Chapter 8 - A New Home

The next morning.

After we had breakfast together in Ergys-san’s home, it was time to visit some vacant houses in order to decide where I’ll live.

When I was going out with my luggage on my back, Flora and Fiona-san came to see us off.

I quickly bowed my head to these two to show my gratitude.

「Sorry, and thank you for everything you’ve done for me. I was really happy to have such delicious meals and a bath to use」

「No, no. You might have a hard time living alone from here on, so don’t feel hesitant to consult us if there’s anything you need」

「Yes, there are still lots that I don’t know, so I’ll be depending on you from now on」

It’s my first time living the village life. I’m now living in an environment that does not exist in my country of birth. I will have no choice but to trouble them since there are still many things that I’m not familiar with.

Being able to meet and connect with these nice people while I was in such state of uneasiness really blows it all away.

Just from having someone to show me the ropes made me feel plenty reassured.

Right now, I am only taking without giving, but I will definitely return these favors once I’ve settled down.

「…U, um, I made a boxed lunch for you」

Flora walked up to me and held out a basket.

When I rolled over the cloth cover of the basket after receiving it, there were plenty of sandwiches inside.

「If you don’t mind, please eat these for lunch」

The scene of Flora twiddling her fingertips as she spoke was very cute.

Today is the scheduled day of choosing my new home around the village. After we decide on the house, I’d have to clean up fast, and ready the place for me to sleep in by night. The lunch box is going to really help out.

「Thank you. I really appreciate it」

「N, no worries. Please come eat at our place again sometime」

She smiled shyly as she replied to my words of gratitude.

There aren’t a lot of women out there who are this cute, this good at cooking, and this attentive to others.

I might have hit on her if I was a bit younger. Well, even though that’s what I say, I probably couldn’t even hit on a girl properly since I was a sword freak.

Besides, she’s eighteen years old. That’s already two years after reaching adulthood. There’s no way the men of this village will not go after such a lovely girl like her.

I’m sure she has a lover somewhere.

「Flora, don’t I get one? 」

「Your share is right here, made just the way you like it. I made it myself, you know?」

「Ohh, thank you as usual」

When Ergys-san asked, Fiona-san answered him instead as she handed him a basket.

From the exchange Ergys-san just had with Fiona-san, I can tell that they are a very happy couple. Their casual way of talking to each other shows that.

While I was looking at the way they act, Ergys-san turned around.

「Now then, shall we get going, Aldo-san? 」

「Sure! 」

Now that Ergys-san and I both had received our lunches, we headed for the vacant houses.

「「Have a safe trip」」

「「See ya!! 」」

Ergys-san and I both answered to the overlapping voices of Fiona-san and Flora who saw us off.

I was looking forward to my new house, but as I walked away from this heartwarming one, I started to feel some lingering emotions.

I’ve only spent one night in their home, but it was one of the best times of my life.

「We’re living in the same village, so you can come visit us anytime」

「…Yeah」

There will be chances for more happy memories from now on.

◆ 　　◆　　　◆

「Now then, I have went and checked out the vacant houses yesterday, but do you have an idea of what kind of home you’d like? 」

Ergys-san asked when we reached the town square, which is the center of the village.

Since this is the center part of the village, it would be more efficient to decide what kind of home I’d want before choosing which direction to go from here.

「Yeah, I guess my first choice would be on the west end near the field of flowers」

I was able to answer right away as I already had an idea in mind. Yup, that was the most important thing after all.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

「Oh, that’s fine. There is plenty of unused land over there, not only would you be able to use it to grow crops, but it’s also near the mountains」

Oh, thank god. It seems like the west end is just what I want.

「For the time being, let’s go over there because there are four vacant houses」

With those words, Ergys-san walked towards the west with me following behind.

I walked alongside Ergys-san on the same paths that I took yesterday.

As we continued to walk on the long road, there were the same sparsely inhabited homes that I saw yesterday. It’s way less populated here compared to the area around Ergys-san’s house, but I don’t mind because a relaxing and spacious home is what I want.

There would be all kinds of inconveniences if I were to live in the center of people’s homes anyway because of all the disassembling and blood draining work to animals that I will have to do as a hunter.

All of the houses we see here have large yards around them, so they all had some kind of crops growing. Of course, that included flowers of brilliant colors as well.

The homes are also surrounded by many trees, with a stream flowing nearby. This area gives off a really pleasant feel.

As I check out the private houses that are in my sight, a large, two-story home has caught my attention. That house was surrounded by walls of stone, and there was even a gate built at the front of it.

Maybe it’s because I’ve naturally grown observant over the years that I could see that a bit of their unkempt roof has started to come off. Nevertheless, it was still the most luxurious house among all the houses I’ve seen so far.

It looked like a house built for nobles.

While feeling impressed looking at this house, Ergys-san stopped in front of it.

「This is one of the vacant houses of the west end」

「…It’s a big house」

I muttered as I looked up at this big house.

No, this is different from the home I imagined. I feel like I wouldn’t be able to manage a house this big.

It would be impossible to do that without hiring people.

「A long time ago, some nobles came and built this house. However, nobody could take care of it because it was too big. I didn’t expect that you would be able to either, Aldo-san, but I just thought it was much more interesting to introduce this home to you first rather than the small ones」

I see. That’s a valid point. It was kind of interesting to know that there’s this kind of home in this village.

