"Ow ow ow, hey, be gentler will ya, these old bones ain't gonna get any younger . "
A black-skinned man and an old man cried out as their dislocated shoulders were getting reattached . Please don't ask the impossible . This is the only way Master taught me to do it, y'see . I'll cast heal on them just in case anyway .
"Sorry, you're a lifesaver . "
Jerindo bowed as he said that . He's the leader of this party [Foolhardy Giants] . The same party who was attempting to capture me under Jami's order back then . Well, I made them fall asleep and confine before they could even come across me though, so it's prety much our first meeting . I don't really care about the past anyway . I would have never imagined that Clay-san would join this party though .
"Don't worry about it . I was just unwilling to abandon an acquaintance . "
"Nobusada-sama, I'm truly grateful for saving this life of mine not just once, but twice . "
Wait a minute Clay-san . Why are you adding sama suffix . Look, even Mitama is staring at me now . I beg of you, please stop that .
"Well anyway, is anyone else hurt? Looks like they did a number on you . Never seen those monsters before myself, they were armed and all . "
"Oh are you not familiar with them? Those are Cinnamonkeys . They're crafty greedy barbaric monsters . We wouldn't dream of even fighting them if not for a quest ourselves . "
Apparently, these Cinnamonkey monsters would attack adventurers and plunder their weapons and armor to make them their own . Oh right, their equipment remained even after they were defeated . That's dirty, Cinnamonkeys, way dirty . As it turned out, they accepted the quest I saw before and was smoothly beating those monsters one by one while collecting drop items when two of their members got pushed into a bottomless marsh by the monsters, immediately putting them in a precarious situation .
"So what are you planning to do now? I don't think you can fight in your conditions . "
That's right, Naina's and Buraran's weapons have been lost in the depths of marsh . The two who almost drowned themselves are full of mud and can barely move . Jerindo is wounded badly due to him holding out the frontline . I wouldn't be surprised if he got tetanus if it's left unattended . That said, turning around and getting out of the dungeon won't be so simple either . And even if their wounds are treated, they must be exhausted .
"I'm sorry, I'm aware how shameless this sounds but could you share some food to us? Those monkeys snatched our belongings which included our food supply during the scuffle earlier . "
Ah, I see now . Food might have been those Cinnamonkeys' goal all along .
"Young'un . We've got plenty of food ourselves anyway, how 'bout you go helpin' 'em here eh?"
The moment Wakamoto-san on my back spoke, [Foolhardy Giants] members froze all at once . Yeah of course they're surprised . Even the girls at our house still get spooked by him sometimes .
"Naturally of course, that's always been the plan . Anyway, you probably shouldn't walk far with your conditions . Wanna head to our base and rest your bodies there?"
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief . Clay-san even prostrated herself . Stop that, I don't derive pleasures from making ladies prostrate themselves . Hence, we got ourselves new companions as we headed back to our base . They were left dumbstruck when they saw me and Wakamoto-san shooting down bird, monsters and stuff left and right along the way, but I paid no heed . It would weigh on my mind if I did . Didn't think our magic pouch would be full before we could put all the drop items in though . We somehow managed to collect everything by making everybody carry some .
<TLN: If you're reading this novel at any other site than Sousetsuka . com you might be reading an unedited, uncorrected version of the novel . >
The members of [Foolhardy Giants] were completely stunned when we arrived at our base . Oh yeah, I've no clue how an average adventurer party spends their night in a dungeon . Apparently it's usually done by a party of 4-6 with alternating night shift . As such, fatigue accumulates quickly, and a week stay is very straining on the body even for the experienced . You can get around that to a degree by having more members, but that also means more food expense and less income, a dilemma .
The ladies washed their bodies in the indoor bath tub while the men dived into drum-styled outdoor bath . The two who were covered in mud were especially thankful to tears .
Meals for adventurers are usually flavorless preserved food to decrease luggage . By the way, our dinner this time is a boar meat hot pot using ingredient we got earlier . The seasoning is of course, miso! I made it without any problem since I've been making it forever . The soy sauce is still a spiral of failure however . I can't get the brewing process right even now, it's full on trial and error .
This was the fourth day for Clay-san and her party, they had been starving for warm food . I ended up having to grill some meat on a bedrock for those who couldn't wait for the hot pot a second longer .
They immediately fell asleep like logs once they had their fill .
That night, I'm preparing for tomorrow by myself . Making smoked food including for Clay-san's group's shares . I made a stone hut with a tall chimney to smoke the boar meat and stuff inside . May it turn good .
Rustle
Hm? Someone came by while I was chuckling at myself to the smoking stone hut .
"Could I have a moment of your time?"
It was Jerindo . His bare face under his full iron armor (not of the plate mail type, but plates put over leather armor) looks younger than I thought . He's got tsurime eyes, and blond slightly-pompadour-styled hair . But wow, it's incredible how he retains his hair style under that iron helmet of his . A profound mystery .
"What's the matter? Don't worry about lookout, go ahead and get some rest . "
"Well, uh, you see . I wanted to apologize . "
Jerindo bowed .
"Huh, what did you do to me again?"
"Please, you can drop the act . While vague, I still had my conscious when you put us to sleep in an attempt to escape our pursuit back then . "
Whoops, he's talking about that one time huh . But really, so they were still awake then . I've still got a way to go .
"Even though were were going to gang up on you, not only did you not finish us off, you even made magical walls for us instead . I thought you were just naive, but once we realized how fishy that quest was, we regretted ever trying to mess with you . Feel free to beat me up until you're satisfied . That's the only thing I can offer you . "
I'm not some vigorous young man who corrects attitude by punching them down or anything, so no I won't . It would be another story if they did something to the girls, but since it was just me, and an attempt at that, I don't really care .
"Since you probably won't take it if I tell you to not mind about it, I'll just ask you to take care of Clay-san . She's an important friend of our Mitama . "
Jerindo had a foolish anticlimatic look on his face when he realized that his resolve to get beaten had gone to waste .
"Are you . . . really fine with that?"
"Yeah, that's that . So long as you don't try to harm our girls, I'll bear what I can bear . In hindsight, that experience was a sort of wake up call to me as well . Just think of it as a tutelage fee . "
"Got it . I can accept that if you're fine with it . But this debt we owe you is a different matter . Earlier, we would have lost our lives for sure if not for you guys . From here one, we [Foolhardy Giants] will come running to help you guys in time of need . We all agreed on this . Sorry for taking your time . I'll take up on your offer earlier and get some sleep . "
After saying that, Jerindo went back to base . I thought he was the idiotic rascal type, turned out his core was pretty decent . I've got a better opinion of him now . Jeez, these guys gonna be my favorite .
The morning after, I put some food including the smoked food I finished that night along with potions into a magic rucksack and handed it over to Clay-san . I also gave spare weapons and armor such as daggers, a rarely used short bow and arrows to Buraran-shi and an iron spear to Naina-shi . Since their equipment was sunk in the marsh when I saved them . We saw them off after I told them that they could gave it all back inside the magic rucksack to Eleanor-san once they're done with it . Apparently, they're going to have another go at it since they haven't got the required quest items yet . I gave them lots of Cinnamon from Cinnamonkeys drop though .
Well, since they're with Clay-san and all, I wish them best of luck . And since I gave them a stone carving with a Tama-chan mark that would afford them potion discount at [Shut-in Lamia], things should be a bit easier for them from now on .
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