WE WENT SIGHTSEEING IN THE ELF KINGDOM
Halkara’s family saw us off while their faces were still pale, and we went to our inn.
There wasn’t a room for all of us to stay in, so we got two four-people rooms.
I was with my daughters and Halkara. That’s right—Halkara wasn’t planning on staying with her family. I mean, if she did, her hands would be full taking care of them…
In the other room were the two dragons and Sandra.
*Rosalie was floating around the area, so she came and went between both rooms.
We had already eaten, so all we had to do was bathe (there was a big public bath that the inn encouraged us to use) and sleep.
And since my girls were tired from the trip, they went straight to bed after their bath.
Consequently, Halkara and I were the only ones left.
But this was planned, in a way.
I believed that it was my job as head of the household to have a good talk with the one whose hometown we were visiting. Well, maybe calling myself the head of the household was too much. Maybe it was more correct to say that I felt like I needed to check on her as her friend.
We sat on the bed, chatting as we drank water. The water here was delicious.
“Your family really is interesting.”
“Gosh, I have been apologizing this entire time, but I’m truly sorry for everything…”
She was embarrassed just letting us see her family, never mind what they were like drinking…
I had a feeling I could accurately trace how Halkara was feeling right now.
“But if I had to choose, I’d say I was relieved when I saw what they were like,” I said.
“What?! You saw them! Don’t tell me you imagined something even worse, Madam Teacher?!”
No, my intentions weren’t that ironic.
“See, you never talked about going home, and you never said anything about your family, so it was kind of hard for me to ask about it. I wondered if you had a falling-out or something.”
“Ohhh, that’s what you mean. I see now.” She sounded surprised.
“But it didn’t seem like you had any issues with your family, so I was relieved.”
“They’re all nitwits, but family is family. Elves live for such a long time. They will be in my life for many years to come, so I’ll only get tired if I get truly angry with them.” This was her family, and it felt like she was being more modest than usual. “Well, I’m also glad I got to say hello.”
A quick glance at Halkara’s profile was enough to tell me she was being completely honest.
Even though we weren’t blood related, we were still family, after all.
“But I also remembered how dangerous it is to leave a family like that alone…”
And then an unusually despondent look crossed her face. But I could somewhat understand how she felt.
“Economically, especially… Despite their lack of income, they’re so careless with their money. They just suddenly buy strange things…”
“Then why don’t you send some to them? You probably have some extra, considering your income from the factory.”
“No, if that happens, I feel like they would stop working…”
I guess it would be bad if she sent them too much money.
“To be honest, though, I do have a little bit of an idea.” Halkara then put on her manager face. Now that I thought about it, the biggest reason we came here wasn’t actually to see her family again. “Tomorrow, I will be talking with the lord of this land about building a new factory here. Please do some sightseeing in the meanwhile. I will be back at this inn by sundown.”
“Sure. We’ll hang out and see the village.”
We must have been really tired, because we fell asleep almost right away.
The next day, all of us besides Halkara went to sightsee in the elf villages.
Laika was holding a book called The Wellbranch Marquessate Sightseeing Guide.
Shalsha was holding an even thicker geography book. I wondered if it was too heavy for her, but she was probably used to it.
“According to this guidebook, we can find great trees all over the place. Those are apparently places of interest,” Laika said.
“I suppose that just means some big trees. Well, we are first-time tourists here, so why don’t we go around and see what the book says?” I suggested.
We hopped on a carriage and went to see the first great tree.
In the elf towns, anywhere there wasn’t houses was full of trees, so any extra land was like a little forest. Standing on this particular plot was a tall, tall tree that stretched all the way to the heavens.
There was a fence around it to make sure no one got too close, and tourists (mostly elves) were looking up at it. We looked up, too.
“Well, that’s a magnificent tree. I know it’s not very descriptive, but that’s all I can say.”
“Indeed. I get the impression that it is full of life. Not only that, its boughs are constantly reaching out, reminding me that I can make great progress as well. I also sense tremendous strength from the bright green leaves.”
Laika’s thoughts were much more mature than mine, so I was a little embarrassed.
“Coool!”
“It’s huuuge!”
“It’s so biiig!”
Falfa, Flatorte, and Rosalie’s thoughts were all kind of childish, so I was a little relieved.
