7/11 Addendum — The second volume of *Adventurer in Another World After Reincarnation* has been greenlit for production! I've posted the character design URL in my activity report, so if you're interested, go take a look.
Once I'd finished everything I needed to do in the goblin lair, I decided to head back to the surface with the Sakarat Brothers. The Sakarat Brothers and their Familiars would be transported in my Dimension Bag, and just as I was returning to the lair's entrance to seal the hole with magic, Grandpa and Agri happened to arrive. The two looked at me, surveyed the area, and noticing that the Sakarat Brothers were nowhere to be found,
"Were we too late?"
the two said in unison and were about to observe a moment of silence, but when I told them the brothers were inside my bag, their expressions returned to ones of relief. However, when Agri peeked inside the bag to check on them, the brothers were snoring in their sleep, which made Agri's face darken. It looked like she was about to drag the two of them out and start lecturing, but Grandpa managed to calm her down by saying, "They've been through a lot—let them sleep a little." Agri relented without a fight.
After that, I carefully sealed the hole, marked it with something I'd be able to recognize later, and returned to the surface. Ted and Light were waiting up there looking worried, and when they too saw the Sakarat Brothers' state inside the bag, they looked like they had something to say.
When I asked Agri what came next, she said they wanted me to show my face at the Guild. Apparently, the matter of the Sakarat Brothers had already been reported to the Guild Master, and the Guild was in the middle of coordinating the information. She warned that if I didn't hurry, the Guild Master might decide to release the information to the adventurers on his own.
By "information," she meant that a new section of the dungeon had been discovered. If that got out, adventurers would flood into the new section all at once, and any minerals or materials I hadn't yet found would be carried off entirely. Well, I hadn't thoroughly examined the place yet, but I'd already taken most of what was visibly worth taking, so I wouldn't be too upset if someone hauled off undiscovered materials. Still, it was a shame to think I wouldn't be able to keep that space all to myself.
"But I still have the Tanikaze situation to deal with…"
"Don't give up so easily! You are, after all, a member of the Tamer's Guild, and you were the one who saved them—so going to explain things is unavoidable. As for the Tanikaze, I'll go oversee it myself, so don't worry and head to the Guild!"
I understood what Grandpa was saying, but he was clearly planning something with the Tanikaze. I'd give him a word of caution, but knowing his personality, there was no way he'd leave something that interesting sitting right in front of him without doing anything. The trouble was, he was my grandfather. It was as plain as day that he'd stick his hand in.
Right after exiting the dungeon, I parted ways with Grandpa—who headed for the master's workshop—and headed to the adventurer's Guild with Agri and the others. The information about the new section didn't seem to have leaked yet; the adventurers we passed along the way didn't seem excited about anything.
When we arrived at the Guild, a staff member who spotted us immediately guided us to the Guild Master's room. A few adventurers had been suspicious of the staff member's behavior, but when they noticed I was there, they quickly averted their gaze. Apparently, they assumed I'd been called in about the octopus incident again. They might have thought I'd gone and caused some other ruckus, and in that moment, I found myself feeling just a tiny bit grateful for my knack for trouble. Really, just a tiny bit…
Once we were ushered into the Guild Master's room, I was immediately asked to explain the situation. "Explain" was generous—it was simply recounting what the Sakarat Brothers had told me: that the new section turned out to be a goblin lair, that there'd been a Goblin King but we'd dispatched it without any problems, and that we'd found adventurer remains that appeared to have been used as goblin food. While I was at it, I suggested to the Guild Master that the remains be turned over to the Church, but the Guild Master seemed to dislike the idea of the Church gaining influence over the Guild, so he decided the Guild would hold its own memorial service, with a priest handling part of the proceedings midway through.
