The Ivy Manor and the Temporary Home
Satou here. Sometimes you’ll hear a story about someone you know in an unexpected place. It usually makes you realize how small the world really is, but it might also cause you to think better of that person now that you know about this unexpected side of them. Or worse, of course.
“Shall we get going, then?”
Once we’d checked out of the inn, we decided to go to the Ivy Manor, the place where the elf Trazayuya had lived, as a potential new dwelling.
“So where exactly is this Ivy Manor?” Arisa asked once we were in the carriage.
It hadn’t turned up when I searched the map for it earlier, but there was one large area of the city that was considered a separate part of the map, so my guess was that it was in there. It was on the southeast side of the city, close to where the nobles lived.
“See that forest over there? I think that’s where it probably is.”
“Ooh, that? I figured it was a nature park or something.”
“Mm. Lots of spirits.”
Sure enough, when I activated my Spirit Vision, I could see that there were several times more spirits around the forest than anywhere else in the vicinity. There was one particular area where the spirits seemed to gather most, so I marked it on the map as our destination for the time being.
Our carriage traveled toward the forest for a while.
Once we passed through an arch in a low stone wall that formed a barrier around the forest, we entered a new map.
When I used “Search Entire Map,” I was able to spot the Ivy Manor right away.
There was only one house in the whole forest, so that had to be it.
“It really does look like a nature park.”
“There are many small birds and animals, I report.”
“Mm, peaceful.”
Beyond the arch was a large expanse of nature. Well-dressed people strolled along the small paths weaving through the trees, and there were some children catching small fish and prawns on the banks of the reservoirs and waterways.
The Ivy Manor seemed to be farther upstream from this clear reservoir.
According to my map, it was at the source of the water.
Turning off the beaten path, we took the carriage along a narrow road hidden by some weeds.
After we’d proceeded for a while, the carriage suddenly changed directions.
“What’s the matter, Lulu?”
“I’m sorry. I suddenly got the sense that I had to change directions for some reason.”
My log said I’d resisted a Return Home spell. It was probably a security measure to keep people away.
“Mrrr?”
Mia seemed perfectly fine; maybe the spell didn’t work on elves.
Everyone else was affected the same way as Lulu.
“There seems to be some kind of spell here, so Mia and I will go on ahead for now. The rest of you wait here for a little while, please.”
With that, Mia and I started walking toward the Ivy Manor.
I took Mia’s small hand in mine, not wanting her to get lost because of the teleportation spell Wandering Forest.
“Date.”
Mia looked up at me happily, blushing a little.
I couldn’t quite bring myself to tell her that this was just so she wouldn’t get lost, so I simply smiled back and enjoyed our stroll through the peaceful forest.
After about five minutes, a single mansion came into view deep in the forest. True to its name, the front of the house was half-covered in ivy.
“Ivy Manor?”
“Yes, that’s probably it.”
It looked similar to Trazayuya’s house back in Bolenan Forest.
It was only about half the size of the houses in the noble quarters, but the area of land was about the same.
Just outside the hedge was a moat around six feet across, full of clear blue water. There were more hedges on the other side, too, so it must be part of the Ivy Manor.
This area was a little higher in elevation than the rest of Labyrinth City; the water that flowed through the moat passed into a thin waterway, which connected to the reservoir that provided Labyrinth City with water.
“There.”
Mia pointed at an arch of trees and a white wooden gate around waist height. However, there was another moat on the other side of the gate and no bridge with which to cross it.
Checking with my “Magic Perception,” I found that there was even a Space Magic barrier spell within the low moat.
Either Trazayuya was paranoid about security or Labyrinth City had been so dangerous back then that he had no other choice but to do all this.
“Notes.”
Mia produced a cute little memo pad from her Fairy Pack.
“<Open, o gate. I am Misanaria of Bolenan Forest. Greet us swiftly, o gatekeeper.>”
Mia read the written password out loud in Elvish.
She had pretty strong enunciation for someone who normally didn’t speak.
When she finished, a little girl’s face poked out through the gate on the other side of the moat.
As soon as our eyes met, she quickly concealed herself again.
“<I-it’s a human whelp! How’d he get past the Return Home barrier?>”
I overheard a rather rude mutter with my “Keen Hearing” skill.
The girl, who had dark-black hair in a short ponytail, was the brownie of the house. Other house spirits of her race had helped us in Bolenan Forest, so I didn’t even need to consult my AR to figure out that much.
“<Greet us swiftly, o gatekeeper.>”
As Mia repeated the last part of the password, I held her up so that the brownie could see her.
Of course, I also lowered her hood so that her elf ears would be visible.
“<An elf!>”
After a surprised exclamation from the girl, a bridge extended between the two gates.
It was a transparent bridge that almost looked like glass.
“Mm.”
Mia held out her hand again, and I took it as we walked across the bridge together.
“Lady Misanaria, I am Lelillil, guardian of the Ivy Manor, granddaughter of Gillil.”
It looked like Lelillil already knew Mia.
“Just Mia.”
“<I could never be so discourteous as to call an honored elf by a nickname!>”
Lelillil had been speaking Elvish, while Mia spoke in short Shigan statements as usual, but Lelillil made the transition to Shigan.
“…But by all means, madam, you may call me Lelill for short.”
“Mm. Lelill.”
Lelillil was level 20 and had sonar-related skills, stealth-based race-specific skills, and so on. She would probably make a great scout.
Although she looked young enough to be in preschool, her actual age was around sixty, so I had better be careful about how I spoke to her.
If I let slip her real age, I got the feeling she would be angry.
“Incidentally, Lady Misanaria, who might this human whelp be? It is quite unacceptable for a mere human to hold hands with the likes of an elf. Shall I teach him a lesson in manners?”
Wow, we’d just met and she already had a problem with me.
The people of Bolenan Forest didn’t discriminate against humans, but this Lelillil seemed to think of them as lesser beings.
Had she come to dislike humans after living among them?
…For some reason, I felt like I couldn’t blame her.
“Mrrr, rude.”
Mia wasn’t enjoying Lelillil’s rude attitude toward me.
“Satou. My fiancé.”
“What? Erm…surely you jest.”
Lelillil flailed, completely shocked by Mia’s declaration.
“Mrrr. Parents agreed.”
“Wh-wh-what?! That, that can’t beeee…”
This was apparently too much to bear: Lelillil collapsed to the ground.
“Now then…”
I couldn’t just leave her like that.
Lifting the tiny Lelillil, I placed her on top of a sheet in the shade of a tree.
Between the clear water and all the nearby greenery, the occasional breeze was very cool and refreshing.
In the midst of the somewhat dusty, dirty Labyrinth City, this park area seemed to be part of another world entirely.
“…Ah, I just had a terrible nightmare.”
“Mm, nightmare?”
“Yes, that an honored elf was beguiled by a human whelp…”
That was a pretty rude thing to say after I had so kindly carried her into the shade.
Lelillil sat up unsteadily, then gasped and looked at Mia. Then, noticing me belatedly, she turned toward me with slow, jerky movements.
I’ll spare you the details of the ensuing chaos, but suffice to say that little girls could be terribly difficult to deal with.
“Now, Lady Misanaria, Satou, please come this way.”
