Author: Kaburagi Haruka

Translator: s.h.i.+roiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

Chapter 26: Livelihood

Translated by Soyokaze Translations: soyokazetranslation . Com

The next day we visited the guild. For the purpose of finding a house to be our base of operations, and requests.

Among the ones we were shown, we had our eyes on a single house on the outskirts of the city.

We were guided by the guild receptionist to inspect the place, but…

"It's a bit far from the academy, but the terms aren't bad. The price though—"

"Eight-hundred gold coins, definitely over our budget."

"However, this is the very lowest we could trim the price on our end."

"Could you please bring it down to like five hundred?"

"I would be able to make it a bit cheaper as a rental…"

"We're actually considering some renovations, so renting would be a bit problematic."

Earning the three-hundred gold difference through requests is going to take a bit too much time.

Plus there's one more problem… the public safety in the area isn't very good.

Since the property is on the outskirts of town, security patrols don't happen often, and if monsters attack, the area would see immediate damage.

"I do have some experience working as a healer. Could the guild maybe hire me and give us a loan for that?"

"I can really decide that at my own discretion…"

"Guess that figures."

The maximum amount that Master can spend freely is five-hundred gold coins.

"Master Rimuru, if you'd like I can…"

"No, it's fine. Would it be possible to rent it for now and purchase it later?"

"Might be an exercise in futility, but it's possible. It would be three-hundred silver coins—three gold a month though."

It would seem Master feels some aversion to the idea of borrowing money from me.

Even though he was willing to use all the stuff in my "Dimensional Storage" when we first met.

Except I know now that he was still running wild from the exhilaration of his first steps into the taboo slave trade right then.

In any case, the standard market price for red rank requests, like finding medicinal herbs and material gathering, is about thirty silver coins. If we complete ten of those a month, then we can pay it off. When factoring in living expenses, twenty of them should let us break even.

But if we're considering purchasing it, then we need to acc.u.mulate more for savings. Quite a bit more at that.

"We're gonna have to go pull up herb every day, huh~"

Yig lightheartedly tosses her impressions in… but if push comes to shove, I'm pulling her scales off and selling them.

In reality we have a number of ways to earn funds.

We could sell my, or Yig's scales, or we could get rid of the treasures I took from that bas.e.m.e.nt. Eight-hundred gold coins is a sum comparable to four years of an ordinary citizen's annual income, but not so much we can't offer it.

But with how fussy Master is being, even though he got us caught up in this at his own convenience, there's the problem of him not wanting to get our a.s.sistance.

I've gotta wonder where that stubbornness of when he asked, "what do you have in your "Dimensional Storage"?" when we first met went.

His readiness to take the first steps into the slave trade and forbidden research must have gotten him in a bit of a rampage, huh?

"For now, I don't want to let this property pa.s.s by, so could we get a contract to rent it? I'll consider a purchase at a later time."

"Yes, understood."

"Also, I'd like to have these two register as adventurers when we get back."

"Huh?!"

Me and Yig both raise our voices in surprise.

"What are you so surprised about? You're not a slave anymore, Eir, so you can register as an adventurer now."

"Well yeah, but…"

"So if you become an adventurer too, that'll be convenient for us in a lot of ways. The same for Yig."

"Wha~, sounds like a pain."

"Just walking around with you feels like it'll cause problems, so get it out of the way."

True enough, considering she's among the beasts considered "walking disasters," and one of the strongest among them at that, difficulties are likely to abound.

"These two…? Well, at this guild we do register some young girls who want to earn some spending money, but I think they might bit a bit too young to…"

"Ah, in spite of appearances, they're actually older than me."

"Eh? Is that so?"

"I'm a year older."

"Let's see, I'm—"

"You don't need to say it."

Hearing Yig's age would just upset things. Though with the elves, there might be some even older than Yig.

"Then there should be no problem. We will process it when we get back to the guild."

"Yes, please do."

