Didn't I Say To Make My Abilities Average In The Next Life?! Vol. 3 Read online

  Previously

  When Adele von Ascham, the eldest daughter of Viscount Ascham, was ten years old, she was struck with a terrible headache and just like that, remembered everything.

  She remembered how, in her previous life, she was an eighteen-year-old Japanese girl named Kurihara Misato who died while trying to save a young girl, and that she met God…

  Misato had exceptional abilities, and the expectations of the people around her were high. As a result, she could never live her life the way she wanted. So when she met God, she made an impassioned plea:

  “In my next life, please make my abilities average!”

  Yet somehow, it all went awry.

  In her new life, she can talk to nanomachines and, although her magical powers are technically average, it is the average between a human’s and an elder dragon’s…6,800 times that of a sorcerer!

  At the first academy she attended, she made friends and rescued a little boy as well as a princess. She registered at the Hunters’ Prep School under the name of Mile, and at the graduation exam went head-to-head with an A-rank hunter.

  A lot has happened, but now Mile is going to live a normal life as a rookie hunter with her allies by her side.

  Because she is a perfectly normal, average girl!

  Chapter 20:

  The Return to the Capital

  It was the second night of their journey home to the capital.

  “Time for tonight’s folktale!

  “One day, a suspicious-looking old woman, who was selling apples, came to the home of a young girl who had run away from her evil stepmother and was living with some dwarves. The old woman asked, ‘Do your gums bleed when you bite into apples?’ The young girl used the toothpaste that she bought from the old woman and perished…”

  Given that Mile had never seen snow during her time alive—either in her home world or this land—she decided to switch the name of the heroine of this tale to that of the protagonist of another in order to suit the context.

  Her heroine was called…

  “Cindeadella.”

  “And then, a perverted prince with necrophiliac tendencies showed up to kiss the young girl’s corpse…”

  “What?! But the seven dwarves were there, too! They’d never let him lay a hand on that girl!”

  “If the search functions of that magical bell were put to military use, they would have an overwhelming effect on the tides of battle…”

  “But the girl has such a strong life force. Couldn’t she just use the prince’s energy to revive herself?! She’s a demon, isn’t she?”

  The members of the Flaming Wolves interjected at their leisure until Reina roared, “Shut up! You aren’t supposed to question everything. This is just a nonsense tale to enjoy!”

  It seemed that Reina understood the proper way to enjoy a story.

  In other words, she had been well trained. By Mile.

  The other two were exactly the same.

  ***

  The third night:

  “On the way to see her grandmother, a young girl traveled deep into the forest, a red cloth draped atop her head and pinned under her chin so as to hide her cheeks. Indeed, this was because she had a toothache.

  “Little Red Riding Tooth.”

  “What a big mouth you have! I bet you could swallow a person whole! And it’s not just your mouth! What happened to your throat and stomach?”

  “If you devised a plan to sneak behind enemy lines in the belly of a wolf, it would have an overwhelming effect on the tides of battle…”

  “That would spread some pretty damaging rumors about wolfmen…”

  “Shut uuuuuuuuuup!”

  ***

  And then, the fourth day:

  Finally, they arrived back at the capital. Their job of eight nights and nine days was complete.

  They’d only spent a short time as guards, but the Crimson Vow had gotten quite a lot out of it; it was the first time they had worked in conjunction with other parties and the first time they had battled against not only monsters, but other people as well.

  However, while the four girls still looked as though they had quite a bit of energy left in them, in truth, they were exhausted, both in spirit and—thanks to the lengthy wagon journey—

  in body.

  As they stopped by the shops of each of the four merchants, the wagons and their owners departed one by one. And of course, with every stop, Mile withdrew the merchants’ excess goods from her storage and collected her handling fee.

  At the final merchant’s shop, they handed over the goods, calculated the fee for transporting those goods held in storage, and filled in the job completion paperwork. Though the members of Dragonbreath were not with them, they forwarded the report of their completed duties as well. The job was now officially finished. Then, the merchant started in on a different topic entirely.

  “Everyone, I’d like to extend my sincere thanks. Without all of your help, our caravan would have been wiped out, and it’s likely that we ourselves might not have made it back alive. We’ll never forget all that you’ve done for us. Should the chance ever arise, we would be grateful to have you take on our requests again in the future.”

  The merchant bowed his head to all of them and quickly continued.

  “And um, Miss Mile, if it should suit you, we would be happy to adopt—”

  “No thank you!”

  “No thank you!”

  “No thank you!”

  Before Mile could even speak, Reina, Pauline, and Mavis had replied in her stead.

  The merchant slumped in disappointment.

  “Who does he think he is?!”

  “Honestly! What kind of nonsense was that?!”

  Reina and Pauline ranted about the merchant’s impertinent invitation all the way to the guildhall.

  Upon seeing the girls, their usual, favorite clerk shouted, “I heard all about it! You all were really amazing!”

  Hearing this, everyone in the hall turned to look at them.

