Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
「I hear that they arrived here in Stiren yesterday. How are things going right now？」
「Yes sir, they have been here since four days ago. Until yesterday they were staying at the Grand Forre, and then subsequently moved to their new workshop rental base on the outskirts of town.」
「Hm……」
The king’s office in Stiren Castle. After just about finishing his work for the day, the king asked the prime minister, who answered without pause.
「I see, so they were able to stay at Grand Forre. Perhaps they really are bigshots.」
「Yes, it would appear thus.」
「And after that？」
「They are not currently doing anything of importance.」
The king slightly furrowed his brow at that. They had done so splendidly in Crest Cave, so it just sounded plain fishy and discomforting to hear they were doing nothing.
「Really? They did not even get involved in the martial arts tournament？」
「After they found their base, the group just did a few things and now they’re doing nothing.」
The king asked a followup, to which the minister declared confidently there was nothing going on. Just as he had said, the team was truly doing nothing of note other than getting excited about the tournament underway.
「I see. So they are not doing anything suspicious.」
「It depends on what you deem to be suspicious, but right now they are not currently defying the law or doing anything that would appear to be uncouth. Then again, they haven’t done anything particularly noteworthy outside of Crest Cave, so I think perhaps we do not have much of a pretext to interfere other than that.」
「Hm. Then it seems that we should observe for a bit.」
Hearing that Hiroshi’s group was behaving, the king figured that was that. In regards to Aragod Mine and Crest Cave by extension as well as from what he heard from Farlane/Darl consultants, Hiroshi’s group was not the type to spearhead their own ambitions at the expense of others. Although he knew this to be true, the king had not actually seen them directly and they appeared to overesteem their own abilities, so he could not lower his guard.
「Ah, yes. What kind of situation is Crest Cave currently in？」
「The third furnace and fourth furnace, I have heard are operating smoothly. It isn’t quite enough to make up for how much steel production has fallen, but once the fifth and so on are completed in an orderly manner, we anticipate within three years that we will be able to switch completely from steel to magic steel manufacturing.」
「Hm……」
The manufacturing rate of magic steel products seemed to have been going up steadily. A large part of this was due to dwarves possessing the ability to refine magic steel with the right amount of mana, plus there were a lot of them. As a result, as long as they solved the lack of mana then it wouldn’t be hard to upgrade crafting.
「Oh yeah, on that note, I heard that the trash did something unnecessary. Any new developments？」
「Yes. We have already identified and apprehended the one who gave him the official documents. They appear to be attempting to talk their way out of this, but doubtless will be confessing to their crime by the tournament.」
「I see. So what kind of person is this that they almost had everything taken away from them on false charges？」
「I hear they are among the top five craftsmen of Crest Cave, capable of making simple finished goods. Unfortunately, their mana as a dwarf is exceptionally low, so despite having amazing skill, they don’t appear to be capable of refining or processing magic steel ore, but since they were provided with a new furnace in the name of experimentation, I hear they are creating never-before seen quality in magic steel products.」
「All right then……」
At that point, the Forre king seemed to catch on to the mechanism of the incident, a mixture of anger and exasperation on his face.
「Regardless of the reason, I think that someone has been underestimating me, Gouto, by working such injustice in my country with all of these craftsmen and expecting to get away with it. Do you not agree?」
「Most certainly.」
Sensing immediately what the king wanted, the minister deeply bowed his head before anything was even said. Of course, the king’s anger was shared with the minister, or in fact, shared with everyone involved. The problem was far more than being stupid. Whoever this was did harm to upright, skilled craftsmen despite being in a position to send out official documents and without considering the consequences.
「Now then, there is only so much time remaining until the deadline for the tournament. Ensure that you continue monitoring those adventurers to see what actions they will take.」
「Understood.」
After making a detour in their conversation to discuss taking out the “trash”, the Forre king returned to the original point at hand. The higher ups could do nothing but wait a bit longer for Hiroshi and friends to make a real move in Stiren.
「The deadline for the tournament is tomorrow. What will we do？」
「I ain’t got a reason to participate, mate」
One week after arriving in Stiren. Not realizing they were being monitored by the Forre king, the group had finally gotten around to discussing their future course of plan concerning the tournament. But since Hiroshi immediately cut down the suggestion, the group had no reason to participate in such a flashy event , especially not being actual martial artists themselves.
「Or does one of ya wanna get in？」
「Pass」
「Me neither, I guess？」
「I pass too」
All the girls immediately refused Hiroshi’s question. One on one combat was more of a drag than anything else, plus the prizes weren’t anything particularly appealing. Even without prize money, there were plenty of ways to rack up money, so they would much rather pass on fighting with opponents who could very well kill them, or, if they killed the opponent in the process someone might hold a grudge on them, etc.
Then again, Stiren’s tournament arena did have life protective functions built in that nullified attacks that went beyond a certain amount of damage (as long as the attacks weren’t extra skills like Titanic Roar or Gale Slash that busted through defense), meaning that the receiver of the attack would only be rendered unfit to battle. Therefore, normal matches would never bring about casualties.
「Bro, if ya wanna go at it we ain’t stoppin’ ya.」
「You think I actually want to？」
「Nope」
「That’s what I thought. Plus in 8 or 9 cases out of 10 I would win by holding back using oxide circle at the outset of the battle. That’s no fun at all, my guy.」
Hiroshi and the others found themselves agreeing with Tatsuya. Oxide Circle was naturally good against regular people, and even though the time it took to take them down via oxygen deprivation couldn’t be changed, it was extremely easy to hold back enough to render them comatose without leaving any after-effects.
「But you know, it’s such a convenient spell and yet I never actually heard about Oxide Circle until I saw you using it.」
「You can’t use it until proficiency of 75 or above, plus it doesn’t have much of an effect on dungeon monsters or behemoth-class field bosses. It’s honestly not too surprising why those on the front lines going through dungeons don’t use it.」
「Ah, okay, so it’s one of those technicalities.」
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
Makoto now understood why no one around her had used such beneficial magic before after hearing Tatsuya’s explanation. If such a spell didn’t work on dungeon monsters, obviously no one would use it in dungeons. Maybe someone she knew could use it effectively, but it had been nearly a year since she tried field hunting and got blasted off here. That was also a boss hunt, so there was still a high probability no one would have the opportunity to use it.
Digressing, once you learned Oxide Circle, you would find that the spell only had enough range to block off the mouth and nose of rabbits near Wulls and only enough time to possibly suffocate them. Also, the spell didn’t affect the body so it had no binding capabilities. You instead had to either have someone restrain the target or use a binding skill or spell of your own and then suffocate the target. Repeat the process thousands of times and your proficiency would go up by one. This was the reason why Oxide Circle was stuck as one of the minor spells.
「Well, we diverged a bit there, but I assume none of us are participating then？」
「Nope. We don’t even got a reason to, do we?」
「Gotcha. Then we don’t do anything in relation to the tournament, yes？」
Hiroshi’s mannerisms were a bit dodgy when Tatsuya confirmed this, and Tatsuya did not let that slip by his observant gaze, glaring at Hiroshi.
「You’re planning something sinister again, aren’t you？」
「Sinister, more like a prank really」
「What in the world would that be？」
Tatsuya questioned Hiroshi, whose gaze wavered midair as he attempted to explain. While it was truly worthless, Hiroshi figured it would affect many things if implemented properly, so he had to express it in a way to where he wouldn’t get shot down.
「Well, I’m still formulating it, but there’s two things I wanna do」
「Oh？ Such as？」
「First off, this is a good opportunity to get ahold of the practice weapons Haruna-san made and tweak ‘em to where we sell ‘em at a street stall. And I do got the permission from the guild.」
「Well yeah, it’s not like we have practical uses for them, so might as well sell as many as we can. What’s the other thing？」
While a bit taken aback at how wholesome, or normal, the request was, Tatsuya commented while keeping his guard up. This was Hiroshi they were talking about; who knew what he was thinking this time. Seeing as the other members were also somewhat on guard, you could tell no one trusted Hiroshi on even a matter as seemingly simple as this.
「The other thing is also related to takin’ care of the tweaked weapons Haruna-san made.」
「If that’s the goal in mind, I don’t think you need to try anything else……」
「But just sellin’ that stuff ain’t no fun at all」
Sure, Haruna’s creations were nothing great, but she still couldn’t bear the thought of someone messing around with them, so she scolded Hiroshi with her own objection, to which Hiroshi responded with the gut of only the most talented entertainer to combat her objection. Seeing this version of Hiroshi behave all jittery only made everyone feel more at unease.
「’N so, for the other thing I wanted to tackle……」
Leaning forward, Tatsuya and the others just waited with nervousness and unease for Hiroshi to continue with his rather grandiose-sounding plan.
「Don’tcha think it’d be fun if some nobody won the tourney with the power of equipment？」
「Heck no! That’s going overboard and you know it！！」
As expected, Hiroshi was always up to no good.
「Periodic message, periodic message」
Rainy contacted Layotte, while feeling relieved inwardly that her weight had not gone up this week.
『Anything different as of yet？』
「Several matters to report. The first is that Deary and his friends went to Stiren.」
『Hm, took them long enough』
As he inwardly remarked on how long it had taken, Layotte gestured for her to continue.
『And how were they doing？』
「Same as always, for the most part. They don’t seem to be operating a stall this time.」
『I did think they might skip out on the tournament, but they’re not even going to sell, huh……』
「Yeah. They moved their base yesterday and didn’t do any adventuring like searching for bases or running off places while they were in that hotel.」
As he heard the periodic report from Rainy, Layotte furrowed his brow at this first part. He could feel something was wrong.
『Is Hiroshi outside？』
「Deary’s been inside since he started using the workshop.」
『I really do not get a good feeling about this……』
Nine times out of ten, Hiroshi being a shut-in never led to anything good. No, it never resulted in huge casualties, but it frequently screwed up the expectations of both friend and foe.
『And what are the others doing？』
「Haruna and Mio are doing something with Deary. Tatsuya and Makoto seem to be doing odd jobs and hunting monsters.」
『Hm……』
This was truly suspicious. Preconceptions were never good, but Layotte could not see anything good coming from this.
『……Well, even if they’re up to no good, the only ones who will have to keep up with their shenanigans are the country they’re in and the evil god followers. Farlane will likely not be affected all that much.』
「Your Highness, that’s an awful thing to say」
『I am merely stating fundamentally what will happen. And it isn’t as if Farlane can intervene in Forre affairs without them asking us to, yes? You intervening where you can is one thing, but things will get much too convoluted if I were to get involved.』
「How awful my master is. He won’t even let me see Deary, and yet forces me to do everything just because I have no power……」
『That’s always what those in authority do. Give it a rest. So what else is there to report？』
They couldn’t keep up this two-man comedy skit. Forget the nonsense and move on.
