To Another World... with Land Mines! Volume 5 E-Book

Itsuki Mizuho

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: To Another World... with Land Mines!
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 484

Beschreibung

Once they’re done celebrating the completion of their home with a housewarming party, Nao and his friends are quick to make their next move. They head out to the east forest to earn some money, but an unexpected run-in with some unusual undead monsters means a quick change of plans—dealing with danger comes first, after all! When they hit up the Adventurers’ Guild for information, Diola-san counters with a request to exorcise a mansion that’s supposedly haunted. Nao’s party accepts the job and immediately sets out for the overgrown estate, none the wiser about what awaits them there! Even though they have a house now, a peaceful life is apparently still out of reach...

Leseprobe

Prologue

A few months had passed since we were transported to this world, and we had barely scraped together the funds for the construction of our own house before winter. However, an obstacle had appeared in our way when a mushroom disaster struck Laffan right before construction on our house was about to wrap up.

Back on Earth, fungus would only damage houses with filthy interiors. The idea of a mushroom halting construction on a house would have seemed absurd. However, from our perspective, the most unrealistic thing about the whole incident was how quickly the mushrooms had grown. Those barrash mushrooms were capable of growing in a flash to a size that was large enough to destroy a house, a fact that had surprised and frightened us. On top of that, the local lumberjacks had all been busy dealing with the large number of barrash mushrooms that had popped up across town, so construction on our house had temporarily come to a halt.

The threat that the barrash mushrooms had posed to the town was relevant to us as well, so we had accepted a quest from the Adventurers’ Guild to deal with the problem, accompanying an alchemist whose name was Riva. Luckily for us, our efforts had paid off, and the construction of our house was finished before the weather turned cold. A while after we moved into our new house, we decided to host a dinner party and invite some people who had helped us out since our arrival in this world.

“Thank you for the invitation,” said Diola.

“Th-Thank you!” Riva exclaimed.

“Welcome!”

Touya and I greeted our guests, who had both arrived more or less on time. The two of us had managed to find something to do even though we weren’t of any use in the kitchen. It’s not like we got chased out and were told we were in the way or anything!

“Diola-san, Riva, thank you for coming over today,” I said.

We had only invited Diola-san and Riva for today’s dinner party. We could have invited Aera-san and Tomi as well, but we had felt like it wouldn’t be very relaxing with too many people. Besides, today’s dinner party was a housewarming party, so we had decided to invite the two people who had directly contributed to our ability to purchase a house.

“The preparations for dinner aren’t done yet, though, so I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for a bit,” I said.

“That’s perfectly fine,” Diola replied. “I don’t have any business that I need to attend to after this, so there’s no reason to hurry.”

“Thank you for being understanding,” I said. “By the way, did the two of you come here together?”

Precise and accurate clocks didn’t exist in this world, so the idea of arriving at an event five minutes early wasn’t common sense here, and it was also difficult to pull off. That being the case, the only way for two people to arrive somewhere at the same time would be for them to meet up beforehand and then travel together to their destination.

I had assumed that must have been the case when I asked Diola-san, but she responded to me with an awkward smile. “Oh, no, I bumped into her when I arrived and saw a suspicious person hanging around out front with her head completely hidden by a hood.”

As Diola-san spoke, she glanced at the girl next to her, whose head was hanging low in embarrassment.

“Um, I’m sorry, I just felt really nervous...”

So the suspicious person was Riva, huh? Riva was wearing her usual outfit, a hooded robe. The hood wasn’t covering her face at the moment, but it must have been hidden before she entered our house.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Riva,” I said. “It’s normal to feel nervous when visiting someone’s house for the first time.”

“R-Really? What if weird rumors spread as a result of how I acted...?”

Does she mean rumors of a suspicious person loitering around a newly built house? That does kind of sound like trouble!

Diola-san chuckled. “You don’t have to worry about things like that in this part of town.”

“Huh? Why is that, Diola-san?” I asked.

“Such things aren’t unusual in this area,” Diola replied. “Some adventurers return from the field completely covered in blood, after all.”

Oh yeah, this is an area of town where the Adventurers’ Guild does middleman work. According to Diola-san, it was mostly adventurers who moved into this area of town, so the locals were used to the sight of people who looked or acted suspiciously, and it would take a lot to shock them.

“Riva-san wasn’t walking around with anything that looked like an unsheathed weapon, and she’s not that tall either, so she probably didn’t appear that suspicious by your neighbors’ standards,” said Diola.

“Really?! I’m glad to hear that!” Riva exclaimed.

Riva looked quite relieved, but I wasn’t sure if we should be happy about the fact that we had moved into a new house in what was apparently a pretty scary area.

“Well, I guess all that matters is that our neighbors won’t file any complaints,” said Touya. “More importantly, how should we kill some time?”

“Hmm. It shouldn’t take that long for the girls to finish preparations, but...”

The parlor was the room we were supposed to use for entertaining guests, but it was currently empty. There weren’t any sofas or even chairs inside, so we couldn’t entertain guests there at the moment. However, it wasn’t like we could just ask our guests to stand here in the entrance, so I was at a loss for what to do.

“Why don’t you give them a tour of our house while you’re waiting? After all, this is a housewarming party.” Haruka had appeared all of a sudden from deeper inside the house.

“Oh, Haruka, are the preparations done?” I asked.

“Almost. I came over because I’m done with my part.”

Diola-san took a step forward. “Congratulations on the completion of your house, Haruka-san. The Adventurers’ Guild wishes you continued success as adventurers here in Laffan, and I personally feel the same way.”

Since Diola-san had greeted Haruka in a proper and formal manner, Riva took advantage of the situation to greet Haruka without having to say too much. “G-Good luck...!” That difference seemed like evidence of Riva’s lack of socialization. Even so, I felt like she was acting a bit too reserved. I wanted her to feel free to drop by casually, so greetings like that weren’t really necessary at all.

“Therefore, I’ve brought some wine to commemorate this occasion,” Diola continued. “As far as I can tell, none of you imbibe regularly, so I went out of my way to procure some high-quality wine that’s smooth on the palate.”

