Jigglypuff's Diary

After passing through the gates, I returned Rai and the monster carriage back into the Dimension Home, then I began the tour.

We’ve just gone past through the gates of the facility. The place was quiet, and there were no people around. The only things that could be seen were the seemingly well-built buildings with flower beds and trees around and the open plaza. But despite the seeming lack of life, the sound and voices of people could be heard.

“Currently, the orphans of and around Gimuru, the teachers, the employees working at my store, and the slaves are all living here. There are 300 of them all in all. Aside from those living here, there are also those who have their own house or stay at the inn at the town who commute to this training facility.” [Ryouma]

When I said that, Elia and the others looked at me with deep interest.

“As I’ve said before, I originally started this facility on my own whims, but it was thanks to the support of the Jamil household and the many people who helped me that we were able to put up this facility.” [Ryouma]

Financial aid was one of the ways I received help, but other than that I also received help in the form of people offering their services. Most of the instructors in this facility are actually people who retired from their jobs under the condition that I would provide for their day-to-day needs. They said they didn’t need much of a salary so long as I could ensure their livelihood.

This facility is an orphanage for children unable to support themselves, a dormitory for the employees working for me, a school for children and other aspiring people who wishes to learn techniques, as well as a workshop for the craftsmen taught by the facility.

As I said that, the first place I led the group to were the rooms of the people living in the facility. The left and right buildings that were lined up like the katakana ‘コ’ from the gate were the residences. And the center building of that shape was the shared space which contained the bath and the dining hall. I showed Elia’s group the rooms that were currently empty.

The rooms were fit for four, furnished only with the barest of necessities. But should any other furniture be needed, we can also provide those. But in any case, the rooms were dreary with nothing else to them but their sturdiness. Yet surprisingly, Michelle-san actually liked the room, and thought it to be comfortable.

After that came the bath and the washroom. There was a large bath for each of the residences to the left and right, totaling to 2. At first, it was suggested to only have one large bath, separating the people entering by time. But then considering that many of the adventurers and artisan trainees would come home dirty, in the end, it was decided for there to be two large baths to allow either gender to enter whenever they wish.

All the dirty water and trash goes to the basement where the scavenger slimes dispose of them. After which, the scavenger slimes then spit fertilizers into another room in the basement.

Next came the lounge and the dining hall. The lounge and the dining hall were created to accommodate a huge crowd, but due to the furniture being created by the students of the craftsmen, the furniture decorating the area were all over the place in terms of quality.

As for the kitchen, the one using it weren’t only the cooks, but also the students learning to cook. They used it for their hands-on training as well as a place to make bread crumbs. It’s no exaggeration to say that it’s thanks to the students and the husband and wife instructors who were former bakers that I’m able to serve the fried foods – except for the tempura – in my Slime Den Restaurant or the store in the arena.

Food like croquette, tonkatsu, and menchi-katsu were certainly popular, but leaving even the production of the bread crumbs to the employees was just too much of a burden. But thanks to the help of the students and the teachers, not only is it possible for the employees to skip the bread crumb making stage, but as the two bakers had even researched on the frying of the breadcrumbs, the taste was even improved. The skills of a pro are truly frightening.

This concludes most of the tour. Now… let’s go to the main course, and head to the learning area!

But just as I was about to head there, I noticed that Elia and the others were for some reason looking at the ceiling and the walls strangely.

“Magic stones for lighting the rooms, and candles for the hallway…” [Riera]
“Is there something that caught your attention?” [Ryouma]

As I responded to Riera-san’s muttering, Riera-san hesitatingly said.

“Yes, actually… Is this facility doing fine in regards to its operation costs?” [Riera]

Operation costs? Well, there’s no problem in particular… Did it look like we were having financial problems?

As I was being puzzled by Riera-san’s unexpected question, Michelle-san added.

“The candles on the hallway walls are consumables, right? Moreover, there’re also the magic stones inside the rooms. Isn’t it expensive having so many magic tools set in so many different rooms? Orphanages and baths normally don’t have them. I mean they’re great to look at sure, but isn’t it too costly?” [Michelle]

Ah, so that’s what it was! It wasn’t the walls, but the candles that she was looking at!

