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Wow, I’d never heard anyone say depraved out loud before.

The first thought I could muster was decidedly detached.

“Master, would you happen to have a clean piece of cloth? It looks like Lulu’s menstruating.”

I retrieved the cloth from my bag and handed it to Arisa without a word.

“Thank you. So, you’re not going to go after her? If you don’t hurry, she’s only going to make things worse in her head, no?”

Well, she was just my friend, not my “lover”…

Still, I wouldn’t want a friend to be convinced that I was a pedophile, either, so I guess I’d better run after her and clear this up.

Chasing her down half-naked wouldn’t help my case, so I threw on the shirt that had fallen on the floor. Needless to say, I had been wearing trousers the whole time.

Checking the radar, I saw that Zena had just left the inn and was heading toward Center Street. She’s really fast… I guess she is in the military. At this rate, she’d be passing below this room in just a moment.

…This feature is definitely useful, but it’d be pretty terrifying in the hands of a stalker.

As that idiotic thought passed through my brain, I judged the timing and jumped out the window onto the street.

I landed right in front of Zena, blocking her path. Startled, she tried to skid to a halt, and I caught her in my arms, spinning her once like a dancer to disperse her momentum.

“Zena, this is all a misunderstanding.”

Zena put both her hands on my chest, trying to push me away. But there was very little strength behind her push. I can’t let her go now.

If I did, she’d never believe me—she’d get caught up in negative thoughts and convince herself it was true, even if she didn’t want to believe it.

“But you were sleeping with that adorable girl!”

“She must have been half-asleep and gotten into the wrong bed.”

In that case, this wasn’t a problem, right?

I mean, even yesterday, I was wearing underwear and everything. I’d like to take a moment to very loudly proclaim my innocence.

I did not have a Lolita complex!

“And there was the other girl with the black hair, too! W-waaah…”

“If you mean the elder sister with the poor sleeping habits, it’s apparently her time of the month.”

This part I whispered quietly into Zena’s ear, since I didn’t really want to talk about it on the street so loudly.

Finally, the force of Zena’s pushing was faltering.

“B-but Lilio told me that if a man buys a female slave, it can only be for services after dark…!”

Damn that Lilio.

Deep in my heart, I hurled curses toward the woman, who was probably patrolling outside the city right now.

Lilio was one of Zena’s guards and apparently one of her closest friends, so she was probably just trying to protect the pure and innocent Zena, but I had to draw the line at baseless accusations.

“That depends on the person. Those two girls are just my maids! Liza and the others can serve as guards, but they aren’t very well suited to going shopping for me and such.”

“…But…”

Maybe she understands now, but her feelings haven’t caught up yet?

I guess saying something like “If that were my goal, I would’ve bought a sexy adult woman” would just make her angry again, so I’d keep that to myself.

“Your outfit makes you look quite different from last time. The frills add a nice touch of style to your classic tidy look… It really draws out your charms.”

A time like this called for vague compliments.

Zena mumbled, “Oh…this old thing…” in an embarrassed tone, but she did look a little happier despite herself.

“It’s lovely, but aren’t you cold being so lightly dressed?”

“No, I’m quite used to it, so I’m fine.”

That’s not how this exchange is supposed to go, Zena.

You’re supposed to take the guy’s arm and say, “I’ll be warm as long as we stay close!” or something playful like that!

“Come to think of it, there’s a stall near here that sells some beautiful scarves. Would you like to go see? I’m sure they’d look great on you, Zena.”

“Really? I’d love to!”

Perfect, I’d managed to change the subject!

On the first day that I came to Seiryuu City, I had noticed that Martha’s eyes were locked on this particular boutique.

After we had inspected dozens upon dozens of scarves and shawls, Zena picked out a pink scarf, and I bought it for her as a present.

It took a little bit of a quarrel to get her to accept it, but by the time we left the store, her good mood seemed to have recovered completely.

…Women sure take a long time to shop, though.

When I returned to the inn with Zena in tow, Arisa was standing near the entrance beckoning to me. There was an entrance to the inn’s courtyard meant for horse-drawn carriages right near where she was standing.

“Welcome back, master. I’m glad you seem to have cleared up the misunderstanding,” Arisa said smoothly, as if she hadn’t caused the problem in the first place. I flicked her lightly on the forehead. “Oww…”

“Thanks. What are you doing out here?”

“I was starting to get hungry, so I came to ask Liza to share some food with me.”

“Did you eat already?”

“Yes, and Lulu is still eating with them. But she doesn’t seem to have much of an appetite…”

Right, I suppose cheese and smoked meat wouldn’t be very appealing if you weren’t feeling well. I gave Arisa a few coppers and asked her to go buy some fruit.