“Um, I didn’t bring anything that special with me, but...” As Diola-san presented a small cask, apparently full of wine, Riva handed over a cloth bag that seemed to contain all sorts of things.

Haruka smiled awkwardly when she saw the gifts. “Um, this is just a small dinner party, so there was no need for either of you to bring any gifts...”

Diola-san chuckled. “Not bringing a gift to a housewarming party wasn’t an option for me.”

Riva vigorously nodded. “Yeah, exactly! That’s why I prepared this set of alchemist tools!” Immediately after speaking, her ears drooped and she looked apologetic. “Um, well, actually, since I don’t have that much spare money, these are my old tools that I don’t use anymore...”

“Don’t worry about it, Riva,” said Haruka. “I really appreciate this gift. Thank you.”

Haruka smiled as she took the cloth bag from Riva. It was probably a genuine smile, not one she was forcing out of a desire to be considerate. Haruka had some alchemist tools already, but only a few, since she wasn’t a professional alchemist by any means. According to Haruka, it was actually quite difficult to assemble a complete set in Laffan; there wasn’t that much demand for such tools. With that in mind, Haruka was probably happy to receive even secondhand tools that had belonged to a professional alchemist.

“I’m glad to hear that,” said Riva. “I really don’t have that much money, so...”

“Hm? Didn’t you earn a lot of money from the mushroom disaster?” Touya asked.

Riva timidly denied his suggestion. “O-Oh, no, the mushroom withering medicine isn’t something that sells for a lot of money.”

“Really?” asked Touya, looking confused. “I was sure something like that would sell for a lot. Wait, does the Adventurers’ Guild pocket the profits?”

“No, it doesn’t!” Diola exclaimed. “The Adventurers’ Guild is mostly an impartial organization!”

Although Diola-san had firmly denied Touya’s allegations when he gave her a look of doubt, the word “mostly” had slipped out. Honestly, it made sense to me: we had gotten preferential treatment to a certain extent, so you couldn’t claim that the Adventurers’ Guild was absolutely fair and impartial.

“One thing I can say for certain is that the guild doesn’t try to make a huge profit from incidents like mushroom disasters—and neither does the guild take a cut of the reward from people who cooperate to resolve such incidents!” Diola exclaimed.

“Mm, doing so would incur resentment and grudges,” said Haruka.

“Correct. And in any case, there are better methods of making a profit if needed,” said Diola. “The Guild took its standard commission out of the quest bounty for the mushroom withering medicine, and the remainder was distributed to Riva-san for her work and to you for escorting her.”

According to Diola-san, the remaining mushroom withering medicine had been sold at a fair price, so Riva had earned slightly more than usual from her role. Actually, wait, what did Diola-san mean by “better methods of making a profit”? I guess it’s the right mentality to have if you’re on the management staff of an organization like the Guild. Diola-san’s probably quite competent at her job.

“You went out of your way to bring a gift over despite your financial troubles, Riva?” I asked. “Sorry about that.”

“O-Oh, it’s fine. Like I said earlier, the tools are ones that I don’t use anymore...”

Riva sounded quite modest and reserved, but I felt like there was a chance that she had lost out on some potential income by giving us these tools. In this world, secondhand goods were a bigger part of the market, and most of them sold just fine, including worn-out clothes. In fact, if there were secondhand goods available, ordinary citizens would always check them before buying new. With that in mind, Riva’s secondhand alchemist tools would probably have fetched a decent price if she’d sold them. However, she had kept those tools until now, and I figured there must have been some reason for that.

I tried my best to think of something that we could give to Riva in return, and I remembered something Riva had said before. “Oh yeah, Riva, you mentioned that you like kuttoes, right? We told you that you can come over to our house whenever you want and harvest some, so would you like to bring some home with you today?”

“Um, are you sure about this?” Riva asked.

“Yeah, feel free to gather as many as you want,” I replied. “It’s not like we can eat them all by ourselves, and they’re not worth that much on the market either.”

Kuttoes could last for quite a long time if preserved, but there was no reason for us to stock up on them; they would grow back by next year. This was a fairly cheap gift to give in return for the secondhand alchemist tools, but Riva would probably have hesitated to accept anything more expensive, so it was probably the right choice.

“I-In that case, I’ll take you up on that offer.” Riva smiled, seeming slightly embarrassed. “I already finished eating the kuttoes that I harvested the other day, after all.”

Oh, she already ate all of them? She picked up quite a lot back in the forest. I guess she really likes the taste.

“All right, Nao, Touya, can you give Diola-san and Riva a tour around our house?” Haruka asked. “I’ll put away these gifts while you’re at it.”

“Sure. Let’s start with the second floor,” I said. “Well, it’s just our rooms on the second floor, so...”

Our rooms were located to the left at the head of the stairs leading up from the entrance hall; the rooms to the right were technically guest rooms but were currently empty. Those rooms had no beds and no blankets in them, so we couldn’t use them to accommodate guests yet.

“Yeah, that’s all there is to the second floor,” said Touya. “I guess we can show you our rooms, since there’s no point showing the empty ones.”

“In that case, let’s start with my room,” I said. “There’s nothing interesting to see inside, however.”

“U-Um, this will be my first time entering a boy’s room!” Riva exclaimed.

I had decided to start with my room since I couldn’t show the girls’ rooms without their permission, but Riva seemed a bit nervous when she heard that.

Diola-san smiled at Riva’s reaction. “Oh, that’s such a fresh and innocent reaction. I remember those da—”

“D-Do you have a lot of experience with these thin—eep!”

“Now then, I wonder what Nao-san’s room looks like.”

A nervous scream had escaped from Riva’s mouth even though Diola-san had merely glanced at her, and Diola-san maintained a smile as she dodged the subject with ease. I was honestly quite impressed by the fact that Riva had been brave enough to throw that kind of question at a single woman who was approaching middle age. Riva probably hadn’t meant any harm, but it was practically like prodding one of Diola-san’s anger buttons.

