Chapter 27
“HERE, THIS WAY. Come on in.” Mira beckoned the women inside.
It was incomprehensible. The mansion had been summoned out of thin air. Thoughts of a hot shower beckoned, though, and Etty and Colette obediently followed.
“Wow! This is awesome!”
“It doesn’t have any furniture, but it sure is a house…”
They were amazed by the interior, minimalistic though it was.
Mira explained the mansion’s myriad charms. Borrowing the power of spirits of water, coldness, and fire allowed her to use air-conditioning in the room, use the shower and toilet, and cook, just as one might in any house in any city.
When she finished her lecture, Mira leaned back confidently. “This spell can be learned by making a contract with a mansion’s artificial spirit. So, are you impressed by summoning?”
This magic allowed one to relax comfortably in any environment. No doubt these women would understand the value, since they were in a harsh environment. Mira’s explanation was meant to drive that point home.
It seemed her scheme had worked, too. Etty and Colette ran all around the room, screaming about how wonderful it all was.
“Can I use the faucet?” Having shown interest in the kitchen faucet, Etty asked her host for permission before turning the handle.
“Of course. Go ahead.”
“Oh, water… So much water!” Etty cried.
As for Colette, she had frozen up at the bathroom door, repeating the words “flushing toilet” and “privacy.” To survive, humans needed to both take in and expel matter. People in the adventuring business often had to find creative ways to deal with this problem—especially women.
Mira watched the awestruck pair and found herself sympathizing with the plight of the common woman.
Just then, Hans happened to peek in the front door. It was cramped, but having a house in the depths of a dungeon was unique enough in and of itself. “What in the world…? It’s a whole house!” he said, surprised. “Crazy that you can summon something like this.”
Those were the exact words Mira had wanted to hear.
“Crazy indeed, isn’t it? This is the true power of…summoning!”
The novelty of it attracted the attention of both Hans’s party and others, who gathered outside and peeked through the door. They were likewise impressed by the solid construction, running water, and facilities.
An adventurer among them called out to Mira, “Say, that water comes from a spirit, right? Would you share with us? We’ll make it worth your time.” He had two empty containers in hand. It seemed his party had made some planning errors and was in dire need of water.
“Of course, of course! Take some water.” Mira accepted his request without a moment of hesitation.
“Thank you! You’re a real lifesaver!” He thanked Mira over and over, as if worshipping her, and filled his containers from the tap.
This spurred the onlookers to start making requests of their own. Naturally, Mira accepted them all, giving them her water and receiving magic stones in exchange. She’d soon racked up the equivalent of half a million ducats in trade.
The water was generated from Mira’s mana, through the power of her spirit, but seeing as she had abundant mana, it wasn’t much of an expense for her. Despite that, she’d earned serious money in exchange. She couldn’t stop smiling. She tried to keep herself from grinning madly each time she received more stones.
After making big money selling water for a while, she found ten adventurers, all of whom were women, still at her door. First, she assumed that they were here for potable water, before coming to a realization.
“Wait. Are you all here to shower?” Mira asked, peeking out from behind the door. It seemed she was right; every single one of them practically begged her to let them use her shower, just as the first two had. “Hrmm, very well. I did let two people use it already. Still, there are so many of you… Are you willing to go two at a time in order to expedite things?”
Mira was of the belief that women’s showers took longer on average, and she assumed they’d be here for a long time. As such, she proposed that they shower in pairs. There was no telling how long things would take otherwise.
“That’s fine with us!”
“Heck, you can throw all of us in there at once if you want!”
It seemed the ladies were so starved for a shower that they weren’t bothered by the stipulation in the slightest.
“Good. Discuss the order among yourselves and wait here, please.” Mira left them with that, closed the door, and turned to the first two who’d come. They were waiting impatiently in the corner of the room, and as soon as the summoner turned around, they rushed over to her. “Apologies for making you wait, ladies,” she said, opening the door next to the bathroom. “This is the shower room!”
“It sure is a shower. Wow!”
“Thank you so much!”
Though it was small, this house was based on a noble’s mansion, so the two were thrilled to see the well-made shower.
“Ah. Apologies, but as you can see, I have many more waiting. Would you mind going in together?”
“Sure, that’s fine!”
“We don’t mind one bit!”
They agreed immediately. Unable to wait anymore, they started stripping. There wasn’t a changing room, so they changed inside the shower room.
