Chapter 2: For Some Reason, A Legendary Beast Contracted With Me When I Made Ginger-Fried Pork

Three days have passed since leaving Kiels.

If I had ridden the stagecoach, we would be in Veenen by now. And from there, it would have been another half day to Veenen’s border town, Falliéres. However, we were walking, so we’d finally passed the halfway point.

It was taking a long time because we were on foot, but other than that, there had been no real problems. The members of Iron Will were pretty skilled, so they quickly defeated all the goblins and wolves that had appeared thus far. As expected of C-rankers, monsters of that level probably didn’t even serve as a warm-up.

“The sun will be setting soon. Let’s stop here.” At Werner’s words, everyone started preparing camp.

I was on food duty, so I was going to be a little careful picking out the menu this time. Anything too eccentric or complicated might have been considered bad by this world’s standards, so I made sure to make it as simple as possible.

I’m thinking today should be grilled sausages, pot-au-feu, and bread. Everyone seemed to like meat, so there shouldn’t be any complaints.

~◇~◇~◇~

First, take the preheated pot and cut bacon into it, and then put in vegetables and sausage. After giving the ingredients a little while to cook, put in the water. Once it starts to boil, throw in the bouillon cubes and let it simmer on low heat.

“Yeah, this is looking good.” I gave it a taste test, and the saltiness of the bacon and sausage had seeped in, so it didn’t seem like I would need to adjust the taste at all. All that was left was to grill some more sausage on the side...

~◇~◇~◇~

“Dinner’s ready.” I handed out the pot-au-feu in wooden bowls, along with the grilled sausage and bread on plates.

“Ahh, it’s delicious. Mukohda’s food is great, as usual.” Vincent said, talking between vigorous bites of his food. Rita nodded heartily at his words.

“It really is delicious. It might be because I’ve got such good food in my belly, but I feel like my body is moving better than usual.”

“I’ve also been feeling more powerful ever since I started eating Mukohda’s food.” Franka said, agreeing with Rita.

“Eating is the most important thing to humans. Depending on how delicious the food is, people’s moods will definitely change.” The normally silent Ramon chimed in seriously.

Yeah, I get it. You like my cooking, Ramon. Thanks, man.

“That’s certainly true. People have to eat to live. If that’s the case, it’s obvious that tasty meals would be better than bad ones. It really just means that we’re pretty lucky to be able to eat like this while traveling.” Werner was the one to sum it all up. It was somehow actually a little embarrassing to be praised that much. I guess this was a victory for Japan’s food industry.

But I wonder, I thought to myself, what’s up with what Rita and Franka said about them moving better? I didn’t make anything really special... It didn’t seem like there was anything bad going on, but I was still a little curious.

Let’s use Appraisal a little here, I decided.

【Name】 Rita

【Age】 16

【Job】 Scout

【Level】 18

【HP】 135 (+27)

【MP】 64 (+2)

【Attack】 119

【Defense】 107

【Agility】 138

【Skills】 Dagger Skill, Eavesdropping, Quiet Steps

“MBFFHHHH!!” I did a spit-take.

“Wai- What the heck are you doing?!”

“*cough* *cough* *hack* N-Nothing, there was just something weird in the soup and I choked. I’m fine, r- *cough* *cough*”

+27 and +2? W-What the heck is that?

I reflexively spat out my food.

Is it because they ate my food? Is it really? I appraised the pot-au-feu I had in my hands.

【Pot-au-feu】

Pot-au-feu made with ingredients from another world.

Increases max HP by 20% for 1 hour.

Oh...

It was totally my cooking’s fault.

Wait, wait, if the pot-au-feu raised HP, then what raised her MP? The sausage? The bread?

【Sausage】

Sausage from another world.

Raises max MP by 2% for 10 minutes.

【White Bread】

White Bread from another world.

Raises max MP by 1% for 10 minutes.

Oh, so it was both of them.

Thinking about it, I mused, isn’t this pretty dangerous? I mean, you can raise your HP and MP just by eating. If someone else finds out about this... oof, I feel chills. This was definitely, 100%, without a doubt, something nobody could ever know. Luckily, only summoned heroes got the Appraisal skill, and magic tools that could appraise only belonged to countries or guilds. Also, people would need to use those magic tools in order to confirm their own statuses, so there shouldn’t be any chance of them finding out that way.

As long as I kept my mouth shut, this should never get out. I’ve locked up my lips and thrown away the key, I decided. I will never, ever, speak a word of this to anyone.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

Five days had passed since we departed from Kiels.

“Let’s stop here for the day.” The sun was starting to set, and as usual we made camp at Werner’s command.

“Then, I’ll go ahead and use the Red Boar’s meat as I like, okay?”

“Sure, we’ll be looking forward to it.”

The red boar is a large boar monster with red fur that the members of Iron Will had hunted along the way earlier today. Goblins and wolf monsters (apparently, they’re called gray wolves) don’t really have any parts that are worth anything, so we had left their bodies as-is, but I was told that the red boar’s meat, hide, and fangs all fetch a fair price.

As expected of adventurers, their dismantling work was quick and professional. The problem was that it would be trouble to carry this much stuff.

When they started talking about throwing away the relatively cheap meat, I told them I had room in my Item Box and offered to put the meat inside.

And so, that’s how I ended up getting permission to use the meat for our meals. At first I thought to make steaks, but that would take time, so I rejected the idea. Instead, today’s menu was going to be that.

My favorite — ginger-fried pork.

~◇~◇~◇~

First, cut the red boar meat into thin slices before marinating it in the ginger fry sauce I bought. While that’s happening, cut cabbage into small strips. After that, all that’s left is to cook the marinated meat.

I also quickly prepared the usual instant consommé soup.

~◇~◇~◇~

“Dinner’s ready. I cooked the red boar meat with some flavoring from my homeland. I hope it suits everyone’s tastes.” I handed out the red boar fried with ginger and some cabbage on the wooden plates, some consommé soup, and bread to everyone.

“Oohhh, the smell really gets my appetite going.” (Werner)

“What the heck is this? It’s great!” (Vincent)

“Delicious!! It’s the first time I’ve eaten something this good!!” (Rita)

“I don’t really like red boar meat, but even I think it’s delicious like this.” (Franka)

“It’s my first time eating cabbagg raw, but it tastes great with this meat.” (Ramon)

Woah, it’s just a storm of praise here. I just cooked it with a certain company’s sauce, though... That certain company that makes a lot of different sauces.

Also, I realized, so cabbage is called “cabbagg” in this world, huh?

While everyone was busy praising the cooking, and while I was also making my way through the meal thinking it really was delicious, we suddenly heard a voice.

“Humans, give me some of that, too.” The owner of the voice was a wolf with such lustrous fur and radiating such a divine aura that it was ridiculous to even compare it to the wolf monsters we’d seen up until now.

The adventurers froze. They didn’t even quiver.

“Hey, human. Can you not hear me?”

I slowly held out my half-eaten portion to him.

As soon as I did that, the wolf that was as big as a cow thrust its face into the wooden plate and ate all of it in one bite.

“This is not enough. Give me more.”

“I-It’s a Fenrir...” Werner whispered, face dripping with cold sweat.

Is that such a dangerous monster that a party as seasoned as Iron Will can’t move an inch? W-What should I do? Even though we’re so close to Veenen...

“M-Mukohda, do as it says,” Werner told me, but there was none left. It seemed to be a monster that understood human language, so it may be that just as Werner said, following its wishes was the best way to get out of this unharmed.

“Uh, umm, I’ll have to cook it, so would you be willing to wait?”

“That is fine. I will wait, so make it quickly.”

I quickly cooked up some more red boar fried with ginger and handed it over to the Fenrir, or whatever it was.

Fenrir ate it with gusto, and kept asking for more; in the end, it ate seven or eight kilos of the red boar fried with ginger.

“*Burp* That was delicious. Nevertheless, to be able to satisfy me with so little meat... You are pretty good, human.”

So little meat, he says... even though he ate seven or eight kilos of it... How much does he even eat usually?

“Yes, I will form a contract with you.”

............Huh? What’s a contract?

“Hey, are you listening? I said I’d become your familiar.”

Familiar, he says... I think I’ve read web novels where they’ve done this sort of thing before, but does that mean I would be a tamer or something?

Nowaynowaynowaynoway.

I mean, it’s a monster that talks, yeah? I couldn’t help thinking, it’s strong enough to freeze the members of Iron Will, yeah? To be contracted with something that strong...isn’t that bad?

“Umm, ehh, I ref-”

“Hm?”

“No, you see, I refu-”

“Hahh?”

“............”

This bastard, he’s not gonna let me say no.

“This cannot be true, but could it be that you are trying to refuse a contract with me, Fenrir, retainer to the Goddess of the Wind, Ninrir? I do not think you would do something so outrageous, but what say you? Hm?”

When Fenrir(?) the monster that could speak human language said that, the members of Iron Will signaled to me with their eyes to hurry up and agree already.

Do I have to? Really? So “yes” is the only answer available here? I thought, resigned.

I reluctantly replied with, “I understand,” and Fenrir nodded, satisfied, with an “Mm.”

“Come this way.” At Fenrir’s prompt, I had no choice but to get closer.

“Closer. Come right in front of mine eyes.” Just as I was told, I stood right in front of Fenrir.

“Well then, I shall start the ritual of contract.” Having said that, Fenrir put his forehead to mine. When our foreheads touched, my body lit up for a moment.

“With this, our contract is set. Mm? You have the Appraisal skill. Are you a summoned hero?”

H-Heyyyyy!

I instantly closed Fenrir’s mouth.

“Mph-Mmmph, h-hey, what are you doing?!”

I whispered hurriedly, “Th-That’s a secret.”

