CH 17

Chapter 17 – Rest & Relax

After deciding our plans for the near future, we returned to the residence.

I called Sebas and the others in the guest room, introduced Tendo’s group, and told them what happened in the castle.

“ — is that so, milord. Quite an unexpected reunion…o’ Noble Heroes, friends of our Lord Haruto, I am Sebastian, a butler in service of this residence. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“My name is Lyla, I am a maid in service of this residence. Please do not hesitate to let me know if you need anything.”

“I am Mia, a maid as well.”

“My name is Ephyr, pleased to meet you.”

Sebas, Lyla, and Mia introduced themselves and bowed with polished form.

Ephyr followed with a quick bow, and Tendo’s group was frozen on the spot.

They were all looking at her ears.

I guess it was their first time seeing an elf?

Ephyr’s face gradually grew redder and redder: she was evidently not used to being the center of attention.

“Ehm…guys?”

Tendo and the others finally snapped back to reality when I called them.

“I-I’m sorry. Er, nice to meet you. I am Tendo Koji, Hero summoned by the kingdom of Glicente.”

After Tendo, Suzuno and the other three introduced themselves too.

After the introductions, I told Sebas about a few things I wanted to be done.

“Sebas, in a few days me, Finne, Iris, Asha, and Tendo’s group will go with Ephyr to her village. Since Asha is coming, I think it’ll be okay, but please teach Ephyr about general house chores and the bare minimum basics of self-defense, please.”

“Understood, milord.”

“Lord Haruto, can we really!?”

Sebas bowed to my requests, while Ephyr reacted with surprise.

“Yes. You want to see what became of your village, don’t you?”

“…I recovered, thanks to you, so I was trying to gather information about the village, with Sir Sebas’ help, but could not find anything yet…”

“Really. All the more reason to go see it with your own eyes, then.”

“Yes!”

Ephyr beamed at my words.

“I leave her in your hands, Sebas.”

“Please rest assured, milord.”

Sebas bowed deeply.

“Okay then, can you show everyone to their rooms for now?”

“Very well, milord. Please, this way.”

I watched Tendo and the others follow Sebas and talked as they went.

“Guys, take it easy for a while, then come back down. It’s not evening yet, so we might squeeze in some training today…let’s see each other again in 30 minutes or so.”

“Got it, thanks.”

Tendo and the others nodded to me, then they went with Sebas to the second floor.

“Finne, Iris, you’re free to do what you want too. Be back in 30 minutes, okay?”

“Okay…Finne, could you come into my room?”

“Of course.”

Iris and Finne then went up to her room.

“Okay then…I guess I’ll go into my room and draft a training plan.”

~

Forty minutes later…

“…why aren’t they here yet…?”

The only people present in the guest room were me, Iris, Finne, and Sebas.

“Sebas, can you go call them?”

“Certainly.”

We watched Sebas leave the room, then Finne cocked her head to the side.

“Maybe the beds were so fluffy and comfortable that they fell asleep?”

“Hehe, that’s very likely. This residence’s bedding is on the same level as the royal palace, so the quality is excellent, after all.”

Iris chuckled to herself.

Whoa, really? I did think they’re great to sleep in, but didn’t know they were so high quality…

After a few more minutes, Sebas reappeared, dragging Tendo and the others with him.

They all looked awfully sleepy.

“Sorry, Haruto, the beds were just too comfy…”

“We got kind of excited, dived in, and fell asleep immediately…”

“Sorry, Haruto…”

“As expected of an EX rank adventurer! Even the beds are top-notch!”

“I’m looking forward to tonight, honestly.”

Tendo, Mogami, Suzuno, Asakura and Shinonome spoke in turn.

So they really fell asleep…

“…it’s fine, but…you haven’t rested much lately?”

“Since we heard we might find you here, we left Vaana early in the morning and had the carriage go pretty fast…I guess the fatigue accumulated.”

I felt a pang of guilt while listening to Tendo’s words.

“…I’m sorry for waking you up like that, then. We should take a break today, so you can rest well, and start training from tomorrow. You can go back to bed if you want.”

“The bath is also ready, milord.”

Suzuno and the girls beamed at Sebas’ words.

“You can use the bath freely, guys. Take a good rest and make sure you’re ready for tomorrow…oh, by the way, the men’s and women’s baths are separate, Mogami.”

“H-hey! Why did you call me out like that!?”

Thanks to Mogami’s rebuttal everyone in the room laughed heartily, as the atmosphere turned friendlier.

“That’s too bad, huh Shinya?”

