"What are you even talking about? You're not a kid.
Besides, it was the Sword Saint, the Divine Dragon, and the Great Sage who defeated the Witch. There's no 'hero' anywhere in that story."
Felt shot him a look, baffled as always by the strange things Subaru insisted on saying.
Leaving the self-proclaimed hero on the ground, she jogged over to the house and poked her head inside.
The spotless floor caught her off guard.
She'd barely stepped back out when Rom delivered the assist.
"Pretty clean, right? Gojo did it all by himself. You two had just left and he already had the whole thing finished. I didn't lift a finger. Bit embarrassing, honestly."
"I think," Gojo chimed in without missing a beat, "that as an employer, you should reward good performance to keep morale high. Something sweet, perhaps. A nice little dessert..."
"Not a chance!
Don't think pulling that stunt makes up for what you put me through!"
Felt kicked Subaru's leg. "Get up. Carry everything inside."
"Well, that answer was thoroughly predictable..."
The smile on Gojo's face hadn't budged. His voice carried no trace of disappointment.
But then a small package came sailing through the air toward him and stopped short, suspended in front of his face.
He looked up. Felt stood in the doorway, let out a short huff, and turned to hurry Subaru along into the house.
Gojo caught the package and opened it.
Inside were little candies dusted in white sugar powder. Rough-looking and cheap. Nothing close to the one he'd given Felt before.
Even so.
His smile widened.
He popped one into his mouth without a second thought, letting the sweetness bloom across his tongue, and strode toward the house.
"Little Felt, I had no idea you were so thoughtful! Buying me candy? I'm genuinely moved."
"Get lost! Don't come near me with that. I'm not falling for it again!"
The four of them spent the next several days hammering, patching, and wrestling the crumbling little house into something resembling a livable state.
They managed.
Barely.
Bathing and using the bathroom were still miserable ordeals, but in the slums, this was as good as it got.
With the shelter problem solved, Felt turned her mind to money.
When she'd been on her own, pickpocketing and petty theft had kept her fed well enough. That wasn't an option anymore. Gojo's strength made stealing feel absurd, like using a battering ram to open a jewelry box. And from the look of him, he wasn't the type who'd agree to it anyway.
She turned the problem over and over until something clicked.
"Work as caravan guards?" Subaru's eyes lit up the moment she laid out the idea.
Ever since arriving in this world, nothing had matched the stories he'd read. What kind of hero stayed stuck in one district without leveling up or exploring? Now, finally, he'd get to leave the capital, leave the slums, and see the wider world. Maybe out there he'd unlock some hidden talent or special ability.
"Right." Felt nodded. "Most merchant caravans hire guards for long-distance trips to protect against bandits and magical beasts. The big trading companies are out of the question for us. They'd never take people with no background. But plenty of smaller merchants can't afford that kind of protection. They band together, try to make their groups look bigger to discourage trouble. We target them. Show what Gojo can do, and they won't say no. Compared to what the major firms spend on security, pooling together to hire us would be a bargain."
She laid it all out with dead seriousness. This was the plan she'd been grinding through for two solid days. No single merchant could pay much, but enough of them together added up to a serious sum.
"I think it could work!" Subaru was the first to volunteer.
"I'm easy either way. You guys decide." Gojo waved a lazy hand. Going somewhere new didn't bother him. Seeing the world firsthand, soaking in the local culture and scenery... it'd be like a vacation. As for his popularity points, well, he'd let fate handle that. No pressure.
"Then it's settled." Felt clapped her hands together. "The three of us go. Rom stays behind. I didn't spend all that time fixing this place up to come home and find squatters."
"Don't worry." Rom thumped his chest. "While you're out, I'll hold down the fort."
He might not match Gojo in raw power, or even the Bowel Hunter, but handling the riffraff in the slums was well within his range. That was exactly why he'd been able to run the Loot House in a place this lawless for so long.
Knock. Knock-knock.
Felt had barely finished laying out their plan when someone rapped on the battered front door.
She and Rom exchanged a glance, equally puzzled.
Who would come looking for them? They'd only moved in days ago, and Felt didn't have friends to speak of. Gojo's group even less so.
Who could it be?
Rom stood, cracking his knuckles with a series of sharp pops. If some fool had come looking for trouble, he was happy to oblige.
But when he pulled the door open, the figure standing there caught him off guard.
"I apologize for dropping by unannounced. I hope I'm not imposing."
A warm, measured voice. Even before seeing the speaker, the sound alone conjured an unmistakable image: vivid red hair, a presence impossible to forget.
"No, no, not at all!" Gojo called from inside, waving toward the doorway with barely contained excitement. "Come in, come in! Are you here to deliver our bounty?"
The word bounty hit Felt like a bolt of lightning. Her eyes went wide and locked on the door.
If someone had come to hand over reward money, she wouldn't need to bother dragging Gojo across the countryside playing caravan guard.