Chapter 63: Prosperous Business

March 25th, 2023

Beta Reader: My_Own_Worst_NPC

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One evening, Sierra was conducting battle training with the golems at the clearing in front of the cave.

The adventurers who were staying as the guests at the inn were watching, but it’s only because Sierra is letting them. The plan is to let unsavoury people see our defences, to discourage them from acting hostile towards the inn, or me.

The golems currently in mock battle with Sierra are Wonder No. 1 to No.3, and Harry No. 1 and 2. Sierra is actually capable of taking on all of the golems at once, but we want to keep our real strength hidden so we kept the other golems off to the side so they can instead observe the battle.

Sierra weaved in and out from the attacks of the five golems, moving gracefully in mid-air as if she was dancing.

“Wonder, do your best–!”, I cheered them on.

The three Wonders were letting out Jet Stream Attack in unison, but Sierra was able to see it through and avoid all of them. The Harrys was making use of the opportunity of Sierra being distracted by the attack to launch needles at her, but Sierra easily knocked them away using her bare hands.

 “What an amazing kinetic vision…[1]”

The adventurers standing next to me muttered in amazement.

“Hey, is there any way to recruit her to our party?”

If it keeps going on like this, I wonder if it’ll be more of showing off Sierra’s strength instead of showing off the Golems’ strength? That said, it wouldn’t be a bad thing to advertise the power of our bodyguard.

Harry No.1, who has thrown all of its needles, was running back to me. He’s now bald since he no longer has any needles and looks completely alien to me. The needles can grow back by either giving it magic power, feeding it magic stones, or using Repair on it. For now, I let it eat magic stone for the sake of appearance.

Sierra has been invited many times by different groups of adventurers, but she always refused them. Come to think of it, she did say that she’s not interested in exploring the dungeon. She spends all day either reading books in a hammock under the shade of a tree near the cave, or going fishing with me.

When the restaurant was busy, she would help me out, even if she’s doing so while pouting. I no longer think of her as a customer, but a staff member instead. She usually calls me Ani-ue or Onii-sama, so the adventurers seem to think that we really are brother and sister. [2]

Strange. No matter how you look at us, Sierra and I are two different races, right?

Or so I thought, but it seems that in this world there are a lot of cases of mixed blood, so it is quite common for siblings to look very different from each other. I then heard that such thing happens often because of Rurugoa’s occupation of other ethnic nation, so I’m pretty certain that it’s the case.

Sierra and the golems were still continuing their battle training, but I think it’s better to end it now.

“Sierra! We’re going to open the store, so enough training for tonight!”

 Everyone was looking at them in awe, so I guess we’ve achieved our goal. Actually, I think our strength at Shirou’s Inn has gained quite the reputation among the adventurers anyway, since Sierra had frozen the hand of a lecher that tried to grope my butt in the store, and Harry has nailed a thief that tried to steal from us with its needles.

“Hey, Sierra, help me with arranging the chairs?”

Recently, the inside of the cave isn’t enough, so on sunny days like this I set some tables outside just like at a beer garden. It had even become so busy that I need to create two more Gokus, to help with cooking and serving.

I heard that the many adventurers are making good money now, perhaps because they had become accustomed to the dangers. However, many of the weaker adventurers are still dying in the dungeon…

“Okami! Is it open yet?”

“Welcome! Please sit on any table you like.”

A group of six burly warrior sisters has shown up; they are regulars here. At a glance, they look like an unbalanced team, but they actually made an excellent party; their achievement in this island’s dungeon is among the top. Each one of them is a talented individual who can handle everything from long-range bow attacks to melee combat without a problem.

　They are also good-natured ladies, and I find their habit of getting naked as soon as they started getting drunk as amusing. I think they have nice pairs of jugs perching nicely above those well-defined abdominal muscles.

No, actually, I think it’s not just nice. It’s beautiful. Heavenly, even!

 Haah… As usual, my strike range is really wide. The only thing that turns me off is that when they get too drunk, they would start calling me Onii-chan, then talks to me in a childish tone and asking me to spoil them…

“Okami, here, we want to share this with you. We managed to hunt three Cockatrices today.”

