Prologue: A Rather Enjoyable Retirement
Reincarnated into another world, driven to death's door and clawing my way back more times than I could count — the fact that I was still drawing breath at all struck even me as a kind of stubborn miracle.
Crossing from the modern world into a medieval one had come with no shortage of things to adapt to, but born as a farmer's second son, with no land waiting for me to inherit, I'd thrown myself into the adventurer's life like a man with nothing left to lose. And in the end, I'd taken hold of a title that precious few ever reached: A-Rank Adventurer.
I'd been through every kind of hell, saved up a respectable fortune, and filled my stores with precious equipment and rare materials gathered from the dungeons I'd explored. Now I figured it was time to buy this inn-and-tavern and settle into a retirement I could actually enjoy.
Plap! Plap! Plap! Plap!
"Though even I never saw myself ending up like this…"
Plap! Plap! Plap! Plap! Plap!
"…Nngh!! Haaahn…! Nnhh…! Hahk…! Hnngh…!"
"Well… I suppose this counts as a pretty enjoyable retirement?"
Clap! Clap! Clap!
"Whoa…! This place is actually yours now…?!"
It was an inn of rather impressive scale. Each floor alone spanned more than seventeen hundred square feet — the first a tavern, the second and third given over to guest rooms — and I had purchased the entire enormous building.
"That's right. The adventuring life's behind me now. Time to putter around with something light and actually enjoy living for a change."
Honestly, I'd been knocked around every which way in this other world, and I'd stared death in the face more times than I cared to count. They'd been long, hard, exhausting years.
"I've been an adventurer for nearly twenty years. I think I've earned a little rest, don't you?"
I shrugged as I said it, and Elena — my former party member from an adventuring life that now belonged to the past — looked at me with a glint of genuine pride.
"I always figured the second you made any money you'd drink yourself into an early grave… Guess you weren't quite as much of a lunatic as I thought?"
"What do you take me for?"
Elena's reaction wasn't all that surprising. When every day meant dancing along the edge of a blade, there'd been more than a few stretches where I'd blown every coin I earned on drink and entertainment the moment it hit my pocket.
Still, some scrap of the thrifty modern-worlder in me had survived, and I'd managed to set a little aside here and there. Stack twenty-odd years of that on top of itself, and it had apparently added up to a considerable sum.
"Twenty years. Twenty years. When I think that this one building is all I've got to show for working myself to the bone, I could still cry tears of blood."
I grumbled, but my hand still swept across the smooth wooden surface of the tavern bar. A faint scent of timber rose to meet me, and with it the weight of years soaked into every corner of the place.
"Well, you've gotta admit you nailed the location, at least. Right on the road to the Royal Capital, and close to a dungeon entrance besides. Adventurers and merchants are going to be in and out of here constantly."
Elena propped her chin in her hand, glancing around the tavern interior with a wry little smile.
"So, you pick a name yet?"
"Hmm. For now I'm thinking I'll just go with Silver Wing Tavern. Nothing too flashy. Nice and straightforward."
"How bland. Though I guess that's a very you kind of name."
Elena had been my former party member — a capable comrade from an A-Rank party. But she too would soon be heading home to inherit her family's business, which meant that today was, in effect, the last bit of idle chatter we'd share as party members.
"Oh, right. And this is my last present."
Elena pulled a small leather pouch from inside her coat and tossed it onto the table. From within came a brief, bright clink of glass vials knocking together.
"What's this?"
"Unidentified reagents and some special herb powders I gathered from deep in a dungeon. I was gonna pawn them off on an alchemist, but I couldn't be bothered. Figure you can use them as seasoning in the tavern food or the drinks, if you want."
"You want me to feed unidentified reagents to my customers?"
"Please, I already ran the toxicity tests! All they do is dull the senses a little, or give you a mild mood lift. There's nothing narcotic in them, so relax, would you?"
"…Thanks. I'll put them to good use."
I gave a short laugh and accepted the leather pouch.
I had no idea at the time.
I had no idea what terrifying synergy would be unleashed when those special herbs I'd dismissed as mere seasoning met the byproducts of the ancient dungeons I'd risked my life exploring in my adventuring days.
A few months later.
The tavern business had gone more smoothly than I'd expected. I had a decent pair of hands in the kitchen to begin with, I'd managed to recreate dishes I'd tasted in my modern-world days, and a long career as an adventurer meant I knew exactly what my customers were after.
And then came today.
The first piece of prey that would completely — and most enjoyably — upend my peaceful retirement pushed open the tavern door.
The bell above the door chimed.