Fame 1
When Hanna came down after talking with the mages and progressing the quest, what greeted her was the strangely exhausted look of her party members.
"D-Did something happen?"
"I just had a brief chat with someone I knew from my previous party."
"They didn't hold a grudge or anything, did they…?"
"No. She was just a bit of a chatterbox."
Even with Irene's explanation, Hanna wore a look of incomprehension. A noble young lady chatty enough to deal mental damage to a 6-star tank was hard to understand without meeting her in person. Looking at Grace and me with a curious expression, Hanna sat down at the table and began to explain.
"They've started extracting mana from the Full Moon Wolf's traces. All the Magic Tower mages are throwing themselves into it, and they say they'll make a magical tool that can track the extracted mana. Sounds like they'll make something like a lantern—or a compass that tracks the Full Moon Wolf."
"And we're sure it's on the 10th floor?"
At my question, her eyes flicked slightly to the side.
"It seems the night prairie we saw is magically hidden somewhere on the 10th floor. To open the door to that secret space, you need the Full Moon Wolf's traces."
Looking at that, this was clearly from the quest window. They'd only just started extracting mana—how could she be so sure about a hidden space? Still, Grace and Irene seemed content to take it as something the Magic Tower mages had figured out. No real reason to pick at it.
Hanna looked so cute all worked up with anticipation that Grace sidled over and linked arms with her. I had to wonder when those two had gotten so close.
"Did you miss the Full Moon Wolf that much? Your mouth won't stop smiling."
"Well, um, it's just fascinating. As a mage, how could I not be curious?"
"So are we disbanding for today, then?"
At Irene's words, the women exchanged uncertain looks. Same problem as with the adventurer bandits last time—that was the issue with the Adventurer's Tower. Because of the climb and descent times, once you came outside, going back in got awkward.
Of course, if we camped inside the Tower it wouldn't matter if we went in now, but the timing was off for camping. It was Irene's first day in the party and the day we'd left the Full Moon Wolf's traces with the Magic Tower. If we were strapped for cash we might stay on the prairie late into the night, but our party had me as the wallet, so our pockets were full.
"Um, if we have time left… would you mind stopping by the Temple?"
"The Temple?"
Sensing those uncertain looks, Irene whispered in her still-soft voice. Naturally, Hanna—whose head was full of streaming thoughts—seemed delighted. Grace also seemed a bit curious about the big Temple in the adventurer city.
"While I was asking around about Lord Roland's party, I ended up talking quite a bit with the Temple priests. Some of them want to thank you for saving people from the Horned Wolves, and some are grateful that you accepted my… stubborn request."
"Oh, come on, stubborn? Our party was already asking around the guild to recruit a priest."
When the party members didn't show any particular negativity, Irene continued, and Hanna soothed the precious 5-star. Whether it had to do with her hidden Candidate Saint title or just a religious person's interest in others' affairs, she seemed to want to introduce us to the priests she knew.
The party wasn't against it, and they wanted to thank us—no reason to duck out. Might as well pay a visit.
If the Magic Tower produced various magical tools and alchemists refined herbs into potions for sale, the Temple's merchandise was, naturally, holy water. It wasn't a panacea that fixed everything just by drinking it—holy water was drinking water infused with holy power and sacred arts.
Simply put, it was like portable heal, portable purify, portable buff. I'd used it a lot on outside commissions when I didn't have a priest.
"Miss Irene, it's almost dinnertime—how about we pick something up at the market for the children at the Temple?"
"Oh, would that be all right? If Lord Roland shares food with them, the children will be so happy."
Since things had gone this way, I floated the idea intending to squeeze every drop of goodwill out of it, and Irene clasped her hands together in delight. The Temple basically took care of orphans too, so buying the kids a meal was the easiest way to farm favorability.
The aunties looking after the orphans weren't about to dislike someone who donated and bought the kids food. We talked it over, decided on the market, and when I stood up from the table, not only Irene but the other two were looking at me with sparkling eyes too.
A little guilty, honestly.
Maybe because the clergy weren't corrupt or fallen, the Temple's finances seemed a bit tight. How much could kids even eat, and how expensive could food for orphan kids really be? We weren't about to buy them a pile of steaks that cost several silver coins a piece.
Even though we'd just be sharing bread and vegetable stew a notch better than beginner inn food—basically freeman home cooking—they were looking at me like that. Efficiency be damned, my conscience pricked a little, so I'd better load up on a lot of ingredients.
"Hanna, got space in your inventory?"
