RMGCFW — Chapter 57 - 58: Pure and Innocent (Patreon)

Interspecies Review Guide: Forest ElfPersonal Rating: Four stars.Pros: Their petite bodies possess a flexibility that far exceeds imagination, allowing for a remarkable variety of play styles. Gentle and cooperative by temperament, they will agree to almost any request. If you can afford the price, you can even book every Forest Elf in the establishment at once; the experience shoots straight to the absolute maximum.Cons: That same petite frame limits quite a few options. Deducting one star.

Early the next morning.

While the residents were still in bed, Banxia slipped quietly back toward his house.

After a full night of vigorous, unrestrained battles, he felt completely refreshed, his steps noticeably lighter than usual.

The first half of the night had been spent in the care of the Forest Elves. The second half, he had plunged headfirst into the warm embrace of Miss Cow. Wall-to-wall entertainment from dusk to dawn.

This beat staring at a phone screen by a mile.

Even that faint, lingering nostalgia for the modern world had been pushed down quite a bit.

"Hm?"

Reaching the mouth of the alley, he spotted two figures waiting outside his door—familiar ones. And from the look of it, they had been there a while.

Winter was closing in on the Southern Continent, and the fog hung heavy. The damp, cold air had settled on the girls' hair in a fine layer of moisture.

Banxia slowed his pace, gave them a brief look, then kept walking.

"Yo—isn't that Miss Shinomiya? What brings you here?"

The familiar voice came from behind them. Both master and attendant turned at the same time.

A young man in a dark gray overcoat was strolling toward them at an unhurried pace, parting the thin morning mist as he came.

Kaguya Shinomiya's heart skipped a beat for no reason she could name. She straightened her back, expression carefully neutral, and spoke with quiet deference.

"...Lord Banxia. It has been a while." She dipped her head in a slight bow, her posture impeccable.

"Lord?" Banxia gave them both an odd look, his gaze lingering briefly on their slightly tense shoulders. "No need to be so stiff. I'm not the kind of person who forgets his friends the moment he has a little success."

He turned naturally toward his closed front door and tilted his chin at the two girls, who were visibly shivering from the cold.

"Come on. Whatever it is, we can talk inside. It's freezing out here—you'll catch something if you stand around much longer."

The old noble's residence was not large. A few steps brought them into the sitting room.

Banxia waved them toward the sofa, then crouched in front of the fireplace and prodded at the remaining embers.

"Good—still some wood left."

A small flame sparked to life at his fingertips. The dry firewood caught quickly, and the chill retreated inch by inch as the warm, distinctive scent of burning wood spread through the room.

Kaguya Shinomiya sat upright on the sofa, her hands moving instinctively to rub her cold knees. She could feel the warmth beginning to drift over from the fireplace, slowly and steadily coaxing the feeling back into limbs that had gone stiff from waiting outside.

Shortly after, footsteps sounded as Banxia shut the door behind him and crossed the room carrying a kettle he had heated with magic.

"I hear the grand noble estates all have magic items for central heating—one switch and the whole house warms up. Unfortunately, I don't have one of those. Just firewood, I'm afraid. Please don't mind it."

The man standing before them had slain a Great Demon. The whole city called him a hero. And yet he stood there without a trace of condescension, actually apologizing that his home lacked a proper heating fixture.

Kaguya Shinomiya let out a quiet internal sigh. He had no idea what those words meant coming from him.

She thought back to their first meeting outside the city walls, hitching a ride in their carriage. Then later, stepping in without hesitation to remove the threat of that corrupt steward when he had no obligation to get involved at all.

Going through it one by one, in every single instance, Mr. Banxia had been exactly what one might call a genuinely good person who asked for nothing in return.

She curled her fingers quietly into her skirt. A strange warmth rose in her chest, something close to unease. This particular kind of gentleness was harder to handle than any sword or cutting word.

She was just about to stand up when she saw Banxia move to pour the hot water himself.

"Um..."

"Mr. Banxia, please, let me." Ai Hayasaka was already on her feet, crossing quickly to his side and reaching out to take the kettle.

Banxia glanced at the uneasy look on both their faces. He didn't argue. "All right, then." With a small smile, he let go.

He accepted the teacup when Hayasaka passed it over, took a sip of the warm tea, and settled into the seat across from them. His gaze drifted back to Kaguya Shinomiya, calm and unhurried.

"So, did you run into some kind of trouble? We're all from Earth, after all. If it's something within my power, I can still help."

Kaguya Shinomiya shook her head quickly. "Lord Ban—Mr. Banxia. We haven't run into any trouble. If anything, it's the opposite. Under the shelter of your name, our business these past weeks has gone more smoothly than we ever could have imagined."

This was neither flattery nor exaggeration.

The two of them had never gone out of their way to make any public announcements. But some things didn't need to be said aloud. Where their starting capital had come from—anyone who cared to look into it could trace the thread and find the answer in full.

