Translator: Reo

Editor: Xia

Read at Watashi Wa Sugoi Desu!

Chapter 10 – Stubborn Guy

I hurried to Kyle-san, who had been working in the fields since before dawn. Even though the morning sun had only just risen, Kyle-san was already hard at work. Amazing.

“Kyle-saaaan, I’ve found it!”

“Oh, Mac. Good morning. That was quick.”

Kyle-san lowered the farming tool in his hand and waved at me, but as I got closer, his expression turned grim. He stood in front of me, his brows furrowed as he looked down at me. All of a sudden, he brought his hand up to my eyes, but seeing that his hand was covered in dirt, he hesitated and withdrew it.

“You didn’t sleep, did you? You have dark circles under your eyes.”

“Ah, yeah. I didn’t want to waste any time. More importantly!!” I opened the bundle of papers I had found in front of Kyle-san.

“This is…”

“A document about pests! For the time being you’ll need to pull out the withered grass from the roots and burn it. As for the rest, I’ll go gather the materials today!”

“Oi, Mac, do it after you rest a bit.” Kyle-san hit my head lightly as if to tell me to calm down. 

But it would be a waste of time to rest!

“It’s okay! I’m full of adrenaline and my determination is at its max! Oh yeah, Kyle-san, do you grow something called a Marcola carrot? If you do, I’d like to have some!”

When I pointed at the ingredient, Kyle-san let out a sigh and turned his head towards the fields.

“There should be some left. Around how many do you need? Normally, I’d give you as many as you’d like, but the pests got into about half of it.”

“I want however many you can give. I don’t know how many I’ll need for the pesticide, and if I make a mistake I’ll have to redo the entire thing.”

“Got it. Wait a bit.”

With just those words, Kyle-san ran to the fields. He’s incredibly fast, as expected of his splendid physique. Then he started to work from the border between the live and dead plants.

Woah, what was this? Did the amount of ingredients you could get your hands on depend on how fast you found the document? This was a terribly written quest.

I re-read the document as I waited and, I had no idea where he got them from, but Kyle-san came back with a bundle of carrots that were shaped like round turnips in what looked like eco bags.

“My bad, this is all I have left. There’s around twelve of them. Is that enough?”

“I’ll try my best to make it enough. How much is it for everything?” I asked, taking the Marcola carrots. Kyle-san’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Why should I be taking money from the guy who’s trying to fix my plantation?”

“But this is something that Kyle-san has officially requested from me. So I have to properly pay you.”

“If I say I don’t need no money, then I don’t need it.”

“And I’m saying sell it to me, so please sell it to me like always.”

“I said I don’t want to. What a stubborn fellow.”

“Right back at you.”

This wasn’t the time to be saying such things.

Fed up with Kyle-san who seemed like he wouldn’t take any money from me no matter what, I took an appropriate number of stamina potions out of my inventory and stuffed them in his pocket as he looked at me with a face that mirrored my exasperated one. He was going to have to pull out and burn all the withered grass from now on – no amount of stamina was going to be enough.

“Since you won’t take my money, we’ll make a trade instead. Well then, I need to go gather the ingredients now. I leave the withered grass to you, Kyle-san.”

Before he could say anything, I ran off, still carrying the Marcola carrots in my arms.

Having escaped the plantation, I stashed the carrots in my inventory, and as for the monster parts, I could more or less get them from the monsters in the forest. Though I didn’t really encounter them that often.

“Oh. Aren’t you Vidello’s companion?” 

When I quickly left town, passing through the gate, the gatekeeper called out to me. 

I didn’t know the names of any of the gatekeepers other than Vidello-san. Speaking of which, Vidello-san wasn’t here today. Ah, was today his day off?

I was just a tiny bit relieved, but I also felt like it was quite a shame. I lowered my head towards the gatekeeper. 

“Good work. I’m a bit in a rush today, so please excuse me.”

When I continued forward without stopping, the gatekeeper hurriedly came to stand in front of me.

“Wait a moment. Just 3 minutes. I beg of you.”

The answer is no, even if you beg me. And what the hell were you going to do with those three minutes?

When I shook my head, the gatekeeper rang a summoning bell that was close by.

“Um…?”

“Sorry, Vidello asked me to let him know if you happened to pass by.”

“Vidello-san did…? Such a thing, is it okay to do?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say it’s good, but… as long as you keep to the fundamentals of guarding the gate, it’s an unexpectedly lax job.”

“Is that so?”

As I was having this trivial conversation with the gatekeeper, the door to the guardroom was thrown open with a spirited bang.

“Mac!”

“Vidello-san. G-good morning,” I stuttered, my face naturally flushing. Maybe it was because something like that had happened but, as expected, I felt shy looking at his face.

Despite it being so early in the morning, Vidello-san’s face was fresh and radiant. His civilian clothes were also very cool. He was wearing a white shirt that looked soft to the touch and a dusky blue vest. His pants were made of an undyed fabric and seemed easy to move around in and his boots went up to his knees. A sword was firmly secured to his hip, and even without his usual armor and helmet, he looked strong.

As I was admiring his civilian clothes, Vidello-san got a peek of my face and gently traced the area around my eyes.

“Did you get any sleep, Mac? You have dark circles under your eyes.”

He said the same exact thing Kyle-san did. Was my face that bad? I mean, it was amazing that this game could recreate facial expressions to this extent.

Which was why I couldn’t waste my time in a place like this.

“Sorry Vidello-san, I’m in a hurry. I-I’m happy to see you, but I have to go.”

“Where are you going looking like that?”

When I told the concerned Vidello-san that I was going to gather ingredients, his mouth relaxed and he said, “Alright. Let’s go.”

“Huh?”

Not ‘have a safe trip’ but ‘let’s go’?

“Vidello-san?”

As I looked up at Vidello-san, my mouth agape, he grasped my hand, a splendid smile on his face.

“I think I’ll do a bit better. I don’t believe I’ll be a hindrance, so won’t you let me accompany you? It’s my day off too.”

“I have faith that Vidello-san is strong enough to get past a dragon, but I’m just going to defeat monsters and gather some materials. Won’t it be boring to spend your long-awaited day off like this?”

I was perplexed, but Vidello-san’s eyes opened in bewilderment.

“Isn’t it a great thing to be able to hunt monsters with Mac on my day off? There’s no better way to spend my holiday.”

“That’s nice, Vidello. A monster-hunting date, huh? Go have fun.” The gatekeeper, who had been listening to us from behind, said those amazing words casually.

T-there was such a thing as a monster-hunting date in this world? Somehow, our perspectives on what constituted a date were different… I’ll tell Yuuta next time.

While unable to say no to Vidello-san, who had answered the gatekeeper with a beaming, “see you later,” Vidello-san pulled me by the hand and, like that, we left the town.