  Forgive me… thought Mile, a mortified look on her face, but the other three were beaming. Naturally, the Flaming Wolves were as well.

  “Honestly,” said Mile, “it was all thanks to the five members of Dragonbreath, as well as the Flaming Wolves here.”

  Suddenly remembering their position, Reina and the others nodded as well.

  However, the guild staff and other hunters had known the Flaming Wolves for some time, and were well aware of their abilities. Furthermore, while it was well established that Dragonbreath were powerful hunters, close to B-rank, they certainly were not the sort of party who could face over forty soldiers and make it out unscathed. So naturally, the Crimson Vow, the wild card in this situation, fell under suspicion. Nonetheless, questioning one’s fellow hunters was considered a taboo, so while a private inquiry was a different matter, no one dared to cross-examine them in front of such a crowd.

  Just then, a shout came their way.

  “Brett! Congratulations on your big win! We’re so proud to be part of your party! I bet you got a huge reward, didn’t you? We should celebrate tonight and discuss our party’s plans for the future!”

  The Crimson Vow looked around in surprise and saw a pair of girls nearby. One got the impression that they had been waiting for the Flaming Wolves this whole time.

  “A celebration for our party members, huh…? That might be good. We did earn a lot this time, and it’s helped our reputation. We should party with some cute girls to celebrate our bright future!”

  “Oh, that’s a good idea!”

  “Totally!”

 
Chuck and Daryl agreed with Brett’s proposal.

  The two girls smiled in satisfaction. “We’ve been staking out some places. What do you think about the Wingtip?”

  “Huh?”

  Brett looked perplexed at the girl’s suggestion. “Why exactly are you proposing the place?” Chuck and Daryl looked equally confused.

  “Huh? Well, it’s a party celebration… So, the five of us should…” the girls started.

  Brett replied wearily, “A five-person party? No, the Flaming Wolves are a three-man band and have been for several months. You girls’ fellow party members are those four handsome fellows, aren’t they? You all cast us aside, saying we were nothing but pathetic country bumpkins. We’re nothing more than some guys who used to be your allies. You have no business with us now.

  “If anyone should be celebrating with us tonight, it should be the people who fought alongside us. Those girls over there best fit that bill. Besides, isn’t alcohol bad for an unborn child?”

  As Brett spoke, he, Chuck, and Daryl all stared at the girls coldly.

  Ouch…

  Mile and the girls, along with everyone else present, could all see the misery in the two girls’ eyes.

  The pair was frozen for several moments, but as soon as they noticed the countless pitying and contemptuous stares directed their way, they hastily retreated.

  “They won’t be coming back again, will they?”

  “Who knows… Well, even if they do, I don’t intend to deal with them again, so it’s none of our concern.”

  “Ah, guess you’re right.”

  In truth, this could not be thought of as a betrayal. All the people involved had simply chosen what was best for them. It was as simple as that. The two girls had thought that those four handsome men were the best choice for them.

  And naturally, the Flaming Wolves thought that caring for a pair of girls who had made that choice—and were now carrying other men’s children—was not.

  Members of a party had to entrust one another with their lives, so it was out of the question to have people in your party whom you could not have total faith in. Furthermore, it was likely that those girls would not be able to work as hunters very soon. They were already showing.

  The Crimson Vow handed over their job completion certificate, marked with an A-grade, along with the merchants’ report about Dragonbreath, asking the clerk to keep her voice down so as not to attract any more attention as they collected their pay. For the four of them, there was 96 half-gold in total.

  So that it would be easy for the party to divide, the clerk handed them 8 gold and 16 half-gold pieces. She was very diligent when it came to matters like these.

  Though it would be nice if she paid more attention to other things, Mile grumbled internally.

  They had already received their payment for the bandits and soldiers back in Amroth, so this part was merely the promised pay from the merchants. With this, their assignment was now well and truly complete.

  “Oh! There were some letters for you as well,” said the clerk.

  Mavis grimaced, and Pauline’s shoulders slumped. The clerk handed them two letters apiece, which they immediately shoved into their pockets, unread.

  And then, as they started to head back toward the inn…

  “S-say, why don’t we celebrate the end of our job?” asked the Flaming Wolves.

  “We’d better hold off,” the girls replied. “Little Lenny gets mad at us if we don’t eat our meals at the inn when we’re in town…”

  “I can’t drink anyway…”

  “And we really need to go count our money…”

  “So then!” they all finished in unison, and promptly departed, leaving the three Flaming Wolves with blank stares.

  “We’re back!”

  “Welcome home!”

  As always, Lenny greeted the girls from behind the counter.

  Actually, now that they thought about it… they had never seen anyone besides Lenny behind that counter. Was she not just a helper, but actually a full-time employee?

  While Mile puzzled over this, she retrieved the dried fish from the loot box.

  “Here, a souvenir.”

  “Whoa, these are fish, aren’t they?! Did you all go to the ocean? If I’d known, I would’ve asked you to buy some smoked fish, too…”

  As Lenny started to pout, Mile pulled out some of the smoked fish from her loot box as well.

