Chapter 54: Starting today, I’m becoming an SSS-Class Villainess Adventurer! (2)

An adventurer’s camp in Abel Forest.

A single grave, personally made by the young lady who was stranded in the forest, stood like a symbol.

“May we return safely today as well.”

Adventurers quietly offer prayers in front of Raphael’s grave.

Among them, a girl, wrapped in a large robe, silently gazes at his grave.

“Raphael….”

The girl reads Raphael’s letter, addressed to his daughter.

His last letter was carefully displayed in glass right next to the grave, for anyone to read.

This was a measure taken because the name Sara was so common, and many impostors came claiming to be Raphael’s daughter to get the reward Lin had offered for finding ‘Sara’.

This way, even if his real daughter didn’t care about the reward, she would at least receive his heartfelt message.

“Is this place, for a man like you, the final destination of your journey?”

The girl reminisces about the past.

Recalling the various words he had spoken, the girl savored the memories.

“…He was a foolish man.”

With a brief nostalgia, she turns her back without lingering.

The him she thought of was not entirely a good man.

However.

To die starving at the bottom of a cold cave was undoubtedly too pitiful a death.

“Sara, you too, make such expressions sometimes, huh?”

“Though it was short, he was family, after all.”

Asmodeus, sitting on the wooden cross of the grave, dangles her feet.

Sara familiarly ignores the archdemon’s sneering smile.

“If you had reached just a little further… you might have achieved that longed-for family reunion?”

“No, it’s impossible. The timing is different.”

Sara, who had deduced Raphael’s time of death from the spirits lingering around the grave, denies it.

The reason Asmodeus says such things is simple.

Because Sara had briefly made a nest and stayed in the deeper part of the forest.

“Really? As expected, Sara is smart.”

“Didn’t I tell you not to call me by that name for a while?”

Though they were conversing aloud,

Strangely, no one around paid them any mind.

Considering that Asmodeus, the Archdemon of Lust who ensnares people—though she herself claims to be the Archangel of Knowledge—was walking around, this was clearly an unnatural occurrence.

“I’m using perception-blocking magic anyway, so isn’t it fine?”

“Sometimes it doesn’t work on some fellows. It’s better to be careful from the start to avoid troublesome things later.”

“Ugh~. So strict.”

It would be troublesome if people were indiscriminately bewitched during a simple outing.

So Sara orders her contract demon not to reveal its form.

Just as spirit users make their spirits transparent, Asmodeus also concealed herself in a form that only her contractor, Sara, could hear or see.

However, since Sara’s voice was clearly audible to other people around, she was using various security magics to wander through the adventurer camp like an invisible person.

“Excuse me.”

In other words, unless Sara spoke first or made her presence known like this, they couldn’t even perceive her voice.

“What is it?”

“That thing you’re holding in your hand right now. May I ask what kind of food it is?”

Rio’s party, having finished their final preparations at the adventurer camp.

Just as they were munching on simple snacks to fill their stomachs before leaving,

Sara, who had taken over the body of a southern country girl, speaks out of pure curiosity.

“Hmm?”

Sara, belatedly recognizing Rio’s face.

From his characteristic platinum blonde hair and emerald eyes, she instantly discerns whose descendant he is.

“This is called a cheeseburger. It’s an adventurer’s food that’s easy to carry and can fill your stomach well.”

“A cheeseburger, you say. It looks delicious.”

“It’s a food personally developed and ordered by my younger sister, the temporary governor of this town.”

“I see.”

Rio readily answers Sara’s curiosity.

He even provides information she didn’t ask for, subtly boasting about his younger sister.

His hired adventurer companions, as if quite accustomed to this, react in their own ways, smirking or shaking their heads.

“I’d like to try one too. By any chance, where can I purchase it?”

“Ah…. There are no sales facilities here. If it’s not the regularly visiting food stall, you have to go down to the village to buy it.”

“Then when will that food stall arrive?”

“It’s already gone for today. Probably tomorrow or the day after at the earliest….”

“Is that so…. Then I suppose I have no choice but to go down to the village to try it.”

“Y-You wanted to eat it that badly…?”

Sara, who had shown interest in the unfamiliar food.

Looks slightly disappointed at the words of the girl adventurer sitting next to Rio.

