Friendly Infected Trent (1)

An hour had passed since then. There was no sign of Srhro's parents coming.

Prune and Rin came from the second floor to find Nine and I. We told her about the situation, which led to this dilemma of who would stay– because we can't just leave Srhro here yet.. we have an afternoon meeting with the two heroes.

"I'll do it," Nine volunteered.

"Then.. do you want anything particular for lunch?"

"Not really.. I think I still have stuff in the inventory from last time."

You don't mean that bread Srhro ate half-way right..

"Look, you're not the only one hiding good food in your inventory,"

Oh. That makes a lot more sense.

Prune and I made our way out of the church. We're on our way to meet the heroes! What a crappy development..

"Noel.. do you have more ice cream sandwiches.." Rin asked for some reason.

"Ice cream sandwiches? I have two more.. what's up?"

"Do you have other ice creams?" Prune asked.

"Um yeah. Those normal kinds, if not the coned ones– and I think I have a few tubs."

"Gimme," Prune said.

"Oh, okay. I'll transfer it to the main inventory.. which one?"

Weird exchange. Anyhow, the moment the ice cream was transferred, Prune took the cone one out and started to gnaw at it. The wrapping was tossed back into the inventory.

"How's Nataline-san?"

"She's depressed that her party came just to tell her that she was kicked out of the party."

"Uh.. huh.. wow.. that sucks.. when? Just now?"

Prune nodded– Rin was looking at me and Prune's ice cream, biting her lips as if enduring something.

I'm pretty sure I gave her enough ice cream sandwiches right..? Ain't no way I'm going to give her mine. I only have 2 left.

"Yo," I called them out from behind. We've been pretty sneaky.

"Yo."

Or not..

I expected a more surprised expression but whatever. Our first strike failed.

"Well.. how about lunch together? It's about time right?" I said.

"Ah, that would be great thank you," Aoki nodded.

"Thank you," Takata followed up.

The place was a decently priced food store where we usually get our afternoon sandwiches. It's located not too far away from the florist. Liliath would be coming too.

It's a small shop in the corner with tables and chairs arranged out in the open. Think of it as some sort of fast food chain but instead of selling burgers, fries and soda, it's selling sandwiches, thin sliced potato wedges and tea.

There's a variety of sandwiches to choose from, my favourite was the killer-mushroom-cheese-salmon one. So I obviously opted for that. Liliath ordered the same, Rin ordered the ham salad one, Prune ordered the grilled sandwich with wolf-kraken meatball– she does realize she's a cannibal right?

Aoki and Takata had trouble deciding so they ordered the regular sandwich with extra cheese.

For Nine, I ordered the smoked mix-bird meat sandwich. I'll send it to him via the inventory. He could eat it some other time if not later.

We sat down around the larger table and waited. The number we got was 11.

"This is a good place to eat."

"Do the sandwiches taste good?"

"Yeah. It's pretty good."

"Just to clarify, what is this about again? You want to know how to live outside the castle? If that's the case I'm pretty sure you found the wrong group. Cuz.. we're not actually doing things sustainably."

Actually.. that's not the problem, it's just an excuse. And speaking of which, we hadn't sold the heap of monster corpses sitting in our inventory to the meat house.. and we're kinda tight on money. I'm sure the selling amount should be worth around 2 gold so.. that should allow us a week or two of leeway..

"Do you stay at an inn or something? It's actually quite expensive.. even though the one we rented is on the cheaper side," Aoki asked.

"We?" Prune stressed.

"Yes, we." Aoki repeated, not getting the joke.

At least Takata realized it. Her decision to keep her mouth shut was for the best.

"We rent," Liliath spoke. "We share a place with a florist."

"Rent? Florist? Where? You can rent places?"

"You know how the cliche route is: you rent an inn, fight monsters until you grow powerful and some event comes by and you no longer need to worry about money? We're not following that. We're renting from a family, it's not an inn. And it's not like we've met the guild master even though that's supposed to be what it is– speaking in cliche terms. I'm still an F-rank adventurer, just so you know."

The two heroes looked at each other.

"We just got promoted to D-rank yesterday though?"

D-rank.. wait. How the fuck? They just got kicked out from the castle recently right?

"We killed that lesser dragon that tried to destroy a village right?"

"Yeah. Normally, it would take a B-rank party of 4 members to take down one of them."

Hm.. weird. Why did they ask for our help again? At this rate, I only see light in their future.

