Awkward Cohabitation (6)
The next morning's breakfast felt strangely lavish.
There were more dishes than usual, and the portions were generous. It was odd, considering we tended to eat more heartily at dinner than at breakfast.
"I just... put in a little extra effort," Sister Mary said.
Remembering how hard she must have worked cooking since the crack of dawn, I resolved to clean my plate. Still... even so, there really was a lot of food.
"If there's any left over, I'll pack it into lunchboxes, so there's no need to force yourself."
Ah. So that was why she'd made so much.
I relaxed and simply enjoyed the meal. Sister Mary's cooking had been improving by leaps and bounds, and now that we had a bit of money to spare, she'd started adding all sorts of spices and expensive ingredients. The results rivaled anything a proper restaurant could put out. Thanks to that, my appetite seemed to be growing, too.
After a solid breakfast, I got ready to head to the Adventurer's Guild. The packing itself had already been finished the day before. All that remained was a quick equipment check and actually putting everything on.
I shed the skirt I'd grown used to wearing, pulled on a pair of trousers, and took up my spear. Then I checked my pouches. The Fram bombs were properly stowed, along with salves and antidotes — and, just in case, some poison as well.
When I came downstairs, everyone else was already dressed in simple traveling clothes. I wasn't any different.
"Your bag looks heavy."
"It's nothing much."
I'd traveled with far heavier loads than this. With clothes, a bedroll, and various tools left out, the bag was practically light.
"Allow me to carry it for you."
Maximilian said this and reached for the bag on my shoulder, but I refused.
"I'm fine."
At my rejection, his shoulders drooped. The way he acted was just so... it was a strange thing to say about a man — and a big one over six feet tall, at that — but he was cute.
Priest Daniel's outfit was practical and light. Someone must have advised him, because he was geared up in what looked like ordinary adventurer's equipment, complete with a round shield.
"Let's go!"
After so much idle living, diving back into action left me a little uneasy — but with two Knight Class fighters, a priest, a mage, and a Holy Knight in the party, what could possibly go wrong?
The Adventurer's Guild was bustling even at that early hour. Of course, few adventurers had come fully armed the way we had; most were lightly dressed people just looking for work.
"Now then... what kind of requests do we have..."
I headed straight for the request board. I skipped every escort job on sight, though I did take a look at the subjugation requests. There might be a decent one among them, so it was worth checking.
Priest Daniel, visiting an adventurer's board for the first time, couldn't seem to focus and just wandered between us.
"Is there something you're curious about?"
"Ah, well — there just seem to be so many jobs."
"There are, yeah."
I sidled up beside him and lowered my voice.
"But a lot of them are traps, too."
"Traps...?"
"Right. Sometimes the pay is so low it doesn't even cover costs, or they don't give you proper information and the job turns out completely different from what was posted."
"So they deceive people...?"
"That's just how some towns make a living."
Anyone short on experience was practically begging to get burned.
Maximilian was staring fixedly at one particular notice on the board.
"Find something good?"
"It's a bit of a nuisance, but..."
I looked at the paper he was pointing to.
Underground waterway cleaning?
"There's an underground waterway?"
"Yes. A sewer system for disposing of waste."
Oh... so that was why the Capital stayed so clean.
"Is that so?"
I understood that an underground waterway existed. But why had a job like that ended up at the Adventurer's Guild?
"Considering how important the sewers are, shouldn't the kingdom be managing them?"
"You're right. It's probably because everyone avoids the work. The person who posted the request is from the administration."
Which meant...
"The knights don't want to do it, so they're just throwing money at adventurers instead?"
Maximilian looked slightly embarrassed.
"Yes. It can't be helped."
A good number of knights were nobles. Many of them never received a proper title, but they'd still been raised as aristocracy — of course they'd balk at something like this.
"But why are you looking at it, then?"
"The pay is excellent."
The reward was... wait, what?! A full thirty gold?! What kind of job paid that much?
"Hold on — with pay like that, why isn't anyone taking it?"
Even if the work was filthy, you'd think people would jump at the money...
"It also requires skill."
According to Maximilian's explanation, the underground waterways weren't just channels of flowing water. Monsters that processed the waste lived down there, and their numbers had to be kept from growing out of control. On top of that, other monsters that wandered in through the channels needed dealing with as well...
"And those monsters are...?"
"Slimes."
Ah. So that was how they used slimes. They were a fairly troublesome monster to deal with... I was starting to understand why adventurers steered clear.
A slime's body was strongly acidic. Any weapon that touched it would start to corrode.
"H-how many slimes does this request require us to deal with?"
Priest Daniel, who had been reading over our shoulders, asked.
"They designate a zone, and you're expected to clear every monster within it."