“There’s no need for that. Eat this.”

“Young Master?”

“As expected of the Young Master. You are very generous!”

Rio hands Sara a spare cheeseburger.

The sight of him readily offering his portable rations to a stranger he just met.

This kind of seemingly indifferent thoughtfulness was precisely,

The reason why Rio’s companions trusted him and followed him implicitly.

“Thank you. Then….”

“Sit here and eat with us!”

“By the way, I haven’t seen your face around here before.”

“What’s the big deal, new adventurers come every day.”

“Well, that’s true.”

Sara naturally joins Rio’s adventurer party.

She unwraps the gratefully received cheeseburger.

Sara didn’t immediately bite into the food.

First, she turned it around in her hand, observing its appearance,

Then brought it under her nose and carefully sniffed it.

Then, after taking a small bite, she chewed the meat patty sandwiched between the bread as if analyzing it.

“Hmm.”

She lets out a short exclamation, as if the taste was quite satisfactory.

This time, she takes a large bite, enough to fill her mouth.

Compared to existing adventurer rations,

Like incredibly hard bread and overly salty dried jerky, it was indeed an innovative taste, but few would enjoy it to this extent.

As expected.

The other party members, excluding Rio, were just watching Sara eat.

“This tartness. You made the sauce with tomatoes, didn’t you?”

“Huh? How did you….”

“Impressive. Even those self-proclaimed gourmets couldn’t figure it out.”

“Well, no one knew that taste until Young Lady Lin told us.”

Sara wipes the oozing ketchup sauce with her finger and licks it clean.

Among those who had encountered a cheeseburger for the first time, no one had ever guessed the identity of the red sauce.

Because of this, adventurers already active in Abel Town would first feed the newly developed foods made with tomato sauce or ketchup to newcomers,

And then later teach them the truth of the ingredients and laugh heartily, even performing a kind of hazing ritual.

“It was well made. It was delicious.”

Sara smiles as if satisfied.

Rio’s nose lifts slightly, pretending not to care, as the masterpiece created under his younger sister’s initiative is acknowledged once more.

“There are no bad people among those who like cheeseburgers.”

“Huh? No matter what, isn’t that a bit of a stretch…?”

“I was planning to go quite deep this time, so I thought it would be good to have about one more companion.”

Rio, his mood somewhat improved, makes a suggestion.

Four people, including himself.

Rio, who wanted to venture deep into the forest this time,

Wanted to instantly recruit Sara, whom he had met by chance, to increase their safety.

“I will pay you generously.”

Sara ponders Rio’s offer for a moment.

Though she had come out after moderately raiding the village’s treasury,

Her funds were far too insufficient to enjoy the new things that had been created in the meantime.

Even that supposedly great first magitech scholar,

In her just-resurrected state, had to at least establish a foundation to eat and live.

For reference, the fortune she had amassed as ‘Sara Flask’ had long since disappeared.

Since she never had much greed for money in the first place, she had poured whatever she earned into new research, so she didn’t have much savings to begin with.

‘I wanted to meet my daughter before my son, but….’

Sara, who had her sights set on Lin among Leona’s three children the most.

Now that she had lost her previous body, she judged that approaching naturally from the outside wouldn’t be too bad.

“Hmm… I don’t see any reason to refuse.”

And so, Sara joins Rio’s party.

The companions’ reactions weren’t too bad either.

Rather, it was a very welcoming atmosphere.

The reason they showed such a reaction despite it being their first meeting was because they felt an inexplicable warmth from the girl’s appearance.

The kind one might commonly see in a country farmhouse,

A seemingly ordinary appearance, yet a subtly emanating coziness, had unknowingly captured their hearts.

‘It’s a surprisingly convenient body.’

And watching their reactions,

Sara was rather satisfied with her new body, which easily gained favor.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t asked your name. Ah, I’m Emily, the healer.”

“For reference, this person here is Young Master Rio of the Rosegarden family. Though his speech may be rough, he’s a warm person inside, so you don’t have to be that nervous.”

“I see.”

The party members, wanting to exchange names to commemorate becoming companions.

At the question of what her name was, Sara utters a name engraved in the body’s memory.

“My name is Lin.”

An ordinary magitech scholar, found anywhere.