Chapter 327
Chapter 327: Mysterious dance battle seems to have concluded with mysterious Mayim Mayim.
Day 78 – Morning, The Frontier, The Town of Omui
We dropped the speed since the children woke up, and also took a break for breakfast… But the town is already in sight. Yeah, I wonder just how many hundreds kilometers per hour we were going during the night? There was no sound or vibration, but we apparently were running super wild.
Familiar gates, and… The middle-aged gatekeeper that we’re already seen way too many times.
「Long time no see, wait, don’t tell me the Frontier only has two gatekeepers?! Well, I’m sure holding any expectations for the inn is pointless too… It’s surely still has the same『White Weirdo』name. Yeah, I knew it… I mean, I was the who had to make a signboard for it?」
While Haruka-kun, complaining, is parking the carriage at the inn, the children that just got outside, half asleep, are looking up at the high-rise inn with curious looks and open mouths. Well, there certainly aren’t that many buildings higher than the Royal Palace?
「Long time no see Commoner Poster Pleb Girl? How was your commoner life? Well, Those are『❤Frontier』goods, that are now all the rage at the Capital, specialty of the Capital’s Souvenir Store, not really sure how would it look if you wore it in the Frontier though, but it might be an ultimate indispensable item for supreme appreciators of the Frontier, or rather, I’ve just got too many left in stock after going overboard with mass production? Is what the goblins and kobolds in the forest’s neighborhood are said to be rumoring according to the Frontier’s lege… GUOoooH! 」
Poster Girl-chan jumped at him. Yeah, his chatter takes way too long, and it’s not like there is any meaning to it either? Well, she just lunged at him with open arms, so it ended up in a splendid jumping headbutt, and so, the Sex King of unknown species and cryptic behavior was felled. A perfect rebuttal to his way too long talking. She is clinging to him in tears… She must’ve been very lonely.
「「「Poster Girl-chan, we are home.」」」
「W-W-Welcome back. (crying)」
Now she is charging this way. Casually side-step her to then hug and pat her on the head, and her expression changes to a loose smile.
For starters, we step inside the inn, and suddenly, the large building, the entirety of which is reserved by us, feels very nostalgic. Wait, everyone is almost crying already. Haruka-kun is KO’ed. Since his level is as low as before, he is actually just as fragile as ordinary people if he takes the attack directly. And it seems that headbutt was quite powerful!
This was then followed by a touching reunion of Poster Girl-chan and Slime-san, so a weird dance started, to which a greeting dance of Nefertiri-san was added, creating a pretty weird scene. Angelica-san is shaking her head, but she is very happy about coming back as well.
After all, Angelica-san’s great memories begin with this inn. That’s where she became friends with everyone, so this is a very emotional place for her too.
After that we noisily poured into our familiar rooms, left our baggage, and after returning began arguing on what we are going to do from tomorrow, making a ruscus, while loudly clashing opinions.
The children were seemingly nervous about their first inn stay, but soon became friends with Poster Girl and started dancing as well… What’s this? Preschool dance recital? But who on earth taught them Mayim Mayim?
We are planning to have them stay at the inn for a while, and once they get used to things here, move them to the orphanage. Haruka-kun mentioned building a new house where everyone can live together, but it wouldn’t be good to treat them so different from the Frontier’s orphans, moreover, at the orphanage they will be able to get simple work and errands in the town, so it is going to be better for their future too. But what’s more important, the orphanage has a school attached.
The orphanage is a part of the school system that Omui-sama started, and the town kids are attending lessons there, so they will be able to make lots of friends. So the orphanage is going to work better in terms of making them get used to the Frontier faster, is what was decided after a discussion, but Vice Pres C-san is going to miss them.
But once we go back to dungeon exploration we are barely going to spend any time at the inn. But while leaving them with nothing to do in the meantime is not good, sending them out to work all day long is also bad. Nevertheless, even if we’d like them to stay around, they are still too young to teach them combat.
And since the orphanage is located near the Adventurers Guild we can drop by at any time, and it’s not that far from the inn too. Saying that no one will get lonely would be a lie, but after discussing with everyone we decided that this is definitely the best course of action. That’s why even Vice Pres C-san didn’t argue against it.
「For starters, let’s go around the town with greetings? We still have to get a permit for dungeon subjugation from the guild too?」
「「「I’m in, but what do we do?」」」「Yeah, wanna split?」
We were handed mushroom-shaped pennants, and told that we will need souvenirs if we are going around with greetings, but we threw them back as hard as we could.
「「「Don’t give mushroom-shaped pennants to pure maidens!」」」「That’s right, the visuals are totally out!!!」
The culprit was planning some sort of『Mushroom Cup – Pennant Race』to get rid of the unsold inventory, so let’s beat him up. Angelica-san and Nefertiri-san have recovered too, so he is getting a sermon.
Finally getting back to the nostalgic town we are walking around it in a bustling crowd, the children are also excited about novel sights. Normally, moving from the Capital to the Frontier, the most remote province, would be considered a downgrade, but while it indeed loses in the number of stores, it’s overwhelmingly dominating in both quality and quantity of goods. Moreover, it kept on developing while we were gone, and has even more stores and traffic now. Everyone is happily shopping and enjoying food. Yes, we managed to protect this. This is what we wanted to protect.
