Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Book 3: The Flowtier Days

Chapter 31: Party Leader

“He~y, we’re ready to order here!”

“Yes sir~! I’m on my way. Please wait for just a second please!”

And the noisy hustle and bustle at the Bear’s Keg Inn lunchtime rush echoes in its dining hall.

In the middle of the crowd, Lana weaves through gracefully, and arrives at the customer’s table.

Lana: “So what would you like today?”

She’s energetic as usual.

“Two Lunch Specials and one hamburger meal. One special with bread, and one with rice.”

Lana: “Got it. Thank you. I’ll bring it out as soon as it’s ready.”

She quickly writes down the order and goes to the kitchen to take it to Mr. Nord.

She returns from the kitchen and quickly cleans off the tables for the next customers with rapid efficiency.

She is quick, but she’s not sloppy. She clears off two tables in record time and greets and welcomes in the customers waiting at the front,

Yup, she was gone for a little bit, but she hasn’t lost her touch at all.

I think she’s even more energetic now than before we went to Centraleo. Her energetic smile is infectious and customers are returning it to her involuntarily.

Her experience at the Capital must be playing its part. Lana was wondering about her future, but it may not be now, but she’s seriously considering the prospect of entering Academia in the future. But even so, she is putting her all into helping out with the Inn while she is still here.

……I think that’s a very hard life with a lot of long hours ahead, but looking at her now, those worries dissipate.

Well, telling her not to over do it is not my job, but it’s Mr. Nord and Mrs. Linda’s.

I, of course, reported everything that happened at the Capital to them.

And they were surprised that we stayed at the Black Dragon Knights’ barracks during our time there.

Henry: “Lana~, I’m leaving the money here.”

Lana: “Oh, yes, thank you! Mr. Henry, are you heading out?”

Henry: “Going to Jend’s to help with Ferris’ move.”

I place the change for my lunch special onto the counter

Lana comes and quickly picks it up, and I leave the Bear’s Keg Inn.

<<<<>>>>

Henry: “Hey, how’s it going?”

I come to the storage building of one of Flowtier’s most prestigious business group’s mansion. Jend’s family runs the business, and I’m at his house.

I come here often to train with Jend in his big yard, so the servants all know me very well.

I asked them where I could find Jend and Ferris, and they guided me here.

Jend: “Oh, hey Henry. Thanks for dropping by.”

Ferris: “Hello, Mr. Henry.”

Jend and Ferris both had blackened faces from the dust and soot, and were carrying stuff to and from the storage house.

Henry: “What are you doing?”

Jend: “Well, you know how Ferris rented an apartment near here.”

Henry: “Yeah, isn’t it one of the places your family owns?”

Hence, she got a really cheap rent contract very quickly.

She signed the contract the day after she arrived in Flowtier.

It wasn’t just her connection with Jend, but also her skills as a Healer helped too.

Having a skilled Healer nearby is a priceless advantage in case of emergencies, and it’s no wonder that his family wanted her to live close by.

But now that I think about it, I could have asked Jend to connect me with a realtor.

But I’m so deeply rooted in the Bear’s Keg Inn now, I probably won’t move out unless I absolutely have to.

Jend: “And as I talked about yesterday, she’s free to borrow any furniture that we’re not using inside this storage facility.”

Yup, hence why he asked me to come over to help move stuff.

Ferris: “I didn’t want to take anything for free. From the looks of it, it’s been a while since the contents of the facility has been organized, so I wanted to help sort through the things as we looked for appropriate furniture.”

Jend: “You really don’t have to worry about it. This place has been around since I was a kid, and I have yet to see anyone come through and clean it once.

Ferris: “……and Jend is like this, so this is just something I want to do in return.”

Jend: “And I can’t just leave her alone here, so I’m here as well.”

Ah, that’s just like Ferris to be so responsible, serious, and straight forward.

Ferris: “Hehe, thanks Jend.”

Jend: “If you want to thank me, you can thank me in other ways.”

Ferris: “Like what?”

Jend: “Like…you know. Other ways…”

Jend is embarrassed and breaks eye contact, and understanding what he meant, Ferris blushes and looks away.

I spat a huge loogie in my mind. PTOOEY.

Ferris: “Oh, Mr. Henry. You’re only here to help carry the furniture to my place. You can rest while we sort through and clean up this place. We should be done by the evening, so you can come back then. Worst case, we can carry the furniture by ourselves.”

Henry: “Hey hey hey… I can’t just leave you guys with all this work. I’m not that much of a jerk.”

I let out a sigh.

Ferris: “Oh…but…”

Henry: “I owe Jend’s family for letting me use their yard for training. This will be a good way to repay them.”

It’s a bit of work, but let’s knock this out of the way.

Henry: “Oh, but if you start flirting, I’ll punch some sense into you, Jend.”

Jend: “I—I won’t.”

Yeah, just like you weren’t just now. I can’t trust a man with a prior record.

Ferris: “Ha, hahaha, well Mr. Henry, thank you so much for the help.”

Henry: “No problem. So what do you want me to do?”

Jend: “Yeah, we’re carrying all the stuff out into the yard for now. Then we’ll tidy up inside the storage house, and reorganize the stuff outside and put it back.”

At a quick glance, Jend’s family storage contained old furniture, decorative pots, artwork, jewelry, accessories, and dresses. There were many kinds of things packed in here.

Henry: “You think any of this stuff is worth anything?” Jend: “There might be something in here that’s some worth of value, but the majority is just junk.”

I see.

Well, there seems to be some stuff related to family history, so I should still be careful in handling most of this stuff.

Well…

I roll up the sleeves of my arms and head into the storage house.

<<<<>>>>

Well, in the end…

There were lots of large furniture like drawers and sofas, but Jend and I are physical combat adventurers.

