Chapter 1: Shopping in a Ceramics Workshop
Chapter 1: Shopping in a Ceramics Workshop
The four of us who had been staying in the town of Nijhoff had once again come to the Adventurer’s guild today. Avoiding the morning rush, we came a little later and managed to get to a receptionist without much fuss. When I showed the receptionist my guild card, Jöran came over immediately.
“Did you come to report on the cyclops request?”
“Yes. I also brought it back with me, just like you asked.”
“Ohh, I see. That’s great. Then going to the storehouse would be better, no? Please follow me, sonny.” Led by Jöran, we went to the storehouse.
There were around forty expert butchers at work in the storehouse, and they were busy when we came in. “Ah, guildmaster, did something happen?” One of them asked.
“You’ll be finished yourself soon, no? We can wait until then, Horace.”
“Then please wait just a little. I’ll finish in a flash.” With that statement, the butcher named Horace continued butchering his subject with practiced hands.
“Excuse us, Mukohda, but please wait just a little.”
“Yes, I’m fine with that.” I’m fine with waiting, but...... Urgh, that’s gross. The smell of blood, like rusted iron, filled the air and pricked at my nose.
Yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to being here when they’re butchering.
After about five minutes, Horace, who had finished his work, came over to us again. “Sorry for keeping you waiting. So, what kind of business do you have?”
“Right. Mukohda, do you have the cyclops with you?”
“I do. It’s in my Item Box. May I take it out here?”
“W-W-W-Wai... A cyclops?! Taking out something that big here will just be a huge nuisance. We’ll need a place with enough space...... Ahh, there. Take it out there.” Hearing about the cyclops, Horace started talking in a panic.
“Then, here.” I brought out the cyclops where he told me to.
“Ohh! This is amazing. There’s basically no wounds at all. Something this untouched is rare. This’ll make for some good hide.”
Right? Right? I told everyone to make sure of that, after all. And they did as I asked!
“How’s the eyeball?”
Horace flipped open the cyclops’ eyelid and checked the eyeball. “Hmmm, this one is a little damaged. It’ll lower the price slightly, but well, there shouldn’t be a problem overall.”
What? The eyeball was damaged? Why...... Ah, the lightning strike to the head. When I looked over at Fel, he started sulking; he must have been listening in.
“Hmph! You only told me to avoid damaging the hide. I take no responsibility for the eye.”
“No, it looks like they’ll still buy it, so it’s fine.”
“But he said that it will lower the price.”
“Well, that’s true, but it’s not like we need the money, so it’s fine.”
“Hmph!” It seemed that it wounded Fel’s pride, like someone told him that his prey wasn’t worth much. Well, there isn’t really any need to care that much, though. Even if the price gets lowered, it’s not like we’re strapped for cash at the moment. Pretty much all the money we have right now is thanks to Fel anyways.
“So Fenrirs really do talk......” Horace whispered, looking surprised.
Ahh, right. Even if it’s normal for us, people who see it for the first time would be surprised.
“Oh, sorry. Man, I heard about it, but actually seeing it is surprising, or something......”
“Hahaha, I get it. I was incredibly surprised when I first met Fel, too.”
“Being able to understand and speak human language is really the mark of a legendary beast, no? That Fenrir is probably on the level of an ancient dragon.”
“Indeed. They are longer lived than we are, after all. So they are all crotchety old men and women with too much time on their hands. Being able to speak human language would be simple for them.”
So ancient dragons are now crotchety old men and women?
......My dear Fel.
Jöran was laughing “Ho, ho, ho!” and Horace was saying stuff like, “So he calls ancient dragons crotchety old men and women...”
Kinda... I’m really sorry.
“Uh-Uhm... Can I get you to butcher this, too?” In order to try and change the topic, I brought out the black serpent, giant dodo, and two cockatrices that Fel and Dora-chan hunted before leaving Dolan out from my Item Box. The dim grey rhino and the sabre tiger couldn’t be eaten, so I was keeping them for now.
“Oh, a black serpent, giant dodo, and cockatrices, huh? Of course that’s fine.”
“I’d like the meat back, and to sell everything else.”
“Yeah, got it. To butcher the cyclops and all this...... Can you come back around this time tomorrow?”
“Okay.”
“Well then, would it be fine if I handed over the request reward and the money for the cyclops materials tomorrow, too?”
“Yes, that’ll be fine.”
Now that that was all wrapped up, we left the Adventurer’s guild.
And we’ll go sightseeing after visiting the Adventurer’s guild tomorrow. It’s called the town of pottery, so I might want to buy some tableware if I find something good, too.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
“How about here? There is nobody around, so it seems perfect.”
“Yeah, you’re right. This place looks fine.”
After leaving the Adventurer’s guild, we also left the town itself in order to test out Sui’s new skill, “Giganticize,” which we confirmed yesterday. I had Fel bring us somewhere spacious and empty. Fel brought us to a grass field a little ways away from Nijhoff.
“Sui, can you come out for a bit?”
When I asked that, Sui came bouncing out of the bag. 《Master — what is it?》
“Remember how yesterday, we found out that you got a new skill?”
《Yeah. The one that makes Sui super big.》
“Right, right. That skill that makes you super big? I was thinking I wanted to see how big you can get, Sui. Can you try using it right now?”
《Yeah, that’s fine. Then everyone should get a little bit away from Sui, okay?》
《Hey hey, get away? Just how big are you becoming?》
“We’re gonna find that out right now, Dora-chan. Let’s do as Sui said and make some space.”
The three of us did as Sui asked and left.
《Okay then, let’s go—.》 With Sui’s voice as a trigger, Sui got bigger and bigger.
And we watched, dumbfounded. It truly was a skill to “Giganticize.” There sat an absolutely ginormous slime, about five meters tall and ten meters across.
《Maaasterrr — Sui caaann beeecome thiiis biiiiiig.》 It must have been because of his skill, but Sui’s telepathic messages sounded a lot lower and bassier.
《S-So big......》 Dora-chan was a little scared at Sui’s excessive hugeness.
“This is a huge slime? This is larger than the huge slimes I have met before,” Fel said.
I guess this would be enough to surprise even Fel, huh?
“To be so big it even surprises Fel... Is it because Sui’s special?”
“That is probably the case. I cannot think of any other reason.”
“So Sui really is a special slime...”
