Chapter 102

The food stall man cum innkeeper led us through the main street and turned into a quiet alley. There were not many Adventurers here. I had assumed that there would be other traveling Adventurers at this inn and was a little disappointed.

“And here we are.”

“Oh…”

The building we stopped at was, well, impressive. It was large and had fancy engravings from corner to corner. It looked expensive.

“It is a beautiful building.”

“Thank you, uh…”

“Ah, I am Daniela. This is Asagi.”

“Name’s Veiken. Nice to meet you!”

We walked through the opened door and were greeted by an entrance that was unusually illuminated by indirect lighting devices. There was a counter to the left where a man was scribbling something before he looked up to see us.

“Welcome. Are you looking for a room?”

“Ah, Vegun. I brought customers! Treat them well!”

“Father…get out of my way. You are hurting the business…”

The man named Vegun sighed as he looked at his father. Veiken shrugged and looked away. He had said that his son took over the business, but it looked like he still had some concerns.

“My name’s Asagi, and this is Daniela. We came at Veiken’s recommendation.”

“I am terribly sorry about him…”

“Oh, no. We were in trouble, as we could not find an inn. He was a great help. We will likely be staying for a while, if you can accommodate us.”

“Yes, it can be difficult to find an inn in this town… Thank you. Rooms…ah… There is only one room available, would that be alright?”

Veiken had not been wrong about there being one room. Well, it wasn’t really a problem for me and Daniela.

“Yes, that’s fine. And…would it be possible to stay for at least two weeks?”

“Certainly. That will be two gold pieces and twenty silvers. Your room is on the third floor, the furthest in the back. Here is your key. Welcome to the Lamb’s Hoof. I hope that you enjoy your stay.”

I pulled out my wallet from the hollow bag and counted the money carefully before lining them on the counter. Vegun counted them again before pulling a key off of the wall and handing it to us. The key had a ‘310’ marked on it. I suppose there were ten rooms per floor. That was quite a lot… It didn’t seem that big from the outside. I thought to myself as we turned to thank Veiken, who was folding his arms as he scrutinized his son at work.

“Veiken, you really saved us. Thank you.”

“Bah, I’m sure you’ll return the favor. But it’s nothing!”

“I shall eat at your stall again.”

“Aye, Miss Daniela. I will be waiting!”

He was a nice guy. And I had Daniela’s sense of smell to thank. You never knew where it would lead you, so it was not to be underestimated.

We left the counter behind us and crossed the carpeted floor to the stairs. Even the stairs here were carpeted. It was comfortable and added a sense of luxury.

We walked up the stairs to the third floor together and reached the room that was the furthest in the back. The windows in the hallway showed that night had completely fallen now, and lantern lights were flickering all over town. It was the beginning of a Replant night. It would likely be very fun to go out there during this hour, once we grew a little more familiar with the place.

“Here we are.”

“I do wonder what it will look like.”

“Yeah. …Okay, now to open it.”

I push in the key, open the lock and turn the knob. I always felt excitement when opening the door of an inn in a new town. I slowly opened the door and we peered inside.

“Ohh…”

“This is quite…”

The interior could best be described as that of a luxury hotel. First, it was very big. As was the bed. It was big, but not overwhelming. Because the room was big enough to match it. With a bed this big, sleeping alongside Daniela would not be a problem. Yes, no matter how much she flailed around in her sleep, I will have plenty of room to escape.

Beyond the bed was what appeared to be a glass table with a metal frame. I did not like how fragile it looked… The chairs were made of wood but were padded with soft cushions. They had nice armrests as well, promising a high level of comfort.

“Asagi, there is a door here.”

“A what?”

I looked around as Daniela called to me. Indeed, there was a door in the wall that connected the entrance to the room. Daniela cautiously opened it.

“Well, that is a…”

“…This is too good to be true.”

It was a bathing room. There was a huge bathtub waiting for us. The floor was made of polished marble, and the whole room looked very clean. There was even soap. Had I gone back to Japan?

I left the bathing room and looked at the bedroom again. There was a large window that directly faced the entrance, and you could see the rest of the city from it. The view really was nice from the third floor…

“This place is incredible…”

“As luck would have it, we do have enough money. But I would have been quite angry with Veikin right now if we were in a less stable position.”

“Damn right.”

We sat down together and looked at the ceiling. It was pure white and without a single stain. That meant…I would not be able to count the stains as I fell asleep.

I turned my head to the side and saw that there was a shelf near the entrance, and it was lined with the usual security devices.

They really were everywhere…

“Two gold pieces and twenty silvers for two weeks… That’s around fifteen silvers for a day. It really is quite expensive.”

“However, seeing it now…and considering it is for both of us, seven silvers and fifty coppers is a fair enough price.”

“Yeah, I couldn’t stay here alone…”

Still, we really did not have infinite funds. A lot of the money used for the wyverns went into my armor. And the reward money for the kobolds and assault kobold went into buying supplies and replacing my cursed equipment. We had enough money to stay here for a month,

but we would have to start making money again soon, if we wanted to rely on it in an emergency.

“We’ll have to start making money soon.”

“There are so many Adventurers here. We might have to fight for the best jobs.”

“At least we can convert materials. Maybe we can just make money on random hunting quests.”

“But I would not be surprised if they have become scarce from so much hunting”.

Monsters occurred naturally in the world, and there was no danger of extinction. However, if so many Adventurers in this town were hunting them at once, they would just be fighting over who got them when they respawned. Well, the Adventurers here did seem pretty well behaved… But we were still new here and didn’t really know how things worked. We would have to ask around at the guild later.

With that decided, I decided to take a bath.

There was a faucet-like magic device near the bathtub. I tried turning it, expecting a gush of hot water, but nothing came out. Hmm…how did this thing work? I tilt my head to the side and a small box catches my eye. There were stones inside, blue and red. And also a metal tool. Even more confusing. How was I supposed to use these?

I thought about it for a moment…and inspected the faucet. There was a dent inside that I had assumed was part of the design, but I now realized that it was the same size as the stones. It wasn’t hard to figure the rest out. I placed the blue stone in and tried turning the valve. The once unresponsive faucet was now gushing.

“Yes…!”

The blue stone was water ore. But who wants that? This red one was likely fire ore. And it would give me the hot water that I craved.

“Alright…there…wha!? Whooah!!”

It breathed fire!! Why!?

“You idiot!! What are you doing!”

Daniela heard my scream of terror and rushed into the room and closed the valve. The fire vanished and all you could see was a slightly blackened bathtub.

“Just a little panic…”

“I am the one who panicked…what are you…how in the…”

“But water came out and…who wouldn’t think the fire ore would result in hot water…”

“This is how you use this thing.”

Daniela picked up the tool that was in the box and started hammering the ore into small pieces. Ahhh, that’s what the tool is for… Then she mixed the grains and put them into the hole and turned the valve. Steaming hot water now poured from the faucet.

“Huh…”

“Really… You are not from here, so of course, you would not know. You must ask me for help before you hurt yourself.”

“My bad. I’ll be careful next time.”

“I hope so. You do realize that it would be quite costly to pay for destroying such a large bathtub?”

“I know, I know.”

So, we just crushed all of the ore and put it in. Does that mean it can only be used once…?

“Hey, Asagi.”

“What, Daniela?”

“Should we go in together, like back in Alessa?”

“…Yes.”

This really was a day for overheating.