Chapter 450 Research Souvenirs

Gumihou: Adjusted the whole chapter. Especially Tristan’s dialogue to make it more natural and in keeping with his character.

After selling off the Drop items, we spent the next day resting.

The weather on this day was particularly fine, so most of my familiars, except for Sui, were snoozing on the lawn.

Sui was bouncing around happily in the garden. I played with her for a while, but ended up napping against Fer’s fluffy fur.

Rumours about my familiars must have spread, because there was a bunch of onlookers peeking in over the gates. The looks were a little nervous at first, but when my familiars did nothing but napped, the stares became more obvious.

There was nothing I could do but smile back at them nervously.

After breakfast, we set out for the Adventurer’s Guild once more.

My familiars came with me again.

Today’s purpose was to collect information.

I plan to do some social services here. Like the charity work I did back at Hirschfield. [5]

“Social work?” asked Tristan-san. “That’s a wonderful idea. This is the second largest city in the country after the Royal Capital. We have a lot of churches here, large and small, as well as orphanages. Most of the religious people here live an austere life. Well, except for that one group…”

“Oh, so, um, if you don’t mind my asking…”

[4] “Oh, it’s the Church of Rubanov. They are the crazies that advocate human supremacy. [5] They get loads of funding from their home country and their priest always walk around dripping with opulence. There were even rumours that they kidnap people from the East Side to sell them off to other countries as slaves.”

“Uh, the East Side?”

“Oh, well, that’s the slums. It’s unfortunate, but even a country like this has slums.”

“I- I see…”

“Those Rubanov crazies think that all other races like Beastmen, Elves and even Dwarves are inferior to humans. Which is stupid, especially in this country. Practically n.o.body believes this, which is why they have almost no followers here. Well, the people who follow those crazies come from other countries anyway.”

“Ah…”

“Oh my, apologies. I lost my head a little here. To be honest, my great-grandfather was a dwarf, he pa.s.sed away a year before I came of age. That old man tended to be a little shouty, but he was very kind to me, his great-grandson.” Tristan-san’s expression softened a little. “I can’t stand those Rubanov crazies because I feel they defile my great-grandfather’s memory.”

“I- I see…” well, I don’t intend to support nutjobs or cults. Especially those that kidnap people to sell them as slaves. “I’m glad we had this talk, I really don’t want to donate to a weird cult. Who knows what they would use the money for.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“Oh yes, one other thing…”

As we walked along Brixt’s main street, we found fewer people stopping to stare at Grandpa Gon. Looks like the locals were getting used to him, thank goodness.

Still, crowds parted for us wherever we go…

I don’t know whether to be grateful or embarra.s.sed by this.

“”Master, let’s eat that!””

“”No, that other thing there smells better.””

“”No, I want stew. Just look at that glistening broth…””

“”Sui wants to eat everything~~!””

“”Ou! Let’s eat everything!””

“… you guys, have you forgotten why we’re here?”

“”Aw…”” [5a] 

[8] ““Anyway, could you seriously say that the food stalls here make better food than me?””

“”Umu…””

“”I’ll take you to a nice restaurant later.””

“”Yay!!””

That sparked an unexpected debate on which restaurant to go to, which I ignored as I looked for the store recommended by Tristan-san. [9]

Today’ purpose was shopping. It would be too sad if I were only here for the dungeon challenge. I take my time meandering around before finally stopping in front of a small store.

“Hey, you guys stay outside, alright? And think about which restaurant you’d like to go to.”

That should keep them a little busy, I mused as I step into the accessory shop.

“Welcome,” the storekeeper, who looked to be in his 40s, greeted me with a mile. “Are you looking for something specific?”

“That… well, I’m looking to buy some souvenirs.”

“I see, are they for a loved one?”

Uuuu, rub it in, won’t you!?

[10]

“… no, they are for my staff. My staff members are practically family to me.”

“Staff members, as in… your servants?”

“…yes…”

“I see, I see, may I know your budget? Is there anything in particular you’re looking for?”

[10] [11]

“Well, my budget is around 1 gold 5 silver coins for each person. I’m buying gifts for, uh, children and… their parents. As well as some other staff in charge of security.”

“Excellent, excellent, I have just the thing!”

Indeed, this fellow has all kinds of precious stone related goods in his shop. In the end, I bought the following souvenirs:

Seriya – rose quartz hairclips

Lotte – prehnite hairclips

Little girls should like pretty hairclips, right?

Aiya – amethyst brooch

Teresa – peridot brooch

Tabitha – garnet brooch

I have no idea whether Tabitha will like the brooch, but surely she could use it for dates with Peter? I hope the two of them will be happy.

I had some trouble deciding what to gift the men and boys, but the storekeeper recommended buckles in dull or dark-coloured stones. They come in lapis lazuli, jade, onyx and other similar dark stones.

To be honest, these were pretty nice, so I bought a slightly higher-quality jade buckle for myself. I handed the owner 20 gold coins, happy to pay him a little more for his excellent service and recommendations.

After wrapping up the souvenirs, I put them away and met with my familiars outside.

“”Finally.””

“”Master is coming now?””

“”There are too many shops, I can’t choose!””

“”Sui wants to eat lots and lots~~!””

[5b]

“I guess it’s fine to do a food stall tour, Brixt version.”

“”Yay!!””

Gumihou: It started out as an over 1700 words chapter

Fer: I ate 750 words

Gumihou: …

Fer: Can’t say I enjoyed the experience much. It was all pretty much the same thing

Gumihou: … you think you’re funny, don’t you?

[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs

[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs

[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue

[4] Structural Change: Change pa.s.sive sentence to dialogue

[5] Delete Repet.i.tive or Pointless Information… starting to delete pointless scenes now

[5a] Deleted ‘I Understand!’ when Mukouda denied them food as well as the subsequent reactions.

[5b] Deleted ‘wait, you really want to eat?!’ because, duh?

[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose

[7] Add Dialogue Tag

[8] Creative License – Tailor new reaction per [5a]

[9] Redid scene where Mukouda looks for the shop recommended by Tristan. Deleted a lot of speculative thoughts

[10] Mukouda used the word ‘slave’ too easily in the original. Too weird for a race of people known to use euphemisms for everything including peeing outside (picking flowers). Apply some corrective measures.

“Well, the other person is a slave, but wouldn’t you say that they’re employees who are like family?”

“Oh, a souvenir for a slave, your slave must be happy.”

“I’m happy you feel that way.”

We are all happy. It’s all very draggy.

[11] The looong text about who got what was looong and booooring, so Gumi summarized it into a list. The original was:

For Seriya-chan and Lotte-chan’s girls’ group, they’ll wear hair clips with pink gemstones called rose quartz, and transparent green gemstones called prehnite. Both of them have pale and cute colors that will look good on them, so I think they’ll be happy.

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