「The big news is that no one can reach Elza Temple Main Branch」
『……That is very big news……』
「Yeah. The situation being as frantic as it is, I though to emergency contact them, but the first source of information wasn’t trustworthy enough so I tried to get higher reliability info. Simply contacting them based off a dubious rumor at best would only lead to this getting out of control, which I figured it was best to avoid.」
『Hm, I see. And when did you first pick up this info？』
「The night before yesterday. So even if I don’t get accurate enough info, I intended to report to you today. If this were right after the previous followup and I managed to gather enough by the afternoon the next day, I would have used the emergency contact without hesitation. Maybe waiting one week would have been rather bad, but waiting too days, I figured wouldn’t affect too much.」
Layotte nodded at how Rainy had handled the situation, for better or for worse. If there were dubious rumors such as this spreading around, they had to have had time to spread this far. Taking time to assess the validity of this information, when compared to that, was not going to have that major of an effect.
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
『So from how you said it, I take it that it’s pretty much confirmed？』
「Nearly. People trying to get to the main temple, several of them have gone missing. Also, people who should be arriving there have yet to show up. They say things started feeling suspicious around Stiren Temple right around when I reported to you last time. They were busy with the search around town and preparations and were only able to send out search parties yesterday early morning. And then things got hectic this morning when they realized the search party had yet to return the periodic contact.」
『I see. It sounds like a troublesome situation.』
「Yeah. I will, just in case, be checking out a route tomorrow, but honestly, it will be difficult for me to search much further than that. It’s Aearis’ realm of expertise now, I say.」
『Yeah, it sure is. I’ll take care of this particular matter. Depending on the situation, Aries herself may very well head over there.』
「Understood」
The earth mother goddess, Elza, one of the three great goddess pillars. Not being able to contact her in her own temple was a very bad sign. For this particular case, Forre couldn’t really fuss about “interfering in domestic affairs”.
「So next is Earl Dident, marked for forging documents and arrested by the Forre house.」
『At last, I see』
「Mm. The opportunity directly came about when the delinquents tried to get in Deary’s way with a worthless certificate. The hoodlums got arrested and they got a lot of info out of them bit by bit. Until about yesterday they were making these really cringey excuses and yapping, but I think they will have fully surrendered by afternoon today.」
『I see. Rather specific there. Where’d that info come from？』
「From one of the dwarves near the country’s center. We became chummy in exchange for weight, one of woman’s greatest hurdles.」
Layotte quickly knew what she meant.
『Were you actually that close with Marquis David？』
「Yeah, close enough to where we drink twice a week since I got wrapped up in the banquet at the tavern I was inspecting？」
『Oh, he really must like you.』
「So now as of recent, I’ve been obsessive about my liver and my weight.」
『Yeah, we’re talking dwarves after all. Sorry, but I’d like you to quit that, temper your liver and work at losing weight.』
While surprised to hear what a bigshot Rainy had found, Layotte had to be a bit cold to get Rainy back on track, even if it wasn’t her fault.
「Yeah, it’s really difficult to hang with dwarves two times a week. Your Highness, would it be alright for me to consult Deary about my liquor/diet plan？」
『……Well, I’ll allow it as long as you’re okay with exposing your lazy body.』
「Ugh……」
Pinpointing it where it hurt the most, Layotte made up for it by giving Rainy permission. She had certainly appeared to have made many important connections by giving up on various things while Hiroshi’s group was ravaging Crest Cave.
『So that’s all for the report？』
「Nothing else all that special. At most, maybe the fact that they’re starting to receive magic steel goods made from Crest Cave’s new furnaces and that the price of steel products has begun to stabilize.」
『I see. They are involved after all, so I should expect as much, but that was rather quick.』
「Also, in the words of the mining guildmaster over here, they should be able to bring the exported amount of steel products back to normal not long from now.」
『That’s great to hear.』
Layotte’s face loosened up on the other end when he heard Rainy’s good news. Unlike Darl, in Farlane you could excavate enough ore with enough demand as long as you didn’t care too much about quality. But with the quality of iron ore being the quality it was, Farlane was about two steps behind Forre in terms of both iron manufacturing and processing, so the limitations on exports from Forre were a serious pain of a problem.
Farlane had suppressed a large amount of its cuts in food supply, as it did, to an extent, procure its own food. Darl and Loren also procured a certain amount of iron for themselves, so they might have been fine, but for any other country, this would be a sucky situation.
After all, Forre was second in iron tech, with Farlane and Markto two steps behind. The other countries were even more steps behind, so you could easily see which countries might not take it well.
「And that’s about it for what I have to report.」
『Got it. And thank you for your work. I sent some extra budget, so make sure to go pick it up sometime tomorrow at the embassy.』
Hearing the rest of Rainy’s report, Layotte complimented her efforts and conveyed the monetary info before ending the transmission. Once that was over, Rainy gave a small sigh. As she had been laying off on the usual food intake, Rainy actually had quite a bit more freedom with money. Then again, she didn’t know what she should do with that freedom, so she just went along with accepting the amount.
「Guess I should work out a bit more before bed……」
Layotte didn’t have to tell her she was packing on the pounds. Though she was intently putting effort into reshaping her body every day, Rainy still ended up consuming more than a week’s worth of calories twice a week out of coercion. Without Mio’s level of fuel consumption, there would be no end to how many times she had to keep exercising.
「 I really should consult Deary tomorrow……」
Honestly, she didn’t want to show her current physique to Hiroshi, but constantly putting it off might make things too late for her when the time actually came. So before things became too late for her both as a woman and as a spy, Rainy was determined to expose her everything in front of the man she loved.
The same night that Rainy gave her periodic report, the workshop members had finished their job for the day, with Hiroshi constantly by a tired Haruna’s side to instruct her and with Mio and the other two assisting the operation, discussing advance arrangements for the finished products.
「Guess this is it for the lineup, y’all？」
「……Mm～、yeah, I think this is about it……」
Haruna concurred with Hiroshi after he made his conclusion based on the inspected products, her stamina and mana on the verge of being drained. The lineup in front of them consisted of ten longswords, eight large swords, five spears, three axes/hammers- quite the assortment. All of these were Haruna’s products over the last few days. Half of the longswords/large swords were items she had put a thorough amount of effort into at Crest Cave, while the remaining ones were remakes of the versions she had worked on at Crest Cave.
「……I sort of lost track in the process, but what do you think of their overall function……？」
「Other than your longswords, which are the best, the pure performance is quite a bit greater than what they sell in Farlane, but not quite up to dwarf standards.」
「Okaaay then. But I sorta expected that……」
Shoulders drooping at Mio’s precise evaluation, Haruna reached for the stamina potion. Without drinking it, Haruna did not feel she could recover from her fatigue today.
「So what I’m thinkin right now is we make em look juuust a lil bit defective n exaggerate the price to match the feel. Whatcha think?」
「Why exactly are we doing that？」
「old back the price so that we don’t get too much cash on hand, and then see if anyone can see through the disguise. Also, I plan to mix in some actual defects that Haruna made.」
Hiroshi answered Mio’s question with two reasons; one fairly sound, and the other clearly biased toward his own hobbies. While a bit put off at the reasoning, Haruna and Mio decided not to complain.
「So I think the real good ones will give some of the lower end magic steel products a run for their money, ‘n I plan to put this ‘n that into the final products」
「That’s all well and good, but how do you intend to tweak them？」
「Well, first ya gotta know that the bare requirements have all been met for functionality. I’m thinkin’ we gotta make some thorough enchantments.」
「Such as？」
「Harden it up with some real tough defense enchantments, maybe make it to the point where someone of Elle’s skill level can take on Wyverns」
Haruna and Mio interjected immediately into what Hiroshi said (he was clearly intending to play around too much). As scary as it sounded, attack enchantments were already in play during the forging process, so at this point the weapons had enough power to get the minimum necessary damage on the weaker wyverns.
「Now then, first we use behemoth oil to up all defense by 200%. Then we get an alligator tailbone for Passive Barrier 70% generation success rate, garbarensia poison sac for strengthening resistance against status effects (all) by 75%, ‘n then to top it all off, strengthen parry by 75% as well as lil status up adjustments, somethin’ like that, ‘n then……Ah, right. Gotta stick in some hidden functions that activate when the user’s in a pinch with their attack ‘n all that……」
「Sensei, that’s way too much……」
「The frick you talkin’ bout gurl? This is only the beginnin’!」
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
Mio had to interject into Hiroshi’s ridiculous enchantments, especially since he joked about it like it was some kind of prank. Nonetheless, it wasn’t like Hiroshi was planning on listening to that. There were even some enchantments mixed in that Haruna had never heard of, like the enchant/special ability Passive Barrier. And there was the whole “hidden function” thing. Just so many things that were questionable.
「Right, it’s complete. Wanna try holdin it？」
「……The heck is this sword supposed to be, Excaliber……?」
「I named it Defender Sword, mate. Someone like Doul uses it ‘n bam, Barold don’t even got a chance.」
Haruna simply commented at this clearly overprotected sword, half fearful and half exasperated. Hiroshi just had a smug grin on his face as he continued saying very alarming things.
「Only misgiving I might have is that since the material’s iron, I wasn’t able to strengthen it with a 100% Passive Barrier rate or a high parry rate. I guess 200% power up for all defense on lower level materials cranks up the difficulty for other enchantment types.」
At this questionable statement of Hiroshi’s (Seriously? You’re dissatisfied?) Haruna’s feelings went straight past exasperation to a sort of respect. To put it clearly, this sword was strong enough to help a rookie adventurer clear out a stone ant nest.
「Sensei, how’s the output for this sword’s passive barrier？」
「It absorbs 5,000 from any damage not blocked by defense. It ain’t no problem with Doul or Juli’s regular attacks, but intermediate level skills’ll pierce right through it.」
「And with the efficiency rate, it does feel a bit meh」
(You think that’s “meh”?) thought Haruna to herself as she listened to Hiroshi and Mio’s conversation with a faraway look in her eyes. But in fact, absorbing 5,000 damage, once you got above a certain level, attack inflation increased by drastic numbers to where 5,000 became very “meh” indeed, at least in Fairy Tale. However, you only truly began to feel that way once you got into the realm of the shut-in player. Take Tatsuya for example, who was near the edge of the 200’s in level, only a few digits away.
