Reborn as A Holy Knight (Remake) Volume 1 Chapter 8 (Patreon)

Chapter 8 – The Inn “Cat’s Forehead”

“By the way, is there a place where I can sell monster materials or something?”

I’m going to be a father.

And as a father, I have to earn money.

If I want to earn money while wandering around the world, I think I should be an adventurer or a hunter, which are common jobs in otherworld stories.

But wouldn’t it be easier to earn money by selling seasonings and making delicious food?

I also thought of that. However, I was told that those are for my own use and that I can serve them to people I know, but I can’t do business with them.

I heard there is a pledge from the god of commerce that you can’t put a price on anything involving those condiments.

To sum up, I can distribute them, but there shouldn’t be any ‘trading’ involved. So yeah. No loopholes on that one.

“Let me think… In larger towns, the Adventurer’s Guild or Merchant’s Guild will purchase these items in bulk, but unfortunately, there is not even a single guild in this town. Therefore, you could only ask stores and craftsmen to trade directly from them or ask the peddlers who occasionally come here to buy or sell on consignment.”

“I see.”

Well, at least I’m glad to know that there’s an Adventurer’s Guild.

And now that I’ve heard it, it’s a given that I want to register. It’s the otherworldIsekai standard.

“As far as I remember, the peddlers had a flea market in the square a few days ago, but maybe there’s still some at the inn. You can start by checking that place.”

“Right. I didn’t think about the inns!”

But, as expected, I can’t just say goodbye to Alma in this town, so I thought I’ll need to stay here for a while.

“Certainly, there are lodging facilities in the temple, but considering your mission, I think it would be better for you to go into town.”

“But will you be all right on your own?”

“Yes. I’ve been living all alone until now, and even though I am pregnant, I am now as good as safe because of the blessing you bestowed on me. Besides, the believers will take good care of me, so don’t worry about me.”

If I could, I would like to be with Alma more, but that’s not going to happen.

“Well, I guess this is it then. Take care, Alma.”

“You too, Sir Alfred.”

“But I’ll still be in town for the time being, so I’ll check in on you from time to time.”

“Yes. And you will always be welcome here.”

○●○●

After learning how to get there from Alma, I visited the only inn in the town, [Cats’ Forehead].

Although it is called an ‘inn’, I heard that only occasional peddlers use the inn as a place to stay.

So how does this business operate? Actually, instead of a hotel, it was acting more like a rental apartment, but you have to rent the rooms for a very long time at the minimum.

If that’s the case, why not stay at the empty houses in town?

Well, after the war versus the evil gods, many young men died. Because all that was left were women living alone or families comprising mothers and daughters and very young sons (the fathers and sons and other men-of-age are required to participate in the war), a detached house became very difficult to manage.

After all, construction and maintenance work is mainly the job of men.

So, it was not surprising that many people use these rental rooms for the long term.

“Welcomeow~”

(Cat ears!?)

When I entered the inn, I was greeted by a woman with cat ears on her head.

(And she said “meow” just now…)

“Ooh, that’s a nyew face. Meowreover, a man too~.”

The cat-eared receptionist looked at me with a curious gaze.

I was distracted by the cat ears, but she is quite cute.

“So, what do you want? Staying fwor the night?’

“Ah, uhm, I heard that there are peddlers here…”

“Oh, a cwustomer then? Sowwy, but they left the town this mowning~.”

What?

What a pity.

But since I’ve come all this way, I might as well go in.

“Excuse me, I would like to book a room.”

“A standawrd room costs 5,000 G pewr night. Ten nights fowr 30,000 G, 60,000 G fowr a month.”

By the way, in the calendar in this world, a month is 28 days and a year is 13 months of 364 days.

There is no concept of weeks or leap years.

The concept of time is the same. 60 seconds equals 1 minute, 60 minutes equals 1 hour, and 24 hours equals 1 day. However, I don’t know if the length of each unit is the same as those in my original world.

