Chapter 2—Trials and Tribulations in a Different World, Once Again

“I didn’t think we’d part with Tomi in the end,” said Touya. “I thought you’d invite him to join our party, Haruka.”

“Oh, did you want him to join our party, Touya? I would have been willing to give it some thought if you’d brought it up earlier.”

We had parted ways with Tomi and started towards Sarstedt again, this time at a faster pace. Our Tomi rescue mission had taken up some time, but Haruka’s estimate was that we would be able to reach Sarstedt by evening if we kept up our current pace.

“Well, I felt like you would’ve said no in the end even if you did give it more thought,” said Touya.

“All I can say for now is that I can’t say yes given how things are at the moment. He didn’t have any weapons, armor, or combat-related skills. Sure, he was a bit sturdy, but that’s all he had to offer. Do you two really think we’re strong enough to protect someone like that during combat? We don’t even know what we’ll encounter on the way to Sarstedt.”

“Yeah, we’d probably be fine in most cases, but I couldn’t say the same if we were to run into something like a wipe bear, for instance,” I said.

That experience had actually been kind of traumatic for us. I had no way to accurately measure the actual amount of mana I had, but I definitely hadn’t been left with enough to take on another battle after we defeated the wipe bear that time. If we took things like arrow consumption and depleted stamina into account, then we would only be able to take on two wipe bears max, even though we had gotten much more used to combat by now. We definitely wouldn’t be able to sustain that if we had some dead weight with us. It was obvious what the result would be.

“Even if that wasn’t the case, it’s not like we know him well enough to prioritize helping him over Yuki and Natsuki. Yuki and Natsuki are more important to me. Isn’t it the same for you two?”

“Yeah, it’s the same for us.”

Tomi wasn’t a bad person by any means, but Yuki and Natsuki were way more important to us than he was. Besides, he had the Enhanced Muscles skill, so he would probably be able to perform day labor just fine and earn enough money to get by. In fact, he was better suited for such work than either Haruka or me.

Touya agreed with what I said, and he nodded. “Mm, Yuki and Natsuki are the only classmates who I’d be willing to take on risks to help out.”

Haruka looked a bit worried after she heard our words. “Did you two actually not have that many friends among the boys in our class? You two would hang out with the three of us girls quite often, right?”

“Well, it depends on what level of friendship we’re talking about, but I guess I’m inclined to agree with that statement,” Touya replied.

“So you’re saying you didn’t have many friends?”

“Nah, I did have friends. It’s just that their friendship levels were low as far as I was concerned.”

By friendship levels, Touya probably meant an indicator of how close you felt to others. I had no idea what factors he was using to assign those levels, but my friendships with my classmates were limited to just my time in school. I would sometimes hang out with some of them after class to play games at the arcade, but that was it. It wasn’t like I would actively avoid hanging out with them, but I simply didn’t have the time for it. I would spend time on other things, like hanging out with Haruka and her friends, hanging out with Touya, and gaming by myself at home, so I had no spare time.

“Well, you guys did help us girls a lot by hanging out with us, so I can’t really complain.”

“Yeah, you girls would get into all sorts of troublesome situations quite often,” I said.

It wasn’t their fault by any means, but trouble would find them for some reason—or rather, the reason was quite obvious. Their good looks would often attract unwanted attention and situations. Because of that, Touya and I would do our best to find time to hang out with them, since our purpose was basically to act as bug spray, repelling things that would “bug” them. Again, it was all a result of the fact that they were cute, but the way all of them summarized it was “There’s nothing good about getting unwanted attention from guys who are weird and stupid!” That would be the natural reaction to what they had to go through, of course.

“Maybe the three of you girls actually had something like the Heroine Aptitude skill even back on Earth!” Touya exclaimed.

“There’s no way that’s true—although actually, I can’t say that for sure now, given the circumstances we’re in at the moment.” Haruka shrugged and sighed after she said that, and we both nodded back in agreement. Now that we knew about the existence of that evil god, we couldn’t really rule anything out. “All right, that’s enough about that topic. Let’s hurry a bit more. I want to reach the town before the sun sets.”

“Yeah, agreed,” I said. “Will we reach the town before the gates close?”

“Probably, but let’s run to make sure. It’ll be fairly safe if we just stick to the highway.”

We had headed out of Laffan fairly early so that we wouldn’t end up having to camp out, but we had lost about an hour of time due to bumping into Tomi. With that in mind, Haruka’s plan was a good one, so we started to run with Touya in the front. It felt like we were going at the equivalent of a world-class marathon runner’s speed. We weren’t going at full speed, since we wanted to have stamina left to deal with monsters if we encountered any on the way, but we were still going that fast, which meant that the physical abilities we had obtained after being transported to this world were quite amazing.

On a side note, we could have rented a horse-drawn carriage at the Adventurers’ Guild, but it was much faster to run on foot. Besides, the fee we would have had to pay for a carriage would actually have been quite hefty. On top of that, we would have had a duty to protect the carriage if it was attacked by monsters, and we would have had to pay a penalty fee if they escaped or managed to kill any of the passengers. What that meant was that there was no benefit to renting a ride on a carriage if we weren’t going to carry a lot of luggage with us. Well, there’s a very low risk of being assaulted by monsters on this highway, but still.

In the end, we managed to reach Sarstedt without any trouble.

★★★★★★★★★

Sarstedt was a town that had grown outwards from the ferry that was located at the Noria River. The river was very wide and would flood quite often, so it wasn’t rare to get stuck and held back by the river for a few days depending on the weather. It was only natural that demand would give rise to inns around the ferry. The dealings between people who gathered at such inns would then give rise to an economy with all sorts of business exchanges. New stores would slowly open up around the area, which would lead to new houses being built to shelter the employees, which would then lead to walls being built around the area to protect the residents, as well as barracks for soldiers to stay in. Eventually, the settlement would become large enough that the national government would officially recognize it as a town.

Due to this town’s history, it was split in two by the river. However, there were only a few inns located on the east side of the river; the bustling parts of town were concentrated on the west side. As a result, the town itself was much smaller than Laffan, which was a good thing for us, since we were going to be searching for people here. The walls that surrounded the town were made of wood, and they looked quite weak compared to the stone walls around Laffan. There weren’t any big gaps in the walls where people could pass through, but there were gaps that people could peep through just fine to see what was inside. Despite that, this town did have a proper gate, and there was a single guard on duty.

“Hello,” said Haruka.

The guard was a friendly middle-aged man who looked like he was in his forties. We showed him our adventurer cards.

His first words after he’d seen our cards were “Hello, and welcome to Sarstedt. The ferries are operating today.” I guess a lot of people do visit this town to cross the river.

“Thank you very much for the information. Would you be willing to tell us where an inn is located as well as where we can find the Adventurers’ Guild?”

The guard pointed at a small building that was located quite close to where we were standing. “The Adventurers’ Guild is located right there, and if you walk straight down this road, you’ll arrive near the harbor. About ten different inns are located in the vicinity. The most popular inn these days is called Riverwind, but—well, that probably wouldn’t be of any interest to your party, I don’t think.”

“Hm? Thank you very much.”

The building the guard had pointed at had a sign over the door indicating that it was the Adventurers’ Guild, but the building itself wasn’t any different in size from an ordinary citizen’s house; it was nowhere near as large as the one in Laffan. Is that because this town’s much smaller than Laffan?

“Should we head to the guild first?” I asked.

“No, let’s head there later,” said Haruka. “Even if Yuki and Natsuki are doing work as adventurers, they probably wouldn’t be at the guild at this time of the day.”

“Yeah, let’s find an inn and get some food first,” said Touya. “I’m hungry.”

We had managed to arrive at this town at noon, which was the time we’d initially planned on getting here. That was thanks to the fact that we’d run here without taking a break. We had planned to eat lunch on the way here if it was going to take us some time, but Sarstedt had come into sight right when we’d been discussing whether to stop, so we hadn’t eaten anything yet.

“Mm, okay. Let’s decide on an inn to stay at first and then eat lunch. We can look for Yuki and Natsuki after that,” said Haruka. “We’ll probably manage to find them within the next few days in a town like this if they’re not staying indoors the entire time. Well, that’s if they’re actually in this town.”

“Come on, Haruka, don’t say things like that,” said Touya. “Let’s just hope and trust that they’re in this town, all right?”

Compared to Laffan, Sarstedt was small enough that we could search every road here in one day if we were quick about it. It would be very easy to look for someone in this town, but that was only if that someone was actually here. However, as long as we kept searching, we had no choice but to hope and trust that they were here.

“I want to believe that they are here, but I would feel even more devastated if I had blind faith and then they turned out not to be here. Let’s just go check in at an inn first.”

The road that led straight ahead from the gate continued all the way to the harbor, and we saw many boats moored there when we got closer. The inns in the vicinity didn’t look much different from each other, but the building that had a sign with the name “Riverwind” above its doors was bustling and noisy despite it being a bit past noon.

“Is that the inn that the guard mentioned earlier? He cut himself off midsentence when he was talking about it, but it does seem quite popular,” I said.

“Mm, business does seem to be booming,” said Haruka. “Should we settle for this inn?”

“Yeah, I don’t mind,” said Touya. “In a way, I’m already mentally prepared for whatever comes our way.”