Besides, the weapon had more than excellent capabilities in terms of guaranteeing reduced damage, and for those like Hiroshi or Douga with fantastic defense, with all the other enchantments loaded onto the thing, 5,000 damage absorption was actually pretty crazy.
In the first place, criticizing these numbers would completely end up ostracizing other popular, similar functioning intermediate defensive absorption spells.
「So, Hiroshi-kun……」
「Hm？」
「If I recall, when you get Absorb to proficiency 75 or so, if your Knowledge is around 300 then that’s how much defense gets added to your stats. And you still think it’s “meh”……」
「Yup, cuz its invocation rate is only 70%. A lil difficult to compare it with Absorb, which always activates.」
「And I do get that part, but when you consider how it activates without any cost or cooldown, isn’t it a little dismissive to call it “meh”?」
Haruna, who could theoretically be seen as the “sanest” member of the group, interjected into Hiroshi and Mio’s conversation, which had completely dropped any sense of sanity. If Tatsuya and Makoto were here with her, they would have most definitely agreed.
「My senses have been dulling recently, but I still think that Hiroshi-kun really lacks common sense when it comes to making things……」
「Whaaat? Such a horrible thing to say mate……」
「Well yeah, I bet if a level 1 beginner made a weapon that could easily take out stone ants and all that, people would be saying some stuff……」
「Nah, but level 1 players increasing their defense wouldn’t change their papier mâché stats.」
Hiroshi’s products were always questionable, and recently he had been making more intermediate/advanced weapons, so Haruna didn’t question that aspect, but now that he had mana-modified the longsword that she had made, she was forced to once again recall that common sense did not apply to this man.
「Haru, Haru」
「Yes？」
「This is probably just a result of critical manufacturing, but still, you can make the basic form of said weapons, so you’re not any different from him, Haru.」
「You’re one to talk, Mio-chan, making all those weapons without even batting an eye……」
Mio thrust the unavoidable truth before Haruna, who still managed to squeeze out a retort. Either way, any outsider would see all three of them as the same. More normal workshop members like Teres or Nora would undoubtedly give a firm agreement that Haruna couldn’t talk.
「So Haruna-san, seems like there are plenty of regular enchantments we don’t know round here. What exactly were normal enchanting crafters like？」
「One of the people I knew was very popular, and they said they were on the edge of intermediate. Also, it appears that all they could do was strengthen the performance of commonly known enchantments.」
「Ah～. Yeah, that’s cuz ya can’t git original enchantments to succeed until ya git into advanced. ‘N then if ya wanna level ‘em up ya gotta enchant ‘em durin’ the manufacturin’ process or apply ‘em to the treatment sequence. That way ya raise ‘em quicker. Yeah, I can see why they had trouble with it.」
「Is that so」
「It sure is mate. Actually, Haruna-san, yer boutta git into intermediate at the rate yer goin’.」
「Whaaa！？」
Haruna exclaimed in pure amazement at what Hiroshi pointed out. However, come to think about it, this time they had practiced using enchantments from the refinement step and continued to use the applications of initial enchantments in both alchemy and potionmaking. If they were going along the lines of Hiroshi’s explanation, then there wasn’t a single reason why Haruna shouldn’t finally be getting into intermediate level.
「Well, it ain’t anythin’ too weird. Alchemy, enchanting, ‘n crafting have many applications in the manufacturin’ field, so it ain’t rare at all to find people who git to intermediate before learnin’ Making Mastery.」
「Really now」
「Yup yup. And then ya got Mio, who also got alchemy ‘n enchanting to intermediate first.」
Haruna looked from Hiroshi over to Mio to confirm, and Mio affirmed it by nodding.
「Well, once ya git into intermediate, ya can restore an even wider assortment of enchantments from documents, so when we got time imma teach ya summa them.」
「Right」
「Now then, from tomorrow onward we have the stall ready to go, ‘n then we couldn’t give Makoto-san a proper birthday celebration with all the hustle ‘n bustle after the pre-celebration.」
「……Yeah, but the pre-celebration was already so magnificent that I dunno if we can top it.」
Hopping onto the obvious change in subject, Haruna pointed out a potential issue. Sure, they were in a pinch that particular day, but they had still ended up celebrating Makoto’s pre-birthday with luxurious food and expensive beverages. Making the actual party celebration any more grandiose than that sounded like a very tiring process, which was a turn-off for her, but then again, it wasn’t like she wanted to not celebrate it.
「She said the same thing ‘erself, so this time around we drop the act ‘n just git sum new booze ‘n food that Makoto-san likes to eat, ‘n then we’ll prolly end up washin’ down cake with sum tea.」
「Mm～、I really do feel sorry about this, but there aren’t any other options right？」
「Well, I do got pen, paper, every kind of screentone ‘n a printin’ press chillin’ over here, but I guess it’s up to her if she wanna use it, eh」
「Hiroshi-kun, when in the world did you get your hands on a printing press……」
Either way, Hiroshi had apparently gotten all of that ready as if it were perfectly normal. Haruna just had a genuinely exasperated look on her face.
「Cuz with that ya can make doujinshi ‘n much more. By the way mate, it can also do offset printin’ ‘n book makin’ all on its own.」
「Sensei, that’s clearly skipping a few steps in the technological process」
「Eh, the peeps down below have basically the same gear, so don’tcha think it’s pretty normal？」
Mio wasn’t exactly sure how to counter Hiroshi’s overqualified comparison with the abnormal people of the earth. True, their technology was completely isolated from the standards of the overworld residents, but at least they weren’t imitating something they shouldn’t even be able to make and then completing products that would make anyone nearly wet themselves in shock.
「Well, anyhoo. Now we gotta ask ‘er what she wants to eat tomorrow……」
「I’m back～」
「Oh. Speak of the devil, or however it goes, eh?」
Makoto and Tatsuya got back at just the right time to find Hiroshi and the other two rather restless over the next day’s discussion. Neither of them could possibly know this, but anyhow, they showed up to the forge where everyone was.
「Bro, Makoto-san, welcome back」
「Sup my guy, glad to be back」
「Hello. Are you done with the weapons? Also, what’s for dinner？」
Looking at the facial expressions of the student trio, Makoto gave a quick greeting before immediately jumping to what she was most concerned about.
「Weapons are done, mate. We’re gonna get to dinner in a minute here. Anything ya had in mind, Haruna-san？」
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
「Mm～、I found something similar to a bitter gourd, so I thought maybe I could mash it together with rock boar to make gourd champloo. And then there’s also a winter melon-like item (though the shape is different), so I intend to stew that up. Ah, and of course we still have seasonal edamame and miso sauce I can put in, kay？」
「Ooo～。Haruna, I love you！！」
「Thanks」
This was apparently a direct strike into Makoto’s current appetite, although Haruna had to grimace a bit at how overdramatic she was.
「So Makoto-san, what do you want to eat tomorrow？」
「Tomorrow? Ah, right. Don’t worry too much about it, but if I had to say, it’d be great if I could get a bunch of tasty snacks, I guess? And it’d be amazing if the snacks went well with rice.」
「Gotcha. I’ll think of all sorts of ideas. And the cake？」
「I do kinda want one with plenty of fruit inside, but I’m always fine with keeping it simple.」
Nodding at Makoto’s request, Haruna began planning even more things than earlier. There would be no issues with stocking up, so all that was left was to meet the requests and go all out. For now, a whole cake cut up into slices with something small on each piece for everyone should satisfy both requests. Everyone here was still young, so there was no doubt they could all easily consume two pieces of cake.
「I finished the planning right now, so all that’s left is to find some tasty looking liquor tomorrow.」
「Gotcha. I’m looking forward to it!」
Once they finished a simple briefing on tomorrow’s dinner, Haruna unveiled the day’s deliverables. The majority of them just proved how far Haruna’s skills had come, but of course, as for the main weapon…
「Dude, what kind of boss are you planning to screw with……」
Makoto had no option other than to make an exasperated comment, but this stays between us.
And the next day.
「Oh？ Rainy, you’re here？」
「Sorry for coming so early. I have something I’d like to discuss with Deary. I have permission from His Highness. Is it alright？」
Tatsuya, who Haruna had asked to come with her to find some good booze for the night, noticed Rainy waiting for someone to greet her outside. Haruna herself was currently giving the food storage another check to figure out what to stock up on.
「Discuss？ Like what？」
「It’s embarrassing, but I guess I’ll just say it’s about my diet.」
At the word diet, Tatsuya immediately scanned Rainy’s body. He didn’t think she had to worry about anything, but it was true that she was maybe a bit more all-around bigger than before. Honestly, he was more concerned about her face seeming slightly pale.
「……I don’t think you need to worry about it too much……」
「It’s difficult to even keep it in this shape when I get dragged off to dwarf banquets twice a week……」
「Ah～、I see your pain……」
Tatsuya understood a lot more when Rainy mentioned dwarf banquets. Indeed, you would have to maintain a diet when attending those functions. Even if you tried to maintain efforts to reverse the negative effects, the moment you ran into an issue and became unable to continue exercising was the moment you put on weight.
「So this is also a countermeasure against alcohol, I assume？」
「Yeah. I don’t even think all the alcohol has left me from two days ago……」
「……Wow, the struggle is real with you……」
「I’m envious of Makoto and Mio……」
Rainy, who had her own challenges at emotional expression (a bit different than Mio), actually had an empathetic look on her face as she mumbled earnestly. As a girl whose growth period was nearing its end, a dwarf banquet was, in many ways, the cruelest environment.
「Tatsuya-san, thanks for waiting. Wait, Rainy-san？」
「I have something I need to consult with Deary. I have permission from His Highness. Is that ok？」
Sensing an unusual lack of power in Rainy’s demeanor, Haruna immediately looked over to Tatsuya.
「I’m sure you feel some way about this, but go ahead and let her off this time.」
「Well, if you do indeed have His Highness’s permission, then I’m fine with it as long as you don’t throw yourself at him. Oh, not only is your face kinda pale, but have you put on some weight？」
With a merciless straight liner from Haruna, Rainy unleashed an atmosphere of gloom. At that very moment, Haruna knew she had stepped hard on a land mine. Before she could correct her mistake, the dull Rainy opened her mouth.
