| Author: Bankuru | Original Source: Syosetu | Word Count: 4685 characters |
| Translator: PunishedLyly | English Source: Re:Library | Word Count: 2353 words |
| Editor(s): Fire | ||
「Ruti! I’m done with this place!」
「Then help me with this spot!」
Now, what exactly are we doing? A major cleaning before we move into the new home. So, as for why we’re doing this, it’s because even though the union did the minimum maintenance to preserve the house, it seems like they haven’t done a thorough job with the scrubbing and stuff, so depending on the area, there is still some dust sticking around. So with that, we decided to tidy up the place while the furniture isn’t delivered yet. With rags and buckets in hand, the two of us are running around and polishing the house all over.
I guess I wanted the union to put a bit more effort into the cleaning, but since we don’t have much money to spend and it’s not like we’re doing a big renovation here, I guess we don’t have much of a choice here.
「Fuu, we’re finally about halfway done, I think. Let’s rest for a while.」
「Then I’ll prepare some tea.」
We still don’t have a table or anything, so we took out our camping kit and set it up. Indoor mini camping prep…… Yup, it’s a pretty rare experience.
「Nonetheless, it didn’t feel that spacious when we saw it before, but now that we’re cleaning it, it’s actually quite big.」
「I know right? What should we do? I mean, we’re usually out working after all, should we hire a housekeeper or something?」
「Hm……. Well, it’s not as if we need to keep every room shiny clean every day, so why don’t we do it ourselves for now? After all, we still can’t be sure about what we need and it’ll be awkward if we end up going, Sorry, we don’t actually need you, after hiring a housekeeper.」
Good point. If we’re getting people for help, it’ll be best if we did it after knowing if we actually need them.
「Besides that, since we finally have a proper kitchen, I want to do some cooking as well. If we hire a housekeeper, don’t you think that we might end up leaving those kinds of things to them as well?」
「I see. In that case, let’s do our best together. Come to think of it, we haven’t done any camping lately, so it’s been a while since we’ve had your cooking.」
In the first place, since I’m usually the one cooking when camping out, it’s been pretty rare to have a chance of eating Ruti’s cooking.
Besides, the food Ruti makes always tasted new and unfamiliar to me, it might have been food from her hometown, so I’m really looking forward to it.
「I know, once we’re done with the moving, let’s have a party and cook some food together. Let’s invite everybody too.」
「That sounds great. It’ll be a good opportunity as well, let’s treat everybody for all the help they’ve given to us.」
Alright. Since we’re calling everyone, we’ll have to get this place thoroughly cleaned.
「Thank you for your long stay. We hope that you would choose our inn again when you have the chance.」
We were super fired up yesterday that we ended up cleaning until sunset.
Since we’re having the furniture moved in today and will be moving in ourselves, last night was our final stay in the inn. While feeling a bit melancholic, we returned the room key, said our thanks, and headed to our new home.
As we arrived at the house, the movers were already waiting for us there. It’s still pretty early…… Did we keep them waiting?
「Good morning. Would you be Natsuki-sama?」
「Yes. Thank you for coming in this early. I’ll open the locks right now, so please wait for a bit.」
I unlocked the gates and the front door and immediately had them move the things in. We already decided on the positioning and things, so we finished quickly with no particular issues. I guess the guys were experienced since the movers worked pretty fast, we managed to finish everything—including the miscellaneous stuff—before lunchtime.
「I expected it to take more time, but that was pretty quick.」
「It really helped that they came quite early.」
While drinking tea from our brand new cups, we had a comfortable breaktime. Despite the fact that the carpet, table, and cupboards are arranged now, it seems the dining room has just the right size. Though this seems to be a room made for the housekeepers, it’s slightly smaller than the other dining room and the living room but it’s already good enough for the two of us to use, so we’ll probably be using this room a lot when we’re not having any guests around.
「I know that I’m the one that asked for a spacious living room, but even this dining room is enough for just the two of us…… The house might even be too big for us.」
Well, it’s still better than having space issues with a small house, I guess. We’re going to have much more stuff later after all.
「Ah, say. Since we have some time now, why don’t we cook together for lunch and dinner?」
We took yesterday and today off to make sure we have enough free time, and since we’re done setting up the furniture, we don’t have any particular plans for today. It might be nice to relax at home and go along with Ruti’s idea to help us get used to the new house too.
「Then first, let’s go out and buy the ingredients. Though, we’ll probably come home and finish cooking at an awkward time today, so let’s eat lunch outside and just cook for dinner.」
「Hmm. That’s true, if we head to the market now, we’ll end up eating lunch late. Let’s go with that.」
Since we need to use up all the preserved food before it goes bad, the fresh stuff goes without saying, and the snacks run out before we know it. We don’t really stock up on food supplies, so we don’t have much of a choice.
Come to think of it, since we’re not in the general district anymore, we’re generally going to do our shopping in the noble district, right? We usually only enter the district when going to the Order of Mages and back, so we only know the stores in the main street. We should walk around and map out the area.
Well, sure, we could go and teleport to the general district, yeah? But recently, we’ve been walking as much as possible. See, the less you walk, the more your stomach area…… you know……1
In that sense, it’s probably better to take time to walk to the general district, but if we go that far, it’ll be inconvenient and all.
