Volume 7 - CH 2.12

The air is filled with smell of the sea and fish mingled together. The sellers are displaying the fish and interacting with the buyers.

「You are not a member of the Knight Order. How can I help you?」

As soon as we arrive, an Elf approaches us. He appears to be from this fishing village, and his Job is Village Chief Lv.5

「I want you to listen to what this person has to say. With that, my work here is done, so if you’ll excuse me….」

The Adventurer who brought me heads back immediately after leaving me with the Village Chief.

「So, how can I be of help?」

「Is it possible to buy fish from here?」

「Yes. There are no particular restrictions on it.」

Since the Adventurer went home, I speak directly with the Village Chief. He’s polite to me, probably because a Knight brought me here with them. Anyway, this much info should be fine for now. That’s all I needed to hear.

「Is it always busy like this?」

「Every morning, we drop the nets in different location, so the quality and quantity of the fish caught is purely based on luck. The fish we catch are all sold here then. Today, It was quite a good catch.」

「Okay. From now on, I will be coming here to buy fish then.」

「Of course. We will be waiting for you.」

After making a new acquaintance, I decided to head back. After returning back home, I confirm the amount of the prize money.

Fifty nine gold coins and fifty two silver coins.

Five hundred and ninety five thousand and two hundred Nars total.

Although the Duke said it might not be enough of a compensation, is that really the case here? Because I feel like it’s more than enough.

Among the eight Intelligence Cards I had, six of the Bandits were low-levelled ones, but they must’ve been worth ten to twenty thousand Nars each, totaling at about one hundred thousand Nars.

There was also one high-levelled Thief. The bounty for that one should most likely be around one hundred thousand Nars. And Heinz the Bandit’s bounty would be at about two hundred thousand Nars.

Thinking about it that way, it does seem that the reward for all of them is kinda small, but am I even allowed to point that out now? No, I think it’s already too late to be saying anything in regards to this matter.

Even if I complained, there is no reason for them to increase the reward now that I have already accepted it.

「Now that I have turned in the Intelligence Cards, I can go back to Haruba’s Labyrinth.」

I tell the girls while we were having breakfast.

Also, since the Bandits were killed, I don’t think their companions will return to any Labyrinth in the territory of Hartz Duchy, but if it’ll ever come to that, then I can simply insist that the exact whereabouts of Simon the Mad Dog remain unknown and just leave it at that. That is of course if they decide to keep digging into that matter, which they’re probably not going to do, if I am to be honest with you.

With those things finally out of the way, it was time for us to go back to the thirteenth floor of Haruba’s Labyrinth to resume our trek throughout it.

It would be more efficient to go to sixteenth floor of Quratar’s Labyrinth, but I can’t help it at this point, since I can’t afford to act out of convenience now. Well, there is also the possibility of us using a guide in order to reach the sixteenth floor of Haruba’s and Tare’s Labyrinths, but doing that is going to be highly inefficient and meaningless if the lineup of the monsters is going to be different from the one that we have gotten so used to by now. In which case, the better and most importantly, safer option for us right now is going to be the exploration of the floors in order.

The ideal course of action here would be if I could get my hands on the Adventurer Job as soon as possible, but I highly doubt that I will be able to get enough levels to increase my Explorer Job all the way to Lv.50 in two days or faster.

「Also, since we got so much money from the bounties that have been placed on the Bandit’s heads, then I think we could start thinking about bolstering our ranks with new members again.」

「Yes, that is certainly something that we can do.」

「I don’t mean right now, of course. We should do that only when Miria has gotten more familiar with the Brahim language.」

「Yes, desu!」

I once again let them know about my intentions of expanding my harem even further, but I think it might be a good idea to wait with it until Miria is not going to need Roxanne to be her interpreter anymore. Not to mention that it’s going to take quite a while before she masters the Brahim Language enough to be capable of holding conversations in it on her own.

「Also, I sold the Ring of Determination to the Duke of Hartz. Apparently, it was obtained by the Duke’s ancestor during Fixation, so there wasn’t much that I could do about it. I am sorry, Miria.」

「So it was like I thought.」

「Yes, desu.」

Sherry and Miria nod together. After all, when Sherry got her own Sacrificial Misanga, Miria was supposed to receive that Ring of Determination, and she did get it, but just for one day.

But even so, Miria doesn’t show any sign of disappointment at all, even though I promise her that this was going to be her very own piece of equipment. Is she really okay with it, or is she just putting up a front for my sake?

「As compensation, the leader of the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy introduced me to a fishing village in his territory, so what do you say to the four of us going there to do some fishing the day after tomorrow?」

I follow up with a suggestion that is sure to get Miria interested.

「Wow! Yes, desu! We have to go, desu!」

Miria’s eyes immediately shone with a bright light when Roxanne finished translating my words to her. As I expected, she’s carrying more about the fish and the possibility of getting them than about anything else like getting better equipment for herself.

「The territory of Hartz Duchy is to the north, so there is bound to be lot of good-quality seafood in that fishing village, so we might as well…..」

「Is that so?」

For some reason, Sherry decided to cut in the middle of my speech without allowing me to say everything that I wanted to say.

Oh crap, is it going to be about something that I’ve said just now? Oh no, this is bad! Could it actually be that the lands that are located to the north are not like a treasure trove of natural resources just waiting for people to take some of them for themselves?!

Fuck, I have done it yet again after promising myself that there is going to be no more screw-ups like that from me! And yet, for some bizarre reason I thought that the geography of this world is going to be roughly the same as the geography of Earth, and that by extension the quality and the resourcefulness of the regions of this world is going to be the same as Earth’s!

Michio, you idiot! Of course this game’s world is not going to be the same as the world that you knew before! There are bound to be differences in comparison to Earth, so who’s to say that instead of the North Sea, the South Sea is going to be the one that contains a bountiful amount of fish in it?!

「No. I really think that it is more likely that there is plenty of fish in the waters of the North Sea, or at least I don’t think that anyone who I know ever mentioned it being the other way around.」

「I think I recall hearing that there are more animals and plants in the lands and territories located to the south because the winds that blow in the south are naturally warmer in comparison to the ones that blow in the north, which are said to be universally cold.」

「That is what I’ve heard as well, but I was always under the impression that those statements applied only to the animals and plants that are land-based, and the sea-based ones were not included in that.」