The following is the Status from the end of Chapter 3. It will be posted right after this installment.
"Good moooorning... Master?"
I arrived at the master's workshop first thing in the morning, but when I opened the door and called out my greeting, there was no reply.
With no other choice, I felt bad about it but went inside on my own. When I opened the back door, I found—
"Master! It's morning... If you sleep in a place like this, you'll ruin your health!"
There, sleeping on the workshop floor, were the master and his apprentices.
"Oh? Ohh, morning already... Tenma, you're here already—perfect. Everything you left with me has been fixed up... Oh, and as a bonus, I put together some boots for the young ladies too... They're over there, so take them... I'm gonna go back to sleep..."
With those words alone, the master once again became a resident of the dream world.
It seemed he had worked straight through the entire night after that. We thanked the master and received our equipment.
"Well then, shall we head to the dungeon right away?"
The schedule had been pushed back by a day, but we set off for the dungeon's secret base with plans to resume making Golems.
We arrived at the secret base without issue, but I realized we wouldn't be able to train Jeanne and Aura like this, so I decided to ask Slarin to capture some suitable Monsters.
Slarin trembled its body, then smoothly scaled the wall and slipped into an air vent.
Before Slarin had fully disappeared into the hole, I called out—
"Slarin! While you're at it, patch up the hole too! Also, if there's any scrap iron or weapons lying around, pick those up as well!"
I don't know if Slarin heard me, but for a hole that size, even if something did get in, it would probably only be a Slime or some small insect- or reptile-level Monster—hardly a major threat.
While waiting for Slarin to return, I handed Jeanne and Aura the gauntlets and boots the master had repaired and had them try them on.
"They fit perfectly!"
"That man really is a masterful craftsman, isn't he?"
and checked the condition of the boots. They were mostly made of leather, and true to their appearance, they were lighter and softer than they looked — and as a bonus, they seemed to be quite the high-quality pair.
Seeing how well they fit, I decided to get the master some kind of thank-you gift before heading to the Royal Capital.
Just as I had finished preparations for crafting the Golem, Slarin returned. I had her set up a small replica of Gunjou City's Arena at the edge of our secret base and release the Monsters she had captured there, but...
"Stop, Slarin, stop! That's way too many!"
What Slarin had brought out was roughly ten High Orcs, thirty Orcs, twenty High Goblins, twenty Goblins, and about ten Kobolds. I had only done a rough headcount of each type, so the total might actually exceed one hundred.
Upon being told it was too many, Slarin leaped into the panicked crowd of Monsters that had suddenly been dumped outside, and with her mouth stretched wide open as if to swallow them whole, she stuffed all of them — save for five Orcs — into her Dimension Bag.
...Ordinarily, a Slime — the lowest-ranking creature among all Monsters — devouring Orcs one after another was quite the bizarre sight to behold.
Once Slarin had finished swallowing the excess Monsters, I had Shiromaru, Solomon, and Slarin stand by and watch while I set Jeanne and Aura to fighting the Orcs.
I had wondered whether five Orcs would still be too much for Jeanne and the others, but the Orcs weren't armed, so they should be able to manage — and even if they couldn't, I had already told Slarin and the others to step in and help, so it would be fine. With that, I started their training.
In the meantime, I progressed with the Golem construction, but it finished sooner than expected. So I went the extra step and attached a Magic Bag function to the metal plate, then stored the iron — the material used for the Golem's body — inside it.
I ran out of iron partway through, so I went to collect the iron ore that had been lying around inside the dungeon. After extracting iron from it and adding the scrap iron I had asked Slarin to gather, I just barely managed to secure enough iron to summon a Golem.
Since I still had time left, I used Mithril to craft two simple rings and decided to imbue them with a basic function as well.
Once everything was finished, it was just about time for lunch, so I called Jeanne and the others over to eat.
For lunch we had the now-standard cooked rice along with skewered and fried food bought from a stall, rounded out with vegetable soup.
"Since everything's done, go ahead and try summoning the Golem to make sure it works properly. If there are no issues, let's do a mock battle using the actual Golem."
Saying that, I handed the two of them the necklaces — and the rings as well, for that matter, but...
"Are those already engagement rings?! I want one too! ...Lord Tenma, it's not just Jeanne you're after — you want me as well, do you? ...A hero after his own pleasures, I see..."
Aura squealed with delight, and Jeanne's face turned red in response. Shiromaru and Solomon, meanwhile, mistook the whole affair for snack time and sat down beside me...
"No, those are magic items... They're so I can easily sense your locations in case of an emergency..."