“Right, there’s a good chance that we’ll have to eat something disgusting again...”

Based on our experiences in Laffan, it was actually quite difficult to get a delicious meal in this world. Cheap meals tended to taste bad, and even the expensive ones didn’t taste very good. We would be lucky to get a cheap meal that we could swallow down if we mustered the strength to endure it. That was the best mentality to have so that we wouldn’t get disappointed by any expectations.

“Okay, let’s enter.”

As soon as Haruka opened the inn’s door, we were greeted by the bustling noise of chatter. At a glance, it looked like both the tables and the seats at the counter were completely filled; there didn’t seem to be any empty chairs for us to sit in. If business is booming that much here, does that mean the meals they offer are delicious? The dining hall at The Slumbering Bear, where we’d been staying, would also be just as busy during mealtimes, but there was something that stood out to me. There were no girls at all inside this inn. It was completely filled with men at every table and counter seat. What is this sausage fest? Is this just how things are at a port town?

My confusion was completely blown away when I heard the voice of a young girl greeting us.

“Welcome!”

“Hell yeah, a cute young waitress!” Touya blurted out excitedly.

I felt exactly the same way he did. The only staff at The Slumbering Bear was that innkeeper dude, and for whatever reason, we hadn’t encountered any cute young girls in the other places we’d visited routinely either. Surely there’s at least one cute young girl working at some kind of place we would visit, right? In a typical fantasy setting, it would be a trope for the receptionists at the Adventurers’ Guild to be cute young girls, but young was pushing it in terms of a word to describe Diola-san. I mean, she does have a cute and charming face, but the weight of age is quite heavy, so yeah, right? Given all that, I was about to voice my agreement, but I stopped myself when I actually saw the face of the waitress.

“Wait, isn’t that Yuki?”

“Yeah,” Touya replied.

“I sure didn’t expect this,” said Haruka.

The face that I saw looked more or less the same as what I remembered of my friend’s face. It seemed that unlike us, Yuki had chosen to remain a human. She looked a bit worn out, and she gave off a slightly different impression due to wearing clothes she normally wouldn’t have worn back on Earth, but it was still possible to recognize her just fine. As for how Yuki reacted, she didn’t seem to realize it was us right away and looked confused for a moment, but she opened her eyes wide in astonishment after she’d looked at all of our faces in order, from me to Haruka to Touya.

“H-Haru—”

Haruka raised her hand and her voice to cut Yuki off right before she could shout Haruka’s name. “We would like to stay here for a night! Are there any rooms available?”

“U-Um, yes...”

“I see. Can you help us register a room, then?”

Yuki looked quite perplexed by the fact that Haruka had cut her off, but she headed to the counter and opened the registry book. Haruka walked towards her and stood in front of her to block her from the view of the other customers, while Touya and I stood behind Haruka.

“Um, you’re Haruka, right?” Yuki had an uneasy tone in her voice as she asked.

Haruka replied in the affirmative. “Yeah. You’re Yuki, right?”

“Yeah! Natsuki’s with me as well!”

“I’m really glad to hear that. You’ve probably realized, but the guys behind me are Nao and Tomoya.”

“I’m glad that you’re okay, Yuki,” I said.

“It’s been a while,” said Touya. “Glad to see you.”

Touya and I raised our hands lightly as we expressed our relief. Yuki looked like she was about to cry after she heard what we said.

“U-Uhm, I—”

“Not now, Yuki. I know how you’re feeling, but not now.” Haruka gently covered Yuki’s hands with her own as she told her to save it for later. “Come to our room after your shift is over. There is a room available here, right?”

“...Yeah. Will a room for three do?”

“Mm. How much is it for one night?”

“Well, it’s twelve hundred Rea for a night’s stay without meals included...” Yuki gave us a worried look after she told us the price.

Whoa, that’s expensive! Actually, was it just that The Slumbering Bear was cheap? Well, that’s still double the cost. There, it’s only five hundred Rea for a night’s stay without meals included. I noticed that Haruka’s eyebrows furrowed when she heard the price, so she probably thought it was expensive as well. No, it’s not like we can’t pay for it. It’s just, well, yeah.

“Oh well. It’s a necessary expense, Haruka,” I said.

“Yeah, that’s true. All right, we’ll take that room.”

“Okay, thank you very much.”

Haruka handed Yuki twelve large silver coins in exchange for the keys to the room.

“Your room is located up the stairs at the end of the corridor on the right side.”

“Thank you very much,” said Haruka. Then she whispered into Yuki’s ear, “I’m glad to see you again. Let’s talk later.”

We all headed towards our room.

★★★★★★★★★

“No comment about this room...” I said.

The room we had registered was about the same size as our room back at The Slumbering Bear and contained four beds. It was a bit dark inside, and the window was small as well. There wasn’t any furniture at all, so it felt larger than it actually was, but that wasn’t exactly a good thing. Overall, that meant our room back at The Slumbering Bear was better than this room by far despite the fact that it cost less.

“Is it just that things in this town are expensive, or is this inn not a good one?” Touya asked.

“Well, all I can say is that this inn seems to be relatively expensive given the purpose of this town,” I replied.

This town had been founded as a ferry stop, so most people wouldn’t be staying at this inn for a long period of time. People would probably only stay here for a few days or a bit longer if they got unlucky while waiting for the weather to improve, but it was highly unlikely that there would be anyone who would stay at an inn for a long period of time like back in Laffan.

“Regarding the price of things, it might actually be normal, considering there’s sea, or, well, river freight in this town,” said Haruka.

“In any case, considering the price of a room here, it’s a bad idea to stay at this inn for a long time,” I said.

It was technically only about an extra five hundred Rea per day in living expenses compared to our inn that had meals included back in Laffan, but over time, that cost would add up to a significant sum.

“Yeah, fixed costs are a big part of expenses,” said Haruka.

“Wait, hold on. We haven’t eaten any meals in this town yet, so maybe the food here is actually good?”

Touya said that with some hope in his voice, but Haruka and I looked at each other and shook our heads.

“Even if there’s an infinitesimally small chance that the food here is good, this still isn’t a good town to stay in,” I said.

“Based on how small the guild building looked, it’s highly likely that there’s almost no work available here for us adventurers either,” said Haruka.

“Ugh, I guess you guys are right,” said Touya. “We probably wouldn’t be able to find a place to sell boar parts here even if we hunted some.”

“Mm, we’re only able to earn as much as we are now thanks to the population of Laffan,” I said.

Demand was higher than supply back in Laffan for all sorts of things, including herbs, meat, and dindels. It was thanks to that demand that we were able to sell those things for decent prices. With that in mind, the population of Sarstedt was way too small in comparison.

“Oh, wait, there’s something more important to discuss right now!” I exclaimed. “We need to talk about Yuki and Natsuki!”

“Aren’t you the one who got us started on this tangent by saying ‘no comment’ about this room, Nao?” Haruka asked.

“I mean, who wouldn’t feel weird about this room given the high price? Wait, no, enough about that!”

We’d almost gotten sidetracked again.

“Yep, we should talk about Yuki and Natsuki. We managed to find them right away, eh? I thought it would be harder than this.”

“Isn’t it a good thing that we found them right away, Touya? I’m personally really glad that they’re okay. That takes a lot of weight off my shoulders.”

Haruka looked quite at peace as she voiced her relief. In fact, she had the calmest and most relieved expression that I had seen from her ever since we had been transported to this world. She hadn’t brought it up that often, but the fact that her two best friends were missing had really caused her a lot of stress until now.

“I mean, I’m glad that they’re okay as well—don’t get me wrong. It’s just that I had strongly motivated myself to do my absolute best to search for them, so it feels kind of sad that it ended up being for nothing, you know?”

“Well, we were lucky to find them here right away, but I was fairly sure that we would find them here one way or another.”

“Hmm? What do you mean by that, Haruka?”

“I had two possible outcomes in mind. The first one was a scenario where Yuki and Natsuki had teamed up with some of our other classmates and were leading the lives of adventurers.”

That’s basically the scenario we’re in, right? We teamed up as a group of childhood friends rather than as classmates, but it’s the same otherwise.

“However, to be honest, I thought the chances of that scenario were quite low. This world isn’t exactly safe for a party of just girls, and there probably aren’t any guys they trust aside from you two who they would team up with.”

She made it sound like Yuki and Natsuki had no friends at all, but in a way, she was right about their lack of male friends. It wasn’t just about Yuki and Natsuki, though. There probably weren’t a lot of girls out there who knew someone of the opposite gender who they would be comfortable living with twenty-four seven. Police didn’t exist in this different world, so it wouldn’t be surprising if someone lost all restraint and cast aside their morals. Actually, I’m sure there are definitely some guys like that who would yell “I’ve gotten some skills, so it’s my time to shine and stomp all over other people as I build a harem!” or something similar. Yuki and Natsuki are both cute, so both of them are in extra danger from that kind of guy. There are some types of adventurer work that would require adventurers to visit deserted places, after all.

“The other possible scenario was them working together in town. When I looked up information about this town, I was fairly sure that they would be working as waitresses at an inn if that was the case, and I was right.”

“Hmm. There probably isn’t much other work available, and waitress work would suit them rather well since they have good looks, so that makes sense,” said Touya.