  “O-ohhh…”

  From the looks of it, Lenny was not interested in serving the fish as a meal at the inn, but rather, in eating it herself. In her usual loud voice, she called over the innkeeper and his wife, who graciously thanked the girls and accepted the goods.

  That evening after dinner, when those patrons who had come only for the meal had returned home, and those guests staying overnight had retreated to their rooms, a scene of carnage unfolded on the inn’s main floor.

  “No way!” Lenny screamed. “Have you forgotten all the favors we’ve done for you up until now?!”

  “No,” Pauline replied coolly, “This is a perfectly fair transaction. As I recall, the agreement that we made was mutually beneficial.”

  Indeed, under their agreement, they had helped attract customers in exchange for a discount. Now that they had stayed at the inn for a whole month, the time that they had paid for in advance was up. Lenny had hoped that they would renew their contract under the same terms, but the Crimson Vow’s initial timidity, which they had felt when their future was uncertain and they needed to pinch their pennies, was gone. Now, their pockets were full.

  “Anyway,” said Pauline, “we’re tired of waiting on the other guests. We have more than enough funds now, so we’ll be relocating to an inn that has its own bath—”

  “B-but…”

  Lenny, the innkeeper, and the matron were speechless.

  Sure enough, ever since the Crimson Vow had begun their stay, the inn’s profits had been steadily rising. There was an increase in the number of patrons as well—both those who stayed overnight and those who stopped by only for meals. In the nine days that the girls had been gone, the owners had received question after question about where they were, and sales had already fallen.

  And now, just when they had finally returned, bringing with them a sense of hope, they suddenly declared they were leaving. It was as good as saying, “This place isn’t good enough, so we’re going elsewhere.” Naturally, the owners were dumbfounded.

  “Just what exactly are you so dissatisfied with here?!”

  “Well, I mean, we’ve already told you this plenty of times: we’re tired of being the entertainment, and there are no baths.”

  “Well… what if we get rid of your duties and just offer you the room at the standard rate…?”

  “Is that really supposed to be an incentive to stay at this place without a bath?”

  “If we’re paying the standard rate, wouldn’t it just be better for us to pay a bit more and relocate to somewhere with a bath?”

  At Reina and Pauline’s rebuttals, Lenny fell silent.

  “Well then… what if we kept the rate what it is, but just decreased your job requirements a bit…?”

  “I’m telling you, money is no longer an issue for us. We’re not doing it anymore!”

  “Plus, the way we’ve done things until now is expensive, comparatively. We didn’t even stay at the inn for a third of this past month. Unlike other hunters, we don’t need to leave our things in our room while we’re traveling, so we’ve come to realize that actually making a room reservation is a frivolous expense…”

  “Guh… Er…”

  They’d figured it out. Lenny chewed her lip as she thought.

  Previously, just after the Crimson Vow had left on their rock lizard hunting trip, Lenny had entered their room to clean it. Seeing that not a single item of the girls’ luggage remained in the room, she had come to the same realization Pauline and Reina had, thinking: Oh! There’s really no reason for them to have reserved their room in advanc
e, is there…?

  With that in mind, their discounted rate, which at a glance was an excellent deal, was not so great once you took into account the number of nights that they actually stayed in the room, plus the work they did waiting on other guests.

  Furthermore, the souvenirs that Mile brought back now and then were nothing to sneeze at. The rock lizard tails she brought them before, for example—wholesale prices for them were one matter, but buying them at retail price was fairly expensive. Plus, it had been an entire tail. It was more than enough to make meals for the guests. It could also be preserved in various ways, such as smoking and drying, and what was left over could be resold to other inns. It was incredibly profitable. It was the same with the orc meat before that, and the fish this time.

  She had no choice but to give up hope that the inn could profit from their lodging fees, but there had to be something else that she could squeeze out of them…

  With that in mind, Lenny the negotiator came out in full force. (Incidentally, Lenny’s parents were complete non-entities in this conversation.)

  “Okay. I’ll give you a four-person room—meals not included—for six silver a night! You only have to pay for the nights you stay, and you only have to interact with the other guests as much as you would with anyone else lodging in the same place you were, so…”

  Lenny was grinding her teeth, looking as though she were about to vomit blood.

  However, what she was offering was nothing more than a simple discount. All the other amenities were exactly the same as those they could get in any inn. Even if the discount was rather steep…

  Yet seeing Reina and Pauline’s dispassionate reaction to her proposal, Lenny made a determined face.

  If what they really cared about was the amenities, she could try offering them free lodging. But she could not possibly bring herself to make that decision.

  This was still an inn, after all. They earned their profit from the guests who stayed there. Therefore, if guests stayed there without contributing any income, they would no longer be an inn. They could offer discounts now and then, and depending on the generosity of their guests, they might even earn some favors from time to time. Still, they could not violate the founding principles of an inn!