Chapter 139

─ Friend Hill ─

“Six people and ten divine and holy beasts.”

─ Yes, I will guide you to a large room.

The characteristic of restaurants that allowed holy beasts was usually that they were separated into rooms, with the human table and the holy beast table partitioned separately.

Although it seemed at first glance that the cost would be much more expensive, because the accommodating restaurants received support from the Empire, the price was similar even when including the holy beasts’ meals.

Bustling—

A large group of sixteen in total, combining humans and holy beasts.

The friends sitting around the table wore warm expressions as they watched the holy beasts gathered separately.

Thump, thump, thump, thump—

Like the Fanatic Rabbit beating the Adamant Beetle with its feet.

Wahhh, wahhh— tears flowing—

Hector’s beasts, entangled together while shedding bloody tears and slime in pairs.

Neighhh—! Squeeeak—

The Dream-Eating Thousand-Mile Horse, which converted its body into a dream to carry the Arbor Emperor Ape and wander around here and there.

Shalalala— patpatpat—!

The Sunrise Nest Butterfly flying and scattering jewel-like powder, and the Sunset Shadow hopping this way and that to catch the powder.

Kiiii—!

And even the Abyss Dragon, which was anxious because it couldn’t draw the attention of the Heavenly Sword Peacock King, who kept its seat politely.

…In any case, they were their own divine and holy beasts.

“Whew, I feel like I already know what it’s like to raise children.”

Sion said, letting out a sigh.

Lafia and Riel nodded.

“If it’s really like that, depositing them in a holy beast shelter is also an option.”

Roan also spoke after seeing the Abyss Dragon and the Heavenly Sword Peacock King.

As if the situation weren’t noisy enough already.

[Hey, you’re being quiet right now because the master is watching, right? No answer? Hey.]

It was even noisier for Roan, as he could hear the Abyss Dragon’s words on top of everything else.

‘Bell, I am the only one who can hear your voice.’

[……Ah!]

The Abyss Dragon, realizing the Heavenly Sword Peacock King hadn’t heard what it had been saying all this time, looked embarrassed and feigned ignorance.

In any case, the friends who heard about the holy beast shelter immediately shook their heads.

“We can’t do that! They are still my children.”

“Right, Roan. A shelter? The children would be too pitiful.”

“Indeed! Surely you aren’t planning to leave Yong-yong-ie and Spiky at a shelter, are you?”

“……It’s Bell and Charlotte.”

Roan pointed out after correcting Hector’s words.

“What if your holy beasts increase to three, four, or five?”

“““…….”””

The friends were lost for words.

It was certain that the number of holy beasts would increase more and more, and management would become increasingly difficult.

“Can’t we just buy a portable beast subspace?”

Demona, who had been listening quietly, asked.

Roan reacted as if it were unexpected.

“You know about that too?”

“I saw my dad use it~”

The portable beast subspace was a special item that allowed one to store their divine and holy beasts in a subspace.

Unlike ordinary subspaces, it was fully equipped with an optimized environment for beasts and an automatic feeding system, so as long as one had it, there was no need to worry further.

‘From then on, it completely becomes a summoner game.’

The few users of “God and Devil” even called it a ‘game genre conversion item.’

Anyway, the reason people didn’t know much about the portable beast subspace was simple.

“Can you even get one hundred thousand gold?”

“Heek—! Is it that expensive?”

It was indeed an astronomical price.

One hundred thousand gold was a price that could buy a mediocre castle entirely.

An average person would rather just buy a castle instead of purchasing such a subspace item.

‘Of course, I will obtain it by other means.’

Naturally, Roan knew a method to obtain it without having to spend that money.

In any case, the freshmen only disliked the holy beast shelter at first like this, and they were bound to get more used to it as time passed.

“Anyway, to attend classes from the afternoon onward, you have to use the holy beast shelter of each building.”

“Really? Why?”

Lafia asked innocently.

Roan pointed with his chin toward his friends’ holy beasts—specifically, the mess they had created— and spoke.

“Because we can’t have them doing that in the lecture halls.”

“““…….”””

The friends seemed to understand without much trouble.

Rattle—

─ The food is served~

At that moment, the employee came into the room pushing a cart.

The employee, after first serving each person their dish, lifted the bell hanging from their waist and rang it.

Ring, ring… ting, ting…

A bell that made listeners feel as if they would fall asleep immediately.

It was the ‘Quiet Bell,’ an essential item for employees of accommodating restaurants to quiet down baby holy beasts that didn’t know how to focus.

Then, mysteriously, the divine and holy beasts that had been running wild with all their might gathered around the employee’s feet.

Only after that did the employee set down all the food for the divine and holy beasts and leave the room.

“Let’s eat too.”

Roan lifted his utensils, satisfied with the quieted atmosphere inside.

The friends also marvelled at the bell’s effect and dished out their respective food.

Nodding off—

“……Demona, what are you doing falling asleep.”

“Uh… huh? Wh-What! When did I fall asleep?! Roan, did you do this?!”

In the midst of that, Demona had been nodding off, affected by the Quiet Bell.

When Sion shook her shoulder, she woke up with a start.

‘It is a bell set to a frequency that makes divine and holy beasts feel stable…’

Roan thought that if a person was peculiar, they could indeed be that peculiar.

Perhaps her affinity with divine and holy beasts was showing its effect even in this kind of place.

While sharing casual chat and eating for a moment, Demona asked Roan.

“Roan, are you going to earn five hundred talants this weekend too?”

