CH 44

“Let’s get going to the harvest festival!”

Ellis’s group skipped breakfast that morning, and they brought out their supplies to the shop as soon as the sun broke free of the horizon.

Their products are the five-colored steam cakes with a drawstring bag carrying Warren’s Jewelry Box’s logo on it. They plan to sell 100 sets a day with the aim of selling 700 total sets.

Hanna was wearing the same maid outfit that she wore when working the men’s bathhouse. All the support work is being handled by Ken who has slapped on a pair of gray trouser pants which could be said to be the standard uniform of the Workshop Guild.

Ellis threatened Hanna and Ken to kick things off.

“You know what will happen if any remain unsold, right?”

“Yes!”

“Hah!”

Both of them were quite fired up.

By the way, Ellis had decided to unify everyone’s outfits for the harvest festival.

Their tops were a brown jacket with a white blouse.

The bottoms were matching brown long boots with white slacks.

The only difference among them was that Katie was wearing her Brave Ripper and Crow boots.

This was a measure to try and make sure that the five of them stood out as little as possible in town.

The stall to the left of them was busy making preparations of their own. As expected, it belonged to the Muscle Brothers who were setting up shop in the same way.

“We received a tax-exempt status from the Merchant Guild, so we decided to open our own store.”

Goro said such to Frau while setting up a steel plate and grill in front of their store.

The pork daruma rice they were offering was a type of stir-fry cooked on top of an iron plate. The grilled pork is dipped in plenty of sauce and wrapped up in leafy vegetables.

The price is 400 ril a serving.

The grilled fish cooking on the iron plate that would be mixed in the rice later quickly created a good aroma that spread throughout the area.

The smell was so good, that Frau had unintentionally started to drool.

“Ellis, we should try this!”

Frau noticed that the Muscle Brothers were using spices not commonly found in this area. Without giving Ellis a chance to reply, Frau had immediately placed an order.

“Goro, give us seven helpings now!”

“It will be 2800 rill.”

Frau paid for the meal out of her own pocket money, and she returned to the stall with seven plates of daruma rice on top of a large tray.

“We didn’t have breakfast yet, so let’s all eat together.”

“Oh! It smells really good.”

Ellis raised her voice in spite of herself when the moisturizing fragrance was brought near.

“Ah, this sweetness might become a habit.”

The sauce used in the dish had quickly become a favorite for Reeve.

“The meat is so soft!”

The first one to finish, Frau walked back to Goro carrying her plate with her.

“Where did you get these beans?”

“Do you really want to know?”

Goro and Frau started laughing while talking about the meal and their plans during the harvest festival. Ellis chimed in here and there as well while finishing off the last bits of her meal.

Once everyone else had finished their daruma rice as well, Ellis addressed her troops.

“Alright everyone. Breakfast was delicious, but that is in the past! It is currently the present, and the present demands work. So get to it!”

“Right!!!”

The six others’ voices combined together and acted like a gunshot, kicking off Ellis’s harvest festival.

Pi-tan was sleeping inside his usual basket.

However, his basket was not inside the mansion like usual. Instead it was placed at the back of the tent Ellis was using for her store.

There was a back door inside the tent, and Pi-tan was placed right next to it. An ossan from the Adventurer Guild entered the tent through that door and called to Ellis.

“We have a bug.”

In response to the Adventurer Guild’s request, someone from inside the tent was to hold Pi-tan and take him outside.

This time it was Ellis’s turn.

Following the man along for a while, Ellis and Pi-tan were eventually directed to a man a short ways down the street.

“That guy.”

The ossan pointed out a man with a shaved head who could not be described as anything else than a hooligan.

“Roger that.”

Ellis nodded once to the old man before quietly approaching the hooligan-looking guy and giving a command to Pi-tan.

“Go!”

Pi-tan’s tongue instantly jumped out on command, and the hooligan’s weapons and armor were degraded to porcelain in a second. Of course this was all done without the hooligan noticing.

The truth is, when Ellis had introduced Pi-tan to the leaders of each guild and declared to each one of them that she was keeping him, she convinced them by showing Pi-tan’s ability to help maintain public order.

