Chapter 35: Monster Repellent and the End of the Swindlers

Author: 十一屋　翠 (Juuichiya Sui)

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“I’ll start making the monster repelling potions now.”

Since the village chief who had been in a bit of a daze after trying out the vegetable had come back to his senses, I decided to begin making the monster repellent potion.

I had already done most of the preparations though, so all that was really left was explaining what to do and a practical demonstration.

“First, you dry these herbs.
Then, once they’re around as dry as this bunch I’ve got here, you grind them up into powder.”

Since showing them the whole process would be a pain, I produced the end product from my pocket.

“As I was saying, you should grind them up until they’re like this.”

The village’s doctor nodded along with my explanation while looking at the powder.

“What’s important is the amount.
Someone who’s used to making it would be able to more or less tell how much they need, but since we need complete beginners to make enough to cover the entire village and fields, I made this measurement cup for you.”

I took out a number of cups with the various different herbs drawn on their sides, as well as how much they needed.

“I’ve cut out a part of the wall of the insides of these cups so you can tell how much of each herb you need.
You just need to put the powdered version of the herbs drawn on the outside inside the cup until it reaches that cut-out bit.”

I had drawn them on the outside because they were meant to be used by people who couldn’t read.

“So, once you’ve measured out all the herbs, you put them in this container and mix them together.
Once you’ve mixed it until all the herbs are evenly distributed inside, you pour water on it.
Please use this cup for measuring out the water.”

Then, I mixed the herbs together while giving more detailed instructions, eventually completing the monster repellent.

“So this is the monster repellent potion?”

“Well, yes… but we’ll need to wait until next morning until the potion’s components have stabilised.”

Which is why I then took out a potion that was already done.

“This here is a potion I let settle down over night.
See the difference to the potion I just made?”

I stepped back to let everyone take a good look.

“The potion you just made does indeed look cloudy in comparison.”

“And the already-complete one has way more colour.”

Good, by having them compare the incomplete version with the complete one, I managed to get them to see the smaller differences as well.

“All that’s left now is to dilute it in water and spray it over the fields and the village.”

“It’s surprisingly easy, huh.”

It had been so unexpectedly easy to make that everyone seemed to feel a little let-down.

Well, its difficulty level was one that had allowed it to be made even by kids who had learned how to make it in my first life.

“Yeah, but that’s fine.
We have a lot, so we’ll dilute it with water, but remember that the higher the concentration of the herbs, the more effective it will be.
You can also put it in a bottle and use it as monster repellent while travelling too, if you take off the lid of the bottle.”

“That’s wonderful! It’ll be useful when we go to do business with other villages!”

“Yeah, it’s nice that we won’t have to go trade while fearing monsters the whole time!”

Yeah yeah, I’m happy for you.

But don’t let your guard down too much.

“That said, its effectiveness on powerful monsters is weak, and never forget that at the end of the day, it’s still just herbs that emit a smell that monsters don’t like that you’re carrying around.”

“A-all right, noted.”

The villagers’ spirits landed again after soaring up high at the reminder.

Its effectiveness against powerful monsters is weak, okay.

“Now then, let’s put it into action.
Everyone, please spray it around the edge of the village.”

“““Yessir!!”””

The younger villagers sprayed some on the fields or the livestocks’ grazing pastures’ fences.

And their actions immediately bore fruit.

“Gyugyueeeeeeee!!”

The furball let out quite the amazing scream and ran off in the opposite direction.

Now that I think of it, the furball was a monster, wasn’t it.

“See, works like a charm.”

“Eh? Is that all?”

“Eh? What do you mean?”

Liliella-san looked at me with a face that said ‘Is that all it does?’

Uhh yeah? See, monsters hate the smell.

“Whatever.”

After that, we went around the village spraying monster repellent all around it.

“Now we just need to confirm that the monsters living in the area don’t come near the village, and then the request will be completed.”

“How do we confirm that?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, the monsters won’t come near because they dislike the smell, right? We won’t know that they won’t come close unless we see them running away, no?”

Hmm, she has a point, now that I think of it.

“…Guess we’ll have to get some monsters then.”

“Huh?”

The village chief looked at me as if to say ‘What??’

Well, if the monsters won’t come here on their own, we’ll just have to bring them over.
Easy.

“Imma go catch some monsters to try it out on!”

Saying that, I left the village to go look for monsters.

♦ ♦

“Found one! A Kaiser Hawk!”

Having found my prey, I threw a stone lying at my feet at it.

The stone I had thrown with the help of body strengthening magic hit the Kaiser Hawk in the face, making it fall down towards the ground.

“Gotcha!”

I caught the Kaiser Hawk in mid-air, landed, and tied it up like the rest of the monsters I had caught until then.

“This much should be fine.”

I said, looking at the assortment of monsters I had caught to be my test subjects.

“Welp, time to head back.”

I headed back to the village, pulling all the tied-up monsters along behind me.

““““““Gugyaaaaaa!!!””””””

♦ ♦

“I’ve brought monsters to test it out on!”

