by Ainana Hiro
"I want to take a bath before changing clothes..."
I tried to search for a bathhouse attendant, but it was not applicable. I'm wondering if I got the occupation name wrong or if there are no bathhouses in the first place. If it's the latter then I have no choice but to get hot water and take a bath inside my room in the inn later.
"You there! If you haven't decided on an inn then come to ours! I'll give you some service~!"
"Wh-What..."
"It's fine, it's fine, it's cheaper than all the others-- Not, but it is filled with a devotion to delicious food and clean bedding!"
When I was thinking about how to get into a bath, someone suddenly pulled my arm and my consciousness came back. A random high tension girl embraced my arm while pulling it. I wonder if she's a barker, it's a scene you usually see in a campus festival in modern Japan.
I'm dragged to a store that looks like a bar while thoroughly enjoying the soft feeling wrapped around my arm. Because I entered from the main street it feels dim.
"Mom! Mom! I brought a guest!"
Out of consideration for the softness transmitted to my arm, I have no more hesitation in deciding to stay in this inn. Yep, poyopoyo is justice!
"It's the first customer since the stars fell, isn't it... Hm? He doesn't have any luggage, is he really a guest?"
An aunty with a big body came out of the bars counter-like place. Contrary to her figure, she's a beautiful woman with a face filled with dignity. I think she's about 30? I'm sorry for calling you aunty.
However, even though these mother-daughter pair are natural beauties, why are they fat! Lose 10, no 20 Kg, and they would be in my strike zone!!
Though I'm out if she's a married woman. An affair will only make everyone involved unhappy!
"Because of that, er, starfall? My luggage ran out with my horse due to the uproar... Fortunately my wallet is safe, and I somehow got into this city~"
"That's a disaster. Our inn charges 1 big copper coin for one night. If you're fine with sleeping together with other guests in a big room then it'd be 2 copper coin. Meal is served at this bar for one serving. It's the limited service for an accommodation.”
Fumu, I don't know the market price, so let's investigate the value of big copper coin and silver coin by paying for 10 days.
The landlady has arithmetic and cleaning skill so there won't be any mistake with calculation.
"Then, it's for 10 days please."
"Okay, it's exactly 2 silver coins then."
I take out 2 silver coins and pass it to the landlady.
It seems that 5 big copper coins equal 1 silver. It doesn't seem like she miscalculated either.
"Landlady, could I have my meal now? If possible a light one."
"If it's something like oatmeal, black bread, or vegetables then I could get it out right now. And I'm sorry but meat hasn't appeared in the market, so there's none of that."
"Then black bread and a stew please."
"Okay, I'll bring it immediately, so just sit there. Martha, write the guest book for our customer here."
The landlady goes to a place that looks like a kitchen, and in her place, a poster girl who looks like a head clerk from a historical drama holding a notebook tied up with string, Martha-chan, skips here.
She's cute but she looks around a high schooler's age? A bit too young for me.
"Ye~s, I'm writing for you so can you give me your name?"
"It's Satou."
"Okay Satou. Your occupation and age please."
I almost said 29 year old programmer. According to Status screen, it should be 15 years old.
"A peddler, 15 years old."
Martha-chan smoothly fills the notebook. It looks to use yellow papers like the one used on Japanese calligraphy.
When Martha attempted to chat after writing the inn registry, the landlady came out and told her to clean the 2nd floor.
The crystal clear stew with consomme-like soup, cabbage and carrot-like vegetables, and as announced before, without meat, is more delicious than I expected. There are 3 slices of about 2 cm thick black bread. It's harder than what I've heard, but feels about as hard as senbei. It looks like it would fill your stomach. I bite it full of curiosity. It feels like a meal full of strange SFX.
Feeling satisfied for a meal after a long while, I pay the price. 1 copper coin. Usually it's prepaid.
Come to think of it, Martha and the landlady use loanwords like service and oatmeal normally, but when I observed their lips, I know that they're speaking different words. I wonder if it's an appropriation of the Shiga language words.
>[Lip Reading Skill Acquired]
...Ya~y, I can become a spy or a detective~ orz.
Or rather,
"Landlady-san, I intend to buy some groceries and a change of clothes, do you know any good places?"
Although I know stores location from the map, there are too many of them, I don't feel like going around all of them.
"If you want something with high quality material, then the tailor on the city center would be the best. For something reasonable then the east is good, and if you want it cheap then the west. If you have money in excess then you could tailor it on the high class shop at the inner wall, but you'd need gold coin. General good stores usually open near clothing stores, so please plan your budget carefully."
"Thank you very much. I'll go to the east street since tailoring seems that it would take some time."
"Okay, although there's Chian on the east, be careful of pickpockets. Since sometimes there are migrant workers from the west there."
"Yes, I will be careful."
I leave the inn while thanking the landlady for the advice.
It's starting to get hard to say that this is a dream. But I will work hard!
1-6. The Marketplace, the Princess and the Slave Trade
* * *
Satou's here. It's Suzuki but I'm Satou. This is a dream right? Please say that this is a dream, Johny.
