Inn, Suite Room 1
(Haku’s Point of View)
[Cave of Desires] was Rokuko-chan’s dungeon’s new name.
It was decided on when Sia’s adventurer guild confirmed the information in the report.
But still, she was already found… no, she did it voluntarily.
Well, in addition to that, the report also said that there was an inn.
I thought that making the [Inn (400,000 DP~)] would take more time and certainly not be announced simultaneously with the dungeon… I wonder what in the world they did for income? A human farm? Hmm, it’s too early for that. Maybe they excavated some orichalc.u.m?
And so, I used [Teleport] as soon as I could to be Rokuko-chan’s inn’s [First Customer].
*
Unfortunately, although I missed the chance to have the honor of being her [First Customer], I decided to stay in the suite.
Incidentally, I was given the important duty of a.s.sessing a fair price for it. Fufufu, many inns have been built in the imperial capital. Furthermore, to say nothing of the top cla.s.s inns’ suites I’ve stayed in around the kingdom for my duties, I’ve also stayed in various inns as an adventurer. There probably isn’t anyone more suited to this than me.
“Now then, I wonder if I can get a hot bath without needing to wait?”
Though you could perfectly clean your body with Cleanup, it feels great when you wipe your body clean with a cloth dampened in hot water. Although such a service can’t be expected in a cheap hotel meant for low rank adventurers, but something that calls itself a suite room should be able to.
“… Ahh, um, sorry.”
“Oh my. I can’t?”
A demerit right away then? Good grief, if you don’t properly improve your service, it’ll be hard to call this a suite…
“There is a bath in the room if you want hot water, so please use that. Use it as much as you like.”
“… Huh? … A-as much as I want?”
“There is a mechanism with levers coming out of it attached to the bath for that.”
… Did the [Inn] have a room with that function? Maybe there was an option to enhance it… If it’s just the suite, the expenditure would be lowered. As expected of Rokuko-chan’s master.
“Yeah, other than the suite, you can enter the hot spring as much as you want.”
“… There’s even a hot spring?”
“It’s our main attraction.”
A [Hot Spring] would cost DP separate from an [Inn]… I wonder how much they spent? I don’t consider it that expensive, but it seems they’ve splurged.
… If I recall, a normal room is fifty copper coins. As for entering the hot spring as much as you want, I wonder if most of the costs went towards that? I wonder if I should have stayed in a normal room?
“So then Haku Ane-sama, I’ll show you to your room!”
Rokuko-chan led me to the suite room… This service is worth the one gold coin… oops, I shouldn’t allow my opinion to affect the reasonable price.
Rokuko-chan stood in front of the room she took me to… Hmm, it’s not a normal wooden door, but surrounded by iron plating? It’s also has a lock.
I wonder if it was broken at one point and they replaced it with a dungeon door? That’s probably it.
“Here it is! Take you time, Ane-sama!”
When I opened the door, it was bright inside. The sun was s.h.i.+ning.
… There was fantastically carved wooden furniture, as well as a bed. There was also what looked to be a comfortable chair to sit in. Hmm, what country is this engraving style from…? Perhaps from another world?
There was a clock on the wall. Having a clock was convenient, it was a particularly expensive magic tool. There is a bell that rings in the town, but there’s no way you could hear it out here.
And the window where the light was s.h.i.+ning through… is that a sheet of crystal inserted into it? It looks like you can even shut out the light by shutting the cloth next to it.
Indeed, in this case this suite might just pa.s.s.
Oh, there’s also a restroom with a bath in it isn’t there? I almost forgot about it.
… Let’s give it a look. The bath was made of some kind of wood.
However, there was no hot water in it… Ah, these are the levers? There’s an explanation written.
I see, so this one is hot water, this one for water… When I tried it out to experiment, hot water came out into the bath… Isn’t this a little hot? Ah, you can turn on the water one as well.
“Chloe, what do you think?”
“Isn’t this room wonderful? It’s even better than the kingdom’s hotel’s suites.”
Even I didn’t expect this much.
For now, let’s sit down on the chair.
