Oh my…  Let the slew of releases begin ?

-Enjoy!

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TL: SpecterZe

Ed: Torianna

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Chapter 17 

 

The power of Life and Death is now LV4.

New abilities have been unlocked.

<Give and Take LV4>

Range is increased to 10m.

<Give and Take> has leveled up again. This time, it simply strengthened. It became easier to use than just within a 2m radius.

Sakura and others return while I’m thinking about the new skill. For now, I will put Saladin’s corpse in <Inventory>. It might have something I can use. Like <Necromancy>.

[Thanks for your good work. Were you injured?]

Sakura is worried when she asks me. I have several injuries, but most are just scratches, and they can be healed with <HP Regenerate>. I think he was too confident to use poison to fight me.

[I’m fine. Most of them have healed already.]

I can see in her face that she was relieved when she heard my answer.

[Master is great, after all. I didn’t even think you could have such a landslide victory against an S-rank adventurer.]

[As expected from Jin-sama. It was a wonderful fight. After seeing your brave appearance in the middle of the fight, I… I…]

Mio and Maria approach me with sparkling eyes. However, what’s wrong with Maria’s head…?

I start talking while returning their abilities.

[I will put Saladin’s corpse in <Inventory> for now. Because he was an S-rank adventurer, I can’t leave his corpse lying around.]

Burning or burial are proper methods of disposal, but I won’t go that far for an enemy assassin. Because his corpse might be useful as I said a little while ago, I will let it rot inside <Inventory>.

[I don’t know what we should do with this butler, but a missing S-rank adventurer is a serious matter.]

[You are right. Although it might not be a crime, it could still cause a problem or become troublesome.]

Mio said it isn’t a crime, but I still think it’s a crime. Even so, I think it was a right thing to do.

I don’t know what that curling hair woman would do if she knew I killed Sebastian. Even if she used the lowest authority, it would be enough to cause me to be found guilty. So… I don’t plan to let her know!

[Since I killed Sebastian, things could get to be troublesome. So, we should keep it a secret — at least until we leave this country.]

[You are right. Besides, I don’t want to stay in this country any longer, so let’s leave this country quickly as possible.]

Sakura says this with such a serious face. I hate this country, too, but it seems she hates this country more than I do.

Of course, it is natural. Since I have special powers, I could survive, but Sakura doesn’t, and she was left for dead, too!

[Yeah, I agree, but there is something that must be done first. Let’s return to town for now.]

[Return to town? Shouldn’t we avoid that kind of trouble?]

Maria is worried, too. It would be the same as getting into trouble if we were to return to the town where that curling hair woman is.

[I know, but there is something that needs to be done. Is distinction necessary?]

When I say that, everybody seems to understand. Mio approaches me and apologizes.

[M-Master… Distinction is okay, but being a wanted person is a little…]

Mio seems to misunderstand. I don’t want to return to that town, even a little…

Since Mio has trauma with crime, the hurdle of be a wanted person must be high.

[Don’t worry. I have no intention of committing a crime.]

[… That’s good.]

Mio feels a little relieved. Then she looks up at me.

[…Mio, don’t you know? It will be a crime if someone found out. And do you think the special power that is outside the rule of this world won’t be known either?]

Mio’s face turns pale, and she shakes her head strongly

[And it will be a crime if it was found out…]

[Do you understand want I mean?]

She becomes docile immediately.

My targets are the curling hair woman and that gatekeeper. Only two people for now. I don’t want to do any more than that.

[I think we should buy a carriage in town.]

[A carriage? That’s a good idea. Although we have a lot of status, I don’t think walking for a long distance will be easy.]

Oh, Sakura-san. You should’ve said that sooner, so we could’ve traveled by carriage from the start.

[Please leave the driver’s seat to me. I will act as Master’s feet.]

It should be a horse instead of her. I don’t think it’s right to say that unless Maria gives me a piggy back ride. But… A twelve-year-old girl carrying a seventeen-year-old boy. That is just too brutal!

[Okay, I will leave it to you, Maria.]

[Yes, sir!]

Once our plan was decided, we return to the town. We recover all of the throwing weapons as well as the weapons that were stored by Sebastian.

For <Space Magic>, “Storage” will scatter all items inside when the user is dead, and the item box will do the same when it is damaged to a certain degree. When Sebastian died, the items he stored will drop like loot.

