Chapter 288.1
288. 1 - Idle Talk: The Three Heroes - Daily Life as Adventurers
Eguchi-Ren: It’s been a long time since we’ve seen these three.
We made it to the Kingdom of Malbert and began our lives as Adventurers.
The reason why we decided to make our living as Adventurers was because it was most convenient. [8] Moreover, all of us brought our Adventurer’s Guild cards with us.
[8] At the border village of Lampertz, we managed to use our card to enter the village and sold off half of our monster kills, Orcs etc for money to obtain travelling expenses. [6] When nobody appeared suspicious of our card or anything, [8] we got a couple of rooms at an inn and were finally able to take the first proper rest ever since we escaped Reijseger.
[6] Being on the run for so long had mentally and physically exhausted us.
We stayed in the same town for a few days and I took the time to slowly ask the villagers where the closest big city is. [6] It’s best to hide our presence in a big city after all.
Anyway, the nearest big city turned out to be Orlova, which was where we made our base. We have been pretty active as Adventurers since then and was able to raise our ranking to C.
For a long time, I wondered what would become of us but for now, we are managing quite well as Adventurers.
Kanon and Rio smiled more than before. I’m really glad we managed to get into this kingdom safely.
As Adventurers, we made use of the advantages we obtained through our Summoning. While there are a lot of difficult times and a lot of things to think about, the three of us stuck together through thick and thin.
Being free, even in a different world, is pretty great.
“Shall we take on this mission? We should be able to complete it within a day,”
Kanon was pointing at one of the mission requests stuck on the board. It was a request to subjugate 5 Orcs with minimal damage. The less damage, the higher the commission.
“Looks, good,” [4] Rio nodded agreeably.
Orcs are pretty popular as food ingredients.
At first, we were quite repulsed since it was a sentient bipedal creature but Orc meat was so common and sought after that it could be found everywhere. [6] In fact, we were starting to get weird looks for avoiding it.
Anyway, as the saying goes, ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’, so we gave it a try and… wow, Orc meat is actually quite delicious. As delicious as those expensive branded pork back in Japan.
As long as we don’t think about it being a former bipedal creature, it was pretty enjoyable. [1] After some time, it became normal for us to eat Orc too.
[5] [8] It was so normal that a lot of restaurants featured signature dishes made with Orc meat. This means demand is always high and requests to take down Orcs would always be there.
“Five Orcs? I don’t see why not. Since there’s such a big demand for Orc meat, if we can get more than 5, let’s go for it.”
“Right? Let’s go for it,”
“Un,”
For regular Adventurer’s party, it would be difficult for them to take more than two Orcs back to the city without magic bags or [Item Boxes]. [1] However, our team is special since all three of us have [Item Boxes] with near unlimited space.
We ripped off the mission request and brought it to the receptionist. We’re pretty familiar with them after coming into this city.
“Alright, happy Orc hunting~”
Kanon, Rio and I headed towards the forest in the southeast of this city where Orcs were could be found.
“Shh… Orcs upfront [5],”
“3 of them. Right, let’s do as planned. Rio, go.”
“Yes, [5]”
[8] Rio cast her favourite wordless Water Magic. [2] Water balls formed above the Orcs and suddenly collected together to envelop their heads. Unable to breathe, the Orcs became confused and tried to escape the Water Ball.
In the meantime…
“Kanon, go!”
“Yes!”
I leapt out of my hiding place with my longsword while Kanon dashed forward with a spear.
“Sei! Sei!”
“Yaaa!!!”
I took two out while Kanon struck one down. Both of us striking the Orcs right in the heart. [1] All three Orcs collapsed to the floor.
This was the method we have devised together after many trials and errors. Least effort, least damage and most effective.
“Right, only two more,” said Kanon as she placed the Orcs into her [Item Box].
“Yes, but we should try to get as many as we can [5].”
Rio nodded, “We’ll have to pay rent soon, so we’ll need to make money while we can.”
I nodded back.
The three of us rented a single house in this city instead of an inn.
We’ve been staying at an inn until we started calculating the cost and found that it was stupid to keep staying at an inn when the cost of renting a whole house is actually cheaper.
Rio was the one who first suggested we rented a house.
Anyway, we’re pretty lucky and found an old house that’s being rented out for a reasonable price. It’s a little messy and run down, but we each have a room of our own and it was within our budget.
The downside was that it was a little far from the Adventurer’s Guild. However, the main reason why we chose this house was that it was owned by a fairly rich merchant in the past and has a small bath.