Meanwhile, I went back to the room to change my clothes.

Zena waited for me in the barroom on the first floor, where I suggested she drink some fruit-flavored water.

Back in my room, I poured some water from the Well Bag into the copper washbasin that was set against the table and used it to wash my face. I seemed to be free of bedhead, so I just ran a damp hand through my hair for good measure. I’ll have to find out sometime what they use for hair product in this world.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Zena.”

“It’s all right. I’ve been chatting with Martha here.”

“I’ll leave you two alone.” Martha went back to her work right away.

Just as she left, Arisa appeared in the doorway, so I sent her to summon Liza and the others.

Lulu looked awfully pale, so I let her return to the room. The maid, Yuni, happened to be passing by, so I asked her to bring some water up to our room, giving her a penny coin as a tip.

I went back outside with Zena, where Arisa was just approaching with Liza and the girls.

“Use this money to buy clothes and daily necessities for everyone, please. I’ll leave calculation and price negotiation to you, Arisa. Liza, please protect Arisa and the girls from any pickpockets or kidnappers.”

I handed a small pouch containing ten silver coins or so to Liza. Arisa got another pouch with two silvers and some change.

It would be dangerous to keep all the money in one place, so I figured it would be best to take the same precautions as if we were traveling abroad.

Arisa asked me in a whisper if she could use skills and magic for concealment and keeping an eye on their surroundings, so I granted her permission. I had forgotten to lift the ban I’d given her last night.

“I’ll protect us, too, sir!”

“Me, toooo!”

“All right, you two can flank Arisa to guard her, then.”

“Yes, sir!”

“’kaaay!”

Pochi and Tama seemed excited, so I patted their heads.

Wow, their hair felt a lot smoother than it used to…probably because they bathed every day at the castle.

“Oh, right. If you find a charmer who can use Everyday Magic, get them to use a cleaning spell on everyone’s clothes.”

With these instructions, I gave the girls a few more silvers to use for cleaning magic.

“Excuse me, master. If we have money left over, can we buy ourselves some sweets?”

“Sure, as long as it’s no more than a large copper. It’ll be lunchtime soon enough, so make sure you don’t just buy snacks.”

With an enthusiastic “Yes, sir,” Arisa led the charge down a back road toward Teputa Avenue.

Pochi and Tama flanked her on either side, making her look like the ringleader of some neighborhood gang. Liza looked like their guardian as she followed close behind them.

“They seem quite informal for slaves, don’t they?”

“I know that might not be the typical way to handle things, but I find it easier this way.”

I was sure I would have become absolute trash in no time if they ran around waiting on me hand and foot, so I definitely preferred this.

Nidoren had taught me a lot about slaves, but I thought I was allowed to be a little informal if I wanted.

“Do you have the day off from work today?”

“Yes, the first stage of the investigation is over, so we were given one day off.”

Zena smiled happily, but if you asked me, giving them just a single day off in the time since we escaped the labyrinth seemed like an extremely sketchy business practice. What an intense work environment.

She didn’t seem to mind, so I wasn’t going to say anything, but I hoped she didn’t collapse from overwork.

“Will you be going back to your home unit tomorrow?”

“No, a newly established special labyrinth force will be taking over starting tomorrow. I won’t be able to go back to my usual patrol unit for at least five more days.”

Zena explained that there were two different kinds of patrol units: those that went on long patrols for two or three days at a time and those that went out for only one day.

Units that included magic soldiers would usually be sent out on the longer ranging patrols, so once she rejoined her unit, I probably wouldn’t be able to see her much.

Come to think of it, hadn’t Arisa wanted to go into the labyrinth?

“Zena, is the labyrinth closed to everyone but military personnel right now?”

“Yes, and it will probably stay closed for several months at least. Why? Is there someone you know who still hasn’t come out of the labyrinth?”

“No, no, it’s nothing like that. I was just a bit curious, that’s all. I’m sorry if I worried you.”

Looked like Arisa wouldn’t be getting her wish anytime soon.

Especially given the situation with the beastfolk girls, maybe we should head to Labyrinth City when we were done sightseeing in Seiryuu City?

It’d be a little sad to say good-bye to Zena, but I was sure I could come back and visit again.

“Satou, do you have any plans for today?”

I was so lost in thought, I responded to Zena’s question without really thinking about it.

“Yes, I was planning to go to a general store to see if they could point me toward an inn that’ll accept demi-humans. I can’t just let Liza and the girls keep sleeping in the barn, after all.”

“U-um, in that case, would it be all right if I join you?”

Wringing her hands, Zena looked up at me anxiously.