Having finally reached grudging acceptance of my existence, Lelillil led us toward the manor.
I had her remove the Return Home spell from Arisa and the others, then contacted them with Telephone to have them meet us here. It shouldn’t take them long to arrive.
Lelillil was able to control the bridge, the security magic, and so on with the proxy medal she carried.
The medallion Mia had received from Gillil was also called a “warden medal,” so it probably had higher authority than Lelillil’s medal.
“So am I correct that you are the new master of the Ivy Manor, Lady Misanaria?”
“No.”
Mia shook her head and pointed at me.
“Satou.”
“What? That wh… Erm, Satou?”
You were about to say “whelp,” right?
Well, I guess that’s not wrong, since you’re really an old lady.
“Gillil told me that we could use this manor if we were staying in Labyrinth City. He gave us that medal, too.”
It wasn’t me exactly who he had said that to, but there was no need to make things more complicated.
“Tch, that senile old geez… Errr, I mean, my grandfather? I don’t believe it.”
Come on, Lelillil. You were clearly about to say “senile old geezer.”
“Mrrr. True.”
“Perhaps he is simply losing his mi… That is, in less than perfect health?”
“Satou saved Bolenan Forest. Friends with Aaze.”
That was a pretty long statement for Mia.
Although I would’ve preferred that she call us “potential love interests” or something more hopeful like that.
“Aaze… Surely you don’t mean Lady Aialize the high elf?”
Lelillil jumped back in shock.
If this were a manga, her eyes would probably be popping out of her head.
“…Preposterous! A high elf showing herself in front of a mere human? And they’re friends? But high elves are celestial beings, demi-gods even!”
I couldn’t help but smirk a little.
Such dramatic titles like “celestial being” and “demi-god” didn’t exactly fit the airheaded Miss Aaze.
Except maybe the Goddess Aaze I met in the memory storehouse of the World Tree.
“…T-truly?”
“Yes, I have the great honor of her close acquaintance. She taught me Spirit Vision and was even kind enough to bring me to the observation deck of the World Tree.”
Lelillil’s eyes widened.
“I… I’m so terribly sorryyyyyyy!”
Then she threw herself on the floor in apology for how rude she had been.
On top of that, she started calling me Mr. Satou, saying that “I cannot address even a human by name alone if he is a friend of a high elf!”
Incidentally, when the rest of our group arrived and I told her that they were friends of Miss Aaze, too, Lelillil fainted all over again.
Hang in there, Lelillil.
“Lady Misanaria and company, please come this way.”
Lelillil guided us into the manor. The inside was the very picture of an ordinary Shiga Kingdom house.
In one corner of the entrance hall was a narrow, easy-to-miss hallway, which led to a single mirror that let off a powerful magic energy.
Lelillil held up her medal, and light rippled across the mirror’s surface.
Ooh, this looks like the kind of mirror that would lead to a parallel world—oh, wait, this is a parallel world.
“Follow me, please.”
Without further ado, Lelillil leaped into the mirror. Looking at my map, I saw that she was now in a location about thirty feet underground.
“Looks like this is some kind of teleport gate,” I informed my surprised companions, then jumped into the mirror as well.
After a sensation that was more like the warping of Space Magic teleportation than being teleported by an Elvish fairy ring, I arrived in a different area.
It seemed like a grassy courtyard and was incredibly bright despite being underground.
The ceiling was over ten feet high, so this felt more like natural light than magic.
There must be some of those optical fiber plants, like the ones on the ceiling in the cavern containing our labyrinth vacation home, or a spell that somehow relayed the light of the sun.
As I looked around the courtyard, the rest of my group came through the mirror as well.
“This is the main area of the Ivy Manor. The building up above is a mere construction, only used for guests.”
Lelillil’s words reminded me of the treetop guesthouses in Bolenan Forest and the futuristic city where the elves actually lived.
Clearly the elves had a penchant for this kind of thing.
Checking on the map, I saw that in addition to a residential area of more than a hundred rooms underground, there were even workshops and equipment that Trazayuya had once used.
“Quite a cautious fellow, wasn’t he?”
“Lord Trazayuya was known as the sage of the elves. He developed many magic tools and techniques. When the sage was in the labyrinth, lots of thieves and even whole nations sometimes targeted his property, according to my grandfather.”
So he wasn’t paranoid—he was just protecting himself.
“Even now, each time a new viceroy takes power, they send armed forces to attempt to take the manor by force.”
And it still hasn’t fallen? That’s pretty amazing.
“Couldn’t a group of high-level explorers break in here?”
“No one who lives in this city would ever attack the Ivy Manor.”
Lelillil answered Arisa’s question with extreme confidence.
“After all, the False Core in this mansion preserves the water source of the city.”
“Whoa, taking hold of the lifelines, huh? Nice one, Trazayuya. Guess they didn’t call him a sage for nothing.”
Arisa looked impressed.
Lelillil didn’t seem to know too many of the details, but this False Core was described in Trazayuya’s documents.
According to those, it was a magic tool designed after a City Core, made with the giant core of a level-50-or-higher monster and a considerable amount of Holytree Stone.
It was a pretty useful system: It absorbed magic from nearby sources to power the manor’s barrier and other magic devices, could operate connected magic devices from a distance, and so on.
Could it be…?
Does the False Core steal magic from the source that’s supposed to go to the City Core?
I wondered that at first, but when I continued to read the explanation, I found that was an unnecessary worry.
The False Core’s power source was really magic that was supposed to flow into the labyrinth, so it was actually hindering the labyrinth’s growth and protecting the city.
“But if politicians target this place, it might not be the best location for our base.”
“That’s true. We’d be fine inside the manor, but if anyone was seen wandering around outside, they might get held hostage or caught up in all kinds of trouble.”
Arisa agreed with my concerns.
“But I do want to use the equipment here…,” I mused.
“Why don’t we buy a dummy house in the city and teleport in and out of here from that? You or I can just use our teleport magic.”
“Good idea. Let’s do that.”
I could probably ask at the explorers’ guild if they had any leads on a house we could buy for our purposes.
While we were here, I requested that Lelillil show me around Trazayuya’s workshops.
“A mere human won’t be able to use the equipment down here.”
“It’s all right. I used the underground laboratory in Bolenan Forest, too.”
“Th-the sage’s main headquarters…? I can’t believe that senile old geezer allowed you in there.”
Hey, you forgot to correct yourself on Gillil’s title this time.
“Well, I was doing research to help save the World Tree from imminent danger.”
Lelillil still looked doubtful, but she showed me to the control panel without further explanation, probably figuring she could test my mettle that way.
That was no problem—it was the same setup as the one in the underground research lab in Bolenan Forest.
“Let’s see what kind of equipment we’ve got loaded in here first…”
“Hmph. So you can operate the panel at least, insolent whelp.”
Ignoring Lelillil’s muttering, I focused on satisfying my own curiosity.
There wasn’t quite as much machinery as the underground lab in Bolenan Forest had, but there were still elf-style giant Transmutation Tablets, cauldrons, and even cultivation tanks for fine-tuning homunculi. That was more than satisfying.
There was a magic device for formatting and engraving cores and Holytree Stones, too, albeit an older model. If I remembered right, this was the one even the elves avoided using because it was so hard to operate.
