While I had resolved to use Kel’s help to finish up my chores, I hadn’t counted on the fact that I was going to, quite forcibly, have to take a break. I wasn’t sure if it was a side effect of Kel’s magic, or just simple exhaustion, but Chanak and Baldric were both fast asleep. I could check in on them every so often using the Understaff menu in Isekai Hero, but it didn’t give me any more information than simply letting me know they were asleep. As a result, the only person left I could feasibly use mind control on was Ellem….and somehow, doing that on purpose felt wrong. I didn’t feel too bad about Kel having unilaterally chosen Baldric and Chanak as guinea pigs, but I didn’t particularly want to make the decision to somehow influence or force Ellem into doing my chores for her.

Instead, I began to take a look at my quest list.

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Quest Completed: Paci-Fay-Cation

Main Objectives Completed:

✓ Survive Fay’s Wrath until she calms down

Total Rewards Obtained:

Paths to Power: Darke and Hidden Magicks

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A thin folio simply fell into my lap as I looked through the rewards. It had a tattered cover, with ripped pages and dog-eared markings. In short, it looked exactly like the kind of book that had extremely pertinent information to my current predicament, mainly: What was the deal with Fay? Isekai Hero was predictable in this way, making sure that there was a distinctive air about important items. Holy swords would shine brightly in the dark, scrolls of arcane power would be covered in strange, protective runes and books that contained critical information often looked like they’d been fished out of a sewer. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of time to read through it: Dinner was approaching soon, and I had to make sure it had been prepared. However, given the state of the kitchen, that was looking to be more and more difficult. My quests had taken a step back, as well.

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Quest Objectives: Daily Chores (Employer Assigned)

Ensure that the Main Hall has been swept Ensure that the Kitchen has been cleaned Ensure that Dinner is prepared Visit and Survey the Cellars Assign Duties to Understaff (2/3) Greet all Visitors and Guests (Ongoing)

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I guess it was only luck that no visitors or guests had made their presence known today. I could do with not having any distractions, especially given the flour covered kitchen floor. The quests said they were daily, so I assumed I had until I went to bed to complete them. So in theory, I could leave surveying the cellar until after Dinner.

On a whim, I decided to visit Ellem. I didn’t think she had much advice, or really, anything she could contribute to the conversation. No offense to her, but having no memory made her somewhat terrible company. The green-skinned woman was still lying in her private hospital bed, and gave me a wan smile when I poked my head through the curtains. Thankfully, Fay wasn’t camping out next to her. I didn’t know where the Drakul was, but apparently I’d made a bad enough impression on her that she had washed her hands off me temporarily.

“You must knock, Mr. Blanc.” Ellem shook her head. “I might have been improper.”

“How do you know what impropriety even is?”

She just shrugged, and gestured to the small stool near her so I could sit down. “If you are here to converse, I must confess my surprise. Surely someone with no memory cannot be your first choice.”

“Well…it’s not like that. Or at least, not quite like that?” Okay, so it was exactly like that. But I didn’t have to tell her that and leave her feeling worse! “I just need someone to vent to.”

And vent I did. It was actually somewhat nice to have a patient listener, although I think Ellem was primarily quiet because she didn’t fully understand what I was saying.

“If I understand correctly, you are waiting for dinner?”

“A little bit. I’m supposed to make sure it’s ready, but I can’t cook.”

“A useful skill. I would advise you to learn it, although of course, I cannot be of much help.” Ellem looked somewhat despondent when she spoke. I’d seen that look before: Having nothing else to concentrate on, Ellem was going insane as she slowly realized all the things she didn’t know. She didn’t even know what she’d lost, which meant that with every conversation she asked herself the same question: Was this something I used to know?

“I assure you, just having someone to talk to is helpful.”

“Ha!” A short, bitter laugh. “I can only assume that having someone to do the work is more helpful than that.”

A silence fell between us. It was an uncomfortable silence, one that we were both looking to break, but could not. Ellem finally spoke.

“Do you…need to use the Kitchen?”

“Excuse me?”

“There is a market near here. Fay mentioned it earlier in the day, as she visits every morning. The Manor needs to be resupplied, after all.”

“A market?”

“Yes. A place to buy and sell goods?” She gave me a smirk. “Did you happen to lose your memory as well, Mr. Blanc?”

“No, I just…” I just couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of that myself. Clearly Excelsia had built up enough civilization that they would have trading outposts and markets! And my tasks had only stated that I needed to ensure that Dinner was prepared. There was nothing in there about preparing dinner myself, or using the Kitchen. “That’s brilliant, Ellem.”

“Is it? Well, a reward for my brilliance then.”

“Anything! Almost. Almost anything!” Hedging my words was second nature to me, since you never knew when a cleverly hidden faerie would take effusiveness literally, and then make you do quests that you really did not want to be a part of. Saying you would do “anything” was really just asking for trouble.

“I wish to visit the Market with you.”

“Umm..okay? Why is that a big ask?”

“Because I have no memory. I would likely be a liability.”

“So? You know about as much about where we are as I do. More, clearly, since you know where the Market is.”

“…..”

“Ellem, you know where this market is, right?” Her expression, unfortunately, didn’t look promising. Well, that made sense. Nobody gives detailed locational directions when holding a casual conversation. Ah yes, today I went to the Market, which is about an hour south-east of the Manor, just follow the signs. Even though it would be useful, nobody really talks like that.