“Ohh, is that so? Yes, I understand. Then, try confirming your status.” It looked like Fenrir understood, so he said that in a whisper that only I could hear.

At Fenrir’s prompt, I appraised myself.

“Status Open.”

【Name】 Mukohda (Tsuyoshi Mukouda)

【Age】 27

【Job】 Victim from Another World

【Level】 1

【HP】 100

【MP】 100

【Attack】 78

【Defense】 80

【Agility】 75

【Skills】 Appraisal, Item Box, Familiars (Contracted Magic Beasts): Fenrir

【Unique Skill】 Online Supermarket

Somehow, my Skills had increased. There was now a Familiars entry, and it said “Contracted Magic Beast Fenrir”...

“Mm, everything seems to be fine.”

“Eh? You can see it too?”

“Who do you think I am? I am kin to the Goddess of the Wind, I would at least have something like Appraisal.”

Izzat so? Actually, what happens now that we have a contract?

“Now then, with this I have become your Familiar. Because of this, as the master you have to look after me, your Familiar. Do you understand?”

Do you understand, he says, I thought, feeling a little miffed. But...huh? Is that right? By “take care of him,” does he mean that Familiars are basically pets?

“From now on, I look forward to three meals a day.”

............Hey. Three a day? That... could he possibly have been lured into a contract by food? Is that right?

“Hey, you over there, I have already contracted with this one here. I will not attack you, so stop freezing up like that.” Being addressed directly by the Fenrir, the members of Iron Will twitched.

“Umm, everyone, this Fenrir(?) over here understands speech, so I think it’s okay, so...”

“Ohh, I had forgotten. We have been bound by contract, so you, give me a name.”

“Ehhh don’t ask me that all of a sudden. Hmmm, then, Pochi.”

“You, are you making fun of me?”

He seemed to get mad after I said Pochi. Actually, I thought, now that it looks like he got lured in by food it seemed ridiculous to be afraid of him.

“Hey, don’t get mad at me. How about Koro, then?”

When I said that, the Fenrir got even angrier. What’s up with this guy, he’s being pretty selfish, I thought exasperated.

“Fine, then since you’re a Fenrir, how about Fel?”

“Hm, Fel... I like that. Let us go with that.”

What’s with him, acting all important?

Like this, the Fenrir’s name became Fel.

While that was happening, Iron Will finally started moving again. Among them, Werner, the fastest to recover, hesitatingly raised his voice.

“M-Mukohda...”

“Ah, Werner, are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine, but... T-To think that I would lay eyes on the legendary beast Fenrir...”

Huh? Legendary? This guy who got lured in by food?

“There remain legends of a sighting around 300 years ago, but I’ve never even heard of anyone contracting with that Fenrir.”

Eeeeehhhhh...

“Well, there are only enough of us Fenrirs to count with your hands. From what I have heard, there was a Fenrir that formed a contract 700 years ago, but I have lived over 1000 years and this is the first contract I have formed.”

H-Huhhh, so he’s lived over 1000 years, I noted.

“I will be able to eat food this good. Compared to that, serving a human for several tens of years is no loss to me.”

Ahhh ahhhh ahhh, this guy actually said it, I thought more exasperated than anything. He just declared that he did it for the food. They say that he’s a legendary beast, but is this guy really okay?

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

From then on, Fel the Fenrir became one of our traveling companions, and we had made enough progress to be arriving at Veenen soon.

I was in the middle, Rita was in front, Vincent was to my right and Ramon to my left, and behind me to the right and left were Franka and Werner respectively. Added to that usual formation, Fel followed us slowly.

Werner sighed while making a thoughtful face.

“What’s wrong, Werner?”

“Well, we’re almost at the border, so I was just wondering what to do.” Hm? What does he mean?

“Nononono, Mukohda. Like this, they’ll definitely stop us.” Vincent glanced furtively behind us as he said that.

Ahh, because Fel is with us, I realized.

“The border guards will come crawling out of the woodwork. Although I think they’ll withdraw once they realize we don’t mean any harm...”

“Werner, even before the question of ‘if they’ll withdraw or not,’ the entirety of their army is still no match for a Fenrir.”

“Well, what Ramon says is true.”

“Eh, is that fairy tale of a Fenrir destroying an entire country something that actually happened?”

“Rita, that’s not a fairy tale, it’s historical fact.”

Ummm, have my ears gone bad? They’re talking some nonsense about destroying a country. That’s a joke, right? I couldn’t accept what I had just heard.

“Even if they acknowledge that it’s contracted, there’s no doubt that the entire country will move this time.” Werner said while looking at me.

Huh? Me? What now?

“There’s just no way that the country will leave you alone, now that you’ve contracted with a Fenrir, Mukohda. As long as they capture you, Fenrir will definitely follow, after all.”

Eh? R-Ramon, is that true? I couldn’t help my shock, it would be extremely troublesome to have a country stepping into my business.

“There is no need to worry. If they mean any harm to either of us, all I have to do is fight them.”

“Nonono. Th-That’d be bad. If the Great Fenrir-”

“Fel.”

“...If F-Fel were to get serious, the entire country would disappear.”

“If they mess with us, they deserve to disappear.”

Nonono, F-Fel, isn’t that a little too violent?

“If they do not want that to happen all they have to do is leave us alone. It is a very simple thing.”

After Fel made his point, the members of Iron Will could only stare, open-mouthed.

“More importantly, is it not almost time for food?”

Fel’s words marked the start of lunch.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

The red boar meat that the members of Iron Will hunted was in trouble. No matter how much they say that it was okay to use, there had to be a limit.

Including Fel’s portion of boar yesterday, and the meat I served him this morning because he kept going on about eating meat, we’d already gone through quite the amount.

“Hey, I request meat.”

“Of course you’d want meat for lunch too. The red boar meat isn’t mine, so if you want to eat meat that badly, go hunt some yourself.”

“Hm? Is that so. I will get some meat right away, so wait awhile.” Having said so, Fel ran off into the forest beside the road.

“M-Mukohda, it’s okay if you want to use all of the red boar meat.”

“No no, there’s no way I can take advantage of you like that. If we let him, Fel really will eat all of the boar that everyone took so much trouble hunting. Also, we can’t just coddle him like that. If he plans to travel with me from now on, he should at least take responsibility for the cost of his own food. I mean, I can’t hunt, and if he wants to eat meat like this every time, I can’t very well buy it, can I? If I tried that, I’d go bankrupt right away. Hahaha.” If he’s really a legendary magic beast then he should at least be able to hunt his own food, I thought.

“You’re amazing, Mukohda...” (Werner)

“Amazing. You’re amazing, Mukohda!” (Rita)

“You’re great, Mukohda. I really respect you for being able to order around that Fenrir.” (Vincent)

“To order around a Fenrir that could destroy a country by itself, you must be a hero.” (Franka)

“To think there would be a person that could tell a Fenrir what to do.” (Ramon)

Ehh, even if you say that... It might feel amazing if you say that Fenrirs are legendary magic beasts, but this guy, Fel, was lured into a contract by food...

To be lured in by food, honestly - that’s something I can only think an idiot would do.

It’s scary though, so I wouldn’t tell Fel that. While I was thinking that, Fel came back with a huge bird in his mouth.

“I-It’s a Rockbird...” The members of Iron Will stared at Fel with the bird in his mouth with blank faces.

“By Rockbird, do you mean the bird that Fel hunted?”

“Yeah, it’s a B-rank monster. It’s about strong enough that even if we fought it with all our strength, we might not win.” Oi, you hunted something that dangerous?

“I have caught something. Quickly, make me something to eat.”

No, I mean, even if you tell me to make food, if you just plop a huge bird down in front of me... I didn’t know how to butcher animals. There was no choice but to ask for help here.

“Fel, you know I don’t know how to butcher this? I have no choice but to ask these people for help, but is it okay to pay them with the non-meat materials from this rockbird?”

“As long as I am able to eat meat I have no problems with this.”

“Now that that’s settled, can I ask you guys to dismantle this?”

Just like that, I asked them, but the members of Iron will all shook their heads saying, “Nonono. It’s too much to take all the materials just for dismantling a rockbird.” Even if you tell me that, I thought, I really just don’t want to pay this guy’s food bill out of my own pocket.

“No no, thanks to Fel what’s left of the red boar meat has decreased drastically, and Fel himself is okay with it so please take it.” They kept saying, “It’s too much,” right until the end, but I somehow managed to convince them. It’s something Fel hunted so it’s free, after all.

Also, it seemed like there would be trouble entering Veenen like this, so collecting favors now should help me out in the long run.

With that settled, the rockbird was cleanly dismantled by Iron Will.

So, thinking that for a bird this would be just right, I used the teriyaki sauce that I bought with my skill and decided to make Rockbird Teriyaki.

~◇~◇~◇~

First, cook both sides of the rockbird well. Normally, it would be better to use kitchen paper to wipe up the extra fat, but this was a different world, and we were camping, so I just dumped it over to the side.

Now, add the teriyaki sauce. When the sauce starts to simmer, mix it well with the rockbird meat, and there, the teriyaki rockbird is finished.

For today, I’d decided to make the freeze-dried onion soup. This one had a lot more stuff in it, too. Also, just having instant consommé soup all the time would be boring.

~◇~◇~◇~

I served the finished meal to the members of Iron Will first.

“Hey, where is my share?”

“You eat a lot, Fel, so I’m serving everyone else first. I’ll make it right away, so wait a bit.”

“Mm, I see.” From there, I cooked my heart out making teriyaki rockbird.

Fel seemed to really take to the teriyaki rockbird, so the entire bird outside of our portion ended up being eaten by him. The rockbird teriyaki was good, and I quite liked it, but next time I’d like to eat it in a calmer environment and really savor it.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

We’d come far enough to say that Veenen was right in front of our eyes.

