SIAW Vol. 2 Chapter 12
Chapter 12 – Don’t Say Another Word!
I was finally back at the inn.
The encounter with Gust had shaved more than half of my spiritual energy…
In stark contrast with my somber mood, Marissa seemed full of pep and energy.
“The Adventurers’ Guild sent a package for you!”
I looked at the stack; it was the paper I asked the guildmaster for.
Marissa continued, excited.
“And I heard that you really brought three Horn Rabbits! After the guinea fowl last time, I’m starting to feel bad, you’re too kind!”
Marissa really seemed in a bind.
I waved my hand and reassured her.
“Don’t worry about the rabbits. We delivered three guinea fowls to the guild today, and they gave us twenty golden coins for just that, so we’re doing more than fine, really.”
“Y-You caught more fowls!? You’re really something, Tenma…well, I’ll accept that for this time, but next time you come here, you’re going to stay the night for free!!”
I really didn’t think she should go that far, but I couldn’t turn down Marissa’s generosity.
“Thank you. I will be happy to take your kind offer then.”
I sincerely thanked Marissa, and she smiled happily.
“Oh, by the way, that Forest Wolf…dried meat? Do they make that at the village?”
“No, I processed that myself actually. It’s not dried, but smoked into jerky.”
“Jer..ky? I don’t think I understand…but it definitely goes great with drinks. I still can’t believe it comes from Forest Wolf meat!”
As expected, Marissa knows where it’s at!!
I grinned and explained in detail.
“If you take Forest Wolf meat, cut it in thin slices and smoke it, its original smell is subdued. The aroma and flavor both became pretty addictive, right? Anyway, I call that beef jerky.”
Marissa was listening intently. At the end, her eyes turned into those of a merchant’s, and she asked another question.
“Is it possible to buy this jerky thing? I’m ready to pay one silver coin for one.”
I never considered selling it, so I never thought about what price it could have. Moreover, selling it regularly would be a pain…
“Hmm…if you want, I can give you thirty pieces right now.”
Marissa’s whole face lit up.
“Thank you so much! They’re going to drink us empty tonight!”
I took out the thirty cuts of beef jerky from my Item Box.
I still had more than one hundred left: I thought I might give the rest to Caron, as a gift.
I was lost in such thoughts when Marissa handed me a golden coin.
I cocked my head.
“I said I’d give them to you, I don’t need any money.”
“That won’t do! I’m planning to sell them, so please accept it.”
I couldn’t refuse anymore, so I took the money. I then took out ten more pieces.
“Gust and his party are going to come here later, to eat dinner with us. Can you serve these then?”
“Really!? It’s been a while since he last came here! Leave it all to me, dear!”
Once the transaction was done, I told Marissa I was going to rest a little in my room and left.
～
Once inside my room, I opened the ALA and went inside, together with Misha.
Sil came up to us, all happy, so I fluffed him up a bit, for good measure.
Once my fluff satisfaction meter was charged up again, I took out a roasted Horn Rabbit.
“I’ll come again later, so you’ll have to make do with this for now.”
“(It’s not enough~~)”
I was going to leave ALA, ignoring Sil’s complaints, but Misha started charging up her own fluff meter this time.
I had no choice but to wait for her to finish. In the meantime, I took out some butchered Horn Rabbit meat and offal and served them to Sil.
After a while, Misha was satisfied, so we left ALA together.
We went back downstairs and found Gust and Marissa talking.
Marissa raised a hand to attract my attention and led us to a large table in the back end of the tavern.
There was plenty of space left even after we all sat down, but Gust and his party members were all big and bulky, so the air felt almost suffocating anyway. Gust himself especially stood out, as he was one size bigger and thicker than the rest of the party.
He then started talking to me, his massive muscles twitching at every word.
“So much stuff happened right after we met, that I never had the chance to introduce myself properly, didn’t I? Let me introduce you to my mates too.”
Gust and his team had probably come directly to the inn from the guild: they still smelled from sweat, monster flesh and blood. Honestly, it was pretty awful: I dreaded the idea of eating dinner like that.
