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Semi-retired Adventurer Lives Leisurely
Written by Hisagushien
Translated by: Chonky Translator
Japanese Title:
セミリタイアした冒険者はのんびり暮らしたい
作者: 久櫛緑（ヒサグシエン）
http://kuontenrin.ehoh.net/
Original Source:
Chapter 16: That Night (Part 2)
We finished the rabbit stew and some hard, dry ration bread for dinner.
I helped Jend re-setup the crumpled tent together.
I asked Teo to take out a wooden bucket.
Henry: “[WATER] Eedle + [FIRE] Ignis”
I adjust the temperature to the water so it’s not too hot and place it in the bucket. Teo brings out towels enough for everyone, and we all take turns soaking the towels and wringing it.
Henry: “Alright. Women in the tent. Jend, you can clean off first.”
Jend: “Got it. Thanks.”
Jend takes off his armor and starts wiping his upper body with the towel
After a full day of adventuring, we’re all covered in sweat. Our clothes are dirty too. It won’t kill us to not bathe for a day or two, but it does feel gross, and any mental or physical distractions like that could impact your performance during battle. If you get the chance, it’s best to clean it off when you can.
Cyril: “Henry, Jend, don’t you dare peek inside!!”
Teo: “I’ll know if you get close.”
Henry: “Stop being ridiculous and wash off quickly.”
I wave them away with my hands. I hear some sounds of clothes being removed, but I’m not that young and innocent anymore. I’m not bothered by it, but Jend keeps looking in that direction uncomfortably.
Seeing that I noticed, he starts shooting off excuses.
Jend: “Wait, Henry, it’s not like that.”
Henry: “What do you mean, ‘It’s not like that.’ But don’t worry. I don’t blame you. It’s only natural.”
Jend: “I really don’t have any interest in them romantically, but it’s just instinct.”
Yup. I get it. I understand, Jend. You’re only 16. You’re at the age when your desires are going to be swinging you around by the leash. And apparently, you’re a virgin too. Should we take a trip to the brothel?
Cyril: “Hen—ry—, could you rinse and wring the towels once more?”
Henry: “Sure.”
A hand sticks out of the tent holding the towels, and is beckoning me to take them.
Of course, the rest of the tent entrance is shut tight so you can only see the hand. ….Jend, you don’t have to look away with just that.
I walk towards the tent and ask her to throw it, and Cyril tosses the towels towards me.
Henry: “Wait a sec——“
I go back to the bucket and quickly rinse and wring out the towels.
I bring it back and place the towels on her hands.
Cyril: “Thank you—“
She quickly withdrew her hand inside the tent and shut the entrance. Dangit. I thought maybe I could get a glance inside, but her defense was too solid.
Well, I just thought it would be lucky to get a glance, but I have no interest in actively trying to peep, so I walk away quickly.
Henry: “Jend, even if you need to, hold it in till we get back to town.”
Jend: “I DON’T DO THAT!!”
What? That just sounds unhealthy.
・・・
We finish wiping the sweat off our bodies. If we were back in town, we would head out into the night life, but here, we have to prepare to rest.
Cyril: “Wha—t… I’m not feeling sleepy yet. Why don’t we all do something together? Teo, didn’t you have a deck of cards in your bag?”
Henry: “No no. We have to rotate guard duties all night, so if you play around, you’ll miss your chance to get some sleep.”
Even if you’re not sleepy, it makes a huge difference just lying down with your eyes closed. Once you get used to it, you can fall asleep pretty quickly.
Jend: “Oh, I see why we need to do that. How should we rotate?”
Henry: “Two people rotating every 3 hours should be fine.
We’ll have to trade-off guard duties twice, but this should be optimal for this group. If we had more people, there might be more ways to divide up the night guard duties, but with just 4, our options are limited.
Teo: “I guess Mr. Henry and I would be in separate groups.”
Henry: “Yeah, I’m used to staying alert for enemies, and Teo’s good at scouting, so we’ll stay in separate groups. Also, it’s good to have someone who can hold off the enemy, so Jend and I will be separate for that reason.
It’ll be me and Cyril; and Jend and Teo in pairs. And actually, this is the only way to break up our group regardless.
We bought a bigger tent because of Teo’s godly equipment, and having two people sleep in there will be no problem.
Cyril: “Oh, so that means I’ll be sleeping with Henry.”