From here, we could see the fort on the country’s border. The soldiers inside seemed to be coming out in force.

Haahhhh~ It really did come down to this, huh? I looked over at Fel, who was following behind us slowly, and sighed.

“It seems like there’s a lot of soldiers coming out, doesn’t it...”

“Fel is with us, after all. I’ll go on ahead and explain the situation.” Having said that, Werner ran towards the fort ahead of us.

Sorry for the trouble, I apologized in my heart.

Reaching the fortress, we found Werner and the border guard soldiers lined up, waiting for us.

“I am Edgar Wollgård, captain of the Kingdom of Veenen’s fourth knight brigade. I’ve heard the situation from Werner, here. Is it true that you have formed a contract with that Fenrir, there?” The guard captain that seemed to have the highest title there (he even had a last name, so he might have been a noble), asked me with such a tense air about him that I thought I could see it.

This is because Fel’s here, isn’t it... I thought, the other guards still have their weapons in hand so they can react to anything, too...

I guess even a rotten legendary beast is still legendary, or something, I mused.

“Yes, I’ve formed a contract with this Fenrir.” When I said that, the guards all let out an, “Ooohhhh!”

“I see. But still, it’s a Fenrir, a beast that’s been said to have destroyed a country. Will it really not harm this country or its citizens?” For a person entrusted with guarding the border, I guess that concern would have been pretty appropriate.

“Hey, Fel. These people here are really worried about letting you, whose strength is legendary, into the country. They’ll be in trouble if you go wild in their country, after all. You definitely won’t do anything like that, right?”

“Nh, do not lump me in with those dumb-as-a-rock monsters. As long as they do not lay a hand on you, who is my master, or I - I will do nothing of the sort.”

“There you have it, Captain.” He was making a face, shocked at the exchange between Fel and I.

“You really did contract with the legendary magic beast... Even though it’s right in front of my eyes, I still don’t really believe it...” That’s right, captain, I complained in my heart. I was forced to enter a contract with him while I still wasn’t really sure what was going on...

“From your conversation just now, it seems like the story of your contract is true. If that is the case, I’ll allow you in. However, make sure you hold the reins on your Fenrir tightly, please.”

“Yes, I understand. Hey, Fel, I’m begging you here, so please behave, ok?”

“I understand already. Just as I have said earlier, as long as they do not lay a hand on us, there will be no trouble from my end.”

“I’m really, reaaalllly, begging you here. If something happens, it’ll be my fault.”

“You are being awfully persistent.”

“Well, I just wanted to reaaaallly make sure you get it. Oh, if you end up doing something that causes trouble for everyone, I can just take away meals.”

“Guh...!” I’ve somehow made it through the border, so I really needed to make sure he got it. If something were to happen, I’d be the one in trouble, after all.

“I see. If you’ve tamed that Fenrir to this degree, it seems like the worst won’t come to happen.” The captain said, looking slightly relieved.

“Captain, I’m pretty sure that worst will never happen. We were there when Mukohda formed his contract with Fel, and we also traveled together the rest of the way here. In all that time, Fel hasn’t flown off the handle once.”

“It’s just as our leader says. Fel went and hunted monsters at Mukohda’s instruction, too. I was super surprised!”

Rita, I was surprised, too. When I told him to go and get his own meat, I had meant that he should take responsibility for the cost of his own food, so I sent him hunting. I didn’t have him hunt for my own profit, so please don’t get that wrong, okay?

“Hoohh, so you’ve really got a firm control over him.”

Wait a minute, captain, what do you mean by, “Hoohh?” You know you look like you’re planning something bad by putting your hand to your chin like that? Please stop, I don’t want any trouble.

Well after this and that, we somehow managed to get permission to cross the border and so had made it safely into the kingdom of Veenen.

By the way, since I didn’t have a guild card, I was made to pay a tax of 5 silver coins. There was also a tax to let Fel in too, so that added an extra 2 silver coins onto the fee. The fact that Fel cost money too kinda hurt me in my wallet. I need to hurry up and get into the Merchant’s guild.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

Entering the kingdom of Veenen, our first destination was the border town, Falliéres.

“I’m so relieved I managed to get in. Thanks, everyone.” In the first place, it would have been impossible to travel alone in this world full of monsters, so I was really thankful to everyone from Iron Will. And with Fel’s situation, I wouldn’t have been able to get into the country without their help, either.

“Not at all, we were all able to experience something good, too. We even got to see the legendary beast, Fenrir, and even talk to him too.”

“As our leader says, I’ll be bragging to everyone about this!”

“I’ll be bragging about this too, same as Vincent~. Like, ‘Hey, I got to meet a Fenrir from those fairy tales,’ you know?”

“Fufufu, Rita, you’re such a child. But it’s true, this is something one would want to brag about.”

“To see a Fenrir in our lifetimes... this might just dry up all our luck as adventurers.” I guess Fel’s existence was just that impactful to everyone else.

“But, Mukohda’s life is probably gonna get real busy from here on out.” Werner, what do you mean by, ‘busy?’ “Because there’s no way they haven’t already told the margrave that rules this area and probably even the king that a Fenrir and its master have been let into the country.” Ghh, that would happen, wouldn’t it?

“Not to mention that captain, he was obviously plotting ways to get you to serve the country after seeing the relationship between you and Fel.”

THE CAPTAAAIINNN!! He really was up to no good.

“Even if you tell me that, I don’t plan on staying in this country forever anyway, so when that time comes, I’ll just have to think about it while consulting with Fel.”

“Hahaha, that’s right. As long as this great Fel is with you, they won’t be able to do anything reckless.”

I was relying solely on Fel, but there was no way around it. Even I’d like to go around and see the world, since I’d already been summoned here anyways. I’d started to feel like it would be nice to use this trip to travel the world while I profited with my Online Supermarket. Traveling in another world seemed like it’d be full of adventure, after all.

“By not staying in this country, you mean you plan to travel?”

I nodded at Werner’s question. “I’ve started feeling like I should go see the world, you know?”

“I see. If that’s the case, you should register at the Adventurer’s guild, Mukohda.” Eh? The Adventurer’s guild? I thought, I don’t want to become an adventurer, though.

“The Adventurer’s guild, you say? Personally, I planned to join the Merchant’s guild... I can cook, so I was planning to travel and set up stalls at towns I stop at to earn money, or sell commodities wholesale because I have some connections.”

“Is that so? But still...” Werner looked at Fel while making a thoughtful face.

“Mukohda, you’re planning on having Fel hunt for his own food from now on, aren’t you?” I nodded — of course that was the case.

“If so, how are you planning on butchering what he hunts?” Ah, that’s right. “Also, taking the rockbird into consideration, what Fel hunts will probably all be high-ranking monsters. If so, then having the Adventurer’s guild buy off their other useable parts would be perfect, you see.”

Certainly. If they’ll buy that stuff then having them do it would only help my travels from now on. But being an adventurer... hmmmm...

“You look like you’re really having trouble with this, Mukohda, but why not just register at both?” That was said by Vincent, who was eavesdropping on the conversation between Werner and I.

“I could do that, but would that be okay?”

“Well, there’s not a lot of them, but there are people that are registered to both guilds.”

“Ahh, is that so? If that’s the case I’ll go for both, then.”

Thus, I decided to register at both guilds.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

We reached the goal of our journey, the border town Falliéres.

It seemed that they were already informed of our presence from when we passed through the border fort, because when we arrived, Fel was let in without too much trouble. It wasn’t as much as when entering the country, but to get into the city I had to pay taxes again (2 silver for me and 1 for Fel), and it hurt me a little to do so.

Passing through the gate, I found an envoy from Margrave Lindell waiting for me, just like Werner had said there would be.

“Sir Mukohda, am I correct? I am a servant of Margrave Lindell, Edmond. It is a pleasure to meet you. To tell you the truth, Margrave Lindell would love to meet you, Sir Mukohda, and has sent me to invite you.”

I see, it’s finally here, a forceful invitation event. However, I didn’t want to meet him. I didn’t plan to stay in this country for long, after all. Let’s refuse him politely, here, I decided.

“No no, a mere traveler such as I would never dream of a meeting with Margrave Lindell.”

“Oh no, Margrave Lindell insists —”

“No no, I should say —”

“No no no, it is I who should say, please, come with me —”

While Edmond and I were attempting to push each other around with words, Fel came over. “Hey, you. Do you not understand that mine master is refusing to meet yours?”

“S-So this is the great F-Fenrir. Sir F-Fenrir, please come along as well.” Edmond managed to say that through a face strained with fright at Fel’s sudden appearance.

“Hmph, how crafty you think you must be. I do not wish to meet the margrave, either. He is simply after mine power, no? There were such foolish humans in the past, as well.”

“N-Nonono, th-there’s no way...”

“Do not lie to me. Would you like to find out what happened to those foolish humans who thought to use mine power? Hmm?”

“HI-HIEEeee...” Edmond finally cracked when Fel bared his teeth, and ran away, screaming.

“Fel, that was too much.”

“Those kinds of idiots do not learn unless if you do it like this.” Yes yes, is that so?

“Is it okay to treat Margrave Lindell’s envoy like that? Nobles are very protective of their reputation, so he might try something.”

Werner’s worry was entirely warranted. I didn’t think Fel would go that far, either.

“There is no need to worry. If they try something all we have to do is face it head on.” Wow, well I’ll be counting on you Fel ol’ buddy.

“Well, Fel will be with you, so it’ll probably be fine.” When Werner said that, the other members of Iron Will nodded in agreement.