◇
A slight unrest began to arise inside my mind, when I went shopping on the earl's territory metropolitan, Seryuu city.
It's a few minutes walk to the east of Martha's mother inn.
Come to think of it, I haven't heard the name of the inn, the map says Monzen Inn; is that it?
Immediately after entering a series of food stalls, I smell something good.
Eh? Isn't this the smell of soy sauce?
Okonomiyaki and crepes are being baked on an iron plate. The seasoning seems to be soy sauce. Just as I thought, it's fine to call this a dream. There's no way soy sauce exists in a fantasy!
Even though I've just had a meal, I buy one of them.
"Yep, it's delicious."
I want pork cutlet sauce rather than soy sauce. The other stalls seems to be frying something that looks like croquettes. What a high food culture for a fantasy!
I'm going around various stalls, trying various foods.
"How much is this gabo for 3 serving?"
"It's 2 Pennies."
"Expensive, isn't it 1 penny?"
"young maam, like that, we couldn't eat then; How about 2 pennies for 4 then?"
"Give me 5 for 2."
"It can't be helped, since young maam's a beauty, I'll give in."
I listened to some interesting conversation between an aunty and a food stall owner. Haggling basic eh? Since I'm accustomed with just buying what's written on the price tag, it looks difficult.
>[Eavesdropping Skill Acquired]
"Anything I can help, young man?"
Fumu, from the conversation earlier a gabo seems to be about 0.4-0.5 pennies a pop. Since this uncle has arithmetic skill, he should've been able to calculate the minimum amount.
"I want to buy 2 gabo, is it alright with 1 penny?"
"You've heard the conversation just now eh? It's alright then. Young man have arithmetic skill too right. You're pretty good for such young man."
It's just a normal mental arithmetic though...
> I got 2 gabo fruit for 1 penny. Gabo is actually a fist-sized red pumpkin fruit. Incidentally, penny is an oblong shaped coin weighing about 1 gram, it's a yellow-ish copper coin with high impurity.
>[Estimation Skill Acquired]
>[Haggling Skill Acquired]
But I didn't haggle it?
Is it because I saw the earlier haggle by the aunty?
While wondering what to do with the gabo fruit I looked around me. The stalls are all around the size of half a tatami yet there are many of them. Furthermore they're lively.
While looking around the stalls I raised [Estimation], [Haggling], [Arithmetic], [Negotiation], and [Scamming] skills to the max level.
After strolling around for 10 minutes, I finally found my goal.
I choose a large shoulder bag from one of the stall. The price is displayed over the bag thanks to the estimation skill. Handy.
It seems that I'd get hated if I suddenly bought it on market price. I understood the knack after 3 stores. I could get it to half the market price if I try to bargain for 3-4 times... but honestly, it's annoying.
The spoils from the stalls... [Large Shoulder Bag], [A Bit Stylish Bag], [Commoner's Underwear for Top and Bottom + 10 set], [Hand Towel in Various Size, and Handkerchief]. The towel is just two piece of clothes stacked together, I'm a bit dissatisfied.
Also, even though I can't sew, [2 Meter Hemp Cord - 5 Bundles], [Cotton Thread - 1 Roll], [Sewing Needle - 5], [Sewing Scissors], [Cotton Cloth], somehow there's a lot of them. Since I have the storage, there's no problem even if a lot of them end up unused.
In all it's 4 silver coins. Unexpectedly, clothing is more expensive than foods.
I don't think I need to say this, but the first thing I bought, the shoulder bag, is a dummy. I will put things I bought into the bag and directly send it to the storage without being seen. I put some commoner's clothes inside the bag so that it doesn't look flat.
I wanted to buy some some robes or cloaks but, only worn-out or cheap looking things were available so I didn't.
That's right, I want to confirm heat retention of the storage. I'll buy some properly hot things and put it inside.
Shopping is fun~
"Now then, I wonder what else?"
Chair lined up ahead of the stalls and there are a lot of old mans are drinking sake since morning.
"Drinking in daytime... Oh yea, tableware!"
There should've been a shop that sells them among the one I've visited so far.
That's right, shoes! I forgot about shoes.
I want a reminder~. There's a memo field inside the [Exchange] tab of the Menu, let's put the shopping list there.
It's been a while since I saw the Exchange tab, over there I found the reason why I was level 1 when I entered the city.
Those status was the same as the one written in this page. The upper limit for each attributes are chosen from the drop down box here. Even the skills and title can be chosen as [None].
However... I could give false info however I want.
I buy a pair of shoes suitable for rough journey, and a robe matching the shoes, also a sandal for each foot.
I thought of buying everything since I have the storage but I can't find shoes with correct size. I'll just order it on the main street's shoes store later.
Hungry after a second round trip, I set my eyes on a store selling something that looks like shoyu ramen and went into it. Although the noodles are different, it's a proper ramen.
Other was kneaded flour coiled in a stick varnished with miso-like substance then baked. It felt like a mismatch, but it was properly delicious.
I also bought cups, pots, tableware that caught my attention, I bought them all. Also, a kitchen knife, hot pot and frying pan. Somehow there were no cutting boards, do people here don't use them?