As someone who prioritized safety above all, I made sure to remain silent as I led the two of them to my room. However, the only things inside were a bed and a wooden box that I used as a storage chest. There were no curtains in the windows, so as I had mentioned earlier, there really wasn’t anything interesting to see. I hadn’t had any particular preferences about the curtains, but the girls rejected my nonchalant attitude in a way that was gentle but also weirdly threatening. When they insisted that it wouldn’t look good if the curtains didn’t match, given that our windows were all visible from the front of the house, I couldn’t really object. In the end, the girls had decided to purchase cloth in order to make some curtains themselves. Their rooms had priority, so my windows probably wouldn’t have curtains for quite a while. As a result, if I had to describe my room, then...

“Um, this room looks quite drea—”

“This looks like a simple, tidy, and practical room,” said Diola.

“Y-Yeah, that’s just what I was about to say!” Riva exclaimed.

Diola-san’s choice of words was quite good. Riva had tried to go along with Diola-san’s description, but her actual impression of my room was fairly obvious.

“You don’t have to hold back! We were living at an inn before now, after all,” I said. “We could have filled our rooms with furniture right away if we’d wanted to, but we decided that it’d be better to take our time and save up to purchase high-quality ones.”

The first item of furniture that I wanted to purchase was a rocking chair. I’d really liked the one that I discovered at the exhibition hall.

“That’s a great idea—high-quality furniture can last for a very long time,” said Diola. “The bed here is quite simple, but it also appears quite well made.”

“Um, the view from this window is quite nice too!” Riva exclaimed.

Riva, you don’t have to force yourself to find something to praise about my room. The view from my window was decent, since it was on the second story, but all that you could see from here was our unkempt yard and the cluttered townscape. In any case, unlike back on Earth, there wasn’t anything in my room that I wouldn’t want people to see. Actually, wait, hold on. There were multiple magic bags inside of the wooden chest, and while it would be hard to figure that out at a glance, Riva was an alchemist, so...

“O-Okay, let’s get going. There’s nothing else to see here,” I said. I casually walked in front of the wooden chest and gently pushed Riva on her back to urge her to get going.

Her ears trembled a little in confusion. “Hm? Nao-san, what’s the rush?”

I smiled as I dangled a figurative carrot in front of Riva. “Well, I thought that if we finish the tour sooner, I could help you gather some kuttoes...”

She took the bait just like a real rabbit. “Oh, will you help me out?! Let’s hurry, then! Next up is the first floor, right?”

Riva happily walked out of my room. Diola-san followed, but she gave a pointed chuckle as she passed by me. It’s not what you think it is, Diola-san! I can’t actually explain myself, but still!

On top of that, Touya also walked over to whisper something to me. “Hey, Nao, where did you manage to buy those kinds of things in this world?”

Et tu, Touya?! I didn’t snitch on you to the girls about the things we discussed that we had to keep secret from them, and you have the gall to suspect me of such things?!

“Touya, meet me behind the school building later,” I said.

“Huh?! Why?! Also, where do you mean by school building?!”

I lightly punched Touya in the ribs while he was confused and then exited my room and led the way back down to the first floor. I showed Riva and Diola-san the rooms on the right side of the house, including the one that was going to be our bathroom and the two empty rooms that we hadn’t decided for sure what to do with. After that, we headed towards the alchemy room. Haruka was at work with her back to the door, but the moment we entered the room, she turned towards us.

“Oh, are you already done with your tour of the second floor?” Haruka asked.

“Yeah, there wasn’t much to show,” I replied. “Diola-san, Riva, this is our alchemy room.”

“Well, it’s an alchemy room in name only,” said Haruka. “However, it looks a lot better now with the tools that you gave us, Riva.”

The room hadn’t looked anywhere close to an alchemy room until earlier this morning, but it had some more tools in it now—presumably the alchemy tools that Riva had given Haruka. The tools looked a bit old, but they also made the room seem like a lot of alchemy had been performed here.

“I’m glad to hear that my tools will be of use,” said Riva.

“Mm, I’ll make the most of them,” said Haruka. “What’s left to show? Is it just the sewing room?”

“Yeah, since preparations are still underway in the kitchen and dining room,” I replied.

There were other rooms that we hadn’t shown them, such as the toilet, along with the empty parlor and living room, but there was no need for us to show those for now.

“All right, let’s all go to the room next to this one,” said Haruka. “In a way, it’s the room that’s the most complete currently.”

Diola-san had a slightly perplexed look on her face after Haruka suggested that we head over to the sewing room. “Oh, did you set aside an entire room just for sewing, Haruka-san? I’m aware of your proficiency at the art of sewing from the backpacks that you’ve made, but...”

“Mm, it’s because we have plenty of spare rooms,” Haruka replied. “In addition, sewing takes up a lot of space.”

“Oh, indeed. I suppose it’s convenient to set aside a room for sewing if you do have the space,” said Diola.

“Yep. Now then, this is our sewing room.”

When we entered the room, the first thing that came into view was the table in the middle of the room, which was large enough that I could have spread out and fallen asleep on it if I’d wanted to. Laying on it were some unfinished curtains. There were also some shelves against the walls that had different types of cloth and leather stored in them, plus plenty of clothes lined up on hangers that hadn’t been finished yet. The only things that were missing from the sewing room were tools like sewing machines and dress forms.

Riva looked very surprised when she saw the inside of our sewing room. “I-I didn’t expect this room to be so large in scale. There are so many cute clothes in here...”

“Making your own clothes is cheaper than buying them, after all,” said Haruka. “If we make them ourselves, we can also design them the way we want.”

Diola-san, standing next to the two of them, sighed at Haruka’s words. “That only applies to people who don’t need to buy secondhand clothes, Haruka-san.”

“Yeah, secondhand clothes are cheaper than the amount of cloth needed to make a new pair of clothes,” said Riva.

“Really? If you purchase the materials in bulk, I think it’s cheaper than some secondhand clothes—at least clothes that are in good condition,” said Haruka.

The girls had purchased enough materials to make clothes and curtains for all five of us. Haruka was an expert at negotiation, so she probably wasn’t lying about the materials being cheap—for her.