“…Excellent. I can make all kinds of magic tools with these.”
I’d found tons of rare materials in the labyrinth, so I wanted to get cracking right away, but it was probably best to refrain for now.
“Thank you, Lelillil. I’ll be back to use this machinery often, if that’s all right.”
“Just make sure you don’t destroy the sage’s precious equipment, all right, whelp?”
“Yes, of course.”
Once my little underground tour was through, we had a tea party on the terrace in the garden aboveground to celebrate our new acquaintance.
The castellas I served along with the tea were a huge hit with Lelillil.
Before we went back, I placed a Return seal slate, and we left the Ivy Manor behind for the time being.
“Are we going to buy a house next?”
“Yeah, I’m planning to see if the west explorers’ guild has a place we can stay.”
The explorers’ guild in the east probably had more openings, but I wanted a place with easy access to the labyrinth, so I chose the nearby west guild.
We followed a different path out of the forest area than the one we’d entered through and found soldiers stationed at the wall.
There hadn’t been any at the entrance through the noble quarters, so I stuck my head out of the carriage window to address them.
“Did we need permission to come through this way?”
“Not at all, good sir! There are no restrictions on nobles’ passage here.”
I hadn’t shown them any identification or anything. They must have gathered that I was a noble because I was coming from the direction of the nobles’ quarters in a fancy guarded carriage.
There didn’t seem to be any problems, and I apologized for distracting them from their duties and moved on.
Farther down the road, we found ourselves near the lively south gate.
This and the north gate seemed to be the entrances generally used by commoners and merchants, so there were plenty of carriages coming to and fro.
Many of them had escorts, probably because of the nature of Labyrinth City. In addition to runosaurs and horses, there were some ostrichlike birds and dulldeer carrying riders or baggage.
“Livelyyy?”
“Lots of shops, sir.”
Tama and Pochi looked around excitedly, following the passersby with their eyes.
There were many merchant shops lining the main road from the south gate, along with some wholesale stores near the gate.
The stores marketed toward the wealthy could be found around the halfway point on the road leading toward the nobles’ quarters.
“Mm, diverse.”
“That’s true. There are lots of beastfolk and a lot of nomads and Westerners, too.”
It was a melting pot of races and peoples, in a different way from the old capital.
“…Thank you very much.”
I heard Lulu speaking from the coachman’s stand, so I peered out through the window.
A group of weaselfolk merchants had realized our carriage belonged to a noble and cleared a path for us.
I waved to them from the window, which seemed to startle them considerably. I guess most nobles didn’t bother greeting lowly merchants.
We continued along the castle wall and through an area of small farms and fields, emerging near a livestock ranch.
“Meeeat?”
“They look tasty, sir.”
Tama and Pochi pressed their faces to the window, staring at the livestock.
“Horses, sheep, and…is that Ohmi cattle?”
“It seems they’re a breed called ‘Celivera dullcattle.’”
Lulu was pointing at some round, short-legged cows.
According to a book I’d bought in the old capital, their meat was fatty and average-tasting, but they produced a great deal of delicious milk.
There seemed to be three different farms adjacent to one another here.
“Once we’ve found a place to live, let’s buy some milk and sausages here.”
“Yaaaay!”
“Hooray, sir!”
“Cheese too.”
I patted the excited young trio, nodding an affirmative to Mia’s request.
Moving on, we passed along a river near the farms, until eventually the labyrinth army’s base was visible on the left, protected by a high wall.
It wasn’t a full-on fortress, but there were several towers equipped with large Magic Cannons.
There was even a wide field around the size of an average school’s grounds in front of the garrison, possibly to serve as a potential battlefield.
The river flowed into a moat around the ramparts. This seemed to be the end of the stream.
We passed the garrison and crossed over a bridge, entering a residential area with what appeared to be low-income housing.
There were some foul-smelling butcheries and leatherworking shops near the river, which probably made this a less-than-ideal place to live.
The road to the explorers’ guild was narrow and crowded, so we took a roundabout route to avoid the busy area.
“…Geh!”
Spotting a human figure below the bridge, I used my “Telescopic Sight” skill to investigate and found myself staring at some young female explorers bathing in the river.
They had put up a straw mat to conceal themselves, but there were way too many gaps in it.
“What’s the matter?”
“Oh, it’s no big deal.”
It might seem meddlesome, but once we crossed the bridge, I had Arisa and Nana give the group a large waterproof blanket with which to hide themselves properly.
“Watch the cart while we’re gone, please.”
“Yes, master.”
Leaving the cart in the parking area of the west guild, I took Arisa and Nana with me into the building.
It would probably be pretty busy inside, and I didn’t want to leave the cart unattended, so I decided to keep our numbers to a minimum.
I brought Arisa to help with negotiations and Nana to protect Arisa in case an incident broke out.
“It’s not quite as crowded as last time.”
Arisa was right: The west guild had been like a train station at rush hour last time, but now it was a fairly normal level of crowded.
Isn’t that…?
On the other side of the crowd, I saw Acting Viceroy Sokell, who we’d encountered at the government building, swaggering around with his guard. There was an attractive office-lady type next to him with a similarly haughty face.
He was pushing through the busy hallway like he owned the place, causing trouble for the explorers around him.
No need to poke a hornet’s nest today.
I didn’t want him to give us any trouble, so I quietly blended in with the crowd.
“Master, I have located wanted posters, I report.”
“Looks like they’ve got bounties and everything.”
Close to the entrance was a board lined with papers showing likenesses, names, and bounties for various criminals.
“Plunderers, huh? A hundred gold coins, dead or alive—that’s pretty hefty.”
Arisa was pointing at a plunderer called Plunderer King Ludaman wearing a mask that covered the right half of his face. The name sounded kind of familiar, but I was probably just imagining it.
There was quite a bit of variety among the other posters: I saw one for a pretty woman with the name Derrin the Dagger Princess and another for a big, stout man called Gumu the Human Bullet.
“We’ll simply catch them if we see them.”
I could easily distinguish them by searching for “plunderer” on my map, but I made a note of the wanted criminals’ names in the memo section of my networking tab, just in case.
“I wish they’d hang some big signs from the ceiling to show where things are.”
“The deployment of resources here has room for reassessment, I concur.”
There were lots of small signs posted on the pillars to indicate different locations, but if you weren’t tall enough, they would be impossible to see around the crowds of people.
The west guild was similar in design to the east guild, but there wasn’t any space on the floor for negotiation, and a green courtyard was visible farther inside. Unlike the chaotic lobby, there was hardly anyone to be seen in the courtyard. Containing a stylish open terrace, it appeared to be a space for nobles and high-level explorers.
“Hmm? Isn’t that Princess Meetia chatting with those hotties on the terrace?”
“Looks that way.”
Her strict guardian knight didn’t seem to be with her today.
Not wanting to get in the way of her potential romance, I proceeded along the path past the terrace without interrupting her.
“Sir Satou! And Arisa, too!”
However, Princess Meetia spotted us and hopped up and down, waving happily.
She didn’t include Nana’s name, though. They hadn’t really gotten to interact, since Nana was on a runosaur at the time.
