Chapter 27: Nature’s Bounty Inn
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Translator: SFBaka
I, Cleria, Elna and Willie went to the inn first in order to get a place to leave our luggage safely.
“What should we do if the inn’s full?”
I should have asked for one other place earlier just to be sure.
“Master recommended the high-class inn, ‘Nature’s Bounty’, right? There should still be some rooms available then,” Willie assured us.
“Is that so? But it’s a high-class inn, right?”
“It is. However, unless several nobles and their retinue came for a visit here, that inn would likely still have some open rooms. In fact, the inn should be mostly devoid of customers at this point in time.”
“I see. Well, them lacking customers sounds better for us anyway compared to them being fully booked.”
The Nature’s Bounty Inn was located quite near to the downtown area. We entered straight away once we reached the place.
“Welcome!”
A young girl who seems to have just hit puberty greeted our group with gusto the moment we stepped inside the building. Judging from her appearance, I guessed her age to be about fourteen or so. And she was quite cute too.
“We want to stay at this inn. Are there still rooms available? It’s for three people. One room each, if possible.”
“Alan, it’s fine for me and Elna to stay in the same room.”
“I would also feel more at ease if I am by Ria-sama’s side,” Elna agreed.
“Is that so? Okay, I got it. One single room and one double room, please. Are there any available?”
“Yes, of course, there are. A single room is 500 Guineas per day and a double room is 750 Guineas.”
“We’re planning on staying long-term, so is it possible to have a discount?”
“Yes, of course. There’s a 20% discount if you pay for two weeks in advance. 30% if you pay for a full month. But there are no refunds okay.”
Well, it’s not like we have any concrete plans yet. Let’s just pay for two weeks then.
“We’ll stay for two weeks.”
I need to pay 14,000 Guineas. A high-class inn really is quite expensive huh. We’ll need to find a stable source of income soon, or our funds will dry up quickly.
The young inn employee looked like she was thinking hard. I bet she’s calculating the total cost. Guess she isn’t that good with numbers.
At that moment, a woman who seemed to be the proprietress of the inn appeared from within the building. She and the young girl looked somewhat alike.
“Just what is this girl doing; making our customers wait like this. I’m very sorry, dear guests. That will be 14,000 Guineas please.”
“Oh, it’s fine. Here you go.”
I promptly paid for our rent. It looks like this young girl is the daughter of the proprietress.
“We will be providing you meals for breakfast and dinner. Breakfast will be from six to ten in the morning while lunch is from six to ten in the evening. You can use our bath whenever you please.”
Wow! Being able to freely use the baths anytime you want sure sounds nice. We didn’t have any other inquiries, so we asked them to show us the rooms.
“I’m sorry for the wait, dear customers. I’ll guide you to your rooms now.”
We left Willie in the lobby as the young girl guided us to the rooms we booked. The two rooms we were guided to were right next to each other. The rooms were relatively spacious and clean. As expected of a high-class inn. I left my luggage inside my room and locked it. It seems it was alright to bring the keys with us whenever we went out for business.
Cleria and Elna came back down to the lobby right after me, and the three of us boarded the carriage again and left the inn.
“Shall we have lunch first? Willie, do you know of any restaurants that serve delicious food around here? We’ll treat you to lunch as well.”
“Eh, is it fine for me to accompany you? Um, then, ‘Tally’s Restaurant’ is nice, I think. It’s right over there. The food there isn’t that expensive but tastes great. The servings are quite large as well.”
The servings being large would be perfect for Cleria. It seems the girls didn’t have a problem with going as well, so we decided to dine in Tally’s Restaurant. This will be my first time to experience dining out in this world, so I’m quite excited.
We entered the establishment and were immediately guided to open seats by one of the restaurants’ employees.
“We have both meat and fish set meals available. If you want to order dishes individually, there’s a menu posted on that wall to the side.” the restaurant employee introduced.
There were a number of wooden tags hung up on one of the walls with the names and prices of the dishes written on them.
“So there’s fish available! Then I’ll have the fish set meal please.”
“I’ll have the meat set. Please give me a large serving.”
“…I shall also have a meat set meal. Please give me a large serving as well.”
“I’ll have the fish set meal too.”
The dishes we ordered were served after a few minutes of waiting.