Midnight here is called the “0th hour”. Every hour after that is “1st hour”, “2nd hour”, “3rd hour,” and so on.

There’s no concept of a 12-hour format and AM and PM here.

I don’t know if the ‘midnight’ here is exactly the same as midnight in the original world, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a discrepancy between the time of day and the tilting of this world to the sun, assuming that this world is also round.

“The contwact is 50,000 G pewr month for a six-month contwact and 40,000 G pewr month for a one-year contwact. However, fowr the six-month contwact, you have to pay thwee month’s rwent in advance and five months advance fowr the six-month contwact.”

That’s the price of a business hotel or a weekly apartment for the short term and the price of a regular apartment for the long term.

For the time being, let’s book for 10 days…

“Aaaah!!”

“Meow!”

Because I suddenly raised my voice, the girl at the reception jumped up in surprise.

After that, she hid at the receptionist’s desk, her face half exposed as she peeked at me.

I could see the tip of her tail wagging, which I could not see before.

“What was that! You shuddenly shouted sho louwd!!”

“I’m sorry. It’s just that… I just remembered I don’t have any money.”

Because I could no longer refund the money I donated to the temple, I am now penniless.

I thought I could make money by selling materials if I encountered peddlers here, but there aren’t any.

“Uhm, do you buy monster materials?”

“Nyope, we do not. I’ll tell you this fiwrst, but we only accept [Cash] here.”

By the way, the [Cash] here refers to the settlements made through a status window, like a digital wallet, instead of using fiat money like bills or commodity money like coins. I don’t even know if “money” exists here, but so far, I haven’t seen a sign of one.

“Well… I guess I’ll go then.”

“Wait, mistwer.”

With a gesture as if saying, [it can’t be helped], the receptionist girl stood up.

“If [Cash] is nyow good, I can also accept other payments, you knyow? For example… you can pay me with your body instead.”

The receptionist lady said this to me with an evil smile on her face.

○●○●

“Gwood work. You’re more useful than I thought, Aru~.”

“Thank you for the praise.”

I was put to work for half a day by ‘Karina’, the receptionist and hostess of the inn and a member of the cat tribe.

I was bewildered by what she meant by ‘my body’, only to discover that she was talking about hard labor.

At first, I thought that since they don’t have male hands, I would be put into heavy work like renovation, but it seems that repairs and heavy labor here are being done by a woman named Martha.

Martha is a member of the great apes (gorilla) tribe. Generally, their race are called [Beastfolk], who excel in physical ability, and even the women of their race are sometimes more powerful than the average human man.

In other words, they have enough hands, at least for heavy jobs.

By the way, even though they are of the ‘gorilla’ race, the beastfolk in this world have relatively high human genetics, so their image is more like a female wrestler than a bigfoot-like entity.

As for my work, I was in charge of cleaning and laundry.

When Karina found out that I could use the light magic [Holy Purification], she was so happy that she pushed me to do about 100 kilograms of laundry that had accumulated on the spot.

That was the start of me using [Holy Purification] incessantly.

Laundry is also part of the inn’s service, with bed sheets changed free of charge once every five days and other laundry done at 100 G per kilogram.

Laundry is Karina’s job, but she usually outsources it to her clients.

However, it seems that for the past 10 days, the old ladies whom she usually asks to do her laundry have been visiting another town, and while she was thinking of doing it tomorrow or sometime in the future, it seemed to have accumulated.

Each time I would hear something like this, it would make me think, “This woman is no good.”

 I also cleaned vacant rooms, weeded the grounds, common areas, and so on.

The more I did this, the more it made me realize that it would certainly be easier if someone would handle these chores for me.

No wonder the demand for these rooms for rent is high.

The bathroom, toilet, and kitchen are shared in “The Cat’s Forehead”.

There is no concept of ‘bathtub culture’ in many otherworldly world stories, but this world seems to have one.

