Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~

Chapter 123: Invitation

I invited Kiel to our base for his welcome us becoming C-rank adventurers party.

But Kiel declined because he had a family.

(Family? Was it because of his family?)

For the past month, I have been trying to figure out why Kiel had so little money.

Almost every day he gets the reward we get after defeating the bottom floor boss of the C-class dungeon.

We conquered the third dungeon today, and even with the two dungeons before, he earned at least 40 Silver coins every day.

It seemed more than enough to earn in one day for me but even that wasn’t enough.

I could think of three reasons for that.

The first is that he has debts and needs money to pay them off.

Second, he had a family to support and I needed money.

Third, he just loved money.

Third, when I was Kenichi in my previous life, I remember there were quite a few gamers who loved money. They had the minimum amount of weapons and armor and just kept on scrounging for money. No matter how many millions or billions of dollars they have in assets, they never stopped loving money. I tried to think that they loved money even in the game, even though they needed it to survive in real life.

But this is a different world, and it’s real. I thought that it must be because of the first or second reason.

“Family? How many do you have?”

We were still on the bottom floor of the dungeon.

“There are eight of us.”

(That’s quite a lot. Well, I thought I heard that only students of the Academy are exempted from the per capita tax. What does that mean?

At first, I wondered if he was sending money back to his poor family back home. However, that would not be a good reason for him not to come to the base.

“You mean you have a family in the Academy city? And you’re working alone, Kiel?”

“Yeah, no, I’m working on it a little bit.”

His whole family came to the Academy city. Those who are able to work are said to be working to make ends meet. However, with no contacts or introductions, there is no good place to earn money.

(What? Did they all go from your hometown to Academy City to live with him?)

“Oh? That’s just right. Hey, Allen.”

“What? Oh, Cecile. You’re right! Kiel, why don’t you move to our base?”

Cecile’s words reminded me of the problem we have with the base.

“Huh?”

Kiel couldn’t keep up with us. I told Kiel about the problems at the base: how there were four of us living in a house that can house 20 people, but we’re so busy with the Academy and the dungeon that we’re having trouble cleaning the house and cooking. I asked if all eight of his family members would like to live at our base. It would be a good way to kill two birds with one stone.

“Of course, if you work at our base, we’ll pay you.”

“Why are you doing so?”

“Because we’re friends. Frankly, I can’t see Kiel in this situation right now.”

The other three nodded at my words.

Kiel seemed to be thinking about it.

(He seems to be quite stubborn or proud.)

He was in a tough situation, but he didn’t say anything. He was holding it in himself.

“So how about this?”

Cecile made a suggestion to Kiel, who was troubled. The rewards obtained from the dungeons which are divided into five equal parts and distributed to five people will now be divided into six equal parts and one-sixth of that money would be for living expenses at the base and for Kiel’s family.

In exchange, the magic stones will all be me.

“I see. Isn’t that good?”

“Yeah, as expected of Cecile!”

Dogora and Kurena both nodded in agreement. I hadn’t recruited Kiel with the magic stones condition, so Kiel has always been receiving a portion of the magic stones.

I’ll move in and offer you a place to live and a job so that all the magic stones will belong to me. This way, there is no lending or borrowing. This will also erase Kiel’s guilt.

When Kiel heard that much, he raised his face, which had been looking down in depression.

“I’m sorry, could you do that for me?”

From the look on his face, it looked like he had chosen to join the base because he was thinking of his family.

“Of course! Then let’s get our C-rank adventurer’s cards and get ready for the welcome party.”

It was decided that Kiel would live in the base.

We went to the Adventurer’s Guild and changed the adventurer’s cards from D-rank to C-rank for all five of us. Then Kiel went back to where his family lived to and bring them all back.

In the meantime, we prepared for the welcome party.

Tomorrow is another day off, but instead of going to the dungeon, we all talked about moving.

We exchanged our adventurer’s cards without a hitch.

The Adventurer’s Guild’s lady told me that we were already C-ranks and that we should do our homework before going to the B-class dungeons because they are different from the C-class dungeons.

Kiel told us that his whole family would be here before the evening. Since we were told that there would be small children too, we bought not only meat and bread, but also sweets and fruits at the store.

No one could cook, so we had to make do with what was available at the store.

I bought some blankets and some dishes for the group, and soon it was time for our appointment.

(Okay, we’re ready for a welcome party at the very least. Now, Kiel will be able to integrate into the party!)

He still felt a little distant, and the three of them, except for me, had hardly talked to Kiel, but I’m sure that will go away soon.

It was nearly evening.

While I asked the three of them to prepare a welcome party inside the base, I was outside the base, waiting for Kiel’s family.

Then a group of eight people, including Kiel, arrived.

(What? You’re all young. You’re not even young, you’re just kids.)

The first thing I thought when I saw these eight people was that there were no adults. The youngest was maybe eight years old. The oldest one was around fifteen, a little older than Kiel.

Fifteen years old is an adult in this world, but to me they are still little kids.

I thought their parents would be there. I thought that maybe there would be disabled grandparents too, but that was not the case.

“Sorry, I thought I’d bring what I could today. Am I running a little late?”

Kiel had a large furoshiki on his back. The others had some luggage too.

{TLN: Furoshiki are traditional Japanese wrapping clothes traditionally used to wrap and/or to transport goods.}

“No,no, no. We’re almost done with the preparations for the welcome party. Then I’ll show you the house and ……”

Just as I was about to finish, a girl about the same age as Mash, maybe ten or so, came in front of me. She had the same blond hair as Kiel.

“My name is Nina. Thank you for inviting me.”

Then she bowed her head, plucking at her frilly skirt and curtseying.

“Yeah, nice to meet you.”

(What? What’s this? And them too.)

I was puzzled by the rather polite greeting. A commoner would never do that. And that’s not all.

I also looked at the people behind the girl named Nina who greeted me.

The clothes they wore were not the finest, but they looked familiar. The clothes the boys were wearing were very similar to what I used to wear when I was working in the mansion as a manservant.

Nina’s clothes were not the finest, but she wore a frilly skirt that a commoner would not likely wear.

“I’m sorry, we’ve got something going on. I’ll explain it to you later.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Puzzled, I invited them to the base. Apparently, Kiel would explain everything later.

They decided to leave their luggage on the first floor and bring it up to their assigned rooms later.

Allen’s reaction didn’t seem to be wrong. There were eight people who had moved to the Academy city with only small children and were living in poverty.

I showed them to the living room on the first floor, where the four of us usually had dinner. The house was large enough for twenty people to live in, so the dining room was also large enough to accommodate twenty people.

(Hmm, I’m glad we have a table set up.)

A large table was set up with enough chairs for twenty people, and the table was laden with food to show that they were welcome.

This was a region full of adventurers, and the food was wild. The meat and bread were quite large. The meat and bread were cut up and placed on the table in a heap. Fruits and sweets were also piled high.

A welcome party for the eight of them, including Kiel, was about to begin, which I hadn’t expected.

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