Chapter 386: The Delivery of the Giant Fish
“Oh, it’s Phonia-chan!”
After enjoying breakfast prepared by our chef, I arrived at the orphanage with Phonia. Ivan had headed to the Adventurer’s Guild to accept some requests. Nil was with us, as he seemed to be quite popular among the orphans.
“Woof woof!”
“Woof woof!”
As we entered the orphanage, a child playing in the garden rushed over to us. When Nil responded, a smaller girl than Phonia mimicked him and waddled over.
“I came to play!”
Phonia dashed toward the children with a bright smile.
“Oh, you came! Thank you!”
From the group of children, a girl with a height that seemed to be around the middle of the age range—up to fourteen years old—called out. She was about ten centimeters shorter than me. However, she had a calm demeanor that was hard to believe for an orphan, making her appear quite mature.
“Hehe.”
She bent down slightly and gently patted Phonia’s head with a warm smile.
“Director! Can I go play?”
One of the orphans called out to the girl.
“Hehe, since you came all this way, go ahead and play.”
“Okay! Let’s go, Phonia-chan!”
“I’m off!”
Excitedly invited, Phonia turned back with a smile and ran off, led by the other children from the orphanage.
“…Director?”
“Oh, yes. I am Katie, the director of this orphanage.”
As I stood there, momentarily dazed, the girl greeted me with a smile.
“Oh, I’m Rio, the adventurer. This is Shuu.”
Snapping back to reality, Rio quickly returned the greeting, and I hurriedly followed suit. I had thought she was just another orphan, but she was the director. Still, her mature aura had a persuasive quality that was hard to associate with a child.
“You are Phonia-chan’s older brother and sister, right? I’ve heard about you.”
I was curious about what kind of stories she had heard, but somehow, I felt it was inappropriate to ask.
“Likewise, I’m glad to see Phonia having so much fun.”
“Hehe, you must be surprised to see me so small, being a director and all.”
Her comment about her height made me feel a bit self-conscious about my own stature, but at the same time, it made Katie seem like a true adult.
“I’m a member of the small folk, so I am considered an adult at this height.”
According to her, she was in her late twenties, which was certainly adult enough. However, she looked like a child from the human race, which often led to misunderstandings. It seemed to be a common occurrence among different races. I wondered if my own short stature could also be considered a common trait among Japanese people.
“Since you’re here, would you like some tea?”
“Then, I would be grateful.”
With Phonia having dashed off to play, I decided to accept Katie’s invitation for tea.
“Hm? Has it gotten bigger?”
After enjoying tea at the orphanage and treating all the children to lunch with fish, we made our way to the harbor to deliver the fish as planned.
“Wow! It’s so big!”
“It’s huge!”
“Whoa!”
Leading the orphans, I called out, “Hey, don’t run around too much!”
However, the older kids were in charge of supervising, so I was merely following along. When we had previously held a disassembly show at the harbor, a few orphans had wandered around, and now that I mentioned we were going to deliver a giant fish, they eagerly tagged along. The disassembly would likely take place right there, but I had informed them that I wasn’t sure if Mr. Miles would be serving the fish on the spot. Even if they couldn’t eat it, just watching would surely be fun.
“Lord Shu!”
In the square where a crowd was already gathering, Mr. Miles greeted me with a beaming smile. Behind him stood adventurers wielding large blades, likely hired for the disassembly.
“Mr. Miles, I’ve brought it as promised.”
“Ah, I had the street stalls cleared to make space. This should work just fine.”
“I see.”
Looking around again, I indeed remembered the street stalls being there. The benches that had been set up were moved, so it seemed like it would be fine—if it was just one fish. The adventurers behind him were indeed hired for the disassembly, and while they seemed competent, I couldn’t gauge their skill in that specific task.
“You brought it… but I don’t see any giant fish around here.”
One person grumbled in dissatisfaction, but Mr. Miles and the other adventurers quickly hushed him. Well, as long as they were keeping things in check, I had no complaints.
“By the way, there wasn’t a specific type of fish mentioned. Which one would you prefer?”
“Uh, are there really that many types? I don’t know what kinds of giant fish there are…”
Indeed. While I could identify them with appraisal, I couldn’t imagine that there would be giant fish of the same types as those commonly found. They were almost certainly different species.
“Then please choose which one you like.”
“Eh?”
Even though they had cleared a space for us, there was only room for one fish. I used magic to suspend the giant fish I retrieved from the Dimensional Box in mid-air, then began to bring out more, fixing them in the air one after another.
“Ahhh!”
“Big brother, that’s amazing!”
“It’s huge!”
Some onlookers screamed and ran away, but the cheers from the orphanage children filled the air. Phonia gazed up at the floating fish, practically drooling.
“Wow, I didn’t expect this much…”
As I suspended about ten giant fish, each over a hundred meters long, Mr. Miles murmured, wiping the cold sweat from his brow.