CH 39

Ellis and Claire, who had gone to check up on the septic tank installed in the marsh, came back with a strange souvenir on their way back.

It was a man who had collapsed on his horse.

His hair was done up into a mohawk, and he was wearing some vulgar shoulder pads with spike decorations. He was also wearing some shameful-looking armor with spikes, sleazy pants, and cheap-looking boots that had even more spikes.

While dragging along such a man, the horse was walking toward town looking quite exhausted itself. The employees and ladies of Lily Garden want nothing to do with a seedy looking man as a matter of course, so the obvious solution is to just ignore him.

However, if left alone, the horse will most definitely end up piercing the city. If that happens, and it causes some problem, the guild masters would definitely do something annoying since she overlooked it.

Perhaps something interesting will happen.

“There is no other choice….” Ellis murmured to herself taking hold of the horse’s reins.

As no men are allowed to enter the Hundred Gardens¹, Ellis and Claire guided the man to a grassy area between the mansion and the city. Then the man cried out in a weak voice,

“I need something to eat………..”

It seems he is unable to move due to hunger.

Claire noticed Ellis’s look and returned to the mansion. She immediately returned carrying a tray with a cup and dish on top. It was bread soup which boiled extra bread portions with soup stock and eggs. When Frau heard about Mr. Mohawk from Claire, she whipped this up saying, “it is a tasty dish that is easy on the stomach.”

Enticed by the smell of the soup Claire was carrying, the man fell from his horse and collapsed onto the grass.

“There is no other choice……”

Muttering the same words as before, Ellis propped up Mr. Mohawk’s upper body from his back while Claire squatted down next to him and offered up the soup.

Mr. Mohawk took a spoon into his hands and scooped out a large portion. Lightly blowing on it to cool it down, he then slowly started to sip up the soup.

“Delicious. Delicious!”

Mr. Mohawk started to eat up the soup while crying.

Does he have his own circumstances?

As Ellis tried to piece together the situation, Katie suddenly appeared wearing the mini-skirt maid uniform which had recently become her favorite outfit.

“Thanks for the meal.”

“Ellis, look at this nya!”

At the moment that Mr. Mohawk had finished his meal and looked up to thank Ellis, Katie had flipped up her mini-skirt in front of Ellis’s face.

Katie proudly exposed a set of black string panties to Ellis. She had exposed herself gorgeously, showing off everything up to her navel.

At the same time, Frau had come charging out of the house, his face completely flushed red.

“Kya! Katie return them right now!”

But Katie tried to escape from Frau while still having her skirt pulled up.

“This must be the show show panties that Ellis was talking about right nya? Because there is no doubt that Frau called these lucky panties nya. By the way, these string panties are really nice because my tail doesn’t get caught up in them at all nya. I have decided I shall wear these from now….”

“Bullshit!”

Frau threw her minotaur maul at the escaping Katie which delivered a beautiful knockout blow to the back of Katie’s head. At the same time the Sacrificial doll hanging at Katie’s waist exploded upon impact while the Stupor effect took hold and bound Katie’s movements.

And somehow during all this, Mr. Mohawk had fainted.

When Mr. Mohawk opened his eyes, heaven was spreading out before him. Five beautifully divine angels had surrounded him and were gazing down upon him.

Aah, they have come to pick me up.

Mr. Mohawk, who realized that the end of his life had come, closed his eyes once again.

However, someone was calling him.

“Mr. Mohawk. Mr. Mohawk?”

Mr. Mohawk was a little confused. Was Mr. Mohawk referring to him?

When he opened his eyes once again and looked closely, he realized that one of the five angels was the black haired girl who had given him food earlier.

“Hm?”

Mr. Mohawk returned to sanity.

“I was surprised.”

These were the first words that Mr. Mohawk said.

“I saw a girl’s panties for the first time in my life.”

“I don’t care about panties now tell me who you are.”

Mr. Mohawk, who was scolded by the little girl with gold hair, began to talk about his dramatic circumstances.

He says he is a member of a certain organization.

Their job was to search for a certain item.

“It’s a golden gauntlet with claws that can retract. I imagine it looks quite awful.”

The five girls naturally noticed. This man was a servant of the Demon Lord. Although he seems to be pretty far down on the totem pole.

Mr. Mohawk’s story continued.

It seems that he was from a remote village. He lived as a poor yet happy farmer in that village.

One day, however, his village was attacked by someone. The attackers killed everyone who resisted and the elderly while plundering all of the village’s property and took the women away. All the nonresistant men left behind had their heads shaved to mohawks and were forced to wear these ugly uniforms.

And then they gave out their orders.

