Chapter 118 - Chapter 117: The Noisheim Family's Circumstances 3
Mika stood with a clear expression, straightening his posture.
Then, looking straight at the Village Head's face, he bowed deeply and firmly.
"Thank you for helping my family."
Until now, Mika had harbored some resentment toward the Village Head.
It started with the Village Head's attitude during the discussion about "escaping the academy," and honestly, even after that, he thought, "I don't like this guy."
On the surface, as the Village Head, he would say things to boost Mika, who was chosen by the country, but his true intentions were transparent.
However, after listening to this explanation, Mika found himself thinking, "Well, I suppose that's unavoidable."
He came to understand and accept the complex emotions the Village Head felt toward Mika.
When Mika lifted his face and grinned widely, the Village Head looked surprised.
Then, his expression shifted into a somewhat complicated, bitter smile.
"From now on, you must support your mother and older sister properly. ...Though, to be honest, it might be quite difficult for someone who is a student at the academy."
Simply put, the distance was too great.
It would be difficult for Mika to directly support his family, if one were to think about it normally.
"Yes, that's true. But I intend to do everything I can."
"Yes, do that."
The Village Head also let out a somewhat relieved smile.
However, the resentment that had hardened over many years would not disappear so easily.
Mika understood that this was unavoidable.
"By the way, do you know what happened to Wody afterwards? I can't bear it if he makes more debts on his own...."
This was the thing Mika was most concerned about when considering his future.
But the Village Head shook his head.
"You don't need to worry about that. By the time the debt collectors came, he was already dead."
"Is that so?"
The cause of death was unknown, but it seemed he had been dead for quite some time.
It also seemed that the debt collectors came to collect because, with Wody dead, they could boldly demand payment from the family.
Thinking about it, it was highly likely that he had incurred enough debt and then simply "decided it was time to go" and disappeared.
I hope he at least tasted a tiny fragment of the despair Amalia and the others suffered before dying.
With the biggest concern gone, Mika decided to settle the remaining issues.
"Then, shall we settle the rest?"
"Hm?"
Not understanding what Mika meant, the Village Head looked blankly stunned.
Mika took out a bag with the largest tag from his Magic Bag.
From there, he took out a bag containing five large gold coins that he had just withdrawn from the bank and lined them up one by one.
"W-what...!? L-Large gold coins!?"
"Four large gold coins. That amounts to four million Rats. Please, accept them."
Ignoring the speechless Village Head, Mika bowed politely.
However, the Village Head was so shocked he had frozen in place.
(Well, this isn't an amount a child would normally carry. No wonder he's stunned.)
This was not an amount a ten-year-old child should be able to produce.
But first, unless he cleared the unnecessary debts and felt relieved, he couldn't even think about the future of the Noisheim family.
However, no matter how long he waited, the Village Head showed no sign of moving.
Mika lifted his face slightly and peeked at the Village Head.
As usual, the Village Head remained frozen.
(No matter how you look at it, he's too shocked.)
Mika didn't want to leave such a large sum of money out there forever either.
He wanted to finish this quickly.
"Um..."
When he spoke, the sound of the Village Head gasping for breath could be heard.
"Y-You...!? Why do you have such a huge amount of money!?"
"I earned it myself. I work as an adventurer on the side."
"E-Earned...!?"
The Village Head was so shocked he seemed to be breathing too fast and becoming busy with his own breath.
Is he going to have hyperventilation or something?
"Please calm down. Even I am a little scared that things went so well. Since I don't spend money on dorm life, I've been saving it little by little."
"I-I see...?"
"I've been an adventurer for about three years now."
When Mika smiled brightly and explained, the Village Head accepted it reluctantly but with understanding.
He probably thought, "He's been saving diligently for three years."
In reality, he had earned about ten million Rats in just one year!
"I'm surprised, but... I understand. I'll prepare the change now."
Saying that, the Village Head stood up.
"The change is not necessary."
But Mika refused with a smile.
The Village Head looked surprised for a moment, but his expression quickly turned stern.
"What nonsense are you saying. I will prepare it immediately—"
"Think of the change as interest. If that won't do, it can be an apology for the trouble I caused, or a reward."
Mika conveyed that he had no intention of accepting even a single copper coin.
Seeing Mika's serious eyes, the Village Head realized he was speaking in earnest.
And so, for a while, Mika and the Village Head crossed gazes as if glaring at each other.
However, the Village Head was the first to give in.
"Good grief... what a child. I can't believe it."
The Village Head shook his head.