When I explained that, Aura wiped at the corner of her eye in an exaggerated show of disappointment, while
"Ugh, uuu, poor Jeanne... Being suspected of cheating before you're even married..."
She was saying this, but the corners of her mouth peeking through were clearly turned upward — you could tell she was laughing.
Jeanne, for her part, wasn't flustered by the over-the-top acting in the slightest. She simply ignored Aura and asked about how to use the necklace and ring, so I went ahead and taught her while disregarding Aura.
When Aura saw that none of us were paying attention to her, she made a disgruntled face, stopped pretending to cry, and quietly began listening to my explanation.
"So if I take off the necklace, flow Magic Power through it, and concentrate, a Golem gets automatically summoned... Let me try it."
Jeanne performed the Golem summoning using the exact steps I had demonstrated.
When Magic Power flowed through the necklace placed on the floor in the prescribed manner, iron emerged from the Magic Bag affixed to the mana core's pedestal. The iron shaped itself into the Golem's body — though since this Golem was scorpion-type, both of them were quite taken aback.
For them, the only Golems they had ever seen were the humanoid one I had summoned, so they naturally assumed this one would be humanoid as well. They initially showed a degree of rejection toward the massive scorpion-type Golem, but once I explained just how powerful it was and had it actually fight against some Orcs,
"I mean, it looks like *that*, but it's actually strong, isn't it..."
"That's right... It may look like *that*, but the Orcs are practically garbage in comparison..."
They partially revised their assessment and came to appreciate it — though, honestly, the fact that
the person who built it
was the most surprised by the Golem's strength is a secret I'll keep to myself.
These Golems were about 4.5 meters long, with roughly half of that being the sharp, needle-tipped tail. They had three pairs of legs and one pair of large pincers, and despite their iron bodies, they moved at an unbelievable speed — around 30 km/h, maybe? They would close in and pound the Orcs with their pincers and tails like hammers, turning them into piles of flesh, then grip an Orc's body with those pincers and shred it apart like rags. Calling them pincers was generous — they were more like pliers.
We were left speechless by the grotesque spectacle, watching in stunned silence. When the Golems finally stopped moving after grinding every last Orc into mincemeat, we moved on to the cleanup... though really, all we did was have the Golems gather the Orc corpses together and incinerate them at high temperature.
Even Shiromaru and Solomon, who would normally eat just about anything, didn't seem too keen on Orc mince caked in mud.
I had originally planned to do a mock battle as well, but fighting against something like that looked like it would end in disaster, so I decided to cancel. For reference, the mock battle had been planned as me versus Jeanne and Aura and two scorpion-type Golems.
"Well, it's a success for now... Maybe overkill as bodyguards, though..."
At my words, the two of them simply nodded in agreement.
They were quite shaken, but faced with that overwhelming strength, they stopped making any comments about the Golem's appearance.
I instructed the Golems to return to their original necklaces, and the two of them stopped moving on the spot before being drawn into the necklaces and vanishing.
The two picked up the necklaces and, with a hint of hesitation, put them on around their necks.
"Do the necklaces feel off in any way?"
When I asked them, they moved their bodies lightly and adjusted the length to test them while still wearing the necklaces.
"Not really... but the length is a bit hard to adjust,"
Jeanne said, clearly bothered by it. Seeing that, Aura remarked,
"Jeanne's got long hair, that's why. You'll get used to it soon enough."
As she spoke, she helped Jeanne with the adjustment.
The chains I used this time were modified versions of ones I'd purchased at a shop.
I cut a single chain roughly in the middle, hardened one end with silver, and attached a small hook to the other end so it could be caught at the desired length for adjustment.
Because of that, while it was fine for Aura, whose hair was shorter, Jeanne — with her long hair — kept accidentally grabbing her hair along with the chain when she tried to adjust it behind her back, since she wasn't used to doing it.
So I decided to alter the chain length of Jeanne's necklace only and redo it so it would rest just above her collarbone.
"Thank you!"
As expected of a girl, she was clearly happy to receive an accessory as a gift. It was the first time Jeanne had ever thanked me in such a bright, cheerful voice.
In truth, I wasn't accustomed to receiving thanks from women outside my own circle, and being hit with it almost out of nowhere along with Jeanne's smile, I couldn't help but blush slightly.
Watching this, Aura was grinning as if she wanted to say something, but I feigned ignorance and turned my back to her — it was the only way I could think of to deflect the situation.
"Ahem... well, the Golems seem to operate without any issues, so once I finish the final check on the magic circle, everything I'd planned will be done... Is there anything you'd like to do?"
Changing the subject to smooth things over, I asked them that while accepting the necklace back, but the two of them didn't seem to come up with anything immediately either.