One of the macho ladies gave me a big chunk of meat.

“Thank you. I’m going to make a Yakitori out of it, so I’ll bring it to you later.”

I handed the meat to Goku and he took it to the kitchen with a knowing look on his face. Goku has learned a lot and is now able to cook even without my supervision. He is a master at carving meat and skewering it.  

Also, I won’t be making Yakitori with salt. I’ll be using sauce since it seems that Japanese barbecue sauce is really popular here.

The next guest to arrive is Master Elza, and she brought the guild employees in tow.

“Heya, Shirou. We need a table for ten.”

It’s really unusual for them to come as a group.

“Welcome. Is there some kind of celebration going?”

“No, it’s not a celebration. According to the schedule, the next batch of ships will be here tomorrow. We are going to be busy soon, so I wanted to give them all a chance to replenish some energy.”

I see. The arrival of another ship would also mean the arrival of new adventurers, afterall.

“I want to have chilled white wine. For the food, I’ll take whatever available now.”

“Understood.”

I’m preparing shrimp and scallop terrine for appetizer. By the way, that was my father’s favorite dish. I’ve done a lot of things after coming to this world, but cooking always reminds me of my family. I’ve always liked cooking, but out of some strange rebellion, I refused to work at my parents’ restaurant and became an office worker instead.

There was my older brother, too, but both my parents had wanted me to be in charge of the kitchen instead.

I wonder if my parents would be happy if they knew that I am still cooking, even here in another world…?

“Good evening!” A new customer came in, and I came back to my senses.

“Welcome!”

Dear father and mother. I am still healthy, and now living happily in another world.

♢ ???’s POV

A fleet of ships carrying new adventurers had arrived at Monte Chris Island.

This time, 642 adventurers, 72 tradesmen, and 3 male prostitutes will land on this island. Incidentally, 128 of the adventurers who arrived on the previous fleet of ships had died, and 64 adventurers are scheduled to return when the ships sailed back.

　A pair of adventurers landed on the island, weaving their way through the hustle and bustle of the beach where the people are fully busy unloading the cargo.

“Heeeh… So this is the island you’ve been talking about, big sis?” The young woman with pigtails looked around and called out to the larger woman.

“Aah. When I found it, the existence of the dungeon was still unknown, though. Well, nothing I can do ‘bout it now, I’ll just have to go to the guild and find some work. Although… there’s a place I need to visit for a bit…”

The pigtails’ eyes twinkled, and she was grinning in amusement.

“Are you going to have a moving reunion with your lover? That must be nice, huuuhh?”

“I-Idiot! He is not my lover! …Shirou is someone who saved my life.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever.  Anyway you’re going to his place, right? I’m bored from all that long voyage anyway, so might as well tag along. By the way, I’m hungry so can we stop by some food stall first,  big-sis Cecily?”

The red-haired woman nodded anxiously. She then fixes her clothes and combed her hair.

“I don’t look weird, right?”

“Don’t worry, you look all fine and dandy. Besides, men in general are drawn to big breast, you know. I’m sure he’ll be happy to be swept away by that big, womanly, bosom of yours.”

“Is, is that so? But I heard at the bar that they don’t like it when it’s too big, right?”

“And I’ve told you that it’s only the grumbling of the women who are less endowed. I’m sure this Shirou-san would be more than happy to be embraced by your colossal bosom. And probably would be happily sucking it too.”

“I told you my relationship with Shirou is not like that! My relationship with him is… err…”

“Yeah yeah, I don’t really care what’s your relationship with him anyway, so can we start moving and find some shade? It’s so hot out here I think I’m going to die from a heatstroke.”

The female pirate Cecily has once again set foot on Monte Chris Island. This time as an adventurer.

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1 The more apt term is dynamic visual acuity: the ability to identify the details of visual targets when there are relative movements between the subjects and objects.

2 Both means big brother, but Ani-ue is no longer widely used now, it’s only often used for period play.