「There is a stall with deep-fried food?!」
「And that one has hotcakes!!」
「Even imagawayaki too!」[1]
「「「……Kyaaa!!」」」
The Maidens’ Stampede has begun. The children ended up getting dragged along, and even though everyone lined up to get pocket money from Haruka-kun, all of it is about to disappear in the blink of an eye. After all, the sweets workshop started operating. There is no way this world would have red bean paste, or anything called imagawayaki. Even the culprit behind the hotcakes must be the usual true culprit behind everything. Even without making any effort to unravel the mystery, if we simply capture him, he is definitely going to end up being the culprit, no worries about false accusations. The Culprit (Haruka-kun) is always obvious.
「T-T-T-That over there is a hotdog stall!」
「「「Mister, give us that!」」」
Be it stalls or stores, everything evolved so far that it would’ve been unimaginable back when we first came to the town. Or rather, it’s too far. They are about to catch up with the modern era at this rate. And everything comes from his misdemeanor of scattering modern knowledge around, and magic-stone powered industrial revolution. After all, everyone is buying snacks with tears, and eating them up while crying. Being able to experience an already lost ordinary everyday, they must be feeling like they are having fun at festivals from our world, which everyone was sure we’d never be able to do again.
「「「That, over there, it’s that? It’s that, right?」」」
「「「Eh! No way,『Grilled Octopus-like squirming something? Kind of?』? It’s Takoyaki-san!」」」
They had neither katsuobushi or aonori, but it was properly takoyaki-san. I’m sure they hid takoyaki, Imagawayaki, pancakes, and hot dogs because he wanted us to experience this. The Frontier’s shopping district was like a festival, how could we possibly hold back from crying. Everyone is gulping down their food while weeping, getting the children pretty worried by now. When we fed it to the kids their eyes went round from how good it was. This is the welcome of the Frontier’s town. We are back home.
With all of our pocket money being eaten up by emotions, nostalgia, and deliciousness, we reach the guild, and see Haruka-kun being scolded in front of the bulletin board again. While the sight is sort of nostalgic, is he at this again, or rather, is he still doing this?
And the moment Haruka-kun stepped outside he was kidnapped by General Store’s shopkeeper… He must’ve arrived before the goods that he made while in the Capital. Those carriages are craazy fast without needing a high-speed highway. And since a proper road popped up, there are now more merchants. There are, but we arrived ahead of everyone.
「Nothing changed, huh~? Be it the townsfolk~, or Haruka-kun~?」
「「「Yeeah…」」」
The Frontier’s town was just the same as before. After all, an unapologetic recidivist that never learns is back in town.
The guild’s lady looked happy, and townsfolk is also laughing looking at Haruka-kun getting dragged away.
「Then, I’ll get dungeon report from the guild, everyone can do what you want, but don’t forget to introduce the children, okay?」
「「「Roger.」」」
Speaking of which……Roger dates back to the days of early radio communications meaning that a message has been received and understood, and simply was the early spoken or phonetic term for 『R』used in the radio communications for received and understood, but despite Romeo-san being chosen in the end, Roger-san ended up more famous.
Yeah, no one is listening. I too had no intention of listening to this, but Haruka-kun explained it anyway, so I ended up remembering it. Although I don’t think this knowledge will ever be of any use.
「I’m glad that you are back. While there are no activity in the dungeons at the moment, the Evil Forest began revitalizing again.」
「Ah, I thought that the forest was larger than before. I’ll give Haruka-kun a deforestation commision.」
The Guild Master rushed down the stairs, but Haruka-kun had already left. He certainly seems popular with aged gentlemen. No matter where we go he gets surrounded by a crowd of old men before we even notice.
「Here are papers on the current state of the dungeons and exploration permits. There are permits for everyone with the exception for a certain person who isn’t even an adventurer. We appreciate your cooperation. 」
「「「Thank you.」」」
Now we can earn money. Small and weak dungeons outside the Frontier gave only cheap magic stones and barely any items. In other words, if we put aside salary from the Souvenir Store we basically worked for free. The King provides some rewards, but they can’t compare to what can be earned from dungeon exploration.
The Frontier’s dungeons are just that strong, and also, profitable!
We can get equipment and weapons at impossibly low prices thanks to being with Haruka-kun, but that’s like purchasing national budget-scale weapons at 99% discount. It might be dirt cheap, but that cheap still means an outrageous sum of money. In other words, unless we earn tremendous amounts of money, we will immediately go deep in red, and only non-stop touring dungeons of the frontier can save us from a life of debt… And two dresses already cost us a whole lot, even causing damage to our savings. It’s quite bad!
「Alright, let’s start diving tomorrow!」
「「「Yeeeah!」」」
We have to earn enough to keep up with Haruka-kun’s bargains, auctions, and dessert sales. After all, the quality of clothing went up drastically again. Those dresses were so amazing that even a real princess was stunned. And they also were… Quite, horribly expensive. (sobbing)
Notes
[TL Notes:
[0] Mayim Mayim is an Israeli folk dance, danced to a song of the same name. It has become notable outside the Israeli dancing community and is often performed at international folk dance events.
[1] Imagawayaki is a Japanese dessert often found at Japanese festivals as well as outside Japan, in countries such as Taiwan and South Korea. It is made of batter in a special pan (similar to a waffle iron but without the honeycomb pattern), and filled with sweet azuki bean paste, although it is becoming increasingly popular to use a wider variety of fillings such as vanilla custard, different fruit custards and preserves, curry, different meat and vegetable fillings, potato and mayonnaise.
]
Thank you. Peace is nice after all.