So we decided to take a break for the time being, and I used the opportunity to think about what we needed and what I wanted to prepare.
"Hmm... the best I can come up with is securing and distributing our food supplies."
"I'm... let me see, maybe mass-producing food and storing it in the Magic Bag?"
Aura and I both brought up food-related ideas, but Jeanne suddenly looked up as if struck by inspiration.
"I want a changing room and a toilet installed in the carriage!"
she declared in a loud voice.
Even Aura seemed to find merit in those words.
"Now that you mention it, Tenma's carriage didn't have either of those!"
she said with understanding. When I thought about it more carefully, I realized that up until now it had only been me (and two beasts), so it hadn't been something I needed to worry about. But if Jeanne and Aura were joining the journey, it was the very first thing we should have been thinking about.
The carriage had space for a tub that served as a makeshift bath, but there was no room for changing clothes. As for the toilet, we'd been doing our business outside until now, or on rainy days we'd stow the tub and use the freed-up space.
But that was only possible because I'd been a man traveling alone. If we made women do the same thing, in my previous life that would've absolutely been grounds for a sexual harassment charge and handcuffs... and in this world too, if word got out, we'd definitely be looked down upon by everyone.
"It's definitely necessary... but the problem is how to build it. Simply expanding the interior is still doable without too much trouble, but..."
As I was turning the idea over in my head, a certain image surfaced in my mind.
"That's it! We should do it like a unit bath!"
"A unit bath?"
"Tenma, what exactly is a unit bath?"
The words had slipped out before I could stop myself, and both of them heard me. But I figured there was no point trying to hide it, so I decided to tell them what I had in mind.
"A unit bath is a single room that has a bathtub, a toilet, and a sink all installed together."
I gave them a simple explanation of what I'd seen in my previous life.
"With this, we wouldn't need to build separate rooms for the toilet and the bath. And if we build this room to fit the available space in the carriage, we can just pack it into the Magic Bag and carry it around! We'd be able to use it easily inside dungeons too, just like we are now!"
Rather than going out of our way to conjure everything up with magic like we had been, being able to just pull it out and use it was obviously far more convenient.
The only remaining issue was what to do after using the toilet.
However, I had a feeling this wouldn't be too difficult if we used magic cleverly.
"But wouldn't that cause the toilet smell to linger?"
"That is a legitimate concern, but for example, if we set a jar or something into the bowl and attached a mechanism like a Dimension Bag to it, or carved wind or water magic circles into the seat, we should be able to reduce the odor considerably with some ingenuity. I think it's worth trying."
For the time being, I decided to use earth magic and alchemy to create a toilet bowl, relying on my memories of the design.
What came out was a Western-style toilet, and because I was subconsciously recalling a certain famous manufacturer from my previous life while making it, the letters "To-r-r" ended up etched along the edge of the tank, so I scraped those off.
"Not bad for a first attempt."
I murmured that impression to myself as I actually sat down on it.
Jeanne and Aura seemed curious about the unfamiliar-shaped toilet, but even so, they apparently couldn't bring themselves to sit on a toilet seat in front of a man — both of them just watched.
Next, I brought out the carriage and performed the expansion work on the rear interior, then tried building a small room to fit that size using earth magic and alchemy, but...
"The roof looks like it might cave in..."
So I felt, and tried assembling it without a roof instead, but at this pace, I was starting to think we wouldn't finish in time before our departure.
So I decided to compromise, switching from a detachable design to a built-in one.
In the expanded section of the carriage's interior, I built walls and a door out of wood, created floor tiles using a process similar to pottery and laid them down, then secured the toilet I'd made earlier after firing it so that the jar could be removed.
Since I also drafted the Golems to help with the work, we were able to finish it in two days.
As for the bath tub, we'd continue using the barrel we were currently using for now, but when we reached the Royal Capital and had some spare time, I'd look for something that could serve as a replacement.
Finally, all that remained was some detailed finishing work and a test to make sure the magic circles functioned properly.
A magic circle was drawn on the toilet seat's lid, and when the lid was raised, it would activate, causing the jar to exhibit the same ability as a Dimension Bag.
In addition, a mechanism using wind magic to create a layer of air had been installed to prevent the smell from escaping, but since this was something we wouldn't know worked until actually using the toilet, I decided to hold off on that for now.
The test was simple: lift the lid, pour in more water than the original jar could hold, and if it didn't overflow, it was a success — if it did overflow, it was a failure.
Inside the jar, I had set up a space roughly five meters on each side. I decided to start by pouring in about ten liters of water.
The results were...
"Success! No water leakage either — I'd call that a fine outcome!"