「Haruna, even you would definitely pack on weight if you had to tag along with dwarf banquets more than twice a week……」
「Ah～……」
Grasping the entire situation with Rainy’s words, Haruna empathized with all her might. Seeing as everyone appeared to agree on this matter, you can easily tell just how dangerous dwarf banquets were to women of other countries. So for Makoto and Mio to go to those things and come out with nothing different with their body in any way was seriously wack. The two of them were clearly drinking more liquids or eating more food than could fit in their stomach, or even their entire body’s capacity. The two of them could give heavy drinkers and food fighters a run for their money.
「But is your body holding up？」
「I’m starting to get the impression that the alcohol isn’t quite leaving my body……」
「……In that case, it would definitely be in your best interest to consult Hiroshi-kun about it.」
Realizing the gravity of the situation even more than Rainy herself, Haruna decided to have Hiroshi talk it over with her. Although their relations weren’t great, Haruna didn’t dislike her to the point of wanting her to die or anything. Yeah, she was one heck of a pervert, but every time they met Haruna felt like Rainy was gaining more and more common sense, and there was no way she could bear to leave Rainy in this predicament.
「First thing is you need to behave yourself. Rush at Hiroshi-kun even once and I’ll revoke this discussion of yours, okay?」
「I can’t disrobe in front of Deary with this loose body of mine……」
「I wouldn’t say it’s that bad, but well, I get you……」
No matter how much you understand there are no issues, as a maiden in love, it’s never fine to reveal yourself to your man when you pack on weight. Haruna understood that mentality more than a little. Before coming here, as long as she wasn’t that hard on the eyes she was fine. Or so Haruna had thought, but now that she had fallen in love for the first time, that mindset just sounded ridiculous to her.
Of course, she also hated the thought of slimming down too much and looking wretched. A maiden in love must always find the best digits to maintain continuously.
「Anyhow, we shouldn’t just talk out here. Come on in.」
「Thank you.」
Encouraged by Haruna, Rainy timidly entered the house. She was quite meek at the moment, not with her usual presence of mind, but decided to go on in to where Hiroshi was.
「Eh？Wazzup y’all?？Wait, it’s you Rainy？」
A puzzled expression on his face as he looked at Haruna and Tatsuya come back in, Hiroshi immediately tensed himself when he saw Rainy hiding behind them. Granted, this was to be expected with three previous incidents on her record.
「Hiro, I think it’s fine this time」
「Actually, she’s totally got the short end of the stick. Help her out okay?」
「If y’all say so then I’m cool wit it, but, oh, did yer bod git bigger Rainy？」
「Agh……」
With Tatsuya and Haruna smoothing things out, Hiroshi kept his guard up but also noticed that detail about Rainy. Groaning at that one comment of his, Rainy put both hands on the ground with a crestfallen pose.
「Ya don’t look so good either, wazzup mate？」
「Well, she’s bound to look like this after going to dwarf banquets twice a week, my guy.」
「Ah, I get it now……」
At that, Hiroshi grasped the details of Rainy’s slightly off appearance and what she had come to him for. Again, you could really tell just how different the dwarf world was by how quickly everyone here had intercepted Rainy’s ongoing dilemma so far.
「Actually, I’m thinkin’ yer better off than last I saw ya. I was all like “How does her chest stay intact?”, but right now yer lookin’ kinda just right……」
「Deary, you just don’t get it……」
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
「Yeah, but I dunno how to respond to that……」
Hiroshi really didn’t feel comfortable trying to grasp an understanding of the female psyche. But of course, humans are not always the most rational of beings.
「Even as a spy, I seem to be nearing a fatal end……」
「Is it really that difficult to move around？」
「I can barely move around like I’ve been. If this food habit continues, it won’t be long before I can’t keep up the pace……」
「Riiight……」
Hiroshi could no longer tell Rainy to not worry as he saw her serious expression. As it seemed that Rainy was continuously trying to thin herself out by training to the max and yet still gradually increasing weight, they might need to implement a strategy.
「Well, although we certainly don’t got nothin’ that can drastically decrease yer weight, I do got potions that speed up calorie combustion ‘n dietary foods that speed up waist fat combustion.」
「We can count on you for that then？」
「Yeah, cuz it sounds like yer gonna be in a real pinch if ya screw up. But this is just to cancel out yer intake from the dwarf parties, and it prolly ain’t gonna reduce yer current weight during that time. Also, once yer not involved in those gatherings anymore, there’s a risk of yer body weight goin’ down too quickly, so if ya don’t git back to regular eatin’ habits within a week or two of that yer gonna be in danger.」
「Okay, got it」
Rainy nodded meekly at Hiroshi. She of course knew full well not to drop her weight too much. Without an urgent situation like this, she would probably never have even considered a diet.
「Now for the alcohol countermeasure, first how bout we git rid of all that alcohol in ya.」
Hiroshi said, handing a panacea and a class 3 stamina potion to Rainy. She appeared to be on the brink of getting prognostic symptoms. Unless she drank at least a class 3 stamina potion her liver would gradually stop rejuvenating. Since she wasn’t quite there yet, class 3 would work fine, but give it two weeks and she would either need a class 2 or a long process of healing.
「……I sort of feel like my body is super light now……」
「Cuz it seems liver symptoms have come up. Sure, I git some of it’s part of the job, but ya really been overdoin it mate.」
「I know, but I really can’t refuse when dwarves hand me liquor……」
「Nah, prolly can’t. So in that case I’ll make some potions for ya to drink before ‘n after the parties that help dissolve alcohol. I also gotta prepare the diet stuff, so come back ‘round evening, aight mate」
「Okay. Thanks, Deary」
Finding the slightest amount of light to help her escape this turmoil, Rainy lowered her head to Hiroshi with a slightly faraway, happy look in her face from the bottom of her heart. The only reason she didn’t resort to perverted stunts this time around was probably because of her screwed up biorythm, which wouldn’t go back to normal just from subtracting the liver damage.
「Ah, right. I should also give a report」
「Mm？Wazzup？」
「I’m still investigating the details, but we haven’t been able to contact the main Elza Temple.」
「……Welp, that sounds troubling. Where even is the main temple anyhoo？」
「Spirit Spire Mountain, at the halfway point. Lots of stuff happened in the past, and it’s closed off to the general public. So the precise location and routes to get there are confidential.」
Hiroshi and Haruna made difficult expressions at Rainy’s info. Such a strange occurrence.
「So being closed off to the public means ya gotta have a connection that can git ya in……」
「I decided to leave the temple for Aearis-sama to deal with. As for the routes, I managed to calculate that the temple’s about midway from what I gathered. I’ll be searching around that point a bit today.」
「……I think yer underestimatin’ yer bod right now, so I recommend ya rest for now.」
「……You’re concerned about me？」
「Well yeah, I wouldn’t sleep well knowin’ that an acquaintance is in harm’s way. Haruna-san ‘n everyone allowed this cuz they thought the same thing right？」
Haruna and Tatsuya nodded at Hiroshi. They didn’t have much of a connection with Rainy, nor did they want to, but neither did they wish ill will on her. This was why Rainy’s pitiable condition was more than enough to persuade the good-natured Azuma Workshop to help out.
「Right now yer digestive organs’re prolly weakened, so imma git out some potions over here. But don’t go splashin’ around just cuz ya got healed」
「Then I’ll go make some porridge」
「So once yer done drinkin’ the potion, eat the porridge ‘n git some rest, ya should be back to full health by evenin’. Take it easy at yer place fer today, mate」
「Thank you……」
Rainy said her thanks in a slightly hoarse voice as she faced the ground, impressed by their kindness. Haruna’s eyes widened when she observed this, but she soon smiled kindly and nodded before wordlessly going off to the kitchen.
「Today’s Makoto-san’s birthday party, so dinner’s gonna be snackeroos with liquor for you. Now that I gotcha here, I wanted to have Bro or Makoto-san teach ya how to properly drink liquor ‘n all that.」
「I might be able to, but do you really think Makoto would be a good source？」
「Welp, Makoto-san does feel like she’s just jumpin’ into a sea of liquor when she glugs it down, which is kinda dicey, yeah…」
Hiroshi said as he handed all the potions he mentioned to Rainy on the spot. Hiroshi’s group didn’t need stomach potions, antipyretics, or anti-travel medicine, but as these were all frequently used items, they had quite the assortment of the various categories.
「Porridge is ready. As a precaution I wrapped it with rot prevention cloth, so take care on your way home and take off the cloth before eating, okay?」
「Thank you so much.」
Rainy just expressed her gratitude over and over again, knowing that Haruna didn’t even like her but was still being nice to her. With this she would be fully restored by night, and then with Makoto’s birthday celebration of behemoth horn stew and edamame (among other things) to go with the drinks, Tatsuya would teach Rainy how to put on an act while eating a certain amount of food as well as how to drink while keeping in pace with the dwarves.
「I know they wouldn’t want to be this relaxed, but I still think the dwarf parties should tone down the aggressiveness a bit……」
「Yeah, I totally agree～」
Rainy remarked keenly, not being forced to do anything and just eating/drinking at her own pace at this relaxed party, to which Haruna agreed with all her heart.
「Oh, but I actually like those lively parties.」
「Yes, I’m quite jealous of you Makoto, for how you just go at it with the dwarves to see who gets knocked out first……」
Rainy remarked, truly envious, to which Makoto felt a bit sorry for her and joined in on giving her proper drinking guidance. And with that, the mellow party continued its course.
「I haven’t tasted good food in so long……」
「Oh yeah? Glad you like it. There’s dessert too by the way.」
「I can’t wait…and this fried tree bud is tasty……」
「It’s one of Stiren’s local specialties, and it gets sprouts this season I hear. Yep, lots of things you can’t find in Wulls.」
Rainy appeared to be truly enjoying this long sought after food, and the members of Azuma Workshop felt themselves mellowing out a lot as they watched her. She was doing her best to keep herself from overdoing things while thoroughly savoring the taste of each bite.
「Apparently the individual tournament division this year is a three way struggle.」
「Hmm, hmm」
「The combinations will be revealed tomorrow. The likely candidates to win are……」
Since this was a party and all, Rainy proactively shared stories that might end up being good conversation topics. Information particularly centered around the competition was something Hiroshi and the others were grateful for, as they had lived a mostly secluded lifestyle since arriving in Stiren. The information she gave early would already have been plenty, but……
「An earl……from Farlane, and another……from Darl」
「Huh？ Are you for real？」
「And then one of the members of Farlane’s regional order of knights……」
「Oo! Fill me in on that one！」
「And then……」
「Fwaaah！！ I feel the energy flowing through me！！」
Receiving an unnecessary birthday present from Rainy in the rotten form of a fresh info dump, Makoto was now more than ready to fully operate the art supplies and printer she had received from Hiroshi.