“Oh, wait, are they the reason business is booming at this inn?” The guard at the gate earlier had mentioned that this Riverwind Inn had become popular recently, so I was guessing it was probably because of Yuki and Natsuki. After all, it would make sense, given the fact that the customers in the inn were basically all men.

“Hm? Does that mean that earlier, when the guard said this place wouldn’t be of any interest to us, what he meant was—”

“Was it because Haruka was with us?”

Haruka was just as beautiful as Yuki and Natsuki were, so he’d most likely guessed that the two of us guys wouldn’t be inclined to choose an inn based on whether or not there were cute waitresses working there.

“No, it was probably because we all belong to different races than Yuki and Natsuki,” said Haruka. “Interracial relationships aren’t forbidden, but it’s a fact that there aren’t that many in this world.”

After an awkward pause, we both replied, “Oh.”

We were all originally humans, so it hadn’t really occurred to me, but we were now technically different races than Yuki and Natsuki. I wasn’t sure what the difference was in people’s eyes. Would they view us in the same way people would view a foreigner back in Japan? Maybe it’s more than just that.

“All right, that’s enough about that topic. What should we do for lunch? The dining hall below is, well, full, so should we order a meal and eat here in this room, or should we go out to eat?” Haruka asked. “There’s also the option of just eating dried meat.”

“Nah, dried meat’s not an option at an inn, right? I want to try out the food here at this inn,” said Touya. “The dining hall was packed, so surely the food doesn’t taste bad, right?”

“Yeah, I’m down with that idea as well. We came all this way to a different town, so we might as well try out the food here.”

“Is that so? All right, then. Let’s go order some food, then, Nao.”

Haruka and I went down to the first floor, and the dining hall was still packed, bustling, and noisy. Yuki looked quite busy working in the midst of all that. There were two other waitresses at work as well, but most of the men who were eating in the hall would try to hit on Yuki, probably because she was cute.

Haruka ordered our food from the lady at the counter. “Excuse me, we’d like to order the daily special for three. We’ll be eating upstairs in our room.”

She greeted us with a loud, strong voice. “No problem! Cheers! Please wait for a bit!”

The process of ordering was the same as it was back at The Slumbering Bear, but we probably wouldn’t have to wait as long, since the specials in a dining hall aimed at ordinary people would have been prepared in advance. Haruka and I watched what Yuki was doing while we waited.

“It looks like Yuki’s doing just fine,” she said.

“Yeah. She looks like she’s lost some weight, but it doesn’t look like she’s gone through any awful experiences.”

Yuki had a smile on her face as she worked, but I was fairly sure this tiring work and unfamiliar lifestyle would be quite tough to go through. However, she didn’t have any visible injuries, and she didn’t look like she was worn out to an unhealthy extent either. She had probably managed to get by somehow.

“Mm, I’m really glad for her...”

Haruka let out a sigh of relief, and I patted her on her back as she gazed down at her feet, overwhelmed by the burst of emotion. Eventually, the lady behind the counter started to place some food on large plates and lined them up in front of us. The food didn’t look delicious at all, so I felt a bit uneasy about it. In no time at all, three plates full of that food had appeared in front of us.

“It’ll be 210 Rea in total for this!”

“Okay...”

Haruka paused for a moment before she answered due to the slightly high price of the dishes. However, she ended up paying the price without complaining, and we took the dishes with us back to our room.

“Oh, you guys are back!”

Touya sounded very happy as he welcomed us back, but his face clouded right away once he looked at the plate we handed him.

“What is this...?”

“It’s this inn’s daily special, I guess?”

We had ordered the daily special, so it was unlikely that the lady had given us disgusting food on purpose. After all, all of the customers below were eating this food. There were two slices of what seemed to be stewed carp on each plate. In addition, there were some green objects that looked like vegetables pickled in vinegar, and two slices of normal-looking rye bread. Finally, there was some kind of brown food paste oozing all over the plate. Oozing wasn’t exactly a very enticing word, but there wasn’t really any other way to describe it. Honestly, this dish doesn’t look delicious at all.

“Well, we shouldn’t judge this before we actually eat it, right? Am I wrong?”

Touya asked for our agreement, but Haruka just shook her head with a bitter smile on her face before she replied. “You’ll probably get disappointed again if you get your hopes up...”

“Come on, we don’t know that yet! Let’s dig in! We should start with the safest food first, though!” Touya was putting on a good show of bravery, but he started with the safest choice—the slices of fish.

The fish looked like it had just been stewed in a big pot without much care, but looking at it, I thought I had an idea of what it would taste like, so it didn’t seem like it would be that bad. I followed Touya’s example and started with the fish as well.

“Ugh!” I exclaimed.

Haruka couldn’t even find any words.

“I-Is this the definition of a muddy taste?!” Touya exclaimed.

This fish had probably been caught in the river that passed through this town. The only freshwater fish that I had eaten until now were sweetfish, freshwater salmon, and some slightly unusual fish products such as amago salmon sashimi—well, I guess goby and eel should also count as freshwater fish. In any case, all of the fish that I’d had before had been delicious, and none of them had ever had a muddy taste. On the other hand, the fish in front of me right now was very painful to eat. I had to muster all my strength to hold back from spitting it out.

“The cooking method is bad as well,” said Haruka. “If this fish had just been salted and grilled or dredged in flour first, then—well, I guess salting and grilling would be the best option, or perhaps frying...?”

The inn lady had probably stewed this pungent-smelling fish together with other ingredients in a pot, so its skin and collagen had most likely melted and stuck to it, which gave it a muddy and fishy taste that lingered in our mouths for a very long time. I could taste what seemed to be herbs that she had used to try to cancel out the taste and smell, but that wouldn’t have been enough to make it bearable even if I’d been wearing a face mask. In fact, the herbs made it even worse than if it had just been seasoned with salt instead. If I had to come up with one good thing about this method, it would be the fact that it wouldn’t take much time or hassle to cook fish this way, but that was it.

“N-No, not yet! There’s still hope left! Let’s try this next!” Touya bravely pushed onward despite having suffered a lot of damage from the fish, and the next food he chose to tackle was another safe tile, the vegetables pickled in vinegar. That “safe” tile earlier had led to our loss, but surely there was a limit to how bad vegetables could taste.

I again followed his example and took a bite. “I-It’s absolutely bitter!”

Is this some kind of stem? If I had to describe it by comparison, then it was similar to the sinewy texture of low-quality asparagus, but with the bitter taste of white radish leaves. This was combined with the strong sour and acidic taste of vinegar. Actually, was this the result of lactic acid fermentation rather than vinegar? I could put up with the texture if I had to, but the vegetables still had a pungent smell. It wasn’t something that I would ever want to pay money to eat. As for Touya, he was just chewing on the vegetables with his front teeth. The chewy parts are definitely going to end up as leftovers at this rate.

“Ugh, argh, gulp! No, I’m not giving up! There are things out there that look like land mines at first glance but are actually safe to walk over! This isn’t over yet!”

“Just give up, Touya,” I said. “Just take a good look at this oozing paste. It’s a land mine in plain sight, you know?”

“No leftovers allowed! I’m going to eat it all!”

“What’s gotten into you?!” I jabbed back at his outburst, but there was probably something weird with me as well, since I’d decided to go along with him anyway. I started by scooping up a tiny amount of the paste with my fork, and I licked it to try it out. “...What is this taste? Acrid? Bitter? A bit salty?”

It was a taste that was hard to describe. If I had to put it in frank terms, then it was disgusting, but it was a taste I could swallow down if I tried my best. It’s kind of like something that would just taste bitter without other sauce, I guess?

“This paste is actually a bit similar to Marmite,” said Haruka. “Ale exists in this world, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s something like that.”

“Marmite? What’s that?” Touya asked.

“It’s a spread made from yeast extract. It’s consumed in places such as England, but it’s not exactly popular. After all, it doesn’t taste very good.”

“There are actually people who eat stuff like this? Why would the English do that?”

Touya grimaced in disbelief as he said that, but every country on Earth had at least one type of food similar to this. For example, natto was a Japanese food that most people wouldn’t exactly describe as having a delicious taste and smell. Well, recently people have come up with variations that aren’t as bad, but still.

“Some people might just like the taste of Marmite, I guess? It’s also good for your health. Yeast extract was also sold as a health supplement back in Japan, except it was in pill form for ease of swallowing.”

Sake lees are rich in nutrition, and yeast extract is basically the beer version of that; it’s also rich in vitamins and good for your body. I wasn’t sure which one was more nutritional, but I was confident that sake lees had a better taste.

“So, Touya, any last thoughts?” I asked. “We already know how the rye bread will taste, so let’s leave that out.”

“I admit defeat!”

He lowered his head and admitted his defeat gracefully, and I just responded with a shrug and a bitter smile.

“I mean, this isn’t really about victory or defeat. It’s more about deciding that we’re definitely not going to stay here in this town and take on work.”

“Yeah, I agree,” said Haruka. “There might be some places here that serve delicious food, but it’s not worth the high inn rates every day.”

