Tricia's "wish notebook" was written in Japanese, making it completely unreadable to anyone else.
"What's that? A cipher?" Reil asked, his brow furrowed as he leaned in to peer at her notes. He was a mercenary, and his golden hair was tied back in a short, practical knot. He wore a look of intense, dogged concentration, trying his best to solve the puzzle. Apparently, he had been hired by an anonymous S-rank adventurer to act as a bodyguard for the healer waiting outside the West Gate.
"You're not doing a very good job of being anonymous, are you?" Tricia remarked.
"Talk about overprotective~ That husband of yours," Ash teased, flashing a grin.
"Huh!? Husband!?" Tricia gasped, caught off guard. "Nope! Just a messy, long-term entanglement!"
She would be waiting here with Ash for the next three days. They had rented a room in a nearby barracks, so she did not have to worry about a place to sleep.
"I gotta say, though, no wonder that Luke is so into you—you're cute, and your skills as a healer are top-tier! Why in the world are you only C-rank?" Ash asked, genuinely curious.
"The Adventurer's Guild doesn't really value healers that much, you know," Tricia replied with a shrug.
Gelt, the staff member in charge of the Adventurer's Guild Infirmary, made a sour face. He was clearly amused by Ash, who was just trying to stir the pot, but he didn't appreciate the jab at the guild's hierarchy.
"So, why don't you join our mercenary band instead?" Ash pressed.
"Hey! Poaching is forbidden!!!" Gelt interjected sharply.
"What's the problem~? There's no rule against that, right?" Ash laughed.
A while had passed since Luke and the main force of the mercenary group had headed into the dungeon. Adventurers were following them in one after another, but so far, no injured people had been brought in. The only group to arrive was a party that had entered two days ago. They had been on their way to the exit in a battered state when they crossed paths with Luke and his team, narrowly saving their lives.
It seemed like Luke's group was, right on schedule, systematically hunting down every monster on the main route.
"The 'porters' are starting to trickle out," Tricia noted.
"To come out in such a short time... the place really must be overflowing with monsters," Ash mused.
'Porters' were individuals who accompanied adventurers into the dungeon to carry back the monster materials the adventurers had slain. It was a common setup for smaller parties, solo adventurers, or those specifically hunting for certain materials. Since it did not matter if you had any combat capability or not, it was a fairly dangerous job. Those in financial distress or slaves mainly took on the work.
"If you say a three-day round trip, what kind of floor level can you reach?" Tricia asked.
"With a day and a half for the one-way trip, average adventurers wouldn't have gotten very far... but since it's the Captain and his group, well..." Ash trailed off, impressed.
The morning ended peacefully. Tricia lounged in the tent acting as a temporary infirmary, leisurely brainstorming ideas for her boarding house1.
(What should I do about the first floor... I'm not really cut out to open a cafeteria or a cafe, and selling miscellaneous goods is also... might it be possible to open a clinic? Or hell, maybe I should just make it a boarding house to begin with)
She scribbled furiously into her notebook.
(I'll have them build a front door for my own room! I need to take my shoes off!!! I'm going to spend my time barefoot!)
The attic portion was quite spacious. That gave her a lot of freedom. She tried to draw the floor plan of the place she lived in her previous life, but since the space here was so much larger, she ended up freezing mid-pen stroke.
(…Come on out, my imagination~!!!)
Her memories of her previous life, where she'd lived in a 1LDK for so long, weren't enough to fill such a wide space. She hadn't really thought about her own living quarters. She'd assumed that if she lived there, it would just be a slightly upgraded boarding house.
(My parents' house, too... it was just a plain two-story building... Ah! Come to think of it, that mansion I visited once had a gorgeous entrance! It had a cafe, and a play area for kids... the guest room was beautiful, too.)
She fell into a loop, starting to think about the content of the first floor again, and just as she was groaning, Reil peeked at her notebook again.
"What's that? A house? A room?" Reil asked.
"She's gonna start a boarding house business specifically for adventurers, kid," Ash explained happily.
Tricia had been so high on the adrenaline of having just bought the property that she had spilled her plans to him. But he had just kept nodding and listening to her talk with a big grin.
"I was thinking of asking you for a room, too," Reil added.
"Huh!? Really!!?" Tricia brightened up.
"Really, really. The room at the guild isn't bad, but I'd like something a bit more spacious," Reil replied.
Tricia felt her face soften, realizing two rooms were already almost booked.
"Then please, let me hear your advice!" Tricia requested.
"Woah! Wait...!" Gelt interjected, suddenly cutting into the conversation.
"Tricia-san, are you quitting as one of our resident healers!?" Gelt asked, panicked.
"Well, someday, sure... but I'll be in your care for a while yet!" Tricia assured him.
"That's a relief~!" Gelt sighed.
"Hey, hey! We're adventurers, remember? Don't forget we're a breed of people who live however we want!" Ash laughed with a booming "Wahaha!"