That was all a Guild matter, so they could do whatever they liked—but they also wanted me to attend the memorial. I initially refused, figuring there was no obligation for me to go that far, but they insisted that as the discoverer, my attendance was important. They also explained that it would clearly establish me as a Guild-affiliated person, which would help rebuff any recruitment attempts from the Church. So I agreed. On paper, it would appear I was attending voluntarily, but in reality it was a Guild commission, and I'd be paid 100,000 G. However, if that got out, it would cause all sorts of headaches, so the payment would be framed not as a commission but as a token of thanks for discovering the remains, and no written contract would be drawn up.
With this arrangement, even if the Guild Master unilaterally voided the agreement after the memorial, there'd be no evidence left behind. In that case, I'd simply withdraw from Seigen and tell the whole story to a noble I knew—including royalty—proving that I'd been in the right. The Guild Master would be the only one who stood to lose. The Guild Master wasn't someone who didn't understand that, so I figured he could be trusted even without a contract.
"Now then, about the new section… We will make it public. But not until ten days from now."
Apparently, the Guild couldn't keep a newly discovered section under wraps for the sake of one individual when it had already been officially reported. The ten-day grace period meant I could do as I pleased until then. I needed to hurry with the mining.
"That covers it… The Sakarat Brothers, the ones who caused the whole commotion, have a lecture waiting for them."
It seemed the Guild had judged the brothers' actions as reckless, and the Guild Master himself would be delivering the reprimand. On top of that, Agri would be joining in, so for those two, it was going to be a truly hellish time. If I hadn't still been recovering from my injuries, I might have been able to buy myself a little time before the lecture started—but I kept that thought to myself, since saying it aloud would probably just earn me some resentment.
"Lucky for you two. Two hells packed into one."
"Even if there are fewer sessions, the content's going to be twice as brutal..."
"If that's the case, I'd have rather they split it into two..."
Leaving the dejected pair behind, I stepped out of the Guild Master's room and headed for the craftsman's workshop. I had to hurry—otherwise, they'd end up making some bizarre modification to the new Tanikaze! That thought spurring me on, I sprinted through the streets at nearly full speed. Thanks to that, I managed to intercept the craftsman and Grandpa's grand ambitions just in the nick of time.
At their feet lay a scattering of parts that looked like trial pieces. Most likely, they had only shaped them into their intended forms, but they had been right on the verge of building the mounting mechanism for attaching them to the torso. Had that mechanism been completed, the parts would have been slapped on under the guise of momentum.
Because I had arrived in time, the thwarted craftsman and Grandpa were so frustrated they looked like they wanted to click their tongues in annoyance. Ignoring the two of them, I took stock of the parts that had nearly been installed—and I was genuinely impressed by how many they had managed to prepare in such a short time.
The first thing that caught my eye was a set of wings modeled after a pegasus. No matter how you looked at them, they were purely decorative. According to the craftsman, they were intended to amplify the new Tanikaze's Magic Power, but strapping those onto its back would leave absolutely no room for me to ride.
Next came another set of cannon-like tubes meant to be mounted on the back, positioned on either side of the neck so the barrels flanked it—making the whole thing look like an equine version of a Gundam. The craftsman claimed these tubes could fire off magic, but they were still prototypes that had yet to achieve any practical success. The failures stemmed from insufficient Magic Power and precision, resulting in lackluster range and power; the most recent experiment had been less effective than a fireball launched by a small child.
Completely useless.
Or so I was told. Apparently, the craftsman had thought I might be the one to make it work and had wanted to try equipping it on me.
Finally, there was something resembling a "pile bunker" meant to attach to the side of the torso. It looked like the most practical of the bunch, but once fired, it wouldn't reset automatically. On top of that, the range was short and the recoil so powerful that there was a real risk of being thrown off the Tanikaze. Even so, the craftsman was convinced I could handle it. For reference, the firing mechanism relied on a "Wind Magic Circle" engraved behind the stake and inside the tube to compress air, then used the resulting recoil to launch the stake.
"Don't use me as a test subject... but the pile bunker is pretty cool."
