Tahara listened to Hummer’s monologue seriously. In a way, he had lived a lonely life for so long, apart from his beloved sister. That’s why he suddenly suggested, “Then bring it back to the village.”
“Okay, I’ll bring it— Whaaaat?!”
“Why keep it in this shabby place? There’s a lot more life in our village,” Tahara suggested.
“But...we can’t just move the altar without permission— Oh?”
“What’s up?”
“I-I just heard a woman’s voice in my head... She said, ‘Permission granted.’”
Tahara let out a hearty laugh. “Hummy! It’s too early to be sloshed!”
“I-I’m not drunk!”
Tahara laughed again as he shoved the altar into his Backup Backpack and helped Hummer up by the hand. “We may as well take care of my errand now. Tag along with me, will ya?”
“Y-Yessir! I’ll go anywhere with you, if you’ll have me!”
Tahara took them to the headquarters of the Adventurer’s Guild—an organization that monopolized all loot from the dungeon. It had strong ties to other guilds around the continent, leaving no room whatsoever for new business on the market. In short, they were a financial cartel. At this point, Tahara had no intention of interfering with the established system surrounding the dungeon. He was only seeking to buy some of the loot from the guild at a fair price. For once, Tahara was too busy to dip his hands into the adventurer-monster-dungeon cookie jar.
“You said you used to dungeon crawl before you joined us,” Tahara said.
“Yessir...” Hummer didn’t have many good memories from Rookie. He’d suffered a serious injury soon after becoming an adventurer, so he’d been forced to work as a porter thereafter...but he made it very far. Now, he only remembered how he’d been bossed around by young adventurers for a pittance.
“Oh? That meat skewer looks good. Wait for me inside, will ya?” Tahara said.
“Y-Yessir!”
As Hummer entered the guild, the three receptionists rose with perfect posture to greet him...and clicked their tongues obnoxiously. Tahara had brought them to a counter reserved for big shot merchants—off-limits to adventurers and small fry.
“You’re at the wrong window, dude.”
“You’re that useless porter.”
“You’re looking for the window by the dungeon. How stupid are you?”
The receptionists sat back down as if Hummer had caused them a great inconvenience by prompting them to rise and greet him. That was when Tahara came in.
The receptionists shot up to their feet. “Welcome, Grand Foreman!” they said as if the picture of hospitality.
Tahara didn’t so much as glance their way as he handed Hummer a skewer. “Here. Hang back for a minute and eat this.”
“Y-You didn’t have to buy one for me...!”
“Once we get back to the village, let’s do a barbecue on the beach. I’ll bring Manami. She loves those fish... Maybe she’s thinking about our time hiding out at the docks too.”
“I-I could never intrude on your family time...” Hummer stammered.
Seeing them act buddy-buddy, the receptionists seemed to realize their mistake, because their attitude toward Hummer did a 180—no, a 540. They scurried around the counter and cozied up to him.
“Mister Hummer! This way, please!”
“Huh?” Hummer blurted.
“Mister Hummer, here’s a cigar from Euritheis.”
“What?! I-I’ve never had a cigar...”
“This is a cup of fine tea from Suneo. Please let us know what we can do to make you comfortable.”
“Y-You shouldn’t waste something that expensive on me...!” Hummer said, swarmed by the three receptionists and their insistent hospitality.
Meanwhile, Tahara was looking through his order form. The Grand Foreman was in search of sand snail shells. When finely crushed and mixed with clay, water, sand, and gravel, the mixture became similar to concrete—material that he couldn’t get enough of to support the unending construction in Rabbi. There were countless materials Tahara needed more of: copper and iron that could be harvested from monsters called Tin Men; the meat of Raging Chicken—a popular dish among laborers because it was cheap and nutritious, despite its toughness; the feathers of Great Ravens, which appeared in the lower levels of the dungeon—these were mainly used to make arrows, but also as accessories. With how quickly the village of Rabbi was growing economically, there were never enough goods to go around. The villagers were always starving for more. Tahara also needed to source vast quantities of leather and dairy products, but those would have to come from Mylk, the dairyland of the Northern Nations. Unfortunately, Holylight and Mylk were separated by a great distance and had no preestablished trade.
“Sweetheart,” Tahara called to one of the receptionists. “I need more leather, but we’re too far from Mylk. The Tungya tribe or whatever got massacred for disappointing the Secretary... How am I supposed to import anything?! Why does my boss have to be like this?!”
