Chapter 2 Episode 18: Return Home
“What are you doing here, Ryoma?”
As I was staring into space with my slimes, Jeff’s voice reached my ears. Behind him was the team that had been gathered for the toilet cleaning.
“Aren’t you leaving, nya?”
“Thanks for your work today, everyone. Even if I wanted to leave, the crowds at the carriages are a bit... I thought I’d just wait until the last one.”
“You too, huh?”
“Does that mean everyone is also...?”
“Everyone’s tired today, so we’re not in the mood to join that crowd.”
“Good grief... even though we were hired precisely in case something like today happened, it was tough.”
“That’s for sure. A goblin king on top of a swarm that size... That would normally be a job requiring full preparations. It made me recall that one conversation while I was fighting... the one not to underestimate weak monsters.”
“Ah, the tale of how a kingdom was once destroyed under the attack of 100,000 goblins? I recalled that too. Honestly, it was a miracle that no one died today.”
Was there really such a tale?
When Gordon wound his thick arm around his neck and grumbled that, Mizelia agreed. Everyone was tired too, huh... Just as I thought that, Sher suddenly asked, “Huh? Ryoma, don’t you know about this? It’s a pretty famous tale...”
“I don’t remember...”
“You must have been the type of kid to read textbooks instead of fairy tales, huh?”
Everyone accepted Jeff’s words. My simple lack of knowledge was misunderstood. I was turning into a studious nerd within their minds.
“The efforts of the kingdom’s soldiers and adventurers were in vain, as they were pushed back by sheer numbers. We can laugh about it now, but if it weren’t for you and your slimes, the ambush team would have been done for.”
No matter how much physical strength I had, if that strength couldn’t reach then there was no meaning... As they say, there’s power in numbers.
“I remember now!”
Leipin yelled suddenly, after mulling over Gordon’s words.
“What’s with you all of a sudden, old man Leipin?”
“Ryoma, could you show me your healing slime from earlier? I’ve only ever heard stories of healing slimes before.”
“Sure.”
I called the two healing slimes over and picked one up.
“Go ahead.”
“Thank you. Hmm. Its body is white and rather minute for a slime species. I witnessed it using healing magic with my own eyes... It is exactly as I heard. Do you feed it the same as your other slimes?”
“Actually, it refuses to consume anything other than water. Cleaner slimes don’t normally eat meat either, but they will when ordered to. I believe it’s a matter of preference... but healing slimes only drink water. That would be the biggest difference.”
“Oh my, is that true?”
“How does it live on just water?”
“It has a skill called photosynthesis. The skill takes in light and turns it into the nutrients needed for survival, so it’s able to live off just water.”
“There’s such a skill as that?! Hmm, how fascinating... No, I believe there was a monster that had this skill in the plant-related monster encyclopedia...”
“Is that slime strong, nya?”
Miya asked, ignoring how Leipin was immersed in his own thoughts.
“It’s extremely weak. It has no combat abilities at all and will lose to a normal slime.”
“That is indeed weak, nya...”
“That’s probably the reason why healing slimes are so rare. Even if a healing slime is born, it immediately gets killed by another monster or animal, leaving it no chance of being noticed by a human.”
“Those without power cannot survive in the wild, after all... Healing slimes have no way of protecting themselves at all, yes?”
Ah, so Leipin was still listening.
“It’s completely specialized towards enduring hits. On top of healing magic, it has a skill for life enhancement, so when attacked it will heal itself while fleeing.”
“Enduring while fleeing, hmm.”
“It’s surprisingly hardy, but it wouldn’t live for very long in the wild. They seem to know it too, as even when I tell them they can move freely they choose to stick to me or my other familiars. They’re useful in how they’ll heal me and the other slimes as soon as we’re hurt, but I only keep them on healing duty. They’re completely incapable of combat.”
“I see... I’ve seen something good today. Thank you.”
“It’s rare to see someone show understanding for slime research. It was my pleasure.”
“If there’s anything you’d ever like to know about monsters, feel free to ask me. I’m confident I can answer most questions. And my conversations with you are always enlightening and interesting; it’s strange why you didn’t receive the correct evaluation.”
Hearing that made Asagi join the conversation.
“I am not the most knowledgeable about tamers, but I have heard the more familiars thou hast the more difficult they are to control. Should not this many familiars be worthy in the eyes of the Tamer’s Guild?”