“This tree is known as a whattheheck tree. One at this height is extremely valuable. As the name Wellbranch Marquessate suggests, they grow excellent trees here, which are considered sacred places to the elves and have been revered as holy places for ages. A town was built around it, and we arrive at the present.”
“You sure know a lot, Shalsha~”
“After getting this famous and receiving protections from the government, this one looks like it’s having an easy time. It’s set in its old age.”
“And Sandra’s offering the plant point of view…”
But even though the first great tree was relatively interesting for us—
The next tree was great, too.
And the tree after that? Pretty awesome, again.
And the tree after that one.
And the next one was—you guessed it—pretty neat.
“I’m tired of all these trees!”
I gave my honest opinion at the café we went into for a break.
There was no way I could spend the whole day watching trees sit there doing nothing and be satisfied with my experience. I thought it was about time they put something else in the mix.
I noticed the course meals they offered here were salad, salad, salad, and salad.
“Now that I think about it, over half the tourists were elves… Maybe this guidebook was meant for other elves…”
Laika flipped through her book.
Right. Maybe an elf would find this entertaining…
“I, Flatorte, started getting all the trees mixed up by the third and was looking around for the right one…”
You and me both, Flatorte. “Isn’t there anything else in there, Laika?”
“Let’s see… Um, the Wellbranch Marquessate is apparently famous for its spring water. There are a lot of little springs here and there.”
Oh yeah, the water at the inn tasted great.
“Thanks to the abundance of spring water, the forests are also lush. Everything is connected.” Shalsha’s explanation was rather philosophical.
“Drinking lots of cold water after a race is sooo good!” And Falfa’s feelings matched her apparent age.
“The water here is certainly full of minerals. It would be very easy for a plant to grow.” Sandra was drinking water from a cup at the café. I guess she could absorb moisture from her mouth, too.
Sandra had also noticed recently that she didn’t have a problem using her mouth. According to her, she couldn’t absorb as much moisture this way, but the act of drinking itself was something she could do.
“I’m sure I would have ended up much curvier if I grew here, but it would have been hard to live this long without any elves finding me… This land really is terrifying to a mandragora.”
I could hardly imagine Sandra with curves.
That aside.
“I can’t drink anything as a ghost, so I don’t really know, but I don’t think living people would get a lot of fun out of just looking at springs. Right?”
“Yeah, you’re right, Rosalie…”
We would definitely get bored of looking around at springs. I think we’d get bored even quicker than we did with the trees.
“Isn’t there something here that’s a little more fun…? All these sightseeing spots are kind of plain…”
“Hold on a moment… I’ll do a little more searching…”
Laika flipped through the guidebook. “I see… There’s this. But…this…isn’t something the whole family can enjoy… Ohhh, Miss Halkara isn’t here, so this might be perfect, but…”
“What did you find, Laika?”
“Lady Azusa, the alcohol here is also quite well-known. They make a lot of cider here.”
Now I understood why Laika seemed a little apprehensive. If Halkara were here, she’d probably end up blacking out again.
“The clean spring water is well suited to making alcohol. And we can find all sorts of fruit in this area. It’s perfect.”
“You really know a lot about geography, Shalsha. I’m so proud of you.”
There were students out there who couldn’t drink but still knew a lot about specialty products, which included local drinks.
“There is an establishment that holds drinking competitions through cider tasting,” said Laika. “It’s called the Wellbranch Drunkards’ Cidery.”
All of a sudden, it felt like we’d come back down to earth.
“I am interested, but Falfa and Shalsha can’t drink, and Rosalie’s a ghost, which means she can’t ingest anything in the first place, and Sandra can’t drink, either…,” I mused. “It wouldn’t be a good look if we all went but more than half of us couldn’t drink.”
Maybe we should do something that everyone could do instead.
“Um… Maybe…” Sandra timidly raised her hand. “Just maybe, but I might be able to drink. I mean, I don’t think getting drunk is possible for us…”
“Now that you mention it, can plants get drunk…? Still, is it okay if it has alcohol in it? You’re not going to dry out, are you…?”
“As long as it’s weak, I should be able to have a little. And I want to know what it tastes like… I wonder if I could be an adult… Everyone was having so much fun drinking yesterday…”
Sandra was falling prey to the lures of adulthood!
