BXBX NOVEL Volume 1, Snippet
Volume 1, Snippet
Translator: Mii
Editor: Weasalopes
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Extra Chapter (1)
1. The First Job
「There are so many jobs to choose, eh……」
「Higashi-kun, which one will you choose?」
「Right……」
For the time being, as they are making the makeshift weapon, they are deciding the plans for now on. The first thing Hiroshi and Haruna do in the morning is to go to the Adventurers’ Association Wulls’ east entrance branch, and then choosing a job from a large quantity of requests on a bulletin board.
The content of the posted written requests cover a lot of jobs, from monster suppression to investigation of accidents, recruitment as merchants’ guards, recruitment as a part-timer laborer or waitress, deliveries, gathering trash, to jobs that doesn’t seem to be requests for adventurers: to become a subject of an experiment or helper. Each of them lacks uniformity.
「First, how about sorting them out?」
「Right. Which one should we eliminate?」
「First, of course we should disregard jobs with high demands.」
With that, they crossed out most of the request there.
「Next, since this is our first day, we have to exclude the jobs with high chance of starting a battle. And the jobs that make us have to go out too.」
They examine the bulletin board for these sorts of requests thoroughly, and exclude them from the list of jobs they will take.
「After that, we should exclude requests with unrealistically high rewards, requests which don’t have the requester’s name, and offers which are unclear. Other than that, we can take the other jobs left. But, we should avoid delivery jobs, since we don’t know the places here.」
「Then, I’ll take this job.」
「You’ve decided? …Oi, you choose another weird offer again, don’t you?」
The offer which Hiroshi chose is cleaning the road and the public sites. The offer is from the Adventurers’ Association. Although the commission fee is surprisingly low, you can say that the risk of the job is close to none.
「With this job, I think I will be able to make some connections with strangers.」
「I see. Then, I think this one should be okay for me.」
「Application as temporary waitress, huh. Both of us are tryin’ to avoid adventurer jobs alike, eh?」
「It’s safety first, you know」
Hiroshi nods with a wry smile towards Haruna’s words. First of all, they tear off the request tag and go to the receptionist desk.
「Ann-san, we will take these, please」
「I understand. …Both of you are choosing the job with low risk again, huh?」
「We don’t really know a lot of things, so we should only do the job we can do and understand!」
Those are the words that the people who want to be an adventurer won’t think, truly such solid remarks. Ann only makes a strained laugh, and starts to explain the job details. Next to us is a young boy who seemingly is also a beginner just like us. It looks like he’s going to accept a request with an unrealistically high reward like what Haruna was excluding at the beginning.
「…Is that job going to be okay?」
「What do you mean by “okay”…?」
「From what I saw, the reward for the request is unrealistically high from the usual market price though… 」
「……I can’t really say anything about that. The Adventurers’ Association also won’t be able to check closely the reward for all of the requests, so…」
Even the Adventurers’ Association isn’t omniscient. With the amount of the request everyday, it can’t be helped that there will be some strange requests. But then, for the request that is clearly a crime, they will of course be eliminated from the moment they are brought in. The unconfirmed request will generally also be put on-hold, and several people will discuss together to generally sort all of them out.
Since all of the requests are mixed in together, you can say that the adventurers have to take the responsibility on their own. There are also some requests with false accusation inside of them, but the association will deal with those kind of problematic requests.
They don’t know what kind of request the beginner will take, but since it looks kind of shady, they would much rather avoid it.
「Now that you said it, there are also a lot of other weird requests though…」
「I have no comment regarding that matter.」
After hearing those words, Hiroshi and Haruna that are getting a wind of something important vowed that they will definitely never touch jobs that are too good to be true.
「…Even for a simple task of picking up rubbish, you sure are slow, eh?」
「I’m sorry……」
Ann unconsciously stares and throws cold words at Hiroshi, who takes a long time until he finally returned back.
「Then, what’s the trouble here?」
「I’m getting involved in a fight with gangsters, and then got interrogated at the police station.」
He answers subtly, making the other adventurers who heard his words filled with silence.