“Hmm. Riva, if you don’t mind, we can make you some clothes,” said Haruka.

“Huh? O-Oh, um, you don’t have to do that...” Riva hesitantly shook her head, but she continued to glance at the nearby clothes on hangers, so, as usual, her true feelings were quite obvious.

“Don’t worry about it, Riva. I’m sure Natsuki and Yuki would be more than happy to make some clothes for you,” said Haruka. “Honestly speaking, I think your current clothes look quite dull and unfashionable.”

Haruka was smiling as she harshly criticized Riva’s clothes, but she was completely right. Even Diola-san had described Riva earlier as someone who looked quite suspicious.

Riva must have been somewhat aware of the problem; she let her shoulders drop in a disheartened way. “Ugh, I mean, I don’t have much of a choice when it comes to clothes that I can completely cover myself with. Well, also, there’s a benefit to this kind of outfit, you know? Looking a bit suspicious actually makes people trust you more as an alchemist. Well, probably.”

“Just probably?!” Touya exclaimed.

“Eep!” Riva flinched and hunched her shoulders up when Touya suddenly barged into the conversation, then finished what she’d been saying, looking at us with puppy dog eyes the whole time. “U-Um, yeah, it’s quite effective. People don’t ask me unnecessary questions when I’m wearing this kind of outfit.”

I had a feeling that the kind of effect she had mentioned wasn’t actually a good thing for business.

“W-Well, let’s put that aside and talk about your new clothes,” said Haruka. “Do you have any plans for today?”

“Oh, um, I was just planning to gather some kuttoes while waiting for dinner to be ready,” said Riva.

“Sure, feel free to do that,” said Haruka. “What about you, Diola-san?”

“I’ll help out with the kutto gathering,” said Diola. “Riva-san played an essential role in resolving the mushroom disaster, after all.”

“Thank you very much!” Riva exclaimed. She clenched her fists as though to pump herself up and then muttered, “I need to gather enough to last a year...”

The rest of us were moved almost to tears when we realized the implication behind Riva’s words, so we all ended up helping her gather kuttoes until Yuki came outside to tell us that dinner was ready.

★★★★★★★★★

“Thank you for coming to celebrate the completion of our fabulous and amazing dream house!” Touya exclaimed.

“Don’t say it like that, Touya!” I exclaimed. “You make it sound like our house is an uncomfortable one that only looks good on the outside and might fall to ruin after just a few years!”

I had jabbed back at Touya almost involuntarily, but very few people would actually understand why I had felt uneasy about his words, and naturally, Riva wasn’t one of them.

“Why’s that? I think this is a great dream house,” said Riva. “Plus, it has a large yard.”

“Don’t worry about it, Riva. It’s just one of Nao’s delusions,” said Haruka. “Besides, this house was built with practicality prioritized above all, so it’s nothing like luxury houses that are designed without any care for how comfortable they’ll be for their occupants.”

“Yeah, exactly, and construction wrapped up fairly quickly as a result,” said Yuki. “Well, maybe there was too much of a focus on practicality...”

“Mm, our house is shaped almost like a rectangular box!” Touya chuckled.

There was nothing playful or unnecessary about the design of our house, and it had been built with a focus on ease of maintenance, durability, and comfortable living. However, the final result was something that looked quite complete.

“I’m honestly happy with how our house turned out,” I said. “Riva also praised our house just now. Right, Riva?”

“Yeah. It doesn’t have to be this large, but I’d love to own a house like this with a yard someday if possible,” said Riva.

“Oh! You can make that dream come true right away if you just mar—”

“I-I’m sorry, no thanks.”

Riva had promptly rejected Touya’s proposal, and his ears drooped in sadness when his hopes got dashed. “I got rejected instantly...”

“Boo, Touya! Read the room, dude!” Yuki exclaimed. “Your wife isn’t anywhere around!”

“Ugh! Can’t a man dream about having a chance...?”

“Nope. You’ll never have a chance if you just try asking recklessly without first changing yourself as a person,” said Natsuki.

After Yuki and Natsuki bashed him, Touya looked to me for help, but I shook my head in response to indicate that I couldn’t back him up in this situation. If he was serious about wanting to marry Riva, then there was a proper way to go about getting her attention, and proposing in a joking manner definitely wasn’t it. In any case, even if Touya wanted to test the waters to see if he had any chance with her, this wasn’t the place. He was lucky that Yuki had jumped in right away and made fun of him to make it sound like it was all just banter, but there was still a chance that Riva, as our guest, felt quite awkward due to his words.

“From my point of view, Touya-san is a decent prospect as a partner in marriage, but compatibility is also important,” said Diola.

“Mm. Nao, can you take over the opening remarks from this inconsiderate and insensitive dude over here?” Haruka asked.

“Me? Err...”

Haruka had probably removed Touya from the role so that Riva wouldn’t feel awkward about having turned him down, but I wasn’t prepared for this at all. However, I had no choice but to do my best.

“We’ve finally managed to obtain a house thanks to the contributions of everyone here, including Diola-san and Riva. We’ve gotten into some dangerous situations from time to time, but we’ve come this far without any serious missteps or problems because we’ve been careful with the work and quests that we take on,” I said. “And that being the case, we’ll continue to work hard from now on. Last but not least, I’d like to thank the girls for providing the delicious dishes tonight. Cheers!”

Everyone exclaimed “Cheers!” in unison after I had finished.

I took a sip from the cup that I had raised in the air just now, and a sweet, fruity grape taste filled my mouth along with a fragrant smell. “Whoa, this tastes delicious. This is the wine that you brought over, right, Diola-san? Thank you for this high-quality wine.”

“Don’t worry about it. Oh, also, this is an easy drinking wine, so each of you will have to take care about the amount that you drink,” said Diola.

“Yeah, I’ll be careful,” I said. “Now then, time to try out the food.”

The large table in front of us was filled with delicious dishes that the girls had worked very hard to make, including our standby—orc meat—along with the fish, crabs, and shrimp that we had caught the other day, so there was a lot of variety on offer. Up to this point, we’d only been able to cook these ingredients by boiling or grilling them with salt, but they had tasted amazing even given that we didn’t have access to a proper space for cooking.

