Chapter 226:
What a Deep Sleep!
Nnn…I think I hear something. What is it? Please…just let me stay like this a bit longer…
Knock, knock.
“Druid? Ivy? Are you all right in there?”
Am I all right? Yeah, I’m all right…but whose voice is that? I opened my eyes and found myself in an unfamiliar room.
“Where…am I?”
Knock, knock.
What’s that sound? Um, it’s… Oh, we’re in Hatow Village! So it must be…
“Are you all right?”
I knew it! That’s the innkeeper’s voice.
“We’re fine!”
I sat up in bed and quickly unbolted the door. I opened it to find the innkeeper and her husband standing in the hallway, and they both looked relieved at the sight of me. Huh? Were they worried about something?
“Oh, thank goodness! We were starting to worry when we didn’t see either of you for two whole days.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am. Thanks for checking on us.”
Hm? Two whole days?
“Um, didn’t we just get here last night?”
We arrived at the inn yesterday evening, had a quick bath and a light supper, and went to bed. Then we woke up today, so…hm?
“No, that was two days ago.”
Two days ago? I looked out the window and could see it was the evening. So that means we were asleep for two whole days? That’s impressive… No, it’s excessive. Wait, where’s Druid? There was a lump on the bed next to mine. He was probably still asleep.
“We figured we should let you rest since you were on your feet for three whole days without sleeping, but we were worried you’d get too hungry, so I thought I’d get you both a light supper, even though I know you didn’t ask for one. Oh, and don’t worry about paying me! Consider this the complimentary breakfast you didn’t eat this morning.”
Wow, this is a great inn. Wait, where did her husband go? I guess he went back to work?
“Thank you so much. We’ll take dinner for two, please.”
“Oh, good. It’ll be ready in about thirty minutes, okay? Bring your appetites!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
The innkeeper hummed a joyful tune as she walked downstairs. After I saw her out, I went back into our room and stretched my arms. I couldn’t believe we had slept more than a whole day. It was a bit startling. I looked back at my bed and saw that Sora and Flame were awake and staring at me. Oh, their dinner!
“Sorry, guys. You must be really hungry.”
I’d made them go a whole day without any food. I quickly got my potions bag, opened it, and pulled out two types of potions and a sword. I’d barely started taking them out when the two slimes began to feed. They’d definitely been quite hungry.
“I’m so sorry…”
The two jiggled in reply as they ate. I took out extra potions for their meal and saw that Ciel was scoping out the room. Does that mean it didn’t take a look around while I was asleep?
“Nnnggghhh.”
I heard a sudden groan behind me. I saw that Druid’s covers were moving. He must be waking up. After a few seconds, he yawned and sat up.
“Good morning… Wow, you’re up early.”
Uh, actually I’m not. “Hello, Mr. Druid.”
“Hm?! Is it dinnertime already?”
“Yeah.”
Druid looked out the window and made a face. We had arrived at the inn and gone to bed in the evening, but now it was evening again.
“Don’t tell me we slept away the whole day?”
Yeah, that was what a normal person would assume. I was glad I wasn’t the only one.
“No, it was two whole days.”
“Hm? Oh… Two days?! Um…really?”
“Yeah. I guess we were both in a really deep sleep for those two days.”
“Wow. I didn’t feel that tired.”
I felt the same way. It was probably because the gooth meat had made me feel so light and energetic. But since we were up three days straight with no sleep, sleeping for two full days was actually quite reasonable.
“The innkeeper and her husband came up to check in on us. Oh, and they’re going to bring us some supper!”
“Supper?”
“Yes, since we didn’t have breakfast this morning, they said we could have some supper for free.”
“That was nice of them.”
I nodded. “Yes, we should thank that nice lady gatekeeper who told us to come here.”
“Yeah, we should.” Druid got out of bed and stretched his limbs. “I slept too much. My body aches all over.”
“Yeah, my joints are pretty stiff, too.”
Since Druid had begun a sort of morning stretching routine, I decided to join him. Sleeping for two whole days had made our bodies stiff. It hurt to stretch my limbs…but it also felt very good.
“Okay, let’s wash our faces and go downstairs.”
“Sounds good.”
“Hmm…I don’t think we should go dressed like this. We should change.”
