Mireine Mama And The Landlady’s Keepsakes

A morning in the forest.

I brought Liricia back to the mansion’s garden with me.

In Liricia’s hands was the white rabbit, the Almiraj. A horn grew from its forehead.

By the time we brought it back to the garden, it had mostly stopped crying.

Liricia spoke to it gently.

“Almiraj-chan, are you thirsty? If you’re hungry too, we have all kinds of things, you know?”

“…I wanna drink Mama’s milk… sniff”

“Well, that is…”

Liricia faltered.

I looked at her trembling, ample chest.

“It still doesn’t come out yet, right?”

“Um… a mother only produces milk after she gives birth.”

When Liricia squirmed in embarrassment, her large chest swayed even more.

“So that’s how it works. Sorry for not knowing basic stuff… but that won’t work, then—no, wait.”

“What is it?”

“Didn’t Mireine just have a baby?”

“Ah… I wonder…?”

Just then, Mireine the pegasus tilted her head as she came over. With her wings folded, she looked like an ordinary white horse.

“Alec-san, Liricia-san. Did you call me?”

“Yeah, sort of. This kid says it wants milk.”

I pointed to the Almiraj in Liricia’s hands.

Mireine narrowed her big eyes and smiled softly.

“My, my. What a cute little one. Did you get separated from your mother?”

“My mama threw me away… She said I’m not her baby… she hated me… sniff”

Tears welled up again in the Almiraj’s round eyes.

Mireine smiled gently and nuzzled the Almiraj in Liricia’s hands.

“Do you have any big brothers or sisters?”

“N-no, I don’t. We were the oldest…”

“Then it’s alright. She didn’t hate you.”

“How…?”

“Your mother was ‘being a mother’ for the first time, and she got flustered.”

“R-really!?”

“They say women become strong once they’re mothers, but it’s not like anyone can be a strong mother from the start. Rabbits have lots of siblings at once, don’t they? It was her first time, there were so many, and there was a special child too—she was just overwhelmed.”

“B-but… when I tried to drink, she said it hurt. She said my horn poked her, and she got really mad…”

“Then practice with my milk, alright? My name is Mireine. And once you feel better and show your face, I’m sure she’ll be happy.”

Mireine treated the child with endless, enveloping gentleness.

“Mamaaa! Mireine Mamaaa!”

The Almiraj started crying again.

But this crying sounded different from before—full of relief.

I asked Mireine.

“You really are a mom. Can you take care of this kid?”

“Yes. When you’re in trouble, you help each other. I’ll look after it. —What is this child’s name?”

“Uh… I don’t know. When it calms down, can you ask?”

“Yes. Understood.”

Mireine sat down right there, settling into a side-sitting posture that exposed her belly.

Liricia placed the crying Almiraj against her belly.

Then Mireine spread her white wings and gently wrapped the crying child up.

Liricia nodded with a beaming smile.

“Please, Mireine-san.”

“Yes, leave it to me.”

Mireine and Liricia narrowed their eyes and smiled at each other.

—And then.

The sub-device vibrated.

“What is it, Kou?”

“There’s a customer at the shop.”

So someone had come by.

“Got it. I’m coming right away.”

I ended the call and headed through the mansion toward the shop.

When I went to the shop with Liricia, the Landlady was there.

She was buying as many as ten Puchi Elixirs while Sophiecia worked the counter.

And the moment she saw me, she barely bothered with greetings before knitting her brows and launching into an exaggeratedly serious tone.

“Hey, you—did you hear?”

“Hear what?”

“They say there are guys reselling these Puchi Elixirs in towns with dungeons. They’re selling a bottle for a hundred thousand, or a hundred and fifty thousand.”

“So reselling has started after all…”

“A hundred thousand is expensive.”

Liricia nodded sadly, and I was honestly shocked.

I’d thought even fifty thousand was pricey, but apparently it was medicine worth even more.

The Landlady leaned hard over the counter and said,

“Shouldn’t you do something about it? The effect is so incredible that a whole lot of people are in trouble. If you want, my side can back you up and open branch stores, too.”

She really did look genuinely troubled.

I nodded, but I couldn’t help feeling skeptical.

“I appreciate that… but why would you go that far?”

“Well, you know. You gave me one the other day, right? I don’t use those, so I sent it to my son who’s an adventurer. And wouldn’t you know it—he said a party member who was critically wounded and near death survived! So now everyone wants it.”

“So that’s what happened… There’s as much stock as you want, so you can sell it. But hiring employees and all that is a hassle.”

With Kou, it would be easy to create corridors to every dungeon town and deliver.

And if I relied on the Landlady, it sounded like she could secure branch locations too.

The problem was finding people who would keep quiet about the fact I was a dungeon master.

—Which meant only unconditional slaves.

“For that part, I think we can sell it from a street-facing service window. It’s not like we’d be selling anything but Puchi Elixir… But if we’re talking every town, there’s a limit to what I can do alone. We’d need cooperation from a big merchant with a distribution network.”

“Do you have someone in mind?”

“I do, sort of… But the sharper the merchant, the more they’re like foxes and raccoon-dogs. They can look like good people in small business, but it’s possible they’ll flip personalities in big business. —You got a good eye for people?”