“Wha!? Natsuki, not you too!!”

The group followed Sebas to the baths while exchanging such banter. I watched them go, then turned towards Iris and Finne.

“I guess I’ll go train a little, what about you two? You can participate or watch, or take a rest for today if you want.”

“Well, I don’t really have anything else to do, so I want to participate!”

“Hmm, I think I’ll watch then.”

Finne wanted to participate, while Iris opted to watch.

Hmm, there might be unexpected dangers waiting for us on our journey to the elf village, so I wanted Iris to be able to fight too…being the princess, maybe she practiced self-defense?

“Iris, today we’re just doing some light training, so you can watch, but I’ll have you learn the basics of self-defense in the future, all right?”

“Ugh…okay…”

Iris begrudgingly nodded, so Finne and I smiled wryly.

We left the guest room and headed towards the entrance, when Ephyr, who happened to be in the corridor, called out to us.

“Oh, master! Are you going to train? I wish to participate too! If we are going back to my village, I need to be stronger and— ”

“Ephyr? You have other tasks to take care of today.”

“Our apologies for the disturbance, milord.”

Before Ephyr could finish her sentence, Lyla interrupted her, while Mia grabbed her shoulders and dragged her away.

“P-please waaaaaiiii…”

“D-do your best….”

I uttered some words of encouragement, but Ephyr was already too far to hear them.

~

After the training, Finne, Iris and I took a bath, then went to the living room.

We took a leisurely long bath, so when we got out it was already time for dinner.

Tendo and the others had gone back to sleep after the bath, then woke up and waited for us in the living room.

Lyla and Mia had prepared dinner, which was served to us by Sebas, Asha, and Ephyr.

The food looked really delicious today too.

The dishes on the table were typically found in Japan too: white rice, meat and potatoes, grilled fish, fried chicken, and other familiar recipes.

Suzuno was very surprised at the sight.

“Wow, it almost looks like we’re back home!”

I nodded to the visibly excited Suzuno.

“Yeah, I taught Lyla and Mia how to make them. It was pretty hard to find the right ingredients, actually.”

“Whoa, there’s rice too! Where did you find it?”

“I got it from the Bacchus trading company.”

Tendo nodded, convinced.

“Oh, Gassul’s place…impressive that they sell even stuff like this.”

“They got it from eastern countries, apparently. I was pretty shocked when I saw it, honestly.”

After I started living in the residence I felt like I wanted to eat more familiar food, so I looked for rice first.

Dillan said he had never seen or eaten anything like that, so I checked all the trading companies in town, but couldn’t find anything.

Then I recalled that Bacchus’ trading company had a branch in Perdis, so I went to check it out and unexpectedly found some. The branch manager was actually Gulliver, a merchant I had traveled with before, so he even gave me a discount.

Bacchus had apparently told him to give me special treatment if I visited the store…that Bacchus has really been helpful to me. I should thank him properly one day.

“I never expected to eat something like this in this world! Aah, it’s been a long month!”

“The fried chicken looks delicious!”

“The meat and potatoes too!”

Asakura, Mogami, and Shinonome too had sparkles in their eyes.

“Haha, I don’t want to keep you waiting, let’s dig in!”

Finne, Iris, and Tendo’s group took their seats.

After they finished setting the plates, Asha, Sebas, Lyla, Mia, and Ephyr sat down too.

“Eh?”

“Hm? What’s wrong, Tendo?”

Tendo looked unsure whether to continue or not, then spoke.

“Well, I mean…they’re your servants, right? I was surprised that they sat down with us…”

“Well, do you have a problem with that?”

“No, of course, not, it’s just…when we were in the Glicente royal castle, the servants just stood while we ate…”

I see, so that was the reason.

“Well, I guess that’s how it goes in a royal castle. We all eat together in my house, it tastes better that way.”

Finne and Iris nodded to my words.

Tendo and the others looked relieved too.

“Right, that’s true!”

“We couldn’t get used to it, actually, it always felt kind of awkward…”

Mogami, Asakura, and Shinonome too nodded in agreement to Tendo and Suzuno’s words.

“Yeah, I bet. Anyway, let’s eat!”

“Yeah!”

We all started eating then.

Looking at Tendo’s group eating happily, I felt warm and fuzzy inside too.

I was kicked out for not being a Hero like them, but they were worried and came looking for me, as friends.

There were annoying people like Mitsurugi and his lackeys, who tormented me every chance they got, but it was nice to have classmates — no, friends.

The dinner thus continued in a fun and warm atmosphere.