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(Warp!)
Remember Michio, you’re not doing anything that is against the rules. Your Intelligence Card says that you are an Explorer, and there is nothing wrong with an Explorer using Dungeon Walker (because that’s how it should look to anyone who would happen to catch a glimpse of me) to move around the Labyrinth. So whatever you’re doing, make sure to stay calm and act as naturally as possible.
With such thoughts filling my head, I went through the Warp portal and emerged in our house on the other side.
「Roxanne, I’m back.」
「Ah! Welcome back, master!」
When Roxanne noticed my arrival, she immediately stopped wiping the floor, stood up and bowed to me respectfully. Her posture as she was doing so was flawless as always. The only thing that could possibly make that greeting even better would be her wearing her maid uniform. But I guess that would be asking too much of her, since these clothes looked like they were pretty expensive, and there’s just no way she would use them during common household chores. But now that I think about it…  the way she did it and how she didn’t even make a single needless move… there’s no way she learned to do that without someone teaching her how to do it.
「Roxanne, the way you greeted me just now… was that something that you have been taught back when you were still in the custody of Alan-san’s Slave Shop?」
Initially I thought that maybe the time she spent in the Slave Merchant’s shop might not be a pleasant memory to her, but if our one-time gig as Alan-san’s bodyguards is to serve as an indication, then it does not seem like she found it all that bad, at least when the people there and the clothes that she had to wear were concerned. These information might prove crucial if I ever wanted to go back there to buy myself a new slave.
「Yes, that’s right. Uhm… was it… weird of me to do it?」
「Not at all. It was great.」
So my guess that she learned that kind of greeting at the Slave Merchant’s shop was a correct one after all. Instead of getting into that matter further, I moved closer to her and gently stroked her dog ears.
「Thank you very much. Uhm, master? Isn’t it about time for the furniture we ordered to arrive?」
Even though she had to realize what I was trying to do by stroking her ears, Roxanne quickly changed the topic before the things got the chance to get more heated up. I can’t say that I liked that, but I’m not going to be pushy or forceful on her.
「Hmm, I think it is. Back at the shop they said that the delivery was going to be made around noon, right? In that case it really should be about time.」
And, as if they were just waiting for my cue, we heard the sound of knocking on our door.
「Delivery service here! Please come and collect your purchased items!」
Well wouldn’t you know, it’s the deliverymen with our furniture. When I walked out to the front of the house to check the order, I saw that everything we ordered was delivered by two carriages drawn by horses. Wow, did we really order that much? It surely didn’t look like it when we were doing the shopping yesterday, but maybe that’s not the issue of the quantity of items, but rather how big they are? Anyway…
「Are there any documents I have to sign?」
「No, now that we have delivered your purchased items, there is no need for that. So, where do you want us to place them?」
「If it’s alright, then just go and place them all inside the house in the main hall.」
「Are you really sure about that? We can carry them all to specific rooms if you want.」
「Thank you for your consideration, but we will manage.」
It’s great that they also offer to carry the purchased items wherever the client wants them to, but I think it would be better to only have them carry it all to the main hall, just to be on the safe side. It’s not like I have something against those guys, but I would rather not have strangers walk around my newly rented house. That was a common sense back on earth, and I think that applying it in this world as well won’t hurt me in the slightest, even though having so many pieces of furniture in a single room might make it somewhat difficult to move around it. If I didn’t have Warp or using it inside of the house would not be possible, then this could have been a serious problem, but as things stand, I think Roxanne and I will manage just fine if all we have to do is to simply carry of all of the bought furniture to its respective rooms. From the looks of it we will have to carry the cupboards and the closet together, but the mattresses for the bed can be taken separately. The biggest thing from among all of them is definitely going to be the table, but since the kitchen is located here on the ground floor then I think it will be more then enough if we carry it to the room next to it.
「Well then, before we do anything else, I think it would be good to lightly wash all of these.」
「Right. We will do it with every piece of furniture, but for the time being let’s start with the chairs and the table so that we can assemble everything needed for the dining room. After that, let’s move them to the room next to the kitchen.」
「All right.」
Now that the delivery guys left and we stayed alone once again, we proceeded to move with the work: Roxanne was in charge of cleaning the newly-delivered furniture and I was setting them up all around the house. When it was the table’s turn to be moved, Roxanne helped me move it to the dining room. Now that the table and the chairs have been taken care of, plenty of room has been freed in the otherwise cramped room. When that part of the chores was done, Roxanne wiped the closet and the cupboards with a wet cloth to remove the dust that has stuck to it. My plan for them was that I wanted to have either the cupboards or the closet to go upstairs to the second floor. I think that the closet would be the better choice of the two, because we could place it in our bedroom or the room right next to it, meaning that we would have a convenient place where we could keep all of our clothes. At least that was my initial plan, but…
「Man, that thing sure is heavy.」
When we tried to carry the closet upstairs, it immediately became apparent that it was too heavy for just the two of us to carry. Now I’m really starting to regret not letting those guys from the delivery service carry it there for us.
「In that case, maybe it would be best if the cupboards were to be in the kitchen and the closet in the room next to it, tucked in the corner where it won’t take as much space?」
「Yeah, I think that will be the best possible thing to do.」
Now that we actually proceeded with the work, the first floor has finally started to look like an actual home where people can live. When it comes to the second floor, then we are going to do just like we agreed and make the biggest room there, the one with the fireplace, into our personal bedroom. In two trips up and down the stairs, we carried the bed’s frame and the mattresses up to the second floor. We got lucky that instead of being one giant one they were actually two separate ones, because otherwise we might have had a distinctly difficult time with moving them as well. We placed the frame in our bedrooms and then smacked the mattresses on top of it. For the time being, this was the only piece of furniture in the bedroom which was otherwise left exactly how we saw it when we first came here: no carpets, no other pieces of furniture, no wallpapers, nothing. Admittedly, it looks pretty terrible, but given the time I believe we will do something about it. However, now that the arrangement of furniture is done, I think it is high time for something else entirely.
「How about we…check if the bed is working exactly as it should? What do you say to that, Roxanne?」