On the strength of that single conjecture alone—that a hero might have a hand in this venture—the city's sharp-eyed merchant guilds had come forward one after another to offer their backing. Trade routes that should have taken months to open had cleared completely within a matter of days.

Sometimes, when friction arose in a deal, even when it was obvious that the other party stood to lose, those veteran merchants would rather take the hit and see the deal through than risk the slightest chance of offending them.

After several such incidents, Kaguya Shinomiya and Ai Hayasaka had understood it completely. Banxia's current standing in this corner of the Southern Continent was not something the word "famous" could come close to capturing.

"Then what did you come for?" Now it was Banxia's turn to look puzzled.

"Hayasaka." Kaguya Shinomiya turned her head and gave a small nod toward the blonde beside her.

Ai Hayasaka understood at once, drawing a heavy coin pouch from her waist and presenting it to Banxia with both hands. "Mr. Banxia. This is your share, as agreed from the beginning."

"Has a month gone by already?" Banxia took the pouch, weighed it briefly in one hand, and set it aside without much ceremony. "Since we agreed on it, I'll take it."

"Mr. Banxia, you really are something..."

"It's fine. I trust you two." He smiled. "And honestly, I've never been one to fuss over the details."

That was simply how he operated: if you trusted someone, you trusted them; if you didn't, you didn't work with them. Spending every day second-guessing people felt like a reliable way to shave years off his life.

"Going forward, we'll give you seventy percent of the profits each month."

"Seventy percent?" Banxia's eyebrow lifted.

"...If that isn't satisfactory, eighty is also possible." Kaguya Shinomiya's gaze drifted, just barely perceptibly, toward the fireplace, not quite meeting his eyes.

"That's too much." He waved it off. "All I put in was a bit of starting capital. No reason for that kind of share. Besides, I'm on my own. What would I even do with all of it?"

"Then your meaning is..."

"If I take too little, you'll feel uneasy about it anyway." He picked up his teacup and took a sip, his voice easy and offhand. "Thirty percent. Let me take thirty percent, and you keep seventy. That should cover your operating expenses and expansion."

"...Isn't that a bit too little, Mr. Banxia?" Ai Hayasaka couldn't quite hold back the quiet murmur.

Kaguya Shinomiya stared at her attendant in disbelief. Is my own sidekick really negotiating against our own profits right in front of me?!

"You're merchants," Banxia set his cup down and chuckled. "Be a little greedy. That's how you grow. With enough capital, the business scales up. And when it does, won't my share end up being more anyway?"

The two girls sat in silence, deeply moved by his foresight and generosity.

Chapter 58: Roxy Felt Uneasy

"And so on that day, Cow Village, celebrated as Milky Aroma Village, was suddenly attacked by a swarm of dragons! Our valiant Lord Hero charged into the dragon horde all by his lonesome, like a storm sweeping through, and not a single dragon could hold out under his hand for even a second!"

"...You've got to be kidding me. Where would a swarm of dragons come from in our south?"

"You bastard, are you questioning Lord Hero's heroic deeds?!"

"Eh? No, I'm not, I'm just..."

"Then go ahead and tell us, what exactly are you questioning? On the way to subjugate the Great Demon Geist, with the Knight Order and the Three Heroes watching with their own eyes, Lord Hero wiped out an army of several million skeletons with a single spell! Are you going to question that too?!"

"No, that's not what I meant..."

"And the deeds at Cow Village were personally certified by the village chief himself! Right now they're rushing to renovate what they're calling the largest Hero statue in the south, and hundreds of people pour in from the city every single day just to catch a glimpse, and out of your mouth, it's suddenly all a lie?!"

"I—I was wrong, I was being stupid..."

In the tavern, listening to the sudden quarrel at the next table between the bard and the adventurer, Banxia nearly choked on a bite of bread.

"Cough—cough, cough..."

What the hell. He had only stayed indoors for a few days. How had the stories out there gotten this out of hand?

And what was this "Milky Aroma Village" business? Back then he had killed one Red Mirror Dragon. One! How had it become an entire swarm in the blink of an eye?

Besides, this shouldn't have leaked out at all. Apart from himself and Roxy, there shouldn't have been a third person who knew.

Roxy... She hadn't come looking for him in several days. The moment that registered, Banxia understood exactly where all these absurd stories were coming from.

He picked up his ale, tipped his head back, and gulped down a large mouthful, barely washing the bread crumbs down his throat.

At the next table, the bard was launching into a newly embellished chapter with passionate fervor. Banxia felt the heat rise to his face despite himself.

"Hey—isn't that Lord Hero over there?"

"Looks like it, doesn't it? He seems..."

Banxia yanked his hood down fast and kept his head low. He dropped his coins on the table and quickly walked out.

Back home, Banxia let out a long sigh.

"It's snowing?" He looked up at the sky.

Thin, delicate flakes drifted down in lazy spirals. A few settled against his warm face and melted into cold streaks before he could blink.

