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「Hm~ Like this, I guess?」
「Ohh, that’s pretty good! I thought you were just some bumpkin, but you’re pretty good, missy!」

Ha Ha Ha! The Gray Cat Inn’s Owner laughed lively while praising me. The members of Grim March wanted to have the mock battle/mixer today, but because of what just happened days before, after discussing with Urania, we decided to have it postponed until tomorrow.

It seems like the fact that a day is 24 hours, a week is seven days, a month is 30 days, and a year is 12 months isn’t any different in this world. It may be even easier to remember, since there aren’t any months with 29 or 31 days.

Since there’s seven days a week, we decided to have two days for resting, one day for interaction, and the remaining four days for working and taking requests. Naturally, there are times when we’ll have long term requests and we will need some rest if we get sick or injured and all, so we’ll just adapt when we need to. And thus today is the day for rest and relaxation.

And speaking of which, this rest day also acts as my feeding day. Once I take in some Life Essence, I can last for a week, but I start feeling out of it in about five days, and when I reach the sixth day, it starts affecting my bodily functions. And when I suck Life Essence in that state, there’s a possibility that I end up out of control like the other day. For that reason, I have two feeding days a week, and have it as a rest day so that we don’t work in a state where Urania just lost Life Essence.

And speaking of what I’m doing right now, for Urania’s sake, I’m in the middle of having the Owner teach me cooking.

This is because just taking Urania’s Life Essence for myself feels a bit too unfair, so I tried asking Urania if I can do something for her as compensation. And after hesitating for a bit she told me 「I want to eat Lily’s cooking.」

Are you really fine with just that, is what I thought, but after being requested with teary, upturned eyes, even if it’s not me, no one could probably bring themselves to refuse. So thinking that rather than the shortcut cooking I did in the cave, I might as well make her a properly cooked meal. So I tried consulting the Owner at Gray Cat’s Inn about it.

「Ha Ha Ha! Even adventurers need their cooking skills, right!! Alright then, leave it to me!」

She readily agreed and decided to teach me how to cook. Today’s menu is something easy to make even for beginners, Koo stew. The Koo’s meat being stored as a big dressed carcass surprised me, but other than that, there was generally no problem. Even in my past life, I did cook some basic stuff, you see.

「M’kay, then after you’re done skimming, just simmer them all together. This is the most important part, so don’t overcook it, y’hear?」
「Yes, Owner.」

I follow the Owner’s instructions and wipe my sweat off while staring at the stew. The kitchen feels as hot as a sauna, but thinking how delicious food is made here every day, I was able to persevere.

I feel like I can reproduce the effect of a pressure cooker and stuff if I use my Magic, but since I have the chance, I want to feed Urania something that I took my time to carefully cook. How troubling.

By the way, the storage uses a blue water-attribute Magic Core, making it act as a refrigerator. Since it seems like Urania likes sweets too, I already made a special dessert earlier and I’m currently cooling it in the storage. I’d be happy if she‘s pleased with it, though.

◆◇◆◇◆

「So, Urania. Where are we going?」
「Nn, look forward to it.」

Urania giggles while telling me it’s a secret. With Urania leading us to our destination, we exit through the Northern gate that we don’t usually use. The food that I cooked is naturally stored inside the 【Dream Storage】 and we also brought with us some tables and chairs.

Yup, since it’s our precious day off, we’re having a picnic today. The same as with Earth, it looks like there are also different seasons here, and it seems like its summer right now. If it was winter, then I would’ve probably died freezing at that mountain, so it’s probably for the best.

Exiting the northern gate, it seems like the land here is a grain-producing area. Looking around, all I can see are fields, fields, and fields. It looks like the Mana surrounding Motsi district mostly gathers at 『The Abyssal Forest』 so the Mana on the northern side is really thin.

For that reason, basically no monsters appear here, making it possible for people to farm safely.

「I didn’t notice since we were always inside the Dungeon, but this kind of peaceful place exists too, huh.」
「Nn, In Aureitas, more than thirty Dungeons are confirmed. Areas near Dungeons are generally turned into grain-producing regions. Including 『The Abyssal Forest』, there are six Dungeons with especially dense with Mana. So the grain fields are big too. Hey, we’re almost there.」

Where Urania points out, I can see a small hill. It seems that our destination is at the top of that hill.

「Welp, in that case, let’s hurry up a bit! “Levitation”!」
「Nn, Let’s!」

I cast “Levitation” Magic and levitate both of us. Then I kick the ground, immediately accelerating, aiming for the hilltop in one bound. After all, I can control Magic Power in my current state, so landing is no problem at all.

Landing on the top of the hill, what unveiled before our eyes are meadows that seem to stretch out to the horizon and a big lake that spread out underneath the hill. Around the lake, some animals are drinking water and some are swimming around. There’s even a large bird gliding while barely touching the lake’s surface; it feels really peaceful here.

「It’s a really nice place.」
「Nn, Not many know about it. It’s a secret spot.」

Urania said so with a smile, so I also reflexively smile back. It’s just the place for a picnic after all, so I take out the things from 【Dream Storage】 and we start preparing.