"Space is plenty. …Ah, this is when you do the Temple a solid, right? Sure, it's Roland-sensei's wallet doing the charity and not mine, but I'm providing the inventory, okay? And we've got a 5-star priest joining the party—what's half a day of volunteering?"
"Then let's hit the market and grab some bread, flour, vegetables, and meat."
"There's a shop the Temple's apprentice priests go to often. Shall I guide us there?"
The late-afternoon market street was utterly quiet. Not the time for adventurers to pour out, not the time for industrious citizens to shop—an awkward hour. Merchants' hawking, trying to scrape up even one more coin, rang through the street.
The most popular on the street was, of course, Irene. Market-goers would widen their eyes at the three women's uncommon looks, then hurriedly come to their senses at the neat nun's habit. Maybe for an adventurer flaunting her figure, but nobody had the guts to throw lecherous looks at a nun.
Walking the street like that, we arrived at a strangely bustling stretch.
"Aigoo, Sister's out! Coming at this hour—got something urgent to buy?"
A plump auntie who, as expected of a place the Temple apprentices frequented, spotted the priestly robes and called out with a sly grin. She was pretty big in both build and height, with full cheeks—didn't look like an ordinary citizen. Curious, I opened the chat window while dodging the drone camera, and it was plastered with "k" consonants.
Through the wave of lol's, the words that appeared were 1★ 'Plump Baker' Johanna.
So even non-combat characters get stars, huh.
After a Paladin, Candidate Saint, and Apprentice Ranger, the next gacha character we met was a baker. I was starting to get why the viewers were laughing. While I was thinking that, kids with wooden sticks came running past the bakery, shouting.
It had seemed oddly noisy for a while—turns out all the kids had been playing in this alley.
"Hello, Auntie Johanna. We came out to buy some dinner for the kids at the Temple."
"Dinner at this hour? Nothing wrong at the Temple, is there?"
"Nothing bad. A visitor to the Temple wants to buy the children something to eat."
"Oh my my! What good people you are. The Goddess will be pleased too."
With a fussy laugh, the baker auntie ducked into the shop. As I caught the savory smell of bread through the open door, Hanna sidled up beside me. Wondering what was up, I saw that all the kids who'd been running around the street had swarmed over in front of the bakery.
About a dozen of them had rushed over and surrounded us, so she was feeling a bit pressured. Wondering what was going on, I turned and stood in front of Hanna like a shield. Just because they were young and weak didn't mean they were all good—pickpockets could be mixed in. Of course they couldn't touch the inventory, but still.
Then a big kid stepped forward and looked up at me.
The alley boss?
"What is it?"
"Mister, mister, you're an adventurer so you can just fly around in the sky, right?"
"Hm?"
"Don't lie! Flying in the sky is for mages!"
Wondering what this was about, I paused for a moment, and the kids started arguing among themselves. Apparently they'd witnessed me kicking off a roof and leaping into the air during the Horned Wolf incident. A fierce debate between the kid who'd seen a knight flying through the sky and the kid insisting that flying was for mages.
I could feel my party members watching me and the kids with warm eyes even from behind. I'd overdone it a bit for Hanna's comfortable gaming and stream angles, and now the rumor had spread from street kids all the way to nobles—nowhere left untouched.
"I, uh… can't fly in the sky."
"See! He said he can't!"
"No way! He really flew around!"
"It's not flying—I jump around."
Feeling like a clown, I sprang up toward the empty air in front of the bakery. I couldn't smash the street in front of the kids and the party, so it was a light jump that just barely reached the roof. But jumping that high in light armor was amazing enough that the kids' eyes lit up and they chattered noisily.
Pushed by those eyes, I hopped up and down a few more times in front of the shop, and with a jingle of the door the baker auntie came out.
"Good heavens! Wh-what are you doing?"
A perfectly healthy man doing standing jumps up to roof height in front of her shop—of course she'd be startled. Instead of her earlier bantering tone, she blurted out formal speech in her shock, and from behind I heard a muffled "pfft" of someone holding back laughter.
…Next time I drink with Grace, I'm definitely getting her back for that.
Still, the kids all noisily explained at once, so she seemed to understand right away. An adventurer with power who'd also listened well to the kids—she'd gained some favorability points from that. Of course, she wasn't a pretty widow, so this auntie's goodwill wasn't particularly needed.
"This much should be enough for four people to carry. That young man looks awfully strong, so…?"
"Looks like we could fit about five more sacks of this."
"We're not just feeding them bread. We should grab some stew ingredients too."
"Ah, right."
Still, thanks to Hanna unceremoniously stuffing the bread bags into her inventory, all the attention shifted to her—thankfully.