Of course, using lighting would definitely cost money. And the bigger the facility, the greater the expenses. That’s why the church and the orphanage gets everyone to sleep early. It’s common sense after all to save up on candles.

But this training facility doesn’t do that. If you ask why, well it’s because three amongst the teachers here are tallow chandlers. Moreover, there are ten students here learning how to make candles, resulting in hundreds of candles being made every day. So there’s no need to bother about candle consumption.

The teachers check the candles made, and when they’re good enough, they get sent to Serge-san’s Morgan Firm to be sold. So rather than being a burden to the operation costs of the facility, the candles are instead a source of profit.

Moreover, the students are also passionate about their studies. So there are many of them who continue to study even during the night. If they just wanted to play around, then I probably wouldn’t support them, but since they want to study, well… I mean if I didn’t support them, then there wouldn’t be any point to this facility, right?

So I firmly answered.

“There’s no problem at all. The magic stones will break after using them long enough, but we’re more than able to take care of the expenses. Besides, it’s a necessary expense to let the children study.” [Ryouma]

When they heard my response, they clapped and praised in admiration. They each looked at me with admiring gazes.

“Ryouma-san, I’m moved!” [Elia]

As Elia said that, she took my hands, surprising me. Then Michelle-san said.

“The Imperial Capital’s Academy provides magic tools and candles in order to reduce the costs of lighting in the night. From time to time, we see some poor students without any lighting.” [Michelle]
“Really?” [Ryouma]

I didn’t know.

That aside is Elia going to keep holding…

Just as I thought that, it seems Elia noticed too, and she pulled back her hand as she took a step back. Thinking back on the Elia from before, this Elia’s reaction is a lot more womanlike….

Michelle-san continued.

“Yeah, so what they do is they cut their time spent during the night, save up money, and then buy some lighting for themselves. The fact that you consider it a necessary expense to provide lighting for your students really helps them a lot. Your students are fortunate, and I’m sure they can feel your passion as well.” [Michelle]

It sure feels uneasy being praised this much. Michelle-san’s a bit androgynous, but she’s still really pretty. The other four girls are also all young, beautiful women, so it can’t be helped if I end up blushing after being praised like that.

“Ah, no… It just doesn’t cost that much for me, so you don’t have to praise me that much.” [Ryouma]

I pulled myself together… I planned on taking them to the learning area anyway, so I might as well take them to the candle workshop first. As I thought that, I walked.

With the girls in tow, I left the shared area, and walked down deep into the halls until we reached a fork. Ahead is the learning space.

I turn right, and walk past the classroom of the students studying letters and calculations. I climbed up the stairs at the end, and then opened the door to the corner room that was the first to greet us upon entering the second floor.

The room we entered was two sizes bigger than the classroom we just passed by a while ago. In there were three skilled tallow chandlers. They were Dort-san, Delt-san, and Tord-san. With them were 10 male students, working. After they greeted me, and I told them that I was doing a tour of the facility for Elia’s group, they immediately went back to working.

Amongst the 10 students that were working, two were twining a wooden rod in washi (Japanese Paper), grass, and cotton. Two were melting and filtering wax inside a pot. Of which the resulting wax were then being processed by another two who created wicks through the use of the rod from before. Then the remaining four used their bare hands to smear wax over a rod until it was thick. As for the three skilled tallow chandlers, they would go around supervising the students by giving them advice or by showing them how it’s done.

I feel like the students started working harder when I entered the room, but I’ll just keep quiet about that.

“These are the skilled tallow chandlers and the people learning from them.” [Ryouma]

When I said that, the girls’ gazes moved to the box near the students, by the corner of the room, filled with candles.

“This facility first teaches characters and the basics of arithmetic calculations. After that, it teaches the students what they want to learn.” [Ryouma]

The students are cut out for different things, so while I won’t chase them out if they have no talent, being unmotivated is another story.