「…What actually happened to you to get into that kind of situation?」
「When I was throwing the trash, suddenly five gangsters come towards me and asked me to pay the fee, or something like that…」
「So, you didn’t want to pay it?」
「Well, if I pay like how they want me to, I have to spend the amount of the reward, so… 」
With Hiroshi’s answer that sounds so cheap, the atmosphere becomes even more complicated.
「Then, you didn’t fight with them?」
「There’s no way, right? I just let them hit me there.」
Ann’s heart unconsciously retorted, “Oi! Adventurer!” Even though he said that he let them hit him there and he also doesn’t seem to be injured, there’s no way that a person who killed a berserk bear could be injured from some gangsters’ attack.
「In the first place, why didn’t you fight them back?」
「Their faces are scary, and there are also other reasons, but…」
Hiroshi starts to make a lot of excuses when she asked about why he wants to become an adventurer in the first place. The contents are simple, he said that it might be legally wrong to strike them back, since they are more unskillful than him. Also, the fee might be actually something he should pay, so he just let them do what they want.
Ann quickly evaluates Hiroshi as a timid person that can’t even fight back properly even towards the thugs that clearly have been extorting him. To be honest, she starts to wonder if he is the same person that makes the cure for the poison.
「Well, I was interrogated a lot at the police office, but after I was released, I quickly did my job with all my might, y’know!」
「…..You don’t look cut out for that job, though..」
「Totally.」
Nonetheless, it seems that the result of his job is good enough. If they only look at the review comments from the staff in charge of the trash pick-up, it seems like everything has been cleaned more than necessary.
「Anyway, the work itself finished without any problems, so I’ll give your reward accordingly.」
After saying so, she handed him three Chrones. It’s only enough for hotel fee, since the cost of living in Wulls is high. For daily living expenses, including rent, this is the lowest price they can get.
「Usually, if you finish a request at noon, you can take one more job, but…」
「I also thought that way.」
Hiroshi collects the silver coins arranged on the counter and lets out a sigh. As for Haruna, her reward is five Chrones from the client for a whole day, plus a meal. Since it’s her, she should be skillful enough to earn some additional income through tips.
「If there are no incident, I should be able to another job though…」
「By the way, which one did you intend to do?」
「He wants to take the weeder job.」
The end of summer is approaching soon at Farlane, and the weed is growing very fast. For that reason, a lot of those who have a large residence and the like often hire people to clean the garden for about five Chrones. During this season, you can say that it’s standard work for either veterans or newcomers.
But, for Hiroshi, there’s another strong reason to pick this job.
「You’re choosing another simple job, huh…」
「Occasionally, there might be something valuable in the weeds, so I’m grateful to be able to take this kind of job, but…」
Ann reaffirms that Hiroshi really is a good and skillful pharmacist, after knowing the reason why he choose this kind of pushover job. Probably, he is choosing the trash pick-up job for this reason too.
「But then, it’s not like I can show up this miserable state to Toudou-san…」
「What do you mean by miserable?」
The one that interject the conversation is Haruna, who had a raise in her job.
「I’m really sorry……」
「Since this is your first day, I think you don’t have to worry that much if you make a mistake…..」
「That might be right, but we are currently in deficit on money……」
「Nn~……」
Hiroshi keeps on bowing and apologizing for today’s insufficient earnings, and Haruna doesn’t understand what is the big deal about that. Honestly speaking, having a deficit of four Chrones is not really a fatal problem to that extent. Rather, she thinks it’s better for him to fight back against the gangster, rather than making a big uproar or making a corpse appear out of nowhere.
Besides, even if the earnings is only three Chrones, since he could remake things from raw materials, they’re not substantially at a minus. If the lodging cost and living expenses are for two people, then Haruna alone can earn enough. If they want a large amount of money, then they just have to make a lot of things, regardless if it’s Hiroshi or not.