“I don’t mind, but are you sure you want to waste your precious day off on something so boring?”

“Yes!”

I didn’t think it’d be much fun for her to follow me around while I looked for a place to stay… But her smile was so bright as she replied, I couldn’t turn her down.

So with Zena in tow, I headed toward the general store across from the plaza at the main gate.

“Hello, is anyone here?”

There was nobody to be found on the first floor of the general store, so I called out loudly.

I could see on my radar that there was someone on the second floor, so I adjusted my volume accordingly. Since I got the “Amplification” skill before, I could raise my voice without any strain to my throat.

A calm voice called, “Coming!” from the second floor, and I heard the patter of footsteps coming down the stairs.

Shortly past the entrance of the general store was a wooden counter, behind which there was a sofa set and a massive work desk.

There were all kinds of documents piled up on the table by the sofa set. The place had the atmosphere of a detective’s office from a bygone era.

“Thank you for waiting. I’m Nadi, a general merchant.”

A woman who looked about twenty or so appeared from upstairs, her red hair woven up in a bun. She was wearing a white shirt and a deep-emerald-green jumper skirt.

“What can I do for you today?”

“Well, I was hoping you could help me find an inn or a house for rent…”

I explained that I needed a place that would allow my demi-human slaves to stay with me, and with good security.

A quiet place would be nice if possible, but that wasn’t as high a priority as the first two things.

“With demi-humans, you’ll be best off in the west quarter or the nearby workers’ district. I’d be worried about the chances of crime at an inn in that area, so I think a rented house would be ideal.”

Nadi flipped through some folders of real estate information.

I was surprised that they actually had ledgers like that—but I guess it would be rude to say that out loud.

“What does your budget look like?”

“Well, I suppose around two silvers would be ideal. If that’s not enough, I can go as high as one gold coin.”

“In that case, there should be some options.”

Based on the fact that the Gatefront Inn was considered a bit expensive at one large copper coin a night, and considering the extra people with me and a little margin of error, I estimated about two silver coins.

I thought that would be a lot, but judging by Nadi’s reaction, I guess it was just barely enough.

“I believe that these three places would be able to meet your requests. However…” Nadi hesitated for a moment before she explained. Apparently, all three of these houses had a questionable history.

I decided it would be best to have a look at each one before deciding whether to rent any of them.

House number one was a two-story estate over three thousand square feet in size, and a member of some criminal guild had assassinated its former owner. It had the appearance of a stately Western house, with ivy climbing the stone outer walls.

When I examined the floor plan in 3-D with my map, I discovered a huge hole in an area that couldn’t be seen from the main gate.

This was probably where the assassin broke in, and they’d just left it as is.

Garden shrubs made it impossible to see the hole from outside the grounds, so I asked for a tour and then led them to the hole—under the guise of getting lost, of course.

We passed by the second house without stopping the carriage—the reason being that it was directly behind a street lined with brothels.

As soon as Nadi began to explain as much, Zena instructed the coachman to keep driving, her voice hard.

I could see from the side that her face was turning bright red, which was kind of cute.

The third house was a crumbling mansion right near the outer walls of the city, said to be haunted by ghosts.

Apparently, it had been the home of a noble until about a hundred years ago. It was the biggest Western-style house I’d seen yet, but we definitely couldn’t live there.

Part of it was that I really disliked horror and gore, but more importantly, the basement of the haunted mansion appeared to be the hideout of a criminal guild.

All kinds of murderers and other serious felons were lurking around inside.

I was sure they must have started the rumor that the place was haunted in order to stay in hiding there until things blew over.

…Hmm?

There was some strange movement on my radar. A few dots were moving around just outside the grounds of the mansion.

Finding it suspicious, I took a closer look on the map and discovered an underground tunnel that led outside the city. My guess would be that it had been there since a noble owned the mansion. It looked like it was being used for smuggling and such.

Nadi started to head inside, but I stopped her.

“I have a strange feeling about this place. Let’s not go in. It’s probably cursed.”

Zena looked at me with surprise. I guess that wasn’t the sort of thing that someone would say after escaping a labyrinth full of wandering skeletons and monsters.

“If there’s a ghost or some kind of undead monster, you could always pay a temple to come and do an exorcism.”

Nadi proposed the sort of solution one would expect from a fantasy world, but if we actually called a priest, I was sure the criminals below would just hide themselves away.

I’ll write a letter later explaining what I know and drop it off at a guard station or something.

I was sure my “Secret Maneuvers” skill would come in handy there.

In the end, none of the houses we visited met all my requirements, so our rental house tour came to an end.

“With a budget of two silver coins per trimoon, I’m sure there must be more options out there. I’ll check with some other companies this afternoon and find a few more properties that might work.”

