CH 179

Ch. 179: The End of the First Expedition

Cyril: “UーUghhhhhhh…..wーwe’re finally home……”

Cyril leaned on her staff as she staggered weakly forward. Seeing the Cries of the Stars Inn ahead, she let out a cry of relief.

They were all fighting very well at first…….but after about 4 hours, they all reached the peak of their fatigue. We probably should have returned before they reached this point.

Jend: “.........yeah, my muscles hurt all over. To be honest, I thought it would be easier.”

Teo: “...............”

Even Jend, who has the 2nd most stamina in this Party is barely standing. Teo, who carried her small body all around the battlefield, didn’t have any strength left to comment.

Henry: “Ohー I know you all want to jump into your beds and sleep, but that will have to wait till after we eat. Otherwise, you won’t recover.”

Cyril: “.......Henry, you seem awfully energetic.”

Henry: “Well, we only fought for half a day, so of course I am.”

We even had a break to collect drops at least once an hour.

Henry: “Don’t worry. If you survive for 3 months, you’ll get used to it. If you don’t, you’ll die anyway.”

Well, not that I would really allow that to happen.

Cyril: “.......now I understand how you have so much stamina, Henry.”

Jend: “I know, right? I rarely seen him out of breath……..and growing up in this kind of environment, I can understand why.” Well, yeah. But all the 1st Liners are like this, and among them, I probably have high stamina in comparison.

Ferris: “.....oh, Jend. Blood. There’s blood running down your head.”

Jend: “Hmm? Oh.” Blood trickled down from his head down one of his cheeks, and Ferris began casting a Healing Spell on him.

There may have been a small cut still left over from the fight.

She quickly patched him up……and earning the Party’s MVP today, Ferris sighed deeply.

Ferris: “I think I’ve used this much Healing Spells only with the fight against the Hanuman…. Even at the top area of the Altohern Mountains, I haven’t had to treat many injuries.”

Henry: “Yeah, thanks for letting us rely on you. You really helped us out a lot out there.”

I genuinely thanked Ferris.

Because she was with us, I was able to charge in more recklessly than usual. I took some injuries, but in exchange, the pressure on everyone else lessened.

This was the same fighting style I did with Yuu, so I was very comfortable with this strategy.

Ferris: “Knowing that you would get injured, isn’t that being too careless, Mr. Henry? I don’t think Miss Eustacia would approve of this.”

Henry: “No, if you look at the overall results, this tactic is safer. If you try to avoid small injuries and take a big one, it would all be for nothing. Yuu’s pretty brutal when it comes to this logic.”

If Yuu saw another swarm of Creatures heading to us from behind, and if they were able to join the ones we were fighting on the front, they could take us out.

…….that’s when Yuu would tell me, “Henry, stop those guys behind us no matter what! If you’re not dead, I’ll fix you back up!” That’s the kind of order she would give without hesitation.

Ferris: “That…….is something else.”

Henry: “Ferris, if you can learn to send orders, that would help a lot. I can handle it on the 3rd line, but on the 1st line, I may not have the band-width.”

We place Ferris in the position with the least amount of pressure.

Of course, losing your Healer would mean the danger level of that expedition just shot up a few notches………but because she’s on the backlines, she would have a better view of the battlefield.

Ferris: “Yeah, it’s not something I’ve done before, but I’ll do my best.” Henry: “........ohー that’s my bad. I forgot to teach you those things.” Ferris: “No, I’ve learned a lot from you, Mr. Henry. You don’t have to blame yourself.” Even so……….hmmmmm, wait. I got it.

Henry: “Then let’s have Yuu teach you. When she’s working with a Party, she’s usually the one giving out the orders.”

Of course, it’s because she’s in the same role as Ferris.

Ferris: “But….isn’t Miss Eustacia incredibly busy…..?” Henry: “Do you know how many favors she owes me?”

Although I may owe her just as many favors, but putting that aside!

