Chapter 145

Extra: Hero Wataru and Rin

“What! A dangerous demon like that settled down? Leave it to me!”

I spoke to Wataru about Rin… I mean, I spoke to him about a demon that was becoming a threat.

When I consulted Haku-san about Rin the other day, she responded, “Well, I’ll send Wataru. He should do well enough one way or another.”

In truth, it wouldn’t be weird for either side to come out on top in terms of ability, either would be delicious in death—that is, as far as Wataru’s debt, it appears that Haku-san will pay it if he dies before he’s paid it off. And now Hero Wataru readily accepted the commission.

I wonder if Rin can defeat the hero? This’ll be a sight to see. Let’s just sit back and watch as an unconcerned bystander.

*

Wataru quickly proceeded through the dungeon, easily reaching Rin’s room.

“… And here we go.”

When Wataru opened the door, he saw a black wolf waiting in an offensive stance.

[Garururu!]

“Ooh, looks strong… even stronger than a dragon I guess?”

What he was picking a fight against was Rin. It opened its mouth wide, trying to bite him…. however, Wataru slipped under and away, striking it hard from the side.

Rin flew towards the wall from the force of the blow and crashed into it. With a bang, it splattered into a black spot on the wall.

“… Just one hit? No, with that feeling, no way…”

As Wataru anticipated, Rin wasn’t dead just yet. With a gurgling sound, the stain moved back into a single spot and retook the shape of a wolf.

“Geh, so it’s a monster like that after all. A slime?”

[Gururu…! You won’t, pass through!]

“Heeh, you can talk…? This is getting worse and worse… I don’t want to fight.”

Despite saying that, he drew the sword from its sheathe at his hip. His opponent was already baring its fangs, so if he didn’t also prepare himself, it was quite possible that he’d be finished off quickly.

He casually accepted the commission, but that might’ve been a mistake—is the kind of expression that appeared on his face.

[Garururu! … Oh fire, burn brightly and burst—[Fire Bomb]!]

“Uwaaah!? Wai—I didn’t here anything about magic!?”

Wataru used his sword against the fire bomb Rin launched towards him. The fire bomb split straight in half, exploding behind Wataru.

[Hoh, nice.]

“Aah, that surprised me! Yep, got it. Let’s talk! If you can talk, let’s do that!”

[Mu? Alright.]

“Eh, seriously? Ah, no, yeah, it’s good that you want to talk.”

Wataru wasn’t able to hide his surprise and blurted out that first bit.

In the end, he wasn’t willing to kill enemies that could speak even if they were monsters. It was a different story entirely if they were ones that killed for pleasure though.

Although Rin had caused there to be victims, he put that aside for now. To start with, adventurers dove into dungeons with the resolution to die, so falling victim to the dungeon didn’t really count.

He hadn’t heard of any victims outside of the dungeon either. Therefore, Wataru decided that it was worth attempting to negotiate.

[Then, I’ll eat you first, so hold still.]

“Ah, sure—what!? Eat me first!?”

[First is, eating, then talking.]

“You want to talk with someone in your stomach!? That’s killing them!”

[No? So far, I’ve talked, with two people, after eating them.]

It had met with two people that could talk with it after being eaten? Wataru was surprised.

Though in truth, one of them was a golem and Rin didn’t distinguish between that and humans.

[And so, eating now.]

“Wha—!? Time out, time out! Can’t be helped, I’ll share my bento’s sandwiches with you, please endure it with just that.”

[Sandwitch? What’s that?]

“… Fufufu, it’s the breakfast from the inn that’s right outside this dungeon’s entrance. I had them wrap it for my lunch! It’s a really delicious sandwich that uses white bread, and the deciding flavor in it’s the mayonnaise!”

[Got it. Give it, I’ll eat it.]

It looked as though Wataru caught Rin’s interest, as it moved its foreleg as though to urge him on.

“[Storage]… ah, here. I’ll put it on this plate, and leave it here, alright?”

[Umu.]

Placing the sandwich on a white plate, he placed it in the center of the room. After Wataru moved away from it, Rin approached it and—after giving it a big whiff—swalled the plate in one gulp.

“Wai—! That plate was my favorite… w-well, it’s alright, I still have four others. I got them from this dungeon…”

[Hoh, that sandwitch, thing, was good. Smooth, and crunchy.]

“… Are you talking about the cucumber? Umm, I have more, did you want more?”

[Give it.]

He decided to use a wooden plate to serve the food this time. Taking out another sandwich, he put it on the wooden plate and placed that on the floor.

[Oi. It’s different, from before! Garururu!]

“… It was that!? The delicious thing was that? The plate!? Damn, alright, here!”

Wataru only took out a white plate this time.

… He got them as a set of five from the treasure chest, so he had three more left.

[Mu? This time, there’s nothing, on top?]

“You want to deprive me of those too!? No, it’s alright. Here, a sandwich. On the plate.”

When Wataru took out another sandwich to go with the plate, Rin once again ate it all in a single bite.

[Umu. Om, nom… nom, nom… hmph. Sandwitch, good. But, the top thing, not needed, after all.]

“Damn it! Give me back my lunch! And the thing on top is the sandwich, that bottom part is the plate!”

[Kuku, it’s pretty, good. Alright, we’ll talk. One more, first. Give it.]

“Yay thank you! Damn iiiiit!”

Incidentally, Wataru’s unique skill for being a hero, [Super Luck: Lv 1] went into full effect for no reason in particular. He didn’t understand exactly how it happened, but it somehow turned into them having a drinking party together. He wound up falling asleep in the room, but didn’t catch a cold since the heating was doing its job.

*

“And well, that’s how we somehow hit it off.”

“Oi, Hero-sama? You’re saying that you’re going to head back without defeating the monster?”

He was going to return nonchalantly. Rin was still safely protecting its room.

Rather, you reek of alcohol, use [Cleanup], oi.

Raaather, didn’t you say that you’d quit drinking until you paid back your debt?

“No no no, I’m obviously not just going to go home! I got a promise!”

“A promise?”

“Even if it encounters people, it won’t kill them if they just hand it a white plate!”

Hero Wataru looked like he just solved a case. I want to punch him.

But it’s not a bad promise. If Rin said it was a promise, it’d probably keep it. It’ll be fine so long as it doesn’t carelessly forget about it this time.

… Let’s raise the selling price of those white plates. Is the purchase price fine as is?

“Ah, it also seems like it’ll let people go half-dead even if it’s a plate that isn’t white!”

“Eeh… so, can you trust it?”

“I think so?”

“On what grounds?”

“Intuition… I guess? Well, I don’t think that that wolf’s a fundamentally bad monster.

He probably wasn’t wrong in saying that, but it is irritating for me. But as the village chief and as an adventurer, it’s not the time for me to quip about it.

“… So, what if someone wants to go farther into the dungeon?”

“Ah—”

“Not “Ah”, idiot hero!”

“No, but…! It’ll be leaving when spring arrive! Be patient until then!”

This guy, he got that much information from it?

In the end, Rin was somehow or another not exterminated by the hero. He couldn’t get the commission’s completion reward, but I gave him five white plates as a reward for the beneficial information.

He was happy because all of the ones he’d had had gotten eaten, so well, it’s all good.