CH 120

“A Walk in the Royal Capital…An audience with the King? What's that good for?”

Translated by Dawn

“A Walk in the Royal Capital…An audience with the King? What’s that good for?”

“Haa, Officer Jenny is here again…”

I let out a small sigh as I reflect on the events at the inn earlier. For now, I was not concerned about such things and decided to make plans for the future since I had come all the way to the royal capital.

First of all, I was thinking of taking a stroll in various places as a sightseeing tour of the royal capital. I was sure that there must be things that could only be found in this royal capital and things that could only be seen here, so I wanted to take a look at those things.

…Hm? An audience with the king? What’s that good for? Putting such trivial and unimportant things aside…my first priority right now was to go sightseeing in the royal capital. Besides, it was said that the average time from notice of summons to arrival at the capital was about 10 days, so I had at least two or three more days to play around.

“First, as a matter of immediate concern, I’ll have to go to the Adventurers’ Guild and check that……well, I’m sure they’ll be there in a dozen different ways.”

I decided to confirm what had already been confirmed in my mind, so I quickly left the inn and headed for the Adventurers’ Guild.

The Adventurers’ Guild in the capital was also as large as the one in Orargrand, and I was impressed by the fact that it was located in the country’s largest city.

“Wow, the ceilings are so high.”

It was so spectacular that I had a reaction that was typical of a twelve-year-old. ……Huh? Is it okay to react that way?

Well, I’d like to check out the interior later, so let’s get started with that.

I went to the front side where there were several reception counters side by side and approached a familiar big-breasted woman with glasses who was at the reception desk.

“Hey, I think I’m probably right, are you Merian?”

First, it was Marian, then Mirian. And in Orargrand it was Murian, so of course this time it should be Merian…

“Ah, yes. I am Merian, have we met before?”

“I knew it. So, what’s your relationship with the MaMiMu?”

“MaMiMu?”

Oops, it seemed that I had left out too much explanation, and Merian made a face like she didn’t understand. It would have been impossible for her to understand the words “ma,” “mi,” and “mu.”

I told her about the famous receptionist at the Adventurers’ Guild and explained to her that I wanted to ask her about the relationship between the receptionists and Merian, who was probably a blood relative of one of them.

“I am the child of Murian’s father’s sister’s husband’s sister.”

“…Isn’t that just a stranger, then?”

“No, I’m not. We are proper relatives!”

I couldn’t help but mention the obvious distant relativeness from Murian’s point of view, but apparently, it was important to her, and she protested vigorously. Well, it didn’t matter either way to me.

At any rate, I was able to confirm the receptionist with the big breasts and glasses, so I went on to ask about the other receptionist as well. By the way, I had not met the other one at the inn, but she probably exists. Her name was probably Nosa.

“Is there a Nicole or a Sakol here?”

“No, there isn’t.”

“Then… how many receptionists with names with Si then?”

“Merian-senpai, can I have a minute?”

When I asked her about that, another person spoke to Merian. She looked normal like she could be anywhere, but my intuition was telling me that she was not normal. What is this feeling?

“Oh, that should be on the shelf over there.”

“Thank you very much. I’ll look for it right away.”

“Wait, Sikorul, your ribbon’s a mess.”

“There it isssss!”

The surrounding adventurers’ gazes turn to see what was going on as I shouted, but they return their gazes when they realize there was nothing going on.

But still, Sikorul, or indeed, one missing si would be a terrible thing, so was this something that could not be helped?

While I was thinking about such useless thoughts, Sikorul went back to her work. I had nothing to do with her, but I felt like I wanted to talk to her for a while.

“So, do you need anything from the Adventurers’ Guild?”

“I’d say I’m here for something, but I’ve already accomplished what I set out to do at this very moment.”

“Hmm.”

“No, wait, there’s still one more thing…which way to the dismantling site?”

“Hey, Merian, you got a minute?”

“There he issss! The bald guyyyy!”

There he appeared, the other person I had hoped to see. The top of his head had not a single hair on it, and there he was, unmistakably bald. But he would always say this line.

“’Who’s the bald, boy!? This one’s shaved!”

That seemed to be the way it was supposed to be with them. Anyway, it was no exaggeration to say that I had achieved all the goals I had hoped to achieve in the Adventurers’ Guild. For now, let me guess the name of this bald guy.

“Hmmm…”

“W-what’s up, boy? What’s wrong?”

“Umm…ahh, Tsuruld!”

“Yeah? How do you know my name?”

I got it right. Wasn’t my rate of correct answers in this line of name-guessing quizzes so far strangely high? Well, that’s not important.

I left the Adventurers’ Guild, telling Merian and Tsuruld, who was looking at me strangely, that I would be back again.

After leaving the guild, I headed for the marketplace. I was curious to see what kind of goods would be sold in the market of the largest city in the country.

“Rice~Soy~Vinegar~, Rice~Soy~Vinegar~”

The anticipation of what I might be able to get in this new place that I hadn’t yet acquired made me hum as I strolled through the market. I could feel that my thoughts were biased toward foodstuffs, but since these three items were my top three priorities, it was inevitable that they would come out of my mouth. I repeat it couldn’t be helped!

