1 – 1. Footsteps of the Mule (1)

1.

I slowly got up from the soft bed. I was awake from sleep, so I was foggy, and my hands and feet were numb from lying down for a long time.

I want to lie down again, but if I do, there’s no way I’ll be able to deal with it later. Damn it, I muttered so timidly and left the room with my messy hair tousled.

Kikkik! As I grabbed the doorknob and pulled it, the rusty hinge made a very annoying sound. How long has it been since you last greased it up all night? Anyway, this guy’s inn didn’t have a good day.

This place where they have been living together for 4 years already, ‘Golden Mule’ is a two-story inn that doubles as a bar. It was a historic place run by a middle-aged couple from adventurers for 15 years.

Considering the reality that even an empire that boasted a brilliant history is destroyed by a dragon’s sneeze, the fact that there is a store that has not collapsed for over 10 years and two generations live on is nothing short of a miracle in today’s world.

Is that just the case? It was easy to guess how old the inn was by the old floor, which creaked with every step.

Seeing that the noisy voices coming from downstairs echoed through the walls, I could tell that the soundproofing wasn’t good either.

I suddenly had a rough idea why this inn had survived so long. I don’t spend it on the store, so I have no choice but to collect money.

“Jin?”

This inn is located in Cornfield, a fairly large town flanked by wheat fields that turn all golden in early summer.

This place, somewhat on the edge of the territory ruled by the Marquis of Louver, also faces East Side, a port city to the east, so it was easy to procure the city’s liquor and spices.

And what about the taste of the hostess Angela’s food? There were even adventurers who came from other villages on purpose to eat her food.

Of course, there are almost no rivals around, so I’m raking in the guests around me. When I first came to the village, there were a few small inns, but now they’re all ruined. Unfortunately.

Anyway, even if you look at every item, you are in an environment where you can’t help but do well in business, but apart from that, the innkeeper’s miserly disposition hasn’t changed a bit since then. Take a look at this creaky floor.

“Jin! I know you are listening.”

Oops, here we go again. If you don’t pretend to run even now, you will definitely hear something when you go. I hurried her steps, letting that high-pitched voice pass through one ear.

Looking around the hallway that smelled like coop, I saw an open door. Minnie snooped her head and raised her head towards it. Isn’t that the girl with her finely ponytailed light brown hair hanging down on her knees and sticking her butt out as if bowing?

I was overcome with a desire to admire her desirable form for hours, but this damn hallway gave me no time to do so, and I finally gave up my presence instead. Squeak!

“Jin? It’s you?”

“…… I didn’t see it.”

“What did you say? Don’t just stand around and go get some saws.”

Ji called and came to see me, but Celine, the only daughter of her husband and wife, didn’t care about my gaze, and as soon as her eyes met, she turned her head again and said that. Anyway, being picky is second to none.

“I think this could be cut just a little bit like this…… Ok.”

She held on to the base of the bed and patted the dusty floor. Judging by the way she did it, it seemed that the leg of the bed was broken again.

Just seeing her 17-year-old little lady soiling her skirt saying that she will be sawing her in the morning, you can tell that she has inherited my father’s miserly side.

I crossed one of her legs and leaned against her door, watching her wrestle with the legs of her bed. There’s no way the bed made of solid wood would tilt to such an extent that I had bad sleeping habits in the first place, so it must be that the young adventurer couple who used this room last night had a heated fight in the inn room.

As usual, being an adventurer must have been a good thing for Celine, who harbors an unreasonable feeling of hatred towards her family. Inwardly, I said a moment of silence in advance to the idiots downstairs drinking glass after glass. Adios!

“Did you two stay in this room again? This is just a rather large single room. What didn’t you say when you got the room?”

“I mean! I was sure I was going to do that because the woman got a one-bedroom room by herself, but later the man sneaked in at night! If you’re doing it to save money, I’d rather not say anything. In the first place…… If you want to do it, why don’t you show it a little!”

Celine whined and continued to express her dissatisfaction. To some extent, she understands her dislike of adventurers. From a business standpoint, adventurers are mostly the truth.

They go to dungeons or go to the sewer, get covered in all kinds of filth, come back late at night, order alcohol and food to their liking——those who eat and drink until they are truly exhausted, and then lie down without washing themselves. These are adventurers. Celine says it’s a model of lower life itself.

But apart from that, ordinary travelers wouldn’t necessarily flow from the East Side to Cornfield looking for lodgings, so after all, the fact that 90% of the guests who come to this inn are adventurers who use the guild there as a base. I decided not to mention it. That it wouldn’t be strange if they didn’t starve to death right away.

From nob le mt l dot com

No, maybe even if the inn is destroyed, you won’t starve to death. I don’t know if I don’t know the money I’ve saved so far, but it’s probably quite a bit, and even if Angela looks like that, she’s an adventurer, so she’ll find a way to make a living somehow.

