Chapter 317

The villagers returned on the following day. After I watched them leave through the north gate while using Legs of the God Wolf, we made our way to the Adventurers Guild in order to collect our reward for suppressing the stampede.

We were awarded three hundred pieces of gold. Not bad. Besides, we still had money from the Imperial Sword Tournament and for selling the Automata. Of course, you could never have too much money. I wasn’t exactly a spendthrift or anything, but I cared a lot about quality when making important purchases.

We weren’t called in by the Guild Master or anything, and we finished our business there rather quickly. It was probably because Adlus had made the reports and taken care of everything the day before. Which was no surprise, since he was the leader. And so we were able to take things easy.

“Well, I guess we should split the money and then prepare for our next journey.”

“Leave the food to me.”

“That’s the last thing I’d want to leave to you. But I’ll make an exception since you seem so passionate about it.”

Leaving it to Daniela meant street food and no variety… That being said, I wanted to buy the other traveling tools. A new journey should have new equipment. It’s every guy’s dream.

“Very well. We can meet up at ‘Meat, Meat, Meat, Meat’ in the evening.’”

“I think we’ve had enough meat. I’ll see you at the inn. I’ll find a place to eat from there.”

“Haahh… If you insist.”

Daniela sighed and then disappeared into the city. The sorrow expressed in her back and the droop of her shoulders put most tired salarymen to shame.

“Over some meat… Oh, well. I better go too.”

□ □ □ □

Items. Magic tools. Items. Items. I went to pretty much every store that wasn’t a food store in my search to find something good. I left the fourth store and stretched my limbs.

“…Ahhh. I haven’t found anything good yet. Now that I think about it, we have pretty good stuff already, so maybe my standards have been raised…”

We had an established ‘style’ now, and I was quite particular about our tools. I suppose I was like a veteran now. It took a lot of experience to get to this point, but since we were almost always on the move, maybe it had happened earlier for us.

“We have tents, we have magic tools for making fires, plates, cups, spoons, forks. We don’t have foldable chairs, so we just sit on a cloth over the ground…”

I recalled all of the items we had as I muttered to myself and walked down the streets.

“We have pots for cooking and I made a table. …Maybe I could make chairs?”

“Mister Asagi!”

“Hmm?”

I had just been about to play ‘Chair-making for Dummies’ with Jack of all Trades, Master of None, when someone called to me. When I looked up, I saw Lemon standing in front of me.

“Oh, it’s you.”

“Well, that’s rather rude. Didn’t you miss your junior Adventurer, Lemon Frost?”

“Were you always like this…?”

Lemon was a gray elf and had recently become Manager’s partner. She hadn’t been allowed to participate in the goblin mission, and so she had stayed in the city.

“It’s been a while. How are you?”

“Oh, I was so very lonely!”

She pretended to cry and then tried to throw her arms around me, and so I held her head back with my hand.

“That’s not very nice of you.”

“Well, I don’t want the girlfriend to get angry.”

“Oh, she wouldn’t.”

Well…that was probably true. Daniela was rather fond of Lemon.

“Haa…alright.”

“Hmm, rough, but an improvement!”

She said as I patted her on the head and released her.

After that, we ended up having lunch together. Apparently, it was a place Lemon had discovered while she explored the city. It was a bakery with a really relaxed atmosphere.

We had freshly baked bread and some delicious soup. It was my kind of place.

“I really liked that chestnut bread.”

“Oh, I like that one too. It’s amazing if you spread some Berulu syrup on it!”

“Ah, Berulu syrup. That stuff is pretty good.”

Hell, even forest goblins loved it. I still had suspicions about it being addictive.

After that, Lemon came shopping with me. Though, there was still not much to actually buy. And we mostly just browsed around. This made us a less than popular pair in the city.

“By the way, how’s Manager?”

“She’s been sleeping since yesterday. No amount of shaking and prodding will get her up. And so I had no choice but to come out here. And that’s when I saw you.”

“I see. Well, she worked really hard, so you should let her rest.”

“It must have really been something. Rumors have been spreading throughout the city.”

Something about absurd numbers of goblins and huge monsters. The Jades must have been telling people as they celebrated. It’s not like any of it was a secret, and I didn’t really care if people knew. It didn’t matter. No one could return to Estarosta now.

