Miniature Garden Chemister Chapter 10

Volume 1 — Different World Life, Start
10. Registering at the Adventurers Guild

The next day, I woke up in a fluffy bed.
In my still drowsy state, a voice was heard. Then that was gradually sounding like a laughter…

“Hah…!”
“Good morning, Hinami-sama.”
“Ah! Sebas-san… Erm, good morning.”

When I returned the greeting, he smiled softly and served black tea.
Rather, I… made a morning greeting for the first time in this world! From yesterday, I’m experiencing a lot of firsts. Mn, this is happiness. While drinking the warm black tea, I slowly awoke. Rather, receiving such treatment right after waking up… n.o.bles are amazing…!

“Breakfast is being prepared, so when you are done preparing please press that bell. The maid will come for you.”
“Oh, yes!”

I looked at the cute bell placed on the table next to me. This is like the bells that appear often in dramas or mangas…!? This is the special item where a butler or a maid comes when rung! I didn’t think such a thing existed in reality. No, I think the people who could hear these bells are more amazing.

First, while drinking the tea elegantly, I checked the exchange diary.

– – – – – – –

h.e.l.lo, Hina. Looks like you slept well, I’m glad.
And this the first city you set foot in. Congratulations. However, there might be strange people, so be careful, okay? Hina is cute after all.

But it feels like you might not play with often now that you’re in the city. I’m going to get lonely.
The exchange diary… you can’t forget, alright? There’s punishment if you do.

Also, to commemorate your arrival at the city, I added more things that can be exchanged so please check that. It’s a very important installation! I’ll give you a simple explanation.
If you buy a house in the city, you can connect the door to Hina’s house. Ah, at your side, not just the entrance is added, but a room corresponding with the house will be added, so rest easy, okay?
So if you buy a house in the city and purchase the installation you can go to the city whenever you want.

Then, have another great day!

– – – – – – –

[Exchange diary] = 3 points added.

[Current points: 31,190]

[Vase: small] 1
[Vase: medium] 10
[Vase: large] 20
[Vegetable seeds set] 10
[Fruit seeds set] 10
[Herb seeds set] 10
[Wheat seeds] 50
[Rice seeds] 100
[Brick: x1] 5
[Fountain] 1,500
[Bottles: x100] 3
[Room] 50
[Bathroom – Extension] 5,000
[Room – Extension] 2,000
[Rooftop – Extension] 10,000
[Bas.e.m.e.nt – Extension] 30,000
[Compounding room – Extension] 15,000
New! [Door of the miniature garden] 50,000

M-My…!
There was the installation of the ‘door of the miniature garden’. It would be nice if I can link the city with my home. But how much does a house cost… I wonder if there’s renting?

“Wait! 50,000 points…!!!”

Making a scarlet restorative (garnet potion) gives me 2 points. Then I have to make 25,000 of them…? I might die before that.
Well, this can’t be helped. Let’s think about it slowly…
I changed into the clothes I brought and rang the bell. This is exciting! By the way, today I’m wearing a knee-length one-piece dress and a short coat. The dress is short sleeved and the coat has ¾ sleeves.
The moment I rang the bell, a maid asked me permission to enter. Huh, I wonder… could she have waited in the hallway… maybe? If so, I finished preparing slowly so I feel sorry.

“Good morning, Hinami-san!”
“Ah, morning, Thia-chan.”

When I was guided to the a place like a dining room, Thia-chan was having breakfast there.
The menu is… toast, bacon, fried eggs and salad. Mn, looks like any world has similar things for breakfast. It seems like there’s yoghurt for dessert.

“Huh, where’s Alfred-san?”
“Aah, onii-sama went to the knight order with father.”
“I see, from this early in the morning…”
“Yes. Unlike me, onii-sama has a lot of magic… he’s number 1 in magic in this country.”

Ohh!

“Amazing!”
“Yes! Very much!”

It felt as though Thia-chan abased herself… but since she’s smiling brightly now let’s not ask too much about it. It looks like she’s very proud of her big brother and loves him very much.

“Onii-sama is in the hero’s party. So he goes to the castle often.”
“Hmm…?”

