PMZ 026 – My first reward.
Back in town, I stopped by the guild to report.
The noise inside was suddenly stopped when we put our foot inside, and for some reason, people are reacting to our every move.
…is this mine or Hayato’s fault?
After a while, someone filled the reception desk, so I walked shoulder to shoulder with Hayato while fantasizing about walking with him down the wedding aisle. {virgin road, more on TL}
Liz gives me a stern look, but she stands up straight and looks directly at me.
“Welcome back. Can I have both of your ID please?”
First, I placed my card on the board magic tools.
The type and number of monsters I had defeated appeared in shiny letters on the transparent board.
As she looked through it, Liz’s eyes widened, and she exclaimed in admiration.
“Well… this is your first day of being an adventurer, and yet you have defeated so many monsters… it’s 325 man-eating apples and Maria(shadow)—what is this?”
Maria (shadow)… so that one is treated as a monster. Though for me, the main body is much more of a monster than the shadow. The shadow was cute compared to her personality.
When I was thinking about the unnecessary things, Hayato spoke.
“I have something to report about that. A Mothman has appeared deep in the forest. We have defeated it, but we believe the forest has become a spot. Please use the crystal on the spot as soon as possible.”
“Is that what happened!? Understood, sir. I will report to the guild master ASAP! Anna, can you please?”
“On it!”
I ask Hayato quietly as he watches Anna, the receptionist, who runs off in a hurry after receiving Liz’s instructions.
“What do you mean by spot?”
“It is a pool of magic power; when formed, many weak monsters will appear at first, then as it gets thicker, you will get stronger monsters like Mothman too.
And because the flow is slowing down right now, you can absorb it with crystal; after that, the spot will disappear.
Man-eating apples were usually spawned in big numbers, so it has become a blind spot for a spot.”
“I see…”
I don’t know all of that.
Liz nodded and sat back down while clearing her throat.
“…Uhm, forgive me for that. so, next one, Mr. Hayato, your ID please…”
“Ok.”
He loosens his clothes’ neck, removes the chain hanging from his neck, and places the blue-white glowing plate tag on top of the magic tool.
I love the moment like this. It’s full of fanservice scenes, from the way they pull out the accessory that was in direct contact with his skin out from his clothes. And most importantly, I could steal a glance at his Adam’s apple and collarbone that peeking out between his clothes.
This certainly is sexual harassment. So I tried to enjoy it modestly. I had to make sure that I didn’t get caught doing this.
“…confirmed, a total of 564 man-eating apples, 1 Mothman, and Melchi…*ahem*, 4 shadows.
Mothman is the monster equivalent of an A-ranked party. This is amazing.”
Liz smiled. She did well omitting the names of the crown prince and other nobles.
Then she sends business smiles towards me as well.
“Alice-sama also had excellent performance. It’s not often that someone can earn this many kills on their first quest.
Also… everyone agreed that Alice is a more suitable partner for Hayato, rather than those people who didn’t know their place.” {* TL note}
“everyone?”
“All I can say that the situation has changed.”
She finally shows me a genuine smile.
Liz is a single-digit number fan club member. I don’t know the details, but it seems that she finally recognized me.
“I’m rooting for you, Alice-sama.”
“Th-thank you…”
“Anyway, do you have any drop item to submit too? If you have defeated this many, I’m assumed you have collected quite a lot.”
“ah, I forgot.”
I didn’t check for drop items because I came back hurriedly to run away from something.
When I look at Hayato, he shows me a proud look on his face and takes out a beautiful leaf from his pocket. It’s transparent and rainbow-colored.
There are dozens of those leaves, and the sweet scent of apples drifts softly from them.
…I know what that is. I’ve seen it before.
It’s an accessory noble like to use at social parties; they would put it on their dress or put it on their tea to enjoy apples’ sweet scent. {…}
It’s called Applewing, and in addition to its fragrance and beauty, it’s a gem that has the effect of speeding up the recovery of magical power when taken into your body.
That was man-eating apple drop item? No, well, I guess it’s fine? But I have a mixed feeling now.
By the way, I don’t know when Hayato collect them; I never saw him did.
Liz counted the leaves piled up on the desk, did the math, and pulled out some money from the safe in the back.
“I’ve confirmed it; we’re buying 56 Applewings, at 1 silver coin per leaf.”
The total number of man-eating apples you defeated is 889, and we are paying three copper coins per monster as a reward. If we calculate it together with the Apple Wing, the total comes to 1 gold coin and 132 silver coins for your reward.”
Oh! We just made a lot of money!