“So… about the matter of lighting we were discussing a while ago, the candles being used in this facility are all being made here. We also make a profit from the candles produced here, so there’s not much of a burden to our operation costs in providing all that lighting.” [Ryouma]

I might as well take this opportunity and introduce them…

I went to a corner of the room, and showed them a slime that was inside a barrel.

“This slime is a wax slime. It’s a slime that spits out wax.” [Ryouma]

The wax slime prefers to eat vegetation with plenty of oil content in them, but it can also eat other food just fine. The only side effect to doing so is that the wax it spits out will be less. Thanks to this slime the only real expense in candle making are the grasses and cotton used in the production of the candles’ wick.

The rods used are shaved bamboos made from the bamboo thickets by my house. The washi papers are created by the evolution of a sticky slime after eating bamboos, the pulp slime.

The pulp slime likes to eat strong vegetation with plenty of fiber. It then spits out the sticky liquid resulting from melted vegetation. It was by wringing out the faint memory I had of one of my extracurricular lessons back in my previous life, that I was able to make paper. It was hard making it from memory, but it was worth it.

The produced paper is used by the students as notebooks, textbooks, and test papers. It is also used to create paper bags to be used by the store at the arena. Papers are sold for 10 suits a sheet on the market, so just 10 sheets would already cost an adult a day’s living expense. With the pulp slime, a good chunk of the expense can be cut off. Unlike the candles, the paper made here is only used in my training facility, in my house, and in the store. It isn’t being sold.

“We don’t just provide candles to the students. We also provide them with notebooks and the necessary writing materials. Character and math textbooks are also distributed free of charge to the students. And in the instance they run out of papers, they can request for a new one. Of course, they’ll be scolded if the waste it.” [Ryouma]

From candles to the ingredients of candles, and then to the explanation of the pulp slime. By the time I finished explaining everything, Elia and her friends’ eyes had turned into dots.

“…” [Elia and her friends]

Huh? It’s not like I mentioned anything about my previous life… And it’s not like they were surprised by the cooler slimes back in the monster carriage, so why? Even Sebasu-san’s just nodding his head while saying it can’t be helped.

“Ryouma-kun, the textbooks are free? But shouldn’t those be expensive since you need to pay for the ink and pay someone to engrave a mold?” [Michelle]
“Oh there’s no problem there either as we have ink slimes.” [Ryouma]

The ink slime eats vegetation and spits out liquids of different colors. Currently, they can spit out six different colors, which are black, white, red, blue, yellow, and green. But that’s not all, by using ink with finely powdered magic stones, and writing a script. Then by placing a sheet of paper over that script, and letting the ink slimes spit out ink according to the shape of the script, it’s possible to easily reproduce copies of the original script.

If you release magic power, the slimes will happily gather, and absorb magic power. This method of copying takes advantage of the slimes’ ability to sense magic, and is useful for creating documents for reports and meetings. This is something that was mostly created by the slime research facility put up by me – as part of my hobbies – and by my fellow researchers.

Upon explaining that, Elia and her friends broke out in a chatter about how convenient slimes were.

I wholly agree with them. The fact that slimes are useful is a shared common sense in my circle.

More than anything though, I’m happy that they realize just how useful slimes are.

“If you’d like, I could provide some notebooks and papers for you all.” [Ryouma]

I spontaneously said that out loud. Actually, I don’t think notebooks and papers would be a good present for girls, but Michelle-san was actually elated. Apparently, she often runs out of paper due to all of her magic formation experiments. She also had to record the results down too.

After that, I showed them the other places.

First was the workshop in the second story that created light things such as strainers, baskets, chairs, ornaments, clothes, and leather goods. Then I brought them to the classroom where lecture regarding the prices of commodities and the circulation of goods in the market were held. After which came the classroom for medicinal products and the laboratory. The doctor teaching that class is also responsible for aiding students that have fallen sick.

Following that, the rooms in the first floor were mostly just classrooms, workshops that produced heavy objects, the ingredients for those objects, and the warehouse where the furnishings of the facility were stored.

To give some examples of the workshops there, there’s the workplace of the carpenters that build cabinets and desks, the sawmill where lumber is produced, and the harness/carriage workshop that had a large door facing toward the courtyard. It’s actually from that workshop that I got Rai’s monster carriage made.