Henry: “Yeah, you alright? If you have bad sleeping habits, it won’t bother me.”
For instance, I know of a certain someone who will instinctively attack anyone who approaches them while they sleep. I can deal with most things except that. Teo, I’m talking about your cousin.
Cyril: “No no. It’s not that. It’s not that I don’t trust you Henry, but I’m just uncomfortable with the idea of sleeping next to a man.”
Henry: “Oh, don’t worry. I won’t do anything or play any pranks. I can swear by it.”
Cyril: “Hey, you keep saying that, but doesn’t that just mean that I’m not attractive at all?”
Henry: “What? No, of course not.”
I might have been too quick to answer. Cyril is cute no matter what you say, and I wouldn’t mind sleeping with her if it didn’t cause any trouble or drama. But I can only see trouble and drama at the end of that path, so I will kindly avoid such painful futures.
Cyril: “R—really?”
Henry: “Yes, plus I think any adventurers who takes advantage of their party member during an expedition are low-scum trash.”
It brings up a bad memory.
At the time, I was part of a temp party with 5 other men and women.
The night duties were divided up into 3 pairs. We found a convenient cave to hide from the demonic creatures for the night, and there shouldn’t have been any problems that night.
But this one man decided to try and rape his guard duty partner during their rotation.
She was beautiful, and she did tease him a lot, but none of us figured that he would go that far.
He later confessed that he figured that she wouldn’t be able to scream during guard duty because it would attract demonic creatures. I wasn’t sure then what he intended to do when their rotation was over, but I don’t care to find out, and I’ll never know regardless.
The woman screamed, and demonic creatures came. The man had his pants pulled down, and survived with severe injuries. The woman was killed.
The remaining four woke up, but the creatures stamped out the fire, and we fought in the dark. We lost another 2 that night.
.
It’s not something I like to remember. The man did survive with severe injuries, so we took him to the city and turned him into the church. He’s now serving his time to make amends for the 3 that lost their lives that night.
Jend: “Henry, what’s wrong?”
Henry: “Sorry, just had a flashback of an adventurer that I really didn’t like.”
It’s been 5 years since then.
Henry: “But anyways, that’s why you can trust me.”
Cyril: “I don’t know what you mean by ‘that’s why’ but (*sigh), okay.”
Cyril conceded. I’m sure it’s because of how trustworthy she saw that I am.
Henry: “Make sure the fire keeps going. Demonic creatures can see in the dark.”
Teo: “You do not have to worry. We have plenty of firewood.”
Teo dumps out a load of firewood from her bag.
…..that bag really is amazing.
Jend: “Will the moon be about there in 3 hours?”
Henry: “You don’t have to be so precise. The clouds can hide the moon, so don’t rely too much on it.”
Jend: “Got it.”
Henry: “And all that remains is…”
I talk to Jend about what to look out for when doing night guard duty.
Henry: “I think that’s everything. You can ask Teo for tips and pointers to get used to it
Jend: “Sounds good. I’ll be in your care, Teo.”
Teo: “Understood.”
Alright, then…
Henry: “Cyril, let’s get some rest—.”
Cyril: “Okay, okay…”
We enter the tent together.
I take off the armor that will be in the way of sleeping, and immediately lay down with the sheets covering me.
Cyril seemed hesitant at first, but laid down next to me.
Henry: “Make sure to sleep the next 3 hours.”
Cyril: “I know, I know. I just don’t know if I can fall asleep.”
We fell silent. I closed my eyes, and let sleep take over. It takes a trick to fall asleep so quickly.
Cyril: “...Henry?”
Right as I was dozing off, Cyril calls my name.
Henry: “What is it? I was just about to fall asleep.”
Cyril: “I’m really sorry. But just hearing a man breathing so close to me makes me feel so self-conscious.”
Henry: “Get used to it.”
And I slept.
・・・
Our turn came.
I sit around the fire with Cyril and talk. The reason why a two-person team is better is to help each other stay awake, and pass the time without too much boredom. Of course, we’re both alert for danger.
Cyril: “That reminds me. I was at the City Lord’s residence, and they let me borrow a maid’s outfit. It was so easy to maneuver in it, that I thought about purchasing one myself.”
Henry: “I heard that about a hundred years ago, some City Lord who really liked maids came up with tons of designs concepts, and it ended up looking like what we have today.”