“… This chair is very comfortable, it feels great.”
“Haku-sama, it says this chair is a magic tool called a [Ma.s.sage Chair]… It seems that it will ma.s.sage you when you place a copper coin into it.”
“Hmm? Try putting one in.”
When Chloe put a copper coin into it, the chair began to vibrate.
“Wha-wh-wh-wh-wha-what the heck is this—!? Faaah—!”
“Haku-sama!? A-are you alright!?”
“I-I’m fine, ah, this, amazi… fuah… feels so gooood—…”
Ahh… I think I could fall asleep just like this… I’ve been working hard recently so that I could come to this inn… ahhh…
*
When I woke up, Chloe put the cloth that was next to the chair on me… Hmm, this chair feels very good. Even though it’s light and isn’t that thick, it feels warm.
“… This chair, I wonder if they won’t finance it. Around ten gold coins…”
“I haven’t seen a magic tool like this before. It might be particularly valuable, troublesome…”
“… I wonder if fifty wouldn’t be enough then?”
“It sounds like you liked it quite a lot?”
“Yeah, it’s very good… ah, I slept through meal time. I wonder if it’s fine now? If I remember right, they said it’d be brought if I pressed the b.u.t.ton in this room.”
… There is a b.u.t.ton on the wall with a cover over it so that it wouldn’t be pressed on accident. The cover is unexpectedly made of crystal, isn’t it… it doesn’t look like there’s anything holding it together, I wonder how it was made? Was it made just for this?
At any rate, I pressed the b.u.t.ton. For a moment, it sounded like metal was striking against something.
What kind of mechanism is this…? Did an [Inn] even have this kind of option?
After a while, well, after three minutes, there was a knock at the door.
… They prepared the food quickly. Perhaps, did they use DP for it?
“Haku Ane-sama, I brought your meal!”
“Please enter Rokuko-chan!”
When I opened the door, Rokuko-chan was pulling a rack with dishes on it.
There were three dishes on the serving rack. They were covered with a metal covering so I couldn’t see what their contents were… So they’re properly using covers, this is also a high level thing… Our country’s suite bring meals bare.
Oh my, I wonder what’s in these square containers? Ah, there seems to be drinks inside as well. There is a spoon and a straw attached to it.
… Wait, crystal gla.s.ses? To freely use it for that… because of that, I can see what’s inside it, let’s see… green? There’s something white floating halfway up it… could it be a potion and potato mix? That’s somehow an amazing combination…
“Ah, oh my. Three?”
“I-I wanted to eat together with Haku Ane-sama… can’t I?”
“You definitely can! Rokuko-chan, leave it to Chloe. Sit, sit.”
“M-mm, I can’t. Chloe is also a customer today.”
Rokuko-chan diligently laid out the dishes on the table.
Drops of water were appearing outside the gla.s.s… Probably from using ice magic. It looks fairly cold…
“Well then, let’s go~. Yeah~, ta-da~!
When Rokuko-chan removed the cover, there were several things on each platter.
“… Putting compartments in the platter to serve multiple things per dish… a novel idea.”
“Fufufu, isn’t it amazing? Let’s see, these are [Hamburgers], this is [Naporitan], and these are [Fried Prawns]! These long narrow things are [French Fries], this thing with a flag in it is an [Omelet with Rice Filling]! The soup is [Corn Portage]. Ah, right right. This green drink is called [Ice Cream Soda]! It’s a drink, but it’s also a dessert, the white stuff on the top is a delicious cold food called [Vanilla Ice Cream]! Try and drink it before it melts okay?” [1]
Hearing Rokuko-chan’s explanation, I immediately readied my fork.
[Hamburger], un, it’s meat. It’s not a steak, but it’s a meat dish. Moreover, it’s beef? There’s even a superb mushroom sauce over it.
[Naporitan], it’s a pasta. It looks like there’s tomato sauce on it? It leaves a distinct sensation on your tongue.
[Fried Prawns]… I wonder if this is sea food? Just how did they cook this? A dish from another world…
[French Fries], they’re obviously potatoes. I think… Mm, the crispiness feels great. It feels the same as the [Fried Prawns]. Potatoes are easily obtainable, so it could be cooked so long as you knew the method to cook it.
