CH 25

Roughly two years later.

I’ve been working hard on improving the mansion even further with Sword raising the necessary funds for the materials. In addition, I’ve been brewing liquor and teaching cooking. It reached the point that not just the cook, but even the maids learned from me how to cook. The servants have started to dabble in farm work (mostly in favor of produce related to liquor).

Basically, we all aimed for a house that would be as comfortable for living as possible while regularly talking it over. Nowadays, things have broadly settled down.

“I’d like to finally get back to my real occupation.”

Upon my declaration, Sword became puzzled.

“Real occupation?”

“Adventurer.”

“Haaah?”

He really stressed the “What’s this girl talkin’ ’bout all of a sudden?” to the limit.

“At this point you’ve got no need to be an adventurer anymore, have you? If you joined up with our cookin’ team, rented out some place, and opened a restaurant, it’d likely boast of such a popularity that even nobles would swarm to it like bees to honey, no? The cookin’ team would compensate for the lack of wages with that as well. Besides, if you started sellin’ the magic tools of this house to noble mansions, you’d make a killin’ without so much as liftin’ a finger, right? I mean, even royalty doesn’t live in a comfortable place like this.”

He started to gradually get riled up.

“Why does water come out if you twist this knob!? Why does water stream in the toilet, making the waste vanish somewhere!? Just what the hell is this magic tool that allows you to regulate fire!? If you spend your life in suuuuuuch a pleasant and relaxin’ place, you’ll rot as a human!!” He thundered while letting his spit fly all over.

“But, aren’t we just spending money right now? We made up our mind to start selling the liquor we brought with us, but in the end it yielded us no income yet as the selection is still pending. I want to earn some money quickly and without much effort.”

It’s true that I’ve still got some of the extortion money over, but that’s not the issue here. I want to earn my own money. Even if I were to open a restaurant, I’d first need some funds. Besides, I’m not doing my initial objective of 【Otherworld Sightseeing】.

“…Sword, you’re doing adventure-like things like gathering materials and raising funds, aren’t you? Up until now I couldn’t do the same because of the plethora of things I had to do, but I’ve finally got some time now. I’d like to go on an adventure with you.” I whimpered while sadly casting my eyes down.

In response, he quickly became affectionate, “I guess your right. I did say that I’d teach you, didn’t I? Gotcha! Let’s go on an adventure!”

Men are so easy.

＊

“So for that reason we’ve decided to leave this place for a while. Take care of the rest here, ‘kay? Seein’ how you’ve stuck with us through joyful ‘n painful times, I doubt you’d do anythin’ bad in this house, but be careful. I’ve put up a request and hired a party of adventurers as guards. Moreover, Indra mentioned somethin’ ’bout a really scary crime prevention magic tool, so I think you guys are goin’ to be alright over here.”

“In case you get contacted by the guild master, or even when you feel in danger without any prior notice, immediately press this here, and take refuge in the cellar. So that you won’t get caught in the interception patterns which are going to deal with the potential crimes I could think of. The cellar has been turned into a 【Shelter】. You’ll be safe there as long as the planet itself doesn’t blow up.”

The maids all at once pressed on Sword.

“By all means, no matter what you might do, please take good care of Lady Indra!”

“Make sure to not take Her Ladyship to any weird places!”

“If you make Her Ladyship cry, we shall haunt you for eternity!”

Somehow I feel like they’re saying some really scary things? Is the translator broken again?

“G-Gotcha. It’s goin’ to be fine. Leave her to me.”

I nodded as well, “I developed a tent with a function to fold up on one touch. I’ve also resolved the toilet issue with magic. Rather than worrying about me, you people need to be careful of yourself. If you run out of money, palm off some liquor to the guild master without any worries. Same applies for the “Wheat Honey,” okay?”

“”Oka～ay””

Everyone answered somewhat listlessly.

You cannot escape a dire problem without making some sacrifices, right? Stuff like the revised starch syrup, “Wheat Honey,” only takes time and effort to concentrate while not requiring any time to ripen.

＊

“Alright, we’re off then.”

“”Please have a safe trip!””

We left our home while being seen off by everyone.

Now then.

“Ryoku, switch to optical camouflage once we leave town.”

“Aye sir!”

I haven’t spent all my two years doing nothing but improving and maintaining our mansion. Since I got my hands on the omnipotent tool called magic, I really wanted to build a robot with my own hands, at any cost.

At any cost!!

My otherworld self adored the robots who fought flashy battles in space wars, but I gotta say the ultimate robots are those with a soul.

Thus I built my robots even while having to listen to Sword’s annoying bickering.

＊

“Why the hell did you shape it like a huge friggin’ spider!?”

“Spiders are useful.”

“Useful!? They only coil you up in threads, inject poison into you, and eat you startin’ with the head!!”

Oh, that’s the kind of spiders they got in this world?

“Mmh, according to my otherworld knowledge, spiders and slimes are like human friends.”

“Like hell! The only difference between ’em is one eats you after wrappin’ you up in threads, and the other eats you after meltin’ you into syrup!!”

Hmm, how regrettable.