The fish set was comprised of several large fillets of grilled fish meat. They kind of resemble Earth-bred salmon. And what surprised me the most was that the meals were served with rice.
“Whoah! This is-!”
“Do you like **, Alan-san?” Willie asked.
I wasn’t familiar with the word he used to call them, but this stuff is definitely rice.
“I like this stuff more than bread, honestly. I haven’t managed to see it being served since I came to this country, so I thought it wasn’t available here.”
“Rice has only started to become popular these past few years after all. The hometown of the owner of this restaurant had rice as their staple food, so he used it instead of bread when he opened his store here.”
So the meal was comprised of grilled fish fillets with ample servings of piping hot rice. There’s also some salad as a side dish. They looked quite delicious.
Cleria and Willy’s meat set meals also looked delicious, with plenty of food on their plates. The meat set was comprised of meat and vegetable stir fry served with rice. They looked tasty as well, but the amount looked a bit too much for me to handle.
“…Ria-sama, are you alright with ordering that much food?”
It seems it was Elna’s first time to see Cleria’s monstrous appetite.
“It’s fine. I can finish this amount of food by myself.”
Cleria looked quite smug for some reason. Well, this amount of food did look to be easy pickings for her though.
It’s been quite some time since I’ve had fish. The meat was fatty, with plenty of umami. In other words, absolutely delicious. Cleria and the others also seemed quite satisfied with the food. Oh, and the prices for both regular and large servings were similar, at two large copper coins. The food was great, so I guess we’ll be coming again as this store’s regulars.
We headed towards Tarus-san’s general store after the meal. It was a short five-minute walk away from the restaurant.
“You’re Alan-san, right? Welcome to the store. I have heard about you all from the owner.”
It looks like the store clerk was already briefed about our visit, so he led us to the seasoning section right away.
Just like Tarus-san said, the shelves were lined up with a large selection of various seasonings and spices. I started taste-testing every single one while listening to the shop clerk’s explanations on the side. I kept on swiping the stuff I took a liking to from the shelves and stuffed them inside the shopping basket.
“Oooh! This is-!?”
I managed to find something similar to Earth’s soy sauce! The saltiness level was a little on the thin side, but it wasn’t a big deal at all.
“Are you familiar with this product? This is a rare condiment imported from a country in the far east.
“There’s something similar being produced in my country as well. Is it possible for me to purchase a whole cask of this stuff?”
“Of course. But it will cost you one large silver coin though. Are you fine with that?”
“That’s fine. It’s worth the price.”
One large silver for a small cask of soy sauce did seem a bit on the pricey side, but this will allow me to cook a greater variety of dishes. I tried to ask if there was miso available as well since there was soy sauce, but it seems they didn’t have it.
In the end, I spent a total of 2,510 Guineas, but it was certainly money well spent.
They offered to deliver all the groceries I bought to the inn and I agreed.
“Well then, that’s all for my business. Do you want to buy something as well, Ria?”
“I do not have anything in particular in mind. How about you, Elna?”
“I don’t have one either.”
“So, shall we take a stroll for a bit then? Let’s check out other shops. Maybe we’ll find some things to your liking, like street food.”
“Oh, that sounds good! I’ve always wanted to try eating street food!”
It kinda felt bad to have Willy accompany us in loitering around, so we had him go back to the general store instead.
Afterward, we wandered about downtown, visiting several shops as we went along. Whenever we encountered some food stalls that served some delicious-looking food, we went over to them to try their dishes. There were things like grilled chicken(?) skewers and sandwiches. The taste was alright, but there was nothing that particularly stood out. The prices of the stuff sold at food stalls ranged from five to ten coppers.
It was a bit of a let-down for me and Cleria, but that’s just how it is. We circled the whole downtown district once and went back to the inn afterward.
“Looks like the street foods were a bust huh, Ria?”
“Indeed…… I do hope the inn’s dishes prove more worthy of expectation.”
We went back to our respective rooms to rest up a bit until dinnertime. When the three of us went down to the dining area, we found only one other group of customers present along with people who seemed to be the inn’s employees. It looks like this inn didn’t usually have a lot of customers booking it, just like Willy said.
“Tonight’s dinner is a choice between fish and meat dishes. You can also freely order seconds if you wish.”
A female inn employee explained away and informed us that we could order as many helpings as we wanted. Cleria certainly brightened up after hearing that. I ate some fish for today’s lunch, so I’ll have meat now instead.
