The inn that Loofa, the Guild Receptionist, recommended was single handedly run by a woman. The inn’s special feature was that it catered towards female lodgers, with a special emphasis on all things a woman could wish for when staying at an inn, including mundane reason like level of cleanliness.
“Hey, aren’t you a female Adventurer? Aren’t these kinds of jobs hard on girls?”
The inn keeper, Martha, was well known in town for having a very loud voice.
“That’s right. It’s especially hard for weak and cute maidens, ya wa~!”
On the other hand, Haruna’s voice was even louder.
“What are you talking about?! A person who wears lion heads as accessories can’t be maidens!”
Martha’s laughter increased. Seeing her joke so well received by her audience, Haruna’s spirit lifted too. Though they both came from very different background, aunties were fundamentally the same everywhere.
“Dis lion, you see na~ It’s for scaring people, ya nen. Especially men with bad intentions towards maidens, na~”
“My! You’re a lively one~ That seems reasonable enough for me. Stay as long as you like!”
“Many thanks! Ah, I just remembered,”
Haruna reached into her bag and pulled out a candy.
“Here, it’s a ‘get to know each other’ candy. Think of it like a promotional item or commercial for enka[1] singers.
“Uwaah! This candy thing is delicious!”
Sweet things were quite uncommon in this world. Sugar was not well circulated amongst normal citizens. In other words, things that tasted sweet such as honey, were quite expensive. Therefore, Martha’s shock was quite unsurprising.
“Also, here’s a black candy[2].”
“Ah, I’m very happy, but, aren’t these really expansive snacks? You’re just giving these to me for free, isn’t it a waste?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I worked hard saving every spare yen in order to buys these. Take it, take it, ya~”
“Since it’s rare to have such fine and generous guest, I shall accept these happily!”
Due to her having distributed candy so freely, Haruna left quite a positive impression on the inn keeper’s memory.
The next day, Haruto went to buy a sword.
Naturally, she bargained.
“Na~ na~. since a cute girl is buying, you should lower the price~”
“Understood! How about 1 gold coin and nothing, the rest is service [3] for you!”
No matter from what angle, Haruna still looked like a pretty young girl. The owner of the weapons shop really could not fight against such beauty. No matter what world it is, a pretty girl’s power is quite formidable.
With long blonde hair floating in the breeze, a lean and tone body, and slim arms. Adding all that to a face that could be compared to a forest spirit or lake spirit, this mesmerizing beauty caused the common folk to sneak around in order to peek at this legendary beauty, hoping to catch a glimpse of her charming smile. As such, the weapon’s shop owner easily caved in under her overwhelming power.
“Hey you, what are you doing!”
It was the shop owner’s wife. His very angry wife.
“Thanks a lot na~. Here’s the gold coin, and I’ll pay the rest in candies, wa~”
Haruna placed a handful of candies on the counter next to the gold coin.
“Uwa! You, where did you get these candies!?”
“Trade secret, so ain’t gonna say, but that’s how it is, ya. Ah, oh yes. Please tell me how to get to the nearest dungeon.”
“Ah, as expected, since you’re an Adventurer after all.”
The wife, who had been appeased by the candies was the one to answer. As a pro in this line of work, she was also familiar with the common knowledge involving in the business. Immediately, she settled down to tell Haruna everything she knew.
“But, please be careful, dear customer. In truth, although there aren’t any swords like your Beppin-san [4], but…”
In reality, once one ignored Haruna’s action and language, just from appearance alone one could believe that she’s part of the aristocracy. Her pure white skin was the complete opposite of the normal dusty, mud-covered Adventurers. However, considering that she had not yet gotten into any battles yet, appearing clean was probably quite natural.
It looked like her amazing status was not limited to amazing fighting powers alone, even her looks were outstandingly high.
“Perhaps, there are some special reasons that knight clans are being called to complete a mission of sort?”
“Not that I know of. I’ve never left Osaka aside from short holidays, so I’m sort of looking forward to looking around a bit, wa.”
========================
Haruna turned up at the outskirts of town where the dungeon was located. She actually came here because Loofa the Guild receptionist informed her that this was how Adventurers make money.
