gotos?”
About what?
“Yeah, that’s the question,” he sighed. “As a town, it’s a big problem for us not to have veteran adventurers. It seems training the adventurers we’ve got is the only way…”
That’s right: Since the previous group was killed by the gurbars, this town had no veteran adventurers. And that did put them in a precarious situation. Veteran adventurers ensure the townsfolk’s safety, so much so that their absence was enough to make a lot of people nervous.
“We could always put the word out to veteran adventurers on quests and see if they’ll come help, but that has its own problems.”
I’d heard there were a lot of veteran adventurers on quests for different reasons, so it wouldn’t be easy to get them to help out.
“Can’t we find a steady stream of veteran adventurers somewhere?”
Mr. Guild Master…that conjures up a pretty scary image. I can just picture adventurers bubbling up from the ground… Ack! That won’t do. Those people are probably buried corpses. Wait, that was a pretty crazy image I just conjured up, huh? Are Past Me’s memories mixing in with my thoughts? And for that matter, did corpses rise from the ground in the world I used to live in? That’s terrifying beyond words.
“What’s wrong, Ivy? You look pale.”
“Er, I’m fine, sir.”
Making myself sick from my own fantasies is the worst feeling. Okay, let’s think of something fun. Something fun…
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