The First Guests — The Orc Mercenary Band (2)

The orc carefully inspected the grain, then spent every last gold coin he had to buy it.

He even purchased a quantity that was clearly more than the wagon could hold, and when he ran short of money in the process, he went so far as to sell us the horses that had been pulling it.

"How are you going to pull the wagon…? No—even if you somehow manage to pull the wagon, what about the grain that won't fit?"

"We orcs are strong. There's no need to worry."

The polite orc said this as he personally tied the horses' reins to our inn's stable.

So… he meant they would pull the wagon themselves and carry the rest by hand.

If they insisted on doing it that way, there was no reason to stop them—but still…

"Kwahaha! If we really sell all of this, we'll be able to buy basilisk meat!"

"Yeah. We'll make more than enough profit for that."

The polite orc was merely the one responsible for the mercenary band's finances. The captain was someone else entirely.

After hearing the details from the polite orc, the captain of the orc mercenary band gathered his subordinates, who had been eating meat and drinking.

"Alright—grab one of these each and let's move!"

"Uooo… basilisk meat…!"

"We get to eat basilisk meat just for this little bit of work!"

The orcs casually hoisted grain sacks with one hand and slung them over their shoulders—sacks that would have taken every ounce of my strength to lift—and roared with excitement.

Watching them, I asked Grace,

"Is basilisk meat really that good?"

Their excitement had piqued my curiosity about this so-called basilisk meat.

"Yes. From what I know, it's delicious. But hunting basilisks is difficult, so it's expensive."

"Expensive as it may be, compared to the profit from this deal, it's a drop in the bucket."

While Grace was speaking, the polite orc approached us and joined the conversation.

"Would the same trade be possible if we return?"

"Hmm… sure."

Our kitchen's grain kept regenerating anyway, and for the inn to upgrade we needed plenty of guests—so this deal was pure profit for me.

"Next time, we'll bring a bigger wagon."

With that, the polite orc headed for the wagon.

Then he positioned himself where the horses should have been…

"Hup…!"

And started pulling the wagon himself.

I'd expected him to order another orc to do it, but he was doing it himself.

Well—if he left it to another orc, the wagon might get wrecked. Given his relatively careful nature, it made sense that he'd handle it himself…

"……"

"They're gone."

"Yeah. They are."

It had been a sudden visit, but not a bad deal at all.

"Shall we upgrade the inn right away, then?"

"Huh? Oh—right. Let's do that."

Her words snapped me back to reality, and I headed into the inn with Grace.

At the counter, I used the Inn Management skill and began the upgrade.

Clack-clack! Scrape-scrape…

Just like yesterday, the inn started renovating itself automatically.

Of course, the construction would take a fair amount of time, and with nothing else to do in the meantime, I decided to ask Grace something I'd been wondering about.

"Hey, Grace. Why did you buy the horses, anyway?"

When the polite orc realized he was short on money, he'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠offered to sell us the horses. And before I could say a word, Grace had accepted the deal.

"City inns are one thing, but inns like ours—places where travelers stop to rest—usually keep horses. Travelers in a hurry often sell their exhausted horses to the inn and buy well-rested ones so they can keep moving as fast as possible."

"Oh…"

So inns did that kind of business too?

"If traffic is light, the cost of maintaining the horses can exceed what you earn that way. But our inn doesn't need to worry about ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠feed costs. We can just give them grain from the kitchen, and I can handle hygiene with magic."

…Magic, huh.

I wonder if I'll be able to use magic too.

"Ah—the upgrade's done."

"Master. Please upgrade the kitchen right away."

"Yeah, got it."

The condition for upgrading the kitchen to Level 2 was completing ten servings of food.

That requirement had been visible even when the inn was Level 1, so Grace already knew about it—and she'd filled it in advance so the kitchen could be upgraded the moment the inn hit Level 2.

"And with the inn at Level 2, what's newly unlocked is…"

The tavern.

A space for serving alcohol.

Right—a medieval inn ought to have booze, at least.

The first image that had come to mind when I first saw this place was a tavern, after all.

I wanted to build the tavern immediately, but unfortunately you couldn't run two upgrades at once, so I'd wait until the kitchen upgrade finished.

That didn't mean I had nothing to do right now.

"Grace—you decide this one."

"Is that all right?"

"I'd prefer the option that improves cooking quality, but this directly affects you."

It was time to check the employee level-up feature.

By completing the kitchen's Level 2 upgrade condition, Grace had also satisfied the requirements for her own employee level-up.