With Master putting in the final word, it turns out I'm going to be an adventurer… Well, I planned on becoming one sooner or later, so there's really no problem with that.

Translated by Soyokaze Translations: soyokazetranslation . Com

As is usual, the guild was overflowing with hard-faced men. There aren't as many as in Sokaris though, and they don't seem to have the same quality.

About half of them are are a step short of being rogues, a quarter of them seem fresh out of the gate, and a quarter are children who seem to be here earning pocket change.

I guess the very few remaining are the skilled ones?

"So then, this is the request for gathering medicinal herbs. The items in question are materials for making recovery potions; twenty ceras leaves. The adventurer test is twenty goji berries, used for antidotes."

"So forty berries for both of them?"

"That's correct. The time limit is within three days. Deep in the forest is elf territory, so be careful not to over-gather."

"Will it be problematic if we step into their territory?"

"I'm afraid so. But there are signs posted, so it's unlikely you would mistakenly stumble in there. Plus they may be accommodating if you mention you're taking a test for the guild."

"No worries then."

"Are you familiar with the appearance of ceras leaves and goji berries?"

"Yeah, I've studied a bit of pharmacology. I'll instruct these two on it."

"Understood. Best of luck."

With the mention of elves, that reminds me it's Haumea's hometown. There's a part of me that wants to go peek in there sometime.

With each of our quests in hand, we were going to leave the guild, but then we stopped upon seeing some familiar faces.

Standing in front of the bulletin board with a bitter face is Kevin. Amy is with him. How unusual.

"Well if it isn't Kevin. What's up?"

"Ah, listen to this, Rimuru! Y'see, Kevin, he—"

"Don't tell him—!"

In this rare instance, Amy is the one who holds the initiative. This is also kind of unusual.

"What? What happened?"

"Since he's got a higher rank than he can handle, there's no jobs he can take now."

"Aaah…"

If I recall correctly, Kevin already has blue rank, proof of being first-cla.s.s. All he's done up to now is transport lumber, find medicinal herbs, and at most fight against goblins. Suddenly taking on blue rank monster slaying quests is a bit heavy of a load, huh?

"Lately the blue requests coming in are for griffons, hippogryphs, and other mythical beasts. I can't handle 'em, so they aren't really jobs, but I've got living expenses, and my savings…"

"Lately I've been treating him to meals!"

"d.a.m.n it all, why's this happening to me…?"

"That's gonna weigh on me a bit, huh? Hrm…"

Master takes a look at the bulletin board, pulls down a request form, and hands it to Kevin.

"Take this one. Our jobs happen to be taking us to this area, so we can help you out."

"Eh? You'll do that? Wait, komodo drake slaying?!"

Komodo drakes are large three meter long lizards. They're basically a subspecies of dragons, and they breathe fire. Tough stuff.

The nest of the head lizard among them was apparently found, and and an extermination request came in.

Komodo drakes build pretty big nests, so there's most likely around ten of those gigantic beasts to face off against.

It's the kind of request where a few blue rank parties would band together to deal with.

"In exchange, how about an equal split of the reward?"

"Ah, then I'll bite too. No worries if Eir and friends are coming along."

"Ain't it gonna be a bit tough with just us?"

"With Eir and Yig here?"

"… Good point."

The reward for exterminating the komodo drakes is one hundred gold coins. If it's a small hamlet giving this out, then that's a pretty large reward for eliminating some magic beasts.

But with the Yig, the highest rank of dragon species here, this'll be an amazingly simple job. Knowing that, Kevin headed to accept the request while humming a tune.

Seeing him like that, the surrounding adventurers are abuzz.

"Hey, they say the "Disaster Beast Slayer" is going on a komodo drake extermination."

"And he's on his own? Ain't he gonna die this time?"

"Who knows? I heard he fought off the demon dragon, Fafnir."

"Seriously?! He's not even human anymore."

"That isn't even half of it. Looks like he's doubling this as a lecture for some newbies."