As a result, the Adventurer Guild gave Ellis and Pi-tan the job of ‘disarming any armed people who appear to be a threat politically, economically, or securitally.¹‘

It is up to the patrolling members of the Adventurer Guild and Theive’s Guild to decide whether a person is a threat. Following along with their judgment, Ellis would bring out Pi-tan and disarm the suspects through his degradation power.

“Wouldn’t it be bad if there were false charges?”

When Ellis asked such a question, Theseus and Baltis erupted in laughter.

The Adventurer Guild fruit juice store which is on the opposite side of Ellis’s tent from the Muscle Brothers is currently being manned by the receptionist Helen. Every once in awhile, one of the adventurers that Ellis often sees inside the guild hall will walk out from behind the tent and wave before heading off somewhere else in the city.

Actually, the back of their tent is actually the base for the city patrol. They are hanging back and relaxing right now, but they will be ready at a moment’s notice if something happens in the city.

Meanwhile, the sales of the steamed cakes did better than Ellis expected.

Rather, it’s too good.

The initial goal was to just sell 100 sets a day, but they ended up selling out during the early morning on the first day.

It’s good, but also a little annoying.

The girls only have enough drawstring bags to sell 100 sets every day. While the harvest festival is ongoing, the workshop guild is also closed, so it is impossible to order more drawstring bags or medium boxes.

Any time after they sell out is time wasted. “A waste of opportunity,” Ellis grumbled to herself.

Tch.

“Claire, please go get the steamer and bring it here!”

“Frau, go get the cake mix from the treasure chest!”

“Hanna, Ken, I’m going to teach you how to make the cakes!”

Ellis decided to kick everyone into action. As soon as the steamer was brought into their tent, Ellis started instructing Ken and Hanna on cake production. The only thing that was difficult to produce was the blending required for Reeve’s Blue, but everything else could be easily hand-crafted.

“Do you understand how to do it?”

“I understand.”

“I understand.”

“Then let’s go!”

Hanna and Ken started working the cake mix according to Ellis’s instructions.

The end result was surprisingly good. Ken’s cakes in particular took Ellis by surprise.

Ken could see those feelings in Ellis’s eyes, and his chest swelled up in pride.

“In my village, I bakes a couple pastries as a side job for some extra money.”

We can use that.

After the second day, there would only be 500 drawstring combos left for the 1000 ril. For now, Ellis decided to sell the cakes individually with Katie’s White at a slightly cheaper price than the others due to it not having anything extra.

If nothing else, Ellis was at least released from cake selling for the time being.

In a different part of town, a special stage was set up in the plaza by the Workshop Guild. On this stage, Reeve was wearing a black ceremonial dress adorned with black and gold thread along with Frau, who was facing Reeve while wearing a set of shiny pink body armor.

Reeve was holding her favorite blue saber in front of her while crouching down close to the stage floor. Meanwhile Frau was holding her crimson maul in both of her hands as if it was a spear.

“Reeve, are you sure you want to do this?”

“Frau, you’re terrible at bluffing.”

A small smile spread across Reeve’s face for a moment, but it soon disappeared as she became serious once again.

“Then, let’s go.”

Frau slowly rose up, swinging her maul vigorously overhead.

Reeve, who was aiming for the maul’s tip, adjusted her stance.

“Hah!”

The maul that was spinning with all of Frau’s spirit was swung towards Reeve in a wide arc from the right.

Reeve managed to take a half step back and diverted the blow with her saber.

She planned to strike Frau from the side.

However, Frau was aware of Reeve’s plan and blocked the strike with her gauntlet. Reeve’s saber ended up sliding off of the gauntlet, and Frau ended up behind Reeve.

Frau took this opportunity to plant her feet firmly on the ground and thrusted her maul at the back of Reeve’s head.

Reeve barely managed to avoid the attack by forcefully pivoting off her foot. Rotating her entire body on an axis, she swung her saber and brought it right to the edge of Frau’s neck.

The two stopped here.