In this world, baths are things that only nobles and rich merchants would indulge in. However, as Japanese, it’s pretty hard to live without a bath.
[8] The person who rented out the place told us that we could not replenish the water or heat it up without magic stones but we solved that through Rio’s Water Magic skill as well as my Fire Magic. [5]
It took a couple of tries but we’re now really good at heating up the bathwater now.
Life is a little hard but we make sure to keep ourselves busy all the time. I’m really enjoying my life with Rio and Kanon now. To maintain this little bit of normalcy, we spend nearly every day completing missions for the Guild.
“Kaito, Kanon, Orcs spotted,” Rio whispered.
Kanon and I looked in the direction Rio indicated.
“Four of them, shall we use the same tactic?”
“Yes,”
“Let’s,”
“Phew,” [3] I placed three Orcs into my [Item Box]. “What say we end it here today?
We managed to get 16 Orcs today.
That’s a pretty impressive number.
“Let’s, I’m getting hungry,” [4] said Kanon.
Right, I’m feeling hungry too.
Rumble…
Kanon and Rio giggled at my protesting stomach.
“Don’t laugh, you two! That’s a natural reaction!”
“Sorry, sorry, it’s long past lunchtime. Let’s have our meal here before heading back,” said Rio.
Kanon immediately cheered, “Yes, yes, let’s do that!”
We moved towards a relatively safe area in the forest and Rio took out a pot from the [Item Box].
Oh, a wonderful thing we found out about our [Item Box] is that anything we put into them would not be affected by time. So a hot pot remains hot.
“It smells good~~” Kanon has her bowl out already and was eagerly staring at the pot.
“We’re having stew today,” said Rio as she stirred the pot.
Personally, I wondered how she could make stew without store-bought stew cubes. Rio said something about flour and other stuff but I really have no idea what she’s talking about.
“Kaito, your bowl,”
“Ah, yes,”
Kanon was already shovelling stew into her mouth eagerly, so I held up my bowl to Rio who filled it up with stew.
“Alright, let’s eat,”
“Yes,”
“Let’s,”
“Itadakimasu!!!”
I spooned some of the stew into my mouth. [6] Making sure to get a good chunk of meat and some vegetables and stuffed my cheeks.
[6] Uhoh~~
[8] This gentle sweetness, the melty, almost creamy sensation of soft vegetables are spreading throughout my mouth.
As expected, the food made by Rio is delicious!
“Delicious~~ being able to eat hot food in this kind of place is too awesome~~” [3] squealed Kanon.
I totally agree with Kanon. At first, we brought food bought from inns or stalls for our meals. While the food remained fresh in our [Item Box] the cost was startlingly high. [1] Next, we tried travel rations, which was not only cheaper but last longer. The result was…
Is this even human food?
Finally, we talked about making food ourselves and that’s where Rio showed this unbelievably cool side of hers.
“Aahhh, as expected of Rio-sama~~”
“Enough, you. Isn’t this just some ordinary food?” Rio always said that but I think she’s really great at cooking.
“So it means I’m just really bad at cooking…”
“What are you talking about? Kanon-chan helped me a lot. Since I only have one arm, I can only depend on Kanon-chan to do all the peeling and stuff.”
“I was really horrible at peeling in the beginning… I really regretted not helping mom more in the kitchen.”
“Oh, but Kanon-chan always takes the initiative to do laundry.”
“It’s just washing and I do it using magic. But food… why doesn’t it taste good when I season it?”
I felt a little bad for Kanon but it’s probably best to leave the cooking to Rio. That way, our food will always be good.
Still, I have to say something…
“I say, the two of you are too amazing! I am useless when it comes to housework!”
Cooking? Laundry? What’s that?
“Kaito, that’s not something you should say so brazenly,” remarked Kanon.
“Fufufu, that’s true,” Rio laughed that gentle laugh of hers.
“Oh wait, there’s something I can do well. Boil water!”
“Ahaha! Indeed, you do that very well, Kaito,”
“But, that’s the only thing he does. Therefore you must be more grateful towards us!”
Kanon was as energetic while Rio was calm as usual, “Yes, yes, I am very thankful to you two.”
The laughing voices of the girls were really nice to hear.
[8] We may have escaped great difficulties but there are were still a lot of troublesome things to overcome.
This is not Japan and there are not many modern conveniences here.
However, this happiness I shared with Kanon and Rio is very precious.
I will do my best as an Adventurer to protect this life.
[Gumihou: Poor things, I hope life gets better for them.]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Creative Licence Taken