Isekai Yururi Kikou ~Raising Children While Being an Adventurer~

Chapter 509:

The Reality

"I deeply apologize for the trouble your group has experienced, Takumi-sama."

Perhaps due to the growing commotion and all the attention being drawn, the Guildmaster of the Bailey branch hurried over, and we were immediately escorted to another room.

He offered his apologies right away.

"Well, I don’t think it’s possible to keep track of every adventurer’s behavior, and considering you’ve got someone like Hector-san working with you, I’d say you’re doing what you can."

"That’s exactly right! We’re doing everything we can! But problematic adventurers just keep showing up one after another! And why—why do they always go straight to the one person they absolutely shouldn’t mess with!?"

The staff member who had first helped us had come along with the Guildmaster—and she was clearly agitated.

"Hey now, Layla. I know you’ve been working hard up till now, but complaining to Takumi-sama isn’t right."

"... I’m sorry."

Unable to stand it any longer, the Guildmaster reprimanded the staff member—Layla-san.

At that, she seemed to realize her outburst and quickly apologized.

"Again, I’m terribly sorry. Just to be sure—what would you like to see done regarding the adventurer who confronted you? Though, since nothing actually happened, we can’t give them too harsh a punishment."

"… Punishment, huh?"

He asked my opinion on how to deal with the adventurer who approached us, but since it never went beyond that, I didn’t really feel the need for anything.

"I wasn’t scared."

"It didn’t feel bad."

"Hmm? Ah~…"

Come to think of it, Allen and Elena hadn’t shown any wariness or any trace of being scared by the person who approached us.

"“Not a bad person?””

"So they were just pretending to act mean?"

“”That’s what it felt like~””

When it comes to intuition or reading people, the kids are probably better than me, so they’re likely right.

"You saw through it? That’s right—he’s not a bad guy. He just has the wrong approach. I guess you could say… he tries to scare off those who might be targeted, to drive them out of the Guild, keeping them away from people who’d really cause trouble."

"Ah, now that you mention it, he did tell us to leave quickly."

So that means… he judged that we were likely to be harassed.

Well, I do get approached a lot, so he wasn’t wrong.

"Ah! No, no! I didn’t mean Takumi-sama and the others look like easy targets or anything!"

The Guildmaster, noticing my subtle reaction, hurried to smooth things over.

… You don’t need to be that considerate about it, though.

"Was it because we were with you?"

"Is that why they came after us?"

Theodore-kun and Latis-kun looked downcast, wondering if their presence had caused the incident.

"No, no, that’s not it at all. We had escorts too, right? So that adventurer just jumped to conclusions—it was poor judgment on his part."

"”That’s right~ Don’t worry, don’t worry~””

"Ah, but Theodore-kun, Latis-kun, were you scared? If you were, even if the guy didn’t mean harm, we might need to punish him."

"We’re fine! It was a valuable experience!"

"Yes, exactly!"

“I-I see.”

They were happy about the whole thing, as if they'd gained an authentic adventuring experience rather than feeling afraid… These kids really are something else.

"Um, as for the way he acted toward us, no need to punish him. But please do make sure he stops pretending to be a bad guy. If people get scared, it reflects badly on the Adventurers’ Guild."

"There’s actually an adventurer who’s very concerned about that behavior. I think I’ll have them officially form a party with him so they can keep him in check."

"Please do."

It’s probably Hector-san, huh? They should just stick together from now on.

So, with that, the issue of being approached was resolved, and we were finally free.

"Alright, that took a little longer than expected. What should we do now?"

"”Taking a request?"”

"No, no, we’re not taking any requests while Theodore-kun and Latis-kun are with us, okay!?"

No way I can take on a job while they’re with me.

I’m pretty sure I said from the beginning that we wouldn’t be taking any requests today!

"Eh~ but I want to go on a request!"

"Me too!"

"We’re fine just watching! We’ll behave and quietly observe how you handle the job, so please take us!"

"Please!"

… Theodore-kun and Latis-kun were completely fired up.

"Oniichan, Elena doesn’t care about a request! I want to go to the forest!"

"The forest?"

Then Elena piped up, saying she didn’t need a job, she just wanted to go to the forest.

"To look for Pastel Rabbits! For Loretta-chan!"

"Huh? But the Risner family already has Pastel Rabbits, right? Three of them, if I remember correctly?"

First there was one, then we found two more when asked by Wald-san. So I thought they had three in total… or am I wrong?

"We’re going to get even more friends!"

"Pastel Rabbits are so cute! I’d be happy to have more of them!"

"But Pastel Rabbits are pretty hard to find, right? Do you think we’ll find any?"

"”We’ll find them!"”

… Huh? This already feels like we’ve decided to go look for Pastel Rabbits.

"Lancer-san, Eugene, what do you think?"

"Cedric-sama seemed to have anticipated this. He said it’d be fine as long as it’s just the nearby forest."

"”"”Yaaay!"”"”

"……"

So Cedric-san had already given permission behind the scenes.

Wait… he expected this to happen?

"Um… you really want to go that badly?"

"”We do~"”

"”We do!"”

"… I see."

When all four kids are united like that, it’s hard to turn them down.

"Allen, Elena, can you promise not to head toward anything dangerous?"

"”We can!"”

"Theodore-kun, Latis-kun, can you promise to stay close to me, Lancer-san, and Eugene?"

"”We promise!"”

"Alright, fine. But only for a little while, okay?"

"”"”Yaaay!"”"”

I do feel a little bad for dragging Lancer-san and Eugene into this, but I just couldn’t say no to those innocent, eager eyes.