Konbini Ossan Volume 3 Chapter 32 — The Old Man’s Return
The battle over, I headed back to where the children and Arisa were waiting.
Since I had also taken care of cleaning up the mithril golems afterward, it ended up being early morning by the time I returned.
The children might already be awake, or perhaps, under Arisa’s judgment, they might have already started preparing to escape.
So I thought, but it turned out to be needless worry. The children were still fast asleep beneath the mithril plate disguised as rock.
And Arisa had been waiting quietly for my return.
The moment she caught sight of me, she rushed over.
“Ossan!”
She threw herself into my arms.
“I’m so glad you’re safe.”
Her voice trembled just a little. I must have caused her quite a lot of worry. To sadden my niece like this — what a failure of an uncle I am.
“I’m sorry, Arisa-san. I’m late.”
“Shut up, you idiot. That doesn’t matter.”
She clung to me tighter, as if to reassure herself that safety had returned.
“The crisis is over. The culprit has been defeated. So, it’s safe now.”
I spoke to reassure her, and gently stroked her head to comfort her trembling self.
It might have been treating her too much like a child, but Arisa didn’t resist. She accepted it.
“It’s not about safe or not, you know. Figure it out, stupid.”
She glared up at me. It seemed my words had been the wrong ones. Though the reason, of course, I couldn’t quite grasp.
“I’m sorry, Arisa-san.”
“It’s fine.”
With that, she sniffled and pulled away from me, rubbing her eyes roughly with both hands. Then, turning back with a smile-
“Well then, shouldn’t we wake these kids up already? Even if it’s safe, the sooner we get home, the better, right?”
She was right. We hadn’t defeated every last golem Schuberich had created.
Getting the children back to the capital quickly was the wisest choice.
By now, they should have had enough sleep. It was about time to rouse them and set out.
“You’re right. Let’s wake the children.”
“Yeah.”
After that, together with the children, we left the dungeon without trouble. Along the way, we didn’t run into any powerful golems.
Once the children had been returned to their respective homes, I headed to the guild to make a report.
That there had been abnormal golem activity inside the dungeon.
I didn’t mention that it had been the work of one of the Demon King’s Four Heavenly Kings.
Considering what might come next, it was more useful to keep that information to myself.
But I did explain that similar abnormalities might occur again. I also pointed out the possibility that it was man-made.
With this, the kingdom would likely begin to consider the possibility of terrorism by the Demon King’s Army, and strengthen security and vigilance in multi-dungeons.
A second or third crisis could be prevented.
In the end, while there had been dangers, the results were overwhelmingly good.
The children’s levels rose sharply. Arisa’s «Calculator» skill proved full of promise.
I secretly obtained a vast quantity of orichalcum, normally near impossible to acquire.
And I gained more exclusive knowledge of the Demon King’s Army’s movements, putting me in a stronger position with the kingdom.
There had been risk, but the harvest more than outweighed it.
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E/N:
Terrific! Arisa-chan has softened-up quite a bit! Ossan, fighto! Stay tuned!
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