Was it my job as her mother figure to stop her? But it wasn’t like she recognized me as her mother, and she was independent at her age—maybe I was assuming too much authority to tell her no.
I wouldn’t do it. There were too many exceptions in our family, so thinking about all that wouldn’t give me a right answer…
“We might have had a lot of fun drinking, but Halkara’s family got so pale, they were almost blue. Bluer than me, and I’m a blue dragon!”
“They just overdid it! People use flames to cook, but they sometimes end up burning the house down. They don’t know their limits; it’s an exception to the rule!”
Sandra was right. So was Halkara’s family just full of problem children from her point of view…?
“Oh, Lady Azusa, the book says that we can also drink fruit juice without any alcohol,” Laika offered.
“Yaaay! Falfa loves juice! My favorite is apple juice!”
“Shalsha is fond of orange, grape, pear, and fig.”
Both girls joined us in supporting the Wellbranch Drunkards’ Cidery choice.
“Big Sis, it really makes no difference to me where we go, so we can go wherever. And I think a cidery would be a lot more interesting than looking at trees.”
I knew what Rosalie meant. It was probably better than trees and water.
“Okay! Then let’s head on over to the Wellbranch Drunkards’ Cidery!”
We made a transfer on the carriage lines to head for the Wellbranch Drunkards’ Cidery.
Laika was with us, so she told us where we needed to transfer, but there were so many carriages, it was a little complicated. Everything looked the same, too, so it was confusing.
There was some kind of forest park in the middle of town, but everything besides that was built along a grid. They were rezoning all this land.
“I totally imagined elves living in the deep woods—so deep that any trespassers would be trapped with no way out…”
“It was apparently like that long ago,” replied Laika. “But it was inconvenient because the elves also got lost, and they made major modifications. According to the guidebook.”
So the wave of civilization caught the elves, too.
We arrived at our destination without incident: a dignified building made of cypress wood.
Balls made from cedar sprigs hung from the eaves like lanterns. Hey, those things usually identified a brewery in Japan…
“Mom, the cedar balls show us that this is an elf brewery.”
“Hmm… Things are getting further and further away from my idea of elves…”
The Wellbranch Drunkards’ Cidery was an alcoholic theme park, so after we paid our entrance fee, we were free to drink as much as we wanted; it was an alcoholic’s dream come true.
There were several pictures of fruits lined up at the tasting corner. I guess that meant those were the kind of fruit ciders we could drink.
“This is a wonderful place…”
“I am looking forward to sampling the different ciders,” said Laika.
“I will conquer them all!” Flatorte announced.
The drinkers—me and the dragons—were already all smiles even before we started drinking.
All the corresponding fruit juices were sitting next to the ciders, so Falfa and Shalsha were getting excited, too.
“This place is great, Shalsha!”
“I want to stay as long as possible. But we won’t have enough room for food, so we should drink in moderation…”
Sandra was the only one acting a little different. Her expression was a mix of anticipation and nerves.
“Alcohol, alcohol… What will it be like…?”
This was certainly her first experience with it. There was a kind of innocence about her, but this was probably a big deal for her.
And just in case, I had her pick a few samples without a lot of alcohol. I could use recovery magic if things got bad.
I first tried strawberry, grape, apple, persimmon, akebia fruit, and silverberry ciders. I know that’s a lot of things to try first, but it was all-you-can-drink, so I ended up taking a lot. With all the small cups on my tray, it was almost like a buffet.
When we got a table the whole family could sit at—
We all brought our wooden cups together with a “Cheers!”
“Hey, it’s not too strong, and it goes down easy. This flavor would definitely be a hit with girls~” (Me)
“The full-bodied flavors are spreading throughout my mouth. It goes down so smoothly; I think this would be nice with a meal.” (Laika)
“Delicious!” (Flatorte)
Our differences in personality were obvious in our opinions.
At least, I now knew very well that Flatorte should never review food.
And as for my daughters—
“It’s so yummy~ ” (Falfa)
“To put it mildly, I am in supreme bliss.” (Shalsha)
They were also commenting in their own way. I had no doubts that they were satisfied.
And the one I was worried about the most was Sandra.
“I-if I can’t handle it, I can just regurgitate it… It’s not like anything’s going to happen with just this little…,” Sandra was muttering to herself, holding the wooden cup.
