We attached ourselves to Lambert's caravan and headed for the town of Karelina. According to Lambert, Karelina was about one day away.
By the way, we had decided to hand over the thieves we'd tied up to the knight brigade stationed in Karelina.
The head of the gang of thieves was dead, but it wasn't a crime to defend yourself from attacking bandits, and there would even be a reward for reporting it properly to the knight brigade. It seemed that there would also be a reward for turning over the living thieves to the knights... and I would be the one to receive those rewards, because Hati and Groot were the ones to defeat them.
At that time, I overheard the adventurers talking in hushed voices.
"Hey, is it true that our leader said that that thing is a Fenrir? I've heard rumors that it's just a great wolf, though."
"I'm not sure, either. Our leader did say that it was a Fenrir, though..."
"Would a legendary beast ever become someone's familiar?"
"I've actually heard from Sandra that it's a great wolf."
"Sandra's the guild employee you've been getting along with, right?"
"Yeah. Look, the Adventurer's guild is famous for using a teleportation device to send letters, right? They exchange a lot of info that way, but the info on this is a little complicated. Like, there's ones that say it's a Fenrir, as well as ones that say it's a great wolf. So, it looks like Sandra and most of the people around her say that there's no way it's a Fenrir, so it must be a great wolf."
"Really? Well, that's the normal way to think about it."
"Still though, our leader declared that it was a Fenrir, right? He even went as far as to say not to oppose it in any way if we don't want to die..."
"Well, we wouldn't be able to stand up to it either way, though. Even if it is only a great wolf, it's still an A-rank monster."
"That's right. Luckily, it looks like it really is docile as that guy's familiar, so let's just let sleeping dogs lie."
"Right you are."
For the time being, I had no choice but to keep with the setting that Hati was a great wolf, and refrain from answering clearly to people who could see through him. It seemed that those who could see through him were at least somewhat strong and understood just how powerful a beast a Fenrir was, so they probably wouldn't try poking the bear. Just like how Lars told the other members to, "Not oppose him in any way if you don't want to die."
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
The sun set, and so we stopped the caravan.
"Let's stop here for the day." Preparations for camp started at Lambert's word.
{Hey, you better not have forgotten your promise from this afternoon.}
'Huh? Did I promise something?'
{You said that if I saved them, you would make something 'extra special' for dinner.}
'Ahhh, right.'
I had made that promise in the heat of the moment, so I had completely forgotten. But it seemed that Hati remembered.
"I got it, I got it. So, what do you want to eat?"
{Groot wants to eat karaage.}
{Ohh, that thing you made before, right? That is a good idea. I also would like to eat karaage.}
It looked like Hati was taken in by Groot's idea. I was only able to eat a little last time, so I was on board, too.
'Now then, let's cook some karaage.'
I had promised to make something extravagant, so this time so I decided to make two kinds with a normal base soy sauce flavor, and a base salt flavor. As for the meat, I decided to use the black serpent meat, as well as the rest of the cockatrice and rockbird meat I had. I was going to make a lot of soy sauce and salt karaage.
"Master can I eat it?"
"Wait a bit."
I piled the karaage on a plate and put it in front of Hati and Groot.
{Ah, the flavor is different from before. This is good, too.}
'Ohh, so Groot noticed. I'm happy Groot likes it.'
Hati was chowing down wordlessly. Him eating like that must be a sign that it's delicious.
Now then, let's keep frying...
It looks like Lambert, and the people he hired for his caravan, as well as the members of Phoenix are all gathered around for some reason, though. They're even staring this way. Some of them are drooling, too...
'This wordless pressure, it's...'
'Ahh, fine, fine, I get it.'
"Umm, if you'd like, help yourself."
As soon as I proffered the plate with the karaage on it, they all jumped on it like starving hyenas.
"Ahh, man, sorry, sorry."
"Really, I wanted to ask for some."
"IT'S SO GOOOOOD—"
"It's delicious! Delicious!"
