CH 190

“You’re pretty good. I will allow you to work for my family.”

Says a member of Thousand Gold Coins, a short girl, after we register on the twenty-fifth floor and leave.

I’m pretty sure her name is Hino. Rather than showing signs of being a good leader, while we were in the dungeon I got a strong feeling that she’s a little selfish.

Totto’s head is in his hand, and other fellow party members of hers are looking straight up.

The members of Light of Hope look like they don’t know what to say, but their expressions look resigned.

“Don’t you understand? I am telling you I will hire you as a cook. You are registered in the merchant guild anyway, correct? Then it makes sense to work for a large company like ours.”

Leila whispers to me that she’s from the Aurora company here in Majolica.

She’s a little haughty, but I also feel like she’s otherwise a nice girl.

But doesn’t that alone ruin the whole package?

“Sorry, but I’m not interested. Ask someone else.”

“W-why? It is an honor to work for such a large company like ours. A merchant like you should know that!”

It looks like she didn’t expect me to turn down her offer. I’m a bit curious about where she gets all that confidence.

“It’s not like I’m struggling for money. And you should probably stop it with that attitude of thinking you can do anything because your company is so big.”

“W-what…”

“Hino, you really should stop. You’re troubling him.”

“A-are you saying I am at fault here, Totto?”

“I am. Sora’s party is so good, that they managed to get through the twentieth floor with so few members. Why would they give up what they have now?”

“B-but!”

Hino tries to argue, but I’m guessing she’s feeling the cold eyes around her, because she stops. But her clenched fists and tightly closed mouth tell me there are a lot of mixed feelings running around inside her.

“She’s usually great, but she tends to get a little out of control when she sees a business opportunity.”

I think that’s more than a little.

“Still, that company… It looks like it’s causing problems even outside the Holy Kingdom.”

“I don’t know about that. The president, meaning Hino’s father, and the executives are all pretty humble.”

“Isn’t that just how they are to you, Leila?”

“That is not true. They treat Totto and the others the same way.”

And apparently she’s seen him asking if his daughter has been causing them trouble, and apologizing.

I think that attitude might actually be causing her to go the opposite way and act like that.

“You are all dismissed for today. As for what everyone is going to do now…”

Thousand Gold Coins and Light of Hope are heading back to the academy. Bloody Rose… Will be having dinner with us.

That said, since we’re going back to our rented house, that means I don’t have to be the one cooking. Of course, having more people eating there does mean I’ll help.

We also have enough chairs for everyone, because we got more for when we have guests.

It’ll be just past noon by the time we come back, so it’ll be fine if I help Taliyah. If we don’t have enough meat here, there’s always more in the Item Box too.

Leila and her party are going back to the academy to change, and because they say they want to shower. They used purification magic but still, it’s the dungeon. Who knows if the smell won’t stick to their clothes.

What? I could check? That’ll get me labeled a criminal in no time.

I didn’t smell anything when I was near them, but I’m not going to tell them that either.

“You can go take a bath first too.”

I say, and Hikari silently nods.

She was bored because she didn’t get to do a lot this time. They took turns checking traps too, so there was a lot of just walking. Of course, we were still braced the whole time because we had to be alert, but I didn’t even get to swing my sword other than that time at the start.

Mia and Chris on the other hand were pretty busy.

Every other sorcerer besides Yor was running pretty low on magic energy, so they had to tag out to recover. I feel like that really shows how the way you use magic energy makes a difference.

The others used their full power every time they fired magic, but Chris, Mia, and Yor only used the magic energy necessary to vanquish the enemies.

People were surprised when they saw that, and even looked at them with respect by the end. I’m sure they just thought they were incredible adventurers with a lot of magic energy.

Incidentally, I didn’t use magic at all. Apparently that little show I put on for the knights where I pretended to be bad at magic has been making the rounds.

When we get home, I’m told I have a letter from the merchant guild.

It’s sealed and addressed to me. I check for the sender’s name, and see it’s Drett.

I remember what I asked when I said goodbye, but I’m pretty sure the merchant guild has those same communication devices that the adventurer guild has. Why go through the trouble of sending a letter?

I go back to my room and open the letter while everyone’s in the bath.

Letters take time to reach their destination in this world. The people delivering them can get attacked by monsters or bandits too, so there’s no guarantee that they’ll even make it to their destination.

And yet, he sent a letter. There’s probably something to that.

But apparently there’s also an express service that’s pretty expensive but uses birds.

I open the letter, and I’m a little shocked.

So why send a letter? If he asked to use a communication device, the guild would know what he’s sending. If he wanted it to be a secret, he’d have to tell me directly.

And he decided this would have to be communicated directly.