"He plans on protecting some amateurs while fighting back a group of magic beasts…? He's gotta be insane."

Master was seemingly being thoughtful, but it kinda looks like it's having the opposite effect…

When Kevin met back up with us in a good mood, this time some men with stern looks on their faces came over to talk.

A three person team with decent equipment. Seems like they've got some experience.

"Yo, "Disaster Beast Slayer". How about teaming up with us instead of those amateurs?"

"Yeah, yeah, we'd be way more helpful than some reds like them."

"Not like they've got any strength anyway. You reds should b.u.t.t ou—geho?!"

At that point Yig sunk her right leg into one of the men.

The man is sent flying, practically horizontally, by the force of the kick, and then busts through the wooden wall, disappearing into the next room over.

"Wha?! You—"

Taken aback by the sudden tragedy, by the time the men came to their senses and put their hands to their weapons, this time I exploded into them with the left of my body.

With a force to match Yig's, I sent him through the door and into the street.

Dealing with opponents like this is annoying, but being followed around by them is even more annoying.

Seeing this, after lightly grabbing his head, Master opens his mouth to smooth things over.

"Attempting to curry favor with the "Disaster Beast Slaying Hero," Sir Kevin with so little strength is preposterous. Try again when you can at least win against Yig here. Sir Kevin is several times more powerful than we are!"

Hearing Master's declaration, the guild goes even more abuzz.

"Seriously…? Those guys they just sent flying were yellow rank, right?!"

"The kid who took 'em down with a kick is amazing, but several times that?"

"Humans aren't supposed to fly like that. Who the h.e.l.l are they…?"

With the guild in amazement, Master presses the attack.

"Kukuku, Yig here is the very weakest among us…"

"Chief—big sis Eir beat me black and blue before~"

"Wh-what…?!"

"She does look like the youngest… but then, just how powerful are the others… no, how powerful is the "Disaster Beast Slayer" then?"

"It's pointless… We can't possibly tag along with them."

"Yeah, if we did any work with them, it'd be like charging into a dragon's nest."

"Better not get close to them."

"Yeah, as a fundamental rule of life…"

With the rumors running even more out of control, Kevin drops his shoulders in despair.

I put a hand on his shoulder…

"Forever alone. Congratulations?"

"Shaddup!"

Master turned his eyes on the one remaining man, and spoke.

"Well then… Still wanna go? Should you insist on further bothering us, next the strongest of us, the big four, Lady Amy will take you on."

"Eh? Uwha?! He-, Rimuru?!"

"W-wait, I'll back off! I'm walking away, just let me go! It was just a little impulse!"

"So she's the strongest?"

"She does look like the oldest."

"Haven't seen her around before."

"She came in here about two weeks ago. Pretty sure she came in with Kevin…"

"Ah, makes sense. That's why she doesn't look familiar."

In a place separate from where Amy is panicking, Master's whopper of a tale becomes unstoppable.

"Her magic can destroy mountains. Did you think the destroyed area in the eastern plains was caused by a single Fafnir?"

"Th-that's true… here and there across the plains, there's craters…"

"Even for a disaster beast, I don't think a single beast did all that."

"She's the one who did it?"

"Really glad I didn't try to hit on her."

"You've got some guts. If you did that, you'd probably be put out to dry right not."

"Yeah, I sure am lucky…"

"H-help meeee!"

The last man desperately fled, as if he had just encountered a dragon.

Seeing this, the male adventurers all draw away. Amy looks grief-stricken.

"Ah, aahhhh…"

"Forever alone number two?"

"Waaaaaaahhh!"

Translated by Soyokaze Translations: soyokazetranslation . Com

Master's boasting seems to cause damage to his surroundings. I'll have to be careful too.

Author's Note: With Eir being freed, there's a discrepancy with the t.i.tle. Wonder if I should change that?

Translator's Note: The t.i.tle was not changed.