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Chapter 397: Returning Home

We【Teleport】back to Canum after the river cruise ended.

「Listen, okay? Night after tomorrow, got it? 」
「That’s right, it’s unbearable that you’re the only one looking nonchalant like that. 」
Dinosso and Hauron cornered Butler.

「Even if you said so, I am still, first and foremost, the butler of Ash-sama. I beg your pardon for abstaining from joining in your excursion, although I believe that my presence would have availed little even if I had accompanied you. 」
Butler replied with a nice smile.

「 Whether you really listen or not, I don’t care, just listen!! Listen to what Jean did the entire day, from start to finish! Let me air it all out, will you! 」
「 Listen to my complaints too! 」
Dinosso and Hauron are so mean.

「…That’s… 」
Butler’s grinning poker face was still on, but he seemed to be at a loss for words. I caught his eyes swiveling around.

「…. 」
Butler exhaled just a tiny bit of air that it’s not even considered a sigh.

What did I do?

「Then, night after tomorrow, at Jean’s house. 」
「Yes, see you at Jean’s house. 」
Both Dinosso and Hauron were also ecstatic at this point.

「Are you checking if I’m really gonna get myself involved!? 」
「It’s gonna be all about you!! 」
「I won’t scold or anything, really, no scolding at all, just, let me freak out and grumble away, okay!! 」
Hauron, so you’re not gonna chat, but shriek instead?

And so, after securing Butler’s word, everyone dispersed. Dinosso’s family passed through my house, which was situated right at the end of the alley, and went home.

I also locked the doors and 【Teleport】— ah, let’s water the plants in front of the house first before going. I returned to my『House』every morning, but I hadn’t set foot at this place at all.

I drew water from the well and stored plenty of it in the 【Storage】, then picked up the pail and started watering.

「Eh? Are you going somewhere? 」
Retze came out of the kitchen door of the rental house while I was watering the plants.

「Ou, I’m only free at night. I thought it’d be best to give the souvenirs now. 」
Retze is diligent, as always.

「Then bye, take care. 」
「You too, ah, no, you’re already in front of your house, huh. Don’t forget to lock the doors. 」

「Ye~s. good night. 」
「Yeah, good night. 」

He’s definitely distributing the souvenirs from Es, right? And those goodies are absolutely impossible to find in the fortress city’s marketplace, right? Oh well, it’s Retze that we’re talking about, so I guess there’s no need for me to worry about it.

◇　◆　◇

It feels like it’s been ages since I woke up on my own bed.

「Good morning, Riche. 」
I stretched my arms upward, then reached out to the basket beside my bed to scratch Riche. His chilly chilly plate was underneath the cushion inside his basket.

Ricke turned over with a grinning face and showed me his belly. Ish it here, huh, ish it here ~ ー I rubbed him all over, then I also got up.

We went on our daily stroll, me checking out the mountain while Riche trotted ahead. I pushed the ing aside, picked some broken branches, hunted for galls and plucked edible grass.

I woke up a bit earlier than usual today so I had breakfast first before going to the fields. The menu is miso soup, pickled veggies, rolled omelette, smelt, lotus dressed with shredded plums, stewed eggplants and rice.

I dropped a freshly born egg onto the steaming rice, added a dash of soy sauce, mixed it well then sprinkled lots of sesame seeds, before sticking some nori.

Ahh, this is it, traveling to different places is nice and all, but home is still the best. Riche was also gobbling his meat underneath my chair while I munch my meal with great gusto.

We headed to the fields after breakfast. I purposely didn’t harvest some of the vegetables so that I can get the seeds, and now flowers are blooming on them. The cabbage flowers turned yellow, while radish flowers turned white ever since I started coming here, but I knew that they look similar.

Our next stop after the fields is the orchard. I pruned unnecessary branches and twisted some of the others towards the direction I wanted them to grow, and checked on the smaller fruit trees that I propagated from cuttings. They seem fine; alright, I’ll bring them to the island once they’ve grown a little bit more.

Since there are no pests and the spirits also helped out, working on the fields and the orchard has been a breeze, even if in the beginning all they did was naughty pranks like shredding all the flowers to bits.

The spirits’ presence meant the soil will remain damp in the long run, but that would be meaningless if the crops went bad before harvest time. – It’s fortunate that I can converse with them, but there are many cases when other folks had to file a request to the temple to have them driven away.

The guys invited me to a card game in Canum tomorrow right. Dinosso and Hauron were grinning ear to ear when they secured Butler’s attendance.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t mess up, but my gut is telling me that tomorrow night is gonna drag on with all the sermons incoming… Yes, I did end up making the River Es meander, but it’s still far from populated areas. As for the damage, it’s so minorー just scaring a few folks when River Es’s waters receded is all.

It receded at a snail pace and also returned leisurely as well, apparently, so there had been no accidents. Yeah, if we talk about being powerful, then it would give folks a fright, alright.

I sat on a couch facing the terrace, read books and mulled over such thoughts while enjoying my coffee. I’ll knead some dough later ー it’s gonna be a leisurely day at home!