34-Episode 34: Hata and Tosaku Daisakusen

'I didn't think these three guys were con artists...'

After catching the three con artists, we explained to the villagers that they were vicious con artists and that the witness, the village chief, was nearly killed when he was caught trying to escape.

The villagers stared at the three men lying on the ground tied up, shaking with anger.

''Hii!''

They stopped the bleeding, but the three men, who were tied up and had injured legs, were rattling and shaking, unable to escape.

'How can I thank you for capturing these men?

The village chiefs bow to us.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sorry to say this, but I only fought these guys for revenge.

Liliella scoffs at me, but I know she was worried about the village chief and everyone in the village being tricked.

It's not just about revenge.

'And if you want to thank me, you can thank him over here. It was all thanks to him that I was able to follow him without being detected by them and catch him at the scene of the crime.

Huh?　What the hell is going on here?

'Oh, thank you for this!　You saved us all!

""Thank you!"

Wow, I really didn't do much this time!

'No, no, because it's not normal for them to be right under your nose and not be able to detect you or anything. I mean, I'm not doing much of anything with it either.

I'm confused that it's strange that Liliera-san is grateful for something she didn't do much.

Ah, no, I've experienced this feeling quite a bit.

Or rather, it's been like this ever since I became an adventurer.

But even so, it's true that thanks to Lex-san, I was able to capture them. It's only because I met you that I was able to get this far. I could put an end to all that fate. So thank you so much.

Even Liliera-san comes to bow deeply and express her gratitude.

Please give me a break!

''Haha, don't worry about it. Besides, Liliera-san has been working hard all this time. All that hard work has finally paid off today. Congratulations.

I congratulate Liliella on being able to say goodbye to her childhood affair.

'Oh, I don't know what you're talking about, but it sounds like a congratulations!　Congratulations!

""Congratulations!"

Perhaps it was the late night tension, but everyone in the village also congratulated Liliella.

''Oh, look!　It's like the sunrise is blessing us!

And the village chief points to the rising sunrise.

Oh, I guess it's morning after all, when I was keeping an eye on the trio.

''We would like to thank you for your help, and we would love to treat you to breakfast at my house!

The village chief, who was ready to feast on us, pushed us to head for his house.

◆

That said, it's good that we've caught the crooks, but I don't know what to do now.

After finishing the meal and settling in, the village chief let out a sigh as he said that.

''Ah, it's true that the situation has just returned to normal, but it hasn't been resolved.

In the end, the situation hasn't gotten any better since I didn't exterminate the demons.

However, after what happened to me last night, I can't just imitate the same thing and hang on to someone's good intentions.......what to do......haha.

Well, it's right after the scam.

I'd love to help you get rid of the demons, but in the end, that won't really solve the problem.

As Liliella-san said, since there is a large number of demons in and around the King's Capital, if we don't solve the cause, the demons will come again and we'll have to hire another adventurer.

I'm sure the country is looking into the cause of this mass outbreak of demons in the capital as well, and it will be resolved sooner or later.

But until that time arrives, I must say that it's a bit, or rather quite dangerous, if this village can be maintained until that time comes.

'Hey, do you have any good ideas, Lex-san?

Liliera holds up her hands in surrender and asks me if I have any ideas.

''Yes, I do. .........Then why not just ask for a request to slay a demon?

Unless you're asking me to destroy a demon?　What do you mean?

Liliera-san and the village chief nodded their heads, not understanding the reason.

You see, there's no amount of money that can be spent on fighting off the demons that are targeting your fields. But, if we limit the content of the request, wouldn't it be possible to order the request more cheaply?

'Limited?　But you didn't get a request to slay only weak demons, did you?

Yes, that's right.

When Liliella hears my words, she asks the village chief a question.

And the mayor replies that it was a bad idea. Yes, we were there, too.

''So it's fine if we don't fight the demons from the beginning.

What do you mean by that?

Liliera-san and the village chief nodded their heads and asked me a question.

''In other words, the only way to avoid fighting demons, is to avoid them!

Demon-dodging?　There is such a thing?

Oh, that's right!　Just like they did for our village!

Liliera-san seemed to realize my intentions right away.

''Huh?　But isn't that pretty expensive?　Our village became a big project that involved the country and the adventurer's guild because it was going to be an inn town, right?

Oh, wait!　We don't have that much money in our village!　And this village is not in a location that would make it an inn town.

It's true, this village is a backwater, to say the least.

I know, I know. So I'll get it done more cheaply.

''You can do that?

''Yes, Liliera-san's hometown was a forest of demonic beasts surrounded entirely by monsters, so we decided to put up a ward, but in a normal village you can get away with a lot less.

'Oh!　Excellent!　So, what's the method?

The village chief wants to know quickly and urgently.

Rieliela is curious.

"The way to do it is to make a potion with a certain herb.

Potions?