Mira managed to stop herself from openly gawking and feigned calm. “Take your time,” she said as she set up her special sleeping bag in the corner of the room and sat. Unable to bear it, she occasionally peeked at the women in their underwear.
It was then that they took off their underwear, now fully naked. The women were toned but not too muscular, due to their status as mages, giving them lovely curves. Etty had larger and more impressive assets, while Colette was smaller but more elegant. Both were truly beautiful in their own ways.
Despite being fully exposed, they did not hesitate. Perhaps that was natural, as the only other person present was another woman.
Hrmm… Marvelous! Even when Mira gazed at them with her ulterior motives on full display, they had no idea.
***
After seeing them off as they gleefully charged into the shower, Mira tried to ignore the voices outside, arguing over who’d get to go next, while she prepared dinner.
Like the other day, she cooked a meal full of meat and veggies. She took out her cooking set and began prepping the ingredients—slicing the meat, chopping the vegetables, and throwing them one after another into a pan with water.
In the middle of her efforts, the shower room door opened, and the women peeked out.
“Mira, we have a request. It’s silly, but do you mind?” Colette asked timidly, her skin wet and glossy. She almost looked like someone on her first sleepover date at a lover’s house, though she certainly didn’t mean to. The sight of her was oddly arousing.
“Sure,” Mira said, thinking dirty thoughts. However, she resolved herself to treat them as a true gentleman would.
“Um, we were kinda hoping we’d be able to wash our underwear… Feel free to say no.”
“It’s kind of life-or-death for us, even if we’re only here for three more days.”
It seemed they’d gone through all of their underwear, despite having packed as much as possible. While not shy about being nude, they were bashful when it came to their undergarments.
Mira found their nervous fidgeting adorable. But she withstood her urges and tightened up. It would be rude to comment on a maiden’s private affairs. She maintained her faux sincere smile and assented. “I see. Well, I don’t mind. Wash whatever you need to.”
“Thank you!”
“We can’t thank you enough!”
The two seemed about to cry. They recovered their underwear before ducking back into the shower room.
As soon as she was sure the door was closed, Mira allowed her cheeks to relax. But even as she grinned, her eyes remained sharply fixed on the shower room door.
A woman’s 30 percent sexier when wet.
Mira committed this memory to heart and happily returned to her cooking.
She threw in the prepared ingredients, added in the most delicious combination of seasonings she’d found during this trip, and turned the heat on. Just as a delicious scent began to waft from the pan, Etty and Colette happily emerged from the shower room.
“I feel like a new woman!”
“Ah, that was great!”
Mira acted as naturally as possible. “You seem refreshed,” she called out. They turned to her and thanked her from the depths of their hearts. “You two were lucky that I, a summoner, happened to be here.”
Still emphasizing the word “summoner,” Mira suggested that they add a summoner to their party for just this type of occasion. Contracts took some effort, but the blessings they provided were more than worth it. Doing her best to sell evocation, she added that the true charm of a summoner was their adaptability.
“Yeah, that sure sounds right.”
“I still don’t really know what summoners do, but I know you’re incredible.”
Her advertising seemed successful, as they expressed positive opinions. They even said that they’d love to have a summoner in their party someday. Mira was elated—not just because she’d gotten to see them naked, but because she felt the awareness of summoners on the rise.
“I’ve never done something like this, so I don’t know the going rate. Will this do?”
“How about this?”
They handed over a few large magic stones. Altogether, they’d easily be worth more than 20,000 ducats.
Market price. What was the price of being able to use water in the depths of a dungeon and enjoying a luxurious, hot shower? Were 20,000 ducats too much or too little? This was Mira’s first time negotiating prices for this, too, so she had no idea either. That said, she wasn’t about to sell her field short. She then remembered something similar to this: the price of a night’s stay at an inn.
“Well, I suppose this much will do,” Mira said, taking two magic stones from each of them.
These four were worth about 10,000 ducats each. Twenty thousand per person for a single shower was expensive, but it was probably permissible, given how deep in the dungeon they were. Mira also factored in the intangible benefit to herself, so that helped to bring the price down.
“Thank you!”
“You’re a treasure!”
It seemed that was an extremely small price for them to pay. They were surprised at first, but when they realized that she was serious, they flushed with emotion, for they had taken Mira’s favoritism as sympathy toward her fellow women. More than that, they revered Mira’s kindness.
