Novice Alchemist 1-19 part 2

 

Chapter 1-19 : Epilogue of Arc 1 (part 2)

 

「Iris-san, are you done helping out around the village?」(Lorea)

「Y, Yeah…」(Iris)

Iris-san answered Lorea-chan as she looked away, but was immediately denied by Kate-san who came in after her.

「What are you talking about? Hahh… The villagers told her to just go home because she was too clumsy to help with the work and just got in the way.」(Kate)

「Uhh….. It can’t be helped, right? I’m not good at that kind of work.」(Iris)

After Kate-san told us the truth, Iris-san pouted and glared at her.

The work she was helping with was dismantling the corpses of the Hellfire Grizzlies.

It seems that she had been helping clean up the village from this morning, but it was done relatively quickly.
After that, the villagers started butchering the Hellfire Grizzlies.

I have collected the materials needed for alchemy, so what remains now are just meat, bones and skin.

Skinning and processing meat are simple jobs for most of the villagers, especially for Jasper-san because he’s a hunter.

However, Hellfire Grizzlies are huge, and there are so many of them.

The total of the bears killed after the battle was over was 28.

There’s no way Jasper-san could process all of them alone, so all the men in the village and strong women like Ells-san and Dilal-san were also helping.

Iris-san and Kate-san also helped, but according to Kate-san, it seemed that the way Iris-san skinned the bears was so sloppy it would reduce the quality of the meat, so the villagers told her to go back home.

Well, skinning an animal is not easy after all.

「But Kate-san, why did you come home too?」(Lorea)

「Ah, it’s because I’ve finished my work. I’m not lying like Iris, okay?」(Kate)

「Ughh….」(Iris)

By the way, it seems that Kate-san helped with processing the meat.
To be precise, she was salting the meat.

It was true that Kate-san had finished her work, but it was because the number of barrels available in this village wasn’t sufficient to hold all the meat, so they had to put off the work for the time being.

Honestly, I don’t care about the meat because it’s not material for alchemy, but I wonder how it tastes.

「By the way, Kate-san, you fought really well yesterday. Your archery skill was awesome! I never knew you could shoot arrows so precisely from such a high place. And thanks to your reports, I could understand the situation in the battle area.」(Sarasa)

「Ahaha. Thank you. Unlike when we were attacked in the forest, I was in a good spot to observe the situation this time. Well, the reason why we were attacked in the forest last time was because those veteran-pretending men acted rashly without thinking. If they weren’t there with us, I would have been able to grasp the situation and we could have avoided the bear.」(Kate)

「Ahh, I see…」(Sarasa)

「I hope they won’t come back to this village. I don’t wanna see their faces… Ah, by the way, I’m sorry for shooting at the bears’ eyes. The eyes are valuable materials, right?」(Kate)

「Yeah, but you don’t need to worry about it. Killing them for good is more important after all.」(Sarasa)

If she avoided attacking the bears’ vital points and didn’t kill them quickly, there might have been a lot of casualties.

「By the way, Iris-san, do you feel better now that you got your revenge?」(Sarasa)

「Yeah. I was kinda disappointed because I couldn’t kill a single bear by myself, but with the help from the other Collectors, I managed to kill some of them!…… As a result, my sword was broken, though… Uuu…」(Iris)

Iris-san said with a proud expression at first, but then her expression darkened after remembering her sword.

After the battle was over, she collected the tip of her sword that was broken off, washed it and brought it home.

Looks like she feels attached to her sword.

「Relax, Iris. We will get reward money for this, and you can buy a new sword with that, right?」(Kate)

「I know, but this is my precious sword!」(Iris)

「So you mean you want to use that broken sword? Don’t be stupid. Or do you want to fix it? It’s not easy to fix a broken sword, you know?」(Kate)

Kate-san shrugged with an expression that said, “That’s impossible”.

Getting annoyed with Kate-san, Iris-san pouted.

「I’m not stupid! I know it won’t be easy!」(Iris)

「Then, you know what to do, right? Just throw that broken sword away and buy a new one. It wasn’t a good sword anyway.」(Kate)

「Mumu…! Indeed this was a cheap sword, but she helped me many times!」(Iris)

「Jeez, both of you! Sarasa-san is sick! Can you both please be quiet!?」(Lorea)

「But, Kate isー!」(Iris)

Umm…. Didn’t Iris-san come to nurse me?

Honestly, I don’t mind hearing their chatter.

It’s better than sleeping alone in silence after all.

While listening to the three girls talking to each other, I covered my body with the blanket and closed my eyes.

 

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