Chapter 75
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”Ugh…”
The next morning.
When I woke up in the still dim light, I found that the mini tomatoes I had planted had grown to a size that could be harvested overnight.
I had chosen mini tomatoes so I could see their growth clearly, but with this speed, I could have used leafy vegetables and still noticed their growth.
In the planter, there was a water bottle set up to automatically water the plants, and about one-third of the water was gone.
I had planted 3 seeds, so was all the water that had decreased necessary for all the mini tomatoes?
As for the speed of growth… even if I cut the tall grass in the 4th District’s meadow, it would return to its original height after a while. If that rapid growth affects the mini tomatoes, it might explain their growth too.
However, these mini tomatoes are growing in the planter and aren’t even touching the ground…
Well, I’ll think about this after trying it with another vegetable.
The real question is whether they are safe to eat.
If I can harvest them quickly but can’t eat them, it’s pointless.
I can’t test it on someone else, so maybe I could try it on a monster along the way… but I can’t communicate with them, and unless they react dramatically, I wouldn’t know if something was wrong.
That means… I have to try it myself.
Thinking this, I used my magic to create an “antidote.”
This is what made me willing to try it myself.
Well, if something goes wrong, I could fly to the “Silver Orchid” base and ask the Cleric there for healing magic.
If Ferris wants beef jerky in the future, she could just pay for it with healing magic.
Alright.
I pick one of the red mini tomatoes.
The toxicity found in the stems, leaves, and calyx of the fruit seems to also exist in the fruit itself, but it was common knowledge that it disappears once fully ripened.
This is a story from my past life, but… if it’s this red, it should be fine, right?
The antidote is in a small glass bottle without a label. I don’t think it existed in my past life, but like the healing potion I made long ago, it consumed quite a bit of magical power, so it should be effective, and I shouldn’t have to worry.
So, I remove the calyx from the mini tomato, lightly wipe its surface, and take a small bite.
Mmm…
With that sound, a nice sourness and a hint of sweetness spread in my mouth. I chew a few times, but nothing unusual happens.
If there was enough toxicity to cause poisoning, my tongue would tingle or something… but it’s just a delicious mini tomato.
While keeping an eye out for any signs of poisoning, I finish packing up the tent and wait a bit, but nothing seems off.
For now, I eat everything I started and gather all the fully ripened mini tomatoes, placing them in a small box stuffed with a cushioned towel.
Hmm, it’s possible that I just happened to be okay… Alright, I’ll say I found them in the dungeon and take them to “Hooters.”
They might have ways to investigate things there, and Ms. Wendy also said to bring her anything I find.
I’ve never eaten tomatoes in this world, but… well, even if they didn’t exist here, something like “unknown fruit” found in a dungeon could be accepted.
At least for now, it doesn’t seem dangerous, and I think they’ll check it out normally.
Even if they want more of these mini tomatoes after investigating, since they were found in a dungeon, they could just give up if another chance doesn’t come and I don’t worry about growing them.
Thinking about that, I decided to have rice balls for breakfast instead of anything else, since I thought eating anything other than mini tomatoes might affect my investigation. After that, I rinsed my mouth with mouthwash and finished getting ready.
Now, what to do about the mini tomatoes and the planter?
I think I heard that tomatoes can bear fruit for several years depending on the climate.
So, if I leave them alone, they might bear fruit again.
However, since this happened overnight, there’s a chance they could over-ripen and drop their fruit in a couple of days.
To check on that, I decided to add water and liquid fertilizer to the mini tomato growing set and place it in the center of the mountaintop.
Well… even if they grow too much, they’re just mini tomatoes, so it shouldn’t be dangerous.
That’s fine for the mini tomatoes, but I see a lot of people gathered in front of the “Golden Lion” base in the distance.
There are quite a few carts, so that must be the transport team planning to return to the city today.
With that many people, their progress will be slow, and I don’t want to be seen as trying to hitch a ride, so I’ll leave before them.
With that, I transformed into “Mose” and became invisible, heading down from the mountaintop with the rickshaw.
…
…..
