Volume 7 Chapter 3 Part 11
「Due to the heavy rain from the other day, a part of the drainage broke, so it needs to be fixed immediately.」
「Heavy rain, huh?」
I haven’t heard about it at all before. Does it rain heavily often in these parts? If so, the I wish that someone had informed me about it sooner. Then again, I always use 「Warp」to get myself and the girls to the Labyrinths, even the one here in Quratar, so the weather outside of our house doesn’t really matter to us all that much.
Also, the landlady said that this heavy rain was from the other day, so it might have been yesterday or the day before yesterday and I just didn’t notice that at all. But anyway, since it is raining these days, then does that mean that this world’s equivalent of the rainy season in Japan has finally arrived?
「I have already obtained permission from the town’s lord to perform the renovation work, and they are going to be carried out the day after tomorrow, and they’re most likely going to last from the early afternoon all the way until the evening, so it is strongly advised that you should refrain from flushing anything down the sewage pipes throughout that time. In addition to the renovation work, we are also planning to carry out the dredging and the planting of the licorice, so if it’s going to be possible, we would like you to send one person from your residence in order to help with that, since it is customary that in this town, the residents are expected to help with that kind of labor.」
In other words, this is a kind of a regional activity, huh? In that case, I guess that means that even though it might not be known under such a name here, we do have something similar to a neighborhood association.
Talk about something truly bothersome.
「So, what are we going to do about it? Because if you asked me, then as much as I would like to avoid it, it looks like we won’t be able to if we want to stay on good terms with everyone, so whether we like it or not, we have to claim our share of responsibility here.」
I said what I was thinking about the matter of the regional activities and then asked the other three about their own opinions while we were having dinner.
「You don’t have to worry about it, master. I will go and do it.」
「It would be pretty bad for our reputation if no one attended at all, so I can go with Miss Roxanne as well.」
Roxanne and Sherry gave me their replies. As I thought, skipping out on helping with it is not really an option, huh? This reminds me of how things tend to work back in my old world, where the Japanese people, especially the ones in the more rural parts of the country were really serious about those kinds of activities performed by the organizations such as neighborhood associations, fire brigade drills or the festivals dedicated to the village guardians.
These were exactly the kinds of activities that the young people wanted to skip on and leave it all to the old folks to handle, which was perfectly understandable, especially in Tokyo, where doing something like that was still giving off the feeling of a countryside so unfit to the usual hustle and bustle of the big city.
And now, I am getting the same vibes here. Quratar might be a relatively big city where most of the Explorers gather, but as I was saying, knowing that we have someone who engages in such regional activities makes me feel like I am in the countryside.
「Anyway, since there’s no way for us to avoid helping with it, then I might go lend a hand with that as well. The sooner we get this done and over with, the sooner we’ll be able to come back home and resume our regular activities, correct?」
「Please Master, there’s no need for you to participate in this. Or rather please, don’t participate in this.」
When I expressed my desire to go and help out with the repair work, I was stopped by Roxanne.
「Okay, but…. Why shouldn’t I participate in this? Is it going to be bad for me if I participate in it?」
「I know that you are concerned about your reputation with the neighbors, but nonetheless, most of the repairs is going to be concerned around the cleaning of the pipes and the sewage, so if you work with those, the rest of the people involved might start looking down on you.」
「They might do that? I see.」
I don’t really get why would my participation in this community event would be a bad thing, but then again, I guess that Roxanne is right about one thing: most of the work is going to be centered around the gutter, and that is one hell of a dirty place indeed. I’m just wondering if this kind of work is something that the Freeman are generally not supposed to be doing themselves, instead leaving it all for their slaves to take care of?
「X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X!」
「Miria also says that she is definitely going to participate in this at any cost.」
「I am going, desu!」
She wants to participate in that as well? I wonder why. I don’t know if my guess is going to be one hundred percent correct, but I think she might be having the wrong idea about the nature of the work that is going to be conducted here.
「Miria? I don’t know how to break it to you…. But they’re not going to be fishing tomorrow.」
Although I want to believe that there would be no fish in the sewers under Quratar and the pipes that extend to the sewers from each and every house in the city… then I cannot say with all certainty that something like that would be impossible. After all, if the fish are capable of swimming upriver without being stopped by the river’s flow and its currents, then I guess pretty much everything is possible when it comes to them.
But even if fishing in the sewers was a possibility, then I am one hundred percent sure that I wouldn’t want her to try fishing there, what with all the bacteria and… and certain other things floating in there.
「Yes, desu.」
「And even if there were fish in the sewers, then I don’t want you catching any of them, and God forbid you from eating any of them if you do manage to find them there, okay?」
「Yes, desu.」
Even though she was answering to my words with assurances that she wouldn’t dare trying anything weird, I can already see it in her eyes that she was thinking of how best she could swim in the sewers in order to try and catch the highest amount of the sewer fish possible.
「With all due respect, master. I think that instead of telling Miria not to eat the fish that she might find in the sewage, it would be better to buy her a fish that she could eat in order to keep her attention entirely on that fish instead of on the other ones. Or at least I think it should be fine then, although I have no guarantee.」
「Yes, I think that if you don’t give her some fish to eat for dinner, then she really might try fishing for one in the sewage.」
Roxanne and Sherry seem to have exactly the same concerns.
「I will go, desu!」
And yet, Miria keeps insisting on going no matter what.
「All right then, if she wants to do it so badly, then Miria is going to participate, but is that going to be all right?」
「There are definitely bound to be other people from the Beastkin tribe among the participants, so I think it should be all right.」
「Do you think that there might be someone there whom you might know?」
「The woman who is the servant at the hardware store is a member of the Beastkin tribe, and I am pretty sure that she is most likely going to be participating in this event as well, so I will try asking her to take care of Miria in our place for the duration of it.」
Was there even such a person working in the hardware store? Because I honestly don’t remember. Also, Roxanne knows that much about our neighbors…… huh?
NEXT CHAPTER
RELEASE RATE
Harem in the Fantasy World Dungeon
Speed up schedule by 10 hours
Current schedule: Every 60 hours
From new jobs and new skills straight to cleaning the sewers. o__O
I hope the girls will gain at least one job from this ordeal….