Basically, killing a monster will produce a magic stone. It seemed that there was evidence that a former Monster King created monsters in this area using magic stones. Because of this, the monsters that appeared in this dungeon would produce these unique stones when destroyed.
Magic stones also have value as precious stones and minerals and could be sold as such. It could be said that Adventurers hunt monsters for the sake of money, in order to make a living.
Since the dungeon was built on old magic, enough of it lingered on, creating a soft light inside the dungeon, making it possible to walk around without the use of a lantern. The ceiling was high enough that one could even walk around without having to crouch.
“What the heck, there’s no explanation board in this underground shopping centre.”
So saying, she picked up a rock and began to carve [Exit is this way] along the walls as she walked. As she explored the dungeon, various monsters began to appear, slimes, skeletons and other similar monsters.
“Tei! Tei!” [5]
Haruna brandished her sword and killed off everything.
All the magic stones that appeared were carefully collected by Haruna and placed inside her bag.
“Free stuff should all be collected, na. Don’t waste, don’t waste.”
Haruna was weak against free stuff. In Osaka she would make several trips to pass the people who handed out free tissues[6] for promotional purposes. She collected quite a lot of tissues this way. Sometimes, she’d even skipped the niceties and just put out her hand with a ‘One more please’ and directly ask for more tissues. Since the part time workers also wanted to go home early, they would happily give her all the tissue she wanted. It was a win-win relationship for both side.
Other adventurers who saw her in action stood blankly with their mouths open.
“H-hey, this, she just crushed an Armoured Scorpion with her bare-hands, right…?”
“What kind of offensive ability is this? Even Martial Artists wouldn’t be able to do this easily…”
“Even life long Adventurer’s would find this difficult…”
Right now, the thing that appeared in front of Haruna was a small, rock like creature called a golem.
“What’s dis thing, it’s blocking the way, ya. Tei!”
As half expected, the golem was not beaten despite the powerful hit. In a spirit of contrariness, the Adventurers who had been watching this felt relieved. Even fighting a small golem actually required a lot of effort, most adventurers would not even consider fighting a golem alone. Reinforcements were just about to arrive when-
A fine crack appeared in the golem’s main body, after a bit, it just crumbled into small pieces.
“What da heck, dis thing that looked kinda like a boulder on Mount Rokko just broke to pieces, wa. Ain’t it kinda fragile?”
Mount Rokko is a mountain range that runs through Kobe City in Hyogo prefecture, Ashiya City, Nishinomiya City and Takarazuka City. It’s the origin of the ‘Rokko’ in [Rokko Oroshi]. The mountain range ran along the Northern part of the urban area, which was where the wind originated from.
There are no actual mountains within Osaka City proper, but the tall buildings within the city allow the people of Osaka regular view of the Rokko mountain ranges, which meant that the people are quite familiar with Mt. Rokko.
“Eh? That…boulder golem actually got broken up?”
“Did someone cast an illusion spell on us?”
“What just happened…?”
Several of the Adventure Parties today lost their confidence. The day’s work was also severely cut short. As usual, Haruna was unaware of how her actions influenced the people around her. At least, none of the party members dared to say anything to Haruna after witnessing her incredible power. It was simply too scary to contemplate.
Note from Gumihou (the other translator): Hello everyone, I’m the other translator. Actually, I’m only good for translating and not very well verse with technology. It took me this long to figure out how to put this chapter in.
I wish I could let you know how Admin is, but I have only been in contact with them via online and depended on them to contact me.
I’ll continue to put up other chapters on novels I’m responsible for.
Let’s pray together for Admin’s health.
[1] Enka – Old fashion style of singing. People over a certain age love to listen to it while drinking sake. Has been called ‘Japanese Blues’, contained pretty deep messages in the lyrics.
[3] Service in this case means free or no charge. If you ever go to Japan and the shopkeeper says ‘Service da yo’ (It’s Service) say yes!
[4] “Beppin (Beppin san)” is referred to beautiful ladies. However, it is used for someone who is easy going and outgoing; it is used to describe a girl next door, rather than gorgeous ladies in a beauty pageant, for instance. While Osaka culture is described as the Latin culture in Japan, Osaka people are known to be shy in expressing their feelings. And that’s why instead of saying “You are beautiful,” “Beppin (Beppinsan)” is a softer and less direct way to express one’s feeling.