Volume 3 - CH 1.17
「If so, how much would it be?」
「Since this is a kind of a blunder on my part, then I’m sure we could offer you some favorable prices as a way of apologizing for all the trouble that you’ll have to go through with it.」
「Oh, in that case I guess we could definitely manage…」
Roxanne seems to be really fired up about the idea of cultivating her own herb garden, huh? And that Honesta, she’s willing to go as far as gifting us tools and seeds just to make sure that we will rent this house without backing down once we knew that its upkeep would require more time and effort than we have initially anticipated? As expected of someone with the Job of a Merchant, she will never miss an opportunity to make the deal go through, huh? Well, if that’s how it’s going to be, then I guess all that we need is just one more small push.
「Oh well, I guess it cannot be helped, right? Worst case scenario, we will simply have to replant all of the herbs and start the garden up from scratch.」
「Are you sure about this? This is definitely going to take quite a lot of time, work and effort…」
「Yes, I am sure. After all, it’s not like don’t have a lot of time on our hands, so might as well put it to good use, right?」
How about that merciless counterattack, Miss Caretaker? Ready to give in now?
「Ekhem! Regarding the house itself, in order to prepare it for the arrival of potential buyers I restored all of the wooden windows to the best of my ability and cleaned the inside of it thoroughly, so you can move in right away when you bring in your own furnishings.」
Realizing that we had her beaten in the matter of the garden, Honesta headed inside of the house while she explained that restorative work has been already done and what was still left to do. To tell you the truth, I was counting that we might squeeze some more concessions out of her, because even if she provides us with the seeds and the right tools to cultivate them, it will take some serious time before we will be able to actually harvest the fruits of our labor, but apparently that was as far as she was willing to budge in that regard. A shame, but I am still willing to call it our complete victory nonetheless.
Honesta unlocked the front door and entered the house, and Roxanne and I followed her inside. Once we were there, no one bothered to actually take off their shoes, so I guess that custom is something that might be exclusive to Japan only, and it made me feel like an oddball when I was just about to reach to the laces of my boots so that I could leave them at the doorstep. Roxanne, who was normally going barefoot, but started wearing sandals ever since I told her to do so didn’t even stop to consider doing that, so that must mean that in this world going into somebody’s house while still wearing your outdoor shoes is not considered to be a grave offense.
The inside the house was made entirely from wood on the floor and concrete on the walls and ceilings.
「Ohhh, inside it is a lot more spacious than it looks from the outside.」
If I were to draw any comparisons, this place wa giving me that distinct developer’s standard feel that some of the residences in Japan had. Not those cramped crappy apartments that are associated with perpetually tired salarymen from the middle class, but the mansions and those big suites at the top floors of the hotels where all of the rich and important people used to live, or like those really big rooms lined up with tatami mats from the TV dramas set in the Edo period
「The former resident has made a lot of modifications to the structure already, so you’re free to make even more alterations if you ever feel like it. The improvement that you may find the most interesting is the water-flush toilet that he ordered to be custom made for him.」
Honesta the Caretaker walked through the house and opened one of the doors at the back of the ground floor.To my surprise, it really was a small rom with a toilet inside of it. Wait a minute… did she just say…
「Water-flush toilet?」
「I know it might sound unbelievable, but that’s actually what it is, and the way it works is actually quite simple: when you add water to the upper container, it will drain the contents of the toilet straight to the ditch located outside of the house. And because the water is being drawn from the river that’s located not far away from here, you don’t have to be worried about the ditch being particularly dirty.」
Having a toilet that resembles the ones I had in Japan by having a flushing system and being directly connected to the drain was a nice surprise that I wasn’t expecting to have at all. Upon Honesta’s approval, I flushed it once to see how exactly was it working, and it did in the exact way I was expecting it to: when you pulled the string located next to the water tank, it released the water collected in the tank, flushing the contents of the bowl down with its momentum. It made me feel at ease, because originally I thought we would have to collect our you-know-what into a jar or some other container in order to dispose of it manually. Knowing that we won’t have to resort to such barbarism makes me happy beyond belief.
「That will certainly be a useful thing to have.」
「It might be a little inconvenient to collect water from the river anytime you want to flush it, but apparently that was the previous resident’s hobby. He also started another project, but I evicted them in the middle of making it so they were never able to finish it.」
「What, like, another toilet or something along those lines?」
「As I said, I ended up evicting him when that second project was about halfway done, so I do not really know what was it supposed to be. All that I know is that it only has the drainage pipes connected to it. It’s here in the back.」
When Honesta opened the door she previously pointed to, I saw that it was an empty room similar to the main one, but bigger than the one where the toilet was located… but what was its purpose? Another toilet room? No, they already had one practically next door, so that’s probably not it. Could it be that this guy was just a nutjob with some strange hobbies? But even if that would be the case… man, toilet making and tinkering with them was too weird of a fetish, even by my standards. Part of me wandered if this guy also made a washing room somewhere in the house as well. Heh, that would be pretty swell.
