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Unfortunately, Riyad-senpai was too busy to accompany me. So when Anya-san told me about the mutual aid society, I suddenly felt like I had found my oasis in the desert.

The act of me bowing in greeting to the two seniors was met with expressions somewhere between surprise and dumbfoundedness. Eh, but they were so animated a while back...

"Go-good lad. It seems like we don\'t need to knock some sense into you, unlike the other ignorant rural noble brats."

I didn\'t know I stank so much of the rural air.

"The ability to quickly think is a must to survive as the third son of a poverty-stricken countryside noble after all. It hasn\'t been more than a month since I came here. What do I do now?"

"A smart-ass or a plain-ass fool... Ah, I suddenly feel pissed off at your attitude. Anyway, follow us to our superior for now."

◆◆◆

"State your name."

"Yes, sir. Please call me Ren."

It was another pseudonym that I had already thought of just for this scenario. Yesterday was such a mess. I regretted that I was only able to come up with \'Pork\' as my alias in the arms store.

"Call you that, huh…? Whatever. It\'s not like we never had \'oddballs\' in our familia. So be it, you don\'t need to worry about that here."

"That\'s a delight to my ears."

"...When did you become so cloying?"

The place that the two senpai, Amur and Loye, led me to was a rundown house situated in what seemed to be the shantytown of the Royal Capital. The area was quite detached from 1st Street.

But boy, was I surprised to see such a decrepit building still standing on the outskirts of the Royal Capital. I mean, the wooden building itself seemed so old as if it had withstood far more weather than what I have in the entirety of my two lives. \'Apple Familia\' in cute handwriting was written on the nameplate.

To be honest, everything felt so outlaw-ish that I felt like this was the calling of my fate, so I was actually quite looking forward to how this developed.

The first thing that caught my eyes as I entered through the gate of the dilapidated building was the mountain of bats with nails and iron rods embedded into them. Hmm, I bet this was to serve as obstacles for opponents when they came to assault unannounced or the Apple Familia members themselves could act swiftly by grabbing any weapon at hand and going whack-a-bonk.

"Bro Amur... Is that boss of yours a strict person?"

I asked bro — because he was earlier than me here — Amur.

"...You bet. Just the title of B-rank explorer should be enough to explain his prowess. You must pay attention to not get into his bad side. Well, you’ll find the answer to that either way."

Amur said with a shiver.

I went out for coal and found gold! A B-rank explorer was a first-class talent that our countryside branch never got to see a glimpse of even in the blue moon! I was glad that I followed them.

A sharp, irked shout was directed our way as soon as senpai opened the creaking, weathered door.

"Took you long enough! How many times do I have to tell you not to run around when we have a shortage of manpower, you fools!"

Loye, the shorter bro who had been walking with his shoulders squared up until now, immediately cowered like a cat at the angry voice.

"W-we weren\'t wasting time, Boss! We found this rookie who seemed to have just registered as an explorer so we were looking for a chance to invite him. It\'s just… We didn\'t know he would hole himself up in the library for hours which caused us to be late! But we managed to bring him in! Please forgive us."

The person shifted his gaze to me with his ogre-like contorted expression. He was quite a tall figure, around 190 cm in height, and was sporting a white mustache and short-cut hair.

I bet any normal person would have run away with their tail tucked between their tails when suddenly faced with such pressure. Oh, I wasn\'t feeling anything though.

"Invite? Do you take my eyes for mere decorations!? Like hell, this brat who obviously seemed to have never broken the curfew set by his parents would willingly follow delinquents like you! Each and every one of you is an utter fool. How many times have I told you, no coercion!"

The guy roared as he swung his fists to knock over the head of the two bros. I hurriedly added in.

"They\'re right, boss! I don\'t even know the \'E\' of explorer so I happily tagged along when the two bros invited me since I just became an explorer. By all means, I would like to be a part of the Apple Familia and learn the ropes of being an explorer!"

Hearing my words, the boss once again brandished his massive fist on the two bros, grumbling \'What nonsense Apple Familia\'.

"...You\'re quite an odd guy for someone of your demeanor. Well, we lack manpower so the more people there are, the more beneficial it is. I don\'t know what crap explanation these two dunces have given you, but we are the mutual aid society \'Apple House\' whose purpose is to drill the \'ABC\' of explorers into broke kids to get them on their own two feet. This place also serves as an orphanage so the older kids here often find the short end of the stick since they are also kids with insufficient money. If you don\'t mind the downside, then be my guest..."

I unhesitatingly bowed my head at 30 degrees and replied like that delinquent I had seen in a drama in my previous life.

"Aye, I have enough balls to not get cold feet, boss!"

