One Night For Now

By the time we returned to the Adventurer Guild, the sun had already completely set.

"… Yes, congratulations on completing the quest. Here is your reward of eight copper coins."

The receptionist went beyond being curt, she was outright glaring at me. The copper coins were indeed eight in total.

Hmph, glare at me all you want, but I'm not going to start treating Niku worse because of it.

"Additionally, there is a special reward of one copper coin for the young lady. The client left instructions to hand it directly to her. Here you go."

"Heh, good for you, Niku."

"Y-yes."

Niku reached over the counter to accept the proffered copper coin.

Since Niku is small, the receptionist had to lean quite a bit forward to hand it to her.

"… Goshujin-sama, please take this."

And the moment she received it, she held it out to me.

… No, wouldn't it be better if you kept that?

"… Use it however you like, Niku."

"P-please, take it."

She stubbornly kept holding it out… Standing around in front of the counter like this would just be a nuisance. Can't be helped, I'll accept it for now. I can just give it back to Niku as pocket money later.

"Got it. Thanks."

"Nn… ♪"

I took the copper coin and patted her head. Niku looked genuinely happy. Her dog tail was wagging back and forth.

Y-yeah, Receptionist-san, stop glaring. I'll move in a sec… Ah, right.

"I'm looking for an inn around here. Know any good places?"

"If you go to the slums outside the south gate, you can secure a bed for four copper coins. I can't guarantee your safety, though… Ah, if you'd like, I could look after the young lady for you? Free of charge, even."

"No, I'll pass on that…"

W-what is this receptionist scheming? And didn't she just tell me to stay away from that area?

And what does she plan to do with Niku?! Is she planning to do something terrible to her while looking after her for a night?!

Kuh, I don't know what's going on, but I should definitely stay on guard around this receptionist.

"… One night, forty copper or less, somewhere I can sleep soundly. Bonus points if the food's good."

"In that case, the Sleeping Songbird Pavilion would be your best bet around here. It's thirty-five copper for one night with one meal included."

Those sound like pretty good terms. A receptionist who does her job properly is a credit to her profession.

After she showed me the location on a map, I decided to head there right away.

Normally, an adventurer earning only eight copper a day couldn't afford to stay there, but such things are trivial when your main job is Dungeon Master. Well, my funds are still pretty tight though.

… Ah, I should try to earn a bit more starting tomorrow. Today was just coming to town, registering at the guild, and doing a little job on the side… Ah, but even though it ended so easily, I still ended up working.

I wonder if there's a way to get money and safety without working…

Even if I made the dungeon my base of operations, it's about half a day away at a full sprint, so day trips aren't really feasible. Walking would probably take a whole day.

One night's stay is unavoidable no matter what… And here we are at the Sleeping Songbird Pavilion.

A nice wooden inn. Thanks for the recommendation, Receptionist-san. Whatever you're plotting aside.

When I opened the door, I found the landlady sitting at the front desk.

"Excuse me, I was referred here by the Adventurer Guild. Do you have any rooms available?"

"Hm? Yeah, we do. Referred by the guild, huh. So you're an adventurer then? It's thirty-five copper for one night with a meal, but… Hmm? That kid's a slave, right? What about the slave? I can rent out the shed for five copper."

"Ah, I'd like her to sleep in the same room as me… Is there an extra charge?"

"… For something like that, there's no extra charge. What about the slave's meal? That's two copper."

"I'll take that too. One night, please."

I started to hand over one silver coin and seven copper since I was running low on copper coins, but then I realized all the change would be in copper anyway, so I just handed over the silver coin.

The change was sixty-three copper coins… This seems like it'd be a pain to count, I thought, but she used a tool that looked like a coin case to count them out in groups of ten, so it wasn't that troublesome. What a handy tool. Though what caught my attention was that she first pulled out a hundred copper coins and then removed thirty-seven from it.

"One night then. Ah, do you want the meal brought to your room?"

"If that's possible."

"Alright, we'll do that then… Oh, and I'd appreciate it if you could use [Purification] on the sheets before you leave. Here's your key. Room number seven, at the far end of the first floor."

I took the key and headed to the room.

Using the key to open the door marked with a '7' in this world's numerals, I found a room that screamed 'inn room' through and through.

The window… Ah, it wasn't glass but wooden boards fitted into the frame. Like double-hinged shutters. Come to think of it, does glass exist in this world? If not, the value of water golems might skyrocket.

There was a light magic tool installed for illumination. Apparently putting a magic stone in activates the switch and turns it on, and that's supposed to be this inn's main selling point. You can either bring your own magic stones or buy the ones sold here.

Also, even without a magic stone, you can light it up if you can channel your own magical power… Though you'd have to keep feeding it continuously.

By the way, I heard this for the first time, but magic stones apparently wear down with use and eventually disappear entirely. They say periodically channeling magical power into them makes them last longer.

And now for the crucial bed… it felt like thin sheets draped over a wooden box. Pretty hard. Actually, this is basically just a plank.

With a few layers of cloth for bedding at best, it's only marginally better than a park bench, I'd say.

The [Futon] for 5 DP was starting to seem like pretty fancy bedding. It probably actually is.

"I will sleep on the floor… yes?"

"No, let's sleep together. It looks cold."

Let's eat and go to bed right away… Actually, the muscle pain has been hitting me pretty hard for a while now.

Tomorrow I might not be able to move without the cloth golem forcibly making my body move…

With that thought, I cast [Purification] on myself and Niku while waiting for the meal.

"Ah, right, I need to split today's reward."

I took out five copper coins and handed them to Niku. An even split plus her bonus.

"Th-this is too much, I can't accept it! I didn't do anything!"

"You found the quest and told me my [Purification] would work, didn't you? So it's fine, just take it."

"B-but…"

"Those grilled meat skewers were five copper each, right? Man, I really wanna eat some skewers with Niku…"

"… I-I'll accept them."

Maybe because I mentioned the skewers, I heard the sound of a stomach growling.

Not mine. Niku's.

… Come to think of it, I haven't fed her anything since we arrived in Tsuia. Just breakfast.

I feel a bit guilty since I was the only one eating those apples.

After a while, someone from the inn brought the meal to our room.

My portion was two pieces of bread and vegetable soup, while Niku's was just two pieces of bread. I see, so that's the difference.

I shared the vegetable soup with Niku, splitting it evenly between us, and forced the hard bread down my throat.

The vegetable soup itself was quite tasty. Yeah. It was lightly seasoned, but you could taste the flavor of the vegetables.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

Well then, morning came and we left the room. My body was stiff and creaky, but the muscle pain wasn't too severe. What a relief.

This time Niku managed to fulfill her role as a hug pillow without any accidents. Going to the bathroom before bed is important, after all. Though when she tried to take off her clothes before we lay down, that was definitely inappropriate, so I stopped her.

I remembered I was asked to use [Purification] on the sheets before leaving, so I quickly cleaned them up. I'm getting pretty used to [Purification] now… I accidentally ended up cleaning the entire room in the process, but I suppose that's just a charming bonus. W-well, making things cleaner shouldn't be a problem.

"Niku, did you forget anything?"

"I'm… fine."

"Alright, let's go buy something from a stall instead of breakfast."

"Y-yes!"

I returned the key to the landlady and left the inn.

So this is what an affordable, typical inn is like… Another fruit of our information gathering.

Come to think of it, is Rokuko doing okay alone in the dungeon? … She's probably fine. She was alone before I showed up, after all.

I'm starting to miss the dungeon's Master Room.

Let's hurry up and gather more useful information so we can head back…