by Funa
On the other hand, just because an inn was costly did not automatically mean that it was good. And each inn had its own selling points, like amazing food or having its own baths… It was always a matter of cost versus value, as well as one’s individual preferences.
In short, the only thing to be done was to investigate all the options and decide for themselves.
Because this town was so small, it had only an outpost of the Hunters’ Guild, rather than a proper branch. Normal hunters would come to such a place to sell off the prey they had hunted and herbs and such they had gathered, as well as turning in their extermination trophies for points and rewards. However, the Crimson Vow had no need to sell their stock in some backwater place like this where they would almost certainly receive a lower price than elsewhere. As long as the goods were inside Mile’s storage space (read: inventory), they would never spoil, so it was better to simply hold out until they were at a larger branch where they could get a better rate.
Still, it did behoove them to at least show their faces at the office. There was a chance that there might be some interesting jobs available, and they might be able to glean some information from the other hunters, too.
And so, they popped in to scan the intel board and the job board.
There was nothing. No useful information, no interesting jobs, no lucrative jobs—nothing. All they found were incredibly standard job requests and dailies: goblin hunting, herb gathering, and all manner of boring things like that.
“So I’m thinking we just stay the night here and then head out first thing in the morning?”
The other three nodded fervently at Reina’s proposal.
Of course, checking the boards was not the only reason the four had stopped in at the guild outpost. They still needed one more important thing: a recommendation for an inn. Once they were finished checking the boards, they headed straight to the reception desk to ask for more information.
***
“What the heck was that about?!” shouted Reina.
As the Crimson Vow left the guild outpost behind, they walked through the town square, looks of utter bewilderment upon their faces.
“Mm…” Pauline replied. “I guess our only choice here is to investigate the inns for ourselves.”
The information they had received about the town’s inns was incredibly peculiar.
Apparently, there were two inns in this town. That was typical. It was precisely what they had expected. However, when they asked which of the two the clerks would recommend, the staff members’ opinions were firmly divided.
Mavis asked the first young man she saw, who recommended an inn called the House of the Maiden’s Prayer. Even if this was only a guild outpost, there was no reason a lower-ranking guild employee would try to deceive a hunter, so they decided that there was no reason not to take the recommendation. Just then, however, another clerk, a young woman in her early twenties, stopped them.
According to the young woman, the House of the Maiden’s Prayer was dreadful, and instead they should stay at the Wild Bear Lodge.
Neither of the two appeared to be lying. It was obvious that each of them thought that their recommendation was the truly superior choice. And so, they assumed that this meant that neither inn was definitively good or bad but that it was merely a matter of trivial differences and personal preferences. Therefore, they decided to go with the recommendation of the first young man, who appeared to be in his late teens, closer in age to them. That was when another girl of around fifteen or sixteen, who had previously been helping another hunter, stepped in to voice her disapproval—quite strongly.
“Do not go to the Maiden’s Prayer! The Wild Bear Lodge is the only reasonable choice!”
However, another man in his early thirties heard this and argued, “No, it’s definitely the Maiden’s Prayer!” But then another middle-aged hunter jumped in with, “How could you recommend that freakin’ piece-of-crap inn?! The Wild Bear’s the only way to go!” and then…
The situation, thankfully, did not escalate beyond bickering and grumbling; however, seeing that neither side would be willing to concede their point, the Crimson Vow hurriedly took their leave.
“This seems like it’s a little more serious than a matter of people preferring one very similar inn over another just because of personal preferences,” said Pauline.
“Yeah,” Mavis agreed. “Everyone was like, ‘No, that inn is garbage, you have to go to this one!’ I never thought I’d ever see two groups so divided.”
Reina thought quietly as she listened, arms folded. And then…
“All right, change of plans! We’ll stay one night at each of the inns. That way we can figure out why their opinions are so divided and what the true source of this problem is!”
Reina was tittering as she said this—she had veered straight into “Let’s have fun!” mode.
“Sounds entertaining,” said Pauline. “I’m dying to know why it is that they’re so weirdly divided on this issue. It might even be a useful experience to help me learn more about managing my family’s shop…”
“Sounds good to me!” Mile chimed in. “I’ve been wanting to do something fun like this!”
“Then it’s decided! First off, let’s head to the House of the Maiden’s Prayer!”
And with that, Reina, Pauline, and Mile were off. Mavis shrugged and followed them.
Soon, they arrived at the House of the Maiden’s Prayer. Apparently, it was practically neighbors with the Wild Bear Lodge, which was only a stone’s throw away on the opposite side of the street.
“Why?” asked Mavis, surprised at their proximity.
In reality, it only stood to reason. This was a small town, and they were in the town’s center, near to the shopping district and the Hunters’ and Merchants’ Guild outposts. Both inns were in the center of affairs, facing out onto the main road. If you thought about it, this was the most suitable place for businesses such as theirs, targeted not at the locals, but at travelers who were passing through.