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
「I hear that they arrived here in Stiren yesterday. How are things going right now？」
「Yes sir, they have been here since four days ago. Until yesterday they were staying at the Grand Forre, and then subsequently moved to their new workshop rental base on the outskirts of town.」
「Hm……」
The king’s office in Stiren Castle. After just about finishing his work for the day, the king asked the prime minister, who answered without pause.
「I see, so they were able to stay at Grand Forre. Perhaps they really are bigshots.」
「Yes, it would appear thus.」
「And after that？」
「They are not currently doing anything of importance.」
The king slightly furrowed his brow at that. They had done so splendidly in Crest Cave, so it just sounded plain fishy and discomforting to hear they were doing nothing.
「Really? They did not even get involved in the martial arts tournament？」
「After they found their base, the group just did a few things and now they’re doing nothing.」
The king asked a followup, to which the minister declared confidently there was nothing going on. Just as he had said, the team was truly doing nothing of note other than getting excited about the tournament underway.
「I see. So they are not doing anything suspicious.」
「It depends on what you deem to be suspicious, but right now they are not currently defying the law or doing anything that would appear to be uncouth. Then again, they haven’t done anything particularly noteworthy outside of Crest Cave, so I think perhaps we do not have much of a pretext to interfere other than that.」
「Hm. Then it seems that we should observe for a bit.」
Hearing that Hiroshi’s group was behaving, the king figured that was that. In regards to Aragod Mine and Crest Cave by extension as well as from what he heard from Farlane/Darl consultants, Hiroshi’s group was not the type to spearhead their own ambitions at the expense of others. Although he knew this to be true, the king had not actually seen them directly and they appeared to overesteem their own abilities, so he could not lower his guard.
「Ah, yes. What kind of situation is Crest Cave currently in？」
「The third furnace and fourth furnace, I have heard are operating smoothly. It isn’t quite enough to make up for how much steel production has fallen, but once the fifth and so on are completed in an orderly manner, we anticipate within three years that we will be able to switch completely from steel to magic steel manufacturing.」
「Hm……」
The manufacturing rate of magic steel products seemed to have been going up steadily. A large part of this was due to dwarves possessing the ability to refine magic steel with the right amount of mana, plus there were a lot of them. As a result, as long as they solved the lack of mana then it wouldn’t be hard to upgrade crafting.
「Oh yeah, on that note, I heard that the trash did something unnecessary. Any new developments？」
「Yes. We have already identified and apprehended the one who gave him the official documents. They appear to be attempting to talk their way out of this, but doubtless will be confessing to their crime by the tournament.」
「I see. So what kind of person is this that they almost had everything taken away from them on false charges？」
「I hear they are among the top five craftsmen of Crest Cave, capable of making simple finished goods. Unfortunately, their mana as a dwarf is exceptionally low, so despite having amazing skill, they don’t appear to be capable of refining or processing magic steel ore, but since they were provided with a new furnace in the name of experimentation, I hear they are creating never-before seen quality in magic steel products.」
「All right then……」
At that point, the Forre king seemed to catch on to the mechanism of the incident, a mixture of anger and exasperation on his face.
「Regardless of the reason, I think that someone has been underestimating me, Gouto, by working such injustice in my country with all of these craftsmen and expecting to get away with it. Do you not agree?」
「Most certainly.」
Sensing immediately what the king wanted, the minister deeply bowed his head before anything was even said. Of course, the king’s anger was shared with the minister, or in fact, shared with everyone involved. The problem was far more than being stupid. Whoever this was did harm to upright, skilled craftsmen despite being in a position to send out official documents and without considering the consequences.
「Now then, there is only so much time remaining until the deadline for the tournament. Ensure that you continue monitoring those adventurers to see what actions they will take.」
「Understood.」
After making a detour in their conversation to discuss taking out the “trash”, the Forre king returned to the original point at hand. The higher ups could do nothing but wait a bit longer for Hiroshi and friends to make a real move in Stiren.
「The deadline for the tournament is tomorrow. What will we do？」
「I ain’t got a reason to participate, mate」
One week after arriving in Stiren. Not realizing they were being monitored by the Forre king, the group had finally gotten around to discussing their future course of plan concerning the tournament. But since Hiroshi immediately cut down the suggestion, the group had no reason to participate in such a flashy event , especially not being actual martial artists themselves.
「Or does one of ya wanna get in？」
「Pass」
「Me neither, I guess？」
「I pass too」
All the girls immediately refused Hiroshi’s question. One on one combat was more of a drag than anything else, plus the prizes weren’t anything particularly appealing. Even without prize money, there were plenty of ways to rack up money, so they would much rather pass on fighting with opponents who could very well kill them, or, if they killed the opponent in the process someone might hold a grudge on them, etc.
Then again, Stiren’s tournament arena did have life protective functions built in that nullified attacks that went beyond a certain amount of damage (as long as the attacks weren’t extra skills like Titanic Roar or Gale Slash that busted through defense), meaning that the receiver of the attack would only be rendered unfit to battle. Therefore, normal matches would never bring about casualties.
「Bro, if ya wanna go at it we ain’t stoppin’ ya.」
「You think I actually want to？」
「Nope」
「That’s what I thought. Plus in 8 or 9 cases out of 10 I would win by holding back using oxide circle at the outset of the battle. That’s no fun at all, my guy.」
Hiroshi and the others found themselves agreeing with Tatsuya. Oxide Circle was naturally good against regular people, and even though the time it took to take them down via oxygen deprivation couldn’t be changed, it was extremely easy to hold back enough to render them comatose without leaving any after-effects.
「But you know, it’s such a convenient spell and yet I never actually heard about Oxide Circle until I saw you using it.」
「You can’t use it until proficiency of 75 or above, plus it doesn’t have much of an effect on dungeon monsters or behemoth-class field bosses. It’s honestly not too surprising why those on the front lines going through dungeons don’t use it.」
「Ah, okay, so it’s one of those technicalities.」
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
Makoto now understood why no one around her had used such beneficial magic before after hearing Tatsuya’s explanation. If such a spell didn’t work on dungeon monsters, obviously no one would use it in dungeons. Maybe someone she knew could use it effectively, but it had been nearly a year since she tried field hunting and got blasted off here. That was also a boss hunt, so there was still a high probability no one would have the opportunity to use it.
Digressing, once you learned Oxide Circle, you would find that the spell only had enough range to block off the mouth and nose of rabbits near Wulls and only enough time to possibly suffocate them. Also, the spell didn’t affect the body so it had no binding capabilities. You instead had to either have someone restrain the target or use a binding skill or spell of your own and then suffocate the target. Repeat the process thousands of times and your proficiency would go up by one. This was the reason why Oxide Circle was stuck as one of the minor spells.
「Well, we diverged a bit there, but I assume none of us are participating then？」
「Nope. We don’t even got a reason to, do we?」
「Gotcha. Then we don’t do anything in relation to the tournament, yes？」
Hiroshi’s mannerisms were a bit dodgy when Tatsuya confirmed this, and Tatsuya did not let that slip by his observant gaze, glaring at Hiroshi.
「You’re planning something sinister again, aren’t you？」
「Sinister, more like a prank really」
「What in the world would that be？」
Tatsuya questioned Hiroshi, whose gaze wavered midair as he attempted to explain. While it was truly worthless, Hiroshi figured it would affect many things if implemented properly, so he had to express it in a way to where he wouldn’t get shot down.
「Well, I’m still formulating it, but there’s two things I wanna do」
「Oh？ Such as？」
「First off, this is a good opportunity to get ahold of the practice weapons Haruna-san made and tweak ‘em to where we sell ‘em at a street stall. And I do got the permission from the guild.」
「Well yeah, it’s not like we have practical uses for them, so might as well sell as many as we can. What’s the other thing？」
While a bit taken aback at how wholesome, or normal, the request was, Tatsuya commented while keeping his guard up. This was Hiroshi they were talking about; who knew what he was thinking this time. Seeing as the other members were also somewhat on guard, you could tell no one trusted Hiroshi on even a matter as seemingly simple as this.
「The other thing is also related to takin’ care of the tweaked weapons Haruna-san made.」
「If that’s the goal in mind, I don’t think you need to try anything else……」
「But just sellin’ that stuff ain’t no fun at all」
Sure, Haruna’s creations were nothing great, but she still couldn’t bear the thought of someone messing around with them, so she scolded Hiroshi with her own objection, to which Hiroshi responded with the gut of only the most talented entertainer to combat her objection. Seeing this version of Hiroshi behave all jittery only made everyone feel more at unease.
「’N so, for the other thing I wanted to tackle……」
Leaning forward, Tatsuya and the others just waited with nervousness and unease for Hiroshi to continue with his rather grandiose-sounding plan.
「Don’tcha think it’d be fun if some nobody won the tourney with the power of equipment？」
「Heck no! That’s going overboard and you know it！！」
As expected, Hiroshi was always up to no good.
「Periodic message, periodic message」
Rainy contacted Layotte, while feeling relieved inwardly that her weight had not gone up this week.
『Anything different as of yet？』
「Several matters to report. The first is that Deary and his friends went to Stiren.」
『Hm, took them long enough』
As he inwardly remarked on how long it had taken, Layotte gestured for her to continue.
『And how were they doing？』
「Same as always, for the most part. They don’t seem to be operating a stall this time.」
『I did think they might skip out on the tournament, but they’re not even going to sell, huh……』
「Yeah. They moved their base yesterday and didn’t do any adventuring like searching for bases or running off places while they were in that hotel.」
As he heard the periodic report from Rainy, Layotte furrowed his brow at this first part. He could feel something was wrong.
『Is Hiroshi outside？』
「Deary’s been inside since he started using the workshop.」
『I really do not get a good feeling about this……』
Nine times out of ten, Hiroshi being a shut-in never led to anything good. No, it never resulted in huge casualties, but it frequently screwed up the expectations of both friend and foe.
『And what are the others doing？』
「Haruna and Mio are doing something with Deary. Tatsuya and Makoto seem to be doing odd jobs and hunting monsters.」
『Hm……』
This was truly suspicious. Preconceptions were never good, but Layotte could not see anything good coming from this.
『……Well, even if they’re up to no good, the only ones who will have to keep up with their shenanigans are the country they’re in and the evil god followers. Farlane will likely not be affected all that much.』
「Your Highness, that’s an awful thing to say」
『I am merely stating fundamentally what will happen. And it isn’t as if Farlane can intervene in Forre affairs without them asking us to, yes? You intervening where you can is one thing, but things will get much too convoluted if I were to get involved.』
「How awful my master is. He won’t even let me see Deary, and yet forces me to do everything just because I have no power……」
『That’s always what those in authority do. Give it a rest. So what else is there to report？』
They couldn’t keep up this two-man comedy skit. Forget the nonsense and move on.
