Chapter 141: Lured By The Smell
There are almost no members of the firms after I finish eating breakfast, maybe they have work to do. And since the members of the Silver Wind have the roles of their guard, there is no one familiar who remained.
That means the one left here is just me and Roomba, so we quietly passed the time in the first-floor lobby.
「Al, what are you going to do today?」
Roomba -who is sitting on the sofa opposite of me - asked.
「Hmmー, I guess it’s not a bad idea just to relax like this while drinking the green tea made by the proprietress?」
I sip on the warm green tea made by the proprietress while saying that.
The taste of the unique bitterness from the green tea is irresistible. The taste of the tea leaves perfectly came out.
「……it’s the long-awaited sightseeing you know? Don’t you think it’s a waste to just spend the whole day inside the ryokan?」
「Really? I think it’s not bad to relax in a foreign country’s ryokan like this, though?」
When you go outside, the proprietress and Sannosuke won’t follow you around, right?
I mean, when you just relaxing in the lobby like this, the proprietress and Sannosuke will entertain you and make tea, or serve you sweets, you know?
Talking with everyone while looking at the foreign country’s scenery and being taken care of, isn’t that very nice?
「Al said something that other normal kids won’t say as usual. You normally go out when you came to a foreign country, right? You rarely come to a foreign country after all, so let’s go, alright? What do you say?」
Err, I got Space magic’s Teleport after all, so I can go to a foreign country anytime.
However, maybe Roomba wants to go outside since he looks obviously dissatisfied.
Even so, Roomba can’t go to a foreign country anytime.
Although he was living in My Home, it’s thanks to Roomba persuasion to Nord-tousan that I came here, and he came along with me from the distant Koryatt village.
And he also doesn’t have the personality to be able to idly stay in the ryokan, I guess he must want to go outside, huh?
「……okay, well then, shall we go outside」
「Ooh! I knew it, children should go outside after all!」
When I decide to go out, Roomba stands up happily.
It feels like he’s happy that he can go out and that it’s unbearable for him to stay. He’s waiting impatiently for me like a dog as he looked down on me who is still sitting on the sofa,
「Yosh, I will also get up――huh? I can’t exert any strength…」
I can’t stand up even when I tried to stand. That’s strange, even though I should have also decided to go outside, my body won’t listen to me.
When I think that I should get up, it feels like the soft sofa is trying to keep me from doing that as it’s pulling my body’s strength away.
A soft sofa on a warm morning. And a delicious green tea. These things are ruining people, huh.
「Oh? What happened?」
「……the sofa feels very comfortable that I can’t get up」
When I answer with a voice that was somehow weak, Roomba suddenly pulled my arm and lifted me up.
After that, he put me on his right shoulder like he’s carrying a bag of rice.
「Then, I’m going to carry you! Let’s go outside!」
Roomba heavily walked toward the entrance while saying that.
「Ohー, this is also quite good. Now then, let’s go outside like this. Ah, Roomba. Bring my shoes to the entrance.」
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When I got carried by Roomba to go outside, Kagura’s main street is crowded with people today too.
It’s interesting just seeing the people wearing brightly colored Kagura clothes mixed up together like a field of flowers. To say nothing of me not riding on Roomba’s shoulder today, but I’m being carried on his shoulder.
It’s rare seeing the scenery of Kagura in this kind of posture after all.
I look at the surroundings without a care in the world while being carried on Roomba’s shoulder while facing behind.
But, I wonder what is it. I feel that a lot of gazes have been gathering in my direction since some time ago.
Roomba and I don’t have black hair so we naturally stand out among the people, but their gaze is not the kind of gaze seeing something unusual, I feel that they are more of a scared or worried look.
Suppose that, even if it’s strange for them to see an adult carrying a kid on his shoulder, this kind of gaze probably wouldn’t be pointed toward me.
Just when I’m thinking about the strange gazes from the people around, a man who walked behind Roomba called out.
「……uhh, are you okay? Your eyes look really dead, and it looks like you have no strength in your body? 」
「I’m fine. Don’t worry」
When I clearly said that, the man whispered with a worried voice.
「Are you really alright? I’m scared of the person carrying you, you are actually getting kidnapped aren’t you?」
What the, but if I thought about the strange way people looked at me with a worried gaze since a while ago, it was that kind of misunderstanding, huh?
