Volume 1, Chapter 6

Volume 1, Chapter 6

Translator: Reflet

Editor: Weasalopes

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「Good morning…?」

「Mm, ‘mornin’」

It was the early morning of the following day from when Aearis and the others had woken up. The sun had barely risen. Perhaps because of already getting a lot of sleep, Aearis had woken up earlier than usual. Surprised to see Hiroshi as he worked on something, she timidly greeted him.

「Hiroshi-sama, is everything all right with your body?」

「Ye’d think I’d be the one askin’ you instead usually」

Hiroshi continued working as he gave a bitter smile. Aearis had been concerned about even being able to interact with Hiroshi after the painful events of the previous night, but from what she saw, he seemed to already have put the events of last night into the past. What tremendous mental fortitude he had!

「I am very sorry for what happened yesterday」

「Nah, don’t worry ’bout it. It ain’t like yer in the wrong, plus the way things were yesterday, it was objectively easy to be mislead」

「But…」

「Honestly, I wanna forget about it as soon as I can, so if yer really sorry, then can ya quit bringin’ it up?」

She nodded with an apologetic face, making sure to not carve in his wounds any further.

「Umm, what about Haruna-sama?」

Recomposing herself, she asked him the next thing on her mind. Haruna should have been sleeping here yesterday night, but she couldn’t see her anywhere.

「She’s gone to the mornin’ market to replenish stock. We generally buy a hefty amount, so we usually go together, but there’s somethin’ I gotta make today. I feel bad about it, but I gotta have her go alone today」

「Is that right. And is that what you need to make?」

「Darn skippy」

「What sort of thing would that be?」

Something he had gone out of his way to make, even so far as to leave the hard work to Haruna. Curious as to what it was, the question came unconsciously out of her mouth.

「Tools to disguise appearance. You three are all pretty well-known, right?」

「…Yes. Aside from me, those two are certainly」

「Also, the people from the Association are tellin’ us to keep y’all a secret, so that’s why I figured we could start with appearance」

「…I’m sorry that you have to go so far for us」

「We’ve gone this far in, so don’t worry ‘bout it. Plus I’d feel bad about kickin’ ya guys out as soon as ya woke up」

Hiroshi gave a pleasant response, despite all that had happened yesterday. That only served to increase her apologetic feelings, though. She felt really bad when she saw how he was guarding himself when talking with her. She even had the audacity to think that maybe getting kicked out would be more reassuring.

「Incidentally, I haven’t seen Lord Douga or Rayna anywhere. Might you know where they are?」

「The old man Douga’s contactin’ someone in the room that he’s borrowin’. Rayna-san is in the same room, takin’ some sorta punishment for yesterday」

「I-Is that right…」

Aearis nodded, wondering what in the world Hiroshi could be doing, especially since he sounded oddly reserved. This time around, it was different from his usual gynophobia. As they were discussing all of this, the entrance door opened and someone entered.

「I’m back」

「Welcome back. Thanks for the hard work」

「There were all sorts of good-looking ingredients, so I stocked some unplanned things」

「Gotcha. We’ve gone so far as to get soy sauce and bonito flakes, so let’s think up a good Japanese food menu later」

She nodded, taking out only the necessary things for the cart’s inventory from the bag. Seeing that, Hiroshi cleaned up the table.

「Finish the accessory?」

「If I obsessed over it more, I could probably touch it up some more. But eh, not like it needs to be flashy or nothin’. This’ll be fine. I made some internal medicine just in case」

Hiroshi said as he showed the current product. Sure, it was a step below what he usually made, but it wasn’t any less than a completed product. There was also the issue of how effective it would be, but as it didn’t require walking into the public eye, there wasn’t especially a need to fine-tune it.

「What’ll we do for breakfast?」

「We’re already on the subject of inventory, so how ’bout the stuff from the cart? Everyone seems to like it」

「Got it」

The conversation over, he gently cleaned up the rest of the table and took out cooking utensils, dexterously beginning preparations. That being said, they were already stewing the curry from the curry bread daily, and the dough was also plentiful in the storage from what they stocked in yesterday. Truthfully, this stocking was a type of insurance in the case of a scenario where they wouldn’t be able to stock up. Times like these were when Prevent Rot enchantments truly shined.

Aearis had worried about a rift developing even between Hiroshi and Haruna due to yesterday, but she breathed a sigh of relief as she stood from a safe distance watching the two of them converse as per usual. Though it had only been a month, it seemed that the fruits of their communal lifestyle and respect for each other boundary had been enough to not let their relationship be shaken by something like yesterday.

「I do apologize for requesting something so selfish, but I’d like to discuss yesterday with you. Could food preparations wait for later?」

As he was getting ready to prepare breakfast, Douga interjected as he came out of the room, accompanied by Rayna. Behind him, Rayna’s face was painted with apology and regret, and there was no hint that she had ever been so hot-headed as yesterday.

「I’d prefer it if we didn’t drag it up…」

「I honestly would rather not talk about something that would make the meal unpleasant…」

「However, if we go through with breakfast like this, the atmosphere might become too lenient. I did give her a punishment, but what happened yesterday was too dire to let her off」

Hiroshi and Haruna drew their breath, realizing that he had seen through their intentions to let it go. Honestly, Japanese people are the type to not enjoy judging individuals too much. They didn’t want to deal with any potential problems for letting their emotions get the better of them in the heat of the moment.

It would be much too difficult to deal with any lingering resentment spurred on merely because of giving too harsh of a punishment. Some might scoff at them for giving too light of a punishment, but in the end, they were carefree adventurers. All they had to do was mercilessly cut off said person the next time they got arrogant.

To put it bluntly, from Hiroshi’s point of view, Rayna was quite preferable to the people in his middle school days, since she at least showed signs of reflection and regret. With there being plenty of people in the world who would continue attacking even after all they did, she at least admitted her faults without holding unjustified resentment, even if that was partly due to sanctions imposed by Douga, so she was still redeemable. It wasn’t unusual for people in the world to lash back.

And in the case of Haruna, she saw that Hiroshi, the victim, no longer cared. She was not the type of person to go so far as to dig it back up just to fulfill her own emotions. Only victims have the right to speak from their emotions, after all. Even if involved, if a third party were to give their own heated speech, nothing good would become of it. It would be a lie to say that she was entirely fine with this, but as she had quelled her wrath to give Rayna a second chance, she could not violate her own rules by bringing it back up again.

