Mobile Errand Service (02)

“Here you go.”

The workshop owner, who had returned at some point, handed me the potions I had asked for earlier.

However, my mind was still full of thoughts about cakes.

I only slightly bowed my head to the person waving goodbye, without any particular farewell greeting, and then turned to leave.

I continued to contemplate what cake to choose even as I moved on to another request location.

Since such favorability-related events weren’t particularly common, I needed to make a choice that could raise as much favorability as possible.

Only after momentarily stopping in front of a crosswalk did I reach a conclusion on what to do.

Since there were a total of two people whose birthdays were approaching, I decided to prepare two different cakes.

A strategy called “I didn’t know what you’d like, so I prepared everything.”

After asking Asha whose birthday she was preparing for, I could just eat the cake for the wrong person myself.

Perhaps because I had clearly decided what to do, my mind felt significantly lighter.

…Was that why?

“Hello~!”

I revealed a somewhat careless, youthful voice, even by my own evaluation, at the second request location I finally arrived at.

This second request location…

No, I momentarily forgot that the [Archives] was a library-like place where you shouldn’t even breathe loudly.

As expected, the slightly surprised gazes of the people inside the Archives instantly focused on me.

Right after that, filled with almost simultaneous embarrassment, I hurriedly backed out of the Archives.

Only after my slightly flushed face returned to normal did I enter the Archives again.

“Um… I’m from Lunatic…”

This time, instead of greeting all the people inside the Archives, I spoke almost in a whisper only to someone who looked like a staff member.

As expected, faces puzzled by the fact that such a young child was a member of the Lunatic Guild returned, but…

One way or another, the bracelet-type device made exclusively for the Lunatic Guild served as an ID card by its mere existence, so.

“Please check if there’s a record called ‘Mana Monster Observation Journal’. Ah, and also a record called ‘Biography of Emperor Astria’.”

I could reveal my business at the Archives without any self-introduction.

The time it took for the Archives staff member, who had asked me to wait for a moment, to return to me was about 5 minutes.

After receiving from the staff one in the form of a binder and the other in the form of a book, I headed to a table inside the Archives.

The reason being that documents inside the Archives could not be taken outside the Archives under any circumstances.

I still don’t know exactly why, but if that’s the Archives regulation, what can I do…

So, I spent a good while with my face buried among papers, trying to complete the second request.

If it had been a request with predetermined information to find, I would have had no need to come to the Archives as my memories from the first playthrough would have been sufficient. But unfortunately, it was a request where the information to be found was randomly determined.

There was no other way but to look for it directly like this.

Only when my eyes had become dry enough did I manage to transfer all the information needed for the request progression into my notebook.

When I came out of the Archives with a stiff body, it was already late afternoon.

“Ah, right.”

-Click.

Only then did I realize I hadn’t taken a picture of the Archives, so I took another photo with the Archives’ outer wall, dyed in red sunset light, as the background.

However, coincidentally, the time I had promised to return to Asha was before the sun, which was stealthily setting beyond the tall skyscrapers, completely set.

…What should I do? I still have one more place left.

“Hmm, will I get scolded if I return late on the first day of going out…”

Just in case, I tried to contact Asha, but perhaps because it was a busy time, there was no response no matter how many times I tried.

In the end, I had to move my steps to keep the curfew, which I had never observed or even experienced in my entire living life.

Toward the Lunatic Guild headquarters, not the fork in the road leading to the last request location.

If I broke my promise with Asha and didn’t return until late on the first day of going out, it was obvious that not only would I be severely scolded, but I probably wouldn’t be allowed to go out again.

Fortunately, the request didn’t have to be completed today…

Ending the day with just two requests is a bit unexpected.

Come to think of it, the requests themselves didn’t take much time.

The time spent moving to the request locations actually occupied the largest portion of today.

Well, a little kid like this couldn’t possibly drive or anything, so walking was naturally the only option.

But isn’t this taking up too much time?

However, I couldn’t learn teleportation magic or something like that right now.

Hmm, what to do.

-Ding-a-ling.

“Welcome… Oh, I think I saw you earlier?”

“The bread was delicious, so I came again.”

“! Really?”

Even when I somehow arrived back at the bakery I had visited a few hours earlier, my mind was preoccupied with the newly discovered problem.

Even after asking for the types of cakes I had thought of in advance to be packaged from among those on display, I continued to ponder deeply.

Not long after that, two cakes of different flavors came out beautifully packaged.

However, since it seemed evident that I was deeply thinking about something, the clerk asked me what I was contemplating so hard about.

“There are many places I want to go, but walking takes too much time.”

I inadvertently spilled out the concern that had filled my mind.

The answer that came back from the clerk, who had fallen into thought for a moment, was in the form of a pure question.

“Can’t you ask your mom or dad to take you? Are both of them busy?”

“I don’t have a mom or dad.”

“?!”

Only when I met the gaze that had begun to waver noticeably compared to a few seconds ago did I belatedly realize what I had just said.

No, I really didn’t think anything of it.

I was just answering truthfully when asked about the ‘player’s’ parents.

I had no intention whatsoever of making that kind and friendly clerk literally speechless…

“Um, are… you okay?”

Because they had been speechless for a while, just blinking those round eyes, somehow I ended up asking what they should have asked.

But it seems the question wasn’t heard by someone whose reason had already stopped functioning and frozen.

Seeing that they ultimately handed me a few pieces of bread from the store without even charging me, they seemed to feel sorrier than I had expected.

“Whenever you want to eat a cream puff or anything else, come back anytime. No, you must come back!”

I’m not so sure. I probably won’t be able to come back again.

How could I come back in front of someone who would clearly feel sorry for me every time they saw me…

Well, one way or another, I didn’t have the luxury to correct the clerk’s misunderstanding.

In the end, I just verbally promised to visit again and then hurriedly moved my steps toward the Lunatic Guild headquarters.

Now there really wasn’t much time left until the time promised with Asha.

So, panting with breaths that had been getting increasingly rapid for some time, I barely made it to the guild headquarters lobby before the promised time.

Right after that, I moved my trembling legs again to report the completed requests to the request office staff.

-Thud.

“H-here…”

With an expression that could be well described as having burned oneself white, I placed the notebook I had received from the previous request office staff on the counter.

And, at the same time.

“U-Lua. Don’t tell me you were running around doing requests all day today… Not sightseeing in the city?”

The staff member’s voice, half surprised and half bewildered, directly hit my drooping ears.

“Nothing happened… at all!”

“That’s not the appearance of someone nothing happened to?!”

The famous line I uttered to try to look fine failed miserably.

Come to think of it, I was this exhausted because I had to run urgently due to the promised time, not because there was anything that could be called real ‘work’.

Anyway, at least the request completion processing was done.

“Well then, goodbye!”

For some reason, I turned my back almost as if running away from the staff member who was about to interrogate me about what I had been doing all day.

After that, I picked up the various paper bags I had temporarily placed on a bench in the corridor.

After that, there were no problems.

Even when asking guild members who got on the elevator with me to press the elevator button for me.

Even when I finally arrived at Asha’s office and placed the items I was holding on the office table.

“I bought two types just in case. Which flavor do you think would be better, Big Sister?”

Yes, there should have been no problem even when I indirectly asked Asha whose birthday she was preparing for.

If they were close enough for her to prepare a birthday cake personally, they must be quite close to Asha.

In other words, she would probably know that person’s cake preferences.

Therefore, I was waiting for her to choose one of the cakes I had bought, but.

“You bought both because they both looked delicious? Then let’s just eat both.”

…What is she saying now?

And why is she turning off the office lights all of a sudden?