Chapter 230: Back to Barbra

Chapter 230: Back to Barbra

『Man, we’re finally back in Barbra? It sure has been a while since we were last here.』

「Nn.」

Only a month had passed since we left the city, and it honestly hadn’t changed all that much while we were away. The only real difference was that most of the stuff that’d been busted up by the Evil Beings had been fixed. The city’s current state made the whole thing feel like it wasn’t such a big deal after all. That said, I still couldn’t help but feel that we’d been away from it for quite some time.

『Let’s start off by visiting everyone we know.』

「Nn.」

The first place we visited was the Chef’s Guild because it happened to be the closest. Unfortunately, the person we’d set out to visit, the old judge guy, was nowhere to be found.

We tried to leave the moment we learned that he wasn’t there, but one of the receptionists stopped us before we did.

「Um, excuse me, but could I have a bit of your time?」

「Nn?」Geett the latest novels at novelhall.com

「The truth is that both you and your master have qualified for a rank up, so I was just wondering if you wouldn’t mind me giving you more up to date guild cards.」

I didn’t recall the fact that we were a part of the Chef’s Guild until the receptionist reminded us. I’d totally forgotten that we had to sign up in order to participate in the cooking contest.

And that was exactly why I didn’t understand why we were getting our chef rank’s raised. The only thing we did was participate in the contest, but they would’ve ranked us up before we left if that was why this was happening.

「Why?」

「The curry recipe that the two of you are responsible for has become incredibly popular. Curry’s rate of growth is so explosive that it’ll likely soon spread throughout the entire country.」

I was rather pleased to hear the receptionist’s words. Fran would probably end up rejoicing if curry got so popular she could buy it regardless of where she was.

「Your contribution to the development of both our country’s economy and culture have earned you both the right to silver guild cards.」

Fran pulled out both our cards and had them traded for a pair with silver borders that the guild had already prepared for us ahead of time.

The cards issued by the Chef’s Guild were quite different from the ones the Adventurer’s Guild issued in the sense that they weren’t magically enchanted in any which way. Comparing the two was like comparing analog to digital.

「That card serves to demonstrate that you have our backing in all the business-related endeavors you pursue within the city.」

「Nn. Got it.」

We didn’t really need their support, but hey, why not, right...?

「Please keep in mind that your rank can go down over time if you don’t renew your card before it expires, or if you don’t accomplish anything significant for an extended period of time.」

「Look, it’s Urushi!」

「The adventurer girl is here!」

Fortunately, the children themselves hadn’t actually changed. They were wearing better clothes, and no longer looked even the slightest bit shabby, but that was pretty much it. Well, that’s Amanda for you, I guess.

It seemed that the orphans all still remembered Fran and Urushi, as they immediately gathered around her with smiles on their faces.

「Oh, hey Fran!」

「Io.」

Io came out from the orphanage and greeted us upon noticing that the children were stirring up a fuss. I still remembered her both because she was kind to children and really good at cooking.

「Thank you so much for all you’ve done for us. The orphanage is finally in much better hands, and the children are smiling much more than they were before.」

The skilled chef bowed her head to us even though we didn’t really think we’d done much of anything at all. Amanda was the one that saved the orphanage, not us.

「Amanda told us that you were the only reason she knew that the orphanage was in trouble, and that you had asked her to help it.」

「Only did that. Nothing more.」

「Don’t be silly. There’s also the matter of the curry recipe you published. The children just love it. They can’t get enough of it even though I’ve started making it once a week.」

「The curry you make is really tasty, Ms. Io!」

「It’s super yummy!」

Io was already capable of making an incredibly delicious soup without access to anything more than vegetables of the lowest grade. I was really curious as to what she was now capable of making given that Amanda had provided her access to higher quality ingredients.

Apparently tomorrow was this week’s curry day. We ended up asking Io to make a bit extra for Fran and Urushi because I wanted to see her take on the dish.

「Bye. Will stop by tomorrow.」

「We’ll be waiting!」

「See ya!」

「Bye Urushi!」

I took a moment to consider what to do next. Checking out the Luciel Conglomerate seemed to be one of the few remaining choices. All our other acquaintances were adventurers, which in turn meant they were likely still in Ulmutt.

That, however, didn’t mean we were out of options.

『Alright, whaddya say we go looking for the old man?』

「Nn. Sounds good.」