“How is thy explorer life going? It must be exciting, no?”
“Yes, very much so.”
Between all the new foods and our secret labyrinth base, it was safe to say that the explorer life was treating us quite well.
“It appears that my companions have returned, so I shall take my—”
“Wait a moment, Sir Jelil! I ought to introduce thee to mine friends, no?”
The man Princess Meetia was speaking with was none other than Mr. Jelil, the leader of the Red Dragon’s Roar party we saw not long after we left the labyrinth.
I had never seen the other person before, but his name was Zarigon, the leader of an explorer party called the Hellfire Fangs.
He was a ruggedly handsome fellow and considerably strong at level 39.
With my “Keen Hearing” skill, I heard Arisa mutter “<Zakorin?>” in Japanese next to me, mixing up his name with the Japanese word for small fry. If I called him by the wrong name, it would be her fault.
“And this is Sir Satou Pendragon, a knight of the Muno Barony.”
“So you’re Sir Pendragon? I’ve heard about you from Sir Masaki, the Hero of the Saga Empire.”
Surprise registered on Mr. Jelil’s handsome features.
Masaki was the family name of Hayato the Hero.
I was a little curious what Hayato might have said about me.
“Hmm, so this is Pendragon… Looks like a cheeky twerp to me.”
Zarigon, on the other hand, looked down at me dismissively.
It didn’t seem like we’d be close friends anytime soon. I decided to mute him and speak to Mr. Jelil instead.
First, though, I warned Arisa and Nana via the Space Magic Telephone spell not to cause a fuss.
“Was Sir Hero in Labyrinth City?” Arisa inquired.
“Yes, he investigated the labyrinth a little, then took his follower with him and left. I believe he said they were going to Parion Province next.”
Jelil’s voice was certainly calming. Speaking to him up close, I could see how beefy his chest and arms were, too.
“Oh? That sword… Was it made by the dwarves of Bolehart, by any chance?”
Mr. Jelil looked at my fairy sword’s scabbard with a genuine smile.
The red-scabbard sword at his waist was from Bolehart, too—in fact, it was made by Zajuul, the top apprentice of Elder Dohal, who made my sword.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“I thought as much! I’ve never seen that seal before, but judging by that workmanship, it must have been made by one of Elder Dohal’s best pupils.”
No, I actually made this sword with Elder Dohal. I didn’t want to say that to him when he was in such high spirits, though, so I decided to avoid the subject.
“Is your sword of Bolehart make as well, Sir Jelil? It looks as if it was made by one of the best.”
“That’s right!” Jelil took the bait with a bright grin. “This sword was specially made for me by Master Zajuul, Elder Dohal’s best apprentice! Most Bolehart swords use a mithril alloy, but this one is particularly special. It’s made with a touch of bronze, blue steel, and scarlet ore, and…”
Too much.
Too much information, Mr. Jelil.
From the sound of things, I had accidentally set him off on a nerdy subject.
Giving up, I listened respectively to his long rant. The topic was actually pretty interesting to me, so it wouldn’t be that painful anyway.
In fact, I was a bit disappointed when his friends came over to get him.
“Jelil! We’re ready.”
“All right, I’m coming! Pardon me, Lady Meetia, but I must take my leave.”
“Very well. I wish thee luck in your conquest of the areamaster, no?”
Excusing himself, Mr. Jelil hurried over to his comrades.
The atmosphere around us seemed to relax a little.
“Are they hoping for treasure?”
“You must know this, Arisa, no? The core of an areamaster is required to attain qualification to battle a floormaster, no?”
Wow, it’s just like a quest chain in a game.
“Hmph! We Hellfire Fangs will defeat the areamaster long before they do.”
“Yes, I wish thee luck, too, Sir Zarigon.”
Princess Meetia grinned encouragingly at the preening Zarigon, who turned red and walked away with light steps, carrying his sword triumphantly.
Maybe Zarigon was actually a lolicon.
“Lady Meetia, how is your work going?” Arisa inquired politely.
“Well enough, no? Sir Sokell stopped us from healing the viceroy’s daughter, but now that the viceroy and his wife have returned, we can finally begin.”
He was preventing the viceroy’s daughter from being healed?
Sokell had given me a bad impression when we first met, so I figured he might be up to no good, but I’d dismissed him as nothing more than a minor pest. I should’ve been more careful.
“Lady Meetia, have you had any troubles with life in Labyrinth City thus far?”
“Life in the guesthouse is more than satisfactory, no? That pompous Sir Sokell is a trifle difficult to get along with, but worse…”
Princess Meetia hesitated for a second.
Her tone sounded more like anxiety than dissatisfaction to me.
“…there is simply something about Sir Poputema, no? I cannot help but feel a shiver when he dost look my way. I am told that it is his history in teaching that makes him seem to look down on others in his words and actions, and yet…”
I could understand that. It was hard when you had a gut negative reaction to someone.
“No, I mustn’t. I am simply still too inexperienced, that is all, no? By the by, Arisa…”
Looking ashamed for having spoken ill of others, Princess Meetia started talking to Arisa about interesting places in Labyrinth City instead.
“I’m sorry to keep you waiting, Your Highness!”
Just then, the squire girl came running over, bandages wrapped around her head and arms.
She seemed to be guarding Princess Meetia today, not the strict knight.
“Were they able to heal thee?”
“Yes, madam! Sir Sokell was there, too, so I informed him that we were attacked by ruffians in the street.”
Attacked? Was that why Mr. Jelil and company were with her?
“Were you hurt, Your Highness?”
“Nay, I am unharmed. Ryula protected me.”
According to Princess Meetia, they were attacked by some well-dressed young hoodlums in masks.
They hadn’t tried to steal anything, leaving me to wonder who had attacked her and why.
I doubted it was out of any lascivious intent, unless they were lolicons like Zarigon.
Before long, Princess Meetia’s nursemaid and the stern knight arrived, too.
“Princess! I thought I might find you in a place like this yet again.”
“Ryula, are you hurt?”
The two didn’t appear to know about the attack.
“Now that thou are here, perhaps we had best return to the guesthouse. Sir Satou, Arisa, until we meet again, no?”
Once Princess Meetia left with her guardians, we went to the service window to secure a dwelling of our own.
“These areas should meet your requirements, Sir Knight.”
The man in charge of the guild’s real estate department pointed at a few spots in Labyrinth City.
There were three options: a former mercantile on the main street near the nobles’ gate, a studio space in the artisan district, and a house said to have been used by a noble’s lover.
“The house in the nobles’ quarters will be the most secure, but that place is under the jurisdiction of the viceroy’s office, so you would have to go through them.”
I read over the piece of paper containing information on the three spaces.
The former mercantile was far away from the west guild, and the workshop would be near the unpleasant-smelling butcheries and leather workshops. That left the former lover’s home by process of elimination.
It was a little small, but we would be using it only as a relay point to the Ivy Manor, so that wasn’t a big deal.
“Hey, what about this place?”
Arisa was looking at a file in a stack that the clerk had put aside.
Glancing over the information, I saw that it was a noble’s former vacation house, close to the farms and fields. It was cheap, too. However, due to it being empty for more than ten years, the process of renting it might be a little complicated.