We also visited many of the other classes. By the time we finished, it was noon. With the tour done, we rode on Rai’s monster carriage, and left the facility.

On the way to the Slime Den Restaurant to have our lunch, I heard the girls talking from the seats behind me.

“Isn’t it possible for the training facility here to actually be better than the Imperial Capital’s Academy?” [Riera]
“Yeah… Smithing and magic’s also taught in different places, right?” [Kanan]
“Yes, that is correct.” [Sebasu]

There are a lot of people who want to become adventurers, and there’s the risk of accidents if we had magic training take place in the same area, so adventure related classes and armor and weapon crafting classes are being held elsewhere.

“The subjects being taught are less than the academy’s, but that’s only because the scale is different… And considering that the graduates have to become an apprentice somewhere, it’s not that much different I feel.” [Riera]
“I think it’s better here since I can get all the lighting and paper I need.” [Michelle]
“Well depending on what a person is looking for, the training facility here might actually be better than the academy. I think most people would prefer it here though.” [Elia]

Seeing the five praise the training facility that much made me happy. I had great confidence in it which is why I showed it to them, but who would’ve thought it would be put on the same level as the Imperial Capital’s Academy.

After that, I focused on driving the carriage. It wasn’t until we got to the Slime Den Restaurant that I realized that I’ve been humming all along.

Looks like I was a lot happier than I gave myself credit for. 

Beneath the blinding light of the sun, within the passionate zeal of the spectators, was me, sitting to the right of the stone pedestal, at the middlemost seat of seven chairs.

As I somehow managed to secure seats for everyone, I felt Elia’s group nearing through the shadow slimes lurking in their shadows. I looked toward their direction, and I saw them through the gaps between the many spectators. I waved my hand, and they came over.

“Ryouma-han~ sorry for making ya wait.” [Miyabi]
“We bought some drinks. And umm… is this crushed ice ok?” [Kanan]

Kanan-san handed me a transparent bag filled with transparent ice and fruit juice, with a straw sticking out.

“Thank you very much.” [Ryouma]
“It’s been really hot lately, so I ended up buying as soon as I saw something cold.” [Kanan]
“Well I started selling crushed ice because of the heat, so if you bought it for that reason, then guess it’s a success.” [Ryouma]

Crushed ice is a product based on my previous life’s memories. Right now, I’m selling it as one of my shop’s limited products, and is currently one of my best-selling goods.

Products like ice, ice cream, and sherbet have actually existed long before I even came to this world despite them not having fridges. They were able to make them through the employment of magicians, but because of that, there weren’t a lot of stores that could sell them. It wasn’t easy to make them even with one or two magicians due to the limits of magic power. Plus, adding to the fact that sugar was a necessary ingredient to make sherbet and ice cream, they naturally ended up being expensive.

But in our store, the ones creating the ice are ice slimes who can use ice magic and the many slimes that could use barrier magic. Because of that our store can afford to sell a lot at a cheap price impossible to other stores.

Moreover, the other stores can’t imitate the transparent bags we’re using that prevents water from seeping through. These bags along with the straws are products of the sticky slime’s sticky liquid and hardening liquid. I combine those two liquids, rub them over a metal mold, dry them, and then tear them off. The resulting product is similar to a vinyl bag that’s extremely easy to use. As the product isn’t in circulation, it can’t be helped that the other stores aren’t able to acquire it.

Or rather, if they manage to get some, I’ll have to investigate where they got them… Well, in any case, the crushed ice sold by our store is unusually cheap. Couple that with a place like this arena here were people are quick to spend, then you have a recipe for a killing.

Also, I’m digressing a bit, but the one who came up with this bag wasn’t me, but the branch manager of a laundromat, Caulkins-san. Having gotten used to managerial work, Caulkins-san sent me a letter, saying he’s started researching slimes again. I don’t have any intention of interfering with my employees’ private lives so long as they’re able to do their work, so I just sent him back an approving reply.