Yes, it's a demon repellent, not an insect repellent.

I explain to them what a demon repellent potion is.

A monster repellent potion is like an incense that emits a smell that demons don't like. And the reason why demons are attracted to them is because they can smell the livestock and crops in the village. So they override that delicious smell with the unpleasant odor of demon avoidance.

Well, I wouldn't even bother going near a place that smelled so bad, let alone smelled so good!

'Oh, that's great!　If we can figure out how to make that potion, I suppose we can get the village people to make their own potions!

The good thing about this method is that anyone can make a monster repellent if they have the ingredients.

In fact, it was so popular that in the previous life, people made these monster repellents at home and gave their children a scent bag.

This potion may be impossible to use against powerful monsters, but it is effective enough for moderately strong monsters.

''Then I'll go gather the ingredients for the potion, so the village chief should go to the Adventurer's Guild and apply for a request to gather ingredients for the potion. And once that request is posted, I'll say that Liliella-san will take the request.

And the chief's bodyguard?

As expected of Liliella, she talks very quickly.

This is how we separated and began our respective tasks.

''Kyu!''

Huh?　Does Fluffy go hunting for rice?

Don't go too far, okay?

You're not going to be able to do that.

Now, let's see what kind of fiendish repellent we can make.

I strolled around the village to look for ingredients to avoid evil spirits.

I'd like to find a potion that matches the soil of the village and is easy to cultivate and process... Oh, and I'd also like to find herbs that grow in a place where it's easy to go directly to collect the ingredients in case of an emergency.

I decide what herbs to use, and I gather all the herbs I can find near the village.

"GOOOO!

'Kishaa!'

I looked in the distance and saw Fluffy Moffy hunting a demon.

He only eats meat, but does he have to eat vegetables or something?

Mocu-mocu!

If you look closely, you'll see that Fluffy is eating purple grass on top of the demon meat.

Yeah, it's a good meal with a proper nutritional balance.

Huh?　So, does that mean Fluffy Fluff is an omnivore?

Well, that's okay. Since we're here, let's have Fluffy reduce the number of demons around the village.

After leaving the demons approaching the village to the Fluffy Mofo, I resume collecting medicinal herbs.

''Gaoao!

Oops, it's the Shadow Fox.

It's not a big deal, but it's a hassle to get rid of it when it grows, so let's take it down.

"Tei!

He takes down the Shadow Fox in a single blow as he passes by.

'Huh?　This guy......

I looked at the defeated Shadow Fox and saw a purple grass in its mouth.

''Isn't this the Demon Grass?''

Demon grass that demons like to eat. The other day, there was a commotion caused by the grass.

I wonder if there's a cluster of them nearby that this one was sucking on.　We have to burn it down when we find it.

After all, it seems to be a forbidden item in this era.

For now, let's burn the magic plant that the defeated Shadow Fox was holding in his mouth.

I'll just burn the magic plant that Shadow Fox defeated in the mouth.

All right, I guess I should be able to collect this much.

When I had collected enough medicinal herbs, I returned to the village.

I asked the villagers to plant most of these herbs in their fields.

Now I'm ready to mass-produce a medicine to ward off evil spirits in my village.

''All we have to do now is hang the herbs out to dry and wait for the village chiefs to come back...''

When I have nothing better to do, I check the dryness of the medicinal plants and lecture the villagers on how to grow them.

'....I don't have time for this.

Even so, it will take a while for Liliella and the others to come back from the royal capital and back.

With nothing to do, I was literally left with nothing to do.

Once you've decided that, you get going.

'Excuse me, is there anything I can do to help?'

I talked to a villager who was working in a nearby field.

"What?　What? I can't make my village benefactor work!

Haha, not that big of a deal, right?

I don't have time to do anything until the village chiefs come back. I used to work on the farm back home too, so let me help.

Well if you insist, would you be willing to help with the weeding?

I understand!

The villagers are reluctant to lend me their farm tools.

I'm good at weeding!

''However, the weeds in this village are so small. Weak magic is better than the usual.

I choose the weed whacker spell to use carefully so as not to damage the crops in the village.

'Okay, that's it!　Chase Tinder!

I activate a small seed fire spell.

But not just any seed-fire magic.

"Burn only the little weeds.

After receiving my instructions, the seed fire begins to burn down, targeting only the weeds in the field.

"Oh, oh?　What's this?

The villagers exclaim in surprise.

"It's a magic that only burns small weeds.

Oh, is that a very useful spell?

Yes, it's just a very simple rudimentary spell.

"Oh, oh, wow, magic...

While the villagers were surprised, the magic of the seed fire was burning up the weeds in the field.

''You can leave the weeds that have been reduced to ashes as they are, they will nourish the field, so you can leave them as they are.

Okay, okay!　Well, I'm so grateful that not only did they get rid of the weeds in a flash, but they got the fields back on track!　We've had a bad crop all these years!