“I-I’m afraid there are certain circumstances regarding that particular location…”
The clerk explained that there was a curse on the noble who originally built the house, and even the highest-ranking priests in the area couldn’t undo it.
“That’s quite a curse.”
“Yes, it’s said it was left by the Undead King who brought down the Muno Marquisate.”
Zen?!
I remembered the skull-faced man who was Nana’s former master and who had once kidnapped Mia.
“Then was the former owner of that house…?”
“Yes, he was the nephew of Marquis Muno… I have heard that all the residents of the home were found dead in a frightful mummified state.”
The people who next lived in the house were discovered on the verge of death, as well.
The curse even affected the surrounding area, impacting the health of everyone living nearby, until finally the house was surrounded by nothing but empty homes and unused land.
“There were no problems with the farm behind it, but since it was next to a cursed house, they had difficulty selling any dairy or meat.”
That’s some serious rumor power.
According to my map, the house in question did seem to have a pretty serious curse on it.
Most likely, it was the same kind of curse as the one that was on the basement of Muno Castle.
“All right. I’ll take it.”
“You cannot be serious!”
“Yes, I am. As a vassal of Baron Muno, I cannot simply stand by and let a house with a connection to the Muno family fall to a curse.”
The clerk tried to dissuade me, but one of his managers came along and boomed at him to make up the contract.
“Sir Pendragon, would you like to buy the surrounding empty land and houses as well? This would be the total price for the lot of them. Might you consider it?”
“Let me think…”
The manager seemed to want to do away with the whole lot of problem locations, so Arisa and I bargained with him until we managed to get the price down lower than the cheapest of the initial three locations we’d been shown.
They must have really wanted to be rid of this place…
“All right, we have a deal.”
I produced the money from my Garage Bag and received the deeds and keys to the houses in exchange. Thanks to the clerk having the “Contract” skill, we were able to complete the registration proceedings on the spot.
I shook hands with the satisfied-looking manager and left the guild behind us.
As for the real estate tax, it depended on the location and scale of the land involved. In this case, we would be exempt for the first three years, and from the fourth year on, it would still be considerably cheap.
The price would probably go up eventually, but it was still far cheaper than any mansion in the nobles’ quarters, so there was nothing to worry about.
“Are you sure you’re okay with a cursed house?”
“Of course. I broke the curse in the Muno Castle basement. I should be fine.”
At that, Arisa’s concerned expression finally turned back into a smile.
We took the carriage back along the road we’d taken and headed straight for our new house.
“Geh, it’s totally overgrown!”
The mansion was thick with weeds, much to Arisa’s dismay.
“We’ve got thiiis?”
“We’re fully equipped for weeding, sir!”
“This is my new death-to-weeds scythe, I report.”
Pochi and Tama produced weed-cutting sickles from their pouches and struck a pose. Even Nana pulled out a long-handled sickle.
I opened the large padlock across the gate with the key I’d been given.
“Looks like it’s gotten a little rusty.”
I would have to put some lubricating oil on it later.
“Lulu, we’re blocking the road. Could you bring the carriage onto the premises, please?”
“Yes, master.”
As Lulu steered the carriage onto the grounds, I looked around at the state of the mansion.
There was enough miasma in the garden to be harmful to the health, so I put my spirit light on full throttle to purge it all away. The main source of the miasma was in the main wing of the house.
…Hmm?
There were no less than five children in the barn on the premises. They were probably young drifters squatting in the unused house.
Because their levels were low, I decided to have the weed-cutting team take a look.
“Nana, take Tama and Pochi and investigate the barn, please.”
“Yes, master.”
“Rogerrr!”
“Sir!”
The trio cut a path through the weeds on their way to the barn.
“Liza and Mia, could you look at the well, please?”
“Understood, sir.”
“Mm.”
Liza had a long-handled scythe to match Nana’s, so they both cut through the weeds as they went.
“Now, then…”
I looked around at the wide-open grounds. It was larger than I’d imagined from the area numbers in the paperwork.
There was a garden as big as any noble’s mansion. It would be a bit of a pain to weed the whole thing by ourselves.
“Arisa and Lulu, could you hire some help?”
“Help, sir?”
“You want to outsource the weeding and the cleaning, I bet!”
Lulu didn’t seem to understand, but Arisa knew what I meant right away.
“There were some kids sitting in front of the west guild who didn’t have jobs, so I’ll go grab them! I’m sure they’ll be eager to help if we offer to cook them dinner.”
I would’ve felt bad having them do manual labor for nothing but food. I decided to pay them the standard daily wage as well.
“How many do you think we need?”
“Let’s see… I want to finish the weeding by the end of the day, so maybe ten or so. A little more or less than that is fine.”
“Okey-dokey! I’ll hire all the kids who can come.”
“Great, thank you.”
With all this extra space, even two or three times the number wouldn’t be a problem.
After I’d seen off the sisters, I went into the main wing of the mansion alone.
Miasma leaked out as soon as I opened the door, but I purified it all with my Spirit Vision.
“Over there, huh?”
Muttering to myself, I used “Skyrunning” to head farther inside without touching the dust-covered floor.
“Looks like it’s coming out of the basement.”
Inside what appeared to be the former master’s study was a door that had been boarded up haphazardly. I forced it open and proceeded downstairs.
There was so much miasma down there that even my spirit light couldn’t purify it completely, so I used a Holy Stone from Storage to do the job.
When I reached the bottom, a dark, transparent shadow emerged from the floor.
“Intruder. I am a shadow of the Undead King Zen.”
This one was even blurrier than the shadow in the basement of Muno Castle.
My AR display called it a Curse Soul. This must be the core of the curse, then.
Changing my title to Hero, I pulled out a handmade Holy Sword from Storage.
I would’ve liked to use Gjallarhorn, the Holy Sword I received from Zen and used to send him and his shadow in the castle on to the next life, but I had already returned that to the Shiga Kingdom.
Zen had a deep grudge against Shiga, which was why I decided on one of my own personal swords instead of using the Shigan Holy Sword Claidheamh Soluis.
“Zen has already passed on, as has your colleague in Muno Castle. It’s time for your role to come to an end, too.”
With that, I flourished my sword at the curse soul, which had probably been forgotten even by its creator.
As soon as the holy blue light of the sword touched the shadow, it disappeared like a mirage.
I couldn’t be sure if it had passed on peacefully, but my log showed that the curse soul had been destroyed, so the curse that had eaten away at anyone who lived here should be gone as well.
Sure enough, the incredibly thick miasma had faded to a point where even my Spirit Vision could disperse it.
Before too long, all the miasma in the house should be gone.
“Problemooo!”
“There’s a big problem, sir!”
When I stepped out of the mansion, I saw Tama and Pochi running over from the barn.
“Emergency, I report! A life is in extremely terrible danger. Immediate relief needed, I request.”
Nana poked her head out from the barn and shouted to me.
I guess the young vagrants weren’t just ordinary squatters.
“Hurryyyy!”
“This way, sir!”
Tama and Pochi led me into the barn, where some grade school–aged kids were slumped in the shadows.
“They seem awfully feeble.”
As I looked at the children, I investigated their condition with the AR display.