Half a year after that, a letter came with several prototypes of a vinyl-like bag. I was really touched when I saw those bags… I forgot about vinyl bags already, so when I saw them, it felt so nostalgic. I knew immediately that the vinyl bags would be useful, so I gave Caulkins-san a special bonus that also served as research funds.

As for the straw it was necessary before selling crushed ice. I created it with the production method of the bags as reference. It was made in pretty much the same way save for the ratio of the sticky liquid and hardening liquid and the mold used.

While I was caught up in my recollection after seeing the crushed ice, Riera-san and Sebasu-san took out a paper bag filled with food and a vessel made out of thin bamboo strips.

“What sort of food do you want? There’s popcorn and fried corn.” [Riera]
“There’s also hotdogs and corndogs.” [Sebasu]

Looks like they bought a lot…

Incidentally, popcorn, hotdog, and corndogs were in this world since long ago. They were definitely introduced by the otherworlders before me.

“I wonder if we bought too much?” [Riera]
“Don’t worry, what’s important is that you’re able to eat your fill.” [Ryouma]
“Well that’s true.” [Elia]

The six each took their seats as they ate, and started to watch the matches. I took a corndog for myself too as I listened to the six’s report regarding the store.

“Right… I think the service was good. They also explained the products well.” [Elia]
“I don’t think there were any problems in particular, but if I were to be picky, then I guess they seemed to be busy?” [Michelle]
“That can’t be helped though. There was a huge crowd of customers other than us after all.” [Riera]
“No, thank you very much. It’ll serve me well as reference for making a decision in whether I should add more employees, or whether the employees have simply not gotten used to their job yet.” [Ryouma]

Moderate busyness due to the store flourishing and being lively is fine, but if they make a mistake due to their busyness, it’ll be problematic. Customers don’t like seeing clerks that are too busy and always in a hurry either. I’ll have to check up on them in the near future.

While I was talking with the others, a flourish of trumpets resounded, signaling that there were 30 seconds left before the start of the match. The surrounding spectators had already begun to cheer on the fighters.

“Start!” [Announcer]

Several warriors entered the arena from the two gates on opposing sides. From our right were 5 men (1 spearman, 3 swordsmen, and 1 man with sword and shield). Facing them from our left, was a lone man nearly 2-meter-tall, wielding a huge hammer. Wait a moment… isn’t that Glen-san?

It takes me back when I see him him change his weapon from what he had when we met a few days ago to something different. Still… he’s making a killing anyway, so he should just go ahead and buy an adamantite weapon not just for fighting, but even for matches like these arena tournaments.

“Ryouma-dono, is this match a five on one?” [Riera]
“Seems to be the case.” [Ryouma]
“Then is the man to the left at the disadvantage?” [Riera]
“No. That man to the left is Glen-san. He’s an adventurer who just became S Rank last year, so he should be fine.” [Ryouma]
“Really!?” [Riera]

Ohh, Riera’s eyes turned sharp as soon as she heard he was an S Rank adventurer as if she wasn’t going to let even a single movement of his go unobserved.

“He’s the champion of a tournament that was held here before. Sometimes when a person like that comes out, he’s made to fight against multiple opponents as a handicap. Otherwise, since Glen-san’s so strong, it wouldn’t be possible to bet… Ah, but of course, there’s no match fixing going on here. Especially when Glen-san’s fighting as I think he’d get mad if that were to happen.” [Ryouma]

Glen-san is what you would call a battle junkie. He made Gimuru his home base as soon as the arena was completed. He lives here precisely so he can fight. He’s not one to go easy on his opponents or put his hands in match fixing. Even if he were asked to, the only thing that would result in is souring his mood.

I’ve also met with Glen-san several times since he lives in Gimuru. When we did he would always ask, are you fighting in the arena? It seems he remembers my face from when we met at the Great Forest of Shurus before.

…Fortunately, he wasn’t the type to forcefully make me come with him, or attack regardless of the location. Then again, a person like that probably wouldn’t become S Rank. There’s a background check before one is promoted to S Rank after all. You can’t become one just with power alone, you also need to have a good history and personality.

As I was thinking that, we approached the start of the match. The constants were gathered, and at the center stood a man dressed in white armor. The two groups braced themselves.