And as expected from an S-ranked adventurer, all of them are of high quality.

It is trivial to talk about <Inventory> because it can be set in case I die…

We reach the town thirty minutes later, and it is the same as when we left. The gatekeeper is still the same person. He asks why we have come back, so I reply with “I left something behind”.

The gatekeeper in question also returned to work, but his face turned blue. He ran away when he noticed me.

Small fry… He isn’t worth my time.

[That person is going somewhere again… Fire him already.]

I tell the gatekeeper who is stunned. That’s all. For normal jobs, you would be fired if you slacked off two times in a row, but I don’t think I have to worry.

[H-He fell down. That idiot. Why was he in such a hurry?]

In his case, I don’t think it could be helped. Because his movement suddenly slowed, it’s normal for him to lose his balance and fall down.

[Eh… He’s not getting up…]

A huge uproar commences. A young man approaches the gatekeeper who hasn’t stood up yet.

[H-He is……dead.]

One down.

Do you want to hear the details? I took all of his ability with <Give&Take> LV4 while he was running away. As a result, his HP was only one point before he fell. How much damage was caused when he fell down? Well… You can see the result.

We leave that place when the uproar became bigger.

We go to the hotel and ask for meals and a one-night stay until morning. Nothing is said after seeing us return suddenly, and we are given the same room we had before.

[What now? Do you plan to make a purchase now? To be honest, I want to travel in a carriage, too. I was going to request that Master purchase one before we leave this town, but as expected, this isn’t something cheap enough for a slave to ask a master to buy.]

Mio said with sparkling eyes. I already told her to say anything she wanted. Let’s leave it for now.

Q : Is it common to travel with a carriage?

A : Common. It is the main form of transportation. For travelers→Carriage or Walk. Merchants→Carriage, for sure. Adventurers→Mostly walk.

That doesn’t seem to be a problem, but I can’t help but be overcautious.

I will go purchase one now. Since I don’t know the quality of carriage, we should choose it together.

I hear from hotel’s personnel that carriages aren’t sell here, but they’re sold at a ranch on the outskirts of town.

The ranch is quite big, and it has about fifty horses. Since we don’t have much time, we all agree to choose a pre-made one instead of one that is custom-made.

I tell the rancher my purpose, and then I let him select and introduce me to a horse. I have Mio and Dora looking for horses, and Sakura and Maria looking for a carriage.

But I make a miscalculation about choosing a horse. It seems that most of the horses fear Dora.

[I’m sorry. They are usually docile, but they seem to afraid of something……]

The rancher apologizes. Well, it should be us who say that since it was our fault.

Although Dora looks like a normal person, she is still a dragon. As a herbivorous beast, she’s at the top of the food chain, so it can’t be help for them to be trembling in fear.

So l put “Horse that has nerves of steel and doesn’t fear Dora” as condition for Mio’s team to choose. Only ten percent of all the horses met this requirement, so it only takes a few minutes for Mio and Dora to choose two of them.

[These horses. This one is totally fine with Dora. Nerves of steel. And this one can endure it somehow. A courageous one.]

Mio introduces them to me. They aren’t even afraid when Dora approaches them. They seems to be fine. It seems the other team has also finished their task of choosing a carriage.

It seems to have enough space for everyone to go inside. Including the horses and feed, the total cost is about 1,000,000 g. It is really cheap when compared to Japanese Yen.  However, the cost of living here is totally different,but I don’t really mind it.

Since we can’t take the horses and carriage to the hotel, we have to leave them at the ranch and come back to get them tomorrow morning. We return to the hotel.

[That’s right. I have something I need to do in a little while.]

I say this after we finish eating dinner and are about to take a bath.

“What did you forget? I can fetch it for you…]

[No, it is something only I can do.]

Mio is startled when she hears that.

[Don’t tell me Master is going to…]

[What’s wrong, Mio? Why did you make a strange face?]

[N-Nothing…]

Mio is strange. Well, Mio’s behavior is normally strange.

[I’m going now. It won’t take much time, so please take a bath before me.]

[Understood. Please take care since it is dark outside.]

[Please don’t worry and take care of your business.]

<<Have a safe trip.>>

I leave the hotel and decide to do what I was forgetting.

The second person.

