Chapter 44: Bag

「Oh, You who are as wondrous as the moon! It is a pity that you are hiding behind the clouds today. 」
Chris was shaking Ash’s hand this time around.

Moon….? Ah, I get it, somehow. If she didn’t have that furrow between her brows, or should I say if Ash didn’t glare too much, then she’d be the cool beauty type — but I still can’t see her as a woman, though.

So Chris also saw her without that furrow, huh. According to Dean, Chris was just like this whenever he encountered beauty, with no regards to gender or whether it’s a thing or a person he’s talking about.

Anyway, my eyes kept going back to that spirit stroking his chin. Ugh, I’ll look like I’m obsessed with cleft chins, at this rate!

「 Everyone, thank you very much for accepting the request for this time. 」
It’s been a while, Kaina-san.

She came to check if everyone’s here.

「 Jean-sama, we have bothered you previously, so thank you very much for helping us despite that incident. 」

She said a few words to each of us.

An expedition to the forest depths is fraught with danger, although I’m pretty sure it’s not that serious, and I can 【 Teleport 】, too. Maybe it’s a good thing that she’s talking to the members individually and not just lumping them together as 「 Expedition Team 」 , especially since this job has the possibility of ‘no return’ should we encounter the worst case scenario? Plus, she’s a beauty, too.

「Oh, You who are as wondrous as the moon! It is a pity that you are hiding behind the clouds today. 」
Chris was shaking Ash’s hand this time around.

Moon….? Ah, I get it, somehow. If she didn’t have that furrow between her brows, or should I say if Ash didn’t glare too much, then she’d be the cool beauty type — but I still can’t see her as a woman, though.

So Chris also saw her without that furrow, huh. According to Dean, Chris was just like this whenever he encountered beauty, with no regards to gender or whether it’s a thing or a person he’s talking about.

Anyway, my eyes kept going back to that spirit stroking his chin. Ugh, I’ll look like I’m obsessed with cleft chins, at this rate!

「 Everyone, thank you very much for accepting the request for this time. 」
It’s been a while, Kaina-san.

She came to check if everyone’s here.

「 Jean-sama, we have bothered you previously, so thank you very much for helping us despite that incident. 」

She said a few words to each of us.

An expedition to the forest depths is fraught with danger, although I’m pretty sure it’s not that serious, and I can 【 Teleport 】, too. Maybe it’s a good thing that she’s talking to the members individually and not just lumping them together as 「 Expedition Team 」 , especially since this job has the possibility of ‘no return’ should we encounter the worst case scenario? Plus, she’s a beauty, too.

Chris was enthusiastically praising Kaina-san this time, and in the meantime, I was thinking about what’s going to happen from now on while listening to him. I took a lot of things with me, thinking I might need them, so my baggage was screaming ‘I’m going camping in the middle of the mountain!’ with it’s bulging condition.

It’s more like a rucksack than a backpack, plus I made it myself, and I also got a sleeping bag rolled inside the sheet on top of it. Is the food I brought along enough?

「 Jean-sama, please do give us the specification document for that bag after you return. 」
She added the phrase that everyone loves to say to me.

「 This is from the Guild. Please be safe. 」

She gave each of us a bottle of potion, and now it’s time to go.

「 Jean, you got an amazing bag, huh. Is that leather? 」
「 What’s the rolled thing on the top? 」
Dean and Retze asked me as we walked. They seemed really interested in it.

「 Yeah, I made this bag from leather. The one on top is a blanket. 」
「 Blanket…….. 」

The exterior of the sleeping bag was made from Tri-Horn leather; it may be heavier than Bicorn, but it’s stretchable. The interior was lined with the fine-textured cloth I used to make the down-filled quilt. It was just a plain square, and I planned to just fold it in half when I’m going to use it, plus I could easily keep it away if a monster appeared.

Everyone else had a shoulder bag and a sack. Sack…..
Well, I get that they brought it to put the hunted monsters inside, but does it have to be a sack? They’re fine with a sack for their essential stuff for this journey? Isn’t it too difficult to carry around? Retze and Butler had something like a pack frame, though. I find the monster sack inconvenient, so I also attached belts and cords on it so I could carry it on my back, though.

「 Won’t it be a bother to you when a monster appears? 」
Ash was also extremely interested — that furrow is mega scary though — as she asked me.

「 I do not think so, even if you move around, the things inside would also shake, and it’ll also serve as cover, I guess? 」
「 It’s heavy right from the get go, so you can’t throw it away easily, right. 」
Chris and Dean were talking about what would happen during the battle.

It’ll easily come off if I push the metal buckle on the strap, though. It’s like the bag buckles we used in Japan, the ones you push the sides so it’d come off. Mine is made from metal instead of plastic, so it needs a bit more force, but it’s not a big deal with my current strength.

I also added adjusters to the side and bottom straps so it won’t spread out, but I can make it wide enough to put a bear in. It’s currently stuffed with food since we’re still on our way to go there, so a bear won’t fit even if I spread it, but when the food’s already inside our tummies, then that’s totally possible.

「 Even if it’s like that, it isn’t a bother. Actually, it seemed that our luggage would get in his way, instead. 」
Chris was concerned with the bag so he darted a glance at me, but I’m actually concerned about the spirit that was currently mesmerized with the way his cleft chin shifted when he spoke.

「 Dean and Chris are in charge of the battles, so there’s no problem, right? This ability is actually desirable for a porter, you know. 」
Retze seemed acquainted not only with Dean, but with Chris, too. When I asked him, he said that he had accompanied them a few times as a porter when they hunted for monsters.

「 Twilight, I won’t let you face something as dangerous as a battle, of course. 」
Chris declared sonorously.

Hey, a sword is dangling on my waist, too, can’t you see it?

「 Actually, I was also worried when Dean told me he’d bring you too, Pale Guy, but it seems that you also have some skills that I don’t know. Still, you have to be careful. Even if Chris and Dean are in charge of fighting, they still might miss some of the monsters. 」

Retze said.

「 Retze, this guy hunts bears, you know? 」
「 Mmm. 」
「 Eh? 」
「 Huh? 」
「 …. 」

Why is Ash the only one agreeing with Dean’s words? Butler was still smiling, so I can’t grasp what he’s thinking.

「 Oh, right, you didn’t come to the guild recently, huh. 」
Retze was with Chris during his first expedition, so he wasn’t around during the time when I was the topic of rumors, it seems. Chris wasn’t in town because of the noble’s commission.

「 So the famous greenhorn that carried the bear on his back was you, Ash-kun? 」
「 It might be so recently, but it was Jean-dono in the beginning. 」
「 The Guild won’t accept you unless you’re quite capable after all, right? 」
Chris was full of doubts as he probingly asked, so Ash and Dean answered.

「 ……. 」
「 …」

Stop staring at me as if it’s a miracle!! Especially you, Chris! I’ll burst out laughing at that spirit of yours that is stroking your chin without a care in the world!