[Omelet Filled with Rice] seems to be eaten with a spoon. Some tiny grains spilled out of it covered with tomato sauce and eggs… corn? Hmm, it’s not bad. But what’s the flag for?
[Corn Portage] is sweet and warm, the flavor is relieving. It’s the high point.
“The salad is also pretty good… Ah, but this [Mayonnaise] is quite a thing.”
“We don’t need to eat to begin with so we don’t need to forcibly eat… Ah, Chloe is eating it?”
“Yes, Haku-sama. Hooh, [Mayonnaise], this is… can I have yours if you don’t want it?”
“… I didn’t say that I wouldn’t eat it you know?”
… Hohoh, [Mayonnaise] is wonderful. Its taste harmonizes when eaten with vegetables, so that’s the condition? … Chloe seems to have liked it too, I wonder if I could get some of this?
However, even if you purchased these dishes with DP, you still need to arrange each food after getting them. It could be called time consuming, but it is much easier than starting from nothing and needing to make it from scratch. My a.s.sessment for it this time is that it’s not appropriate to score it as a dish made by DP. In that case, considering the time needed for each dish… un, it’s probably already worth a gold coin. I don’t even have a rough idea of how much time is needed for another world’s cuisine in the first place though.
“The stuff left in the corner is [Pudding]! It’s a very tasty dessert with a cherry and cream decorating it!”
“Hmm, this is also a dessert…? Come to think of it, cream is a luxury good that is occasionally made at the imperial capital’s farms. The cherry… I wonder where it’s produced?”
“Wakoku I think?”
Wakoku? That’s far to the east… To reproduce it, there would be quite a s.h.i.+pping expense… Yeah, so an A-Rank adventurer like myself is directly delivering the ingredient through goodwill, that’s the [Setting]. Things’ time stop in [Storage] after all.
But it feels like a gold coin might be cheap after taking that into account.
Ah, this [Pudding] is delicious. It’s so sweet and bouncy, like it’s trying to melt in your mouth… ah—, that was dangerous. I almost forgot myself.
… And then there’s the [Ice Cream Soda]. I unintentionally kept it at a distance because of its potion-like green tint, but Rokuko-chan recommended it, so I have no choice but to drink it.
It’s a drink that combines [Melon Soda] and [Vanilla Ice Cream] to become a dessert… is what I was told, but what in the world is this thing? Oh, there’s a cherry on this too.
First I’ll try drinking the [Melon Soda] with the straw, itadakimasu…—!?
…—Sweet! And there’s a tingling sensation inside my mouth! And it’s so sweet! What kind of violent beverage is this!?
The drink has that tingling sensation like some kind of sake. But since it’s cold it feels a lot stronger. And then there’s the melon flavor that wafts into your nose, and it’s so sweet. This [Melon Soda] hits with quite a punch!
“Please try to eat the [Vanilla Ice Cream] that’s on top too, Haku Ane-sama. It’s started to melt a little, but it tastes the best you know?”
“O-okay…”
Using the long and slender spoon that seems to have been added exclusively for this gla.s.s, I scooped up a little of the [Vanilla Ice Cream].
When it entered my mouth, it felt very cold. Then, I tasted a sweetness that exceeded the [Melon Soda].
However, it tenderized like it was fresh snow because of the heat of my mouth, spreading out as it melted.
After the [Vanilla Ice Cream] melted, its sweet savoriness spread through my mouth. The dairy texture felt amazing…
“Ane-sama, did it suit your tastes?”
“… Yeah, very much so.”
The motion of the [Melon Soda], the stillness of the [Vanilla Ice Cream]… a drink with opposite extremes, no, this dessert, I was toyed with by it.
In the end, the melted [Vanilla Ice Cream] and [Melon Soda] mixed together… it feels like I caught a glimpse at the truth of this world.
A gold coin for these? Too cheap.
Footnotes:
Naporitan is a j.a.panese pasta dish similar to spaghetti. Return