As for Celine, if you look at her appearance in the first place, you would mistake her for an aristocratic lady.

By comparison, I have been living in this inn for four years. For a commoner to be able to do it, it was all about reading a little, knowing how to cut firewood, and seasoning the dishes well.

If the inn goes bankrupt, I’ll probably be the only one who will starve to death. If that happens, this long and narrow life of unemployed people will come to an end. Oops, I shook my head at the terrifying imagination.

“…… What are you doing there I want you to bring me a saw.”

Am I your servant? The words filled up to the top of my throat, but——I managed to endure it with great patience. The poor side has to endure.

Anyway, Celine is the only daughter of the inn family, and I’m just a military family living close by. Sometimes I have to pretend to help with the inn work so that I can live without paying attention.

By the way…… As I watch Celine’s huge ass rocking in the morning, I have many strange thoughts about her holding on to her stinky bed, where her adventurous couple have already had a fight.

Oops, maybe it’s because he just woke up, he’s exceptionally healthy. Since I couldn’t even go downstairs with her doing this, I decided to pass her some time until her taut pants subsided and said something to her.

“Uh…… Cut off the remaining leg to balance it? Then the legs won’t be left. Now, shall I speak to Mr. Cooper? How about making a new bridge?”

“Have you gone yet? …… Well, to keep it from breaking again, I’d have to use a bit harder wood, but that’s a penny or two. You’d probably say no. …… So why did you break your leg in the first place? After all, adventurers.”

Celine bruised me, but she didn’t look back at me. I was really grateful for that fact.

Certainly, maybe it’s because I’m 17 now, I feel like my mind and heart have grown bigger than before. Sooner or later, I have the urge to touch and check it again. Of course, you will have to risk your life.

“Anyway, adventurers say it, but sawing is just a stopgap. Also, if there is a broken bed, sooner or later there will be no customers who want to use this room. You wouldn’t want to suddenly roll on the floor while sleeping.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s just talk to Mr. Cooper. Her one and only daughter says that because of this, she crawls to bruise her knees every morning…….”

“What are you saying, don’t say something that could lead to misunderstanding! If you’re not going to help me, I’m going to go.”

Okay, then you won’t have to go get the saw. I confirmed that my trousers had loosened up, and I was about to quickly go back to my room——squeak! Oh sh*t again Thanks to that, as if Celine was only then urging me, she turned around with a sudden jerk. It’s like a f*cking floor.

“Why, why? I was going to go get it now.”

“No, not that…” … Jin, did you wake up late today? Look at that hair Did you wash your face?”

“No, not yet… ….”

“Are you making that sculpture or something?”

Ugh, here we go again. Anyway, the nagging is getting worse. It doesn’t even touch my personal privacy…… I thought, but when Celine glared at me, I kept my mouth shut.

Well, I’ve been too lazy lately. Precisely, he had a new hobby, but perhaps because of that, his sleeping time became increasingly late and he became more and more neglectful of his inn work.

“Well, that’s right. It’s not all day, though.”

“No, I haven’t even peeped in the kitchen lately. There was only firewood left that I had chopped the day before. Do you know how long I waited to use it after it got wet? Childishly, what is that?”

It’s childish, yes, it’s a hobby that only children or the elderly would have, but it’s a work of art. It’s not just my idea, I’m imitating fruits and fish with pieces left over from chopping a day’s worth of firewood, but surprisingly this was quite popular.

There was a girl who asked me to make miniature models of the weapons she carried, and there was a female adventurer who secretly asked me to make models of cucumbers for use at night. Give me three fairy tales!

Above all, the most crazy thing was Punta, a dwarf who is my friend and a well-known drinker.

Thanks to that, my odds and ends, which I even received a guarantee from a dwarf with a good understanding of art, have become works of art that double as talismans and are currently selling like wings. At my rate of making just one every three or four days, I couldn’t keep up with the demand.

Thanks to that, these days it has become like half-work, I light candles in my room until late and carve pieces, and once I fall asleep, like today, I wake up when the sun rises in the middle of the sky.

Although it’s a bit tiring, there was no reason to reject it, saying that you can earn money while doing what you do as a hobby anyway. Thanks to that, I’m now caught and nagging.

“How long are you going to be so lazy in the first place? You should find a job soon, too. If you have such a talent for carving, either learn carpentry under Uncle Hans in earnest, or else you’d rather stand in the kitchen formally instead of your mother at this point. It’s a new menu every day, so don’t run away after trying it for the first time. Even so, my mother was looking for you. She asks me what else I put in the soup besides lard, but I don’t know if I should know the answer or not…….”

It’s a start again. I just woke up and I already miss my bed. I quietly covered my ears.

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