“Go searching for the golden claw.”

The attackers were the army of the Demon Lord.

The men dispatched from the Demon Lord had decided to ransack some villages to form squads, and the men would organize these squads to search the entire continent.

The captives only received a jewel.

Their equipment was called Hyaaha Armor². It offers zero defense, and the spikes lining the clothing are really only good for looks. He does have a Hyaaha bat with spikes though that does look like it would be really painful.

Unfortunately, when you are dressed like that, everyone would naturally run away from you without hearing what you have to say.

He couldn’t order any meals or even buy any food because he didn’t have any ril.

The squad just continued to scatter out until he was alone. He spent the last couple days without any food or water until he reached here.

It really was a sad, terrible story.

But Ellis was honestly more interested in the words at the beginning of the story than the story’s actual contents.

“Would you show me the jewel they gave you?”

Mr. Mohawk pulled out a small pouch from his pocket at Ellis’s request.

“Here it is.”

Frau instantly appraised the jewel that Mr. Mohawk held in his hand and whispered the value into Ellis’s ear.

“It should be worth almost 500 thousand ril.”

“Roger.”

Ellis quickly started running the calculations in her head.

“What is your budget for purchasing these claws anyway?”

Mr. Mohawk got really depressed when he heard Ellis’s question.

“I don’t know. It’s be best if I could just exchange it for this jewel I suppose.”

Mr. Mohawk continued to tell them extra things.

“To be honest, I could bring back just about anything. The leader only wants some achievements. Since the other teams keep delivering golden claws one after another, the leader is getting restless.”

“Are there more of these jewels?”

“The leader has a lot of them. He says that I can bring as many as I want, but I only brought this one for now.”

Fufufufufufu.

Policy decision.

Ellis quietly discussed things with her colleagues in a group circle for a moment a little ways away. When they were done, Ellis came back alone to talk to Mr. Mohawk.

“I can show you where to exchange the jewel for ril. That way you can buy some food, and it will be more convenient later on. I’ll help you find some information about these golden claws as well. By the way, what is Mr. Mohawk’s name?”

This was a very generous offer, and Mr. Mohawk was genuinely moved. He couldn’t show his gratitude enough and gave himself over to her.

“Thank you. Oh, and my name is Ken.”

Ellis and Ken first headed to the Adventurer’s Guild.

“Hello, Helen-san.”

“Hello Ellis.”

The receptionist Helen welcomed Ellis in as usual. As for Ken, she didn’t seem to pay much mind to him at all.

Ken was truly relieved by this, and he released some of his tension.

“I would like to sell a jewel, but I wonder if you could appraise it for me?”

Ellis urged Ken to take out the jewel from his pocket and hand it over to Helen. Helen looked it over very carefully while holding the jewel up to a light before giving them both a smile.

“It is worth 400 thousand ril.”

Helen smoothly presented an offer lower than the actual price, but since Ken was very unlikely to know the actual market price of a jewel like this, immediately and graciously sold the jewel to the Adventurer’s Guild.

For a former poor farmer like Ken, 400 thousand ril was a lot of money, and he was thrown off a little from having so much money in his hand.

Ellis continued the negotiations while Ken was still like that.

“By the way, this person is looking for a golden claw, so is there any information about that?”

Helen pretended to think about it for a moment before giving them another smile.

“Oh, I think the Thieve’s Guild said something about that, but I’m afraid I can’t say for sure.”

“I understand Helen. We will head over there right now.”

“Ufufufu, 100 thousand ril down.”

The Adventurer’s Guild, which had just recently come into some extra income, would share some of those profits with Ellis later.

Ellis and Ken next stopped at the Thieve’s Guild.

“Karen, it’s been awhile.”

“Ellis, it has been too long.”

Karen was Katie’s replacement as a receptionist for the Thieve’s Guild, and she was actually a girl that Ellis knew from way back.

“This one is looking for information about some golden claw weapon. Does the guild know anything about it?”

Karen instantly started looking troubled.

“Do you know about it Karen? Is it something interesting?”

Ellis noticed the look Karen was giving, and she instantly pushed forward on it. Karen took a second as if she was coming to some impossible decision before finally deciding to tell Ellis.

“Actually, I haven’t told the master yet, but a traveler brought this in earlier.”

She then pulled out a golden gauntlet with claws.

“The traveler seemed to have been in desperate need of money, and he begged me to buy it with tears in his eyes. I ended up giving him all the money that he asked for. The master was absent, so I took full responsibility for the transaction, but I’m honestly really troubled.”

Then Ken went into business mode.

“Hey, can I see that for a bit?”

“Sure, here you go.”