"If you have such a capability, is there anything to be concerned about?" Liliath asked.

"We barely know the place. Maybe we need to rent one of you for a day? To give us a tour or something."

"Yeah.. maybe.."

Do we really need to be paid? I don't know..

Hold up. Isn't this some psychological trick? I was thinking of sending them off right after the meal. Now we've no choice but to say yes to being their tour guide. Damn.. maybe I'm overthinking things.

"Is it alright? Just one day," Aoki pleaded.

Takata prayed with both her hands together.

What the fuck kind of begging style is this.. normally it's the puppy eyes or prostrating that shreds your reasoning, but this is just.. it's too effective.

"Fine.."

"Great! How much is the fee?"

I turned to the girls. The three of them tilted their heads. Haha.. very cute.

"Tomorrow um.. well.." let's see, we can get on average 8 silver per expedition, so.. maybe 10 silver is a good price? It's a wonder what we spend these coins on huh? Now that I think of it, 8 silver is actually quite a bit. Clothes are just too expensive here, can't help it, "10 silver?"

"Make that 20, we have a deal," Aoki said.

20.. are these guys rich? I should really pull up the catalog for the pricing of monster materials..

Catalog? Pricing? Selling?

Hold up.

Fuck.. that's it!

Why have I never thought of that?!

"Are you alright? You spaced out there.."

"Eh.. uh.. I just got an idea for something."

"What idea?"

"You'll see soon," I sent a widget request to Unknown.

"Oh, it's here."

"It's a huge portion.."

"You ordered double size with extra cheese so yeah."

I stored Nine's sandwich into the shared inventory and messaged her. The next second, I saw the item disappear from the UI. I guess she's munching on it now.

===

Hm…

What should I do about this.. thing..

"It's following us.. isn't it?"

"Un." Liliath nodded.

I don't know how exactly Trents work but they can somehow run around the kingdom without suspecting the pedestrians. People that passed by gave it a glance and just shrugged away. Some even placed their hands together in prayer.

What the fuck.

Or maybe it's because the day is getting dark?

Oh. Yeah. You must be wondering how it got to this huh? Let me explain..

During the evening when we returned to the florist– Nine accompanying Srhro until her parent came, while the heroes left for their inn– this green marker on the map came crawling to the front of the florist.

It's like a dog. It didn't break in going all HAIYA! Yet it somehow had the audacity to infiltrate the kingdom walls.

It surprised Sid-san, Jennifer-chan and Miss Margrett– which probably did something to reinforce the fact that we're Irregulars.

So now, what Liliath and I were doing was leading this Trent back to the outside. We were approaching the west gate.

"Um.. I don't have a name for this guy, what should I call it?"

"Tea, can you leave the kingdom walls without being noticed?"

The Trent looked at Liliath, then at me.

Tea? It's expression seemed to ask.

"Yeah. Like..just go out of the kingdom like how you entered, We'll be waiting for you outside," I said.

It nodded with it's branches and crawled forwards. You could almost feel the ground rumble at each step. There are two modes of movement this guy can use, one is a tentacle-like peristaltic motion to propel itself forward– pretty eerie, so I opted for the second, which is the more normal walking mode. So this tree apparently has legs now.

Never thought in my life I'd actually say that.

Eh.. wait what..

That guy– tree– Tea just nonchalantly walked past the guards at the gate.. did they not care? Wait fuck? They're praying? Owh.. so that's what it is.. culture shock.

Good to honest– WHAT THE FUCK.

Liliath and I showed the guards our guild cards– after being warned not to stay out too long, we were let to the outside. The typical scene of the refugee camp site– with less snow this time. Bonfires created wavy shadows as Liliath and I made our way to the forest.

"Liliath, do you know why they did that?"

"That.. I'm not too sure. Perhaps it has something to do with the culture of the kingdom?"

Actually.. I think I saw Sid-san pray right before we left with the Trent.

"Hm.."

So what is it actually?

Tea looked like it was waving at us with its branches. It's quite comical when you realize it has such an old crinkly smile on its face

"Okay, look. You can't stay inside the kingdom. I don't really know what it is that you want but if it's because I'm a demon lord then just stay out here and wait for my command. I wouldn't want to bring too much attention to myself."

It nodded.

"I'll come back to meet you if anything– feel free to kill the creatures in the forest if you need something to eat."

It wiggled it's bark, and then nodded… did it just squirm?

"But don't depopulate the place.."