章 10: Chapter 11: Reward
After they arrived at the kingdom, the first thing they did was to head straight to the adventurers' guild.
"Um.." said the receptionist.
"Yes?" John asked.
"This is a goblin king's head, right?" The receptionist questioned.
"Yes.. I believe so..?" John replied.
With her palm on her face, the receptionist breathed in an attempt to relieve herself of stress.
"And that girl on your back..." she asked.
"Like I just said, she was captured by goblins and before she reached their I saved her. However, since we were close, the Goblin King decided to go outside and fight us. After an intense battle I cut off his head and froze the remaining goblins, which he had summoned to help him in the fight" John explained.
The receptionist made a perplexed expression as she looked at John.
"Okay.. So what you're saying is, you took out a goblin settlement and a goblin King by yourself." The receptionist reiterated.
"Yes. That's what we've been telling you this whole time!" Ariel intervened.
"Okay.. Wait just a moment, I'll be back." Said the receptionist as she headed towards the backroom of the guild with the bag.
Shortly after, she came back carrying a bag full of coins.
"Okay, this is your reward for subjugating 10 Goblins and a goblin lord, 5 Gold coins and 20 Silver." She said.
"5.. Gold coins!?!?" Ariel shouted
'She really is more open now, huh, That's good.' John thought.
"Y-yes. You shouldn't be saying the amount you receive out loud, young girl.." The receptionist advised.
"Yes.. Sorry." Ariel apologized.
The receptionist was right. After Ariel had shouted out their reward, John felt a few gazes on his back.
"Well then, what do we do about this girl?" John questioned.
"Hmm.. You can leave her here with us. We'll lend her a room to rest while we wait for her to recover and explain what happened." The receptionist replied.
"Alright." said John.
John handed the girl to the receptionist and thanked her before making his way towards the exit.
"Wow.. We now have 6 Gold coins in total. This should last us for a few days." Ariel happily said.
"Yep, we can also buy new clothes. Having just 1 set feels… bad." John replied.
As they made their way towards the inn. They were stopped by 3 Guys who were carrying knives.
"Give us all the money you got, kid." The men said.
They didn't look strong and had barely any magical power, so they probably couldn't use magic strengthening. But John had no energy left from the goblin fight nor carrying the girl from the forest straight to the kingdom.
Ariel could easily take them on, but she doesn't know how to properly control her power yet and might end up killing them.
As John wondered what to do. Ariel stepped up.
"L-Leave us alone.. We earned this money through hard work. If you really want to earn money, then go do quests yourself!" Ariel chided.
That surprised John.
'She looks a lot braver now, is she changing... or has she always been like this?' thought John.
"The Hell'd you say brat?" said one of the guys before he swung his knife at Ariel.
Ariel, who saw the knife coming, took a step back and dodged. At the same time, his hand was completely frozen
"E-EH? A-A-A-AH! M-My HAND!?" The man shouted.
Ariel watched as John formed 3 ice spikes above him. As he let out a sigh, the air around them started to get colder.
"Hey... I don't care about what you want, what you need or where you're from all I know is that if you don't move right this instant, I'll freeze you." John said with a look as cold as my spells.
His other companions looked frightened as they saw him sat on the ground. Ariel herself was surprised, well John was showing his cold side to her.
"So, you still want to fight? You might end up like the goblin lord we fought, though." John asked
"We won't forget this!?" The three said before hastily running away.
John turned to Ariel who had a satisfied smile on her face before saying "Thank you for standing up to me"
"A-Ah, but you're the one who did everything." She muttered
She was zoning out; making John wonder what she was thinking about.
They went inside the inn and decided to take a shower before having their meal. As they went up the stairs John heard Ariel quietly saying "Precious partner.." with a happy look on her face. But he decided not to question it.
They arrived at their rooms and laid down on the bed. It was so fluffy compared to the ground in the forest, and John felt like he was drowning in heaven.
Ariel who had been stretching her arms as she laid down also had a satisfied expression on her face.
"Mnnn" She said in satisfaction
After around 5 minutes, John started to get drowsy and neither he nor Ariel were moving.
'At this rate. we'll fall asleep without eating or taking a shower.' John thought.
Just as John had thought that, Ariel got up
"I'll be going in first," Ariel said.
'Huh, first? Oh, is she gonna go to the showers now?' John wondered.
"Where are you going?" John asked.
"Showers, where else?" Ariel replied.
...
"W-wait a moment, I'll go heat up t-the water and I'll be back soon." John suggested.
"Thank you," Ariel said.
John then walked into the bath area and placed his arm above the bucket.
"I never tried this before so it might not work but.." Muttered John.
'Imagine.. Imagine that water heating up as my mana is transforming into thermal energy.. And imagine that energy being transferred to the bucket of water.' Thought John.
After a few tries, he finally managed to heat up the buckets. He made sure they were no longer cold before slowly making his way back to the room.
"Alright, the water's heated. You can go take a shower now." Said John.
"Mn, what about you?" Ariel asked.
"I'll go take one after." John replied.
"I see.. but wouldn't it be faster if we just took one together?" Ariel suggested.
...
"W-what did you just say?" John said with surprise.
"I said.. Wouldn't it be faster if we just took one together? I used to take showers with uncle to help him wash himself after he became ill. It was also faster than taking one individually." Ariel said.
...
"T-true it's faster, but I can't..." replied John.