With that limitation now removed, I was curious and excited to find out how good these dishes would taste. However, of all the dishes in front of me, one in particular caught my attention. It was a squarish object about three centimeters thick. Its surface was grilled to a nice golden brown, and it looked quite similar to a large hanpen fish cake. I approached it to take a sniff, and my nose was instantly filled with the rich smell of butter.

“That’s sautéed barrash mushroom,” said Natsuki. “We made it from a chunk of raw mushroom. The normal way to eat them is by drying them before consumption. Feel free to take a scoop with this spoon.”

“Oh, this is from those giant mushrooms? Let’s see. Whoa, it’s so soft and tender...”

I took a scoop with the spoon Natsuki offered me, and the fluffy sautéed mushroom gave no resistance to the utensil. I raised the spoon to my mouth, and the dense umami of the mushrooms mixed with the rich butter to create an explosive, fragrant flavor inside of my mouth.

“Delicious!” I exclaimed.

Diola-san blinked a bit; she seemed quite impressed by the dish. “This dish was made from barrash mushrooms? I didn’t expect it to be quite this good.”

Riva had a look of bliss on her face as she held a hand to her cheek while tasting the sauté. “I-It’s so good...”

Haruka and Yuki had probably had a taste of the dish earlier, since they didn’t seem surprised at all, but they looked like they were quite satisfied too. As for Touya, he remained silent as he shoveled his portion into his mouth.

“Did you make this dish, Natsuki?” I asked. “I’m really amazed.”

“It’s the main ingredient that’s amazing. I merely cooked it with salted butter and kutto oil,” said Natsuki. “All I had to do was to make sure not to burn it while it was frying.”

“Oh, is this fragrant flavor from kuttoes?”

“Oil extracted from kuttoes is said to be one of the relatively easy ones to obtain here in Laffan,” said Diola. “One thing I can say for sure is that it’s much easier to obtain than butter.”

“It’s still not cheap, though...”

Riva was the one who had muttered that last comment, but she seemed like someone who would hesitate to spend money on snacks, so kuttoes probably weren’t actually that expensive. Man, I really feel bad for her...

“However, it takes skill to make ingredients taste delicious just by frying them,” said Diola. “This was probably your first time using this ingredient, after all.”

“Is this also the first time that you’ve had a dish made from barrash mushrooms, Diola-san?” Natsuki asked.

“Yes. Giant barrash mushrooms are completely different from normal ones. It’s forbidden to cultivate barrash mushrooms in this area, and raw ones go bad quite quickly, after just a few days,” said Diola. “I wanted to try some, but I was too busy dealing with the aftermath of the mushroom disaster. Natsuki-san, how did you preser—oh, right, the magic bags.”

“Mm, I bought some barrash mushroom while it was still being sold on the market,” said Natsuki. “It was quite expensive, though, so I didn’t buy very much.”

“Oh, yeah, it really was,” said Riva. “I couldn’t afford to buy any even though I worked hard to help resolve the incident...”

“The mushrooms are that expensive?”

I turned towards Natsuki when I asked that question, and she paused in thought for a bit, looking up in the air, before nodding in response. “Think of the barrash mushrooms as being similar to high-grade wagyu beef. I only bought some because we’re celebrating.”

It sounded like it was a price we could afford, but one that was still exorbitant given that it was for just one ingredient.

“I think it’s perfectly fine to splurge for an occasion like this. This might sound a bit imprudent, but barrash mushrooms are a delicacy that can only be eaten during the short period after a mushroom disaster has occurred, and such incidents only occur once in a few decades,” said Diola. “In a way, it’s like a luxury that you can only enjoy once in a lifetime.”

“Once in a lifetime? I guess that kind of makes sense,” I said.

Mushroom disasters were something that it would normally be better to prevent from happening in the first place, especially since our house was located here in Laffan. With that in mind, if the authorities succeeded in preventing such incidents, then we would never get another chance to eat giant barrash mushrooms. Should I take my time and savor the taste of these mushrooms while I can?

However, before I could follow up on the thought that had popped into my mind, one of the other people at the table had already finished his portion.

“Whew. This barrash mushroom sauté was delicious, but it wasn’t very filling,” said Touya. “I’d rather have something else as a main dish.”

Touya had the biggest appetite of any of us, and it seemed that Yuki had predicted his reaction, because she handed him another dish.

“Don’t worry, we prepared plenty of orc steak as well,” said Yuki.

“Hell yeah, now this is what I’m talking about!” Touya exclaimed. “A meal isn’t complete without meat!”

After Touya began eating, Yuki continued adding more pieces of meat to his plate. She also recommended some of the meat dishes to Riva. “Feel free to eat as much as you want, Riva. We made a lot for tonight’s party, but we’re all light eaters.”

“Sure, thank you,” said Riva. “I’m more interested in the fish dishes, though...”

“You can eat as much of those as you want too,” said Yuki. “I’ll make more for you if there’s not enough. After all, I’m your big sis!”

“O-Oh, I’m not capable of eating so mu—big sis...?”

Riva cocked her head in confusion when she heard Yuki’s nonsense, and Haruka gave an exasperated sigh when she saw what was going on. “Yuki, don’t try to force that idea of yours onto Riva. Look, she’s really confused by what you just said.”

“Ugh, my plan got busted! I tried my best to be nonchalant about it, and yet...”

There was nothing nonchalant about how you approached it, Yuki. In fact, your intentions were really obvious.

“Honestly, Yuki, I think you’re a better fit for someone’s little sister,” I said.

“Oh, come on! I want to evolve into a reliable big sis character!” Yuki exclaimed.

“That probably isn’t possible for you, Yuki,” said Natsuki. “Especially not with your height. But there’s nothing wrong with that, since you’re cute as you are.”

“I refuse to accept discrimination based on physical features!” Yuki exclaimed. “There’s an age limit to how long cuteness can last for a girl!”

Yuki didn’t seem happy about our comments, but her own words sounded like ones that could easily make her some enemies. In fact, Riva looked like she was somewhat hurt by Yuki’s words, since she was cute and older than us, and the oldest “girl” here had a slightly scary smile on her face.