……..and well, if she could just spare 5 minutes every day to just teach Ferris one tip, Ferris is really smart and is very aware of her surroundings, so she’ll learn in no time.

Ferris: “YーYou think so?” Henry: “Yup.” Now then, I better speak to her about this during dinner.

<<<<>>>>

Once we were back, we headed straight for the Cries of the Stars Inn’s public bath house.

It’s not as fancy as the inn we stayed at in Rishu, but we’re very thankful as an Adventurer. Being able to take a hot bath in such a large tub helps wash away the fatigue.

And after we were all clean, we ate dinner in the dining hall. That was the normal routine for Adventurers here.

Henry: “Oh, chicken steaks today.”

I heard the sound of meat getting grilled, and my stomach answered with an angry growl.

The side dish is…….bread and salad.

ーーwow, the supply chain really has gotten better.

Just seeing today’s menu was breathtaking.

If you wanted to know what we ate in Ligaleo, it was all things with a long shelf life. Meat would be preserved in salt or made into jerky. And most of it would be way too salty or smoked too long.

And as far as fresh vegetables, when I was here last, Mrs. Patricia would sometimes get a few things from her garden, but most of it would be pickled, and they would go to extremes with the vinegar.

The bread……..judging from the color, was made from mostly one ingredient.

Jend: “Oh, Henry, you warned us so many times to prepare for the food here, but it’s just normal. I was expecting something worse. I guess last night wasn’t an exception.”

Cyril: “Yes, it is a little salty for my taste, but this is great after coming back from an Expedition.” Jend and Cyril sat down and immediately started cutting up and eating the chicken.

Henry: “......you guys better be grateful to Lana.” I made sure that they understood that.

Mrs. Patricia is an excellent cook, but the problem was always with the ingredients. When food was scarce in the winter, we would have to take watered down ale to wash down whatever was available.

In those times, we would be so desperate to eat meat that we would go after any Creatures who dropped meat. But those kinds of drops are rare, so we ended up empty handed most of the time.

Harold: “Oh, Henry. That’s right. Weren’t you at the inn of our Goddess?” Henry: “.....yeah, that’s true. But Harold, what’s that……goddess stuff?” Harold: “That’s what everyone is saying. We finally had a saving Goddess come down and save Ligaleo.”

“Right? …….no, really. It changed everything around here. We’re really thankful.”

And everyone at the Star Nights table began expressing their gratitude and praise for Lana.

What…..? I mean, yeah, I’m happy for this change too, but I didn’t think people would go this far with Lana’s public praise.

Henry: “Bianca……..are they serious?” Bianca: “Yeah.” She was the final member of the Star Nights.

She took the day off and didn’t go on an Expedition, and she answered without hesitation.

Was all the members of the Star Nights trying to pull one over on me? Wait, really? I guess….that makes sense? Looking at what we were eating, it was more than enough of a reason…..but still….

Bianca: “I’ve even thought about changing my religion to this girl. The stupid War God doesn’t give me any good godly equipment anyways…..oh, that was a joke, by the way.”

Henry: “.........so, Miss Bianca. Since I left, you haven’t drawn any good godly equipment?”

Bianca: “Henry, do you want to die tonight?” And I immediately backed off the subject.

ーーshe was the Star Nights scout, Bianca. No one would ever mention this around her, but her nickname is “Bad Luck.” For some reason, every draw from the Heaven’s Treasure Vault so far has been a complete miss.

First, even with all her attempts, having a 90% Common draw is beyond strange.

She drew an Epic Short Sword once, but the abilities were……[Edible], [Delicious], and [Indestructible]. Although it was for consumption, the [Indestructible] trait made it inedible, so nothing about it made sense.

…….and although most godly equipment that had the [Edible] trait were beyond gross as far as taste, this one actually had [Delicious] as a trait. If it wasn’t [Indestructible], we could have all had a good laugh.

Teo: “.......Lana is really famous here.” Teo, feeling incredibly hungry from the Expedition, continued to cram and chew food as she spoke.

