BXBX NOVEL Chapter 346
Edited by Gumihou and Onionpi
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“Let’s just go to a dungeon!”
It was the day after our barbecue party. Fer finally lost his temper and barked his demand at me, as usual.
What was not so usual was having Dora-chan and dear Sui ganging up with Fer against me.
[6] “”Dungeon! Let’s go to a dungeon!!”
[6] “”Dungeon~~ Dungeon~~!””
How unfair, 3 vs 1 with three dungeon fanatics against a peace-loving person like me.
[8] Haahhh... I guess for them, it’s like going to a theme park of sorts?
Even though dungeons were usually places where Adventurers pit their lives against the odds for profit.
[9]
“Fine, we’ll go to a dungeon,” I sighed.
“Alright, let’s go to Brixt,”
“Absolutely not!”
“Why not? It’s a fun dungeon,” said Fer grumpily. “Also, I’d never been to a tower dungeon.”
“It’s... it’s far away...” I tried.
“So what? Bet I could get there in a week.”
“It’s too dange-” I stopped myself in time. Words like ‘dangerous’, ‘deadly’ and ‘horrific’ would only fan this bloodthirsty beast’s excitement. “...it’s tedious, there are too many floors.”
“Those Adventurer friends of yours gave you a teleport stone, didn’t they? A reusable one, so let’s go.”
...why is it that this Fenrir has such good memory when it comes to dungeons? [5]
While it’s true that I received a reusable teleport stone for the 30th floor of Brixt’s Tower Dungeon, I still don’t want to go to a difficult dungeon! [5] Especially one that was rumoured to be even more difficult than Doran or Avering! [5]
However, refusing outright was too difficult even for me, therefore I have to go for a compromise.
“What don’t we try the Rosendal dungeon first? You know, the meat dungeon?” [5] I suggested. “I heard that you can even get meat that can’t be found anywhere else.”
“Muu, the meat dungeon?” Fer has a contemplative look on his face.
“”Boo, that’s a boring dungeon.””
“”Meat? Sui can try new meat from dungeon?””
“Not only that, the city next to it developed a great restaurant business with a great variety of delicious food!” I encouraged.
“Hmm...”
“”I heard that it’s only 12 levels...but I guess that’s fine if we could get good stuff from it.””
“”Sui wants to try special dungeon meats~!””
Success!
[9]
Anyway, it turned out that Rosendal was quite far from Carelina. It would take a long time by carriage but I do have Fer with me so the journey would not be quite as long.
[10]
That afternoon, I gathered my staff around and made my announcement.
“I’ll be going to Rosendal, so please take care of the mansion for me,” I said.
The commoner families looked a little uneasy so I added, “I’ll pay everyone three months of salary in advance, so there’s no need to worry about my absence. Alright?”
Everyone looked relieved. I hope they won’t spend everything in one go.
“Speaking of which, I have a special job for Costi-kun,”
“Y-yes? Mukouda-san?”
“You can read and write, right?”
“Yes, I attended the free school at church and can do arithmetic too!” he said enthusiastically.
“Right, so I want to you take charge of managing the inventory for our soap, shampoo and other wholesale items.”
“Me?”
“Well, it’s going to be difficult but I’m asking you to do it because I’m sure you’re the right person for it!”
“I’ll do my best!”
“Very good, for your enthusiasm, here’s a stationery set. This is a pencil, an eraser if you make mistakes and this is a notebook where you can make notes.”
Celia-chan and the rest of the children were looking at Costi-kun enviously so an idea popped into my head.
“Tabasa, you can read, write and do calculations too, right?”
“To a certain extent... is there something you wish me to do, Mukouda-san?”
“How about teaching the children how to read and write? And arithmetic of course.”
“Eeh? Me? Teach?”
“Yes. Tabasa, you are very good at taking care of people. So, I’m sure you will make a fine teacher.”
“Me? A teacher?”
“Naturally, as a teacher, you will receive separate remunerations for a job that’s outside your job descriptions. Learning how to read and write will be good for the children’s future.”
“The children’s future...” suddenly, Tabasa looked very resolute. “I have no idea if I will do a good job, but I will do my best to teach them well!”
[5] “E-excuse me, I have a request...”
It was Peter. He was usually very quiet but today he spoke up.
“I-I would like to learn how to read too. I can’t read the mission objectives at the Adventurer’s Guild and sometimes I get into trouble for not properly fulfilling the mission...”
“I heard about incidents like this,” said Tabasa. “That’s why I was determined to learn how to read. You could get someone to read the missions for you but sometimes they play tricks and you end up fulfilling the wrong objectives and failing the mission completely.”
“That sounds terrible,” I said.
“Yes, it’s difficult to tell from a person’s face whether they are sincere or not,” said Luke.
“Yeah, if you point out that they calculated wrongly they would say ‘Oh, my bad, I made a mistake, sorry~’ as though that makes it better,” continued Irvine.
“Exactly, and that’s why you two should help Costi-kun out whenever he needs assistance with his inventory work. In fact, the two of you should study with everyone!”
“Whaaat!”
“Whyyy!” [5]
“You two are good at counting money but can barely read or write. Your writing is like chicken scratch. So take the opportunity to study and don’t you dare complain!”
The two looked like cowed tiger cubs before their fierce sister.
