Save the Starving Frontier! The “Buyer” of the Reversed Chastity World - 21

Chapter 21: A Gift for the Adventurer!

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And so, I was back to distributing food in the commoners’ district. For now, I was the only means of food supply, so if I didn’t hand it out, nothing could start.

Eat, eat.

By distributing various kinds of dishes, the residents’ complexions had started to improve. Their recovery was surprisingly quick. Maybe this too was thanks to the existence of magic power?

Just as I was thinking that, a resident showed up with something amazing. Apparently she was an adventurer.

“Can you buy this magical beast?”

“Eh? Ah, yeah. I’ll give it a try.”

It was a badger the size of a brown bear. More like a giant-sized honey badger? If I remembered right, that was supposed to be the most ferocious mammal on Earth.

To think they could hunt a magical beast of this size. Adventurers really were impressive. They carried it by slinging it over her shoulder like it was nothing.

“The purchase price comes out to around 4.7 million. If we convert it in gyoza, that’s about 12,000 servings.”

“Yes! I knew it would sell for a lot! For now, I’ll take five servings of the gyoza-and-ramen set please!”

Got it. They ordered five sets of the carb-heavy combo that came with fried rice.

“What about the rest? With that order you’ve only used about six thousand yen…That’s like one eight-thousandth of the total.”

“Please put the rest toward distributing to everyone! And also… If I don’t have money, I’d be happy if you could still let me eat.”

Humble, huh. It seemed she was thinking I was doing a food donation. Since it looked like I was footing the bill for all the food, that made sense. I accepted her contribution gratefully and decided to use the surplus to order some additional items… Maybe some kind of useful tool.

So magical beasts really did sell for that much. Maybe it was because of the size. The adventurer quickly put away the five ramen sets one after another. Was their digestive system reinforced with magic too?

“Sophie, isn’t it? You hunted another giant Grappler Fang?”

“Aisha! You should eat too! My treat! And those kids over there too, order whatever you like!”

It seemed she was an acquaintance of Aisha’s. Probably a fellow adventurer. Grateful for the offer, not only Aisha but also Etna and Pirika started ordering food.

“Thanks. Want to have something sweet after the meal? I’ve got more than just bread.”

“Is that the cream puffs and cake you were distributing in the South District!? I want to try it!”

Cream puffs and cake would have been fine, but… Since she had sold me such a huge magical beast, I wanted to provide a little more service.  So I ordered a special parfait and an Angel’s Fluffy Pancake Set from the sweets shop Café Très Bien.

“What is this!? Such a huge, beautiful thing! And on this plate… Is this bread!?”

“That’s parfait and pancakes. They’re delicious, try them.”

I handed her the included metal spoon, knife, and fork. Since they’d need a place to put things, I also bought a garden table set from the furniture section.

“Delicious! There’s the taste of milk, fruits, and something fragrant… What was this dish called again?”

“Parfait. A dessert that means ‘perfect’ sweetness. You can order it anytime you want.”

Hearing that, the female adventurer was overjoyed and ate it with gusto.

The name parfait came from French. Some said it derived from parfait amour—“perfect love”—like the liqueur Parfait d’Amour. Sometimes that phrase even got used as a movie title. One origin story said it was called parfait because it combined fruits, cream, chocolate, ice cream, and baked sweets into a “perfect” dessert.

“Haah… So good. I want to eat more. But I also want more ramen… If only I could stuff an infinite amount of food into my stomach.”

“Don’t go wishing for that. You’d end up infinitely hungry.”

Eating just enough without forcing yourself was the best.

“But the fact you could hunt a magical beast like this means you’ve already regained that much strength, right?”

“Yes! Thanks to your food, Kaito-san!”

I see, I see. That was good. Little by little, the city’s functions were returning.

What kind of tools should I give her… A lighter wasn’t necessary with everyday magic. Same with water purifiers—water magic covered that. So…Clothing, maybe.

I suggested safety boots with iron plates in the toes and soles.

“How about these? I just guessed your foot size, so if it doesn’t fit I’ll buy another.”