《Suuuiii iiis speeeciaaal? Yaaaaaaaaay!》
*THUD* *THUD* *THUD* *THUD*
Sui, happy, started bouncing around — still in gigantic form.
“Ahh! Sui! Calm down! Go back to your normal size!”
《Okaaaaaaaaay.》
I had no idea how it worked, but as soon as I said it was okay to go back, Sui smoothly started to shrink until it was back to its original size.
《How was it? Sui got super big, right?》
“Yeah, Sui was really big.”
《Eheheh. You know, Sui can become any size up to that one. Isn’t Sui amazing?》
Hm? So Sui can become any size it wants up to that size? That is pretty amazing.
《But, Sui likes being the size that can go inside this,》 Sui said, using a tentacle to poke at its favorite bag.
“I like that size, too. You’ve been that size ever since I met you, so it just feels like you, Sui.”
《Eheheh, Master feels the same as Sui—. Sui likes this size the best, so Sui will stay like this.》
“That’d be nice. But get bigger if I ask you to, okay?”
《Got it!》
Ah...... Looking over at where Sui giganticized, the grass was crushed completely flat.
Well, Sui made the perfect space, so let’s just eat here.
“Hey, it’s about time, so why don’t we just eat here?”
《Oh, that’s a great idea. The weather’s nice too, so eating here’ll feel awesome.》 Dora-chan seemed fully intent on the idea, as he flew circles around us.
“Indeed. It is a good idea.”
《Food~.》
“Then I’ll start cooking, so wait just a bit.” I was a bit lost as to what to make, but just as Dora-chan said, the weather was great, so it would have to be this for such good weather. I took out the barbecue grill I had order-made.
The weather is great, so let’s have a barbecue in a field. I was planning on grilling some more of the sausages I’d made before, as well as some bloody horn-bull and wyvern meat. Also, some vegetables for me as well. Having just meat really would get old, I figured, so I’d want to eat something refreshing to the palate. It’d be better to marinate the meat, but making the sauce and marinating it here would take time...... Ah! But I can just use that sauce and marinate it now.
I opened my Online Supermarket and started buying ingredients.
First I need the charcoal right? And also shiitake mushrooms and peppers for vegetables. Asparagus seems delicious, too, oh and corn seems like a good idea. After that... Oh that, that. That tare...... Ah, there it is. It’s a certain tare that’s a little more expensive than other yakiniku tares, and comes in a paper pack. For this one, it’s written on the package that it can be used to make a marinating tare, and I had tried it before to good results. This time, that’s what I’ll be using.
Okay, then first is the preparation.
~◇~◇~◇~
Put the bloody horn-bull and wyvern meat in the store-bought tare to marinate... there. The shiitake’s fine after I just cut off the feet, right?
Use a peeler to take off the hard skin on its bottom. The peppers and corn will be grilled as is, so I leave them alone.
Dump the charcoal into the appropriate drawer in the order-made barbecue grill and light the fire, and put the sausages and vegetables on the grill first.
Spread olive oil on the peppers and asparagus. After that, I grill the meat for the main dish on its sides.
Yeah, the meat’s done.
~◇~◇~◇~
“Heeyyy, it’s done!” Piling up an extra-large serving on their plates, I served out meat to everyone. Everyone started eating with gusto. I knew they’d probably ask for more, so I started grilling more meat right away.
Oh, the vegetables are done. The corn would still take a bit more time, so I left it on the grill. I ate the vegetables after seasoning them with only salt and pepper.
“Ohh! The peppers are sweet and delicious. There’s some sweetness when you bite into the whole asparagus too, that’s great. Eating shiitake mushrooms whole too is so good!”
“More.” 《More—!》 《More.》
Fine, fine. I added more grilled meat to everyone’s dishes.
As everyone was enjoying the barbecue...... “Hm? Someone’s coming.” I saw a person’s form from far away.
“Do not mind them. It is just some brats.”
Of course Fel noticed, I guess. But, if he isn’t that concerned I guess that just means it isn’t worth worrying about. Wait, brats? Does that mean children?
While I was being confused, “the brats,” according to Fel, showed themselves. Rather, it was a group of five young boys and girls in their mid-teens that seemed like new adventurers, wearing things like leather armor and robes.
“Sorry. Can we rest here a little?” asked the boy that seemed to be the leader of the group. The five of them didn’t just lack the liveliness of their youth, they were obviously tired to the bone.
“I’m Mukohda, and I’m also an adventurer, at least in name. You guys are adventurers, right? What happened?”
When I reflexively popped that question to the extremely tired boys and girls, the leader started talking. “Just as you say, Mukohda, we’re adventurers. Well I say that, but it’s still only been half a year, and we just got promoted to F-rank, though......”
Apparently, they were childhood friends that lived in Nijhoff who started an adventuring party with each other, named, “Stormbringer.” Everyone was 15, and the leader was a swordsman named Anton. There was another swordsman named Philip, an archer named Brigitta, a mage named Paul, and another mage named Livia. All of them finally had reached F-rank recently, and became able to take requests to hunt down monsters. That was when everyone decided to accept the F-ranked request of taking down a brown boar.
One day’s walk from Nijhoff, in a small village named Régnier, a brown boar had recently appeared, messing up their crops, so they were tasked with defeating it.
“We thought with five of us, we could defeat a brown boar......”
The brown boar was a boar type monster about a meter in size, which was about half the size of a red boar, another monster of the same type. I’d seen one before — though I only caught a glance — and it seemed that capturing one wasn’t too hard, as its meat was sold commonly in towns. According to Fel, it wasn’t really that delicious though, so it never appeared in our meals. So they accepted the request and traveled to Régnier, but it seemed that it wasn’t only a brown boar that appeared.
“We heard it was a brown boar, but a red boar came out.” The brown boar appeared, and they did well and defeated it, but right after that, a red boar appeared as well. They hadn’t heard about the red boar, and at their rank, with five of them, they would just barely be able to maybe beat it, so they all fell into a panic. They somehow managed to gather together and fight, but they were F-ranked. It seemed like it got pretty bad.
“It was really dangerous. At that time, if it wasn’t for Paul’s cleverness, one of us would definitely have been really injured.”
Apparently Paul, the mage, used his brains to use the Earth magic, Pitfall (well, simply described, it was a big hole trap), and dropped the red boar down it to get them out of danger. After that, they surrounded the red boar and beat on it until it died.