"I thought you were an incredible child since the day of the fire... but..."
He muttered with a heavy sigh.
"Isn't it normal to add feelings of gratitude for the help received?"
"That way of thinking means you are no longer an ordinary child..."
That was a terrible thing to say.
The Village Head gave a bitter smile, and Mika involuntarily returned a bitter smile as well.
"As for that feeling... I will accept it."
The Village Head sat down and wrote on a paper recording the repayment, noting that the debt was fully paid off.
Then, he handed it to Mika along with Wody's IOU.
"With this, your family's debt is gone. You should tell Amalia-san quickly."
The Village Head's eyes were the kindest they had ever been.
"Your mother really worked hard. Go home quickly and put her at ease."
Mika took the IOU and other documents and put them away in his Magic Bag.
Then, he bowed low.
"Thank you for your trouble. I look forward to your continued support. In the future, if anything comes up, it would be a help if you could contact me."
"I understand. I will do that."
The Village Head nodded firmly.
Mika left the Village Head's house and bowed deeply one more time in front of his own home.
Then, he hurried home.
Before returning home, Mika quickly glanced through the repayment record.
The repayment period was nearly six years.
At first, they must have been scraping by in a truly difficult life.
They were repaying two thousand Rats or three thousand Rats every month.
Amidst that, there was even a record of a repayment of only five hundred Rats in one month.
How much trouble did it take to squeeze out those five hundred Rats while raising two children?
Thinking of that, Mika could not hold back his overflowing tears.
The Village Head had said they didn't have to force themselves to repay every month.
Nevertheless, it seemed Amalia went to repay every month, even if it was a small amount.
About two years after repayment began, the repayment amount increased slightly.
Repayment increased to around ten thousand Rats per month.
Perhaps Loretta had started working?
However, since she was an apprentice, her income probably only increased a little bit.
There was also an increase in living expenses due to the growth of Mika and Loretta.
Even so, the repayment amount increased bit by bit.
And for the past year or so, repayment has progressed significantly.
In fact, more than half of the total repayment amount was recent repayment.
"Is it because Loretta has become a full-fledged worker?"
She must have started doing full-fledged work and her salary increased.
It seems most of that salary was being used for repayment.
Mika let out a deep breath and put the repayment record back in the bag.
To think that Amalia raised Mika while enduring such hardships, and I didn't notice...
"I suspected we were having trouble with money, but..."
He was filled with a sense of guilt toward Amalia and Loretta.
Even when Mika told Amalia that he had paid off the debt upon returning home, she couldn't believe it right away.
When he showed her Wody's IOU received from the Village Head and Amalia's repayment records, and she realized it was true, Amalia collapsed.
It seemed she had fainted from being too surprised.
They decided to let her rest in bed.
As a bonus, he also cast [Heal].
Shortly after, when he told Loretta the same thing upon her return, Loretta's legs went weak and she collapsed.
Both of them... you don't have to be that surprised...
With this, the Noisheim family's problems were settled, and Mika thought, "All's well that ends well."
However, a new problem arose here.
"I'm not getting married."
"Why!?"
This was Loretta's response when Mika told her he had even prepared the dowry for her marriage.
"Why? Because there's no one I want to marry, and I don't want to get married."
It seemed Loretta had no desire to get married.
Probably, she realized in childhood that marriage was impossible and cut it off decisively.
It seems her values had hardened around that.
"I've finally been recognized as a full-fledged weaver. And besides..."
"Besides?"
"I have Mika, after all."
When Loretta hugged Mika tightly and rubbed her cheek against him, he couldn't help but feel a somewhat complicated emotion.
Could it be that she has developed a severe brother complex...?
He felt a slight anxiety about his older sister's future.
"The person Mika marries, Big Sister will watch over them very carefully. I'll introduce them properly. My precious Mika won't be given to some unknown girl from nowhere—"
"What are you talking about!?"
The brother and sister were thinking the same thing.
(...Well, well, even if the situation changes suddenly, thoughts don't change that quickly.)
Still, he thought that once the debt was gone and they could have peace of mind, their mindset might change.
Since there was no point in rushing them, he decided to just watch the situation.
■■■■■■
The next morning, Mika was at the adventurer's guild in Kotontesse.
In the guild attached to the tavern, there were a few men who looked like adventurers.
However, they seemed less like they had come for work and more like they had just come to drink.
Mika, who had only used the adventurer's guilds in Sarbengeal and the Royal Capital, was disappointed with the Kotontesse guild.
There was a small counter in one corner of the tavern, and next to the counter was a bulletin board for posting requests.