By default, the map displayed only race and level, and normally an area search showed only the results’ names, ages, races, genders, and levels.
I’d adjusted it so that all the information wouldn’t take up my field of vision.
Any targets that were enemies, criminals, had unknown skills, or were level 40 or above were highlighted in different colors.
“What do you think? I inquire.”
“Well, I don’t think their lives are in danger, at least.”
However, they were weakened to a dangerous degree. They probably hadn’t eaten much in a long time.
It looked like they weren’t drinking enough water, either. Their consciousnesses were so fuzzy that only one of them reacted when we came in, and even that one didn’t show any signs of moving.
I took out some of the nutritional supplement potions that had been so popular with the hardworking elves and watered them down a bit before administering them to the kids.
Since they were so small and frail, I thought the normal concentration might be hazardous to their health.
“Huuurt?”
“Looks painful, sir.”
Tama and Pochi stared at the children with concern.
They were in a bad way: Many of them had bone fractures, injuries that were starting to develop gangrene, and lacerations festering with pus.
Clearly, Zen’s curse and the miasma weren’t the only causes of their weakness.
“I’ll heal them—don’t worry.”
I used Recovery Magic to start fixing up the children’s wounds, some of which had bones that had healed wrong, causing contusions. Potions and Recovery Magic couldn’t heal such old wounds.
Still, at this rate, they would have a hard time walking.
Keeping in mind the flow of magic from the “Self-Healing” skill, I attempted to heal their bodies.
“Nnn, nnngh…”
It seemed to hurt a little, but at least it had gone well.
> Skill Acquired: “Magic Heal”
> Title Acquired: Spirit Healer
I acquired a useful-looking new skill, so I activated it and set my new title as I continued healing the kids’ wounds.
The maxed-out skill turned out to be very effective: By carefully manipulating my magic, I was able to restore their bones to their normal states.
“They should be fine now.”
“But they have not regained consciousness, I report.”
“That’s just because they’re tired from the healing. Let’s let them rest for a little while, then give them water and another nutritional supplement potion. Tomorrow morning, we can feed them some thin rice porridge.”
“Incredible, master. You are truly the greatest, I praise!”
“Hooray!”
“Thank you, sir!”
I left Nana in charge of nursing the kids back to health.
I didn’t want to leave them lying on the ground, so I produced a fluffy felt-lined sheet from Storage that we used for camping and put it under them.
Just then, Liza and Mia came running inside.
“Master, we heard Tama and Pochi shouting. Is everything all right?”
“Satou?”
“It’s all fine now.”
“Some children who were taking shelter here were weakened by the curse.” Giving them an abbreviated explanation, I asked about the state of the well.
“The well required some repairs.”
“Mm. Pulley decayed.”
As we spoke, I accompanied them back to the well, along with Tama and Pochi.
The broken remains of the pulley were lying on the ground, and a bucket with rope was resting next to the cover that kept junk from getting into the well.
The bucket looked a little wet; most likely, the children had been using it.
I used Magic Hand to put the garbage in the well into Storage together with the water, separated out the garbage into a Junk folder, and repeated the process until the well was full of clean water.
“This should do the trick for now, I think. We can hire a professional to take care of the rest.”
With that, I unlocked the back door to the kitchen.
“This is going to be difficult to clean.”
The dust was even worse than the main wing. It was clear that no one had been here for ten years.
“Explore.”
“Want me to go in first?”
“I’ll do it.”
Mia excitedly led the charge into the kitchen, with Tama and Pochi in tow.
That didn’t last long, however.
“Satooou.”
“Spiderweeebs?”
“So sticky, sir.”
Mia came running back with tears in her eyes and spiderwebs in her hair; Pochi was in a similar state, her ears flat on her head.
Tama hadn’t been caught, but I still had to calm the three of them down before we made another investigation attempt.
With me in the lead this time, of course.
I used Magic Hand to touch the spiderwebs and mountains of dust and put them away in the Junk folder in Storage.
“The stove still looks usable.”
“Is this black stuff coal?”
The stove was full of black piles of what appeared to be coal, as well as ash. It would probably be better to replace the other equipment with magic tools.
“Lots of rooooms?”
The main building was three stories, as well as an attic and a basement. Excluding those, the total square footage of the building was probably around ten thousand square feet, almost ten times bigger than the average modern Japanese home.
“Lots of chairs and bureaus, too, sir.”
There was a ton of garbage in the attic and basement especially, like broken chairs and tables. Again, I used my Magic Hand to put them in Storage, which was nice and easy.
“There’s quite a bit of usable furniture here.”
“Mm, sturdy.”
After exploring the rooms, we found that aside from one area where the floor was rotted, there wasn’t too much work to be done besides cleaning away the dust and cobwebs.
There was a lot of expensive-looking furniture still intact, too, so we probably needed to replace things only in the kitchen and the main bedrooms.
“Basemeeent?”
“I smell cheese and dried meat, sir.”
The cellar connected to the hallway seemed to serve as an emergency shelter and food storehouse. There were areas for casks and even wine shelves.
The basement where I’d purified the curse soul before didn’t seem to be connected to this one.
I decided to use that basement to set the seal slate for the Return spell. Maybe I could make a research lab there, just for show?
“Looks like the cellar is connected to the main hallway and the kitchen.”
There were two sets of stairs, the second of which led to the kitchen.
“I think that’s it. There doesn’t seem to be a bathroom.”
“Yes. What a shame.”
Liza loved baths, so she seemed disappointed.
For her sake as well as mine, I decided to sacrifice one of the first-floor rooms to add a bathroom.
“We’ll have to make a new one, then.”
“Yes, master!”
Liza perked up immediately with a big smile.
There was probably no bathroom because water was a precious resource, but for a Japanese person, a house really wasn’t complete without a place to bathe.
Like I did with the labyrinth vacation home, I could probably have Arisa carve out a large tree trunk with Space Magic to make a big wooden bath.
It looked like the Space Magic spell Create Bathtub I’d created would come in handy once again.
“Heeeave?”
“Ho, sir!”
Tama and Pochi had started weeding in the garden, and Liza was checking on Nana and the children.
“Satou.”
“What is it, Mia?”
Mia tugged on my sleeve from behind me.
She wanted to go to the Ivy Manor, so I set a Return seal slate at the mansion’s entrance and teleported us to the Ivy Manor.
“Lelill, clean.”
“This broken-down old house, Lady Misanaria?”
“Mm.”
As it turned out, Mia wanted to go to fetch Lelillil here. She was a house fairy and had the “Cleaning” skill, so she probably would be helpful.
“Satou.”
“What is it?”
“Turn the pretty on.”
“All right.”
She was asking me to unleash my spirit light, which I normally kept suppressed.
There wasn’t any more miasma in the mansion, but Mia probably had some reason for asking, so I did as she requested.
“Mm, pretty.”
Because Lelillil didn’t have the Spirit Vision gift, she was just confused.
“Lelill, House Magic.”
“A-as you wish, Lady Misanaria.”
Lelillil obediently began a lengthy chant.
“ ? ? ...... ? House Cleaning Ie Senjou.”
When the long chant finally ended, the room was sparkling clean. Curious, I raised my foot and found that somehow the spell had even cleaned the spot I was standing on.