“I don’t think a noble’s private soldiers would ever be able to stand up to Fel.” (Franka)

“What Franka says is right. I think so, too.” (Rita)

“Actually, the only thing that could rival Fel would be something like an ancient dragon, no?” (Vincent)

“You can say that again.” (Ramon)

The fantasy mainstay: Dragons. So they really do exist. I don’t want to see one at all, though.

“Mm, an ancient dragon... Truly, that one is probably the only one who can fight evenly with me.”

“Eh? Fel, have you fought an ancient dragon before?” Vincent latched on to that statement, excited.

“Around 400 years ago, yes. That time was a draw, but I will not lose the next.”

“WOOAAHHH Awesome!! A battle between legendary beasts, I would have wanted to see that...”

“Same here...” Vincent and Rita seemed to be fired up, and Franka and Ramon were showing wry smiles while watching them.

“Hey, hey, calm down everyone. We’re going to report this to the Adventurer’s guild as soon as we get Mukohda’s signature that the quest is completed, got it?” I signed the quest complete report when Werner asked.

When I tried to return the red boar meat, I was refused. They said that it couldn’t pay for the rockbird meat they’d eaten, but I should have it anyways.

“I really have been treated well by you guys, especially after taking all the red boar meat. Thank you all very much.” I would never have made it this far without the members of Iron Will.

“Not at all, we got to have a good time too. We even got great food out of it, so overall it’s been a good quest, no doubt.” I was gratified that they said that.

“Really, thank you all very much. Well then, farewell.”

“You too, Mukohda.” The members of Iron Will left, hands waving.

Okay, so I’ve accomplished my current goal, but what should I do from now on? I started pondering my current situation. I don’t plan to stay in this country long, but for now I should register to the guilds here, I guess. I should register for the Adventurer’s guild as well, as Werner suggested, but right now I want to go to the Merchant’s guild, my original plan, first.

“Hey, Fel. We’re going to the Merchant’s guild.”

“Mm? Are you going to become a merchant?”

“At the very least, I hope to do so. But I also plan to register at the Adventurer’s guild. I want you to hunt your own meat from now on, but I can’t butcher the monsters myself. Also, we could use the funds from me selling the other materials from the monsters you hunt to the guild. It’s okay, right? If I sell the other parts?”

“Those are not things I need, so I do not mind. More than that, I want to eat tasty meals.”

“Yeah yeah, I get it.” Man... I couldn’t help but think, this guy, rather than a legendary beast, he’s just a gluttonous snackhound.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

Fel and I arrived at the Merchant’s guild.

When I entered with Fel in tow, everyone was surprised and it caused a minor ruckus, but everything calmed down after I desperately explained that he was my familiar. Currently, I was listening to an explanation of the guild at the receptionist’s counter. The person taking care of me was Mikaela, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed bombshell. Mikaela’s explanation was as follows:

・The Merchant’s Guild is an organization that supersedes countries.

・There are five ranks within the Merchant’s Guild:

Iron Rank → Traveling Peddlers or Stall Owners (those that do business without a brick-and-mortar store)

Bronze Rank → Privately Owned Stores (small, privately owned stores such as a town’s butcher or greengrocer)

Silver Rank → Small-scale Firm (a modestly-sized firm in a single city)

Gold Rank → Mid-scale Firm (a comparatively-larger firm with several branch stores)

Mithril Rank → Large-scale Firm (a large firm with many branches)

・Registration fees, annual fees, and taxes depend on your rank.

Iron Rank → Registration fee of 5 silver → Annual fee of 1 gold → Taxes of 2 gold

Bronze Rank → Registration fee of 1 gold → Annual fee of 2 gold → Taxes of 4 gold

Silver Rank → Registration fee of 2 gold → Annual fee of 5 gold → Taxes of 10 gold

Gold Rank → Registration fee of 4 gold → Annual fees and Taxes depend on how many branches exist.

Mithril Rank → Registration fee of 8 gold → Annual fees and Taxes depend on how many branches exist.

・Annual fees and taxes must be paid within 1 year of acceptance into the guild.

・Starting from the day you register, your rank and qualifications are reevaluated and renewed every year. Your membership will not renew if you have not paid your annual fees and taxes.

・The taxes you owe are paid to the country; the Merchant’s guild takes responsibility for the delivery of this payment.

・In the case that you lose your guild card, the reissue fee depends on your rank.

・If you participate in illegal business practices, the Merchant’s guild is allowed to expel you.

・It is possible to start from Iron Rank and gradually work your way up.

・Please consult the guild if you are troubled by anything, including cases of: setting up a store, needing investment funds, or acquiring inventory.

As expected of the Merchant’s guild, I thought. Everything I want to know is explained to me kindly and carefully.

“So, Mukohda, sir, what kind of business are you planning on opening?”

About that... since Fel’s around and I want to go around seeing the world myself, I don’t want to be stuck with a brick-and-mortar store for right now. If that’s the case, I guess Iron Rank would work well, I reasoned to myself.

“I have a familiar, and for the moment I have no plans to open a store, so I think Iron Rank would be a good fit. Would you register me as such, please?”

“Thank you. Your registration fee will be 5 silver, would it be alright to continue the registration process as-is?” My wallet was feeling a little empty at the moment, but if it was only 5 silver I could pay it, so I went ahead with the registration process.

“Now then, this will be your Iron Rank guild card, sir. As I explained earlier, in the case that you lose it reissuing a guild card will cost its own fee. For an Iron Rank, that cost will be 8 silver, so please be careful about not losing it.” 8 silver, huh? That’s quite a lot. I’ll have to be careful not to lose it.

Oh, there was something else I wanted to ask, as well. “Umm, excuse me, but does this guild buy goods wholesale? To tell you the truth I’ve come across some things during my travels...”

“Wholesale? It depends on the good, but yes, we do buy.” It depends, huh? As expected of a Merchant’s guild, they have a discerning eye.

I was thinking of having them buy some salt and pepper off of me. Those probably wouldn’t cause a problem.

“Okay then, I will bring the goods I would like to sell to the guild tomorrow.”

“We will be waiting. Thank you for registering with our guild today.” As I left the Merchant’s guild that treated me politely and warmly behind, I realized that I had forgotten to ask about an inn where I could stay with a familiar.

I hurried back to ask Mikaela about it, and she recommended a place named “Jumping Horse Inn.” She gave detailed directions, so I headed there immediately with Fel.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

It was just as Mikaela had told us: Fel was able to stay in the Jumping Horse inn as well. However, a room with accommodation for a familiar cost 7 silver a night. I was slowly growing more and more destitute.

Fel had been led to a separate building behind the inn, so I headed over there.

“Hey, I held it in during lunch, but I have been hungry for a while now, you know?” Now that he mentions it, we didn’t have lunch, did we? Fel didn’t raise a fuss about it, either. He might have been trying to be considerate, which is kind of unlike him.

“Sorry, sorry. Let’s have an early dinner, then.” We were right in front of the shed for animals, but no one was around but Fel and I, so I could go ahead and cook there. I might as well eat too, while I was at it.

I still had some of the red boar meat that I got from Iron Will, so today was going to be red boar steak. I should cut Fel’s portion extra thick, too, I thought.

Also, for my portion, it’s been long enough that I want to eat that, I considered. And by that, I meant rice. The one thing a Japanese person needs is rice, after all. But at the moment all I had was one miniature stove. Cooking rice takes time, too... I considered, Hmm, what should I do?

Tomorrow I was going to sell salt and pepper to the Merchant’s guild, so I needed to buy some of that. But that should also earn me some money, I considered, and it’s not like having one will cause me any trouble, so let’s get one of those. My wallet’s getting lonelier and lonelier, but I really do want to eat rice. With that decided, I used the Online Supermarket to buy rice, an earthenware pot, another portable stove, as well as five kilos each of the salt and pepper I was going to sell tomorrow. The rice I bought was Koshihikari rice, which I often used to eat at home. I’m not sure how much the salt and pepper will be worth, so for now I settled on only five kilograms. In total, it cost me around 8 silver. I could feel the lightness of my wallet on my soul, but I was looking forward to making some profit tomorrow.

Now, let’s start cooking.

~◇~◇~◇~

First, wash the rice and let it soak in water for around half an hour.

While that’s happening, let’s get moving on Fel’s steak. Seasoning the red boar meat with salt and pepper, I cooked both sides on a pan. It was a bit rare, but it should be fine. The steak was finished once I put it on a plate and added some steak sauce to it.

~◇~◇~◇~

“Here, Fel.” When I handed it over, Fel ate one immediately with two chomps and a lick of his chops. I cut that steak pretty thick, though...

“This is tasty! Give me more.” So I grilled even more red boar steak for Fel.

I’ll use this sauce for Fel’s next steak. “Here.”

“*Chomp* *Chomp* Mm, it tastes different from the last one. However, this one is delicious as well.”

Heheh, so he noticed. There are a lot of different types of steak sauce, so I prepared several of them. The first one was garlic-flavored, and the next was grated radish. Having these sauces was pretty handy. They were good to fry vegetables with, and the garlic one could even be used to make garlic rice. In addition to the steak sauce, teriyaki and yakiniku sauce could also be used for a variety of purposes so I used to have them stocked in my house. I got these sauces when I was buying food in preparation for my trip over the border.

I kept grilling steaks to appease Fel’s appetite. Next, I used onion-flavor, and butter-flavor after that. Whoops, the rice should be finishing soon, I noticed.

Let’s put the clay pot on the stove. I got the pot up to a boil by setting it to a little stronger than medium heat for 10 minutes, before letting it sit at low heat for 5 minutes, and, finally, letting the rice steam for another 20 minutes with the fire off. I ended up making about 450g of rice, but I could just throw the leftovers into my Item Box and it would stay just as fresh as when it was made.

