Kujonin
Author: Hanabokuro
—
Story 61
White waves broke against the old pier"s posts and the spray danced in the air.
Above the horizon, black rain clouds covered the sky.
Even though it should have been clear just now.
"Not… good. So suddenly…"
The wind blowing from the northeast made it hard to hear Riddle"s voice.
After seeing the state of the stormy sea from the beach, Riddle and I returned to the governmental office.
It"s not raining yet, but it wouldn"t be strange for it to come down any time now.
"Hey! Can you see clouds southwest of the desert?"
I said into the communication bag.
["h.e.l.lo h.e.l.lo? Southwest? No, it"s clear."]
I listened to Velsa"s voice.
"I see; it looks like it"s going to rain in the city."
["I see. I"ll be praying it doesn"t come this way. Is that it?"]
"That"s it. I still need to discuss things over here."
["Got it, then keep up the good job~"]
"Yeah~"
When we returned tot he governmental office, Riddle gave Jerry and the others instructions about gathering able people.
I taught the waiting shipwrights the structure of the pump.
When I showed them how to make one, the shipwrights easily put them together.
"Is this alright?"
I put water in it, and when I tried it out, a mist of water properly sprayed out.
"It"s a strange tool, ne."
"What will you use it for?"
"Is it a water gun or something?"
The shipwrights asked.
"I can"t use it against large monsters, but this is effective for small monsters."
"Really? I think it"s faster to step on them, though…"
Looks like the shipwrights can"t understand the good points of the pump.
In a hurry to get the board up the shipyard against the rain, the shipwrights quickly got their money from Riddle and immediately returned.
When I went to peek in on the locust hopper experiment team, the florists said, "It"s not going well." The said that there was one scent that it kind of didn"t like, more or less.
When I asked which flower it was, they showed it to me.
It looked like a cosmos, with a yellow center surrounded by thin white petals.
"For now, please collect this flower."
The florists said that this flower isn"t popular, so they can bring as many as we want.
It"s just, it"s not popular, so they don"t have a lot of it.
They said it grows in clumps in the forest, so I had them point it out on the map.
Riddle handed them money, so the florists obediently told us.
I boiled hot water in a pot and put the flowers in.
The bas.e.m.e.nt is being filled with a weird smell, but it can"t be helped.
The locust hopper"s movements became violent, and then its movements gradually became dull.
When the hot water in the pot became a dark green, there was an outrageously bitter scent.
After cooling it I put it in the pump and put it on the locust hopper, but although its movements became extremely dull, it didn"t die.
Even so, it has an effect so I"ll use this flower.
An Onee-san employee who came to see what the smell was came down the stairs.
I saw that the Onee-san"s face had a weary look to it.
I apologized with a, "Sorry," and drew a wind magic circle at the entrance, driving away the smell to the back of the room.
"Ah geez, if only I could make a yellow-flag poison…"
Yellow-flag poison is the instant-death poison, so if you put it in the pump and use it, it"s the type where they"ll die when you use it. When I opened the door to leave the office in order to go to the place the florists told me the flower grew, I muttered so.
Seeing the dark and windy city, my fatigue immediately grew.
When I closed my eyes, I could hear the employees" conversations from behind me.
"Right now, the feehorse preparations are …"
"What about the luggage? Do we need the wagon cover?"
"It"s not good if there isn"t a cover if it rains, right?"
"It didn"t have one this entire night."
"Look for it!"
"Haa… right."
"The florist I escorted back asked where they should flee to."
"If the swarm comes all the way to town, it"s no use running…"
The office employees have also built up fatigue due to the irregular work.
"Wh,what"s the matter?"
When I opened my eyes, Riddle, wearing an overcoat, was staring at my face with worry.
"A, sorry, I was just…"
"Not at all, you went and came back from the desert. Of course you"d be tired."
"Oh, no … I haven"t done all that much yet … A! I skipped meals today!! Riddle-san, can you prepare food? Because I can go by myself!"
While I took the magic stone lamp from Riddle"s hand, I turned my gaze towards the employees behind Riddle.
Riddle also turned around and saw the governmental office"s workers.
"Food! That"s also very important! Alright, I"ll prepare everyone"s meals! Naoki-dono, will you be fine alone?"
"Yah, I have the Search Skill so I"ll be fine along! The forest is dangerous at night, after all!"
"U,understood! I"ll leave it to you!"
This will go on for a while, so a break is necessary.
It"s better to let the elderly Riddle control the employees" pace.
I lowered my shoulders, stretched my Achilles tendon for flexibility, lightly slapped my cheeks, and headed off to the forest.
It"s a night with strong wind so there aren"t any onlookers; I"ll go by shortest distance. In other words, I"m going to leap from roof to roof.
When I entered the forest, I flicked away all the annoying monsters. I"m tired, so I"m not going to fight each and every one of them.