Once winter arrived, humans cut back on venturing outside, and most monsters either hibernated or migrated further north. Quest volume at the Adventurers Guild dropped sharply, and a lot of adventurers were scrambling to knock out a few extra commissions before winter locked everything down.

Banxia was well-off enough that he wasn't in any rush.

"Once this winter passes, I'll head north."

He had heard from the tavern owner that once snow fell in the south, it swallowed the roads whole. Drifts as tall as a grown man piled across the open wilderness, creating a white expanse so disorienting that even seasoned hunters lost their bearings in a southern winter. Setting out on a long journey in conditions like that was just making trouble for himself.

And heading north wasn't the whole plan. He wanted to collect folk magic related to lifespan along the way. Even if he never found that legendary elf rumored to command every magic in existence, he stood a decent chance of continuing to replenish his lifespan piece by piece, relying on the scraps of folk magic scattered across the world.

Knock, knock.

"Banxia, are you home?"

The instant he heard that voice, a petite blue-haired figure surfaced in his mind. He opened the door. Sure enough, it was Roxy.

"I was just about to come looking for you."

"Eh? What for?" Roxy nudged her oversized hat back, revealing her bright, clear eyes.

"There's something I want to ask you. Come in first, it's snowing out."

"Oh, okay." She answered his questions often enough that she didn't think twice about it, following him inside.

Banxia locked the door and led her to the living room, where they both sat down. Roxy picked up the hot tea he handed her, just about to take a sip.

"Roxy. You know, I was eating at the tavern just now, and I suddenly heard someone saying that I subjugated an entire swarm of dragons in Cow Village."

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Roxy choked violently. She hacked and sputtered for a good moment before finally catching her breath, looking up to find Banxia's exasperated gaze already waiting for her.

"An entire swarm?! I only mentioned one Red Mirror Dragon..."

"Heh. So it was you."

Roxy: "..."

She shrank her shoulders, squirming like a child caught red-handed.

"It's all those bards' fault... Somehow they found out that you and I were in the same party and wouldn't leave me alone, asking about you every single day... I thought about it and figured there was nothing wrong with telling them a little, so I just... I never expected it to spread like that..."

"Forget it," Banxia sighed. "I'm not blaming you. It's just that going out for a meal is going to be a hassle from now on."

"I'm sorry!" Roxy owned up immediately, then peeked up at him timidly. "Since it was my fault... from now on, your meals are on me..."

"Nothing to be done about it." Banxia stroked his chin with a perfectly serious expression. "Looks like I'll just have to buy a few maids to cook. I hear the slave market has quite a selection of beastfolk."

"..."

"As punishment for causing all this trouble, you're covering the purchase price. No problem with that, right?"

Roxy stammered, "N-no problem..."

"Good. Now, the real question: cat-eared girl, or cat-eared girl?"

"Banxia... there's really no need to buy maids, it costs so much every month..."

"It's fine. I have my own little private vault."

Alterna, Inner City — The Slave Market.

"Sir, may I ask what specific requirements you and your wife have for the slaves?"

"W-wife... me?!" Roxy's face went crimson on the spot, and even the tip of her wizard hat gave a little tremble.

Banxia turned his head with a blank expression. "...Do I look like a lolicon?"

"Oh, my apologies, my apologies! It was my poor eyesight!" The slave merchant apologized at lightning speed, bowing lower and faster than anyone had a right to.

Banxia had his coat hood pulled low over most of his face, which was why the merchant hadn't recognized him as the famous Lord Hero.

"Do you have beastfolk slaves?"

"Yes, yes, right this way, please!"

The merchant led them briskly into a larger room. The air was heavy, stale, and threaded with the smell of old rust and dry straw. Iron cages were packed wall to wall, each holding a beastfolk. Most were emaciated enough that their ribs showed through their skin, wrapped in rags, staring out with either blank numbness or wary tension.

Roxy took one look and quietly shifted half a step behind Banxia.

"Many of these are beastfolk with extraordinary combat power," the merchant pushed hard. "Most ended up here because they lost a chieftain challenge. With proper cultivation, they can easily become strong combatants down the line."

Noticing Banxia's furrowed brow, the merchant quickly added, "If you're willing to pay a premium..."

Banxia ignored his pitch, scanned every cage in silence, and then turned to the merchant.

"Why are they all male? Where are my cute cat-eared girls?"

"Uh... well..." The merchant faltered, forcing a dry laugh. "Female beastfolk are inferior in strength, so the nobles rarely order them..."

"You don't understand." Banxia raised a hand to cut him off, his tone full of deep grievance. "Cuteness is a lifelong matter. Strength? Completely beside the point!"

He was speechless. What was wrong with the slave market buyers in this city? They were beastfolk—how could no one care about cat-eared girls?

In the end, Banxia left thoroughly disappointed, while Roxy followed behind, quietly relieved.

Next Chapter: The Absolute Powerhouse, and the Loneliness Born Therefrom