"So, Ash-san! Regarding the floor plan, I'm thinking of a small kitchen, a living room, a bedroom, and if possible, I want to add a toilet and a bath... and I'm thinking of installing a shared laundry area," Tricia detailed.
Sorry to Gelt, but Tricia could not help but want to talk about this.
"Huh!? A bath and toilet!? And laundry, too!? What kind of luxury apartment complex is this!?" Ash exclaimed.
"No, I don't intend to raise the prices that much! It's a monthly payment, and the rent accrues even while you're in the dungeon, so..." Tricia reasoned.
"Ah, that's true... which means a guy like me could fully enjoy those rooms," Ash said, nodding, satisfied.
He seemed to be picturing that life already. Ash was a solo healer who was occasionally invited by other parties to dive into the dungeon. But he left quite a bit of time between those jobs. As a healer with proven skills, he worked all over the place, and it seemed he had plenty of room in his income—he really was living life exactly how he pleased.
(I really want that B-rank healer title.)
Reil was watching Tricia and the others with the look of someone watching something interesting. He narrowed his beautiful emerald eyes.
"Man~ It's nice to have some downtime," Reil said, locking his hands behind his head.
"Ahーー!!!" Gelt shouted.
"Huh!? What!?"
It wasn't just Gelt; Ash and Tricia were also staring at Reil with dead eyes, so Reil instinctively braced himself.
"Well, it's just a jinx, but..." Reil started.
"Huh?"
"There's a jinx that if you say you're bored, you'll get busy," Reil finished.
Tricia, Ash, and even Gelt had experienced that jinx many times. That was why, recently, they had made sure never to use that word inside the infirmary.
"I'm sorry! It looks like about 20 people are coming...!" a soldier who had been helping out cried, rushing into the room.
Everyone looked at Reil at once, their gazes filled with resentment.
"My fault~!? " Reil protested.
And so, the patients continued without a break until nightfall.
Summary:
Tricia is passing the time during a dungeon expedition by brainstorming plans for her future boarding house business in her notebook. She shares her ideas with the local mercenaries and guild staff, accidentally revealing her business ambitions. The conversation is abruptly cut short when a jinxed remark about downtime leads to a sudden influx of patients.
Trivia:
Tricia's "wish notebook" is written in Japanese, rendering it illegible to the locals.
Adventurers often hire "porters" to carry monster loot out of dungeons.
Healers at the Adventurer's Guild receive little appreciation or high-rank recognition compared to combat classes.
There is a local superstition that mentioning "downtime" or being "bored" inevitably invites a sudden rush of work.
Translation Notes:
1 ↩ In the context of the story, this refers to a multi-room housing facility for adventurers that Tricia intends to modernize with features like private toilets, baths, and laundry, which are considered luxuries in this fantasy setting.
Notes:
• Tricia - A pragmatic C-Rank healer and orphan with shoulder-length dark hair and obsidian eyes, she hides her exceptional healing and rare item-restoring "Reset" skill to avoid exploitation. Abandoned by her party, she now lives in an infirmary tent in Edinbia, using past-life memories and a Japanese wish notebook to strategically build a passive income empire by opening a boarding house for low-rank adventurers.
• T - A first-year student at District 13 High School who has recruited K and N from East Middle into his group.
• Reil - A mercenary with golden hair tied in a short knot. He wears a serious expression and is currently acting as a bodyguard for the healer stationed outside the West Gate.
• A - A student from South Middle School described as an idol who has been recruited into R's high school squad.
• R - A first-year student at District 13 High School who has successfully built a squad and added multiple girls, including M and A, into his group.
• S - A first-year student at District 13 High School who has taken B from North Middle into his squad.
• Ash - A former B-rank healer who retired to serve a merchant before returning to Edinbia, he’s muscular and fit, with a charismatic, casual demeanor that makes him a frequent visitor to the infirmary; he’s now seeking to rent a room in Tricia’s future boarding house, blending his adventurous past with a quiet desire for community.
• N - A student from East Middle with an eccentric personality who entered National High School due to complex family circumstances and used herself as leverage to negotiate a protective agreement for K.
• Luke - A silver-haired, blue-eyed S-rank adventurer, noble Marquis's son, and mercenary captain leading a dungeon expedition. Surly yet mischievously carefree for Tricia—his childhood friend and ally—he acts as her wealthy companion, manager, and protector, supporting her passive income empire. Pragmatic, observant, and dryly teasing, he balances overwhelming combat power with devoted, grounding support.
• Gelt - An employee at the Adventurer’s Guild Infirmary who is frequently stressed by the influx of patients and the unconventional behavior of adventurers.
• K - A student from East Middle who followed N to National High School out of care, successfully remaining pure through N's protection until a misunderstanding involving Anonymous Student 0008 led to her capitulation.
• M - A first-year student at District 13 High School and the childhood friend of Anonymous Student 0006, described as an atavistic strong-female who looks plain but possesses significant power.
• B - A student originally from North Middle School who was added to S's group.