My Room Has Become a Dungeon's Rest Area (LN) - Book 3: Chapter 1: (4)

While I was listening to the gossip from the round table behind us and letting Deet’s sermon go in one ear and out the other, someone else appeared next to Deet. This time, it was a young girl.

Using my Person Appraisal Skill, I discovered that she was a level 5 hunter named Marron.

She had the air of a complete beginner, naïve and innocent. I wouldn’t say she was beautiful, but she had cute freckles.

「U-um… I’m looking for people to join my party, and I was wondering if you’d like to band together.」

「Sorry… I’ve already got a party.」

Perhaps because it was a girl who had asked, Deet turned her down outright without bringing me into it.

「Oh, I c-couldn’t possibly ask you, Deet! You’re too famous. I was asking him.」

The girl looked at me.

「Huh? Me?」

「Yes! If you like, shall we go and explore the second floor of the dungeon? I know a secret place where medicinal herbs grow. You can sell them for a fair amount of money.」

「H-heh heh heh. This is embarrassing – what should we do, Deet? Ack!?!」

This must be the ‘if you try to talk to me, I’ll kill you’ aura that the adventurers were talking about.

♦︎ ♦︎ ♦︎

From the town of Herakleon, also known as Yomi Town, we rode in a cart.

After about three hours, the town of Sebirida came into view. This was the town where Ria’s old employer, the former Count Kache, and his family lived.

「What do you think of Sebirida?」

「It’s lovely. Really idyllic.」

It was hill country all the way from here to Herakleon, and people were farming cattle.

But, according to Ria, there wasn’t much good arable land; livestock farming was the main industry, but it didn’t thrive.

The Kache family, who supported the people of their fief, had fallen into ruin as epidemics and bad harvests followed one after another. There were also structural problems; all the young people were leaving for Yomi, where the dungeon was.

We got off the cart at the town gates, which were made of wood and looked more like the entrance to a pen. We paid the driver two gold.

「We could have walked it in half a day, but that would have been hard for Nick and Mary.」

「I’m with Nick and Mary on that one. Besides… 」

I could see Deet standing with her hand braced against a tree. Miri was rubbing her back.

「I don’t feel so good……」

All that alcohol she’d drunk back at the Adventurers’ Guild had been shaken up by the cart.

But if we hadn’t come in the cart, I don’t know whether she’d have been able to drunkenly stagger all the way here.

「Miss Elf, are you all right?」

For some reason, Mary had become attached to Deet. Deet tried to smile to stop her from worrying, but her face was pale.

「I’m fine.」

You don’t look fine.

「Hey, Deet. Get on my back.」

「Huh?」

I made a gesture to show that I’d carry her.

「I-I’m fine.」

「The orphanage is quite far from the town, so we’ve still got a ways to go.」

I forced Deet into a piggyback.

「Don’t, this is so embarrassing! Put me down!」

「Stay still! Well, everyone, shall we set out?」

Deet yelled at me as I carried her along, calling me an idiot and a fool. I noticed that – perhaps because my [Strength] had increased – she seemed lighter than when I’d last carried her.

We walked off a slight distance from the rest of the party, which was headed by Ria. Deet immediately calmed down.

「Thor…… Th-thank you.」

「Don’t worry about it.」

「I can’t be upfront about things. Even in the Guild tavern.」

「I get like that sometimes, too.」

Deet squeezed her arms around my chest a little more tightly.

I felt like I was beginning to understand why a little girl might become fond of her.

After we’d walked for a while, the orphanage came into view.

It looked just like a big house with earthen walls, but I could tell it was the orphanage from the thirty or so children playing in the garden.

「Look, it’s Ria!」

The children gathered around us – or rather around Ria.

「I’m sorry for being away so long, everybody! Is the director here?」

A few of the children went off into the earthen-walled orphanage.

After a while, a woman with a large scar on her face came out of the orphanage, surrounded by children.

Her eyes, as they looked towards us, were sharp. Both Deet and Miri, exhausted, took a wary stance.

「Director! Director Reika!」

「Ria. So you survived?」

Huh? She’s the director?

She was beautiful, but she looked like a yakuza woman who’d come to force the orphanage to sell off its land to pay its debts.

I used my Person Appraisal skill on her. Her profession was ‘brigand’, and she was level 29.

Brigand? Isn’t that like a bandit?

As I thought that, Director Reika addressed me.

「That was a long time ago. I earned quite a bit of money from it, which I used to build this orphanage.」

「Huh? How –?」

How did she know what I was thinking?

「You just used your Person Appraisal skill on me, right? A brigand is a type of thief, so I can tell when people are using their skills on me. You were making a face that said ‘she’s a brigand?!’ Ha ha ha ha ha.」

Having said this, Director Reika laughed.

「Oh, no – I wasn’t – 」

Apparently she’d given us such a harsh look before because she didn’t know who the rest of us were; we were with Ria, who was rumoured to be dead.

「It’s the scarred face. I can’t help the impression it gives people. But anyway, you must all be tired from your journey. Sit down, and let’s talk.」

Director Reika invited us into her office.

There was a small sofa. By squashing up, we managed to fit on it.

「I see. You’d like to entrust Nick and Mary to our care? Mm-hmm.」

「Is that all right?」

Until now, Ria had only set out the facts, but now she made the request.

「Of course we’ll take them in. They’re very welcome here. They’ll have a lot of friends, and nothing to worry about.」

Director Ryze patted Nick and Mary on the head, smiling broadly.

「Nick, Mary, you can go outside and play with Ria and…… Miss Deet.」

She opened her office door and motioned the four of them outside.

She closed the door again, leaving me and Miri in the office with her.

The director was still smiling, but her face had become a little more serious.

「If I’m not mistaken, you, Mr Thor, are the group’s leader, and you, Miss Miri, are a representative of the Thieves’ Guild.」

「W-well, something like that.」

Miri nodded at my answer.

「What I’m about to tell you can only be said when there are no children around. Embarrassing as it is to admit, this institution is in considerable financial difficulties.」

From the way she’d practically forced Nick and Mary out of the room, I’d guessed it must be something like that.

「Thank you for acting so welcoming in front of Nick and Mary.」

「Not at all. I had to, in front of the children.」

This institution had originally been kept going by support from Ria’s employers, the Kache family.

With the Kache family gone, that support had been cut off. The orphanage was barely hanging on with the crops of the region’s impoverished farmers and with Ria’s earnings as an adventurer.

Ria had been unable to go adventuring for a while.

「I couldn’t say these things in front of Ria, of course. She’s still only 18. I’m very glad that you’ve made her part of a supportive family, where she doesn’t have to carry such a heavy burden…」

「Ha ha ha ha ha.」

Best just to laugh and leave it there. But that future wouldn’t be so bad…

「Things being as they are, I have no choice but to ask this of you. I want to look after Nick and Mary, the children you brought with you. Which means……」

Director Ryze looked at Miri.

「Could I get the underground Thieves’ Guild to support the orphanage? I used to be involved in underground business, too, so I know how trade works below the surface, where the eyes of the law can’t see. If you were to support us, we’d be able to take in even more children.」

Director Ryze seemed to be saying that, if the Thieves’ Guild supported them, the orphanage would be able to take in the children that the Thieves’ Guild looked after.

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