Having gotten back to the village chief and the others waiting at the edge of the village, I showed them my test guinea pigs.

““““Gyu-gyueeee…””””

“They look more like criminals paraded around the city as an example than test subjects.”

The villagers all nodded in agreement with Liliella-san’s words.

“Amazin’, how’d ya manage to bring back this many monsters with you?”

“It’s not just the numbers, there’s some huge ones among them too.
…Is this what real A-Rank adventurers are like?”

“It’s obvious why we didn’t have money for the reward, looking at this.”

Hmmm? Why’s everyone so surprised by me bringing the monsters back with me?

“Now then, let’s get started right away!”

“““Do you have no pity!?”””

Hahaha, what are you talking about?

I brought them here to test the potion out?

First, I dragged the smaller monsters over to a fence that had been sprayed with the potion.

*sniff* *sniff* “…Bugyuee!?”

The monsters fainted, each collapsing with a loud thud.

“Seems like it works on small monsters.
Let’s try it on mid-sized monsters next.”

This time, I brought monsters the size of bears or horses over to the fence.

“Gubyaaaaaa!?”

The monsters fainted after letting out screams as if they were dying.

“I’ll try it out on large monsters next.
Like this one.”

Lastly, I took the large monsters, starting with the Kaiser Hawk, over to the fence.

“Gugyaaaaa!!”

As expected of large monsters, they didn’t faint immediately, but instead writhed about in agony.

Then, they sprinted off away from the village at full speed, trying to get as far away as possible.

“Seems like the smell of the potion is fainter over there.”

And if they sprayed the potion around the village at fixed intervals, its effective range would probably increase.

“So? The larger monsters ran away, but it works well enough as monster repellent, right?”

““““…””””

I said, turning around, but the villagers’ responses were somewhat lacking.

“Ah, don’t tell me you’re disappointed it didn’t work well enough!?”

““““It’s the exact opposite!!””””

The villagers all shouted in harmony.

“You called it monster repellent, so we just thought monsters wouldn’t come near because they disliked the smell, but this thing literally made them faint! It couldn’t be more effective! And what was that about not working on strong monsters! They ran away screaming!!”

The villagers all nodded in agreement with what the village chief had shouted at me.

“No, that’s correct.
It’s just that weak monsters smelled it at point-blank range, so they fainted.
And animals have a way better sense of smell than humans, right? Well, monsters are the same.
However, the bigger monsters can’t faint just from the smell, so it’ll only make them run away.”

“So basically, its effect being weaker on large monsters was correct, from Rex-san’s perspective, at least.”

“Liliella-dono, do you mean to say that…”

“It has more than enough effect on normal monsters.”

““““Uwaa…””””

Eh? What’s with those exclamations of amazement that are simultaneously sighs?

“Hey, Rex-san.”

Liliella-san said to me with a serious face.

“What is it, Liliella-san?”

“There’s something I want to ask you about this monster repellent potion.”

“Yes?”

“Can’t they sell those potions to other villages?”

“Sell them to other villages?”

“Yes, with that potion, other villages won’t need to hire adventurers to protect themselves either.
And if the potions were sold for less than the reward for the adventurers, I think many lives could be saved.”

“But it doesn’t work on strong monsters or on monsters running amok in a panic?”

“That doesn’t matter.
They’d still be really useful in villages where nobody can fight properly!”

I see, she does have a point.

Even if it only worked on weak monsters, it would still place less of a burden on villages than frequently having to pay for monster extermination requests.

And in the worst case scenario, it would still help the villagers if they ever needed to run away from their village.

And since cases similar to one that caused Liliella-san to have to abandon her village might pop up, she couldn’t just leave this as it was.

“Sure?”

“! Thank you, Rex-san!”

Liliella-san said with a beaming smile.

“I guess this village can make the potions then.”

“O-our village!?”

The village chief froze in surprise.

“Well, you are the ones I taught how to make the potion, after all.
It would take way too long to make it all on my own, and it’s more convenient than having to teach the whole method to someone else again.”

“Y-you’re going to let us do something that important!?”

Important? I just thought it would be easier if someone who knew how to make the potion were to make it.

“You can keep the profits from the sales.”

Since even children and old people could make the potion, it was the perfect secondary source of money.

“U-understood! Please let me handle paying the salaries of the villagers!”

Hm? What a strange way of putting it.

Oh right, there was something else that would be bad if forgotten.

“Right, since I don’t want to stand out, please keep it a secret that I was the one who taught you how to make the potions.”

I don’t like standing out.

“Understood! Not a single one of us will say a thing, even if tortured!”

What’s with that iron resolve!? No need to go that far.

“Everyone! Hear me! We have a new job! A wonderful job!”

“““““Woooooo!!”””””

The villagers were all really excited for some reason.
I really don’t get it.

“All the jobs we had so far were farming or hunting.
So we’re thankful that the number of jobs that bring us money has increased.”

“Oh, is that so?”

What a way to exaggerate a simple monster repelling potion.

“Indeed.”

♦ ♦

Then, we were on our way back to the royal capital.

