Chapter 541: One’s Gaze

「Mogu! Mogu!」

「Gafu! Gafu!」(*munching sfx)

『Does it taste good?』

「Nn!」

After we returned from our adventure in Lady Blue, Fran and Urushi were now in the middle of dinner at the inn.

They even served a normal meal for Urushi too without needing us to pay any extra fee.

The meal’s contents were not an animals’ food or anything like that, it was just the normal, salty food, from the same menu as Fran’s.

It was hard to say if she was just like the old Japanese moms who didn’t care about the health of their animals, or if she just dared to serve the same food to Urushi because she saw him as a powerful magic beast.

The menu consisted of gnocchi-like pasta made from wheat and potatoes with cheese, and tomato soup with ground meat. The rest of the meal consisted of bread, scotch eggs, and salad.

Urushi’s portion was put together in a large deep dish, making it look like a left-over food for cats. No, it was not even a left-over food for cats anymore when it was mixed with so many other things.

It looked very unappetizing, but Urushi was eating it like it tasted good. It seemed that it consisted of a combination of ingredients that went surprisingly well together.

「…Hmmm」

Aah, Fran, don’t mix it up! It’s not polite! Don’t look at Urushi with such envious eyes. It may look delicious, but it’s not!

「How do you like my cooking?」

「It tastes good!」

「Woof」

「That’s good to hear then. Just say so if you want more. I’ve got plenty of it」

After that, she refilled Fran’s bowl three times without any hesitation, and the old lady didn’t even look uncomfortable, and even happily gave us a special serving.

But still, was it okay for us to eat this much? Should we pay extra for it? Fran and Urushi were probably already eating ten people’s servings after all…

However, the old lady didn’t seem to mind Fran and Urushi’s binge eating. The way she smiled while looking at Fran and Urushi, was just as if she were grandmother taking care of her grandchildren.

「Uwaah, you sure eat a lot aren’t you?」

「It was delicious」

「Is that so? How about some herbal tea after dinner then?」

「Okay」

It was a dark green tea that looked quite bitter, but Fran seemed to enjoy drinking it. She seemed to rather like it.

As Fran sipped her tea, she looked up at the huge old tree. Well, her gaze was blocked by the ceiling though.

Fran, who had been quietly staring at the tree for a while, unexpectedly opened her mouth.

「Hey, is there really a spirit in this tree?」

「Yeah, the Spirit of the Green Trees was in it」

「Why did you build an inn around such a tree?」

「It’s a bit of a long story, but―」

The old lady gave us a very long explanation, just like what she said. Fran almost got bored halfway through, but I managed to tie her to a chair with my telekinesis and secretly gave her some sweet snacks out of my storage.

To summarize briefly, there was originally a tree here where spirits dwell. It was said that the tree was now over 3,000 years old. However, about 1,500 years ago, it was not considered to be a tree where spirits dwelled anymore, but just a mysterious magical tree. Its sap, branches, leaves, and bark of the tree had been forcibly extracted by the alchemists and pharmacists who lived in this area at that time, and the tree had weakened.

The tree was then saved by the Elves who founded the inn, and Weena Rhyn, who was consulted by the Elves.

The method was simple: they bought the place and surrounded it so that no one could mess with the spirit tree. The reason why they turned it into an inn was because the spirits that lived in the tree liked to observe people.

As a result, it became an unusual inn that only allowed people approved by the spirits to stay inside. Fifteen hundred years have passed since then, and now the old lady, the granddaughter of the founder, was running the place. It has been 1500 years, and she was still the third generation… As expected of the long-lived Elf.

「Then, was I also approved by the spirits?」

「Yeah. In the first place, you wouldn’t have been able to enter the inn without the spirit’s approval」

I didn’t know that. We couldn’t sense spirits, so we had no idea. Spirits were mysterious existences after all.

I also understood the horror of it. After all, since we couldn’t detect it, we wouldn’t know if a spirit were aiming to attack us.

We would know if it launched an attack on us, but if the spirits were to lie low and stay put, it would be nearly impossible to detect them.

Afterwards, Fran and Urushi thanked her for the meal and went back to our room. Even as she walked, she kept looking at our surroundings.

Well, I know what she was looking for.

『Are you looking for the spirit?』

「Nn! I want to see it!」

「Woof!」

Even when we got back to our room on the third floor, she peeked between the branches of the spirit tree and into a small cave. But she never touched them. I guess it was because she was told not to hurt them.

However, there was no way she could find the spirit by doing so, and she ended up giving up.

Both Fran and Urushi went to bed looking disappointed. Lately, Fran and Urushi have been sleeping in the same bed together. Now that Urushi could become smaller, it was no longer a problem.

Urushi was held tightly by Fran’s hands and feet in a hug. I wonder if it hurt. No, Urushi’s sleeping face looks happy. Fran was also breathing comfortably, and both of them seemed to be enjoying their sleep.

As I was observing their sleeping faces, Fran suddenly opened her eyes. Did my presence disturb her?

But when Fran jumped out of bed, her gaze was not on me, but on the entrance to the room for some reason.

『Wh-what’s wrong, Fran?』

「Woof?」

Even Urushi, who had fallen off the bed when Fran suddenly raised herself, tilted his head, unable to understand what was happening.

「…I felt a gaze on me」

『A gaze? Did you feel it too, Urushi?』

「Woof…」

「I felt it」

Fran too, was still unclear about it.

Did she have a strange dream? Neither Urushi nor I could sense it after all… We used our skills to the best of our ability to search for a presence and magic, but we couldn’t sense any presence of anyone other than us and the old lady inside the inn.

Of course, there was the presence of small insects, but it was hard to imagine that Fran would be awakened by such a presence. For example, if she had magic or skills that allowed her to see into the distance through the eyes of insects, she would definitely be able to sense the presence’s origin. However, there was not even that in the inn.

『Maybe it was the spirit? It was said to like to observe people after all』

「I see」

After that, neither Fran nor the two of us could feel any presences. Well, we were dealing with a spirit after all. It would be quite difficult to sense them.

Eventually, Fran lay down on the bed again.

「…Good night」

『Ou, good night』

「Spirit…」

It seemed that it would be a while before Fran could sleep soundly.