Chapter 190

“Excuse me . May we rest here for a bit?” asked the person who looked like the leader of this band of teenage boys and girls .

Instead of being the lively youths they obviously are, they looked pretty beat up and defeated .

“I am called Mukouda, I too am an Adventurer, after a fashion . I’m guessing you guys are Adventurers as well? May I know what happened?”

The exhausted leader answered, “As Mukouda-san might have guessed . We are Adventurers . However, we’ve only been at this job for half a year . After all that time, we’ve only made it up to F Rank recently…”

According to the leader, these group of teenagers were childhood friends from the City of Neihoff and had formed a party called [Storm Bringers] . The kids were about 15 or thereabouts with Anton being the Party Leader . Their team consisted of a Knight, Philip; a female Archer, Bridgette; a pair of Sorcerers, Paul and Livia .

They had just ranked up a few days ago and were now qualified to take on monster subjugation missions, which they immediately proceeded to tackle .

Their mission was to subdue some Brown Boars .

The mission request came from a village called Renie about a day’s travel from Neihoff . Brown Boars had been appearing in great numbers and were found rooting among the village’s fields damaging their crops .

“These five youngsters should be more than a match for a few Brown Boars…”

To explain, the Brown Boar is one of the weakest version of the boar type monsters . Its size was half that of a Red Boar, which measured about half a meter in length . I’ve caught glimpses of them before, and their meat could be found at regular markets because it was not difficult even for a group of normal farmers to subdue .

Fer looked down on Brown Boar meat, which was why we never have it on our table .

Anyway, this group of promising young Adventurers accepted the mission and headed off towards the Village of Renie . However, they were confronted by more than just Brown Boars when they arrived .

“We came prepared to fight against Brown Boars, but then a Red Boar appeared as well . I’m ashamed to say we all nearly panicked, but somehow we managed to work together and handle the situation with our lives intact . ” [1]

Looks like they were stuck in some rather dangerous situations for a while there .

“We got into quite a pinch . If not for Paul’s quick reaction, one of us might have been very badly injured . Paul used his Earth Magic [Pitfall] to trap the Red Boar, making it fall into a hole . Allowing the rest of us the opportunity to use every single bit of magic and strength we have to beat the Red Boar and defeat it . ” [2]

Leader Anton looked very solemn as he told his story to us . “Our instructors and seniors have told us to always ‘Expect the unexpected’, that things could go very wrong in a blink of an eye . I was told to always keep that in mind, but when the unexpected really happened…”

The rest of the kids nodded along behind their leader .

“We were all really excited because this is our first time taking a mission outside the city,” said Bridgette . “We made all the necessary preparations and were really careful, but even so…” [3]

From what I can see, everyone was pretty much mentally and physically exhausted from their ordeal from an unexpectedly strong enemy . Though I called myself an Adventurer, I usually just rely on Fer, Dora-chan and Sui to do all the heavy lifting .

There was nothing I could say to reassure them, or rather, it is not my place to say .

That said…

“Naa, are any of you hungry?”

Simultaneously, the bellies of all five young Adventurers growled .

Smiling at their embarrassed face, I took out a plate from my [Item Box] . It was piled high with sausages, grilled meat, roasted vegetables and other treats . I put the plate before them and said, “Go on, eat this and cheer up . You all got out of this danger with your lives and limbs . It’s good to celebrate that . ” [4]

They were a little hesitant at first but as soon I said, ‘Please, don’t hold back’ everyone began stuffing themselves .

“D- delicious!”

“Tasty!”

“This is really, really good!”

“So good!”

As expected, food soothes most problems . Well, we mostly have meat here, but it’s all very good meat so eat up kids!

I handed out wooden cups of water to everyone, “There’s more, so eat slowly . ”

“Oi, I want some too . ”

“Me too, gimme some of that meat . ”

“Sui too~”

Fer, Dora-chan and Sui became peckish when they saw those youngsters eating and demanded to eat as well .

“Yes, yes,” I began doling out grilled meat and sausages into everyone’s plates .

“Are those your familiars, Mukouda-san?” Livia asked .

“Oh, yes, they are . The big one is Fer, this little dragon is Dora-chan and the slime is called Sui . ” I began introducing my familiars to them .

“Oh, so it really is a dragon! Is it a baby dragon?” the slightly muscle brain-ish Philip asked excitedly .

“Oh, no, Dora-chan is a Pixie Dragon . They are very rare and only grow up to this size . ”

“Ehh, really? This is the first time I ever heard of Pixie Dragons, but a dragon is a dragon! I’ve actually seen a real live dragon! How cool is that?!” said Philip [4] .

“Familiars, an Adventurer with several familiars… Ah! Could it be you’re…”

“What is it, Paul?”

“Nothing, it’s just… I heard some rumours while I was at the Adventurer’s Guild . Everyone was talking about how an A Rank Adventurer with multiple familiars was coming to Neihoff…”

“A Rank?” the other four shouted, turning to stare at me in awe .

