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　When I left the inn in the morning, there was Neil. Leave me alone already…….
“Oh, you finally came out.”

　I didn’t reply back.
　Ignored.

“Uh, I just wanted to talk for a bit alright?”

　Ignored.

“Hey, don’t ignore me!”
“Sorry, but I’m in a hurry.”

　I pass him without another word. Norn also ignored him. Neil’s friends were also with him, but they were left speechless by my splendid ignoring.

　That said, he continued persistently following me and obnoxiously proclaiming his existence.
　He kept saying that it was his fault that I had to leave the forest, so it was only natural that he would take care of me from here, and that if I had any trouble, he would do anything to help. Although it was apparently useless to tell him to leave me alone. Which didn’t really make any sense.

“Understood. Currently, there is only one thing that’s troubling me, please solve it then.”
“Sure! What is it!? I’ll do whatever I can!”
“Really?”
“Definitely!”
“Then, right now, I’m currently being troubled by a strange man who is following me. Please do something about it.”

「……」

　He froze up. It seems he finally understood how much of a nuisance he was being.

　It finally became quiet, so I left them and exited town. After all the children gathered, we headed towards the river in the northeast.
　But when I glanced behind, they were still following me. What’s with him? How creepy……..

　I arrived at the forest towards the river’s upstream. I moved towards where the plums were growing and started gathering herbs. The children also split up and began gathering plums and edible plants. I’ll leave fishing for later……no, never mind. There were weirdos among us. I didn’t want them to see the various things we did.

　While everyone was gathering, an orc appeared, but Norn took it down. After taking a look at the orc, I believe it was Collie? She suddenly said something strange.

“We came with her as escorts, right? Then that orc should be equally divided with us, right?”
“Eh? Then that means we can eat meat today, yay!”
“No, that isn’t the case……..”
“Why? We’re protecting her, right?”
“No, no, that obviously isn’t the case, you know?”

　I wasn’t planning on dividing it with them. Rather, what did they mean by escorts? No one even asked them to do that.
　So they’re trying to steal other people’s prey by proclaiming that they were acting as escorts……..how low. A flat-out denial would be the proper course of action. Let’s report this to the guild master when we return.

“So…….does that mean we’re not going to be earning anything today?”
“Yeah, then should we also gather some herbs?”
“Right, let’s do that.”

「……」

　Really? So now they’re planning to steal the gathering spot of low rankers. The man who had been refuting them since a while ago had a really troubled expression on his face. So I guess this person must be the one with common sense, must be rough. Neil? He had just been silently looking at me since a while ago. Disgusting.

　It was now noon, so I took my tent out and started preparing lunch.
　Recently, I’ve also started making portions for the children. However, the children also provided half of the cooking ingredients. Although I had to cook and season the other half of the cooking ingredients, I didn’t really mind at this point.

　What should I make for today? Oh right, there was the orc that Norn just defeated. The ingredients provided by the children were potatoes. And some kind of edible plant that they gathered earlier. Hmm, then I guess I will go with stir-fry vegetables? Let’s finish it off with some salt and pepper and a small amount of mustard for a bit of spice.
　I made quite a lot for me and the children. The children were glowing with anticipation.
　They have been thoroughly tamed due to recent feeding, apologies.

　…….That aside, why were they trying to join in for the food? There’s none for any of you all.
　For some reason, Collie became angry.

“Hey! We’re escorting you! So what do you mean we don’t get any?”
“No one asked you to do that, you all just decided to follow us. Besides, these children worked hard to gather the ingredients needed to make the food. Following us without permission, and taking our food on top of that…….do Rank D adventurers operate like that?”
“That’s…….”

　Her face became red and she was at a loss for words. The person with common sense from before pulled Collie aside and exasperatedly started explaining.
　After a while, it seems she was convinced but still didn’t like it, and she sulked while eating her preserved foods. And Neil was still just looking at me. He’s seriously disgusting.

　We continued gathering after finishing lunch. Then I rounded everyone up and went back earlier than usual.

“Hey, I just wanted to ask something really quick, why are you all heading back so soon? I think there’s still quite a bit of time left.”

　It was the common sense person. Well, I didn’t really have a particularly bad impression of him.

“I don’t want to go back during the guild’s busy hours. And if it gets too late, it might become dangerous for the children.”
“Ah, I see…… ”

　He gave a nod as he glanced around at the children. Well, the main reason was because of the guild’s busy hours. But it’s not because I’m shy, okay? For real.

　Afterward, self-introductions were unilaterally given on the way back.
　The common sense person’s name was Beck. And he was 17 years old. He appears to be the only C rank in his party.
　He didn’t look like a bad person and he even had common sense, so it was a mystery why he would be in that sort of party.

　The girl talking with Collie was Tess. She was Neil’s lover.
　Ahh, this child was the one the medicine was for……but from what I saw today, I get the impression that she was just following Collie around.

　After that, there was Collie and Neil.
　Collie was more brazen than I expected. That really surprised me! And Neil was just utterly disgusting.
　It seems that all of them aside from Beck just reached D rank during last year’s fall, and at that time they had returned home and ended up meeting me.

　But frankly, I didn’t really care about their circumstances. Rather, listening to them talk about their story was just plain annoying……

　After returning to the guild and finishing sales, since Salena was there, I reported to her about Neil and his party’s actions. She said she would later report it to the guild master.
　And that they would probably be issued a warning not to repeat those actions again in the future.

　Now I could work without distractions tomorrow. I was fully satisfied.