That City Lord’s design got really popular, and nowadays, you can find it everywhere where there is a maid.
Henry: “I think you’ll find Maid Cafe’s in the bigger cities.”
Cyril: “Oh, I never heard of those. There’s none in Flowtier.”
Henry: “There’s one in the capital. One of my adventurer friends said he visited one. He said he had a good time.”
Cyril: “Huh...I’d like to go one, one of these days.”
Henry: “Oh, r—really?”
Would it be any fun for girls to go?
It’s a store where women dress up and talk to you, and to put it bluntly, it’s not that different from a brothel. They say the atmosphere is strangely intense though.
Henry: “Oh, Cyril, we need more wood.”
Cyril: “Here you go.”
Cyril chunks the wood in the fire.
Henry: “To make the wood burn, you should set it up like this, and then like this.”
Cyril: “I see…”
I pick up a branch and arrange the wood to adjust how it burns.
Henry: “Well, it’ll be good to start learning these things a little at a time. Adventurers who can only fight aren’t as useful.”
Cyril: “Yea, I see your point.”
We fell silent for a bit.
I’ve been with her for some time. We can just sit here without talking, and it’s just nice to be around her.
She’s usually more talkative though. I wonder what’s wrong,
Cyril: “Henry...Umm, I just wanted to say thank you… for everything.”
Henry: “What’s wrong all of a sudden.”
A——nd she suddenly opens her mouth to thank me. What? Why?
Cyril: “Well, since you joined our group, we really started improving. If it was just Jend and I, it would have taken much longer for us to get to where we are today.”
Henry: “Well...yeah, it takes more than just muscle and magic power to be an adventurer, but that just comes with experience.”
When I first met the two, they had skills, but besides fighting, they were just newborn chicks.
Cyril: “Well...yeah… both Jend and I thought that you can’t be an adventurer if you’re not strong.”
Henry: “You’re not wrong there. That’s your main asset as an adventurer for sure.”
I mean, we are sworn warriors to the god of battle.
Cyril: “Well, I just wanted to say thank you.”
Henry: “You’re welcome. But to be frank, I should be thanking you guys.”
I was lucky to run into these two.
I came to this town young, burnt-out, and semi-retired. I was only going to go on expeditions partially with temp groups. I’m sure I would have been fine doing just that, but I’m also equally certain of how bored so would’ve been with that life. I can easily picture myself with dead eyes saying something like , “Ugh—, expeditions are so boring——.”
Come to think of it, it’s the first time I thought that expeditions were fun.
Cyril: “Is that so? Well, I guess then we’re even.”
Henry: “Yeah…”
Cyril: “To be honest, when you told us that you chose this place because a bard sang about it, I thought it was the lamest reason ever, but now I’m really thankful for that bard.”
Henry: “Um… I had other reasons too…”
Cyril: “Didn’t you say it was the alcohol?”
Henry: “Yes, I DID say that but…”
But that was 80% of my reasons!
The last 20% was my home country which was destroyed by the Demon King’s armies had a deep tie to this city. I thought maybe I’ll find someone from my hometown living as a refugee here. See?! I had my super serious and deep reasons for coming here!
…...but I won’t say anything. I didn’t even bother looking. It would hit me too hard if I found out that there was nobody like that here. I rather live hoping that someone survived...
…..and because everyone I knew and cared about… I already know that they passed, so I already know the outcome of everyone I would have searched for here…
Henry: “Well, anyways, I’m looking forward to how things will develop going forward.”
Cyril: “You’re just wanting to avoid talking about your embarrassing motives, but I’ll let it go for now.”
Cyril is quietly laughing to herself.
Henry: “I don’t like sharing my night-time cheese snack with people who laugh at me. When you lightly roast it on the fire, it becomes incredibly delicious.”
Cyril: “Oh! I’m kidding, I’m kidding! I won’t laugh anymore!”
I tease her as I take out two pieces of cheese. I throw one to Cyril.
I stick it on a stick and lightly roast it over the fire.
Cyril almost jumped up saying how good it was, so I sat and watched her eat as I ate mine.
It was that kind of normal, typical night as an adventurer,
The moon looked so beautiful hanging over us that night.
<<End of Book 1>>
<<Continuing to Book 2: The Travel to the Capital>>