“Oh well, whatever. This is a golem. A battle golem with a learning function. Its name is 【Ryoku竜駒】.” 1

“Its naming is a mystery, too.”

“It means Famous Horse in the otherworld’s language.”

“It’s a damn spider and not a horse!!”

He said this and that about Ryoku, but I like it!

I got all the basics down!

＊

…of the parts sink called Ryoku. It only allowed me to build two of them.

Of course I’ve linked them together with a parallel, exclusive network system! Despite it being limited to two participants!

“When I’ve learned even more amazing magic after finishing this trip, I’ll include them in my robots.”

“Please don’t. If they should ever go out of control, they’re gonna become a lot more formidable than a dragon, won’t they?”

“Even if they wanted to go berserk, they can’t. Although it’s quite possible for them to think and talk based on magic elements alone, they’d require magic elements and fuel to move. Without a human being nearby to maintain them, they’d quickly run out of steam and deteriorate.”

Sword sighed.

“…That so?”

“Yes, that’s how it is.”

＊

A little time after we headed out to adventure, Sword started to talk while being somewhat unmotivated.

“Just in case, I’m gonna teach you, a newbie adventurer, the ropes of an ordinary adventurer’s travelin’.”

“Confined and dirty, scary.”

“I know, I know, don’t worry we’ll avoid such places. Usually adventurers move by foot or with carriages ‘long the main roads. Except for times when they don’t rest, they’ll spend the night at campin’ spots. Since those places usually have a good outlook, it’s easy to spot any monsters, and it makes it simple to get in contact with folks campin’ like ’em since they’re gatherin’ places for other travelers. When it comes to people like me, we don’t run often into enemies that’d give us trouble…the same might apply to you as well, but it still makes it simpler to work together with the other people at such campin’ sites to fend off possible enemy attacks. For all these reasons, they’ll camp at campin’ spots as much as possible. Do you understand?”

I nodded deeply.

“I got it. Basically you’re telling me to stay away from the camping spots since they’re dangerous because of the people there.”

“That’s not what I said.”

Eh?

Suddenly he pressed his knuckles against my head and started to grind.

“N-o-w l-i-s-t-e-n, g-i-r-l! If you keep yappin’ such stuff, I’m goin’ to stop teachin’ you. If you feel like it, you can also stay in the belly of that giant spider your callin’ Ryoku, can’t you? It’s safe in there, right? We’ve brought the tent with us because you told me you want to camp out like adventurers do, didn’t you!? I’m goin’ to destroy it!”

“I’m sorry.”

Once I apologized despite not quite understanding what his problem was, Sword released my head, and brushed up his fore bangs after sighing once more.

“…I’m an S-rank, so I wanna avoid campin’ while minglin’ with normal adventurers. But you see, bein’ an adventurer means encounterin’ all kinds of situations. Some requests require a big number of people, and not just you ‘n me. Such requests are 『irrefutable』.”

Eh?

…But, hmm, it makes sense, somewhat. If it’s requests that are flagged as 『irrefutable』, they must be quite urgent or important. If you turn them down, you might be forced to resign as adventurer, I’m sure.

“…By the way, are those escort requests or some such?”

“It ain’t gonna be 『people』, if it requires S-Rank escorts. Unless it’s 『somethin’』 that could get attacked by calamity level monsters, no one would ask an S-Rank for an escort. The 『escort for nobles or royals』, which you seem to have in mind, aren’t left in the hands of adventurers, even not S-Ranks. And even if such request came up, it’d be 『refutable』.”

I felt relieved when hearing that.

“…Of course, I’ll do it, if asked to cooperate, since it’s not like I’m that much of a savage who doesn’t know what solidarity means. But, the people of this world always care about themselves first, and sometimes they’ll try to use others for their own gains.”

“I won’t deny that. That’s why you should use ’em while keepin’ your own good in mind as well. If I remember correctly, I told you that’d always stay by your side, and I intend to follow up on that. But unfortunately I feel like unforeseen situations always mess up my predictions. Put your own safety first until I come to help you.”

Having him tell me that gave me peace of mind.

And when I realized that I 『felt relieved』, I also understood that I always wanted to have someone to rely on deep down in my heart. Sword showed up when I had no one to depend on, and the people related to me by blood were such assholes, so I ended up relying on him before I noticed it myself.

That’s also the reason why I flew into such rage on that day. I think I was desperate.

“W-What’s it all of a sudden?” Sword got startled when I leaned against him.

“…It looks like I’ve started to trust and depend on you at some point without being aware of it myself. Apparently I actually wanted to rely on someone. That’s something I comprehended just now.”

“……”

He gently ruffled my hair.

“I know. I’ve also been thinkin’ ’bout your well-bein’ in various ways. There are a few parts where I made mistakes, but… But, I’ve always been actin’ while certain that it was for your sake, okay? Well, next time I’ll desist from pushin’ you away with a force as if pushin’ someone off a cliff, even if it might be for your own good. I mean, if I did that, your quite liable to destroy the world with your great taboo magic thanks to your mental illness.”

“I’m happy to hear that I got you to understand.”

“No, rather than acting happy ’bout it, I’d like you to abandon that idea altogether.”

I laughed.