"It's the first time I've ever eaten something this tasty!"
Of course karaage would be popular.
Since that happened, I had to persist in frying up karaage and nothing else. It was hard enough making Hati and Groot's portion, not to mention adding enough for the crowd that joined in. On top of that, there wasn't even a single piece of karaage left for me, sadly.
There was nothing I could do about it, so I just quietly bought some of the sweet buns from my skill.
'Damn it.'
In return, I was relieved of having to keep watch during the night. Hati always put up a barrier, so I'd never had to do that, but I guess it would normally just be common sense, huh?
"It's a small thing compared to being saved and feeding us something that good, but please sleep as much as you like." The members of Phoenix said that to me, so I decided to graciously take them up on their offer.
"You guys get this. It's just shitty rations but consider yourselves lucky you even get to eat. Also, don't even think about running away or I'll cut you down." Lars, who was on first watch, finally went to give the thieves a little food as well as some threats just as I was about to sleep.
'Man, adventurers really are ruthless.' But really, they got what they deserved.
Some time had passed since the tragedy at noon, so I decided to help scare the more rebellious ones.
"We're going to sleep, but our ears are sharp, you know?" I said while looking at Hati.
"We'll fly awake at any time. You'll be in fine slices before Lars even has a chance to act." The thieves shivered in fear at my words.
"Oh, also, I'd stay quiet if you don't want to die like your boss." It looked like my threats worked, so things should have been fine.
Unable to bring out my futon to sleep in, I was made to endure curling up in my mantle for the first time in a while.
Groot, who had grown fond of the futon, grumbled a little. When I told Groot that it would only be until we reached town, it bravely said, {Groot will endure it.}
'Ahh, Groot is so cute!'
I swore in my heart to make something Groot would like tomorrow.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
"Welcome to the town of Karelina!" Lambert said to me as we passed the gates.
I had thought as much looking from the outside, but the town of Karelina was pretty large.
It had taken almost two hours to get into town, but once we got past the line we were let in fairly easily.
"Now then, why don't we go ahead to the knight brigade's office?"
Since Lambert's and the Phoenix members' testimonies would be necessary when handing off the thieves to the knight brigade, we all decided to go there together.
The knight's station was close to the gate. After handing over the thieves, the members of Phoenix, Lambert, and I were all subjected to about an hour of questioning.
"We've heard all your stories and there doesn't seem to be a problem here. The thieves you've caught seem to be members of a group called 'Black Dog' that have been a problem lately. Their head who you've killed, Zakhar, seems to have been quite evil even before he became a thief, so his head comes with a 30 gold reward. With that added in, all in all your reward for bringing them in comes to 45 gold (2250€)."
The man introduced to us as the knight's captain, who was a brown-haired man in his early 40's wearing full plate armor, notified us of that as he handed over a jute bag with the reward in it.
So this is a world where even human lives can become money, just like one piece world.
After that, Lambert went back to his shop, and I decided to accompany the adventurers of Phoenix who were going to the guild to report their success. I had wanted to go to the Adventurer's guild first in order to get some meat, after all.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
I arrived at the Karelina Adventurer's guild along with the members of Phoenix. It was quite dark out by the time we had arrived, so the service counter wasn't that crowded. I got in the line next to the one the members of Phoenix were in.
My line ended up being a bit faster than theirs.
"Excuse me, I'd like to make a transaction." Saying that, I handed over my guild card.
"Understood. A transaction, is it?" The receptionist girl took my card as she spoke.
After checking something on hand, the receptionist's face clouded up.
"It seems your registration has been revoked. Sir Hajime, you seem to be a G-rank, did you not take any quests within the month?"
'Ah, that's right if I don't take a request within the time limit my registration would be revoked. Man, I was so busy that I'd forgotten.'
"Really, there's an explanation for this..."
"The time limit is the shortest for G-ranks so people like you pop up every so often."