“What is this… Eh!? The toe’s hard!? And the sole too!? Shoes with iron inside!?”

Apparently safety shoes didn’t exist here. Fortunately, my guess was correct and they fit her feet perfectly.

“Hup!”

She kicked apart rubble that was still lying in the main street with her toe. Hey. To smash rubble with just a toe strike… Normally it would just fly away. Unless you had insane leg strength… Breaking stone with a kick—what kind of powerful strike was that?

The female adventurer turned to me with shining eyes.

“These are great! They can even be used as weapons! I could probably crush magical beast bones with them!”

“Y-Yeah. That’s true. Normally you wouldn’t get that kind of power from mere safety boots though…”

When you put it bluntly, they were just blunt weapons you swung with your legs. Maybe even stronger than swinging with your arms, but that was it.

“Now I won’t have to worry about stepping on branches or bones in the forest! Some plants have dangerous thorns that can pierce leather boots too…”

There were plants like that? That was basically natural caltrops or barbed wire. Apparently this frontier territory had lots of dangerous plants that didn’t grow in normal places, thanks to being so close to magical beast habitats.

From the American-style survival goods store Sacom, I also bought a stab-proof vest. Not the bulky ones police wore, but a thinner Kevlar vest, lighter than a bulletproof vest. When I tested it by slashing with a knife, it didn’t get a single scratch.

She was thrilled when I gave that to her too. It was an advanced lightweight model that cost 180,000 yen, but compared to the value of the magical beast she had given me, it was a small return.

“Hey, do you ever use a bow?”

“Ah—my companions do. I’m in a party.”

So they had a rear guard. In that case, I purchased a compound bow. It was a top-class model used even in archery competitions. Lightweight but powerful, and thanks to its eccentric pulley mechanism, it was easy to draw and hold at full draw.

When I had her test-shoot into a wall, she was amazed by its power compared to how light it felt to draw. She drew it easily, even though it was the heaviest type of bow.

I gave her a hundred bundles of carbon arrow shafts and a survival knife as a set. Both the unbending light shafts and the thick, sturdy knife were well received. She said she’d bring them back as souvenirs for her companions.

By the way, some survival knives had a serrated back edge. That wasn’t for woodworking. It was a feature inherited from the Western parrying dagger known as a swordbreaker.

You caught the enemy’s blade in the notches of the serrated back, and held it in place. Then, with a twist of the knife, you could wrench the opponent’s hand and disarm them. It was especially effective against Western rapiers—thin swords. With a thin blade, twisting could even snap the sword itself. That was why it was called a swordbreaker—a literal blade-breaker.

“It’s useful as a means of defense. You can catch fangs or claws in the back, twist, and snap them.”

“This! This is exactly the kind of handy, versatile weapon I was looking for! Thank you so much!”

It was a huge hit. She practiced using it and planned to hunt more magical beasts with the weapon I had given her. With a beaming smile, she took her food souvenirs and went home.

“Kaito, that was nice. Give me one too.”

“Sure. Actually, I’ll even give one to a blacksmith so they can dismantle it and reproduce it. But first, we’ll need to measure your foot size.”

Since Aisha was also an adventurer, she had opportunities to fight magical beasts. Even if it wasn’t rapiers, there were ferocious beasts that attacked with long claws and fangs, so the survival knife would be reassuring to have.

The reason she was so pleased with new equipment was simple. Now that the city was recovering, they would have to cull the magical beasts in the mountains and forests. If their numbers grew too large, the city would be attacked, so beast-hunting was an important task for both the knights and adventurers. In addition to the sale value of materials, the Margrave also offered bounty rewards.

“K-Kaito-dono… If possible, could we also receive enough for the whole knight order? Especially since you said it’s highly effective against rapiers… This is a revolutionary finding. We’d like to adopt it formally.”

Commander Sharon of the knight order negotiated with eyes alight.

Well, of course. These were originally weapons Western swordsmen had used. The swordbreaker was a type of main gauche—a defensive dagger carried in the off hand to parry the opponent’s sword. Yeah, knights would definitely want to use these.

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