Well, Roomba is someone with a frightening look and he’s wearing an eyepatch anyway, so he really looks just like a yakuza so it may be something inevitable.
「No, I’m really fine. Since this uncle and I know each other……Roomba, I’m going to walk by myself now」
「Oh? Really?」
It’s such a nice position where I don’t have to walk by myself, but it’s unbearable to be misunderstood like this wherever we go. Because of that, I decided to get off and tapped on Roomba’s shoulder.
When they see the familiar exchange between me and Roomba, some of the people behind us looked relieved.
「Al, is there any place you want to go?」
「Uーn, like, yesterday we went around to the main attractions, and I have just eaten breakfast. I guess I want to try going to a place away from the main street today」
「Okay. Well, we can try walking around that area then?」
Nodding at Roomba’s word, I walk to a street away from the main street.
The width of the road becomes narrow as soon as we leave the main street, with residential buildings lined up on the street.
We aimlessly strolled around the quiet residential area. As we walked down the street, there is a housewive-like woman drying her laundry, and children playing tag on the narrow street.
It’s a really peaceful sight.
Different from the main street, the residential area is not gaudy so I thought that Roomba might feel bored looking at them, but he looks to enjoy seeing them, perhaps he’s also interested in a foreign country’s lifestyle.
When we nonchalantly advanced along the street like that, we arrived at the edge of a big river.
There is also a residential area on the other side of the river and there is a wooden bridge with a beautiful arc if you want to go over there.
It’s quite a splendid bridge with quite the length.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to look at the river’s scenery from the bridge, shall we immediately move there?
「Oh? Something smells good」
When I was about to go to the bridge, Roomba - who is walking behind me - muttered while sniffing with his nose.
「Ehー? It’s not an open-air street here and we moved a bit from the residential area, there is no such thing as the smell of food, isn’t there?」
「No, I can smell it you know. This is the smell of a grilled fish」
Though Roomba said that, the smell hadn’t reached me yet.
「It came from below the bridge! Let’s try to look for it!」
When I was still tilting my head in puzzlement, Roomba already started walking toward the area under the bridge.
Ooh, thanks to Roomba’s appetite, I went from on top of the bridge to under the bridge.
Oh well, I guess it’s fine. As for me, I also love the secret base-like space under the bridge, and it’s also not bad since I can also see the river up close.
I followed Roomba who is leading the way and head to under the bridge.
「Ah, there’s really the smell of grilled fish」
「Right?」
When I trot so as to not fall behind Roomba who has a long stride, I can smell the smell of grilled fish just as he said. I guess it’s a salt-grilled fish? It smells so good and savory.
Since we walked around the place, we’re becoming a little hungry and our hunger got stimulated.
When we walked as if being called by the smell, just right under the bridge, there are plenty of fishes that were skewered and grilled under the bridge.
「………I wonder if someone was grilling them?」
「Even so, I can’t see the figure of a person anywhere though」
Roomba and I tried to look for people in the surroundings, but there is no sign of people anywhere we look.
Then, just who on earth was the one who prepared this salt-grilled fishes here?
「「………………」」
There are delicious-looking grilled fishes, carefully sprinkled with salt in front of our eyes.
It’s the kind of fish we saw on the open-air street yesterday, so the fish shouldn’t taste bad.
The waste moisture flew off from the fishes and the surface of the fishes are completely grilled. I’d say that is just at the right time to eat it now.
Roomba and I looked down on the salt-grilled fishes and make a swallowing sound.
「……if they kept being grilled like this, then they will be completely burnt, aren’t they?」
「Yeah, that’s right. That means it’s a situation where the fish, the person who grilled the fishes, and us won’t be happy about」
If that’s the case, in order to not waste the blessing here, we should eat the fishes lest they got burnt.
Roomba and I exchange glances and nodded, then we reached for the salt-grilled fishes.
「Oi wait a minute! Those are the fishes I captured and carefully grilled you know!?」
And then, there is suddenly a man who only wears a loincloth coming out of the river.
……did you really grilled it carefully? When you say it while looking like that, it feels like you really don’t want to eat it.
After Roomba and I only gave the men a glance, we immediately return to the fish and take a bite out of them.
「The person who grilled the fish is right here in front of you, so stop eating them!」
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