Reincarnated as a... Completely Average Person?

Chapter 54: Golden Goose

[How did it come to this?]

Kotori watched the two prone figures in front of her. They were so still, almost seemed dead. If one paid closer attention they would see that they were slightly breathing. Even so, they looked like dying animals. Their clothes were stained with sweat and covered in dirt. A small clay pail laid next to both of them, their content spilled pitifully on the ground.

[Are those vultures in the air?] Kotori thought as she saw a couple of birds circling them

She shuddered slightly listening to the familiar moans of pain coming from the bodies. They remind her of her time training in the elf village.

Amelie was standing next to them grinning. Her face showing none of the exhaustion that Shun and Anya had.

"Break time is over!" she said cheerfully

Amelie had leaned into her trainer role quite well. She was quite scary. Looking at her Kotori was reminded of Mari. She was less harsh but much more enthusiastic about making someone suffer.

Amelie was enjoying herself greatly it seemed.

[I'm starting to think that Mari's S&M side may have rubbed off on Amelie a bit.] She thought as she looked at Amelie's devilish smile.

[Maybe she's taking out steam?] It seemed losing to Yooma had put Amelie in a dour mood. Perhaps she was this harsh on them because she wanted to be harsh on herself.

Shu, who was with Kotori, nudged the prone Anya with his paw.

"No moreeeee" Anya said as she moved away from the touch.

[Her muscles probably hurt so much that touching them was enough to make them sting.]

Kotori felt bad for them and pulled out her flute to play them a small regeneration song to speed along the process of healing.

Shun slowly sat up with a grimace.

"Please Anee!* Let us rest! We've been running nonstop for three days" He pleaded

*Anee means sister like how Aniki means brother

["Anee?" When did that happen?]

Kotori wondered when they started calling Amelie "sister" but she avoided paying it too much mind.

Kotori still thought Amelie was going too hard on them

"Amelie please remember that they are humans not wood elves"

"Oh right! Sorry 'bout that" Amelie said "You can take the rest of today off"

[Don't tell me you've been training them like elves] Kotori thought, she now pitied Shun and Anya who were prone against the dirt.

This time she cast her healing song in full. Shun and Anya breathed a sigh of relief as their sore muscles knit themselves back together. The healing spell didn't give them their energy back though. It just healed their sore muscles and they would still have to rest before they got back their strength again.

"Go rest," Kotori said.

They gave her thankful looks and slowly trudged off to camp.

Amelie gave her a shrug and walked off.

Kotori slumped into the dirt chair Shu made her.

The adventurers trying to actively hunt Kotori down had been slowly getting lower. Apparently, it was becoming well known that she was much harder to take down than appearance would give her. She would still get the occasionally adventurer coming to challenge her, but it was much less frequent. As a result, though, stronger people kept coming. She was beginning to feel like a walking dungeon boss. It seemed that some adventurers were testing themselves against her. As always, she would beat them and shave off their souls for an easy lunch.

The other day she faces a party of adventurers who had unique skills. They didn't even bother to attack her they stumbled across her while she was out on her daily scouting walks.

She was even more shocked when they thanked her.

This shock was made even worse by the fact that adventurers kept thanking her.

"Why are you thanking me?" she asked as she began to question groups she defeat for more information

From what she learned apparently; Kotori had created an ecosystem all by herself. The kingdom was paying for information on her or her party.

So, the few adventurer guilds that were left put on bounty on her information to sell to the kingdom. This caused a rise in adventurer applications as people went to go search her out. Since she never actually defeated her opponent "Kotori's party hunting" was a rather safe endeavor for any person to start their career. The guild was paying good money for any speck of information. Finding her was akin to a years' worth of salary. Of course, you could go through the kingdom directly but they had much higher standards on what information you could sell.

Eventually, adventurers had an implicit agreement that they would intentionally give vague information on her. They didn't want to kill the golden goose of course. People were making livings on selling the tiniest specks of information to the guild.

Being defeated by Kotori was now considered a good luck charm. Since finding her would give you a good amount of information you could sell and sometimes you would be scouted by the kingdom to become an adventurer. This came with a caveat though, being defeated by Kotori was good luck, attacking her was bad luck since it was like killing the golden goose. Of course, some people would still try to attack her, tempted by the huge bounty on her head. These people were almost universally shunned by the other adventurers.

[I underestimate people...] Kotori thought

She was somehow being protected by a misinformation network.

Kotori and her party had become a walking force of nature. Something you don't disturb but respectfully watch from a distance.