Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, in the old computer games, taverns were useful for resting and healing, safety, and changing party members--in books they are also great places to gather information; because drunk people are talkative.”

 

“Thanks for waiting, Nana.”

 

“Yes, Master.”

 

Uh, did I make her wait too long?

Maybe thanks to the hooded robe that she’s wearing, no guys seem to be trying to pick her up.

She looks quite bored, as much so as someone with a completely blank face can.

When I get near her, she grabs my arm and begins walking, “Let’s go, master.”

Since she is pressing my arm to her chest, my arm is in heaven--however, the long staff that I ended up buying for Mia is being a hindrance, so I switch it to my other hand.

“I learned this while master was in the shop.” Nana says, “When a man and a woman walk together, they unite their arms.”

She’s saying all of this with a ‘How’s that’ look in her eyes.

I understand how she learned this, through observation, and there isn’t any reason to part--so let’s go shopping like this.

Since Nana is giving off the atmosphere like she really wants to be praised, I do as she wishes--it’s subtle, but she looks very satisfied--I’m also satisfied with the amazing feeling.

First, let’s buy some clothes for Nana and Mia.

However, there doesn’t seem to be any shops that sell ready-made clothes in town, except for the second-hand ones in this town. It seems that you have to have them tailored if you want new clothes; I think Arisa said that she could make clothes, so I decide to buy cloth and sewing materials.

They are selling pre-made underwear though--so I buy shares for the two. This type of underwear is called drawers, I think.

Next I need tools for manufacturing things.

When I asked a pedestrian for directions, I managed to buy various tools for woodworking, metalworking, leather crafting, and blacksmithing. I’ve also bought glue, nails and other materials--everything other than the nails were expensive.

However, things necessary for blacksmithing, like a furnace or anvil weren’t available--and even if they were, there was no way I could carry them without revealing my storage.

Since we would stand out if we bring a lot of lumber to the inn, I pay for it to be sent directly to my wagon.

 

“Nana, shouldn’t we go to the next shop soon?”

 

“Master, please wait a bit longer.”

 

“Is it fun?”

 

“Yes, very. It’s so fluffy and soft--yes, cute.” She says, fascinated with the wood-shaving waste, and doesn’t seem to want to move on--we spent quite a bit of time in the wood workshop.

If the old man at the workshop hadn’t given her the thinnest and longest shaving, she may have never wanted to leave.

Incidentally, I catch sight of, and purchase bottles and containers for Medicine and Potions from the next workshop we visit. The price here is cheaper than in Seryuu City.

At the end of our little shopping trip, we go to the general store.

Nana, who has been restlessly looking around inside the general store, wanders to a particular display case.

 

“What’s the matter?”

 

“Master, what is this?” While asking, Nana picks up something in her hand.

 

It’s a wooden barrette.

It’s carved in a simple design, with the small pale stones fitted into it--the stones aren’t gemstones, but river stones with striped patterns--it looks similar to Jade, so I Appraise it, the result is ‘Polished Agate’.

The Market Price of the barrette is two copper coins--there are five others that are identical and are all priced the same. I think it’s a bit plain for Nana’s honey-coloured hair; I think that she’d look better with a silver barrette.

Nana is just staring at the barrette without getting tired.

The store owner, an old woman, sees this and begins promoting, “I also have ones made from silver, or adorned with gemstones, do you want to see them?”

 

“Alright, since you’re offering, let’s take a look at it.”

 

She pulls out three expensive barrettes made from silver; I try putting one on Nana’s hair--yup, the silver one does match her well.

 

“Oh my, she really looks beautiful with that.” The old woman said, a glint in her eyes.

 

“Yeah, she does.” I answered almost automatically as I was looking at Nana.

 

However, Nana is holding the wooden barrette, stroking it with her fingers and an expression of rapture, even while we talk--though her shoulders shake a little at my words; maybe she heard me.

You like the wooden one that much?

So, I purchase it, instead of the silver ones the old woman was trying to sell--I also buy several blue braids as souvenirs since they were placed nearby. They are just right for Lulu, since she usually ties her hair with a hemp cord when she cooks.

There were ribbons, but I stop--I’ve given one to Lulu as a present before, but I’ve never seen her wearing it; she probably didn’t like it.

I was just about to leave when I finally remembered, “Do you have a lute?”

“I do.” The old woman points near Nana--it’s on the same desk as the barrette. Not seeing it even though it’s right in front of your eyes, it happens often, eh?

