Chapter 27: The Old Man Gets a Visit from a Little Girl

Whew… With this, I can at least sleep under a roof tonight…

I gazed intently at the few copper coins in my hand.

The sun had already set… and the curtain of night was falling over the city.

Even so, I really stink…

I was letting off a stench so powerful even I couldn’t ignore it.

Well… it can’t be helped.

This is what happens when you spend all day cleaning out the sludge from the waterways.

After that, I’d gone to the job dispatcher in the plaza and had him find me some work.

Luckily, it seemed there were few laborers looking for work today.

Probably the effect of the Saint… Alicia-san.

And so, I’d managed to land a job.

But… of course, there was no way it was going to be a job with good conditions…

I ended up cleaning the waterways that were built to encircle the city.

And now, finally free, I had returned to the city.

Even after all that, my earnings were only enough for a single night at the lowest-ranking inn.

If I bought a couple of slices of ridiculously hard bread with this, I’d be completely broke.

Seriously… this is so not worth it…

Is it the same in every world, how the tougher the job, the less it pays?

In my past life, I worked myself to the bone and still lived in a rundown apartment…

It’s no wonder there’s a never-ending stream of young guys who want to be adventurers, even with the risk to their lives.

In reality, for the have-nots in this world, becoming an adventurer is about the only way to get ahead.

Well… that said, only a tiny fraction of them actually succeed.

The rest either lose their lives or retire after getting injured…

That’s how it usually goes.

Come to think of it… it was a lot like this in my past life, too.

People who lost the parent lottery, people from disadvantaged backgrounds… those kinds of have-nots would take on high-risk, high-return jobs, hoping to turn their lives around in one shot.

And then they’d end up ruined…

Well… when I think about it that way, I might still be one of the lucky ones.

Although, for me, tomorrow could be the day my luck runs out…

Consoling myself with such thoughts, I made my way toward a familiar cheap inn.

Then, just as I reached the inn and was about to go inside, I stopped dead in my tracks.

The reason was that there was someone in front of the inn who didn’t belong.

A little girl was sitting all alone in front of the rundown inn.

What could she be doing in a place like this…?

Is she waiting for her parents?

Or maybe… she’s a beggar?

But if she were a beggar, she wouldn’t be in a place where poor people gather; she’d be in the center of town where there’s more foot traffic…

I stepped into the inn, keeping the mysterious little girl in sight.

The little girl wore rags and her eyes were closed, as if she were exhausted.

She’s probably asleep.

I’d like to help her somehow, but honestly, I’m one step away from being a beggar myself.

My heart aches with a little pang of guilt, but I have no choice but to pretend I didn’t see her.

Sigh… I’m so pathetic…

In my past life, I wouldn’t have just ignored someone in this situation…

No, wait… I remember getting the police involved once for sticking my nose where it didn’t belong.

Yeah… best to just ignore it.

Sorry… little girl—

“Oh!! You! Mikami-san! Thank goodness! You’re back!”

The inn’s landlady rushed over to me, her face pale with panic.

The landlady is a good-natured person, and since I’m a regular, we’re not strangers.

But we’re not close enough for her to be this worried about me…

I responded dubiously, “Uh… what’s wrong?”

The landlady scowled and started rattling off a bunch of nonsense. “What’s wrong? Don’t ‘what’s wrong’ me! You can’t just leave a little kid here and run off wherever you please. This is an inn, not a daycare! I can’t look after her for you.”

“W-Wait… hold on a minute… A kid…? There’s no way I have a kid. Who in the world would say something like that—”

“This kid’s been here since midday asking, ‘Is Mikami Shuzou here?’ over and over.”

“Huh…? This kid…”

The landlady glanced outside.

When I turned my head in that direction, there she was—the same little girl from before.

She must have woken up at some point, because she was now standing and staring intently at me.

Looking closely, I saw her eyes were shining gold, and her pupils were slitted like a beast’s…

This kid’s… a beastman?

Perched atop her small head was a pair of cute animal ears.

And a tail hung down from behind her.

Contrary to her adorable appearance, the little girl’s gaze seemed quite sharp.

She also seemed to carry herself with a rather adult-like air.

Being pierced by that little girl’s beastly eyes made me fidget, even though I hadn’t done anything wrong.

I hastily averted my gaze from the little girl.

“Ma’am… this girl… she’s a beastman. It’s a bit of a stretch to say I’m her father—”

“I don’t know about all those little details! The point is, this little girl came here looking for you. If you’re a man, you’ll stop running and take responsibility! Honestly, you men. You say all the right things when you’re trying to get a woman into bed, and once the deed is done, you run off. I had a real hard time with that when I was younger… Believe it or not, there was a time they called me the ‘Pearl of the Royal Capital.’ I guess that went to my head, and I got tricked by some stupid man… and now look at me, the landlady of a cheap inn in the middle of nowhere. Still, I manage it all by myself, and somehow I keep my own brats fed—”

It was like a switch had been flipped in the landlady, and she started lecturing me… or rather, telling me her life story with the force of a tidal wave.

Whoa, whoa… hold on a minute… ma’am…

It’s true my life has been one long escape.

But even I have never run from a relationship with a woman.

Because in the first place, no such ‘deed’ has ever occurred in my entire life…

But… I couldn’t exactly say that to her face.

I was simply overwhelmed by the force of the landlady’s personality.

Yeah, but… Ma’am… you’ve really been through a lot, haven’t you…

Wait… that’s not the point.

More importantly, I have to do something about this bizarre situation—

“So you have returned at last… Mikami Shuzou… I have been waiting for you…”

The little girl, who had been silent until now, spoke slowly.

Her tone of voice was utterly mismatched with her youthful appearance.

Above all, though I hadn’t noticed it before, there was something undeniably extraordinary about the aura the little girl exuded.

And what’s more, wasn’t her entire body glowing with a faint, divine light?