“Yuki-san, would you care to explain how your words might apply to me?” Diola asked.

That oldest “girl” placed one of her hands on Yuki’s shoulder, and Yuki froze up. “O-Oh, I believe you have the wrong idea! You’re more the beautiful type of girl, so this isn’t really relevant to you, ha ha...”

“Hee hee, if you say so. That’s obvious flattery, but I’ll accept it,” said Diola.

Some spooky conversations like that happened at intervals throughout the dinner party, but it was peaceful for the most part. However, shortly after Riva got full and stopped eating, things took a weird turn.

“Aha ha ha! We’re the owners of our own house now! Yay, yay! Aha ha ha!” Yuki exclaimed.

“...Yuki, are you drunk?” I asked.

Yuki looked like she was enjoying herself quite a lot—she was spinning around and laughing—but I was a bit spooked. She did seem like she’d be a giggly drunk, but I couldn’t detect any trace of restraint in her.

“Me? Drunk? No way! How could I get drunk on this stuff? It tastes like juice! Aha ha!”

“I see. In any case, drink some water as well. Okay?”

“Aha ha! Water tastes delicious as well, yay!”

I poured some water into an empty cup and handed it over to Yuki, and she happily drank the whole thing. I had heard before that dehydration would result in a hangover, and one cup probably wasn’t enough. Meanwhile, Haruka had suddenly appeared out of nowhere at my right side—she must have dragged her chair over next to mine. On top of that, she was clinging to me, so it was kind of hard for me to move my right arm.

“Haruka, it’s hard for me to eat like this...”

“Really, now? In that case, I’ll feed you. Here, open your mouth.”

Haruka used a fork to stab a shrimp, still in its shell, and raised it to my mouth. I bit into the shrimp after I realized I had no choice in the matter, and Haruka smiled at me as I continued eating. She sounded more or less the same as usual, but I was fairly sure that she was at least somewhat drunk because she usually wouldn’t do things like this in public. In fact, her long elf ears were flushed completely red.

“Are you okay, Natsuki?” I asked.

“Mm. However, I think this wine has high alcohol content despite being easy to drink.”

Natsuki was sitting directly across from me, and she swirled the wine in the cup in her hand as she replied to me. Her cheeks were slightly flushed and her eyes were a bit watery, but she probably wasn’t lying about being okay; she sounded just fine. After all, Natsuki probably had the highest alcohol tolerance of any of us, since she had skills like Poison Resistance and Robust. Touya was supposed to be resistant to the effects of alcohol as well, since he had a decently high level for his Robust skill, but he was lying on the floor with his belly up in the air and snoring. However, that was probably because he was totally stuffed rather than because of the alcohol.

As for why I was relatively sober, it was because I hadn’t drunk much of the wine. I had been battling some crabs one-on-one, so I wasn’t actually strong against alcohol. I probably didn’t have to worry about Riva, since she was sleeping in Yuki’s room. Diola-san looked the same as usual, although she had consumed a decent amount of wine herself, and seemed like she was having fun observing the rest of us.

“Diola-san, don’t tell me...”

“Oh, do you not remember? I did warn all of you earlier to take care with the amount that you drank.”

Diola-san was smiling, but I had a feeling that her intentions weren’t completely innocent, since she had chosen this kind of wine even knowing that we weren’t used to alcohol.

It seemed like Diola-san had picked up on my skepticism; she continued what she was saying while tilting her cup. “However, if I had to say something, then I’d say the Adventurers’ Guild is willing to turn a blind eye to a certain extent when it comes to useful and competent adventurers—as long as those adventurers aren’t criminals.”

Since Haruka was clinging to my arm, I could feel nervous tension steal over her body when she heard Diola-san’s words, and I carefully observed Diola-san’s face as I attempted to confirm her intentions.

“...What do you mean by that?” I asked.

“Oh, I’m not trying to imply anything. All I’m trying to say is that adventurers who make a positive contribution and bring in profit are important to the guild,” Diola replied. “The guild has no intention of prying into the private lives of such adventurers if they don’t want to reveal their circumstances. In addition, conversations at night over drinks are conversations that everyone forgets after a good night’s sleep.”

Diola-san didn’t seem bothered by the fact that I was feeling very cautious and wary. She continued to smile, then shook her head.

Chapter 1—How to Live Our Lives

Instead of going right back to work, we spent the day after our housewarming party getting our house set up. Natsuki was assigned to finish the curtains while Haruka, Yuki, and I were assigned to craft magic bags in the shape of cupboards so that we could use them to store freshly made food. The cupboards ended up being of great help to the girls; they wouldn’t need to spend so much time preparing meals in the future. That didn’t extend to Touya or me, since no one, myself included, had any desire to eat meals cooked by the two of us. Back on modern-day Earth, anyone could make do even if they were bad at cooking thanks to the existence of things like prepackaged food and condiments, like mentsuyu and barbecue sauce, that were good on anything, but that wasn’t the case in this world.

As for Touya, since he couldn’t contribute as much to the crafting work as the rest of us, he was assigned the task of cleaning up the unkempt yard as well as a little blacksmithing. His Blacksmithing skill wasn’t yet advanced enough to make good weapons or armor for us, but it was still useful for other purposes. While he was practicing, he used a shack in the corner of our yard as his forge and made some pots and kettles for us.

The last thing we worked on was getting our bathroom ready to use. Haruka was in charge of making a magical device that could create hot water for the bath, Natsuki was in charge of sewing bath towels and mats, and Touya was in charge of making some floor grates, doing the best he could as an amateur. As for Yuki and me, we were assigned the task of preparing a bathtub.

“Now then, let’s find Simon-san and place an—”

“I don’t think we’re expected to go to him, Yuki,” I said.

The two of us probably wouldn’t have been assigned this task if all we had to do was place an order with Simon-san. In addition, there was a good chance that if we placed an order with Simon-san for a wooden container capable of holding a lot of water, he would just end up giving us something like a huge barrel.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, Nao. We probably have to make one with Earth magic, huh?”