"Let's see… Increased Cooking Speed, Improved Finished Dish Quality, Enhanced Physical Ability, Increased Mana Capacity…"

"It also says there's a chance of gaining a skill."

"That applies no matter which one I pick, right?"

"Yeah."

After a brief moment of thought, Grace chose one of the options.

"I'll go with Improved Dish Quality."

"Did you pick that for my sake?"

"For you, Master—and for myself as well."

I want to eat delicious food whenever I can, after all.

And I'd like to recreate the dishes from your memories, too.

"Well, thank you."

"Hehe."

Grace smiled lightly at my words.

Looking at her smile, I raised her level.

The option, of course, was the one we both wanted—Improved Dish Quality.

"Hmm… doesn't look like a skill appeared."

"Too bad, but it can't be helped. It said it was chance-based."

"And honestly, I can't really tell if the dish quality has improved either. It doesn't show up on my status window… I suppose I'll just have to try cooking."

Conveniently, the kitchen upgrade had also finished.

Seeing that, Grace said she'd prepare lunch and headed into the kitchen.

And I pressed the button to construct the tavern.

…I wonder what kind of alcohol will show up?

Considering that the kitchen at Level 1 only had grain, I figured the tavern would have an extremely limited selection of drinks.

…Or wait.

What if there was no alcohol at all?

Just malt or something—the raw materials for beer.

"That would be a real problem."

It's not like I know how to brew alcohol.

…First things first—let's check.

Fortunately, the tavern had just finished construction, and the door that had been sealed until now swung open. All I had to do was go in and look.

Creeeak…!

The tavern was in rough shape—probably because it was still only Level 1.

No, I wasn't even sure "tavern" was the right word for it.

This feels more like a liquor warehouse than a tavern.

Opening the door, I found nothing but wooden barrels that looked like casks of alcohol.

Or wait.

Was the whole thing—including the counter out front—the tavern?

Mulling over that unimportant detail, I checked the barrels.

At least it wasn't a setup where Grace or I had to brew the alcohol ourselves. That was a relief.

"How's the alcohol?"

I grabbed a cup from one side of the liquor warehouse and held it under the spigot attached to a barrel.

Then I turned the valve and filled the cup.

Is this… beer?

It was cloudy and had no foam, but my gut said it was beer.

I took a sip.

"…Ptoo…"

And immediately spat it out.

The beer was lukewarm rather than cold, barely had any flavor, and had almost no carbonation.

And they call this beer?

The absurd part was that Grace's knowledge was telling me this counted as high-quality for inn-sold beer.

Cloudy as it was, it had no impurities.

"…So this is normal for the medieval era, huh."

I set the cup down and headed back to the counter.

Other people might enjoy that stuff, but I had no confidence I could.

Still, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠according to the status window I checked back at the counter, the condition for raising the tavern to Level 2 was simple.

One hundred cups of alcohol…

There didn't seem to be any requirement that it be served to customers or that someone actually drink it.

In fact, even though I'd only taken a sip and spat it out, the display already showed (1/100)—as if one cup had been counted.

In that case, simple ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠enough.

Pour a hundred cups and dump them.

Having reached that conclusion, I went back into the liquor warehouse and started filling cups and dumping them out, over and over.

And right around the time I pressed the upgrade button to raise the tavern to Level 2…

"Master. Lunch is ready."

Grace came out into the dining room with steaming hot bread, vegetable soup, and a salad.

With the kitchen at Level 2, vegetables had apparently started regenerating infinitely as well.

Confirming the improved quality of the food, I sat down and took the bread she offered, putting it in my mouth.

Oh?

The bread she'd brought was different from what we'd eaten yesterday and this morning.

The old bread had needed to be softened in soup first—and even then it was hard.

But this bread wasn't hard at all, even though I'd put it straight in my mouth without dunking it.

"That must be the Improved Dish Quality at work. I baked it the exact same way as yesterday and this morning, but it came out soft."

The soup and salad are the same.

"I didn't season anything, but the seasoning is perfect—and I just mixed the vegetables, yet somehow there's dressing on them."

"That's amazing…?"

Choosing the Improved Dish Quality option had been the right call.

"However…"

"However?"

"The probability is ridiculously low."

Her rough phrasing caught me off guard.

A low probability meant…

"You'd have to make the same dish about a hundred times before something like this might come out once."

"……"

So it didn't raise the quality of every dish unconditionally.

"Sorry… I won't ask you to serve this to every customer. Just hang in there."

"Yes. We'll serve regular dishes to the guests, and save the high-quality ones for just you and me, Master."

And just like that, Grace's and my standard of living improved.