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Translator: Kazumi
Editor: Kabur & Silavin
It had been a few days since Kousuke had driven Achilles away.
He gave up on collecting the money directly, and now he’d started harassing them.
Specifically, he was harassing the inn where they were staying.
However, the innkeeper and the owner of the Inn simply laughed it off and said not to worry about it.
The Inn that Kousuke and his party were staying at was originally a lodging for adventurers, so the harassment was not very effective.
The most important thing was that the exchange with Kousuke that day had won over the adventurers who were staying at the inn.
The management of the Inn was not affected at all.
On the contrary, Kousuke’s communication was passed on from one adventurer to another, making it impossible to collect the taxes unannounced.
The fact that tax collection, which had been completely random, was no longer possible seemed to have had no small effect on the situation.
Kousuke wondered why the random tax collection had not been questioned before, but there was a reason for this.
There were two types of tax payments for adventurers: those collected periodically and those collected irregularly.
The periodic tax collected at the beginning of the year was a per-person tax.
This was collected in the town where they were located in the first month of the year.
In some cases, it might be difficult for adventurers who were active in different countries to pay the tax to a single state.
For this reason, each country agreed to take the money at the beginning of the year.
Once paid, a kind of receipt would be issued, so that even if they moved to another country, they would not have to pay it again that year.
The problem was the irregular tax.
This tax was levied on the monsters adventurers hunted and the goods they collected, but the response varied.
In the case of requests issued by public guilds, it should be possible to collect from those requests.
The question was how to collect the tax on materials and other goods that adventurers directly distribute.
Each country responded differently to this question.
Adventurers paid the tax without checking to see whether it was correct or not.
This tendency was especially prevalent among adventurers who were frequently on the move.
In this sense, it was understandable that they would not question the sudden tax collection in the border town of Eiren.
Did the exchange with Kousuke in this case take place illegally? It might be. Therefore, it would be natural for the adventurers to take Kousuke’s side.
Of course, it was assumed that Kousuke’s exchange was persuasive.
So, the town of Eiren was currently unable to collect the extra tax from adventurers.
Kousuke had been taking the brunt of the problem, but this was not working as they had hoped.
Given this situation, it was natural for them to change their approach.
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As an active adventurer, Kousuke had no particular need to stick around and stay in the town of Eiren.
However, after all the commotion he had caused, he was determined to see it through to the end.
Then, some information came to Kousuke.
It was the Defrayer Clan who brought the information.
Several members of the Defrayer Clan were following Kousuke.
Their main mission was to gather information in case Kousuke decided to set up a branch of Crown, but they also provided some information to Kousuke.
When Kousuke listened to the information that this person brought, he immediately went to the innkeeper.
“oh, what’s the matter? Did something happen?”
Seeing Kousuke rush over, the proprietress looked at him strangely, but didn’t show any particular expression.
Seeing the look on her face, Kousuke was impressed by her professionalism.
“It’s all going as planned. Other adventurers are cooperating with us, but we are thinking about what to do with all the trouble the landlady and the others are going through.”
“What are you suddenly rambling on about?”
It was only a slight change, but Kousuke, who understood from the beginning, did not miss it.
The landlady’s expression turned panicked, though only slightly.
“… Hmm? What’s going on?”
While he was chatting with the landlady, other adventurers noticed and came up to him.
“I heard that they are trying to stop the purchase of the food they serve in this store.”
“What?”
Kousuke’s words startled the adventurers, and the proprietress looked resigned.
She must have realized that she could no longer hide the fact.
The adventurers must have realized from the look on Kousuke’s face that he was telling the truth.
Sensing the situation, one of the adventurers was about to go somewhere else.
“Wait…!”
The landlady hurried to stop him, but there was no way she could stop him with words.
The next moment, however, he was easily stopped by Mitsuki.
“Why are you stopping me…?!”
“Calm down. Even the owner can’t help you if you run over to the stores in that state.”
“That’s right. The other party is a servant of the lord. You can’t go against him, can you?”
The adventurer finally seemed to calm down as Kousuke and the landlady appeased him.
“But hey. What are we gonna do? I don’t want to go without food. After all, Master’s food is so good.”
“Hahaha. I’m glad to hear you say that. Don’t worry, we’ll find the ingredients ourselves.”
The hostess laughed and said so, but Kousuke, who knew the situation, could not agree.
“No, you can’t. Aside from meat that can be preserved, vegetables won’t be available anymore, will they?”
Many adventurers prefer meat, so it was hard for them to notice, but they had to adjust the quantity of meat little by little to make ends meet.
“So, Mitsuki.”
“Yes, yes.”
Kousuke gave the order to Mitsuki, and right after that, vegetables appeared in a big pile.
“What is this? How did you…?”
“No, no way, it’s the Magic [Item Box]!”
The proprietress did not seem to know, but the adventurer seemed to be aware of the Magic [Item Box].
The surrounding people looked at Mitsuki in amazement.
“If you have this much, it should last for a few days, right? If there’s not enough, I’ll go get some from elsewhere.”
“No, no, that’s very kind of you, but where are you going to get it from?”
The proprietress and the owner had spent the last few days going around to various places to try to secure supplies, but they were unable to do so because they were overwhelmed by the supply.
“Oh. We don’t really stock in this city. We go to other places to stock up.”
Both Mitsuki and Kousuke had several ways to get back to the tower.
The easiest way would be to go back to the Yurino Shrine and use the transfer magic to return.
Kousuke could also travel to the sanctuary and back.
This kind of transfer was not a big burden.
Kousuke did not provide any details, but they must have somehow guessed that he was using magic.
The adventurer gulped and looked at Kousuke.
“Oh, you. Can you possibly use transfer magic?”
“I can use it if I really have to.”
“Ha, haha. Seriously. I thought you were special in a way after what happened…. Proprietress, I think we’d better rely on this guy here, right?”
There were only a handful of magicians who could freely use transfer magic.
That alone indicated that he was quite capable.
Hearing the adventurer’s words, the landlady let out a sigh of resignation.
“I see. If that’s true, I don’t want to give our guests any trouble…. It’s no use being stubborn here.”
“That’s how it works.”
“That’s right. Besides, if the proprietress is reluctant to do so, how about using accommodation or food expenses to cover the costs?”
The landlady nodded at Kousuke’s suggestion.
“Yes, I suppose so. We’ll have to do that.”
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This solved the problem of food at the inn, but it was only a short-term fix.
Unless the root of the problem was resolved, similar problems would continue.
One of the adventurers, concerned about this, asked.
“But this situation won’t last forever, will it?”
Kousuke turned his gaze with a hint of meaning in his words.
“Oh. It’ll be fine. It’s only for another week at most.”
The people around Kousuke suddenly looked at him suspiciously, but they did not ask any further questions.
As was the case in the previous exchange, the adventurers were already beginning to realize that Kousuke was no ordinary adventurer.