For some reason, Lelillil was also staring around at the clean floors and windows, as if she’d never seen her own spell before.
> Skill Acquired: “Spirit Magic: House Fairy”
Apparently, the magic Mia had called “House Magic” was actually a kind of Spirit Magic.
So Lelillil could use Spirit Magic, even though she couldn’t see spirits. I thought Miss Lua the elf had told me that you couldn’t use Spirit Magic unless you had Spirit Vision…
Maybe Lelillil acquired the “Spirit Magic: House Fairy” skill as an innate skill or a gift?
“Great.”
“Th-thank you for your kind word, my lady… However, it appears that my magic was more effective than usual.”
“Mm.”
Most likely it was the spirits that gathered around my spirit light that had boosted the effect, but Mia didn’t seem too motivated to explain. I kept my mouth shut.
If she wanted to explain it as a surprise later, I didn’t want to ruin it.
“Next.”
“J-just a moment, please, Lady Misanaria. Unlike the blessed elves, we have precious little power. That spell used most of mine. I will not be able to use magic for some time.”
“Mm, Satou.”
Lelillil looked apologetic as Mia tugged my sleeve again.
She probably wanted me to use Mana Transfer to restore Lelillil’s magic power.
I didn’t particularly mind, so I went ahead and did so.
“Huh? What was that? What did you do to me, wh…? Erm, Mr. Satou?”
“I restored your magic, since Mia asked.”
“Restored it? This much?” Lelillil looked perplexed, but she used other strange spells like Clean Up House and Heal House at Mia’s request, until the whole mansion looked like new.
Even the areas where there had been holes in the walls and floors were closed up. It must be some kind of Healing Magic, although I was a little unclear on how it worked.
“This is very impressive.”
“Mm, amazing.”
“Why, thank you very much.”
Lelillil blushed a little at our compliments, but she did seem proud of her work.
“Let’s do the outside next!”
The brownie was raring to clean the outside now, too, but I stopped her, asking her to leave it as it was.
“The leaky roof and such are a problem, but I’d like to keep it that way for now, please. This doesn’t seem to be any ordinary magic, so I wouldn’t want to surprise people too much.”
“I simply don’t understand you humans. Surely you have a difficult time following their foolish logic, too, Lady Misanaria?”
“Mm.”
Lelillil being rude was nothing new, but shouldn’t Mia have disagreed or defended me instead of nodding in agreement?
At any rate, Lelillil looked a little grouchy about having been stopped when her enthusiasm was high.
Since she was here, I decided to ask her to help with something else instead.
“I’d like to ask for help with the guesthouse and annex, too, but…”
Aside from the main building, the grounds also contained a separate guesthouse and an annex for servants and help to live in. The guesthouse was two floors, while the annex was one.
The annex consisted of many small rooms, several of which held bureaus and wooden bed frames.
“…maybe we should save that for another day?”
“Lelill, you can do it.”
“Yes, my lady! As long as you keep the magic coming, I’ll take care of the rest!”
Mia’s encouragement set Lelillil’s enthusiasm aflame; just as I requested, she cleaned and repaired all the extra buildings.
Leaving the exhausted Lelillil in the main wing, I went back to the barn.
As soon as the beastfolk girls saw me, they followed me back in.
“Looks like the kids have recovered a little.”
The color had returned somewhat to the children’s skin, so I used Everyday Magic to clean them up.
“Let’s change their clothes and get them to the main wing, then, shall we?”
“Yes, master.”
“Allow me to help.”
Nana and Liza changed the kids’ clothing, and Tama and Pochi carried them on a stretcher.
I set up some simple beds in one of the now-clean rooms, allowing the kids to rest there.
As we were putting the last kid into a bed, I saw Arisa and company on my radar.
“All right, we’re here!”
Lulu was leading her horse and Arisa riding on hers. They had brought twenty-odd children with them.
Around half of them were human, while the rest were assorted beastfolk like weaselfolk and rabbitfolk.
“Welcome back. That’s more than I expected.”
“Yeah, we got a big flood of applicants, so I decided to hire them all.” Arisa shrugged, then raised her eyebrows. “Boy, Tama and Pochi, you really went all out. Weren’t these kids supposed to weed that area?”
“Hee-hee…”
“We worked hard, sir.”
I couldn’t blame Arisa for being surprised.
The pair of them had already cut the weeds on more than half of the expansive grounds.
However, there was still the thick growth covering the front yard, as well as some smaller places that needed to be taken care of, so it wasn’t as if there was no work left at all.
“Little kids, you’ll take these gloves and baskets and gather up the weeds in the places that have already been cut! Big kids, take gloves and sickles and cut the weeds around the mansion!”
“Heh-heh, gloves…”
“Wow, these are nice!”
The children collected their gloves from Lulu, putting them on and showing them to one another excitedly.
“But, Miss Arisa, if we wear these gloves while we’re picking up weeds, the gloves will get dirty.”
The eldest girl seemed to be nervous about the prospect of dirtying the gloves.
“It’s all right. If you’re pulling weeds without gloves, you could hurt your hands.”
“B-but…”
“If you hurt your hands, you won’t be able to work as well tomorrow, right?”
“R-right… Okay.”
Arisa’s explanation seemed to reassure her somewhat, but she still looked worried about whether it was really okay to get the gloves dirty.
“All right, let’s get to work! If you finish by sundown, master will make some delicious food for all of you!”
“““Food!”””
“Let’s do this!”
“““Yeah!”””
Cheering at Arisa’s motivational speech, the kids got right to work.
Once she was satisfied that the children were working, Arisa took a deep breath and walked over to me.
“Oh? If it isn’t Lelillil,” she said, noticing the house fairy resting behind me. “If this little lady’s here, does that mean the house is already clean, by any chance?”
“Miss Arisa, I believe I asked you at the tea party to stop calling me ‘little lady’!”
“Oh yeah, sorry.”
Brushing off Lelillil’s protests, Arisa walked inside.
“Wow, great job, Lelillil! Brownies sure are amazing. We really owe you one!”
With a twirl, Arisa gave Lelillil a big thumbs-up.
Lelillil puffed out her chest; she seemed to be the type of person who let compliments go to her head.
Oh right.
I’d better tell Arisa and Lulu about the kids we took in while they were gone.
“Lulu! Could you come into the mansion, please?”
I called to Lulu, who was taking care of the horses outside.
“Right away, master.” Lulu came hurrying in. “Goodness, the floors are sparkling clean!”
As Lulu expressed her surprise, Lelillil puffed out her chest proudly again.
“Oh? Hello there, Miss Lilellel.”
“Excuse me, you little tart! I told you my name is Lelillil!”
“Oh dear. But I believe I also told you that my name is Lulu, not ‘little tart.’ Have you forgotten already?”
These two didn’t seem to get along very well.
Lelillil was like this with nearly everyone but Mia, but it was unusual to see the mild-mannered Lulu pick a fight with anyone.
According to Arisa, the reason for Lulu’s hostility was Lelillil’s rudeness toward me.
I was a little worried, but Arisa had optimistically reassured me that they’d “probably get along soon enough.”
