Chapter 191
When we entered the Adventurer’s Guild, one of the staff members hurried off as soon as they saw us . Shortly after that, Yoran-san came to greet us, “Oh, have you been waiting long? As promised, we have dismantled the monsters and set aside the meat for you . Shall we head off to the warehouse?”
We all agreed and trailed after Yoran-san to the warehouse . Horace was already waiting for us .
“Alright, shall we discuss prices first? Oh, before that, I should hand over the meat, right? Right . Horace, has everything been prepared?”
“Oh yes! Meat from one Black Serpent, one Giant Dodo and two Cockatrices . ”
The huge, literally monster size chunks of meat were perfectly normal to me now [1] . I stored them away quickly in my [Item Box] . I was glad to get some bird meat before I ran out . I was also pretty happy to have some Black Serpent, it’s been a while since we’ve had snake meat .
“Alright,” said Yoran-san once the last of the meat had been put away . “Let’s go through the prices of the goods, shall we? First, the Cyclops skin . Due to its excellent condition, I was able to get a fairly good estimate on it, 180 gold . The eyeball was, sadly, a little damaged, so we can only offer you 58 gold for it . ”
Since Yoran-san already mentioned it yesterday, we were quite prepared for the bad news . [2] Nevertheless, since money was no issue for us . It didn’t really bother me . After all, it was still a cool 58 gold .
“Oh yes, there is also a magic stone . A very excellent specimen, 215 gold . ”
Ehhh, goods from A Rank monsters sure pay well . [2] A single magic stone is worth that much [3]?
“And then we have the mission reward for the subjugation of this particular Cyclops . 350 gold . ”
Woah, to think that taking down a Cyclops would be so rewarding . This is excellent, I was planning to go to the City and buy tableware so this money will do nicely .
“Well, there’s also the materials from the Black Serpent, skin, poison sac and magic stone, all worth 80 gold coin . There was no magic stone in the Giant Dodo, so the materials from the bird only amounted to 12 gold coins . As for the Cockatrice, the only things worth selling are feathers and meat . Since you’re taking the meat, the feathers are only worth 4 silver coins . ”
Since our main purpose was the get the meat off our catch, any money we get from that is a bonus .
“So, the total comes to exactly 895 gold and 4 silver coins . Are you fine taking large gold coins as well this time?”
“Yes, thank you very much,” I said, thinking what a nice amount that is, just perfect for a little shopping spree .
“Very well, here’s 89 large gold coins, 5 gold coins and 4 silver coins . Please check it . ”
“Let’s see 1, 2, 3… yes, it all checks out . ”
“The guild is very relieved to see these two pending missions completed so quickly . It was quite unexpected . Many thanks, Mukouda-san . ”
“No, no, since we’ve accepted the mission, so of course we must complete it . Also, everyone really enjoyed taking on such missions . ” I said, gesturing to Fer and the rest .
“Hoh, hoh, hoh, is that so, is that so . Mukouda-san is a very promising Adventurer indeed . I have high expectations for you, so please work hard . ”
When you say high expectations… that just puts more burden on my shoulders… [2]
I mean, I did basically nothing during our missions . The heavy lifting is all done by Fer, Dora-chan and Sui .
“Well, well, I hope to see everyone again . ”
That was our signal to leave . After a final round of good-byes, my party left the guild . As I stepped out of the guild entrance, I was greeted by the energetic voices of 5 young teenagers .
“Oh,” I said, “you guys are pretty early . ”
“Yeah,”
“We decided to gather a little bit sooner,”
It’s nice to see them so energetic, [4] “Then, I shall depend on you guys . ”
“Awesome, let’s go this way first . ”
We all trooped down in the direction pointed out by Anton .
The first place we visited was Iida’s Company . A shop that specializes in the sale of various kinds of pottery items .
“When it comes to speciality items and variety, Iida’s has the best collection in Neihoff . ” The five of them chorused together .
Hoho, I wonder if they’ve been trained to say this . Still, locals should know better than an outsider like me . Anton ran ahead and pointed excitedly at a large store, “Mukouda-san, that’s Iida’s Company over there . ” [5]
As soon as I stepped through the door, a staff approached me, “Welcome to our store . Oh my, if it isn’t Severi Workshop’s fourth son…”
“Yes, it’s Anton . It’s been a while, Iida-san . ”
“That’s right, you’re little Anton . ”
“I am showing Mukouda-san, my Senior Adventurer friend, around the city and you’re our first stop . ”
[5] Well, well, that explains why a child from a pottery workshop would risk becoming an Adventurer . The fourth son of any family would have very little hope of inheriting the family business after all .
[5] Still, Anton seemed very cheerful and positive as he introduced me to the owner, “Iida-san, Mukouda-san is an A Rank Adventurer and he’s looking for something unique . ” He turned to Mukouda and said in a professional tone, “Iida-san is a great expert in earthenware products and has a great collection . If there’s anything you want to find she’s the best consultant in the field . ”
“Oho, such a sweet talker, Anton . ” Iida patted the kid on the head . Then, her eyes zeroed on me, “Hoho, an A Rank Adventurer you say? My goodness . ”
Somehow, I felt a little threatened .
“So… what sort of pieces are you looking for~” Iida-san rubbed her hands together meaningfully .
