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Chapter 10: [Short Story] The Hole Ceres Left Out
Zect POV
"Why is there no money?" said Zect.
"Don't ask me that question," said Mel.
"No way, did Ceres run away with it?" said Maria.
"Maria, Ceres would never do such a thing. He's a very serious man," said Mel.
"Oh no, Mel, I'm joking, just joking," said Maria.
I had no choice but to go to the Adventurers' Guild.
"Have the church sent us any money?"
"Yes, I have checked, as Zect-sama told me to, and it's true."
That's funny, this had never happened before.
"Okay, I'll check at the church."
Without any choice, I took the three girls to the church.
"The money has not been transferred? Is it true? After all, the hero party is our top priority. Okay, I'll look into it."
"Please, we are in trouble!"
"Zect-sama... no documents have been submitted..."
"What documents?"
I've never heard of such a thing.
"It's an itinerary, a request for funds."
"What's that?"
The priest told me, for example, 'If you want us to send you money for this or that,' or 'We're doing this or that and we want money for the equipment,' I must write a detailed report and submit it, and then the money would be transferred to us.
"I don't remember ever filling out such a form, did any of you fill it out?"
The three shook their heads.
"Wait a minute... it seems that a document with your signature was submitted on a document written by someone else, and the name of the substitute is Ceres-sama."
My signature?
'I have to submit it to the church, can you sign it? '
Ah, so that's it.
"That one? Was that important?"
"Well, we, the church, can't do anything if we don't know the amount of money to support you."
Anyway, I filled out the necessary documents on the spot and received six gold coins (600,000 yen).
This was enough money to live on for the time being, but I felt it was too little.
"It seems a lot less..."
"This is the minimum monthly living expenses for the hero. In addition, you can claim expenses and rewards for goals achieved. This is the amount because there are no other expenses or rewards."
"Okay, I'll be careful from now on, Mel. Please listen to it in detail and take care of it from now on."
"Why should I...?"
"You're the smart one, the smartest one among us, right?"
"I know, I know."
Really, that document, it's as thick as a book.
And it's a pain in the ass, isn't it? As expected, Mel's face is pale.
"Mel, is it hard?" said Zect.
"Yes, however, it's not impossible, but this is as hard as the mayor writing a letter of advice to the Lord! If I'm going to do this, I'd like to be exempted from the other tasks," said Mel.
"Mel, doesn't that sound funny? Ceres was doing all the chores while doing the paperwork," said Lida.
"Lida, then why don't you do this paperwork for me? You can read and write, right? Maria too, you can do it! By then, I'll do the chores... Really, I don't like this!" said Mel.
Mel made a fuss, so we looked in on her, and I could tell from the moment I saw how much of a pain in the ass she looked.
"Mel, I understand, you just concentrate on that."
"Okay... here's the report on the money, ahh... it's a pain in the ass! Why is it so complicated? Hey, Zect, tell me later the names of the things you bought recently and how much they cost! Also, tell me your immediate goals and what kind of training it will be for defeating the Demon King!"
"I understand."
That's all I could say in front of Mel's fearsome face.
* * *
"Lida... can't you do something about this?" said Maria.
"If you don't like the food I make, Maria can make it, or Zect can make it. Mel is an exemption..." said Lida.
"I won't complain... because Lida is better than me," said Zect.
"Sorry if it's that bad," said Lida.
"Yeah, well, it's better than getting burned, isn't it?" said Zect.
Lida is the only one who can cook.
But Lida can only cook salty food.
And all she can do is salt meat and cook it, or make salty soup.
Maria and I are not much better than that, and for some reason, Maria's food turns to charcoal.
"I want to eat Ceres's omelet."
"His hamburgers were excellent too."
"Hey, Maria, Mel, don't say that! It's bad for Lida."
"It's okay, it's okay! Even I'd like to eat his ketchup Napoli."
Still, the kind of food Ceres makes is available in the town.
However, it is only available at high-end restaurants, and the four of us can easily spend at least two silver coins (about 20,000 yen).
Moreover, even the food at such a high-class restaurant is worse than that at Ceres, depending on the restaurant.
"It's no use, let's eat out tomorrow."
"""That's right (Let's do it)"""
Even so, the food is probably worse than that of Ceres.
In the end, since I didn't want to wash women's underwear and clothes, it became my role to arrange for the inn, the necessary items, and to do the shopping.
Maria is supposed to do the washing up.
I don't know if I can concentrate on the fight this way... I'm sure that's what the three of us are thinking as well.
* * *
I can't go on like this, I really think so.
Every day we get dirtier and dirtier.
Maria and Mel's hair is shaggy too.
So, I asked Lida, the only one in a serious state of mind, to fix this.
But Lida said, "Isn't that impossible?".
"Why is it impossible? I'm buying everything from lotion to hair-washing water," Zect asked.
"Well, as far as the hairstyle is concerned, I just tie my hair back, so there is no problem as long as I wash it neatly, okay? But their hair was done at their request, dried and braided by Ceres... and they can't do it themselves, so it will be shaggy".
Ceres again.
At this rate, we can't have a serious journey.
We have to do something before we all get tired.
Maybe we should talk to someone about it.
"If even within the town is difficult, how can we do it on a dangerous journey?"
I could ask the church to take care of us in the town, but the details I heard were that we should live in the church.
When I told Maria about this, she strongly rejected the idea, saying, "Absolutely not".
She said, "The church lives a simple life! Even meat is rarely served, the beds are hard, and we have to take care of ourselves basically, it should be better now".
Well, Maria was in the church for a couple of weeks practicing her healing power.
If she says so, she must be right.
So, no church, huh? Then...
"A request? No need to rely on adventurers in town? Why don't you just go to the store! That's what all the adventurers do. But if you need to go outside, it will probably cost you more than 4 gold coins a day," said the guild receptionist.
At this, Zect shouted, "That's too expensive!".
"Well, it's for an S class party, a B class or lower can't protect you considering you can protect yourself. If you want a lower price, you can buy a slave."
"Oh, okay, thank you for the information and I'm sorry to interrupt you."
The guild receptionist must have been upset.
Anyway, after this, I went to the church to ask for slaves, and they were angry with me.
In the end, I couldn't find a way to fill the hole Ceres left.
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