CH 192

“We’re here,”

Anton’s family business, the Severi Workshop, was situated about 30 minutes’ walk from Neihoff city proper.

The front part of the building served as the proper storefront, whereas the back portion of the shop served as the workshop.

“Please, do come in.” Everyone entered the store, except for Fer and Dora-chan. The destructive duo was left outside. [1]

“Ah, it’s the young master. Is there something the matter?” a shop assistant came out to meet us and greeted Anton immediately.

“Hi, Olof. It’s nothing. I’m just showing my senior Adventurer friend around the store. Would you call my father over so he could meet Mukouda-san?”

“Yes, please wait a moment,”

“Mukouda-san, please wait for father. I’m sure he’ll be very pleased to greet you.”

Ah, no, no. Surely there’s no need for a busy man like your father to come out to meet me? However, I can’t bring myself to refuse their shining, expectant eyes [1] [2].

A short while later, Olof-san came out, followed by a thickset man in his fifties.

“Hey there, Anton,” said the man. “This is your senior Adventurer friend?”

“Yes, father. Mukouda-san is an A Rank Adventurer!”

“A Rank?! Since when do you hang out with high ranking Adventurers?”

Aah, looks like Anton’s father was surprised to hear that I’m an A Rank Adventurer. [1] I’m so sorry, Anton’s father, I am an A Rank Adventurer with no real skill. [3]

“Ah, we encountered Mukouda-san yesterday after getting into a spot of trouble. As thanks, we’re now showing him around the city. He insisted on coming over here when he knew that we ran a pottery workshop. We’ll be visiting Bridgette’s workshop later.”

“Ho…, is that so,”

“Hello, my name is Mukouda. Please accept my apologies for making Anton my guide even though we’ve just met.”

“Oh no, no, not at all. Please, go ahead and take a look around as you like. I can’t show you where we make the potteries, but please feel free to look around the shop. We have complete control over the things we make, so I’m confident you’ll find some things you won’t get anywhere else.”

Oh, due to trade secret reasons, I guess most shops like this would not want unrelated people into their workshops. That makes sense. Iida-san herself did mention something how every workshop has their own way of making pottery. Each workshop has its own secret ways of incorporating magic into their product. [1]

Anyway, let’s take a look around.

The goods at Severi’s Workshop were largely made up of potteries that looked like they came straight out of a Japanese artisanal pottery shop. As a Japanese, I can’t help but be thrilled by the coarse and simple looking potteries that could fetch tens of thousands of yen back in Japan. [1] [2] [5]

Anton’s father was kind enough to give me a guide as he pointed out various ceramic products. I was really taken by one of his new creation, an indigo blue cup.

“I had a hard time getting this particular shade of blue. Also, the glaze within the cup is made with ground magic stone. Anything you pour into this cup will be cooled down.”

What? An auto-cooling cup? Isn’t that too awesome?

The shape and colour were definitely to my Japanese taste, but more importantly, auto-cooling! How cool is it to drink beer from a cup like this? [1] [2]

I must have this.

“How much is this one?”

“This one is, uhm… 28 gold coins” [4]

At first, I was surprised, 28 gold for a single cup sounded like a lot of money, but if I think about it. A lot of work and resources went into this cup. Labour and skill aside, it has powdered magic stone in it, so it was only natural for cups like these to be expensive. In fact, considering how much magic stones cost, I had a feeling that Anton’s father gave me quite a hefty discount. [1] [2]

This one definitely caught my eye, but I still want to have a look at other goods on display. After a brief tour, I took a liking to the set of beige plates made by the father’s apprentice. Noticing my interest, he pointed out some moss green bowls made by the same apprentice. I was so taken in that I took a set of five bowls and plates. [2]

It turned out that Severi Workshop was pretty famous. Aside from myself, other merchants were browsing through their wares. We struck up some small conversation while admiring Severi’s merchandise and I found out that even nobles from different cities would send their servants here to buy tableware. [5]

Well, well, looks like coming here really was a good idea.