For now, I couldn't find any problems, so I decided to stop tinkering with it. All that remained was to put in the water jar, hang the partition curtain, and dig the drainage outlet, and it would be essentially complete.
For the drainage outlet, I also embedded a jar imbued with the Dimension Bag's function into the floor.
After showing Jeanne and Aura the interior of the refurbished carriage, I stowed it into the Magic Bag, and we headed back above ground.
We would be departing Seigen soon, so the plan for the rest of the day was to take a leisurely stroll through the city and do some shopping, focusing primarily on food supplies — but...
"Jeanne, Aura, this is the tenth shop now, you know..."
They say women's shopping takes forever, but I really wished they'd stop forgetting our original purpose and wandering through clothing and accessory stores.
"Tenma, just one more shop!"
"We'll decide soon, I promise!"
This was the third time they'd said "just one more shop." Shiromaru and the others had already retreated back into the Dimension Bag to rest. As expected, they had no interest in anything that wasn't food — before climbing back into the bag, Shiromaru and Solomon both begged me for treats, then happily clutched orc bones in their mouths and trotted inside.
Even after that, "just one more shop" was repeated about five more times. I gave up and, to kill time, peeked into a general goods store a few doors down from where Jeanne and the others were.
There wasn't anything particularly eye-catching, but there were about twenty well-crafted jars of various sizes on display, so I purchased every single one, which delighted the shopkeeper to no end.
On the way back to Jeanne and the others, I spotted a familiar-looking Ogre walking down the street. It was, of course, Garibar.
Setting familiarity aside, I'd never heard of any other Ogre being tamed in this city, so there was no doubt — Ogre meant Garibar.
Nobody dared to get close to Garibar, leaving a conspicuous empty space around him, making him incredibly easy to spot and approach.
When Garibar noticed me coming closer, he flinched for a moment and stepped back, but quickly straightened his spine as much as possible and snapped into an at-attention stance.
Seeing Garibar on the verge of saluting, I couldn't help but laugh. But the moment Garibar heard my laughter, he flinched all over again.
"Oh? If it isn't Tenma. Out shopping, are we?"
While I was distracted by Garibar, Marquis Samons emerged from an entrance near where Garibar stood, accompanied by his guards.
The guards too had spotted me and stepped forward warily, but they retreated at a gesture of restraint from Marquis Samons.
"Yes… Although, at the moment, I'm just being dragged around on shopping errands with nowhere to be."
When I answered like that, Marquis Samons smiled wryly and—
"Accompanying a woman on her shopping takes real stamina, you know… I can say from experience — back in my younger days, I was at my wife's beck and call all the time…"
He said this in a low voice.
Garibar, seeing that his master Marquis Samons was having a friendly conversation with me, seemed to have finally loosened up a bit.
Noticing this, Marquis Samons murmured—
"Garibar is arguably the strongest fighter among my personal guard, and yet before you, Tenma, he's completely beside himself…"
When Garibar heard this, he shrank his enormous frame into as small a ball as he could manage. From the side, it was quite the amusing sight, but I felt it was only fair to try and cheer him up — after all, the poor guy was cowering because of me—
"No, I think Garibar is remarkably capable. Most Ogres are hot-tempered, low on intelligence, and charge into battle without thinking, but Garibar, from what I can see, actually thinks things through when he fights. If he keeps this up, he'll only grow stronger."
When I said this in Garibar's defense, Marquis Samons nodded and—
"I'm well aware of that. …Between you and me, I suspect his intelligence may actually be higher than Geiri's."
He said this in yet another low voice, but the claim carried a strange persuasiveness.
"Oh, by the way — where is Geiri…?"
I asked, figuring it would be a nuisance to run into him here, and Marquis Samons laughed.
"Ah, that fool of a son is currently in the dungeon with the rest of the reinforcements who arrived after me, having his attitude thoroughly beaten back into shape."
With that, he filled me in. It seemed like I'd managed to dodge that particular complication for now… although, Garibar being terrified of me was still a bit awkward.
Thinking it over, I wanted to get on good terms with Garibar, and the first thing that came to mind was the bottomless pits back at home.
On a whim, I pulled out a lump of Orc meat and held it out to Garibar, but the big guy didn't change his attitude one bit even after seeing it.
"Tenma — what is that?"
"No, I thought that since my gluttonous group always reacts when I bring out food, I wondered how Garibar might react..."
The phrasing could be considered rather rude depending on how one heard it, but the Marquis puffed out his cheeks slightly and blew out a light breath in amusement.
"Ahahaha, Tenma. Just because Garibar is an Ogre doesn't mean he would gnaw on raw meat right here on the street."