Hearing my words, both of them perked up—especially the craftsman, who lit up with delight. But then I continued:
"I don't need the stake, and the tube doesn't have to be that big. What I really want is something simpler—a footrest stable enough to stand on while mounted."
When he heard the rest of what I had to say, the craftsman deflated completely. Ignoring his slumped shoulders, I got to work brainstorming with his apprentices. We decided on a structure where the pile bunker's tube—similar to what the craftsman had envisioned—would cover the area just below where the saddle sat, roughly twenty centimeters wide, with a pointed tip to reduce air resistance. If it worked, it would offer better grip than stirrups, making it easier to maintain balance even while swinging a weapon. For now, though, it would be a trial run—strapped to the torso with a belt, with stirrups still attached as a backup.
Grandpa had, naturally, joined the discussion as well. The only one who had no part in planning the new Tanikaze's equipment was the craftsman himself.
After being left out of the meeting, the sulky craftsman went off to work on the neck section by himself, refusing anyone's help... I was worried he might sneak in some weird gimmick, but from what I could tell, he was building it exactly as we had discussed.
As the day's work drew to a close and I was about to head home, a visibly pouty Amour showed up at the workshop. She marched up to me with her cheeks puffed out and, without a word, started kicking me in the shins.
No matter how I dodged, she kept aiming for my shins with dogged persistence. On reflex, I kicked back at her leg—but the tip of my boot landed a critical hit on Amour's shin, and she crumpled to the ground, clutching it.
"Are you okay, Amour... ouch!"
I was worried I might have kicked too hard and moved to put a hand on her shoulder, but Amour suddenly lunged and bit my hand. I yanked it away in a panic and checked the spot — right below the pinky on my right hand, there were clear bite marks. They were red but weren't bleeding, so she must have held back to some degree, but one wrong move and my finger could have been chomped clean off.
"This isn't funny, Amour!"
"It's Tenma's fault."
Even with me angry, Amour turned her head away. I had no idea what she was upset about, but her cheeks were puffed out and her tail was slapping the ground over and over.
"There you are!"
Another voice, brimming with fury, echoed through the already tense workshop.
The speaker was Branca, her fur standing on end in a rage. Her sudden appearance startled both of us so badly that the hostile atmosphere from moments ago dissipated like fog. Branca ignored our surprised expressions, marched up to Amour, and without a word cuffed her on the head. Even though it hadn't been that long since I met these two, I'd already seen this scene how many times? Enough that I could stay calm about it.
"Sorry about the ruckus... Tenma, those bite marks on your hand... I'm sorry."
Branca noticed Amour's teeth marks on my hand and cuffed her on the head once more.
"So what exactly happened? I asked Amour, but she insists it's all my fault."
"That's the thing... The young lady chased after you into the dungeon, which was fine, but she didn't know where to go and ended up wandering around... Eventually she ditched me entirely and went charging off on her own. I had to search all the way near the lake we explored before. I went all the way there and headed back to the surface, but that's when I heard she'd already returned from the dungeon ahead of me, so I came running here."
Looking more closely at Branca as she spoke, I noticed she was covered in wounds all over. She'd been so worried about Amour that she hadn't even noticed her own state.
After that, I talked things out with Amour while Branca and Grandpa flanked her on either side, and I finally understood why Amour had been so angry... Well, to cut to the chase, it was basically Amour taking her frustration out on me...
To put it simply, the sequence went like this: I head into the dungeon — Grandpa gets called — Amour notices Grandpa went into the dungeon too — she interrogates Agri and the others to find out why — Amour charges into the dungeon — but she doesn't know where to go and searches for me blindly — Amour shakes off Branca who came after her and wanders the dungeon — she finally makes it back to the surface, learns I've already returned, and storms the workshop — and when she sees me having a great time, she gets furious...
Even after hearing it all, I don't think I was wrong. But it was true that I'd completely forgotten about Amour, so I couldn't exactly make a strong case for myself. And I really didn't want to get bitten again...
