Unlike Friede who preferred subjugation requests, Amy, true to her magician nature, mostly favored new dungeon reconnaissance requests.
The average reward for reconnaissance requests was only about 40-50% of subjugation requests, but when scouting newly formed dungeons, there was a very rare chance of finding side income like grimoires or magical items.
Once you find such things, you can usually earn several times the reward. In other words, she was dreaming of striking it rich.
“…Looks like we drew a blank this time too.”
Of course, our party had not yet encountered such luck.
In fact, it’s only natural. How could it be possible to hit the jackpot with just three reconnaissance requests? There’s a limit even to shameless expectations.
“Shouldn’t something start showing up soon? It’s all been nothing but scraps.”
Of course, adventurers are a profession that leaves conscience behind in their hometown. And magicians are a profession that sells their conscience to magic.
For our Amy, who was both an adventurer and a magician, the word conscience was like a bluebird beyond the rainbow bridge.
It has a concept but doesn’t actually exist, in other words.
“Still, the side income from this job is pretty good, isn’t it? We got as many as ten gargoyle cores. Just selling these should be enough for our efforts.”
I hadn’t expected to strike it rich in the first place, so I was satisfied with this modest side income while extracting the cores from the gargoyle fragments I had smashed with my fists.
“Ex-expecting treasures after just th-three times… that’s… thief’s mentality, I think…”
Friede nodded as if agreeing. While brushing off the stone dust covering the greatsword she had newly acquired.
As soon as she received the 50 silver from the last request’s reward, she went straight to the blacksmith and ordered a new black iron greatsword.
A lump of iron that looked twice as sturdy as her previous weapon, with increased thickness.
It seems she was secretly frustrated that her previous greatsword had broken after blocking Belita’s attacks only a few times.
“Well, thief’s mentality? Isn’t that a bit harsh? It’s not like I’m the only one who’d benefit.”
Amy chuckled and grumbled.
She wasn’t really angry, it was more like the kind of joking argument friends often have.
They say familiarity breeds affection?
Even Friede and Amy, who initially couldn’t stand each other, seemed to have grown somewhat closer now, probably thanks to handling various requests together.
While they might not talk to each other if left alone, when I was between them, they could at least chat casually.
A relationship closer than strangers but with some distance to be called friends. That’s exactly how their current relationship could be described.
“Kachak…! Easy request, low profit! World principle like that!”
Kikel laughed while smoothly twirling the explosion lance.
Saying if we really wanted to strike it rich, shouldn’t we challenge high-difficulty requests?
It was a fair point, but the speaker was the problem. Kikel, like me, had his right to choose requests revoked.
When asked to pick requests to take on, he kept trying to select the highest difficulty requests among those posted by the guild.
Like subjugation requests for cave trolls entrenched in mid-level dungeons.
While I and Friede might be able to somehow resolve it if we try our best, they were requests where we’d certainly have a hard time if things went even slightly wrong.
Since every request he brought as a recommendation was like that, the three of us, excluding Kikel, decided to revoke his right to choose requests after a brief discussion.
For the reason that we’re doing this to make a living, so there’s no need to push ourselves unnecessarily.
Kikel tried to argue against this with the general principle that one can’t become strong if they fear danger, but when Amy retorted asking if he’d resurrect as undead and become strong if he died, he had no choice but to quietly accept.
Amy’s opinion was clearly more persuasive to anyone. To the extent that if you called a hundred adventurers and asked them to choose, they would all agree with Amy.
Anyway, for these reasons, our party spent busy days performing requests chosen by Friede and Amy.
As we focused on work like this, we gradually started to build up a somewhat positive reputation.
Unlike in my case where every job I took ended up tangled, the requests chosen by these two were repeatedly resolved very smoothly.
An ordinary adventurer’s daily life.
Days of pastoral subjugation continuing one after another.
Almost forty days passed like that.
* * *
“Hi-Hilde, um… have you heard the rumor?”
At the Snow Bear’s Shelter. Friede, who was lying on the sofa using my thigh as a pillow, suddenly brought up an odd topic.
“What rumor?”
I asked back while lightly sipping a glass of Riesling wine I had bought last year.
I wasn’t actually fond of alcohol, but this wine had a slightly sweet apple scent that stuck to my palate more than expected. Maybe it’s because it was a drink Brunhilde preferred?
“Um… something that happened at some kind of mine? Apparently, the owner used monsters to kill his father and inherit the property.”
Oh, um… that sounds like a story I’ve heard somewhere before.
“Those monsters, were they perhaps giant spiders?”
“Uh… I’m not sure? I don’t know about that part.”
Friede shook her head slightly saying she didn’t know about that, and continued what she was saying.
“Anyway, he was caught by the church, so the mine owner was beheaded and the mine was transferred to church ownership…”
It seems to be the story of the mine where I had taken on a subjugation request before.
The spider cave I cleared with Kikel, Laute, and useless chimpanze. The one where a vengeful spirit spider popped out at the end and we nearly died.
“…Well, that’s not the important part, apparently a mid-level dungeon was newly discovered underneath it.”
“Oh, really?”
A mid-level dungeon. Was there such a thing under the mine shaft? No wonder a monster like a vengeful spirit spider popped out.
If it had been an ordinary mine, the previous village chief probably would have just died without resurrecting, but because there happened to be a dungeon nearby, he was influenced by it and resurrected as a vengeful spirit spider.
From the mine owner’s perspective, it was like being struck by lightning.
If there had been no dungeon, a perfect crime would have been possible, but because of the vengeful spirit spider created by the dungeon, circumstantial evidence remained and he was eventually caught.
In that sense, should we call it divine punishment rather than lightning? I wondered if this is when you’d use the idiom ‘what goes around comes around.’