Because my Item Box is the same one that summoned heroes have, its storage space was basically infinite, and it also stopped time for items within it. It was the only thing that made me grateful for their method of summoning heroes to deal with their problems.

Meanwhile, I continued to cook steaks for Fel while this was happening.

“Make the next one the same flavor as the first, if you would.”

“Garlic flavor? Okay... here you go.”

“So this is called ‘garlic-flavor’ then; it truly is delicious.”

“So you like this flavor?”

“Quite. They are all tasty, but this is my favorite.” Hohohh, I see I see; as for me, I think onion-flavor would be my favorite, I thought.

With that said, the rice should be just about ready, so let’s do that. First, pile the freshly made rice into a bowl. Cut the red boar steak into large-bite-sized chunks, and place it on top of the rice. Over that, pour some onion-flavored steak sauce, and it’s done. A red boar steak bowl.

All right, let’s try some...

“D-Deliciouuusss~” *Mmgmmg* This is great, wow. The red boar steak is good, but so is the rice soaked in steak sauce. We Japanese really do need rice. Rice Da Bestー!

“Hm, that looks tasty. Give me some of that, too.”

Ehhh, Fel wants some too? If I don’t give him any here it looks like he’ll make a big deal out of it... There’s no other choice. Wait though, if I do that, the rest of the rice will go straight into Fel’s belly. Awww, man.

When I made Fel his own steak bowl (garlic-flavored), he started to chomp it down promptly.

“Mm, this is good. I had thought that grains were not something edible, but this is pretty good.”

“Right? Rice really is the best.” I don’t exactly hate bread, I thought, but it just doesn’t stir up the same appetite that rice does.

Being able to eat rice like this even though I’m in another world is all thanks to my Online Supermarket, I thought thankfully. At first I was like, “What the hell is this?” But the Online Supermarket is just incredibly convenient.

*sigh* That was delicious. I’m full, such satisfaction. As I basked in the satisfaction, Fel started grooming himself, so he must have been satisfied too. Ah, I noticed with a start, it’s a bit too late for this, but wasn’t it bad to feed cats and dogs anything with too strong a flavor? Also, aren’t onions no good for dogs?

Fel was wolfing it down like there was no tomorrow, so I guess it was okay. In the first place, Fel is a magic beast from a different world. He seemed to be perfectly fine, so I guess there was nothing wrong and I didn’t need to worry.

“All right, well, I have to get ready for tomorrow, so I’m gonna go back to my room.”

“Understood.”

After I got back to my room, I started preparing the salt and pepper I would sell to the Merchant’s guild tomorrow. The salt I bought came in a paper bag, and the pepper in vinyl packs (5 packs of 20 grams each), so there was no way I could just bring them into the guild as they were. I guess I’ll need to move them, I decided.

I can put the salt in this jute bag I bought at the general store where I also got my wooden utensils, I thought. As for the pepper, I think this wooden vessel with a lid is good enough.

Right, my preparations are complete, I thought with satisfaction. I’m a little tired from all this, so I guess I’ll go to sleep early.

While wishing for the sale to go well tomorrow, I fell asleep on a bed for the first time in a long while.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

The next morning I was pressed to cook a large amount of steaks because Fel said that he wanted the same thing as yesterday.

Yep, he’s a carnivore. The rate at which we went through meat was amazing. I still had some red boar meat left, so everything was okay for now, but he did eat the rest of it for breakfast. I was going to need to get Fel to go hunting soon if this kept up. And if that was the case, I’d have to go register at the Adventurer’s guild. I guess I’ll go after I go sell this salt and pepper at the Merchant’s guild, I decided, resigned. Today’s gonna be busy as well.

By the way, my breakfast ended up being a simple ham and cheese sandwich and some onion soup. Yeah, there’s no way I could eat steak first thing in the morning.

After that, I headed over to the Merchant’s guild just as planned. I took Fel along with me, because we were going to visit the Adventurer’s guild right afterward, too.

Mikaela, who took care of me yesterday, was here today too. “Good morning, Mikaela.”

“Good morning, Mukohda, sir.”

“I’ve come to sell what I talked about yesterday. This is what I was talking about...” Having said that, I took out the jute bag full of salt and the jar with the pepper in it from my Item Box.

“I will take a look. This is...excuse me for a little bit.” Mikaela took one look at the pepper and stood up.

Huh? Maybe bringing pepper really was a bad move? They say that back in ancient times pepper was worth its weight in gold, so maybe 100 grams was a bit much.

After a little while, Mikaela returned, wanting to lead me to a room in the back. I told Fel to wait before following her. In the room, a man in his 50’s with a good physique was already waiting for us.

“Please, take a seat. I am Robért, the guildmaster of this branch. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” Oh man, so the guildmaster makes his appearance? Yeah, I shouldn’t have brought out the pepper.

After he told another employee to leave the salt and pepper on his way out, the guildmaster started inspecting it with an, “I’ll take a look.” Just as I would expect out of a person who made it all the way to the rank of guildmaster, he started confirming the smell and taste with a sharp look on his face.

“I’ve been in business a long time, but this is the first I’ve seen salt and pepper of this high quality. Salt with so little impurity that it is pure white and has no bitter or unpleasant taste in the mouth, and pepper with such vivid smell and taste. I can only say that it’s wonderful.” Is that so? But when buying this from the Online Supermarket the salt was only 5 copper for five kilos, and the pepper was the same for 100 grams, I thought to myself.

“By all means I would like to buy this off of you, but where in the world did you get it?” From my Online Supermarket. It’s salt and pepper produced from another world, so I can guarantee its quality... As if I could say that.

“While I was traveling, you see...”

When I started trying to avoid the question, the guildmaster said, “That was a boorish question. A merchant shouldn’t reveal their sources so easily, I guess.” He said while laughing. “Well then, about the price — how does 4 gold for the salt and 10 gold for the pepper sound?”

“.........What?” Th-That’s a joke, right? I started panicking, it was only 1 silver to buy both of them, but the salt is worth 4 gold? And the pepper 10? Eh, ahh, umm...I knew that salt and pepper were expensive in this world, but is it really that much?

“As I thought, that’s too low, huh... Then how about 15 gold for the both of them?” Woah, he’s just raising the price on his own. Does he think I’m hesitating because I’ve been quiet? No, I’m just surprised is all. In my confusion, I couldn’t stop my thoughts from racing.

“Kh... Fine then, 17 gold for both of them. I can’t go any higher than that.” I didn’t know what kind of misunderstanding the guildmaster was operating under, but he raised the price even further.

“Y-Yeah. Th-That’s fine.” S-Seventeen gold in one go... The cost was only 1 silver, and I got 17 gold... I thought, amazed.

I’m profiting hand-over-fist here, I realized. I’m the one that’s asking them to buy it, so it’s not gonna work every time, though. If I start constantly bringing in salt and pepper like this, they really will start to wonder how I got it. I should probably limit this to once per guild branch, I decided. Even so, I was thankful to have obtained a way to get money in a pinch.

Accepting the 17 gold, I decided to pay the year’s annual fee and tax right now. It’s better to pay this type of fee when you can, I thought to myself. It’ll be awful if I let the deadline approach and all of a sudden I don’t have the money for it, after all.

“I have certainly received the annual fee of 1 gold and tax of 2 gold for an Iron Rank.” Whew, with this I’m good for 1 year.

I put the 14 gold I still had left over after paying the annual fee and tax into my wallet. Added to what was already in my wallet, I now had 19 gold, 5 silver, and several iron and copper coins each. It seemed like I’d be okay for now.

Well, I have an idea for if I find I don’t have enough, I thought. It’d be easier for other stores to trust me when selling if I were to have a Merchant’s guild card. And I had my Online Supermarket, so I had a wide variety of things I could sell. I was glad that I decided to join the Merchant’s guild.

Alright, next I guess I’ll go register at the Adventurer’s guild.

With my wallet comfortably thicker after selling that salt and pepper, I left the Merchant’s guild.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

I arrived at the Adventurer’s guild.

Just like the Merchant’s guild, the guild building was quite large compared to the rest of the town. As expected, it was full of grim-looking people holding weapons. I’d say it’s about four physical fighters to every one magic user? I thought, looking at the people inside. At any rate, I was amazed at how they could do such a dangerous job.

Well, I was about to register for said job as well. I didn’t plan to get into fights like an adventurer at all though, not one bit.

I was thinking about this and that to take my mind off of things, but the stares ever since I lined up were really something. This was probably that, “An adventurer? You? Don’t make me laugh!” cliché, but they probably couldn’t try anything with Fel right next to me. I wasn’t sure if they knew that Fel was a Fenrir, but it seemed that they instinctively understood that laying a hand on Fel would be dangerous. I was so glad Fel was there. I’d get messed with all day if it wasn’t for him.

I want to hurry up and run away from this place already.

Haahhh, won’t this line hurry up?

After a while, it was finally my turn. “I’d like to register.”

“Then please, fill out this form here. It’s fine to leave spaces blank if you can’t answer them.” The receptionist at the Adventurer’s guild was beautiful, but also felt cold and blunt. Yeah, the Merchant’s guild was politer, I thought.

I’m not sure if it was thanks to the hero summoning too, but I could write this language just fine, so I filled out what I could. I only ended up filling out the essentials: name, weapon (I didn’t plan on using it much, but I should probably have one anyway just in case, so I wrote down “short sword”), and the fact that I had a familiar.

“The registration fee will be 5 silver. Okay then, please drip some of your blood onto this card.” After paying the fee of 5 silver, I was given a copper-brown card and a needle. I did as I was told, and pricked the tip of my finger to drip some blood onto the card.

