SIAW Vol. 1 Chapter 14
Chapter 14 – At the Napping Cat Inn
The Napping Cat Inn was fairly close to the Adventurers’ Guild: we proceeded for a little while down the main avenue, turned right at the first intersection and found it immediately.
There was a sign with the drawing of a sleeping cat and the words “Napping Cat Inn” under it. We stopped the carriage in the dedicated space next to the inn, and a Cat Beastman boy approached us.
“Are you going to stay the night?”
“Yes, that was the plan. Are there rooms available?”
Ranga answered plainly.
“Group of five? In that case, it should be okay.”
“Great. Can I leave the horse to you?”
“Certainly. You may get off the carriage, I’ll take care of the rest. Please talk to the receptionist inside for your rooms.”
“Alright. Your name was Tauro, right? You sure grew up a lot, and learned the job well too, I see.”
Ranga seemed to know the Cat Beastman boy.
“Ooh…you’re Ranga! And here I was acting all polite, for nothing!”
“Hey, I’m still a customer! What do you mean, for nothing!?”
Ranga protested. He then got off the carriage and patted Tauro’s head with gusto.
“I think Nami’s at the reception. Go ahead, Ranga.”
“So Nami works the reception now…last time I came was more than two years ago, after all…”
Ranga closed his eyes, reminiscing.
Inside the inn, a Cat Beastman girl — probably not older than 10 — was dozing at the reception. When our group came in, though, she looked frightened.
“W-Welcome~~ a-are you looking for a room to stay~~?”
That clumsy tone! Those drooping ears! So adorable!
“You got to speak loud and clear, Nami. You sure got bigger! Have you forgotten my face?”
“Aaah! Uncle Ranga!”
“Don’t call me like that! You’ll make me cry…”
“Uncle Ranga~~, are you going to stay the night~~?”
Could she be talking all cutesy like that on purpose?
“…do you have two doubles and one single available?”
Did you give up already, “uncle” Ranga?
“Yes sir~~one night only? What about meals~~?”
She’s definitely doing it on purpose…!!
“Two nights, with breakfast and dinner too. We’re five in total.”
“Okay~~5 silver coins for the double rooms, 4 for the single, for two nights, so…total 18 coins…meals are 5 silver coins per person, so…23 coins!”
That moment, a bulky Cat Beastman lady came out of the room in the back.
“I can’t believe my ears! Listen here, Nami: two double rooms means 10 silver coins, right? The total room fee for one day is 14 coins, with 5 coins for the meals, plus 2 coins for keeping the carriage and horse. All together, it’s 21 coins for two nights, so it’s 42 coins total. We’d be in the red if we followed your calculations!”
“Aah~~I’m sorry…”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Anyway, Ranga, is it you? Have you been doing well?”
“Of course I have, Marissa. We came to town for some business related to our village, and we’re going back the day after tomorrow, but these two kids are going to start working as adventurers, so please keep an eye out for them if they stay at the inn, okay?”
“Sure thing! They’ll be in good hands if they stay here. In exchange, it’ll be great if they dropped us a Horn Rabbit or two sometime! Hahaha!”
Marissa seemed like the typical good-hearted aunt.
“This boy, Tenma, is a genius at catching guinea fowls, I’ll tell you! He’s been feeding us well these days!”
“Really now! If you bring me a guinea fowl, you can stay for free for ten days, boy!”
Guinea fowls are worth gold even here…
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
We went to put down our luggage in our rooms, agreeing to gather in the dining room downstairs after that.
We climbed to the second floor: Jeet and Zlatan went to their room, Ranga and I to ours, Misha to the single room. Before we separated, I gave them their satchels, which I had been keeping in the Item Box.
The room just contained two beds. According to Ranga, the single and double rooms were the same size, but the bed in the single room was a bit wider, and it also had a chair and desk. That was probably the reason why the price difference was just one silver coin.
Ranga put down his luggage and immediately went back downstairs. I put my own luggage in the Item Box, though…sorry, I guess?
When I went back downstairs, Jeet and Zlatan were already in the dining hall. Misha joined us soon after, and Ranga started talking.
“I’ll explain what the guildmaster said now!”
The adventurers dispatched to search for the traveling merchant Soran were four, two E rankers and two F rankers. They had departed from the town five days ago; their destination was one day’s distance away, so they were supposed to return in two days. After three days, however, there was no sign of them, so they planned to send reinforcements.
Gust, the man we met at the guild earlier, was A C-rank adventurer that used to be in the same party as Ranga. He was now in a party with three D-rankers, and was waiting for them to return to town in order to go look for Soran the day after. The information we brought, however, changed the circumstances, so Gust’s expedition was canceled.
Soran’s fate wasn’t certain yet, but after considering the developments of the situation, the guild decided to regard Soran, his subordinates and escorting adventurers as deceased.
The letter addressed to Soran from the village elder was brought by the guild staff to the Merchants’ Guild, managed by Soran’s older brother. Soran’s wife also works there, apparently.
Someone related to Soran might come to the inn, or visit the Adventurers’ Guild: if they did, the staff would send notice about it to the inn.
After Ranga finished his explanation, I took the turn to speak.
“In that case, can you take care of the guild business, Ranga? I’ll stay back in the inn, in case Soran’s family visits.”
“I’ll go to the Adventurers’ Guild, then. I want to talk with my old comrades too.’”