「Ye might say that it be good for us to judge our own people, but it would be a problem if someone were to say that we lightened the punishment because of that. Plus it would not be surprising if the victim were to settle things out of their own wrath. I know that this be mighty self-serving, but I’d like ye to tag along with me briefly」

「…If we don’t settle things, then it will hinder us, I see」

「Aye」

Douga was apologetic, but unrelenting. The two of them nodded while sighing.

「Now then, though there certainly is an inclination for blood to rise to her head, she is usually composed enough to protect Her Majesty’s life. So why did you repeatedly disobey orders and let your emotions take control?」

「It was all due to personal sentiment. I am painfully aware that I am not just a failure as a knight, but also as a person」

「Ye might call it personal sentiment, but know that the title of knight is not so cheap that we would leave affairs to people who race on ahead from their mere hatred of men. I know it might be difficult, but ye must fill us in」

Rayna lowered her head in response, repeating the gesture once more to Hiroshi and Haruna. Then, organizing the reasoning in her head, she chose the words that would most precisely describe it.

「The circumstances are simple and extremely shameful. Right before said incident, there was some worthless trouble that we were having with the private army of Mazlack, which was what pulled us into it. When I woke up, I felt powerless and had lost my composure, so when I saw Her Majesty crying there, I could no longer hold back at all」

The blood seemed to rise in her head as she recalled what had happened, which was why as opposed to her facial expression, her tone of voice was placid. She was desperately trying to keep her cool.

「Indeed. Well, I daresay that I can guess as to what kind of trouble that was with the private army. But that is a bit weak for a reason」

「I must also regretfully inform you that the person heading the Mazlack army, umm…」

She seemed to be quite hesitant to say it, but realizing that she could not fool them, she strived to open her mouth. Furthermore, the private army of Mazlack was essentially a privately owned knight’s order headed by someone by the name of Count Mazlack. It was privately owned, but its existence was still publicly accepted, so they had permission to come and go as they pleased in the imperial castle. They had a long, proud history as a group, but what with the latest two generations of feudal lords, they had fallen, now treated as private troops.

「And I am really sorry to say this, but that man strongly resembles Hiroshi-sama…」

「…Is that so. Now that you say it, leaving aside his true nature, his face and atmosphere do resemble him a bit. Doubtless, you can tell them apart, but in the sort of situation where blood has rushed to your head, I suppose it is not unreasonable that you would consider him to have the same face」

Douga acknowledged what she had to say to a certain extent. As Rayna said, the man she spoke of was certainly the kind of person who would have no issue with doing such a thing. If she had mistaken him for that person, then it was understandable why she would plunge into this situation.

In addition, he had previously made various things dreadful for her in the past, so it could be said that he was the perfect candidate for mentally rubbing her the wrong way. Incidentally, being that Douga and others had skillfully isolated themselves from him, Aearis knew nothing about that man.

The gist was that both sides were simply out of luck.

「When I thought that vulgar man had made Her Majesty cry, the blood immediately rose to my head…」

「Leave it at that」

With a difficult expression of a mix of frustration and apology, she brought herself to say more, as if spitting out blood. Hiroshi had cut in, shaking his head and insisting that she need not say more.

「Be as it may, I feel that if it were an utterly different person up close, ye’d realize… but I guess it be pointless to say that to a hot-headed person」

Rayna further shrunk as Douga exclaimed, “How pathetic”.

「Well, it’s true that everyone’s got someone they have bad blood with, and narrow-mindedness isn’t somethin’ ya can stop once it starts」

「Thank you for your comment. However, no matter how young she might be, there is no knight who would let go of their senses over something like that. There is nothing to be gained」

Rayna nodded in response to Douga’s severe words, as if agreeing. From what he had heard thus far, it sounded like she was too thorough in her habit of fiercely plunging ahead to the target. This was why she could not easily change trajectory once a decision was made.

「Hey, okay if I ask ya somethin’?」

「What might that be?」

「Ya say she’s young, but just how old is Rayna anyway?」

「She turned fifteen about four months ago. From what I can see, ye might also be mistaken about the age of Her Majesty, so I’ll fill ye in there too. Her Majesty be ten years old」

While surprised upon hearing Aearis and Rayna’s actual age, in another sense, it also made sense to him. He had initially thought Rayna to be a bit hopeless for being in her twenties, but if she was actually younger than him, things were different.

Fifteen years of age was after all middle school third year level in Japan. Sure, she was more capable than that of her Japanese counterparts, but still not adult level. Judging from this, her youth and reckless nature likely bolstered her to revolt against all of Aearis’s orders and she ended up not being able to hold back. Of course, he was a bit concerned about her being the knight of a kingdom, but he had no choice but to leave that issue to Aearis and Douga.

Even for Aearis, his initial impression of her from her firm responses and appearances was that she was a bit older, but hearing her actual age and carefully observing her, it certainly wasn’t out of the question. He hadn’t noticed so much yesterday, but her stature was quite shorter than what he recalled from saving her. Nevertheless, she was right in the middle with 150 centimeters, so judging by her age, she still had good upbringing.

「Well, I think I understand a lot better. Sorta feels like yesterday was just waitin’ to happen」

「Yeah. Putting aside personal feelings, I at least get that there wasn’t any way out of that one」

The two Japanese people concluded upon hearing everything. In Haruna’s case, she seemed to still not quite look impressed, but she felt obliged to observe what Hiroshi had said rather than say anything out-of-hand to avoid creating pressure.

「Be as it may, I still do not think it’s wise to end it like this」

「Well, we ain’t gonna touch on that. You guys can go ahead and deal with personnel affairs on yer own」

Douga nodded at Hiroshi, turning to Aearis.

「Unfortunately, I have not a shred of discretionary power. Though I may be able to say what I desire, rather than saying this and that, it would probably be better for Lord Douga to make a verdict」

「Understood. However, unfortunately as it stands, there would be no point in dismissing you. For now we shall have her continue with her punishment, then make a verdict once she is safely back in her official position, if that is all right. I realize this is selfish of me, but unfortunately, as this is a situation where she would be liable to be treated as a rebel, I cannot currently give an effective penalty. Besides, since it is unclear if we would even have enough backing personnel as of now, I must make do with a personal intermediary. Because of that, though she be a fool, it would be difficult to release her since she has more than ample battle prowess. There will certainly be a punishment, so please do be content with this for now」

「Well, yeah that makes sense…」

「For the time being, just hold the reins and do your best to make sure that she doesn’t revolt」

The leader and her retainers nodded gravely at Haruna. The conversation ended as Rayna rubbed her head against the ground in apology.