Rice was, needless to say, the soul food of the Japanese people, and since I was born a Japanese, rice was an inseparable part of my life. Soybeans were needed to make miso, soy sauce, and other typical Japanese seasonings, and if I could get my hands on these, my Japanese food lineup would increase considerably. And finally, vinegar was needed to make mayonnaise, which would be used in my egg sandwich, and ketchup, which was a seasoning made from tomatoes.

In the past, I did not put mayonnaise in my egg sandwiches, so perhaps if there had been a third party from Japan who had seen the situation, they would have wondered, “Where’s the mayonnaise?” But because vinegar was necessary to make mayonnaise, I could not make mayonnaise even if I wanted to. Of course, it would have been possible to make mayonnaise without vinegar, but the taste would have been much worse than that of Japanese mayonnaise.

Anyway, I looked around the stalls to get something new, which was the purpose of my visit to the market in the royal capital. As one would expect from a market in the royal capital, the number of stores and the number of items they sell were numerous, and I couldn’t help but buy more than I would have bought from an adult and even more than I would have bought from a noble. Well, I used to be a noble, so I guess it wasn’t necessarily wrong.

As for the percentage of stores that were open, 40% were eateries dealing with food and cooking, 30% with foodstuffs, 20% with decorative items, and the remaining 10% were others. The new things I acquired in terms of foodstuffs were cucumbers, corn, broccoli, oranges, strawberries, and grapes, all of which I bought up as they were being sold. The shopkeeper who was selling the foodstuffs was stunned by the sheer number of things that I bought, but that was of no concern to me.

Next, I visited a store that sold ornaments, which I was more interested in using as a reference when increasing the number of ornaments that the Greg Trading Company handles in the future, rather than buying them to wear.

I asked the shopkeeper about the latest trends in the capital and having gained a general understanding of what was popular there, I bought a few ornaments in return. Most of them were for women, so I would give them away as souvenirs the next time I return to Orargrand.

“That looks good. Give me one.”

“Roger. It’s three small coins.”

The smell of delicious meat was in the air, so I decided to buy one and try it. It was a skewer of some kind of meat, not particularly rare, but the meat was tender and tasty.

“…! Hey, you, what do you think you’re doing?”

“Guhh…  fuu….”

I was enjoying the taste of the meat skewer when suddenly a hand reached out to my pocket. I instantly sensed it, so I took that hand, grabbed it, and grabbed the other cheek with my other hand. Since I was holding his cheek apparently, I could not understand what he was saying, but I somehow understood that he was probably saying “what are you going to do”.

This made it impossible to have a proper conversation, so I had no choice but to let go of him. He tried to run away, so I grabbed him by the collar to prevent him from escaping.

“W-what do you think you’re doing!? Let go, let go of me!!”

“That’s my line…Did you just try to steal from me?”

“W-what are you talking about? I just happened to put my hand up and you were there.”

When I pursued him, I could see that he was flustered, his eyes swimming this and that. The boy was even younger than me, maybe nine years old or so.

His clothes were in tatters, he had not bathed properly, his hair was shaggy, and he smelled a little harsh.

“Oi.”

“W-what is it! Huh? W-what is this!?”

I took a silver coin out of storage and placed it on my right palm, and when I laid it on the boy’s hand, I handed it to him, leaving the silver coin in his palm. He was surprised that a large sum of money in the form of a medium silver coin suddenly appeared in his palm, but when he understood that it was me who had sent it to him, he turned a dubious face toward me with a look of alarm on his face.

For people in this country, where it was common for families to spend three large copper coins a day on food, one medium silver coin was equivalent to the cost of about a month’s worth of food. He seemed puzzled by the fact that I, an unknown boy not much older than himself, had handed him a silver coin that he rarely saw other than as a salary payment.

“Next time you’ll have to do better. Bye.”

“Ah, h-hey!”

Without answering the boy’s call, I turned on my heel, waving my right hand back over my shoulder, and disappeared into the bustling crowd. The boy did not chase after me, as if he did not want anything more to do with me.

Why did I give the boy a single medium silver coin?……No particular clear reason, but I was in the mood to do so for some reason. …Yes, that’s just it. You see, it’s called doing one good deed a day! I hadn’t done a good deed yet today, so I gave that kid one medium silver coin to replace the good deed I hadn’t done today. …What, am I making excuses? Noisy! I can do whatever I want! Just trust me!

Then I looked around the market some more and was able to find vinegar among the rice, soybeans, and vinegar I was currently searching for. See, I knew I’d been blessed with a good thing because of that! Just give up!

The store that sold vinegar also sold seasonings and spices, so I bought everything I knew about them, as well as a few things I didn’t know. Hmm? What about the vinegar? Of course, I bought all the vinegar I could find. I was getting a weird look again, though.

At any rate, having found one of the three, I decided to call it a day and return to the inn. As a side note, I should add that I did not forget to buy some good quality wheat on the way back to the inn.