“Your registration is complete. You will start at the bottom, G-rank. The quests that you can take are only G or F rank, so please understand that.” Huh? Is that all the explanation I’m getting for the Adventurer’s guild? “Is there something else?”

“Isn’t there more to explain?” The receptionist made a clearly annoyed face that felt like she was saying, “What? You’re actually gonna ask that?”

I’ll ask. I’ll ask the hell out of it! In these cases, if one doesn’t properly ask about it first, it’ll come back to haunt them.

With no other choice, the receptionist started talking. Man, the receptionist at this Adventurer’s guild has a bad attitude. The difference between her and the receptionist at the Merchant’s guild is like heaven and earth, I complained in my head. Mikaela explained things kindly and carefully with a smile from beginning to end, you know?

The Adventurer’s guild explanation, full of unwillingness, went like this:

・The Adventurer’s guild is an organization that supersedes countries.

・Adventurer ranks are as shown below, ranging from G to S.

(Low)G→F→E→D→C→B→A→S(High)

・The only requests an adventurer is allowed to take are requests of their rank, or one rank higher.

・If an adventurer fails their quest, there will be a monetary penalty for breach of contract.

・Depending on the adventurer’s rank, they will be forced to take a certain number of quests within a certain time frame; otherwise, their registration will be made null. If the adventurer wants to reregister, then he or she will have to start from scratch as a G-rank.

G → 1 quest a month

F, E → 1 quest every three months

D, C, B → 1 quest every six months

A, S → 1 quest a year

・Murder or thievery will get one forcefully expunged from the guild.

・There will be no personal fights between adventurers.

・The Adventurer’s guild assumes absolutely no responsibility for the actions of its adventurers.

・The Adventurer’s guild assumes absolutely no responsibility in the event of an adventurer’s death or injury.

Or so I was told. Basically, an adventurer was responsible for themselves. I had no intention of raising my rank at all, though. I was a brand-spanking fresh newbie so I was a G-rank.

So a G-rank needs to do a request a month or their registry gets nullified, huh. If that happens, then the registration fee I paid goes up in smoke. Thinking like that, it would be better to do a request while I’m here, shouldn’t I? I need to get Fel to hunt some more, anyway.

Getting away from the receptionist with a bad attitude for now, I headed over to take a peek at the quest board. Even if they said that I could take requests one rank higher, I was still a newbie who just registered, so I felt like I really should take a request of my own rank, G.

G-rank, G-rank... Oh, this one and this one both look good. It’s clichéd, but they’re both requests to harvest medicinal herbs.

・Cure grass x5: 1 silver each

・Merge grass x5: 1 silver and 3 copper each

For now, these two are the only contenders, but the reward for merge grass is higher, so I wonder if that means it’s harder to find?

Just as the trope dictated, it seemed that in order to take the request I had to physically take the notice off the board and bring it to the receptionist, but also it looked like once someone took a request off the board, they had to accept it.

If that’s the case, I’ll go for the cure grass.

I took the notice for the cure grass and headed over to the counter. By the way, I made sure to go to a different section and different receptionist than the one that gave me the explanation earlier. Her attitude was several notches better, but there was still a huge difference between here and the Merchant’s guild.

I immediately left the guild after asking where the cure grass could be found.

I was relieved that I got through that without being messed with thanks to Fel’s presence.

Cure grass could be found on a grassy plain right outside the east gate. It was right outside the gate, so there wasn’t much danger, but I felt I should still go ahead and get that short sword. I wrote down that I used a short sword when I registered at the Adventurer’s guild anyway, I thought, so let’s go buy one before I look for the cure grass.

“Fel, I’m gonna stop by the weapon shop for a bit.”

“Hmph, even if you do not ready a weapon, I am here, so it will be fine.”

“What about when you’re out hunting? I’m by myself, so it’s just too careless to not have a weapon at all.”

“There will be no problems if I just erect a barrier.”

............What?

“B-Barrier? You- Were you able to use magic like that?”

“Of course I can.” ‘Of course I can,’ he says, but this is the first time I’m hearing of it though.

Actually, I just noticed this, but I’d never appraised Fel before. It was a bit late but I decided to do so now.

【Name】 Fel

【Age】 1014

【Race】 Fenrir

【Level】 906

【HP】 9843

【MP】 9481

【Attack】 9036

【Defense】 9765

【Agility】 9684

【Skills】 Wind magic, Fire magic, Water magic, Earth magic, Ice magic, Lightning magic, Holy magic, Barrier magic, Rending Claws, Body Reinforcement, Physical attack resistance, Magic attack resistance, MP Efficiency, Appraisal

【Blessings】 Blessing of the Goddess of the Wind, Ninrir

............It was so incredible, I was left speechless for a moment.

Whether it’s level or HP or MP or whatever, isn’t he close to max stats? And his age is 1014, I guess he wasn’t lying when he said he had lived over a thousand years. Does that mean he raised his level and stats to near max over 1000 years? He’s normally just a gluttonous snackhound, but I guess Fel is unexpectedly amazing.

“Fel, I just now took a look at your status, but you’re an amazing guy, aren’t you?”

“Why are you stating the obvious?” Ahhh, right, right. Is that so? Then, I’m counting on you to put up a barrier after we leave the gate, man.

Well, I’ll still be getting a short sword as insurance, though.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

There were several weapon stores near the Adventurer’s guild, so I eventually picked one and headed in. When I asked the owner for a sword easy enough for a beginner to use, he gave me a short sword for 8 silver.

Okay then, let’s go pick some herbs.

The request I had taken required me to leave the town, so I showed my Adventurer’s guild card at the east gate and was let outside. Leaving the east gate and walking steadily with Fel, we reached an incredibly spacious grassy plain in about 20 minutes. This was probably where the herbs grew.

“Now then, I’ll be picking herbs here, so you go hunt some meat, Fel.”

“Understood. I will be troubled if something happens to you, so I will take the liberty of putting up a barrier.” Ohh, that’s right, Fel could use Barrier magic.

“Right, it is finished. With this barrier you shall be fine even if you see a monster, as long as it is below a certain level.” I thank thee, I thank thee (clap clap).

“Now then, I shall take my leave. Make sure you prepare lunch.” Having said that, Fel gallantly dashed off into the forest.

I was starting to respect him a little, but I see his gluttony is still in full effect.

Okay then, I guess I’ll start looking for the herbs, I thought to myself. Although all I really do is just appraise everything I see.

Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal...

...It was all weeds.

Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal...

Cure grass.

Ah, there it is. This cure grass looks a bit like thistle, doesn’t it? I used a knife to cut off the cure grass from its roots. The knife that I had bought a while back finally saw some use.

I started again: Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal...

Yeah, it really is all weeds, I thought.

Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal...

Cure grass.

Whoop, found another one. Now I just need another three, and the request should be over, I thought happily. Right then, let’s keep going.

Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal...

Merge grass. Ah, this is for that other request.

Looking at merge grass reminded me of poverty. It looks like, what was it called...ummm... Oh that’s right, the common fleabane. Let’s take this too, just in case.

After that, I continued to use Appraisal, and ended up with eighteen cure grass and seven merge grass. Okay, it’s about time for Fel to come back, too, I thought as I decided to stop for the moment.

I started preparing Fel’s meal. That being said, we currently did not have any meat, and if I tried to use my skill to buy meat, I would have no idea how much that would cost, so for now I was just making something cheap. Thus, I’d decided on that for lunch.

First, I needed to buy more ingredients from the Online Supermarket. I already had onions and bouillon cubes from before, so I got 1 kilo of mixed ground beef and pork, five bags of pasta at 700 grams each, and ten cans of meat sauce.

All of it cost 4 silver and 5 copper, but I had all that money from selling that salt and pepper to the Merchant’s guild, so it was fine for now.

I bought the kind of pasta that cooks in 5 minutes, I thought, but it’s Fel we’re talking about here; he’ll still probably be pressing me to hurry up. Taking that into consideration, I started boiling the water already so that I could start cooking at any time.

In the meantime, the meat sauce.

~◇~◇~◇~

First, finely mince onions and cook them in a pan until they’re transparent, then throw in the ground meat. After giving the meat some time for the heat to pass through it, pour in lots of the canned meat sauce. Like that, there won’t be enough moisture, so pour in hot water that you’ve dissolved a bouillon cube into as necessary while you simmer the mixture. Finally, adjust the taste to preference with salt and pepper, and the meat sauce with extra meat is finished.

~◇~◇~◇~

Fel returned just as I finished with the meat sauce. He dropped his prey right in front of me with a thud.

“What a good smell.”

“This is...a rockbird?”

“The thing you called teriyaki that you made before was good, so I got another. I hunted more, but I cannot bring them back all at once, so I have put up a barrier near the edge of the forest and left them there.” Yeah, one is probably the limit if you have to carry it in your mouth.

“If that’s the case, it’ll only take one trip if I come with you and put it all in my Item Box. Wait a bit.” I put away the pot with the boiling water, the frying pan with the meat sauce on it, the portable stove, and everything else I had out into my Item Box. I put the rockbird in there, too. “Right, let’s go.”

“It will take too long if you walk. Get on my back.” Alright then, I won’t hold back. I did as Fel said and got on his back.

“Now then, let us go.”

“W-Wait a second—” I clung desperately onto Fel’s back as he kept raising his speed. “I SAID WAAAIIIIIIT————!”

..................

.........

...

“Hey. We have arrived.”

“Hahhh, haahhh... I thought I was gonna die.”

“Hmph, you are a coward to raise a fuss over just that much speed.” ‘That much,’ he says; I swear, anyone would be scared if they were going that fast!

“Don’t you dare go that fast if I’m riding you again! What if I fall off?!”

“I do not care. It would probably be your fault.” This bastard...

