Chapter 15, Disturbance ~ 04
That night, He slept like a baby. Before going to bed, he played with Leia's body, but that was all. He didn't get to the real thing. It's not about vigor. I'll do more than you need! I'm fine! She is so exuberant that it is depressing that she appeals to him.
It's just that he couldn't overcome the sleepiness he felt when he fell into bed.
The last two nights, he thought he had no problem sleeping, but it seems that no matter how hard the bed is, it's not as comfortable. Satoru's snoring was so loud that Leia complained about it when he woke up, probably because he was unconsciously tired.
He ate his breakfast and told the old man that he would stay another night. He handed him five silver coins, asking him to pay for both dinner and breakfast for today.
「Oh, man, that's a lot.」
「I'd be happy if you could serve me some food.」
Satoru smiled at the old man. He nodded his head and said, "I understand”.
「All right. Then I and my wife are going to do a great job!」
With those reassuring words, he immediately went shopping in the village.
It seems that there is not much of a concept of preserved food in this world. This is because any food can be preserved for a certain amount of time if the magic of "preservation" is applied. But, of course, living things have their limits. Satoru listened to the old lady who was selling the groceries, who was talking about a fifth of her trivia, and she said that the limit for raw foods such as meat and fish was about 15 days.
Of course, if they are dried, they can last for years, but people tend not to like items that have been "preserved" for too long. It is the same in this world as in his original world. Not many people want to drink milk that has a shelf life of six months five months after they buy it, even if it is still within the shelf life.
Of course, Leia can use the "preservation" art. So, with Leia's advice that they don't need to worry too much about freshness, and considering Minerva's mobility, they don't need to think about preserving it for such a long time, they stocked up on food, mainly spices. At that time, I asked her for some simple recipes and the old lady was more than happy to write down various recipes on the papyrus. However, he think it was a bit too much to ask for two silver coins for the purchase of about 20 copper coins, and to pretend that the change was for the cost of the recipe.
As for staple foods, black bread seems to be the mainstream here. It is hard, dense, chewy, and filling. The young master of the bakery told him that the custom of eating grains as he is does not exist in this area. He said that the quality of wheat is not suitable for eating as it is. If you go to the north or east, you can find such a culture, and the food situation in different regions is the same as on earth.
After that, he found a store that sold weapons and armor and dropped in. He didn't need any weapons or armor, but he wanted to look at some shoes. Because of the mountainous terrain in this area, thick boots with thick soles were favored. The boots were usually stuffed with stuffing and tied with leather straps to adjust the size. Of course, there was no ready-made protective gear that fit, but he managed to find boots that would fit and bought them. The air permeability was not flattering, but there was nothing he could do about that. He can't keep wearing shoes from the other side of the world forever.
He dropped by the magic shop, but as Leia had predicted, they didn't have any measuring beads in stock. Apparently, measuring beads have already spread all over the place and there is not much demand for them. Satoru couldn't understand the purpose of all these miscellaneous items used as catalysts, so he retreated before the insistence of the shadows could get too strong.
Finally, he visited a clothing store. As the innkeeper had expected, the ready-made items were all too small for Satoru, so he followed the voice from the shadows and bought some fabric and thread, and the woman who must have been the owner of the store insisted that if he waited two days, she would make something to his size, but he politely declined. There was no way I could spend two days in this place.
He bought a large backpack made of leather as well as fabric, so that he could throw his own backpack into it. Apparently it was originally used for collecting medicinal herbs.
The total cost came to almost 2L. The cost of boots and fabric was quite high.
Incidentally, Satoru was relieved to find out that the time between the bells, or one time, was exactly four hours. He was relieved to find out that the rotation of the earth was almost the same as that of the earth, which meant that even if the calendar did not match, he could still use his watch.
However, there was no such thing as watch technology in this world. If a connoisseur found out about it, he would be very annoyed, but Satoru stubbornly refused to take it off. His late grandfather gave it to his late father, and now Satoru has a watch with automatic winding. He can't take it off because it stops when he takes it off, but he also wants to be with Alice, at least for the time being.
