CH 109

Chapter 109 – Border city Saite – Part two

One of Saite’s distinctive features is that it has many inns. A lot of travelers pass through here on the way to the neighboring country, so the city has taken on a sort of intermediary point role.

Maybe that’s why not a lot of adventurers actually live in Saite. The adventurer guild itself is smaller than what I’m used to.

“It’s small, but it has quite a lot of quests.”

Most picking quests aren’t actually about medicinal herbs, they’re about picking food like berries. As for hunting quests, there are the usual quests to hunt monsters, but regular beasts too. Everything is connected to food. There are even quests to help out with farming.

Looking for heirs? That’s a bit different isn’t it? This one is looking for a wife…

“There are all sorts of quests here.”

No Mia. This isn’t the type of quest that adventurers usually accept. I think…

“Master, I asked to send a message. Also, apparently wolves have appeared in the forest. They said we can take care of them if we want.”

“Do you know where?”

“It’s relatively close. Apparently it’s possible to hunt them and come back on the same day.”

“Maybe I’ll go take a look while I look for medicinal herbs. Hikari and Mia, do you want to go around seeing what this place has to offer in terms of food?”

“I want to go with you, but I might get in the way…”

Mia says, although her voice gradually loses its strength as the sentence goes on.

Hikari looks at Mia, and nods a few times.

“Then let’s all go together. Walking in a forest will probably be a good experience.”

“Yes. Master loves walking in the forest.”

Well, I guess I do. Sometimes I find a lot of medicinal herbs. That means a lot of money.

“Are you going out?”

I show my guild card to the gatekeeper. He seems surprised to hear me say I’m going to walk around the forest while looking for wolves, but understands when he sees Sera’s weapon. That two handed axe is no joke. It really projects the image of a strong guard.

“Hm… It’s hard to walk here.”

“Especially because of the roots. Be careful not to trip on them.”

Mia is walking nervously, and only looks down at the ground. Hikari is holding her by the hand and guiding her so she doesn’t hit her head on any branches,

It can’t be helped, this is what it will be like until she gets used to it. I used to trip and almost fall a lot too at first.

I decide to let Hikari look after Mia, and look around while using Map. I can spot monsters and animals in this area even if they aren’t near us, but unfortunately, I have to be near medicinal herbs for Map to show them. That’s why I always have to ask where they are in the guild.

“I can feel the presence of wolves.”

Sera unsheathes her dagger and looks around. What about the axe? She says swinging it in the forest isn’t ideal, so I’m holding it for her.

I hear Mia gasp, as Hikari also takes out her dagger and stands ready to protect her.

I also bring out my dear sword, and prepare myself to deal with them how I always do. I don’t think they can sneak up on us, thanks to Presence Detection, but it never hurts to be too careful.

Mia is holding her staff and shaking.

Sera takes the lead, followed by Hikari, Mia, and then me. Sera and Hikari can probably walk faster, but they’re keeping their pace slower out of consideration for Mia.

Five minutes later, we encounter four wolves. It’s mostly Sera who takes care of them, and by that I mean that I don’t get the chance to do anything. She waits for the first one to attack, and then counters it. We, and even the wolves, are taken aback by her skill for a moment. She takes advantage of that opening to cut the necks of all the other wolves in one go.

The wolves are now hanging from a tree, having their blood drained.

Mia is squatting near a tree, and when I talk to her, her response sounds weak.

Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. It might have been better to accept a picking quest instead.

I tell Sera I’m going to look for medicinal herbs. If I can’t find them within one hour, we can go back.

I use Map to look for an open area with no trees. I’m excluding places with dense concentration of trees because they block the sun. I go around a few places, and I pick a lot of medicinal herbs. There are so many, that it makes me think not a lot of people come to this forest to pick them. I’m glad I get to pick at will.

By the time I come back, they’re taking the monsters apart. Mia is being taught by the other two.

It looks dangerous. Just looking at her makes me nervous. I-is she all right? Her hand movements look strange.

I get near, and silently watch her work. Her ability to concentrate is great. She finishes peeling the skin, and moves on to taking meat from each part. The meat isn’t that hard, but it feels like she’s really putting her strength into it, probably because she’s not used to doing this. There are big beads of sweat forming on her brow.

After about thirty minutes of this, it’s done.

“Good job. What did you think of taking apart monsters?”

Mia looks surprised when I talk to her.

“It’s not easy. All adventurers do this, right?”

“If they pay a fee, they can have the guild do it for them. I guess that’s why new adventurers who don’t have a lot of money do it themselves. But doing a bad job brings down the prince you can get for the monsters, so I guess people do what’s best for them.”

“I see. Can I do it again sometime?”

“Sure. We’ll deliver three and keep one. We can never have too much meat.”

Hikari nods deeply.

“We might as well have it for lunch.”

Everything is already set to start cooking. The vegetables are already cut too, so now all that’s left to do is boil everything in a pot.

As for the soup, I can ferment soybeans with magic to make something that tastes like miso, so I throw that in. The taste is getting pretty close to regular miso soup, but I still haven’t seen rice in this world. There’s noodles, so should I try to make miso ramen? But then I have to make the miso taste stronger or its taste is going to get overpowered by the noodles.

“It’s good…”

I’m sure part of it is because it’s the meat from a monster she worked hard to take apart, but Mia looks like she’s really enjoying it. The fact that those words leaked out on their own says everything.

At first she looked pale when she saw those corpses, but now she can face them and take them apart. I just hope she’s not just pushing herself and just acting like everything is all right.

I should probably keep that in mind and pay close attention to her for a while.