「Well, let’s leave all that aside… Couldja tell us why you were caught in the first place?」

It was finally the end of yesterday’s events, albeit at the minimal line of things, and a thin air of relaxation took ahold of the room again. It would seem that Hiroshi and Haruna had also resigned themselves to getting into something troublesome. It had been but more than a month since they had flown into this alternate dimension. The two high-schoolers had at last begun their first large-scale quest.

「…My apologies, but I have still not decided whether it is fine to tell you everything. Normally, we would be obliged to discuss everything with you as ye have saved us, but there are circumstances that do not allow us to easily do so. I realize it is selfish after putting ye through so much, but might ye give us a bit more time?」

「I’d expect as much, though」

「However, we can confidently say that we do not consider you enemies」

「Ain’t that a little too relaxed though?」

「You had three days. Were you an enemy, ye could have done as ye pleased, no?」

Hiroshi and Haruna unconsciously gave bitter smiles. They certainly could have done anything in those three days. But it wasn’t like anything good would have come of it.

「And this may sound a bit extreme, but… If ye youngsters had tricked us and we had betrayed ye, it would have likely all been over for ye」

「Yikes, that sounded super convincing」

Hiroshi, with his loser aura, and Haruna, with ample caution, yet with a good-natured persona and clothing to match. It would definitely have all ended if this lot had betrayed them. After all, thanks to their experience over this last month, they had struggled for their lives to gain enough caution, but in all other aspects, they were likely trying to get peace at any price.

They did not comprehend in the slightest just how guarded those around them would be for breaking through Aearis’s magic. If only they understood the weight of them making all the furniture or tools scattered about the house, they would have probably not so boldly created the magic tools like this.

If anything, the real reason why Douga could not trust either of them was because of how ill-prepared they were. Not just in their sense of values, however. The problem was far bigger than that.

From what they had discussed, they were not just selling whatever they could get their hands on for their livelihood, but in the sense that they were able to make and even sell their own tools in the stand.

「Well, with that, I suppose we should decide where to go from here」

「Right. First off, Aearis and everyone else have to hide their identity still, right?」

「Indeed」

「Then, we’d best prepare some fake names, I’d say」

Douga and Aearis nodded. Only Rayna looked dissatisfied.

「Now, what sort of names would be good?」

「If they’re too far off from yer real names, ya might not react when called, so… Alright, would Elle work for ya, Aearis-san?」

「What a cute name. Let us go with that」

「If yer cool with that. What ’bout you, old man?」

「Could I use the name I used a while back? It’s Dojison」

「I won’t even ask why the heck ya made a fake name in the first place」

Douga had burst out upon hearing Hiroshi’s somewhat drawn-back quip. To put things bluntly, with someone as talented as him, there was many a time when he was forced to do a strange job or two. Since using his actual name would have been dangerous, it was necessary to use that sort of odd name.

「Well, not like it’s guaranteed to be safe here, so rather than reusing it, how ’bout we go with Doul?」

「Aye. Then, I shall be Doul from now on」

「That sort of resembles my own name」

「Is it disagreeable to you?」

「No. It makes me feel like I am your grandchild, which is in itself fun, I say」

Rayna unconsciously frowned at the two of them delighted over their fake names. While not unnoticed, they all decided to ignore it and continue the conversation.

「’N then we have Rayna. Any ideas?」

「If we need something not too far off, then maybe Reena?」

「That’s what they say. What do you think?」

「…Well, I don’t really feel like calling myself something fake in the first place…」

「Circumstances are circumstances. Gotta accept it」

Rayna grudgingly nodded at Hiroshi. They all felt a tinge of unease at how she was acting. With that reaction, he came up with just one policy.

「So for what’s gonna happen from now on, Elle will generally do things together with either the old man or Toudou-san. And as a general rule, Reena must under no circumstances be with Elle」

Hiroshi had immediately started calling her by her fake name, so she frowned for an instant. Upon realization of the crazy thing he had just said, there was no delay in the blood that rose to her head.

「Why not!?」

「Cuz, ya’d always call her Your Majesty in front of other people, right?」

Not expecting Hiroshi to point that out, Rayna was at a loss for words. Even she had confidence in herself easily making such a mistake.

「’N now, to discuss what’ll happen from now on」

「But I need to go to work today. We do this later, after all have a lot to negotiate」

While slightly battling with her reluctance to leave Hiroshi here, Haruna had decided to go to work as per scheduled. Sure, she was worried, but there was no meaning in both of them being in this cramped room. She had of course thought of having Hiroshi be the one to go out, but if there were the sorts of people like yesterday mixed in with the unknown quantities, that was even more unbearable. Comparing the risks, it would doubtless be much better to leave Hiroshi here with Douga as an intermediary.

「Please do. I’ll prepare whatever I can make here. Anythin’ happens, just contact me via card」

「I know」

「What’ll ya do for morning and noon?」

「If I prepare anything right now, it’ll get late, so I’ll just eat whatever once I’m over there」

Upon answering his question, she carried the rapier and belongings, immediately leaving the room. After seeing her leave, he began various preparations for breakfast. Once they had finished eating the quite well-acclaimed curry bread, he began various preparations for filling their stock.

「What are you starting on there?」

“Well, quite a few things” he said as he continued working on whatever this was. It seemed like he was making daily necessities.

「Is that all you’ve been researching since arriving here?」

「There are honestly other priorities, but what with havin’ to procure equipment, secure locations, and the issue of ingredients, I hafta wait on those. ’N I don’t wanna waste my time, and those priorities are gonna be time consumin’, so we’re researchin’ lotsa things like the food situation around us or countermeasures for skin trouble」

「Hm. Might I ask what sort of things ye must prioritize?」

「Gotta find a way to return to our own country. ’N I bet y’all already get the picture of our situation, yeah?」

「You mean that you are guests from the Unknown Continent?」

Hiroshi nodded once in response. This was the perfect opportunity to ask what needed to be asked.

「The two of you will have been here around one month, yes?」

「Yup」

「And why do you not accept the protection of the country?」

「Toudou-san is also in agreement with this, but how should I put it… I could just smell somethin’ troublesome」

“As you’d expect, right?” said Hiroshi. Aearis couldn’t deny that, looking down. As he smiled bitterly at her mannerism, he got started on preparing the curry bread.