Being seen off by the whole village was rather embarrassing though.

The first thing we did upon arriving in the royal capital was handing over the trio of wrongdoers to the guards.

Since they had been caught red-handed and had accrued quite the criminal record over the years, they would not be able to escape being made into criminal slaves and sold.

Apparently any money they earned while working would be paid as reparations to their victims.

With that, Liliella-san’s village would also be paid in reparations.

The amount would likely be insignificant, but under the law of the current era, they would have to keep at it until an amount equal to double the value of the damage done had been paid back.

Moreover, they had other victims as well, making it questionable whether the day when they had completely repaid the damage done would ever come.

And even then, they apparently wouldn’t just be released after paying it all back.

The guard at the station told us that after they had paid the full amount back, they would then be made to do manual labour for a length of time befitting the severity of their charges.

“I’ll be able to proudly tell this to dad…”

Liliella-san whispered to herself, tearing up.

“You’ve been doing things your dad would be proud of for ages now, Liliella-san.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“…Alright.
Hehe.”

Good, she smiled.

We finally managed to avenge the people from her village, so I didn’t want her to look so sad.

“Still, they didn’t have much of a bounty on their heads, did they.”

Liliella-san said looking at the reward we had been given for capturing the trio with a bitter smile.

The amount: ten gold coins.

It was next to nothing in comparison to the rewards for requests we had gotten until then.

“They caused unhappiness to so many people, and this is all we get for capturing them.”

But, it seemed like unless they were some infamous master thief, the reward for capturing someone wouldn’t be large.

Moreover, there had only been three of them, and the amount of money they had scammed out of the villagers hadn’t been that much in the grand scheme of things either.

“They made you suffer so much, so them being treated as if they were this insignificant is rather unsatisfying, isn’t it.”

“Yeah.
But still, don’t you agree it’s better that they can’t even boast to have been some famous wrongdoers, just some bottom-class scum, despised by all.
And the money they have to pay in reparation would shock even said famous wrongdoers.”

Liliella-san said, grinning.

“It suits them.
And we won’t ever have to spare them another thought! From now on, I’ll just live looking forwards!”

Liliella-san walked over to next to me with light steps and took my hand.

“You said it yourself.
I’ve been doing things to be proud of for a long time now.
So I won’t hesitate any more.”

She still seemed to be convincing herself, but at least there was no sadness in her eyes.

“Thank you.
And let’s get along from now on too.”

“…Indeed, let’s.”

“Well, the next problem is you though.
We can’t keep dwelling on just my problems.”

“Eh? What do you mean?”

♦ ♦

“My account?”

A week had passed since we had captured the trio.

I had been asked for my guild account number from the receptionist for a transfer of money to my account.

“Yes, the chief of Honjio village asked us to hand over the profits from the sales of the goods you entrusted to them.
The guild took care of it directly the first time, but since you’re an adventurer and we don’t know when you’ll leave for a different town, I made the suggestion to have it transferred to your guild account from next time onward.”

The chief of Honjio village? Who dat?

“You know, the village where we caught the swindlers.”

Liliella-san whispered in my ear.

“Eh? Ah, right.
But why is the village chief handing over profits from goods to me?”

No idea at all why he’d do that.

“Okay, come here for a second.”

Liliella-san said, dragging me over to the wall.

“It’s from the sales of the monster repelling potion.”

“Eh? But the villagers made those, so shouldn’t the profits also belong to them?”

“But they said it themselves? That they’d take only their salaries.
So basically, everything other than that belongs to you.”

“Eh!? Eeeeh!? W-why!?”

How did it turn out like that!? All I did was tell them how to make monster repellent!?

“That’s because you entrusted the production and sale of the potions to that village.”

“Eeh!? What!?”

“That’s what the villagers there took it as.
That they were being employed by you to do so.”

T-that never even crossed my mind!!

I just thought it would be good if they could get extra money from the potions I taught them how to make!?

“And judging from what the receptionist said, you’ll be getting paid at regular intervals from now on.
It’s amazing, you’re really raking it in!”

I’m not! is what I wanted to say.

“See? Like I said, you’re the one with problems now.”

So that’s what she meant with that…

“I heard it in a shop I frequent that there are a lot of orders for the monster repellent potion and they keep selling out and having to wait for more to come in, even here in the royal capital.
Apparently there’s even foreigners looking for the potions, so I really wonder just how large those profits are.”

Uwaa, they’re only monster repelling potions, so why’s everybody buying them up so frantically!?

“So, since that’s the case, tell that poor receptionist your guild account number already!”

“W-wait a s-second, h-hey, d-don’t pull me along!”

“You helped them get money, so isn’t it all right!? Now come on already.”

And it was like that that the profits from the sales of the monster repellent potions came to be paid to my guild account at regular intervals.

“Kukyuuu!”

On a different note, the furball didn’t come near me for a while after that due to me having made that potion.

TN: just as a heads up, I’m probably going to drop this novel in a couple of chapters, it’s too boring and repetitive in comparison to its length per chapter for me

i might translate something else next, maybe not; we’ll see