"I've heard you out. There are plenty of things I'm not entirely satisfied with, but I'll admit I was partly to blame too, so let's call this matter closed. We good?"
"...Mm."
Amour seemed to feel somewhat better after biting me and getting me to admit fault, and she gave a small nod. I thought that would be the end of it, but —
"That won't do. Young lady, you've caused all this trouble. We're going back to the village."
"...Okay. Bye-bye, Branca."
"You too!"
A fist rained down on Amour's head for the third time.
"We're already way past schedule. If we don't get back soon, everyone's going to worry!"
"It's fine! I'm living with Tenma now! So, Branca, you can go back on your own— ugh!"
Before she could finish, the fourth fist landed. This silent blow seemed to pack the most punch of the day, its dull, heavy thud echoing through the workshop. And with that single strike, Amour lost consciousness.
Branca efficiently bound the unconscious Amour with rope, gagged her mouth, and hoisted her over his shoulder like a sack of rice.
"Sorry about this, but I'm heading back first. It'll probably be until tomorrow or the day after before we return, so until then, just think of the young lady as being in this state... And whatever you do, don't think about letting her go."
Branca gave us that final warning and left the workshop.
"...Is she gonna be okay?"
"Worried about Amour?"
"No, if anything, I'm more worried about Branca. With that face, carrying a bound girl over his shoulder... He'd normally get arrested, you know."
My concern turned out to be justified. On the way back from the workshop, the air was unusually tense, so we stopped at a nearby stall to gather information. It seemed that a beastman with a rough-looking face had been caught by guards trying to kidnap a girl just a little while ago.
There was over a ninety-percent chance it was Branca and Amour, so Grandpa and I hurried to the guard station. However, it turned out the two of them had already been released.
Apparently, there happened to be a guard who knew of the relationship between Branca and Amour. Although they couldn't be released immediately, they were let go sooner rather than later... Of course, Amour had apparently put on a grand act of being an innocent victim. When the sympathetic guard untied her ropes, she fled at the breakneck speed. She was still on the run now, and it was said that Branca had immediately gone searching for her as soon as he was released.
That day, the two of them never came back.
"Well then, let's head to the master's place again today... but first, breakfast."
After waking up in the morning and finishing my ablutions, I wanted to head straight to the master's workshop, but Shiromaru and Solomon were already sitting in front of the table, so I decided to prepare breakfast first. By the way, I don't always skip breakfast; during this period when I've been going to the master's workshop, having breakfast at a street stall had become my daily routine.
"I wasn't planning on cooking anything today, so something simple will do."
I said that to the two of them, took out some meat from the Magic Bag, and started to boil it. I didn't want to fill the carriage with the smell of grilled meat first thing in the morning, so today I prepared a chilled shabu-shabu-style salad for Slarin and the others. I boiled plenty of meat and saved some for my own side dish, but only a very small amount.
"Come to think of it, those guys are probably going to need their food soon too."
I opened the Dimension Bag where the spiders were kept to check on them, and sure enough, the feed I'd put in for them was just about running out.
The spiders regulated their own food intake, so I'd been giving them rations every few days or so. They seemed to be dividing and storing the portions themselves. Well, the spiders hadn't warmed up to me yet, so opening the bag every day might make them wary and stop eating altogether — this was the only method that worked.
But today was different from usual. When I opened the bag to give them several days' worth of feed as always, two of the three spiders — the golden one and the silver one — approached me. I held the food out on my palm, and though they hesitated slightly, they slowly began eating from my hand. The remaining silver one, however, showed no intention of coming any closer and made no effort to hide its usual wariness.
"Think I could make these two into Familiars?"
I tried, and the two that had come to eat seemed like they could become Familiars, but as expected, the remaining one was a no-go.
