Volume 1 - Ch 114
Year 7443, Month 12, Day 30
New Year's Eve. Even if it's Orth, it's only obvious that the first day of the new year is a holiday and most businesses close up for the day. That's why today pretty much every store thrives considerably well. Even though I don't particularly have any business I'm looking into food stores as well. Talking about New Years dishes during the New Years holiday is extremely boring but it's probably a good idea to at least completely rest until I'm satisfied once in a year.
Regardless of whether it's a holiday or anything else I'm still continuing with my training so my body won't weaken that easily. If I get too bored then it might not be half bad to go to the dungeon and rage around as well. It's become where I have to bring either Zulu or Angela along but I'm sure that the New Years holiday is different after all.
It seems that recently Zulu is on good terms with a sister that works at a restaurant and the dark expression that Angela had when I first purchased her has completely disappeared. Ah, that's right, starting next year how about I raise their wages a bit as well. I take out a smoked octopus leg I bought at the delicacies shop from the inner pocket of my inverness and start chewing on it while thinking these things and wandering the town.
Oh~ Toris and Bel are window shopping at a store over there. They have their arms crossed and are completely on good terms. How enviable. Come to think of it on the day we saved Bel I was chewing on a smoked octopus leg as well. Even though all four of us has octopus legs in our mouths we were discussing it. I remembered something pointless.
"Master, are you out on a walk?"
Hn? What the, so it was Angela? She's holding bread and some kind of vegetables or ham. I'm sure this fellow is shopping for tomorrow as well. I just paid their wages for this month this morning after all and there's quite a few restaurants that are closed for business tomorrow as well. Since I said to get your own lunch, she's probably buying up enough food right now for tomorrow's lunch as well. It seems like quite a bit of food for one person though if you think of it as lunch for throughout the holiday then it's an amount that is just right.
"Ah, Angela huh? Buying lunch for tomorrow?"
"Yes, since most places are closed tomorrow.."
After all.
"That's true. Maybe I'll buy something as well~"
"I think that's a good idea. The places that are still open will be extremely busy."
Right.
"That's true..I'll make sure I buy something as well. See you later."
I said that and walked towards the food store nearby. I wonder what I'll buy...In the end, I decided on some dried Meineiji. Meineiji is a seasonal fish but I've seen fat ones being transported after being caught in the reef area west of Baldukk. It might be nice to go fishing next time but I don't have any reel after all. If you grill them with the portable stove magic tool and they're delicious.
It's no comparison to the taste of the dried mackerel I had in my past life though the dried fish of Orth aren't anything to make fun of either. It's common knowledge that fish become more delicious by drying them out. You grill the dried fish and then unravel it and put it in between bread with some mayonnaise and it goes together quite well. I don't know who thought of it but I was trembling in excitement after meeting this taste.
I got two dried meineiji dried and cut like in Japan in my past life and had them tied on a string by the neck. I hung that down while wandering around again. It seems there's some kind of uproar going on at the restaurant a bit ahead but it's nothing unusual.
Well if a member of my parts is involved in the fight then there's no choice than to arbitrate it so I'll peek in a bit but the only one who I can think of doing something like that is Ralpha when she gets drunk, so I'm not all that worried. Recently she's often drinking with Gwine, and Gwine is the type that gets quiet when she's drunk (I haven't seen her really drunk) so there's probably no problem.
See look, it's someone different. Ah, that guy.. isn't it a guy from {Bright Blade}? Really, those guys are all quite rough. Well anyone who is willing to pick a fight with the members there is pretty unusual as well. I bet it's just some countryside hick who just came to Baldukk. If you've even spent six months in this town you'd know they're the top of people you definitely shouldn't mess with it. As proof of that look, no one is even coming out to act as bookmaker for gambles.
A~a, that bro is going to be beaten half to death I'm sure. It's a Wolf-people man that seems to be in his late teens but his face is bright red as he says something. The Dog-people race man with a large wound on his face is scratching his chin while listening to that. Of course the Dog-people is the member of {Bright Blade}. If I remember correctly his name was...That's right Rongel. He's one of the center members of {Bright Blade}.
I met eyes with Rongel. I shrug my shoulder and pass by. Well make sure you let him off by not killing him. If you kill him it's troublesome right? By the time I finished passing by it seems they had reached a conclusion. One punch huh? I turned around once but there was nothing like an upset.
Even though I say that, around the time we recruited Bel, adventurers often picked fights with us at restaurants as well. Since even on Orth Bel's beauty stands out, she's the perfect bait for drunk adventurers. Bel herself as well but I don't even remember the number of times I've gotten into a fight either. Eventually when we started to be called {Slaughterers} there was almost no one would mess with us though. There's restaurants where Ralpha and Zulu were banned from as well.
What entered my sight is the scenery of Baldukk which is a bit more lively than usual. It seems I was able to safely make it through this year as well. Thinks are proceeding smoothly in exploring the dungeon as well, I guess the results of our training are finally showing, but it feels like everyone's skill with the sword has changed quite a bit. Starting next year I want to become the true top of Baldukk in both name and reality.
Hmph. Since tomorrow is New Year's day in order to not forgot my original resolve it might not be half bad to run through the 1st floor alone.
............
Year 7444, Month 1, Day 1
The second New Year's day I've met in Baldukk. Just like last year I go to the temple for my first shrine visit and donated 10,000 Z. Since you can't see the first sunrise of the year unless you go to the summit of the crater like hills, when it was still start I started my running and went to see it before going to my first shrine visit of the year. After visiting the shrine I went straight to the restaurant and had breakfast with everyone. I gave the five others than my slaves their wages and then returned to my inn.