Chapter 15 -
After our meeting with Baretta, we left the abandoned mine and teleported back to the safety point then exchanged greetings with the dwarven vigilante corps guarding the mine.
"Thanks for your hard work. How's your exploration going inside?"
"It's going alright, we're gradually advancing."
I showed them the corpse of a C-rank insect-type monster that you wouldn’t usually see unless you dived deeper into mine.
The dwarves raised their voices in admiration while looking at the corpse.
"Woah, am'zing. Even we w'uldn't be able to d'feat a monster with that big of a magic stone."
"We're really grateful that you're doing this even without a request. We're able to get a bit of a breather recently thanks to you guys taking down the monsters."
"And you can leave the duty of carrying and dismantling the corpses to us!"
"You're right."
Hahahaha, the members of the vigilante corps burst out in laughter.
The dwarves then looked at us with lukewarm gazes as they laughed for a while.
I'm sure they must think that we were looking for any remaining Mithril or Orichalcum left in the mine.
Then I passed a portion of the corpse mountain I assigned to Baretta to the off-duty dwarves for dismantling while receiving their lukewarm gazes and simultaneously received the mana stones from the dismantling request I had left in their care the other day then I went back to the inn with Teto.
The dwarven couple cooked dinner for us when we returned. And as we were savouring the lip-smacking dishes, the dwarf shopkeeper fetched a small cask of liquor for us.
"Take it, you're working hard every day. You should drink a lot."
It should be a product of this town. The dwarf shopkeeper poured it into a cup and passed it to me.
"I appreciate it but I don't drink."
"But, Teto will drink it! Let's drink it together!"
I could drink alcohol since my age is over 20 but since my body was still that of a 12-year-old, alcohol doesn't suit me much.
I could of course amp up the alcohol detoxification effect through «Body Hardening» and thus be able to drink, but there was no meaning in drinking alcohol without the intoxicated feeling.
However, Teto, in contrast to me, liked to drink and she occasionally drank too.
"Come on, cheers!"
"Thanks. *Gulp* *Gulp*...... Buhaa, it's great!"
Teto drank the alcohol in one shot while making a gulping sound then exhaled a hot breath while looking happy.
"Majou-sama, please give me the liquor Majou-sama's carrying"
"Fine. How about Brandy?"
I may not drink but I had been buying liquor occasionally to burn off some of the money we had amassed over the years of our adventurer work.
I stored a few pricey wines, just fermented spirits and alcohol created with «Creation Magic», in either the magic bag that didn’t have a time stop function or the basement of our house in the «Empty Wilderness» for ageing.
Alcohol is undoubtedly a safe present when working as an adventurer.
I am not sure how the liquor tastes nor what its price would be after ageing it for like 100 years... no, 300 years later considering that I’m now an immortal but I was collecting liquor and sometimes making them with «Creation Magic» as a small investment.
I passed a brandy with a decent volume to Teto who then began to drink it with the dwarf shopkeeper.
"It's Teto's favourite! This liquor colour is just like Teto's eyes!"
"Dang it, 'his is sumazing! I n'ver knew a liquor like this existed!"
"Leave those two to the side and let's chat, Arim, Chise-san."
On one side, Teto and the dwarf shopkeeper were drinking together while on the other, Arim-chan, the proprietress and I spent the night talking about this town.
After putting Teto, who got herself drunk, in one of the inn’s rooms and using cleaning magic «Clean» to remove the smell of dirt from today's work and alcohol, I also went to sleep.
And the next morning一一
"Majou-sama! It's morning-nanodesu!"
I woke up while smiling wryly at Teto who was already awake without any trace of a hangover.
The dwarf shopkeeper was also preparing breakfast while in a good mood, maybe because he got to drink good liquor last night after a long while.
We ate our breakfast and headed to the mine… or not. We instead went to meet the friends of Arim-chan, the daughter of the dwarven couple, together with her.
"Chise-chan, Teto onee-chan. What's the request you were talking about?"
Last night, I asked Arim-chan to introduce us to the kids who didn't have to help out at home.
"Actually, we're looking for some creatures."
"We want you to catch creatures like insects, frogs or snakes if you find them!"
Teto and I decided to ask the kids to capture some creatures that would become part of the «Empty Wilderness» forest's ecosystem that was undergoing reclamation.
"We’ll purchase those creatures from you guys."
"Shouldn’t they be available in your region too? You guys are weird."
