Chapter One Hundred and Fourty-Five: Adventurers’ Problems 3
“The problems happening with us, you say?”
“Yes. Something is going on, right? Tell me about it.”
“So, little Karen, are you saying you’re a spy sent by the princess?”
While guiding her around the adventurers’ camp, Sepl said this with a disgusted expression, and Karen tilted her head with an "Hmm.”
“Lady Waltride didn’t order me to do anything. I just came to ask on my own.”
“You really are starting to sound like a noble’s pet alchemist now.”
There was disgust seeping through Sepl’s tone. Among adventurers, there was a trend of despising alchemists who used their power to make money. While alchemists were the only suppliers of potions other than dungeon drops, they aimed to wholesale expensive potions to nobles rather than supply cheap potions to adventurers.
It was natural for them to hate alchemists who were more obsessed with making cosmetics for nobles than with the potions that saved their lives. For Karen, who was making a fortune selling cosmetic potions to nobles, these were painful words to hear.
For now, the supply of healing potions was stable, so there was no need for Karen to make them. If an emergency arose, she intended to actively switch to making healing potions to wholesale to adventurers. Supplying potions during emergencies was also a duty of alchemists. However, becoming a noble’s kept retainer practically exempted one from that duty, and some considered reaching such a position to be the pinnacle of success for an alchemist.
“I’m on your side, but I can’t go blabbing information about my adventurer comrades to a noble’s—no, a royal’s—dog.”
“It’s not like that, though.”
“Then what is it? Is your motivation loyalty? Or money, or were you promised status and honor?”
“I don’t have any loyalty, and while I get paid, it’s just the standard rate. And yes, I only managed to reach D-rank because Lady Waltride recommended me, but still…”
Karen had risen to C-rank immediately after becoming D-rank, so she hardly had the chance to savor the gratitude. Huh? Karen tilted her head slightly. First of all, there was no way she had sworn loyalty to that Waltride. She hadn’t been paid any special money either. She hadn’t been promised any higher status or honor than what she had now.
So why was she moving on Waltride’s behalf now? As Karen sank into thought, Sepl’s eyes went perfectly round.
“D-rank!? You’d been F-rank forever. When did you raise your rank by two levels? Well, no wonder you’re licking royal boots now.”
Now she had risen not just to D-rank but all the way to C-rank. She kept the brooch that proved her C-rank status in a covered pocket except when she first greeted people, since she’d hate to drop it inside the dungeon.
Normally, Karen would have gleefully taken it out to show off and would have protested that she had never licked Waltride’s boots, but Karen wasn’t in the mood for that since she had realized a certain fact.
“What should I do… I think I might consider Lady Waltride a friend.”
“Hey now, keep the jokes reasonable… Are you serious?”
Sepl peered into Karen’s face and said this, looking stunned. Apparently, "serious" was written all over Karen’s face.
“Ugh, how embarrassing! She probably doesn’t think of me that way!”
“It’s not just probably—there’s definitely no way.”
“I know that! You didn’t have to say it!”
Karen’s face turned red as she shouted. Sepl looked down at Karen like that and then sighed.
“Honestly, you’re always such a good kid, little Karen. Lyos is lucky to be able to marry a girl like you.”
“Obviously, I broke up with Lyos. I’m dating Mr. Julius now.”
“Karen, did that pretty boy trick you into dumping Lyos?!”
“Well, something like that. Though he didn’t trick me.”
Karen vaguely glossed over the circumstances. If she told the accurate information, Sepl would rage on Karen’s behalf. There had been a time when he had glared menacingly at Lyos, saying he’d kill him if he made Karen unhappy. Since adventurers’ threats were about eighty percent serious, it would be troublesome if Lyos actually got killed. After all, Lyos was also among this investigation team.
“Sigh, too much happened while I was away working. The fire too. When I came back to check on things, the apartment was burned down. That gave me a real scare. Carelessness with fire is no good, Karen.”
“…Hmm, so that’s the official story.”
This was the result of leaving all the cleanup to the Gubert Trading Company. Apparently, it had become a story where the fire started due to Karen’s own carelessness.
“Uncle Sepl, did you join the investigation team after the expedition started?”