“So, you want to go there?”
“Ah, no. That’s not it. Um, there’s nothing to see even if we go. Since it’s the church’s mine now, the paladins probably cleared it already.”
“I guess you’re right.”
Since a dungeon popped up under the church’s asset, whatever was in there has likely already been cleaned out by the church.
“By the way… are you planning to keep lying down like this? It’s almost midnight. Shouldn’t we go back and sleep?”
I changed the topic as I put down my empty wine glass.
Amy and Kikel were busy for various reasons, so we were just having a light drink, the two of us, but unless we were planning to go until dawn, it was about time we should go to sleep.
In the first place, Friede had just lain down next to me saying she felt tired and dizzy after a few drinks.
“Th-that, ah, um, well…”
However, instead of returning to her room, Friede fidgeted with her hands pressed together and trailed off.
With a face that said she had something she needed to say but found it difficult to bring up.
“What’s wrong?”
“Uuuh, th-that is… I’ve spent all my money… so I can’t pay for the inn…”
Wait, Friede, what are you saying?
It was such a surprising statement that the drink I was sipping almost got stuck in my throat.
As shocking as a parent seeing a phone bill of 2-3 million won for their child who just became a high school student.
“You spent all that money? What on earth were you doing?”
Did she lose it gambling? No, that doesn’t seem like something Friede would do, then what…
“Ugh, w-well, um… I thought I could earn more next time, so when I was changing my equipment to new ones…”
She had completely depleted her assets enjoying the thrill of upgrading her weapons and armor to high-grade ones.
“Oh, I see…?”
It was an answer that was hard to argue with. For adventurers, going broke while fitting out equipment is an extremely common occurrence.
Still, they usually leave at least enough for food and lodging expenses, but seeing that she didn’t calculate for that, she must have been completely absorbed in the joy of spending money.
“Haah… even so, you should have been a bit more careful.”
I sighed lightly while patting the shoulder of Friede, who was making a face like a puppy that had caused mischief.
“Alright, I understand. So you just need me to pay for you this time, right?”
Well, I was surprised, but it wasn’t particularly a problem. A few days’ worth of inn fees was something I could easily lend from my own pocket.
“Ah, no! You don’t need to do that! Um, we’re going to work again tomorrow anyway, right? I can pay the inn fee with that reward, so I just need a place to sleep tonight!”
Seeing me sigh and start to take out my money pouch, Friede suddenly sat up and shook her head hurriedly.
“Well, where are you planning to sleep without money? Amy’s room is empty, but we can’t just go in there and spend the night without permission.”
That wouldn’t be polite. Besides, the door would probably be locked anyway.
“Th-th-that, um, Hilde?”
“Hm?”
“Um, if you could let me stay in your room just for tonight…”
Friede, who had been mumbling, firmly grasped my hand with both of hers and looked up at me as she spoke. Asking if she could stay here just for tonight.
She had a face like a puppy abandoned on the roadside on a rainy day.
“Here?”
“Yes! Ah, I mean. Is that… not okay?”
Ah, so that’s what it was.
The answer that my slightly floating head, perhaps due to the alcohol, came up with. I finally understood Friede’s intention.
Borrowing money from an acquaintance because you have no inn fee is an incompetent, shameless, and pathetic act, but staying overnight at a friend’s place is a very ordinary and everyday occurrence.
That’s why Friede chose the latter. Because it’s at least a little less embarrassing.
The idea itself is full of childish naivety. It’s cute, though.
“Alright. I guess one day won’t matter.”
“Ah…! Yes! Thank you, Hilde!”
“No need to thank me. It’s not a big deal.”
So I nodded willingly. It was a request I had no particular reason to refuse, given that we weren’t strangers.
We always slept together outside anyway.
“Then… I’ll sleep here, so you take the bed, Friede.”
After finishing that conversation, I refilled my glass by tilting the wine bottle and pointed to the small bed against the wall.
I’ll finish this bottle and sleep on the sofa, so you borrow the bed for a day.
It was a natural suggestion from my perspective. No, any Korean would have done the same.
They say in some northern country they don’t even feed their friends, but in Korea, when you invite a friend to your home, it’s natural to lend them the bed and sleep on the floor or sofa yourself.
Of course, this usually only applies to same-sex friends… but come to think of it, I’m the same gender as Friede now, right?
So it was right for me to sleep on the sofa.
“Ah, um, no… that’s too much…”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m doing this because I’d be uncomfortable otherwise. If I let you sleep here and I sleep on the bed, I’d feel a bit uneasy and probably wouldn’t be able to sleep deeply.”
Friede tried to refuse my suggestion and said she would sleep on the sofa, but for me, that was even more uncomfortable.
Honestly, if I think about it coldly, there’s no reason to feel guilty or uncomfortable… but human feelings don’t sort themselves out so neatly, you know?
For someone born in a country with the custom of letting friends sleep on the bed, it felt very awkward to have a girl who looked four years younger lie on the sofa while I slept comfortably on the bed.
“Th-then, um, together! Couldn’t we sleep together…?”
Of course, this was just my stubbornness, so Friede couldn’t readily agree and came up with a new suggestion, but…
“It’s too narrow.”
“…Oh.”
My single word that the bed was too narrow for two people to sleep on sank her suggestion immediately.
While we might have managed to sleep in tangled positions when dead drunk, we couldn’t do that sober, could we?
The bed in this room was a bit too narrow to sleep comfortably in a relaxed position without sticking closely together.
So, in the end, this was the best solution.
It would look a bit strange to change into comfortable pajamas and sleep in a position where we’re stuck closely together.
Real girls might be able to sleep like that just fine, but for me at least, it would be somewhat embarrassing to try to sleep in that state.