“Most likely, yeah. There’s the option of placing an order with Tomi for a metal bathtub, but...”

If Tomi were working with white iron, which was resistant to rust, it would probably take him forever to complete a bathtub, so it wasn’t a realistic option.

“You’ve made some dice before with Earth Magic, right? Show me what you’ve got, Nao! I believe in you!” Yuki exclaimed.

“So you’re telling me to give it a shot? I mean, sure, I guess. First I’ll try making a bowl-sized scale model of a bathtub.”

My abilities with Earth Magic had developed quite a lot since I had tried making those dice. In fact, I had made both the shack that Touya was using as his forge and the furnace inside of it, so a bowl-sized bathtub shouldn’t be hard at all. I went along with Yuki’s flattery and managed to create a miniature bathtub in no time. However...

“Is it just me, or does this look a bit dirty?” Yuki asked.

“Come on, don’t call it dirty. I think it’s actually quite refined! You know, like Bizen ware,” I said. “In fact, I bet an appraiser would describe this as fine pottery.”

I was trying my best to justify the result of my magic, but the brown miniature bowl that I’d made from the nearby earth did have a rough surface. It also didn’t look especially clean, which wouldn’t be a problem if we were going to use it as something like a jar but wasn’t acceptable for a bathtub. It probably wouldn’t actually leak, but if someone had asked me whether I’d like to take a bath in it, even I would have hesitated to say yes.

“Hmm, nah, a bathtub like this would do all kinds of damage to my beautiful skin!” Yuki exclaimed.

“Your skin must be almost as hard as steel now, Yuki,” I said.

“Please! Let’s see if you can still say that after touching my soft cheeks! Come on, do it!”

Yuki approached me while pointing to her cheeks, and I pushed her away. “Okay, okay! I get it, I’ll polish the surface!” I held up the bowl again, but she still didn’t look happy.

“No, this won’t do! I want a high-quality bathtub—something that looks like white pottery! You know, like the bathtubs with legs that appear in Western movies!”

“Those are porcelain bathtubs, aren’t they? Are you telling me to go gather porcelain and use that to make a bathtub, Yuki?”

“No, silly. Earth Magic has the spell Create Earth, so if you give it your best shot, I bet you can create something with the ideal composition.”

Create Earth was a spell that would usually just create regular soil, but if Yuki was right about it being possible to adjust the mineral composition, then...

“...Quartz and sericite are similar to porcelain, right?” I asked.

“Yeah, and so is feldspar. However, I think the key thing to focus on is what those materials are composed of,” said Yuki. “Quartz is made of silicon dioxide, right? What about sericite?”

“Are you seriously asking me that, Yuki? I think it’s partially aluminum, but I don’t really remember,” I said.

This wasn’t something to be proud of at all, but my grades at school back on Earth had been worse than any of the girls’. My knowledge of random trivia was okay, but Yuki probably knew much more than I did about things like chemical formulas.

“Aluminum is used in refractory bricks, right? Those are whitish, so maybe it could work for this.”

“Haruka or Natsuki might know the answer,” I said. “Also, do we actually need sericite? It’s not like we’re going to bake pottery, right?”

Even if we fortified and hardened stones and shaped them into a bathtub, the end result wouldn’t be porcelain. Based on my first attempt at making a bathtub with Earth Magic, it seemed like it was possible thanks to the nature of magic, but the most important consideration here was the vitreous surface.

“Hmm. Are you saying you could make a bathtub just out of quartz? That’d be a crystal bath, which actually sounds kinda nice!” Yuki exclaimed.

To me, that sounds like something that the nouveau riche would enjoy, but I guess whatever works, as long as you’re happy about it, Yuki.

Yuki smiled as she pumped herself up about that idea. “If I recall correctly, silica sand is what we need for silicon dioxide. All right, it’s time for my Create Earth to shine! Create Earth!”

The result of Yuki’s Create Earth was a small mountain of white sand appearing on the ground—barely enough to scoop up with two hands.

“Whoa, success?!”

It seemed like Yuki hadn’t really believed in herself; she looked quite surprised as she scooped up some of the sand and inspected it to see if it was actually silica sand. I scooped up some as well. I had no idea how to tell if it was actually silica sand—I had never seen any in person before—but it looked like it. Wait, hold on. If this is silicon dioxide, then wouldn’t it be possible to create other metallic elements as well? Perhaps it’s possible as long as it’s something that can exist in stable form inside of the earth, such as iron oxide for iron or bauxite for aluminum. If that’s the case, then...

I hesitantly asked Yuki about the idea that had popped into my mind. “Hey, Yuki, do you think you can make something like gold with the Create Earth spell?”

Yuki’s eyes went wide when she heard my question. “Uh, I’m not sure. Gold can be found inside of earth, so it technically should be possible, but if it were that easy to make gold, this would be like the alchemy that people dreamed of in the past, so...”

“Yeah, I figured. There’s no way it’d be that easy, ha ha!”

“Mm, Earth mages would all be rich if that were possible, ha ha!”

Yuki and I looked at each other and continued chuckling for a bit, then put on more serious expressions and nodded.

“However, it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try, right?” Yuki asked.

“Yeah, why not? It’s like how you can’t win the lottery without buying a ticket,” I said.

“Mm. All right, here goes! Create Earth!”

Even though it was just a gamble, Yuki sounded very motivated when she chanted the spell, but her face suddenly twitched and turned pale.

“Cancel, cancel! Th-This is really dangerous!” Yuki exclaimed

Yuki feebly shook her head and started to collapse to the ground, but I hastily caught her. “A-Are you okay, Yuki?!”

“Kinda, but I feel really exhausted,” Yuki replied. “Nao, lend me your lap...”

“Sure, I don’t mind. Oh, do you want me to take you back to your room?”

“Nah, I’ll be fine if I just rest for a bit. Whew.”