The next morning, we have a visitor while we are eating our breakfast on the first floor. It is Anna-san, the guild’s receptionist.

[Good morning, everyone. I’m sorry for disturbing you this morning.]

[No, we don’t mind… Aside from that, why are you here?]

Is there something she needs? I might need to be a bit cautious.

[Yes. I just happened to see you enter this hotel by chance.]

I’m not sure if what she said is really a coincidence or not. Her expression is too vague, so I don’t know what she wants, even when I use <System Window>.

Then Anna-san cuts straight to the chase… to the main purpose of her business.

[Err, I have a request…]  

[What is it?]

[Yes. Would you mind showing your face at the guild? There is someone who want to repurchase, and guild leader wants to talk with you, too…]

[Uh… Could you give me more details?]

It seems these two requests are quite troublesome.

[First, the one who wants to repurchase is… a noble. Even if the repurchase period had ended, they would still want to do it… Since everyone has just returned, we couldn’t refuse them.]

The guild also has trouble, too. Those nobles (especially in this country) are hard to satisfy, after all. And the matter to this point has already caused me to reach my breaking point…

[As for the guild master, it seems he wants to talk with all of you… He didn’t tell me any details, either. If I’m not mistaken, I already told the guild master about the repurchase at yesterday’s evening…]

If it’s that curling hair woman who comes, then it will be about Saladin. It’s not strange for the guild master to be an acquaintance of hers since he was Saladin’s apprentice.

Yeah, I decide.

[I understand the story.]

[Then, we should…]

[I refuse to go to the guild.]

[Eh?]

Anna is shocked.

[Actually, I smell trouble. We plan to leave town this morning, and we don’t want to waste our time.]

I cut the conversation short. Repurchase? There is no need to help someone who repays my good intentions with betrayal. Anna-san is also a stubborn person, and I have no intention of getting involved with her any further.

[B-But…]

[Please return to the guild. We are going to leave now.]

I put on airs and refuse Anna-san. A troubled Anna-san looks to my companions for help. She is stubborn, after all. However, I already sent a telepathic message to them, saying “Refuse this no matter what”.

Even if I’m a party leader, there is nobody to object to my decision. It sounds like a dictator, but we don’t need to tell receptionist-san about this.

[Understood. Excuse me.]

Anna gives up and leaves the hotel.

In this manner, we stop the trouble Anna-san attempted to bring, and we go to get our carriage and leave this town.

The complete carriage is really splendid.

A tool for the horses to pull the carriage is installed and fine-tuned, according to the horses we bought. So I give the <Horse Riding> skill from Sebastian to Maria.

I look at the map, There is something I expected. There is someone named Joseph near the gate. I know he is the guild master.

[Maria, there is a guild master at the gate. Because he is looking for me, may I sit in the driver’s seat, too?]

[Yes. I don’t mind, but won’t that cause trouble?]

[Although I want to avoid as much trouble as I can, it seems we can escape it even if we take a detour. Avoid or drive them out is okay, but escape is no good. Besides, the guild master would reach the detour faster than us. In the worst case, we might need to fight him.]

[Is that so? Understood.]

As Maria spoke, she moves sideways and leaves a space just wide enough for me to sit in the driver’s seat, too. It seems I’m closer to Maria than I thought when I sat here.

We don’t have much time until we reach the gate.

[Maria, can I pat your ears?]

Boldly, I asked Maria. Her ears are really comfortable, so I want to pat them again when I have a chance.

Maria blushes and replies in low voice.

[Uh… If Jin-sama wants…]

[Then, I will pat you.]

So I immediately start touching, patting and rubbing Maria’s ears. …When I do that, Maria wriggles her body strangely several times. Why?

The guild leader who was waiting at the gate walks in front of our carriage when we approach the gate. Maria also notices this, so she stops the horses immediately.

The guild leader walks toward us.

[Could you get down from your carriage and talk with me for a moment?]

[What for? We’re in a hurry. Didn’t Anna-san tell the guild master that we refused?]

[I know. Since you refused “to go to the guild”, that’s why I came here by myself to talk.]

That is poor argument. Anna-san certainly requested us “to go to the guild”. We just refused “to go to the guild” not “talk with guild master”.

If I think about this calmly, we clearly refused Anna-san, but another party might just twist our words for his convenience.

[Then, let me say this: I refuse to talk to the guild master, and I will not get off the carriage again.]

