1-7. Open Air Bath, Objective and Sightseeing (2/2)

Act 5. Might as well enjoy the exotic atmosphere.

With how real this all feel, sightseeing is enjoyable. My budget is plentiful anyway.

Let's ask Mr. knight if there's do-it-all person who's willing to guide me for a tour.

Are these all?

I added soap in the postscript before I slept.

◇

”This is the first time I've been asked to be a tour guide.”

So she says, the 20 years old jack-of-all-trades, Nadi-san, while laughing bashfully. She's not a beauty, but she's full of cute gestures. She must be plainly popular.

Normally she's a contractor for miscellaneous job from the worker guild, apparently, hired to become a tour guide is quite unusual.

Since walking is a pain, I borrow a roofless horse-drawn carriage to tour the town.

”The west street is not too prosperous so the citizen not only deal with the front store, but also various slightly gray goods in the back.”

”For example?”

”Well, something like love potion on the alchemist and pawn shop, moneylender, even brothels exist. The slave company is also located on the same street.”

I reacted to ”slave” word. I don't want to meet that little girl~ I can only feel trouble from her.

”Oh? Do you have an interest for slaves? Guard job is impossible, but they can be made to carry your load or chore during your journey. Most peddlers usually employ them.”

”Recently they closed after the stars fell before, but they're going to resume. They will open 3 days after the day after tomorrow.”

It seems that the slaves that the slave company buy are leftovers from the slave market or in training, there's usually a slave auction held once a month.

”If you want to hire guards for the journey, then there are a lot of them gathered in the bar. Since it's hard to find trusty ones, in case the need arise, do ask [Jack-of-All-Trades] by all means!”

The carriage proceed along the inner wall of the west street.

”Around here is the craftsmen's block. Woodwork, blacksmithing, leather craft and many other craftsmen are here. Most of them don't have an actual store. Generally they open small store or stall and directly sell their products to the customer in person.”

Can they repair weapon and armor over here?

”If you have a craftsman acquaintance there then there's no problem but generally to prevent trouble, one usually go to the arms shop as an intermediate. There are high class arms shops within the inner wall for knights, and shops for soldiers and general public on the Biso street in the eastern town. Hunters like to go to the western town since there are a lot of meat processing stores, there along with an arms shop.”

Let's just roughly look at each store on the street. It probably won't end in one day.

Come to think of it, isn't the lord's mansion located in the north?

”You're well informed. Do you want to look inside the inner wall for a bit? Though there's only harvest work to be seen there.”

Well, I'd hate to be mistaken as a food thief if I walk there on foot.

The carriage proceed along the western inner wall, toward the narrow street between the inner and outer wall.

After advancing for a while we got to the open gate, the soldiers guarding the gate are present too. The driver nods to the guard and continue to enter the northern district.

There's a vast farm land over there. The carriage continue on the farm road. The farmers are harvesting Gabo, the same fruit I bought yesterday.

I don't know if it's normal, but there are a lot of kids around elementary school age helping.

”Those children are probably from the orphanage, since it's currently harvest season, the children from the town might be coming here to work.”

Even children work? No more neet?!

My face became strange for a little while.

”If they're not from wealthy family, then children around that age normally work.”

Don't they go to school? WHO please, support Seryuu City!

”School? If they're nobles or come from wealthy family then they usually study in private, but schools only exist in the royal capital.”

”Furthermore, the Gabo fruits those children harvest are actually staple foods for people with light wallets.”

Hmm? But the inn serves bread and thin rice porridge, sometimes even stew right?

”No well, Monzen inn is relatively high level so they don't serve Gabo fruit. On the west street, most stalls are selling flat bread, gruel, and pickled vegetables. It has strong smell, bitter, and hard to chew so the wealthy rarely ever eat it. Since you can eat cheap things until your stomach full, they're not only eaten by the orphanage children but also by about half of the general populace too.”

If it's like that, won't normal potatoes suffice?

”The quantity of the yearly harvest differ. Although the harvest area becomes smaller, they could be harvested in one month period and rarely fail. Furthermore it has a property that enable it to fertilize fallow. Thanks to Gabo fruit, the number of orphanages has increased dramatically.”

What a convenient fantasy fruit. Even opportunism has limit.

Even so, Nadi-san is quite knowledgeable... she looks like a literary woman graduated from the royal capital school.

”I wasn't raised in the manor inside the wall, the food situation in rural area was pretty terrible.”

She grew up outside eh, I wonder if the lord has a monopoly. It's a subtle mystery.

”It's goblin's favorite food. If it's not a place surrounded by wall like this, goblins would come in a blink of an eye and devour them greedily.”

”Back in the day, there was an explosive increase of goblins in the northern part of the kingdom, the scholar who investigated the cause concluded that it's related to Gabo fruit. In those days, if someone found a Gabo tree they would burn it down, then it began to be used as a food source and now it has become the staple food of the lower strata people. However, even now, if someone finds a Gabo tree, they would burn it down.”

The wall around the farm is quite a bit lower than the town's wall. Is it around 2 meter and a half?

I wonder what that tower standing tall 1 kilometer away is? It's been in my mind since before I entered the farm. It's around 20 meter tall and look surprisingly rugged.

”That's a self defense mechanism built to repulse Wyvern attacks. The one in the castle is for the castle's defense, the one here is used when the attacks come to the farm.”

”About 40 years ago when the black dragon attacked, it played a very big role. Back then, although a tower half as tall as this was brought down, the records depicting the successful repelling remain.”

Repel... Did it escape through the sky?

”Leaving aside the Wyvern, as expected, defeating true dragon is impossible. Only someone like the ancestor king, Yamato who was a great magician or Saga empire's hero are able to do something like that.”

...Hero, eh?

”Saga empire has this hero's summoning great magic. Since the compensation is enormous, except when the 66 year Demon King's resurrection cycle begin, it's not performed. Yamato-sama and Saga Empire's founder were also heroes who were summoned when the world was in crisis back in the day. It's so dreamy.”

As I thought, these Yamato and Saga-san... I can slightly see through why the holy swords were named Excalibur and such.

When the story was finished, the one lap tour around the farm was also finished. The carriage went back towards the inner wall.

Edited by : Fate Troope