By the way, I noticed the stomach issue while I was casually squishing around Ruti’s belly. Between you and me, we looked at each other and went absolutely pale at that time.2
「I guess we should try that store we always passed by at the main street for now.」
「That’s true. Considering the time, we should leave the search for new stores for next time. From what I’ve seen when we pass by, they seem to have a high-quality of assortment there, so there should be no problems.」
With this and that, we got lunch, bought groceries, went back home, and immediately started preparing for dinner. As for the said store, their goods were as good as we expected. It was a bit expensive there, so it’s not really the best choice but since they had a good assortment and it’s not really that imbalanced, we’ll probably be visiting them again in the future.
「It’s been a while since I’ve used a knife.」
「You’ve always been cooking with your claws after all.」
Since we’re cooking in a proper kitchen, I took the chance to ready my own kitchen knife. ……Well I did, but… were knives always this dull and unreliable?
「Hmmnn, am I just too used to claws? For some reason, it’s hard to control the-……. twa!?」
Because it was different from what I’m used to, I put too much strength and the knife went straight to the chopping board with a ton of force.
「Hey, are you alright? Did you cut yourself?」
「I’m fine, I’m fine. Something like that wouldn’t really scratch my skin.」
「You’re saying that, but things can cut when they cut…… alright? Be careful, okay?」
Well, I already know from running through branches in the forest and getting hit by magic during training that my skin is tough enough to go through those unscathed, but I haven’t actually been cut with something sharp before, so I can’t be sure how much my skin can endure, yeah……
Hmmm, it might be a bit late but maybe I should learn some healing-type magic. After all, Ruti probably still gets injured like everybody else and it’s not like I’m absolutely sure that I can’t get injured. Though, I’m not sure if I can use it since I have restrictions and all.
This world developed in a way where injuries are healed with magic and diseases with medicine, it’ll probably be better to train in healing with magic but since we don’t get injured regularly, it ends up not being prioritized.
「Natsuki, it’s boiling hot but is that alright?」
「-whoops, that was close.」
I got so distracted while I was working that the soup ended up getting too hot. It’s a pot-au-feu, so it won’t lose flavor like miso soup would but it doesn’t really need to boil that much, so yeah.
Miso soup…… Now that I remember it, I feel like drinking some after so long. Still, I haven’t really heard of any miso-like seasoning here, you know? Other countries might have something similar though…… And as I was cooking, again, while preoccupied, Ruti was baffled and told me off. Sniffle.
After that, our cooking practice continued without any issues. Since we’ve gotten somewhat used to our new home and life, we’ve decided that it’s about time to invite everybody.
It would probably be better to just send them letters or invitations, but not everyone knows where our place is after all, so we had no other choice but to personally invite everyone, one by one.
「We’ve already talked to Firu, Cain, Chris, and Ryzna-san yesterday, so I guess we’ll go to the guys at the Order of Mages today.」
「It’ll be nice if they’re not too busy with work.」
Firu, Cain, and Chris happily accepted. And since the party would be at night, even the busy Ryzna-san said that he would join us but be a bit late.
「Inviting the leader and Nera-san is already a given, but what about the others?」
「It would be great if we can invite everyone, but the house isn’t really spacious enough to call several dozens of people after all…… Besides, Chris would likely feel uncomfortable if there’s too many people around, so perhaps inviting Jeff and Kerry should be good enough.」
Good point. Although everybody is really candid, every member of the order has the title of knight after all, so Chris and the others might feel nervous if there’s too many of the order people around. I guess it’ll be better this way.
「Well then, first, let’s go talk to the leader and Nera-san. After all, we can just ask the leader if Jeff and Kerry are out for work right now.」
「……Say, isn’t there a possibility that the leader himself is also out for work?」
「Ah…… W-well, he’s probably just there! Don’t worry, it’ll be fine!」
Ruti’s gaze is slightly piercing me but it’s fine.
We headed to the leader’s office, knocked on the door, and felt relieved after hearing a reply. Come to think of it, I could’ve just checked if he’s here using telepathy, couldn’t I? It might be too late for me already……
「Leader, we want to talk about something for a bit, do you have some time?」
「Natsuki-kun and Ruti-kun, huh. Good timing, I was just in the middle of my break. So what is it?」
Entering the room, I see the leader and Nera-san, sitting in front of him, having tea together, so he’s probably found a good place to pause his paperwork.
「Ah, Nera-san’s here too, that’s perfect. The truth is, since we’ve finally finished moving and settling in, we were thinking of having a party with everybody that helped us since we came here.」
「I see now. As for me, as long as it’s not in two days from now, I should be able to adjust my schedule and make some time. When would it be?」
「For now, just to be sure, we were planning on having it at night in exactly two weeks from today, but is that okay?」
「Two weeks is more than enough time. I’ll be joining in.」
「I can go as well, as long as no unexpected incidents occur. Who else will you be inviting?」
「We actually wanted to invite everybody but we also invited the others at the café. So, while the house is big for the two of us to live in, it’s not really big enough to have everybody in, you know? That’s why we’re thinking of inviting Jeff and Kerry too at most.」
「Jeff and Kerry, is it? They’re currently out of the capital for a mission, I’ll tell them about it once they get in contact for the periodic report.」
Oh, so they were out for work. I’m glad for the leader’s consideration.
「Thanks. Well then, we’ll be leaving now.」
「I see, much appreciated. I’m really looking forward to the party.」
And with this, we’re done with the invitations.
Now then, we have two weeks to prepare. We need to think about what we should cook on that day.
