I've Became Able to Do Anything with My Growth Cheat, but I Can't Seem to Get out of Being Jobless-Chapter (416) Soup kitchen in the Royal Garden

It wasn’t Malina or a swarm of monsters waiting for me.

“Oo, the vegetables have just been baked, Jo~!”

“Vegetables are delicious if you bake them, Jo~!”

In the garden of Baron Oregeru’s home, Jofre and Elize were having a leisurely barbecue while Centaur was continuously eating the vegetables that they had baked.

That Centaur, the last we saw it was when it escaped from Florence, but it came all the way here? Did it somewhat recognize Jofre and Elize as its owner?

Leaving that aside, I wondered why were Jofre and Elize there. But when I thought about it, Jofre, Elize, and Centaur had interacted with Oregeru before too.

“Ichinojo-dono, thank you for coming.”

Sebastan, the old butler who was barbecuing with Jofre and Elize, greeted me.

“Sebastan-san, it’s been a long time. Is Malina inside?”

“Yes, unfortunately, Malina-sama is tired and currently sleeping. Should I wake her?”

“No, it’s okay. Please let her sleep.”

She was probably tired from searching for Kanon.

“You remember Sebastan but forgot about me?”

Oregeru complained at the side but Sebastan had not changed at all so I wouldn’t have mistaken him. His name was similar to Sebastian too so it was easy to remember.

“By the way, Oregeru. What did you want me to help you with?”

“With that donkey. Just how much does it want to eat? When there is not enough food due to the emergency. But as it saved Sebastan’s life, I can’t say a word of complaint.”

“Ah, that’s impossible. I can’t handle it either. For your information, it is a Holy Beast so please treat it carefully.”

“Holy Beast? I think I read about such a description in old folklore but that’s a joke, right?”

I wanted to believe that it was a joke too but it was the truth.

“For now, I’ll provide the ingredients that it can eat. Hey, Jofre. I’ll pass you food for Centaur so come over.”

I was supposed to pass it to the ranch in Florence but I handed the vegetables, flour, and rice that was left untouched to Jofre’s item bag.

Also, I added in a large amount of surplus monster meat.

“Sorry about this Jo~. I’ll return this favor if I remember it!”

It looked like he won’t return the favor for life.

“By the way, aren’t you wanted by the Church?”

I expect the Church to not have the leeway to arrest Jofre and Elize in this situation but I wondered if they could still barbecue so openly.

“Eh, really?”

“You didn’t know?”

“I didn’t.”

Jofre thought about it,

“Well, it’ll work out somehow!”

And smiled widely.

He was really a carefree guy.

“Good morning. Ah, Kusunoki-san is here.”

“Malina, you’re awake.”

Malina came out of the mansion in her usual clothes.

She had her wind bow at her waist but she wasn’t wearing her usual hat.

“Just in time, Kusunoki-san. Could you help me?”

“Help with?”

“Preparations for the soup kitchen.”

She said with a bright smile that was completely outside my expectations.

It seemed that the large amount of food in Oregeru’s home that went into feeding Centaur was not set aside by them to eat during emergencies but to distribute to everyone in town.

When we started preparing for the soup kitchen, people gathered from nowhere and quickly formed a long line.

“Kusunoki-san, please help with cooking. Carol-san will collect the blue wooden tags and help to hand them their meals. Please be careful as the food cannot be exchanged with wooden cards of other colors. I’m sorry to trouble Haru-san but please check if there are fake wooden tags mixed in using Forgery Appraisal. There have been many cases where the numbers did not match.”

In a lightly salted soup, I minced the vegetables and the surplus demon dragon, black tiger, and other edible monster meat and mixed them into meatballs.

The people receiving the soup smiled slightly at the sight of meat.

“That’s a great help. Thank you for providing meat too. Support was limited so supplying food is extremely helpful.”

“No well, I coincidentally have a few hundred tons …? Few thousand tons? an amount more than I would wish to count leftover. I’m glad that it won’t go to waste.”

After all, I acquire 50 kg for every demon dragon and 20 kg for every black tiger.

Leaving that aside … I looked at Malina.

Even now, she was smiling and giving out food to everyone.

“Hey, Oregeru.”

I called out to Oregeru who was standing there as a supervisor.

“It seems like you are fixated on not addressing me properly. What is it?”

“Has Malina been like this the entire time?”

“What do you mean?”

“How do I put it? It is painful to watch.”

Oregeru looked down after hearing what I said.

After keeping silent for some time, he replied.

“You think so too?”

“I had never seen Malina that desperate.”

Malina had a shy personality.

She shouldn’t have the courage to work in a soup kitchen where an unspecified number of people would gather.

Not only that, it was hard to imagine that Malina could smile that much in a situation where she still didn’t know where Kanon was.

