Chapter Volume 5 16: Short Story – One Hundred Years Adventurer 2 [Rainbow Sword]
Special SS for EPUB Version One Hundred Years Adventurer 2 [Rainbow Sword]
*Bam!*
「Gelf-chan, I’m home-!」
「Oh myy, Samantha-chan. You haven’t grown at all like usual.」
「WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING PIPSQUEAAAKKKKK!?」
Samantha entered after kicking open the shop’s door and displayed a well arranged conversation with the shop owner Gelf.
It had been several years since Samantha and the other two left their rural village and became adventurer.
Then why did they end up [home]? The reason was because the three of them were adventurer at the capital, but the area around the capital had the knights and soldiers to solve any simple incident, so there was no work for rookie to do there.
In the first place the adventurer guild there was a place for adventurers from all over the places who had confidence in their skill to gather. People with good reputation received request from noble or merchant, while those without any good reputation headed toward the large scale dungeon at the south of the capital.
There were some errands that rookies could do, which could give them some small change. This kind of job was intended for student of the sorcery academy. When Samantha and co were unable to keep doing such job, then would head to the beginning floors of the dungeon to hunt the monsters there.
「We have become rank 3! We can also take job in the capital now-」
「My, congratulations! We have to celebrate then.」
「We are also adults now, so we need to make our equipments look mature too!」
「I guess……」
Samantha and the other two had become 15 years old, an age that considered as grownup among human race. But……even though those with a lot of mana should grow quicker than those who weren’t, Samantha only looked like a twelve years old girl no matter how other looked at her.
Human with a lot of mana normally would grow to look like around twenty years old if they were male and around seventeen years old if they were female until their actual age caught up, and from there the growth would switch to become a slowing down of their aging.
It wasn’t like Samantha’s mana was lacking. Her mana value wouldn’t be inferior even when compared to a royal court sorcerer.
And yet why was she staying tiny like this……?
In Samantha’s case there was also her unbalanced diet but, Gelf hypothesized that because her mana value was already high ever since she was a child, perhaps the growth switching period also came far earlier for her. Gelf looked at the pipsqueak Samantha with pity in his eyes.
Also the clothes that Gelf created for Samantha and Miranda had childish design too this time.
「Dalton and Mira-chan aren’t together with you?」
「Dalton is at the guild-! As for Mira……Mira-?」
「Uu~~~」
Looking carefully, there was Miranda looking this way from behind the entrance. She was groaning cautiously like a cat that got found out sneaking in.
「Mira-chan, don’t be scared and come in.」
「You’re scary no matter how I look at you!」
Gelf was a craftsman who created cute equipments for female. He was a splendid male rock dwarf.
Even though several years had passed since Miranda first ran into him, she still wasn’t used to Gelf who was wearing high heels made from golden thread and dress that displayed his bushy chest hair. ──Or rather, Dalton who got winked at every time he came here also wouldn’t come here and made up an excuse every time to avoid coming, so in reality Samantha was the only one who was used to Gelf.
Miranda who was a forest elf had slow growth. Her appearance was like a twelve years old child just like Samantha.
Gelf had been having expectation at Miranda ever since Samantha introduced her to him that one day she would grow to have a model body style that was expected from an elf.
But in reality Samantha was still a pipsqueak even after she became of age, while Miranda’s growth was slow which was something that couldn’t be helped, but he got the feeling that she was gradually turning plumper every time she came here.
Gelf had a bad premonition so he wanted to take charge of Miranda’s health management, but Miranda was scared of Gelf, perhaps because of the racial relationship between elf and dwarf that was a bit not good.
「Putting that aside……Mira-chan, what is that cord?」
Miranda who was still acting like a menacing cat toward Gelf was holding something like a leather cord. It was extending until outside the entrance that was still left wide open.
When that was pointed out, Miranda forgot even her fear and puffed out her (non-existent) chest with the unique arrogance of elf that lived in the forest in full display.
「You have sharp eyes for a rock dwarf! If you really insist that much then this me shall──ouchhh!?」
Samantha pinched Miranda’s side with all her strength while she was in the middle of talking. She then snatched the cord from the hand of Miranda while she was shrieking and writhing in pain. Then she puffed out her (mostly non-existent) chest in Miranda’s place.
「Gelf-chan, you noticed at great timing! Astonishingly we made a comrade-!」
「Is that so-!?」
Gelf’s eyes opened wide in surprise when he heard Samantha’s words.