Nadi seemed to be more than willing to take charge, so we decided I’d return to the store again in the evening.

I’d meant for my budget to be two silver coins per day, but apparently, the standard measurement for rented houses was trimoons (ten-day periods).

I really needed to check these things more thoroughly.

Since I now had time to kill until evening, I asked Zena if there was anywhere she wanted to go. Apparently, the restaurant she liked required reservations in advance, so it wouldn’t be possible to go there today.

Zena looked a bit crestfallen about this, but Nadi came to her rescue.

“A flea market just opened up yesterday in the plaza nearby. There are always tons of bargains there, so the shop manager and I usually go around on the last day picking up things on clearance.” To Zena, she added, “It’s a great place for a date,” causing Zena’s face to turn red.

Since we were already there, we decided to have a look around the flea market and come back to the store after.

According to Nadi, there was a popular love story called The Tragedy of Muno Marquisate being performed on the outdoor stage that had been set up in the market.

There were a lot of people there, so I narrowed down the range of my radar, zooming in to a radius of fifteen feet around me. I knew this should be enough to get a good idea of who was coming near me.

“Master! Sir!”

“Found yooou!”

Pochi and Tama both vigorously latched onto my waist.

Behind them, I could see Liza and Arisa as well.

“Oh? What happened with the shopping?”

“Our baggage was starting to get heavy, so we dropped it all off at the inn. Look at this!”

Arisa took off her hooded overcoat and handed it to Liza, then did a little twirl on the spot.

Her pale pink skirt fluttered in the air, showing off a glimpse of her bare legs—although, being a child, there was nothing whatsoever to “show off.”

These must have been new clothes from Teputa Avenue.

Pochi and Tama opened their overcoats, too, proudly showing off their new outfits. Tama wore a cute ruffled pink dress, Pochi wore an outfit like Martha’s, with a white dress shirt and yellow skirt, and Liza now sported a sturdy-looking getup that looked like a military uniform. She was wearing trousers underneath a skirt.

Pochi and Tama tried to twirl around and show off like Arisa had, but since the plaza was getting more crowded, Liza stopped them.

“You all look very cute.” I patted Pochi and Tama over their hoods, praising everyone. I wasn’t just being polite, either—they really were cute. “By the way, is that a wig?”

“Heh-heh, that’s right! It’s to hide the color of my hair.”

Indeed, Arisa was wearing a golden-blond wig.

Apparently, she bought it in order to keep her violet-colored hair from causing problems with its cursed association.

“Is that all right?”

“Yes, of course.”

Since it’d ward off trouble, I’d consider it a necessary expense.

“But there is one more thing that I wanted to talk to you about buying…”

Arisa pressed her nonexistent chest up against me, batting her eyes at me coquettishly.

“Cut that out. What is it that you need?”

I pulled Arisa off me as I asked the question.

Zena’s gaze seemed to be boring a hole into me, for one thing, and it’d be even worse if Pochi and Tama started copying that behavior.

After letting Zena know where we were going, I went with Arisa to see what she wanted to buy. The open-air stall she led me to had karuta-style playing cards on display.

With permission from the young shopkeeper, I picked one up to examine it.

The front of each card had drawings of wells, buckets, and so on, while the back showed a Shigan word that corresponded to the picture.

The pictures were monochromatic, but key points were made to stand out so that it was easy to understand what was being depicted, for the most part. I wasn’t sure at first what the “water” card was supposed to be, but there weren’t many other ambiguous cards like it.

There were a hundred in the set altogether, each one carefully illustrated.

This might be a good way to teach Pochi and Tama some vocabulary.

“What an interesting idea.”

“Thanks! I thought of them myself, to teach my kids back home how to read.”

Apparently, the shopkeeper started out by drawing them on wood scraps with charcoal. Thinking he might be able to sell them, he became acquainted with a painter and talked him into making a set, then looked for a company to sell them.

However, he explained that he wasn’t able to make a deal, as they couldn’t come to an agreement between the cost of production and the selling price. Apparently, the cards cost four silvers to make, but the company wanted to sell them for only one.

“So each one is painted individually?”

“Well, yes, of course…”

Wouldn’t it be much cheaper to use wood-block prints?

I started to propose this out loud, but Arisa tugged my arm and stopped me, putting her index finger over her lips.

“What is it?”

“You were going to suggest prints, right?”

Arisa spoke to me in a whisper, so I responded in a whisper as well.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“I didn’t see any prints in my castle, either. It’s dangerous to just go around teaching people new techniques, you know!”

“They have seals here but not wood-block prints?”

“That’s just how technology goes.”

