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Yesterday, Rir and I had our first day of rest and went over our stat screens. Afterwards, we went to buy some clothes.

Obviously, if it wasn’t for coming to this world, I’d never walk around with a girl, y’know… Other than taking a stroll with Rir… it was only when I went to choose birthday presents for Ayumu together with Mika, I think? That’s about it.

At any rate… the plan was to quickly gather D-Rank magic cores, get promoted to C-Rank, then take C-Rank requests and advance to B-Rank… It probably wouldn’t be that easy, but that was the best case. If we rose in rank, we’d probably get more and different information¹.

Incidentally, we had extended our stay at the inn for another three days.
The goal is to rent an apartment², but… I’m thinkin’ about waitin’ a bit longer. Mainly ’cause of money.

Rir and I were currently riding in a carriage. Today, we had a job that was some distance away. Though we’d return on the same day.

Apparently, two D-Rank sheep-like magic beasts called Rampage Sheep³ had shown up at once at a place called Birag Village⁴ and were causing the villagers trouble.

It was for either D-Rank and higher parties or C-Rank or higher sole adventurers, gave a good reward, and we could take the monster materials back with us, so we took the job.

“Master, there seems to be a famous water fountain in the center of Birag Village. Maybe we could have a look at it, once we’re done with our work.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, it’s written on this piece of paper the receptionist gave us.”
“Gotcha, if we have time, let’s check it out.”

We leisurely chatted, while spending our time in the shaking horse- (or some similar creature)-drawn carriage. A one-way trip to the village took around three hours. Though to be honest, I often didn’t know what to talk about.

We set out at 8am and arrived a bit past 11am. There really turned out to be a large water fountain in the village.

We talked to the village chief, asked him for the whereabouts of the magic beasts, and then immediately left to subjugate them, without taking a break. Rir told me that she’d be fine without any rest, and I didn’t feel like I needed any, either. Also, the interior of the carriage had been a super-comfy magic room.

We used Detection to search for the magic beasts and were able to find them 20 minutes after we had set out. The two sheep were together.

“Rir, I’d like to use the new skill I’ve learned. Could you stand by over there?”
“Understood, Master.”

Rir waited in a hiding spot, while I used Stealth to close in on the sheep, and summoned my Blaze Sword. It kinda looked like a sword made of light. Red light.

Of course, both Rampage Sheep noticed me, and one of them charged at me, so I evaded and then cut… no, melted its head off with the Blaze Sword. It didn’t bleed at all; the wounds where its head was separated of its torso had been cauterized⁵.

This thing is way too scary. It feels like, thanks to the sword’s firepower, it doesn’t matter whether it’s sharp or not. Though my swordsmanship certainly also has improved…

The other sheep saw that and tried to escape, so I struck it down with a Fireball at the maximum temperature, but with reduced size.

“I’m done.”
“As usual, Master. This was over way too quickly, wasn’t it?”
“You think so? Let’s store the corpses and magic cores of those two guys and then return to the village.”
“Alright.”

We went back and showed the village chief the two sheep, which completed the request. He paid us our reward on the spot and then treated us to lunch. It looked like the next carriage would depart in one hour, so we decided to check out the water fountain until then.

“Woof~. What a splendid fountain.”
“It sure is…”
“It’s all thanks to you, Master, that I can be so healthy, get outside, and visit this fountain, you know.”
“Ha-ha, I guess.”

This kinda… feels like a date, don’t it? I’m not used to stuff like this.
Rir looks so cute… that I’d think stuff like that.

“Master, is something wrong?”
“Ah… no, is there somethin’ off ’bout me?”
“Well, it just felt that way… By the way.”
“What is it?”

When I turned to her, she raised her head and met my eyes.

“I was reading for a bit in the books that I bought with the allowance you gave me, while we were in the carriage.”
“Okay?”
“So, you see… One of these books is about what might happen to young slave girls who are labeled as defective products.”

Seriously…? So… What about it? The only part I remember from what that slave merchant told me, is that they’re bought for dirt cheap by the country…

“They are either put in jail, where they are ra̲ped to death by major criminals, who’d run wild if they weren’t able to release their sexual urges, used as subjects for experiments that can only be performed on women, or tortured to satisfy the sexual desires of deviants… that’s what it said⁶.”

Before I knew it, Rir had started trembling.

Maybe, back when that merchant entrusted her to me, it was to avoid that…? Nah, he was more complainin’ about it hurtin’ his business, but as a result, I ended up savin’ her.

What am I supposed to do in a situation like this? For now, I’ll just hold her hand.

“Woof… Master. I am sorry. For some reason, I got so scared…”
“It’s alright. I won’t abandon you, Rir.”
“Yeah. That’s why I want to say it again. Thank you for buying me!”

After that, I kept holding her hand for several minutes. Well, it couldn’t be helped.
The short time, which felt much longer, passed, and we spent another three hours to return to the city. Once we were back in town, we returned to our inn room.

“With these two… we need another eight, I guess?”
“Hm? Did you say something?” Rir replied to my monologue.
“Nah, I was just thinkin’ that we need another eight D-Rank magic cores to advance to C-Rank. Tomorrow, we gotta do our best and take another job like this one, which let’s us hunt D-Rank magic beasts.”
“You’re right, Master. We’ll raise our rank and get ahead!” Rir exclaimed excitedly, while her tail wagged under her skirt.

Afterwards, we dismantled the sheep together outside the city and then sold them. We earned a fair amount of money.

What kinda request should we take tomorrow…?

TL notes:
Back to Shuu and Rir in their daily lives as adventurers. This chapter really shows the difference between Alim (who can run at inhuman speeds) or Kanata (who can teleport) and normal adventurers, who have to spend a lot of time to get to where the more lucrative targets are.

1. The original is “hear more various stories”. I assume he means information about Kanata & Sakura, but who knows.
2. The original is 家 (“house”). I used apartment for consistency’s sake.
3. The original is ランパゲシャープ (ranpageshaapu). It’s possible the second part シャープ means something else. From context, “sheep” seemed to be the most probable.
4. The original is ビラゲ村 (“birage village”). Depending on how you read it, it might also mean “Village Village”. It might also be “Bragi Village”, from the skaldic god of poetry in Norse mythology, but the syllables don’t really fit.
5. The original is 焼け爛れて塞がっていた: “burned hideously and sealed up”.
6. Yeesh… She sure picked some light reading there. From how Shuu reacted back in chapter 213, I expected something like this, but it’s still rather shocking to have it spelled out.