I was stunned by those words. After all, if it were my gluttonous bunch at home, the sight of them definitely diving into the meat and eating it raw without caring who was watching was vividly imprinted in my mind.
Having failed to win over Garibar with food, I confirmed the Marquis had a Magic Bag and handed him about ten Orc-meat portions specifically for Garibar.
At the time, I did it deliberately so Garibar could see, but whether the big guy would become even a little friendlier because of this was unclear.
"Well then, I believe my companions will be finished shopping soon, so I shall take my leave here."
I bowed to the Marquis and even tried waving to Garibar, but seeing Garibar tense up at my hand movements, then visibly relax with relief as I moved away, made me quite frustrated.
When I returned to the shop where Jeanne and the others were, the Slarin I had left behind as a guard noticed me and hurriedly tried to climb into the bag.
I patted Slarin first, then as a reward gave it an Orc bone. When I opened the bag wide, reacting to the scent of the bone from inside the bag,
Glutton Number One
stuck its face out and started begging. Naturally, behind Number One,
Number Two
was also waiting.
"I wish Garibar were a little more easy to read like this..."
I patted Shiromaru and Solomon on the head, gave bones to the two of them, and added a new bone for Slarin.
After seeing the three return to the bag, I decided to go into the shop to call for Jeanne and Aura.
"Jeanne, Aura, are you done?"
When I called out to the two, it seemed they had just finished choosing their items and were about to head to the cash register.
They had been buying in bulk women's outer coats and jackets with durable construction and cute colors and embroidery, along with pants, skirts, and boots.
It seemed that on the sixteenth shop, they had finally found something they were satisfied with.
The two paid for their items and began stuffing them into their Magic Bag.
One of the male customers in the shop had been eyeing the bag with a nasty look, so I stood up to block his gaze and shot him a sharp glare as a warning.
The man had gone pale and was trembling, so he was probably fine, but it seemed I'd need to have a serious talk with the two of them about various precautions later.
On the way back, we found a liquor store, so I purchased five 10-liter barrels of whiskey as a thank-you gift for the guild master and the others. Separately from that, I decided to buy six bottles of wine, each holding about five liters.
Incidentally, the whiskey was about 40% alcohol and was commonly drunk in this world as well.
The wine I bought was split evenly between red and white, and I intended to use it mainly for cooking.
After that, I went around buying up rice, browsing vegetables, and picking up spices, seasonings, and pre-made foods, and before I knew it, the total weight easily exceeded 100 kilograms… Though, since everything was stuffed into the Magic Bag, it wasn't heavy at all.
"We've got plenty of meat for Shiromaru and the others, and enough food for about half a year, so I think this should be enough for a while without needing to buy more."
"Agreed. Any more than this would just become a hassle to manage, so from now on it would be best to buy more only after consuming a certain amount."
Aura also concurred with my opinion. In reality, there should still be leftovers from what we bought before, but the problem was I didn't know what was left over. I'd need to organize the contents of the bag at some point.
That evening, I divided up food from my Magic Bag and transferred it into the one the two of them carried. For dinner, we made do with some pre-made dishes that I believed had been purchased previously.
A few days after that, the day to finally depart from Seigen arrived.
I had already reached out to acquaintances the day before, so for the send-off today, Amy's family and the members of Dawn Sword and the Tamer's Guild (provisional) had gathered to see us off.
I had gone to say goodbye to the guild master the day before as well, and the greetings were already done when I handed over the thank-you whiskey.
The Marquis apparently had a meeting with the guild masters starting first thing this morning, so I had already paid my respects to him the day before as well.
"Anyway, Amy, I'm counting on you to take care of things like airing out the room and such."
"Yes, sir! Leave it to me!"
As we exchanged these pleasantries, I learned something surprising — aside from Amy, the members of the Tamer's Guild (provisional) were also planning to participate in the martial arts tournament.
"This is our chance to spread the name of the Tamer's Guild far and wide, recruit members, and turn it into a major organization!"
Everyone was fired up about it. I asked whether Menace could enter the tournament while bringing Familiars along, and apparently it was allowed — though Familiars counted as one member of the team, and on top of that, certain tournaments added extra rules or had few strong Familiar owners participating, so the turnout was generally low.
The Dawn Sword and the members of the Tamer's Guild (provisional) all had acquaintances in the Royal Capital, so they wouldn't be heading over until one or two weeks before the tournament.
"Well then, we're heading out ahead of everyone! Take care of Amy for me!"
After saying that and giving Tanikaze a signal—
"Teacher, Jeanne, Aura — be safe! Come back soon!"
—and with Amy's cheerful voice ringing behind us, we set off on our journey to the Royal Capital.