Pseudo Resident’s Illegal Stay in Another World

༺ The Descendant of Pluto (9) ༻

The memories of last night when Luna was sitting on my stomach and looking down at me resurfaced in my mind.

Now that I think about it, it truly felt like a dream or something I simply imagined because I was too tired. The dread I was feeling then was, however, very real.

“I did what last night?”

However, Luna asked back in such a way that made it seem that she had never heard something like that before. It wasn’t like she was pretending that she didn’t know what I was saying or anything. I genuinely felt that she was completely unaware of the happenings of last night.

Had she actually forgotten what happened last night? Could she have been sleepwalking? If that was not it, then then the only possibility was that it was something that I cooked up in my mind.

“It’s okay, forget about it”

“Actually, I had a very interesting dream last night. I was swimming in a huge pile of gold coins, you know! Could this be a precognitive dream? I heard that something like this could happen when the level of a shaman’s voodoo skills increases!

Luna turned to ask me after babbling all by herself for a while.

“What are you going to do today, Hassan? I’m going to make some elixirs I have already bought the ingredients in advance, so I only need to make them, that’s pretty much all I planned.”

“Me? I don’t have anything to do today.”

If Paranoy — that cultist nymph — didn’t lie to me, today would be the day the cultists would launch their attack.

I wonder if Daphne, a guild official, advised people to stay at home and not cause trouble outside.

The number of people walking around outside had actually already noticeably reduced after the cultist attack on Mars’ temple.

Although Hippolyte and other silver-tier adventurers had repelled their first assault, the cultists seem to be skilled enough that even someone like Hippolyte was injured and the guild building was almost reduced to rubbles.

In that situation, low bronze adventurers like Luna and I couldn’t do anything other than just stay inside the house, shivering and hoping that we wouldn’t get implicated in the incident and get hurt!

“Then, I’ll just stay at home.”

“That’s great! Let’s make some elixirs together if you have nothing to do today!”

Luna shouted excitedly as if she was glad to have some extra hands to help her around with doing the household chores.

Because I had no qualms about helping Luna with her work, I immediately started helping. The first thing to do was to peel the strange radish-like plants.

Crunch— Crunch— Grind— Grind—

I also took care of all kinds of miscellaneous tasks, like grinding some bones of unknown origin into fine powder.

It wasn’t really difficult, I was also happy about the fact that I was doing something creative for once, and most importantly, that I was helping Luna.

“You’re better at this than I expected, Hassan. I heard that men usually do the housework in Samaria. Is that actually true?”

Luna seemed to be admirative of the fact that I was so good at preparing ingredients. It seemed like the experience of helping my father with all kinds of miscellaneous things since I was young ended up benefiting me today.

“I’ve just learned a lot from my father.”

Come to think of it, my father was a very talented man, even though he lived life as though he was on a wild goose chase. My father did everything from housework to cooking. He was a complete pushover through and through.

“I’d like to meet your father, Hassan! He sounds like an interesting person!”

“My father?”

Hearing Luna’s words, I imagined taking Luna with me and introducing her to my father and mother.

Introducing your girlfriend to your parents— It, honestly, was something I wanted to do at least once in my life.

Wouldn’t my father be very proud of me? He had always been wondering when his son would finally get a girlfriend.

Damn it, I indeed had no luck with women as I looked very rough and manly like my father. But, of course, now I had Luna next to me.

Actually, Luna was the kind of pretty girl that you could proudly show off to others no matter where you went. I was sure that my parents would really love her if they ever saw her.

My sister might swear and whine about how a loser like me could date a girl like Luna though.

“What if your parents don’t like me?”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen. To be frank, I am worried that your parents will hate me instead.”

“That won’t be a problem since I’m an orphan.”

“R-Right? Yeah.”

Huh? What kind of backhanded compliment is this?!

Of course, I knew Luna didn’t know about Lady Knox, but it was still bewildering to hear anyway.

I could also feel Knox’s statue on the first floor creaking in anger right about now.

“I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. But, Hassan, you will probably return to your hometown someday, right? Can you take me with you then? I want to go to Samaria at least once. I heard it’s a vast wilderness without a single tree!”

“My hometown?”

When I heard the word “hometown,” what I thought of was the beautiful blue planet called Earth, not the barren desert and savage lands of Samaria.

It was a crowded planet with a population of 7 billion. Will I ever be able to go back there? Yet, even if I could go back, would I be able to take Luna with me? I wasn’t sure.