She had formed an adventurer party, and they also went to the capital partly in order to search for comrade. Such story wasn’t anything really strange or anything, yet Gelf was acting so surprised because of a reason.
The three searched for adventurer to become their comrade normally when they first came to the capital. But it was pointless to accept beginner into their party because they couldn’t keep up with the three, while adventurer with some strength felt hesitation to join seeing Miranda and Samantha who had childish look like this.
Anyone who approached them despite those concerns was only dangerous people who were targeting the two beautiful girls despite their childish look. Those people were problematic even before considering whether they could become their comrade or not.
Like that they kept gradually putting off searching for new comrade and continued adventuring with just the three of them, but they finally found a comrade in a city with dungeon.
「Come iiin」
Samantha said that and pulled on the cord. Then “something” that was as tall as Samantha and Miranda entered into the shop. The cord was connected to a band that looked like a collar around their neck.
「Woof」
They yipped like that.
「……What’s this?」
「Eh? Gelf-chan, isn’t it cute?」
Perhaps it was “human”. Surely it was a “demihuman”. Most likely it was a “beastman”.
「This child, is he a dog beastman?」
「Perhaps?」
Their super fluffy hair grew uncontrollably until it covered their eyes and hid the color of their eyes. Their large ears were dangling down limply. Their whole body was slightly dirty. They were wearing loose clothes that concealed even their hands. Because of that Gelf couldn’t see how old they were, much less their gender.
When he asked Samantha how they became her comrade…
「This child suddenly snatched Mira’s candy in the middle of the city. The two of us spent a whole day chasing him before finally catching him using sorcery and spirit magic! Right?」
「Woof」
Gelf wondered which part of that story contained the reason that made this being became their comrade. Then Samantha turned around with a smug expression and the beastman child replied to her with a word that sounded like a dog’s bark.
In short, a kid from the slum or from somewhere else snatched a candy, then the kid ran away from the forest hunter Miranda and the fast legged Samantha for one whole day. Apparently Samantha evaluated such capability highly and captured the kid (without asking).
「I think his strength is around rank 2 or higher. That’s why Gelf-chan. Do you have any scout equipment that seem fitting for him?」
「……What’s his name?」
「Your name?」
「Woof」
「……It’s Francois Josephine.」
「You decided that name randomly just now right-!? You definitely made that up from his barking right!?」
「Woof」
「He said he’s fine with that name.」
「Aah geez! I get it! I’ll do it! I’ll give him a bath, so come over here, errr……Fran-chan!」
「Woof」
.
Around that time, at the adventurer guild──.
「Mumumuu~~」
The mountain dwarf boy Dolton was staring on a bulletin board by himself while crossing his arms.
He was fifteen years old. He was still too young both as a dwarf or even as a human race, but the pressure that he was radiating was pushing away even the adventurers around him. Nobody would get near him.
His height was a head shorter compared to adult human. But the thickness of his muscles was several times greater than the other adventurers there.
Such lump of compressed muscles was glaring at the board with a horrible expression, so anyone with normal nerve didn’t want to get closer. But there was also a reason why Dolton was making that kind of face.
「None……」
Adventurer guild wasn’t just a place to take job or sell material, but also a place to search for comrade.
But the board only had material collection request from the merchant guild and a party participation request from a human that they had refused previously.
Despite appearance, the party of Dolton and the other two was quite famous.
A party that was made up from a dwarf, an elf, and a human. Furthermore the two girls in it looked like children. The decent adventurers suspected whether it was a party with that kind of preference and kept them away at respectful distance, while only deviants would approach them.
Dolton who was the self-proclaimed sole person with common sense inside the party aimed to have a male adventurer with good head on his shoulder to join their party so such rumor could be wiped away, but Samantha dragged a beastman kid whose gender was still unclear to him and blabbed that the kid would join their party.
No, certainly if the kid had the physical ability to get away from Samantha and Miranda despite their use of sorcery, they were certainly a good prospect to become their scout, but Dolton couldn’t erase the bad premonition that he was feeling no matter what. He wondered if it was just his imagination.
Besides if the beastman kid was actually a girl, Dolton who was the only one in the party who was showing a noticeable growth would be put under even heavier suspicion that he had that kind of preference.
It was with such worry that he was staring hard at the board hoping that there might be something that he overlooked there, but it seemed that god hadn’t abandoned this boy in distress.