「Anyhoo, hopefully this satisfies ya. We were free, plus we succeeded in rescuin’ ya」

「That’s true. It’s just a little dissatisfying to think that what brought it on was because of an issue in cooking this curry bread…」

「What might ye mean?」

「Mm?Ohh. See, this curry bread, when making it, it easily gets on yer clothes. And this ain’t any ordinary dirtyness; it doesn’t wash off very easily, so we thought to make some strong resistant clothing by gatherin’ threads, ’N then we went to git some easy-t-git thread from spider webs」

No matter how many times they heard the reason, Douga and Rayna made dubious faces. Normally, they would figure you’d just go and buy work clothing, but not in the case of this loser otaku. He probably thought something unnecessary, like making them was cheaper or something.

There was also the fact that not just in Farlane, but in the majority of the world, making your own clothing was common practice, which was why clothing was high priced. However, since spider webs were made of silk, and if you were to make and sell the string and buy work clothing, it would be easy to get more than enough clothing. Was it just their imagination?

「Well, thinking back on it, I do realize that it’s super luxurious to want to go to all the trouble of making silk clothin’ from spiders when we stock up or sell bread at the stand」

「…So have you finished the clothing yet?」

「Nope. Gotta make the sewing machine first, but it’s a little cramped here, so we stopped at the part where we had to gather the ingredients」

Douga felt like he wanted to interject and ask if he gathered the ingredients, but felt like it would be a losing battle, so he shut his mouth. These two had so much talent and ability, yet they had the audacity to waste it. Aearis and the others couldn’t help but feel anxiety at what was to come.

As circumstances would have it, once you advanced past a certain threshold, the conversation would blaze through at astounding speed. But despite being right in the middle of one of these troublesome conversations, Haruna, who was supposed to be working outside, brought in something even more bothersome.

『Azuma-kun, can you hear me?』

『What’s up?』

『Some trouble sprang up at Merizza’s place. I don’t think I can handle it all by myself, so could you maybe lend a hand?』

『Lemme talk it over with the old man』

Feeling something slightly different from Haruna’s tone, his face grew grim. Stopping his work on cooking the fish-paste cakes, he moved them aside before turning back to Douga. Furthermore, Merizza was a merchant they had come to know from various requests, most of which were miscellaneous affairs, but lately, things had been going quite favorably.

「Old man, got a moment?」

「What be the matter?」

「Seems like Toudou-san’s been mixed up in some sorta trouble at her destination. Seems likely that she won’t be able to handle it by herself, so is it alright if I go out a bit?」

「Ye need not pay heed to us. Ye already fed us, and it isn’t like I’m too senile to look after the place」

「Yeah? Then sorry, please stay put here. Eat some fruit or whatever ya want」

Hiroshi left him with that, bringing a bag with various tools and a hand axe, then dashed out of the room. Incidentally, since he didn’t really know what was happening for lunch, he had prepared Kansai-style hotdogs with curry-flavored cabbage inside. Needless to say, his home-made sausage and ketchup had high ratings.

『Where do we meet up?』

『Can you come to the east gate? It’s because you have to go out of the gate once』

『Roger』

Following Haruna’s guidance, he used up a large amount of discardable amplification items he had made via alchemy, dashing over all the way to the east gate. From how Haruna had sounded, he didn’t have the leisure to wander around, plus even if he were to use a canal or stagecoach, there was no guarantee of finding one perfect for his destination. In addition, this wasn’t Japan, so those sorts of rides wouldn’t have regular departure times. As the transportation gates couldn’t be used without going to the central plaza, it was a bit of a gamble. Which was why it was fundamental as an adventurer to cut unnecessary costs.

In order to move as quickly as possible, he dashed full speed along the back streets. He did so not only because it would obviously decrease the distance to his destination, but also because there were a lot of people in the main street and running at this speed might endanger them.

「Toudou-san!」

「Azuma-kun, that was pretty fast」

「Well yeah, that’s cuz I came here full speed」

He said, taking out and showing her this variety of movement speed amplification items that could be stacked. Haruna saw them, nodding satisfactorily. With Hiroshi’s stamina, even moving along the canal with 20 minutes to his destination wouldn’t be difficult to maintain top speed. To an adventurer, obstructions like slow movement could easily be solved by amplification items. To add further, he was only slow compared to other adventurers, but was more than double the average person.

「So, what’s up?」

「She says that Lumina-chan went out to gather medicinal herbs and hasn’t come back」

「When’d she leave?」

「Apparently, early this morning. She left with adventurers and the other girls, but ran into some trouble and fled, and it seems that some of them weren’t there when they got back」

「Well that sucks. How many were there?」

「We know of three. All girls」

While arranging for their departure, they exchanged all necessary information. Incidentally, it wasn’t all that rare for the children of shop owners to gather herbs or fruit from trees. The Adventurer’s Association was regularly sending out gathering requests for things like medicinal ingredients or long-lasting food ingredients, but unless they were in quite the emergency or had to travel far for certain things, they would normally take on a number of requests alongside adventurers, as the Association’s prices were high depending on the quality. Providing that it wasn’t the sort of business that required going to multiple towns, even the children of the bigger stores quite often would just go to collect things.

Furthermore, at times like these, the majority of adventurer’s fulfilling these gathering requests were experienced people, rather than upstarts. Or rather, starting completely from scratch wouldn’t get you many requests until you passed the test from the personnel. In other words, the adventurers who set off at times like these were generally people who had a decent amount of battle prowess and had their wits about them to a certain degree. This time around as well, there were adventurers with quite a bit of results in the gathering area.

This meant that they had ran into the kind of trouble that not even that level of adventurer could handle.

「Incidentally, what kind of trouble?」

「They say a rather strong monster appeared a bit closer to the mountain」

「Another fishy story, I see」

「Yeah. Plus I’ve been hearing not-very-good rumors recently」

「I heard from Anne that the number of missing children’s increasing. Might be another one o’ those again」

As they went to the place that Haruna had heard about ahead of time where adventurers would end up fist fighting with monsters, they exchanged their thoughts. Other than them, there were several adventurers under Merizza’s patronage on the search. The reward for this sort of request was usually nearly nothing, but there weren’t too many adventurers who turned it down because of the lack of monetary rewards. On the contrary, there were mostly adventurers who were willing to act even without a reward if it meant helping their patron in times of trouble.