It was possible that we could find cheaper inns out there if we looked around this town, but we didn’t really have a good reason to stay. Our goal was to group up with Yuki and Natsuki as soon as possible and then return to Laffan. We all discussed and agreed on that goal, so the only thing that was left for us to do was to force ourselves to consume and clean up the remaining food on the plates. There weren’t any heroes among us who dared to order dinner from this inn as well after the trials and tribulations that lunch had thrown our way, of course. For dinner, in order to clean out the taste in our mouths, we had some of the dried meat, bread, and dindels that we’d brought with us. After we were done, we waited in our rooms until late at night, when we heard a knock on our door. We opened our door, and behind it was Yuki along with one other person.

“Haru—”

“Haruka!”

“Natsuki!”

The person who basically pushed Yuki aside and jumped into Haruka’s arms was Natsuki. She looked more or less the same as before and was still a human, just like Yuki, but she did look visibly worn out compared to before. The scene in front of me with Haruka and Natsuki hugging each other was the very definition of a touching reunion, but Yuki was standing behind them frozen in place with her arms spread out. I felt bad for her, so I half-jokingly spread out my own arms to invite her for a hug.

“Nao!”

Oh, I didn’t expect this. She actually jumped into my arms without hesitating. I thought she was just playing along with my joke at first, but it looked like she was actually crying a bit. I was a bit troubled by this turn of events and looked at Touya for help. He just nodded back at me, so I decided to respond to Yuki with a hug as well and patted her back.

“Waaaaaah!”

I wasn’t sure if I’d done the right thing or not, but she clung to me and started sobbing for real after that. As an average Japanese person, this kind of physical intimacy was honestly a bit embarrassing for me, but I decided it was okay to hug her back in a situation like this. That was what I thought until I saw that Haruka and Natsuki were looking at me with big grins on their faces. Weren’t you just sobbing together because of this touching reunion?! Wait, don’t you grin at me too, Touya!

I felt a bit bad interrupting Yuki, but I tapped her shoulders gently to alert her to what was happening around us. She raised her face from my chest, her eyes still full of tears, and was a bit confused at first as she looked around, but as soon as she did that, she seemed to realize what she had just done. She hastily dashed away from me, blushing from embarrassment.

“U-Ugh! N-Natsuki, I can’t believe you pushed me aside all of a sudden!”

It looked like she was attempting to divert attention away from her embarrassment by pointing at Natsuki and yelling, but I didn’t think it was something to be that embarrassed about. They had been thrown into this different world by themselves as just a group of two girls with nothing and no one to help them out. With that in mind, it was perfectly reasonable to hug a friend out of relief, and there was nothing for anybody to be grinning or laughing about. Especially not you, Touya. You’re a guilty man! Haruka and Natsuki were grinning like they’d seen something heartwarming, but Touya’s grin also had a teasing nuance behind it.

“Come on, surely you understand, right?” said Natsuki. “You met Haruka first earlier, so wouldn’t it make sense to let me hug her first?”

“I barely got to talk with her earlier, since she told me to save it for later!” Yuki exclaimed.

Yuki had probably wanted to enact a touching reunion earlier when she’d first been reunited with Haruka, but Haruka had stopped her right before she could do that. Well, it would have attracted a lot of unwanted attention and trouble if they had done that in public, so I couldn’t really say that Haruka had made the wrong decision or anything. That turn of events earlier must have made Yuki crankier than she would be normally, since she was complaining to Natsuki, but Natsuki’s next words, which she said with a smile, left Yuki almost speechless.

“Besides, it’s thanks to this that you got to hug Nao-kun, right?”

“H-Huh?!”

“Well, I’m at fault for that as well, so—” I was half-joking when I did it, but I was the one who gestured to her that she could jump into my arms, so yeah.

I was about to explain things and back Yuki up, but Yuki herself cut me off. “I-I wasn’t happy about—n-no, more importantly, why did you tell me to save it for later when we met, Haruka? I would’ve been perfectly okay even if you had been the one who jumped into my arms and hugged me.”

“Me? I mean, that would be completely out of character for me,” Haruka replied nonchalantly.

Yuki clenched her fists in frustration and swung them up and down. “Even if it’s out of character, aren’t we best friends?!”

“Mm, I might have lost control of my emotions if it had been Natsuki who was there earlier.” Haruka pretended to wipe sweat off her forehead as if to say “Whew!” She was absolutely in a teasing mood.

“Why?! Was there actually a difference in our friendship levels?!”

“No, that’s not it at all. It’s just that you seem like the type of person who’s very tough, you know? As for Natsuki, she’s more similar to, like, a frail and delicate tree, you know?”

“Ugh, I can’t believe that’s what you thought all along, Haruka! I’m absolutely shocked by this sudden revelation! Also, a tree like a willow that’s sturdy but still bends with the winds would be more fitting for Natsuki, wouldn’t it?!” Yuki held her head in her hands.

We all laughed at the sight.

“Well, I’m glad to see that both of you are just as energetic as before,” I said.

“Yeah, we were worried about both of you,” said Touya. “Well, have you both actually lost weight?”

Natsuki sighed. “Mm, the food here doesn’t sit very well with us, so...” She sounded a bit exhausted.

Touya nodded deeply in response. “Yeah, I know how you feel. I can’t stand the food here at this inn either.”

“Mm, I successfully went on a diet by accident,” said Yuki. “With the food in this world, there’s probably no risk of a diet relapse either, but I’m not happy about it at all!”

Yuki hadn’t been anywhere close to overweight in the first place, so it would just be unhealthy for her to lose weight.

“Yeah, it’s perfectly understandable if that food is what you had to eat,” said Haruka. “Okay, take a seat—wait, let me cast Purification on everyone first.”

Haruka casually cast her Purification spell on all of us, and we all became completely clean in an instant. We hadn’t seen any combat today on our way to Sarstedt, so we hadn’t gotten dirty by any means, but Yuki and Natsuki looked like literally every trace of dirt vanished from their bodies. They looked at each other once they noticed what had happened, and their eyes went wide with surprise.

“Huh? Just what is this convenient spell?!” Natsuki asked.

“It’s the spell Purification; you can get it if you have Level 2 Light Magic. It’s a very convenient spell that can be used for all sorts of things.”

Haruka had originally had to use this spell on us one at a time, but she had managed to improve it through constant use. She was now able to cast the spell on all of us at once, and that included Yuki and Natsuki for a total of five people. According to Haruka, this spell’s intended use was for purifying evil creatures, but there were probably very few adventurers who actually used it for that purpose.

“I had no idea that Light Magic offered a spell that was this convenient. Why didn’t I choose to get Level 2 Light Magic back then...?”

Natsuki looked a bit depressed as she said that, and when we asked her about it, she explained that she did have the Light Magic skill, but it was Level 1.

“It was thanks to my Light Magic that we didn’t have to worry about most types of injuries or about finding a source of light at night, but it didn’t help with baths...”

“Mm, we struggled with laundry as well,” said Yuki. “We barely had any money, so we didn’t have any real change of clothes at all.”

Both of them sighed as they recalled their struggles, which was perfectly understandable. If Haruka hadn’t had the Purification spell, then I myself might have gotten depressed. I mean, it’s a spell that can clean anything in an instant! That applies both to my hands when they get dirty from gutting boars and to the sweat on my body and clothes when I work out training alone, so yeah! The only problem I had with the Purification spell was the fact that it didn’t really make me feel refreshed, but that would be asking for too much.

“Yeah, in this world, there’s no such thing as three-pack sets of underwear priced at the equivalent of one thousand yen, and outerwear is expensive as well,” said Touya.

“Yeah! I can’t believe how expensive things are—wait, Tomoya, I’m not wearing cheap underwear like that, okay?!”

“What kind of weird statement is that, Yuki?” Haruka asked. She slapped Yuki on the head lightly. “Look, take a seat and calm down. Have both of you eaten dinner already?”

They both responded with an awkward look.

“Well, we did eat dinner, but...”

“The taste of it was, well, you know...”

“I figured. Here, try this food out.”

Haruka handed them the bag of dried meat and the bag of bread. The dried meat also served as our emergency rations, so there was a lot of it, but the amount of bread was just about two day’s worth that we’d bought back at The Slumbering Bear. We had eaten some bread at lunch, and most of it would probably disappear if we split it with them, but considering the kind of “food” they’d had to put up with until now, I was perfectly happy to share as much as they wanted to eat.

“Dried meat? Let me take a bite—what is this?! It’s so, gulp, so, so delicious!”

“Yuki, it’s bad manners to talk while eating,” said Haruka. “Follow Natsuki’s example.”

Natsuki was eating in silence, completely focused on chewing. Something about the way she chewed was sort of similar to a hamster. It was rather cute.

“I mean, I just want to express how amazed and moved I am! I had no idea food this delicious actually existed in this world!”

“We made it ourselves.”

“Oh, I see...” Yuki had overreacted a bit at first—she’d had tears in her eyes as she chewed on the dried meat—but she wilted a little as soon as she heard from Haruka that the dried meat was something we’d had to make, not something you could easily buy.

“As for the bread, however, we bought it from the inn that we stay at.”

“The bread? Let me take a bite. O-Oh, it tastes normal. By that, I mean it actually tastes good...”

The bread that was sold at The Slumbering Bear was just plain and simple bread that was easy to eat, but it wasn’t like the kind of bread sold at bakeries back in Japan that was delicious by itself. There was nothing special about the inn’s bread—in a way, it could be described as very basic—but it definitely tasted good compared to rye bread. Rye bread wouldn’t ruin the taste of other food, but the bread’s taste itself wasn’t easy to swallow down. Natsuki was also going back and forth between the bread and the dried meat, and she looked like she was enjoying her meal. Hmm, now that I take a closer look, her cheeks really have gotten more hollow...