Of course, it is not similar to Japan, where every household has its own bath, but it is more like a public bathhouse.

Kitchens are shared, and self-catering is the norm, but meals can also be taken in the dining hall attached to the inn.

Guests of the inn can use the dining hall for a small discount.

I was also asked to buy ingredients for the dining hall, but when I provided a large quantity of meat from my [Storage Unit], mainly from the monsters I’ve hunted all the way here, they were so pleased that I was exempted from buying.

… This alone should be enough to cover the cost of lodging, right?

“Aru, your bath is ready, so you can now go in.”

“I appreciate the offer, but isn’t it still a little early?”

The time is just past the 18th hour.

It is a little early to take a bath.

“Right neow we have only one man, and that’s you, Aru. Everywone starts taking a bath around the 19th hour, so get in befowe that.”

“I see. So that’s what you meant.”

“That’s wight~. Meaning Aru can only take a bath until the 19th hour, or aftew midnight, aftwer evewyone is asleep.”

“Okay.”

“Oh, and make sure to use [Holy Purification] befowe you leave, okay? It wuill be bad if a smwell of a man rwemained in the rwoom.”

Yes, yes. By the way, what’s with the Aru? Just use Alfred or Alf, please.”

“So nyaggy. It’s up to me what I wuill call you. And fowr me, it’s Aru!”

“Okay, okay.”

Just like that, I was overworked for half a day, but I was also able to open up to Karina quite a bit.

○●○●

‘Phew…”

After applying “Holy Purification” to my sweating body, I took a dip in the bathtub.

You might be asking, if I have a [Holy Purification] skill, what’s the point of taking a dip in a tub?

Well, soaking in a hot tub is different from washing your body as it can also relax your mind.

Now, my mind is at peace.

“This is paradise.”

Sanitary facilities such as baths and toilets are equipped with magic tools that can produce magical effects as a substitute for the electronics and mechanical parts on earth.

What’s more, the power source for all these tools is universal – all are from magic stones.

Pretty convenient, aren’t they? These magic stones.

Anyway, the feel of the bath here is the same as that of the public bathhouses in my former world.

After the bath, I had a meal at the dining hall.

Overall, the food was light but still pretty good.

I could have taken out my seasonings and used them, but I didn’t because it would be troublesome if I made a fuss.

After the meal, I went into the prepared room for myself and had a lone coffee time.

Despite the name “Cat’s Forehead,” this inn is quite huge.

For starters, it is a five-story building.

The room I was assigned to was at the far end of the fifth floor.

In other words, it was the room farthest from the entrance.

Perhaps because of the difficulty of climbing the stairs, the lower floors are more popular, and there are almost no guests on the fifth floor.

At least the room next door is empty.

How do I know this? Because I cleaned it.

I sat on the bed.

It seems this world also has the concept of mattresses and is quite resilient.

I heard it is stuffed with some monster material, but I forgot.

Come to think of it, Alma’s bed was also this comfortable.

The high bedding level really helps.

――Welp, time to sleep, then.

…………………………

……………………

…………

……knock, knock.

I picked myself up to the sound of knocking.

“yes?”

“It’s mwee.”

“Karina…? Come in.”

When I found out that the voice belonged to the cat-eared mistress of the inn, I opened the door.

From there, I was surprised by the sight.

Karina, who opened the door and entered, was dressed in a nightgown.

Her see-through clothes allowed the contours of her body to be seen fully.

Looking at it again, this woman has a great body.

“Uhm, what do you need?”

“Meow? Have you fowgotten it awready?”

“Forgot what?”

“I told you to pay fowr the accommodation with your body.”

“And that’s why you worked me so hard during the day.”

“That’s just an extwa.”

“An extra?”

Karina entered the room and locked the door behind her.

Then, she turned her gaze on me as if she were looking at her prey, complete with licking her lips with her tongue.

“The rweal payment stawrts from here.”

So I was right all along!?

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