When I found the field of flowers, I randomly stuffed them into the item bag.
I didn"t take all of them; for the future, let"s leave about 30%.
Just 70% is a decent amount.
It"s suspicious if they"re all in the item bag, so I"m carrying an armful.
Returning to the governmental office, I hurried to the bas.e.m.e.nt and brought out all of the flowers in my item bag.
Thankfully, there was no one in the bas.e.m.e.nt.
Everyone"s on the first floor eating sandwiches and hotdogs and the like.
"Naoki-dono! Hou-! You got that many! Your work is fast as always. Naoki-dono"s dinner has also been prepared!"
Riddle poked his head down the stairs and called out to me.
"I"m coming now! My stomach"s empty."
I rubbed my stomach as I ascended the stairs.
The employees seem to be having a good time as they stuffed their faces with sandwiches and hotdogs.
Humans really have to eat to have energy.
The sandwiches have a spicy anchovy-like fish in them; the food culture is advanced.
"Is it alright for me to eat this much?"
I asked the employee next to me.
"It"s fine! It"s thanks to you, from the extermination company, after all. I was thinking we just might have to skip dinner, but you realized it quick!"
"There weren"t many people who could bring it up to someone from the Blacks House…"
"Our foreman is the type that insists on food being delicious!"
"He seems happy to be able to partic.i.p.ate. Look."
The employees pointed to the ap.r.o.n-wearing oji-san with the balding combover they call the foreman.
He"s certainly smiling, while swaying his body back and forth.
"He looks like that, but he was the owner of a popular eatery."
"Heeh, I didn"t know that. What was the place?" (not Naoki)
"Have you heard of it? Gacholibre."
"E!? That place was the foreman"s shop!?"
Dinner was fun and cheerful, and we could forget about the locust hoppers for a while.
In that kind of atmosphere, Jerry entered the governmental office along with some priests, and the employees" conversations suddenly stopped.
Jerry was yelling in the entrance, telling Riddle something.
"Are they arguing?"
I quietly asked the employee next to me.
"It seems like we"ve asked the priests at the Church to be the healers, but the adventurers aren"t cooperating."
Oh yeah, the Church and the Adventurers Guild aren"t on good terms.
"Are they not cooperating because they aren"t on good terms with them?"
"No, I don"t know that much about it, but…"
I stuffed a hotdog in my mouth and headed to the entrance.
"You intend to be a leader with those objections!? Fool! Listen well! This isn"t a matter of your pride, nor the pride of the Blacks House! Right now, when we need everyone"s cooperation, the reason we can"t gather collaborators is because of your incapability! Before you get mad, reflect on yourself!"
A blue vein throbs on Riddle"s temple as he yelled at his younger brother.
"Enough-! I myself will go to the Adventurers Guild directly."
"But those guys, they"re cowards so … it"s impossible…"
Jerry said, with his eyebrows in the shape of "ハ".
"I"ll go talk to them. If you can"t push them, let"s try pulling. If coming at them from the top is also useless, I"ll talk to them from below. For what it"s worth, I"m an F Rank Adventurer. Can you boil the flowers in the bas.e.m.e.nt?"
"Naoki-dono… however!"
""Scuse me-! Anyone who"s free and finished eating, please go boil flowers in the bas.e.m.e.nt-!"
I called to the employees.
"Rogers-!"
"Got it-!"
"Going now-!"
The employees reacted right away, so I took masks out of the item bag.
"The smell is pretty bad so it might be better to use these. Sorry, that"s all I have."
"Aa, it"s fine, it"s fine. If it"s something like this, we have guys who can make them."
An employee who took a mask from me said.
"Thank you very much. I"m headed out for a bit."
""Kay, we just have to simmer them?"
"Yah, it"s fine even if there"s not a lot of water. The moment it turns dark green, stop the fire. There"s a wind magic circle on the wall, so if there"s anyone with magic power left over, please use it as you please."
"Oi oi, you can draw magic circles?"
A, shoot.
"Just easy ones. From before, at a school."
"I see."
It was a random excuse, but the employee accepted it and took the other employees to the bas.e.m.e.nt.
"Oh, President!"
One of the priests Jerry brought called out to me.
"A, h.e.l.lo."
The priest from when we did the masmascarl extermination was among the priests from the Church.
"Blacks-san, if President"s company is involved, there"s no need to worry about recovery potions!"
"Haha… although I need ingredients…"
Are you serious? I"ll be making recovery potions too?
My work keeps increasing.
"It"s okay! If it"s just the ingredients, I brought a lot!"
They took herbs out from the priests" sling bags and showed me.
"I understand… but later. Then, I"m off."
"Naoki-dono… just what are you…!"
Leaving behind the startled Riddle, I leapt out of the governmental office.