Thanks for reading~
The old man people called the village mayor, lowered his head to us very deeply.
"Not only did you protect the village from the dragon"s threat, you even gave us a hot spring, and I don"t know how to show my grat.i.tude. Originally, this was a poor village that only had the highlight of having good air and a beautiful forest, but we should become more lively with this." (Village Mayor)
We were welcomed to the village"s square.
Including us, around thirty Hunters are sitting on a slightly flashy carpet, while the elderly bow very deeply. There were servings of fruit on plates, and a whole beast was being roasted excitingly in front of us, like a campfire. Young girls from the village with flower ornaments on their heads were dancing with fluttering long skirts and clothes that showed their navels and poured alcohol for us.
Basically, we were being welcomed for some reason.
"Ouchhhhhh." (Velt)
"Velt, just act like you didn"t do anything while being welcomed." (Ura)
"Uuu~, however, I feel guilty too." (Musashi)
"This is a d.a.m.n awkward feeling." (Farga)
In the villagers" eyes, they think we eliminated the dragon that suddenly appeared, and furthermore brought a hot spring to them.
However, in reality, I picked a fight with Cleran, Farga and the others defeated the dragons Cleran produced and I just rampaged in my battle against Cleran, wrecking up the forest. The hot spring was honestly a coincidence.
And even that hot spring was coincidentally found by the unexpectedly diligent Hunters that were doing the minimum maintenance on the forest.
Despite that, it hurts my chest to be thanked this much.
"Gahhahha, since I couldn"t catch the device dragon, I thought this time was just some labour, but to think this souvenir came with it!" (Hunter)
"Hey~, since we found it~, don"t we more or less have ownership of it~? Can"t we just quit being Hunters~, and manage the hot spring here~?" (Kuri?)
"You"re right. Even in the Humanity Continent, there are only a few hot springs so the neighbouring royalty and even n.o.bles from the empire would come." (Hunter)
A great, once in a life overturn. The Hunters become cheerful from feeling that, and I could honestly understand those feelings too.
There aren"t many hot springs in this world because the majority of hot springs are natural hot springs that adventurers coincidentally found. Digging through the ground to try to dig up a hot spring water vein, is impossible. The reason for that is simply because it costs money, and it"s basically just a gamble. In this world that doesn"t seem to have advancements in geology, even if first-cla.s.s earth attribute magicians and many labourers are hired, luckily digging one up is basically impossible.
Therefore, hot springs are precious and other than the secret, dreamlike hot springs that haven"t been publicly revealed, hot spring areas that changed into tourist attractions are basically treated as privileges only celebrities can enjoy.
Therefore, the profit you gain from it isn"t a laughable amount.
"Hey, you really are lucky aren"t you, boy~." (Kuri?)
"Yeah~, we don"t need to sell our bodies~, anymore~, but we can do it for you one time, for free~." (Risu?)
"Uhhooo, no way, good for you, kid! These two never do it for free!" (Hunter)
"Hey hey, can we do it once too~?" (Hunter)
"If you pro~perly pay the money~." (Kuri?)
Leaving aside the fact that I dug up a hot spring without permission, for treasure and hot springs, if the country doesn"t declare that it"s their own country"s property beforehand, it would belong to the people that found it. Well, there seem to be times where people sell it to the country, but either way, since I dug up the hot spring and the other Hunters found it, the ownership of this hot spring goes to us.
Obviously, if we were to do stuff with this hot spring, we would have to pay venue costs and tax to the village they would earn an unbelievable amount for a modest village like this. People would gather as they expand the village and open shops, and the village might even become a town in a few years.
"So~, kids. What are you going to do now? We"re going to retire as Hunters and live leisurely. We"re thinking of migrating to this village too." (Hunter)
That was a fast decision.
Well, I guess that"s just like a Hunter though.
"Boy, you should live with us too~." (Kuri?)
"We"re also~, going to stay in this village~, to fix the forest~, and live luxuriously after a while~." (Risu?)
Oi oi, what happened to your pride as a Hunter? Well, I can"t say that though. To be frank, Hunters are those types of people. Moving for only justice, pride and adventure are rare. Farga and Cleran are the unusual ones, and the majority of the bounty hunters and treasure hunters are a group of people aiming to get rich quickly, so money is most important for them.
Therefore, these Hunters that accomplished that, could be called the winners.
"Fuuumu. Peacefully managing a hot spring inn with Velt isn"t bad either. No, I might as well make the second Tonkotu Rameeen restaurant here." (Ura)
"Don"t think about that so seriously, Ura. Money is important and I"ll receive as much as I can, but I can"t just be lazing around without doing what I want to do." (Velt)
"Obviously. A life of laziness should just eat s.h.i.t." (Farga)
"Umu. I am glad lord is not the type to be lost in greed and neglect heightening himself." (Musashi)
"Me too~. Rather than paying money to eat something, I like eating things I catch myself." (Cleran)
"Once I"m able to return back to goshujinsama, I"ll invite her to move here!" (Dorauemon)
I guess I should say it"s natural, but everyone other than Ura who wants a stable life, wasn’t thinking of living here now. Well, although Ura complains a bit, she always ends up giving in and comes with me.