I see. Mn.
…Mn? Hero’s… party?
I see, mn, of course. Should exist. A hero. Since there is the demon lord. By the way, I saw that the demon exists through G.o.d’s point exchange table. If defeated, I can get infinite points. Amazing! But for it’s a so called ‘impossible game’.

“That’s amazing…! It’s like a dream world for me.”
“Not really… also, Hinami-san is a great chemister.”
“M—n… well, really? Thank you.”

It feels somewhat like I got consoled, but it must be my imagination.
While having breakfast with Thia-chan, I was taught things about the city.
With the castle at the head, to the left, there are the residential area, the market, the main street and another residential area. The castle is located in the north with the main street running through the centre and the castle gate to the east. The place I am in now, Thia-chan’s mansion, is located in the east, with n.o.bles living in the eastern area. Then commoners live to the west of that. Further west are the slums, so Thia-chan warned to never go that way even if I got lost.

“Cynthia-sama, it’s almost time.”
“Ah, yes! Hinami-san, I’m sorry. I also have work so I have to go out of the house… I’ll be returning after tomorrow. To be honest, I didn’t have anything, but it was suddenly decided today…”
“No no! It’s alright. Thank you for yesterday and today, Thia-chan.”
“No! That’s what I should be saying. ……Will you meet me again?”
“Yes, of course!”

The two of smiled. Thia-chan said, “We’re friends now!” so I felt happy.
Thia-chan who was almost finished eating left the room, so I was alone in the room. It felt a little awkward, so i hurried to finish the meal. I slowly had tea at the end to calm myself down.

As if he predicted when I would finish eating, the butler Sebas-san came in. The timing of butlers is accurate too…!

“Hinami-sama, here… this is Clef-sama’s grat.i.tude for helping Cynthia-sama.”
“Eh!? No, I had great meals yesterday and today and I was allowed to stay a night, so that’s enough.”
“No. Please take it.”
“Auu…”
“Hinami-sama?”
“Uu… thank you.”

The result. A butler’s insight is terrifying. I received a small bag from Sebas-san and placed it into my rucksack. The content… I heard clinking sounds so it’s probably money.
Somehow, I became very rich over just yesterday and today…! I felt glad that I had the affinity for being a chemister.

“Hinami-sama, what is your plan for today? Cynthia-sama will return tomorrow morning at the earliest. A room can be prepared…?”
“No, I’m going to return home today.”
“But…”

I cut Sebas-san off and told that I’ll be going home. Staying here even though Thia-chan’s not here, there’s a limit to being shameless! Unthinkable!
I felt sorry for Sebas-san who was trying to keep me here, but I told him that I’m going to return home and headed out to the city.

“Oh no…!!”

Currently, I am having lunch at a stall at the market after looking around the stores at the main street. I just discovered the biggest problem, that I’m now in trouble.

“I don’t know… the way back home!”

Even if I did know, I can’t defeat monsters.
What should I do… I need to know the way back at the least. If I’m going to walk back, I have to be prepared to walk for at least half a day. When I was eating fried sweet potatoes I bought from the stall with a troubled expression, a soldier came up to me. Huh… I didn’t do anything, right? Right…?

“What’s wrong, ojou-chan. Making such a face… did something happen?”
“Ah, no… I just wanted to know the way to the forest.”
“The forest? Ah, the forest with a ‘forest of the lost’ inside?”
“Yes!”

Looks like the development of ‘Oi! I haven’t seen you around… you’re not from this country, are you!?’ I was afraid of didn’t happen. What a relief.

“Haha, so you’re also an aspiring adventurer like the previous person! That forest can be reached by heading out of the southern gate and heading to the left at the crossroad. When you go out, you can get a copy of a map with your ID at the gate.”
“ID…?”
“Aah. It’s needed to get in and out of the city. If you don’t have one, you can register at the adventurer guild to get one.”
“Mn, thank you!”
“Sure thing. But, the forest outside the forest of the lost is one for beginners, but if you accidentally stumble into the forest of the lost you can’t come back, so be careful!”
“Yes!”

I waved goodbye to the friendly soldier who was leaving with a smile. Looks like he spoke softly to me because I look like a child. No, I’m happy, but there’s a complicated feeling. No, it means that I looked young… let’s say it’s nice.