No, actually, while my group might be considered A Rank, I am hardly a credit to the title . It was all Fer and the rest…

Not wanting to talk about the A Rank thing, I changed the subject by asking the youngsters to tell me about themselves . [6] Since I was not really an A Rank Adventurer, their glittery, worshipful eyes were making me feel guilty…

Nevertheless, the meal was soon over and I inquired after their plans . [7]

“We’ll be heading back to Neihoff, after this, thank you Mukouda-san for treating us to a delicious meal . ”

“Yes, I was really exhausted just now, but I feel much better after the delicious lunch . ”

“That’s right, in fact, I think we might even be able to make to the entrance before nightfall . ”

“Aah, well, even if we don’t we can still make camp there and enter the city the next day . ”

“It’s good enough if we make it to the city gates by today, nightfall or not . ”

Oh, that’s right . Normally Adventurers without a ride would have to walk or run everywhere . [8] They were all still kids and although they have recovered some strength from the food and rest, it’s still a long walk to the city gates .

Hmm, it would be impossible to get Fer to carry everyone… Ah! That’s right!

“Sui, could you grow to a size big enough to carry all of them?”

“Un, yes, no problem~ But, Sui won’t be as fast as Uncle Fer…”

“I see, I see, that’s fine . Fer can go a little slower, but you can carry all five people?”

“Yes, Aruji~ Please wait while Sui grows bigger . ” With that, Sui swiftly grew to the size of a large carriage .

“Woah! That slime is becoming bigger!” the five of them stared as Sui used her [Gigantify] skill .

“Alright, you guys . Everyone get on top of Sui . ”

“Eeehhhhh!!!”

“Well, aren’t you all tired? We’re also heading for Neihoff so it’s not like it’s out of our way . ”

The five teenagers gingerly got on top of Sui .

“Hold on and don’t fall!” I called out from my position on top of Fer . When they all nodded, I patted Fer, “Alright, let’s go back to the city!” [8]

Considering how Sui had lots of passengers on her, she was going quite fast . Naturally, she did not reach Fer’s speed, but she was easily twice as fast as a normal carriage . The kids were having the time of their life as the wind whipped into their faces and they screamed in delight [9] . They’re at just the right age and mindset to enjoy things like roller coaster rides after all .

“Oi, we’ve arrived at the city gates,”

“Already?!” came the cries of dismay . [10]

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When Huge Slime Sui bounced to the gate, the gatekeeper visibly shivered with dread . I could totally understand his feelings: Small Sui is cute and adorable, carriage size Sui… not so much .

Luckily the gatekeeper remembered my face as the A Rank Adventurer on special missions . Also, it helped that Sui returned to her little size once her passengers got off her back and she hopped back into my bag . [11]

“Mukouda-san, at noon tomorrow in front of the Adventurer’s Guild?”

“Yes, I hope that’s really alright? I feel a little bad about making you guys show me around the city on your off day . ”

We had been chatting together on the way in and somehow it led to them bringing me around the city as my personal tour guides .

“My parents are always happy to have people visit our shop . ”

“Mine would be glad to meet the top-earning A Rank Adventurer!”

Both Anton and Bridgette’s parents were workshop owners and they were already making plans to bring me over to peruse their wares .

Well, since I plan to buy different kinds of tableware and cutlery, it would be good to have local people bring me around .

“Alright, see you guys tomorrow,”

After a final farewell, we all parted ways .

Tomorrow, I shall go to the Adventurer’s Guild mid-morning as usual to avoid the crush and collect my reward money and meat for my familiars . At noon, these friendly young Adventurers will take us around the city for a nice local tour .

[Gumihou: Mukouda-san sure knows how to enjoy himself, lol]

The writer likes to combine dialogue and unnecessary text . So, I did some changes…

Do you guys want the notes a la Little Cooking Saint?

Here’s a sample:

[1] Structural adjustment: Originally passive text, changed to dialogue

[2] Structural adjustment: Originally single sentence dialogue intersperse with passive text, changed to dialogue for more active feel

[3] Repetitive: Author-san likes to use this sentence/dialogue form

This guy is unbelievable .

Mukouda said, “This guy is unbelievable . ”

Like, what the heck? That’s so pointless, like wut?!

[4] Added more details: At first, it’s just ‘go on, eat up’ . However, I do believe that as a former white-collar worker he could do better

[5] Deleted redundant dialogue tag information .

[6] Squeezed several floating single line paragraphs into one large paragraph .

[7] Structural change: flipped the dialogue and non-dialogue paragraph style .

[8] Structural change: Connected floating sentences and deleted redundant information .

[9] Added more details: I added the detail about the roller coaster

[10] Structural change: ‘All five were quite surprised, saying ‘already?’ for “Already!?” Deleted this ‘Thanks to Sui, we were able to get back to the city while it was still daytime’ too, since we just talked about this like less than 10 paragraphs ago .

[11] Structural change: Information all over the place . Some adjustment made for logistical reasons