“I’ll have meat please.”
“Please serve me fish then. Do make it a large serving.”
“I’ll be having meat as well.”
It looks like Cleria’s really taken a shine to ordering large servings of dishes. We can get seconds anyway, so she really didn’t have to order it that way, but I guess I’ll just let her do as she likes.
Well, it’s been so long since I drank some, so let’s order some liquor as well.
“What types of liquor do you offer here?”
“We have ale, as well as red and white wines available. And you’ll be paying for the drinks separately since the booking fees do not cover alcohol.”
I’ve only drunk wine ever since landing on this planet, so I’ll give the stuff they call ale a try then.
“I’ll have ale then. Do you want some, ladies?”
“I’ll have some white wine.”
“Please serve me white wine as well.”
The dishes and alcohol were served right away. The female inn staff was standing by to the side, near our table.
This ale seems to resemble Earth’s beer somewhat. The dishes were a far cry from the street foods we ate earlier and were quite delicious. As expected of a high-class inn.
It seems we had to pay for the alcohol straight away though. The ale and white wines went for ten guineas per serving.
“Mm! This ale’s actually chilled. It’s good!”
The flavor of ale lost to Earth’s beer by a bit, but being chilled more than made up for the difference in taste.
“We have recently acquired a magic refrigerator, so we’re putting it to good use.” the female inn employee declared.
“I see. Isn’t that magic tool expensive?”
“Yes, quite. This is just between you and me, but I heard it costs more than thirty gold coins.”
Thirty thousand Guineas huh? It wasn’t that outrageously expensive, but regular folks won’t be able to afford it.
“It certainly is expensive. But it really brings the best out of the alcohol, so I’m sure you’ll be getting your money’s worth in no time.”
“I sure hope so, sir…”
The meat dish was a large slice of steak. It had plenty of that herb resembling garlic smothered on top of it and was quite tasty. This was probably Big Boar meat. There were also some toasted bread slices offered on the side.
“Mm, delish! The meat is grilled to perfection, and the flavoring is superb as well.”
“Alan, this fish dish is also quite good.”
The fish Cleria was having resembled trout. There were three fishes on her plate and were salt-grilled. The fishes were quite large in size as well. So a large serving consists of three pieces of fish huh. There were some citrus fruit slices on the side to provide it with a refreshing aftertaste.
“It does look good. I’ll try some later.”
“I’ve been thinking about your wish to study magic, Alan. How about you try joining the Magic Guild?” Cleria suddenly suggested.
“So there’s such a thing as a Magic Guild? That sounds interesting. What does that guild do, exactly?”
“I’m not too familiar with the subject as well. I haven’t had the chance to have much contact with them before after all… And we need to find out if there’s a guild branch in this city before anything else. It’s a large enough city, so I think it does have a branch though. Do you have any idea about the workings of the Magic Guild, Elna?”
“I am not familiar with them either.”
Judging from the girl’s reactions, the guild sounds like a real minor organization. Maybe some of the folks in the city are more familiar with it. I raised my hand and called for the female inn employee.
“Do you know if there’s a branch of the Magic Guild in this city?”
“Yes, there’s a branch located here. It seems more like a small sub-branch though. You’ll need to head right after leaving the inn. It’s just a fifteen-minute walk away. Their office is on the right-hand side of the street.”
“I see. Thank you. Can I have one helping of the fish set as well as a refill of the ale?”
“Yes, right away, sir.”
“I’ll have a serving of the meat dish then. A large one, of course.”
It looks like Cleria already finished off her fish dish.
“Um… A large serving of the meat dish, right? Understood.”
“Okay then. We’ll try to visit the Magic Guild if I manage to finish Tarus-san’s request early tomorrow.”
“Yes, let us do so.”
We stuffed ourselves full of the dishes offered and finished our meal greatly satisfied.
Now, let’s try out the bath. I entered straight away after arriving.
The men and women’s baths are separate by the way. It wasn’t to the extent of the bath in Tarus-san’s manor, but it was relatively spacious as well.
Oh, and there’s some soap as well. It looked quite well maintained, and the water’s perfect, which made my day.
I thoroughly enjoyed the bath. I ended up staying for quite some time.
It’s still early in the evening, but I’ll get some shut-eye now to prepare for tomorrow.
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