『Come to think of it, you didn't buy any needles.』
「Yeah, it's in my arsenal. You can use that. If it doesn't work, we can get some in the morning.」
Even though it was a small town, it was Satoru's first visit to a foreign culture, and it took him a long time to find his way around, including browsing and eating at a food stall for lunch.
He was told to give them an hour or so to prepare dinner, so he went up to his room with the luggage he had purchased. The room was clean and tidy, with new sheets. The only thing he had left behind was the large sword, but it seemed that no one had stolen it. Well, even if they stole such a conspicuous and heavy sword, there would be no way to sell it in such a rural town.
Satoru took out a sewing kit from his backpack and threw it at Leia, a cheap item purchased at a 100-yen store.
「I have a sewing set, though it's a little small. Can you use this for needles? I don't know if the scissors can compete with it, though.」
「It's a small pair of scissors, is it」
She struggled to open it and checked the contents. The needle was determined to be fine, but the scissors were more like a toy. It seemed to fit Leia's hand size rather well, but as expected, he didn't say that. She said, "Well, I can do anything with a knife".
「It's just that it was put together to be easy to carry, including the thread.」
It would be wrong to expect too much from a 100-yen product. Leia was more interested in the plastic material on the side than the contents, though. She took the fabric and thread and put them in the shadows.
「Now I can pass the time after my Lord goes to bed.」
When she said that, he realized how much free time Leia had been spending while Satoru slept, and felt sorry for her.
「I'm sorry」
「What? I don't mind.」
Leia replied lightly. She has spent more than 200 years of sleepless nights alone, so she knows how to spend her time. It's just that she has one more thing to look forward to.
After a certain amount of time, he went downstairs. The smell of delicious food was in the air again today. It's not bad for an inn, but with that kind of food, surely they can make a living as a restaurant as well - well, that might be tough in a small town.
Today's menu consisted of sautéed poultry and boiled root vegetables. Black bread and white soup. All of them were served in generous portions. As he ate gratefully, he talked with the old man.
「I'll be out tomorrow morning. Thank you for taking care of me.」
「Oh, yeah. Well, since you've been eating so much, my wife has been very excited. I'm going to miss you when you're gone, but that's business. It can't be helped.」
The old man smiled cheerfully and shrugged his shoulders.
「Besides, I got a call on the fast horse. I'm going to be a little busy tomorrow.」
Hmm? Satoru thought unexpectedly. This town was the finish line of the road, and although there were many blessings from the dragon's back, there didn't seem to be anything in particular that would keep the innkeepers busy.
「Hou? Why are you become busy? If you don't mind, I'd like to know.」
「I heard that three or four days ago, there was a magical tremor on the scale of a disaster in what is thought to be the deepest labyrinth on the dragon's back. So they sent a team from the center to investigate.」
Satoru looked upset for a moment at the familiar place and the unfamiliar words.
Instantly, his brain kicked in, and he pretended.
「Those guys in the center, now?」
「Oya, you've been looking into those guys too?」
The innkeeper was very interested in Satoru's pretense. Satoru cowered deliberately and exaggeratedly.
「That's about it. I told you that I happened to be in the vicinity.」
「They say freshness is the key to information. So, did you get anything?」
「If I had, I wouldn't be pulling out tomorrow.」
The owner of the inn nodded his head several times without showing any sign of doubt.
「No, you're wrong. The Deepest Labyrinth is a labyrinth that's hard to get to, and none of the people who went there to challenge it ever came back, so you couldn't even get close to the base by yourself.」
「I guess.」
He gave him an appropriate response. He can't tell him that he actually came from the far end of that place, even if he wanted to.
「It's not every day you get to feel a magic tremor in the middle of nowhere.」
The innkeeper was in a good mood, blabbering on about things they hadn't heard. It was convenient for Satoru.
「Ah, of course, I won't tell anyone that you came to investigate first.」
Satoru smiled bitterly back at the old man, who said, "Even if we end up striking out, we want the people in the center to stay as long as possible". He guess you must have to have that kind of guts to keep doing business in the middle of nowhere.
He said good night to the old man and went back to his room. As soon as he returned, Leia crawled out of the shadows. Her expression was one of surprise and dismay.
「My Lord are quite the actor, aren't you?」
Satoru shrugged his shoulders.