[Ugh! You were friendly a few days ago, so why has your attitude suddenly become cold like this?]

I still had some “Good intentions” left at that time.

[I don’t have business in this town anymore. It will cause trouble if I stay here for a long time, so I want to leave.]

[Please don’t say that. I heard the story from Ojou-san, who made the first repurchase, that because of you guys Sala…Sebastian is gone. I need to talk with you about this. Since I own him some debt…]

[Who is Sebastian?]

I just feign ignorance. By the way, weren’t you just about to say Saladin, Guild Master?

[A butler who came with Ojou-san when she repurchased the first time. It seems she wants to repurchase something else, too.]

[Oh, that person. I don’t know what you mean when you said he is gone. Is there a reason for us to find Sebastian?]

I also took the trouble to return Sebastian-san.

[Ojou-san is missing after she told me about the details. So I intend to talk with you about that.]

[Please stop joking. Why do you want to hear the details from us about that? The order should be reversed.]

Geez, that curling hair woman has caused too much trouble. She had too much time to drag the guild master halfway into this, didn’t she?

[But aren’t you guys going to leave this town? I can’t talk to you if I don’t stop you here.]

[I don’t know about that.]

[Ugh!]

The guild master groans. And that curling hair woman doesn’t show up, no matter how much I look for her. Well, she is the the same place as Sebastian right now.

[Do you have proof or the authority to detain those of us who aren’t adventurers in this place?]

[Uh… No, I don’t.]

Of course, it’s natural. He has some influence if the other party is an adventurer, but we aren’t. I didn’t expect this to happen, but my judgement was correct. I’m glad I didn’t register for 500,000g.

[That’s right. However, there is one thing I want to ask you. Is that okay?]

[What is it?]

[To arm ourselves when we are outside of the town is not a bad idea, especially since there might be someone who shouts “Die!” and attacks us without warning, like bandits or assassins. Is there a problem with killing them?]

[No, if someone said that and rushed to attack, he would either be a bandit or an assassin. There isn’t a problem with killing them, either. Is that what you wanted to know?]

Since Sebastian didn’t introduce himself as assassin, he was a bandit. Well, either is fine.

[Did he have a strange sword, too?]

[Huh?! A-Ah…That’s right.]

Strange. His facial features completely changed.

[And did he call himself an S-ranked adventurer?]

[Uh… Yeah.]

Strange. His face looks like he’s resigned himself.

[Thank for your answer. You can go now…]

The guild master frowns silently.

Maria heard that and nods. Then she starts to move the carriage forward. The guild master also moves out of the way, too.

It is natural for people to gather because we caused an uproar near the gate. The curious onlookers just move out of the way when it ended. When I go through the gate, I hear some voices coming from behind.

[Master… Is it okay to say that…?]

Mio doubts are reasonable, too. I have a feeling I said too much, but I feel refreshed.

[Yeah, sorry everyone. The question about bandits and assassins at the end was unnecessary, but it made me feel refreshed. It was a good opportunity to relief myself of pent-up anger.]

Since this town is the last town in this country, I want to release it. Well, it is harder for the guild master to pursue us since he is weaker than Saladin….

[There is no complaining about what Jin-sama is doing. If there is an obstacle in the way, I will cut it down.]

<<Dora will do her best, too, because Master is fine doing something as you see fit.>>

Two people reply. Uh, they are good girls. I have to take good care of them. Almost all my stress is relieved when I pat them. Err? If Dora and Maria are any fluffier than this, won’t I do something bad to them?  I must stop this and save it for another time.

Oh! I took some skill from the guild master. I took his <Fighting Spirit LV4> because he wasted my time. Anything related to Saladin is troublesome, so I took <Fighting Spirit> that was taught by him to compensate it.

 

Joseph

LV45

…<Fighting Spirit LV4>

And that curling hair woman unexpectedly had a rare skill.

Elizabeth

…<Spirit Magic LV1> <Spirit Art LV1>

She might have been born with them, but she never used them, at all.

I’m happy when the opponents I fight have a rare skill because I don’t feel guilt when I take them.  Although I hate this country, it doesn’t mean I could steal from innocent people.

Uh… Let’s take care of ourselves when we reach the next country.

~fin Chapter 17 Carriage Purchase and Retribution

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