After saying that, Arim-chan laughed. That being said, it would be a tall task without proper equipment so I handed her the insect cage and net I created last night.
"You can expect a good reward tomorrow morning if you catch a lot of them."
"Alright! Everyone, let's go to the fields and ponds to search for them!"
"Be careful to not get injured though!"
After seeing the children off, Teto and I finally headed for the mine.
"Speaking of which, maybe we should also get some bats for eating insects."
"I'm sure their number will increase once we release them into the wilderness! It's easy to catch them, too!"
We caught several bats before continuing our exploration and later passed them to Baretta through the «Transfer Gate».
«These creatures' dependency on mana is low so they should be able to move unhindered in the wilderness. I'm thinking of studying their behaviour after releasing them in the forest since they're insectivores.»
I received the report from Baretta, planned out our next course of action and then returned to yesterday's exploration point.
There wasn't much difference between what we were doing yesterday and today, we returned to our last explored point where I made a safe room and then we progressed while purifying the surroundings and subjugating the monsters.
The further we advanced, the more dilapidated the mines looked due to a lack of maintenance with cracks running through the walls. We also went through some places that had either collapsed or were at risk of collapsing which interrupted our advance so we used earth magic to restore them and then continued our exploration.
Our exploration of the middle stratum was over for today, and we found some Mithril from the stones we dug up along the way which we found using «Earth Sonar».
I guess the pinky-size Mithril we got from digging up the stones and extracting and refining them with magic should be our small reward.
We returned to the inn like usual then Arim-chan showed us the creatures she caught today. Afterwards, we passed the time by telling her stories about our adventures.
The next morning, the kids brought all sorts of creatures they had caught to me. It was a magnificent haul right from the start.
"Huhu, isn't this amazing, Chise-chan, Teto onee-chan?"
The creatures caught by Arim-chan, who was pushing her chest out in pride, were quite a lot.
There were plenty of frogs, snakes, lizards, newts, geckos, moles, mice, snails, river crabs, crayfish and turtles.
There weren't any creatures suitable for eating like wild rabbits or pigeons since the children's family probably hunted and ate them but I didn't expect the barren mountains around the mines to hide so many creatures.
"There's a forest a little ways from the town! We also found them in old wells, ponds and rivers!"
"Hmm, you really surprised me. Can I buy them all?"
"Of course, that's why we brought them! So一一"
After saying that, they looked at me with expectant gazes, looking forward to their reward.
"Thank you. Then I’ll buy them for one copper coin per creature."
I bought the creatures the kids caught for one copper coin each.
The kids who caught a lot looked delighted at their gain. Some kids couldn't capture that much and looked at them with envious gazes but they nonetheless grasped their copper coins like treasures.
However, Arim-chan was the only one who looked slightly unsatisfied.
"Chise-chan, Chise-chan. What about that sweet stuff?"
"Hmm? Do you prefer candies?"
"Yes! I want sweets!"
The children's interest shifted to the candies that Arim-chan shared with them before, even more than the coins in their hands. I performed the magic trick that I did earlier for Arim-chan 一 though it was just me using «Creation Magic»一 and handed the kids the candies for their efforts.
I guess the candies charmed the kids even more than the money as the one creature one candy rule was eventually set for the next morning and onwards.
"Speaking of which, Chise-chan is carrying these creatures to the mines but what're you using them for?"
Arim-chan and the kids who saw us carrying the creatures towards the mine suddenly looked intrigued and asked us.
"Let's see, we're going to use them as baits for the insect monsters inside."
I'm sorry for lying to you kids but I couldn’t just say that I was gathering them to let them breed in the «Empty Wilderness». So I came up with the excuse of using them as bait for monsters.
For a moment, I felt jittery wondering if the kids were going to respond with the “Pitiful” look and harsh words but一
"Oh, that's something that can’t be helped. You’re an adventurer, after all. Good luck."
"Yeah, I also use them as bait when fishing in the river, crabs and crayfish are really delicious."
"Moles in the fields don't have much fur but they feel nice to touch so they sell for a good amount if you sell them to the merchant uncle before winter."
I guess it was a bit arrogant of me to assume they would think with modern Japan's animal-loving morals.
The creatures around the kids might just be a source of income and food instead of being an object of love or interest.
On the 28th year of my reincarnation, this new discovery gave me a new kind of feeling.
In this way, we continued our exploration while being swayed by the strong will of the people of the abandoned mine's town.