“Yes, you could say that. I entered the dungeon about the day after the investigation team departed. I’d heard it was a risky job but paid well, so I just dove in without much preparation.”
“I see. So you didn’t hear the Alchemists’ Guild’s statement.”
The arrangement was for them to issue a statement saying that a C-rank alchemist was being harassed by the good-for-nothing son of a B-rank trading company president, and that this should be addressed. By now, it should have already been made clear that the Gubert Trading Company was responsible for the fire.
“So, Karen, you came to investigate what’s been going on among the adventurers, huh? Fine, I’ll tell you.”
“You will?”
“Whatever the princess thinks about it, you consider her an important friend, right? If you want to do something for a friend, I’ll help.”
“Thank you, Uncle!”
“Guh! Don’t body-slam me!”
After peeling Karen off, Sepl said:
“Follow me. It’s about time for the problem to occur.”
“Time for the problem to occur?”
Sepl led Karen to the cooking area. Several streams of white smoke rose into the sky. Under them, one of the adventurers who had been boiling a pot shouted:
“Damn it! The nobles are eating delicious-looking food, so why do we have to eat crap like this?!”
What the adventurer shouted and threw to the ground was something like a green square board. Karen squinted her eyes.
“That’s herb hardtack?”
“Yeah.”
Sepl nodded gravely.
“We heard this was a job that included meals, so we didn’t prepare anything, but the nobles are eating good stuff while making us eat this crap! Don’t you think that’s bullshit?!”
“But isn’t eating herb hardtack normal in dungeons?”
It was cheap bread that filled you up, literally made from herbs and flour, and extremely hard and green. It was a convenient size to carry, didn’t spoil easily, and was filling. However, it was incredibly bitter and awful-tasting. But it was something you could survive on eating nothing but this.
“Are the herbs high in nutritional value… or is it that…”
Or were the herbs “transforming” into nutritional value? Karen opened and closed her mouth like a carp, then gave Sepl a deadpan look.
“The nobles brought their own food, so asking them to share isn’t right, is it?”
“I know that. I’m just pissed off. Territorial nobles wouldn’t pull this kind of stunt. They’re desperate to invite adventurers to their territories to have them clear dungeons, so they always eat the same thing we do. But the capital nobles eat while deliberately showing off to us! It’s so damn irritating!”
“You’re having friction with nobles just because the food tastes bad?”
“Hey, just because?! This is an important problem! The bad-tasting food isn’t the issue. Those idiots look down on us despite being stupid! That’s the problem! There’s all sorts of other stuff too!”
It seemed like daily grudges and resentments were surfacing at mealtimes. Even the adventurers who looked like they usually ate herb hardtack had dissatisfied faces. Of course, there were also those cooking with ingredients they had prepared themselves, but since they were nodding along with Sepl’s loud voice, the taste of the food itself wasn’t the problem.
Though it wouldn’t be a fundamental solution, Karen said:
“Do you have a big pot?”
“Hm? What are you planning to do?”
“Whatever the nobles are eating—let’s make something more delicious than that and eat it.”
“Are you going to cook, Karen? But where’s the guarantee it’ll taste better than noble food?”
“I guarantee it.”
“…You mean you, who are more than just particular about food, guarantee it?”
Sepl gulped. Karen, who inherited memories from her previous life, had been a gourmet since childhood.
“It’ll be delicious. The aroma will be amazing too. If the wind direction is good, it’ll reach the nobles too. An aroma so incredible that it’ll make them really hungry and their mouths water.”
Among the cargo prepared by the Ehlertt Earldom and transported by the First Princess’s unit, a large amount of spices prepared for Karen lay sleeping. Sepl grinned.
“Oh ho…! This is getting interesting!”
“The aroma will reach the monsters too, but we don’t need to worry about being attacked, right?”
“That’s our specialty! Leave the seventh floor monsters to us!”
“If you’re going to cook anyway, make something so aromatic it’ll summon the master of the dungeon’s anomaly!”
“If you do that, it’ll save us the trouble of investigating!”
Sepl agreed, and the surrounding adventurers cheered him on. It was time for Karen’s dungeon cooking to begin.
No comments:
Post a Comment