After returning to the 2nd District without any issues, I decided to earn magic stones here until sunset.
Of course, this is for the delivery to “Hooters” via Ms. Monoka’s orphanage.
The last batch I brought was sorted pretty quickly, and since there’s no deadline for the orphanage to deliver to “Hooters,” having too much shouldn’t be a problem.
Thinking that, I decided to aim for about double the amount I earned last time.
If I do it alone, I can clean the magic stones using water created with my magic, so I should be able to finish faster than if I let Iris and the others do it.
Alright, let’s do this.
As I hunted the detected monsters and collected magic stones smoothly…
*Swish, swish, swish…*
*Clatter, clatter, clatter…*
*Rustle, rustle, rustle…*
After a while, I heard a lot of footsteps and voices coming from a distance.
There’s a strong reaction of a large number of magic stones, so it must be the “Golden Lion” transport team.
Even though their progress is slow, they should be taking the shortest route according to the map, so it’s not surprising they made it back here before noon.
In this 2nd District, following them wouldn’t be seen as hitching a ride, but I still plan to earn more, so I’ll stay away from their return route.
After confirming that the “Golden Lion” transport team moved away toward the 1st District, I continued gathering magic stones while taking breaks.
* * *
*Rustle, rustle, rustle…*
When I exited the dungeon, there were many young adventurers in the square, but surprisingly, there were few women who should be serving them.
As I looked around, noticing how unusual it was, one of the adventurers called out to me.
He looked around 20 years old, but since he had just returned from the dungeon, he had a somewhat tired expression.
”Hm? What’s up? Can’t find the girl you’re looking for?”
’Not exactly, but I thought there were fewer than usual.’
”You just come to this city? When the big company that went deep into the dungeon comes back, all the girls go to sell themselves there.”
’Ah… They probably look like they’re making good money.’
In simple terms, peope just came back from working away, so it makes sense to go sell themselves since they pay better.
The man nodded and looked at my cart.
”Yeah. Well, looking at that cart, depending on the number of people, it seems like you could make some money too…”
’Something like that, I guess. I just got back from the 4th District.’
”Huh, didn’t you just come to this city?”
’That’s true.’
”So that means… you were practicing somewhere before you came here?”
’Well, something like that.’
When I was in the forest, I could say it was a training period.
So, after I answered like that, the man let out a light sigh.
”Phew, I’m glad we didn’t get into a weird conversation. I almost introduced you to some cheap girls from outside town.”
’Outside town? Oh, you mean that place really close to this city?’
”Yeah, that’s the one. The service there isn’t great, but it’s cheap and you can get ‘a lot’.”
I remember that outside town was across a branch of the river that flows into this city.
I heard people talking about it while waiting in line to enter this city.
’Hmm… I don’t plan on going there for now.’
”Well, if you’re making money, that makes sense. Thanks to the river, there aren’t many dirty people, but a lot of them can’t stay here because they can’t pay taxes. The food and girls are cheap, but they keep asking for money, so if you can’t enjoy that back-and-forth, it’s better not to go.”
The man shrugged and replied like that, then turned to leave… but suddenly remembered something, turned back, and said quietly while looking around cautiously.
”Ah, right. I just got back from the 4th District, and there’s this big company called ‘Gem Snake.’ They’ve been acting weird since yesterday, so be careful not to get involved with them.”
’Weird acting?’
”Yeah. How should I put it… They were never really good people, but now they seem even less careful. Especially with women. Until now, they were scared of the ‘Murder Princess’ and kept their distance.”
So that means… something happened that made them not fear Ferris anymore.
I heard similar things at the ‘Silver Orchid’ base.
If that’s the case, it might affect ‘Silver Orchid’ too. If I have time, I should check out the ‘Silver Orchid’ office and the ‘Silver Orchid Inn.’
Even if something urgent is happening, I can get to the 4th District quickly.
As I think about this, the man tries to leave again.
”Well, since the situation is like this, getting involved with them could lead to trouble. If you act like you have money, they might swarm around you, so be careful.”
’Oh, okay. Thank you.’
The man raised one hand lightly in response to my words and left through the crowd.
