3 bar menu

Volume 2 Chapter 12-2: Commercial City Erin

Upon entering the city a veritable flood of people seethed and rushed about. Lucy and Kuu couldn’t help but be astonished.

「First we should go get ourselves a room at the inn. We’ll be spending the night here after all.」

As I said that I heard a cute little growling sound.

I turned to look and saw that Kuu was blushing fiercely while holding her stomach.

「Once we get a room, we’ll grab something to eat.」
「Umm…well…sorry.」

Kuu apologized with a bright red face. Right now her hat was hiding them, but I bet her ears were pressed flat against her head despondently.

「Me too, I’m feeling hungry, so I’d be glad if we grabbed some food.」
「Kuu, it’s fine. Actually I’m quite hungry as well so let’s find and inn quickly.」

So I went off to find the most secure inn possible and payed the 2 gold fee. The cost for a one night stay was quite expensive, but it came with dinner and breakfast. Most importantly they were willing to lend us their warehouse to store the goods we planned to buy.
*********
After deciding on the inn we went to visit the street where merchants gathered.

「I don’t want to spend too much time on this so let’s buy something from the stalls.」

On the streets of Erin were plenty of merchants peddling their wares from stalls and stands. Many of these were food stalls.

Everywhere you looked you could spot different ingredients and dishes being cooked. The variety was quite enjoyable.

「There’s so much food I’ve never seen before…I can’t even decide on what I want.」
「Me too…It’s a bit intimidating.」

The two of them were used to conservative cooking. If these dishes had been made by someone they trusted then they wouldn’t have a problem stepping outside their comfort zone, but in this kind of situation it was no wonder they would hesitate.

「Then how about you leave the choosing to me?」
「Un, I’ll leave it to you.」

Lucy agreed and Kuu nodded so I looked around a bit.

I took out my wallet and purchased some barley milk porridge along with three skewers of goat meat.

The milk porridge cost 1 silver for three portions and the skewers cost 8 copper each. The prices were quite fair.

Barley was different than wheat in that it could be eaten and used without removing the husk. The size and usage of it were also similar to that of rice. The porridge they were selling was barley steeped in boiling goat milk and seasoned with salt.

The skewers were simply goat meat on a stick, roasted above a fire, and sprinkled with salt.

「You brought other coins besides gold Cyril?」

Lucy said with some surprise as I put my wallet back.

「Well of course. I have had the opportunity to come here back then. The stalls here would hate to have to give out change for a gold coin. So you have to pay with smaller denominations.」

After all a single gold coin would be equivalent to 50 silver. If I were to give them that much then there was a good chance that they would be unable to give me the appropriate amount in change.

By the way, these silver and copper coins were from the soldiers we had killed during the big battle.

After all looting bodies was standard practice. Handling several hundred corpses would yield plenty of extra spending money.

In the first place the Empire and the Choline Kingdom were separated by another country in between, so it was easy to use this kind of common currency.

The money I had received from the ransom was set to be used for the benefit of the Erucy and nothing else…but the money I had gathered from dealing with the bodies by myself could be considered my personal savings so I decided to use it as I pleased.

「Here, eat it while it’s hot.」

I said and handed them a wooden bowl and the skewers.

「Somehow, it smells kind of bad…but tastes delicious.」
「It is delicious but this unique smell is…interesting. It’s not like I can’t stand it, but it’s a bit unpleasant.」

Kuu and Lucy smelled the unique scent of goat milk and crinkled their noses but still continued to eat the barley porridge.

「Sorry but you’ll have to get used to that smell. We’ll be eating pretty much this kind of stuff for a while.」
「What do you mean?」
「Barley is cheap and lasts a long time so I intend to purchase a lot… and this milk is from goats. I intend to buy goats as well so we can drink their milk.」

This was the main reason why I chose to give them this porridge and the skewers. They surely wanted to know what we were planning on purchasing here as well.

「I see…so everyone in Erucy will be eating this. It sounds good. The smell…we can get used to it eventually, but the taste is quite good.」
「That’s right, the meat is a bit tough and fibrous plus it smells a bit, but the taste is enjoyable.」

Kuu and Lucy had quite the distinguished palate so they gave the goat meat a fairly harsh assessment.

In truth goat meat and milk wasn’t very delicious. Sheep were superior in both ways.

However, I still chose goats because of their incredible resiliency.

They were creatures that would still walk around in below freezing temperatures and still be able to sleep easily. Plus even if you just let them wander in the forest without feeding them they would dig up roots and eat bark so they wouldn’t starve. Place a sheep or a cow in the same situation and they’d die within a day or two.

The goats who wouldn’t die even if left alone were the ultimate partner for us poor people. Leaving aside the flavor, the amount of milk as well as it’s nutrients was far more than sheep milk.

Furthermore, even though it would take some work the goat fur could be turned into thread and made into clothing.

「With that settled and our lunch finished we should go clothes shopping. I asked around and found out the biggest purveyor of clothing in the area. We’ll be heading there.」

With not much time to spare we hurried along to our next location.