Chapter 196: Search for A Role Model
Ash and Butler arrived home around midnight last night. The gates were already closed, but Canum is lenient on adventurers and merchants.
There isn’t any curfew as long as you have your pass with you. Although outsiders can only pass through the main gate, there are also rules. Adventurers ranked silver and above can enter anytime. In case they’re accompanied by people with lower ranks, only half of their group will be permitted to enter. The merchants are charged extra depending on their status and the worth of the goods they’re bringing in.
Green Circle wriggly movements are different than usual, but he bobbed up and down when I asked him if they arrived.
It was too late to visit them last night so I prepared stuff for baking bread instead. I woke up early the following morning, started the fire in the kiln, took a stroll with Riche, adjusted the temperature of the fire and baked the bread.
I harvested some basil and spinach from the fields, cherries from the orchard and eggs from the chicken coop. Prepared some ham, fresh cheese and stew in pot pies. The strawberries are not in season, but I still baked some cream puffs with strawberries in it.
Alright, preps complete!
And now, here I am, knocking on Dinosso’s door so early in the morning. Oh well, I’ve been delivering bread to them around this hour.
「Ou, morning. 」
「Good morning, Jean. 」
「Morning, here, for breakfast. Hey, Dinosso. 」
I handed the basket filled with vegetables and eggs to Shiva, then pulled Dinosso out of the door as soon as he poked his head out.
「What’s up? 」
「Ash and Butler came back last night. 」
「Oh, they made it back safely, that’s great. 」
「Yup. So, what should I do when I see her again? 」
The peddler’s cry faintly resounded from afar as I asked Dinosso in a deserted alley’s end.
「Just do it like normal, normal. 」
「How do you do normal? 」
「Just welcome them with a smile. What’s wrong? 」
「Well, weren’t we like, you know, more than friends but less than lovers when we sent them off? 」
I don’t know what sort of face I should make. I can’t calm down.
「…Are you a dork? 」
「Don’t underestimate the shallowness of my relationships. 」
I never experienced waiting for someone and meeting them again, my friends included.
Up until yesterday, I’ve been thinking we’re gonna meet like how we usually do. Turns out I wasn’t just thinking about it in a tangible sense at all. And here I am now, feeling like everything is spiraling out of control.
「I just thought I’d ask you since you have a wife. 」
I also just realized that I’m surrounded by single people.
There’s a high percentage of bachelors in Canum, partly because many here are either merchants or adventurers who want to get rich quickly. Still, looking at the guys hanging out with me, forget ‘married’, can’t even see any shadow of a girlfriend around them, you know?
「I’m not really sure how it’ll help even if you ask me that again… Well, I fell in love at first sight when Shiva came to kill me, and I pursued her relentlessly after that — I guess that doesn’t apply to you. As for the other girls before her, I tried to keep them happy, but it’s nothing serious— that doesn’t apply with you either, huh. 」
Dinosso glanced at me as if saying ‘you can’t be pushy, huh?’.
Hey, wait a sec, stop cramming info that’ll make me wanna take a jab at you when I’m cornered like this. Why the heck would Madam try to kill you huh!? Plus didn’t you say before that Shiva was a former noble young lady!?
Shiva liked being called Madam, apparently. She happily told me to call her that too. What sort of past did these two have?
「Just grin at her and say ‘welcome back’, alright. C’mon, you’re going to deliver that right? I’ll go with you. 」
Dinosso literally pushed my back before I could blurt my retorts out and with that, we made our way towards Ash’s house.
Ack, is there anyone who can show me an example or something?
「Jean. 」
My role model appeared when we stepped out of my house after passing through it.
Ash opened her arms wide the moment our eyes met. She’s still expressionless as ever, but I can sense that she’s a bit happy.
「Vice versa, I’m in your care. 」
I set the basket down and welcomed her with open arms too.
「Mm? 」
Ash is still spreading her arms wide.
「Hey, you guys look like animals threatening each other so move, just move already. 」
Dinosso sounds as if he’s so done with us.
「Stop moving like a sloth while still holding that pose, will you! Hey, hey, don’t revolve around each other!! 」
Ugh, I’m being serious here but Dinosso’s too demanding.
….
Oh well, our reunion was anything but emotional. I greeted Butler through the back door then invited Ash to my house for breakfast. Butler didn’t join us, saying their guest is still sleeping and Dinosso also went home next door.
I only took the cream puffs before giving the basket to Butler, so I prepared breakfast again.
I cut out the middle of the thinly sliced bread, then stuffed it with melted cheese, bacon and spinach before dropping an egg in it. Grinded some black pepper, filled it again with cheese before covering it again with the cut out bread. Added some mayonnaise according to taste,then grilled it over charcoal, low heat.
「How do you like your eggs? Hard? 」
「Mm. 」
I also put mine on the stove then prepared a salad with tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and arugula while waiting for it to be done.
「Was the journey hard? 」
I tossed the sausages into the frying pan and toasted them nicely.
「Mm. My house in Canum is so comfortable that it was a bit hard finding an inn along the way. 」
「Yeah, it’s still okay in big cities, but in villages, nah. 」
「I preferred Jean’s sleeping bag when the weather was good. 」
Even if the ‘inns’ in villages have bunks they’re just straw bundles, but more than that, the rooms are so infested with fleas and lice that it’s horrifying.
The bread is also done by the time I finish preparing the milk and some yogurt with berry jam, and berries too.
「And here you go. 」
「Ahh, I’ve been really, really looking forward to this, really. 」
Ash seems happy.
I’m glad, too.
Notes
T/N: What a funny reunion, Ash and Jean. I imagined them looking like birds of paradise revolving at each other. But yeah, even Jean says they’re not yet lovers but more than friends! Hoping they’ll get some progress like Jean’s houses. XD
ED/N: LOL at the image of them you painted! Birds of paradise revolving around each other! Yeah, he’s made more progress outing himself as an other-worlder and admitting he’s related to the group of heroes!
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