“Match, start!!” [Announcer]

At the voice’s call, the bell sounded, and the battle began.

“WoORa!!” [Glen]
“Ga!?” [Spearman]

Immediately, Glen-san rushed toward the spearman. With his hammer in his hands, he struck down, and crushed the spear. Then with a full swing, he sent the man flying.

I guess that he’ll be sent to the first-aid office then.

After that, the shield and sword wielding warrior stepped out, attracting Glen-san’s attention while the three others came from the side. Glen-san tried to destroy his opponent’s weapon with his hammer, but as he was aiming for a counter, he was able to dodge. The shield wielding man covered for him, allowing him to recover his stance, and there after attack once more. A close battle with neither side gaining an advantage continued.

That shield guy sure is holding it well. The other three guys are also strong. I don’t recognize any of them, but regardless how bad my eye is for skill, they should all at least be B Rank up… This match is certainly something worth seeing. After this, I should check the matchups later.

As I was thinking that the battle grew fiercer.

“Ah!” [Someone]

As the shield of the shield-wielding warrior was flicked away, someone cried out in surprise.

The warrior tried to pick up his shield, and fix his stance, but instead he was sent flying away together with his shield. He was forced to withdraw. Then with the remaining three warriors’ coordination broken, Glen-san took them down one by one to claim victory.

The referee declared Glen-san the winner, and the spectators all broke out into cheers as Glen-san waved back at them, exiting through the gate.

“As expected of an S Rank, he didn’t step back once.” [Kanan]
“What an amazing match. Do matches like this happen here all the time?” [Riera]
“Oh, no. I don’t think the normal matches here are up to that level.” [Ryouma]
“Although they lost, they were quite strong too.” [Sebasu]

The trumpets blew again, and the spectators’ cheers grew louder. Because of that I’m not sure whether the girls heard my and Sebasu-san’s explanation.

It’s not obvious, but Glen-san is a dwarf. The dwarves have an image of being a small race, but that’s only because most of them are short. There are actually tall dwarves as well.

Dwarves are handy with their hands and physically fit. They are a race blessed with a powerful body, but even within that, Glen-san is exceptionally strong. It’s only because the shield-wielding warrior from before was able to endure the force of that strength despite being bashed by the hammer several times while the others fought together as one that they were able to fight a battle like a while ago. If it was anyone else, they would surely have been instantly defeated.

The five girls already seemed to be looking forward to the next match, but if they’re expecting a match similar to just now, I hope they don’t get disappointed…

And then night came.

“The matches sure were exciting.” [Michelle]
“The matches were amazing, but the first one was definitely the best.” [Riera]
“Really? I think the three matches after that that used magic were better.” [Michelle]
“Those matches were really showy~. If it weren’t for the barrier magic protecting us, we wouldn’t have been able to watch the battle.” [Kanan]
“Speaking of showy––––“ [Elia]

After watching at the heated arena, we rode back home on as the girls talked about their impressions. They seem to have really enjoyed themselves today.

Although I sure didn’t think they’d spend the entire day watching fights.

The five of them were girls after all, so I thought they’d get tired after a while. But apparently that wasn’t the case. Especially for Riera-san who was especially heated during the matches. But the other four weren’t bored either. I wonder if it’s simply because they’re bored?

Come to think of it, I’ve never heard of sports in this world… some board games from earth were passed down, so there’s relatively a lot of them, but I’ve never heard of anything pertaining to sports. I’ll try asking someone about it next time…

The carriage continued on its way as I quietly thought to myself. As the crowd of scantily-dressed women grew more numerous on the road, we left the gates of the 2nd town, and reached the gates of the 1st town. Our carriage was stopped here.

“Please show your identific–––– Ah, old man!” [Guard]

I sent a gaze toward that nostalgic voice, and what greeted me was the face young guard with a familiar face. He’s someone I personally taught. If I recall correctly, his name is…. Crais-san. Oh, so he was recently hired then.

I thought that as I rubbed the corner of my inner eye with the thumb and index finger of my left hand. Then as I abruptly stood up, I inched my way through Elia and the others who were seating to get to the driver’s seat. There, I took a tight grip of Crais-san’s head.

