Dream Life Vol II Chapter 40.1: “A New Companion?”

　We headed for the Adventurer’s Guild. The reason for this was to have Beatrice Laval, a beastfolk spearman, take a look at Sharon’s abilities, and today Beatrice, Liddy, Sharon, and I had decided to go into the forest together.

　Sharon seemed a little nervous after hearing Beatrice’s story, but when I told her that she was not a bad person, she nodded honestly, and at least she no longer looked anxious.

　While we were waiting in front of the guild, Beatrice came in, dressed in leather armor.

　When she saw Sharon, she said, “Little missy,” and crouched down in front of Sharon.

　The move frightened Sharon into a hiss, and Beatrice looked a little sad and apologized to Sharon.

“I thought it would be okay because Zack wasn’t scared… I’m sorry. I’m aware that I look scary…” (Beatrice)

　I put my hand on Sharon’s shoulder and turned to Beatrice.

“Scary? Who said that? Hey, Sharon. You were just surprised, weren’t you?” (Zack)

　Sharon gives a small nod at my words and bows her head, saying to Beatrice, “I’m sorry.”

　Beatrice looked at me with an expression of not knowing what to say.

“I think Beatrice is beautiful. She’s just big but not scary.” (Zack)

　I said what I honestly thought, but she slapped me on the back and said, “Don’t make fun of a grown-up.” I coughed, almost falling on my knees, but Liddy turned away, “I’m not letting you play forever,” she grumbled.

　I apologized and asked Beatrice what her plans were for the day.

　Beatrice made a serious face, as if to cover up her earlier clumsiness.

“Today we’re going to see what Sharon can do. It’s not that I don’t believe what Zack says, but I have to see it with my own eyes. So today we’ll hunt in close quarters.” (Beatrice)

　Beatrice’s plan was to search for monsters mainly in nearby areas with relatively little danger, and if she felt she was worthy of guardianship after seeing her abilities, she would return to the guild to complete the registration procedures.

　Apparently, she was uneasy when she saw Sharon’s appearance.

　Certainly, the ladylike Sharon would not be considered a force to be reckoned with based on her looks. But I secretly thought that Beatrice was in for another surprise today.

　We headed north from the guild into the forest, and after an hour or so, we spotted about a dozen Killer Hornets flying around, a formidable opponent for Sharon and I. The bees were flying in two dozen directions ahead of us.

　They were about 20 meters in front of us, trying to pass from left to right, but since we spotted them first, they didn’t notice us.

　I smiled at Beatrice and told her that she was just the right person. She looked incredulous and said, “You know what? We’ll see,” she whispered, “We are dealing with a Killer Hornet.”

“I guess it would be dangerous for ordinary adventurers, but for the three of us, they’re just sitting ducks.” (Zack)

　Beatrice still looked like she wanted to say something, but she seemed to have decided that me and Liddy could handle ten Killer Hornets.

　I whispered to Sharon, “Let’s go with [Tornado of Blades – Tornado Slasher].”

　She nodded in agreement.

　We got up and both started chanting the [Tornado Slasher] spell.

　Killer Hornet noticed us standing up and came toward us with a buzzing sound of its wings.

“O Wentus, God of Wind, who commands all the winds in the world. Grant me thy raging tornado, of wildly dancing blades, I offer the power of mine life to thee as payment. Come forth! Tornado of blades, Tornado Slasher.” (Zack)

　As soon as Sharon and I finished chanting the spell at the same time, two small tornadoes, each about two meters in diameter, appeared in the forest. The tornadoes were heading toward the Killer Hornets, whipping up grass and leaves.

　The bees instinctively sensed the danger and tried to avoid the tornadoes by splitting to the left and right. But that was the expected move. When my tornado veered to the right and Sharon’s to the left, the bees had nowhere to go.

　An intelligent monster would probably change direction and run away, but an insect-type monster, driven by instinct, would come at me at full speed, trying to escape the edge of the tornado. This was a habit of this monster that I had noticed after several battles.

　As the bees approached the tornado, they were pulled in one by one and cut into pieces by the wind blades. In the end, none of the ten Killer Hornets could make it through the tornado. After about 30 seconds, the tornado dissipated, and Sharon and I retrieved the magic stones while putting a stop to the Killer Hornets.

　After finishing retrieving the magic stone, we joined Beatrice and Liddy. There I found Beatrice frozen in place with a stunned look on her face.

　When I said, “Sharon’s ability is pretty good, too, isn’t it?” Beatrice said in a hushed voice,

“Yes, you’re right, she’s better than the average magician.” (Beatrice)

　Beatrice, who was still in a state of shock, followed up with, “Well, then, I you can register.” She simply nodded.

