「uuuuo…」
「Lily, Are you okay?」
「I’m okay… I’m okay…」
Me and Urania are currently traveling by coach. Based on previous experience, I tried spending a lot of money to buy cushions, but the only comfortable ride was on the first day. Since the second day, I couldn’t stand sitting for a long period of time; as the cushion shifts every time the coach shakes, I feel uncomfortable.
As a result, I was frustrated with the comfort of the cushion, so I took off the cushion, and my b.u.t.t became painful as I shifted repeatedly. On the third day, I perfected the cushion. It wasn’t because I was embarra.s.sed with the other pa.s.sengers watching me shifting it around.
As you can tell from the flow of the story, the coach we are riding is not the stagecoach bound for the Abyssal Forrest. This is the fifth day our coach has shook from Motsi to the northwest; towards our destination, Sekitsugu town.
Although the size of the city itself is slightly smaller than that of Motsi, Sekitsugu is said to be the holy land for adventurers because of its four dungeons in the east, west, north, and south.
Perhaps because of that, Sekitsugu’s adventurer guild is larger than the one in Motsi, and it seems there are many permanent staff members stationed there as well. Since there’s an examiner who oversees the Promotion Exam, adventurers who belong to the guilds of the surrounding towns are regularly taken to Sekitsugu town to take the test there.
「haa, well but, the move is over for today.」
「Nn, I’ll make food.」
「I leave it to you. I’ll go prepare the tent (bed)」
The coach used this time is a long-distance coach traveling between Motsi and Sekitsugu. There is a village in between, but it isn’t suitable for lodging because it’s a little far from the main road. For this reason, there are several unmanned inn towns between Motsi and Sekitsugu so it was decided that we’ll be using those.
Of course, there is no room for all the pa.s.sengers, so additional fees are required to use the Inn. It wasn’t an amount we couldn’t pay but we decided to do something ourselves, put up a tent and prepare our own meals.
To be honest, although I could have used it with Urania, I thought it would be more comfortable to use a bed I made with 【Dream Fabrication】over an inn’s which is not well maintained. In addition, Meals can also be prepared if you pay for it first but we decided to make our own food as well, rather than eating the preserved food because it just tastes better.
「It looks as delicious as ever.」
「That done?」
「Not yet, It’s stillーHold on!」
It’s Sekitsugu’s C-Rank Adventurer Jirud who spoke to me while watching Urania make the Borscht-like soup. It seems like he’s an adventurer from the Empire, who has just finished a long-distance request and is currently heading home. The Empire seems to be at war with the Three Kingdoms of the East, but the west appears to be at peace. It will be different if it becomes all out war, but it seems like they’re not fighting everyday.
「You didn’t come here to extort food from us did you?」
「Nah, Well, perhaps I did…」
So this guy really did come to extort food from us after all. On the first day, I smelled the curry-like dish I made (because I didn’t have enough spices) and was staring at it too intensely, so I ended up becoming embarra.s.sed and just pa.s.sed it to Urania. He’s a dog-like guy but he’s different from Urania. He’s a pure human being.
「Haa, Isn’t it fine? I’ll pay. I’ve had enough of this dried meat.」
「Haa… Urania.」
「Nn. It’s fine.」
「A’l right! Negotiations successful!」
「Is that so…」
The amount Urania indicated, five large silver coins, is actually about 5,000 yen. Certainly, Urania’s home-made dishes are that valuable, and in these Inn’s, It’s rare to see dishes made with fresh ingredients. It’s not a rip-off, but it’s usually only rich fools who would give out such a large amount of money for one meal.
「NahーReally, I was tired living with dried meat.」
「We don’t really mind though…」
As we are on the side receiving the benefits, Urania is shrewdly preparing the soup in antic.i.p.ation of Jirud eating it, she has no complaints. It makes my heart hurt a little because of the price, but if we make it too cheap, not only Jirud but also the other pa.s.sengers will come and extort food from us too.
We don’t have enough ingredients to cover all the pa.s.sengers, so we’ll be troubled in various ways. That’s why I’m continuing to offer it at such a high price but this guy will just come and pay for it without a second thought.
Thanks for reading this chapter, hope you enjoyed it! If you want to make any changes to it you can request an update on google docs and I’ll get around to updating it here eventually….
ーSirMetathyst