Incidentally, Hiroshi and Haruna were also being favored by Merizza because they had gone gathering with Lumina for some good quality materials. As of late, since Merizza would sell more with wholesale compared to the rate of the Association, she would sell materials solely gathered from punitive work. There was many a time that they accepted her requests directly as part of that relationship, and she was also just a friendly partner to them.

Furthermore, the work that they took the most was tool repair/modification and chores like mending shops, so in terms of battle prowess, because of their equipment, they weren’t sought after much. This time around, they were sought out because of their above-average tactfulness. After all, this situation required as much help as possible.

「…Toudou-san」

When they had only half more of the distance to the warplace, Hiroshi had suddenly stopped, calling Haruna.

「What’s the matter?」

「That place is unnaturally distorted」

Haruna frowned as she looked where Hiroshi was pointing. Certainly, the vegetation was a bit out-of-order, but she honestly only felt it to be slightly odd. She wouldn’t think it strange for it to just be her imagination.

「You sure?」

「At least that’s how it looks to me」

Perhaps because of the difference in composition and ability points, Hiroshi had far more keenness with these things. However, it was still bad to go by themselves. They decided to call a few adventurer’s over.

「Is this the place you said feels off?」

「Yup. Looks a bit unnatural」

「…You, might be right」

The young man answered with a grim face. He was the type of adventurer called a thief or scout, good at tracking or finding/dissolving traps, but not suited for combat, training only his crucial skills.

「Seriously?」

「There are footprints. And they were left relatively recently. Also, they’re in disguise」

「But of course, that just makes it all the more strange」

Added the thief, and everyone’s expressions grew stiff.

「Might this be a bit dangerous?」

「Yeah. But if we all went together, that would be bad if they held one of those missing children hostage. Plus it could be a false lead. I’ll investigate a bit with the others over here, and I’d like you guys to check the other areas just in case」

「You’ll be alright with them?」

「Yeah. Haruna can use her support magic, and these guys are pretty good at concealing their presence, maybe from all the gathering they’ve been doing. They can even ambush on occasion. Rather than wear slow armor, it’s better to travel light to avoid being detected」

Hiroshi and Haruna wryly smiled at what he said. True, they were good at erasing their presence, constantly avoiding useless fights by only silently moving behind favorable monsters. It was almost strange why they didn’t go a step further and open locks or break traps. Also, not just them, but the majority of Fairy Tale Chronicle players knew how to make soundproof barriers for the necessary quests. They were actually well-suited for these stealth missions.

「We’ll start out making soundproof barriers, but with more people, movement would become difficult, so I guess it’s for the best that there are few. And when we find something, we contact you?」

「Yeah. You can also give us your location」

「Then how about the three of us go? Cause we can manage with both firepower and defense as it is. Plus I have a bit of a bad feeling about this. It would be seriously bad if we got confused about anything」

The other adventurers nodded seriously at Haruna as she tied up her hair. They took no time in splitting the teams and scattering off. It was as if there were some rule that mandated they move promptly as soon as their directions were decided.

「We can go『transparent』, but whaddya say?」

「Can we still see each other?」

「We can see whoever allows us to see them. However, I used cheap materials from leftovers, so ya can guess how much time it lasts」

「Then let’s try them until the effects wear off」

「Roger」

「Anything else?」

「I brought all sorts of bags, so there’s a lot to choose from regardless of the amount. I’ll give a brief explanation while we move」

Haruna and the thief nodded. It wasn’t like they were just researching about cooking and seasoning for this last month. The items were all within the outskirts of Wulls, and they had already checked what they could make, so they had provided storage in accordance. Anyhow, it would be clumsy to waste time checking usable items when there was nothing but a bad feeling in the air. The three of them formed a temporary party, communicating as quietly as possible while pursuing the footprints at lightning speed.

***

Tatsuya Kazuki and Mio Mizuhashi were out of luck. After all, as they were playing Fairy Tale Chronicle, the screen had suddenly filled with errors, and when they came to they were tied up.

「Well this isn’t good」

「Agreed」

Shackled hand and foot, they had been thrown into a jailhouse together with two other kidnapped people, talking offhandedly about their situation without letting their voices be heard. Plus their voices were worn out, not having access to water for a long time.

「Tatsu-nii, is this what I think it is?」

「Yep, it’s gotta be」

「Which means you were actually lucky for not being killed?」

「Hey, don’t put it like that…」

Tatsuya didn’t even try to hide his tired expression. He was quite down when Mio had said exactly what he was thinking out loud.

Tatsuya and Mio had also realized that they had come to Fairy Tale Chronicle or a world resembling it. They had various reasons for thinking that way, but the biggest one of all was that Tatsuya had managed to use magic as they were testing their escape.

「So. Since this is the situation and all, any idea on how to get through this?」

「Seems like we can use our skills, but not bare-handed. What about you, Tatsu-nii?」

「I was able to use magic, but it’d be pretty terrible if I couldn’t hit them directly…」

「True」

Mio only sighed at what Tatsuya had said. If they used attack magic in a place like this, there was no guarantee what would happen to the people around them

「But this really gives me mixed feelings」

「Mm?」

「The girl who was taken off earlier, probably…」

「Ohhh, yeah, probably…」

The two of them only looked down as they felt the painful lack of power in this disgusting situation. The bunch that had thrown them in here weren’t the best looking people, taking with them a girl in her late teens, not especially cute or hot but with a comparatively voluptuous body. They had probably judged that as she was neither the cutest or prettiest female in the area, her product value wouldn’t drop no matter what they did to her.

「And I wasn’t chosen because I don’t have much flesh on me, right?」

「Yeah, probably」

As he said that, he looked again at his cousin’s appearance. She looked no different from when she was in bed connected to an IV. With some assistance she could barely move her mouth and eat things, which was possibly why she had a slight woman-like bulge in her chest area, but her hemiplegia confined her to the bed, so there was nearly no muscle on her body. She normally had a cute, orderly face, but when she was this thin, it was quite difficult to say she was appealing. Being bedridden, her hair wasn’t taken care of properly, and it stretched down unkempt.

Just based off of the register, judging by how she was at the age of transferring to middle school, if her body were to heal and she ate properly, there was still a chance that her stature or chest would have much potential for growth. But he knew that she had practically given up. Anyone would feel hopeless after being in both an accident and sustaining an incurable disease.