「The big news is that no one can reach Elza Temple Main Branch」
『……That is very big news……』
「Yeah. The situation being as frantic as it is, I though to emergency contact them, but the first source of information wasn’t trustworthy enough so I tried to get higher reliability info. Simply contacting them based off a dubious rumor at best would only lead to this getting out of control, which I figured it was best to avoid.」
『Hm, I see. And when did you first pick up this info？』
「The night before yesterday. So even if I don’t get accurate enough info, I intended to report to you today. If this were right after the previous followup and I managed to gather enough by the afternoon the next day, I would have used the emergency contact without hesitation. Maybe waiting one week would have been rather bad, but waiting too days, I figured wouldn’t affect too much.」
Layotte nodded at how Rainy had handled the situation, for better or for worse. If there were dubious rumors such as this spreading around, they had to have had time to spread this far. Taking time to assess the validity of this information, when compared to that, was not going to have that major of an effect.
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
『So from how you said it, I take it that it’s pretty much confirmed？』
「Nearly. People trying to get to the main temple, several of them have gone missing. Also, people who should be arriving there have yet to show up. They say things started feeling suspicious around Stiren Temple right around when I reported to you last time. They were busy with the search around town and preparations and were only able to send out search parties yesterday early morning. And then things got hectic this morning when they realized the search party had yet to return the periodic contact.」
『I see. It sounds like a troublesome situation.』
「Yeah. I will, just in case, be checking out a route tomorrow, but honestly, it will be difficult for me to search much further than that. It’s Aearis’ realm of expertise now, I say.」
『Yeah, it sure is. I’ll take care of this particular matter. Depending on the situation, Aries herself may very well head over there.』
「Understood」
The earth mother goddess, Elza, one of the three great goddess pillars. Not being able to contact her in her own temple was a very bad sign. For this particular case, Forre couldn’t really fuss about “interfering in domestic affairs”.
「So next is Earl Dident, marked for forging documents and arrested by the Forre house.」
『At last, I see』
「Mm. The opportunity directly came about when the delinquents tried to get in Deary’s way with a worthless certificate. The hoodlums got arrested and they got a lot of info out of them bit by bit. Until about yesterday they were making these really cringey excuses and yapping, but I think they will have fully surrendered by afternoon today.」
『I see. Rather specific there. Where’d that info come from？』
「From one of the dwarves near the country’s center. We became chummy in exchange for weight, one of woman’s greatest hurdles.」
Layotte quickly knew what she meant.
『Were you actually that close with Marquis David？』
「Yeah, close enough to where we drink twice a week since I got wrapped up in the banquet at the tavern I was inspecting？」
『Oh, he really must like you.』
「So now as of recent, I’ve been obsessive about my liver and my weight.」
『Yeah, we’re talking dwarves after all. Sorry, but I’d like you to quit that, temper your liver and work at losing weight.』
While surprised to hear what a bigshot Rainy had found, Layotte had to be a bit cold to get Rainy back on track, even if it wasn’t her fault.
「Yeah, it’s really difficult to hang with dwarves two times a week. Your Highness, would it be alright for me to consult Deary about my liquor/diet plan？」
『……Well, I’ll allow it as long as you’re okay with exposing your lazy body.』
「Ugh……」
Pinpointing it where it hurt the most, Layotte made up for it by giving Rainy permission. She had certainly appeared to have made many important connections by giving up on various things while Hiroshi’s group was ravaging Crest Cave.
『So that’s all for the report？』
「Nothing else all that special. At most, maybe the fact that they’re starting to receive magic steel goods made from Crest Cave’s new furnaces and that the price of steel products has begun to stabilize.」
『I see. They are involved after all, so I should expect as much, but that was rather quick.』
「Also, in the words of the mining guildmaster over here, they should be able to bring the exported amount of steel products back to normal not long from now.」
『That’s great to hear.』
Layotte’s face loosened up on the other end when he heard Rainy’s good news. Unlike Darl, in Farlane you could excavate enough ore with enough demand as long as you didn’t care too much about quality. But with the quality of iron ore being the quality it was, Farlane was about two steps behind Forre in terms of both iron manufacturing and processing, so the limitations on exports from Forre were a serious pain of a problem.
Farlane had suppressed a large amount of its cuts in food supply, as it did, to an extent, procure its own food. Darl and Loren also procured a certain amount of iron for themselves, so they might have been fine, but for any other country, this would be a sucky situation.
After all, Forre was second in iron tech, with Farlane and Markto two steps behind. The other countries were even more steps behind, so you could easily see which countries might not take it well.
「And that’s about it for what I have to report.」
『Got it. And thank you for your work. I sent some extra budget, so make sure to go pick it up sometime tomorrow at the embassy.』
Hearing the rest of Rainy’s report, Layotte complimented her efforts and conveyed the monetary info before ending the transmission. Once that was over, Rainy gave a small sigh. As she had been laying off on the usual food intake, Rainy actually had quite a bit more freedom with money. Then again, she didn’t know what she should do with that freedom, so she just went along with accepting the amount.
「Guess I should work out a bit more before bed……」
Layotte didn’t have to tell her she was packing on the pounds. Though she was intently putting effort into reshaping her body every day, Rainy still ended up consuming more than a week’s worth of calories twice a week out of coercion. Without Mio’s level of fuel consumption, there would be no end to how many times she had to keep exercising.
「 I really should consult Deary tomorrow……」
Honestly, she didn’t want to show her current physique to Hiroshi, but constantly putting it off might make things too late for her when the time actually came. So before things became too late for her both as a woman and as a spy, Rainy was determined to expose her everything in front of the man she loved.
The same night that Rainy gave her periodic report, the workshop members had finished their job for the day, with Hiroshi constantly by a tired Haruna’s side to instruct her and with Mio and the other two assisting the operation, discussing advance arrangements for the finished products.
「Guess this is it for the lineup, y’all？」
「……Mm～、yeah, I think this is about it……」
Haruna concurred with Hiroshi after he made his conclusion based on the inspected products, her stamina and mana on the verge of being drained. The lineup in front of them consisted of ten longswords, eight large swords, five spears, three axes/hammers- quite the assortment. All of these were Haruna’s products over the last few days. Half of the longswords/large swords were items she had put a thorough amount of effort into at Crest Cave, while the remaining ones were remakes of the versions she had worked on at Crest Cave.
「……I sort of lost track in the process, but what do you think of their overall function……？」
「Other than your longswords, which are the best, the pure performance is quite a bit greater than what they sell in Farlane, but not quite up to dwarf standards.」
「Okaaay then. But I sorta expected that……」
Shoulders drooping at Mio’s precise evaluation, Haruna reached for the stamina potion. Without drinking it, Haruna did not feel she could recover from her fatigue today.
「So what I’m thinkin right now is we make em look juuust a lil bit defective n exaggerate the price to match the feel. Whatcha think?」
「Why exactly are we doing that？」
「old back the price so that we don’t get too much cash on hand, and then see if anyone can see through the disguise. Also, I plan to mix in some actual defects that Haruna made.」
Hiroshi answered Mio’s question with two reasons; one fairly sound, and the other clearly biased toward his own hobbies. While a bit put off at the reasoning, Haruna and Mio decided not to complain.
「So I think the real good ones will give some of the lower end magic steel products a run for their money, ‘n I plan to put this ‘n that into the final products」
「That’s all well and good, but how do you intend to tweak them？」
「Well, first ya gotta know that the bare requirements have all been met for functionality. I’m thinkin’ we gotta make some thorough enchantments.」
「Such as？」
「Harden it up with some real tough defense enchantments, maybe make it to the point where someone of Elle’s skill level can take on Wyverns」
Haruna and Mio interjected immediately into what Hiroshi said (he was clearly intending to play around too much). As scary as it sounded, attack enchantments were already in play during the forging process, so at this point the weapons had enough power to get the minimum necessary damage on the weaker wyverns.
「Now then, first we use behemoth oil to up all defense by 200%. Then we get an alligator tailbone for Passive Barrier 70% generation success rate, garbarensia poison sac for strengthening resistance against status effects (all) by 75%, ‘n then to top it all off, strengthen parry by 75% as well as lil status up adjustments, somethin’ like that, ‘n then……Ah, right. Gotta stick in some hidden functions that activate when the user’s in a pinch with their attack ‘n all that……」
「Sensei, that’s way too much……」
「The frick you talkin’ bout gurl? This is only the beginnin’!」
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
Mio had to interject into Hiroshi’s ridiculous enchantments, especially since he joked about it like it was some kind of prank. Nonetheless, it wasn’t like Hiroshi was planning on listening to that. There were even some enchantments mixed in that Haruna had never heard of, like the enchant/special ability Passive Barrier. And there was the whole “hidden function” thing. Just so many things that were questionable.
「Right, it’s complete. Wanna try holdin it？」
「……The heck is this sword supposed to be, Excaliber……?」
「I named it Defender Sword, mate. Someone like Doul uses it ‘n bam, Barold don’t even got a chance.」
Haruna simply commented at this clearly overprotected sword, half fearful and half exasperated. Hiroshi just had a smug grin on his face as he continued saying very alarming things.
「Only misgiving I might have is that since the material’s iron, I wasn’t able to strengthen it with a 100% Passive Barrier rate or a high parry rate. I guess 200% power up for all defense on lower level materials cranks up the difficulty for other enchantment types.」
At this questionable statement of Hiroshi’s (Seriously? You’re dissatisfied?) Haruna’s feelings went straight past exasperation to a sort of respect. To put it clearly, this sword was strong enough to help a rookie adventurer clear out a stone ant nest.
「Sensei, how’s the output for this sword’s passive barrier？」
「It absorbs 5,000 from any damage not blocked by defense. It ain’t no problem with Doul or Juli’s regular attacks, but intermediate level skills’ll pierce right through it.」
「And with the efficiency rate, it does feel a bit meh」
(You think that’s “meh”?) thought Haruna to herself as she listened to Hiroshi and Mio’s conversation with a faraway look in her eyes. But in fact, absorbing 5,000 damage, once you got above a certain level, attack inflation increased by drastic numbers to where 5,000 became very “meh” indeed, at least in Fairy Tale. However, you only truly began to feel that way once you got into the realm of the shut-in player. Take Tatsuya for example, who was near the edge of the 200’s in level, only a few digits away.