“Ah I see, that’s your response. I guess you don’t need food, then. If something happens to me you won’t ever get to eat cooking from another world again, after all.”

“Grnmmnn...” he growled, mulling it over.

“Let’s hurry up and put away these monsters and then go back.”

The monsters that Fel hunted were piled up at the edge of the forest like a mountain. When I appraised them, there were five orcs, a red boar, a giant dodo, and a black serpent. They say that snake tastes like chicken, so I get that, but are orcs edible? I asked Fel; it seemed that they were edible. Apparently, it was pretty normal for people to eat orcs back in town.

I-Is that so? So they eat bipedal pigs.

I had the Online Supermarket so I could cook for myself basically all the time, but that turned out to be the right decision. This otherworld cuisine is scary!

Putting the monsters that Fel hunted away in my Item Box, I rode on Fel’s back again back to that grassy plain.

This time Fel, seemed to have been a little considerate of me, so the ride ended up being fine, somehow.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Now then, let’s have lunch.”

“My stomach is empty. Hurry up.”

“Wait a little, I have to cook the pasta.” And the pasta would take five minutes to cook. It was a good decision to boil the water early.

Finally — put the pasta on a plate and pile it high with meat sauce with extra meat, and lunch is served. I made sure to mix it extra well for Fel.

“Fel, it’s done.”

“Mn? What’s this?”

“It’s a dish from my world called spaghetti with meat sauce. It’s good.” When I said that, Fel started chowing down.

“Yes, there is not a lot of meat, but it is still pretty good.” From his response, he probably intended to eat more. I started to cook the next batch of pasta, while eating my own portion.

In the end, I had to make four batches for Fel. I also ate my own portion, so 700 grams x4 makes for 2.8 kilos of pasta.

Even so, Fel still said, “This is a good amount for a light lunch.” He really does eat too much, I couldn’t help but think.

After he finished, his mouth was sticky with the meat sauce, so I got a good laugh out of it. He hastily washed his face in water he conjured up, though.

After lunch, Fel went back to hunting, and I continued to look for herbs.

By the end of the day, I had picked up 40 cure grass and 20 merge grass. Five of one of them makes a set for a request, so I harvested them with that in mind.

Appraisal really was useful. I not only started recognizing what cure and merge grass looked like, but also got used to appraising things, so I ended up making more progress after lunch than before.

Fel also ended up catching a lot of prey. He caught a second red boar, three cockatrices, a giant deer, and a murder grizzly.

Just from the name, a murder grizzly sounds really dangerous though... I pretended I didn’t see it and put it into my Item Box.

I returned to town on Fel’s back. I got stared at by the gate guards because I was riding on him, but they didn’t say anything, so I just kept on riding him through the gates.

Now then, let’s head over to the Adventurer’s guild, I guess.

“Fel, head over to the Adventurer’s guild, please.”

“Understood.”

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

When we entered the Adventurer’s guild, I noticed that there weren’t many people inside. Maybe because it’s too early? I thought, It’ll probably still be a little bit before adventurers return with their finished quests. Let’s turn in my quest and turn Fel’s prey into money before that happens. Because I picked up some merge grass along the way, I took the corresponding request paper off of the board as well.

I lined up at the least-busy counter space. There were only two people in front of me, so my turn came pretty quickly. I gave my guild card to the receptionist and when she said, “Cure grass collection, is it?” I nodded and handed over the cure grass I picked.

“Eh? You just took the quest this morning and you’ve already got this much?” She was a little surprised at the 40 cure grass I handed over.

“Ehh, ah, yeah, I just happened to find them...” Guh, was 40 too much? This was all thanks to Appraisal, so let’s be careful not to attract unwanted attention...

“So you found a whole group of them. I guess you were just lucky.” Saying that, the receptionist reached an understanding on her own. Well, let’s leave it at that, I decided.

“Then I will organize the cure grass into bundles of five. There are eight bundles, so that will be 8 silver. Please confirm the amount.”

Pocketing the 8 silver, I said, “Also, please process this,” and handed over the merge grass request form. After she finished processing the form, I told her; “I also have some merge grass, so...” and handed over five of them.

She seemed like she’d say something if I handed over all of the merge grass again. I’ll leave the leftover merge grass in my Item Box and use it when I pick up a request in the next town, I guess.

“So you also have merge grass. This is one bundle of five merge grass. 1 bundle comes to 1 silver and 3 copper. Please confirm the amount.”

I’m relieved; so, stuff like this is fine too, I thought. I was worried that there would be problems with accepting a request and fulfilling it immediately, but it seemed to be fine. Appraisal worked its magic here so I made more profit than I thought I would.

Right, next is Fel’s prey. “I also have a red boar, can I sell it here?”

“Eh? A red boar? But, you should still be a G-rank...” Apparently a red boar wasn’t something a G-rank could usually hunt. Well, it is a giant boar, after all. It would definitely be impossible for me to hunt one on my own.

“No no, not me. My familiar killed it.”

The receptionist looked at Fel and immmediately said, “Ahh, I see. In the case of large monsters such as a red boar, please use the sales counter next to me.”

Got it~ Yeah, this receptionist was pretty okay. I guess here it just depends on which receptionist you get, I thought to myself. I continued pondering as I moved. Well I’ve already completed a request, so I plan on hurrying up to the next town. I guess I won’t be coming back here. Now then I guess I’ll head over to the next counter and turn Fel’s prey into money. Of course, I’ll be keeping all the meat.

“Excuse me, I’d like to sell something.”

“Sure, then put it right here.” I was received by a grim-faced old man that looked like he might be a retired adventurer.

“Ummmm, there’s quite a lot, is it okay to bring them all out here?”

“A lot? Do you have an Item Box?”

“Yeah, kind of. Okay then, I’ll take them out.” I started with the five orcs, and then the two red boars.

“W-Waaiiiit just a bit. Is there still more?” Eh? Yeah there is.

When I nodded, the old man replied, “There’s not enough room here. Come with me.”

“Ah, wait a second. I have a familiar, is it okay if he comes too?” I called Fel over after I got the old man’s permission.

Fel and I trailed after the old man to a warehouse behind the sales counter.

“I see, so you’re that guy from the rumors.” Huh? What rumors? I thought as the old man continued, “The fact that some guy came in with a Fenrir has been the talk of the town.” Guh, is it really? Well, I did think I would stand out because Fel was around.

“So this was hunted by your familiar too?”

“Well, yeah. Then, I’ll take out the rest here.” I brought out the rest of the monsters.

A rockbird, giant dodo, black serpent, three cockatrices, giant deer, and a murder grizzly.

“This is all of it.” The guy stared open-mouthed at the pile, dumbfounded.

Hey, is this old man alright? He wasn’t moving at all, so I called out to him: “You ok?” He finally came back to his senses with a jolt.

“Th-This is...wow. Not only the numbers, but even the monsters themselves are amazing. A rockbird and giant dodo, a giant deer is B-rank too, and the black serpent and murder grizzly are both proper A-rank monsters, you know.”

Huh? Are they really that powerful? I did think that they were awfully large, at least comparatively. Ah, I thought as I realized I did also think that there were some really dangerous sounding names, so they must have had the rank to match. Either way, Fel did all the work, so I had no idea about how powerful they were.

Before that there was something I wanted to know desperately. “Uh, ummm, those monsters, are they all edible?” That’s right, their meat. To me, securing meat for Fel’s meals came first.

“Yeah. All these guys are edible. Not to mention they all make for high quality meat.”

Whoo, perfect, I thought. Fel went and hunted them so I figured they should be edible, at least, but it was better for my heart to ask a pro(?), just in case.

“If that’s the case, can I take all the meat? I’ll sell everything else, though, please.”

“Hm? The meat will fetch a pretty good price, are you sure you don’t want to sell that too?”

“Yes. We have a huge eater here, you see.” I glanced at Fel as I said that; the old man went, “Ah,” in understanding.

“With this much to butcher I won’t be done right away. I’ll hurry as much as I can, so come back tomorrow. Ah, right right, I’ll deduct the cost of butchering these from your profits, just so you know.”

Right right. Oh, wait, tomorrow will be a problem. For now, I’ll need to have him butcher at least one of them. “Um, excuse me, but could you finish just one of them right now, please?”

“Hahh? Oh, for that familiar’s meal, huh? Okay then, wait a bit.” Having said that, the old man went and butchered one of the red boars. The old man’s butchering skills were brilliant, and it didn’t take long for him to have the hide, meat, and innards neatly separated. I decided to sell the hide and scrap the innards, while I took the meat.

“Then, here it is.”

The meat for the single red boar that the old man handed over to me weighed about 200 kilos. With this I’d be able to feed Fel for a while. I put away the red boar meat in the Item Box and left the warehouse after I said goodbye to the old man.

When I passed in front of the receptionist’s desk, I was stared at by the adventurers there. I guess it really is too much to take out all those monsters there in front of everyone, I noted. But I had Fel to worry about, so I still wanted to secure as much meat as I could.

I won’t be staying long in this town anyway, so I’ll just endure it. I slipped through the stares of the adventurers and hurried out of the guild hall with Fel.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

When we returned to the inn, Fel told me, “Mine stomach is empty.”

Well, it was about time, since the sun was beginning to set. But Fel always eats a lot so it’s hard on me to make all of it... I thought, there’s no other choice, let’s start cooking. What should I do for today?

It’s been all meat recently, so I should put in some vegetables too... When one mentions vegetables and meat and easy to cook, they’d be referring to a vegetable stir fry. With extra meat for Fel of course.

It’s Fel, so I could see him poo-pooing the dish if it didn’t have much meat in it.

Uhmmm, for vegetables I should have the cabbage, onions, carrots, and bell peppers I bought before. I’d have liked to put in bean sprouts and some sort of mushroom, but I didn’t have any on hand, so for today this was enough.