「I wonder what would’ve happened if I was healthy?」

「Don’t think about it too much. Not like you’d reach a pretty conclusion」

「Mhm. But I’m hungry……」

「Yeah, since we haven’t eaten anything for two days……」

Their captors apparently had no inclination of giving them food. He questioned why they would starve their goods, but in their case it made sense. They probably felt like cleaning up after them would be a drag, or that it was a waste to buy food for them since they’d be sold soon. They might even be thinking that if someone died, they could just replenish their stock.

They had only been there two days, but there were others who had been there longer. To put it bluntly, the other people were far from making boisterous noise- they didn’t even seem to have enough energy to move their bodies. Thinking of how a normal human could at most endure 72 hours of abstaining from food and drink, it was a given that they would be that exhausted. The only ones who were still well were maybe the three girls who had been locked in here earlier.

「Seems you lot are still kickin’, maggots」

Feeling hunger and closing his mouth, he was contemplating stealing at least some food when a fierce-looking man called out to the jailhouse in a very sadistic voice. He must be the leader. Of course, no one dared respond. The people who had been in there a while were doing all they could to keep living, so there was no way they could give a proper response. The girls who had been freshly brought here were swallowed by the antagonistic atmosphere, shaking fearfully as they cowered.

「I’ll be calling over your new masters now. However, they aren’t gonna buy all of you, of course, so the leftovers will be disposed of. If ya don’t wanna die, then you’d best make sure they choose you」

The leader-like man said as he brought out some underlings. As they left the jailhouse, the remaining person went out of their way to leave a phrase that shattered their hopes.

「Oh yeah. Don’t make the mistake of wanting to escape. This place is in the middle of the forest, so it’s teeming with monsters. And we have some skilled people loitering around, so don’t think that you maggots can do anything about that. Although you probably don’t even have the strength in you」

Hearing that, he realized the other reason why they hadn’t given them food. Even if someone here had battle prowess, if left without food or drink for three days, they probably wouldn’t even be able to fight.

「Wow, this sucks……」

「Mm……」

The two of them whispered to each other powerlessly as they gazed at the men leaving. Honestly, though not necessarily right off the bat, it was highly likely that they would be disposed of. If they had at least eaten something, they’d have enough energy to repay their captors, but definitely not now. They hadn’t even thought that humans could be this lacking in motivation just from being deprived of food and water.

「I really don’t like dreams where I’m hungry, but at this point we kinda have to hope that this is just one of those dreams……」

「……Hm?」

「What is it?」

Mio looked like she sensed something, and Tatsuya questioned her. But before Mio could answer, a familiar voice of disappointment and anger rang out.

「Seriously, why the heck did it have to pan out like this…」

They had heard this voice numerous times. The owner of said voice had helped them on many an occasion. At least in Tatsuya’s case, he and Hiroshi had a give-and-take relationship. Thinking of the area where the voice was heard, he should have been visible, but there was no one in sight.

「……Is this, Hiro?」

「……Sensei?」

「Mm? If ya know that name, are ya guys players?」

Along with those words, an incompetent-looking young adult appeared. His hair and eyes were different colors, and his height was a bit taller than they remembered, but that person was none other than the crafting maniac Hiro. Next to him was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl with beauty and glamor. They had some distance between them.

（We might be in good hands）

He knew Hiro well. He didn’t have anything on him resembling armor, but his body wasn’t so weak that he could get hurt by bandits. Of course, this bad situation only happened because Tatsuya and Mio were bound up from the beginning, and no one had felt them to be a threat. He was confident that with the knife he had from the outset and no hostages to hold him down, he could easily win against humans.

「Azuma-kun, let’s leave that for later. Let’s first think of how to help these people」

Hiro nodded, looking around. The female seemed to have a quite higher level. Feeling the uncertainty slip away to certainty, Tatsuya and Mio decided to remain silent for the time being.

***

Hiroshi was tempted to exchange information that wasn’t currently necessary, so Haruna stopped him where he was. There would be a need to make various preparations to save these people from that scale of an organization. If they didn’t prioritize the right sequence of steps, they would end up regretting it.

「But ya know it ain’t feasible to just take everyone here at once. There’s too many of ‘em to carry with one transportation stone, and there’s only three, so even if we treated some of ‘em like luggage, we’d still be left with half the amount o’people」

「Seems like Jade-san called for relief, so I think we just need to buy time here until then」

「Then we’d best get to barricadin’ this place」

Hiroshi said as he fished through his bag and looked around. He wanted to get to it, but they didn’t have anything to set traps with. To add to it, Jade was a member of a different party of bandits. He was currently elsewhere, investigating things like other potential hostages and how strong the enemy was.

「Sensei, if you let us out of here, I’ll set the traps」

「Yeah? Then I better open this up first」

While grumbling things like “but I can’t open locks…”, he was checking the jail doors to see what could be done when Haruna called out to him.

「If you could hold up a soundproof and silencing barrier as a precaution, I’ll knock off the keys」

「Alright. You got this」

Nodding at Haruna’s proposal, Hiroshi launched a silencing barrier. Seeing from the flow of magic that the barrier was erected, Haruna put her all into a beam of light that precisely lopped off the key. Furthermore, the soundproof barrier made sure that no sound escaped from a set area, while the silencing barrier erased sound from a set area. Either one could be adjusted depending on the power exerted, so for precaution, he had put heavy emphasis on both.

「Hold still for a sec」

Opening the cell, he shattered the hand and feet cuffs of the two Fairy Tale Chronicle players. If they were players, then it was highly likely that they had player character skills. Even without the typical adventurer skillset, they had to have the basic attack skills, and the parameters were certainly higher than the average person. If everything went well they would be a huge help, and even if not, they could still guard. He didn’t remember either of them, but they seemed to know him. Then they would definitely have more of a skillset than the average adventurer and should be able to defend themselves.

At least that was why he had saved them, but his expectations were delicately broken.

「Oof……、I can’t get up……」

「Didn’t think my empty stomach would affect my feet, damn……」

He looked around as they said that. Come to think of it, there wasn’t really any scent of excreted matter in this jailhouse. They probably hadn’t been given nearly any food or drink. To add further, there were some who looked as if they had been assaulted. Not that it was strange for those tools to be lying around.