Hearing her explanation, it seemed that the accepted convention was for G-ranks to accept quests like madmen until they got to F-rank first and foremost. Doing that would up the limit to three months, and also open up much more profitable requests, it seemed.
'Ehh, was that the case?' I hadn't heard anything about that. 'Well, I'm the most at fault here for forgetting the time.'
"Will there not be a problem if I just pay the registration fee again?"
I needed help butchering monsters, so keeping up my registration with the Adventurer's guild was something I had to do.
"Yes, it should be fine as long as you pay the registration fee of 5 silver. Sir Hajime, you are currently the lowest rank, G, so there should be no problems with you using your current guild card."
"Ah, and is there no problem with my familiars that I've already registered?" I asked while glancing at Hati behind me.
The receptionist was a little surprised when she noticed Hati, but managed to reply, "There is no problem."
If that was the case, then I'd have no problem paying the 5 silver.
I paid up and had them reregister me.
"Also, I have a new familiar, so I'd like to register it as well."
"A new familiar?"
"Yes, here." I picked up Groot from my bag and showed it to the receptionist.
"A-A seedling?" The receptionist looked bewildered.
'You know you shouldn't be making fun of Groot, here. Unlike other tree seedlings he's ridiculously strong.'
"It's special and really strong, you know?"
I bragged to her, but it looked like the receptionist didn't believe me and only replied with a spiritless, "Haah..."
'Grrrr... So only those who've seen Groot in action can understand its strength...'
After registering Groot, we started talking business.
"As for the purchasing, I'd like to have you take care of several orcs and other monsters."
"If that's the case, please head over to the next window."
Of course, the sale of large monsters would have its own window.
"Hajime, are you done?" It was Lars, the leader of the Phoenixes.
"Yes. I forgot about the deadline for requests, so I had to reregister."
"That sucks, man."
"Truthfully though, it's not like I plan to be an adventurer as my real job, so I'm not really that enthusiastic about requests and stuff."
"Really?"
"Yeah. As you can tell, my familiars are big eaters. Hati hunts his own meat so it's not that big a problem, but butchering the monsters he catches is..."
"I see. The Adventurer's guild is best for butchering monsters. Well, you could ask underground butchers or meat shops, but they aren't really all that trustworthy. You always run the risk of being ripped off by underground butchers and they sometimes treat the materials really roughly, and meat shops will butcher meat really well but treat all the other materials, like hide, like trash. After all, to us, there are times when the other materials are worth more than the meat. Thinking that way, the butchers at the guild with their large amounts of experience and pride as pros are really the best."
'Hohh, is that how it is? So I could have asked underground butchers or meat shops.'
Well, I wouldn't now after hearing that. Leaving aside the stuff about registering, I was right to rely on the Adventurer's guild.
"So, Hajime, you'll be selling monsters here?"
"Yeah. I don't have any meat left, you see."
"Ah, is that because we ate it?"
Well, that was one reason, but I decided to stay quiet about that. "No no, I was already about to run out anyway."
"You hunted them, right? I'm curious to see what monsters they are, can I take a look?" Lars said while looking over at Hati. I didn't really mind if it was Lars and his team.
"Sure." We moved over to the next window.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
"I'd like to make a sale."
"Sure. Let me see what you got." Just like the guild at Falliéres, the butcher here was a grim-looking bald old man that looked like he used to be an adventurer.
"Oh, do you know Lars and his team?" Lars, his team, and the bald old man lightly exchanged greetings. It seemed that the bald old man was at least acquaintances with Lars and the others.
"Uhmm, there's a lot..." I was led to the storehouse when I said that.
"There should be no problems here. Take them out."
At his prompt, I took out five orc generals first.
"I-Isn't this an orc general...? And five of them..."
I had thought about bringing out the orc king as well, but from his surprise that would probably be a bad idea.
I'll seal the orc king in my storage for a while.
"These as well, please." I took out three rockbirds.
