Chapter 13
Chapter 13
Well now.
The sky was dazzlingly bright, and the flowers blooming here and there looked so lovely.
…Well, I couldn’t actually see any of that since I was indoors.
But that was how it felt.
After clearing the Pow Dungeon, we had gained a lot.
To be precise, we had gained an absurd amount of money.
First, there was the money from the wager and the quest reward.
A total of five gold coins and twenty silver.
Of course, forty of those silver had originally been ours, but…
That wasn’t the important part.
The treasures the Death Knight had gathered were incredible.
Surprisingly, the Death Knight had been steadily collecting all the treasures generated by the dungeon.
That explained why we hadn’t found any.
Dungeon treasures were produced endlessly.
But if no one claimed them, their number would stop increasing after a certain point.
The Death Knight, however, had hunted the monsters and gathered all the treasures himself.
Because of that, the Pow Dungeon had continued generating new treasure.
According to him, he had been collecting them for the master he would one day meet.
After selling those treasures, we ended up with more than twenty gold coins.
At the moment, we were carrying a total of thirty gold coins.
Whew…
Having money really put your mind at ease.
I’d never held this much in my life before.
So this is what it feels like.
Heh…
My gaze fell on the sword resting on the bed.
It was the sword Yuna had used when she appointed the Death Knight as her knight.
And now it was my sword.
What should I name it?
Karaman No. 3?
Hmm…
I didn’t really want it inheriting the name of those trash swords.
I was smiling to myself, thinking of a name for the sword, when—
Click.
The sound of the door unlocking was followed by it opening.
I turned my head.
Melaim was standing there.
…Wait.
Wasn’t this room impossible to open from the outside without a key?
Two days ago, I’d forgotten my key and had to ask the innkeeper to open it for me.
Apparently, the door wasn’t broken.
Melaim was retracting a thin tentacle.
Looks like she’d picked the lock somehow.
Without asking for permission, Melaim casually walked into my room.
Then she asked,
“Luka. When do you plan to take the next quest?”
“Hm? The next quest?”
Now that we had money, I didn’t feel like working at all.
As if she’d read my thoughts, Melaim narrowed her eyes.
“Have you not already rested for four days?”
Only four days.
That’s all.
“Umm… shouldn’t we spend some money first?”
Melaim looked at me coldly.
But adventurers weren’t supposed to hoard money.
If you had money, you were supposed to strengthen your party as quickly as possible.
And even aside from that, adventurers could die at any time.
Wouldn’t it be miserable to die while sitting on this much money?
For all those reasons, not hoarding money was common sense among adventurers.
…Though honestly, it sounded more like an excuse from people who hated saving.
Anyway, by that logic, I was a model adventurer.
Money had never stayed in my pocket for long.
“But what would we spend it on? Have we not already bought all the equipment available here?”
“…Should we discuss it together?”
As Melaim said, there wasn’t much more worth buying in Count Kite’s territory.
Even before clearing the Pow Dungeon, we’d already been fairly wealthy.
And before challenging it, we’d spent nearly all of it on gear.
The only thing worth upgrading now…
Would probably be my armor.
I hadn’t bought heavy armor because against the Death Knight, it would’ve been pointless.
Melaim considered my words.
“Discussing how to use the spoils… Hmmm. That does sound very adventurer-like.”
“Right?”
Good.
Looks like she accepted it.
I was finally starting to figure out how to handle Melaim.
Not that I was lying.
Deciding how to spend money really was important for adventurers.
Back when I was in my old party, we used to discuss that too.
Though most of the time, it was deciding whether to sleep outdoors or skip meals.
As I sank into old memories, Melaim’s voice pulled me back.
“Then let us go to Yuna’s room.”
“Hm? Not mine?”
“She says she does not want to move. At the moment, she is under her blanket with only her head sticking out like a turtle.”
Same as me.
I was honestly jealous she could just say it out loud.
“What about Tanya?”
“She says she can still endure. Though she killed monsters in the dungeon, it was not enough to satisfy her.”
…I just asked what she was doing.
If she could “still endure,” that meant she wasn’t exactly fine.
Looks like Tanya’s murderous urges were creeping back up.
I stood up.
If we rested much longer, something dangerous might happen.
Tanya needed things to kill.
And Melaim needed adventuring.
“Then I’ll change and head to Yuna’s room. Can you bring Tanya first?”
“Very well.”
Going into a girl’s room in pajamas felt a little inappropriate.
…
After changing, I headed to Yuna’s room.
When I knocked, the door opened immediately.
And Melaim’s tentacle was retracting.
Did you just open the door with your tentacle?
Careless as ever.
Melaim and Tanya were sitting on the floor chatting.
Meanwhile, Yuna really was on the bed, only her head poking out from under the blanket.
I looked down at her.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing.”
Yeah, I can see that.
You’re really doing absolutely nothing.
