“Hey, hey—are you really an adventurer with a title? You don’t look like anything more than some rookie dragging a kid along.”
Right on cue, a man who looked like the one in charge of the kitchen strolled out, a smug grin plastered across his face. Apparently, he’d already decided we were nothing but ordinary adventurers.
Without a word, Ao slammed a medal down onto the table.
“This— It’s the champion’s medal from the martial arts tournament! It even bears the crest of the Margrave’s house!”
The kitchen manager picked it up with trembling hands, turning it over again and again as he inspected both sides closely.
Meanwhile, I exchanged a glance with Sue, then reached into my item box and pulled out another medal.
“This one was entrusted to me by the Eastern Margrave.”
“W–what?!”
The kitchen manager stared at the medal I had produced—the one entrusted to me by the Eastern Margrave—his face draining of all color. Then, without another word, he hurried off into the back of the shop.
“Let’s just pay and leave. I’ll make something simple when we get home.”
““““Yey!””””
We had no desire to remain in this place a second longer, so we set some money on the table and made to leave.
Just then, the kitchen manager returned, this time with a slightly overweight man in tow.
He looked like the owner, but there was something about his expression—greedy, calculating.
“My deepest apologies for the trouble regarding your meal. As compensation, we will prepare a replacement dish for you—”
“No, that won’t be necessary. We’ll be going.”
“W-w-w-wait just a moment!”
As we tried to leave without another thought, the man who seemed to be the owner grabbed my arm. He probably thought we were about to cause some kind of trouble.
“I have no intention of causing any trouble for this establishment. Everyone else seems to be enjoying themselves—and it would probably be better if we weren’t here.”
“H-hey, wait!”
The man who seemed to be the owner called out from behind us, trying to stop us, but we ignored him and headed straight back to the inn.
What a disastrous dinner.
“We don’t have much time, so I’ll whip something up quickly.”
““““Got it!””””
Back in our room, I prepared a simple stir-fried vegetable dish along with fish dumpling soup.
Shiro and the others, Sue included, all ate with clear delight, and seeing that put me at ease.We are planning to explore tomorrow. But thinking about the people we ran into at that diner today made me hesitate a little.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
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