“Are you okay, Natsuki?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks, Nao-kun. Honestly though, I’m not sure if I would have survived until now if I hadn’t gotten skills like Robust, Disease Resistance, and Poison Resistance.” She replied to me with a smile on a face that gave off a fragile aura, which was fitting, since she had been a bit sickly and frail back on Earth.

Haruka had described her as being similar to a frail and delicate tree earlier, and while I wouldn’t go that far, it was a fact that she was the weakest person physically among the five of us here. That was probably why she’d decided to get those skills related to health, although I wasn’t sure if Poison Resistance had really helped her. I mean, that food wasn’t poison by any means, even though it did taste disgusting.

“There are also some desserts available once you feel decently full,” said Haruka.

“Desserts!” Yuki exclaimed. “I can’t believe I lived to hear such a fantastic word again!”

“...Yuki, just what kind of diet did you—never mind, forget what I just said.”

Yuki’s eyes were already locked on the dindels that Haruka was peeling with her hands. Well, her eyes were locked on at what Haruka was doing, but her mouth and hands were still moving to consume food. Haruka swiftly finished peeling the dindels and then handed them over to Yuki and Natsuki on some plates. Both of them hastily swallowed the food that was in their mouths before they each reached out to take a dindel and all but threw the fruits into their mouths.

“It’s so sweet...!” said Yuki.

“Yeah, it really is...!” said Natsuki.

“This is like the nectar of the gods...!”

They were basically sobbing uncontrollably as they ate the dindels. I completely understand why they would react like that, though. After all, I felt some very similar emotions when I ate some dindels after that “lunch” earlier.

“Can we have one more to eat...?” Yuki asked hesitantly.

Haruka happily responded with a smile. “Of course. Feel free to eat as much as you can, since we have a lot of them.”

“Are you some kind of goddess, Haruka?!”

“I can tell from those words what kind of struggles both of you went through with food, and it really makes me want to cry...”

Haruka’s hands kept moving despite what she said, and peeled dindels continued to pile up on the plates. Yuki and Natsuki would snatch those dindels as soon as Haruka placed them on the plates, but they seemed to be full after they had eaten three more dindels, so they stopped.

Yuki beamed at Haruka. “Whew! Thanks a lot, Haruka! I’m really glad that we’re friends!”

Haruka’s own smile was more awkward. “This isn’t really a fitting situation for nice words like that, Yuki...”

Natsuki was usually the type of person who would eat quietly and with grace, but she also joined in on the praise session with a beaming smile. “Haruka, meeting you will forever be one of my most treasured memories.”

“Don’t play along with her, Natsuki!”

After tapping Natsuki on the head playfully, Haruka reached out for the remaining dindels.

“Oh, I’ll have some too,” said Touya. “What about you, Nao?”

“Sure, I’ll take a slice.”

There happened to be exactly three slices left, so the three of us ate one slice each. Mm, yeah, it’s delicious, but I’ve been eating this almost every day recently, so I kind of want to try out a different fruit. I won’t buy one since it would be expensive, but still.

“Sorry that Natsuki and I didn’t hold back on the fruit,” said Yuki. “These were expensive, right? Fruits are luxury goods in this world, after all.”

“Yeah, the market price for these would be something around five hundred Rea apiece,” Haruka replied.

“F-Five hundred?!” they exclaimed in unison.

“W-Was it really okay for us to devour this kind of luxury fruit?” Natsuki asked.

“Haven’t you shared luxury fruits with us before that were more expensive than these, Natsuki?”

“Those were just gifts that my family received, Yuki. It’s not like my family bought such fruits on a regular basis.”

Natsuki’s family was actually quite wealthy, and we’d all benefited from that in the form of desserts that she would bring for lunch and high-quality sweets that she would share with all of us. In Japan, families like that would often receive a lot of gifts during times like the middle of summer and the end of the year, and apparently, the total amount of those gifts would often be too much for a single family to consume. Gifts of food would have an expiration date, and the family would have to give gifts in return for each one, so Natsuki had mentioned that her family didn’t really like receiving food. I guess it makes sense, since gifts like that tend to be expensive for no good reason. If you have to give gifts of the same quality in return, then you’re basically being forced to buy expensive things that you wouldn’t normally need to.

“Besides,” Natsuki went on, “our current circumstances are completely different. We all started with just one thousand Rea, right?”

“Yeah, it was really tough in the beginning...” Haruka had a distant look in her eyes as she recalled how things had been in the beginning.

All of us remembered those days too. We hadn’t been able to buy a change of clothes after we’d bought the absolute necessities from the general goods store, and the only weapon we’d had on us was a wooden sword for Touya. It had definitely been a hard-mode start to our lives here rather than easy mode. Yuki and Natsuki had probably had to go through similar troubles in the beginning.

“Well, these fruits—they’re called dindels—were ones that we went out to gather ourselves, so don’t worry about it,” said Haruka. “You can thank Touya for them, since he’s the one who came up with the idea of going to gather these on our way here. Oh yeah, Touya is Tomoya, if you haven’t noticed.”

“Is that so? Thank you very much, Tomoya-kun,” said Natsuki.

“Nah, all I did was come up with the idea. Nao was the one who actually climbed up to gather these dindels. Oh, also, you can just call me Touya. That’s the name I registered with at the Adventurers’ Guild.”

“Okay. Thank you very much as well, Nao-kun. Was it hard to gather these fruits?”

“Well, I had to climb up a tree that was easily over fifty meters tall, and the fruits grow at the very top of the tree, so it would be very difficult to gather these fruits if they existed back on Earth.”

“Fifty meters?!” said Yuki. “There’s no tree as tall as that back in Japan.”

“Wait, you climbed a tree that tall, Nao?” asked Natsuki. “You didn’t have any modern climbing ropes or carabiners, right?”

Natsuki and Yuki stared at me in surprise. I understood why they were doing so; I myself would normally have thought that such a feat was dangerous or impossible.

“Yeah, I didn’t have anything like that. However, as you can see, Haruka and I are elves, so it wasn’t that hard for us.”

“Mm, it was a lot easier for us than you would think from the words fifty meters alone.”

“Oh, so your race does affect your abilities?” Natsuki asked.

“Yeah, that seems to be the case. We definitely felt a difference from something like racial traits.”

A racial trait of elves was their natural sense of balance, and a racial trait of beastmen like Touya was their sixth sense, which allowed them to detect the presence of other beings in a wide radius even without the Scout skill. Back during the initial character creation process, it had cost points to choose a race other than the default—human—so each race had a lot of perks to match its cost. There were also quirky races such as dhamphirs that had huge drawbacks, of course, but those weren’t that common. However, racial discrimination was apparently common in certain areas of this world, so that meant it wasn’t always a good idea to choose a race other than human.

“Okay, now that you’re both full, let’s discuss what to do from here on out,” said Haruka.

“Oh yeah, that’s important,” said Yuki.

“By the way, the reason why I told you earlier that you should save it for later was because I didn’t want to cause a fuss and invite trouble. It wasn’t because there was a difference in our friendship level, so rest assured, okay?”

“Huh? Wait, you’re explaining that now, after all this time?! I’m happy that you did, but it still feels weird!”

Haruka had suddenly returned to that previous topic from a few minutes ago to reassure Yuki, but Yuki had a look on her face that was a mix of happiness and confusion. Haruka had never treated Yuki any differently from Natsuki, but the fact that she’d brought this up now would probably cast doubts on that statement. I’m not wrong about this, am I?

“By trouble, do you mean you didn’t want to stand out in a bad way?” Natsuki asked.

“Yeah. It looked like Yuki was the most popular waitress, so it would only invite trouble if I acted friendly with Yuki in that situation, right?”

“Mm, that’s a very real possibility. You’ve become even more beautiful than you were before, Haruka, and since Nao-kun and Touya-kun were with you as well, there was a high chance someone would find that unpleasant and voice their discontentment.”

“I also wanted to avoid attracting attention from our former classmates. A lot of them probably have land mine skills, after all.”

“Land mine skills, huh? That’s a good way to put it. However, I think the chances of bumping into our classmates are very low here.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. When we first arrived here, we did our best to stand out by walking up and down the main road, and we’ve been working here at this inn ever since then, but...”

“If someone wanted to group up with you two, then they would’ve already made contact. I see.”

“I’m also fairly sure that those of our classmates who did have land mine skills have already been weeded out by now.”

“Listen to this, Haruka! Natsuki used the term ‘freebies’ to refer to our classmates who had the Plunder skill!” Yuki sounded like she thought that was a bit mean and wanted to get our agreement, but that wish wouldn’t be granted.

“Freebies, eh?” said Haruka.

“That’s a good way to put it,” said Touya.

“Oh, so they were actually freebies,” I said. “Maybe we missed out on some gifts?”

“All of you agree with her?!” Yuki had a very confused look on her face when she saw us nod in agreement to Natsuki’s choice of words.