After giving it some thought, I decided to go with the auto-cooling cup, 28 coins; set of five plates at 15 gold and set of five bowls at 20 gold. Clearly, things made by an apprentice could not be compared to the ones made by the master. Everything came to a total of 63 gold, but then Anton’s father gave me a further 3 gold discount. [1] [2]

“Oh, but I don’t think I should,” I said, not used to getting discounts like this.

“No, no, I’m very happy that an A Rank Adventurer deigned to visit our humble little shop. I hope you will use our products with love and care.”

“Yes, I will treasure them and use them well.” If I had bought these kinds of pottery back in Japan, I might have tucked them away only to be taken out for New Year or other special celebrations, but now I have plenty of money! Ah, but I will not be careless with them either… [6]

“Oi, make sure you guide your friend well, Anton.”

“I will,”

We left Anton’s place and headed to Bridgette’s place, Dovan’s Workshop.

Please Read this at Kitchennovel dot com ~

Bridgette’s family workshop and house was only a 15-minute walk from Severi’s.

“Mother, I’m home.”

“Oh, it’s Bridgette, is there something the matter?”

Dovan’s Workshop was laid out in a similar way to Severi’s with the store at the front and the workshop and other buildings in the back.

It looked like Bridgette’s mother was in charge of taking care of customers.

“Um, we’re giving Mukouda-san a tour of the city. He’s an Adventurer we met yesterday. When I told him that we also have a shop here, he says that he wants to have a look at it. Oh, and Mukouda-san is an A Rank Adventurer.” [7]

“A Rank!? Ara, ara, maa, maa, I’m calling father now. Wait here please.” With that, she ran off, but we could hear her voice calling, “Father! What should I do?! It’s an A Rank! An A Rank is here! There’s an A Rank in our shop!” [7]

Bridgette covered her face, but we could still see her red cheeks and ears as she said embarrassedly, “Mama…”

I could sort of understand why. It must be very embarrassing to have such a loud and, ah, expressive relative. Let’s pretend to have gone deaf and blind for the moment. [8]

We only had to wait for a little while before Bridgette’s mother ran back with ‘father’. “Father, this is Mukouda-san. He’s an A Rank Adventurer, make sure you be polite to him, ne?”

“I understand. I am Bridgette’s father, Dovan. Thank you for taking care of our daughter.”

“I am Mukouda. Please accept my apologies for coming here so suddenly.”

“Oh, no, not at all. We are honoured to have you come. Please make yourself comfortable and feel free to take a look around.”

“I will be in charge of Mukouda-san’s tour. So, mother and father can leave it all to me.” Bridgette was determined to make her parents leave, but her parents were equally determined to stick around. So it was a stalemate. [2]

Therefore, she used the tried and true method of ignoring their existence and pushed me towards their displays and whispered with a red face, “Oh, goodness, my parents… Mukouda-san, I’m so, so, sorry.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” really, it is. Nevertheless, I took her cue and pretend mother and father were not there as we looked around. At first glance, the pottery here reminded me of English meals and big old houses with queens and duchesses nibbling on little cakes and drinking tea with their little fingers sticking out. [1] [2]

“My father is a first-generation ceramic maker, so our place isn’t as big or famous as Severi’s, but we’re really quite popular you know? Lots of people buy their ceramics from us.”

Well, that’s not surprising.

Just from looks alone, the pottery here has a very luxurious and elegant feel to it. There was a lot of white background with delicately wrought flowery patterns that women would like.

“Oh, this is very nice.” The item that caught my eye was a tall cup with a handle. I could imagine serving hot chocolate with marshmallows in these, or maybe cold coffee with whipped cream and a fancy straw. There were five of them and were clearly a set.

“That one there is 4 gold coins for a set of five pieces.”

A voice said from behind me. It was Father-san, who was still following us.

“Father…” Bridgette muttered.

“I-it’s fine, isn’t it? How can I resist the chance to see my work being chosen by an A Ranker?”