But there were no decent requests.
(Ninetiana talked about adventurers in Kotontesse [here] a while ago, looking down on them a bit...)
I'm sorry, but I came to understand.
If you are going to be an adventurer in a town like this, you should hurry to a big city.
The reason they don't do that is probably because there are fewer competitors.
(Adventurers who share a small pie and are satisfied with that. To adventurers struggling in big cities, they must look like they are soaking in lukewarm water.)
Mika quickly gave up on Kotontesse and decided to go to Yaunasun, the capital of the neighboring Orcosa domain.
By repaying the Noisheim family's debt, Mika's savings had decreased significantly.
Most importantly, he had already prepared himself for the worst-case scenario where even putting in all his assets wouldn't be enough, so that was fine.
But since he was on vacation and had nothing to do, he thought, "Maybe I should take a request and earn a little."
There was no guild in Rish Village, so he had come to the nearby Kotontesse guild.
But he was stunned by the shabby situation, far worse than imagined.
Thinking about it, it was only natural. The scale of the towns was simply too different from the guilds Mika had used until now.
Even in a simple population comparison, there was probably a difference of two digits between Sarbengeal and Kotontesse. If anything, it might be three digits.
Even if a troublesome monster appeared, how many people would want it defeated?
And among them, whether there are people who think, "I want it defeated even if I have to pay," is the issue.
In an extreme case, if a monster appeared right in the middle of the town, how many people would want it defeated?
How many people would think it was worth bearing the actual cost to do so?
That greatly influenced the quality and quantity of requests.
There was a certain market price for rewards based on the rank of the monster to be exterminated, but if you wanted it solved quickly, they would add to that.
Among the many requests, the big point to get attention for your request is the reward.
However, in Kotontesse, if there is no competition among adventurers, there is no competition among clients either.
Since such competition doesn't work on either side, it is understandable that the requests coming out and the adventurers staying are slack.
Last night, Mika clearly told Amalia and Loretta that he was an adventurer.
He also told them he was taking dangerous requests.
That way, he conveyed his life as is: earning money while attending the academy.
The two of them had very complicated expressions when they heard Mika's story.
Of course, emotionally, they probably wanted to stop him.
But at the same time, they understood.
This was what Mika really wanted to do.
Loretta let out a long sigh.
"Really, it's just hopeless..."
She smiled weakly as if giving up.
"Mika has always been a bit mischievous since childhood. Adventurers fight monsters, right?"
"Well, sometimes that happens."
Recently, it's mostly "ghosts," but he didn't say anything unnecessary like that.
"Mother is worried that Mika might overdo it."
"I'll be careful."
He didn't say anything unnecessary like, "I almost died a few months ago."
"Well, don't worry so much. I'm pretty strong myself."
"Is that so? It doesn't look like it."
Loretta said teasingly.
"I even defeated an Agu Bear. When I thought it was just one, there were two, and I was a bit surprised at that time."
Mika said, "Ahaha," while laughing, but the expressions of the two who heard him froze.
"Agu... Bear?"
"Yeah."
"Ah, the one that attacked the village a few years ago...?"
"Yeah, that's right."
Mika intended to say something like, "It's amazing, so don't worry," but it was a slip of the tongue.
They got really angry at him.
Fighting such a dangerous monster, they said.
It seems that for the two of them, the most terrifying monster was the Agu Bear.
They had never seen any other monsters.
That one monster they had seen was, for the two of them, fear itself.
The terror from when the Meeting Hall was attacked was planted vividly in their memories.
Anyway, after the scolding was over, Mika told them that he would continue his activities as an adventurer even during his vacation.
The two of them looked exasperated, as if to say, "Even after saying this much, you still don't understand."
Even if they looked at him like that, he was going to do what he had to do.
"There are various irregularities, so maybe I won't be able to come home for a day or two, but don't worry."
"There's no way I wouldn't worry!?"
"Of course I'm worried!"
Well, that was certainly true.
"I intend to come home every day, but there are times when I simply can't leave my hands free. If you don't understand that, I'll stop coming home and just stay at an inn somewhere?"
When Mika said that, the two reluctantly allowed him to stay out overnight.
Mika said it just to be safe; he didn't actually think he wouldn't be able to come back.
But if they didn't understand that such a thing could happen, he would only cause them unnecessary worry.
Thus, having persuaded the worried Amalia and Loretta, Mika decided to continue his activities as an adventurer even during his vacation.
Mika's adventurer activities, using the surplus time of several weeks, had begun.