An A-Ranked Adventurer's 'Slow-living'-Chapter 48 - You Like Muscles?

At the time our marriage was accepted, it was decided that I’m going to become the next village chief.

Although I’m worried about whether or not I’ll be able to do a good job as the chief since I was just an adventurer, Ergys-san said that there is still some time until that happens so I should learn slowly as I go.

After I thought about it carefully, he was right. Ergys-san isn’t going to retire yet since he isn’t that old.

In the first place, I’ve only been in this village for about three months. It wasn’t possible for me to suddenly take over on managing a village.

First, I have to familiarize myself with the lifestyle of Nordende, then, all the inhabitants and the natural environment. At the very least, I have to be familiar with them when I become the village chief, but that would be for the years to come.

Just as Ergys-san says, I can learn slowly as I help out with his work.

Fortunately, I can read and write, and I am able to do some calculations as well.

I knew that those skills were essential to have in order to live as an adventurer, so I’ve always asked the church sisters who have taken care of me to teach me when I was a kid and the adventurers who I came across to teach me when I was an adult.

If you didn’t have those skills, you wouldn’t be able to properly take up quests and you’ll be at a disadvantage when dealing with money. Since both of those things account for a significant part of your adventurer life, you would be helpless. I was scammed many times back when I was a naive child and was completely taken advantage of.

Well, that’s why I already have those essential skills and wouldn’t have to study them in a rush.

To put it simply, the most important for me to do right now was still to get used to a villager’s lifestyle here.

I had such a discussion with Ergys-san over lunch, and now I’m going to help Flora pack some things to prepare for moving into our house.

Yup. She will be officially moving in with me today. That’s why she was currently in the middle of packing all her clothing and tools that she needs to take along with her.

Since there was no need for me to help her on arranging her luggage, my main job was to put all the stuff she’s finished packing onto a four wheel wagon, then I’ll be pulling that to our house afterwards.

My main job was going to be only two of those things, but thanks to some people, it has increased to three… And the third thing was…

「Oii, Aldo. So what happened between you two in the end?」

「Oii oii, are you that insensitive to ask him like this? At least wait until Flora-chan goes to load her luggage onto the wagon」

「Baka. I’m doing this on purpose. It’s because of the hate I have for the one who robbed us of our pretty flower of Nordende. I will keep messing with him」

Like that, my third job was to ward off the villagers who came to tease us like this.

While looking at the villagers with a bitter expression,

「…You guys… This is whack. Did you come all the way out here from your homes to work or do this?」

Yup. The villagers who were sitting in front of Ergys-san’s house working were like they were out camping.

They were working on some Nordende-produced papirus beans.

After peeling their hard shells, you crush the beans into paste with a rod then you bake them. They have the special characteristics of puffing up when baked. With a soft texture and a mild flavor, it’s a type of food that can be eaten often and they keep you full for a long period of time.

Normally you’d take your time in the kitchen with this type of work, but these guys took it out here.

「Well, doesn’t it suck to peel them slowly at home? It’d just be dead silent the entire time in our homes」

「It’s only a simple task of peeling and crushing. If we’re going to do that anyway, why not do it while having some fun with everyone?」

The villagers responded as they peeled the papirus beans leisurely.

Having some fun you say…

Well, when I’m doing the laundry by myself, I also like to talk to the housewives around me so I know how that feels. But damn, don’t come all the way here like you’re going to watch a show.

「Aldo-san! Please help me with this~」

「Ahh, got it!」

Flora brought her luggage box out to the door entrance, so I ran to her to take it from her.

「Be careful, it’s a bit heavy ‘cause of the cooking utensils in there, okay?」

「Yup, I got it」

It may be a bit heavy for a girl, but it’s easily manageable for a man.

「Wow- your arms are amazing, Aldo-san. They are not huge but they feel so muscular」

Flora said in a voice of admiration when I lifted the box with one hand.

I’m not going to drop the box when it’s only this heavy, but the way her smooth hands were rubbing my arm was tickling me.

「Heyy, you’re tickling me」

「Oh sorry, let me touch it for a bit longer…」

Even though I complained lightly, Flora kept feeling up the muscles on my arm without a care to what I said.

Speaking of which, when we took a shower together, she was also touching my chest and arms.

Does she like muscles that much? 𝗳𝓇ℯe𝓌𝚎𝚋𝓃𝚘𝚟𝘦𝑙.𝑐𝚘𝙢

To me, a girl’s soft skin is much nicer to touch, but maybe it’s attractive to her since it’s something that you don’t have as a girl.

Well, I guess that’s why guys find the breasts of a woman attractive. Even I touched them a lot yesterday.

「Ahhh–! I’m so jealous of them!」

「Sh*t, flirting in front of us like that…!」

While I was letting Flora have her way with my arm, the villagers in front of Ergys-san’s home were crying out in frustration.

But it’s your own fault for coming here to see us.

However, it doesn’t feel that bad to see the villagers’ frustrated faces when I get all chummy with Flora.

I turned towards the villagers and showed them my best smug face.

「「Reeeeeeeee!!」」

Then, the villagers made a strange monkey-like screech as they started to dump their papirus bean shells into a cart.

Stop that… Are you guys monkeys or something?

After the villagers and I had a stare down for a while, I heard footsteps coming from the entrance of Ergys-san’s house.

「Flora? What are you doing? If you don’t finish up soon it’ll be night time, you know?」

「Ah! That’s right. I’m coming!」

Flora was woken up from Fiona-san’s voice when she came to check on Flora.

She quickly went back into the house after reluctantly letting go of my arm.

I’ll let you touch them all you want when we’re home.

「…Aldo-san」

Fiona-san called out to me while I was carrying the box to the wagon with such thoughts.

「Yes?」

「……」

When I stopped moving and turned around and replied to Fiona-san, she came closer to me without speaking a word.

Then, she slowly raised her arm– and touched my shoulder.

Her gentle, soft hand ran along the unevenness of my shoulder muscle, as if she was satisfied with what she saw.

When a beautiful woman like her touches me, I felt embarrassed as I expected.

「…Um-Ummm….」

「I knew it, you have some nice muscles」

While I was calling out in embarrassment, Fiona-san muttered so before she took her hand away from my shoulder and went back inside the house.

Are girls that interested in a man’s muscles?

I don’t understand it well, but it seems like Fiona-san was less interested than Flora was. She took her hand off like she was only curious about it but Flora was feeling all over them.

A bitter smile came out as I remembered about the scene from before, then I continued to carry the box to the wagon.

And so, when I walked by the villagers who had become like monkeys…

「EAT SHELLS!」

I saw that one coming so I moved quickly and dodged the bean shells that they were chucking at me and stacked the boxes on the wagon.

Then, I moved back to the front of the villagers quickly where their papirus bean shells were piled up,

「*FUUUU*-!」

I blew on them just like that.

「Ugyaaaaaaaa!?」

「Uwahh?! What are you doing! The beans and the shells are all mixed up now!」

The papirus bean shells flew towards the villagers’ faces and also into the beans.

The villager who had his face struck by the shells spun around on the ground and screamed as he desperately tried to separate the shells and beans again..

That was my payback for them messing with me, chucking their bean shells at the wagon like that.

「Aldo-san! Can you help me with something heavy here-?」

「Got it-!」