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After passing through the rainforest, I saw the first village come into view. There were fields, houses, and even a well. This was my first time seeing a well. Surprisingly, there were quite a few people, and the place was bustling with activity.

The receptionist had told me it was dangerous, so I thought it would be deserted, but it was not. Besides, I’d decided to take it slow, so taking a detour or two was good.

I’d imagined that the village would have no accommodations, but from the looks of it, I could just find somewhere to stay. If not, I would just hide out in the woods.

“Hey, you missy over there. Are you traveling alone?”
“I am. Despite how I look, I’m a proper adventurer.”

The man standing guard at the village entrance approached me, so I decided to return his greeting. Unlike last time, I now had proper identification.

Just as I was about to take the Adventurer’s Card out of the bag I was carrying, the guard interrupted me and said, “We’re in the middle and don’t have much, but enjoy your stay.”

I wasn’t sure whether he was letting me in because he deemed me safe from my appearance or if security was just lax. Additionally, people constantly came in and out of the village, but none of them seemed like they were first-timers like myself, so I couldn’t confirm my guesses.

“For a place where nothing is going on, there are a lot of people here, aren’t there?”
“It’s precisely because it’s in the middle of nowhere that it attracts rare monsters. Which in turn attracts adventurers.”
“I was told it’d be dangerous, but it seems far from it.”
“Oh, it is. We don’t know when the monsters will come after all. Many people fled to this village after the nearby villages were destroyed.”

The guard explained. I had thought that the village would be closed off and not accept strangers, but it seemed that this was not the case.

I wanted to talk to the guard some more, but it would not have been good to stand around at the entrance of the village for too long, so I decided to go inside for now.

◇◇◇

The village had an odd feel to it. The villagers were good-natured and had few conflicts with adventurers. If an adventurer got out of line, another adventurer would soon stop him, so there was little danger to the villagers.

There was, of course, the fear of being attacked by monsters at any moment, but as far as the people were concerned, it was a peaceful and lively village.

However, this all changed when I looked at the village’s environment. For example, the river that ran through the village was not very clean. It would take a bit of work to make the water drinkable, and I didn’t think I’d be down to go for a swim in it.

Although the village children seemed to be enjoying themselves, I felt that I didn’t want to go in.

As I was watching them, one of the boys who looked to be their leader came to me and said, “Wanna join us?” He was twelve years old. Appraisal was quite useful in these kinds of situations.

The boy then suddenly turned away from me, scratching the top of his nose, and his ears turned red as if he wanted to talk to a girl he liked but was too shy. This was when I remembered that I was quite the beauty.

He’d probably fallen for me at first glance. However, there was also the fact that, with kids this age, just talking to a girl might be enough to make them feel awkward. Whatever the case, I didn’t want to go into that river.

So I thanked him but declined, saying I didn’t want to get wet. It was probably not my imagination that the boy’s back looked strangely small as he walked back dejectedly.

Then I looked at the fields. There were several vegetables being grown; some I knew and some I didn’t, but even the ones I recognized were somewhat small.

When I appraised them, I found that they were all of poor quality. Although not inedible, they didn’t seem like they’d be tasty. They were using the water from the river, so it was only natural that they wouldn’t be that high quality, but I felt there was something more to it.

Perhaps it was because I was sitting down and staring at the vegetables that an old woman working in the field spotted me and asked, “Hey, sweetie, first time here?”

“Yes. I came from the border town.” I replied.
“I see. You’ve come such a long way. It must have been hard.”
“Despite how I look, I’m still an adventurer. I’m quite fine. And I’m quite the hunter.” I assured her.

Come to think of it, I didn’t see any animals around here. I assumed it was because there were many monsters, and thus it was hard for animals to find places to live.

The old woman responded, “Well, well…” in a tone that made it hard to tell whether she was convinced or not and looked at the crops.

“If you’re from the outside, then this field probably took you by surprise.”
“Did something happen to it?”
“It’s always been this way. Villages far from the royal capital can only grow so many vegetables,” she explained.

Thinking back, I didn’t remember seeing any fields in the border town.

Still, their vegetables were better than the ones in this village. Which led me to think that they’d likely imported them from the royal capital or the capital’s surrounding towns.

“It seems quite tough.”
“It is,” the old woman said. “But it was tougher before. Right now, it’s quite lively.”

The old woman said with a smile as she saw me off, and I decided to stop my exploration for now. After all, it was getting dark outside.

However, staying in the same inn for so long made it so that I completely forgot to look for a place to stay. As such, I guessed I’d just go to the Collegium.

Although the Collegium in this village was not as good as the border town’s one, it was still present. It gave off a sub-branch police office branch. It was one of the bigger buildings in the village, but that was because it was accommodating the staff.

◇◇◇

This village’s Collegium somehow reminded me of the post office that used to be near my house. It had only one ATM, and the waiting room was not that big. The atmosphere also felt similar.

Looking at the receptionist work busily behind the desk brought back memories.

When I entered, a few adventurers were already there. I waited until they were taken care of, and after things calmed down, I walked up to the reception desk.

“What a small visitor we have here. How can I help you?” the receptionist asked.
“I was wondering if there were any inns in this village where adventurers could stay,” I inquired.
“T-That’s…”
“Despite how I look, I’m an adventurer.”

I said, this time taking the card out of my bag and placing it on the desk. The receptionist picked up the card with a troubled look on her face.

“F Grade Adventurer Finis. You really are an adventurer. But…” The receptionist looked at me, clearly troubled.

It was clear that she now understood that I was an adventurer, but there seemed to be something wrong.

“The only kind of lodging I can offer you is for adventurers to gather up and sleep together… Having someone like you there would be…”

I understood what she was trying to get at. Although I didn’t mind, it would create a situation where those around me would be uncomfortable, so I couldn’t just say it was okay.

“Then I can just sleep out in the op…”
“No,” the receptionist interrupted.
“But I don’t…”
“No,” the receptionist interrupted once again.

As we stood there, frozen and glaring at each other, I heard a voice from behind the counter coming to my aid.