「We haven’t been given anything to eat since we were captured……」

「Sorry, Sensei……my legs and loins just aren’t working……」

Sighing at the two of them with their anemia, he handed some water and bread to them out of his bag. Incidentally, the main reasons why they couldn’t get up were certainly hunger and dehydration, but being in the same position for a long time also contributed to muscle atrophy and numbness of the feet in their case.

「Everyone else, please wait a bit longer for food. I can’t feed all of ya with what we got here」

「So work for what you ate, okay?」

The two of them took out all the water they had as they spoke. After all, from what they could see, mostly everyone was dealing with dehydration. The hostages’ eyes widened as they saw the kegs and cups that came out of the bag. After all, most people don’t go around walking with these things in their bags.

「Okay, what can you two do?」

「Well, if you’re Hiro, then I think you’d understand if I said that I’m Obaba, right?」

「I’m Mick」

「……Obaba and Mick? For reals!?」

Befuddled at their introductions, Hiroshi practically groaned. The girl was constantly referring to him as “Sensei Sensei”, so he figured that of his three pupils, she was playing the opposite sex, but her character was the largest and the most handsome, so it was still surprising to see a girl behind such a masculine character. On the other hand, he thought from the beginning that Obaba was a different gender. But he certainly didn’t see him being such a lady killer. He had after all played as a magic-wielding old woman, plus he was super into the roleplay.

「Ah whatever. Mick, ya said ya’d do somethin’ ’bout the traps. Can ya move soon?」

He decided to consider the situation and push away personal feelings.

「……Sorry, it’s still a bit difficult」

「I think I have leftovers from request potions I made. Would that work?」

「Dunno. This is our first time experiencing a lot of things after all」

Hiroshi nodded at Tatsuya in agreement, going ahead and handing a leftover potion to them. They took it and downed it at once, and then the two of them checked their conditions.

「I think I can move now」

「No confidence, but may as well try……」

Nodding at them, Hiroshi proceeded with the preparations for traps and barricades. During the procedure, they heard footsteps from further back. That being said, Hiroshi and Mio were the only ones able to hear them, as their sensory ability points were quite high.

「Someone’s here. Mick, Obaba, ya guys just wait inside. From the amount of footsteps I hear, seems like there’s a lot o’peeps at the entrance, so I’m countin’ on ya for back there, Toudou-san」

「Roger that」

Quickly finishing assigning them roles, the two of them prepared for their first inter-personal battle. At the same time they were readying themselves, the back wall at the back of the cave crumbled with a tremendous sound. Beyond it was a mass of skinhead muscle, the body type of which rivaled that of an ogre or troll. In its hands were a club and a beat-up, unconscious Jade. Throwing Jade somewhere, the skinhead made a truculent grin as it saw Haruna, swinging the club around as if trying to intimidate her. Overwhelmed by its presence and sudden appearance, the two of them regained their bearings and readied themselves for battle.

「Toudou-san!」

「I’m fine, leave it to me!」

Haruna stopped Hiroshi, who was ready to charge to the front and push back this boss-level opponent. Quite honestly, this type of opponent was the easiest for Haruna to defeat.

「Right. Leaving this area open wouldn’t be good」

Seeing the amount of people coming down from the passageway, he muttered while clicking his tongue, confronting this group of bandits, shaking as per usual. With an unexpected start, the curtains rose on their first inter-personal battle.

Fending off the club that was swung down, she countered weakly on purpose. For the skinhead, who had muscle like steel, it was no more than a light bruise, but she had managed to confirm that without using a magic sword, it was possible to damage him normally. To add further, he did not seem to have regenerative capabilities like Hiroshi where the wounds would heal right before your eyes. With that information, Haruna began with two attacks against her opponent’s one attack, chiseling off his stamina.

Along with a beast-like groan, the club rumbled as it was swung around. If a normal human were hit by this, they would probably be minced in an instant. However, such a wide swing wasn’t all that difficult to monitor. Since Jade was unconscious nearby, she would have to mind where she dodged, but other than that, nothing else.

「Hah! Tei!」

She lightly cut through the arm holding the club twice. If she were to cut too deeply, the muscle might solidify the grip. Therefore, it was fundamental to graze the surface when stabbing. And honestly, she wanted to just avoid messing up and killing him. It was highly likely that this would become a battle of attrition, so it was no good to use special moves when unnecessary.

A swing came down from the right. She lightly stepped away to evade it. She dug into his chest and flank. Slipping under the level swing, she once again cut the same area with precision. A punch from the left arm. She evaded it by cutting his arm. She cut him a third time, then escaped from his bosom. Magnificent and sweet, she danced as she led her opponent by the nose, racking up damage on him little by little.

It seemed like the skinhead did not take kindly to the unanticipated prowess of this little girl, small enough to blow away. Howling like a beast, he swung down the club with full power, moaning vexingly as that, too, was easily fended off. The rapier should have smashed the moment it hit, but no matter how many times they clashed, the club was always flung away. His attacks were stupidly powerful and each swing was sharp, not to be underestimated, but Haruna’s body was not even scratched.

If not for Haruna’s skillset, even with Hiroshi’s specially made rapier, it would have probably lasted only up to the third parry. And even with Haruna’s skillset, the average weapon would have absolutely broken long ago. That was just how powerful the skinhead was. This huge man was strong enough to where even a knight would have to have a great amount of skill to avoid having the tables turned on them.

It was just that in this case, he went up against the wrong opponent.

（I’d better have this regulated soon）

After several more rounds of “hit and away”, she decided to leave a good amount of distance between them, reconfirming the location of everything. Calmly determining the locations, she quickly decided where she would incite him to. As she had to attack whilst running around, she was being chased into a strange position. However, at least there was no worry of a stray bullet flying toward Jade. After that, all she had to do was guide him toward the jailhouse front and then focus on battle without worrying about the small things, away from the unreliable area she was in. Of course, it was bad to have the jailhouse to her rear. Her opponent’s attacks could miss, striking the ground and scattering rubble, which had enough power to cause damage in close-quarters.

Several times, she had felt the flow of mana from the entrance, characteristic of when magic was usually activated, but she listened to Hiroshi and forced herself to cool down. She also figured that at worst, Obaba and Mick would support her to some degree, and if she screwed up then that would be what would weigh Hiroshi down. At times like this, without panicking, she must firmly complete her role. That was the greatest way to contribute to the entire party.