「Anyway, today we are only accustoming ourselves to the job, and to be honest, I think the role of earning money directly should be mine.」
「But then, this is a little too…… 」
「Higashi-kun should just work hard to gather the ingredients for making tools and medicines so I’ll be able to do my job more smoothly, and don’t worry about the money.」
Certainly enough, the things Hiroshi did today may be fatal if he is alone. However, Hiroshi and Haruna basically share the same wallet, so it would be better for them to balance the entire household by making use of the strengths of the two people.
「And then, I’ve thought about it from the beginning, but if you want to step up as an adventurer, it would be difficult to earn money from the bottom. Overall, the job revenue for adventurers are quite low compared to the usual working hours revenue.」
「…….That’s right.」
「That’s why, beside taking requests and singing, I think it’d be good if we have another way to earn money. But, I don’t think Higashi should make either medicine or equipment and sell them. It will be quite crude to use those to directly earn money, so we can use them to negotiate with other people.」
「The hurdles are high, huh…」
Hiroshi can’t help but agree with Haruna’s words. Honestly speaking, if they want to earn a lot of money, they only have to make one hundred potions of the seventh rank. However, doing so will make them stand out much, and even if the Adventurers’ Association would be grateful for that, they could incur the wrath from the general pharmacists. Compared to that, it’s relatively easy to make weapons and deliver them, but it’s dreadful to be known as the one who made those weapons. Also, the Adventurers’ Association won’t be responsible for anything they sell directly.
「Well, for now, let’s prioritize taking safe requests just like today, and collecting things that can be used as materials for low price items. 」
「That’s right. After all, we still didn’t know most of the things here, though.」
Haruna is relieved to see that Hiroshi agreed. As a matter of fact, if they are going to live in this country; they will be more reliant to Hiroshi. She shouldn’t let a ten Chrone deficit affect him.
「Then, how was Toudou-san’s job goin’?」
「Me? If I count the offered money from singing, maybe I got around fifty Chrones. I think I sang three songs?」
「Wow……」
Certainly, if she has that much income, she won’t feel anything even if Hiroshi got a small amount of deficit, it seems. In the end, Hiroshi ends up feeling depressed all day long.
2. Chopsticks Use
It is the night after they rescued Tatsuya’s team from slave trading. Rayna brought Makoto back to her room, and Tatsuya and Mio stay at the inn because there are no more beds there. Other than those four people, everyone surrounds the table in the usual small room, and having oden as Hiroshi ordered.
「I have been thinking about this since yesterday, but……」
Aearis, who had the daikon and konnyaku stuck in a skewer and enjoyed the chikuwa with dashi, looks at Hiroshi and Haruna’s hand and can’t help but ask what has been on her mind.
「What is it?」
「In your country, is it normal to eat using two sticks?」
「Ah, are you talking about chopsticks?」
「Yeah, we generally eat usin’ this.」
While saying so, Hiroshi shows his skillful way of holding the daikon using the chopsticks. He’s using them very neatly.
「For the soups, maybe you can say that we usually drink it directly from the bowl, isn’t that right?」
Haruna elaborates on Hiroshi’s words, and also uses chopsticks to cut the thick fried tofu neatly into bite sizes, then brings it into her mouth.
「They’re very useful in a lot of way.」
「In our country, even if you’re skillful or not with the chopsticks, people usually eat oden with chopsticks.」
「But a lot of delicate people start to use them when eating boiled beans too, though」
Both of them continues to take the food skillfully with the calm face that doesn’t show any greediness. After looking at the chopsticks handling that is similar to magic, Aearis and Douga can’t help but think that their own way of stabbing the oden from the skewer and gnawing them looks very unsightly.
Actually, Hiroshi and Haruna also take the sinewy meat from the skewer, and things like fried pork and negi isn’t eaten using chopsticks, but looking at those two people (especially Haruna) that eats with refined and neat gestures, the other people can’t help but think that their own manner of eating is unsightly.
「……Do you want to learn how to use chopsticks?」
「If possible, please!」
「Can you tell me about it too?」
After guessing Aearin and Douga’s gaze’s meaning, Haruna affirms it with both of their responses. Hiroshi only gives a wry smile after adding daikon and chikuwa to his own plate. Since he likes kelp soup rather than plain soup in the oden, he already separates them from the beginning.