I have that for seasoning, so it should be fine.

~◇~◇~◇~

Now then, first cut the red boar meat into appropriately-sized chunks. They’ll be a bit bigger to fit Fel’s standards, though.

The vegetables don’t have to be that finely chopped, just cut them into appropriately sized chunks.

The red boar meat is already seasoned with salt and pepper ahead of time, so I simply sear them lightly on the frying pan. Once they’re cooked through to a certain degree, I take them off the heat and let them rest.

If only I had some sesame oil here, I’d be able to cook the meat with some of it and bring out even more flavor... I didn’t have any on me this time though, so I used salad oil instead.

From there, I added the carrots, onions, bell peppers, and cabbage in turn to the frying pan, and cooked them through. I prefered my bell peppers and cabbage with a bit of crunch to them, so I made sure not to cook them too thoroughly.

Once the vegetables were cooked to a certain point, I added the red boar meat back in and lightly simmered the whole thing some more. Now, it’s time for that, which I’d been recently hooked on.

Sweet and salty Chinese miso (in a tube).

This is really tasty too, and recently I’d been using it every time I’d made vegetable stir fry. Food companies nowadays really know their stuff—. Even without creating your own mix of seasonings, just using this would allow a person to enjoy their own sweet and salty Chinese miso-style stir fried vegetables.

That being said, I added the explosively delicious sweet and salty Chinese miso to the vegetables and red boar cooking in the pan.

Sear it lightly and let the flavors meld together, and there, it’s done.

~◇~◇~◇~

“Fel, it’s done.”

“Nnn, I would prefer just meat, though.”

“Well, haven’t I only been giving you meat up until now? Having some vegetables sometimes is good for you.”

“Certainly, it is said eating leaves every once in a while is good... However, there is no problem if I do not eat any. As of right now, I have not eaten any leaves for several decades. After all, no matter what leaf it is, what is bad is bad.”

That’s nothing to be so proud of. By eating leaves, did he mean something like how cats eat grass sometimes? Well, for now it didn’t seem like eating vegetables was bad for him, so it’d be better to eat some.

When I placed a large portion of the sweet and salty Chinese miso vegetable and meat stir fry (extra meat) in front of Fel, he only took a small bite at first. After that he started to chomp it down as voraciously as usual.

Yes, yes, that’s right. This sweet and salty Chinese miso is delicious. Now then, I should eat too.

Yes yes, this is great... Ah, there’s no rice. I should have made some rice———! Crap, I completely forgot. This is exactly the kind of flavor that goes well with rice... Awww man...

There was nothing to be done about it; I wiped up the sauce with some white bread and ate that. But really, for this flavor it should have been rice. I keenly felt regret for the fact that I should have stocked up on rice.

It seemed that Fel approved of the sweet and salty Chinese miso as well, as he ate three helpings before he was satisfied. Yeah, Fel really does eat a lot.

I really want to look forward to how much meat we’ll be getting tomorrow, I thought, hoping for the best.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

The next morning, I visited the Adventurer’s guild together with Fel.

The grim-looking old man from yesterday was there when we headed straight for the sales counter.

“Good morning.”

“Hey, I’ve got it all ready. There’s a lot of meat so I’ve left it in the storehouse. Come with me.” Fel and I followed after the old man. The meat was piled up like a mountain in the storehouse.

“This is all the meat you asked for.”

Wow, with this much meat, I’ll be able to feed Fel for a while, no matter how much of a big eater he is, I thought appreciatively. I quickly put all the meat into my Item Box.

“I thought so yesterday too, but your Item Box is pretty big, isn’t it?”

When the old man said that, I could only answer with a halfhearted, “Haahh.” The meat is more important, so I’ll let it go for today. Plus, this old man already saw it yesterday anyway. I probably won’t come back to this Adventurer’s guild branch anyway, so I won’t be seeing him again, either.

I planned to leave this town either today or tomorrow, after all. Staying in one place for too long would be a big no-no.

“Now then, next is what you get for selling the rest of it.” When all the meat was safely in my Item Box, the old man brought out a somewhat-heavy looking jute bag and placed it in front of me.

“Uhmmm, as for the breakdown, first are the orcs. For orcs, other than the meat the only other useable part are their testes, so five pairs comes out to 2 gold and 5 silver. Next are the red boars. The materials are two hides and four tusks, and that makes 2 gold and 4 silver. Next, the cockatrices. The meat is the most valuable part of these, but other than that there’s just their feathers. The feathers were a little damaged too, so the feathers from three cockatrices comes out to 5 silver.” Apparently, orc testes were used as ingredients in a type of sexual vitality drug, and in order to make one dose you needed the pair. No matter how much vitality you say that will give me, I’d pass, personally. But still, it seemed that the finished product was pretty reliable and was therefore fairly popular. The red boar’s hide could be used for shoes or leather bags or belts, and their tusks were used in handicrafts and art. And cockatrice feathers were used as pillow stuffing.

“Next is the rockbird. Its beak and feathers come out to 7 gold. Next, the giant dodo also has a useable beak and feathers, but that one also had a small magic stone, so adding that in, the total comes to 22 gold. And then there’s the giant deer. The materials are its horns and hide. This one also had a magic stone, so adding that in, the price is 28 gold. These are both B-rank monsters, but having magic stones in both of them is pretty lucky.”

Apparently the rockbird’s beak and feathers went into making arrows. Arrows made from these not only had high penetration ability but were also easier to enchant with Wind magic, so it seemed that archers would covet these arrows.

As for the giant dodo, a large bird with degenerated wings so it couldn’t fly, the beak was a material for magic items (you can put various effects on it and then shape it into a pendant or bracelet, or even a ring), and the feathers were used in high-end down beds.

And it seemed that the giant deer’s horns were popular as materials for magic staves, while the hide served as materials for leather armor for mid-rank adventurers, or materials for other high-end leather goods.

As for the magic stones found in the giant dodo and giant deer, they’re stones filled with magic power, and have various uses depending on the elemental affinity of the magic inside. Magic stones could only be found in monsters ranked B or above, so they were often sold or traded at high prices.

Also, not all B-rank monsters have magic stones. It’s said that they’re only found in around 30% of B-rank monsters, and it’s only at A-rank that you’re guaranteed to find a magic stone, although there are size differences.

“And lastly are the two A-ranks. It’s been a while since I’ve last seen one. For the black serpent, we can use its venom sac, innards, fangs, eyes, and hide. There was also a pretty decent magic stone inside, so with that added in, the total is 64 gold. Next, the murder grizzly’s materials are its innards, claws, and fur. And this one had a larger magic stone, so the total is 78 gold. As expected of A-rank monsters.”

For the black serpent, which is large and ebony-colored, its venom sac seemed to have many uses (I was too scared to ask), and its innards were used to make nourishment pills. After that, its fangs were used in magic tools, the eyes in magic staves, and the hide was materials for leather armor used by high-ranking adventurers. Its magic stone was apparently fairly large and aligned with water.

The large, gray murder grizzly’s innards were also used for medicine, its claws for magic tools, and its fur made for carpets that were popular among nobles. As for its magic stone, it was pretty big, and was worth the most out of all the magic stones in the lot.

“The final amount comes to 204 gold and 4 silver. From that is the butchering fee. This time you gave me a lot of high rank monsters, so with a small discount I’ll be fine with 2 gold and 4 silver. Taking that away you’re left with an even 202 gold. Most people prefer gold coins even if the amount is large so I went ahead and gave you that, but if you prefer platinum or large gold coins I can prepare that instead if you wait a while.”

“N-No thanks. Gold coins are fine.” From looking around and shopping at various places, I’d found out that in town nobody used large gold or platinum coins. Even if the count was at or above 10 gold coins, they never asked or gave any of those denominations. I think it most likely that while large gold and platinum coins exist as currency, there weren’t many of them circulating around.

At any rate, to exceed 200 gold coins...

I didn’t even do anything. For now, I’ll take what I can get, though. I guess I’ll let Fel eat some otherworld meat later.

“Oh, also, I was told to ask you this by an acquaintance, but your familiar is a Fenrir, right?” The old man asked me while looking at Fenrir, who was yawning unconcernedly behind me.

He is, what of it?

“If you didn’t know, there are people who are saying it’s a great wolf instead.”

Apparently, since the rumor of, “A guy with a Fenrir as a familiar came to town” was currently circulating around, there were also people saying that there was no way a legendary magic beast like a Fenrir would obey a human. So people have been split half and half between saying it’s a Fenrir and it’s a great wolf. The great wolf is an A-rank monster, and apparently, it’s a wolf with gray fur just around Fel’s size.

“I mean, there’s nobody around who’s even seen a Fenrir in the first place, you know? But even I was a pretty good adventurer before I took up this job. From where I’m standing, though, looking at its bearing, there’s no way I can think it’s anything but a Fenrir.”

The Fenrir theory and the great wolf theory, huh? I can probably use this. Up until now I was thinking that since Fel was around I shouldn’t enter the larger towns, but in the case where I needed to enter one no matter what I might be able to just tell people that he was a great wolf.

They would probably be surprised anyway because a great wolf was still an A-rank monster, but it should still be better than a Fenrir. The old man seemed like he already understood, so I ended up taking the money and leaving the storeroom without answering his question.

And just like yesterday, I slipped past the stares of the adventurers and quickly exited the Adventurer’s guild with Fel.

“Fel, I’ve done everything I wanted to do in this town, so I’m thinking of leaving. What do you think?”

“I am okay either way. As long as you feed me delicious meals.”

Ahh, izzat so? Well then, let’s go.

With that, Fel and I left the town of Falliéres.