The Sia Family’s Dining Table

“And then, Momotaro, having tamed the dog, monkey, and pheasant, overthrew Ogre Village and took all of the stored treasures and magic stones it had.”

“Hooh… that was the first time I’ve heard about Urashima’s underwater dungeon too, but this one about Momotaro is more exciting.”

Urashima’s was a bad ending with him getting eaten by the treasure mimic in the end after all.

Momotaro’s feels more like a battle scene. By the way, Meat was listening off to the side as well. I also got a bit into it and wound up starting to gesture as I spoke ever more magnificently.

After a while, I heard the sound of a bell ringing.

“Oh, it’s time for dinner. Kehma-sama, let’s go to the dining room.”

“It’s already that late?”

I didn’t feel too hungry since I ate those meat skewers before I came here, but, well, I still feel a little hungry.

Why don’t I treat my self to this Lord-sama’s meal? I wonder what sort of things there’ll be? I’ll use it as reference for the inn.

I saw a long table when I entered the dining room. It looks like it could feed everyone all at the same time.

Von O’Doll was already seated along with three others.

A young man, a mature woman, and an adolescent boy… his family, I take it.

“Oh, Kehma-dono, allow me to introduce everyone. Starting from the closest to me, you’ll see my eldest son, Raund, my wife, Waltz, and my second son, Gierb.”

“… Pleased to meet you all. I am Kehma, I serve as Golen Village’s village chief.”

I bowed… Yep, gotta keep on the face of a fiance candidate. It’s time for the stress test.

A butler pulled out chairs for us when we went to sit. Mai O’Doll and Meat sat obediently. I was a bit surprised, but I sat down as well.

And so the meal began.

*

The meal was more shabby than I thought it’d be. The bread was white, but the vegetable soup was just salty. There was also rabbit meat that had been carefully drained of blood. And the salad was, well, a salad.

The lord’s meal was a lot more simple than I thought it’d be.

Just, is it that the ingredients were good, or the cooking? Or maybe both? It was a simple, yet powerful taste that made full use of the ingredients.

“It isn’t as grand a meal as what gets served at your inn, right? Are you disappointed?”

“No, it’s a good meal that had much care go into its preparation. The flavor of the ingredients is good.”

“As far as I’m concerned, that’s the best compliment you could give it. Today’s ingredients were practically all produced in Sia, after all.”

When I responded honestly, Von O’Doll’s smile deepened.

At that point, the eldest son, Raund, spoke to me.

“Kehma-dono, you don’t look that muscular for an adventurer. Are you a mage?”

“Yeah. Well, more of a rear guard. I can use a sword well enough in case anything slips by.”

“Oh? Is that so… I’d heard that you were rather brave, so I was wanting to have a bout with you.”

“You had probably heard something about Kuro here, not me. She may look like this, but she’s the strongest of party’s front line.”

“… She really doesn’t look like it. If so, that’s amazing.”

Raund seemed to have an interest in one on one combat. I don’t know how much daily DP he’d be worth, but he’s probably trained himself a lot. He definitely does look to be confident in himself on that.

Once Raund’s interest turned to Meat, the second son, Gierb, talked to me.

“Hey, Kehma-san. How do you hunt Iron Golems? Swords can’t cut through them since they’re made of iron, right?”

“You can aim at their exposed magic stones or attack them with magic… You can even just bash them with a hammer. Well, one of my C-Rank acquaintances uses a hammer.”

“Magic, huh… Kehma-san, what kind of magic can you use?”

“I can use a few kinds of magic to help from the rear. Any more than that is my secret as an adventurer. Exposing my hand recklessly would bring me closer to death, so forgive me on that.”

“Uuu, now I want to know…”

I take it that the second son is interested in magic? Feels like he has a chuuni atmosphere. No, magic is commonplace in this world, so I guess it’s not really like that? Probably closer to how programmers are considered in Japan, then? In the brain power meaning, that is.

When I said that it would bring me closer to death, it made it so that Gierb wouldn’t be able to ask me about it any further. Next was the lord’s wife’s, Waltz’s, turn.

“Kehma-san, I hear that you are skilled in trade and village management? I would like to hear about how you’ve been developing that village.”

“No, not at all, I am a complete amateur. There are talented merchants gathered in the village, so I left all of the business to them. It’s the same with the village’s development, Iron Golems just happened to start appearing in the dungeon. None of that was due to me.”

“How modest of you.”

“It’s the truth.”

Finished in dealing with the lord’s wife, next was Mai O’Doll.

“Kehma-sama, you found lots of rare things in the dungeon, right?”

“Yeah, I was lucky.”

“What’s the most unusual thing you’ve found?”

“Hmm… right, the most unusual thing I’ve found recently came from a treasure chest. They’re Golems… I think?”

“From a treasure chest? Are they like a mimic?”

“They’re more like submonsters. If you give them magical power, they follows you around like a pet. They’re even pretty smart. I have them working at the inn nowadays.”

“Working Golems!? That’s amazing!”

Our conversation continued like that for a while until we finally finished eating… I wanted to hurry up and return to my room with Meat.

Then, when we were drinking tea after the dinner.

“Oh right, I heard that Kehma-san received words of compliment from the White Goddess?”

Waltz spoke to me. Huh? Oh Miss Wife, could you run that by me again?

“The White Goddess?”

“Ahem! Right, I’m told that Kehma-dono’s inn has an onsen? The White Goddess seems to like it a lot.”

“Yeah, she does. It sounds like Kehma-dono has a wonderful inn.”

Von O’Doll very artificially cleared his throat. Yeah, so that’s it? He wants to make a connection with Haku-san?

Now that I re-think it all, he was being very coercive against a mere village chief. I’d chalked it up to what a noble would do when facing a commoner, but… if that’s the reason, I get it now.

… He offered information on the Godly Pillow not for the betrothal, but for gaining a connection to Haku-san?

“More importantly, Kehma-dono, you talked to Mai, right? She’s a good child, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, she’s more than someone like me would deserve. Don’t you think that the engagement between her and someone like me would damage your reputation?”

“Oh? Being engaged with Kehma-sama wouldn’t be a bad thing at all. We want to know about Kehma-sama, too. Right, Otou-sama?”

“Right. It’s a good thing, even.”

Eh, is it better for this world’s nobles to have more engagements then? Or maybe it helps build up their resistance? Or maybe there’s like an engagement point card? Like ‘get 1 point when you break up’?

“So Kehma-dono, you don’t dislike Mai right? In that case, how about staying two or three more days to get to know each other some more?”

“I have work to do, so I need to return tomorrow.”

“In that case, could Mai go to Golen Village with you?”

Don’t kid around. Wouldn’t I have to come back, then?

I caved, reluctantly.

“… Alright, I’ll stay for one day… but I’ll have to issue some orders for work, they’ll need be delivered quickly.”

“We’ll send a messenger, you can even give us a letter to send.”

“I’ll get to writing it now, then. Excuse me.”

“Mm.”

I took Meat, who was starting to doze off, and left my seat.

… Now then, what should I write?