「Then tomorrow, I’ll teach both of you together with Reena-san.」
「Then, all of you will learn to use chopsticks together?」
「Is it possible?」
「Since Katsuki-san and Tatsuya-san are going to join us together, then I think I will have to make some chopsticks anyway, and I don’t really mind making two or three dishes while I’m at it.」
「I see. Then, I’ll leave it to you.」
「Understood.」
That said, Aearis reacts slightly, reaching for the last meat and thick fried tofu. Hiroshi who sensed it turns his target to wiener and konnyaku. Aearin can’t help but feel sorry for his attitude, and seeing that, Haruna helps her stab the thick fried tofu to the skewer.
「I-I’m sorry……」
「Kids should at least become a little selfish, okay?」
Aearis looked at Haruna who smiled gently. “If only I became such a woman, I would decrease the burden of my brother and sister,” Aearis thought. Because she will become an older sister later on too, she has to become more reliable, or that’s what she said to herself.
However, contrary to her determination at this time, she doesn’t know yet that she will be more and more childish after being influenced by the Japanese team and Aearis herself.
「Then, is it like this…?」
「Well, isn’t it fine? After all, Reena lives together with Elle and Uncle.」
「But then, even when you’re eating with us, you don’t really have to force yourself to eat with chopsticks, you know.」
Having two unidentified sticks passed to her, Rayna take a deep breath after seeing Farlane’s specialty ring beans that are served in front of her. She’s about to do something that other people might make fun of, since she thinks that she won’t be able to do this kind of trivial work.
Makoto and Tatsuya are the ones that told Rayna not to force herself. Hiroshi’s violent response is also a matter of concern, but since he’s not here for the time being, they decided to put it on hold. And since Mio isn’t the type to talk a lot, she just keeps on staying silent.
They already heard about the incident that happened two days ago, but the injured person isn’t interested in bringing it up again, and it looks like they’re not going to discuss it anymore. To begin with, they’re not at the place when it happened, so they didn’t know how violent Hiroshi is actually, and they don’t understand the complexity of the problem.
Furthermore, Hiroshi is currently out discussing yesterday’s problem with Mellisa, so he’s absent at this time.
「For the time being, I’m going to show the way to hold it, so first of all, try to practise from that, okay?」
Having said so, Haruna shows the way to hold chopsticks slowly and repeatedly. Those three tried to mimic the way she holds the chopsticks. After slightly moving each of their ways of holding the chopsticks, she starts to explain how to move the chopstick.
「I feel like it’s easy, but I also feel like it’s difficult…」
「It’s similar to how we hold and move a pen, isn’t it?」
「You probably can say that they’re pretty close, though」
Even as they had such a conversation, all the four people only open and close their chopsticks without holding anything. After seeing that they’ve become accustomed with the chopstick, Haruna picks the pile of beans on a plate in front of them and casually moves them into another plate.
「The basic practise is by doing this. Just try to pick the beans and move them away.」
The three people make a face that says “It looks easy when Haruna did it, so is that enough?”. But then…
「Ugh! It fell away!」
「Just a bit more, just a bit more… Ah!?」
「Uhh, this is actually hard when I tried it…」
The food keeps on escaping from their chopsticks, and everytime they lift the chopsticks, it slipped off. It’s very hard to transfer even the first one.
「Yes, just like that… Ahh!」
「It’s not like you’re attacked when doing that, so just do it calmly.」
「Uncle, you’re putting too much strength there.」
The other Japanese people are doing as they please while giving their support. Haruna who’s watching over this gives them a wry smile, and sometimes also gives those three advise. The situation continues for about one or two minutes, and then…
「Ah-!」
「Ohh-!」
At last, Aearis finally successfully moves the first bean. But then, she actually doesn’t hold the chopsticks properly and uses the tips of the chopsticks to move them clumsily.