Come to think of it, I vaguely remembered that even in history back on Earth, there were more than a thousand years between the invention of seals and the invention of wood-block printing. I guess it took a while to take a technique from one field and apply it to another.

I was sort of surprised that the people who’d been reincarnated or summoned into this world before me hadn’t already spread things like woodblocks and printing, though.

Since Arisa had experienced the consequences of this sort of thing before, I gave in to her wishes and stopped myself from suggesting the prints.

Wrapping up our private discussion, we returned to the young shopkeeper.

“Sorry about that. I guess she didn’t like our complicated conversation.”

“Oh, no—I should be the one to apologize. Not many people take interest in this sort of thing, so…”

There weren’t many people interested? It seemed like the kind of thing that would sell pretty well.

“Well, I’d like to buy a set. How much is it?”

The young man’s melancholic expression brightened a bit, and he said one set would be four silver coins… Wait, didn’t it cost that much to make them?

“Are you sure? How will you make any profit, then?”

“It’s all right. I’m happy enough just to have someone who understands the appeal of my product buy it at all.”

I couldn’t just be indifferent to this poor man’s plight. It’d be a shame to let his great idea go to waste.

“What’s your plan for the next time you make them? It seems like there’s a demand, so the only problem is the price. It wouldn’t be so bad to experiment a little, right? You could try to find cheaper material or maybe some method of cheaply mass-producing them.”

I couldn’t help but make a small comment as I handed him my payment… A little bit of advice couldn’t hurt, right?

I stole a glance over my shoulder just long enough to see the fire returning to the young shopkeeper’s eyes as we walked away from the stall.

I handed Arisa the study cards I’d purchased.

“What’s left to buy after this?”

“A few small personal necessities and such. If there’s enough room in the budget, is it all right if I buy some sewing tools and a hand mirror?”

“Sure, as long as it’s a necessary item and within the budget, I don’t mind. In fact, it’s fine if the hand mirror is a little outside the budget, so go ahead and buy one for us.”

Checking my reflection in the water in the washbasin was a pain, so I’d been wanting one.

I did get an item labeled Broken Mirror in my spoils from the Valley of Dragons, but I’d probably hurt myself if I tried to use it.

Parting ways with the others as they left to continue shopping, Zena and I started to head toward the stage to see the play, but Arisa’s voice stopped me.

“Master, aren’t you going to see the stage play?”

“That’s the plan.”

“You bought the tickets they were selling at the entrance to the flea market, then?”

“No, I didn’t…”

I didn’t know they were selling the tickets there.

It was pretty busy here, but I was sure we could get there if we just followed the flow of the crowd.

“Lilio told me you just have to pay a penny at the stage entrance…”

“You could do that, but then you’ll have to stand in the back and watch. The tickets cost two coppers, but you can get a seat inside if you have them.”

“It’s ten times more expensive just to be able to sit?”

Zena was surprised, but I just thought the standing seats were very cheap.

I didn’t know how long the play was, but I was sure it would be better to sit.

Apparently, Arisa and the others wanted to go, too, so I said I would buy tickets for the six of us, but Liza insisted on doing it for me instead.

I gave Liza a little pouch with twelve copper coins, and the rest of us headed toward the stage, still browsing the flea market as we went.

We ended up leading the kids around with us as we looked at the stalls, which I worried was unfair to Zena.

I apologized to her tentatively, but she seemed to be having fun, and I didn’t sense any displeasure as she walked around holding hands with Pochi and Tama. Still, I’d have to remember to follow up with her about it later.

The stalls at the flea market were something of a mixed bag.

One stall had very junky-looking accessories crafted from bone, mixed in with some lovely silver earrings.

“These would match your blond hair perfectly, Zena.”

“They are very nice…”

Zena looked pleased as she held them up to her ears and asked how they looked, so I was quick to praise her.

Off to the side, Arisa announced that she wanted something, too, so we bought some ribbons at the stall next door.

I bought them for everyone, of course, including Lulu, who was resting back at the inn.

Zena looked reluctant to part with the earrings as she put them back. I would’ve bought them for her right away if she had just asked like Arisa did.

Arisa and the girls took Zena’s hand and led her to the next stall, so I took that opportunity to buy the earrings she’d been looking at. I’ll give them to her on the way home or something.

We met up with Liza once she had gotten the tickets, and I bought her a tassel for her spear as thanks for her troubles.

Wherever we went, I was able to buy things for much cheaper than the price my “Estimation” skill suggested. I wasn’t sure whether that was because of my “Haggling” and “Negotiation” skills or simply the nature of a flea market.

