Prologue

A few months had passed since we were transported to this world, and we had barely scraped together the funds for the construction of our own house before winter. However, an obstacle had appeared in our way when a mushroom disaster struck Laffan right before construction on our house was about to wrap up.

Back on Earth, fungus would only damage houses with filthy interiors. The idea of a mushroom halting construction on a house would have seemed absurd. However, from our perspective, the most unrealistic thing about the whole incident was how quickly the mushrooms had grown. Those barrash mushrooms were capable of growing in a flash to a size that was large enough to destroy a house, a fact that had surprised and frightened us. On top of that, the local lumberjacks had all been busy dealing with the large number of barrash mushrooms that had popped up across town, so construction on our house had temporarily come to a halt.

The threat that the barrash mushrooms had posed to the town was relevant to us as well, so we had accepted a quest from the Adventurers’ Guild to deal with the problem, accompanying an alchemist whose name was Riva. Luckily for us, our efforts had paid off, and the construction of our house was finished before the weather turned cold. A while after we moved into our new house, we decided to host a dinner party and invite some people who had helped us out since our arrival in this world.

“Thank you for the invitation,” said Diola.

“Th-Thank you!” Riva exclaimed.

“Welcome!”

Touya and I greeted our guests, who had both arrived more or less on time. The two of us had managed to find something to do even though we weren’t of any use in the kitchen. It’s not like we got chased out and were told we were in the way or anything!

“Diola-san, Riva, thank you for coming over today,” I said.

We had only invited Diola-san and Riva for today’s dinner party. We could have invited Aera-san and Tomi as well, but we had felt like it wouldn’t be very relaxing with too many people. Besides, today’s dinner party was a housewarming party, so we had decided to invite the two people who had directly contributed to our ability to purchase a house.

“The preparations for dinner aren’t done yet, though, so I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for a bit,” I said.

“That’s perfectly fine,” Diola replied. “I don’t have any business that I need to attend to after this, so there’s no reason to hurry.”

“Thank you for being understanding,” I said. “By the way, did the two of you come here together?”

Precise and accurate clocks didn’t exist in this world, so the idea of arriving at an event five minutes early wasn’t common sense here, and it was also difficult to pull off. That being the case, the only way for two people to arrive somewhere at the same time would be for them to meet up beforehand and then travel together to their destination.

I had assumed that must have been the case when I asked Diola-san, but she responded to me with an awkward smile. “Oh, no, I bumped into her when I arrived and saw a suspicious person hanging around out front with her head completely hidden by a hood.”

As Diola-san spoke, she glanced at the girl next to her, whose head was hanging low in embarrassment.

“Um, I’m sorry, I just felt really nervous...”

So the suspicious person was Riva, huh? Riva was wearing her usual outfit, a hooded robe. The hood wasn’t covering her face at the moment, but it must have been hidden before she entered our house.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Riva,” I said. “It’s normal to feel nervous when visiting someone’s house for the first time.”

“R-Really? What if weird rumors spread as a result of how I acted...?”

Does she mean rumors of a suspicious person loitering around a newly built house? That does kind of sound like trouble!

Diola-san chuckled. “You don’t have to worry about things like that in this part of town.”

“Huh? Why is that, Diola-san?” I asked.

“Such things aren’t unusual in this area,” Diola replied. “Some adventurers return from the field completely covered in blood, after all.”

Oh yeah, this is an area of town where the Adventurers’ Guild does middleman work. According to Diola-san, it was mostly adventurers who moved into this area of town, so the locals were used to the sight of people who looked or acted suspiciously, and it would take a lot to shock them.

“Riva-san wasn’t walking around with anything that looked like an unsheathed weapon, and she’s not that tall either, so she probably didn’t appear that suspicious by your neighbors’ standards,” said Diola.

“Really?! I’m glad to hear that!” Riva exclaimed.

Riva looked quite relieved, but I wasn’t sure if we should be happy about the fact that we had moved into a new house in what was apparently a pretty scary area.

“Well, I guess all that matters is that our neighbors won’t file any complaints,” said Touya. “More importantly, how should we kill some time?”

“Hmm. It shouldn’t take that long for the girls to finish preparations, but...”

The parlor was the room we were supposed to use for entertaining guests, but it was currently empty. There weren’t any sofas or even chairs inside, so we couldn’t entertain guests there at the moment. However, it wasn’t like we could just ask our guests to stand here in the entrance, so I was at a loss for what to do.

“Why don’t you give them a tour of our house while you’re waiting? After all, this is a housewarming party.” Haruka had appeared all of a sudden from deeper inside the house.

“Oh, Haruka, are the preparations done?” I asked.

“Almost. I came over because I’m done with my part.”

Diola-san took a step forward. “Congratulations on the completion of your house, Haruka-san. The Adventurers’ Guild wishes you continued success as adventurers here in Laffan, and I personally feel the same way.”

Since Diola-san had greeted Haruka in a proper and formal manner, Riva took advantage of the situation to greet Haruka without having to say too much. “G-Good luck...!” That difference seemed like evidence of Riva’s lack of socialization. Even so, I felt like she was acting a bit too reserved. I wanted her to feel free to drop by casually, so greetings like that weren’t really necessary at all.

“Therefore, I’ve brought some wine to commemorate this occasion,” Diola continued. “As far as I can tell, none of you imbibe regularly, so I went out of my way to procure some high-quality wine that’s smooth on the palate.”

“Um, I didn’t bring anything that special with me, but...” As Diola-san presented a small cask, apparently full of wine, Riva handed over a cloth bag that seemed to contain all sorts of things.

Haruka smiled awkwardly when she saw the gifts. “Um, this is just a small dinner party, so there was no need for either of you to bring any gifts...”

Diola-san chuckled. “Not bringing a gift to a housewarming party wasn’t an option for me.”

Riva vigorously nodded. “Yeah, exactly! That’s why I prepared this set of alchemist tools!” Immediately after speaking, her ears drooped and she looked apologetic. “Um, well, actually, since I don’t have that much spare money, these are my old tools that I don’t use anymore...”

“Don’t worry about it, Riva,” said Haruka. “I really appreciate this gift. Thank you.”

Haruka smiled as she took the cloth bag from Riva. It was probably a genuine smile, not one she was forcing out of a desire to be considerate. Haruka had some alchemist tools already, but only a few, since she wasn’t a professional alchemist by any means. According to Haruka, it was actually quite difficult to assemble a complete set in Laffan; there wasn’t that much demand for such tools. With that in mind, Haruka was probably happy to receive even secondhand tools that had belonged to a professional alchemist.

“I’m glad to hear that,” said Riva. “I really don’t have that much money, so...”

“Hm? Didn’t you earn a lot of money from the mushroom disaster?” Touya asked.

Riva timidly denied his suggestion. “O-Oh, no, the mushroom withering medicine isn’t something that sells for a lot of money.”

“Really?” asked Touya, looking confused. “I was sure something like that would sell for a lot. Wait, does the Adventurers’ Guild pocket the profits?”

“No, it doesn’t!” Diola exclaimed. “The Adventurers’ Guild is mostly an impartial organization!”

Although Diola-san had firmly denied Touya’s allegations when he gave her a look of doubt, the word “mostly” had slipped out. Honestly, it made sense to me: we had gotten preferential treatment to a certain extent, so you couldn’t claim that the Adventurers’ Guild was absolutely fair and impartial.

“One thing I can say for certain is that the guild doesn’t try to make a huge profit from incidents like mushroom disasters—and neither does the guild take a cut of the reward from people who cooperate to resolve such incidents!” Diola exclaimed.

“Mm, doing so would incur resentment and grudges,” said Haruka.