Haha, father and daughter sure have a close relationship. I thought as I continued to browse. As mentioned, Dovan’s was not very big, but what pieces they have were very beautiful and finely made. The prices were very competitive too, perhaps due to the fact that none of them seemed to have any magical properties to it. [1] [2]

It was really a feast for the eyes and I allowed myself to be swept up in the father’s enthusiasm as he explained all the little intricacies of the pieces he had personally made. Bridgette was wearing a very hangdog look, clearly opting to give up on trying to rein her father in. [1]

After touring the shop, I settled on the set of five tall mugs, a set of five dessert plates, as well as five dinner plates, five soup plates and a set of five very lovely teacups and their cute little saucers~

They were all very white with finely drawn, colourful flowers. The teacup and saucer sets were so pretty that I was unconsciously drawn to them. I can’t be blamed though, the flowers on these teacups were so bright and vivid that I just couldn’t leave them there!

Bridgette’s father even said they were his latest masterpiece.

Masterpiece!

And they were really affordable too. Only 10 gold coins for five sets of teacups and saucers! In fact, the whole lot cost me only 35 gold and 5 silver coins. Father was even kind enough to doff off the 5 silver coins for me ~ [9]

“Thank you so much for your patronage! And thank you for buying so much!”

“No, no, thank you for letting me feast my eyes on such amazing pieces. They are certainly a treat to the senses.” Aah, it felt so good to go on a buying spree like this. Especially such gorgeous pieces. As expected of a pottery town, there are so many lovely things to see. [1] [2]

We left Dovan’s Workshop with mother and father waving at us.

I was all smiles because it’s been such a long time since my last shopping spree…

“Oi, I’m hungry.”

“Me too,”

“Sui too~”

On our way back to the city centre, Fer, Dora and Sui telepathically sent me these messages. Hmm, to be honest, although we all had a late breakfast, I’m feeling kind of hungry too. [1] [2]

“I’ll make something for us as soon as we get back, alright? So please bear with it for a while.”

“Roger that!” came the chorus.

Oh, right, since these kids are still on a break, I could invite them to lunch as thank you for showing me around.

“Hey, thanks to you guys I got a lot of nice things today. How about I treat you to some lunch?”

“Is that okay?” asked Anton

[10] But the rest of the group were not as modest, “We accept!”

“Of course, of course,”

Everyone looked up at me with shining eyes, I supposed the BBQ they had yesterday gave them expectations on what I’d dish out later. Suddenly, I felt the weight of responsibility to not let these kids’ expectations down. [1] [2]

Well, I can’t spend too much time on it, but I also can’t compromise on taste…

Never mind, I’m sure I’ll think of something before we reach the mansion.

[Gumihou: I’m sure they’ll love whatever you give them Mukouda-san]

[1] Structural Change: Combine two floating paragraphs and one dialogue into one paragraph.

[2] Additional Details: To add texture to an otherwise flat narrative.

[3] Zzonkedd: Poor guy, he’s always so self-conscious

[4] Zzonkedd: Do they just come up with the prices at the time or what? Lol

Gumihou: Most likely. Especially if they are artisans who made the products themselves. If they don’t like you, the price would probably be 280 gold. If you ask for a discount, the price might even go up to 500 gold, lol.

[5] Additional Details for Logistic Purposes: It turns out that ____ random info__. Mukouda seems like a personable guy who could talk to any random people. So, I just patched over how he actually found out all these random details.

[6] Porcelain and ceramic products have a long history in Japan, and like the special tea sets that are only taken out for special occasions

[7] Structural Change: More natural sounding dialogues, Included Japanese exclamations in italics because they are expressive and funny.

[8] Added More Detail + Combine 3 floating paragraph: If Mukouda is a typical Japanese and not from Osaka, loud voices and overly enthusiastic people are naturally embarrassing. The way they deal with it was to pretend they did not see it.

[9] Deleted Boring Info: Deleted the A is xx coins, B is xx coins, C is xx coins… and just gave the summary with a one other detail

[10] Structural and Detail Change for Logistical Purposes: Dialogue inconsistent. Apply patch