After seeing the duke’s family off, I ran back to the mines. There were a lot of adventurers along the way, so I couldn’t help but remember the grell frogs.
It’s along the way anyway, so I guess I might as well catch a few.
As I thought that, I took out my suit from my Item Box and headed for the marsh.
“There sure are a lot of people…” [Ryouma]
There’s probably over 100 people in the area, but there are people going to other marshes, so the total number of people here is even more than that.
As I thought that to myself while looking at the marsh, I noticed several people wearing the same waders as me. Looks like it’s selling quite well…
One group of adventurers caught my eye. They were a group of five and all of them were wearing the waders.
I remember them. They’re the ones who sold me the bloody slime. The Wharf of Shikumu. I’m here anyway, so I might as well say hi.
I approached them, but something seems to have happened, as the people around an unhappy Kai were lightly tapping him at the back, telling him not to mind it.
“Good afternoon.” [Ryouma]
“Hmm? You’re that guy from before… Ryouma, right? Thanks for the other day.” [Kai]
“Don’t sweat it. I got a good slime from it, after all.” [Ryouma]
As I said that, the drunk guy from before stepped forward.
“You’re the guy who bought that slime?” [Sein]
“Yes, that’s right.” [Ryouma]
“I see. Sorry about my behavior that day. I’m Sein. I was really drunk that time, and it seems I picked a fight with you. I don’t remember much of what happened then because I was drunk, but thanks for buying the slime and for the information.” [Sein]
Huh. He’s completely different from the way he behaved that time. I thought he was just a drunkard, but it turns out, he’s actually a pretty serious guy.
“Please don’t mind it. That aside, did something happen? Kai-san doesn’t look too good.” [Ryouma]
“It’s not exactly a problem… Before that, though, let me introduce you to these guys firs.” [Kai]
As Kai-san said that, he turned to the two people who carried Sein-san before.
Kai-san placed his hand on the shoulders of the guy a little shorter than him and said this.
“This one is Kei. He’s my younger brother.” [Kai]
“I’m Kei. It’s nice to meet you.” [Kei]
“It’s nice to meet you too.” [Ryouma]
“And this one is…” [Kai]
“Payron. Nice to meet you.” [Payron]
“Nice to meet you.” [Ryouma]
“And together, we five make up the party ‘the Wharf of Shikumu’. But you knew that, right?” [Kai]
“Yep.” [Ryouma]
“Actually, we used to be fishermen.” [kai]
Fishermen? That’s nice, but why are they talking about this all of the sudden? But then Shin-san suddenly switched places with Kai-san.
“Sorry, Kai sucks at explaining, so I’m taking over.” [Shin]
As it turns out, Shikumu is apparently a village by the bank of the biggest river of this country.
They grew up there and are quite proficient as using nets. Because of that they have an easier time catching stuff in the marsh compared to others. The marsh is different from the sea, but they still have an easier time compared to the other adventurers. As a result, they managed to catch a lot of grell frogs.
They’ve been making a killing doing this for the past few days. Today, they managed to catch a considerable number too, but when they left their basket of grell frogs unattended for a moment, someone had replaced it with another.
The baskets are provided by the guild, so there are a lot of adventurers with the same basket.
“I see… So, your catch was stolen.” [Ryouma]
“I guess…” [Kai]
What’s with that halfhearted reply?
But then Kei-san showed me their basket, and inside could be seen 20 grell frogs, but they were very weak.
A few of them even looked like they were about to die.
“If you just look at the numbers, there’s more after being switched, but…” [Kai] [2]
“These things were handled very poorly. Because of that the grell frogs ended up being so weak. Weak grell frogs like these don’t sell for much, and if they die, their value will go down even more. In fact, they look like they’ll die along the way back to town.” [Shin]
“They switched these sorry grell frogs for ours.” [Kei]
“We could just catch some again, but it certainly doesn’t feel good.” [Sein]
I see… Oh, right!
“How much do you think these would go for if you sold them?” [Ryouma]
“If they’ve been weakened by the time we get to the guild, they’ll go for about 200 suits. If they die, 50 suits. They’re really weak, so this pricing should be right. We learned our lesson a few days ago, so our preliminary investigation should be perfect.” [Kai]
“And if the condition is good, about 1000 suits per grell frog, right?” [Ryouma]
“That’s right. What about it?” [Kai]
“How about selling these two me for 300suits per grell frog?” [Ryouma]
[2] – I don’t know. It says they caught more than 20 before, and then after being switched, they got 20. So even if