「Uhm, excuse me, Miss Caretaker?」
Roxanne called Honesta back to the main room in order to ask her some questions about the kitchen area. She said she’s able to cook, so she probably wants to know as much as she can about the kitchen’s user-friendliness.
「I’m going to go take a look upstairs, so make yourself comfortable here, ok?」
Now that Roxanne was occupying Honesta’s full attention, I can go upstairs where no one will see me and experiment with Warping while I have the chance.
When I arrived upstairs and looked down, I noticed that I could actually see Roxanne’s silhouette outlined through the floor. Could it be one of the effects of Party Formation? Then maybe I should briefly disband it as a precaution, since Movement Magic transports the entire Party? Yeah, let’s do that.
First, I opened the door to the room that I would be Warping to in order to check what was inside, but its shutters were all closed tight so it was pretty dark in there. Next, I went to the room that was adjacent to the one I just left, which was the largest room on this floor, ideal to make it our bedroom, since it also came equipped with its own fireplace. I walked to the wall and created a portal that should take me straight to the room right next to it when I will walk through it, assuming that it will work correctly and not get blocked by the shield cement.
With pounding heart, I gulped my saliva down and took a step towards the portal on the wall while closing my eyes.
Please, let it work. Let me go through! I just want to go through, nothing more!
. . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in the next room, the one that had its shutters down. I did it. That Warp was a success! This means that Warp not only ignore all of the restrictions placed on Field Walker and Dungeon Walker, but it also bypasses everything that would normally prevent Movement Magic from working, like this Shield Cement!
This is great! I thought that this Bonus Spell was nothing more than an alternative to Dungeon Walker and Field Walker, but it turns out that this is spell is superior to them both in every way!
With this we can move in and out of the Labyrinth without any issues, but it doesn’t mean that the problems end here. Quite the opposite, actually. The number of things I have to look out for only increased.
First of all, I should avoid moving just about anywhere with Warp, because it would be pretty bad if I ended up Warping somewhere I normally wasn’t supposed to Warp to and got noticed by someone, which means I have to select destination that can be easily accessed by either Field Walker or Dungeon Walker. The safest bet would be the walls of the Adventurers Guild because pretty much everyone is using them as their target for transportation. Trees in the woods should also be okay, should be the Labyrinth itself, but that much should have been a given. So unless I am certain that the place I want to Warp to is out of the people’s gaze, I should only travel to the places which I have 100% certainty that they are normal.
「Since this is a kind of a blunder on my part, then I’m sure we could offer you some favorable prices as a way of apologizing for all the trouble that you’ll have to go through with it.」
「Oh, in that case I guess we could definitely manage…」
Roxanne seems to be really fired up about the idea of cultivating her own herb garden, huh? And that Honesta, she’s willing to go as far as gifting us tools and seeds just to make sure that we will rent this house without backing down once we knew that its upkeep would require more time and effort than we have initially anticipated? As expected of someone with the Job of a Merchant, she will never miss an opportunity to make the deal go through, huh? Well, if that’s how it’s going to be, then I guess all that we need is just one more small push.
「Oh well, I guess it cannot be helped, right? Worst case scenario, we will simply have to replant all of the herbs and start the garden up from scratch.」
「Are you sure about this? This is definitely going to take quite a lot of time, work and effort…」
「Yes, I am sure. After all, it’s not like don’t have a lot of time on our hands, so might as well put it to good use, right?」
How about that merciless counterattack, Miss Caretaker? Ready to give in now?
「Ekhem! Regarding the house itself, in order to prepare it for the arrival of potential buyers I restored all of the wooden windows to the best of my ability and cleaned the inside of it thoroughly, so you can move in right away when you bring in your own furnishings.」
Realizing that we had her beaten in the matter of the garden, Honesta headed inside of the house while she explained that restorative work has been already done and what was still left to do. To tell you the truth, I was counting that we might squeeze some more concessions out of her, because even if she provides us with the seeds and the right tools to cultivate them, it will take some serious time before we will be able to actually harvest the fruits of our labor, but apparently that was as far as she was willing to budge in that regard. A shame, but I am still willing to call it our complete victory nonetheless.
Honesta unlocked the front door and entered the house, and Roxanne and I followed her inside. Once we were there, no one bothered to actually take off their shoes, so I guess that custom is something that might be exclusive to Japan only, and it made me feel like an oddball when I was just about to reach to the laces of my boots so that I could leave them at the doorstep. Roxanne, who was normally going barefoot, but started wearing sandals ever since I told her to do so didn’t even stop to consider doing that, so that must mean that in this world going into somebody’s house while still wearing your outdoor shoes is not considered to be a grave offense.
The inside the house was made entirely from wood on the floor and concrete on the walls and ceilings.