She might have grown up but I felt that something was different.

“You’re right. I do not know that person called Kanon. She went missing before she came to this mansion. Even after coming here, Malina searched desperately. To be honest, it was painful to watch. I tried my best to help but couldn’t find her either and then monsters began to flood the town. Since then, she stopped looking for Kanon and not only participated in the three soup kitchens every day but also patrolled the town at night and got rid of monsters. Honestly, it looked like I was watching myself in the past.”

“Your past self?”

“To become a master suitable for Haurvatat, I trained recklessly but could not produce results and so I used Carol’s ability as a Temptress and dove into a dungeon. I felt so anxious that I saw that as the only way. In the end, I was running in circles and knew that I was wrong but I couldn’t stop myself from continuing.”

Oregeru said and laughed at himself.

I was the same too.

When I couldn’t find a job, I went to Hello Work to read job information magazines, went to free job seminars, and tried to hide my anxiety of not finding a job.

“Ichino-sama!”

Carol urgently called my name. Beside her was a tired-looking young man.

“What happened?”

“This person said something concerning.”

“You want me to repeat what I said earlier to the noble-samas? If it is true, could I receive a reward?”

I’ve never heard of Carol spending much money to collect information.

I wonder what kind of information she wanted to pass to me even at the cost of paying money.

When Carol agreed, the man spoke.

“I saw the Hero-sama walking toward the dungeon. Hero-sama has come to this country. This country will be saved soon.”

Carol said that the man told other servants who were giving out soup kitchen meals to increase the amount of soup.

“The royal capital will soon be saved by the Hero-sama. I saw the Hero-sama walking toward the dungeon. So you don’t have to ration anymore.”

He didn’t sound like he was lying to get more food. But Carol asked the excited man.

Were there others with the hero?

The man replied that there were three women.

One was a little girl, another was a brown-haired woman and the other was a white wolf race woman.

The man replied with a polite tone.

“Hey, if you plan to lie, why didn’t you tell a better lie? The Hero’s companions would be Hag-sama and Daijiro-sama. Hag-sama is a man and while Daijiro-sama is a woman, she is not a small girl nor is she a brown-haired Hume.”

Oregeru decided that it was a lie.

Was it common sense that Daijiro-san is a woman?

But I came to a different conclusion.

The little girl was definitely Quince-san, the White Wolf Race woman was probably Talwi.

“Please tell me more about the characteristics of the brown-haired woman.”

The man nodded and told me the details.

“Thank you for the information. Do you want food or gold for your reward?”

I asked the man. The information he gave was worthy of reward.

“Food! I have a sick and hungry wife at home waiting for me!”

“All right. Take this.”

I replied and handed him a hemp bag with flour along with some surplus meat on top of that.

“This much …? Thank you very much, noble-sama.”

The man thanked Oregeru instead of me and dashed off.

“Ichino-sama, that information …”

“Ah … the brown-haired woman’s characteristics matched that of Kanan. We thought she had gone missing but so she was with the Hero.”

“I don’t really understand but Ichinojo decided that the information was the truth? If Kanon and Hero-sama were together, then Malina will probably be relieved.”

Oregeru commented but I was not relieved at all.

What was Kanon’s reason for acting with the Hero?

Were Kanon and the Hero connected from the beginning?

After the soup kitchen ended, I leaned on the outer wall of the mansion and pondered.

But there was no way I could come to an answer.

Should I tell Malina?

“The Hero seems to be planning to make Kanon the Devil Race Demon Lord and Talwi the Black Wolf Race Demon Lord.

“ — !? Miri, you surprised me.”

Before I knew it, Miri was beside me and said something shocking.

“Kanon to become the Devil Race Demon Lord!? And Talwi is a White Wolf Race.”

“I had Torerul look it up. I was curious.”

Miri asked me a question before telling me what she investigated.

“Did Onii know that the White Wolf Race’s characteristic was to be polygamous?”

“No, I didn’t know but I guessed that was the case.”

I felt it somewhat when talking with Haru.

She said that it was natural for a strong man to have multiple wives and she seemed to truly congratulate me on tying the knot with Carol. Normally, you would be jealous if a person you liked got along with another woman.”

“Well, originally the White Wolf Race didn’t have a polygamy system but only allowed the strongest man and woman in the group to have children to ensure they leave behind strong offspring. They changed after they came under my or the Hero’s banner. Instead of only the strongest, they changed to a one husband many wives system to increase the number of offspring.”

That was truly a warrior rule.

Does that mean the second and subsequent men in the group can’t have children for the rest of their lives?

So pitiful.

“The Black Wolf Race and White Wolf Race both have the same one husband many wives system but they have one condition. The rule was that they should not have children with the White Wolf Race.”