“I heard that you did a lot as well, Mister Asagi.”

“You could say that. I’m exhausted.”

“And yet here you are, shopping like it hasn’t affected you at all. Oh, you haven’t actually bought anything…”

“Uh… Well, we are planning on leaving soon.”

Lemon looked surprised when I said this.

“Really? So soon!?”

“Soon? We’ve been here for a while… And we have a destination.”

“I see… That’s too bad.”

“It’s not like this is goodbye forever. I’ll be sure to come and meet you again before you’re really old.”

“And how long do you intend on living, Mister Asagi?”

I told her that I had to go and meet Daniela, but she was welcome to have dinner with us. However, Lemon shook her head.

“I’m sorry. I think Miss Rindo will be waking up soon. And so I should return to the inn.”

“I see. Yeah, I wouldn’t leave her alone.”

“Yes. But the four of us should definitely have dinner together at least once before you leave.”

I was happy that she made that suggestion. I wanted to say goodbye to Manager before we left.

She was one of the few acquaintances I had that was from my home. It was sad that we had to leave, but we had things we needed to do…

“Alright, we’ll come and visit you before then.”

“Good. See you later!”

“Later.”

I waved as Lemon disappeared into the crowds of people. And then I headed for the inn where Daniela would be waiting.

□ □ □ □

The sun was now below the walls that surrounded the city, and shadows began to fall. As if to battle the darkness, lights began to appear all over the streets just as I arrived at the inn.

“Daniela…ah, there she is. She’s really staring…”

She was looking straight at me with her hands on her hips. Like that, no one would want to walk past her… She was staring daggers at me. The meaning was clear.

She was hungry.

“Sorry, sorry. I know I’m late.”

“Very late. I am not sure I have the energy to take a single step.”

“Liar. Come on, let’s go.”

I pulled her by the hand. Sure enough, she was capable of walking just fine.

And so we walked through the city at night, hand in hand. Seeing the unique way the streets became crowded at night felt oddly nostalgic. Perhaps it was because we had spent so many nights in the forest. We had also spent many nights here. It didn’t help that I knew we would be leaving it soon.

However, this sort of melancholy for every stop was part of the charm of traveling. It was to find places that you wanted to return to, that one traveled at all.

“So, what is this place we are going to?”

“A bakery. …Oh, don’t look at me like that.”

It was almost surprising how disgusted she looked. I’d never seen that expression before…

“But…who goes to a bakery at night…”

“It’s good. I promise.”

“Hahh… Well, you do have good instincts.”

In spite of her misgivings, Daniela tagged along. That was why I loved her.

And like that, we arrived at the place I had come to with Lemon. You could smell the freshly baked bread from outside.

“Smells good, no?”

“Well, only because it is freshly baked…”

She was not ready to give up her meatatarian tendencies just yet. That was fine. I would open her eyes to the joys of evening bread.

□ □ □ □

“Uhhh…I cannot eat any more…”

“Why do you always eat so much…”

Daniela had underestimated the possibilities of this place and was defeated after her first bite. The first thing she had eaten was similar to French bread. I also adored an ajillo of mushrooms and bacon. Well, it was something close to ajillo, anyway. I didn’t have the most refined taste buds, but it seemed similar enough.

In any case, this combination was enough to help Daniela calm down. As for me, I had some melted cheese with my bread. I told her that it was my favorite way of eating bread, which resulted in her eating all of it. Then she ordered some beef soup to go with her bread. Once she was feeling better and less on the brink of starvation, she ordered some Pot-au-feu, and at the very end, she got some French Toast as dessert.

And that led to where we were now.

“Hmm. It was more filling than I expected…”

“It soaks up all the fluids. But at least it digests quickly.”

“I see… So you can eat a lot of it then…”

“You’re hopeless…”

Daniela leaned on my shoulder as we made our way back to the inn. Then I helped her down onto the bed and lay beside her. I had missed beds so much. And so it didn’t take us long to be whisked away to the world of dreams.

Hahaha. I’ll live until I die. Hopefully, that will be at a very old age. Perhaps while sleeping on Daniela’s lap.

Lemon teased me over these sentimental thoughts, and before I knew it, the sun was starting to set. I would have to return to the inn soon and meet Daniela.

“Hey, do you want to come too?”