Ken took the gauntlet from Karen’s hands, and carefully looked over it. Upon observation, he discovered the words “Bravo Rippa”³ written in black marker inside.

“Oh, Ohhh, Ohhhhhhhhhhh! I think I got a hit! Please sell this to me!”

“But…”

Ellis sighed and tried to reassure Karen who had started to get a little embarrassed by Ken’s overenthusiastic response.

“Just have Ken by it for the same price that you bought it from the traveler, and then say that he bought it directly from the traveler. That way Ken gets his gauntlet, and no damage comes to the Thieve’s Guild.”

“How much was it?”

“300 thousand ril.”

Ken has 400 thousand rils on him.

So Ken happily bought the Bravo Rippa for 300 thousand ril.

“I can avoid getting scolded by the leader with this. Ellis, Karen, thank you really.”

“I’m glad you’re happy, just remember that if anyone asks, you bought it from a traveler.”

“Of course!”

Karen watched as Ken left alongside Ellis with a huge smile plastered across his face.

Meanwhile, Claire and Katie had started rolling on the floor behind the counter laughing. The Bravo Rippa is obviously a cheap imitation.

By the way, the production cost for one of those from the Workshop Guild is 30 thousand ril.

That means that there was a total profit of 270 thousand ril that the Workshop Guild, Thieve’s Guild, and Ellis would all be splitting as extra income.

Ken thanked Ellis while holding the golden gauntlet close to him.

“Ellis, I can’t thank you enough for today.”

Ellis smiled and patted Ken’s leg.

“By the way, Ken said that today was the first time he’d ever seen a girl’s panties right?”

The mention of the incident from before caused Ken’s face to dye a deep red. Ellis pushed on.

“If you’d like, I can show you a really great secret place.”

Ellis took Ken’s hand who was still red as a beet and pulled him towards Master’s Hideaway.

“Please wait here for a moment.”

Ellis left Ken in an alley a little bit away from Master’s Hideaway’s entrance.

In the shop, Reeve was already there waiting for her.

“Hello Ellis-ojousama.”

And next to Reeve was a woman chewing a sweet-scented tobacco pipe in her lips who greeted Ellis politely.

“Hello Margherita-neesan.”

“I’ve been waiting since I received the instructions from Reeve-sama. What’s the story this time?”

Margherita is the leader of the maids.

The girls had been trained into maids using Ellis-Eiji’s “Demon Home Delivery Techniques” before opening the new bath.

Until then, the girls were all prey trying to live while being kept like animals at the whim of strangers in dark alleys. But in the bathhouse, it was the opposite, and they were making full of the techniques they learned to lead the men who come in along the nose.

Even though all the customers can get when they visit are a little nice thing or a very nice thing, it is still very well received by the customers, and they have many repeaters.

“I brought a goose today.”

Ellis told Margherita about the situation with a smile.

“He’s a virgin with a regular income. He currently has 100 thousand ril. I’ve confirmed it.”

Margherita laughed alongside Ellis.

“Eat the eggs, and leave the chicken meat huh, Ojousama?”

Taking a quick look around the store, Margherita beckoned to a girl who had just recently been hired after coming from the countryside.

“Hanna, I will introduce you, so please do it well.”

At the same time, Ellis returned to the alley and took Ken to the front of the bathhouse.

“Well then we are here!”

Ellis had returned.

Ken was with her who had been left behind.

Making a U-turn like this would normally look really suspicious. However, Ken’s head was filled with thoughts about Mr. Panties which completely drowned out any possible alarms.

Ken walked into the shop with bated anticipation.

Then a woman greeted him.

“Welcome home, Mater!”

Hanna was standing next to the reception counter and welcomed Ken in. On the other hand, Ken had yet to move a single muscle since Hanna called him Master.

Then the receptionist leaning against the counter next to Hanna broke Ken out of his head with her laugh.

“If you’re here to take a bath, it’ll be 1 thousand ril.”

When Ken payed the 1 thousand ril fee, Hanna took his hand and led him along.

Unlike when Ellis took his hand, Ken could feel his hand get clammy when Hanna took hold of him, and he started to sweat as Hanna led him over to the dressing room.

As he started to take his clothes off, he started to calm himself down.

“It’s just a bathhouse. I will go and refresh myself.”

After finally relaxing himself inside the dressing room, he was guided to the tubs, and he started to really relax as he washed his body with the hot water.

Then a sign posted in front of him made him freeze.

Little nice thing • 10,000 ril

Very nice thing • market price

This was far too stimulating for a young man who had only seen a girl’s panties for the first time a few hours ago.