Besides, the weapon had more than excellent capabilities in terms of guaranteeing reduced damage, and for those like Hiroshi or Douga with fantastic defense, with all the other enchantments loaded onto the thing, 5,000 damage absorption was actually pretty crazy.
In the first place, criticizing these numbers would completely end up ostracizing other popular, similar functioning intermediate defensive absorption spells.
「So, Hiroshi-kun……」
「Hm？」
「If I recall, when you get Absorb to proficiency 75 or so, if your Knowledge is around 300 then that’s how much defense gets added to your stats. And you still think it’s “meh”……」
「Yup, cuz its invocation rate is only 70%. A lil difficult to compare it with Absorb, which always activates.」
「And I do get that part, but when you consider how it activates without any cost or cooldown, isn’t it a little dismissive to call it “meh”?」
Haruna, who could theoretically be seen as the “sanest” member of the group, interjected into Hiroshi and Mio’s conversation, which had completely dropped any sense of sanity. If Tatsuya and Makoto were here with her, they would have most definitely agreed.
「My senses have been dulling recently, but I still think that Hiroshi-kun really lacks common sense when it comes to making things……」
「Whaaat? Such a horrible thing to say mate……」
「Well yeah, I bet if a level 1 beginner made a weapon that could easily take out stone ants and all that, people would be saying some stuff……」
「Nah, but level 1 players increasing their defense wouldn’t change their papier mâché stats.」
Hiroshi’s products were always questionable, and recently he had been making more intermediate/advanced weapons, so Haruna didn’t question that aspect, but now that he had mana-modified the longsword that she had made, she was forced to once again recall that common sense did not apply to this man.
「Haru, Haru」
「Yes？」
「This is probably just a result of critical manufacturing, but still, you can make the basic form of said weapons, so you’re not any different from him, Haru.」
「You’re one to talk, Mio-chan, making all those weapons without even batting an eye……」
Mio thrust the unavoidable truth before Haruna, who still managed to squeeze out a retort. Either way, any outsider would see all three of them as the same. More normal workshop members like Teres or Nora would undoubtedly give a firm agreement that Haruna couldn’t talk.
「So Haruna-san, seems like there are plenty of regular enchantments we don’t know round here. What exactly were normal enchanting crafters like？」
「One of the people I knew was very popular, and they said they were on the edge of intermediate. Also, it appears that all they could do was strengthen the performance of commonly known enchantments.」
「Ah～. Yeah, that’s cuz ya can’t git original enchantments to succeed until ya git into advanced. ‘N then if ya wanna level ‘em up ya gotta enchant ‘em durin’ the manufacturin’ process or apply ‘em to the treatment sequence. That way ya raise ‘em quicker. Yeah, I can see why they had trouble with it.」
「Is that so」
「It sure is mate. Actually, Haruna-san, yer boutta git into intermediate at the rate yer goin’.」
「Whaaa！？」
Haruna exclaimed in pure amazement at what Hiroshi pointed out. However, come to think about it, this time they had practiced using enchantments from the refinement step and continued to use the applications of initial enchantments in both alchemy and potionmaking. If they were going along the lines of Hiroshi’s explanation, then there wasn’t a single reason why Haruna shouldn’t finally be getting into intermediate level.
「Well, it ain’t anythin’ too weird. Alchemy, enchanting, ‘n crafting have many applications in the manufacturin’ field, so it ain’t rare at all to find people who git to intermediate before learnin’ Making Mastery.」
「Really now」
「Yup yup. And then ya got Mio, who also got alchemy ‘n enchanting to intermediate first.」
Haruna looked from Hiroshi over to Mio to confirm, and Mio affirmed it by nodding.
「Well, once ya git into intermediate, ya can restore an even wider assortment of enchantments from documents, so when we got time imma teach ya summa them.」
「Right」
「Now then, from tomorrow onward we have the stall ready to go, ‘n then we couldn’t give Makoto-san a proper birthday celebration with all the hustle ‘n bustle after the pre-celebration.」
「……Yeah, but the pre-celebration was already so magnificent that I dunno if we can top it.」
Hopping onto the obvious change in subject, Haruna pointed out a potential issue. Sure, they were in a pinch that particular day, but they had still ended up celebrating Makoto’s pre-birthday with luxurious food and expensive beverages. Making the actual party celebration any more grandiose than that sounded like a very tiring process, which was a turn-off for her, but then again, it wasn’t like she wanted to not celebrate it.
「She said the same thing ‘erself, so this time around we drop the act ‘n just git sum new booze ‘n food that Makoto-san likes to eat, ‘n then we’ll prolly end up washin’ down cake with sum tea.」
「Mm～、I really do feel sorry about this, but there aren’t any other options right？」
「Well, I do got pen, paper, every kind of screentone ‘n a printin’ press chillin’ over here, but I guess it’s up to her if she wanna use it, eh」
「Hiroshi-kun, when in the world did you get your hands on a printing press……」
Either way, Hiroshi had apparently gotten all of that ready as if it were perfectly normal. Haruna just had a genuinely exasperated look on her face.
「Cuz with that ya can make doujinshi ‘n much more. By the way mate, it can also do offset printin’ ‘n book makin’ all on its own.」
「Sensei, that’s clearly skipping a few steps in the technological process」
「Eh, the peeps down below have basically the same gear, so don’tcha think it’s pretty normal？」
Mio wasn’t exactly sure how to counter Hiroshi’s overqualified comparison with the abnormal people of the earth. True, their technology was completely isolated from the standards of the overworld residents, but at least they weren’t imitating something they shouldn’t even be able to make and then completing products that would make anyone nearly wet themselves in shock.
「Well, anyhoo. Now we gotta ask ‘er what she wants to eat tomorrow……」
「I’m back～」
「Oh. Speak of the devil, or however it goes, eh?」
Makoto and Tatsuya got back at just the right time to find Hiroshi and the other two rather restless over the next day’s discussion. Neither of them could possibly know this, but anyhow, they showed up to the forge where everyone was.
「Bro, Makoto-san, welcome back」
「Sup my guy, glad to be back」
「Hello. Are you done with the weapons? Also, what’s for dinner？」
Looking at the facial expressions of the student trio, Makoto gave a quick greeting before immediately jumping to what she was most concerned about.
「Weapons are done, mate. We’re gonna get to dinner in a minute here. Anything ya had in mind, Haruna-san？」
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
「Mm～、I found something similar to a bitter gourd, so I thought maybe I could mash it together with rock boar to make gourd champloo. And then there’s also a winter melon-like item (though the shape is different), so I intend to stew that up. Ah, and of course we still have seasonal edamame and miso sauce I can put in, kay？」
「Ooo～。Haruna, I love you！！」
「Thanks」
This was apparently a direct strike into Makoto’s current appetite, although Haruna had to grimace a bit at how overdramatic she was.
「So Makoto-san, what do you want to eat tomorrow？」
「Tomorrow? Ah, right. Don’t worry too much about it, but if I had to say, it’d be great if I could get a bunch of tasty snacks, I guess? And it’d be amazing if the snacks went well with rice.」
「Gotcha. I’ll think of all sorts of ideas. And the cake？」
「I do kinda want one with plenty of fruit inside, but I’m always fine with keeping it simple.」
Nodding at Makoto’s request, Haruna began planning even more things than earlier. There would be no issues with stocking up, so all that was left was to meet the requests and go all out. For now, a whole cake cut up into slices with something small on each piece for everyone should satisfy both requests. Everyone here was still young, so there was no doubt they could all easily consume two pieces of cake.
「I finished the planning right now, so all that’s left is to find some tasty looking liquor tomorrow.」
「Gotcha. I’m looking forward to it!」
Once they finished a simple briefing on tomorrow’s dinner, Haruna unveiled the day’s deliverables. The majority of them just proved how far Haruna’s skills had come, but of course, as for the main weapon…
「Dude, what kind of boss are you planning to screw with……」
Makoto had no option other than to make an exasperated comment, but this stays between us.
And the next day.
「Oh？ Rainy, you’re here？」
「Sorry for coming so early. I have something I’d like to discuss with Deary. I have permission from His Highness. Is it alright？」
Tatsuya, who Haruna had asked to come with her to find some good booze for the night, noticed Rainy waiting for someone to greet her outside. Haruna herself was currently giving the food storage another check to figure out what to stock up on.
「Discuss？ Like what？」
「It’s embarrassing, but I guess I’ll just say it’s about my diet.」
At the word diet, Tatsuya immediately scanned Rainy’s body. He didn’t think she had to worry about anything, but it was true that she was maybe a bit more all-around bigger than before. Honestly, he was more concerned about her face seeming slightly pale.
「……I don’t think you need to worry about it too much……」
「It’s difficult to even keep it in this shape when I get dragged off to dwarf banquets twice a week……」
「Ah～、I see your pain……」
Tatsuya understood a lot more when Rainy mentioned dwarf banquets. Indeed, you would have to maintain a diet when attending those functions. Even if you tried to maintain efforts to reverse the negative effects, the moment you ran into an issue and became unable to continue exercising was the moment you put on weight.
「So this is also a countermeasure against alcohol, I assume？」
「Yeah. I don’t even think all the alcohol has left me from two days ago……」
「……Wow, the struggle is real with you……」
「I’m envious of Makoto and Mio……」
Rainy, who had her own challenges at emotional expression (a bit different than Mio), actually had an empathetic look on her face as she mumbled earnestly. As a girl whose growth period was nearing its end, a dwarf banquet was, in many ways, the cruelest environment.
「Tatsuya-san, thanks for waiting. Wait, Rainy-san？」
「I have something I need to consult with Deary. I have permission from His Highness. Is that ok？」
Sensing an unusual lack of power in Rainy’s demeanor, Haruna immediately looked over to Tatsuya.
「I’m sure you feel some way about this, but go ahead and let her off this time.」
「Well, if you do indeed have His Highness’s permission, then I’m fine with it as long as you don’t throw yourself at him. Oh, not only is your face kinda pale, but have you put on some weight？」
With a merciless straight liner from Haruna, Rainy unleashed an atmosphere of gloom. At that very moment, Haruna knew she had stepped hard on a land mine. Before she could correct her mistake, the dull Rainy opened her mouth.