「Mind if I take a look inside? I want to see the nobles’ architecture」

When I was an adventurer, I visited the mansions of nobles whenever I was nominated to, but I’m quite interested in what their private homes are like.

「Almost all the furniture and household appliances inside were taken for reuse. Is it fine if we just move on to the next one? 」

「Yes, that’s fine. Let’s go since I am the one troubling you for all this 」

With those feelings, I walked towards the other vacant homes to the west in order to check them out.

The second house was an ordinary looking house, but I passed on it because there were too few rooms and the house doesn’t get much sunlight.

The third house was similar to the normal-sized homes in the town center area. Although it wasn’t very roomy, I had a favorable impression because it had a bathtub in there. But in the end, I passed on it too since it was too close to the neighbouring houses. It wasn’t close like just being a few meters apart, but close enough to the point where all the houses were almost touching.

As I said, that would be inconvenient in the future if I bring back hunted animals there. The smell of blood would waft everywhere.

After checking out the third house, we moved to the fourth one.

「I’m confident in this next one as my recommendation. I wonder if you’ll be pleased with this one, Aldo-san. Well, if it isn’t to your liking either, we can look at more houses in the south」

「I understand. I can’t wait to see it」

Since I don’t want to live too far away from the field of flowers, I hope this next house is good.

Keeping those feelings in mind, we walked through the bushy grass, and then crossed a bridge over a small river.

And from that point on, we continued walking through more bushy grass for a while. Then, the scenery opened up as several scattered private houses came into my sight.

The view is good, the sunlight is good, and the homes are not clustered up.

Since my basic requirements were cleared, it looked to be okay. It’ll be fine as long as the houses aren’t highly damaged. I mean this IS Ergys-san’s recommendation, he wouldn’t be recommending a highly damaged house to me.

「Here we are」

As Ergys-san stopped and said that, there was a one-story house that was slightly larger than the average homes here.

Maybe there were people living here until not too long ago, or maybe the age of the house is just not standing out? I can’t see any deterioration of the roofs or the walls.

The large warehouse next to the house also gives me a good impression. With such a large warehouse there, I can do my work in there.

「It looks good. Is it okay if I check out the inside quickly? 」

「Oh, sure. Please, go ahead」

Ergys-san answered my question as he opened the door, so I immediately went to take a look inside the house.

The moment I entered, it hit me. This house was matching the image of the house that I had in mind for so long and there was no need to look for anything more.

「Oh… 」

I let out a voice of admiration as my eyes wandered.

There was a large room where the living room and kitchen connected. The walls are painted in the color of white cream, and there were bricks mixed in some places as well. The wooden floor is dark brown and it’s coupled with a nice scent.

「This place has just the right feeling of calmness to it」

This is how it feels without any furniture. If I set up the right furniture for this house, the atmosphere would feel even better.

「Ee, it’s quite nice, right? Moreover, there is a large bath that’s plenty big for you in this house, you know? 」

「Really? 」

I was surprised by Ergys-san’s proud words.

It would be rare for there to be a bathtub in a normal villager’s home.

「The person who lived here before was someone who liked a nice bath. Since there is a stream and a well nearby, he often boiled his own bath. Well, getting the water to the right temperature was tough though」

I was a bit curious about this big bathtub, so I headed to that room which was deep inside the house.

When I opened the door of the narrow change room, there was a big, square-shaped bathtub inside.

Ohh, it’s not smaller than the bath in Ergys-san’s house. So, the reason why the change room was strangely narrow was so that the previous owner could increase the size of the bathtub even if it was only by a little bit.

I can understand his feelings of disappointment just from looking at it.

For someone like me, I don’t care much as long as it’s a bath so I will certainly make use of it. Preparing hot water with one person is pretty tough, but it’s not a problem since I have magic tools.

Magic tools are general tools made from the magically enhanced mana stones of high level monsters.

You engrave the magic circle of a spell you want to cast on the tools, and the spell is activated through the mana extracted from the mana stones.

For ordinary people, magic tools are valuable items that can allow one to take it easy their whole life. However, even for people like me who have zero talent in magic, they are still convenient tools that grants us access to magic.

Although we had the wizard, Kurune, in our party, there were still times where she would run out of mana. But, chances are no one will get injured still because of the magic tools everyone carried on them.

Well, that much should be natural for the once A-ranked party of the kingdom.

Even that being the case, I don’t think I should be using these valuable magic tools that were rarely used in battles to prepare a bath.

If I go to the extent of using magic to prepare hot water, I would be able to take baths every day for ten years since it would barely consume any mana to do so.

It’s an extravagant thing to do, but let’s just accept this as the result of the life-risking battles I had as an adventurer up until now.

After that, I checked out the remaining bedroom, toilet, and the storage room. Everything was to my satisfaction, and my feelings were already set.

「By the way, how far is it from here to the field of flowers? 」

「Within fifteen minutes」

Ergys-san replied with a smile to the question I asked as I looked back at him.

Oh, so it won’t even take half an hour to get there and back. If it’s like that, I can just easily go there when I have a little free time. That’s perfect.

I think it might take the same amount of time to get to Ergys-san’s house.

「I, want to live here」

Thus, my new home was decided.