「I did it!」
「Amazing, amazing!」
Aearis said those things joyfully from the bottom of her heart, and everyone is happy for her without feeling any resignation. Feeling happy with everyone’s encouragement, she successfully picks up yet another bean. After completing them at the second time, her chopsticks’ moving speed becomes faster; moreover, her grip on the chopsticks becomes neater too.
「Children sure learn something quickly…」
Tatsuya raises his voice in admiration of Aearis’ increasing speed. Makoto and Mio can’t help but make a wry smile and calls him an old man.
「If you can use it until that point, I think you have no problem with the basics anymore.」
「I think it will be okay.」
Mio approves Haruna’s words. The first step to learn how to use chopsticks is to pick up beans. It’s not just for exaggeration; nor it’s merely used for something like picking up beans.
「Then, since it’s just the right time, I’ll explain how to use them with the fish for lunch, alright?」
「What kind of fish?」
「You don’t have to worry, it’s a normal fish. Higashi has stocked up mackerel-like fish this morning, and he told me to grill and eat them with radish and ponzu. 」
「…I suddenly want to eat rice, do you have it?」
「Unfortunately, there is only bread.」
Tatsuya was reflexively taken aback by Haruna’s words. He didn’t really feel rice deficiency on the previous days, but when it comes to eating grilled fish and ponzu, he can’t help but want to eat rice and miso soup.
「By the way, we have miso soup, you know?」
「That just makes me miss rice even more though…」
Makoto instinctively made a weak voice towards Haruna’s direct words. It’s been three months since she flew into here, and she’s really sad because there is no rice in Japanese foods which she really misses. And it’s even sadder to know that she will eat the ultimate sidekick of rice and beer, grilled fish and ponzu without any rice.
「How about boiled barley oats?」
「…I’ll think about it.」
It is hard to decide on barley rice that they had never eaten. In the end, they eat their lunch with a quite inexpressive menu, such as onion consommé soup and coppe bread with grilled fish and stir-fried radish leaves as the main dish.
3．Diva and Basic Skin-care Products
「Haruna-chan’s skin is extremely pretty, actually how do you take care of it?」
After bathing, Myuzzel admires Haruna’s skin and speaks with enthusiasm. Skin age is one of the eternal challenges for women. It also applies for Myuzzel, who is going to get married at this year’s harvest festival. The women that don’t care about those kind of things usually are busy with parenting or travelling around the world, where they are too tired to care about their female nature, and for Myuzzel it’s still a long way to go.
Since the bath in the workshop is currently being renovated, Haruna’s team went to a nearby public bath. Makoto is still doing adventurer job, and Mio is also working in the studio, so they will be coming separately later. Myuzzel was early today, so they meet when the sky isn’t dark yet.
Actually, Myuzzel lives in a pretty expensive 1LDK with an included bathroom, but today’s purchase assessment is a very dirty job, and she doesn’t want to enter her room until after she gets rid of the sweat and dirt, since it is disgusting. Not only she, but the Adventurers’ Association’s staff often do dirty works, so the locker of their personal storage box always contains some change of clothes and a bath set.
「Reena-chan and Elle-chan also thought so, right?」
「…That’s something that has nothing to do with me for a lifetime.」
「Reena-chan, if you give up now, then it will really be over!」
With an overwhelmed expression that shows that nothing can be done, Rayna spits out words as if the world’s going to end. A lot of things had happened that make her unable to lift her head up, but no matter how jealous she is, she hesitated to say abusive words herself. For that reason, she has no choice but have limited comments. Myuzzel starts to seriously encourage that kind of Rayna.
「…Will I be able to be like that when I become an adult?」
Aearis who watches Haruna as she dried her hair with life magic and mutters in a voice mixed with yearning and worry. Myuzzel looks at her, and she reflexively bows in assent and can’t help but want to tell her that she is going to be okay. Frankly speaking, Aearis will definitely grow into a beautiful girl if there are no troubles around her. Well, it’s hard to say if she can be like Haruna though, since both of their characters are very different…
「So, Haruna-chan, what kind of skin care do you use?」
「Even if you ask me, I just use normal face lotion and milk lotion, you know?」
「You must be lying!? Only by using that, how can you…」
Myuzzel who is shocked upon hearing Haruna’s answer murmurs with blank eyes, and wonders if this is the power of youthfulness. Even so, it doesn’t mean that Myuzzel herself loses in terms of youth. It’s true that she has reached the marriage age in Wulls, but it’s the age when one hasn’t even graduated from the university in Japan.