I definitely wanted stocks of rockbird meat, which was delicious and very much like chicken.
"R-Rockbirds, too..." Both the bald old man and the members of Phoenix looked really surprised.
I'm sorry to interrupt your surprise, but there's more. There's still not enough meat with just this. Both Hati and Groot are big eaters.
"Also, a giant dodo and giant deer." 'What's with the blank faces? There's still more.'
"Also, a murder grizzly, black serpent, and red serpent. This is the last of it."
I didn't really need to take out the ogres now since they can't be eaten anyway. And just from the name and look of it, the metal lizard didn't seem edible, either. As for the chimera and the orthrus, taking them out seemed like it would cause a huge ruckus, so those are sealed for eternity.
"A r-red serpent?"
Stunned into wordlessness, the bald old guy promptly recovered before inspecting the red serpent and said those words.
'Huh? Should I not have taken that out?'
"Where did you even hunt this?"
I shrunk a little in fear of the sharp look the old man was giving me.
"Uhhm...I'm not the one who hunted it..." I said, looking over at Hati, who was sprawled on the floor yawning behind me.
"Ahh, I see. It would be possible for a Fenrir..." It looked like this old man also knew that Hati was a Fenrir.
"That's right, gramps. A Fenrir would be able to kill something like a red serpent easy. Something even higher ranked probably wouldn't give it any trouble."
I winced at Lars' words. 'Sorry, I've also got a chimera and an orthrus.'
"It's just as Lars says. I shouldn't be surprised at something like this."
'Really, I'm so sorry. I'll seal the chimera and orthrus in my storage forever so forgive me!'
"You'd never get a chance to see this many monsters all in one place, normally..."
"This is the first time I've ever even seen a red serpent."
"If you're saying that, this is the first time I've seen a black serpent, too."
"Really, this is just amazing. I'm also surprised that you have a big enough Item Box to fit all this inside, Hajime."
So reacted the revived Lars and other members of Phoenix.
"Truly, it's an amazing size if it fits all this."
"Yeah, yeah. There aren't that many Item Box users with one this large."
"Man, I'm jealous. I want a large Item Box."
"Hajime, want to join our party?"
So said the members of Phoenix, now that the topic had switched to my Item Box.
'Ghh! Th-This is bad... I shouldn't have just taken all this out at once in my need for meat.'
"Grrrrrr..."
Hati bared his teeth and let out an intimidating growl at the members of Phoenix, excluding Lars.
They promptly froze up. I could almost hear them turning to ice.
"Hey, you guys shut up!" Lars promptly turned around and yelled at his team.
"Sorry, Hajime. Forgive them. Can you stop him from growling at them?"
"Yeah... Hati, it's fine. Stop that." Hati stopped right after I told him to.
"You guys went too far. You know that, right?"
""""Yes!""""
The other members of Phoenix all nodded like bobbleheads with their faces a deep blue.
'Sorry, everyone. But please, don't pry into my Item Box.'
Hati knew about my Item Box and stuff, and why I wanted to hide it, probably. I felt bad for the guys in Phoenix, but Hati did well here.
"Oi, sorry to interrupt you, but I need you for a bit over here. With this much to do, I'll need more than just a bit of time, you know? Let's see, it should be fine if you give me all of tomorrow and come back the day after." The old man gave me his predictions with a bitter smile.
'The day after tomorrow, huh... Hmmm, but I'm already out of meat... I'd like at least one monster's worth of meat. I need to at least secure enough for tonight's dinner and all of tomorrow.'
"Uhmm, could you butcher just one right now?"
"Hm? Just one?"
"Yeah. More precisely I need its meat. I want all the meat from the monsters I just showed you. I'll sell everything else, but I need meat no matter what..." I gave a furtive glance to Hati.
"Ahh, I see. Understood. I'll go and butcher one right now for you. Which would you like?"
'Thank god— What would be good... Uhhh, aha! I'll make that for dinner.'