When I was a Duke’s daughter, they bought me everything I want, and I’ve never had to think about the money, but now, I’ve learned to have commoners sense of money.
A single gold coin is only enough to cover a month’s worth of living expenses for the average person.
But if you reverse it, it’s incredible how much money you can make in a few hours in a day.
For the first time in my life, I’ve earned this much money by myself! I’m thrilled right now.
After receiving the money, we decided to buy a hot sandwich and coffee at a coffee stand for lunch and eat it on the fountain square’s open terrace.
Perhaps the rumor that I’m from the Duke’s family has spread, but as long as I’m next to him, the fans who want to shake Hayato’s hand will have to restrain themselves. And instead, a jealous glance is coming in from all directions.
Even if it’s unpleasant, I’m a former Duke’s daughter, I have no problem to dine while people are staring at me, but I wonder if Hayato is okay with it.
“We’re being stared at so much, aren’t we? Are you okay with it?”
“It’s not like they are shooting arrows at us. It’s fine.”
“You’re open-minded, huh. Hayato… I’ve been wondering for a while now, what do you think about the girls who are blushing and staring at you?”
“What do you mean by that? Isn’t it normal for a girl to be like that?”
“No, it’s not.”
So, this person didn’t know that it was not normal for a girl to turn red as soon as they see a man; he is a hardcore dense guy.
I wonder why he becomes like this.
Maybe he becomes sloppy with his interaction with women because they often ask him for a favor. If he had to mind every move a woman makes to him, it might stress him out instead.
I think being relied on by many people is giving him a bigger psychological burden than I might think.
I’m sure those conditions form his insensitiveness.
“… Well, I don’t care about that. I’d like to eat and then go home. Do you have somewhere you’d like to stop?”
“Mmm… Alice’s clothes, you know,…I think it’s about time for you to buy a new one? What do you think?”
“My clothes?”
“ah, I should say equipment, the clothes you wear are all cute and fluffy, it’s not suitable for combat, they will get dirty.”
Indeed, all I have in my wardrobe is a dress.
And yes, I understand, you cannot feel my motivation since I was wearing a one-piece dress to the forest today, it might not be strange if someone asked me if I’m going to picnic.
“Yes, I suppose so. I indeed need it. Then would you mind sticking around for a bit to help me choose?”
“Sure. There’s a place for women that’s run by an ex-adventurer; we should go there.”
“Yes, sir!”
The shop was located on the second floor of a building not far from Fountain Square, where I drank my coffee; I headed for it with great enthusiasm.
TL note:
“rather than those people who didn’t know their place.” The original text is like this “rather than some horse’s bone.”
Horse’s bone direct meaning is “unnecessary and useless person” I had to rephrase it because I can’t think of something similar in English; I need some polite words without directly insulting the subject.
“rather than some horse’s bone.” is new to me so thank you~
I might still get it on the spot tho~
“Horse’s bone”, huh? Maybe “pigs wearing lipstick” (as in, “lipstick on a pig”) or if you want to go cruder, “polished turds” (“you can’t polish a turd”)? Or maybe, “birds in borrowed feathers” (referencing the Aesop’s fable)?
…did he just agree to go shopping with a wo.. lady?
Oh boy, good luch Hayato. ^^”
Thank you for the chapter and the treat! (^_^)/
In the South, we would say “Bless his/her heart!” With a certain look with it of course!!!! lol
Horse’s bone is a new for me – thank you! One of my favourite things about reading TLed novels is learning about various types of slang or just random bits of common knowledge from the original author’s local culture that I learn from the translators.
In return, I’ll offer an English equivalent for you – “a superfluous person”. Saying that something is superfluous means that it is an extra, unnecessary and useless addition to something else. However, calling someone a “superfluous person” isn’t necessarily an insult. Because superfluous things might be generally unwanted, that’s not always the case – like if a company includes a free special feature with a product that you don’t need and probably won’t ever use. It’s superfluous; but as long as it doesn’t make the purchase more expensive, won’t interfere with anything else, and doesn’t make using the product harder, it’s not necessarily unwanted – since it’s free and you’re getting it whether you like it or not, you just don’t care. Or like if an employee brings along family members on a company trip at their own expense – the extra people/person is superfluous, but as long as their presence doesn’t affect anything about the trip negatively for anyone else, no one will care whether they came along or not.
An unwanted superfluous person is like having the spoiled, incompetent child of a higher- up thrust into a group project where the only thing they’re capable of doing is making the job harder for everyone else, but everyone needs to grit their teeth and bear it because of their connections.