「Haruna, even you would definitely pack on weight if you had to tag along with dwarf banquets more than twice a week……」
「Ah～……」
Grasping the entire situation with Rainy’s words, Haruna empathized with all her might. Seeing as everyone appeared to agree on this matter, you can easily tell just how dangerous dwarf banquets were to women of other countries. So for Makoto and Mio to go to those things and come out with nothing different with their body in any way was seriously wack. The two of them were clearly drinking more liquids or eating more food than could fit in their stomach, or even their entire body’s capacity. The two of them could give heavy drinkers and food fighters a run for their money.
「But is your body holding up？」
「I’m starting to get the impression that the alcohol isn’t quite leaving my body……」
「……In that case, it would definitely be in your best interest to consult Hiroshi-kun about it.」
Realizing the gravity of the situation even more than Rainy herself, Haruna decided to have Hiroshi talk it over with her. Although their relations weren’t great, Haruna didn’t dislike her to the point of wanting her to die or anything. Yeah, she was one heck of a pervert, but every time they met Haruna felt like Rainy was gaining more and more common sense, and there was no way she could bear to leave Rainy in this predicament.
「First thing is you need to behave yourself. Rush at Hiroshi-kun even once and I’ll revoke this discussion of yours, okay?」
「I can’t disrobe in front of Deary with this loose body of mine……」
「I wouldn’t say it’s that bad, but well, I get you……」
No matter how much you understand there are no issues, as a maiden in love, it’s never fine to reveal yourself to your man when you pack on weight. Haruna understood that mentality more than a little. Before coming here, as long as she wasn’t that hard on the eyes she was fine. Or so Haruna had thought, but now that she had fallen in love for the first time, that mindset just sounded ridiculous to her.
Of course, she also hated the thought of slimming down too much and looking wretched. A maiden in love must always find the best digits to maintain continuously.
「Anyhow, we shouldn’t just talk out here. Come on in.」
「Thank you.」
Encouraged by Haruna, Rainy timidly entered the house. She was quite meek at the moment, not with her usual presence of mind, but decided to go on in to where Hiroshi was.
「Eh？Wazzup y’all?？Wait, it’s you Rainy？」
A puzzled expression on his face as he looked at Haruna and Tatsuya come back in, Hiroshi immediately tensed himself when he saw Rainy hiding behind them. Granted, this was to be expected with three previous incidents on her record.
「Hiro, I think it’s fine this time」
「Actually, she’s totally got the short end of the stick. Help her out okay?」
「If y’all say so then I’m cool wit it, but, oh, did yer bod git bigger Rainy？」
「Agh……」
With Tatsuya and Haruna smoothing things out, Hiroshi kept his guard up but also noticed that detail about Rainy. Groaning at that one comment of his, Rainy put both hands on the ground with a crestfallen pose.
「Ya don’t look so good either, wazzup mate？」
「Well, she’s bound to look like this after going to dwarf banquets twice a week, my guy.」
「Ah, I get it now……」
At that, Hiroshi grasped the details of Rainy’s slightly off appearance and what she had come to him for. Again, you could really tell just how different the dwarf world was by how quickly everyone here had intercepted Rainy’s ongoing dilemma so far.
「Actually, I’m thinkin’ yer better off than last I saw ya. I was all like “How does her chest stay intact?”, but right now yer lookin’ kinda just right……」
「Deary, you just don’t get it……」
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
「Yeah, but I dunno how to respond to that……」
Hiroshi really didn’t feel comfortable trying to grasp an understanding of the female psyche. But of course, humans are not always the most rational of beings.
「Even as a spy, I seem to be nearing a fatal end……」
「Is it really that difficult to move around？」
「I can barely move around like I’ve been. If this food habit continues, it won’t be long before I can’t keep up the pace……」
「Riiight……」
Hiroshi could no longer tell Rainy to not worry as he saw her serious expression. As it seemed that Rainy was continuously trying to thin herself out by training to the max and yet still gradually increasing weight, they might need to implement a strategy.
「Well, although we certainly don’t got nothin’ that can drastically decrease yer weight, I do got potions that speed up calorie combustion ‘n dietary foods that speed up waist fat combustion.」
「We can count on you for that then？」
「Yeah, cuz it sounds like yer gonna be in a real pinch if ya screw up. But this is just to cancel out yer intake from the dwarf parties, and it prolly ain’t gonna reduce yer current weight during that time. Also, once yer not involved in those gatherings anymore, there’s a risk of yer body weight goin’ down too quickly, so if ya don’t git back to regular eatin’ habits within a week or two of that yer gonna be in danger.」
「Okay, got it」
Rainy nodded meekly at Hiroshi. She of course knew full well not to drop her weight too much. Without an urgent situation like this, she would probably never have even considered a diet.
「Now for the alcohol countermeasure, first how bout we git rid of all that alcohol in ya.」
Hiroshi said, handing a panacea and a class 3 stamina potion to Rainy. She appeared to be on the brink of getting prognostic symptoms. Unless she drank at least a class 3 stamina potion her liver would gradually stop rejuvenating. Since she wasn’t quite there yet, class 3 would work fine, but give it two weeks and she would either need a class 2 or a long process of healing.
「……I sort of feel like my body is super light now……」
「Cuz it seems liver symptoms have come up. Sure, I git some of it’s part of the job, but ya really been overdoin it mate.」
「I know, but I really can’t refuse when dwarves hand me liquor……」
「Nah, prolly can’t. So in that case I’ll make some potions for ya to drink before ‘n after the parties that help dissolve alcohol. I also gotta prepare the diet stuff, so come back ‘round evening, aight mate」
「Okay. Thanks, Deary」
Finding the slightest amount of light to help her escape this turmoil, Rainy lowered her head to Hiroshi with a slightly faraway, happy look in her face from the bottom of her heart. The only reason she didn’t resort to perverted stunts this time around was probably because of her screwed up biorythm, which wouldn’t go back to normal just from subtracting the liver damage.
「Ah, right. I should also give a report」
「Mm？Wazzup？」
「I’m still investigating the details, but we haven’t been able to contact the main Elza Temple.」
「……Welp, that sounds troubling. Where even is the main temple anyhoo？」
「Spirit Spire Mountain, at the halfway point. Lots of stuff happened in the past, and it’s closed off to the general public. So the precise location and routes to get there are confidential.」
Hiroshi and Haruna made difficult expressions at Rainy’s info. Such a strange occurrence.
「So being closed off to the public means ya gotta have a connection that can git ya in……」
「I decided to leave the temple for Aearis-sama to deal with. As for the routes, I managed to calculate that the temple’s about midway from what I gathered. I’ll be searching around that point a bit today.」
「……I think yer underestimatin’ yer bod right now, so I recommend ya rest for now.」
「……You’re concerned about me？」
「Well yeah, I wouldn’t sleep well knowin’ that an acquaintance is in harm’s way. Haruna-san ‘n everyone allowed this cuz they thought the same thing right？」
Haruna and Tatsuya nodded at Hiroshi. They didn’t have much of a connection with Rainy, nor did they want to, but neither did they wish ill will on her. This was why Rainy’s pitiable condition was more than enough to persuade the good-natured Azuma Workshop to help out.
「Right now yer digestive organs’re prolly weakened, so imma git out some potions over here. But don’t go splashin’ around just cuz ya got healed」
「Then I’ll go make some porridge」
「So once yer done drinkin’ the potion, eat the porridge ‘n git some rest, ya should be back to full health by evenin’. Take it easy at yer place fer today, mate」
「Thank you……」
Rainy said her thanks in a slightly hoarse voice as she faced the ground, impressed by their kindness. Haruna’s eyes widened when she observed this, but she soon smiled kindly and nodded before wordlessly going off to the kitchen.
「Today’s Makoto-san’s birthday party, so dinner’s gonna be snackeroos with liquor for you. Now that I gotcha here, I wanted to have Bro or Makoto-san teach ya how to properly drink liquor ‘n all that.」
「I might be able to, but do you really think Makoto would be a good source？」
「Welp, Makoto-san does feel like she’s just jumpin’ into a sea of liquor when she glugs it down, which is kinda dicey, yeah…」
Hiroshi said as he handed all the potions he mentioned to Rainy on the spot. Hiroshi’s group didn’t need stomach potions, antipyretics, or anti-travel medicine, but as these were all frequently used items, they had quite the assortment of the various categories.
「Porridge is ready. As a precaution I wrapped it with rot prevention cloth, so take care on your way home and take off the cloth before eating, okay?」
「Thank you so much.」
Rainy just expressed her gratitude over and over again, knowing that Haruna didn’t even like her but was still being nice to her. With this she would be fully restored by night, and then with Makoto’s birthday celebration of behemoth horn stew and edamame (among other things) to go with the drinks, Tatsuya would teach Rainy how to put on an act while eating a certain amount of food as well as how to drink while keeping in pace with the dwarves.
「I know they wouldn’t want to be this relaxed, but I still think the dwarf parties should tone down the aggressiveness a bit……」
「Yeah, I totally agree～」
Rainy remarked keenly, not being forced to do anything and just eating/drinking at her own pace at this relaxed party, to which Haruna agreed with all her heart.
「Oh, but I actually like those lively parties.」
「Yes, I’m quite jealous of you Makoto, for how you just go at it with the dwarves to see who gets knocked out first……」
Rainy remarked, truly envious, to which Makoto felt a bit sorry for her and joined in on giving her proper drinking guidance. And with that, the mellow party continued its course.
「I haven’t tasted good food in so long……」
「Oh yeah? Glad you like it. There’s dessert too by the way.」
「I can’t wait…and this fried tree bud is tasty……」
「It’s one of Stiren’s local specialties, and it gets sprouts this season I hear. Yep, lots of things you can’t find in Wulls.」
Rainy appeared to be truly enjoying this long sought after food, and the members of Azuma Workshop felt themselves mellowing out a lot as they watched her. She was doing her best to keep herself from overdoing things while thoroughly savoring the taste of each bite.
「Apparently the individual tournament division this year is a three way struggle.」
「Hmm, hmm」
「The combinations will be revealed tomorrow. The likely candidates to win are……」
Since this was a party and all, Rainy proactively shared stories that might end up being good conversation topics. Information particularly centered around the competition was something Hiroshi and the others were grateful for, as they had lived a mostly secluded lifestyle since arriving in Stiren. The information she gave early would already have been plenty, but……
「An earl……from Farlane, and another……from Darl」
「Huh？ Are you for real？」
「And then one of the members of Farlane’s regional order of knights……」
「Oo! Fill me in on that one！」
「And then……」
「Fwaaah！！ I feel the energy flowing through me！！」
Receiving an unnecessary birthday present from Rainy in the rotten form of a fresh info dump, Makoto was now more than ready to fully operate the art supplies and printer she had received from Hiroshi.