“Our teacher and the older adventurers all told us over and over, ‘Unexpected things happen during requests. Remember that.’ But when it came down to it......”
Everyone nodded in response to Anton.
“It was our first request outside of town, so we were all a little too excited, too. Even though we should have been even more careful because it was our first.” Brigitta was the one who offered those words of reflection.
I see — so they ran across an unexpected enemy, and that was the cause of their exhaustion in both mind and body, huh? Even though we’re all adventurers, my familiars’ presence was a huge factor. That’s why I figured I shouldn’t say anything, and didn’t.
But...... “Hey, is everyone hungry?”
As soon as I asked them that, all five of their stomachs rumbled loudly.
I took some plates out of my Item Box, and served them some grilled meat, sausage, and vegetables. “Here, eat this and cheer up.” That was about all I could do for them.
At first, they all hesitated, but I told them not to hold back, and everyone started eating furiously.
“T-Tasty!!”
“Delicious!!”
“Really, this is great!”
“It’s delicious!!”
“So gooood!”
Yep, they’re in their prime alright. Right from the word “go,”, they laid their hands on the meat and chowed down; just like for us, the meat was clearly the best ingredient. I poured some water into cups for them since their mouths were full of meat.
“I still have more, so calm down.”
“Hey, we are still eating, too.”
《Me too, give me one with all the meat packed in it.》
《Sui too—.》
My familiars must have wanted to get some too after seeing the other adventurers chow down, as all of them started demanding more.
“Fine, fine.” I served up some more grilled meat and sausages for them.
“Are those monsters your familiars, Mukohda?” Livia asked, her eyes sparkling with interest.
“Yeah, they are. This big one here is Fel, and the small dragon is Dora-chan, and this slime here is named Sui.” I introduced my three familiars.
“Ohh! It really is a dragon! Is it a child?” It seemed that Philip, who looked a little like a muscle brain, had an interest in dragons.
“No, Dora-chan’s an adult, even if he looks like this. He’s a rare type called a pixie dragon.”
“Hmm~, it’s my first time hearing of pixie dragons. But dragons really are dragons, huh? Nice! I’ve seen my first dragon!” Philip was happy, exclaiming this momentous occasion.
“Familiars... an adventurer with familiars............ Ah! Could it be, you’re......”
“What, Paul?”
“No, I just heard a rumor before at the Adventurer’s guild. That an A-ranked adventurer with familiars was coming to Nijhoff......”
““““A-ranked?!!”””” The four of them, other than Paul, all exclaimed in unison, their eyes glued on me.
No, I mean, I am A-ranked, yeah...... But it’s basically all thanks to my familiars, though.
After that, they hammered me with questions as they ate. Personally, I didn’t become an A-ranked adventurer on my own merits, so I just dodged all of those questions as they came, though. But I did feel a little guilty. Everyone was looking at me with admiring eyes, after all. With all that happening, everyone eventually got full and that was the end of mealtime.
“Ah, right. What are you all doing after this?”
They responded by saying that they were planning on walking back to Nijhoff, now that they had refreshed themselves.
“You gave us some really good food, Mukohda, so we’re gonna eke out a last spurt of energy.”
“Yeah, we were really tired until just now, but with all the good food we just ate, we’re back to 100%.”
“He’s right. If we try, we can make it back before sundown, too.”
“Yeah. Even if we don’t, we can just camp out in front of the gates and get in tomorrow morning.”
“Indeed. We can probably make it all the way there, after all.”
Hmmmm, walking really would take that long, huh? And it really would be impossible to have everyone ride Fel...... Ah!
“Sui, can you get big enough to let these five ride you and move?”
《Yeah, it’s fine. But Sui can’t move as fast as Uncle Fel, though.》
“I see, I see. Then, can you give them a ride?”
《Okay. Then, Sui will get bigger.》 As soon as Sui said that, it got as big as a wagon.
“Woah! The slime got bigger!” The five of them were surprised that Sui grew suddenly.
“Okay then, you guys get on Sui.”
“““““What?”””””
“I mean, you’re all so tired, won’t it be tough walking back? We’re going back to Nijhoff too, so let’s just go together. Now, now, just get on.”
When I said that, they all hesitantly got onto Sui.
“Make sure you don’t fall off.” I was, of course, on Fel’s back. “Well then, let’s go back.”
With those words as a trigger, we set off towards Nijhoff.
Sui, with the five adventurers on top, was fast. Of course, it couldn’t bring out as much speed as Fel could, but Sui went twice as fast as any carriage. The five adventurers riding on top of Sui were making a huge fuss of it.
“Heeeey, I can see the town!” The other members of the party reacted to that with surprise, saying, ““““What, already?!””””
Thanks to Sui, we all got back to town while it was still light out. Since we came riding up to the gates with Sui still huge, the gate guards were all a little frightened. But, I was still A-ranked and they remembered me, so we got in without trouble. Of course, I had the five of them get off Sui before entering, and had Sui return to its normal size.
“Okay then, Mukohda, is it fine to meet up in front of the Adventurer’s guild tomorrow around noon?” Anton asked.
“Yeah, can you do that? Sorry, though, for having you all show me around on your precious day off.”
We talked a lot, and ended up making plans for the five of them to show me around town tomorrow.
“My family’d be happy if I brought customers, anyway.”
“My family, too. They’d be a bit surprised that I brought a huge earner like an A-ranker, too.”
It seemed that Anton and Brigitta’s families owned workshops, and they planned to introduce me. I wanted to buy a bunch of dinnerware anyway, so I would take my sweet time looking around.
“Well then, see you tomorrow.” With those words, I split up with the five of them.
Tomorrow, after I get my money from the Adventurer’s guild, I’ll have the five of them show me around.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
As soon as I entered the Adventurer’s guild, the employees probably contacted the guildmaster, as I didn’t even have to go to the receptionist; Jöran came over immediately.
“Ohh, I’ve been waiting. Well then, there’s the matter of your meat, so let’s go to the storehouse, eh?” I followed Jöran over to the storehouse. There, Horace was waiting.
“Okey-dokey then, why don’t I start explaining the particulars of this transaction? But, before that, I guess I should hand over your share of the meat. Horace, is it ready?”
“Yes, of course. Uhmm, here’s the meat for the black serpent and giant dodo, as well as the two cockatrices.”