It really was a fitting moniker for those classmates. If I took into consideration the attributes and talents Yuki and Natsuki had had back on Earth, then they’d probably started with a number of points equal to or more than what I’d had. If they’d spent their points on a variety of skills, then that would be enough to use up the entire life span of anyone who used the Plunder skill on them, regardless of what kind of skill build either of them had gone for. What that meant was that their skills would only disappear for a second before returning along with a boost to their life spans. Freebies really were a good way to describe our classmates with the Plunder skill. I wish we’d also stood around on purpose to benefit from these freebies—actually, I guess it would’ve been pointless, since those were probably the ones who had already died when we arrived in town.

“It looks like you’re in the minority here, Miss Freebie,” said Natsuki.

“Huh?!” we all exclaimed.

All three of us were shocked when we heard what Natsuki said. Haruka was the first one of us to recover from that shock, and she stood up to grab Yuki by her shoulders.

She shook Yuki back and forth as she started to interrogate her. “Wait, did you get the Plunder skill, Yuki?!”

“No, I didn’t! The skill I got was the Copy skill! Natsuki, please don’t say something misleading like that!”

“It doesn’t change the fact that you weren’t careful and made a mistake. Relax, Haruka. I told her right away not to use the skill carelessly, so nothing bad has happened.”

“O-Oh, that’s good to know. Whew, I’m really glad that I don’t have to abandon Yuki...” Haruka released Yuki from her grasp and breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Yuki’s face quickly came to resemble that painting The Scream when she heard those words at the end. “What?! There was a chance that you were going to abandon me?!”

“It would depend on the situation you were in, but yeah,” Haruka answered nonchalantly while innocently tilting her head to the side.

“I thought we were best friends, Haruka!”

“I mean, if you randomly used your Copy skill on everyone you encountered and became unable to learn all sorts of normal skills, then I wouldn’t have much choice. Right, Nao?”

“We wouldn’t take you along with us for adventurer work in that case, yeah,” I replied. “It would be too dangerous.” Haruka had requested confirmation from me, so I gave a rational answer.

If Yuki had randomly copied skills from a lot of people in town, then she would have ended up with most of the skills that an ordinary adventurer would need, but they would have been Sealed. That would have meant the end of her chances at being a career adventurer.

“Well, if it came down to that, then you’d have to stay in town and wait for us to come back each day,” said Haruka. “In a way, I guess you’d be like a household maid?”

“Wait, wouldn’t skills related to things like cooking also end up with the Sealed status if she’d copied them from ordinary citizens?” Touya asked. “What would you think about a maid who couldn’t cook, Haruka?”

Haruka averted her gaze in an awkward manner when Touya pointed that out. “Well, in that case, she could just do other sorts of chores, I guess?”

“Th-That’s so mean, Haruka! I can’t really complain, though, since it makes sense to me as well!”

“Relax, Yuki. That potential future got averted, so you don’t have to worry about it. It was thanks to me, you know? Feel free to worship me if you want to express your gratitude.”

“Of course! Thank you very much, Natsuki-sama! I really mean it!”

Natsuki smiled in a playful manner as Yuki worshiped her in a completely serious tone of voice.

I asked Yuki why she was so grateful, and she told me that Natsuki had forbidden her from using the Copy skill as soon as she’d found out about it. Natsuki had also apparently let her copy her own skills and had successfully taught her how to use them.

“She managed to learn the skills I taught her quite easily, so the Copy skill might actually be useful depending on how you use it. If all of you teach her your skills, she might be able to become a downgraded version of everyone here.”

“Downgraded version?!” Yuki exclaimed. “That doesn’t sound nice at all!”

Natsuki came up with an alternative after a few moments of thought. “How does a title like ‘jack-of-all-trades and master of none’ sound instead?”

Yuki still seemed unhappy about it. “It’s better than before, but it still has a negative connotation! Give me a cool title like Multiplayer Master or something!”

“As you wish, Multiplayer Master Yuki,” I said.

“We welcome your addition to our party, Multiplayer Master Yuki,” said Touya.

“You’ll have to work very hard to keep up with us, Multiplayer Master Yuki,” said Haruka.

“I feel like you guys are still making fun of me!”

I mean, that title’s kind of lame, you know? It’s in a similar vein to a title like Super Omni Content Creator with how “unique” it sounds, so yeah. I felt an urge to pat her on the back comfortingly to let her know that she didn’t have to try so hard.

“All right, let’s leave the teasing at that and move on. Just to make sure, both of you are going to come with us, right? If you want to continue working at this inn, I’ll still respect your decision.” Even as she asked them for confirmation, Haruka sounded like she was sure they wouldn’t want to stay here.

Both of them nodded to indicate that they were coming with us.

“No, please let us team up with you,” said Natsuki. “Honestly, our working conditions here aren’t good at all.”

“Yeah, we don’t really have a plan for the future, and our livelihoods could collapse at any moment,” said Yuki. “We’re provided lodging and food as part of our jobs here, but we can only earn one hundred Rea per day even if we work all day. Can you believe that?!”

“Damn, those are some actual exploitative working conditions!” Touya exclaimed.

“The food provided is that kind of food from earlier as well, right?” I asked. “I would die inside within three days if I had to work here.”

“That pay would be reasonable for an apprentice, but that sounds way too low otherwise,” said Haruka. “Were there no other kinds of work available to the two of you?”

There were apprenticeship systems in this world similar to those that had existed in the past back on Earth. The apprentice would receive clothes, food, and lodging as they were learning the ropes of a job or trade. In exchange for that, the apprentice wouldn’t receive a salary, only small sums of allowance from time to time. In Yuki and Natsuki’s case, however, their clothes weren’t included, and their job was just waitress work. Their contract also had worse conditions than a normal part-time worker would have, and they could be fired at any time. With those conditions in mind, a daily wage of one hundred Rea was way too cheap, even if we also took into account the fact that this was a different world.

“This is a small town, so there isn’t much work available here,” said Yuki. “We don’t have any days off either, so we haven’t found the time to go look for a different job.”

“Technically speaking, we could take days off, but we would have to pay food and lodging fees on those days if we did,” said Natsuki.

“You took a day off today to look for work, though, right, Natsuki? Did you find anything?”

“Nope, nothing at all. The only work available would require us to go outside of town.”

Apparently, there was a small amount of adventurer work available here in Sarstedt that included gathering quests and hunting quests for both monsters and regular animals. However, that kind of work would be dangerous for Yuki and Natsuki to take on as a group of two. We asked them what combat skills they had, and apparently Natsuki had Level 4 Spearmanship and Level 3 Martial Arts. In terms of just the ability to deal damage, she was stronger than any of us. On the other hand, Yuki only had the skills she’d copied from Natsuki, and all of those skills were just Level 1 because of how the Copy skill worked. She mentioned that she could also use the Level 1 Earth Magic skill, which she’d started out with, but there were risks other than animals or monsters out there, like malicious intent from other people, so it was still dangerous for the two of them to take work that would require them to go outside of town.

At the same time, they wouldn’t be able to stabilize their livelihoods at all if they continued to work here at this inn for a mere one hundred Rea per day. They mentioned that they had sort of been gambling on the possibility that they would eventually be able to group up with us, but they also said that they might have swallowed the risks and tried to take on adventurer work if our reunion had been delayed.

“I mean, in our current state, we couldn’t even afford to buy a change of clothes! If the clothes that we had on us when we first got transported to this world hadn’t been sturdy, then we would’ve ended up in a really dire situation.”

“Mm, that’s for sure. Oh yeah, there was a time where Yuki sneaked into my bed naked because we didn’t have any change of clothes, and—”

Natsuki made a show of weeping out of pity as she started to tell us that anecdote, but Yuki swiftly cut her off.

“D-Did you really have to mention that, Natsuki?!”

“Oh, you’re into yuri, Yuki?” I asked.

“A yuri scene between Natsuki and Yuki wouldn’t feel too off, since they’re both quite high-ranking in the looks department,” said Touya. “By that, I mean it would be something interesting to observe.”

“Yuki, I don’t swing that way, okay?” Haruka got up and sat a bit further away from Yuki as she said that.

“I don’t swing that way either, Haruka! Also, don’t say something like that, Touya! Besides, what actually happened at that time was that we were drying clothes that we’d washed, so we agreed to sleep together—just for warmth!”

“Was that what happened? We’ve been quite busy recently, so my memory’s not very clear...” Natsuki tilted her head to the side as if she was pondering the past.

Yuki grabbed her by her shoulders. “There’s no way you don’t remember, right?! You’re not the type of person to forget about things due to being a bit busy, Natsuki!”

“So yeah, that was just how dire things were for us. That’s why we would be more than happy to group up with the three of you, Haruka.”

Whew. The way she said that with a straight face, as if nothing had happened, was a bit frightening. Would it be too much to back Yuki up, Natsuki? I feel kind of bad for her.

“Okay, let’s set aside the yuri suspicions, since it doesn’t matter. When can the both of you leave with us? Honestly speaking, we’d like to head back to Laffan as soon as possible, so...”

“What do you mean it doesn’t matter, Haruka?!” Yuki exclaimed.

“Well, our contract doesn’t stop us from quitting right away tomorrow, but I would feel bad about that, so how about the day after tomorrow?” Natsuki asked.

“Are you sure about quitting so soon? I don’t mind waiting a bit longer if needed.”

“Yeah, it’s fine. We told the inn lady that it was possible we might quit at any time, and we were hired through the Adventurers’ Guild anyway.”