She then took tiny sips, almost lapping it up. Her expression was full of suspicion, and she looked at the empty cup, bewildered.
“Well? How was your first taste of alcohol?”
“More bitter than I thought. And it feels like my body is getting warmer.”
A very typical impression from someone who just started drinking.
“That’s how it is,” I replied. “But for some reason, people get hooked on that feeling~”
“Hmm. Animals are strange. But I don’t think it’s too bad.” She reached out for the next cup.
Hey, maybe she’s more of a drinker than we thought.
“Lady Azusa, there are plenty of varieties still to try. Let us keep going!” Laika was slightly more excited than usual, probably because of the alcohol. If there was anywhere to do it, it was here.
“Yes. Let’s make sure we don’t end up hurting ourselves, though.”
“I, Flatorte, will have all the apple cider!”
We chose and drank all the alcohol we wanted. Man, what a fantastic place. I was getting so wasted…
Of course, they didn’t just have alcohol there. We could pay for little snack plates, too. Elf country had all sorts of odd snacks to go with alcohol.
“These elvin-pickled beans sure are salty. But it goes great with the drinks.” Flatorte was eating some local beans dipped in something like soy sauce.
Now that I thought about it, that “elvin” sauce tasted kind of like soy sauce, didn’t it? There were all sorts of vaguely Japanese elements hidden in the elf world.
Japan was full of mountains, which meant it had a lot of forests. Maybe the reason was that the elves lived in a similar geographical environment to Japan. But I guess that was a bit of a stretch…
Also, Shalsha and Falfa bought some bread to eat with the rest of the snacks.
“This goes so good with the bread~”
“No matter what I eat, I want it with bread; it’s like magic. They all tend to be salty, but it’s perfect when I put them on bread.”
Was this like how alcohol snacks also go well with rice…?
Back in Japan, pickles went with both alcohol and rice, so it wasn’t all that strange.
Sandra had switched to juice pretty quickly. I guess that was the safer choice for her.
“Aww, life in the elf lands is so nice. Maybe we should have Halkara visit home every other month or something…”
When we were full, we went to look around the museum area, which would also help sober us up. True to form, Flatorte skipped all the reading, while Laika read every letter. But we could actually see them making the alcohol, too, so of course Flatorte watched with great interest.
Laika also bought something that looked like the facility’s official book. She sure was serious…
Flatorte bought some alcohol to drink at home, too. I felt like we were spending way more money than we initially planned, but I guess it was normal to use so much money on a trip.
It was the perfect environment to refresh ourselves. I really felt like I could spend a full day here.
In reality, it was almost nighttime.
“If they had a year-round pass, I think I’d buy it…”
“It seems like you can get one for fifteen thousand gold, Lady Azusa.”
“Sheesh…I’m actually considering getting one. Maybe I shouldn’t…”
“Well, I think it is about time we headed back to the inn.” Laika really was a considerate girl.
“Yeah. I wonder if Halkara’s done with work already… I’m too full to eat dinner with everyone, though.”
“Mistress, please let me have another glass!” Flatorte was completely into it.
“Sure. Just one more, okay? I guess I’ll finish up, too…”
And just as we were about to get in line, I saw someone with a very familiar rear silhouette.
Hey, that looks a lot like Halkara…
I mean, we were here in elven territory. Most of the customers here were elves, so it was very likely that I mistook someone else for her.
But I had a feeling she looked a little too similar from behind. Even back here, I could sense that she was a little spacey…
They say the way someone carries themselves says a lot about them, and hers said I make a lot of thoughtless mistakes.
Should I loop around to see her from the front? But that would be weird if she turns out to be someone else…
Then the Halkara-looking person staggered a little.
“Oooh, maybe I should stop. No, I was just walking and almost tripped a little, that’s all. I am not drunk yet. I can still drink, I can still drink!!”
“That’s definitely Halkara!”
I tapped her on the shoulder from behind.
The elf whirled around, and it was, without a doubt, Halkara.
“Ahhh! Madam Teacher! What a surprise! Why are you here?!”
“I actually want to ask you why you’re here. We were just hanging out.”
“Oh yes, I understand. There isn’t a lot of sightseeing in this country. I didn’t have many recommendations, either, so I didn’t say anything.”
