Kochugunshikan Boukensha ni Naru

Translator: SFBaka

Editor: Thor’s Stone

It’s been ten days since I’ve finished the basic magic tool manufacturing course.

I managed to finish making another copy of the magic tool I sold to the Guild within a day.

When I bragged about its features to Verse, he ended up pestering me to sell it to him for fifty thousand Guineas. In the end, I eventually gave in and sold it to him with an added extra ten thousand Guineas on top of his proposed price as the labor fee. Verse was more than happy to buy what he viewed as a revolutionary magic tool for such a price. Guess I’ll just have to make another one for myself.

Using it would make it easier to do things such as mincing meat, so making minced cutlets, hamburgers, and hard-to-mix stuff like mayonnaise would become much easier as well.

Since the blueprint for the magic dryer was relatively simple, I managed to finish building one after three days.

I commissioned the switches and the dryer housings at the workshop chief recommended to me, but the other parts were easy to procure, so it didn’t take much work. I made one for my own and one for the ladies for a total of three thousand Guineas.

When I showed the magic tool to the girls, they quickly understood its function and gave rave reviews. It was well worth making them.

The list of magic tools sold by the Magic Guild didn’t have a dryer included, so it seems this magic dryer would be quite a hit if I ever decided to sell it myself. It was regrettable that my relationship with the Magic Guild ended up kinda awkward as a result of my prior actions. I’ll have to think of ways to remedy that soon.

We decided to change things up a bit and went to another restaurant for lunch instead of going to Tally’s Place as usual. We asked Verse for some good shops, and he was happy to oblige. It seems Verse himself dines in the restaurant he recommended from time to time.

It was apparently close to the Adventurer’s Guild, so we headed for it straight away.

Come to think of it, it has been a month since we placed that request at the Adventurer’s Guild. We’ve been checking up on it every day, but there’s still no response until now. It was a bit nerve-wracking every time we went to the Guild to check up on it, since there was a risk of attracting those who were pursuing Cleria as well.

Oh, I guess that’s the place. It looks like a fairly popular store since there were a lot of diners. According to Verse, it seems their specialty was a variety of stews, so I was looking forward to tasting them.

The interior of the store was full, so we were guided to terrace seats located on the storefront. It was a nice change of pace to dine in these kinds of seats from time to time.

Selena was currently standing within the line of people planning to enter the city.

“So this is Gotania…”

Selena muttered quietly to herself. The male who seemed to be a peddler in front of her gave her a dubious gaze. She paid absolutely no heed to the peddler’s gaze and ignored him completely.

She paid the fee for entering the city and went straight to searching for the Adventurer’s Guild. She asked some of the kids playing happily on the city streets and finally managed to find out the location of the Guild building. It seems it was just nearby.

“Oh, so that’s the place.” She saw the distinct façade of the building the children told her about earlier. As she headed for the building, she managed to see a particular scene which surprised her greatly.

“That’s–!? Can it be!?”

There’s no mistake! She had finally found the person she sought! Ah, she had found that person at last. So that person really was in Gotania.

She really did not make a mistake. She’d won the bet against Sharon!

Now that she’s found her objective, she wanted to immediately make her presence known. But it seemed improper to greet that person while in the travel-worn clothing she was currently wearing. She first needed to find an inn to stay at and change into more decent and presentable clothes.

It seems that person was just about to have a meal. If she hurries, she’ll be able to meet up with that person before the meal is finished.

But what’s with those people dining along with ‘him’!? Acting so excessively familiar… Ah, this was the thing she was most afraid of. It seems harmful bugs have really managed to latch themselves onto ‘his’ esteemed self. But it’s no matter. She would just have to chase them away once she meets up with them. She should hurry.

Mm. That was delicious. It looks like this shop really deserved its reputation. The meal that resembled cream stew was priced at twenty-five Guineas. It was a bit on the expensive side, but the taste more than made up for the price. The place was a bit crowded and they had to wait for a while for the food to be served, but it was still well worth it. Let’s list it as one of our favorite stores then.

“That was great. I was honestly not expecting the food to be this delicious.”

“It certainly was quite delicious. But I still think Alan’s dishes are more…”

Cleria made a startled look for some reason. She was looking at something behind me. Elna also made the same surprised expression as well.

I heard the voice of a young girl behind me, but I couldn’t quite make out what she was saying.

No, wait a minute! It was actually Imperial Common! I was so utterly surprised that my body froze up involuntarily.

“Please pardon my impoliteness, Your Excellency.”

The girl began speaking again. I slowly turned toward the owner of the voice.

When I did so, I saw a beautiful young girl wearing the formal Imperial military dress uniform crisply standing at attention. She then gave me a genuine-looking imperial military salute.

“Warrant Officer Selena Conrad, reporting for duty!”

Just what is the meaning of this!? Has an imperial rescue party finally arrived at this planet? But even if they did, it still seemed far too quick. Warrant Officer? I wasn’t familiar with a military rank like that. Ah, my mind was in a mess and I was already close to panicking.

“Y-Your affiliation?”

Ah, I made a mistake and talked to her in this planet’s language. She shouldn’t have understood my question.

“I’m a space marine of the 1st Information Corps assigned to the Iris Conrad, part of the 283rd Division of the Spica Sector Red Fleet.”

That’s my platoon! But I don’t remember having a person like this among my subordinates. Just what is happening here!? Did Iris actually make it in one piece after that incident?

And it seems she’s also managed to compile the local language since this young lady is speaking it quite fluently.

“Is Iris alright?”

“Of course. We have been in search of Your Excellency all this time.”

(Nanom! Give her a scan! And make it a full scan please!)

This was the next course of action that came to me first. Since she knows of my identity… No, if she really is part of Iris’ crew, then my authority should be higher than hers. I should be able to do a full scan without asking for her permission.

『Scan complete.』

(Is what she’s claiming the truth?)

『Yes. Iris is alright. Her I.D. has also been confirmed to be legitimately issued by the empire.』

I see. So Iris was actually fine. I’m glad.

There should be no chance of falsifying an empire issued I.D. as well. So was she also one of the survivors like me? I turned my gaze toward her once more. She had blonde hair and blue eyes. She was truly an amazingly pretty young girl. I seem to have seen her face somewhere before, but I can’t quite remember where.

She also looked quite young. Even if she did manage to enlist at the age of eighteen and boarded the ship at that age, we began our mission two years ago. She didn’t look remotely like twenty years old in my eyes. In fact, she seems as young as Cleria.

No. She should have been pretty popular back at the ship considering her beauty. The guys would have been talking about her all the time, but I have no recollection of them doing so at all. My being unfamiliar with her just doesn’t make sense.

Ah! She did say her surname was Conrad, right!? Now I finally know why her face looks so familiar.

It was the face of the late imperial Hero, Iris Conrad, that’s turned younger by several years. Her adult appearance was used by the AI Iris. Her hairstyle was different from AI Iris, so I wasn’t able to recognize her at first.