I took the meat Horace handed over as he said that and stored it in my Item Box. I was out of poultry; this refilled my stores a bit, and it would also be the first black serpent meat in a while, so I was feeling pretty good.
“So I’ll start explaining the particulars of this sale. First is the cyclops; the hide comes out to 180 gold. Since there really was so little damage to the hide, making the condition really good, I marked it up a little for you. Then, the eyeball is 58 gold. There was some real slight damage on it, so sorry, but I had to lower the price for that.”
They did mention the eye already yesterday. There was nothing to be done. Well, it’s not like I needed the money. Also, even lowered, I was still getting 58 gold, which was more than enough.
“Then there’s the magic stone. This one will be 215 gold.”
Ohh—, that’s A-rank for you. Just one is 215 gold, huh?
“And then the reward for defeating the cyclops is 350 gold.”
Ohhh, the materials from the cyclops and the reward for killing it combined is quite the sum, huh? I’ve got plans to get shown around town after this, and I plan to buy a lot of dinnerware at that time too, so this’ll turn into some “war funds.”
“And as for what you brought in, all of the black serpent’s parts combined, with the hide and poison sac and magic stone, amounts to 80 gold. Then, the giant dodo: this one didn’t have a magic stone, so it’s just 12 gold. And taking the meat from cockatrices leaves only their feathers, which will turn into 4 silver for you.”
I really just wanted the meat, but it turned into quite a lot of money here too, huh?
“All in all, that’s 895 gold and 4 silver. Would it be alright to pay in large gold coins this time, too?”
“Yes, please.” 895 gold and 4 silver, huh? That’s a lot of money.
“Alrighty then, this is your 89 large gold coins, 5 gold coins, and 4 silver coins. Please make sure it’s correct.”
“Uhh... 1, 2, 3...... Yes, it’s correct.”
“The requests had been sitting around for a while, but you cleared them up very fast. That really takes a load off these old bones. Thank you, truly, Mukohda.”
“No no, I already promised I would, after all. Also, everyone enjoys these requests, too,” I said, looking at Fel and the others.
“Ho! Ho! Ho! I see, I see. You’re a rising star of an adventurer after all, Mukohda. Do your best from now on too, eh?”
Even if you call me a rising star...... all those expectations are heavy. And it’s pretty much all thanks to my familiars, too.
“Okay then, I’ll take my leave.” After exchanging pleasantries, we left the Adventurer’s guild.
After leaving the guild building, the five young adventurers were already waiting.
“Yo, you’re all early.”
“Yeah, we did gather a little early.”
“Well then, let’s get going, shall we?”
“Yeah. Then first up, this way.” Everyone started walking towards the direction Anton pointed.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
The first place I was shown to was a store that dealt in all sorts of ceramics, named Iida Trading Company.
“In terms of good taste and stocked wares, this store is the best even in Nijhoff.” All five of them agreed as they introduced the store. According to them, this store could get anything made anywhere in Nijhoff, or something.
“Mukohda, the Iida company is over there.” The place Anton pointed to as he said that was a store just as big as everyone claimed it to be. As I entered, an employee quickly approached.
“Welcome...... Huh? Aren’t you... the owner of the Sevalier Workshop’s fourth son......?”
“Yes, I’m Anton. It’s been a while, Mr. Iida.”
“Ohh, I see, I see. So your name’s Anton.”
“We’re showing our senior adventurer, Mukohda here, around town, so we stopped by.”
Judging from what was being said, this person seemed to be the owner of the company. And Anton’s a fourth son. This world gives favor to the firstborn son, so there’s no way a fourth son would be able to inherit the house. That’s harsh... Well, that was probably one of the reasons why he became an adventurer, though.
“Mukohda, this is the master of this company, Mr. Iida.”
“Mr. Iida, this is the A-ranked adventurer, Mukohda.” Anton took the part of the middleman and introduced us.
“Ho~h, an A-ranked adventurer, huh? I see, I see.”
I don’t know what he means by that, but I feel like I’m now locked in his sights......
“I-I’m Mukohda. Pleased to meet you.”
“What kind of ceramics are you looking for today?” Iida’s rubbing his hands together... he’s totally planning to get me to buy something. Well, I already plan to buy stuff anyway, so whatever, I guess.
“I haven’t really decided, but I basically want to see what you have and buy what I like. Ah, they’re planning to show me around to Anton and Brigitta’s families’ workshops later, too, so I’d like it if you showed me what you have from places other than those.”
When I said that, Iida only then noticed Brigitta it seemed, nodding while saying, “So the daughter of the Dovan workshop is here too. Okay then, I will show you what we have that’s produced by places other than the Sevalier and Dovan workshops. This way, please.” Led by Iida, we were shown a lot of different earthenware. It was worthy of their recommendations, as the selection made my head spin.
“Oh man, what a selection.”
“Thank you very much. I like earthenware myself, you see. So I just started stocking them and before I knew it, the store became like this.” The Iida company’s store was truly rife with choice, and they had both the rustic styles of a certain type of Japanese pottery, as well as delicate white ceramics and porcelain, like from Europe. The art and colors on them were varied as well, and I felt like I’d never get tired of looking. According to him, each workshop took in magic and combined it with their own work to come up with their own unique production method. That was why each workshop’s products were so different.
“Oh......” While he was showing me his wares, my eyes glued onto some particularly large, deep dishes. These ones might be good as dishes for Fel and the others. The ones I was using right now were either wooden, or cheap stuff I bought before from a general store. Even setting Sui aside, both Fel and Dora-chan stick their faces in with such force to eat furiously that the dishes have started to show their age and lose stability.
It looked like they were all used to it already, but I do think that getting a more solid dish would be a good idea. The one in front of me right now was that certain Japanese-styled pottery, and it had a certain thickness and weight to it, as well, which was nice. Also, I liked the color. It wasn’t flashy, but a calm color that had a sort of taste to it.
Hmmm, I like it. Let’s buy it.
I was about to ask Fel and the others what color they wanted, but since the store was filled with fragile things and given the size of the passageways, Fel and Dora-chan were waiting outside. And Sui was sleeping inside my bag, too.
Geez, I guess I’ll just decide myself. Getting a different color for each of them would make it easier to differentiate; seems like a good idea. What should I get...... Oh, this calm blue color is nice. Also, I like this dark blue, azure, and faint purple too.