'If that's the case...'
"The rockbird, please."
"Got it."
The old man dismantled the rockbird with practiced ease. Apparently, the innards really were just scrap, though.
Thinking it a bit of a waste, I asked about whether or not the innards were edible and got a weird look in return. It didn't seem like there was any innards-eating culture here. It was a bit sad, but there was no helping it, I guess.
"Ah, red serpents are edible, right?"
The red serpent was the only one here that I was seeing for the first time, so I Felt like I should ask, just in case. The black serpent was edible though, so it should be safe, I thought.
"Yeah, it's edible. It's a high-class delicacy. Something that peasants like us wouldn't be able to eat in a lifetime."
'Huh? Th-That expensive? I wonder how it tastes.' The black serpent was good too, so my hopes were high.
"Hajime, I was wondering, but what kind of meat did you feed us before?" Lars asked, making an awkward face.
"Uhh, black serpent, cockatrice, and rockbird. Oh, also giant deer and murder grizzly."
After I said that, the members of Phoenix, including Lars, all dropped their mouths wide open.
"You said that you only wanted the meat, so I suspected... Sorry!"
""""Sorry!""""
Lars and the other Phoenix members all bowed deeply.
"Eh? Wh-Wh... Stand up already, please. Wh-What happened?"
"We just kept throwing it in our mouths, without even knowing how expensive the meat was..."
The other members all nodded emphatically at Lars' words.
"We ended up eating so much meat that we otherwise might never have tasted our whole lives..."
"No wonder it was so good."
"Yeah, each piece was delicious..."
"......" They nodded silently, probably remembering the taste.
'Sorry to rain on your parade, but Hati caught all of that so it was basically free.'
I had heard that they were high-class delicacies, but we were eating it pretty regularly, so there wasn't really a sense of awe or thankfulness to it. And the only things I ever spent money on were spices, seasonings and the like, so my wallet was basically untouched.
"We're really sorry, Hajime. If you need something just tell us. If it's possible, we'll do anything you ask."
"Don't worry about it. I already had you bring the thieves into town for me..."
"No no, we ate such valuable ingredients."
"Nonono, you already brought the thieves into town for me."
"Oi! Leave your conversation there. I finished."
'Nice timing, old man!'
I received the rockbird meat. "Okay then, I'll be coming back the day after tomorrow so please take care of me then."
"Sure."
The members of Phoenix and I left the Adventurer's guild behind us.
"This town's guild is nice. Most times when I come in a place with Hati, there'll be a fuss and people will stare, but there was none of that here."
I said that to change the subject as we walked. They replied, "Because our leader was there."
"Our leader is a pretty famous adventurer in this town. There'd be no one dumb enough to mess with his friends."
'Heehhh, is that so?'
I might have lucked out by getting to know him.
"Just as these guys said, I'm a little famous around here. I've probably said this already, but come to me if you have any problems."
"Thank you very much. It's really reassuring that you've said that, Lars."
"Well, starting tomorrow we've got another escort request to the next town so we won't be around for about two weeks or so..."
'Ah, I see. Well, I don't think I'll get in trouble that quickly.'
"Thanks to this guy's selfishness, yeah?"
"Right, right."
"Sandra~"
"Shut up."
Ahh, so he's going to see Sandra the guild employee...
Normies should just explode.
"We'll be gone for two weeks, but we'll be here after that. So, if you just leave a message at the Adventurer's guild, we'll come running. Just give a shout if something's up."
If he was going that far, I could only be thankful. It seemed that Lars had a very strong sense of obligation.
Ah, I had forgotten something important.
"By the way, do you guys know anywhere I can stay with my familiars?"
"If that's what you want, just go straight along this road and you'll find a place named the 'Griffon's Nest.' I recommend that place."
"Ohh, then I'll go there. See you guys."
We parted with the members of Phoenix and headed toward the "Griffon's Nest." I'd finally be able to sleep in a bed for the first time in a while.