Is that so?

Yes, our fields have been poor for the past few years. Not only does it cost us money to get rid of the demons, but we've also had to deal with even less income due to the poor condition of our fields.

I didn't know that was going to happen.

Maybe that's one of the reasons why I couldn't pay the rewards for slaying demons anymore.

But it's a bad harvest, huh? If that's the case, the ashes from the weeds alone won't be enough to provide much nourishment.

''Thank you for your help!

The weeding is done and the villagers thank me.

But we didn't have much time to kill with this.

It was over so quickly that I was in a bit of a bind.

And from the conversation I just had with the villagers, I came up with another thing I wanted to do.

Since it's the time to make a potion that will make the vegetables in the field healthier.

Yeah, it's another way to help out on the farm.

Sort of.

All I have to do is sow the potion in the field.

I decided to leave the village to get some herbs to make a new potion.

◆

"Nah, what the hell is this?!

My name is Orser.

I'm the chief of Hongzio Village.

I came to King's Landing to have the demons that plague my village exterminated, but I couldn't get the job because I wasn't paid enough.

On the contrary, he was tricked by an impostor and nearly lost what little money he had left.

The money that everyone in the village had collected by lighting their fingernails on fire.

It was a close call, but thanks to a couple of young adventurers who had a history with the impostor, we were safe.

And that's not all; our benefactor, Lord Lex, offered to make us a potion to ward off evil spirits.

I followed Lex's instructions and asked him to work for the Adventurer's Guild in the form of a request to collect herbs, and I came back to the village with Liliella, another benefactor.　

And when I returned to my beloved village, what I saw was a huge pile of crops.

No, really, what is this?

Oh, you did it.

Lord Liliera-dono, who seems to know something, puts a hand to his forehead.

''Do you know something, sir?

''Well, I think you should ask him, don't you?

Rieliela-dono pointed to a field where she saw Lord Lex carrying a huge vegetable load with the young men of the village.

''Re, Lord Lex!　What the hell is going on here?

Oh, Mr. Mayor!　Welcome home!

But Lord Lex greeted us as if nothing had happened.

''Lord Lex, what in the world is this huge vegetable?

It was huge from a distance, but up close it was even bigger.

Is this really a vegetable?

'No, I used a potion to increase my crop yield and it turned out to be much bigger than I expected.

A potion?

Yes, I've heard that the last few years have been a poor crop in the village, so I've been planting potions to nourish the land.

'That's not all, is it?　Why are you harvesting already?

Yeah, yeah!　I'm pretty sure the crops weren't ready for harvest yet!

''Yes, sir. In order to make sure that the potion would work properly, I used growth promotion magic to quickly grow the crop until it was ready to be harvested. Oh, of course, I've got the permission of the owner of the field.

Saying that, Lord Lex shifted his gaze, and the young folk in the village chuckled.

''No, we were told that the field would be healthy and ready for harvesting soon...''

"That's why you guys...

Did you get everyone's fields to use that potion and magic on you...?

But this vegetable - well, you know, it's kind of a....

So, how do you know these vegetables are safe to eat?

Lord Liliella put my doubts into words.

Ummm, it is indeed true.

Even with the good intentions of the village's benefactor, is it really safe to eat a crop that has grown to such a huge size?

And doesn't it taste like a lot of food, or is it scantily clad?

In that case, I'm sure we could all sample the food and you'd be fine with it.

''Is that so?!''

I look at the young people and they all give me a thumbs up and smile.

'That's right!　I mean, it was so good, they did our field too!

Apparently, they tried it on someone else's field and then had their own field done as well.

I'm just relieved to know that they had that much sense.

Oh, no, I'm still not reassured.

Would you two like to try some of this food?

Saying this, Lord Lex holds out what appears to be a baked potato on a skewer.

It must have grown so large that it could not be cooked without being cut into pieces.

'I didn't season it because I wanted to make sure the crop tasted right.

Hmm, you want me to taste it as it is.

So, now...

I willfully put this baked potato in my mouth.

'Ho ho ho!'

The hot potatoes are raging in my mouth and almost burning me.

But oh my God, what a mess this is.

'Ugh, yuck!　Yuck!　Yummy!

No, I can't get any other words out of my mouth!

Delicious, just delicious.

I thought it would be big and shabby, but it wasn't like that at all.

It was moist and chewy, and I felt like I was tasting a rich potato soup in my mouth.

It's amazing.

Liliella-dono, who was also tasting the food, exclaimed in surprise.

I can tell, I can really tell. I can really understand.

No, I can't even say the words to describe the deliciousness.

''Isn't that great, village chief!　I have a pile of these!　And all the other vegetables!

So that's it, that's it, there's something else that's this good!

Oh, my goodness, what can I say about this?

I could only think of one word to express this feeling.

''Delicious!''