Act 1: Chapter 44: Pomera's Dream

Act 1: Chapter 44: Pomera's Dream

「I recommend the general stores around this area. They sell varieties of goods geared towards adventurers. You can find varieties of goods from knives, water flasks, and recovery drugs to withered tree branches to use as torches. As for the sewing tools, Pomera owns one set herself. Even if it was only once... Pomera’s sewing skill was praised by Holy-san before after all.」

After leaving the Adventurer’s Guild, I went to shop for adventuring necessities while listening to Pomera’s explanation. Though, I did ponder over the sewing tools for a while after I heard about them from her. It seemed to be used to repair their clothes after battling monsters. Sewing tools were apparently regarded as a must-have tool since damaged clothes increased the probability of being injured during battle.

「I’ve got several restorative potions. That also includes a water bottle and my specialty, fire magic, so I don’t think we need anything pricey at the moment.」

I picked up my magic pouch and tapped on its surface as I spoke.

「I-I see, you have a magic pouch... No wonder I didn’t see your baggage. I-I lost my nerve for a moment...」

Pomera shrugged her shoulders, shrinking down as if attempting to make herself smaller.

「T-This dullhead Pomera might be nothing but a hindrance but... please be relieved, I’m an experienced guide. Roy and Holy can prove that. Please prepare spare potions too since... since Pomera might run out of mana during a crucial moment!」

... I could imagine the hardships she probably suffered from the way she mentioned Roy and co’s names. But, it seems that she didn’t hate those two despite their cruel treatment towards her.

Though I felt that something was wrong with the way she’d recommended the store, I realized that she might have been trying to make herself a little bit more useful due to how harshly her former party members used to treat her.

Seeing her current condition, I couldn’t help but feel sad for her.

「To be honest... I don’t care about something like Levels.」

「P-Pomera will pay if you need money. I... It’s useless for Pomera after all.」

「Nonono, you don’t need to pay me either! I mean, my former traveling comrades give me a lot of money, that’s why I think I won’t be troubled by money for a while.」

I say that but I have no idea about the value of the currency here and how much I exactly have... but, I think the money I received from Lovis will at least last for a while.

「I-It’s okay even if you’re not troubled with money for now... Pomera is always the one who pays for these occasions in Pomera’s previous party after all.」

Wait a minute, that definitely wasn’t “okay” at all.

「Well since I already take my money out of my pouch, please tell me the necessary items I need, Pomera!」

After a long back and forth argument, we finally settled on doing a fifty-fifty payment.

I mean, not everyone could do what she was trying to do. She was fighting against the norm, not the individual, and did so while being one-sidedly oppressed by the other party.

Pomera might look like someone with low self-esteem, but that was the result of her sticking true to her principles without hating anyone.

I respected her for her foresight that chose to look at the bigger picture.

I think all of this was possible only because Pomera was kind-hearted by nature.

「I’ll lend my hand as much as possible then.」

In the first place, my journey wasn’t the kind that had any particular goal in mind. I just wanted to bring a lot of stories for Lunaire to tell her when I could meet her again so as to not worry her about me.

Talking with Pomera, I realized that the best way to engage with her was to talk about her goals.

I did have a goal too: to bring Nyarlhotep to the negotiation table to allow me to meet my pet cat, Kuromaru, again... but, that was a pipe dream.

That Nyarlhotep hates me for sure. I think it’ll probably end up turning into a heated argument with a higher being.

In addition... There’s no way I could go back to my original world and leave Lunaire by herself here. Though I feel bad for Kuromaru for leaving him alone, I couldn’t do anything but hope for him to live on as a stray cat somewhere in Japan.

Pomera’s eyes opened wide upon hearing my declaration of support and then, tears started to overflow from her eyes.

「S-Sorry, I’m really happy... No one’s said such kind words to Pomera before.」

Pomera wiped away her tears with her sleeves.

「... But, Pomera doesn’t think she can pay back Kanata-san’s support... nor does she have anything worthy enough for that.」

Maybe the first thing I need to do is to make her gain a little bit of confidence in herself so that way she can accept my help far more easily...

Before long, we arrived right in front of the gate.

But still... goblin extermination, huh.

Maybe it’ll be strange from a third person perspective if I could win against goblins without a hitch... I guess I’ll need to put on an act to avoid any suspicion just to make sure.Ñøv€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.