“Now, now, it’s fine. Oh, and don’t forget to thank the spirits who provided you with that shower. All of this is thanks to them.”
“You’re right. I’m more grateful for spirits than ever.”
“Me too.”
Gratitude toward spirits was important; Mira had felt that even more as of late, and the women agreed. If this gratitude spread far and wide, surely none would follow in Chimera Clausen’s footsteps. Seeing how they felt, Mira smiled at the thought of a happier relationship between mankind and spirits.
***
After they’d paid, the two women dressed in simple clothes and relaxed for a moment. It was then that the smaller mage, Colette, suddenly sniffed. “Oh! Is that smell what I think it is?” she asked, right as Mira’s meal simmered to perfection. “Kirori bird, slooress, yellow leek, and…porlanone! Right?” Colette confidently listed off every single ingredient in Mira’s hot pot.
“Exactly right,” Mira replied, impressed.
Colette didn’t stop there. She even guessed every seasoning Mira had added, surprising her even more.
“My family runs a little restaurant, so I learned a lot as a kid. Before I knew it, I’d learned how to guess everything in a dish just by smell,” she explained, proud yet bashful. Her gift was the result of a strict education.
It seemed her parents had wanted her to take over the running of the restaurant. Her current life was the result of an adventurer visiting the restaurant, by chance, one day.
Colette, who’d dreamed of becoming an adventurer instead of a chef, passed the Mages’ Guild aptitude test in secret. After that, she forcefully persuaded her parents and entrusted the place to her siblings before leaving.
“Looking back, getting stronger as a mage was a whole lot harder than cooking. But I’m able to give this my all now that I’m not stuck taking orders all the time,” Colette said nostalgically. Then, with a wry grin, she noted that her cooking knowledge had helped in adventures a lot more than expected.
She now used that knowledge to cook for the party and had become much more skilled along the way. Colette boasted that she was especially confident in her seasoning.
Despite her desire to get away, she seemed a little homesick.
“Oh, sorry for talking your ear off out of nowhere. This is just a lot like what I ate when I was first starting out.” Colette smiled bashfully, thanked Mira, and held out a single leaf as a token of her gratitude. “This is an herb called aminica. If you chop it up and let it boil, it gets even tastier. It’s one of my favorites.”
She added proudly that this aminica herb was the ultimate finisher on the hot pot she’d eaten so often when she started adventuring. Poultry, like kirori bird, went especially well with it, so any boiled or stewed dish that included poultry would be improved by aminica herb.
“Oho! Really? Well, I’m excited to try it out.”
Mira accepted the aminica and got right to chopping it. Colette watched her, remembering how her sister had looked when she was learning. She smiled, albeit a bit nervously due to Mira’s unpracticed knife work, and backed away.
Colette and Etty stopped at the door and thanked her again.
“Thanks for the shower, Mira.”
“Yeah, you really saved us.”
Mira lifted her head to see them off and waved goodbye.
“Ooh, the scent changed all at once.”
When the chopped aminica was placed in the boil, the myriad of scents coalesced into one harmonious aroma that spoke to true culinary expertise. Surprised by how it had changed, Mira peeked into the pot and fantasized about the taste. But she was interrupted by a knock at the door. It seemed the next customers were ready.
When Mira announced that they could enter, two female adventurers timidly peeked inside. They were the first of five pairs waiting to shower. They looked expectant. No doubt, Etty and Colette had told them it was their turn.
“The shower room is there. Know that I don’t have a dressing room; you’ll have to strip over there before going in.” Mira casually omitted the option of stripping in the shower room. She stole peeks as they got naked. “Oh, and feel free to do some laundry, if you’d like,” she added as she watched them gleefully collect their underwear.
***
When the shower room door closed, Mira finally began picking at her food.
“Ooh! I’m amazed that it changed so much!” She was astounded by just how much her meal had been elevated by the addition of a single herb.
Mira’s hot pots so far had essentially been that of a novice’s cooking: trying random combinations until something went well. But this time was different. This hot pot had a truly rich taste that came from its core. It could’ve even been served at a restaurant.
Aminica, was it? I’ll have to buy more! she noted mentally, having fallen in love at first bite. At the same time, she wondered about all the other herbs out there that could cause such a change. Trying out different combinations ought to be plenty of fun.
Mira had plenty of simple seasonings, like salt and pepper, but she hadn’t tried her hand at herbs. Having now experienced this one, she knew that she needed to expand her horizons.
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