Chapter 238:
The Captain of Hatow’s Watch
I thought we were going to head back to the inn first, but instead we found ourselves at Rose’s shop.
“Mr. Druid, was there something else on our schedule?” I searched my memory but found nothing.
“I thought we could get something to make our laundry days easier.”
So he still feels bad about that? But today was an anomaly—we usually won’t have such big loads of laundry to do.
“Hm? Oh, didja folks have a problem with your magic box?” At the sight of Druid, Rose knit her eyebrows together as she sat in her chair by the counter.
“Oh, no, it’s working just fine.”
“Good. So, d’ya need help findin’ somethin’ else?”
Rose’s personality really did change depending on whom she was serving. She was practically screaming at that other customer last time, demanding they find the product themselves.
“Yes, do you have anything that makes it easier to do laundry? What with my missing arm, I don’t want to put too much of the burden on Ivy here.”
“Um, but he’s not putting a burden on me at all!” I insisted.
Rose laughed, “Ya guys are sweet.” Then she pulled out a large book and started to skim through it. “Laundry items, eh? I think I have some…”
Apparently, the book was this shop’s inventory. She flipped through page after page, but she couldn’t find what she was looking for.
“If it’s a laundry item you’re lookin’ for, that would be somethin’ with cleanin’ magic or evaporation magic, right?”
“Yes. Do you have anything with either of those?”
“Hmmm… I coulda sworn I saw somethin’ like that a while ago.”
From the looks of the pair, I knew this would take a while, so I decided to browse the store. Since we were there specifically to find a magic box with a lock yesterday, we hadn’t had much time to just look around. I took different items off the shelf and examined them. They were dusty in spots, but each one was well maintained. According to Delos, Rose said all the items on the shop floor were “basic,” but they looked perfectly fine to me.
“There’s so much variety… This one says ‘For perfect kneading’?”
It was a mystery what you were meant to knead with it. I studied the item as I returned it to the shelf. Surely somebody would find it useful. The next thing that caught my eye was small and box-shaped with a row of dents in it. The item’s description read “Freezes all liquids.’”
“Freezes? If I had the power to freeze things, I’d love to use it in the summer.”
That way, I could make cold water, even on the hottest summer day. And since the item could freeze all liquids, that probably meant I could put cut pieces of fruit into the little dents and freeze them. You know, I actually kind of want this one. The experts were saying this summer wouldn’t be as hot as the last, but the last summer had already been unbearably hot for me. Maybe I should ask Druid if we can buy this.
“Found something?”
Druid had approached me while I was entranced by the item.
“Yeah, I found an item I kind of like.” I showed it to him. He read the description and nodded.
“This would be great in the summer.” It sounded like Druid was on board. “Summer near the royal capital is even hotter than it is here, so this would come in very handy.”
So the royal capital is even hotter? That was news to me. One thing I’d learned about myself during my travels was that I didn’t handle the heat well. That was probably why this new bit of information made me feel gloomy.
“Want to buy it?”
“You mean right now? I think we can wait until later, when we leave this village.”
“But this shop is popular. It might be sold out by then.”
Oh, right.
“Tell you what, why don’t we ask Rose if she has any other freezing items?”
“Okay.”
We carried the item over to the front of the shop and looked at a few other products along the way, but none of them had the functions we wanted.
“By the way, Mr. Druid, did you find what you were looking for?”
“Sadly, no.”
“That’s too bad.” I had gotten my hopes up a little over the evaporation magic; it sounded like fun.
“Wait, where did Rose go?”
When we arrived at the place where she’d been sitting, she wasn’t there.
“Maybe she’s in the back?”
We looked at the door to the back room just in time to see Rose walk out of it. “Sorry, we just don’t have anything like that in the store. I’ll ask a friend of mine, if ya give me a minute.”
“Thanks. And sorry for your trouble.”
Rose shook off Druid’s apology and said, “Oh, whatcha got there?”
“Something we thought would come in handy this summer.” Druid handed her the freezing item.
She looked at it for a while, then nodded. “Great find. We always sell out of items like this in the summertime.”
I could definitely see it selling out in the summer.
“Ivy was the one who found it. Do you have anything else with this kind of function?”
“Sorry, but no.”
“Okay, in that case, we’ll take this one, please.”
“Lemme give it a final once-over before ya do.”
“Sure, thank you.”
We didn’t need any ice now that it was winter, but I was eager to give it a spin. I wanted to see what kind of ice it made.
“Here ya go. It’s all good.”
“How much is it?”
“Two gidal.”
I decided I’d try it out when we got back to the inn.
We paid and thanked her. As we turned to walk out of the store, we almost ran into a man near the entrance.
“Sorry, sir!”
“Oh, it’s all right, I wasn’t looking. Hope you’re not hurt.”
The man was wearing the watchman’s uniform of Hatow. He was a bit more muscular than Druid.
“Ah, hi there, sweetie. You’re home early today.”
“Um…I haven’t been home in two days, though.”
“Whoa, really?!”
From the way they spoke to each other, they sounded like family… Oh, Rose said her son was captain of the watch! So this man must be the captain. I stared at him until his eyes awkwardly met mine. I was a bit flustered, but I gave him a little bow and a greeting.
“Hello, sir. We were just doing some shopping.”
“Shopping, eh? Hope Mom isn’t giving you a hard time.”
“Um…no?”
“She’s been taking good care of us.”
The captain stared at both of us in wide-eyed disbelief. Funny, I don’t think we said anything particularly odd.
“Mom, you don’t usually take a liking to kids.”
Take a liking to kids? He must be talking about me.
“Well, I like this one. She doesn’t seem like a kid when I talk to her.”
My cheeks reddened a little from Rose’s praise. I always seem to get really embarrassed whenever I receive a compliment.
“Well, there’s a sight you definitely don’t see every day. Oh, by the way, I’m Tableau, captain of the watch. Nice to meet you both.”
“I’m Druid. A pleasure.” Druid gave him a light handshake, and I awkwardly offered my hand, too. I didn’t usually greet people this way, so my heart raced a little.
“I’m Ivy. Very nice to meet you, sir.” I lightly shook Tableau’s hand, and his free hand gave my head a couple of gentle pats.
“How do I put it… She has a charm about her that makes you want to take care of her,” Tableau said to Druid and Rose.
A charm that makes him want to take care of me?
“I know, right? She’s so adorable.” Druid answered.
Rose and Tableau nodded in understanding. I wasn’t sure why, but it made me feel terribly embarrassed. I just knew my face was even redder than before.
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