“Do you like it?”
“Yes. I do think these dishes are good......”
“Your eyes really are sharp. Those are from the Firmino workshop. They’ve been recently rising rapidly in popularity.”
I see, I see; “rising rapidly,” huh? “How much is it for one of these?”
“These plates are big, so 18 gold.”
18 gold, huh? That’s pretty expensive. But, they’d be expensive in Japan too if they were from someplace famous. And at any rate, I like the plate already... Yeah, let’s buy it.
“Well then, give me this and this and this.”
“Thank you very much.”
“Uhm, will you show me a bit more?”
“Yes, of course.”
After that, I had him show me more and more wares, and I ended up with a mug for me, a five-piece tumbler set, and another five-piece set of cups and saucers. The mug and tumbler set were Japanese-styled, and the cups and saucers were European porcelain-styled. I liked the mug because it was brown and had a rustic feel, and I liked the tumbler set because it was grey, like they didn’t bother to paint it and just baked it like that. The cups and saucers had that striking bone-white base color with a pattern of blue flowers painted over it, and seemed very fancy, so I thought they’d be good for when I have slightly higher quality tea or coffee.
Altogether, the price came out to 73 gold and 8 silver, but since I bought quite a lot, Iida took off the 8 silver. Iida saw us off with a happily-smiling face, saying, “We look forward to seeing you again.”
The five young adventurers’ admiring looks made me feel itchy, along with their statements of things like, “A-ranks really do earn way more,” or “A-ranks really are rich.”
“Now then, you’re taking me to Anton’s family’s workshop next, right?”
“Yes, it’s this way.” We headed towards Anton’s family’s workshop, the Sevalier Workshop.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
“It’s here.” Sevalier Workshop, owned by Anton’s family, was about a thirty minute walk away from the center of Nijhoff. It seemed that the front of the place was a store, whereas the back of the site was split into several buildings for things like the workshop.
“Come in.”
Everyone entered the storefront. Fel and Dora-chan were waiting outside once again.
“Ah, young master, what happened?” An employee greeted us as soon as we came into the store.
“Olof? No, I just came because I was showing my senior, Mukohda here, around. Can you call my old man?”
“Yes, please wait a minute.”
“Mukohda, I’ll go get my dad, so please wait a little.”
No, he’s probably busy, so you don’t have to bother him over just this, though...
After a while, the employee Olof came back, bringing along a well-built man that looked to be around fifty. “Yo! Anton. So you brought over some senior adventurer?”
“Ah, dad. This is the A-ranked adventurer, Mukohda.”
“A-rank?!! Why do you know someone that high-ranked?!” Anton’s dad was surprised, hearing that I was A-ranked. But, sorry, I’m A-ranked only in name, not in power.
“Man, a lot of stuff happened, and I met him yesterday. So right now we’re showing him around. I told him that we have a workshop, and he said that he wanted to see it, so here we are. After this, we’re swinging by Brigitta’s place too.”
“Hohh, is that so?”
“I’m Mukohda. I met Anton and the others here, and since this is their hometown, I asked to be shown around. Sorry for barging in so suddenly.”
“No no, don’t hold back here, look around as much as you like. You know I can’t show you the workshop, but this shop is owned by us, so it’s got products that haven’t made it to other stores yet.”
It seemed that the workshop had trade secrets. Or, rather every workshop had its own secret and unique techniques, so their inner workings were closed off to everyone but those who worked there. Oh yeah, didn’t Iida say that each workshop took in magic and combined it with their own work to come up with their own unique production method? If that’s the case, it’s true that they can’t just show their stuff so easily. It seems that this place has new products since they own the store, so let’s have them show me already.
Anton’s family, or the Sevalier Workshop, made Japanese-style pottery, and they had many pieces with quiet, sober coloring. It fit my tastes perfectly. The father followed along with me, and explained various things. Among the things I saw, what I especially liked was a newly made indigo colored cup.
“It was really hard to bring out this color. Also, this one is special. I mixed together and used several different magic stones in the glaze. So if you pour something into it, it’s made to cool the liquid inside.”
Wow, a self-cooling cup, huh? With both the shape and the color, this thing was basically made for me. Beer’ll probably taste great if I drink it out of this... I want it... “How much is this?”
“This? ......Hm, about 28 gold, I’d say.”
At first, I was startled hearing that just one cup was 28 gold. But when I thought about it, he used several magic stones to make this, so the price made sense. Actually, with the magic stones in mind, he might be losing out on this deal. Let’s keep an eye on this while looking at other stuff.
After looking around at lots of stuff, I ended up liking a five-piece set of pale beige large-ish plates made by the father’s apprentice, and another five-piece set of bowls made by the same apprentice that were colored a deep green as though it was growing moss, which were the perfect size for rice bowls.
Apparently this workshop was famous in Nijhoff, and while I was looking around, merchants from other towns also came in to stock up on items. I only listened in on their conversations in passing, but it seemed that there was a noble that loved the ceramics made here in this workshop.
Yeah, yeah. Anton’s dad has good taste, doesn’t he?
After waffling about for a while, I decided to buy the cup I was interested in, as well as both five-piece sets made by the apprentice. The father’s cup was 28 gold, and the apprentice’s plate set went for 15 gold while his bowl set would sell for 20, so all in all, it would have been 63 gold, but he brought it down to 60 gold for us.
“Uhmm, sorry.”
“No no, an A-ranked adventurer will be using our stuff, so I should be thanking you. Keep using our stuff, you hear?”
“Yes, I’ll be very careful with this.” I made a pretty good purchase.
“Hey, Anton, you lead him around properly, got it?”
“I know.”
Leaving Anton’s home, the Sevalier Workshop, we all headed for Brigitta’s, the Dovan workshop.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Brigitta’s home, the Dovan workshop, was about fifteen minutes walk from the Sevalier Workshop.
“Mother, I’m home.”
“Oh my, it’s you, Brigitta. What happened?”
Dovan workshop was built the same as the Sevalier Workshop, with the store in front, and the grounds in the back with the workshop and other buildings. Brigitta’s mother was minding the store, it seemed.
“You see, we’re showing Mukohda around town He’s an adventurer we met recently. When I mentioned that my family ran a workshop, he wanted to see it, so I brought him here. By the way, Mukohda is an A-ranked adventurer.”
