Chapter 262

It was quite late by the time I arrived at the inn. But due to being near the busy streets, it was still fairly loud. And so it wasn’t easy making my way through the drunk men with their mugs of beer and the other guests staying at the inn.

“To think that I’d be the one to return late…”

I sighed as I remembered what I had told Daniela before we parted ways. It was bad to ask people to do things that you were incapable of doing yourself. It brought me back to my early days as a part-time worker. I sighed again.

“Happiness will flee if you sigh too much.”

I recalled that rediculous saying as I entered the inn. A familiar person stood with their back turned towards me. Short, platinum blonde hair. Daniela.

“Sorry. I know I’m late.’

“Hm…I just got back myself.”

Daniela said as she turned around. She was holding skewers of meat.

“I hope you have something other than meat in that bracelet of yours?”

“Hahaha.”

“It’s not funny. I’m actually worried.”

There was something a little awkward in the way she laughed. In any case, we left the entrance and walked towards our room. While I had a bad feeling about it, surely, it was nothing.

I grabbed the keys from the counter and followed Daniela up the stairs. She had finished her food it seemed. Did she put the sticks in her bracelet? I hope she wasn’t using it as a trashcan.

“We should get changed and then go out for dinner.”

“You’ve already eaten, old woman.”

“Hey, Asagi. That is extremely aggravating.”

This elf did not like to be reminded of her age.

“So? Where do you want to go? And it better not be meat.”

We had eaten nothing but meat since coming to this city. We were going to start smelling like it before long.

“Indeed. A quiet bar might be nice for a change?”

“Hmm… I like the sound of that.”

It was an unusual suggestion from Daniela. She usually preferred meat to drink.

I put down my bag and we both changed into rougher clothing before going back out into the city. Up until now, I had to take a smaller bag out of the hollow bag and use it to carry my wallet. But now, Daniela held the money in her hollow bracelet. We had put half of the money that I used to carry into it. It was incredibly convenient to be able to walk around without carrying anything.

“It’s nice that you don’t even have to carry your weapons anymore.”

“But you still have your sword belt.”

“Yeah.”

While I was empty-handed, I did have the demon armor sword on my belt. It was a relatively safe city, but you never knew what could happen. I was pretty confident in my bare hands these days, but perhaps there would be some other use for it. I just liked to be cautious.

We walked through the night, side by side. This was the busiest, liveliest city we had ever been to. Also, the most populated. But that meant more places to go. While I was expecting Daniela to take a long time deciding…she seemed to be walking with a sense of purpose. Had she heard about this place beforehand? I suppose she was going to escort me. I felt like a lousy date.

“There is a good place just around the corner.”

“Uhuh.”

“…What?”

“Hmm? What?”

“…?”

I had been a little distracted as I argued with myself, but I pushed those feelings aside. We turned the corner and entered an ordinary alley. There were doors and small windows on both sides where soft light poured out. There was something foreign about it all. Like we had stumbled into a different county. Well, I was in a whole different world.

Daniela went to the fourth door and knocked. The light behind it seemed to become brighter.

“Why are you standing there? Let us go in.”

“Yeah.”

Daniela turned around to call me over. The interior was that of a very chic, atmospheric bar. There was a counter and a few tables. It honestly made me hate the clothes I was wearing. My shirt and trousers may have been made from wind dragon, they were too rough for a place like this. I should be wearing a suit and tie. What was worse, Daniela was wearing rough clothing too, but she somehow pulled it off in a way that I couldn’t. This was the gap between us…

“Welcome.”

“Two sweet wines.”

“Certainly.”

There was a young, handsome man who prepared the drinks. Daniela had already taken a seat down by the counter and patted the one next to hers.

“Hurry up and sit down.”

“Right.”

I was nervous from my head to my toes. It was very uncomfortable. Surely it wouldn’t have hurt her to choose a place that was a better fit for me? Well, I suppose this place fitted her quite well. Still, I was a little annoyed. But I was also aware that it was stupid to feel this way. Sometimes humans were just controlled by their emotions.

Here you go.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you very much. It looks wonderful.”

“Asagi…”

I accepted the glass of red wine with both hands and slowly raised it to my lips. Daniela was looking at me with an exasperated expression. Maybe that was why I couldn’t taste a thing.

“Uh, it’s incredibly delicious.”

“Good to hear.”

My nerves were doing a bad job of calming down. Oh, now I was getting dizzy.

“I suppose you were not ready…”

I heard Daniela mutter. And then I blacked out.

□ □ □ □

Apparently, being incredibly nervous and drinking strong wine were a bad combination. And Daniela had suffered the embarrassment of carrying me back to the inn.

“Well, that is never happening again. I will have to go alone.”

“Don’t say that… I am sorry…”

I had never been able to go to such a place before. There were some things in this world that just couldn’t be helped.

However, Daniela crossed her arms stubbornly. By the time I was able to placate her, the sun was already high in the sky.

“Should we go to a normal place for lunch?”

“Yeah. I love normal.”

Daniela touched her forehead and sighed.

We sat down to what was really a brunch and talked about what we would do next.

“…So, how long will it take us to reach this Reserentrible place?”

“It is three days on foot…I believe. But there is a dense forest on the way.”

Usually, you would discuss your trip in advance and then shop for supplies. But as we had no carry limit, we stocked up first.

“A forest, huh? It’s been a while…”

“Aye. There will be goblins and kobolds there. It is supposed to be very dense and dark.”

Daniela said as she read from the paper she was holding. I had killed kobolds in a mine once. They liked to dig dark and narrow holes and tunnels. The forest must be pretty dark for them to live there.

“There are also lizards and other smaller monsters… Hmm. Well, nothing I would say is dangerous.”

“But, don’t you think it’s possible that the dungeon could be having an effect on them now?”

Maybe monsters had crawled out of the dungeon and moved to the forest. It was easy enough to imagine.

“Who knows? This is all the information I was able to get at the guild. But there is nothing about any changes… At least not yet.”

“Hmm…”

Well, they had just recently found out that it was seventy percent of the dungeon that had been swallowed up, not half. I don’t know how much time it was in between, but the information was constantly updated. I only hoped that Daniela’s information was new and still relevant…

“Well, I guess we won’t know until we go. It should be fine as long as we’re prepared.”

“Indeed. Food and magic tools are no longer a problem.”

“Really? I haven’t seen proof of any fish or vegetables being bought yet?”

“Shut up… I told you. I bought them.”

“You better have…”

Daniela puffed out her cheeks sulkily as she ate her bread. I glared back and chewed on my salad.

“Mmm…gg… Right. We should buy more potions and other medicine.”

“We have the money. So there is no harm in getting everything that we can.”

“And not just healing stuff. I want potions for status effects as well.”

If we wanted to survive, it would be best to be able to deal with as many situations as possible.

“You mean like burns or to fight drowsiness?”

“Yeah. I really don’t know much about them. But are there potions that work against petrification?”

“Yes. But they are very expensive.”

The reason that I wondered about this, was because I had seen a ‘Petrification Shield’ at the auction. It was a magic shield that turned swords into stone, no matter what they were made of. They had even demonstrated it in front of us. Apparently, it had been made with a monster’s eye.

In other words, there was a monster out there that could turn things into stone.

“Alright, let’s go and buy them after we finish eating.”

“I do not know where it is. We will have to stop by at the guild.”

“Right.”

Now that we had decided on what to do next, I hurriedly cleaned the rest of my plate while still savoring the taste.