"Why?" Ariel asked with a confused expression
"You shouldn't take a shower with just any guy you know. It would be inappropriate." John explained embarrassingly.
"But John, is John? John isn't any guy.." Ariel replied in a naive manner.
'... what's happening.' John wondered helplessly.
"T-That's not the problem! 2 teens of the opposite gender shouldn't be taking showers together." John explained.
"Why?" Ariel asked.
"Y-You just can't!" John protested.
"Mn.. Okay..." Ariel replied as she nodded her head.
Shortly after, Ariel went inside and started taking a shower. After the interaction John had with Ariel, he wasn't able to think straight, so decided to take a stroll around the inn to calm himself down.
"God. She's a little too innocent, saying things like that. People could take advantage of that. Argh... I'll just have to properly teach her later myself." John said to himself frustratingly.
After going down the stairs, John noticed that the innkeeper was still behind the counter. The sun had already set and it would be dangerous for a kid with proper clothes to be walking outside, so he decided to go have a chat with the innkeeper.
"Hey." John greeted.
"Sup? You're one of the 2 kids that came in, aren't you?" Responded the innkeeper.
'He knows about that? Well, he is the innkeeper, so i guess it's natural.' Thought John.
"Yeah." John replied.
"So, what do you need, young man?" The innkeeper asked.
"Nothing much, just looking for someone to chat to." John spoke.
"Hmm, I'm all ears." The innkeeper replied.
"Thanks, say, How long have you been in this place, sir?" John questioned in a respectful tone.
"By place, you mean inn? I've been here for 5 years." The innkeeper answered.
"No, not inn. Kingdom, what's this kingdom called? Are there others, what are they called?" John further questioned.
"Whoa, slow down, young man. I thought you came here looking for small talk." The innkeeper replied.
"Sorry." said John.
"It's all good. Give me a second, I should have a map in the storage... keep watch for me while I go search for one." The innkeeper replied.
"Yes, thank you." said John.
'Hmm, so he has a map. Perfect, now I'll be able to find out more about this world I'm living in.' John thought.
The man came back with a map in his hands and showed John where they were. The map contained the names of the towns and kingdoms, so he didn't have to go over much.
The kingdom that they were currently residing in was called Halfaust, it was just one big capital with vast territory. Compared to the other kingdoms on the map, which had separate cities, it wasn't really that big or much like a kingdom. There might have been some sort of special reason as to why John's starting point was in this kingdom.
Around the kingdom there were neighbouring kingdoms. North of halfaust was the kingdom of atlas. To reach it, one would have to travel by boat through the sea. East of halfaust was the kingdom of Ashtar and South of it was the kingdom of Threlfad.
The continent the kingdom of Halfaust was in is called Gilda. Including Gilda, there were 5 other continents in total, Finra, Resta, Tempest, Diabla and the last one, the magical continent. They each have other kingdoms that John hasn't mentioned but going over it would be too long.
Diabla is the most dangerous one and it is home to those of the demon race. Still, the map was very useful. It had a detailed portrayal of the kingdoms and continents in the world and even had their names.
After John finished analysing the map. He thanked the innkeeper and gave him 10 silver coins as payment for the info. He thanked John with a smile on his face as if he already expected it.
"Thank you for your patronage. " The innkeeper spoke joyously.
John nodded at the innkeeper before heading back to my room. He opened the door only to find Ariel laying down on the bed with clean clothes. John had washed her clothes and dried them out for her, while she was in the shower.
After noticing that John had returned, Ariel wordlessly got up and made her way towards him before placing her head on his chest and staring at the ground. In this position, John couldn't really tell what kind of face she was making.
"W-where were you..?" Ariel asked.
"Ah, I went to ask the innkeeper for some information." John answered.
"Why didn't you tell me you were going to go earlier?" Ariel questioned.
"W-well, you were in the middle of a shower, and I didn't think I'd take long so..." John explained.
"oh... okay... But please don't leave me..." Ariel said with slight trembles in her voice.
'Why would I suddenly leave her?' John wondered.
"I won't, we're a party, don't worry about these things." John said.
"U-Understood..." Ariel muttered with her head hung low.
"W-well then, I'll go take a shower, after that we'll go get something to eat." John replied.
Like John said, he washed his clothes, took a shower and went downstairs with Ariel to have dinner. It wasn't anything special; it was just soup with potatoes and meat, but John had to admit it was pretty good.
After dinner they went back to their room.
"Did you enjoy the meal?" John curiously asked.
"Mn, it was good." Ariel said.
"Great. Let's go to sleep early. Now that we have money, I'm planning on exploring the city tomorrow and look for some new clothes. We'll take a day off to get some rest, we've been through a lot today after all." John suggested.
He took off his leather boots and laid down on the bed. Shortly after, Ariel did the same and laid down right next to him. John turned to the wall, and she turned to the other side of the room. He also made sure to give her a pillow so she shouldn't have any problems sleeping.
"John, are you awake?" questioned Ariel.
"Yeah." He answered.
"Thank you." Ariel spoke.
"Ah? Don't worry about it, I don't need a pillow to sleep." John replied.
"Not for that.. For everything" Ariel said as she let out a soft giggle.
"Yeah..." John replied.
'Did I really deserve that, thank you?' John thought to himself before falling asleep.
クリエイターの想い 
Renovator
Renovator Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Seeing the story receive all of this support makes me feel very emotional. I will continue to work hard and write for you guys. Have a lovely day and stay safe :)
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