“A-RANK?!! Oh dear, oh my... I’ll go get your dad, so please wait here.” With those words, Brigitta’s mother left for the workshop. While we were waiting, we heard a voice yell, “Dear! It’s an emergency!! There’s an A-rank! An A-rank!! There’s an A-rank adventurer in the store!!”
Hearing that, Brigitta covered her face and whispered with embarrassment, “Mother......”
Seeing family like that really is embarrassing, right? Let’s not touch this.
After we waited a while in the store, Brigitta’s mother came back with her husband in tow.
“Dear, this is the A-ranked adventurer, Mukohda. Make sure not to be rude.”
“I know. I am Brigitta’s father, Dovan. Thanks for looking after my daughter.”
“I’m Mukohda. Sorry for barging in so suddenly.”
“No, no, if you’re fine with our wares, then please feel free to look around.”
“I’ll be explaining them to you, so father and mother needn’t bother,” Brigitta said, but it seemed that both of them were curious as to what I would buy, so they didn’t leave.
“Geez, the both of you...... Sorry, Mukohda.”
“No, no. It’s fine.”
Having them show me around the store, I found that this workshop made European-styled porcelain with a white base-color. A lot of their products had a floral pattern on them and gave off a high-class feel.
“We’ve only started this workshop since my father’s generation, so our workshop isn’t large, and unlike Anton’s Sevalier Workshop, we’re not famous either, but since we started, we have had a lot of loyal customers.”
Hmm~, is that so? These feel high-class, after all, and the floral patterns seem like they’d appeal to women.
“Oh, this is nice.” What caught my eye was a five-piece set of tall mugs with handles. These would not only suit hot drinks, but it wouldn’t be strange to serve something cold in them, either. The flower pattern wasn’t too ostentatious, and I liked that it was only on the upper parts.
“For those, the whole five-piece set is 4 gold.” I heard a voice coming from behind me.
“Father......”
It was Brigitta’s father, who stayed here instead of going back to the workshop.
“I-It’s fine to let it go for that price, isn’t it? The A-ranked adventurer is picking my work, you know?”
Even while looking upon that exchange happily, I thought, CHEAP! It seemed that Brigitta wasn’t lying when she said this place wasn’t famous. But, these are pretty, and they’re all good. It seems kinda cheap, so it might be nice to buy a lot. Let’s look around some more.
While I was looking around, Brigitta’s father had at some point come in and started explaining instead of her. Brigitta, seemingly resigned, looked on at her father.
In the end, after looking around I decided to buy the five-piece set of mugs I first saw, a five-piece small plate set that was perfect for cake slices, a five-piece large plate set, a five-piece soup saucer set, and lastly a five-piece soup bowl set and five-piece teacup and saucer set. Each one was charming, with a porcelain-white base and striking floral patterns. Especially the teacup and saucer set; the pattern was much more modest, but the flowers were all the more vivid, and I thought it was so pretty that I bought it without thinking. According to Brigitta’s father, that one was their best work recently.
The mug set was 4 gold, the small plate set 3 gold and 5 silver, the large plate set 6 gold, the soup saucer set 6 gold, the soup bowl set 6 gold, and the teacup and saucer set was 10 gold. In total, the price for what I bought was 35 gold and 5 silver, but they evened it out to 35 gold for me.
“You bought so much; thank you.”
“No no, thank you for showing me so much. Everything here was a real treat to behold.”
It’s great that I was able to buy so many plates and other wares. Still, well done, town of pottery. I managed to look at a lot of nice works, it was a sight for sore eyes. Buying stuff like this is nice once in a while.
Being seen off by Brigitta’s parents, we left the Dovan workshop. We ate up quite a lot of time shopping, didn’t we?
《Hey, I am getting hungry.》
《Me too.》
《Sui too—.》
While we were returning to town, all three of my familiars told me that with telepathy.
Hmmm, we had breakfast a little late, but given the time, it really would be pushing things, wouldn’t it? 《We’ll eat as soon as we get home, so bear with it for just a bit.》
《《《Okay.》》》
I see, if that’s the case maybe I should invite those five, since I’ve been bothering them on their day off...
“Hey, as thanks for today, do you want to come eat at my house?”
“Are you sure?” Right after Anton said that, he turned around to talk with the rest of them.
“““““It’ll be our pleasure!””””” All five of them replied, smiling.
Everyone had high expectations due to the barbecue yesterday. What a heavy responsibility. And I can’t take too long with the cooking since I can’t keep them waiting forever...... I’ll have to think of this on the way home.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
After entering the house, I showed the five of them into the living room. “W-What an amazing house......” said Philip.
“I’m only renting it, though. And only while I’m staying in town.” In response all of them said at once, “A-ranks are amazing.”
I don’t know about other A-ranks, but this is only because I’m having Fel and the others earn money for me.
“Okay then, I’ll get to cooking, so just wait while you drink this.” I let them into the living room, served them some drinks, and had them wait a while. I already got some use out of the mugs I’d bought from Brigitta’s place, the Dovan workshop. I served them orange juice, and they were gulping it down while exclaiming about its sweetness.
I gave Fel and the others fruit milk in the usual deep dishes. I was planning to use the deep dishes I bought from Iida for the meal I was just about to make.
I’ll have to hurry up with the cooking. Returning to the kitchen, I hurried to prepare the meal.
After a lot of thought, I decided on honey mustard sandwiches using cockatrice meat. It didn’t seem like those five got out of town much, if at all, so I wasn’t sure about serving them rice all of a sudden, which I doubted they had eaten before. That’s why I went with bread. And I just got some cockatrice meat in, too. It seems that the five of them liked sweeter flavors, too, so let’s make it a little fancy, like a meal in a cafe. Also, this is pretty simple.
First, I need the ingredients. I opened up my Online Supermarket and bought what I needed. I have soy sauce and bottled lemon juice already, so I need mustard powder and honey, right? Oh and also lettuce and white bread. Good, let’s start.
~◇~◇~◇~
After piercing holes through the cockatrice’s skin, season it with salt and pepper.
Then, start making the honey mustard sauce. Mix the powdered mustard, soy sauce, honey, and lemon juice all together.
Next, oil up a heated frying pan and start cooking the cockatrice meat starting from the skin side. Once the skin turns a light brown and is thoroughly cooked, flip it over and start cooking the other side. The fat will render out during cooking, so it’s possible to make it less greasy by soaking the fat up with kitchen paper as it comes out.