“Old man…?” [Crais]

As I held him tight under my arms, I said.

“Who are you calling an old man? I’m younger than you!” [Ryouma]

I’m 14 years old, he’s 18 years old. The younger one is me! Of course if you include my previous life, then I’m an old man, but there’s no way he would know something like that. Being called younger is one thing, but I don’t want to be referred to as someone older.

“Ah, owwwwww!! Wait a sec, old man! I’m a guard! It’s not good to manhandle guards!” [Crais]

Complained Crais has he endured the pain. But the other guards in the area only said.

“Ah, it’s fine, it’s fine.” [Guard 1]
“That guy got married recently, so he’s been getting over his head. Do him in more!” [Guard 2]
“We see nothing.” [Guard 3]
“This kid always talks about his wife every chance he gets! Damnit!” [Guard 4]
“… Crush him!” [Guard 5]
“Senpai!? owwwwww!” [Crais]

The surrounding guards cheered me on, so I locked his head hard one more time then I let him go. We couldn’t stay locked like that forever after all.

“We want to enter the town, so please quickly grant us permission.” [Ryouma]
“Ah… it still hurts… Excuse me, I’ll just check your identification…. Alright, everyone seems to be ok. Please enter.” [Crais]
“Thank you very much.” [Elia]
“Thank you very much, Crais-san. Please continue to do your best.” [Ryouma]
“Of course! I’ll do it for my wife and my future child too!” [Crais]
“Ryouma, do him in again!” [Guard 1]
“Even using that giant slave demon of yours is fine.” [Guard 2]
“Nah, let’s just do it ourselves.” [Guard 3]
“Wait, senpai! Please stop!” [Crais]

As Crais-san was surrounded by the other guards, we entered the town with our carriage. I sent a glance back toward where Crais-san was, and what I saw was Crais-san’s two arms locked down by two guards as he received light body blows from another. Then while they were playing around another guard came. I guess it’s time for them to change shifts. In any case, I offered a silent prayer for Crais-san.

“Umm… Ryouma-san? What was about just now?” [Elia]
“That guard was my former student. For some reason he likes to call me old man though. Even though I’m the younger one…” [Ryouma]

Upon hearing that, not just Elia, but even Sebasu-san and Miyabi-san showed understanding expressions.

“…What is it?” [Ryouma]
“Ryouma-sama, you’ve always been mature mentally, so it probably can’t be helped.” [Sebasu]
“I remember I thought you were really composed too when I first met ya.” [Miyabi]
“Sometimes you even look at me with eyes like gramps and the others. Eyes that seemed like they were protecting me.” [Elia]

Following them, the other three also spoke.

“Ryouma-kun, you’re younger?” [Michelle]
“I do recall hearing you’re younger than us by a year, but I forgot all about it after talking with you.” [Riera]
“We might call you with ‘kun’, but your atmosphere’s definitely that of an older guy.” [Kanan]

Maybe it’s because I’ve been a kid for 6 years already that I find it strange they think of me like this… I don’t know anymore… Am I a kid or an old man? I know deep inside that I’m older than my exterior shows when I put my two lives’ ages together, but I still can’t help but insist, ‘I’m 14 years old!’, deep inside.

…Nothing would change even if we kept this up, so I just forcefully changed my feelings. I asked what Elia and her group will be doing tomorrow, and apparently, they want to go somewhere different. There, Riera-san mentioned that she wanted to have the match we talked about the day before yesterday. I guess she’s been influenced by the arena. Well I did promise her though, so why not?

After thinking for a while, I suggested to give them a tour of some of Gimuru’s training. There’s a training area there too, so we can use that to have the match. After that, I chatted idly with Elia’s group until we reached their lodging. After we parted, I went back home.

“I should make some preparations for tomorrow. And since we’re going to the Slime Den Restaurant tomorrow noon, I guess I should inform Celma-san in advance.” [Ryouma]

I stopped walking, and then I decided to go to the Slime Den Restaurant first then go home. My course decided, I began walking the night road again.