It sounded quite similar to the difference between direct employment and employment through an agency back on Earth. The tradeoff for less compensation was more freedom, but that also meant that they could be fired at any time. Also, I feel bad for Yuki again, since she got casually ignored.

“Are you okay with this as well, Yuki?”

“Yeah, I am. Also, just to be clear, I really don’t swing that way, Haruka!”

Our discussion for the day ended with that firm declaration from Yuki.

The next day, Haruka and I went out to explore Sarstedt together. Yuki and Natsuki stayed behind at the inn to finish their last day on their job, and Touya stayed with them as their bodyguard. Natsuki’s Martial Arts skill had helped the two of them deal with all the men who had tried to make a move on them so far, but there was a chance that some of those men would get unpleasant ideas after Yuki and Natsuki quit their waitress jobs. Touya’s presence served as backup in case anything happened. He had upgraded his gear recently and gave off an aura of strength now, so he would be a good deterrent.

“What’s the plan for today, Haruka?” I asked. “Based on what we heard from Yuki and Natsuki, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything of interest to us in this town.”

The town of Sarstedt didn’t have unique products to attract travelers from afar. Given the size of the town and how it had been founded, that wasn’t strange at all, but it still didn’t change the fact that it had few selling points other than the ferry. Well, this town did have a harbor where freshwater fish could be caught, but the taste of the fish we’d had here wasn’t anywhere close to good. No matter how hard I thought about it, this town didn’t seem like it offered any sort of attraction.

“The freshwater fish we had yesterday were horrible as a dish, yes. However, the fish itself might be useful as an ingredient, right?”

“Oh, I see.”

“Well, the fish would have to be alive if we wanted to get rid of that muddy odor before preparing it, so it might be pointless.”

“I guess that idea goes straight in the garbage bin.”

If the fish was already dead, that muddy odor wasn’t something you could get rid of just by cooking it a specific way.

“It might be worth it to give fishing a try if we have the time. The water might be clean if we head upstream, after all.”

“Hmm, that sounds like a good idea. I’ve never actually gone fishing before.”

Back in Japan, even if you thought it would be cool to go fishing, opportunities were actually quite rare. At places on the harbor or near the sea where you could theoretically fish, fishing and even entry tended to be prohibited. Lakes weren’t really a good idea either, considering the number of invasive species in most of them.

In Japan, fishing in a lake would normally be trespassing, right? Well, that’s unless you own the lake yourself, but yeah. On top of trespassing, fishing in the lake would count as theft, and releasing fish back into the lake would count as illegal dumping. The only way to fish that’s both legal and environmentally friendly is to go to a fishing spot that operates as a business. It might be different in the countryside, but I’m not sure about that...

“We should have more time to do all sorts of things once Yuki and Natsuki join our party,” said Haruka. “It’s something to look forward to in the future, but right now, let’s focus on looking for a bookstore here in this town.”

“Books? Oh, are you looking for an alchemist encyclopedia since they were sold out back at Laffan?” I asked.

“Yeah. I haven’t put my Alchemy skill to use at all yet, so it’s about time. You want to craft a magic bag as well, right?”

“Of course. I’ve been practicing myself, but my Time Magic skill is still Level 1...”

“Mm, it seems like it’s difficult to level up. I guess all we can do is continue to work hard at it.”

We continued to chat about that topic as we were walking down the main road, and in no time at all, we found a bookstore. It was smaller than the one back in Laffan, but considering how small Sarstedt was, this was probably the only bookstore in town. As for the interior of the store, it was exactly the same as the one in Laffan, with worn-out books in the front that seemed to be clearance goods. Is this what most bookstores are like in this world? However, the cost of the clearance goods here was eighteen hundred Rea per volume, so they were a bit cheaper. Books were expensive in this world regardless of their condition, so stores probably tried to sell any they had even if they were in bad shape.

“Would you happen to have any alchemist encyclopedias in stock?” Haruka asked the clerk behind the counter.

He responded right away without searching any records or shelves. “Yeah. It’s a bit old, but there is a copy of the 18th Edition in stock.”

Whoa, he knows the inventory and edition of the book we’re looking for by memory? That’s impressive.

“What’s the newest edition released?”

“That would be the 20th Edition. If you’re just going to use it to look up information on ingredients, then there’s no real difference, you know?”

“Is that so...? Oh, do alchemists not buy the newest edition every time one is released?”

“Nah, probably not. Well, revised editions do get published, but they aren’t relevant for most alchemists, so we don’t stock those here.”

Developments in the field of alchemy weren’t exactly rapid, but there were sometimes new research papers. Revised editions of the current and previous editions would also get published, but that was even rarer. However, from a business perspective, new research tended to be useless most of the time, so it wouldn’t be worth it to most alchemists to pay a hefty sum for every new edition of the encyclopedia. What that meant was that revised editions were quite difficult for bookstores to obtain. Well, that’s what the clerk had told us, at least.

“How much would it be for the 18th Edition?” Haruka asked.

“Since it’s an older edition, how about twenty thousand Rea for one?”

“That’s a bit expensive. Isn’t it two editions out of date? Could you give a slightly cheaper price?”

“Hmm, well, there aren’t many people in Sarstedt who would buy this book, but even so...”

I watched Haruka negotiating the price out of the corner of my eye while I browsed the clearance books. These kinds of goods had always drawn my attention whenever I found them. Most would be unsold goods that had been sitting in stock for a long time, so there probably wouldn’t be anything good among them, but the possibility of finding a great deal was always so tempting for some reason. However, used books that were up for clearance would sometimes have pages missing. It would be absolutely horrible if pages were missing from something like a mystery novel. Thankfully, it seemed like there were barely any fiction books among the used books here, but it was still possible that important pages would be missing from academic books, so purchasing one would be highly risky. It would be quite difficult to find multiple copies of the same book to replace missing pages, since books weren’t mass-produced and printed in this world like they were back on Earth.

Hmm? There are three books in decent condition hidden here among the worn-out books. It looked like none of them had any information either on their covers or on their spines. Book covers in this world seemed to have only one purpose: to decorate or protect the book they were attached to. That meant that most covers would have nothing written on them, so the lack of information here wasn’t strange at all. Let’s check the inside of these three books. Huh? Wait, Time Magic: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced?! Okay, calm down. I’m not hallucinating, right? Let’s take another look. Okay, yeah, my eyes are working properly. Are these really priced at eighteen hundred Rea per copy?! For real?!

It would have been a bad idea to give away any hints that I wanted these books, though. I held up the books in my hands and asked the clerk about them to confirm that they were the ones I wanted. “Uhm, why are these three books here? They look like they’re in good condition.”

“Hmm? Oh, those books? It’s because they’re grimoires on Time Magic. There’s no point leaving them in the shelves behind me since they won’t sell, so that’s why they’re there.”

“They don’t sell?”

“Nope. They might sell at bookstores in the capital, but who would come to buy grimoires on Time Magic from this bookstore all the way out here in the countryside?”

That made sense, since it seemed like the way this bookstore functioned was that a customer would ask the clerk to fetch whatever book they were looking for. That meant that the only customers who came here were looking for specific books. If I factored in the rarity of grimoires on Time Magic and the location of this town, then the chances of someone coming to this bookstore in search of those kinds of grimoires were basically zero.

“If they won’t sell at all, isn’t it pointless to even put them on clearance?”

“That’s only with respect to the contents. They’re nice-looking books, so a guy could buy them and place them in the corner of his room to seem intelligent and impress girls, right?”

“Oh, I guess that’s one way I could put these books to use.” I nodded, pretending that I agreed with him, but girls weren’t that simple at all. Also, if a girl’s willing to come to your room, then wouldn’t you have to be on very good terms with her already? This definitely sounds like it’s just exaggerated sales talk.

“Are you interested? The binding looks nice as well, so don’t you think these grimoires would look great as display pieces?”

“Hmm, as display pieces? I don’t know if it’s worth paying that much just for decorations. How about four thousand Rea for all three of these volumes together?”

“Oh, come on! At those prices, I’d be selling at a loss. The lowest I could go would be forty-eight hundred Rea. That girl who’s with you bought something here as well, so I’ll give you that much of a discount.”

I pretended to hesitate. “Hmm...”

“Nao, are you going to waste money again?” Haruka interjected after taking the alchemist encyclopedia she’d bought and stowing it in her backpack. She had a look of amazement and slight annoyance on her face.

“Come on, you don’t have to be so harsh, Haruka. I’ll appear intelligent if I have these grimoires, so it’s not a waste—right, sir?”

“Y-Yeah, of course!” the clerk replied. “Fine, I respect that mentality, so I’ll let you have the three books for forty-five hundred Rea in total! Take it or leave it!”

Thanks for the help, Haruka. It seemed like the clerk had been afraid that I was going to change my mind because of Haruka’s words, so he’d given me an even bigger discount than I’d originally asked for.

“Thanks for the deal! All right, I just got paid recently, so this’ll be my first step to becoming a refined intellectual!”

“Cheers!”

The clerk laughed happily as I handed over the money in exchange for the three grimoires on Time Magic. I had decided I would buy these books even if I didn’t get an additional discount, of course, but I had ended up saving an extra nine hundred Rea. The clerk probably thought he had managed to foist goods that wouldn’t sell on a sucker who didn’t know what he was buying, but I was extremely happy that I had obtained the books that I really wanted. We both felt like we’d won, so in a way, everything worked out fine in the end.