Ahaha, how merchant like of her, well, I did came to buy things after all . So this is not a bad thing . “I haven’t really decided yet . I’d like to take a look around and see if anything catches my eye . Ah, I’ll be visiting Anton and Bridgette’s family workshops after this, so it would be helpful if you could show me something a little more unique . ”
Iida blinked down at Bridgette and nodded, “Ah, you’re the young lady from Dovan’s Workshop . ”
Ah, looks like everyone knew each other . “If that’s the case, I’ll show collections that could not be found either at Severi or Dovan,” Iida said . [5] She was very frank and upfront, it’s nice to deal with straightforward people like this .
Iida-san gave me a private tour of the variety of pottery at her shop . There was no one else here but us, so she was able to show off a lot of very nice pieces . Some were completely impractical, of course, like vases as tall as Fer . When I showed more interest in the plates, dishes and cups, she effortlessly began to show me pieces in different styles and designs . [5]
“You have a wonderful selection here . ”
“Thank you for the compliment . I must confess, I too love pottery and have accumulated a lot over the years . I ended up having too many in my house and warehouses and decided to open up this shop . Now I can buy whatever nice pieces I like and admire them before they are sold and buy more later . ” She grinned, “It’s a wonderful system” [5]
There were certainly a lot of different types of pottery on display . Rustic Japanese style teacups and teabowls as well as fine white bone china in the European style painted with delicate flowers and little pictures . It was quite the feast for the eyes . [4]
According to Iida, each workshop at Neihoff developed their own style of moulding, firing and glazing their pottery . Most of them would incorporate magic into their work . Considering the number of ways magic could be used in pottery making, pretty much every single workshop has their own secret specialities and was very different from each other . [6]
“Oh, this one is…” a large deep plate caught my eye . It looked like a good fit for a noble and powerful monster like Fer . Thus far, I’ve only served him food from wooden bowls and cheap pottery plates from generals stores .
I still don’t have proper plates for Sui, while Fer and Dora-chan just gobble up their food from whatever vessel I put their meals in . I guess they don’t really care about their plates, but I do feel that I should give them something more respectable to eat out of . [6]
The plate that caught my eye was moderately heavy looking and done in Japanese style that looked a lot like the ones produced by XXyaki . The colour looks good too and the though the finishing was muted, it gave off a nice calm feeling to it . Nothing too flashy or colourful, just right for a powerful being like Fer .
Yes, very nice .
I should get this .
What I really wanted to do was ask Fer and the others for their opinion, but since everything in here was just too breakable, I don’t want to court disaster . In the end, all my familiars, except for Sui, had to wait outside . [6] Sui was currently napping in my leather bag as usual [7] .
Eh, well, I guess I could just pick out their plates for them .
Let’s see, I should get a different colour for each of them at least . This blue-green plate looked good . Oh, and this dark blue plate shot through with streaks of light purple is also very nice .
“Dear customer, you are interested in this one?”
“Yes, I really like this one…”
“You certainly have a good eye . This is an excellent specimen from the Filmaino Workshop . Their work has been receiving great interest and they are the new rising stars of the pottery world . ”
Oh, rising new stars, was it?
“How much is one of these?
“The large plate goes for 18 gold coins each . ”
That’s kind of expensive . However, if I think about it, ceramics in Japan are the same . Certain types of pottery and ceramics are expensive because of the workmanship and type of clay used… also, I have the money and I really wanted that plate… [8]
“Alright, I’ll take this one, this one and that one too . ”
“Thank you very much~”
“May I look around a little more?”
“Naturally, please take your time . ”
How kind, I took my time as advised and ended up buying 5 pieces of different mugs and teabowls done in the rustic and muted Japanese style as well as a full European style porcelain tea set consisting of 5 cups and saucers .
I really like the calm and rustic feel of the brown mugs, as well as the unglazed teabowls in its natural ash colour . The European style tea sets have a very elegant and delicate feel to it . The blue flower patterns against a white background gave it a very luxurious look and would be very nice to have tea or coffee in .
The grand total of my purchase for the day went up to 73 gold and 8 silver coins . Since I bought a lot of stuff, the nice lady even gave me an 8 silver coin discount .
Iida-san sent me off with a smile and a, “Do please come again . ”
The five teenagers trailed after me . Their eyes glittering as they murmured, ‘A Rankers certainly are different’ and ‘A Rankers are really rich’ .
Ahem, “Shall we go to Anton’s family workshop next?”
“Yes! This way please!”
[Gumihou: It’s nice to see other characters, lol]
[1] Added a Little Detail: To interrupt the monotony of meat, gold, precious item transaction
[2] Structural Change: Connected some floating paragraphs into one .
[3] Structural Change: Trimmed off unnecessarily repetitive information . It was originally something like:
“Here, this thing is 215 gold,”
Wow, so it’s 215 gold .
“I see, wow, 215 gold . ”
Like, seriously? Are you paid by word count?
[4] Added a Little Detail: Dialogue tag with a little action to indicate speaker .
[5] Structural Change: Trimmed off repetitive information and put in some additional details to make it less stilted and more interesting .
[6] Addition Detail & Structural Change: Give a bit more vivid detail on how the workshops are different and connected two floating paragraphs .
[7] Note from Zzonkedd: Sui must be so cute here~
[8] Addition Detail & Structural Change: Give a bit more vivid detail on how the workshops are different and connected four floating paragraphs and dialogue .