Chapter 338:
Penta Fruit and Tetra Fruit
“All Mr. Ashley did was stare at Ciel,” I remarked.
He asked no questions and simply stared and stared…until Ciel got annoyed, and he stopped. I hadn’t thought he would just stare and not say anything at all. Everyone else asked a bunch of questions or petted Ciel, who seemed to enjoy it. However, this new reaction confused not only Ciel but us as well.
“Yeah, not even I predicted that reaction,” Druid smiled. “Ivy?”
“Uh-huh?”
“You always come and talk to me when you have a decision to make, and that takes a great weight off my heart. But make sure
you keep coming to me for advice from now on as well. Consult with me and with your creatures.”
“Of course I will. There’s still a lot of knowledge and experience I don’t have, so I would never make judgments all by myself.”
I could certainly say that with confidence. I think it’s very important to not reach a decision until you’ve heard lots of opinions on the matter.
“That’s a relief to hear.” Druid gave my head a couple of gentle pats. “Right, we should check on our faaxes. Knowing our friends, they must’ve replied by now.”
“Yeah, Rattloore and his friends are quick to get back to us, and so’s your family.”
Whenever I sent faxes to Rattloore and his friends, I usually heard back within two days. The next fastest to reply was Druid’s family. Captain Oght took his time.
“It feels good knowing people care.”
“Yeah. Then again, half of it is my mom worrying that I’m giving you a hard time.”
“Ha ha ha, guess I’ll have to write your mom another letter, then.”
“Yes, please do. My sister-in-law would love that.”
We stopped by the merchant guild and made our way to the table in the corner.
“How can I help you?”
“We’ve come to check on our faaxes.” Druid handed his guild card to the clerk, who then reached into a drawer in the table and pulled out several letters.
“Here you go,” she said.
“Thank you very much. Could we please have ten sheets of faax paper?”
“Right away, sir. Let me just account for that in your records.” She subtracted the cost of the paper from Druid’s guild card and handed it back to him.
“Thanks a lot.”
“Thank you for your business.”
The fax clerks in Hatahi sure were wooden. This lady was smiling, but otherwise she didn’t seem comfortable interacting with people.
“Want to read them here?” Druid asked.
I shook my head no. I wanted to take my time. “Let’s go back to the inn. What do you want to do for supper? We told Mr. Chikar we didn’t need any today, right?”
“Weeeell… I actually have a request.”
“Sure. What is it?”
“I want to eat gyuu-don, that dish with the hexa fruit. Is that okay?”
Hexa fruit? Oh, right, that’s eggs. In other words, he wants a beef and rice bowl. That’s easy to make, so it shouldn’t be a problem.
“Sure, I can make it.”
We still have some meat, so I don’t have to get that. But we don’t have eggs, so I’ll need to buy some on the way back. Oh, right! Not eggs. Hexa fruit. Gosh, this is so confusing.
“Oh, that reminds me! Since hexa fruit is a thing, do you think there’s also such a thing as penta fruit?” I asked.
“Huh? Um, everyone knows that.”
Is it really common knowledge? I’ve never seen penta fruit or tetra fruit sold anywhere.
“Wait a minute…you really didn’t know?” said Druid.
“Nope. Is it really that well known?”
I’d never seen any number-related fruit sold in shops except hexa fruit, so why would it be common knowledge?
“Oh, I think I get it! Yeah, they haven’t been selling anything besides hexa fruit lately.”
“Oh, they haven’t?” I guess you couldn’t blame me for not knowing about them, then.
“Yeah, the other fruits are rotten on the inside.”
They’re rotten? “Well, then I can see why the shops won’t sell them. But then why were they ever sold in the first place?”
“Some people used to eat them in the past.”
“They ate…rotten food?”
“Apparently. That was decades ago, though.”
Maybe this was during a time when food was scarce? I had read about this country’s history, but I’d never noticed anything about that. Perhaps I’d missed it.
“Well, people all have their unique food preferences, including rotten food…”
No, that’s not cool! You shouldn’t eat rotten food!
“Ivy, don’t make that face.”
What kind of face am I making? I touched my hands to my cheeks.
“You’ve got quite the perplexed expression on your face, Ivy.” Druid sounded amused.
Well, I couldn’t help but make a face. Just the thought of eating rotten food made me feel a little sick.
“All joking aside, I did try the rotten fruit once. It was the penta fruit.”
“What?! Really?”
“Yeah. It was white and it smelled sour, so I decided not to eat it after all.”
Oh, good. So he didn’t actually eat it. Still, I’m surprised by the odd things Druid does sometimes.
“What groceries do we need, then?”
“Just the hexa fruit.”
We bought some hexa fruit on the way back to the inn. Once we were inside, I took my creatures out of their bag.
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
“Pefu!”
I took blue potions and five swords out of my bag, then I got out the red potions. Sora and Flame merrily jiggled toward the potions, and Sol rolled all the way over to my feet.
“Your dinner’s over here, Sol. There weren’t many magic items in the dump, so there might not be much magic energy for you to eat this time. Sorry about that.”
“Pefu! Pefu!” Sol happily bounced up and down on the magic items I’d brought back.
“Eat quietly, okay?” No amount of soundproofing the room could ease my worries, even when it was done with a magic item.
I took our dinner ingredients out of my magic bag and headed to the kitchen. I’d just realized it had been a while since I last made gyuu-don, and since it was Druid’s special request, I wanted to do it justice.
“Okay, first I’ve got to steam the rice.”
“I’ll help. What should I do?”
You want to help me? But it’s just beef over rice. It really comes together in no time.
“Oh, but beef and rice is very easy to make.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah, so if you help, then I’ll have nothing to do. You can take it easy today.” I think I’ll make the side dishes while the rice cooks.
“Okay. I guess I’ll read my faaxes, then.”
“Tell me what everyone said later, okay?”
“Of course.”
Druid got the faxes from our room and began to read them. I hoped everyone was doing well.
“What?!”
Just as I was finishing up the second side dish, Druid, who was reading faxes behind me, let out a yelp of surprise.
“What’s wrong?”
“Shurila’s having a baby.”
A baby? “Wow, really?”
“Yeah, and she said that Doluka is being overly protective and it’s very annoying.”
Annoying? Wait, Druid is thirty-three years old, right? I wonder how old his big brothers are.
“How old is Doluka?”
“Hm? He’s thirty-nine… Wait…is he forty? Well, something like that.”
I wonder how old their wives are, then.
“Um, so how old is Shurila?”
Oops, I asked out loud. I hope that wasn’t rude.
“I think Shurila is…about nine years younger than him, which would make her about thirty.”
Wow, so they’re nine years apart.
“Why are you so curious about ages all of a sudden?” Druid asked.
“Oh, no reason. I just heard that childbirth can be dangerous later in life.”
“Dangerous? Why would it be? We’ve got childbirth potions.”
Childbirth potions? Wait…what are those?
“Oh, did you not know about them?”
“Yeah, do potions like that really exist? I always thought there were only four types.”
“Well, they’re only used during childbirth, so I guess it’s not common knowledge.”
So they have potions to help people give birth smoothly. I had no idea.
“My parents were worried about those two since you can’t have a baby unless you’ve got a good relationship. I guess this has put their minds at ease.”
Ooh…I just know any baby of Shurila’s will be adorable. I can’t wait to meet it.
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