★★★★★★★★★

“You managed to get a good deal, right, Nao?”

“Yeah, I did. It would have been bad if I’d slipped up. The clerk could have said these three grimoires were placed in the clearance area by mistake. Thanks for the backup earlier, Haruka.”

A fair price for the three grimoires on Time Magic would have been at least ten times what I had paid. It was possible that the clerk would have raised the price if I’d given any hints that I really wanted them. After all, unlike in modern-day Japan, there was no guarantee that shopkeepers would honor what they’d written on a price tag.

“These three books together are a bit heavy, but we’ll probably have space for them in our bags, since the dindels will most likely all be gone by the time we get back to our room.”

“Mm, Yuki and Natsuki seemed like they were really starving for sweet food.”

“They were starving for anything good to eat!”

They had devoured two dindels each earlier this morning. I would have been satisfied with just one slice, and so would Haruka and Touya. It was a huge difference in terms of consumption. However, when we had first discovered dindels, we had devoured just as many as Yuki and Natsuki had, so their appetites were perfectly understandable.

“Well, we finished our business for the day sooner than I thought we would. Should we return to the inn, Haruka?”

“No, let’s go look for a bakery. You don’t want to eat rye bread today and tomorrow as well, right?”

“Yeah. I don’t mind if the bread we eat isn’t delicious as long as it doesn’t taste disgusting.”

Yuki and Natsuki had already consumed the bread that we had brought with us to this town. That was a foregone conclusion, given that they’d had to eat that kind of food every day here.

As we searched the town for a bakery, Haruka and I asked for directions from the people we came across, but we only ended up finding two bakeries. We bought bread from both and tried some to compare them.

“How is it, Nao?”

“This one’s disgusting. As for this one, it just tastes bland, I guess?”

“That’s how they tasted to me too. All right, let’s go with the bland one, then.”

We decided to purchase more of the bland bread via process of elimination: it wasn’t delicious by any means, but at least it wasn’t disgusting. Next, we headed outside of the town walls. Once we found a suitable place to start a fire, we started to cook meat from the boar that we had hunted yesterday and sandwiched the cuts between pieces of bread so that we would all have something to eat other than the food from the inn.

“Do you think Yuki and Natsuki will be happy to eat this, Nao?”

“Of course they will. Let me take a taste... Yeah, the meat makes this delicious enough.”

“Mm. The bread’s bland, but this will be fine even once it gets cold, I guess?”

We definitely couldn’t start a bonfire to cook things at the inn, so we had to cook the meat here and then bring it back with us. The closest comparison to this food would be something like a cold hamburger from a fast food restaurant, but it would still be better than having to eat the food from that inn.

“I wish we had cheese or fresh vegetables like lettuce and tomatoes to go with this...”

“We can probably get our hands on pickles in this world, but cheese is most likely expensive, Nao. Also, fresh vegetables aren’t exactly safe for consumption. Thankfully, we all have the Robust skill, but I’m not sure if that helps at all against things like parasites.”

“Touya and Natsuki should be fine with their Robust skill levels, right?”

Touya and Natsuki both had Level 4 Robust, while Haruka and I had Level 2 Robust. Yuki had the lowest level of any of us with Level 1. Natsuki had probably chosen to get a high level for the Robust skill due to the fact that she’d been a bit sickly and fragile back on Earth. On the other hand, Yuki had always been perfectly healthy, so that was probably why she’d only gotten Level 1 Robust. She had yet to get sick in this world, so it did seem like even Level 1 Robust was doing a lot of work.

“The Robust skill makes us resistant to diseases, but parasites aren’t exactly a disease.”

“So you’re saying we should boil our food to disinfect it if we want to be absolutely safe, Haruka?”

“There are other methods like chlorine disinfection and radiation sterilization, but that’s not possible here.”

“Radiation sterilization? Is that actually safe?”

“Back on Earth, irradiation is banned in Japan for most purposes, but people overseas use it without any issues. The process doesn’t require chemical products like hypochlorous acid, so it’s safe, and you can disinfect foods even in their raw state, so it’s a good method.”

“But you said it’s mostly banned in Japan?”

“Yeah, because a lot of Japanese people don’t like the concept of radiation.”

Based on what Haruka told me, it was possible to irradiate food without heating it up, so irradiation could deal with problems that used to be common on Earth, such as food poisoning from raw meats like liver. Thus, it was a very good method for disinfecting food. Irradiation was apparently also used to disinfect medical equipment The reason it wasn’t legal for use on very many food products was probably that the word radiation gave the average consumer a bad impression.

“Hmm, I wonder if it’s possible to create something like a gamma irradiation spell. You said you’d like to eat fresh vegetables, Nao?”

“It sounds like it would be a useful spell, but please don’t actually try to develop something like that. What are you going to do if you release excess gamma rays while developing the spell?” Most early radiologists had died due to radiation poisoning. I wasn’t going to stubbornly deny the usefulness of radiation, but I wouldn’t be willing to agree to experiments unless they were done in a facility with proper protective measures in place. “Oh, what about Purification? Would Purification be able to disinfect food as well, Haruka?”

“I don’t think Purification is quite that omnipotent—but actually, come to think of it, I’m not sure. It can even get rid of insect eggs in clothing, so maybe it could do the same with food.” She’d started by shooting down my idea, but she changed her mind midway through and paused to ponder the possibility.

If it was possible to sterilize food with the Purification spell, then its usefulness would be off the charts. In fact, it might even be worth inducting it into the magic hall of fame or something.

“I hope you can develop that kind of alternative use for Purification, Haruka. A hypochlorous solution spell would work as well.”

If she decided to develop a hypochlorous solution spell, then it would most likely give off a distinct smell, but the advantage was that we could use magic to heal any damage caused by accidents. On the other hand, genetic damage from a radiation spell seemed like it would be difficult to cure with normal healing magic.

“A hypochlorous solution spell? Do I start by trying to create sodium hypochlorite? It might be possible via electrolysis of brine. What type of magic would it be classified under? Earth? Wind?” It looked like Haruka had fallen into deep thought; she was brainstorming out loud.

Meanwhile, I continued to cook the meat. I hadn’t been very good at chemistry, sadly, so I had no advice to offer to her. It would probably be best to leave things to Haruka, Natsuki, and Yuki. They were all smart people, so there was a good chance that the three of them would be able to come up with an idea. I still feel like Purification would be an easier method, though. I mean, you can use it to clean all the clothes someone is wearing in an instant, including their underwear. In fact, Purification is so thorough that it even cleans the grease stains inside the clothing fibers. With that in mind, it feels like Purification should have no problem getting rid of any insect eggs attached to vegetables.

★★★★★★★★★

When we finished our errands and returned to the inn, Haruka and I were greeted by the sight of Touya doing his usual daily training outside.

“We’re back, Touya,” I said. “Did any problems come up?”

“Nope. Yuki and Natsuki said they wouldn’t tell the customers that they would be quitting, so things should be fine.”

Technically speaking, it was kind of cold of them to not mention that they would be quitting, but in the end, those guys were just customers. Yuki and Natsuki weren’t exactly on good terms with any of them, so it was definitely better to stay silent in order to avoid unnecessary trouble.

“I see. Oh yeah, here’s lunch for you.” I handed him two of the hamburgers that I had made earlier—well, I guess they were more like sandwiches?

“Thanks, dude! I really didn’t want to eat that food from this inn again.” Touya happily took the sandwiches from me and took a bite out of one right away. “Mm, the bread’s all right too. I think I can put up with this until we return to Laffan. There isn’t much taste to it, but it’ll do.”

It would have been a bit hard to chew the meat if it had just been sandwiched between two thick slices of bread, so I had added extra cuts to make it easier to chew on, but that was it; it was true that the sandwich lacked toppings for more flavor.

“Maybe we should have bought pickles to go with these sandwiches,” said Haruka.

“Pickles? They don’t taste disgusting in this world, do they...?” Touya asked.

“I’m not sure. When we think about the word pickles, what comes to mind are vegetables preserved in vinegar, but there are also pickles that are made with lactic acid fermentation, so pickles in this world might have a distinct taste to them.”

“So those vegetables we ate yesterday actually were pickles?” I asked.

Those vegetables had seemed like they had quite a strong taste for being pickled in vinegar. Back on Earth, fermented food was well known as a type of food that was “love it or hate it.” In Japan, vegetables that were pickled over a long period of time tended to be made with lactic acid fermentation, but they were definitely not something every Japanese person enjoyed. Besides, pickles sold in Japanese supermarkets in recent times tended to just be vegetables that had been marinated briefly. There were probably very few supermarket pickles that were actually prepared via the long, tedious traditional methods.

“If it’s possible, I’d rather eat pickles that you made, Haruka,” said Touya.

“I completely agree,” I said. “We can’t go wrong that way.”

“Uhm, I only have a vague idea of how to make the marinade for pickles, you know? Well, I’ll give it a shot.”

I heard her mutter something about vinegar and white wine afterwards as she tried to recall the ingredients, but I was sure she would succeed eventually. I’m placing my absolute faith in you, Haruka!