On our way toward the stage, pickpockets and extortionists approached us twice, but my radar let me know that someone hostile was approaching, so I was able to take care of it easily.

I caught the pickpocket and turned him in to a group of stern-faced men who’d been hired to patrol the area by the person running the flea market.

This sort of criminal would probably be dealt with severely by the law, so that was all well and good, but then I had to deal with the men trying to hit on Zena.

Whenever they went after Zena, Liza or I stepped in to physically remove them.

“Beautiful maiden, I long to admire your smile not beneath the moonlight but beneath the bright and shining light of the sun.”

“Aah, my beloved Zen, this castle is but a prison to me. Use your magic to whisk me away from here!”

On the stage, a man in a sorcerer’s hooded robe was romancing a black-haired actress in a gown. Their enthusiastic performance lost a bit of its impact in front of a cheesy painted moon, though.

…Zen, huh? Ever since meeting Arisa, I’d been on the alert whenever I heard a Japanese-sounding name. Zen could definitely be written like the Buddhist concept or the kanji for virtue, for example.

I wasn’t really interested in stories of star-crossed lovers, so I couldn’t focus on the story, and my mind ended up wandering.

On the other hand, Zena and Arisa seemed to like the story very much: They were leaning forward in their seats, completely absorbed in the story.

The play was apparently based on a true story, so the number of characters made things a little confusing. It must have been too hard for Pochi and Tama to follow, because they had fallen asleep using my lap as a pillow.

Liza was watching the stage with a serious expression, but she seemed to be focusing on the scent of spit-roasted meat wafting from somewhere behind the stage, not the play itself.

Her eyes had narrowed as if she was sizing up her prey the moment the scent of roasting chicken fat drifted toward us, so there was no question about it.

While I’d been entertaining myself by pinching the noses of the dozing Pochi and Tama, the story unfolding on the stage had moved forward.

“I have you now! How dare you, a lowly plebian sorcerer, abduct my fiancée, Princess Liltiena? I, Marquis Muno, will see that you pay for this crime!”

With his knights in tow, the portly marquis had apparently tracked down the heroes of the story.

Standing at the edge of a set made to look like a cliff, the hero waved his staff, protecting the heroine. For some reason, there was a woman in a maid-like outfit standing behind them.

That maid sure looks like she’ll raise an event flag.

With a dramatic flourish during the final line of his speech, the actor pulled away the black curtain at the front of the stage to expose the painted backdrop to the bright sunlight.

“Ahhh!”

“Geh!”

Zena and Arisa recoiled in their seats, each grabbing on to one of my arms.

The painting that had been revealed depicted a gallows and the bodies of those who had been beheaded.

Personally, I thought it was in bad taste, but judging from the shrieks and cheers of the audience, it seemed to be well received.

The people in this city seemed pretty open to violence.

“Father! Mother! Damn you, Marquis, you’ve claimed even the lives of my young siblings and cousins…!”

“You think you’ve any right to be angry? A commoner rebelled against the marquis. It’s only natural that his entire family should be beheaded! Be thankful that I saw fit to spare them any torture before disposing of them!”

A flood of red tears poured from the hero’s eyes. How did they do that?

The protagonist’s magic blew violently, sweeping the knights who protected the marquis off to the side of the stage.

Of course, it wasn’t real magic, just some tacky cutout images and lame sound effects, but it garnered another big cheer from the audience.

Considering that there were real sorcerers in this world, shouldn’t they be using Light Magic or Wind Magic or something to liven up the play?

“Such fine knights you have! But there is no one left to protect you. Now I will take my revenge for my family!”

The protagonist brandished his long staff.

Then, just as I expected, the actress in the maid outfit began to move.

Deliberately facing toward the audience, she pulled out a dagger and raised it slowly.

“Behind you!”

“Look out!”

The audience screamed at the hero. Yeah, I know the feeling.

Zena didn’t cry out with the others, but she was clearly wrapped up in the story. Her hand gripped my arm with such force that it was a little painful.

Naturally, the protagonist gave no reaction to the audience’s cries and slowly began to walk toward the actor who played the marquis as he chanted a spell.

At that moment, the attendant rushed over and thrust a dagger into the hero’s back.

“You! You were working for the marquis all along?!”

“You are unworthy of the princess’s hand!”

Despite having been stabbed in the back, the protagonist quite loudly denounced the maid-looking actress. Once his line was delivered, he very dramatically fell to his knees.

Too late, the heroine came rushing up to the fallen hero.

“That dagger is coated in deadly poison from the tail of a wyvern. You will never be able to save him.” The maid gave some unnecessary exposition to the crowd.

The heroine simply cried and clung to the dying protagonist.

“Let us meet in the afterlife, my love…”

“Oh, Zen!”