Even if there’s a way back to my home, what should I do if I had no choice but to do so without Luna?

Had it been a few months ago, I would have returned to my world without a shred of hesitation, but now…

“Y-You don’t have to introduce me to your parents if you don’t want to.”

“No, I don’t think it’s burdensome to take you there with me. It’s just that… I don’t think I can go back to my home anymore. This… is my home now.”

Rattle—

While we were chatting, all the grains in the millstone had become powder already due to the constant grinding. All we needed to do now was to put it in a pot, cover it with leather, and then store it well.

“Everything can be done very quickly when we team up! It would have taken me another half a day without your help!”

Luna seemed very satisfied after the ingredients had been grated, peeled, and transferred to various pots.

Based on her sloppy handwork skills when she carved the totems, Luna might have needed at least until tomorrow, not only a mere half a day, to do the tasks if she were to handle it all by herself.

“If only I had a fire pot, I would have heated the medicine myself here. It’s really unfortunate.”

Come to think of it, Luna had mentioned that it would be nice to have a furnace or firepot for ourselves. Couldn’t we make do with just lighting a fire?

“You can’t make a firepot yourself?” ”

“I have to get approval from the city If the size exceeds a certain amount. It’s because a fire could break out because of it.”

In this world where firefighting facilities had not been well established, if there were any instances of a fire running amok, it would really spread out of control since most of the building materials were made out of wood.

It turned out that even in this reckless world, laws and systems still had a semblance of existence. I guess that was why this world was still functional to some extent.

“Well, I’ll just borrow the firepot from the bakery next door!”

After saying that, Luna mixed all kinds of ingredients, poured some water inside, and lifted the heavy pot with her arms. However, seeing the way she stumbled every now and then made me feel somewhat anxious about her well-being.

“Do you want me to help you instead?”

“Really!? I’d appreciate that! Put a lot of firewood and boil it over high heat! This way, the ingredients inside will melt properly!”

Did she just want me to boil the pot over high heat? That would be very easy for me. Although I was pretending to be a barbarian right now, I was actually the eldest son of a health center owner.

I was confident in my liquid boiling and extracting skills.

“I’ll go and come back soon then.”

“Well, I have to prepare the ingredients for a special elixir, so stay out for a while, Hassan.”

Special elixir ingredients?

No clue what that was, but maybe Luna had something like a special sauce that she couldn’t tell me about.

Was it like a trade secret or something?

Luna seemed to want to hide it from me too, well, I wasn’t very interested in it anyway, so I just nodded in acknowledgment and went out to the street with the pot in my arms.

* * * * * *

Since I didn’t know where the bakery Luna told me was, I wandered around for a while. And just when I was about to run out of energy, I finally found the bakery.

Rather than a bakery, the place felt like a dark miscellaneous store. That was why I couldn’t recognize it when I first saw it.

“What brought you here?”

The bakery owner was a woman in her 40s with quite a good physique.

She had brown hair cut short enough to make her look like a man. Although she wore an apron, her thick arms were full of fine muscles without any signs of body fat. It made me feel like if we ever were to duke it out, then I would definitely lose.

She looked more like a blacksmith rather than a bakery lady.

The fact that she had a food business in this kind of place, full of beggars and tramps, was proof that she had the ability to subdue them easily.

“Uh, I’d like to borrow a firepot.”

“Is it to boil things inside that pot?”

“Y-Yesh.”

“You’re that pink-haired girl’s friend, aren’t you? I often see you guys walking around together.”

I didn’t know anything about this lady, but she seemed to have recognized me somehow.

Indeed, if there was a Samaritan who stood tall like a telephone pole and a woman with pink hair walking around the street together, I would also glance and stare at them a few times myself.

“Just pay the cost for using the firewood. The price changes according to the weight. So, be careful about it.”

“Yesh.”

I bought 20 coopers worth of firewood from her. I thought I had bought a bit too much, but according to the lady, it was the appropriate amount.

I put the pot on an iron pedestal and let it warm up. I was worried that the heated pot might break, but fortunately, nothing of the sort happened.

Crackle— Crackle—.

While I was looking at the burning firewood for a while, the bakery lady suddenly talked to me as if she found the silent atmosphere boring.

“What’s your relationship with that girl? The pink-haired girl, I mean.”

“I’m just her colleague.”