「It was just an idea, though. If I had said that, I would have had a good excuse for being alone in a small town.」
After the idea had come to him, he had just said it out loud, but he was relieved that it had been enough of an act to convince the inn's old man. He could see that the innkeeper's old man was also making hasty judgments, but in fact this helped Satoru.
「As a result, I heard some interesting stories, though. By the way, ......, what's a magic tremor?」
He immediately asked Leia a question that had arisen during a conversation with the old man. Leia groaned "hmmm" as she tossed the load into her shadow.
「It's a unique shimmer that occurs when a large amount of magic is used, which only advanced magicians who have mastered intermediate spiritual systems can detect.」
「So there are a certain number of people who have figured out that something is wrong.....」
Satoru groaned involuntarily. Surely he could have fooled the old man at the inn, but it was a big miscalculation for Satoru to think that someone might know that he had come to this world, even if he couldn't identify the individual.
Perhaps there are people who know that the master of the deepest labyrinth is the [Immortal King] Leia. The fact that she has done something that is known to some extent is heavy.
「It will not take long for people to find out that a person of the same appearance was wandering around this town shortly after the magic tremor.......」
In any case, you can't keep a rumor to yourself.
At Satoru's muttering, Leia seemed to recognize the situation and grunted. Actually, she had completely forgotten about the magic tremor. - the face of an idiot child.
He sighed somewhat exaggeratedly at Leia, who was giving him an embarrassed look.
「I don't want to stand out, and I'm not supposed to stand out, you know? Do you understand that?
「Uh...... I'm sorry......」
It was really careless. Of course, Leia has the ability to sense magical tremors. However, the last time she sensed it was 30 years ago, so she had completely forgotten about the existence of the magic tremor itself.
「I told you not to lie or hide anything, didn't I?」
「I-Indeed.. .....」
「It's out of the question that you didn't tell me something that might cause problems later.」
It's not that she didn't tell him.
「Therefore, tonight, I'm going to punish you.」
Leia responded to Satoru's high-pitched declaration with a small tilt of her head.
「Punishment?」
Instantly, Satoru's face became that of a villain.
「I'll get your asshole used to it.」
Leia backed away from the unexpected sentence, covering her ass.
「Y-You're lying, right? It's an excretory organ, you know」
Satoru's eyes did not twitch in response to Leia's defense.
「Have I ever lied to you?」
「No ......,N-nope」
She thought about it for a moment, but she knew that Satoru had never lied to Leia. There are a lot of things he hides, such as technology from his original world, but when it comes to personal matters, he has cheated, but never lied at all.
「I told you that you might want to get used to it.」
Satoru sits down on the bed with his gaze fixed on Leia, not leaning in close, but rather standing back with an expression that says, "I'm a bad guy!".
Leia is just dismayed.
「Y-You told me, ....... I thought you said it might be.」
「I told you it was a punishment. You don't take a shit, right? Then there should be no problem in using it for that.」
Leia knows what that means. She understand that――but it was so far out of her imagination. She knew that there were forms of love and companionship in the world, but she never thought that she would have to experience it herself.
Satoru's cold gaze made Leia step back. With a thud, her back touched the wall. She can't go back any further――Leia had nowhere to run.
「Uh.......uuhhhh」
With tears in her eyes, she glanced up at her Lord who had made the cruel declaration - but there was no way it would have any effect. Satoru asks without any emotion.
Are you going to be punished, or not?
A ruthless voice - this man is serious to no end.
I want to escape - but.
「......I don't have the right to veto, right?」
「Well, I wonder」
「Uhhh......」
Leia was at a loss for a response to the nasty reply. Satoru has a mixture of stern and gentle sides. If Leia really didn't want to do it, he probably wouldn't do it. Perhaps Satoru had made such a declaration out of half-remembered curiosity, but even so, Leia understood that her loyalty was being tested.
After much hesitation, hesitating and hesitating again and again to say it out loud, she reflected on her decision now.
「...... I'm scared. I'm scared to the point where I've never been so scared in my life, but...... Ah, do as you please, my Lord.」
At Leia's declaration of defeat, her face redder than ever, Satoru took a small breath and gave a small laugh. It had been a bit of a tactic, but let's not tease her too much.
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