Day 51-60/Day 54

Waking up as usual, I felt a presence overlooking me while sighing by my side. To ascertain who it was, I feigned sleep for a while.

According to [Presence Sensor], apparently it was the Elven Maiden-san. For now, I want to say “What are you doing?”

Later, Gobumi-chan, Redhead, Blacksmith-san, Sisters-san, Alchemist-san all had me surrounded and were examining me closely as well, again I wondered what they were doing.

Since it is impossible to play possum forever, perhaps because of the looks from Gobumi-chan and the others I felt an eerie feeling, and because I felt this chill down my spine I opened my eyes.

Then Elven Maiden-san went into a panic, her movements were so funny that I laughed in spite of myself. I was hit by Elven Maiden-san.

Why me?

After that I finished my breakfast, then practiced against Gobukichi-kun for the same reason, since an Ogre could easily kill a Hobgoblin, because of this Gobukichi-kun and I did not participate in the mixed training much.

The current training, I told the Hobgoblin in charge of training that we were going to go escort Elven Maiden-san to her village, and we then departed from the cave.

After a while of hunting Argiope for suitable materials, and walking for about three hours we finally arrived.

We were suddenly surrounded, the numbers that appeared in sight were 25, but according to [Presence Sensor] the true number was 48.

Although they seem to be aiming at the vital parts of both me and Gobukichi-kun with bows, and arrows solely made of Mithril, this is not a big problem though.

To the extent that I could kill all of them if I overlap my abilities, and to begin with, the bodies of me and Gobukichi-kun, complete with our armor if hit by an arrow even at a short distance we can endure it.

The life force of an Ogre should not be underestimated.

Frankly, receiving a direct hit to an unprotected head would be somewhat dangerous, but I am confident that it could be avoided even if it happened at point blank range.

However, it is only troublesome to fight for one reason, Elven Maiden-san is here this time.

By reflex Gobukichi-kun was about to slaughter the elves surrounding him, he was able to equip the axe and shield immediately without carrying them around because they are stored into the bracelet magic item. By the way the magic bracelet can hold 12 types of items and it is possible to stack 20 of the same type of item--I had to stop him with a hand signal, Elven Maiden-san was able to talk down the surrounding elves almost instantly.

While surrounded by an escort of guards called Watchdogs that monitored us, we moved forward into the Village of the Elves.

The Village of the Elves, how do I say it, they live among giant trees. I have an understanding of the structure.

It is built around one enormous tree that you cannot see at the beginning, traffic is handled by the other trees having scaffolds complete with stairs, residences, and suspension bridges along it.

The living area is primarily in the trees and not on the ground.

It’s unlikely that everyone are living in trees, since I can see things like stables on the ground.

It felt strange to be looked down at or should I say curiosity, although we were being exposed to these looks we continued forward up some stairs and across a bridge to arrive at our destination at last.

There were different mansion like residences of different sizes. Seemingly the house of Elven Maiden-san appears to be here.

Going into a mansion, I met the father of Elven Maiden-san face-to-face.

He had a splendid mustache, I should also say he looked like a Dandy- looking old man with a fine toned body for an elf. If I were a man of the same type I would be jealous.

Since I tried to sit on a seat as I was offered, but since it creaked disagreeably, I had to politely decline. Tea was served to drink, and as it got time to refill we moved onto business talk.

To summarize the contents of our agreement, since Elven Maiden-san received help I was to receive a reasonable compensation, he said.

Even though this is not a charity, I do not exactly know how much Elven Maiden-san is worth as this is my first time doing this. So, I told him to give me a reward that is worth the life of Elven Maiden-san. Does it really matter if it comes out to a paltry amount of money? Actually, now that you mention it since he has the amount that we decided on. I implied I wanted more.

He may hate me, but if it is really that cheap, then Father Elf should be calm about this,

depending on what type of personality he has, this will indicate if it was cheap.

His response with light feelings told me I was correct.

To be honest the result was unexpected, but an [Ancient] Class [Artifact] ended up in my possession.

The magic weapon was shaped like a bow, according to where it had been appraised it was named [Failnaught].

I was told that it does not really require arrows, when the bow is fully drawn the arrow is half materialized by a mysterious power, therefore it will not run out of arrows.

An arrow that is shot will be a [Certain Hit] at the point that was aimed at, unless the space was protected by a shield as the name "Certain Hit" implies. Though it has other abilities, it’s a pain to explain so I leave it at that.

This bow, it seems to be a family heirloom considering Elven Maiden-san's reaction to it, should be impossible to exchange for a beloved daughter. He must really be a doting parent. Whoa! I'm not saying anything.

So I am glad for this, just to see that warm gaze.

So we got a family heirloom as expected, I was about to say “Okay, good bye” but I felt a little bit awkward about it, so I decided to present some information that I have.

Also, I don't hate Father Elf's character.

Oh, come to think of it of how far humans will go for things like this, is there a strategy in this too? I hear that when you leak out a little of the details on the target, that the rewards will keep coming.

More awards were presented, 30 chain mail shirts made of Mithril, 30 Mithril short swords, 20 Mithril (Ingot), and a few magic items that will be convenient for living.

Reluctantly, I was saved by one person who knows the importance of this information.

While absentmindedly watching Father Elf who was writing down information and intelligence about traps that I knew, I took out ten each of the knives made from water, earth, and wind spirit stones by Blacksmith-san and put them on the desk.

Also while I was at it, three shovel-type [Unique] class magic items with abilities suitable for Elves who excelled at handling spirits.

It's not that I didn't expect to more or less sell favor for later, but I thought that it would make up for the shortage caused by the loss of the elite Elves.

The business safely concluded, I exchanged a solid handshake with Father Elf while smiling amicably.

Only, when I was asked "Do you know the whereabouts of those elites?", I had no choice but to smile and say "I don't know".

As we headed home, Father Elf gave me a souvenir saying "This is the Elf-made alcohol known as secret medicine. Please take it". There were three casks of booze.

Yep, this was thanks to Luck wasn't it?

Booze was a great pleasure of mine.

Father Elf just said "If it's you then this is just cheap support.", I'll pay him back.

Night. Since we finally got our long-awaited booze, I drank with everyone.

“Elven alcohol tastes so good!!” I screamed involuntarily. Yeah, I’ll have you treat me again.