　Once back in town, we headed to the Adventurer’s Guild to register Sharon as an adventurer.

　As I was about to register Sharon, Tina, the receptionist, reported to me about Terry’s violent behavior yesterday. I wasn’t really interested, but since I was supposed to be the one who filed the complaint, I decided to listen to the report just in case.

　The summary of the report was as follows.

　Terry, who actually went on a rampage, was fitted with a slave collar and fined 1,000 Crona (about 1 million yen). The fine will be deducted from his remuneration, and he will continue to wear the collar until he pays it off. The slave collar is a magical tool that inflicts pain if the slave does not comply with orders and is generally used to prevent the slave from disobeying. This time Terry puts it on, but he does not fall into slavery. He says it is to force the victim with the collar to prevent further damage to the victim due to recrimination. Of course, drinking, which is the cause of this incident, is also forbidden by the collar until it is paid off.

　As for the members of Terry’s party, all of them who were there were collared in the same way, and they were required to abstain from drinking for three months and pay a fine of 20% of their remuneration during that period.

　I heard that half of the fine will be given to me, the victim, but honestly, I don’t care because I wasn’t harmed. However, I agree with the idea of punishing those who can’t drink clean, so I will take it gratefully.

　This time, since it was not a fight between adventurers but an ordinary guest, a child at that, no actual damage was done, but I was punished quite severely.

　A fine of only one million yen for attempted bodily injury seems a bit light, but since Terry, the assailant, was a young man of the seventh rank, he was only punished to this extent.

　However, the punishment was only this small because Terry, the assailant, is a young man of the seventh rank. Of course, the higher the rank, the harsher the punishment. If you are a fourth rank or above, which is considered first class, you are immediately expelled from the guild and fined a large sum of money. Of course, if a person kills or seriously injures another, he or she is reduced to a criminal slave, regardless of rank. This is not limited to the Adventurers’ Guild, though.

　After Tina told me about Terry and his party, I registered Sharon. After that, I put out ten magic stones of Killer Hornet, a seventh-rank equivalent of a monster, at the counter, and had them complete the request completion procedures for me and Sharon.

　Strictly speaking, this was before Sharon registered with the Adventurers’ Guild, so strictly speaking, it could not be counted as a completed request. However, here in Doctus, we are special in that we can count them as completed requests because we can accept them after the fact. Of course, it is impossible to count the results of a defeat that is too old, but if there is a time gap of a day or so, the request can be accepted.

　As a result, Sharon and I were promoted to the ninth rank.

　After that, the four of us went into the forest again and hunted monsters.

　With the addition of Beatrice, our party’s fighting ability increased dramatically. Especially now that there were two vanguards, my workload was considerably reduced.

　Beatrice’s combat ability, however, was only a fraction of what I had seen at the training ground. She can easily manipulate a spear with a long spearhead at will and cut down both small monsters with a halberd or glaive-like slashing attack. Against larger monsters, she would pierce the vital spot with an accurate thrust.

　Even the Rock Boar with its high defense, which we three alone would have had a lot of trouble, was killed with just one blow.

　When I asked him about his level on the way home, I found out that he was a level 51 spearman.

　Thinking that I could not win even if I stood gave everything I have and more, we decided to celebrate my and Sharon’s registration as adventurers and our meeting with Beatrice with the last Rock Boar we had defeated as our main dish.

　Around 3:00 p.m., we returned to town, sold the magic stone at the guild, and went home.

　We invited Beatrice to our house, and Sharon, the homemaker of the house, began her work in a great hurry.

　Liddy goes to buy bread, liquor, etc., and Beatrice dismantles the boar.

　As for me, I was using my magical powers to fill the bath and make ice while the water was boiling.

(As expected, it’s hard to heat a bath by myself after being in the forest. I’d better just put the water in the night before. Then I wouldn’t have to use so much magic power…) (Zack)

　When I finished heating the bath, Beatrice finished dismantling the Rock Boar and brought a chunk of meat into the kitchen.

“It wasn’t that big, but you’ll have quite a bit of meat left over. What are you going to do with it?” (Beatrice)

　The Rock Boar she had killed was a small one, weighing about a hundred kilograms. We roughly cut it up in the woods and discarded the parts we didn’t need, but we still got quite a bit of meat.

　We often give away our surplus meat to our neighbors, so I asked her to cut it up into pieces for us to give to our neighbors.

　We kept about 20 kg of the ribs, shoulders, and thighs for us, and went to distribute the rest to our neighbors.

　We distributed the meat to several houses, mainly to our neighbors, Mr. Litorf and Mr. Novello, and in return they gave us fruit, smoked meat, and stew in a pot.

　Somehow, I went back to my house, smiling, thinking it was just like the old Japanese neighborhood.