Her expression didn’t change much, but I could tell that she was proud of hearing all the praises about Lana.

Harold: “Yeah, of course. It’s only because of her that we can eat such great food every day. Umm, was it Teo? If you ever take a trip back, can you relay our gratitude to her?” Teo: “Yes.” Nodding at Harold’s request, Teo took her plate and headed for the kitchen for seconds.

At the Cries of the Stars Inn, you only saw a change in the main dish, but you could have as many seconds as you like. Before, no matter how bad it tasted, Ligaleo made sure to at least provide quantity. Considering how most of us here were soldiers or Adventurers, we needed the calories. ……and on this one aspect, the Grandes Church pitched in a great deal to secure enough food.

I had about 2 more servings, and once we were all done eating……we drank coffee and began our meeting.

Henry: “So, we were asked by the Church to take care of this as soon as possible……but what should we name our Party?” We were done with our Expedition today, and we had the Grandes Church purchase all the Drops after we came back.

When we were at the Church, Miss Nicole caught me and ordered me to come up with a name.

Jend: “Well, that’s true if you think about it. If you have this many Adventurers, it would be hard to manage. If you have Parties formed, it’ll be easiest to manage by their Party names.”

I nod at Jend’s words.

And I’ve forgotten about this rule, but if you form new Parties, disband Parties, or switch out Party members, you have to report that change to the Church immediately.

Cyril: “Okayー! Then this humble Miss Cyril has an idea for a name!”

Henry: “.......so, what kind of name do you think is best? I don’t want the name to be too crazy, but I hate to be lazy about this too.”

I ignored Cyril and continued our conversation, and Cyril started hitting me from behind. It didn’t hurt. It actually tickled……but it was still annoying.

Henry: “Fine, fine! What’s your idea. ……..wait, you didn’t put your name in it, did you?”

Cyril: “*COUGH* What?! Ummm, soー......is that not allowed?” I flick my finger into her forehead.

I’m sure it was something like “Miss Cyril and her Wonderful Friends.” No doubt about it. It’s long, hard to say on the spot, and way too self-centered.

Jend: “Party Name? I’m not really good with these kinds of things…” Ferris: “Me neither.” Both Jend and Ferris groan as they think of a name.

Teo: “.....all that’s important is that it distinguishes us, so why not just use a number?” Cyril: “Teo, even I think that’s a little too dry.” We debate this and that.

Though we continued to discuss names, none of it felt right.

Jend: “Well, our Leader is Henry, and he uses the Spear, so let’s go along with the godly equipment and call ourselves “Heaven’s Spear”. How’s that?” Jend spoke up with a suggestion.

Henry: “Well, our strongest attribute is Cyril’s Magic, so taking the Magic Style, we could call ourselves [Ende]. How about that?” I didn’t want to be the center of the Party name, so I tried to suggest something different.

Ferris: “Well, there’s five of us, so how about [Pentagon]?”

Cyril: “Urghhhhh, ummmmm…..[The 3 Beautiful Princesses and the 2 Knights]?”

Teo: “.......[Whiskey].”

There’s a lot of suggestions, but none of them seem right for us.

…….Cyril’s is way too embarrassing, so it was rejected. Teo’s…….was just something she wanted to order.

Henry: “Well, we have a few days to come up with a name, so let’s all come up with suggestions on our own and……yeah, let’s meet up the day after tomorrow to determine a name.”

We ended with that conclusion, and the meeting was over.

<<<<>>>>

CREDITS

Semi-retired Adventurer Lives Leisurely

Written by Hisagushien

Translated by: ChonkyTranslator

Japanese Title:

セミリタイアした冒険者はのんびり暮らしたい

作者: 久櫛緑（ヒサグシエン）

Original Source:

Book 11 Preparation for the Journey

Ch. 119 - 135

Book 12 The Mages Tower

Ch. 136 - 155

Book 13 - Before Departure

Ch. 156 - 171

Book 14 - Ligaleo

Ch. 172 - 184