It was a little lonely, but since compatibility mattered when forming Familiars, I accepted it and decided I'd try making just the two that had warmed up to me into Familiars. That was when Grandpa happened to return from his walk, so I reported to him. Grandpa was listening to my story while the skewered meat he'd bought on the way was getting snatched by Shiromaru and Solomon. And when I finished telling him, he proposed:
"Since it's such a rare opportunity, why not perform the Familiar bonding in front of everyone?"
When he said "everyone," he meant the Tamer's Guild folks and Ammy. These spiders were apparently quite rare, so if I bonded with them quietly, there'd be fuss later. The thing that worried me was that Branca and Amur weren't there, but the two of them were obviously in the wrong for running off to play tag. Putting Amur aside, judging by Branca's personality, she wouldn't nitpick about it afterward. At most she'd probably say something like, "It's a shame, since you don't get to see Familiar bonding very often." Amur might make a fuss later, but Branca would shut her down (physically).
So first I called out to Ammy, and from there we headed straight to the Tamer's Guild — which was really just a table at the Adventurers' Guild. Ammy was excited because this was supposed to be her third time witnessing Familiar bonding (for that matter, this was my fifth time, so our counts weren't that different), but even more excited than her were the members of the Tamer's Guild. Among them, Agri's level of excitement was off the charts.
"Obviously! We get to witness the Familiar bonding of a Monster that barely even appears in the records! How could I not be excited!"
He was more excited than I had ever seen him before. Thanks to that, our table had become the center of attention for the adventurers and guild staff who had been there since that morning. Everyone quickly averted their eyes whenever I looked their way, pretending they had no interest at all, but it was painfully obvious that they were eavesdropping every time Agri or the others raised their voices.
"I get it, so calm down a bit… Besides, we won't be able to focus here. I'll do it after we've gone into the dungeon."
From the adventurers and staff who heard my words, a palpable sense of disappointment wafted over. If I brought the spiders out in this chaotic environment, there was a good chance they'd get spooked again and all my progress would go to waste. Besides, I'd never intended to perform the bonding at the guild in the first place, and the people around me weren't exactly close friends, so I had no obligation to show them the Familiar bonding process. So all those stolen glances were pointless! Guild Master!
"Come on, don't you want to see it?!"
The Guild Master seemed to grasp the meaning behind my stare and started to protest, but I ignored him and walked toward the guild's entrance. There was no way the Guild Master had the authority to force me to perform Familiar bonding inside the guild, and he wasn't irresponsible enough to abandon his work and follow me, so he didn't come after me.
And just as we were about to enter the dungeon, Ammy suddenly raised her hand.
"Yes, Teacher! I've only ever gone down to the tenth floor of the dungeon!"
"Oh, right!"
I'd been thinking that everyone here was fairly skilled, so going down to around the twentieth floor was no big deal, and I had completely forgotten about Ammy. Still, she had to have had help getting that far — it wasn't like she'd gone on her own — but even so, she was no adventurer, and going that deep was dangerous. After pondering briefly about who she'd gone with, I looked over at Agri and the others, and every single member of the Tamer's Guild averted their eyes.
"Agri… I'm sure it's fine, but you took measures to make sure it was safe for her, right?"
"Of course. We mainly bring her along when we're gathering food for her Familiars, and we always go with a full party. We're not the kind of party that would get held up on the tenth floor!"
Agri puffed out his chest as he said this, but...
"The thing about dungeons is, unexpected things can happen — like what went down with the Sakarat Brothers... Keep to the shallow floors. And whatever you do, don't try to take Amy deep."
I scolded Agri with a bit of anger in my voice, and not just Agri — every single member nodded in unison. I wanted to say more, but I figured if I kept going, Amy would start worrying, so I held back. I'd need to make a point of revisiting this later when she wasn't around.
"Well, setting that aside... I know we really shouldn't, but since it's just the one time, let's use that method. That way, Amy won't be able to delve down to the twentieth floor on her own, and we can get to our destination fairly safely."
"That method... What do you mean?"
I explained the method to a puzzled Amy, put it into action, and the whole group headed off together to the twentieth floor using the warp zone.