I harvested the last of the monsters which had been killed by the traps I set the night before and placed its monster core inside my pouch. "Effective" wouldn't be the word I'd use to describe this entire thing, it's a lot more than that, maybe smooth? Okay, I'm putting too much thought into something I shouldn't waste time on.

  Moving past that now, I reset the trap which had killed this particular monster and then made my way around the rain forest. Ever since I learned how to— decently, I'm still not an expert. — trace the leyline, I have decided to search both for the cottage as well as an existing beehive.

  Fruit trees are fairly rare, strangely enough, and what's more, the ones that I did find didn't have any bees in them. Flies and stuff maybe, but bees? Nope. By this point I'd even settle for a wasp nest, digging the ground for their hive is going to be hard but at least I get something out of it.

  Right now all my efforts have gotten nothing, which isn't great.

  Placing the quest in the back of my mind probably isn't a good idea anymore. I realized while making scrolls last night that quests actually had a deadline and some adventurer out there would finish it before me if I played around like an idiot.

  My first quest ending up as a failure will definitely be in my records and I don't want that, and so I made the smart decision to search for both the cottage and the beehive.

  Whenever I spotted a fruit tree, I'd go up to it, scan it, and then search the surrounding area for any hives. I move on if there aren't any and continue on my search for the cottage, so far I've seen around 12 different fruit trees and none of them had a beehive nearby.

  Then again, this is a rainforest so what did I expect? That bees would be everywhere? But they do exist, otherwise the guild wouldn't request for their hives right?

  And now I realize that I'm searching for something with the basis that "someone said it, so it must be true." Which I know is a fairly stupid conclusion but come on, the person who made the quest is a seasoned candle maker! If he didn't know how to make candles then he wouldn't have that job to begin with.

  This only makes me more frustrated, bees are here, I know they are, so why aren't they making any hives? At this rate I'll be able to find the mender's cottage before I get a glimpse of a single bee, and fruit trees are basically everywhere in this forest, it shouldn't take me this long to find a bunch of insects!

  But I guess this is the reality of the situation and I have no other choice but to call it quits for today. I haven't found the mender's cottage yet— I already expected this much. — and the bees just feel impossible so leaving for Ghorise is the only sensible option that I have right now.

  When I got home, mom was preparing with Laself, dad was also with them. Apparently he decided to just quit his job of spear fishing and focus on the thriving stall that we have on Ghorise, his reason? He didn't want to waste all the effort I was putting into the whole thing.

  "Mom... Dad." I pinched the bridge of my nose as I watched my father fail at making mayonnaise. "Can you please just carry stuff like Howaph?"

  "Rontress, I'm a man, stirring stuff is my job." Okay, logically, this makes sense, I know from experience just how exhausting stirring mayonnaise can be.

  "Fine." Guess I can't argue with that. "But didn't I give you and mom 200 gold yesterday? You can do whatever you want now, you don't have to work anymore."

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  "We tried to do that, Rontress." Mother explained. "And I felt uneasy, I can't just stop working when I've done it all my life. And besides, why waste money on a maid when we can do it ourselves?"

  "That's... Yeah, I guess you're right." Again, I concede. I'm well aware that just because I gave them money, I can't force them to do whatever I want.

  My eyes went over to Laself, I explained to her once that she didn't have any responsibilities to help her parents just because they're raising her and the same situation applies here. Also, making my parents follow my commands just feels wrong, I'm not a narcissist.

  "Well good luck with that?" I don't know what else to say. "I'm gonna find a store to buy later today if you two are gonna join in, might as well take this seriously right? You guys need a store of your own, not just a stall inside a tavern."

  "Rontress you don't have to do that!" Laself, who had been calmly observing things until now, suddenly screamed. "We're more than okay with our current situation! Buying us a house just doesn't—"

  She stopped talking when I dropped the small pouch of monster cores on the table. The adventurers who bought my scrolls earned their money through selling monster cores and finishing quests, it just so happens to be that I can now do the first one, so cash isn't an issue for me right now.

  "This is my main source of income." I haven't explained it to her yet but I still have the money that I got from selling my first batch of monster cores in the guild. "What I get from selling scrolls is for you guys, okay? So believe me when I say that you don't have to worry about me."

  "Okay, I believe you." Laself nodded weakly. "You don't have to do this though."

  "No, it's fine." I shake my head, she really needs to learn that I'm doing this because I want to genuinely help her. "If you want, you can even give your parents a new house through this, I won't mind if they stay in the store while we all live here."

  "Are you sure?" Laself's eyes were shaking. "I thought you hated them."

  "What? Who said that?" Did I give that impression? It looks like she cares about them too, but I haven't seen her visit them once. "Laself, I don't hate your parents, why would I even?.. Listen, okay? If you wanna talk to them then do so, and they're part of our family now so me helping them is only natural."

  "I understand that, but is that okay with you?" Laself asks, she seemed uncomfortable. "I don't want my parents to intrude on the spaces that you've given me."

  Well then, that's expected? I guess? I've also felt uncomfortable when my parents visited my apartment in my first life and it isn't a strange thing for me to say that I wanted them gone immediately, Laself acting this way isn't all that weird.

  Did she have to phrase it like she's concerned for me though?

  Again, I could care less about the situation but she clearly does, and how could she not? She didn't have the best relationship with her parents and I'm guessing she must have wanted to escape their house for a while now, she just did thanks to me but now I'm also saying that I want them back into her life.

  Then there's also the problem that I'm specifically telling her to let her parents live in a space that should have been hers. Me buying it for her probably isn't registering, or it is, hence why she's asking me if I really want them.

  Things have gotten a bit complicated huh?

  Gazing out the window gave me nothing, and staying silent made Laself squirm, like she's a criminal waiting for a verdict. There's one real answer here though, and that's to protect my sister-in-law.

  Sorry to her parents or whatever, but Laself comes first. I already said I'm taking responsibility for making her choose to marry Howaph instead of letting those two decide her love life.

  "We'll get them a new house some day." My answer made her visibly relax, I smiled. "For now I'm going to visit them, maybe give them a few gold coins or something. Does your father have a job?"

  "He does." Laself nods. "He occasionally helps skin and gut fish cut by our neighbors in exchange for one or two of them, which then becomes our meal for the day."

  Goddamnit... I knew she was poor but to be that poor? Her family doesn't even have a proper source of income! How the hell?

  "And your mother?"

  "She sews shirts and clothing, sometimes she repairs ruined clothes as well, all of her effort is exchanged with food."

  Food again. It's like their earnings consist of nothing but their meal for the day, isn't that a bit fucked up? I was considering just giving them one or two gold coins but I guess I'm going to settle for twenty? That much is fine, it's not like I'm lacking in money right now.