CH 177

Ash, Butler, Dinosso, Retze and I are having lunch together after a long time. Reid had dragged off Chris and Dean to the Adventurer’s Guild.

He’s about to leave and yet — ah, no, maybe Lil Bro’s working so hard precisely because he’s leaving.

Dean’s been diligently accepting commissions left and right so he can pay me for his sword, apparently. Alright, maybe I can bring him some pork cutlets later, huh.

「This is tasty. Can you cut the bread a tad thicker? 」

「Yeah, I can. 」

The thinly sliced cooked liver rillettes were sandwiched between crunchy bread slices. The liver came from the wigeon I hunted to make the quills. Dinosso’s gonna completely gobble them all up at this rate.

「Mine too. 」

「Mm, I also want to eat it, but there is still more stuff other than this. 」

「The bread Jean-sama bakes is truly delectable. 」

Eh, you guys too!? Oh well, I guess I’m glad you’re enjoying the food.

「Everything’s delish, but bread’s the one thing I crave the most after not having it for a while. 」

「I like the bread too, but it’s coffee for me. 」

So serving Retze coffee must’ve been deliberate. They avoided brewing coffee while Reid is here, apparently.

Retze’s request is thick scrambled eggs and I paired it with dry cured ham and pickled sardines. For the salad, we had watercress sauteed with sea urchin and butter.

「I also tried making scrambled eggs this way but the shape’s all wonky and it tasted different. Did you put something else other than the eggs? 」

「It has some fish stock made from a fish called skyjack tuna and seaweed called kombu. 」

「This dish is so exquisite when paired with wine that it’s almost too much for me. 」

Butler’s request is oyster gratin.

I also served some grilled sweet bread from a very young calf that hadn’t eaten anything other than milk yet. Plus, one slab of herb-roasted lamb chop per Dinosso’s request.

「I wonder why rather than the scent of herbs, the meat itself is so fragrant, doesn’t stink at all.」

That’s because the ingredients in my food storage are superb.

For the finale, I served black tea and shortcake topped with plenty of cream and strawberries. Still in moderate amounts, we don’t want the cake crumbling down after all.

Ash looked really happy, my eyes were drawn to her while I was drinking black tea. The rest of the men had coffee.

「Coffee also tastes better when brewed here, huh. 」

Retze muttered. That’s because I’m using water from my house.

「Alright, we enjoyed great food, so let’s get down to business. You’re leaving tomorrow, right? 」

Dinosso said after the plates were cleared and more coffee and tea were brewed.

「I got a feeling that he probably did something outrageous again. 」

「It’s fine, I placed restrictions this time around. 」

Retze’s must’ve heard from the others so he’s worried, but Dinosso assured him.

「Then, here you go. 」

I stealthily handed a silver flower with the spinel embedded in the center.

「What’s this? 」

「Wasn’t it supposed to be a bracelet? 」

Dinosso and Butler said suspiciously.

And so, I demonstrated the art of unfurling the flower and transforming it into a bracelet by placing it on the wrist. The flower stretched and changed its shape.

「What a lovely— bracelet. 」

When I handed it over to Ash, the silver collapsed and flowed like melting ice turning to water before attaching itself to her wrist. At the same time, the two spirits showed themselves.

「Breathtaking. 」

Ash muttered, completely smitten with it. Okay, so the design gets a passing mark, huh.

「….Waiwaiwaiwaiwait. 」

Frozen Dinosso’s mouth was the only thing moving.

「What? It’s not mercury, right? 」

「I used the magic silver we picked up together back in the tunnel. 」

I answered Retze.

「Dinosso-sama…? 」

Butler turned towards Dinosso at a snail’s pace.

「Me!? Is it my fault!? No, wait, is that really magic silver!? 」

Dinosso’s breaking out in cold sweat for some reason.

「Again, it’s magic silver, I used magic silver, alright. 」

「You used? 」

「… 」

I turned away.

Retze wasn’t letting it go!!

「Hey! 」

Dinosso jumped from his chair, prompting me to turn away more. Yes, I did use magic silver, but when I checked 【Appraisal】 it somehow transformed into spirit silver. The stats also rose; probably because the spirits possessed it, huh.

But wait, it started flowing even before the spirits possessed it, right?

「This bracelet is so small, and yet two spirits… Is that the reason? 」

Butler seemed bewildered.

「Don’t they call magic silver that’s strongly affected by spirits ‘spirit silver’? And since it got spirits inside, isn’t it a spirit silver then? 」

Ugh, Retze, why do you always hit the bull’s eye even though you can’t See!? Wish you’d stop doing that.

「Ahh. Right, spirits had been swarming the box where I kept it! 」

So that’s how it was.

If the magic silver collected from the tunnel had different effects then there should be a whole lot more varied spirits words circulating the market by now, but that’s not the case. I see, that makes sense.

「But it’s still highly unlikely that two spirits would reside in it. 」

「Ah, they seem quite free, so I asked them to protect the owner of the bracelet. The blue one is Blue Drop, the green one is Green Circle. 」

「Don’t make requests! And don’t put spirits in things so nonchalantly!! 」

Dinosso jumped to his feet again and yelled.

「Is it really just… a request and placing it inside? 」

Butler was mumbling.

「Hey, Noth, your eyes are glazing over, are you alright? 」

「I am not alright. 」

Ack, he said he’s not okay!

「You really — I can’t See so I don’t really know what’s going on, but won’t it become a huge pain in the neck if somebody discovers that you can casually make the spirits reside in things? The bigwigs and adventurers, no, even other guys who aren’t adventurers will definitely make you do their bidding, right? 」

「Urk… I’ll keep it a secret. 」

I definitely don’t want some other folks other than my homies approaching me.

「Luckily, the more knowledgeable the nobles are about spirits, the less they can See, and most of the commoners can’t See either. I think you’re still fine, but if worse comes to worst and you get busted, do your best to gloss it over, like telling them that it’s gonna take a hell lot of time, or maybe just make it exorbitantly pricey to deter them. 」

「Yes. 」

I obediently listened to Retze’s advice.

Besides, I can only work in my house, and unless the person talked to me directly, he won’t have anything to do with me so I think it’ll be okay, but there’s nothing wrong with erring on the side of caution. Alright, let’s be more careful from now on.

「Dinosso-dono and Noth haven’t come to their senses yet. Are they gonna be alright? 」

Dinosso was groaning, Butler was still as a rock, so Ash was worried as she stared at them.