Kujonin Chapter 48

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Kujonin
Author: Hanabokuro
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Story 48

We reached the port town called Floura at noon, 2 days after departing from the island. Floura is in the Ruginia Alliance, a country made up of many small countries on the Virginia continent, at the southern most part of the continent.
In the southwest part of that Ruginia is the town Floura.

We, who disembarked from a beaten up s.h.i.+p, attracted attention.
In the first place, it seems like there's no one who uses a water dragon to pull their s.h.i.+p, so even though I was right in front of him, the old man collecting the mooring fee just stared blankly at Water Dragon-chan.

"Laters~!"
"Bye~!"
Water Dragon waved and left.
Leaping from the water, Water Dragon-chan gave a small show, creating a big wave, and went off into the distance.

"Um… how much is it?"
"E!? Aa, 2 silver coins. And your name."
The old man handed me a pen and parchment.
I wrote my name as needed and paid the fee.
"Is there a place for s.h.i.+p repair close to here?"
"Feinman's s.h.i.+pyard would suit. If you walk along the coast, you'll see it right away."
"Thank you very much."

"I still feel like the ground is swaying."
Velsa said.
"Un, that's true."
"Then we'll get an inn and settle into it for a bit. After that we'll move separately."

Although the town of Floura has a main street, the back streets twist and turn, and the buildings are also crowded together.
The buildings are not uniform, like there are different cultures mixed together.
However, all the buildings' walls are painted with colorful colors, so it has a fun atmosphere.

In front of the building with a triangular roof, that seems to be the church, there's a crowd of people.
All of the people gathered up look like adventurers, and they're shouting things like, "Adventurers will adventure!"

"If they adventure, then they're adventurers, right?"
"N? What do you mean?"
Velsa returned my question with a question.
"Those people are saying, "I want to adventure!", but they're not necessarily adventuring, right? They're holding a demonstration at such a place, after all. So that means they're not adventurers?"
"In other words, not only do they not intend to adventure, they don't hold the ident.i.ty of adventurers in the first place, huh?"
Ayl understood something by herself.
"It's someone like me, who just exterminates, saying it though. But if you register to be an adventurer at the Adventurers Guild, it's like paradise to an unemployed person … maybe I should stop working."
Once again, I've come to like this world.
As long as you say you're an adventurer, no one can really say anything to you.
"If you sell flowers, you're a florist. If you sell fish, you're a fish-monger. Adventuring is the business of a person who adventures."
Velsa said, as if scolding me.
"E!? Is a person who adventures different from an adventurer1?"
"It's different. An adventurer who goes to many unexplored regions and haunts is someone you'd call 'a person who adventures,' right? An adventurer is like those guys who also do grunt-like work, like monster subjugations."
"Then, even a mage who uses great magic, and even a swordsman who cuts strong monsters into pieces in a dungeon, they're all people who are doing grunt work?"
Ayl asked.
"That's…. huh?"(Velsa)
"A person who adventures is what you call people in the business of adventurers, so adventurers are the people who do odd jobs near where they live?" (Naoki)
"I'm starting to get confused." (Velsa)
Velsa held her head.
"Whichever you are, if you don't work you don't eat, right?"
Ayl said something that didn't seem at all related and thoroughly cut off the conversation.
As expected, just by holding the t.i.tle [Sword King] she's like this.

"People who adventure have people who are patrons. Adventurers are those who bravely step into unknown territory by their own wills. You might see them as people who do oddjobs, but for the guild, they're helpers who go into unknown territories.  At the least, that's true for this guild."
The lady clerk at the Adventurers Guild, giving me a 'what a pointless question' look, taught me the difference.
At the Adventurers Guild, we're turning the monster meat, pelts, and magic stones into money.
I didn't get the dragon's magic stone back.
"This guild does not have the money to be able to convert these into money."
-is how it is.
"As for inns, here, here, and here are the recommendations. Is that all? Next!"
A capable woman is something else.
There aren't that many people in the Adventurers Guild, but for some reason, this lady clerk has a line.
I would also want this lady clerk to scold me from time to time.

Heading to a recommended inn, we paid for 3 nights.
No matter what, repairing a s.h.i.+p will take time, and it would have been fine to pay for more, but the other two said, 'We might get tired of it', so it ended up as 3 nights.

"We'll separate from here."
"Then I'll head to the s.h.i.+pyard."
Velsa said.
"A, then I'll hand over some money."
So saying, I handed Velsa around 20 gold coins.
"I don't need it. I'll hunt the monsters in the area and make money that way."
Seems like Ayl wants to try her skills with her level having gone up.
"I also want to come, to investigate our surroundings! I'll come right after dropping by the s.h.i.+pyard, so wait a bit."
"Got it."
Having that kind of conversation, the two prepared to go out, and I hurriedly left the room.
When I asked the innkeeper where the brothel was, he had a face like, "Eh?!"
I suppose he's wondering why I need to go to a brothel when I'm accompanied by two women.
When I said, "We're brother and sisters," he said, "Aa," and told me.

Floura's brothels are located on the eastern end of town, within the bar area.
Even though it's noon, there a adventurer-like guys drinking in the bars.

"Why can't we adventurers adventurer? Screw it, I'm chugging!"
"Just what is the church hiding about the southern sea!? We should go check it out! But first, let's drink!"
"But the guys who went 10 years ago never came back. It's spooky, but will my chills go away if I drink?"
"There's always people who never return after going to see! Drink to forget the past that should be forgotten!"
"We are adventurers! We are adventurers, those who step into the unknown! We'll drink open our path!"
"This is a memorial for the adventurers who went 10 years ago! Drink!"
They were raising voices like that.
Anyway, they just want reasons to drink.

Threading my way past the drunks, I headed to the brothel-town.

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Velsa uses bokenya (person in the adventuring business) here instead of bokensha (person who adventures). Normally I'd like to flip it, so that bokenya is the adventurer and bokensha is the person who adventures, because it's more literal (or bokenya being a mercenary, because it's more business-y), but the way things have been going, bokensha, which is more widely used, as adventurer, while bokenya, which is not used much, as the weirder 'person who adventures' makes the most sense … I have done my best, I have no regrets (lies). …