「Umm, Haruna-sama…」
「What is it?」
「What kind of face lotion and milk lotion that Haruna-sama is using?」
「Nn? Ahh. You can say that it is something custom-made.」
With Haruna’s words, Myuzzel can’t help but lift her face closer to her. After taking a hold of Myuzzel, Rayna speaks timidly towards Haruna.
「When you say custom order, do you mean…」
「Nn. It’s Hiroshi-kun’s.」
Rayna makes an expression as if asking Haruna if it’s okay for her to say that. Haruna only smiles, and nods once in reply.
「Anyway, Myuzzel already knows that Hiroshi-kun can make medicines.」
Rayna doesn’t say anything towards Haruna’s answer. Whatever the circumstances might be, she can’t help but think that they are too careless since this important information might leak out.
「The Adventurers’ Association won’t leak such information.」
Myuzzel quickly turns into business mode after seeing the suspicions in Rayna’s eyes. Actually, Hiroshi is only known as an adventurer who could make a little medicine and tools to the public. The information about how Hiroshi can make sixth grade and above potions that the Adventurers’ Association and Rayna knows hasn’t leaked anywhere so far.
「Then, will he makes me some too if I ask him!?」
「You can ask for it as a request job, but…」
「But?」
「It will take quite a while to finish.」
「…Is that so?」
「Yeah. It took about ten days for mine to be completed.」
They feel surprised that it takes a surprisingly long time, and Haruna explains the reason.
「Since we would like to thoroughly check the composition, first of all, he’d start by examining which ingredient would be good for skin, and which would cause damage to skin. It took about two hours to roughly grasp the amount of each component to know which one is the most suitable for a certain skin. 」
「If it’s only that, then it won’t take ten days, right?」
「You still have to try using it and check the result for three days, then if there are any problems then he will adjust the ingredients again. In my case, I re-did it three times, so there is also the possibility that it will take around a month to get it right.」
「That is very long…」
「Since this is about long-term effects, we will never know the result unless we try using them ourselves」
Myuzzel finally looks convinced by Haruna’s explanation, and her expression becomes crestfallen.
「If it takes so much work to do, I can’t just make a commotion to ask for it now, yeah?」
「I think that’s a little bit too much. Since we’re living together, so he is helping me, you can say that it is that kind of thing?」
Myuzzel asks Haruna to live together with them too until it is finished, really lacking common sense. For the time being, Myuzzel decides that she will wait until Hiroshi’s team had settled down. But, there are two people in this place that think that it is mostly unlikely to happen, though.
「…Haruna-sama…」
「I think if I ask him, he will make Elle-chan and everyone’s share too.」
Aearis makes an expression that’s asking whether it’s really okay for Haruna to promise them something without thinking.
「For now, I will quickly go home and try to ask him」
「How nice, living together is sure nice~」
「Myuzzel-san, please just give up.」
「Tch…」
Myuzzel goes away after being turned down from her frivolous talk.
「Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that Rayna-san’s share is ready too.」
「No, I’m not really at the position where I’m allowed to…」
「It’s okay, seriously!」
Rayna feels that the medicine will work so well since it’s Hiroshi who will make it, so she tries to reject Haruna’s offer. Even though she knows that it will be rude if she is being too modest, but she can’t help but to try refraining herself that way.
「Let’s quickly go back, and check for the dry skin.」
After saying so, Rayna is forced to withdraw her modesty by Haruna that looks like she is in a good mood on the way home. Actually, Rayna still feels like she is unfitting to have these kinds of products, but everyone around her has a different opinion regarding that.
「Is it really alright…」
Rayna can’t help but feel guilty for this. For now, she decides that she will do her best to clean the toilet and garbage tomorrow morning.