Reeve and Frau both took a deep breath, returned to their starting positions, and bowed to each other.

Cheers rose up from the crowd who had been watching them in utter silence until now.

Next.²

Frau started immediately and swiftly–swinging her maul downwards in an arc.

Reeve dodged it with another back step.

Frau’s maul hit the stage, but she used that recoil to forcefully bring the maul back up to eye-level. The downward swing turned into a thrust aimed at Reeve’s head.

The maul’s two violent edges came right in front of Reeve’s eyes.

Once again, they stopped here.

The cheers from before disappeared, and the audience sat there in stunned silence for a moment. Then, the cheering a clapping grew in intensity three-fold.

This is part of the ‘participation’ that Flint asked Ellis to take part in.

Ellis planned a martial arts demo between a maul and a saber, two weapons that could not be more different.

Reeve and Frau did not mind, and the demonstration barely acted as a warm up for them. Between adventuring through dungeons with Ellis and chasing down Katie whenever she did something stupid, the two girls were in top physical condition.

While the two girls were enjoying the fun little bout, Ellis was standing underneath the stage, calling out to the audience with a smile.

“Right! Please direct any offerings you have over here!”

Money was thrown towards her bit by bit as a matter of course. The enthusiasm from the Reeve Fan Club and fans of Frau from the Adventurer Guild were at an all time high.

Then an obnoxious young man’s voice cut through the venue.

“Heh. It’s just a breastless girl playing around with some countryside boobs girl.”

The residents of Warren gathered around those young people who caught those words turned cold.

Such words could be considered a declaration of war against the city of Warren.

People began to spread information amongst each other.

“That rude ass is a son of the Durkfienance house, a country noble family from Wheat Grace.”

“It seems like he was originally in an engagement partner for Reeve-sama. Cheeky bastard.”

“A typical idiot living off of the achievements of their parents. I can’t forgive him.”

“There must be something wrong with the parents who would raise such a brat.”

“Both the parents and the son deserve a little pain in their lives right about now.”

Thus the Reeve Fan Club, which includes ladies of aristocrats, merchants, etc. such as Lady Marsfield and the Warren Council Chairperson watched the children with icy glares.

“Who the hell is calling our Frau a countryside boobs girl?”

“For now, let’s kidnap him after cutting out his tongue.”

“No, let’s humiliate him by stripping him and stringing him up like a pig.”

“Something like that isn’t enough. A nobleman can hide something light like that.”

“Then we need something that will rock the Durkfienance’s boat.”

“Do we just kill his entire family?”

“Someone who can casually insult another man’s daughter should be prepared for retaliation against their own family.”

In this way, the member of the Adventurer Guild, who are all people of rough dispositions and dark mentalities–including the guild master who had started polishing his knife–began making their own plans.

The agricultural city, Wheat Grace.

The city is located five days south of Warren when traveling by carriage. It was at this moment, that the lord felt a cold shiver run down his spine.

Meanwhile, the Hero who had visited Warren once again in order search the Wight Labyrinth once again, was horrified to learn that the Adventurer Guild would be closed for the next seven days due to the harvest festival.

But nothing could compare to the shock he received when he saw the auction list hanging up in town.

“Why is one of the legendary three armors being auctioned off!?”

Naturally, he was talking about the Resistance plate armor.

The Hero doubted God’s revelation for a second, but he quickly cast aside those thoughts.

Clearly this was just another challenge bestowed to him by God.

Hero Gray made the resolution to win the Resistance plate armor no matter what.

On the other hand, there was a slight problem with the Brave Party’s warrior Dams. He had an extremely scary face, and he was clearly up to no good. It was the Adventurer Guild’s opinion that he was, “clearly an awful guy,” so Claire brought Pi-tan over and degraded all of his equipment and weapons.

Thus the first day of the harvest festival ended successfully and without any real incident except for a few unfortunate people.

1. I’m not sure if securitally is a real word, but YOLO.

2. This kanji is meant to be used in plays or acts. It essentially means that they are moving to the next scene. I’m not sure if there is a good equivalent in English. I am a terrible actor.