I sighed.
“Sure, can I just Clear first?”
They were probably aware of the smell already: they smelled their arms and clothes, then looked at each other with a wry smile.
Misha grimaced too.
I used Clear on the group.
“Ah…sorry about that, man. We sorta came in a rush…”
So said Gust, in an awkward tone.
There was no point in talking about smells any longer, so I changed the topic.
“So, you’re going to introduce us to your mates?”
“Oh, yeah, right. This Tiger Beastman Is Goran, rank D. He uses a greatsword, like me.”
Goran’s physique was slightly smaller than Gust’s, but he was tightly covered in muscles all over. His face was just as tough too, with a scar across his left eye. Despite the rough appearance, however, his feline ears twitched in a pretty adorable way.
“Next is Kyril, he’s Humankin. He’s a twin sword user, rank D too. He’s going to Corbar for an escort mission soon, and will transfer to another party after that. Well, it’s pretty normal for adventurers.”
Kyril was roughly the same height as Goran, but was more of the thin yet muscular type. He had the most wholesome face of the bunch too. I felt a touch of melancholy in Gust’s final comment, but decided it was better to let it go.
“Last but not least is Lucas, rank E, our axe-using Wolf Beastman.”
Lucas was pretty macho too, right in the middle between Goran and Kyril. He looked pretty young.
That was Gust’s whole party, then.
Maybe they could do well enough in Ronda and surroundings, but they were all frontline positions. It wasn’t a well-balanced party at all.
Well, it would be weird for me to point out something like that, though…
It was our turn for introductions, I thought.
“I am Tenma, Humankin. I mainly use throwing weapons and my short sword.”
Misha spoke up next.
“Misha, Fox Beastkin.”
Ehm, Miss Misha? Couldn’t you spare some more information?
Just then, Marissa came to our table, carrying drinks and the jerky I gave her, cut in bite-sized pieces.
“Gust ordered ale for his group, but are you two good with fruit juice, Tenma?”
“Yes, at least for me. Misha, would you like to have something alcoholic instead?”
In this country there didn’t seem to be age restrictions for drinking.
Even so, children are not encouraged to drink before their coming of age ceremony.
I was physically fourteen years old, technically an adult already, but because of my past life memories, it still felt wrong to drink at this age.
I did binge on alcohol on the island, due to the stress caused by the seemingly never-ending training period, though…
“This is fine.”
Misha didn’t seem to be inclined to drink alcohol either.
After glasses were served to all members, Gust took the word again.
“Allow me to apologize to Tenma for the trouble the other day, and to welcome you two to this town, as fellow adventurers!!”
He then raised his glass high. I imitated him, and Gust’s party all downed their drinks. Misha and I were thirsty too, so we did the same.
When all glasses were back on the table, Marissa served us all new drinks.
Was this how people toasted in this world?
While I was pondering, Gust pointed to the jerky on the table.
“Hey Marissa, is the dried meat here on the house?”
“Actually, Tenma brought that. He asked me to serve it tonight.”
All eyes turned to me: I had no choice but to explain.
“I made this from Forest Wolf meat. It goes great with drinks, so I asked Marissa to serve some.”
Lucas, the Wolfkin, was going to take a bit of jerky, but his hands froze in midair. Everyone else stopped moving too. The smell is hard to overcome at first, after all…
I was just about to say that they should just try it, when I saw Luka enter the tavern together with another woman.
Our eyes met, and Luka smiled. She ordered two mugs of ale to Marissa, then quickly approached us.
“Gust, have you apologized properly to Tenma?”
“O-Of course I have!”
Luka, looking relieved, turned towards me.
“I’m really sorry for what Gust did. I gave him his proper punishment, so please forgive him, okay?”
“It’s all in the past, really. I won’t forgive him for having married you, though.”
“Hehehe! You sure know how to flatter a lady!”
I’m being serious here!!
I could have never said something so embarrassing in my past life. Did all the hard work I put in while training change my personality too? I honestly wasn’t sure myself.
