Chapter 109

Friends from the Orphanage Visit
"To-Today, we look forward to your hospitality."

"""We look forward to it."""

As Lou spoke, Dennis, Megan, Tani, and Koa followed suit, greeting politely.

"Oh my, no need to be nervous. Have fun today."

Mother smiled kindly.

"Everyone, welcome! I’ve been waiting for you. Come on, hurry, hurry!"

Saying that, I grabbed Lou and Megan and pulled them along.

"Whoa! Hey, don’t pull!"

"Kyaa! You're fast, too fast!"

The remaining three, who were watching in a daze, snapped to their senses and hurried after us.

First, I took the five of them to the reception room for tea.

"Haa ~.Joan, pulling like that is dangerous. What if Megan got hurt?"

Lou scolded me after taking a sip of tea and catching his breath.

"Sorry."

"Well, well, I didn’t fall or anything. Little Joan, lift your head."

Megan soothed Lou.

"Anyway, thanks for coming over to play today! So, what does everyone want to do?"

"I don’t really get the 'anyway' part, but I want to hear stories from adventurers."

"Oh, me too!"

"I'd like someone good at sewing to teach me."

"Could someone teach me lace knitting?"

"I-I… want to… see flowers…"

One by one, starting from Lou, Dennis, Megan, Tani, and Koa, they voiced their wishes.

"Hmm, since time is limited, is it okay if we split up…? Are you all okay with that? Especially you, Koa?"

"Eh… I-I’ll do my best."

After hearing their wishes, I called the appropriate people for each of them.

"For Koa, who likes flowers, there's Old Tom, our gardener."

"I'm so glad you like flowers! Nice to meet you."

"… I-I will be in your care."

"Alright then, let’s start by showing you the greenhouse."

Saying that, Old Tom led Koa—who sparkled with excitement at the word "greenhouse"—out of the reception room.

"As for Little Megan and Little Tani, the ones who will be teaching sewing and lace knitting are… these two."

Entering the reception room—

"Little Megan, Little Tani, nice to meet you."

Mother waved her hand. Beside her stood a petite woman.

""Huh!? M-Madam!?"

"Yes, my mother and our expert seamstress, that’s our maid, Mito."

""N-Nice to meet you!""

Since the sewing and lace knitting lessons were going to be held in the reception room, I took Lou and Dennis outside. Our destination: the training grounds.

"”Whoa—! This is amazing~~!!"”

Seeing our training grounds and the private soldiers in the middle of training for the first time, the two were thrilled.

At that moment, Arthur and Ben came over.

"Little Joan, uh, are these the kids?"

Ben asked.

"Yeah. This is Lou and Dennis. And these are Ben and Arthur. They're former A-Rank adventurers."

""N-Nice to meet you!""

"Not sure if we're the best choice, but nice to meet you."

Arthur smiled warmly at the two.

Since they wanted to hear about adventurers, we borrowed the dining hall of the private soldiers' dormitory.

"Alright, so, what do you want to know?"

Arthur started the conversation.

"Uhm, how do you get stronger to become an adventurer?"

Lou asked.

"Hmm, let's see… First, you need stamina. In the beginning, you'll mostly be gathering materials, so more than swordsmanship, you need endurance. Otherwise, you'll get exhausted and won’t make it back."

"Yeah, yeah, adventuring is all about stamina. Even swinging a sword wears you out fast if you don't have the endurance."

Lou and Dennis nodded at Arthur and Ben’s words.

"Mr. Arthur, Mr. Ben, how did you build up your stamina?"

Dennis asked.

"Well, we ran, did push-ups, and sit-ups."

"We still do them as warm-ups before training."

"Okay, but how many?"

I raised my hand and asked.

"We run five laps around this training ground, do fifty push-ups, and fifty sit-ups."

Hearing Ben's answer—

""Huh!?"”

"For real!?"

"Hm?"

"What?"

Lou and Dennis were shocked by the number. I was shocked by how little it was. Ben was puzzled by our reactions. And Arthur had no idea what was surprising.

"Arthur, Ben, is that what you always do?"

"That’s normal, right?— Wait! Little Joan, you can’t compare your hellish routine to ours!!"

Arthur suddenly raised his voice, realizing why I was shocked.

""Hellish routine?""

Lou and Dennis tilted their heads.

"Little Joan, please share your warm-up routine. Go ahead."

Prompted by Arthur—

"Huh? Ten laps around the training grounds, a hundred push-ups, a hundred leg raises, three sets each?"

""""Whaaaaaat~~~!?""""

"Can you even do that!?"

"You're younger than us, right?"

"Your training is insane!"

"The Lampail family is terrifying."

Aren’t they overreacting a bit?

And Ben calling my training "insane" is rude. Arthur saying, "The Lampail family is terrifying"—what does that mean?

But actually, starting tomorrow, there’s an additional workout. Even I think it’s going to be tough.

"From tomorrow, I’m adding ten full-speed sprints from one end of the training grounds to the other."

""""……""""

"Little Joan is a special case. You guys can stick to normal training."

""Yes!!""

Unacceptable.

"Oh, by the way, you can register as an adventurer from age ten, right? Can anyone do it?"

I asked something I’d been wondering about.

"Yeah, anyone can. But there’s a skill test during registration. Usually, you start as a G-Rank."

Ben explained.

"What do they test?"

"A sparring match with a senior adventurer. If you win, which happens only rarely, you start as F-Rank. To rank up, you complete requests. But from Rank C onward, you need to pass another skill test against a higher-ranked adventurer."

"""Ohh~"""

"When you register, you get a plate like this."

Arthur pulled a gold plate from around his neck.

"""Whoa~~~"""

"Up to Rank D is iron, Rank C is bronze, Rank B is silver, Rank A is gold, and Rank S or higher is platinum."

"That's so cool~ I wanna register soon!"

"Little Joan… you're serious about this, huh?"

"Of course!"

What do you think about this chapter?