“U-Uhmm...” this time, it was Toni who raised his voice. “Can I also join in the lessons?”
“Hm? Toni?”
“Um, if that’s the case, the rest of us...” Alban put up his hand shyly.
“The rest of you too?”
“Well, we could write our names but that’s about it,” said Aiya. “I can count money though, but can’t read or write.”
“Same here,” murmured Teresa.
“But, aren’t the church-sponsored schools free?”
“It’s free now,” said Tony. “When I first heard about it I quickly registered Costi to the school so that he could have a better start in life. However, most decent schools are usually reserved for nobilities or wealthy merchants...”
“Free schools don’t cost money but they do cost a lot of time. The hours devoted to learning reading, writing and arithmetic could take up hours. We wanted Celia to learn too but when Aiya fell sick...”
“On our side, only the village chief and his son could read and write,” said Alban.
“Our place is too remote even for a church and farming is a very labour intensive work, so we can’t spare anyone to go and study...”
“Because we can’t read or write, whenever the village head tells us something or shows us documents on contracts, we have no idea whether he’s telling the truth or not.”
Hm? Sounds like there’s a story behind this.
However, that’s all in the past.
“Is that so? Well, anyone who wants to learn, regardless of their age should strive to improve themselves. Tabasa, I’m afraid your workload may have increased due to the number of people, but I’d like you to accept this challenge.”
“Of course, I’m happy to help,” said Tabasa. “I’d received a lot of guidance from them too.”
The adults looked ecstatic at the opportunity to learn how to read and write.
“As for the one who’s pretending that this has nothing to do with anything, Bartel, you’ll be helping out too! I know that you must be educated, especially at that age!” [7] Tabasa snapped suddenly.
“Wh-why should I? I never taught anyone before!” Bartel countered quickly.
“It’s the same for me. I have never taught anyone before, but it’s our duty now!”
“Impossible [5]!”
While the quarrel was happening, I calmly opened up [Net Super] and bought something from it. They were still quarrelling when I crack the top open and poured some of its contents into a glass. [5]
[10]
“Have this first, Bartel,” I said, handing the glass filled with tea-coloured liquid to him.
“Is this liquor? Why would you suddenly- never mind, bottoms up! [5]” Bartel threw the liquid back in a second and his eyes snapped open.
“Wh-what’s this-”
Fuhahaha, it’s my secret weapon against dwarves.
Reasonably priced Japanese whiskey [11] in a square glass bottle. It also played a role in successfully convincing a dwarf to make my wonderful BBQ stove.
“How about receiving this as remuneration instead of money?”
Bartel’s eyes suddenly changed.
“You’ll pay me with this delicious liquor? I’ll do it! Whatever it is I’ll do it!”
Yes, that’s one dwarf in my pocket.
“Hey, um, is that liquor really that good?”
Luke and Irvine had inched over [6] to stare at the bottle of whiskey in my hand.
“Would you like to try it?”
At the eager nods, I poured a bit of whiskey into two cups and handed them to the twins.
Gulp.
[6] Ah, imitating Bartel may not be the best-
“W-woah! Wha- my throat’s burning!!!”
“Ughh, th-this is too strong-”
Looks like the twins can’t take it.
“Heh, this liquor has plenty of alcohol which makes it good. It also has a unique aroma and flavour. This is easily the best I ever had!”
“Only dwarves could drink this thing,” [7] Luke recoiled.
“That’s right, that’s right!” [7] Irvine nodded fiercely on the side.
“Hah, I’m fine being the only one to drink this. I get to have this wonderful liquor all to myself!”
“Alright,” I said, interrupting the argument before it could degenerate into blows. “Bartel’s remuneration shall be a bottle of this.”
“Umu, I’m fine being paid in liquor.”
“How about two bottles per month?”
“That’s a bit low, try again,”
“Three then,”
“Mukouda-san, that is still a bit low.”
“No, I won’t go higher than that. Three bottles a month. It’s in keeping with everyone else’s reward.”
Bartel was understandably a little disappointed, but he was soon cheered up by the prospect of getting to drink that delicious whiskey again and his frown turned upside down.
“Ah, one other thing, Mukouda-san. If we are all occupied with studying, what should we do about security [5]?”
“Aa, that’s alright. I will be making arrangements for that, so don’t worry,” I said.
“Oh?”
[4] “To be honest, I have been thinking about using magic tools to strengthen the security around the place. The Guild Master was kind enough to give me some information about defensive magical tools. I will have some installed before leaving for our journey.”
“I see, that’s good to hear,” said Tabasa.
“Well then, now that everything has been settled. I shall have to make some preparation for my Rosendal trip. I’ll depend on everyone to maintain this place!”
“Ou!”
On that note, I prepared the same set of stationery as Costi-kun for everyone before the meeting finally dispersed.
[Gumihou: Gumi is too lazy to mark [8]. [9], [10] every other paragraph but please understand that major changes had been made.]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Creative Licence Taken – Added Detail because reasons
[9] Turning flat sentences into active dialogues, also delete dialogues which basically rehashes everything back in chapter 281.
[10] Dialogue and text arrangement to make the ‘Let’s start learning!’ arc to make it smoother and less plastic
[11] Reasonably priced Japanese whiskey – probably the Suntory Toki