He probably wanted to introduce me to ‘a woman he was selling’, but since he wasn’t pitching to a big company, maybe he had some kind of problem.
Well, even if I was interested in women, I wasn’t desperate, so I would have turned it down anyway.
But after giving up on introducing me to that woman, he still warned me about ‘Gem Snake,’ so he must have been a good person.
Hmm, I should try to remember him if I can.
…
……
After finishing that scene, I headed to the orphanage and pulled the string connected to the gate to ring the bell.
After waiting a bit, the front door of the orphanage opened, and Nero peeked out from the gap.
She’s one of the kids from the orphanage, and even though she has a blank expression, she’s quite the bold girl who claims to be my servant, including in a physical sense.
”!”
Seeing me, she quickly stepped out from the entrance and rushed over to the gate.
I called out to Nero, who had come close to the gate.
’Hey, here again today…’
”!?”
*Swish, bang, rustle.*
I pointed at the cart to let her know I brought magic stones today, but Nero, who had come close, suddenly hit the brakes and backed away like a character from a fighting game.
Not understanding why, I asked her.
’Huh? What’s wrong?’
”…Who?”
’Who? It’s Mose.’
”Wrong.”
’Wrong? What do you mean?’
”Your voice.”
’Voice? …Oh!’
Now that I think about it, the last time I came here, I was pretending not to be able to talk.
I had been writing notes, and since Nero didn’t know my voice, she was on guard.
Realizing this, I tried to explain how I could talk now, but Nero shook her head.
”Wrong.”
’Wrong? I just explained the situation, right?’
”That’s not it.”
’Not it? What do you mean?’
Even after explaining how I could talk, Nero continued to be cautious, so I asked her to explain again, and this is the answer I got.
”I heard Mose’s voice the last time he came.”
’What!? That can’t be… In what situation did you hear it?’
”When we tried to eavesdrop in the reception room and got caught.”
’………Ah!?’
Now, I remembered.
I was in the reception room with Ms. Monoka, and Nero and 2 others were probably eavesdropping, thinking we were up to something inappropriate.
At that time, we were just having a discussion, but right after that, they collapsed into the reception room, and Ms. Monoka scolded them.
Until just before Nero and the others entered the room, I had been showing my real face, but I managed to turn into “Mose” just in time when they appeared.
However… maybe because I felt relieved that I could hide my identity, I was calmly soothing an angry Ms. Monoka, and afterward, I was casually talking about Nero’s job request and turning her down.
So, Nero must have thought that my voice was different and that I could be someone else.
My Magic Armor has a somewhat unique design, but if it’s just about looking similar, it wouldn’t be impossible to replicate.
That means… I have no choice but to show my real voice.
Thinking that, I switched the voice changer back to my magic power and called out to the cautious Nero in my real voice.
”It’s me, can you hear me?”
”!?”
*Thud, rustle.*
I looked around, making sure that no one outside would realize that “Mose” was actually “Koji,” so I kept my voice pretty quiet… but it seemed that Nero heard me clearly, as she quickly came right in front of me.
”I heard your voice. But… what does this mean?”
”Well…”
Since Nero came closer again, it seemed she recognized that the current voice was “Mose’s,” but naturally, that leads to the question of what the voice from earlier was.
Well… I’ve told Iris and Ms. Monoka, so it’s not a secret I haven’t shared with anyone.
Somewhere, there are people who know about voice changers and might try to target them, but basically, it’s something I always have on me, and at other times, I return it to my magic power.
Even if someone keeps trying to go after it, I can just make it look like the voice changer broke and disappeared in front of everyone.
Just like when I made the “invisibility magic item” disappear in front of Ferris and the others.
So, if she can promise not to tell anyone, I might be able to share it with her…
”Can you really keep it a secret?”
”I can, I can.”
”…”
Nero nodded eagerly, as if saying, “Just tell me already.”
I felt a bit uneasy about her, but I knew we wouldn’t get anywhere if I didn’t continue.
I explained that the voice changer is a magic item, and by having Ms. Monoka confirm it, I was finally able to enter the orphanage.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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