Chapter Fifty: So You Really Are Just Seeing Me Off?

"Why aren't you letting anyone see me off?"

Roxy pouted, glaring angrily at Allen, who was hugging his sword and lounging lazily across the carriage seat.

"I... I thought you were coming with me to be an adventurer... But instead you..."

After boarding the carriage, Allen had explained that he was only coming with her for part of the journey. This instantly shattered Roxy's high spirits, wiping the happy expression clean off her face. No longer wanting to lay eyes on this scumbag, she turned her head to look out the carriage window, muttering incoherently under her breath.

"You were nowhere to be found when it was time to say goodbye, but now you're seeing me off anyway... If that's the case, you might as well have stayed with them. Sneaking out for a little while now just means you'll have to go back later anyway..."

Allen couldn't help but find Roxy's expression amusing. Naturally, he understood that Roxy, having been lonely for so long, had mistakenly thought he had a change of heart and accepted the proposal she made two months ago to become adventurers together.

Since you're wanted anyway, you might as well travel far away to another land, right?

However, given Allen's current situation, that simply wasn't possible. After all, his participation in the major events of *Mushoku Tensei* hung over him like a sword of Damocles.

He shook his head. "Since I snuck out, I'm definitely not just coming for a short stretch. Didn't you say a week ago that there were bandits blocking the road outside Rikarisu? Since this whole mess started because of me, it's only reasonable that I escort you safely to Rikarisu, isn't it? Last time, you killed one of their men, so if you get stopped again and they show up in numbers—perhaps even with some skilled swordsmen among them—what will you do?"

Roxy abruptly whipped her head around to look at Allen, her expression rather blank. Although she felt like Allen was engaging in sophistry, at first glance it actually sounded quite reasonable. Just as she was about to think it through more carefully, Allen spoke up again.

"The stronghold of that bandit gang is obviously running some kind of smuggling operation. Human trafficking is an absolute certainty. If by any chance you really were to get caught, would our next reunion be in the slave-trading black market? Specifically in the toddler section... Ouch!"

Mid-sentence, Roxy irritably kicked Allen, turned her head away, and resumed staring out the carriage window.

Allen blinked. Seeing that Roxy had been sufficiently hoodwinked into dropping her inquiry about whether it was reasonable for him to escort her to the outskirts of Rikarisu, he silently breathed a sigh of relief. As for clearing out the mane-wolves, he could handle that by himself.

For one thing, he didn't want to cause Roxy any more trouble. Besides, if he stated his intentions outright, there was a good chance Roxy would insist on coming along. Blue Mom was just too kind-hearted.

Furthermore, last night before going to sleep, Allen had carefully thought things over and established a guiding principle for his subsequent actions:

To the greatest extent possible while maintaining the original storyline, he would farm points to obtain the maximum-score extra rewards for the major events of each phase. If the two conflicted sharply, he would rather forfeit the maximum-score reward than arbitrarily stir up the butterfly effect.

Judged rationally, the future vision gained from reading the novel was a much more broken advantage; it was far more stable than point rewards.

Therefore, Allen made his judgment: the butterfly effect concerning Roxy should end right here. He needed to avoid any risk of Roxy's extraneous actions influencing the future development of the storyline.

Secondly, Allen was entirely capable of handling it alone. A bandit gang, essentially a nest of dark and sordid rats in the underworld, would not harbor experts of the Saint tier or above. If a Saint-tier expert did exist, they would certainly be stationed right beside the bandit leader rather than being dispatched to the forest for petty tasks like this.

For a peaceful childhood phase with minimal conflicts, this was a perfect whetstone.

However, it wasn't just about sharpening his claws and fangs. Allen's trip was also meant to eliminate the possibility of the bandit gang continuously scouting around and eventually stumbling upon Buena Village. Such grey-area bandit gangs had plenty of enemies; even if their stronghold was completely wiped out, as long as no survivors were left and the traces were burned away, the likelihood of suspicion falling on him, Allen, would be minimal.

With that, all the variables of the childhood phase would be safely reeled back into place.

Allen looked up at Roxy, whose expression had improved significantly, and chuckled.

"As for becoming adventurers together, there will definitely be a chance in the future, I promise. For now, I'm still too young, and as you know, I'm a wanted man, so I'm certainly not going to go back home to inherit the family estate. In that case, after I spend another three or four years continuing to hone my swordsmanship under Lord Paul, I'll come find you so we can be adventurers together, alright?"

*Operating together with Roxy after the Teleportation Incident sounds like a pretty good choice. By then I'll have location tracking too, which will let me avoid the awkward situation of passing each other by on the docks in the original story. Not bad.*

Roxy glanced at Allen sideways, suddenly remembering that Allen was only nine years old. Usually, his tall stature and mature demeanor caused Roxy to subconsciously overlook his age.

"...I keep forgetting that you're only nine... Being this glib-tongued really doesn't seem like something a nine-year-old would do..."

Allen slumped his face in defeat.

"How am I glib-tongued..."

Roxy stared straight at him for a long time without speaking, only to change the subject when she finally opened her mouth.

"But I don't have enough food with me..."

Hearing this, Allen fished a jar of Battilse flower seed powder out of his pocket and said excitedly,

"Look! I was prepared. Don't you like sweet and spicy food? I can go hunt some monsters for you and roast..."

Mid-sentence, Allen saw Roxy looking at the jar of Battilse flower seed powder with a peculiar expression, and his face stiffened.

*Crap, I keep unconsciously forgetting that ingesting too much of this stuff causes fainting... Didn't I think I wouldn't see Roxy for the next few years? And yet here we are meeting already!! Wait! She hasn't already fainted from it before, has she?!?!*

Roxy half-squinted her eyes in silence, her gaze shifting back and forth between the jar and Allen's face, before finally curling her lip.

"...I didn't even bring it up, yet you actually have the nerve to pull it out on your own..."

"...About that... Hear me out..."

Before he could finish, he saw Roxy open her luggage, take out a completely empty jar, scratch her cheek, and flush red as she muttered,

"Even though it seems to have somewhat improper uses... it really is delicious... Good thing I know detoxification magic... But I'm stating this in advance: every time I eat it from now on, I am going to cast detoxification magic on myself!"

*What do you mean, "somewhat improper uses"?! If I really wanted to use this for something else, wouldn't it be easier to just buy a proper aphrodisiac?! You didn't need to specifically point out the detoxification magic! Am I going to grab your hands and stop you from using detoxification magic or something? And why on earth do you feel the need to emphasize this? Do I look that much like a flower-picking scoundrel?! Huh???*

Watching this unfold, Allen's mouth twitched. He had a million complaints running through his head, but none of them could be spoken aloud, so he could only mutter gloomily,

"Well, detoxifying is definitely the right thing to do..."

"...Give it to me, I'll pack it away... You can ask me for some when you want to eat... just to prevent you from using it indiscriminately everywhere."

"You just want to secretly hoard it for yourself, don't you?"

"No!"

—

Night, Buena Village.

Rudy stared blankly at his own pair of boxer briefs resting inside the shrine.