Roan wondered what Demona was talking about, but soon understood the meaning and sent her a pathetic look.

“I think I told you last time, but divine tree maintenance is only done twice a year.”

“J-Just in case…”

It might be different if they hadn’t filled the target at all during the last divine tree maintenance.

But because Roan had finished the job so perfectly that it would almost remain in Acherandir’s history, the possibility of that was even less.

“It doesn’t have to be divine tree maintenance, but isn’t there any other work where you can earn that much?”

“……Instead of searching for difficult volunteer work to do, I think it would be better to figure out how not to get fined.”

It was indeed a reasonable point.

Roan also would not have volunteered for a hellish service like the divine tree maintenance unless it was for the materials needed for the Librarian of the Forbidden Library.

“It’s not that I want to get them. The fines just come to me on their own.”

“No way.”

Roan shook his head.

Although Demona had started the talk somewhat humorously, it was about time for the other friends to gradually start thinking about this week’s volunteer activities.

“I’d like to go somewhere with good rewards even if it’s a bit tough. The talants I received from my family are starting to run out.”

“I agree.”

When Lafia spoke with a complaining tone, Hector also nodded.

Now that they had holy beasts under their command, their expenses were bound to increase further.

“Darc, have you thought about what volunteer activity you will do?”

Sion asked.

The last divine tree maintenance volunteer work was honestly difficult, but it was that rewarding, and didn’t he even receive a special gift from Harden?

‘I really feel like many good things happen when I hang around with Darc!’

After all, since it must be the path advised by his secret information network—she hadn’t given up lingering attachment to this yet—and Darc’s parents, only good things were bound to happen.

…Or so Sion now firmly believed.

“Hmm…”

Roan paused for a moment.

‘I have a plan.’

From week two, a major change occurs in the volunteer activities.

External volunteer activities become possible in earnest on a level where one can return over the weekend.

This was because the process of compiling various requests received after school started, conducting safety verification, and classifying difficulties by grade took roughly one week.

As time passed, external volunteer activities rose to the level of official quests.

In addition, these external volunteer works had better rewards compared to on-campus volunteer works.

Sometimes items or other special things were offered instead of talants, so one had to inspect them closely every week.

A first-year might get rejected during the application process, but it was sufficient with Roan’s level of skill.

‘In other words, it means I can legally step outside the school.’

Of course, external volunteer activities were conducted accompanied by a supervising professor.

‘I won’t be able to escape, but…’

In any case, Roan was planning to apply for external volunteer activity this week.

‘Gilsburg, where the Corrupted Holy Mark is located, is a place one passes through when leaving Acherandir anyway. It is enough.’

Gilsburg was the closest hub city to Acherandir.

A beautiful city with a fairly long history of about a thousand years.

And the Corrupted Holy Mark was an item consisting of two matching parts, one of which was located in Gilsburg.

‘Just one part is enough. Since I know where the other part is anyway.’

If he utilized the effect of the Corrupted Holy Mark well, Roan would no longer need to be stuck at Acherandir.

‘Of course, escaping before graduation will be impossible because of Harden, but…’

He would approve of brief outings (?) occasionally.

Roan, who felt somewhat bitter, looked at his friends and spoke.

“Not particularly.”

Unlike on-campus volunteer work, external volunteer work must be applied for in advance by Friday office hours.

Requests that finished inspection should gradually be registered at the reception desk by now.

It meant he could slip away quietly on the day without informing his friends.

‘If I tell them, they will surely try to tag along.’

He wasn’t going to do a good deed, and while he could somehow temporarily shake off a professor, it would definitely become much harder with friends.

“Hmm, it seems your parents haven’t taught you yet.”

When Hector spoke, nodding his head, his friends stared at him with contemptuous eyes.

“Why, what is it?”

Hector asked, flustered.

“Stop saying ‘parents, parents’ to Darc all the time.”

Sion’s stern warning.

She was serious enough that one could feel her spirit befitting a Saintess candidate.

“N-No, didn’t you guys also say it was touching every day!”

Hector excused himself, breaking into a cold sweat.

With her speaking so seriously, it truly felt as if he had done something wrong.

“Hey! For us, we receive help and express our gratitude, but you request help as if you’ve left something in storage! Is eating food that is already cooked the same as eating raw ingredients and then cooking? You barbarian!”

Demona yelled at his side.

Sion, Lafia, and Riel nodded in unison.

After hearing the savory analogy, it was indeed Hector who was in the wrong.

Hector seemed even more shocked as he was pushed back in both logic and public opinion, even by Demona.

“S-Sorry, Roan…”

“It’s fine.”

Roan replied as if it were no big deal.

That was at a cute level.

“By the way, Roan, you aren’t leaving us behind and going to earn five hundred talants all by yourself, right?”

Demona, who had been glaring fiercely at Hector, soon smiled brightly at Roan and asked.

Flinch—

Roan slightly trembled his shoulders.

‘Her intuition is uselessly good.’

“How could I, when it hasn’t even been announced what volunteer activities are available yet.”

When Roan made an excuse, his friends also stepped in to support him.

“Right, has Roan ever abandoned us and done a good deed all by himself until now?”

“You know how much Darc thinks of us.”

“So much.”

Even Hector, thinking this was his chance now that he had caught something, slandered Demona.

“That’s right, you heretic! Apologize to Roan right now! You traitor who doesn’t even recognize your benefactor!”

“Yeah, sorry. Roan.”

“It’s fine.”

“???”