“Do you have a room for four available?” Reina asked as they entered the inn, facing the girl of fifteen or sixteen who was overseeing the reception counter.
“Welcome!” the girl replied with a smile. “Yes, we have some vacancies!”
She had a good manner for customer service.
“What? Two half-gold, without meals?”
Reina was a bit shocked to hear the girl explain the prices.
It was five silver per person per night, without meals included. In Japanese money, that would be nearly 5,000 yen. In other words, it was rather expensive. While it would be entirely reasonable to expect to pay like this at a business hotel in modern-day Japan, unlike Japanese hotels, these inns had no power outlets, fridges, TVs, or phones, so their furnishing and operation costs were completely different. Plus, it was not four single-person rooms they were after, but rather, one four-person room.
Still, if half the people at the guild were adamant about their recommendation, there must have been something here that was good enough to warrant such an extravagant fee. In addition, they had come here for the purpose of satisfying their curiosity, so even if it was a little pricey, they were not about to change their minds.
Naturally, they had to pay up front, so Reina pulled two half-gold pieces from her purse and handed them to the girl at the counter.
“Hot water is four half-silver per basin, and it’s one more half-silver to borrow a towel.”
“That’s a lot!” the four girls uttered without thinking.
However, the girl did not appear to even notice. She must have been used to such reactions from customers.
“Our dinner prices are on the menu on the wall over there. You can order food at any time before the second evening bell at 9 PM.”
The Crimson Vow turned to look at the menu posted on the wall, and read…
Vegetable Stew1 Silver
Vegetable Stir-Fry Special1 Silver
Soup and Rolls (2)1 Silver +
2 Half-Silver
Orc Meat Steak3 Silver + 5 Half-Silver
Ale5 Half-Silver
“That’s a lot!!!” the four of them shouted again, but the girl at the counter only continued to smile blithely.
***
“What is with the prices here?” Reina grumbled as they entered their room.
“This recommendation from the guild outpost is the real mystery,” said Mile. “We need to figure out what it is that warrants these prices…”
Mavis and Pauline nodded.
“Thankfully, since we have our cleaning magic, we at least don’t need to worry about wasting any money on that,” said Reina.
“But the same can’t be said for the food,” Mile added. “If there’s some kind of secret to it, we can’t just forego dinner and eat what we’ve got in storage…”
Reina and Pauline pouted.
Though the money that they had earned here and there in the past several days did not amount to very much, owing to the situations with the rock lizards, the bandits, and the wyvern, as well as their recent tussle with the beastfolk and elder dragons, their actual savings were nothing to scoff at. Enough so that coughing up ten or twenty silver would by no means break the bank.
However, most of the Crimson Vow were accustomed to a rather austere lifestyle. Even Mavis, thanks to hanging around the others for so long, had begun to take on a thriftiness that was unbecoming of a young noblewoman.
This disregarded Mile, who was also a noblewoman’s only daughter, but no one really thought of her in that way.
Mavis was a noble’s daughter. Pauline was a merchant’s daughter. Reina was a peddler’s daughter. And Mile was simply Mile. She was the singular complex creature that was Mile, no qualifiers attached. At least as far as the other three were concerned.
Thus was Mile’s status amongst the Crimson Vow.
“Anyway, the suspense is killing me. Let’s hurry up and go eat!”
It was unclear whether Mile was truly concerned about whether the secret of the inn’s popularity lay in their food or whether there were merely sirens going off in her head to warn her that her tank was running on empty—as her fuel consumption tended to be rather inefficient. Either way, no one had any reason to argue with her proposal, so they all headed down to the first-floor dining hall.
“Wha…?”
The room was packed. Every seat in the room was not taken, but there were a ton of people regardless—so many that it could not be only overnight guests eating here but locals as well.
This was a good sign. Any reputable inn tended to have patrons who came simply to eat. However, when they took a closer look around the room, they noticed something incredibly peculiar.
“There’s no one here but young men…” Pauline noted.
“Oh…”
Thanks to her…well-developed body, Pauline was suddenly the center of attention and realized this straight away. Indeed, though there were plenty of customers present, outside of the Crimson Vow, there were no women or children anywhere in the crowd—nor were there any elders. They were all young men of ages varying from fifteen or sixteen to somewhere in their thirties.
Now that they thought about it, all of the hunters at the outpost who had insisted that the Maiden’s Prayer was the best choice were young men, no older than their thirties. All of the women and elders had favored the Wild Bear.
“I think I’m beginning to understand why the opinions were so divided…” said Mile.
The other three nodded.
“Well, let’s just see how their food is,” said Reina. “If we don’t, then this whole thing will go nowhere.”
She had a point. The four of them took a seat at an open table and placed their orders.
“Vegetable stew, veggie stir-fry, soup with bread, and orc meat steaks, please! Two orders of each!”
No matter how overpriced it may be, Reina was not one to tighten her belt and order less just to save a few coins. Much as she might complain, food was food. That was the Reina way. The same went for Mile.
