“Bring her here! I’ll heal her!” [Ryouma]
…Her body appears to have been hit with significant force. Probably took one of that smash boar’s charges head on. There are scratches and fractures all over her shoulders and legs. She’s sweating a lot too. Fortunately, there’s not much damage to her ribs or her body. Her internal organs will take a while to heal, but I should be able to heal her wounds now.
“‘High Heal’ ‘High Heal’ ‘High Heal’ ‘High Heal’…” [Ryouma]
“…Thank… You…” [Female Swordsman Adventurer]
After casting high heal many times on the wounded adventurer, her sweat finally stopped and she started groaning. She was even able to thank me. A huge change in a short period of time.
“Thank you so so so much!” [Male Adventurer]
“Thank you. We owe you a lot.” [Female Adventurer]
“You’re welcome. Her wounds are better now, but the fatigue remains, so please make sure she keeps resting.” [Ryouma]
We introduced ourselves, and I found out that the wounded swordsman is called Firi-san, while of the two adventurers being chased, the man was Ken-san and the woman was Ruri-san.
“This is nothing. Your healing spells really saved me. The slime too.” [Firi]
“Unfortunately, we don’t have much to repay you with.” [Ruri]
“Take this for now. If it’s still not enough, I’ll pay you when we get to town.” [Ken]
Ken handed me a pouch full of money.
They don’t really have to, honestly. I’m not lacking any money and they’re just E Rankers. That’s a level where they should still be struggling to make ends meet. I’ll just accept this pouch, but I won’t ask for any more.
“Thank you. This will do. Instead of more coin, just tell me more about those bad adventurers you were talking about just now.” [Ryouma]
“Are you sure about that?” [Ruri]
“You’re losing a lot out in this, but alright. We normally go adventuring with us three partied together, but today we had two more with us.” [Firi]
As the story goes. they hit it off at the bar with some C Rank adventurers from another town, who then told them that they wanted them to lead them to the smash boar.
As compensation, they offered to teach them how to fight, help them accumulate experience, and give them a very small portion of the reward.
“They showed me their guild card and I was sure that they were C Rankers. You know how the guild lists at the back of the card all the problems that an adventurers has caused in his career, as well as the cases when they’ve breached any contract? Well… They didn’t have any of those, so I thought I could trust them.” [Ken]
“The compensation was the right amount too.” [Ruri]
“But those guys just made us fight under the pretense of gaining experience, then when things got bad, they used us as decoys and abandoned us. When I got hit by the smash boar, these two used themselves as a decoy to protect me. The rest of the story is as you know it.” [Firi]
“I see.” [Ryouma]
Were they tricked or were the C Rankers just too weak themselves? Either way, those adventurers aren’t very nice. I don’t think these three are lying since the smash boar was chasing two of them and one of them was heavily injured to the point of being unable to move. They’re risking way too much for this to be a mere lie.
“Umm… Are you really sure you’re okay with just this? We can pay more money if you want.” [Ruri]
“It’s fine. I’m the one who suggested to use healing magic anyway. Consider it a free service this time.” [Ryouma]
“But…” [Ruri]
“Ruri, I understand you feel sorry being unable to pay him back, but it’s rude to keep refusing. At times like this, you should just gratefully accept.” [Firi]
While Firi was saying that, an idea suddenly came to mind.
“I know. Why don’t you help me carry the smash boar to town? It would also be great if you could help me explain to the guild that my encounter with the smash boar was really nothing more than an accident.” [Ryouma]
The smash boar has already been drained of blood, so it’s not that heavy anymore. It’s at just the right weight where I can carry it after reinforcing my body with either ki or reinforcement magic. Unfortunately, my body is tiny, so even if I can carry it, I’ll still end up dragging it along the ground. I also need some eyewitness to help me prove that meeting the smash boar was really nothing more than a coincidence.
“If you’re okay with just that, then sure!” [Firi]
“Please allow us to help!” [Ken]
“Thank you.” [Ruri]
Like this I got the help of the three adventurers and we carried the smash boar to town. The guards looked quite shocked, but after a short explanation, they let us through.
As expected, all eyes were on us until we got to Pioro-san’s store.
“Uwaah!?” [Customer 1]
“What is that!?” [Customer 2]
“Sorry, please let us through.” [Ryouma]
The customers in front of the store were shocked when they saw us carrying the smash boar.
“Ryouma-han!? What is with that big thing!?” [Miyabi]
“Oh, Miyabi-san. This is a smash boar.” [Ryouma]
“I can tell that just by looking, thank you! What I’m asking is why that big thing is here! Did you go fight it even though we told you it’s dangerous?” [Miyabi]
Miyabi-san was clearly furious as she approached me, but Pioro-san calmed her down. After that the three adventurers explained what happened.
“So, it’s our fault that he ended up fighting with the smash boar.” [Ken]
“If he hadn’t helped us, who knows what could have happened to us.” [Firi]
“Please don’t blame him!” [Ruri]
“U…” [Miyabi]
Seeing the three plead for me, Miyabi-san heaved a sigh of relief.