Ken realized he had staring at the sign for a few minutes, and took another few minutes to talk himself into standing up. He hid his crotch behind his towel and waddled back to the reception desk.

“Um, what is a very good thing?”

Though it was not the receptionist from before who was waiting for him but Hanna. She took his hand again and led him back towards the dressing room and whispered into his ear.

“For example….”

Aauaau

Ken’s face was bright red when Hanna brought him back to the counter, but he worked up his courage and asked.

“How much is the market price?”

“Er………..”

On behalf of the Hanna who had frozen up herself, Margherita butted in from behind the reception desk.

“Today it’s 98 thousand ril for an all-inclusive package.”

For the record, the price for a very good thing is usually 50 thousand ril, so it can be said that they were taking it easy on him comparatively.

There is currently 99 thousand ril in Ken’s hands. Even if he orders a very good thing, he will still have a thousand ril in his hands.

And in this way his virginity will end.

“I, I’d like to order a very nice thing.”

Ken worked up his courage to push forward, and Hanna’s face turned red.

“Ye, yes would you prefer my maid uniform or underwear?”

Aauaau

“It, it’s up to you.”

“Certainly, yes.”

Ken was guided into the back by Hanna in her maid uniform who started to wash his body very carefully.

His already red face brightened up even more as the scented perfume was blended into his mohawk, and another part of him was getting excited.

“Excuse me.”

Hanna gradually extended her arms down from behind Ken.

First of all, a little nice thing.

Aauuu.

With Ken’s body and mind having been wiped clean, Hanna who herself was already a little blushed, invited Ken to join her in one of the private rooms.

“Excuse me.”

Red, she took off her maid uniform piece by piece in front of Ken.

Aau.

Hanna’s hands reached down to her last piece of clothing.

Aauuu.

In front of Hanna who had completely bared herself in front of him, Ken met the wise man for the second time that day.

Youth is that type of thing.

Hanna slowly climbed into bed with him and quietly whispered into Ken’s ear.

“Excuse me……..”

Aauaau

Aauaau

Aauuuu

Ken redid his mohawk to perfection and securely fastened his Hyaaha armor back together before turning back to the reception desk.

“I will return Hanna!”

“We will be waiting, Master!”

Ken left the building with Hanna’s bright smile saved into his memory.

The sun is truly dazzling today.

Ken walked confidently back to Ellis’s house.

While watching him go, Margherita spoke to Hanna.

“It’s okay. To kill a few so that others can live, we have to make regular contributions. Hanna.”

“I understand. Margherita-oneesan.”

This is a ‘catch the weasel while it sleeps’ kind of world.⁴

“Hey Ken, welcome back. I have your horse all rested up and ready to go.”

When Ken saw Ellis, his smile broadened even more, and he felt nothing but the utmost gratitude.

“Ellis, this entire day has been perfect thanks to you.”

“No, you give me too much credit. Please tell all your friends and return to Warren some time.”

Ken resolutely nodded his head and looked off somewhere in the sky.

“I will definitely come… I will absolutely meet Hanna again! Please accept this as a thank you from me.”

While declaring so, Ken handed over his last 1 thousand ril to Ellis.

“I will accept it gratefully.”

“Then I will see you again! Farewell Ellis!”

Then Ken mounted his horse and left as swiftly as the wind.

A few days later, Ken returned once again as promised accompanied by several of his friends.

“I’ve come back, Hanna!”

Ken and his colleagues exchanged jewelry at the adventurer guild for an amount lower than the market price. They then purchased Bravo Rippas from Thieve’s Guild members disguised as travelers. They were served only the “finest” meals at the restaurant, and they payed the ‘market price’ at the bathhouse.

All of this was done in accordance with Ellis’s instructions.

The news spread across the city, and it quickly became known as the “Mohawk Price”.

But Ken and his friends did not care that the majority of money was being swindled away.

Because they have plenty of gems to trade away.

Most importantly, they are now happy.

Aauaau

Aauaau

Aauuuu

In this way, the Demon Lord army became one of Warren’s biggest customers, and they pioneered the success of the city.

1. Just because I don’t think I made it clear in past chapters, Hundred Gardens can be referred to as the woman’s only district they created. For now, it only includes Lily Garden and the affiliated restaurant.

2. This is a reference to Fist of the North Star. There’s a gang that wears armor like this, and the armor is named after their distinctive laugh. Thanks to all the guys who helped me figure that one out.

3. Instead of katakana, this name is written in hiragana.

4. The literal translation for this idiom is so weird. It was ‘to pluck out the eye of a live horse,’ and I had no idea what it meant. Turns out there is a similar idiom in english. They mean that you have to attack when the opponent is weak.