“Oh yeah, we never got any information from our local resident…”
“I didn’t want you to blame me for telling you about something boring, so I decided to just say nothing. There are so, so many disappointing sightseeing spots, after all.”
She was really going in for the kill, probably because she was a local!
I brought Halkara over to our table. There was no reason for us to rush back to the inn at all now.
“If you’re here, Halkara, then does that mean your business talks ended in failure and you’re here to drown your sorrows…?”
Even if it did end in failure, it wouldn’t cause any harm to Halkara Pharmaceuticals, but if the experience left a bad taste in her mouth, washing it down with a drink was a normal reaction.
She had apparently talked to the lord of the area in her meeting, and I could think of plenty of ways it could’ve gone wrong. Maybe he was an arrogant jerk or something.
“No, the opposite. We came to an agreement without incident, so I wanted to have a good drink before going back.”
“A celebratory drink, then!”
People who drank could slap any reason on to do so at any time.
“I’m glad for ya, Big Sis Halkara. You saw your family, succeeded in your business talks—what more could you ask for?” Rosalie summarized it nicely.
She was right. There wasn’t much else for Halkara to say.
“Nothing. First I will build a new factory here in the Wellbranch Marquessate’s Fusme District. I already have a candidate for the land and an idea for the structure of it.”
She was so good at this stuff. Halkara did have a knack for business.
“But I think there won’t be too much for me to worry about. I am in the more advantageous position, and they will benefit from this as well. The work isn’t over, so I’ve only drunk about half so far.”
“You ended up drinking anyway, huh…?”
Halkara sure loved her alcohol…
But maybe that was a given when it was your home area’s local specialty. I’d probably be an aficionado, too.
“So what made you feel like you succeeded? What went so well?”
I still hadn’t heard the crucial answer.
“I felt a lot of things yesterday when I visited home. I told you a little bit about them, Madam Teacher.”
“Well, yeah, sure.”
I’d listened to Halkara tell me how she felt about her family as we sat on the bed.
“Even from my point of view, they are a problem-filled group, and I’m sure they’ll keep getting themselves fired, but they are still my beloved family. That’s when I came up with the perfect plan.” Halkara grinned. “I will hire my entire family at the new factory. I will make them work there!”
Aha!
“All of them were often late for work, which reflected poorly on their evaluations, but if their place of work was right next to their house, then I’m sure those risks would decrease.”
She had used her strengths to solve the family’s problems!
“Honestly, I can’t leave management to them, so I will have someone else take care of that, but I know they’re not terrible people, and they will do the work given to them. As long as Halkara Pharmaceuticals grows according to my planned trajectory, I know that it will support them, which puts my mind at ease.”
“I see, I see… So that’s how you did it…”
I wasn’t in any position to oppose, so I just accepted it. This was Halkara I was talking to—she wouldn’t make a decision that would sink her company.
“And so, I have completed all my missions for this trip! That is why I was here to drink before returning to the inn!”
I knew her reasons. I had no problem with them.
“All riiight! Let’s drink more!”
If there was a problem, it was that Halkara was pretty drunk already, and her steps were unsteady.
Afterward, Halkara drank way more than she should have and threw up.
She seriously never learned…
A small spring-water creek flowed through the Wellbranch Drunkards’ Cidery, so anyone could put their feet in the water and rest there.
Halkara was doing just that to sober herself up.
“Siiigh. I drank too much again… Yet another reason why drinking is bad…”
“No, I think this is completely your fault.” I sat next to her to keep an eye on her and make sure the drunk girl didn’t do anything weird. The cool water washed away my tipsiness all at once.
“But this entire incident proves my point.” Halkara looked smug.
“What point?”
“That I have good luck. This was the place I pulled randomly, wasn’t it?”
“Oh right, that sparked this whole thing…”
I wasn’t completely satisfied with the conclusion that this proved Halkara had good luck, but since she solved her family’s problem, I wasn’t going to nitpick.
“Yeah. You do have good luck. That’s fine with me.”
“Thank you! And…I do have a request to make…” Halkara drew closer to me. “Could you take me to the toilet…? Blech…I think wave number two is here…”
“I’m starting to think I’m the one with bad luck!”
I was again reminded how hard it was to hold a family together as I held Halkara and took her to the toilet…
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