Chapter 12
Chapter 12: I don’t know how to spend my vacation!
Dawn of the following day.
The second-floor dormitory of adventurer guild [Qualidea], I was separately assigned to a different room since Dahlia-san thought it was inappropriate for me to share a room with three women.
Up until a while ago, it was a storeroom covered with dust and cobwebs. Since I was told to do as I please, I spent some time tidying it up. And it turned out to be quite the nice room in the end.
The morning sun shone through the window.
The curtain rails danced to the rhythm of the cool morning breeze running across my room.
There was only a simple wooden bed inside the four-half tatami mat sized room. My ragged outfit, along with my short sword and the emergency rations was all I had on me. Even so, this was the first time in my whole life to own a personal space for just myself.
…Back in the demon army, I had to use the office space as my personal lodging. I couldn't even complain when people barged in while I was sleeping.
It was nice to finally be in a place where no one would casually intrude on your personal space.
I opened the window to take a look outside the streets around Qualidea.
The newly established guild that recently arrived from the capital, [Gardener].
The sheer size of the guild building was as three times as large in comparison to Qualidea. An eye-catching signboard engraved with the crest of the Kingdom of Khushior hung at the forefront of the guild exuding a solemn aura.
“As expected of a guild under the direct control of the Kingdom.”
There were quite a number of people gathered around that guild.
Even at such an early hour, heavily armed adventurers were entering the guild in droves.
Unexpectedly, I spotted the hero party that I had chased away during the 97th day of my consecutive work shift. While I did make sure not to chase them out too rigorously, I still didn’t expect them to bounce back so soon… maybe I should have pressed on a little harder?
“Eh? Why am I thinking about the demon army again?”
Always getting lost in thought while pondering about the demon army had become a very unpleasant habit of mine. Especially when it’s no longer any of my business who, when or how the demon army gets invaded right now.
As I took in a deep breath to compose myself, I heard a gentle knocking sound coming from the other side of the door.
“Eric-san, Dahlia-san made breakfast for us…”
That gentle sweet voice belonged to my angel, Nasha.
“Uwooooooooooooh Foooooooooood!”
“Lu-Louise! Please stop pushing me! That ridiculous strength of yours!”
“You guys, you’re being too noisy so early in the morning… keep it down a little…”
As usual, the familiar sound of squabbles among Louise and Suzette was coming from the other side of the door.
○○○
I have a two-day vacation, today and tomorrow.
This was the first vacation I had ever gotten in my entire life, so I had no clue on what to do or how to spend my holiday.
“Hey, Suzette.”
“What's the matter Eric-san?”
“How do you usually spend your day off?”
Suzette lowered her head slightly at the sudden inquiry.
Silver hair gently slid past the red-rimmed spectacles, swaying along with even the slightest motion of her head. And then, she turned her head upwards before clasping her hands together.
“It seems I have to pay a visit to the church at the outskirts of Odel Knights. I have to offer a prayer at least once a week before Lord Shuwa’s blessings are exhausted.”
Suzette smiled as she lifted her pouch. The pouch which contains all of her earnings for this entire week.
“Then what about Louise, what are you going to do?”
“I’m gonna train in the mountains. I’ll be back in a couple of days.”
Louise shot back enthusiastically.
“Louise-san always holes up in the mountains wherever we get a break~”
Nasha added cheerfully.
“Obviously. Let me tell you, the mountains are a treasure trove of ingredients. And besides, confronting nature is the best way to become stronger in the shortest time!”.
Louise said with a wide grin on her face. Nasha also followed after with her plans for the holiday.
“I’m going to visit Dolgo village today.”
“Ah, that’s the place we fought on the other day… but why are you going there?”
“The reconstruction of the village hasn’t finished yet, so I’m planning to help them out. It’ll be great if everyone can quickly go back to their everyday lives.”
Nasha is just as angelic as ever.
And Dahlia-san, who was also having breakfast with us, pitched in as well.
“I'll be field dressing (T/N: Butchering) the wolf boss you guys brought back the other day. Usually, the price ought to go down a bit since one leg is missing. But those sample collectors will bring it back to a reasonable price, so that won’t be a problem.”
Louise’s eyes shot daggers at my way as Dahlia-san mentioned a leg of the wolf gone missing.
Ah… come to think of it, I was the culprit that made it go missing it with destruction magic.
I sincerely apologize, Louise-san!!
I had no idea it was like that!!
“Well… I wonder what I’m gonna do…”
I pondered on the matter as I was helping Dahlia-san clean up after breakfast.
I never had any hobbies before. It wasn’t as if I had any time for leisure either. I have never thought of anything other than getting my work done earlier.
While I was lost in thought, Dahlia-san’s comforting words reached out to me.
“Hmm, that’s right. I think it might be a good idea to take a little stroll around the town for the time being. From the looks of it, you're not that familiar with this place. So just go around the place without thinking too much about it. It’ll help you figure things out, maybe you might even catch some interesting things on the way.”
Without thinking much huh…
“So, I did as I was told but…”
I left Qualidea and went out to the streets.
It’s been a while since I wandered around aimlessly like this. Last time was when I collapsed on these streets of Odel Knights.
On a closer look, you could clearly see just how many experienced adventurers dwelled this town.
The Demon army really did quite well in constantly warding off such a large number of people all this time.
As I was slowly threading down the path while surveying the area,
“Wha-who is it?”
A pair of small hands covered my eyes from behind.
It was a girl wearing a hood to mask her appearance. Adventurers in this town often wore such clothing to conceal themselves during classified missions and such. Yet this girl carried an unmistakable childish tone to her voice.
“Carol… What are you doing here again…?”
“Hehe~ I’m not here for Eric-chan this time.”
The girl released her hands that were covering my eyes.
“You see, lots of heroes started invading the demon territory after Eric-chan went on an undercover mission. And since my face wasn’t revealed to the outside yet, the higher-ups decided to send me on the next undercover mission. But it’ll only be for a short time though, so I’ll be going back home soon. Since that’s the case, I came to meet up with Eric-chan, who’s also working hard on a similar mission here.”
"...Ahahaha...! No well, hmm…"
...I’m already doing my best trying to keep a cover for myself here!
“Anyway, let’s get going. Eric-chan’s face is also rather unfamiliar to the heroes around these parts. So, you can help me with blending in.”
"Huh!? W-we are going right now!?"
“Well, there’s a limit to what I can do during the daytime, so it’s best we hurry it up. Eric-chan~ Let’s hurry up!”
"Eh, eh... um, but I—"
“What could be more important than following the orders of the Demon Lord?”
I just couldn’t go against Carol’s honey dripping sweet smile.
If I were to say no… Well, that won’t be pretty…
Does this mean my only option is to shut up and just go with the flow?
Ah… I don’t care anymore!
And that’s how I arrived at the solemn gates of the adventurer guild [Gardener] with Carol standing next to me, who was on an actual undercover investigation.
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