A proverb entered my mind: “wearing out iron shoes while seeking one’s feet”--

I purchase the lute and string it for Mia; I try strumming it and a ‘kiiiin’ sound comes out.

 

>>Skill: Musical Performance Acquired.

 

***

“Ehehehe, look, look at this bounty!” Arisa says something strange as she gets back--she is pleased, presenting a basket with some eggs in it to me.

When I say that eggs tend to expire quickly, Liza explains to me that eggs can be stored for several months--she apologizes for correcting me.

Eggs from Earth have a very quick expiration date--so it seems that eggs from this fantasy world last many times longer--another example of applying logic from one world to another--I really need to stop doing that.

We decide to eat dinner in the tavern in the first floor of the inn. Since there is a large enough empty space at the back, we get two tables and join them together and sit there. Mia sits on the chair at the furthest location from where the crowds will be, she seems like she’s not good with crowds.

The meal is pretty good, for the cost--but there isn’t too much meat, though what little there is, is pretty expensive meat; so the Beastkin girls didn’t suffer too much.

Sitting across the table from me, Mia had started playing her lute as soon as I gave it to her, and she hadn’t stopped even when her food arrived--she seemed to really like it, I was glad.

“Mia, it’s time for dinner, so eat your meal.”

“Nn.” Mia nods at my words, but she doesn’t let go of the lute. Her performance is over, but she seems to be wondering whether to continue or to eat.

“Aan.” She opens her small mouth while playing the lute, she seems to want to be fed; and she looks like a cute young bird. Well, I did say she should eat--so why not?

I spear one of the bite-sized pieces of vegetables on her plate with my fork, after making sure it’s cool enough, I put it in her mouth. She chews it while still playing her song--I wonder if it’s an Elven tune, it gives off the feeling of wanting to hurry home.

My sleeve is pulled from the side, and when I looked, Arisa is opening her mouth while pointing at it--well, I did feed Mia, it’s only fair if I do it for her too.

 

“Tek. Aan.”

“Aan?”

“Aan.”

 

What comes into view is Mia, with Pochi and Tama who are sitting on either side of her, all opening their mouths and asking for food. When all three are lined up like this, it really is cute.

Feeling slightly amused, I put some food in each of their mouths in turn.

Following them, while looking shy, Lulu does the same. Please, while in public, I’d like it if you wouldn’t open your small mouth as wide as you can, while pinning your hair back and closing your eyes? I really want to put something other than food in there--

Liza is joining in since it looks interesting, but I have no comment--well, she doesn’t look uncomfortable, there’s probably no problem.

Well, I’m fine with feeding Tama and Pochi--but if they look like beautiful adults, the destructive power is high, and I feel myself blushing a little-- But of course, I give the both of them food; Liza just chews it and then goes back to eating normally--but Lulu chews slowly and blushes, lowering her gaze to the plate in front of her.

My sleeve is pulled.

I thought that it was Arisa again, but it was from the other side. Over there, Nana is doing the same, but she is presenting a dish--I see, since she can’t eat, she’s serving it instead.

After Liza warns her, Mia begins concentrating on eating her food--I’m a bit surprised that she obeyed when Liza told her to eat, but just wanted me to feed her when I said she should eat--then again, I shouldn’t expect obedience.

Mia, who finished her differ first, starts playing some more music--the Beastkin girls and Arisa are eating seconds.

At first, the music was calm, but when one of the nearby drunks requested, Mia complied and the music became much more cheerful. Even though Mia doesn’t seem to like crowds, and she plays with an expressionless and uninterested face--she still happily receives the drunk’s impulsive request.

Now that they see that she is taking requests, the number of visitors begin to increase until it’s a full house, even though it was mostly empty when we just got there.

When Arisa, Tama and Pochi have finished eating, the match the music and begin to sing together cheerfully while standing in a line--with all three wearing large hoods covering them completely, they look slightly suspicious. I think I remember the song they’re singing--it’s one of the anime intros that Arisa had sung during our trip.

“What a good song.” The merchant-like man on the seat behind me starts talking to me while drinking.

 

“It’s a song from their hometown.”

 

I take a drink as well--but I am drinking orange juice while he is drinking ale.

We chat about quite a few random things, most of which are completely harmless, but there were also some interesting ones. Though, mostly I listen while the merchants all talk.