Of course, the order Reina had placed was not for her alone but for the whole table. She had ordered two of each dish so that they could all try each one and still get a chance to eat their fill.
This didn’t mean they might not still put in an order for seconds, later.
The girl who had previously stood at the reception counter took their order and relayed it to the kitchen, a voice of acknowledgement echoing back from inside. It seemed to be the voice of another young woman.
“………”
After a short while, the food was brought and placed upon the table. The Crimson Vow gazed upon it.
“It looks completely average…” said Mile.
“Actually, I feel like the portion size is even smaller than average,” quipped Pauline.
Naturally, Pauline’s complaint was a bit more pointed.
“It smells average, too, and the ingredients are nothing special… Actually—no, it seems like they might even be using cheap cuts of meat, and the amount of meat that’s in here really isn’t significant.” Mavis prodded at the stew with a spoon.
“Maybe they used a lot of high-quality seasonings? Let’s go ahead and try it…”
“Hmm…”
The four looked quite uncertain.
“It doesn’t taste awful. It’s not even that it’s actively bad, but…”
“It doesn’t taste good, either,” said Pauline, finishing Mavis’s sentence.
“Yeah,” Mile added. “It’s kind of like whenever Mavis has tried to make something.”
Hearing this, the appropriate phrase popped into Reina’s mind.
“Amateur cooking?”
“That’s it!”
The food was not inedible by any means, so the Crimson Vow continued to eat, all the while racking their brains over the mysteries that had yet to be solved: of why the food was so expensive and why so many customers readily came by.
After a short while, those who had finished eating stood from their seats and began to leave and a girl of seven or eight appeared from the kitchen to begin clearing the dishes and wiping down the tables. The customers looked upon her fondly.
The last call for orders had already gone out, so after the final set of cooked dishes emerged from the kitchen, another girl of twelve or thirteen appeared from the kitchen, and began assisting the first with the cleanup, while chatting with the customers. Judging by her voice and the conversations they could overhear, this girl appeared to be the chef.
The fact that the food was amateurish now made sense. It was because it had been made by an amateur.
It was possible that the food here was so well reviewed because it was amateur cooking made by a cute girl. Indeed, in the same way one could relish the taste of food made for you by your lover or imagine the feeling of a father having a meal cooked for his daughter…
The Crimson Vow considered this deeply, trying their hardest to understand.
The girl of around fifteen or sixteen, who had taken their order, and who appeared to be the eldest of the three they had seen so far, now returned to the counter to settle the tabs of the departing customers. Well, that wasn’t so strange a thing for her to do. In fact, it was necessary.
However, the Crimson Vow suddenly wondered: Why isn’t the oldest one doing the cooking?
This mystery was almost immediately solved by a conversation between a customer and the girl who was in charge of the kitchen.
“This must be hard on you, Miss Lafia. You’re so young, but you have to do all the cooking all by yourself…”
“Ahaha, if my older sister did the cooking, this place would fall to ruin.”
Suddenly, the Crimson Vow understood. They looked at the girl with pitying eyes.
“So are you all still getting guff from those guys at the Wild Bear?”
Oh? Something else was afoot!
The Crimson Vow strained their ears to listen in.
“Ah, yes, it’s still the same state
of affairs…” the girl said sadly, her expression downtrodden.
“I see. Keep your chin up! You can’t lose to guys like that, especially for the sake of your late parents! We all stand behind you, Miss Lafia!”
At this, men sitting at other tables raised their voices in agreement.
Now, the Crimson Vow truly understood. They now grasped the reason why there were so many customers, and the place was so strongly recommended, despite the higher-than-usual prices and the fact that the food was nothing worth writing home about—even a bit regrettably mediocre as far as inn food went.
“I absolutely refuse to use this place as an example for our shop. Absolutely, positively, never!”
Pauline appeared utterly disappointed. Mavis and Reina also seemed rather dissatisfied to find that the mystery was not so mysterious after all.
However, something else still puzzled Mile: “I can understand why it is that people would favor this inn, but, um, why is it still only relatively young men? If this were just a matter of compassion, then you’d think that women and elders would be showing their faces here even more…”
“Hmm…”
Apparently, the mystery had yet to be solved, after all.
A short while later, the girl who had gone to the counter called the one named Lafia over and left her to the bookkeeping. Then, the eldest walked over to where the customers were.
“Thank you as always, everyone. It’s only thanks to you that the three of us have been able to make a living since our parents passed away. I must keep working hard until my sisters can marry good men,” said the girl, dabbing the corners of her eyes.
The men nodded fiercely. And then, a number of their gazes began to drift toward the girls they were after.
Waaaaauuuugh!
The Crimson Vow were taken aback—at first, by the fact that so many of these gazes were turned toward the youngest girl, the one of seven or eight. Though they wanted desperately to think that this was merely a paternal, protective gaze, cast upon a young child who had lost her parents, what truly struck them was…