A zone, huh...
"When the slime population grows, they naturally expand beyond their original territory, so the job is essentially just cleaning up the expanded area."
That approach would make surveying easier and give adventurers a clearer area of operations.
"Is there really any need to take on such unpleasant work?"
Sister Mary, who had been watching quietly, cut in.
"That's a fair point."
There was no real need to deliberately walk into a foul-smelling, disgusting place. But then again, there weren't any suitable requests otherwise...
"If you can just endure the unpleasant parts, you can harvest a large quantity of slime cores. The income is genuinely excellent."
Slime cores... I'd been wanting to try using those in alchemy, but...
"Let's check if there are any other requests first."
I really didn't want to go somewhere filthy if I could help it.
I combed through the board carefully for about thirty minutes, but...
"There's nothing we could finish in a single day."
It wasn't that there was no work at all. There were plenty of simple labor jobs. But while I might have taken one alone, I couldn't drag my companions into that kind of work. And if I tried, Sister Mary or Priest Daniel would almost certainly panic and stop me.
But every option on the board seemed equally unappealing...
"What about this one?"
Priest Daniel, who had been watching in silence, brought over a request.
"Let's see..."
We all gathered around to check the details.
"A subjugation request..."
The contents were as follows: monsters had appeared in a mine, and someone needed to wipe them out. The monsters in question were worms and mole-type creatures — the annoying kind.
"The requirements listed here are the problem."
Mages preferred. No damage to the mine allowed. Compensation paid according to results...
"Julian can use magic, and Sister Mary and I can use Holy Magic, so wouldn't this be doable?"
Priest Daniel glanced at Maximilian for a cue. I was the party leader, but Maximilian was the strategist.
"What do you think?"
"This is a trap."
A trap?
"The section on results and compensation is deliberately worded. And if you look carefully, there's a fine-print warning at the bottom."
In a spot easy to miss, a note had been written in tiny letters. Its contents were as follows:
"If the mine sustains damage, the party must pay reparations...?"
"You can barely use magic properly inside a mine to begin with, and yet they've written that any damage requires compensation. That's a trap. Anyone who goes for the pay could end up doing free labor over damage claims."
Huh...
I was genuinely speechless. To think a request like this even existed...
"I-I'm sorry."
Priest Daniel, who had brought the request over, bowed his head.
"Well, this is how you learn."
Maximilian said this with a rather smug look. Even without the compensation issue, the four days of travel time alone would have ruled it out.
"It'd be a shame to just go home without doing anything, though..."
Should we take the underground waterway request after all...?
We stepped outside to think it over.
"There really aren't any suitable requests."
"No, there aren't."
I steeled myself and asked the question.
"What do you all think about taking the underground waterway request?"
I directed the question at my sister and Sister Mary, not Maximilian or Priest Daniel.
"Do you really have to...?"
Sister Mary looked thoroughly reluctant.
"I'm fine with it."
My sister seemed okay. As for the men, there was no point even asking...
Sister Mary let out a long sigh.
"If you want it that badly, then let's go."
"You needn't worry too much. With purification magic or Holy Magic, we can deal with the smell and the filth to a reasonable degree."
Oh...
"Is that so?"
We had no fewer than three people who could use purification.
"Then let's do it!"
There was nothing to worry about, was there?!
I pulled the notice off the board and took it to a staff member. She kindly explained what our capabilities needed to be, the precautions, and exactly what the job entailed.
The minimum zone we had to clear was a full tenth the size of the Capital...
"This isn't going to be a one-day job."
Factoring in combat time and travel, it looked like it would take at least two days.
"Two days should be enough."
Fair enough. Finally, the staff member handed us a map of the underground waterways.
"Don't half-ass the work. Once you report completion, people will be sent to verify the results."
"Yes, we understand."
Maximilian replied with a smile, and the female clerk's face flushed slightly.
After confirming the last of the precautions, we set out at once.
"I'm a bit nervous. It's my first request."
Priest Daniel looked tense — this kind of work was completely new to him.
"Come on, no need to be nervous."
The monsters down there were just slimes. Was there really anything to worry about?
"Letting your guard down that much could be dangerous."
"Huh?"
Maximilian's serious tone caught me off guard. Wasn't this just a slime-clearing job that people avoided because it was dirty and unpleasant?
"There will be stronger individuals among the slimes. And even if that were all, we'd still need to watch for other monsters that have nested in the waterways."
"Other... monsters?"
"Yes. Giant rats, for one. And insects as well."
I-insects?! That actually did sound a little scary...
"Given our party's strength, it shouldn't be a major problem."
So the point was simply not to get careless.
"Got it."
We headed for the underground waterway entrance marked on the map.