CHAPTER 1 - PART 2

"All right, good work everyone–! That's it for today! Here, this is today's salary."

"Thank you! Good job today, boss–!"

"Good job–!"

After the boss announced the end of the workday, Aqua and I received our salary, bowed and thanked him.

"Everyone, we'll make a move first–!"

"Goodbye–!"

"Oh–thanks for your hard work! I'm counting on you tomorrow too."

I bid farewell to my seniors while Aqua followed my lead.

After hearing the reply from the seniors, Aqua and I left the workplace.

Ah, I worked the whole of today too.

Even I was beginning to doubt that I was ever a hikikomori.

Aqua and I took our salary for the day and headed for the public bath.

The public bath was no different from the ones in Japan.

Judging from the average salary, the entrance fee was higher than Japan's. However, I couldn't change the habit of taking a bath after finishing work.

"Ah, I'm alive again…"

I soaked my shoulders in the warm water, leisurely relieving my fatigue from work.

This place seemed to be from the middle ages, so I thought it would've been luxurious to take a bath here, but that was just me.

I was grateful, so grateful…!

After leaving the bath, I saw Aqua waiting for me at the entrance.

Bathing longer than a girl was a bit off-putting, but that was the nature of the Japanese.

"What would you like to eat today? I want some smoked-lizard hamburger steak and the heart-freezing crimson Neroid!"

"I want to eat meat too, so let's go to the tavern and get two smoked-lizard steak set meals."

"Agreed!"

After finishing our meal, Aqua and I didn't have anything to do and went to the stables.

After picking hay not stained by horse manure to make a bed, we laid down immediately.

Aqua was sleeping beside me as usual.

"Well then, good night."

"Good night. Phew… I worked hard today too…"

With that, I drifted off into dreamland…

"No, wait a minute!"

I suddenly sat up.

"What is it? Did you forget to go to the washroom? It's dark out there; do you need me to accompany you?"

"No way! Hold on, it's not that. I just realized that we've been living the life of manual labourers so far."

Indeed.

For the past two weeks, Aqua and I have been working on the walls outside the city.

We were construction workers.

That was too far off from the adventurer life I was aspiring to live in this world.

Or rather, why'd Aqua get so used to this lifestyle without any complaints?

Weren't you a goddess?

"You don't work, you don't eat, isn't that obvious? HikiNEETs are fussy. If you prefer to, you can work as a store clerk too!"

"No! It's not that. How should I put this? What I'm after is exciting battles against monsters! A life like that! Moreover, isn't this world in a crisis with the invasion of the Demon King? Isn't it amazingly peaceful here? There are no signs of demons at all!"

I got worked up as I spoke. As my voice grew louder, our neighbours lectured me.

"Hey, can it! Be quiet!"

"Ah, sorry!"

Adventurers who were just starting out were poor.

It was normally impossible for us to rent a room in the tavern every night.

Usually, adventurers would share the rent with other adventurers and sleep in the communal room.

Alternatively, they could do what we were doing and sleep on the hay in the stables.

Yes, this was different from the adventurer lifestyle in an alternate world that I was looking forward to.

Staying in the tavern daily was the same as sleeping in a hotel every day in Japan.

It was impossible for adventurers with an unstable income to do so.

… Indeed, our income wasn't stable.

No simple herb-picking or monster-hunting quests that appeared in games were available.

Monsters didn't burst into loot and money when you killed them.

In addition, the forest near town has long since been cleared of monsters.

The forest had turned safe after the monsters were gone, so no one would hire people to harvest materials for them.

This was obvious.

The outdoors was so safe that the children could roam free.

There were guards manning the gate, but instead of maintaining round-the-clock security, it was easier to exterminate all the dangerous monsters since the forest wasn't too large.

It was the most logical method, but I'd rather not know this.

An adventurer who was just slightly stronger than normal people spending half a day harvesting herbs that were easy to spot and earning enough for food and lodging.

There was no way such an easy job existed.

Japan was a prosperous nation on Earth, but even so, no laborer could live in a hotel on their daily pay.

Minimum wage? Labour laws? What were those? Could we eat them?

That was the kind of world this was.

"It's useless even if you tell me these things. This is the town furthest away from the Demon King's castle after all! Who would come all the way to attack a town of beginners at the borders…? Anyway… Kazuma wants to live more like an adventurer, right? You don't even have the proper equipment!"

Aqua went straight to the point, and I couldn't protest.

That was right, Aqua and I didn't even have a full set of basic equipment. We were hoping to buy them, which was why we were working so hard at the construction site.

"I'm getting bored of construction too. I didn't come to this world to be a labourer; I came to this world with no computers and games to adventure. And didn't you send me here to challenge the Demon King?"

After hearing what I said, Aqua made a 'what are you talking about' face, pondered for a moment, and then responded:

"Oh! There was such a thing! I forgot, immersed in the happiness of working. I can't go back if Kazuma doesn't defeat the Demon King."

Listening to her dumb reply, I recalled the counter lady's words. It seemed that this girl's intelligence really was below average.

"All right, let's go challenge the Demon King! Don't worry; it'll be a breeze with me here! Look forward to my performance!"

"That makes me uneasy… However, you're a goddess after all, so I'm counting on you! Okay, we'll buy some basic weapons and armor with the money we saved and go grinding tomorrow!"

"Leave it to me!"

"Didn't I tell you two to can it? Do you want me to beat you up?"

"I'm very sorry!"

As we apologized to the other adventurers, I got ready to sleep with a heart full of excitement.