Chapter 317: A Visit to the Market & Getting Gardening Tools
“I think we have pretty much everything needed. Think you can start working tomorrow?”
A chorus of ‘Yes!’ answered me.
“That aside, I believe each house should make their own meals. I mean, you have your own kitchen and everything. What do you think?”
The Toni and Alban family would be alright since they have Teresa and Aiya but the ones looking troubled are…
“Tabasa? Will you guys be alright?”
The combat-able people looked at each other.
“I can’t do any cooking at all…”
“I can’t…”
“Of course, I can’t!”
“Me neither!”
Bartel, Peter, Luke and Irvine said after another. Well, I honestly didn’t expect much from those four but, [3] “Tabasa? What about you?”
“Mukouda-san, does our older sister look like she can cook?”
“That’s right, that’s right, you can’t expect that of her at all!”
“There was this one time she made soup-”
“It was so horrible that birds fell out of the sky-”
A dark shadow loomed up behind them…
Pow! Pow!
[5] …I guess they never learn.
“If that’s the case, Aiya? Teresa? Are you alright covering their meals too?”
“Of course!”
“Leave it to us!”
Fortunately, I have this pair of capable housewives, one of whom had worked on a farm and the other at a café. It should not be difficult for them to make enough food for 9 regular people plus 5 hungry combat-able former Adventurers.
Anyway, while we were chatting, we soon arrived at the marketplace.
According to Aiya and Teresa’s suggestion, I ended up buying vegetables that I often use. [2] Long-lasting vegetables like cabbage, carrots, onions and potatoes were bought by the sack full since bulk buying is cheaper. I bought three sacks of each vegetable [6] and stuck them into my [Item Box].
I also bought some soft local vegetables, some tomato-like vegetables, broccoli-like things and a good variety of mushrooms. [1] The housewives were naturally worried about the shelf lives of these perishables but I have a spare Magic Bag (large) with me that could stop time which I could rent out to them.
I was lucky enough to pick up a Magic Bag (extra large) at Avering’s dungeon which Fer & Co. carry with them whenever they run off hunting.
If everyone split the rent for the Magic Bag it wouldn’t cost them too much and there’s no need to worry about the perishables like meat and vegetables spoiling due to the bag’s time stop function. [6] Letting them use a Magic Bag is more convenient than having to build a cooling room or dig up a cellar to keep things cool.
Naturally, I’ll also give them money for food and other emergency expenses just in case.
Anyway, I mainly bought vegetables from the market since the meat option wasn’t too interesting. On the way back, I bought some Red Boar skewers from a food stall. These would serve as our lunch. Since 14 people plus Fer & Co. has to eat, the order turned out to be pretty huge.
The old man at the food stall looked very happy to receive our unexpected order.
Naturally, skewers alone were not enough, [6] not to mention unhealthy, so I supplement our meat, meat, meat lunch with bread from [Net Super].
Once we got home, I was relaxing with a bit of coffee when I suddenly thought of something.
“By the way, Tony, Alban. You’ll need gardening tools, right?”
Everyone else was sipping apple juice, by the way.
Tony nodded at my question. [5] “Well, if it’s gardening tools, there’s this store I used to frequent. It should have everything we need.”
“I see,” if that’s the case… wait, “Hold on, let me check the [Net Super] first. Hmm, gardening tools, gardening tools…” after all, they sell pesticides and weed-killer, so… “Ah, Tony, will you come over and look at these, please?”
Gardening tools sold in [Net Super] were not much different from the ones available in this world. [6] Except, since [Net Super] is a supermarket level shop, it only carried small items like pruning scissors, hedge shears, hand shovels and small sickles along with fertilizers and all sorts of environmentally friendly chemicals for plants.
Things like large sickles, stepladders and hoes would have to be bought from the local store. According to Tony, the store would deliver everything we bought so there’s no need for me to personally go with him.
[4] “4 gold coins should be enough for everything we need,” [7] Tony assured me.
Still, to be on the safe side, I handed 5 gold coins to him. “Alright, take Luke and Irvine as escorts.”
Immediately, the complaints started.
“Why…?”
“I don’t wanna…”
“If you happen to have change left, you can buy something to eat on your way back. If these two aren’t interested to go, then-”
“Hold it! Who says we’re not going?!”
“Go! We’re going! Definitely!”
These two idiots…
“Right, would you take these two with you?”
“Alright,” [7] ah, even commoner Tony is smiling at these idiot twins’ antics.
After the three left, I asked the remaining people if there was anything they need.
Finally, Teresa reluctantly put up her hand and said, [9] “…well, a large pot would be nice…”
[9] “Ah, right, we’ll be making meals for 14 people,” said Aiya. “It would be helpful to have bigger pots…”
[9] “I see, that makes sense. So, 2 large pots… I think there’s only one small pot and one medium pot at each house, right? Let’s get a couple of large frying pans too.”
The magic stoves at the servant’s quarters looked a little old but were sturdy enough with two magic burners each. Between the two housewives, I’m sure they could rustle up enough food for everyone.
I really could not think of anything else at the moment… The only thing I could do was remind them to inform me if they find themselves in need of something when I suddenly remembered there’s something I needed to buy.
Let’s see, what was it…?
Oh right! Magic stones!
Magic stones for the baths!
I don’t have any small magic stones on me so I’ll need to buy them but where?
Should I go to the Adventurer’s Guild for them?
Might as well since I need to see the Guild Master anyway.
[Gumihou: Hahaha, Mukouda casually just deciding to drop by to see the Guild Master is somehow hilarious to Gumi]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Creative Licence Taken
[9] Talk about getting pots and pans and whatnot, streamlined the dialogue and patched where necessary.
