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Happy Monday and Happy New Year!
It’s the start of 2023! I hope you all had a great 2022 and a better 2023.
Here is the first chapter of the year, enjoy.
「We’re back~!」
「Back~!」
Because there were more people than usual, it was a long and slow journey, but we finally returned to Frey Town. Although I said that, the children from the harbor city didn’t have Guild IDs, so the place where we arrived at was Ojii-san’s house
. One needed to pay to enter the town, so we didn’t enter the towns and villages along the way and camped outdoors nearby. Maa, the familiars were with us too, so they were all places that we couldn’t enter to begin with.
「Ohh, you’re back, huh.」
「Somehow, there’s so many of you.」
「「「Woof!」」」
Cruz-kun and my younger sister were shouting, so the children and the Kolbolds, who were working on the farm, and the Big Kokkos and Milhorns, who may have sensed our presence, all gathered at the place where we were.
「Amazing nya! There’s a lot of people nya!」
「There’s a lot of monsters too nya.」
The children from the harbor city were nervous, but the cat sisters were excitedly running around. Perhaps they relaxed after seeing the two people like that, as everyone exchanged greetings. The children from the harbor city would be living here for the time being, so it would be great if they weren’t so reserved.
We will be parting with Obaa-san and Sakuya-chan here, so I gave them the alcohol that was a souvenir for Ojii-san. There was quite a large amount of it, so let’s make sure that he wouldn’t drink too much. Or rather, where was Ojii-san?
I gave the goods that we procured to the children who were working on production here, and then we returned to Frey Town. It seems that the children from the harbor city were feeling anxious because we wouldn’t be there, but if it’s everyone who were familiar with my younger sister, Cruz-kun, and Ilya-chan, then they would definitely get along well.
Queen was full of motivation for training the children from the harbor city, so she stayed here, but as expected, they would be pitiful if they started today, so I asked her to start tomorrow. They could sleep in the house or in a tent, so I told them to sleep wherever they liked so that their fatigue could be lessened a little.
The adventurer group and the merchant group who were at the harbor city returned to Frey Town, we greeted the gatekeeper who was always there for some reason, went our separate ways midway, and then we returned to the orphanage.
「「「「We’re back~.」」」」
There were a lot of people on our way back, but the ones returning to the orphanage were just the four people, Pii-chan, and the wolf cubs.
Even so, the children at the orphanage rushed over, and Director-sensei and Char-chan affectionately greeted us as well. Although Queen and the adventurer group were there, we were still children.
Dinner was made with plenty of seafood. However, everyone, was happy with it, but there were a lot of children who loved eating meat, so there were many who felt unsatisfied. And, during the meal, I told Director-sensei that the children from the harbor city came here. Considering the future, it’s better to do it early, so it was great that she gave her consent and we could consider the future matters together.
Unfortunately, even though I took great pains to have her consider it, they were unable to meet face to face, which was an issue. The children from the harbor city had neither Guild IDs nor identification papers, so they could not enter town, and even if Director-sensei used the horse carriage, it would be difficult for her to go to Dragon Forest. If it’s Char-chan, then she would be able to meet them, but I didn’t want them to meet like this.
At night, I talked with the children who were working at the stalls. Although I said that, it was a discussion on what to do with the seafood and dried fish that we procured. The children did their best, so there was a substantial amount and we needed to sell them somehow or another. Maa, if we served it at a slightly cheaper price at the stall, then we would naturally be able to sell them.
I had accumulated a lot of fatigue due to the long journey, but there were a lot of things that I needed to do, so let’s do our best tomorrow too!