“Aren’t you bored?”
“Being bored is nice.”
I don’t get that.
If I stayed still too long, I’d get restless.
I’d been walking around, making a scabbard, and chatting with the local adventurers.
Melaim and Tanya both chimed in.
“Staying shut in all the time is tiresome.”
“Yeah!”
Well, both of them had spent most of their lives shut in.
Though I had no idea how long exactly.
Yuna pouted at them, then turned to me.
“Oh right, Luka.”
“Hm?”
“Pow said he wants to see you sometime.”
“Pow?”
Wait.
That had been one of my sword name candidates.
How did she know?
But she wasn’t talking about my sword.
“The Death Knight.”
Pow because he was the boss of Pow Dungeon?
I’d been thinking of naming my sword Pow too, since I got it there!
I gave up because it sounded weak.
But now that someone stole it, I felt weirdly disappointed.
Though honestly, it suited the Death Knight even less.
It sounded way too cute.
“…Well, summon him later when there’s time.”
Yuna answered, “Okay,” then pulled her head back under the blanket.
Melaim clicked her tongue and yanked the blanket away with a tentacle.
“Eeeeeh.”
“Stop sulking and get up. Were we not discussing how to spend the money?”
“I don’t really know how money works in this world.”
“Yuna, even if you are excluded, no one here has lived a normal life of spending.”
I looked over my party again.
Yuna, Melaim, Tanya…
None of them looked like they’d ever lived normal consumer lives.
…Wait.
Did that include me too?
Thinking about how miserably I’d lived, it probably did.
I asked everyone,
“So… anyone got something they want to spend money on?”
No one answered.
I looked at Tanya, encouraging her.
But she just smiled brightly.
“It doesn’t have to be something useful for adventuring. Doesn’t have to be essential. Just something you want.”
Under my desperate gaze, Yuna finally spoke.
“…A better inn?”
Melaim asked,
“Do you have complaints about this inn?”
“Not really. But if we have to spend it… I’ve only ever spent money on food and lodging in this world.”
You spend a ridiculous amount on both.
“But if we invest any more in lodging, it will become a major loss over the years. Rather than lowering our standards later, it would be more rational to buy a house.”
I nodded.
“She’s right. At this rate, the inn costs six silver every day. In a hundred days, that’s six gold. In a year, that’s over twenty gold—”
Wait.
That’s actually a problem.
After thinking for a moment, I proposed,
“What if we actually buy a house?”
Yuna looked puzzled.
“A house? Can we afford one? We only have thirty gold.”
She muttered something like, “That’s about three hundred million…”
What do you mean only thirty gold?
“Of course we can.”
“Houses are cheaper than I thought.”
If thirty gold couldn’t buy a house, eighty percent of the continent would be homeless.
Though I had no idea how big a house we could afford.
Yuna’s eyes sparkled.
“Then let’s buy one!”
“I don’t mind.”
Tanya didn’t seem very interested.
Honestly, I felt about the same.
Still, having a place to sleep in the worst-case scenario was definitely appealing.
Though it wouldn’t strengthen the party at all.
Then Melaim spoke.
“I am in favor.”
“Really? Can I ask why?”
That was unexpected.
I thought she’d want to spend it on something more adventurer-like.
“We have secrets, do we not? We need a place where we can speak freely.”
As she said that, her tentacles swayed lightly.
That was true.
We had to hide Melaim’s true identity.
But at the same time, we always had to keep her doppelganger abilities in mind.
Honestly, she was our strongest asset.
Without Melaim’s power, we’d never have dared challenge the Pow Dungeon.
No—
Before that, I would’ve died to Tanya.
Anyway, there would be many discussions involving Melaim’s abilities.
And for that, we needed our own space.
In that sense, Melaim’s reasoning was sound.
“However, we lack the money.”
“Lack it? That can’t be right.”
Melaim explained.
“This is my selfish wish, but if we buy a house, I would like it to have four rooms.”
“Hm. That’s what I was thinking too.”
This strange party couldn’t just divide rooms by gender.
You couldn’t make Yuna sleep with a doppelganger or an assassin.
Even Tanya had said sleeping in the same room as Yuna would be dangerous.
She said she wouldn’t be able to resist.
Melaim had called it selfish because technically Tanya and Melaim could share.
But that felt too cruel.
Even the least useful party leader got his own room.
“Thank you. In any case, a house with four rooms would require more than just a decent home. It would have to be something worthy of being called a mansion.”
Yuna’s eyes lit up at the word mansion.
“We can buy a mansion?!”
“That is the problem. I suspect… we cannot. Unless we sacrifice things like cleanliness.”
Yuna immediately lost interest.
“Mm… never mind then.”
Melaim grinned at her.
“But money can always be earned, can it not?”
True.
With the thirty gold we already had…
And a few more quests…
Maybe it was possible.
…
Looks like I’m stuck working after all.