The Strongest Wizard Becomes a Countryside Guardsman After Taking an Arrow to the Knee

Chapter 50 – Our Hero Gets Caught in a Spud Scam

Translator: Ranzan

The next day. Cruz returned to the capital early in the morning.

Luka and the others watched her leave with surprise.

「Today is our day off…you really push yourself hard.」

「I wish you’d push yourself that hard on day’s we’re not off.」

Luka and Yureena said.

It seems all the girls didn’t have work today.

Even though they’re young, no, because they’re young, they should take a take a day off every now and then so they don’t get exhausted.

「You don’t need to go back to the capital too, Luka? Yureena?」

「I told you, it’s our day off.」

「Yeah, why do we have to go to the capital on our day off?」

It seems they both wanted to spend their time here in Mulg Village. I know why.

There’s no doubt that someone would run up to them with some urgent request in the capital.

In Mulg, you could kick back and relax as much as you wanted.

After hearing that, Millet laughed.

「Oh yeah! Why don’t you two join me in the hot springs?」

「What? But it’s still morning!」

「And we just took a bath in them yesterday.」

Millet looked at Yureena enthusiastically, even though she had refused..

「Let’s take one BECAUSE it’s morning.」

「Because it’s morning?」

「Yeah, because it’s morning.」

「Oh…ok.」

Millet was putting the pressure on Luka as well.

「You must experience how great a hot springs is in the morning! You can only do so when you have a day off.」

「Yeah…I guess you’re right.」

「I am!」

Millet was practically lecturing Yureena on it.

「What about you Vi-Vi? Do you want to get in?」

「I have things to do.」

「The cows?」

「Yeah.」

Vi-Vi did her best to care for the cows if she had any time off.

They would soon become the town’s meat.

She had also learned from her experience from Moofy NOT to give any of the cows names.

「I see. I guess I have my guard post to go to.」

「I’ll join you afterwards.」

Even though Yureena and Luka had days off, Vi-Vi and I never did.

That’s why I had to make that request to Cruz for potatoes.

I was sorry as it was her day off. I guess I’ll apologize afterwards.

Then I’ll make amends for it by helping her out sometime.

「I guess we’re all off to the hot springs then.」

「I’ll be over at the stables.」

Vi-Vi went off to the stables while Millet and the other girls went to the hot springs.

I just plopped myself down at the entrance to the village.

I could see the storage shack well from where I was at the gate.

The crawlspace below the shack floor was literally filled with magic wolves.

Moofy took a liking to it as well, and was sleeping down there with Femm.

The small wolf cubs were playing around on top of Moofy.

—Plop.

As I turned to see where the sound came from, I saw a mouse on the floor.

A magic wolf was wagging its tail happily after having caught another mouse.

It had learned to bring me them in order to get petted.

「Good job.」

I rubbed its head over and over.

Mice were a problem, because they could eat up the crops we wanted to raise.

I was happy to have less to take care of.

After rubbing its head over and over, the wolf then took the dead mouse over to Femm.

The small wolves would eat it up.

As I watched the baby wolves tear up the little mouse, the doors of the shack opened.

Cruz jumped out and ran up to me.

「Allllllll!」

「That was fast!」

Cruz was all smiles.

「I got your potatoes right here!」

「Thanks. And on a day off too.」

「No problem! Don’t worry about it.」

「So, where are the potatoes?」

「Here!」

Cruz took out a bag with some burdock in it…

It was basically some old, nasty burdock cut up in round slices.

「Uh…Cruz?」

「Yes?!」

「Where did you buy these…potatoes?」

There was no way that any grocer worth their salt would mistake potatoes with burdock.

And since I didn’t ask for burdock, there was no reason for her to buy it.

「Well, I went to the agricultural seller that Luka had told me to go to…in the capital.」

「Yeah, Luka did tell you to go to a place yesterday.」

And Luka knew the capital inside and out.

「I was outside the place, and some kind old man asked me if I wanted to buy something…」

「A kind old man?」

「Yes. I told him that I was looking for some potatoes to plant, and he told me that the store Luka told me about rips people off.」

「The store Luka told you about rips people off?」

「Yeah, so I was happy that I didn’t get fooled by a place like that…that Luka recommended!」

I was very glad that Luka wasn’t here.

Even so, it was amazing that Cruz couldn’t see through a scam like that.

「So the kind old man took me to his famous potato store to sell them to me.」

「Where is this famous potato store, Cruz?」

「It was in the eighth sector of the capital…behind an alley.」

The eight sector was all slums. No one came close to a place like that if they knew the city.

One of the reasons why was that the place was known for basically being lawless.

Even in a tightly regulated place like the capital, the place just wasn’t safe.

「You know that they usually don’t sell vegetables in a place like that, right?」

「He said it was a store everyone kept secret.」

「So you bought this there?」

「Yes.」

「And the price?」

「Well, when I first took out the amount that you had given me, Al, he said it wasn’t enough. I was about to leave, and he told me that he would give me a special sale.」

If she was about to walk off at that price, that meant the old man knew she could be fooled, but she was smart enough not to fall for too expensive a price.

That’s why he got whatever he could from her. She was completely duped.

「He lowered the price a lot! It was cheap.」

「I bet it was.」

She had quite a bit of gold with her too. It was enough to buy sacks of potatoes that we could cut up and plant the whole field with.

The field we cleared was very big. So we needed a lot of potatoes.

I also added more just in case we messed up the planting so that we had enough for the village to have extra.

「Eheh heh.」

Cruz’ eyes shimmered…she wanted me to praise her.

It was hard to tell the girl that she had brought me rotten burdock root and not potatoes.

I can’t forgive anyone that would fool an innocent girl like her.

Since she’s so innocent, she was so easy to fool.

Just then, Vi-Vi came over from taking care of the cows.

「Cruz, that was fast!」

「Yeah, I bought the potatoes.」

「Hm? These aren’t potatoes. These are burdock roots. And they’re rotten.」

(Cruz: Al, I got the potatoes, and at a CHEAP PRICE!

Al: I…uh…see?

Vi-Vi: Um Cruz, those aren’t potatoes, they’re ROTTEN BURDOCK ROOT)

「WHAAAAT?!」

Cruz was surprised and after looking at Vi-Vi, she looked at me.

I guess I had to tell her the truth.

「Cruz, sorry, but this IS burdock.」

「N…no way…the old man said it was potatoes…」

「He fooled you.」

Cruz apologized with tear-filled eyes.

「I’m so sorry…because of me…」

「You’re not the one who did wrong.」

The one fooled being bad?

No, the one that fools others is bad.

「Al. What are you going to do?」

「Of course I’m going to take revenge for whomever did this to Cruz.」

「Yeah!」

I took Cruz and Vi-Vi with me, and decided to make my way to the capital.