“I-I see...?” the receptionist said uncertainly.
“So. Can you scrounge up as much leather and dairy as you can?” Tahara requested.
“U-Understood! A-And, for your usual...?”
“Huh? All of it, sweetheart. All of it. Carry ’em all out for me,” he instructed.
“Y-Yes, sir!” The receptionist snapped to attention, pumping her fist a little in celebration. Whenever the Grand Foreman came knocking, they always cleared out their stock...which led to a fat bonus for the employees of the guild.
Hearing the news of Tahara’s arrival, the Guildmaster darted out of his office, rushing past the other employees who stood ramrod straight as to not insult their most valuable client.
“Ah, Mister Tahara! Thank you for coming!” the Guildmaster said as he shot a glance at Hummer, sitting nervously by Tahara. The Guildmaster searched his memories until he recognized Hummer as the porter who’d always been mocked for being useless. But this man was shrewd enough to approach Hummer with the same attitude he carried when speaking to Tahara. “And Mister Hummer! Thank you for making the time!”
“N-No, I...just happened to tag along...” Hummer said.
“Nonsense! Our doors are always open to you, sir.”
While Hummer sat anxiously, Tahara processed more purchases, igniting a sort of frenzy within the guild. The items he ordered would be hauled to the village of Rabbi at once, where individual vendors could purchase them directly. These hauls of merchandise never lasted long in Rabbi and were quickly bought out. Even after suffering catastrophic damage from the Invasion, the city of Rookie was enjoying the economic benefits that came with rising demand for dungeon loot—just another ripple effect of the Demon Lord putting his industry into full gear.
“Well, take care like usual, will ya?” Tahara concluded.
“Thank you! Please come again!” the receptionists said as Tahara flung open the door and left, Hummer sheepishly following behind him.
After leaving the guild, Tahara and Hummer headed to the slums.
“There’s someone there who looked after you?” Tahara asked.
“Yessir. She often brought me leftovers when I was hungry...”
“So now you’re paying her back?”
“I’m trying to repay even a fraction of the kindness I received...”
“Now that’s a wholesome story.”
Despite the sun shining high in the sky, the slums seemed dingy and dark. Every city had an underbelly, but Rookie’s was particularly seedy. Adventurers either found glamorous success or miserable failure in this city—there was no in-between. A stench hung heavy in the air of the slums, and its residents wore stained, worn-out clothes. This wasn’t unusual for this continent, though. The villagers of Rabbi were the outliers for bathing and washing their clothes pretty much daily.
Noticing those details, the pair walked deeper into the slums. Eventually, they came up to a woman in her forties pulling a stall. “You’re...Hummer!” she said. “I thought you’d dropped dead...”
“It’s...very nice to see you again, Michi.”
“And who’s this?” Michi asked, gesturing to Tahara.
“Don’t mind me. Feel free to stroll down memory lane.” Tahara sat on a crate again, looking relaxed as ever as he lit a cigarette. He had nothing against neighborhoods like this—he had been raised in one, after all.
“Where do you live now, Hummer?” Michi asked.
“R-Right now I’m in Holylight...”
“Where it’s full of stuffy nobles? You better not be starving.”
“I-I’m not... And, um, I wanted to thank you for helping me out,” Hummer said.
“Ha!” Michi scoffed. “You, thank me? Very funny.” She started preparing her dishes to sell. Genuinely, she hadn’t expected any thanks. She’d only occasionally given him leftovers out of pity and anger at how pathetic Hummer had looked back then.
“B-But Michi, I...”
“Stop mumbling! If you want to thank me, order something!” Michi said.
“O-Okay! Then, I’ll take the usual...” Hummer said.
Tahara couldn’t help but laugh at how quick and snappy Michi was. To someone like her, Hummer must have seemed like an oaf.
“I’ll take one too. Whatever he’s having,” Tahara said.
“You’d better have the coin to pay for it,” Michi said.
Tahara barked a laugh. Since coming to this world, he’d never been eyed like that—like she suspected him of being destitute. Now that the Demon Lord’s legion had cleared out the Central coffers, Tahara—who managed all aspects of their operation—was as rich as an oil tycoon. How could he have not laughed when he was treated as a penniless street urchin?
“No sweat. Hummy’s got fat pockets nowadays.” Tahara turned to Hummer. “Mind picking up my tab?”
“N-No, of course not!” Hummer took out a leather pouch and tugged it open to reveal it full of silver coins.