「Hmph!」

「Not good enough!」

One who knows little often repeats it. She elegantly parried her opponent’s downward swing, leading him on to where he lost sight of her. She flowed from that to behind him, unleashing her special attack skill, Break Hit. It was a subspecies of Smash with the objective of fiercely crushing the opponent’s stance, which sent the skinhead to fall straight forward. As soon as she had retreated to the correct planned-out spot, she smashed him from the side and sent him flying.

At first glance, Break Hit may appear convenient, but unlike Smash, which was practically a guaranteed down for super large-framed opponents, half-heartedly launching the attack would do nothing more than halt their movements for an instant at best. If you were looking to guarantee a break in your opponent’s stance, on top of dealing a decent amount of damage, you would have to drive it into them with the right timing. Meeting this particular timing was unexpectedly difficult, plus you could just down the opponent with Smash or its extension skills. There wasn’t much reason to use this move.

But as it came out faster than Smash and could be used without hardly having to move, if you used it properly, it was one of those exceptionally effective skills that revealed the player’s talent, and Haruna enjoyed using it against humanoids and beasts. The biggest reason as to why she didn’t use it in the fight with the piaranorks was because she had lacking experience with bugs or crustaceans. Especially against things like spiders, with a low centre of gravity, she wasn’t sure how to strike them down because of their secure footing, so even for Haruna, an effective application of it was difficult. There was also the fact that as long as Hiroshi was there as the vanguard, there was no point in going so far as to solo things, and she had merely resorted to using attack skills.

「Shadow Saber!」

She cut through him with a dark-type magic sword that took off more stamina and MP than it did HP. It was an advanced magic sword with the special effects of Stun, Confusion, Fear, and Bind; four types of status irregularities, perfect after striking an opponent’s weak point. Needless to say, on top of everything other than Bind barely working against insect-based bosses, even Bind had shallow effects.

「Just in case, I’ll give him another strike」

Just in case, Haruna drove another strike into the fallen, fainted skinhead that resembled the previous. After he convulsed with a twitch, the skinhead stopped all movement. After she checked for some sort of life sign, she tied him up with the wire in her bag. If one were to ask why she were carrying such a thing around, it was because it was useful for all sorts of things, such as securing lumber in a trunk, using the principle of leverage to hang things up, or temporarily securing things for carpentry. Incidentally, this was something that Haruna had made with Hiroshi’s guidance, enchanting it.

「And with this, it’s good」

Confirming that he was in no condition to move, she went to assist Hiroshi when she noticed the thick scent of blood drifting through the air.

「Azuma-kun!?」

「It’s alright, it ain’t my blood!」

While shivering as per usual and brandishing the axe, he replied to Haruna in a shaky voice. When she looked, she saw the corpse of a man who looked like a bandit near the entrance, an arrow stabbed through his chest, and a large pool of blood flowing from his chest.

Other than that, Hiroshi’s feet area was pretty messy. After all, knives, arrows, and pebbles were rolling about the floor in large amounts, the tip of the sword’s blade broken and scattered, and there was a fallen corpse whose shoulders had been stabbed by a large amount of arrows. It looked like the whole body had been burned to a crisp (otherwise it would have been in fine shape). When she looked deep into the passageway that Hiroshi had been blocking, she saw one person who had been sent flying back, eyes rolled back, three people who had been hit by said person as they were sent back, utterly grounded, and one of their necks was facing the wrong way.

（……Could it be!?）

Judging from the situation, other than the corpse that had been pierced by arrows, Hiroshi had probably killed the other ones. To put it more accurately, their neck had probably been broken the moment they were launched away, or perhaps they had hit it in a bad place and ended up dying. She wasn’t exactly shocked by Hiroshi having killed someone, given the circumstances, but whatever happens once can happen again. She was concerned that history might repeat itself. The minute she sought to somehow ease his burden, Hiroshi stopped her.

「It’s fine the way it is!」

「But!」

「It’s alright! Reinforcements arrived!」

「Correct!」

The voice of an unknown woman rang out, the same time of which two screams of agony rang out. Taking advantage of the confusion, she smashed the prideful-looking boss man and the fat slave trader, smacking the tip of their jaws with her longsword’s handle, knocking them out.

「Thanks for all the help」

「Sorry for being late」

The woman had apprehended all of the survivors. Well-proportioned in every sense of the word, with an average outward appearance, she praised their efforts. From her facial structure, hair, and the color of her eyes, she seemed to be a Japanese person. She was probably also a player. To their further shock, a disguised Rayna appeared from behind her.

「Thanks a lot. You were a big help」

「Even if I hadn’t come, in just 5 more minutes, you two would’ve overpowered them, right?」

「I am seriously sorry for being so late」

「Nah, we’re super happy that ya came. Thanks to you, Toudou-san managed to avoid killin’ anyone」

The two of them nodded meekly. They didn’t seem to want Haruna to kill people either. From Rayna’s viewpoint, after everything that had happened yesterday, it was also bad enough that Hiroshi had to kill someone. She couldn’t regret it enough.

「But how should I say this……」

With a pale face, Hiroshi had barely managed to conceal his quivering, but spat out words with complicated emotions.

「What?」

「It’s probably the same reason why I don’t hesitate when dissectin’ monsters, but the fact that I felt literally no shock when I killed a person is honestly a gigantic shock to me, ya know……」

「Ahh, so I’m not the only one……」

「You the same way, Onee-san?」

「Mhm. Well, this isn’t Japan, and all you did was resist bad people who attacked you, so no one’s gonna blame you」

Nodding lightly as she spoke reassuringly, the woman approached Hiroshi. He instinctively took his distance. Seeing his strange actions, she furrowed her brow in displeasure.

「Hey, what’s the big deal?」

「Ahh, sorry. See, I’m super ‘fraid o’females…」

The woman made an indescribable face as she sighed.

「I already heard it from Reena. You really do have it bad, eh? Thanks for the kind of answer that’ll put Ae-I mean, Elle into a state of extreme unease toward her guardian」

「Hah? If yer bringin’ that name up right now……?」

「I’m Mikoto Mizoguchi. Seventh-class adventurer and one of Doul-oji-san’s trump cards. Nice to meetcha」

Unsure of how to react to Mikoto as she grinned at them, Hiroshi and Haruna looked slightly perturbed. Furthermore, after they got back to Wulls and Haruna had finished her bath, she got right back to selling curry bread at the stand with the remaining time as if nothing had happened. Mikoto would exclaim with an exasperated face:

「You worried about that loser all the way back! The hell ya doin’, selling curry bread like you don’t care!」

But that was another story for another time.