“I’m newly registered with no achievements and the Tamer’s Guild makes evaluations with emphasis on the strength of the familiar and rank, so different slime species cannot receive a high evaluation. If anything, there’s a higher chance of attracting unwanted attention and elitism, so the guild didn’t even announce my research results.”
“Many people deem slimes to be incompetent and worthless. Ryoma discovered two new species in cleaner and scavenger slimes, both of which have extremely useful abilities. Personally, I think that and your research results are enough to raise your rank by several levels. However, as a monster researcher, once you know the social position of slimes you’ll realize publicizing the knowledge that Ryoma currently has won’t change their low reputation. It’s understandable that Ryoma doesn’t wish to publicize it. That’s how deep-seated the worthless image of slimes is, both inside and outside of the Tamer’s Guild...”
“Really? Even an uneducated person like me can tell how valuable those two species are. If I could use taming magic, I’d want them myself.”
“If more people were as unprejudiced as you, perhaps the correct evaluation would be received one day.”
Everyone nodded at Welanna’s words. They all seemed to understand the worth of scavenger and cleaner slimes after the toilet cleaning incident and today.
Seeing them all gave me an idea.
“If I ran a laundromat, I could make enough money to live off...”
“Laundromat?”
I must have been thinking out loud.
“Just something that came to mind for me. If I used my cleaner slimes to offer adventurers laundry services that could clean even the worst goblin filth for cheap, would I be able to earn enough to survive?”
“How cheap is ‘cheap?’”
“Let’s see... What if I made exclusive bags and charged 1 small bronze coin each, at most 1 medium bronze?”
“THAT’S PERFECT!”
Everyone’s voices answered at once.
“We all know first-hand how clean you can make them, nya. One bag for 1 medium bronze would be cheap.”
“Especially today, with all that goblin blood and grease being so difficult to clean...”
“Thinking about the aftermath is always depressing, always...”
“I throw away my dirty clothes and buy new ones. The smell sticks through washes and I can’t wear it again. There are many other beastkin like me with sharp senses of smell making decent money, and they would all pay 1 medium bronze for the filth and smell to be cleaned. It’s cheaper than buying new, after all.”
Beastkin were truly sensitive to scents, so the four beastkin ladies endorsed my idea eagerly.
“If it was that cost, non-adventurers would be interested too. Considering the labor and time needed for laundry, it’d be faster and easier to ask you to do it.”
“I’d put in a request tomorrow if possible. The laundry at my house has piled up...”
“I’m terrible at housework in general. Especially when I get engrossed in my research, my laundry goes neglected. Every time that happens, I hire someone to take care of it, but it gets costly.”
“In Leipin’s case, the filth gets worse as it is left for so long, making the cost increase... But hiring help certainly costs a fair wage. Only wealthy families and nobles can afford such luxuries. In that regard, Ryoma’s price sounds fair for commoners.”
Were they all single or something? The four men added their rather sloppy perspectives, summarized by Asagi.
They were more interested than I expected, though...
“If you really go for it, I think it’s more than plausible for you to make money. We’ll be your customers too.”
“But why were you considering such things?”
Ah, right, I hadn’t told them why yet...
“Actually, I was thinking about some stuff yesterday. And I decided to become independent.”
“What do you mean?”
“As you all know already, I came to this town together with the duke’s family. And I’ve been in their care since... But recently, I realized I had been taking advantage of their kindness. So I discussed it with them and decided to cut off their support so I can be independent.”
“You cut off the support from the duke’s house?!”
“What a waste...”
“Though I cut their support off, I’m still staying in the accommodation provided by them... They’ve treated me incredibly well, and that gradually started to feel natural... I was being too spoiled. When they leave town, I’ll refocus myself.”
“Even so, who would normally do that? I can’t imagine cutting off support from the duke. Though I’d never have the chance to do such a thing in the first place.”
“Still, I like the way you think.”
“Hahaha... And so, at the end of our discussion, I promised to take on a job for them and contact them regularly. Then I decided to stay in this town, so I was searching for ways to earn my own living costs. I intend on keeping at being an adventurer, but the job I took on from the duke requires my periodic return to this town. That’s why I wanted to prepare several forms of income, so that I have a safety net if I am unable to continue being an adventurer.”
“I see, that sounds great. Do your best.”
“If you’re staying in this town, then we’ll be seeing you more in the future. I’ll look forward to working with you again.”
“Same here, I’ll continue to be in your care.”
Our trivial chatter continued until we returned to town on the last carriage.
■ ■ ■
When I returned to the inn, Eliaria and the others summoned me to their room.
