chapter 36

When I left the inn in the morning, there was Neil . Leave me alone already…… . “Oh, you finally came out . ”

I didn’t reply back . Ignored .

“Uh, I just wanted to talk for a bit alright?”

Ignored .

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“Hey, don’t ignore me!”“Sorry, but I’m in a hurry . ”

I pass him without another word . Norn also ignored him . Neil’s friends were also with him, but they were left speechless by my splendid ignoring .

That said, he continued persistently following me and obnoxiously proclaiming his existence . He kept saying that it was his fault that I had to leave the forest, so it was only natural that he would take care of me from here, and that if I had any trouble, he would do anything to help . Although it was apparently useless to tell him to leave me alone . Which didn’t really make any sense .

“Understood . Currently, there is only one thing that’s troubling me, please solve it then . ”“Sure! What is it!? I’ll do whatever I can!”“Really?”“Definitely!”“Then, right now, I’m currently being troubled by a strange man who is following me . Please do something about it . ”

「……」

He froze up . It seems he finally understood how much of a nuisance he was being .

It finally became quiet, so I left them and exited town . After all the children gathered, we headed towards the river in the northeast . But when I glanced behind, they were still following me . What’s with him? How creepy…… . .

I arrived at the forest towards the river’s upstream . I moved towards where the plums were growing and started gathering herbs . The children also split up and began gathering plums and edible plants . I’ll leave fishing for later……no, never mind . There were weirdos among us . I didn’t want them to see the various things we did .

While everyone was gathering, an orc appeared, but Norn took it down . After taking a look at the orc, I believe it was Collie? She suddenly said something strange .

“We came with her as escorts, right? Then that orc should be equally divided with us, right?”“Eh? Then that means we can eat meat today, yay!”“No, that isn’t the case…… . . ”“Why? We’re protecting her, right?”“No, no, that obviously isn’t the case, you know?”

I wasn’t planning on dividing it with them . Rather, what did they mean by escorts? No one even asked them to do that . So they’re trying to steal other people’s prey by proclaiming that they were acting as escorts…… . . how low . A flat-out denial would be the proper course of action . Let’s report this to the guild master when we return .

“So…… . does that mean we’re not going to be earning anything today?”“Yeah, then should we also gather some herbs?”“Right, let’s do that . ”

「……」

Really? So now they’re planning to steal the gathering spot of low rankers . The man who had been refuting them since a while ago had a really troubled expression on his face . So I guess this person must be the one with common sense, must be rough . Neil? He had just been silently looking at me since a while ago . Disgusting .

It was now noon, so I took my tent out and started preparing lunch .

Recently, I’ve also started making portions for the children . However, the children also provided half of the cooking ingredients . Although I had to cook and season the other half of the cooking ingredients, I didn’t really mind at this point .

What should I make for today? Oh right, there was the orc that Norn just defeated . The ingredients provided by the children were potatoes . And some kind of edible plant that they gathered earlier . Hmm, then I guess I will go with stir-fry vegetables? Let’s finish it off with some salt and pepper and a small amount of mustard for a bit of spice . I made quite a lot for me and the children . The children were glowing with anticipation . They have been thoroughly tamed due to recent feeding, apologies .

…… . That aside, why were they trying to join in for the food? There’s none for any of you all . For some reason, Collie became angry .

“Hey! We’re escorting you! So what do you mean we don’t get any?”“No one asked you to do that, you all just decided to follow us . Besides, these children worked hard to gather the ingredients needed to make the food . Following us without permission, and taking our food on top of that…… . do Rank D adventurers operate like that?”“That’s…… . ”

Her face became red and she was at a loss for words . The person with common sense from before pulled Collie aside and exasperatedly started explaining . After a while, it seems she was convinced but still didn’t like it, and she sulked while eating her preserved foods . And Neil was still just looking at me . He’s seriously disgusting .

We continued gathering after finishing lunch . Then I rounded everyone up and went back earlier than usual .

“Hey, I just wanted to ask something really quick, why are you all heading back so soon? I think there’s still quite a bit of time left . ”

It was the common sense person . Well, I didn’t really have a particularly bad impression of him .

“I don’t want to go back during the guild’s busy hours . And if it gets too late, it might become dangerous for the children . ”“Ah, I see…… ”

He gave a nod as he glanced around at the children . Well, the main reason was because of the guild’s busy hours . But it’s not because I’m shy, okay? For real .

Afterward, self-introductions were unilaterally given on the way back . The common sense person’s name was Beck . And he was 17 years old . He appears to be the only C rank in his party . He didn’t look like a bad person and he even had common sense, so it was a mystery why he would be in that sort of party .

The girl talking with Collie was Tess . She was Neil’s lover . Ahh, this child was the one the medicine was for……but from what I saw today, I get the impression that she was just following Collie around .

After that, there was Collie and Neil . Collie was more brazen than I expected . That really surprised me! And Neil was just utterly disgusting . It seems that all of them aside from Beck just reached D rank during last year’s fall, and at that time they had returned home and ended up meeting me .

But frankly, I didn’t really care about their circumstances . Rather, listening to them talk about their story was just plain annoying……

After returning to the guild and finishing sales, since Salena was there, I reported to her about Neil and his party’s actions . She said she would later report it to the guild master . And that they would probably be issued a warning not to repeat those actions again in the future .

Now I could work without distractions tomorrow . I was fully satisfied .