I let Yuki use my lap as a pillow and wiped the sweat from her brow—probably the result of a sudden large expenditure of mana. I knew all about that; I had also experienced how uncomfortable it was a couple of times in the past. Excess mana consumption wouldn’t cause a mage to faint or pass out, but that was only because the mage would become too weak to maintain their magic, so it was still quite painful. A mage would probably pass out if they managed to withstand the weakness and continue using magic, but that wasn’t normally possible for most mages.

“All right, I feel a bit better now. I guess it didn’t work out,” said Yuki. “I think the amount of mana consumed by the spell scales with the rarity of the elements produced.”

“Oh, so it’s like trying to extract some specific material from the earth created by the spell? With that in mind, if we take the rarity of gold into account, then...”

Yuki’s face had recovered a little color. She looked up at me with a bitter smile. “Mm, I would probably need thousands of times more mana than the amount that I used to create silica sand in order to create the same quantity of gold.”

Even if we’d dug up one ton of earth in this vicinity and then tried to extract gold from it, we probably wouldn’t even have obtained an amount that was visible to the naked eye. If the same principle applied to the earth produced by the Create Earth spell, then we probably couldn’t obtain any gold even if we used enough mana to create one ton of earth.

“I guess it was too good to be true,” I said. “Oh well.”

“Yeah, I bet someone’s already tried this before, since magic is normal in this world,” said Yuki.

On a side note, I learned at a later time that the amount of gold within the earth was about a few hundred millionths of the amount of silica sand. That being the case, if Yuki’s theory was correct, then the amount of mana required to create gold would be a few hundred million times more than the amount required to create silica sand. If a mage wanted to earn money with Earth Magic, that amount of mana could be put to better use in construction work.

“Well, in any case, all that matters is that we can create silica sand with the Create Earth spell!” Yuki exclaimed. “Time to make som—”

I pushed Yuki’s shoulders back down before she could get up. “You still feel exhausted, right? Feel free to lie down and rest for a bit. I’ll try to make something with this silica sand while you’re resting.”

“Well, okay, I’ll take you up on that offer.”

I let one of my hands hover over the mountain of silica sand. “Hmm...”

“What’s wrong?”

“It actually feels harder to make something with this silica sand than with regular earth.”

I used more mana on my second attempt and made a bowl-shaped object out of the silica sand, but...

“Uh, this looks kind of white and cloudy,” said Yuki.

“Maybe it’s because I lack the necessary expertise,” I said. “I can’t really call this crystalline.”

The bowl felt like glass to the touch, but its color was a milky white that was only slightly translucent, so it wasn’t anywhere close to the image of a crystal bowl I’d had in mind.

“Hmm, maybe it’s because the silica sand that I made wasn’t very pure,” said Yuki. “Well, I think this is fine for the purpose of making a bathtub. Besides, a completely transparent bathtub would be kind of awkward, you know?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right about that,” I said.

A transparent bathtub sounded like something they’d use in some kind of TV variety show, maybe filled with boiling water. From a practical standpoint, a bathtub that others couldn’t see through was better, so this result was actually okay.

“Well, next up is to figure out how much silica sand we need for an actual bathtub,” I said.

The silica sand that Yuki had created was almost all gone after I’d made the bowl. The bowl itself was normal in size, with a capacity of somewhat less than one and a half liters.

“Hmm. If we assume the bathtub will have a simple box shape, and the capacity of the bathtub needs to be a thousand times the capacity of this bowl, then I think the walls need to be a hundred times thicker,” said Yuki.

“That sounds like the size of a large bath,” I said. “However, that’s only if the walls all have the same thickness, right?”

“Mm, that’s another factor to consider,” said Yuki. “I’d like the walls to be at least ten centimeters thick—or even double, just to be safe.”

“Yeah, I agree. This bowl already seems pretty durable as is, though,” I said.

When I flicked the bowl with my finger, a hard and clear sound vibrated through the air, but I had no idea about its actual durability. If we took into account all sorts of factors, such as our current level of expertise, the stability of the shape, and the durability of the silica sand when solidified through the use of magic, then it was probably a good idea to play it safe for the entire process.

“The bowl’s about five millimeters thick, so the final bathtub should be at least two thousand times thicker,” said Yuki. “However, if we want to be safe, then four thousand times would be better.”

“Yeah, the bathtub could scale to an unbelieva-bowl size depending on the shape, ha ha!”

“That’s not a funny pun at all, Nao! Ugh, I can’t believe this...”

“You can’t believe how good my pun was?” I asked.

“No, that’s not it! Also, just so you know, I put a lot of effort in earlier when I made the silica sand!” Yuki exclaimed.

“Mm, I could tell how serious you were when you said it was time for your Create Earth to shine,” I said.

“Yeah, I did my best, but I can’t believe how far away our bathtub goal is if I have to perform the same feat a few thousand times!” Yuki exclaimed.

Yuki started to roar and groan like a tiger about the hard work ahead of us, so I tried to calm her down. “Relax, I’m sure the amount of silica sand that you can make through Create Earth will increase once you get used to it. I’ll help you out as well.”

“I’m counting on you, Nao,” said Yuki. “It still won’t be easy, though...”

We both looked at the small bowl and sighed in unison. We ended up spending the next few days creating silica sand while asking the others about considerations like size and shape in order to reach an agreement about the kind of bathtub that would satisfy everyone’s requests. The final plan that we came up with was for a much larger bathtub than we had initially planned, but over time, Yuki and I had become more efficient at our work, and we succeeded in creating a bathtub. Around the same time, Haruka also completed the magical device for creating hot bathwater, so we were all able to enjoy a proper bath for the first time in several months.

“Hey, everyone, gather around for a bit,” said Haruka. “I want to discuss our plans for the near future.”

On the day after our bathtub had been completed, Haruka gathered all of us for a meeting.

“Oh, is it time to get back to work?” I asked. “We’re more or less done with setting up our house for now, and we’ve taken a lot of days off.”

“I’m down for work again,” said Touya. “I didn’t slack off on training, but I’ve been feeling a bit out of shape recently.”

Touya had a smile on his face and seemed quite motivated to get back to work. We still had a decent amount of savings left, but I felt somewhat uneasy about not working, since we didn’t have anyone that would take care of us in this world if something happened to us.