“So you were out saving some people, huh? …Well, I guess it can’t be helped then.
And according to them, it doesn’t seem like you were fighting a reckless battle either, so I guess it’s fine?” [Miyabi]
“Sorry to worry you.” [Ryouma]
“Seriously… But, let’s leave it at this for today. Dad, we need to process the smash boar immediately or the meat will spoil.” [Miyabi]
“Right! We can’t just leave it here. Take it to the store!” [Pioro]
Pioro-san led us to the butchering room of their butcher.
“Shall we start?” [Employees]
“Wait a minute!” [Kurana]
Just as the employees were about to begin, Kurana appeared and asked everyone to wait. Apparently, a person from the adventurers guild came.
“Can’t it wait for a bit? We’re at the good part right now.” [Pioro]
“They need to inspect that smash boar first. It’s the monster responsible for causing so much problem in the north recently, so they need to confirm that it’s been dealt with.” [Kurana]
Oh, right. We told the guards that we would be selling it at the Saionji Firm, so they probably passed that info to the adventurers guild.
After a while, the male clerk I met yesterday entered the store. Pioro-san greeted him.
“Welcome.” [Pioro]
“Sorry to disturb you while you’re in the middle of something. I’ve come here to confirm that the smash boar has been dealt with.” [Male Clerk]
As the male clerk said that, he walked around the smash boar, heaved a sigh, and then nodded.
“This is undoubtedly the same smash boar that has been causing us much problems. Thank you for your cooperation. With this we can lift the restriction on the northern gate.” [Male Clerk]
As he said that, he was about to leave, but before he could, the three adventurers hurriedly approached him.
“I see… I’ll write a record for those two. Can you three accompany me to the guild? Takebayashi-sama, you can come any time with the smash boar’s trophy to claim your reward.” [Male Clerk]
“Thank you.” [Ryouma]
The man took the 3 adventurers and left. The three adventurers thanked me again before leaving.
After sending off the four, I went back to the butchering area, where the employees were waiting for the butchering to start.
“Someone got in the way there for a bit, but now that that’s out of the way, let us begin! Commence the butchering!” [Pioro]
“Yes!” [Employees]
“Ryouma, you sure you’re okay selling all of these meat to us?” [Pioro]
“Yes. I don’t have anywhere else to sell it anyway. Oh, but can you spare some meat for me to eat too? I’ll sell everything else.” [Ryouma]
“No problem. Right, everyone?” [Pioro]
The employees all nodded to his words and the butchering of the smash boar began. But when they started, they suddenly let out voices of inquiry.
“What’s the matter?” [Pioro]
“This smash boar doesn’t have a single drop of blood.” [Employee]
“What do you mean? Has the blood coagulated? But even then, a drop should at least come out.” [Pioro]
“No. There’s really nothing.” [Employee]
Pioro-san checked the meat himself and found himself equally bewildered.
Oh, yeah! I used the bloody slime to drain it of blood.
“Sorry, I forgot to mention that I’d already drained its blood.” [Ryouma]
Everyone turned to look at me.
“Without opening a wound? And can you really drain a beast of blood so throughly?” [Pioro]
“I used a special method. Do you know about the slimes called bloody slime?” [Ryouma]
As I asked that, one of the employees answered.
“That’s a slime that sucks blood, right? I remember seeing one in the forest when I was a kid…” [Employee]
“That’s right.” [Ryouma]
“You have a slime that could suck blood? …I’m guessing you must’ve used that to suck the blood of the smash boar then?” [Pioro]
“Yes. I always have it suck the animals I hunt. Especially the smash bear since it’s bigger than normal, so I wanted to make it lighter. The meat is still safe to eat, but will this in any way affect the selling of the meat.” [Ryouma]
“I used Identify on it and can confirm that there are no issues with the meat. In fact, its quality is even better than normal. So, no. This won’t affect the price, but this does make me want your slime.” [Pioro]
After that I talked to Pioro-san about the bloody slime. Right now, I only have one with me, so I refused him after telling him that it might run loose without an owner and might cause some problems.
I am willing to lend him the bloody slime in the future, though. Provided there are some trustworthy monster tamers under him. It’s good to make the world know the value of slimes and I’m sure I can entrust the slimes to his store. Also, unlike the cleaner slime and the scavenger slimes, the bloody slime can actually be found out in the wild. So, it’s not like there’s a lot of merit to monitoring them too much.
While I was thinking that, they finished butchering the smash boar. They gave me a medium gold coin and some meat for me to eat. For the trophy, I took the tusks of the smash boar.
I’m tired today already, so I’ll just hand over the herbs I collected to the guild tomorrow.
Tl Note: 3rd release of the week. PDFs and ePUBs have been uploaded. Credits to Byggvirr and a kind reader.
Also, in response to some comments saying that the dark mode doesn’t work well with Disqus, it works just fine, actually. You just have to set your theme before scrolling all the way down to call Disqus. Disqus sets its theme according to whatever theme you currently have active, so if you call it while in light mode, and then switch to dark mode, it’ll look off, but as long as you call it with your theme of choice enabled, it should look just fine.
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