“I…do not.”

Confirmation. Well, that was unfortunate, though I wouldn’t be going back on my promise to take Ellem along. After all, she had still told me about this lifeline. I could hopefully find someone to cook Dinner for the Manor there, and then bring the food back home. Local Takeout, a true delicacy!

“That might be a bit of an obstacle to this plan then.” I could always go to Aastor for help, though I had a niggling feeling that this was a problem I should be able to solve on my own. And asking Fay for help was out of the question: It would be best to give the Drakul a little bit of space. “However, I…maybe have a solution?”

I dug out my pocketwatch, or rather, pocket-Wayfinder. So far, it had been useful for traversing the ever-changing layout of the Manor. I didn’t know exactly how it worked, or what kind of Spark Magic was making it run. However, it was quite literally known as a Wayfinder, so perhaps it would be useful in this situation as well. Carefully, I tapped it against Kel, who was still curled up in my breastpocket. The poor thing seemed to be in the middle of a nervous breakdown after having been attacked by Riri, but the Wayfinder didn’t care. It glowed blue all the same, and upon opening it, two slim black hands looked up at me.

“Market.”

The hands spun around, until they both aligned and pointed in the same direction. So! Either the Wayfinder was working, or it had made a mistake of some kind and was going to take me somewhere completely random. Since there was only one way to find out, I jumped up and smiled at Ellem.

“I think we have directions.”

Ellem had been staring at me placidly the entire time, and seemed somewhat relieved that I wasn’t actually talking to my watch and expecting it to talk back. She’d been a little bit taken aback at the blue glow that emanated from the Wayfinder, but had adjusted quickly. It was honestly quite impressive: She was taking more or less everything in stride, even though she had no memories to gauge her situation against. I guess she was basing her reaction off the reactions of people around her, but even so, her emotional calmness was quite a feat.

“Mr. Blanc, you may be forgetting something.” She gestured to the book she’d been reading, which was another copy of “A Summoned Guidebook to Excelsia and Its Peoples”. Propagandistic trash, even though I’d only had the opportunity to flip through it. “We may need some money. And I can assure you, I have none.”

Dammit, she was right. We definitely needed some money. Unlike previous Isekai adventures I’d been on, I didn’t think that Excelsia would look too kindly to me just breaking pots for supplies or just picking up whole roast birds from the market without offering payment. And yes, I know it sounds bad, but in my defense, I’d been asked to defeat a great evil plaguing the land and had been armed with nothing but a sword. I needed the money and the food!

Okay, so it still sounds bad, but I’d been learning, and I only went the thieving route a couple times. I promise!

Still, I was definitely somewhat highly paid. I didn’t have any money on me, however, so perhaps the first stop would be Aastor. Yes, that sounded like a plan. Go to Aastor, get some money, then off to the market.

A plan to finish off at least one of my tasks, and with no magic involved that could get me in trouble. Especially since I was under strict orders not to let Kel be seen by anyone in public, I definitely couldn’t use magic at the Market.

***

Gathering funds from Aastor was significantly less painful than I’d expected. Somewhere, in the back of my head, I was wondering why Aastor was paying me the princely sum he appeared to be. The answer was a lot simpler than I’d imagined.

The old man was stinking rich. I guess being the Archmage paid well, because when Aastor opened the safe in his office, fat golden coins practically spilled out of it, and he didn’t even bat an eye. No attempt to hide the safe, no security, nothing. In fact, I don’t even know if the safe was locked, because as far as I could tell, Aastor literally just walked up to the safe and took out a small pouch filled with silver and gold and threw it at me.

“Here ya go, boy.” He chuckled. “Didn’t think of ya as someone who cared fer money, but it goes ta show ya.”

“Apologies Sir. I should have clarified.” I bowed low. “This is for Dinner.”

“Aye, whatever ya say.” He closed the safe door, and sat back in his seat, hunched over diagrams and charts that I couldn’t quite make sense of.

As I was leaving, however, he called out. “Get me some of ‘em Boaka Meat Sticks. Fay won’t let me have any, says they’re bad fer me. Pssh!”

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Quest Objectives: Daily Chores (Employer Assigned)

Ensure that the Main Hall has been swept Ensure that the Kitchen has been cleaned Ensure that Dinner is prepared Visit and Survey the Cellars Assign Duties to Understaff (3/3) Greet all Visitors and Guests (Ongoing)

Bonus Objectives:

Get Boaka Meat Sticks from the Market

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Ah, dammit, I was hoping it would be a new Quest altogether, and not a Bonus Objective. I was getting greedy, but since I could really only make big leaps in power and strength at night, while I was asleep, I really, really wanted to get as many rewards before I went to bed.

Regardless, I now had a small pouch filled with coins. 2 Golden Coins, with an embossed Crown set into one side, and a pile of smaller, silver coins with a Shield instead of a crown. Both had A.W on the other side, which I could only guess stood for Anastasia the Wise.

I met up with Ellem, who had changed into the travel-stained clothing she was wearing yesterday, and fished out my Golden Pocketwatch. Kel activated it again, and looking at it, I spoke, loudly and clearly.

“Market.”

And we were off. A small, simple adventure to get dinner, where nothing would go wrong! After a harrowing first day with Fay and the prospect of meeting Aastor out in the grounds for an undefined but vaguely ominous reason, a simple jaunt in the market felt like a good idea.