Finally, the leading man expired.

“Princess, you must return to the marquis.”

“Never! This body belongs only to Zen. I shan’t let the marquis do as he wishes with me!”

With that, the heroine pulled out the dagger from Zen’s back and plunged it into her own breast.

There were cries of empathy from the crowd for the heroine—especially from the female audience members.

Startled by the noise, Pochi and Tama looked around frantically until I reassured them that the crowd was only cheering for the play.

Both of them plopped their heads back into my lap contentedly. I scratched them behind the ears and turned my attention back toward the stage.

I’d heard this was a tragic love story, but I was surprised it was so depressing.

I thought it would end there, but apparently, the play was still going.

Tossed over the side of the cliff, the protagonist’s corpse was brought back to life, and one by one, the undead hero took his revenge on the marquis’s family.

The maid who had killed the hero before stabbed him again with the poisoned dagger, but with a cry of “Poison has no effect on this undead body!” the protagonist avenged himself. The manner in which he defeated her had been cleverly foreshadowed by their relationship in the first half, so it was actually pretty interesting.

However, in an unsatisfying twist, he was inexplicably defeated at the last second by a Holy Knight just as he was about to finally take his revenge on the marquis.

Apparently, many of the other audience members felt the same way I did, as booing arose from the audience.

But some of them were booing with a smile on their faces; it seemed that the audience was expected to jeer the marquis and the Holy Knight at this part of the play.

Oh, it’s still going?

“Yes, I will rot away in this earth! However, I will take this land, your marquisate, along with me! I curse you, Marquis Muno!”

Black smoke spouted from where the hero had fallen, and when the smoke cleared, the painted backdrop had been changed to depict what looked like a wasteland.

“Holy Knight! I cannot bear to see my people suffer because of my own deeds. Please do whatever you can, for their sake!”

“Oh, how very noble! Just as one would expect from the head of the Muno family, which has existed since the era of the ancestral king Yamato!”

I felt like the marquis’s personality changed all of a sudden. The Holy Knight was praising him quite a lot, too.

In the end, the marquis sacrificed himself to protect his people, and the play concluded with the scene of him taking the curse from his land at the cost of his own life.

After the play ended, Arisa (who’d been watching enthusiastically) said she was thirsty, so I gave her some fruit water and let her rest under a nearby tree.

“Would you like some, too, Zena?”

“Thank you.”

Accepting the bisque mug, Zena brought it to her lips and gulped down the liquid. She must have been very thirsty, too.

I gave a cup to Liza as well, who offered the flavored water to Pochi and Tama.

Feeling a bit hungry, we went to buy something that looked like flatbread from a nearby cart.

What led me there was the inviting smell of soy sauce cooking. The product was called gabo flatbread, apparently made with the fantasy crop called the gabo fruit. It was very cheap, costing just one penny coin for two pieces.

In addition to the regular kind, there was a variety filled with onions cooked in diluted soy sauce, so I ordered one of each. Apparently, there’d been a big rush of customers coming from the play, so there were no premade flatbreads left.

The stall next door was selling thin pancakes that looked sort of like okonomiyaki; they seemed tasty, so I ordered some of those, too. These were called crappes, a name I’d never heard before.

While I was waiting, a middle-aged woman holding a crappe approached me. It was the person who’d been sitting in the seat in front of mine at the play.

“My, aren’t you the gentleman who was sitting behind me? Are you a foreigner, by chance?”

“Yes, ma’am. My name is Satou. I’m a peddler.”

“Goodness, how polite!”

Once the woman introduced herself, we chatted while my crappes were being cooked, and she explained to me the reason behind the farce at the end of the play.

“I’m sure you found the last bit of the play rather awful, didn’t you?”

“You mean when the Holy Knight showed up without an introduction, and the marquis’s character suddenly changed?”

“Yes, well, you see…”

According to the woman, when the play was first written some twenty years ago, it ended with the sorcerer taking his revenge on the marquis and then being defeated by the Holy Knight. However, it had apparently been changed due to complaints from the nobility.

Furthermore, Princess Liltiena had been the daughter of a commoner in the original story, and the events were set in motion when the amorous marquis abducted her away from her husband.

I see… So those developments felt so out of place because they were changed later.

Once my flatbreads and crappes were ready, I thanked the woman and returned to the spot where everyone was waiting.

“What did you buy?”

“Normal and onion-filled gabo flatbreads and some kind of snack called a crappe.”

Everyone was very intrigued, so I broke the gabo flatbreads into small pieces and handed them out.

Zena politely declined her portion with a dry smile, so I split it with everyone else and tried a bite.