 

“I’ve just been through the Baron Muno’s territory, and several of the villages I passed through were so poor that they were trying to sell me slaves, mostly kids--so they could have a better chance at living.”

 

“The harvest wasn’t bad this year, so I wonder why?”

 

“Speaking of slaves, if you bring slaves out from Baron Muno’s territory, you need to pay a tax. So do farmers who want to go to other territories--was it emigration tax? The border soldiers also specially inspect, using Yamato Stones, to see if you have slaves from there, or if you have the farmer job when leaving.”

 

The other merchants exaggeratedly shiver, because some of them even bought slaves themselves.

According to the travel journal, it should have been a marquis instead of a baron in charge, so I asked them about it.

“Don’t you know, young man? They were certainly a Marquis up until about 20 years ago, but the whole family of Marquis Muno were attacked by hordes of undead--the castle was destroyed, the soldiers and everyone else were massacred.”

“I forgot what the name of the leader was.”

“At that time, it became an uproar and people thought that it was an attack from the Demon Lord, the price of groceries and Medicines went up and I made a huge profit.” Says another of the merchant.

“I also remember feeling relieved that the King had ordered the Holy Knights to be dispatched, stopping the undead army from overflowing into other territories.”

“All families of the Marquis Muno, including branch families and family members who married into other families, died of mysterious causes. The current Baron supposedly has absolutely no relation to the old one--he’s either the nephew or younger brother of the neighboring Duke; he succeeded the family name, to manage the territory.”

That story sounds very familiar--what comes to mind is Zen’s bleached bone face, with the tears of purple flames seeming to permanently run down it, like a curse.

I’ve become a passive listener, while properly chiming in sometimes and pouring ale into the cups of the merchants, from the large pitcher in the middle of the table--I press them to continue.

“There’s a strange rumour about the Dukedom, there’s a man who will buy the corpses of anything.”

“Isn’t that just a simple rumour? There’s a forest which became a place of burial due to some strange faith--and the rumour started from someone who saw one of their processions.”

“Is that what it is? So they’re traveling on the highway, where Monsters and wolves appear, for several days while carrying corpses--faith is an amazing thing.”

“Something that can’t be said to merchants like us.”

However, ‘The Corpse Buying Man’, that sounds like something that would be the title to a rather interesting novel.

Speaking of the Duke, I’ve heard a rumour in the morning, “It seems that there’s a fighting tournament in the Dukedom, is anyone familiar with that?”

 

“People will surely gather there--but so do merchants.”

 

“Thus the number of merchants in other places is reduces. I intend to fill the gap with my business.”

Mia’s performance has stopped before I noticed--the surrounding people were urging her, but she says one word, “Tired.”

She walks over and sits on my lap, leaning back and closing her eyes. I feel her heartbeat speed up as her warm back presses against me, she squirms a little to get comfortable, and the feeling on my lap is very nice.

The crowd begins ‘boo’ing.

I wish to stay like this for a while longer, but the other girls look incredibly tired too--so I wrap an arm around Mia’s waist and pick her up as I stand up, she dangles slightly--before squirming out of my grip and standing by my side, hanging off my arm.

We take this chance and go to the room.

“We got a lot of offerings!” The first thing Arisa does when we enter the room is hold up a bowl with a lot of copper coins, and a few silver coins, in it.

Those drunk men are quite generous.

Mia lays down on the bed and falls asleep astoundingly quickly.

They didn’t have an eight person room, I didn’t expect them to, so I rented two 4 person rooms. I was thinking of going with the Beastkin girls with me in my room, and Arisa and the others in this room.

But Arisa, and strangely Lulu, disagree.

They want it to be me, them, and Liza; while Nana has Tama, Pochi, and Mia in one room.

Since I don’t really have any objections, and Arisa has a look on her face like she has something planned, I agree to the change in arrangements. Tama and Pochi seemed a little disappointed, but Nana looked pleased to sleep with her ‘mother’.

When I agree, Lulu starts blushing, it seems that Arisa probably discussed her plans.

I am glad that Arisa included Liza, if my guess about what her plan is, is correct; Liza had been one of the first, and she did a lot of work around the place. She deserved a ‘reward’ for all her service.

Though her face was calm fairly calm, her eyes were narrowed with a look of happiness or excitement, her tail was swaying surprisingly quickly.

We left the room, crossed the hall, and entered the room we would be sharing tonight--