「Dolton-san, there’s this male swordsman who wish to join your party……」
「……What……did you say」
The receptionist lady timidly called out to him. According to her, there was this young swordsman who was younger than Dolton and the others in his party. He was too honest of a kid and there was a risk that he would be preyed on if he got introduced to a bad party, so the receptionist lady thought that perhaps he could be entrusted (just barely) to the party of Dalton whose members were around the same age with and also had no bad rumor (except the rumor of their eccentricity).
「Yes-. Thank you for this chance to introduce myself, my name is Rook, Dolton-san!」
The one who said that before offering his hand was a handsome boy with black hair and blue eyes.
It seemed that he was born from a good family and had courteous behavior. Why was this kind of person picked an improper job like becoming an adventurer?
「I’m going to graduate from the sorcery academy next year, but I don’t want to become a knight like my brothers. I want to do a job where I can be closer to the populace!」
「Oo……」
His existence was dazzling. If he was a student of the sorcery academy then he should be a noble, furthermore if he could also use sorcery then he should have the strength of rank 2.
But, a noble becoming an adventurer smell like trouble, and some normal adventurers would even feel like they got a burden foisted on their hands to accept such person. However──
「My best regards! Rook, I welcome you to our party!」
Dolton didn’t ask for any details and shook Rook’s hand firmly.
Noble? One who was ignorant of the ways of the world? That didn’t matter. Rook didn’t seem like someone who held prejudice toward demihuman, his personality was decent, and his presence would serve to prevent the society from looking at Dolton with suspicion, furthermore his look also seemed like Samantha’s type and would divert her attention away from Dolton. With all those, Dolton didn’t care of anything else.
「Ah, yes. My best re──」
「Dolton!」
The moment Rook was going to give an affirmative reply while looking a bit creeped out, a girl’s voice reverberated through the adventurer guild.
「Geh, Samantha.」
「Listen, listen, Dolton! That Francois Josephine is really amazing!」
「Who’s that!?」
「Hey, Fran, come!」
「Woof」
That “bark” certainly belonged to the beastman street urchin who Samantha picked up, but their appearance had changed completely.
The fluffy hair that had been left to grow uncontrollably now became a bobcut with milk tea color. The large ears that were dangling on both sides of the head also got put to the forefront with a lovely look. The kid’s eyes were still hidden by the hair bang but the face that was exposed looked well-proportioned. The kid was wearing a newly purchased loose shirt and a miniskirt. The healthy legs covered with tights that extended down from there really drew attention.
This Fran who had transformed into a beautiful beastgirl who looked around twelve years old was the result of Gelf’s full efforts.
「So she’s really a female!」
「It’s fine! We had also bought short bloomers from Gelf-chan’s shop!」
「I don’t care about that!」
「Ah, we also asked Gelf-chan to create new equipments for us while we were there.」
「I didn’t ask! Listen to what I’m saying!」
Not only they bought new clothes for Fran, Samantha also purchased a robe that wholly exposed her upper arms and legs now. As for Miranda……
「Uu~~~~~~~~!」
She now looked like a flower fairy with the outfit that used a lot of white and pink clothes in it. She was hiding behind Fran in embarrassment.
「What’s with that attire……」
「It’s fine, it’s free after all!」
「Uwaaaahn!」
Gelf provided equipments free of charge for the two of them in exchange of them being his model, so Miranda whose pocket money ran out for snacks couldn’t possibly refuse……
「Woof」
Miranda had her hair petted by Fran while munching on the sweet that was given to her. The middle-aged adventurers around them were looking at that scene with warm gaze.
「I myself managed to find a swordsman to join our party! Ain’t that right, Rook!」
「Hee!」
Dolton slapped Rook’s shoulder and Samantha stared at him with a burning gaze. It made Rook who was in a daze to jerk in surprise and took a step back.
「N-no, I suddenly remember that I have an urgent business……」
But Dolton’s hold on Rook’s shoulder was firm and he was unable to escape. Then Samantha dragged him into the “rest area” at the back of the guild so they could be alone. One hour later……
「……hics hics」
「Rook also decides to join us happily!」
With Samantha’s “persuasion”, the red faced Rook whose clothes seemed disheveled after their talk officially became a comrade of Dolton and co.
Also it was the moment when Samantha caught her first future husband.
.
Like this the one hundred years adventure of comrades with various colors of personality like rainbow──the adventurers [Rainbow Sword] began.