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Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi (Web Novel) - Chapter 93 - Mukouda, Buying a Bath.
Chapter 93 - Mukouda, Buying a Bath.
This chapter is updated by Novelfree.ml
I headed for the Irario Company's store the next morning, accompanied by Fer. According to Lambert-san it was the only shop in the city that sold baths. His directions to get there were on spot-on but it was a big shop and not easy to miss regardless. I stopped to admire its impressive architecture for a moment before I went in.
A store clerk dressed in a smart uniform turned to greet us as we entered. His expression froze as he caught sight of Fer, not surprising for anyone first on seeing such a large monster. He recovered his aplomb quickly though as you might expect from someone trained to be a salesman in such a high-class establishment and he quickly came forward to greet us.
"Can I assist you in finding what you want?" He was very polite.
"Uh, can you show me some baths?"
"Baths, certainly. Please come this way. "
It was pretty clear store-clerk-san didn't think I looked wealthy enough to afford a bath but he seemed fine with letting me look around. I followed him into an area of the shop at the back where there were a number of baths lined up on display. There were three sizes of bath, large, medium and small. The one I had seen in Lambert-san's house was a small-sized bath, it seemed. I thought about it and decided that a similarly-sized bath would suit me. Even stretching out by myself I'd fit nicely into such a bath.
"A small bath is enough... " I muttered, looking at the range of baths on offer.
"We have several such baths in stock so please take a look. " The store clerk overheard my comment and quickly directed my attention towards the small baths on display. He really knew his stuff, I thought to myself gratefully as I looked them over.
The first one was the cheapest, a simple pottery-brown-coloured one costing 300 gold coins. As Lambert-san had said, baths were quite expensive, even the most basic ones. The next bath I looked at was a deep green colour, a very relaxing shade but it cost 370 gold coins. A different colour made the price rise significantly. I asked the store clerk and he explained that making a large piece of pottery like a bath with a smooth uniform colour was very tricky and this resulted in an increased cost.
Although colored baths were more expensive, they were more attractive than the simple pottery-coloured one and since I had a lot of cash on hand I decided the green one would be on my list. The next one I examined was a pure white bath. It looked like a normal bath like the one I had back home in Japan and it had an air of hygienic cleanliness about it. It cost 430 gold coins, even more than the green-coloured bath I had my eye on. The clerk explained that this white-coloured bath was a new product, only recently coming on to the market. In order to produce the white colour a special material was mixed in with the clay. That material was rare and expensive hence the higher price for the finished product.
The next bath I looked at was a luxurious model with a floral painted finish under the glaze. It looked expensive but I was still surprised when I saw the price tag -- it cost 500 gold coins. It seems that it's harder to paint such decorations rather than simply colouring the pottery with a single colour and it takes considerable artistic skill to achieve an attractive effect. There weren't many craftsmen who could do such a fine job hence the higher price. I appreciated its looks but it was the sort of bath a nobleman's home might boast to display his wealth and taste to others. I'd be taking my bath with me as I travel so such elegance would be pointless. I turned back to my first candidate, the deep green bath. Yosh.
"Excuse me but I'd like to buy this green bath. " I said to the store clerk.
The store clerk was a bit surprised that an ordinary-looking guy like me who just walked in off the street wanted to buy something as expensive as a bath with so little hesitation but he was a professional and rallied quickly.
"It costs 370 gold coins, you understand. " Does someone like me have 370 gold coins to pay for a bath? was what he was obviously thinking but he was very polite and didn't let his doubts show.
He he he, thanks to Fer-sama's hard work that amount is small change to me. "Yes, it costs 370 gold coins, right?" I took out two hemp bags from my Item Box. The bigger bag held 300 gold coins and I took 70 more gold coins out of the smaller bag before presenting them to the astonished shop clerk.
"W- well, allow me to verify the amount, customer-sama. " The clerk counted the gold coins carefully, stacking them in piles of ten on the counter.
"... 370 gold coins... " He nodded. "Yes, that's the correct sum. Would you like us to deliver the bath to your home?" He was smiling broadly now and I wondered if he worked on commission. Ganbatte, store-clerk-san and perhaps next time you'll not pre-judge a customer by his appearance.
"No, it's okay, I'll put it in my Item Box and take it with me. I won't need it delivered. " Besides, I was living in an inn and I didn't have a home like Lambert-san's to have it delivered to.
"Ho, having an Item Box, how I envy you. ""This bath will just about fill it up though, but it comes in handy. " Actually my Item Box seemed to be almost unlimited in capacity -- it currently contained half a flock of Wyverns as well as a mountain of meat from the herd of Bloody Horn Bulls and other monsters Fer had subjugated (not to mention Chimaera-san and Orthros-san) but I wasn't going to let others know just how big it was if I could help it. Of course people like Johan-ojisan and the Guild Master knew but I didn't want it more widely known as that could become troublesome.
I put the bath in my Item Box and politely thanked the clerk for his assistance as he escorted me to the door of Irario Company's store. Success! The long-awaited bath was mine!
Once I was away from the entrance of the Irario Company's store (and hopefully out of sight of store-clerk-san) I spontaneously struck a victory pose, my hands raised in V-signs. I couldn't help it. Yahoo, I had a bath!
"What are you acting so happy about... " Fer asked, puzzled by my behaviour. I couldn't explain it, he wasn't Japanese so he could never understand but Japanese people and baths are, well... I had finally fulfilled my heart's desire, I had bought a bath. Now to use it, but... ah, there was nowhere in the city I could actually take a bath, was there? The inn, no... We'd have to go outside the city somewhere.
"Hey Fer, I want to take a bath. Let's go out of town to a quiet place in the forest, somewhere there's no Adventurers or monsters around. Can you find me somewhere like that?"
"Outside the city, that's nice. " Fer was a country boy at heart. "Right then, climb on me. "
