Chapter 87: Just an Ordinary Successful Guy

Riche and I played fetch in a spacious location during our morning stroll. He probably took a liking to that bough; he was still clutching it in his mouth while we walked on. He ran pitter-patter without taking a detour, probably keen on carrying it home.

The fields seem to be doing okay, but I have to bring more straw for mulching the strawberries. Aside from the small size, the strawberries growing in this world have a lot of lumps on the surface. It’s also used for medicine, apparently, and is said to be effective against depression. It bears fruit twice a year, and it’s so shockingly sour.

Breakfast is simple — I have rice, miso soup with tofu and wakame seaweed, grilled salmon and pickled radish, plus bakudan with natto, yam, okra, red tuna meat, egg yolk and chopped nori. I’ll make a mousse with the egg white later.

I answered a questionnaire about my favorite miso ingredients in the past, as well as those that I’ll never touch, but really, all I can say is that it really depends on the type of miso you use. Like, nameko mushrooms are perfect for red-bean paste miso soup, stuff like that. I remember being a bit bothered while doing it, because there’s a lot of different miso types, like refreshing ones and sweet ones, but they didn’t include any information on which miso it was.

Ahh, I really wanted to eat around in the other world. Ugh, not good, I’m getting annoyed now. Okay, I’ll just go around and have lots of fun in this world. I can freely go wherever I want, plus I also have a home I can settle in, after all.

Back in Japan, my dream was to run away and live on my own, so I can’t help but be excited with stuff like house plans, furniture and sites. I even bought a house this time around, too — yeah, maybe it’s partly because I’m bummed that I can’t work on my forest house, but really, I guess I’m too much of an impulsive buyer.

I haven’t found a craftsman that I like, so I can still hold back from buying furniture for now. At any rate, I should start with the rented house’s entrance. — I still have to pay the rent for this month — Let’s think about which door might be the best for it.

「Eh? Retze? 」
「 Yeah, I just returned from reporting to the boss. 」
A familiar face greeted me when I dropped by the Adventurer’s Guild after a long time.

「You didn’t join the subjugation? 」
「 Well, there’s more outsider participants. I might end up dragging Chris and Dean down, so I’m skipping out this time around. 」
Retze waved his hand in the air.

「 Those Gold-ranks are nothing but trouble. 」
「 Hey, hey, they’re highly regarded beings who can stop the monster wave, you know. 」
He bitterly smiled, chiding me half-heartedly.

News flew around from Canum, and now that the first subjugation is over, folks from towns near the forest have also started recruiting participants for subjugation teams.

In most cases, the Adventurer’s Guild and Commerce Guild’s hold great power depending on their ability to gather information. Most of the branches keep talented people who can communicate with spirits, so they can respond promptly.

Well, it isn’t really that smooth-sailing all the time, given that spirits are too fickle, and they can’t work for extended periods. Plus, there are also problems depending on the attributes, like you can’t hear the sound if the spirit is a water attribute and you can only hear without seeing anything if it’s wind.

Temporarily, the guild’s headquarters in that country will gather the information, and then they will disseminate it through their network system, apparently. For Canum, the headquarters in the royal capital and the branch in the largest fortress city facing the forest are both in charge of getting the info, and the four neighboring villages will be in charge of spreading it.

As for where they’re going to spread it, that will be case-to-case basis, but that’s basically how it works.

Amadeo(Roza)’s party also has information personnel, so I plan to hang around the forest near the neighboring towns dressed in the costume that I wore when they mistook me for Ruf. My plan is to gradually spread rumors that Ruf is moving towards the north, then go beyond the Black Mountain, before pointing them out to the west.

But before that, I have to go ask the spirits to gather info for me so that I can appear properly in front of the adventurers, er, people.

By the way, there are roughly 5000 people living in the town of Canum, and the population of the fortress city in the forest is around twice that. There’s more people the further you are from the forest. They can expand the fields because monsters and beasts don’t appear, and they can also have a stable supply of food. Ah, but it will still depend on the weather, though.

People treat the forest as a kind of spirit world, one that is filled with danger. Although they can get a lot of nature’s blessings from it, they’re already doing all they can just to get some from the shallow parts of the forest. There’s no way it can be enough to support a large population. That’s why Canum also buys most of its flour and the like from the western towns.

A lot of merchants come and go here compared to the rest of the population because of the raw materials they get from the monsters. This place doesn’t have any outstanding specialty products, nor do they monopolize the monsters in the forest, so the scale of the economy was just so-so. Ah, but maybe Canum can turn the tables around? It’s the first to charge in and do the subjugation this time around, so they’re going to obtain rare materials, after all.

「 So Chris and Dean joined the subjugation, huh. 」
「 You say. As if adventurer’s in this town can refuse on the basis of being high-class folks right. I thought Dean will skip it too, you know how he is, but seems like he owes the guild. 」

It’s not as if the adventurers work here like company employees, so they’re actually free to do whatever they want. It’s just that there are adventurers who stick to the guild out of loyalty, but there are also others who are in there to work for nobles or bigwig merchants. And there are also folks like Dean, who work because they are in debt to organizations and people like the guild.

But then, the guild won’t retract their adventurer status just because they failed to follow the guild’s policies, as long as they meet their quota. Adventurers, no matter who they are, have to deliver materials regularly, and they also have to complete commissions.

Ah, but if they always defy the guild then of course their rank will be lowered down!

「I’m on my way to escort a merchant, Ash just left to hunt bears. 」
「 Yeah, we’re neighbors so I already know. 」
I saw her set out when I opened the window of the rented house to let the morning breeze in.

「Neighbors, huh. Oh, right, if you come across a house or a room with a good deal, let me know. 」
「You’re moving? 」
The city within the walls is very crowded. Just like in condominiums and flats, they sell the living spaces per floor, like, you can buy the second floor, and they call it rooms.

The second floors are the most popular, because of the waterwork system. The higher you go, the more unpopular it will be. Ah, but the manors of affluent guys who can afford to have servants is a different matter altogether. Most of them have shops on the first floor.

「It’s not like I’m inspired by Dean, but yeah, I climbed to the Silver Rank and can finally buy a house now. I waited so long for this, so of course I’m considering it carefully. 」

Retze, who steadily cleared all those conditions for buying a house legitimately, step by step, is so dazzlingly amazing!!!!