Once the meat is fully cooked, soak it in the honey mustard sauce and allow it to simmer a bit and mix with the flavor to finish it. Once the honey mustard flavor is soaked in, watch out for any jumping mustard powder.
Letting the finished honey mustard sautéed chicken cool for a while, lightly toast the bread in the oven for a bit, and wash some lettuce before tearing the leaves by hand into appropriate sizes. Layer the lettuce on the toasted bread, and put the honey mustard sautéed chicken on top of that before sandwiching it with another piece of toasted bread. Cut the sandwich in half to complete the dish.
~◇~◇~◇~
For Fel and the other’s portions, I lined them up on their new dishes (they’re deep, but it shouldn’t be a problem). Anton and the other’s portions would be served on plates bought from Anton’s family’s Sevalier Workshop. Of course, I made an extra-large portion for Fel and the others.
After that, I poured some orange juice into a glass pitcher. Thankfully, this house had utensils and other dinnerware in it. Among those was an actual glass pitcher, so I decided to make use of it. It seems a bit expensive, so I’ll have to be careful when I use it, won’t I? There was also a trolley, so I went ahead and used it to help bring the honey mustard sandwiches out into the living room.
“Sorry for keeping you waiting.” I handed out the food to everybody. Fel and the others must have been really hungry, because they started eating vigorously.
Or rather... Aahh, Fel just ate an entire half in a single bite. He’s gonna ask for more right away, isn’t he?
“Ah, does anyone want something to drink?”
“““““Please!”””””
Looks like they really took to the orange juice, huh? I poured more orange juice into all five of their mugs.
“S-So good!!” The first one who bit into the cockatrice honey mustard sandwiches and said that was Philip. “Yesterday was good too, but this one is delicious,” he said, while vacuuming down the food.
“He’s right. This is good! It’s a little sweet, and that’s the best!” Anton was wolfing down his food with just as much gusto.
“Yeah, it’s delicious. It’s a little sweet, but it’s not just sweet. It’s the first time I’ve had something that tasted like this, and I think it’s great.” Brigitta was the one who said that, eating one bite after another in quick succession.
“Even though it has so many flavors, like sweetness and spiciness and saltiness, it all comes together great. Yeah, this is amazingly good.” Paul, the one who seemed to be the calmest among the five of them, was the one who said that while nodding and eating.
“This is super delicious! Mmmph...... More!!” Livia, more already? You’re fast.
《《《More.》》》
The order for more came from my three familiars too.
“Then please wait a moment.” I cheerfully went back to the kitchen, and made more.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
“Whooh~, I sure ate.”
“That was amazing.”
“Yeah, it was great.”
“Mmhmm, it was delicious.”
“I’m soooo full.”
With dinner done, I was relaxing in the living room with the five of them, me with iced coffee and they with orange juice in hand. It seemed like they were all satisfied with the meal.
Fel and the others were apparently the same, too. Fel was just plopped down on his side, and Dora-chan was sleeping, reclining onto Fel. Sui was also sleeping, stuck to Fel’s side.
I ate, but it ended up having to be while cooking for everyone else. Well, I’m the one that invited them, and I was happy that they said it was delicious, so I was fine with it.
“Are you guys going to take another request tomorrow?”
“Yes, that’s the plan. I talked it over with everyone, and this time, we’re just going to take to heart that unexpected things can happen during missions.” Anton was the one who answered.
Even though all that happened just yesterday, they’re already planning to take another request tomorrow, huh? F-rank adventurers sure work hard.
“For people like us, if we don’t steadily take requests, we won’t rank up at all,” Philip complained.
“Yes. We have to start building up our achievements, starting with what little we can manage. I want to become D-ranked quickly, after all,” Brigitte said.
Was there something that happened at D-rank?
“Yeah. We want to get to D-rank quickly so we can go into dungeons, right?”
Hm? D-rank for dungeons? Is there some sort of connection between being D-ranked and dungeons, Paul?
“Yeah, right~? I want to get into a dungeon already.” Even Livia was saying that.
What does D-rank have to do with dungeons?
“Uh, um... Does becoming D-ranked have something to do with dungeons?”
When I asked that, all five of them looked at me like they were asking, “What are you talking about?”
“What? You don’t know? The Adventurer’s guild recommends only D-ranks and above go into dungeons,” said Anton.
What? Really? I had no idea. Oh yeah, I was already C-ranked, kind of, by the time I got to Dolan. Nobody ever told me of something that basic, and I never bothered asking, huh?
According to Anton, it was merely a recommendation, so it wasn’t like those who weren’t D-ranked couldn’t enter.
“But, entering at a low rank will probably just lead to dying a useless death. We’re not that stupid, so we’ll properly follow the guild’s recommendation and wait until we’re D-ranked to enter. We’re going to take some training before entering as well.”
According to Anton, the Adventurer’s guild hosted a class aimed for adventurers who were about to enter the dungeon for the first time. This was the first time I’d heard of something like that, though.
Actually, could it be that Dolan had that too? If they did, I would totally have taken it... Elrand didn’t say even a single word about that, though... Dammit, that stupid, useless, dragon-crazed elf!
“Speaking of dungeons, I heard a rumor recently...... Ahh, I just remembered!! There’s supposed to be an A-ranked adventurer arriving in Nijhoff who cleared a dungeon!” Paul said while looking at my face, realization dawning.
Everyone who was listening to Paul immediately turned their gaze towards me.
“I-Is that true?” Anton hesitantly asked.
“Ehhh, well... uhh... Kind of...”
The five of them all started making an excited fuss when I said that. They showered me in praise, saying things like, “That’s awesome!” or “So cool!” Everyone’s eyes seemed like they were sparkling when they looked at me. I felt a little guilty, so I told them the truth.
“Nooo, I mean, it was all thanks to my familiars that we managed it. My familiars are really strong, so I just rely on them for my part.”
“Of course that’s the case, you’re a tamer! Since your familiars are so strong, that means you’re super skilled! And that means that as an adventurer, you’re super skilled too! Respect!” Anton exclaimed. All the others nodded in agreement.
H-Huh? R-Really?
Next, they attacked me with a barrage of questions:
“How was the inside of the dungeon?!”
“What kinds of enemies were there?!”