I had endlessly thought about what to say regarding our relationship to the others and soon ended up with the option of voicing our relationship as mere colleagues.

Luna was a woman who had made a vow of chastity, and according to the norms of this world, it was very reprehensible for a woman who had made the vow to have a lover.

Of course, it was true that we were not a couple or a pair of lovers yet. One could say that we were in a vague relationship where we worked as colleagues.

“I see. While she may be a little slow, she’s still a nice girl. Definitely not the kind to betray other people. I’ve known her since she first arrived in this town so you can trust me on that.”

“I-Is that so?”

The back of my head felt itchy because of the awkward atmosphere between us. But the bakery lady kept talking without a care in the world.

“Her face is lovely. Also, her arms and legs look so soft, like a spring goddess. She is a pleasant girl to look at.”

“That’s true.”

Hearing a compliment about Luna’s beauty made me feel really good.

Luna was actually pretty enough to make some passersby turn their heads at her as they came across her.

As I was thinking about Luna’s face, the bakery owner went on with her speech.

“I’ve never seen a girl who keeps her vow of chastity so well at a time when the gods are silent like this. Of course, I heard that women and men who violate the vow will be sanctioned by the maidens group or whatever, but they can’t catch them all.”

“I see.”

“She could easily get a decent man and live a comfortable life. But the fact that she didn’t do that is already so amazing. Anyway, I think the content of the pot should have been boiled by now. Turn off the heat and let it cool down before you take it back.”

After hearing the bakery owner’s words, I put out the fire by digging through the firewood with something like a long skewer.

When I looked into the pot to see how well the ingredients melted, I saw that the boiling hot water was bubbling.

The color was not like clear water but very of a murky and thick brown hue.

It smelled bitter, like oriental medicine, but it was more or less bearable. I couldn’t even imagine what it would taste like, but it definitely didn’t look like something that would taste good.

“You also can’t have bad intentions toward her just because the girl is so pretty. You should protect and take care of her, okay?”

“Uh, well… I see.”

That ended the conversation between us. The bakery owner must have been worried that I might attack Luna and hurt her. Yet, it was already a little too late to worry about something like that—

When the contents of the pot had slightly cooled down, I lifted it up with my arms again and went out into the lightly dim street.

Due to the fact that the information about the cult members appearing today had been spread publicly, there were not many people walking on the streets.

Even if there was a person, they would soon disappear with quick and nimble steps. I was also worried about Luna being alone, so I fastened my pace to reach her place. It shouldn’t be a big deal, but you never knew what would happen the next moment.

Clang— Rattle—

“Ah— the Dark Star of Acheron. There you are, Comrade.”

At that time, I turned my head to the sound of someone calling me from behind, and the man standing behind me was so tall that I had to look up to see his face.

He wore a full-plate armor that looked so sturdy and hard that it was difficult to identify him. His overall matte black appearance made the man look like a shadow hovering above the ground.

Whoever he was, he did not fit with the atmosphere of this desolate and trashy west slum.

As I explained before, wearing armor with a lot of iron plates proved that you had excellent skills in this world.

The full plate armor wasn’t just a plain suit of armor covered in metal plates, but rather a stunning piece with sharp designs that emphasized its appearance. The helmet was also impressively crafted in the shape of a dragon’s head, reminiscent of the head of a turtle ship.

Rattle—

Also, that massive thing hanging on his back was enough to make one wonder if it could even be called a sword because it just looked like a hideous lump of iron plate with a handle attached to it.

The man talked to me again.

“It’s almost time. You’d better hurry because you might be late for the meeting.”

The hair all over my body stood on end as goosebumps appeared all over my body. I’d heard this voice somewhere before. It was a thick voice that was similar to a sound ringing inside an icy cave.

This man was probably the one who had come to Luna’s cabin and knocked on the door that day. Was his name Schizo?

I could easily imagine what my fate would have been if I had opened the door back then. Luna and I might have been mercilessly ripped apart.

No matter how much I racked my brain, I didn’t think I could beat this giant lump of iron plates.

“Come on— let’s go already. Everyone is waiting for us on standby. Today, Sodomora will be Pluto’s first place on this land.”

“Everyone—?”

The man whispered something unbelievable in answer to my question.

“We brought three silver tiers and one gold tier. That will be enough.”

I wasn’t exactly sure what they were up to, but they seemed like a group with high enough ranks to do whatever it was they intended to do.