I Wanted a Cute Girl to Cast Healing Magic on Me, So I Kept Protecting My Allies—and Ended Up with an Overprotective Party - 19

Chapter 19: A Fun Life in Another World

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Three months had passed since we formed our party. Karinka-san suggested that it might be time to establish a base of operations for the party. In short, a house. I agreed with the idea itself, but apparently, Karinka-san intended for the three of us to live there together. 

I was fine with that idea too… though, that was half a joke. Living together, huh… Even if I was okay with it, I wondered how Emil felt about it.

“Are you serious about the three of us living together?”

“Of course I am. After all, Rikuto tends to do reckless things. I think it’d be best if we stayed together as much as possible.”

We were a party, and while we stayed at the same inn, we didn’t share a room—each of us had our own. We usually agreed on the time to go to the Adventurers’ Guild the day before, then met up in the inn’s lobby the next morning before heading to the guild together. Because of that, I’d never really felt any inconvenience with our current setup.

Huh? Come to think of it…?

It had been about three months since I reincarnated. By now, living at the inn had become so normal to me that I’d completely overlooked something important. I didn’t actually have a house.

Maybe I’d watched too many isekai anime, but the thought of looking for a house had never even crossed my mind. Had I ever seen a scene where someone commuted from home to the Adventurers’ Guild? For some reason, the image of staying at an inn was a lot more plausible to me.

“Did your last party have a base until it disbanded, Karinka-san?”

“Yes, we did. We bought houses in towns we frequently visited. In total, there were three.”

“As expected of an A-rank…!”

Even in this world, buying a house seemed to be one of the biggest purchases in life. But for an A-rank party, the income was on a completely different level, so owning multiple homes like vacation properties wasn’t unusual.

“So what happened to those three houses?”

“Since we had already decided to disband, we gave them all up.”

“Ehhh, what a waste!”

“It couldn’t be helped. There wouldn’t be anyone to use them. A house left unused just falls apart over time. Besides, we bought them as a party, so it wouldn’t have been right for me to live in them alone.”

“Then where were you planning to live, Karinka-san?”

“I was going to continue being an adventurer, so staying at an inn was enough for me.”

“So in other words, Karinka-san doesn’t have a place to go home to either?”

“Y-Yeah… The way you say it makes it sound like I’m in some pitiful situation…”

“But we don’t have the money to buy a house. With E-rank income, buying a house is still way out of reach.”

Saying that, I checked the contents of the drawstring pouch I got from the goddess—which was called a “wallet” in name only. 

It had definitely decreased a lot since right after I reincarnated. I hadn’t been spending extravagantly, but after dividing the E-rank quest rewards among the party, and setting some aside for shared expenses, we were just barely covering our daily inn costs and living expenses, with only a bit left over.

Even so, it was apparently still a higher income than other professions—but buying a house was completely out of the question.

“That’s true, which is why I’m thinking we should rent first.”

“Even renting seems impossible with our current income.”

“Don’t worry. I plan to pay the rent for the time being.”

“Ehh!? We can’t just rely on you for everything, Karinka-san…”

“That’s right! Isn’t there anything I can do to help too?”

“Thank you. Emil, you really are a good girl. And Rikuto, it’s kind of surprising to hear you say something like that.”

“What do you mean ‘kind of surprising’…?”

“Haha, sorry, sorry. But really, don’t worry about the rent. If you’re still concerned, then when you and Emil become A-rank adventurers someday, you two can take over the payments.”

Karinka-san said that with a joking tone. But I took it as her way of cheering us on—encouraging Emil and me to rise to A-rank as soon as possible. And I felt like it was also her subtle way of saying she planned to stay in the same party with us until then.

And so, we decided to start looking for a house. But it was already 10 PM, so we returned to the inn and agreed to start tomorrow.

The next day. As always, we met in the inn lobby. There were no official days off for us—or rather, we hadn’t set any. In this world, a week was also seven days, and just like in Japan, there was one day a week that functioned like a Sunday. But we were adventurers. We worked and rested as we pleased.

So, it was only about twelve hours ago that we decided today would be a day off.

“Good morning, Karinka-san.”

Emil and I greeted her at the same time. Even though it wasn’t quite the agreed meeting time, Karinka-san was already waiting for us.

“Good morning, you two. Let’s go.”

And just like that, we set off. It was so natural that I almost forgot—we were going house hunting. Looking for a house with a silver-haired beauty and a blonde bombshell… Were we newlyweds or something?

Guided by Karinka-san, we arrived at a real estate agency. Apparently, she was already acquainted with them, and everything went smoothly.

Seriously, this woman knows everything and everyone.

We looked at three houses as candidates, comparing their locations, layouts, and facilities. In the end, we decided to rent the house closest to the Adventurers’ Guild.

With a decent budget in mind, we picked a pretty big place. It was a two-story building—the first floor had a shared space including a living room and dining area, and the second floor had four spacious private rooms. To be blunt, it was way out of reach for E-ranks. I was seriously grateful to Karinka-san.

Apparently, once you signed the contract, you could move in the same day. So, we returned to the inn and ended our contract there. The three of us had lunch at a restaurant, strolled casually through the town, and by 6 PM, we returned to our new party base.

Maybe because there was more available land in this world, the houses were all quite far apart. It wasn’t like in Japan where homes were packed tightly together. It had a stylish red triangular roof and was surrounded by a sturdy iron fence, with a large gate at the entrance.

Walking through the gate and down the path, we finally reached the front door. No matter how you looked at it—this house was really big.

This is bad, life in this other world is actually starting to feel really fun!

Maybe my thoughts showed on my face, because Karinka-san looked at me and said.

“I’m glad to see you’re enjoying yourself.”

Emil was looking around wide-eyed, saying.

“It’s so big…!”

“Hey, I have another suggestion for you two,”

Karinka-san began, looking at us with a slightly more serious tone.

“How about we start recruiting new members soon?”

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