Volume 19 - CH 17

The life of the new King of Vernia is irregular. Sleeping twice or thrice is commonplace, so it is not unusual for him to sleep in the daytime or evening and wake up at night.

Look at the cats.

True nature means they sleep when they want to. A regular life is an ego-driven, evil order created by humans. In the eyes of Mother Nature, it is irregular.

「Ugh ......」

I woke up my sluggish body and snapped my neck. I tried to use my [Clock] skill, but it was 11 pm. It was already night.

I guess I slept too long.

I look next to me, and see that my personal pillow, Meena, is sleeping peacefully, naked. I'd played six rounds of hardcore during the day. I don't want to wake her up, so I'll just let her rest and relax.

I quietly get out of bed and dress myself. I felt that the "long-lasting charcoal" in the fireplace was a little low in temperature, so I added another bottle, and then left the room.

「Hmm? Is that Fianna?」

I could see from here that a girl in white robes was sneaking around the corridors of the castle like she was hiding. The other one is Lily.

I call out to her.

「What's up, you guys, playing tag at this hour?」

「Oh, pervert oldman!」

「Ah, Alec-san! Uhhh」

Lily reacted as usual, but Fianna turned her face away, her sky-blue eyes downcast as if to say that she had been seen in trouble.

「What were you doing?」

「Nothing, nothing at all. I was just going to the "Lucky Shop" to buy some sweets!」

「Is that right? All right, I'll go with you. I'll buy you something.」

「Yay~!」

I've been giving Lily her allowance, but she seems to be happy to be treated to it.

「Uhmm, Alec-san, please don't tell the other priest ...... about this to Olivia-san.」

Fianna looks a little embarrassed.

「I'm sure Olivia won't be mad at you for keeping it a secret or anything. I've run into her at the store late at night, you know?」

「Oh, I see. ......」

「I've been told that as a sex worker, it's her job to gently wrap the worries of lost lambs at all times.」

「I see, as expected. I need to learn from her so that I can become a great priest.」

The characters for holy and sex are different, but that's okay.

I had the soldiers prepare my jacket and carriage, and the three of us left the castle. It wasn't snowing outside, but it was getting cold as expected at night.

「So, what were you planning to buy?」

「Ice cream Daifukuuu~!」

Lily said with one hand raised. I sometimes have a craving for it, but it's not so good when it's cold.

Fianna looked into her face, wondering what was going on, and then confessed as if she had given up.

「Chocolate and fries.」

「You'll get fat if you eat that many calories at this time of night――」

「I won't get fat!」

Fianna asserted in a voice unusually loud for her.

「Ahh? Hmm.」

「Don't worry. I'll exercise properly.」

「Well, then do what you want.」

I touched my belly and thought that I was a bit plump and metabolic, but I made my belly cave in three times and pretended that I had done an abdominal exercise.

We seem to have arrived at the store, the carriage stops, and the gentleman opens the door.

「Ice~!」

Lily was the first to run out. Even though it's the middle of the night, there are a number of carriages parked at the store, and it seems that there are a lot of nobles who think similarly to us. The store was brightly lit with a lot of magic tools and seemed to be thriving.

I entered the store and headed for the bookshelf on the right. Fianna also seemed to be heading for the cosmetics shelf.

「Ohhh, there's a new erotic manga on sale!」

It's a hardcover comic with a small number of pages, bound in parchment with string. I stood next to the fat aristocrat and browsed through it as he did.

The content wasn't great, but it was a story about a girl who enjoys eating loli, so I decided to pay tribute to the author by buying a copy.

It's a petit baron, so to speak. I'm sure the author will realize that loli is a hot seller, thank me, and draw more loli. If it doesn't turn out the way I want, I'll send him three sheets of parchment for a serious review.

I don't think it's possible to start out with panchira. The fact that you can see a glimpse of it is what tickles a man's fancy and turns on his instincts as a white visual (panty) hunter. My fingers can be shorter.

I tucked the hardcover book under my arm and headed for the next shelf in the food section.

「Hoh, they have cup noodles?」

There were only three of them, but they were exactly the same as the ones sold in Japan.

Most likely, they were found in a treasure chest as a rare item in a dungeon.

As expected, the price was an absurd 10,000 gold.

Oh well, I'll just buy all three. I checked the expiration date to make sure it was still good, but it had at least three months left. That's enough.

When I went to the counter, Lily and Fianna also seemed to have the items they wanted and were in line ahead of me.

「You're so sloooow! Uncle, hurry up!」

「Y-yes, I'm back」

「Lily, stop rushing people who are working so hard. There are so many customers, no matter how hard he try, it's going to take time.」

That's what I'm trying to tell her. I remembered the pain I felt when I was rushed by a customer at a convenience store when I was a student, but I never want to work as a cashier at a busy store again.

「Mruhh―.」

Lily was not happy, but she quieted down.

「That's a total of one hundred gold.」

「Here you go!」

Lily bought two ice creams, but at fifty gold each, they would have cost five thousand Japanese yen. I guess the prices are higher than on Earth. But it was a high quality ice cream in a wooden box, so the price was reasonable.

「Alec, I'll wait for you at the carriage!」

「Yeah」

After letting Fianna go first, it was finally my turn.

「That's a total of 30,000 gold.」

I take out a gold coin and a large bronze coin.

「Certainly. Thank you very much, wheew.」

His forehead is sweating, but isn't this clerk sick?

That's what I thought, so I decide to [Appraise] him.

【Name】 Ito.

【Age】 52

【Level】 10

【Class】 Merchant

【Race】 Human

【Gender】 Male

【H P】 31/92

【MP】 6/26

【Condition】 Fatigue

【Description】

Store manager of the Kingdom of Vernia.

Born in Erland.

Serious and super active.　

I thought he was a flaky shopkeeper, but I guess he's the manager.

「It's good that you're making money, but you're working a little too hard. Then, let's do this.」

I took the High Potion out of the [Item Storage] and gave it to him.

「Ahh, thank you very much, customer. However, in order to support my three daughters, I need to work harder. If possible, I'd like to send them to a magic academy.」

「Don't lie to me. You can't possibly be short of money when you're working in a store with prices like this.」

「No, it's true that this store is a high-class store, but I'm a hired manager. No matter how much money the store makes, I only get paid for the hours I work.」

「Hmm? Franchise chains, huh」

I hadn't realized that there were stores that operated that way in this world, but I guess they have stores outside of the royal capital. Come to think of it, there was a Hero King Cake store, but that was also a franchise.

However, there were no other shopkeepers in sight, and it would be hard to be a one-man operation shopkeeper.

「Fumu, I'll check it out.」

When I returned to the castle, I ordered Saki to investigate the Lucky Shop to see if it was doing anything strange.