I casually bought a bathtub made of metal. As one would expect, the tub is too big to place into the bag so I brought it quietly to the back of an alley and put it into the storage. And since it would look unnatural if I went back into the east avenue, I decided to exit onto the the main street.
◇
At the east street stalls overflow, making the street there squeezed on the center. Here, the main street is about 6 meter width, horse carriage and human-powered cart are going back and forth on it.
Just like the street earlier, different from what I imagined of a fantasy, the street here are very clean. There are no body of dead animals lying around. There are also no bum on the alleyway.
The stalls are sparse here unlike on the east street, in exchange there are a lot of stores instead. There are many people with good attire walking around the street.
"Are collars popular?"
The people who are pulling carts generally wear collar. When I search for it, they're slaves. Mysteriously, all the slaves wear collars, reason unknown.
A carriage coming from the downtown drop its speed to match the walking speed of the pedestrians.
The carriage passes in front of me. There are around 10 woman slaves inside.
My eyes are glued to one of them. A girl befitting to be called Yamato Nadeshiko featuring black hair and black eye, although she looks like she's been in a long journey. Since the great majority of people looks like northern European, this is probably the first time I've seen Asian face.
The girl set her eyes downcast, our eyes met when she lift it up and even though there's no dramatic development, somehow the little girl featuring orthodox northern European face with light purple wavy hair standing next to her looked very surprised when she saw me. No well, It's troubling when you stare so hard at me... I'm not into loli.
When I took a long look at the little girl, a pop up with her name and level appeared next to her.
Arisa. Level 10. Her level is high for a little girl.
Further informations appear.
11 years old.
Title: [Witch of the Lost Kingdom][Mad Princess]
Skill: Unknown
The carriage disappear toward the west street.
Frankly, those were some trouble inviting titles... No no, I won't approach it okay? Absolutely!
◇
Let's go back to my original purpose.
I searched the map for tailor or shoemaker, and found them gathered near the side street, so I went there. Most of them had young women clerks which isn't fit for an old man, so I went into the shop with a kindhearted looking middle-aged couple.
"Pardon me, Do you have a solid merchant-like robe with calm color?"
"Welcome, please come over here, we will bring you sample cloths. There were 5 ready made goods on the rack there, but it's been selling well recently."
The husband guide me to the lounge and take out the samples from the interior. In harmony, the wife bring out tea-like drink. It's an elegant cup.
"Since it'll be cold from now on, how about this thick fabric? If you're going on a journey then we can also prepare a matching waterproof cloak, how about it sir?"
These are excellent goods. Maybe. These are the types that the largest clothing store buy a lot with a lot of color variety, The 5 variety of the well selling goods probably also have cloak order accompanying them
The tailoring will need 5 days to finish. If I only buy one then it's only 3 days.
5 gold is quite a large sum, but it's a money needed for necessary things.
However, I want at least 1 change of robe before the day is over. I feel like I don't know the TPO if I go the inner wall with this battered robe I'm wearing.
"Master, since this shop is only for tailoring, do you know shops selling ready made goods? As you can see the robe I'm wearing is battered from the journey, I want to buy temporary clothes before the tailoring is done."
"For ready clothes, I recommend Poel Clothing on the Teputa street. Although it's my stupid son's clothes, I can assure his cl
oth-making skill. It's quite famous among the commoner so it's quite enough for temporary clothes."
Promoting his son's shop eh... I politely refuse when he's offering to draw a map, it's enough with oral instruction so I get out of the shop. I almost forgot to take the deposit receipt until I was called by the Mrs. Shopkeeper in hurry.
I bought two robes, one is a calming dark brown color and the other is a gaudy red with yellow stripes. The former is as said before, and the latter, let's omit the story behind it. My line of vision went into the valley of the female clerk...
Of course I also order shoes on the tailor. 1 for walking in the city, 2 boots for journey.
When I came back to the Martha's inn after shopping, the sun was already sinking for the day.
1-7. Open Air Bath, Objective and Sightseeing
* * *
"Satou's here. The petty one who doesn't want to get involved with the dangerous looking slave, Satou."
It's a dream! My self-suggestion is reaching the limit.
It's another world that's most likely a dream, become my compromise. Yes, however small the possibility is, I won't give up.
◇
My heart broke when Martha said that a bathroom is not available except at the lord's castle. Since the food and sanitation culture of the town were pretty high, I thought that bathrooms also mattered.
I thought of bathing in the room with the tub, but since it'd get the room moldy due to the moisture, I was told to do it in the backyard since it also has a well.
The backyard is about 6 tatami wide. The well is not that far from the back door, it's not equipped with a pump and is the type that uses buckets to draw water, usually used in older days. I'm using one of the two wooden tubs available.
I thought that I would struggle but thanks to my high (STR) status, it was easy.
Thought they said backyard, the fences are only around my waist high. Even though there are only few pedestrians traffic, there are still some. It's already dim during the dusk but if I take a bath in place like this, isn't this like an exhibition?