Since Lelillil couldn’t leave the Ivy Manor unattended for too long, I gave her some sweet honey pastries as a gift and sent her back with Teleportation Magic.
I decided to invite her to dinner later that night and treat her to a home-cooked meal as thanks for her help.
While the children were cleaning up the rest of the weeds, I took Lulu and Liza with me to Viscount Siemmen’s residence, where I gave a letter to the maid to pass on the information that we had changed addresses.
I brought the two of them along so that they could learn the way to and from the house.
I wanted to go around the neighborhood and greet the locals, too, but since our new mansion was famous for being under Zen’s curse, I decided to wait until we had spent the night there safely.
Upon my return, I went around and bought some small goods and supplies we needed for the new house.
Along the way, I went to a merchant the commerce guild had introduced me to, and I hired him to deliver letters to Zena in Seiryuu City, Miss Karina in the Muno Barony, and some other friends in the old capital and other places.
“Lulu, can you stop in front of that temple?”
There was an assortment of temples near the rotary that connected the north-south main road with the street to the nobles’ quarters, so I decided to visit and make some donations.
Lulu and Liza stayed with the carriage in a parking area behind one of the temples.
“These are pretty nicely decorated.”
Stepping into one of the temples, I was surprised to see that the building was just as ornate as the ones in the noble quarters of the old capital.
They probably had some pretty wealthy patrons to be able to make such a fancy temple.
“Peace be with you, young gentleman. What might bring you here today?”
A high-ranking priest in a fancy robe approached me, rubbing his hands together like a sleazy merchant.
“My, what a splendid sword you have! Perhaps you are an explorer, then, my young friend?”
The sharp-eyed priest noticed the fairy sword at my waist, and his eyes glittered.
“Yes, although we’ve only entered the labyrinth once so far.”
“…Then you must be seeking a priest to accompany you into the labyrinth!”
At my answer, disappointment crossed the priest’s face for a moment, but he quickly recovered his smile as he entered into a sales pitch.
“Unfortunately, priests with the ‘Holy Magic’ skill can only be employed by garnet-badge holders or above.”
“No, I wasn’t really—”
“However!”
I started to say that I wasn’t looking for any such service, but the man quickly interrupted me.
“We have just the thing for the party of a promising young gentleman such as yourself. A purehearted, dutiful, and very good-looking priestess!”
For some reason, he put a lot of emphasis on the “very good-looking” part.
The priest beckoned, and a graceful young beauty in priestess’s clothes appeared.
She was only level 3 and didn’t have “Holy Magic” or any other combat-oriented skills—only the “Service” skill, in fact.
The smiling young priestess was very cute, but since I was accustomed to Lulu’s supreme beauty, it didn’t move my heart in the slightest.
“Just a moment, please. I’ve only come today to make a donation.”
“A donation, young sir? You do not appear to be injured in any way… Do you perhaps require a house call?”
Why would you assume that?
“No, I do not need any such thing, thank you. I have yet to visit a temple since coming to Celivera, so I simply wished to make a donation.”
At that, the priest stared for a moment as though I were an alien creature, then finally hurried off to get the person in charge of donations.
I thought that perhaps this temple was just unusual, but the other ones I visited all reacted in the same way.
Evidently, it was unusual for anyone in this city to make a donation without expecting something in return.
I asked around, but none of the temples did any soup kitchens or anything of the sort. At best, they offered very basic provisions in exchange for doing odd jobs for the temple.
I was beginning to get concerned with the way this city treated its poor.
“All right, Lulu. Shall we start preparing dinner?”
“Yes, master!”
The weeding was finished by sundown. As promised, I started cooking a meal for the kids.
Some of the older kids offered to help, so I had them wash vegetables, peel them, and other such simple jobs.
“Meat!”
“So much of it, ahhh!”
The kids who were cleaning up the tools noticed the wolf meat I was planning to use for steak tips and exclaimed excitedly.
Liza had suggested that tougher meat like wolf would be more filling and satisfying than the soft frog meat, so I decided to break out some of the stock I hadn’t used in a while.
“Wow, it smells so good…”
“Do you think we’ll get some, too?”
“Don’t be stupid. That’s only for those other kids.”
“Ours is probably those potatoes, right?”
“Potatoes, huh…?”
Noticing the hopping potatoes waiting to be fried, the kids’ enthusiasm sank considerably.
I had used Treespirit Pearls to remove the harsh bitterness from these, though, making them different from the potatoes normally eaten in Labyrinth City.
I was looking forward to the surprise on these kids’ faces.
“What’s that red stuff? Smells sweet.”
“I’m so hungry.”
“I don’t even mind if it’s potatoes.”
We didn’t have any tables or chairs, so I distributed the food on lunch plates that I’d made using wooden boards and Treespirit Pearls.
The lunch plates contained gnocchi and lightly boiled leafy greens in a sweet-and-sour sauce, salted and fried potatoes, carrots with a sweet glaze, and a main course of wolf steak tips seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked in butter.
I’d chosen to include lots of vegetables to help with the kids’ vitamin deficiencies.
I made one single dish of mushroom steak for Mia’s main course, since she still didn’t like the fatty taste of meat-based dishes.
“Ahhh…”
“Yummy!”
“I want another sip.”
“Clean water is expensive, you dummy!”
“Wehhh, I’m sorry.”
I passed around a bucket for the kids to wash their hands, but they were so thirsty that they started drinking from it instead. I guess I should have handed out mugs of water first.
I should’ve realized that, since the water I gave out while they were working was a pretty big hit.
“All right, everyone line up!”
Even when the food was done and it was time to hand out the plates, the kids still clustered at a distance, and Arisa ordered them to get in line.
I’d prioritized foods that were easy to make, so it shouldn’t be too extravagant for them.
“Wow, this whole feast is for us?”
“That’s amazing!”
“They’re not gonna change their minds, right? Right?!”
“Don’t even say that!”
The kids’ eyes sparkled with excitement.
As soon as they received their plates, the kids started digging in. Some of them shoved as much food in their mouths as they could possibly cram in, while others savored each bite carefully.
Strangely, not one of the kids said anything about how it tasted. They were all so desperately focused on eating that they couldn’t spare a moment to speak.
Some of them even wept as they ate.
I was glad they were happy, but I wished they would just eat normally.
“You’ve gotten really good at cooking, Lulu.”
“I hate to admit it, but it is good. Falling short at cooking to a mere human is a point of shame for a house fairy. Your sister is an odd one, Miss Arisa.”
“Oh my, Lelillil. Our master is even better, you know.”
“That wh— Erm, Mr. Satou is?”
“He’s the one who made those castellas we had in the afternoon.”
Lelillil was sitting next to Arisa for dinner.
These two seemed to get along surprisingly well. I hoped she would start getting along with Lulu.
When some of the smaller kids finished their food, they gazed at their plates sadly, so I gave them some of the fried frog skewers I’d made for the beastfolk girls.
All of them seemed like they would eat as much as they were given. I had to cut them off before they got a stomachache.
Since our new home had so many rooms, I gave everyone their own, but the rest of my group started creeping into my room one by one, until we wound up sleeping in one big pile as usual.
Friendship is a beautiful thing, I suppose.
Thus, we spent our first night in our new home surrounded by one another’s warmth.
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