"...Cut it out with your strange garbled words, it makes me feel sick. Anyway, show me your explorer license."

...Ugh, this was going to blow my cover. Don\'t tell me my pseudonyms were cursed to never live more than a few hours...

While I was groaning inwardly, Amur said.

"Boss, Ren seems to have some situation… So why not just leave it at that?"

Their boss, however, plainly denied it as he glared at Amur.

"I must see it. I don\'t care what special circumstance someone is in as long as they work seriously, but I have the responsibility to look after this \'Apple House\'. It\'s your choice to hide your name but I must at least get to the bottom of things."

In the end, I took out my license after being stared at by him.

"So be it. Here."

And as soon as the boss saw my license, he hugged his head in his arms.

"The fuzz, so that eccentric brat Shell mentioned was you… Why did you two have to adopt the troublemaker of the fish tank? Are you guys out for my life or what? Whatever, go and help out in preparing dinner!"

The boss smacked the heads of the two bros for the third time as he growled. The two looked utterly confused at the incomprehensible situation, however, they disappeared into the back of the house while massaging their heads.

"Err, who is that Shell…?"

On my part, I was wondering why an unknown man knew about me.

"What?... Just a drinking buddy from old times who seems to be curious about you. Leave the meaningless talk, and let’s get to the point. I am sure you can easily find a far better society than us who will gladly support you. I wager anyone would be willing to take a hotcake like you. Back down, it’ll be good for you as well."

The boss said in annoyance.

"I have already said what my goal is. I am straight out of Hicksville and I don’t have a single clue about being an explorer. So I gladly accepted their invitation and decided to follow along. I was also quite interested in it after all, and that\'s it. I still want to join in."

I replied, staring back into his eyes.

I wasn\'t here expecting some in-depth teaching. However, I also didn\'t want to be swarmed by seniors who simply saw the billboard of the Royal Academy behind me and followed the strange rumors about me.

"Haa~. What a pain in the ass. You really have to be out of your mind… Fine, but I have two conditions."

I held my breath and waited for his words…

"I don\'t care how great you may become later, but I don\'t want charity here. A bit of food here and there would be fine at best. This rule applies to everyone who grows enough to leave this society, not just you. Do you know why?"

I nodded.

"Self-reliance… I presume."

"Hmm. So you aren\'t just a desk warrior, huh? But that\'s correct. Think about what\'s alright to donate and what’s not, that\'s it.

And another condition. Don\'t drag your study down by hanging around here. In your case, I will immediately throw you out of this society if you drop in class rank or get expelled from the Academy."

...The last one was quite an unfavorable term. Both of these were entirely plausible in the future. It would be nice if I could relax the conditions somewhat through discussion.

"...Why though? I’m not that fixated on my class rank. No, to put it into words, I have my own road I want to pursue, and getting expelled from the Academy is irrelevant to it."

Boss silently looked at me with an appraising gaze before shaking his head.

"...I understand your resolve. But that doesn\'t mean I accept it. I took pride in fostering the kids in this \'Apple House\'. Education is a must for kids, and it would tarnish my pride if rumors that you failed due to this society spread around."

...Pride, huh? However, it seemed like he was more concerned about how those rumors would affect this mutual aid society than his pride. Not that fault could be put on him, notorious rumors exert more influence than good ones. He should be worried about the future challenges they might face in gathering individuals, and the effect could also show in the requests they could take.

Quite an indirect way to say how much he cherished the \'Apple House\', eh?

"...I can\'t guarantee that I won\'t follow my conviction. But, I also won’t complain when we reach that juncture. Of course, I’ll be careful to not drag this society down due to my affairs. What now? If that\'s all, then please confirm my entry."

I bowed my head once again.

"What an uncouth fella. Keep your words to yourself if you have realized my intention, for darn sake. You really aren\'t a cute kid.

..Sign here. This states that 20% of your income will be deposited in this society. Out of which, 15% will be returned when you decide to go independent. Though I doubt it, come and call me out when you find yourself in a financial crunch. I’ll pass that to you."

"I understand! And I look forward to working with you all!"

And that was how I ended up joining the \'Apple House\'.

T/N - I should have put it earlier, but Mc’s monologue is a window to how he appraises or thinks about the world. You can see him calling ‘Mujikka-sensei’ as it is but never Godorfun with honorifics. So you may see some discrepancy of how he addresses some in dialogue while different in monologues.

EN - Well, quite different from the template again. You expect the ‘Apple Familia’ to be some sort of gang that takes advantage of its members but you instead get a legit mutual aid society in ‘Apple House’. Poor MC and his template chasing. xD