「Ohhh, inside it is a lot more spacious than it looks from the outside.」
If I were to draw any comparisons, this place wa giving me that distinct developer’s standard feel that some of the residences in Japan had. Not those cramped crappy apartments that are associated with perpetually tired salarymen from the middle class, but the mansions and those big suites at the top floors of the hotels where all of the rich and important people used to live, or like those really big rooms lined up with tatami mats from the TV dramas set in the Edo period
「The former resident has made a lot of modifications to the structure already, so you’re free to make even more alterations if you ever feel like it. The improvement that you may find the most interesting is the water-flush toilet that he ordered to be custom made for him.」
Honesta the Caretaker walked through the house and opened one of the doors at the back of the ground floor.To my surprise, it really was a small rom with a toilet inside of it. Wait a minute… did she just say…
「Water-flush toilet?」
「I know it might sound unbelievable, but that’s actually what it is, and the way it works is actually quite simple: when you add water to the upper container, it will drain the contents of the toilet straight to the ditch located outside of the house. And because the water is being drawn from the river that’s located not far away from here, you don’t have to be worried about the ditch being particularly dirty.」
Having a toilet that resembles the ones I had in Japan by having a flushing system and being directly connected to the drain was a nice surprise that I wasn’t expecting to have at all. Upon Honesta’s approval, I flushed it once to see how exactly was it working, and it did in the exact way I was expecting it to: when you pulled the string located next to the water tank, it released the water collected in the tank, flushing the contents of the bowl down with its momentum. It made me feel at ease, because originally I thought we would have to collect our you-know-what into a jar or some other container in order to dispose of it manually. Knowing that we won’t have to resort to such barbarism makes me happy beyond belief.
「That will certainly be a useful thing to have.」
「It might be a little inconvenient to collect water from the river anytime you want to flush it, but apparently that was the previous resident’s hobby. He also started another project, but I evicted them in the middle of making it so they were never able to finish it.」
「What, like, another toilet or something along those lines?」
「As I said, I ended up evicting him when that second project was about halfway done, so I do not really know what was it supposed to be. All that I know is that it only has the drainage pipes connected to it. It’s here in the back.」
When Honesta opened the door she previously pointed to, I saw that it was an empty room similar to the main one, but bigger than the one where the toilet was located… but what was its purpose? Another toilet room? No, they already had one practically next door, so that’s probably not it. Could it be that this guy was just a nutjob with some strange hobbies? But even if that would be the case… man, toilet making and tinkering with them was too weird of a fetish, even by my standards. Part of me wandered if this guy also made a washing room somewhere in the house as well. Heh, that would be pretty swell.
「Uhm, excuse me, Miss Caretaker?」
Roxanne called Honesta back to the main room in order to ask her some questions about the kitchen area. She said she’s able to cook, so she probably wants to know as much as she can about the kitchen’s user-friendliness.
「I’m going to go take a look upstairs, so make yourself comfortable here, ok?」
Now that Roxanne was occupying Honesta’s full attention, I can go upstairs where no one will see me and experiment with Warping while I have the chance.
When I arrived upstairs and looked down, I noticed that I could actually see Roxanne’s silhouette outlined through the floor. Could it be one of the effects of Party Formation? Then maybe I should briefly disband it as a precaution, since Movement Magic transports the entire Party? Yeah, let’s do that.
First, I opened the door to the room that I would be Warping to in order to check what was inside, but its shutters were all closed tight so it was pretty dark in there. Next, I went to the room that was adjacent to the one I just left, which was the largest room on this floor, ideal to make it our bedroom, since it also came equipped with its own fireplace. I walked to the wall and created a portal that should take me straight to the room right next to it when I will walk through it, assuming that it will work correctly and not get blocked by the shield cement.
With pounding heart, I gulped my saliva down and took a step towards the portal on the wall while closing my eyes.
Please, let it work. Let me go through! I just want to go through, nothing more!
. . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in the next room, the one that had its shutters down. I did it. That Warp was a success! This means that Warp not only ignore all of the restrictions placed on Field Walker and Dungeon Walker, but it also bypasses everything that would normally prevent Movement Magic from working, like this Shield Cement!
This is great! I thought that this Bonus Spell was nothing more than an alternative to Dungeon Walker and Field Walker, but it turns out that this is spell is superior to them both in every way!
With this we can move in and out of the Labyrinth without any issues, but it doesn’t mean that the problems end here. Quite the opposite, actually. The number of things I have to look out for only increased.
First of all, I should avoid moving just about anywhere with Warp, because it would be pretty bad if I ended up Warping somewhere I normally wasn’t supposed to Warp to and got noticed by someone, which means I have to select destination that can be easily accessed by either Field Walker or Dungeon Walker. The safest bet would be the walls of the Adventurers Guild because pretty much everyone is using them as their target for transportation. Trees in the woods should also be okay, should be the Labyrinth itself, but that much should have been a given. So unless I am certain that the place I want to Warp to is out of the people’s gaze, I should only travel to the places which I have 100% certainty that they are normal.
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