Ferris is a woman, but she has trained to be a knight, and her physical strength exceeded that of a normal adventurer.

If three people like that get to work, we finished getting everything out of the storage house in less than an hour.

I accidentally hit the drawer in the doorway of the entrance, but Jend just laughed it off and forgave me.

And we finished cleaning the inside of the storage house, and as we were in the middle of putting things back…

Teo: “……what are you all doing?”

Teo looked at us with a single brow raised.

Cyril: “Ummm….I thought we were celebrating Miss Ferris moving into her new apartment?”

And nearby, Cyril was holding a basket that had a delicious smell wafting from it, but let out a sigh after seeing what we were doing.

Henry: “Umm….well…” Cyril: “I bet Miss Ferris didn’t want to take the furniture for free or something along those lines, right?”

Henry: “……..yup.”

She nailed it. I’m a little surprised that Cyril understood Ferris so well. She must be looking more closer at people than I thought.

Or Ferris is just really easy to read and understand.

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Cyril: “I brought cake, and I hate for it to go to waste.”

Henry: “What?! You can make things other than cookies?!”

Cyril: “WHAT?!”

Cyril’s brows furrow.

Cyril: “Henry~~~, we need to have a talk about that image of me inside of that brain of yours. My HOBBY is baking. Did you even know that? And I’m also very selective about tea.”

Henry: “Oh, uh, really?”

Cyril: “YES REALLY. Please immediately correct that image of me right now. Like <VREEN-VREEN> very quickly!”

<VREEN-VREEN>? Yeah, I don’t understand at all.

But this is a very…womanly hobby.

But no matter what, I still can’t wash away the disappointment of when I look at her.

I know this is part of Cyril’s charm.

Ferris: “Oh yeah, I remember that you made cupcakes for me a while back.”

Cyril: “Oh Miss Ferris, you remember!”

Ferris: “Yeah, since she was little, Cyril has always been good at baking desserts. I’ve always been training to become a knight, so I’m terrible at those kinds of things.”

Cyril smiles victoriously with, “Hehehe” slipping through her mouth as she looks at me.

Cyril: “If that’s the case, with Teo, let’s get together with the 3 of us and learn how to bake. We can sleep over and do a fun pajama party too!”

Teo: “Me too? No thanks. I’m okay.”

Ferris: “Pajama? Sorry, I only wear a shirt and underwear to sleep.”

Jend blows out tea from his nose at the words.

C’mon. Really?

Henry: “But really…” The girls are enjoying their talk with Cyril at the center, and it made me think.

I look at Jend and I.

Henry: “Doesn’t it feel a little….you know…like we’re out of the circle?”

Jend: “It’s just your imagination. You’re the party leader after all.”

Henry: “…..huh? Since when was I the leader of this party?”

It’s the first I heard of this.

Jend: “What do you mean, ‘Since when’? You’re our veteran adventurer, and you’ve been determining the course of this party this entire time.”

Henry: “But this is a party that started with you and Cyril. In my mind, you were always the leader, Jend.”

Jend: “……what? That’s not right. It has to be you. I don’t have enough strength to lead this group yet.”

Henry: “Well why not experience what it’s like being the leader right now? You’ll be meeting with other party leaders, and it’ll be a good experience for you.”

I simply don’t want to do that kind of bothersome work if I can help it.

We’re pushing the leadership responsibilities onto each other when Cyril’s ears perk up and come towards us.

Cyril: “Hey hey~~~ I overheard you guys. If you’re trying to determine the party leader, hehehehe, if you two don’t want to do it, then I, the amazing Miss Cyril, will take up the baton and…”

Teo: “No, Cyril. Stop.”

Ferris: “I’m sorry Cyril, but I think it’ll be too much for you.”

The women step in immediately. Cyril is protesting with, “Why can’t I do it?!” but isn’t it obvious?

Teo: “……even if we were to count Cyril’s overly positive personality as a plus…”

Cyril: “Teo, what do you mean by, ‘even if we were to count’ huh?”

Teo: “BUT! ….no matter how you look at it, she doesn’t have the right personality for a party leader.”

And Teo definitively cuts through to her conclusion.

Ferris: “I’m sorry, Cyril. I’m of the same opinion.”

Jend: “Me too.”

Henry: “And I’m with everyone else.”

Cyril: “Whaaaaaaat……”

Cyril pouts with her cheeks stuck out. If this was anything else other than adventuring, I might let her be a leader…like maybe a cooking club? But this is about our party. I can’t let this one slide.

Teo is still a child, and in a different way than Cyril, she does not have a leader’s personality. Ferris is very serious and straight-forward, but I feel like she would be caught up too much in idealism.

Henry: “And since it comes down to Jend or myself, Jend, who is one of the oldest party members, should be the leader. Yes. And we’re done here.”

Cyril: “…….ummmm…”

Everyone looks at me.

Teo: “You’re the oldest.”

Teo points at me for emphasis.

Ferris: “Mr. Henry, you’re the Heroic Warrior. No matter how you look at it, people will always see you as the face of this party.”

Ferris follows up.

Jend: “You’re the strongest out of us right now.”

Jend, you too?

Cyril: “……….well, hmph. I guess so.”

And Cyril is still pouting.

…….wait, I can’t say no now, can I?

In fact, I’ve never been a party leader before. Before Gileverte, even at the peak of my career, people told me I’m way too dangerous and couldn’t trust me with a party. And after that, I just basically spent a year sitting on my ass…

But no matter what I say, it doesn’t look like it’ll change their minds…

………………..and being unable to change the tide, I became the leader of this party.

And with Cyril and Teo’s help, we successfully finished cleaning and reorganizing the storage house, and moved Ferris into her new apartment.

We thoroughly enjoyed Cyril’s fruit cake, and deepened our friendship that night.