Ranga then left the inn.
Jeet and Zlatan said they were going to look around town, and asked Misha to join them, but she said she would stay in the inn with me. Jeet and Zlatan then left too.
I told Marissa to inform me if someone came to ask for us, then returned to my room. For some reason, Misha tried to follow me inside.
I told her that I wanted to rest for a bit by myself: she looked sad and dejected, but I convinced her to give up. She stayed in front of my room for a while, but eventually went back to hers.
～
I needed to make a final decision about what to do with her. The others clearly thought that we were going to start adventuring together. In the time I spent hesitating, I completely fell into Sasha’s trap…there was no way I could refuse, at this point.
Rather than that, though, a new idea came up in my mind. While training Ranga and the others, I started wondering what would happen if someone with talents and aptitudes different from mine went through the training I did back on the island.
It was a very game-like idea, which shouldn’t be applied to real life — I knew that much.
If the prospective trainee in question agreed to it, however, it shouldn’t be a problem. Ranga and the others started the training method I came up with, at least a little. They became stronger and seemed satisfied with it, which proved that my ideas did work in this world too.
After leaving the Pioneers’ Village, however, there was no way for me to check their progress.
I thus started thinking that it might be interesting to have Misha go through an intensive training period, and see what results come up. If I had to train someone…a pretty Beastman girl like her would be ideal, I thought.
I concluded then it would be okay to let her tag along with me, to train her until she became a full-fledged adventurer.
In order to do that, however, I needed to tell her my secret, and make sure she didn’t talk about it to anyone else…
Anyway…it was time to feed Sil. There was no way to tell when I could do it next, after all. I went inside the Dimension Area, and the Silver Wolf puppy ran up to me.
Sil’s tummy was nice and full: in the area, there were only two Horn Rabbits left.
“Sil, why is your stomach even rounder than before? Haven’t you been eating a little too much? I thought you were a Silver Wolf, not an Orc…”
Upon hearing my soft rebuke, Sil stopped prancing around, his ears drooping. That was a sight adorable in itself, but I thought I had to discipline him properly.
“Your food today is only the Horn Rabbits left in the area! Remember, this is because you ate too much. I’m not coming back until tomorrow. You better reflect on what you did!”
Sil’s expression turned glum, to a surprising extent.
I had no idea a monster could be so expressive, nor that it was possible to communicate at this level.
He looked pitiful, but he needed to learn more discipline. There were still Horn Rabbits left, anyway. I thought he was going to be fine, and left the Dimension Area.
After that, I took a rest in the room.
～
At about 5:30 in the afternoon, I went to the dining hall.
I had just heard from Marissa that no one came to visit, when Misha came down too. She had probably used Presence Detection and learned that I was downstairs.
A little after 6, Jeet and Zlatan came back. Ranga was still out, so I thought that something might have happened. The dining hall was becoming crowded with other guests and people who just came to eat.
I said that I was going to check on Ranga at the Adventurers’ Guild, and Misha said she wanted to come too. I told Jeet and Zlatan to eat first and left the inn.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
In the guild, there were several adventurers lining up at the reception. It was probably the busiest time of the day.
I looked at the tavern area, and in a particularly noisy corner found Ranga, Gust and a few other adventurers. I went closer and called to Ranga.
“Ranga, did anything happen?”
“Hey there, Tenma. Soran’s family went to see the guildmaster, apparently. I was drinking a bit, so I’m going to report directly to them and give them the money from the elder tomorrow at 10 in the morning. They said that your promotion exam is going to be tomorrow at 9, so do your best out there, all right?”
Ranga seemed pretty drunk. Did he forget completely about what role he’s supposed to have here?
“I see. In that case, shouldn’t you have sent word about it to the inn? We’ve been waiting all this time, you know. Thinking you’d come back for dinner. If you want to have a drink, it’s fine, but you should have said something.”
“Aah, yeah, sorry about that…I met some friends I hadn’t seen in a long time, so I got excited, see.”
“Sure, take your time. We’ll go back to the inn and eat dinner.”
It was Ranga’s first visit in town for a while, so I supposed it was normal for something like that to happen.
“Hey! Kid, you said your name was Tenma? How can you speak to the person who trained you in that tone? This man Ranga never took care of others before, in fact he was selfish and a pain in the ass, but now he’s doing all sorts of things for the sake of the village, and he’s training you too, isn’t he!? He doesn’t deserve to be treated with so much disrespect! You aren’t getting away with this!!”
Huh, so Ranga was seen as selfish in the past too? But judging from Gust’s reaction, it’s not like he was hated, at least.
“Gust, stop! Tenma’s not like that!”
Ranga seemed aware that things were going in a bad direction: he turned sober in an instant.
“Not like what? Aren’t you angry? This brat’s making a fool out of you!”
Gust had one too many drinks too, apparently. There was no point in arguing with him, and if I was going to be an adventurer in this town, it was definitely better not to start a fight with him.
“Mr, Gust, I apologize for getting in the way of your reunion. I was a bit jittery because of the hunger, that’s all. We’re leaving now, so please take your time and have fun.”
I then left the guild immediately. Gust and Ranga seemed to be arguing, but I didn’t want to have any part of it anymore.
Back in the inn, Misha and I started eating dinner. Jeet and Zlatan were drinking. Compared to the village meals, the food here was more savory and delicious.
After dinner, we went back to our respective rooms.