“First, let’s go to the adventurer guild… I remember seeing something like that at the main street.”

To begin with, I can’t go out without an ID.
Since it’s urgent now, I’ll have to go to the adventurer guild.
I turned around and started walking towards to the adventurer guild.

When I came out to the main street from the market, a slightly large building came into my sight. The 3-storey building was quite big compared to other buildings. There was a sign with a sword and a s.h.i.+eld, and there were burly people entering and exiting. I wonder if they’re adventurers.
Following them as an example, I set foot into the slightly intimidating adventurer guild.

The place was cleaner than I expected and had 5 reception counters. There were materials purchase, requests reception and other. There were two counters each for buying materials and requests reception. The counters for materials were more s.p.a.cious than the other two kinds, for s.p.a.ce to load materials. There actually were adventurers placing furs and fangs on that s.p.a.ce.
I headed to the ‘other’ counter and asked the lady at the counter about IDs. The receptionist lady showed me the form and politely explained it for me.

“Anyone can register as an adventurer after they turn 10. Also, once you register, the guild issues an ID. The ID is also called a guild card and the achievements at the guild and the rank are entered on it. For registering as an adventurer, a registerer state check and 5 silver coins are necessary. Will you be registering?”
“Yes, please. Also… what’s a registerer state check?”
“The state check is the process of looking into the registerer using a magic tool so that the guild can guarantee the person. From the magic tool, things like criminal records are shown.”
“I see… Thank you. I’d like to register.”

I filled out the form and handed it over to the receptionist lady.
I needed to fill in my name, age… and my job. I wondered if I should fill it in as ‘chemister’, but since it wasn’t necessary to fill it in and I didn’t want to reveal I left it blank. Plus, I’m 15… there should be no problem even if I don’t have a job. Probably.

“Yes, there are no problems here. For the job… it’s possible to find out your apt.i.tude and write that in. What would you like to do?”
“Eh! That’s possible? Then please!”
“Okay. Then, it’ll be done while checking your status. Please place your palm on the crystal here.”
“Yes……”

After saying that, she took out a crystal the size of a person’s face. Pure white, it was like snow. From the soft light inside and the sunlight coming in through the windows, it was glittering a rainbow shade.
When I placed my hand on that, I felt that it wasn’t as cold as I expected.
Then a while later, the crystal shone green with letters.

〈Kusunoki Hinami〉

Age: 15
Lv. 1

Current state: Healthy
Criminal records: None
Job apt.i.tude: Chemister

Ohh… even though I thought it should be alright, I felt relieved after confirming that the criminal record was written as none.

“Looks like the status isn’t shown.”
“Ah… that’s private information, so it’s not shown here. But it’s properly shown on the guild card, so… be careful.”
“Yes.”
“Here is Hinami-san’s guild card.”

Suddenly, a plate the size of a driving license was ejected out of the crystal. Gosh, that surprised me…! To calm my quickly beating heart, I breathed deeply for a bit. Seeing me like that, the lady laughed a bit.

“Then, let me explain. This ‘guild card’ can be used everywhere in 〈Letisreel〉 to prove your status. The owner’s information is disclosed on the front side. Normally, the name, age and job is shown. However, by reciting, ‘Status,’ the status is shown. Likewise, reciting, ‘Skill,’ or ‘Divine Protection,’ reveals those too. I wouldn’t recommend showing them off… but sometimes the client wants to confirm so react accordingly depending on the situation.

“I see… that’s very convenient.”
“Yes. Then, on the other side, your monster subjugation record and the current status of your request is written. Also, reciting, ‘Map,’ shows the map of the country you are currently in, so please use it to your convenience.”

It’s flawless… the guild card.
When I recited, “Map,” to test the guild card, a hologram map appeared on top of the guild plate. This is amazing…!! By the way, I only have the map of the kingdom of Lareel, but it seems like more can be added by asking people that have map data for other places.

“Finally, about the colour of the plate.”
“Colour…?”
“Yes. The colour denotes the rank of the adventurers. From the bottom, there’s D rank (copper), C rank (green), B rank (blue), A rank (gold) and S rank (black). As you can see, Hinami-san, yours is copper so your rank is D.”