“Oh no! I still need to do laundry. I’m out of clean clothes.”
“So am I.”
We scrounged for the least dirty clothes we could find and changed into them. We’ll definitely have to do laundry tomorrow. Sora and Flame finished their supper and began to explore the room with Ciel. I wonder if they were all asleep for two whole days, too?
“Oh, now they’re exploring? Haven’t they already done that?” Druid asked, giving the creatures a puzzled look.
“Probably not. They might’ve stayed asleep with us.”
“That wouldn’t surprise me. Hey, kids! We’re going to go have dinner. Be quiet in here while we’re gone, okay?”
The three creatures jiggled in reply.
“Mr. Druid, don’t we have a magic item to cancel out the noise in this room?”
“Oh, right. I’ll need to install it later. It’s so lonesome not being able to hear their little voices.”
The three creatures were jiggling, but they stayed silent for us. They knew we hadn’t set up the magic item yet. It was good that they were behaving, but it was a little sad not hearing them talk to us. Since we didn’t remember which magic bag we’d put the item in, we would have to find it later. But we would definitely look for it once we came back.
After carefully locking our room, we went downstairs.
“Ah, there you are. Sit anywhere you’d like. I’ll bring your food right away.”
“Good evening, ma’am. Thanks for waking us.”
“Ha ha ha, don’t mention it. Are you all rested up?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The innkeeper’s husband had a fierce-looking face, but he seemed like an easygoing guy. I glanced around the dining room and saw there were three families with children and two young married couples. It looked like all of them were adventurers.
We found some empty seats, and our dinners were brought to us in no time.
“Here you go. Tonight’s supper is Hatow’s famous soup and white bread.”
White bread! Oh boy, I’m so happy to have that.
“White bread! That’s something you don’t see very often,” I said.
“Well, my wife loves white bread. And this kind is special because she bakes it herself.”
“Oh! The innkeeper bakes this bread herself?”
“She sure does. Amazing, right?” Her husband looked a bit bashful but was still happy to boast about his wife.
“It is amazing,” I agreed. “And I love white bread, so I’m very happy to eat it.”
I took a white bread roll from the basket. Wow! It’s so soft.
“You’re in luck, then. My wife’s white bread is superb. Well, enjoy your supper.” He must really love his wife. Every time he said the words my wife, he blushed and smiled.
After he walked away, Druid and I each took a bite of the bread. It was soft, fluffy, moist…and truly divine.
“This is delicious!” I said.
“Yeah, it’s great.”
Then we tried Hatow’s famous soup. It was thick and white with big chunks of meat and vegetables. It looked delicious. I sipped a spoonful, and the sweetness of the vegetables and the savory flavors of the meat filled my mouth. It really was delicious. Apparently, Ayapo was also known for serving good food. We definitely needed to properly thank that lady gatekeeper later for telling us about this inn.
After eating every last drop of soup and every last crumb of white bread, we returned to our room. Ahhh, that was so good. I’m in Heaven.
“Mr. Druid, would it be acceptable if I washed our bedsheets?”
Ack! I’m speaking all polite again. I looked at Druid. He was fighting back laughter.
“When you’re at an inn for a long-term stay, you can use whatever they have in the cabinet. If there’s sheets in there, we can change them and wash them as we please. If there aren’t any, then we ask the inn staff to change them for us.”
Sheets in the cabinet? I opened the cabinet and found lots of different things inside. Okay, so there’s six big towels, ten small ones…then there’s cups, and what’s this—tea? Let’s see, sheets…sheets…
“Found them!”
“You did? That means we can wash and change our sheets if we want. But we can probably ask the staff to launder them, too. We’ll just have to check and see what the fee is.”
“Understood! So tomorrow will be a big laundry day seeing as we got our sheets messed up with our dirty clothes.”
“Yeah, washing our bodies was meaningless without changing into clean clothes.”
We’d been planning to do some laundry during our journey, but the sudden cold spell made us focus on getting to the village.
Unfortunately, the morning dew made our clothes damp, meaning we needed to change them every day. Before we knew it, we were completely out of clean clothes. We’d tried to brush as much dirt off ourselves as we could before getting into bed the previous night, but the sheets still ended up dirty. So tomorrow, we’ll start the laundry first thing in the morning! But wait…will we even be able to sleep before then?
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