“More importantly, did you receive the paper?”
“Yes, I did. Thank you for having it delivered. Is it okay for you to come here during work, though?”
“I had the early shift today, so I already finished working. The paper was delivered by her.”
Luka pointed to the woman next to her. I turned to her, and recognized the receptionist who took us to rank F exam grounds. She seemed to be around twenty years old, with an air of intellect to her. Her eyes were cut sharp, pretty lovely.
“Let me go ahead and say it: My name is Tina, I am a Deer Beastkin working in the guild. And I’m married to Goran over there!”
The deer was caught by the tiger!!
The second shock of the day almost made me fall to my knees.
People in this world became adults at fourteen, so maybe they married early too.
I still had my memories from my past life, so I thought I wanted to wait until I was twenty, at least. Not only for myself, but marrying someone fourteen or fifteen years old felt pretty criminal. They had to be at least eighteen, or I couldn’t come to terms with it.
Judging from the cases I had witnessed, though, waiting too long might mean all the prettiest ladies will get swept off the market…
I wonder if, somewhere in this world, a pretty lady just my type, over eighteen and single, was waiting for me?
Or were they all married already? Maybe a widow would be fine too…?
The hurdle was too steep for someone as inexperienced as me…
While I was engaged in such mental conundrums, Luka’s gaze moved to the table.
“By the way, what’s this?”
Before I could say anything, Luka took a bite of jerky.
Gust and the others all looked at her, surprised.
“This is delicious! Oh, Marissa, thank you so much!”
Marissa had just arrived with Luka’s drinks, so she promptly took a sip.
“And it’s fantastic with ale too!”
Tina too took a bite of jerky and drank her ale.
“I-It’s really good!!”
After seeing this, Gust and the others started eating too.
They too found it to their liking, as expected: they munched on jerky and downed ale at a good pace, eventually asking for seconds too.
They were going through their third mug of ale, when the main menu was served.
The table was now densely packed with Horn Rabbit skewers and other food best served with drinks.
Needless to say, the drinkers’ pace accelerated even more.
～
Around thirty minutes after the banquet began, I was talking with Gust about battle formations.
Misha had joined Luka’s side: before I noticed it, the group had split according to gender.
I was talking with Gust, but kept an ear on Misha’s conversation at the same time.
“So Misha, how are things going with Tenma?”
What are you going on about now, Miss Luka~~?
“Tenma is usually kind, but I was surprised when he first told me to drink that medicine…”
W-What is she saying now…?
“He told you to drink m-medicine!?”
Tina sounded shocked. Of course she would, Misha made it sound so suspicious!
“Yes, it made me feel all numb, I couldn’t move well.”
Er, she’s talking about training, okay? Miss Luka, don’t glare at me like that, please…
“Eh!? Don’t tell me he forced you to…”
Misha~~you’re giving them the wrong idea~~
“So many times…until I couldn’t move anymore…”
For the love of…!! Misha, don’t make the misunderstanding even worse…!!
“So many times!?!?!”
Miss Luka! Miss Tina! It’s not what it sounds like, I swear!!
So I thought, but I couldn’t just barge in on their conversation…
I kept observing the situation, when Misha finally delivered the coup de grace.
“At night, Tenma becomes just like an Ogre…”
“At night — !! Ogre — !!!”
Not only Luka and Tina, but also Gust, his party, Marissa and even random guests had started listening.
Misha’s voice resounded through the tavern.
She had not realized any of it though.
“He heals me if I get hurt, but then it all starts again…”
Even the guests started looking at me as if I was a pile of trash…
I couldn’t let Misha continue any more, so—
“Misha! Didn’t you promise you would keep the secret!?”
“Aah! I’m sorry! Please, don’t abandon me!!”
Now you’re making it sound even more wrong!! Just shut up!!!
What followed was a lengthy lecture by Luka and Marissa. All the while, I desperately convinced them that Misha was just talking about training.
Next to me, Misha was giddily munching on meat skewers: I could do nothing but glare at her, though.