There was information being written on my guild card, a copper-shaded plate.
I see… so this is how the rank could be discerned.

“The rank increases according to your contribution to the guild and your ability, so please work hard.”
“Yes, thank you!”

I said goodbye to the lady and was going to leave behind the reception desk… but then I remembered that I can’t return home on my own. If there’s a party heading to the forest, I want to tag along… but would there be one? According to Alfred-san, there weren’t any people going to that forest ever since it turned into a ‘forest of the lost’…

“Is something wrong?”

Maybe noticing that I was worrying about something, the lady talked to me again. No… maybe it’s natural to speak out if I just stand in one place? Sorry about inconveniencing you. But I need to know.

“Frankly… I want to get to the ‘forest of the lost’ but I can’t go alone because of the monsters… so I want to tag along if there’s a party headed that way…”
“Ah… but there aren’t any parties headed to that ‘forest of the lost’. Before it turned into one, it was a popular spot for beginners, but no one goes there now. It doesn’t mean much for experienced people either… since it’s a small forest.”
“I see…”
“M—n… an escort request can be made, but mostly likely there won’t be good results.

Employing escorts…!?
It can’t be helped if I want to return home safely.

“No, I want to put up a request please…!”
“Well… the adventurers who take escort requests are somewhat experienced. So they might not accept a request… going to a small forest.”
“I-I see…”
“Then the choices are to gather a party on your on your own, or buy a curse-slave as a party member. If there’s an apt.i.tude for summoning, it’s possible to tame a monster…”

The lady provided 2 alternatives. Kind…! And summoners exist too. It feels nice unlike a chemister for some reason… I wonder if it’s possible to summon spirits? More importantly, I have to think what I’ll do next!
First plan. Gathering a party on my own. Mn, it feels fun like a game! But, rejected. Since I can’t fight… there won’t be weird people that lets me into a party.
Second plan. Slave… I don’t know what ‘curse’ is… but what’s certain is that I’ll be buying a slave.
But… for a j.a.panese person like me, ‘buying a person’ has quite the high hurdle. In addition, I don’t think I can buy someone with just 10 gold coins……
Maybe taking pity for who was troubled, the lady spoke out kindly for me.

“It’s hard, isn’t it? Indeed, even with rookie adventurers getting a party is hard. Then there’s the curse-slaves… M—n, let’s see. See that male adventurer over there? Ah, and also the female adventurer that just came in.”
“Hm…? Ah, yes, I can see them.”
“Their party members are all curse-slaves.”
“Eh!”

My…! I didn’t think it’d be that natural to have slaves.

“Since there’s the merit of not fighting over loot, there are quite a lot of people forming parties using curse-slaves. Also, the curse-slaves are freed after a 5 years contract so there are quite a lot of people doing curse-slave liberation activities.”
“Liberation activities?”
“Yes. Curse-slaves are those that wish to dispel their ‘curse’. The ‘curse’ is dispelled after 5 years of servitude from a contract.”
“Then, what is the ‘curse’?”

I know the meaning of slave. But what could the ‘curse’ in front of that?
The lady looked surprised, so it must be common sense. Uu, the book on common knowledge G.o.d gave me didn’t have anything on slaves…!

“The ‘curse’ is a mark engraved on the chest… a malediction.”
“A malediction…? So that can be dispelled by 5 years of servitude?”
“Yes. People who wish to dispel their ‘curse’ become ‘curse-slaves’. People who do not wish to be dispelled are called curse-holders.”

I see…? This really is a different world, there are so many strange things. I wonder what the condition for the ‘curse’ to be afflicted is.
I was listening to the explanation for a long time so a line ended up forming behind me…!

“I see… Then I’ll go see some!”
“Yes, that might be for the best.”
“Yes. Thank you very much!”

I decided to take a look the curse-slaves first. It’s a system that didn’t exist in j.a.pan, but it seems like in this world it’s a natural thing…? Becoming a slave to dispel the ‘curse’… that’s how it was, so slavery is bad, but maybe the system itself isn’t bad…?
Mmn, it’s hard.

It’d be nice if I can return home safely…