"What, Velt-dono, are you not going to live here?" (Village Mayor)
"Yeah. I have stuff to do after all. Well, I"ll leave this to you and the other Hunters." (Velt)
"What"s up with that, even though I thought we could get along with each other." (Hunter)
"I mean, it"s not like I"m leaving immediately. My body’s like this after all." (Velt)
Although I said I"m leaving, that won"t be straight away. My body is battered and I can"t move, so I"ll just wait and see for several days or weeks.
"Then, please take it easy until you depart. Including today, we will give you our wholehearted hospitality." (Village Mayor)
"That"s right, let"s drink, kid! We"ll tell you some of our heroic sagas!" (Hunter)
"Ohh, good idea! Let"s talk about the subjugation of the bandit group in the east!" (Hunter)
"Drink, driiink! Hyuuu, shake your hips more!" (Hunter)
Ouchhhh, like I said, it hurts my heart when you thank me like that.
Well, since they think like that, I guess there"s no need to ruin it?
No, before that, even though it"s only been a short while since this journey started, too many things happened in this short time.
Should I just think of this as taking a breather?
Just for today, we released our feelings out a bit.
"S~o~, Farga~, what happened to the proposal you got from the Chainmail Kingdom"s princess~! Tell meeee! If you don"t, I"ll tear off your nails, and suck on the blood coming from your fingers!" (Cleran)
"a.s.shole, you"re too d.a.m.n drunk, Cleran s.h.i.t." (Farga)
"Shut up~, say it~, tell me~!" (Cleran)
Cleran who"s in a high from getting drunk is quarrelling with Farga.
"Eh~, I can"t believe it. Ura-chan, isn"t it pretty bad as a woman if you still haven"t had s.e.x with that boy at fifteen?" (Kuri?)
"Shu, shut up, unlike you indecent people, I am just being careful! Besides, Velt is unexpectedly serious, so if he ends up doing it based on emotions, he would think about what would happen if we make a child!" (Ura)
"Eh~, don"t you know~? Right now~, there"s a proper contraception tool~, you know~? In the town we use as our base~, they sell this『Thin Thin Condo-kun』, that an organization called Love and Money made~." (Risu?)
These women are having an indecent talk…………
"Sho, after cutting lots of things~, I want to shay~, fuh, I ended up cutting worthless things again, is what I want to shay~!" (Musashi)
"Ohhhh, that"s pretty tasteful~." (Hunter)
"Neesan, you"re tasteful!" (Dorauemon)
Like, Musashi and the Hunters are all dead drunk already.
"Nice. I hate demons, but you"re cute, Ura-chan." (Hunter)
"Oooi, "gozaru" demi-human girl, have another cup. Today we"re putting aside races and slaves." (Hunter)
They were eating delicious things, drinking, making a racket, dancing and singing.
That might have been why we didn"t notice at all.
The fact that right now in this world, humans, demons and demi-humans are warring against each other.
"Geez~. Ura-chan, calling people indecent is so mean~." (Kuri?)
"Shut up! Are you not indecent!" (Ura)
"We aren"t~, even we were pure in the past. But our family was killed in the war, our country was destroyed, so we became homeless and broke without any relatives with us, so we reluctantly became like this to live." (Risu?)
That was an expression I saw for the first time, from Kuri and Risu that always say indecent things and tease people.
Probably because they felt miserable from remembering the past, they showed sorrowful faces.
"Is that so." (Ura)
"Yeah. Demons killed them. Well, although I hate the demons that destroyed it, there"s no use telling you~. Besides, that demon country seems to have been destroyed a long time ago, so it"s just kind of~, helpless, I guess~." (Kuri?)
"We really were desperate. We crept on the ground, sold our bodies, and did anything we could to live." (Risu?)
That kind of thing happens too, huh. The world is at war, and there are people here who had their families killed by demons and demi-humans.
Ura and Musashi"s families were killed by humans instead, with their countries destroyed. And on the other hand, Ura and Musashi fought against humans too.
There would be no end to it once they start talking about it, so they don"t know what to do. It"s mutual.
It"s the same for the other Hunters too.
All sorts of things would have happened with demons and demi-humans, but there"s no use telling Ura and Musashi about it.
However, this was something I hadn"t expected.
"What country do you guys come from?" (Ura)
"We"re from Bolbardie. The one that got destroyed by demons five years ago." (Kuri?)
The moment she heard that Ura"s expression paled.
Furthermore, at the same time.
"Since you people are Hunters, you must have some heroic sagas, right?" (Musashi)
"Yeah, we do. Well, it would be awkward telling a demi-human like you though." (Hunter)
"No matter. After meeting lord, I changed my way of thinking. We are in the middle of a war, so there is nothing strange about you people fighting demi-humans." (Musashi)
"I see. Ah~, well, the strongest enemy we fought in the past, was when we invaded the elf race in the Kaide forest to the west of Furyuure, in the Demi-human Continent, under a request from an organization called Love and Money!" (Hunter)
"……………………………… Eh?" (Musashi)
"We were against the guards, and well~, those guys were tough. In the end, it was the staff of Love and Money that defeated them all. But since those guys from Love and Money were burning the forests down, we didn"t want to have anything to do with them anymore." (Hunter)
The cup Musashi was holding broke.
That"s right, in this world, these types of things are possible.
However, there"s a limit to cynicism.
Right at the moment when humans, demons and demi-humans had forgotten their races and were enjoying themselves, we received a surprise attack.
We couldn"t help but think why that had to happen now.