“Welcome back!”
“Good work today, Ryoma.”
“The job ended early today, didn’t it? Is everything going well at the mines?”
“Huh? Have you not received contact yet?”
“We were at the public office today to inquire about the mines... It seems like they were left abandoned for a long time after all, did something happen?”
“We found a goblin village today, so we eliminated it. ...There was even a goblin king, and it turned into quite the commotion.”
Immediately after my report, voices of surprise shouted, “A goblin king?!”
“Was everything okay?!”
“Thankfully, I was given a role to stop fleeing goblins from escaping, so it wasn’t a problem. Fortunately, there were no casualties either.”
“I see, that’s a relief...”
“But the nest was big enough to have a goblin king and goblin knights, and the number of goblins that fled to us was around 2000. Since it was that big of a job, we were dismissed after cleaning up the goblin corpses and told to rest.”
“You all did well to have no casualties...”
“The goblin king was subjugated by high ranking adventurers, while us low ranked adventurers somehow pulled through using traps. And there’s also one more thing.”
I explained the circumstances I had heard from the six kids. That they were troubled after losing the toilet cleaning job.
Then, the ducal family looked a little disappointed.
“I see...”
“What’s happening at the public office now? Whatever you’re allowed to reveal is fine.”
“We’re dealing with and reorganizing the staff. The leaders of the crime are already behind bars, being investigated for further charges.”
“What happened today will probably be presented as a result of what they did too. So the toilet cleaning is being taken care of by the guild?”
“That’s right. I accepted a request once after that.”
“The guild wouldn’t want to keep their clients waiting, after all.”
“I did tell the group that they could accept that job at the guild, and they’d be paid properly for it. They seemed doubtful, but motivated.”
“Sorry... We’ll talk to the new supervisor to do something about it.”
The conversation stopped there.
“Now, let’s set aside the gloomy talk. I’m glad you’re safe.”
“You must be hungry after such a big job. Do you want to eat something?”
“Yes please.”
“Your slimes worked hard too, right? Do they need anything?”
“They’ve already eaten their fill of goblins today, enough to split tonight.”
“Oh my, really? Which slimes will be increasing?”
“Acid, poison, cleaner, and some of the sticky slimes too.”
“That will be quite the increase, then.”
“They did eat a large amount. It’s an increase in strength no matter which type increases, and they’re useful for the production of waterproof materials and for improving the environment... but the amount of magic energy needed to make taming contracts is getting a bit too much.”
“Since there are many of them, it can’t be helped. Don’t push yourself too hard.”
“Yes. If I can’t manage today, I’ll split the contracts across two or three days.”
“That would be good.”
After that, we ate while chatting about my plans for the future, so I told them about how I was considering life as an adventurer while making money elsewhere at the same time.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t asked how long they were all staying for... I should ask them that.
“How long will everyone be staying in town for? I haven’t asked until now, but...”
“Didn’t we tell you? Until the mass spawns of grell frogs stop. We’ll remain in town for as long as we can, until Elia starts school.”
Grell frogs were...
“The monster with the skin used for armor?”
“Yes, it is indeed used for armor. Its organs are also used in medicine. They spawn in the swamps around here in great numbers every year. We’re taking Elia there.”
“There’s a red swamp in the forest, roughly halfway between town and the mines.”
“Are you defeating the grell frogs?”
I wondered if it was training, but apparently not. They’re training, but only as a bonus. Their real goal was the Limour Bird that flocked around the same time as the mass spawns.
“They’re a very beautiful monster with blue wings. Their cries are also beautiful and they can fly very fast, making them a popular monster. However, they’re difficult to capture and rarely any are ever tamed, so there isn’t much chance to see them. But they gather around the swamp in flocks. You should take this chance to go see them too, Ryoma. They’re worth the visit to see.”
So not all monsters were to be feared... but if they ate grell frogs, that meant they were a carnivorous bird... The only carnivorous birds that came to mind were crows, which would pick at trash bags... But the colors made it like a peacock? ...I had no idea, but I was curious. I should go take a look if it’s around, though.
“I’d love to see it as well.”
“In that case, you can come along with us.”
“Please take me with you when the mass spawns happen.”
“Of course! We’ll definitely go together!”
I made the promise with Eliaria and left their room after the meal.
Before sleeping, I let the slimes split and formed taming contracts, but my magic ran out halfway through so I left the rest for tomorrow. I still had some recovery potions, but it seemed like a waste to use them here.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login