Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi

Gumihou: It seems kind of pointless for the familiars to trudge after Mukouda in search of the Magic Stove. Sillier still for the familiars to agree, grudgingly or not, to be dragged all over the place only to serve as a united voice of ‘yeah yeah Magic Stove yeah x 4’

The next morning found everyone lazing around in the living room after breakfast. Since I only have to see Orson-san the day after tomorrow, the plan was to take it easy today and go do a little shopping tomorrow for my Magic Stove.

That was the plan, at least…

“Right, let’s go hunting.”

“Hey, haven’t you hunted enough yesterday?”

“We hunted a whole crab but only ate its legs. I want to gather more. Isn’t having more crabs better?”

“”Oooh! Great idea!!”” Dora-chan immediately perked up.

“More crabs means more of the guts, yes? I look forward to it.”

“”Sui wants to eat crabby too~~””

I glared at them. “Hey, why don’t you think about why we are in this city?”

“To catch crabs?”

“To eat crabs?”

“”To hunt crabs?””

“”Crabby~?””

“Have you all really forgotten? We came here to get a Magic Stove! A Magic Stove!”

“Ahh…”

“There are four of you now, don’t expect me to cook on a dinky little portable stove. A big Magic Stove is practically a necessity to keep you all fed, you know?! There’s only so much pre-made food I could pack and go.”

This seems to finally convince them of the seriousness of the situation.

“U-umu, I supposed it can’t be helped…”

“”Ugh, but do we have to all go with you?!””

There was a pause.

“Say…”

“No,”

“But Master…”

“No, if I leave you alone to go outside, you’ll overdo it!”

“Nuu, what if we only hunt crabs and fish?”

“”We won’t snatch other Adventurer’s prey.””

“We will be discreet, we’ll travel on the water slowly with Sui.”

“”Sui catch fish~?””

“Ugh…” I really don’t feel comfortable leaving them on their own. I sort of promised the guild master that I will keep an eye on them, but having them walk around all over the city with me is not good either, right?

“Kuuhh…”

“We shall be careful…”

“”Please~!!””

“”Please~ Aruji~~””

“Fine,” I said grudgingly.

“Yay!!!!”

“BUT, I’m going to escort you outside. I will come back to the city alone to do my shopping and meet you later at the place where we cooked the crab legs. Okay? Don’t come into the city on your own. This is very important.”

“Umu, fine.”

“That sounds like a good plan.”

““Yeah, yeah, let’s go already!!””

“”Yay~ hunting~ fishy~~””

“Haahh… I hope I don’t regret this.”

After sending out my familiars, I stopped at the first store on the list that the Merchant Guild had given to me. There were three stores altogether that dealt with large stoves.

Actually, they were really Magic Tools shop, and not a shop that ‘sells kitchen tools’ so it was all up in the air whether they would carry the item I wanted. Anyway, since I have the names and directions, it was time to go have a look.

It was weird travelling alone like this. Nobody looked my way at all, it was kind of novel and exciting~

Let’s see, the first store is called Waldner’s Magic Tools.

According to the directions I’m given, it should be down this road, turn left and the second junction and, woah, this place is positively crammed with stuff.

When I entered the store, a clerk came up to ask, “What are you looking for?”

“Um, I’d like to buy a Magic Stove. Something with four burners and an oven would be good. If you have something that’s above that would be fine too.”

“Four stoves and… apologies, but I’m afraid there are very few stores that would carry such heavy-duty stoves in their shop. If you wish to order it through us, we could custom order one for you, but it would take time…”

“Time? How long?”

“About… a year…”

“What?!”

“Ahem, truly. Currently, the only heavy-duty Magic Stoves are the ones with two burners…”

“I see…”

“Perhaps you could check with Rigoni’s Magic Tool or Alfaro’s place?”

“I understand, well, thank you for your time.”

It really can’t be helped. I decided to visit Rigoni’s first since it was closer.

“Apologies, but the best we have here that fits your requirements is the two burner stove, with a small oven function…”

Ahhhhh!!!

I could only place my hopes on Alfaro now. If they don’t have what I wanted, I’d have to go to the Royal Capital or something. What a pain.

Luckily I let my familiars go hunting, otherwise, if I had to trudge around the city with them in tow, who knows what kind of complaints they would make by now?

So, I made my way to Alfaro’s.

Woah, the shops along the way to Alfaro’s appeared quite huge and, this place clearly has more of an industrial or specialised wholesale business merchant street. Maybe they would have what I want.

Please let them have it.

I am now in front of Alfaro’s. For one thing, it was more than twice the size of the previous magic tool shops that I had been to. Taking in a deep breath, I stepped into the shop.

A clerk immediately rushed over, his face wreathed with smiles.

“Dear lucky customer! You are just in time to witness our never seen before latest Magic Stove that surpasses all other Magic Stoves you’ve ever seen or heard!”

“Oh? Really?! Show me!!”

Is this some kind of fate? I followed the cheerful clerk deeper into the shop where the rumoured ‘latest Magic Stove’ was stored.

“W-wow!!”

“Ahem, our latest ever Magic Stove has not two, not four, but six burners in total! All of which could be activated at the same time! Not only that, but this Magic Stove also has two ovens-”

“Kyaa~!”

“C-customer?”

“A-ahem, I mean, wow, this is very exciting.”

“Indeed, with this Magic Stove, catering to a large party at home is no longer a dream-”

The clerk went on and on a bit after that, but I wasn’t listening. I had already made up my mind.

“I’ll take it!”

“-so this area here is, eh? Ehh?! Dear customer, you wish to… buy it?”

“Why? I can’t? Has it been reserved? When can I get one?”

“Ahem, no, no, this model is available for sale, but I have not mentioned the price…”

“Ah, money is no issue. For I am an S Ranker!” Well, my familiars are my true source of income, but because of them, I am an S Ranker.

“This super special Magic Stove is priced only at 1200 gold,” the clerk beamed. “Would you like us to arrange for a delivery?

“Hmm, that won’t be necessary,” I said as I reached for one of the many bags of money in my [Item Box].

“Oh, sir has an [Item Box]! How convenient. Allow me to ring up your purchase, dearest customer.”

“1200 gold is not bad, my previous stove was 860 gold, and only has four burners and one oven.”

“Oh? It must have been a display item. Stoves with more than two burners are only built by special order. Ahem, I shell let dear customer in on a little secret. The noble who special ordered this stove made a fuss about its specs after it was built, citing that we made it wrong just to get out of paying…”

“How terrible!”

“Indeed, we only received partial payment for the item. In fact, the boss was supposed to collect full payment before we even start on the job, but in the end, we as the employees had to bear the burden…”

“Ugh…”

“That’s only if it’s never sold and ended up as a useless item! Thanks to dearest customer who bought it, we managed to avert a disaster. Hohoho.”

“Hohoho… ho?”

“Thank you very much, please do come again~!”

What an… interesting clerk.

[Gumihou: the original ending was ‘yay, let’s eat’ from the familiars after they trudged around all day after Mukouda.]