Ugh. That’s bitter.

It was a strange, terribly acrid taste that made me feel nauseous with every bite.

It might have tasted good to the locals who were used to the flavor, but I couldn’t eat it. Activating my “Pain Resistance” skill, I forced myself to chew it up and swallow it.

I quickly washed it down with a gulp of fruit water.

Once I recovered and looked around at everyone, I saw that the beastfolk girls were making slightly strange faces but still eating normally, while Arisa looked like she was on the verge of tears as she chewed.

“Arisa, if it’s too gross, you can just spit it out in here.”

“Fanks… I can’f eaf fhis.”

I held out a handkerchief, and Arisa quickly rid herself of the stuff that was in her mouth.

Come to think of it, I guess Zena did tell me a while back that gabo fruits were gross. I got caught off guard because of the deceptive smell of soy sauce.

Luckily, the crappes were normal and delicious.

It was somewhat like a thin, hard okonomiyaki, but since it was made with miso sauce instead of tonkatsu sauce, it was really something else entirely.

Under the shade of the tree, we chatted idly as we enjoyed the crappes.

“Even when you know they’re coming, those emotional scenes at the end coming one after another are too much to bear!” chirped Arisa.

“I have to admit, I cried at the part when Princess Liltiena committed suicide to follow Zen into death.” Zena rubbed her eyes, which looked a little red.

“Really? If it were me, I would’ve grabbed the dagger and taken revenge on the marquis myself! You can’t do anything if you’re dead.” Arisa’s cheeks were full of food as she rebutted Zena’s remark.

“It’s so crisp and tasty, sir!”

“Yummyyy!”

“I wonder what they used to make the sauce… I’m picking up a very faint taste of meat.”

Meanwhile, the beastfolk trio was more interested in discussing the crappes than the play.

“But surely you agree that the marquis is at fault for tearing the lovers apart?”

“Well, since Princess Liltiena is the one who betrayed her fiancé by taking a new lover, I think you could say she set the tragedy in motion…”

Arisa and Zena seemed to have a slight difference in values, as their voices were getting louder and louder.

Arisa was asserting that “love is all that matters,” while Zena insisted that “it’s only natural to marry a noble for the sake of your family.”

“Well, in that case, shouldn’t you be happy with the fiancé your family picked for you instead of our master?!”

“…I—I don’t have a fiancé…” Zena quailed a bit at Arisa’s words.

Incidentally, Zena and I weren’t “lovers,” nor would I be willing to consider her a love interest for at least another four or five years.

“Isn’t that because you joined the army to avoid getting a fiancé? I’m pretty sure the kingdoms around here don’t let you retire from the army for at least five years.”

That Arisa sure was well-informed.

“What does retiring have to do with being engaged?” I asked. “Noncombatants in the military can still get married, can’t they?”

“When women get married here, they’re required to join the household right away.”

I see, so if you couldn’t get married for five years while you were in the military, that sort of discussion wouldn’t come up until your retirement was approaching.

I’d imagine circumstances would be different for high-ranking nobility, but I believed Zena was from a lower-class noble family, so it probably wouldn’t happen at such an early stage.

“A woman has to be willing to throw away everything for the person she loves, or she shouldn’t fall in love at all!”

“But to ignore the will of the head of the family…”

“If you’re such a Goody Two-shoes, someone else will steal your beloved away from you!”

Arisa seemed to be getting a bit carried away, so I stopped their debate by whacking her lightly on the head.

“You’re going too far.”

I could understand Arisa’s point, but I didn’t think she should go around pushing Japanese values in a foreign country with a different culture.

I apologized to Zena, who was close to tears, and forced Arisa to bow her head in apology as well.

She seemed reluctant at first, but after a moment she apologized to Zena. “I’m sorry.” Arisa can be surprisingly meek.

Pochi and Tama looked anxious, maybe thinking we’d gotten into a fight.

“Want to get more crappes? Or should we go get some of those meat skewers?” I offered.

“Meat skeweeers?”

“The crappes were yummy, but meat skewers sound even better, sir!”

“Shall I go and buy them, master?”

I had suggested it only to improve the mood, but the beastfolk girls were very quick to respond.

Liza, in particular, was already on her feet and looking ready to sprint toward the meat skewer stall.

Aren’t you jumping the gun a little?

I gave Liza a few coins and instructed her to buy one for each person. Arisa tagged along behind Liza with a cry of “Leave the haggling to me!”

“Us, toooo?”

“We’ll help, sir!”

Tama and Pochi scampered off after them, too.

After a long struggle to eat the somewhat hard, sinewy meat, Zena’s face softened, but it seemed like Arisa’s words were still bothering her a little.