“Why was it specific to the White Wolf Race?”

“Something about … dominant and recessive inheritance? If a child is born between a Black Wolf Race and White Wolf Race, it will 100% be a White Wolf Race. Just like how a child born between a man with blood type AA and a woman of blood type O will always have a child with blood type A. Knowing that, the Black Wolf Race felt that if they continued to mix blood with the White Wolf Race, their race would eventually disappear. No matter the situation, a Black Wolf Race woman who has the child of a White Wolf Race will be banished from the race. Fearing that if she leaned on the White Wolf Race man, it would lead to a decisive conflict between the two races, the woman left the Demon Lord Army with her newborn child.”

After explaining so much, even an idiot like me was able to understand what Miri was trying to say.

“ … The child born between that Black Wolf Race and White Wolf Race is Talwi.”

“Correct. Haa … I didn’t know such a matter happened. That was my fault.”

At that moment, Miri, the person who led the Black Wolf Race in her previous life, sighed deeply.

“This confirms it. The Succubus Race Demon Lord Quince, The Devil Race Demon Lord Kanon, and the Black Wolf Race Demon Lord Talwi. However, when I met her, Kanon had not reached the stage to be a suitable vessel for a Demon Lord so I believe she will not be turned into a Demon God immediately.”

“How can she become suitable as a Demon Lord’s vessel?”

“What’s important is the power to accept miasma. To become a Demon God from a Demon Lord, the body must be subjected to a huge amount of miasma. Miasma that normally only Goddesses can withstand. It would test not only level but also aptitude. For example, the Succubus Queen, or perhaps Temptress is more relatable to Onii. The Temptress has the power to attract monsters, right? That power is extraordinary.”

Carol’s abilities were certainly comparable to the divine blessings given by the Goddess-sama.

If any of the three aspects, Growth Cheat divine blessing, Jobless skill, and Carol’s ability, were missing, my Demon Lord level would not have reached Lv300.

“And the power of the Temptress is to attract miasma along with the monsters.”

“Wouldn’t that affect the physical body? Does that mean I have been putting unnecessary stress on Carol - -”

“Don’t worry, it is not that serious. However, compared to the other races, a Temptress and moreover those that awakened the power of a Succubus Queen such as Carol and Quince can absorb a lot more miasma than ordinary people, and their vessel to collect miasma is large. Incidentally, it is completely different for the Devil Race. The race has been strongly discriminated against since ancient times, even before the spread of the Goddess religion. Their black wings and horns were said to be sinister symbols. Onii is aware too, that miasma comes from the feeling of dislike from people. In other words, as a result of continued discrimination, the Devil race who are disgusted with even themselves continue to generate strong miasma. As such, they possess strong resistance against miasma. Although it has become a lot better since they became able to hide their horns and wings with magic.”

“Then, have the Black Wolf Race been discriminated against too?”

“The Black Wolf Race is another matter too. Onii, when you fought with Talwi, she mentioned that she could fight without losing herself even after receiving the Frenzy Curse, right?” 𝑓𝐫𝑒e𝒘𝚎𝘣𝚗𝘰𝘷𝐞𝑙.co𝑚

“Yeah, her eyes were bloodshot but she could surprisingly speak normally. That mental power was honestly quite terrifying.”

“A curse can’t be controlled with strong mental power or guts. In the first place, a curse is the power of miasma and the Black Wolf Race possess strong resistance toward miasma and is a race that can use that as their power. That’s why she was not dominated by the curse and was able to utilize that power.”

So that was why Talwi didn’t change her job from Beast Warrior.

“Hn? Then perhaps the real reason why the Demon Lord circulated the Frenzy Curse was not only to seek the Devil Race but also to search for a person who can withstand the curse among the Devil Race - - the Devil Race Demon Lord?”

“I’m not sure. In the first place, it was the Oni race current Demon Lord that circulated the Frenzy Curse. Until now I still do not know what he is thinking.”

“Was he not your subordinate in the past?”

“Well, even if he was, he was at the extreme end? Like the vampires who attacked Dakyat previously, I don’t really know what all the races are doing.”

The vampires are the Oni race? Ah, since the kanji in Oni is in Vampire too, I guess it wouldn’t be strange to call them Oni.

I was convinced and nodded.

“I’ll say this in advance, although the kanji in Oni is in Vampire too, the Oni race and Vampire race are completely different races.”

Miri clarified.

I’m glad I didn’t say anything.

“As long as the Demon Lord wishes for the Goddesses to become Demon Gods, I’m sure he would get in our way.”

“I guess you are right … looks like we will have no choice but to ask him directly?”

Well, I would be glad to have an option of not fighting with the Demon Lord.