Volume 3, Chapter 4.1

Volume 3, Chapter 4.1

Translator: Reflet

Editor: Weasalopes

「So what are we doing today?」

The next morning after they had taken in the Norton sisters. Tatsuya checked their schedule at breakfast.

「What should we do?」

「Yup, what should we do y’all?」

Various plans had ruptured, leaving Hiroshi and Haruna at a loss for words.

「Tatsu, Haru, did you have something in mind?」

The two elders seemed to have plans, and Mio asked on behalf of the student group.

「Nothing important really.」

「If it weren’t for the rock worm, we were thinking about taking all of you along to exterminate stone ants, but yeah.」

「Ah～、I see……」

Stone ant nest raids were extremely important missions in Darl. If you left them alone, the ants would form fairly large colonies and possibly swallow up entire towns, which was pretty crazy. This made the difficulty really high, not something intended for Class 7 adventurers.

Of course you could go out on your own and exterminate them and take proof to show Queen Ali, since that would be your own responsibility. Still, you could be branded a reckless adventurer.

「Yeah, I guess the stone ant nest is a bit tough huh?」

「Primula-san coming with us is one thing, but it’s reckless to take along Judith-san.」

Haruna and Mio were fairly ok with the event being cancelled. Although Primula had quite a grasp on support magic as a priest, taking along someone like Judith who could barely even use day-to-day magic and was a total amateur at close combat would make Hiroshi’s burden as a tank a little too much.

「So what we gonna do?」

「Personally, I wanna avoid what happened yesterday.」

「Yeah, probably a good idea.」

「I mean sure I could go solo, but I ain’t gonna go through all that trouble just for some cheap coin.」

This was the kind of job you undertook in order to get a better grasp on Darl’s geography and make some connections in the process. There was nothing wrong with that relationship but there also wasn’t a need to go out of your way to take such a troublesome job. No one disagreed with him in that regard. Even Judith, who knew Dentlis, would agree that Hiroshi was right.

「So now what, for real?」

「Carts again?」

「……Don’t tell me that’s what we always end up doing……」

「Plus carelessly adventuring around should be avoided till things cool down.」

Apparently they would be unable to escape from the fate of food stands. With dejected expressions on their faces, they had no choice but to accept that suggestion.

「Then you’ll prepare over here, Hiro?」

「Yup. Might as well split up a rock worm while I’m at it.」

「Oh yeah, I forgot.」

「Even if what we gathered yesterday was left over, definitely wouldn’t be no good for food.」

「Yeah, not with this air temperature……」

Darl’s climate would be considered tropical, an environment incredibly harsh toward meat. Of course, both the buying and selling side of food were required to use tools that had Prevent Rot enchantments on them, so the consumers most certainly did not walk around with raw meat.

「So what’ll ya do, Bro?」

「Hmm, I guess after I go to the Association and check about yesterday’s rock worm, maybe I’ll go and tout a bit?」

「Darn skippy. And the menu?」

「Wouldn’t it be easiest just to go with curry bread?」

「We have plenty of peeps to help out, so guess I’ll give another shout.」

Haruna wracked her brains as Hiroshi called out, thinking of the people they had on hand and examining the work process……

「Takoyaki’s a bit hard to gather the ingredients for, so maybe troll bird yaki? Oh right, Hiroshi-kun?」

「Whazzup?」

「Shall I bring in some white bean paste and custard cream?」

「Sure, why not, mate.」

「Then we can go with taiyaki as well.」

Makoto looked a bit dejected at that, since it meant that she would be the one in charge of the taiyaki.

「Primula-san and Judith-san, how much can you cook?」

「The bare minimum. Right, Big Sis?」

「Yes, although we would appreciate it if you didn’t request us to mix condiments or make minor adjustments to the flame……」

「Then can I have you help with stocking up? Depending on how well you do, I might think up one or two dishes for you to work on.」

「Understood.」

Nodding at Haruna’s suggestion, everyone began stocking up while following instructions from the crafting freaks and the cooking freaks. Tatsuya and Makoto had nothing to do in particular to help with stocking up, so they decided to leave the base to secure space and information from the Association.

「Should we increase fish and chips while we’re at it, mate?」

「Yeah.」

「I don’t see why not.」

Hiroshi and the other two looked at the skill of the sisters at preparing the food, quickly deciding to go ahead and add another dish.

「Welcome, welcome. It’s Farlane’s famous curry bread!」

Afternoon in the plaza. This unfamiliar food stand that had only conducted business one time a few days ago had begun to start selling a strange type of food. Rumors like these had surfaced alongside Tatsuya and his touting, summoning a throng of customers that threatened to engulf the other stands and their customers.

「Bro, what’s curry bread?」

「You mix together spices with vegetables, meat, or whatever and stew ‘em all together, wrapping them with dough and frying them with oil. It’s super tasty dude.」

「What a price……」

「I guarantee you’ll get what you bargain for.」

400 senecas for one piece. It was more pricey than in Farlane, but that was only due to the importance of water. They initially wanted to sell it at 350 senecas, essentially the same pricing as Farlane, but the sisters had exclaimed at how much water they were using, hence the current price. After all, 350 senecas was no more than what a small cup of spicy stew would be. Stews were really expensive in this country.

Other than the water problem, thanks to a certain crafting junkie, Hiroshi’s team had less need to keep track of expenses than other adventurers by far, thereby having less craving for profit. As a result, they tended to not think of the profit ratio or the prices of other stands, so without the criticism of the sisters, they may have come very close to exterminating the other stands with their prices.

In that sense, they should have also raised the price of taiyaki, which used a considerable amount of water, but as taiyaki was the sort of thing that was a treat for children at a 100 seneca coin, they decided to keep it priced that way.

「Troll bird yaki!? Are we really okay selling at a price like this!?」

「Oh～、our storage is filled with duplicate sections of these things, so this won’t even scratch the bottom of the barrel.」

「Duplicate……」

「Well we are adventurers after all.」

Haruna said as the first guest was left in disbelief, unsure how to react. Seeing as how the price was supposedly all right, they bought one centerpiece curry bread, and while they were at it, one skewered troll bird scallion yaki. The other guests were like that too, all wanting to test out the foods.

「Hey lady, get me the one that’s white on the inside please!」

「Custard!」

Some clever children had found the taiyaki stand, skillfully slipping through the adults and getting to Makoto first for their orders. If adults had done the same thing, it might have revolved into a fist fight, but all the adults had their sights on the non-contentious taiyaki, so they let the children do as they pleased.