Leave a comment

This chapter has been replaced with a new translation on [2024-07-14]. Comments may refer to the old translation.

The center of the village, unlike its usual tranquility, was full-on in festival mode.
It was overflowing with lots of food and the villagers’ energy.

“Oh! The esteemed heroes~!”

The child’s voice served as a signal.

“The heroes~!!”
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“Really, you’re amazing.”
“Kyah~! You’re so cute, Alim!”

We could hear various shouts of joy.

“Everybody! Calm down!” Jisef suppressed the cheers with his voice.

“Mr. Ruin, Mr. Orgo, Miss Lilo, Miss Myuri… and Alim,” he started to speak, after verifying that the villagers had settled down. “We are truly grateful to you for risking your lives to save this village!”
“”””Thank you so much!”””” that shout of gratitude came from all the villagers.

Ruin had a grin on his face, Orgo looked as if he was embarrassed, and Lilo and Myuri were smiling. Just seeing that made it worth saving them.

“Hm… This is also nice, isn’t it?”
“Woah, it’s super crowded.”

The merchant and the coachman commented.

Then, Gerbera raised her voice.
“Now, let’s enjoy the banquet with everyone!”

With that signal, the banquet began. It was a big commotion, as everyone reveled. They drank alcohol, ate food, and sang while dancing. In the midst of that, the merchant made a show of dismantling the Ashen Knight Dog, and the coachman delivered one-liners.

I was where the village children had gathered.

“Tomorrow… you’ll leave, right?”
“The hair ornament you’re wearing is so cute~, Alim!”
“Come to the village again sometime!”
“Thank you for the bamboo copters!”

They each told me.

“I will visit you again, everyone!” I said to them with an angelic smile.
Huh, the boys’ cheeks are red? What’s going on, could they all have a cold?

The children aside, when I looked in Jisef’s direction, I saw him in deep talk with the merchant for some reason, seemingly in a fluster.
I wonder, did something happen?

“Oh… Alim. To be honest, I am currently talking with the merchant about monetary matters. Well, there are no issues with the usual trade in the village, but we don’t have enough meat for the banquet… I wanted to buy some, but he told me that he currently hasn’t any in stock…”

Guess it can’t be helped. Should I share some of my cherished small dragon, or rather, Child Dragon¹ meat?

“Huh? You’re saying you have meat on hand, Alim…? Is that alright with you… or not?” the village chief asked me in an apologetic voice, after I had told him so.

I brought out the meat of somewhere between 8 to 10 Child Dragons from my pouch. The merchant reacted to that.

“Child Dragon meat!?” he exclaimed. “Why do you have something like that? Merely that much would go for 50’000 bells!”

But I don’t mind using it. While we’re at it, I’ll cook it, since I have True Cooking, you know.

I used all of it to make “Roast Dragon”.
Now, what everyone’s impressions?

“I’m super happy to have food made by a pretty girl… No, say whatever you like, this is way too delicious, I can’t make jokes about it,” the coachman, who had only joked around until now, commented.
“This is…!? The meat is roasted just right, and the sauce is delicious…”
“It’s so delicious… what in the world…?”
“This tastes like the food of the head chef, who serves the king²!” Ruin pondered. “The Great Potions, then the magic bag, and now this… just who is that girl…?”
“Alim… who in the world are you?” the merchant asked once more.

Both Ruin and the merchant seemed suspicious about me.
Hm~, did I accidentally go too far again? Well, I’ll be leaving tomorrow, so it’ll probably be fine, right? Definitely.

After I was enjoying myself like this for a while, Gerbera called me. She was in front of a hut that looked like a storehouse.

“I didn’t think there was food this delicious in this world. Alim, I wonder, who are you really?”
“I don’t… know.”
“Well, you’re Alim. You’re simply you… That said, I didn’t call you to talk about that, alright? It’s about the medicinal herbs. Since your bag can hold an infinite number of items, I don’t mind if you take all the herbs we have in this village.”
“…! Huh, all… of them? What about the village, then?”

Will they really be okay if she gives them all to me?

“We’ll be fine, merely by dripping three drops of Great Potion into ordinary water, it’ll turn into a normal potion. In other words, with the Great Potions you gave us, we can create a lot more potions than we could with the herbs we have here, you see? That’s why you don’t have to worry about it.”
“I see… understood. I’ll take them.”

In an instant, I sucked all the medicinal herbs in the hut into my pouch.

“Thank you very much!” I told her.
“Now, shall we go back to the banquet?”
“Yes!”

Gerbera was about to leave the storehouse. In that moment, I made use of all my S stat and, in an interval when she wouldn’t notice, placed two Great Potions in there. There was a note attached, saying “Please make good use of them”.

The banquet went on until it was the dead of the night.

TL notes:
Again, speakers are not always clear. I tried to denote them, but there’s no guarantee that all are correct.

1. I guess he found out the proper name with appraisal at this point.
2. This might also be a general “a head chef who serves a king”, but I think it’s specific here. This also implies that Ruin has either eaten food together with the king or at least food made by the same chef.