“I don’t. If I did, I wouldn’t have gotten fired as a hero. —Can you tell, Liricia?”

I glanced back at Liricia behind the counter.

But Liricia shook her head painfully. Her silver hair swayed softly.

“I can probably see through people better than you can, Master… but against a veteran big merchant, it might be difficult.”

“Even Liricia says it’s hard—what about Sophiecia?”

“Me!? No way! I’ve only ever thrown my weight around using the Church’s authority!”

“I see… Hnn. This is a problem.”

When I frowned, the Landlady said,

“Well, how about I open a branch in the town where my son is staying? My side will handle the location, employees, delivery contractors, and all that.”

“You’ll handle all the hassle? If so, I’m fine with it. How do we split profits?”

“After subtracting expenses from sales, how about a three-to-seven split? My side gets three.”

“You’d get that much? Wouldn’t fifty-fifty be better?”

“You sure? It’s fragile goods, so shipping costs are high. Won’t you be selling below cost?”

“That’ll be fine.”

Puchi Elixir was basically free to make, after all.

When I nodded, the Landlady let out a relieved breath.

“If I’m getting five, I can run the business with some breathing room. Thanks. —Oh, and I’ve been asked about towns where I have acquaintances, too.”

“Handle those too. Official Puchi Elixir stores.”

“Got it. I’ll bring a contract later. While I’m at it, I’ll bring a list of big merchants too, so take a look as a long shot. There are a lot of merchants who want to stick their fingers into this whole thing.”

“Alright… By the way, you hated adventurers, but your son is an adventurer?”

I asked because it struck me as odd.

The Landlady shrugged.

“I tried to stop him… but he wouldn’t listen. He kept saying, ‘I’m going to find Dad’s keepsake!’”

I thought, what a good kid who cares about his father—when something suddenly clicked.

Following the hunch, I asked,

“A keepsake? Was it the East Dungeon?”

“I don’t know where he died. That’s why my son’s been going all over the place.”

“Huh. What was your husband’s name?”

“Angus. You don’t know him, do you?”

“When we cleared the East Dungeon, we picked up all sorts of things. Wait here.”

I ducked behind the counter curtain and went into the kitchen in the back.

As I opened the wardrobe, I pulled out the sub-device and whispered,

“Kou, do we have any belongings from someone named Angus?”

“Mmm, we do. Want me to put them out?”

“Please.”

Then, right in front of the wardrobe, a set of clothes, a rusted knife, and a ring appeared.

I wondered how Kou knew they were keepsakes, but then Angus’s guild card appeared too.

—So that’s how.

I brought them back to the counter.

“Could these be Angus’s keepsakes?”

When I held them out, the Landlady’s eyes went wide.

With trembling hands, she gently lifted the clothes and ring and stared at them.

Then she clutched them tight to her chest.

“Yes… no mistake. There’s no way I’d mistake them! It’s him… the last time I saw him… Welcome home… you idiot…”

She sniffed hard and hugged the keepsakes even tighter.

As I watched her, something inside me shook.

—A sensation I hadn’t felt back when I was a hero.

Back then, even if we found keepsakes, I left everything to the errand runner.

Had I failed to truly save people as a hero if all I did was defeat monsters?

Was a true hero supposed to think about the people left behind too?

While I wrestled with that, Liricia and Sophiecia spoke with gentle smiles full of compassion.

“I’m so glad, Landlady.”

“Please don’t be too sad—your husband must be happy he could come back to you.”

“Thank you… Alec-san, your wife, and Priest-san.”

After that, the Landlady left while repeatedly thanking us, her eyes swollen and red from crying.

In the now-quiet shop, I proposed something to the two of them.

“Hey… we’ve got some free time now. How about we go around returning dungeon keepsakes?”

“Yes, I agree. Edgar-san is investigating the Bust of the Evil God, and we have money because Puchi Elixir has been selling. We’ve been busy lately, so it might be good to slow down and take stock of our surroundings. And I think it’s a wonderful idea.”

“Yeah, yeah. When you were a hero, Alec-san, you were kind of oblivious to the people around you, so you should do that, okay~?”

“Alright, I’ll try… But can we even tell who the keepsakes belong to?”

Tilting my head, I went into the back kitchen and contacted Kou on the sub-device.

“Kou, I want to go around returning keepsakes. About how many do we have that we can identify?”

“We have a fair amount. For people who got absorbed together with their guild cards, their equipment is linked to their personal info.”

“If there’s no guild card, or the gear is generic, will people believe us?”

“Then do you want to show them the footage right before they died? We have it recorded like a security camera—getting brutally slaughtered while screaming their last screams.”

“Don’t. Are you trying to kick the bereaved while they’re down? Denied. —Only bring out the ones where we can identify the owner through personal info and keepsakes.”

“Daww… got it.”

After that, I bundled each set of keepsakes with the owner’s information and put them into the magic bag.

As I slung the bag onto my back, I said,

“Alright, let’s go return them.”

“Yes, Master!”

Liricia nodded with a radiant smile.

Sophiecia smiled too, her semi-short blue hair swaying.

“Have a safe trip, Alec-san.”

“Yeah. I’m counting on you to watch the shop.”

I left the shop with Liricia to return the keepsakes.