“What about the drops?!”
“And the traps?!”
“What was inside your treasure chests?!”
I answered their questions, telling them of my experience in the dungeon.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
“What? Woah, it’s already this late?” Time moves fast, and it was already dark. “How about staying over, everyone?”
“No, we need to be up early tomorrow, so we’ll go back home. Right, guys?”
“Anton’s right. Listening to you made me feel really motivated, Mukohda.”
“Me too, Philip. I really want to go into a dungeon already.”
“I agree with Philip. I also want to go to the dungeon already.”
“Paul, we need to get to D-rank first. Let’s all do our best!”
Livia was the last one to speak and brought everyone together, as they nodded in agreement. It seemed they were filled to bursting with motivation after hearing me talk about Dolan’s dungeon.
“I see. Then be careful on the way back, everyone.”
“Okay. Thanks for everything today, Mukohda.”
“No, I should be thanking you for showing me around.”
Just like that, the five of them left. It seemed like they were all angling to go into a dungeon, so they asked a lot of questions. They talked really passionately too, since dungeons were the source of getting rich quickly, the adventurer’s dream. Though I didn’t ask, they even told me about dungeons other than Dolan’s.
It was useless information to me — though, I did see Fel with his eyes barely open, listening in. He’ll probably make another fuss about dungeons. *Sigh*~...
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
I bought a bunch of stuff yesterday, so what should I do today? As I was pondering that in the time after we had eaten breakfast......
“Okay, we are going to a dungeon,” Fel said, standing upright.
“Wha-? What are you saying all of a sudden?” Just because you heard all that talk about dungeons yesterday, isn’t going right away too far?
“I heard that talk about dungeons yesterday. From what those whelps said, there is a dungeon about ten days’ walk from here, yes? That distance is nothing to me, so we can go immediately.”
No-no-no, don’t be like “we can go,” to me. It’s true that, from what Anton said, there’s a dungeon city named Aveling south of Nijhoff. But this and that are different. In the first place, the entire reason we’re heading for Berléand is because Fel said he wanted to go to the ocean.
“But if you want to go to a dungeon, what about the ocean? Didn’t you say that we needed to go there because krakens and sea serpents are delicious?”
“Yes, you are right. But given the choice between the ocean and a dungeon, I choose the dungeon.”
Whaaaat? What kind of nonsense are you spouting? Even though we went all this way just because you said you wanted to go to the ocean... And I had plans too, you know?
“No, no, that’s no good. You said ‘we’re going to the ocean,’ so we’re doing as planned and going to Berléand. I want to go to the ocean and get ingredients too, you know?”
I want to do a seafood barbecue!
“Mnrr... Seafood, huh......? Now that you mention it, that certainly would be hard to give up on...”
Right, right? Greedy eaters like you shouldn’t be saying no to good food. We need to taste our fill of the ocean’s bounty.
“Okay, then we will go to a dungeon after the ocean. Yes, that is what we will do.”
No, I already said we’re not doing that. I’m not going to some dungeon. If I say I won’t go, I won’t go. Definitely not... this time. Even though, when I said no to Dolan, we went in the end, anyway...
“Can’t you just give it a rest with the dungeons? We already went to the one in Dolan just a while ago — just let it be. We even went all the way and conquered it, too. That’s enough already.”
“What are you saying? Dungeons are best for raising levels, you know. And more than anything they are good exercise. It is two birds with one stone, no?”
“What two birds with one stone? And I’m still not going.”
“Hmph! I think you are the only one who would say that...... Hey, Dora, Sui, do you two want to go to a dungeon?”
What? You’re going to involve Dora-chan and Sui now? That’s not fair.
《Dungeon? Of course I want to go!》
《Sui also wants to go to a dungeon!》
“Yes. Right? Is that not the best? Heheh... Hey, Dora and Sui are both saying so.”
Kh...... What’s with that smug face? It’s cheating to involve Dora-chan and Sui.
“No way, I’m not going.”
《Whaaaat? Let’s go to a dungeon. Wasn’t the last dungeon super fun? I want to go again.》
Dora-chan, don’t say things like dungeons are fun. Adventurers risk their lives every day to go down there.
《Sui also wants to go to a dungeon again. And then beat lots of them like pew pew, you know?!》 Sui said while bouncing around.
Gnnrrr...... Fel... that bastard’s got Dora-chan and Sui completely on his side.
《Master —please. Sui wants to go to a dungeon again—.》
Sui...... And, I fall. Like, there’s no way I can say no if Sui asks like that...
“*Sigh*~... Fine. Let’s go.” I couldn’t win against Sui asking me.
“FUHAHAHAHAHA, I see I see.”
《Ohh! We can go to a dungeon?! Yesss!》
《Dungeon, dungeon, yaayyy!》 All three of them were celebrating loudly.
“Another human town with a dungeon, I am truly looking forward to it.”
《Yeah. What kind of monster will appear this time? Well, it won’t stand a chance against us, though! I’m so excited!》
《Sui is also excited~. Sui will go pew pew and beat sooooo many of them!》
Everyone’s already raring to go into a dungeon. But we won’t go right away.
“Ahhh, we’re not going right away, everyone. Just like we planned, we’re going to the seaside town of Berléand first after we’re done here. Then we can go.”
“Then let us go immediately,” Fel replied.
Of course I refused. “You know, I rented this house for a week. Leaving in the middle is just wasteful. We’re leaving the day after tomorrow.”
I already rented it for a week, so we’re going to use it for the full time, since you don’t get that many chances to live in a place like this. And I still want to enjoy the bath here.
Still, now my plans for today were decided. I was wondering about what I should do, but now that we’re definitely leaving the day after tomorrow, then I really would have to start concentrating on preparing food.
After all of that, I holed up in the kitchen and started cooking all the food we’d need for the trip. I spent the whole day cooking things like the usual fried stuff like karaage, pork, chicken and Hamburg cutlets, Hamburg steaks, stuff pickled in miso, vegetable stir fry, and minced meat with soy sauce, among other dishes.
While I was doing that, Fel and the others barged in saying they were hungry, but I managed to cook up all I’d need for the trip. However, my stock of meat lightened considerably. I only had about a fourth of the bloody horn-bull and wyvern meat I used to. It’d probably be more than enough to make it to Berléand, but at this rate I’d have to get lots of seafood and meat there.