“Whoa!”
He was standing on the grass where Sara had put her barrier up.
“Yeah, solid green would probably look weird on top of all that grass...”
It wasn’t just the color. There was light and shadow, and the grass was swaying in the breeze. If she couldn’t replicate all of that, it would look unnatural.
“Here come the elk.”
Elk were much bigger than mountain wolves. It was quite a sight to see them grouped up and flying along the ground together.
“Allen’s going to get trampled by them...”
He’d probably stayed down there to hunt them. Elk were fast, so it was hard to chase them down. If they were already coming to him, though, she understood wanting to take advantage of the situation.
“It’s okay. Allen’s strong.”
If it were Nelly, she wouldn’t be worried at all. She told herself she didn’t have to worry about Allen either, since he was a regular down here on the lowest floor.
“No need to worry, no need to worry...”
She was only worried because she was watching him. Sara forced her eyes away, looking down at the bottom of the tree instead, and caught sight of some supreme healing herbs.
“Oh, I should pick those.”
Thankfully, these trees weren’t in the elk’s path. Sara slid down the tree trunk and started picking the supreme healing herbs.
“I didn’t notice this when I was surveying the floor for medicinal plants. When we get back to the guild, I should add it to the map.”
The places where plants grew changed, so once a map was drawn, it wasn’t useful forever. They had to be updated sometimes.
As she gathered supreme healing herbs, she kept an eye on her surroundings, trying to determine the full range of their distribution.
“Sara!”
“Oh...”
She stood up hurriedly when she heard Allen’s voice and found that the herd of elk was already gone.
“I was gonna ask if you were watching me, but this is what you were doing, huh? Well, I guess it is your main gig.”
He knew she had little interest in hunting, so she got away with nothing more than a wry smile from him.
“If you’re not worried about me getting hurt, that means you trust me, right?”
“Of course. Oh, Allen, the mountain wolves!”
He probably wanted to show her what he could do. He’d left the elk where they lay after hunting them, and now mountain wolves were slinking up to them.
“I know you can hunt your own, so don’t take other people’s prey, you jerks!”
“Growl!”
“Growl!”
She felt like she could hear them saying, Well, it’s easier to take someone else’s prey.
Allen chased them away and the mountain wolves scampered off.
After that, the two found a spot with a nice view to eat their lunch and then went a bit deeper into the dungeon, enjoying the refreshing autumn fields of grass before heading home.
“Could you appraise some elk for me?”
“I found something I want to add to the medicinal plant map. And I have one wyvern.”
They’d done some hunting and found supreme healing herbs, so they stopped at the Hunter’s Guild at the end of their date.
“I can’t believe you two,” the receptionist said with a sigh, her hand on her forehead. “Kuntz was here earlier on his own. That’s pretty rare, so I got a little information from him.”
Sara and Allen exchanged a glance and grinned, amused to hear that Kuntz had headed into the dungeon as well.
“He said you two were finally going on a date today. He was all happy to be by himself because of that. So what are you doing here?”
Sara cocked her head.
“Let’s just say you did go into the dungeon for your date. It’s crazy to do that in the first place, but we’ll ignore that and say you did.” The receptionist tapped her finger on her desk, looking like she had a growing headache. “What were you doing working down there?”
“Oh.”
“Oh.”
Even together, the two of them did their own work like it was the natural course of action. They had fun and returned completely satisfied, but they were now realizing that they hadn’t done anything different from what they usually did. The only thing different about today was that Kuntz and Nelly hadn’t been with them.
“It’s fine. As the Hunter’s Guild, we always welcome monster parts, and we’re grateful for any updates to the medicinal plant maps too. But do you mind if I give you some advice? You should go on dates where there aren’t any monsters or medicinal plants.”
The receptionist was smiling, but her eyes were scary.
“Yes, ma’am...”
“Yes, ma’am...”
Sara and Allen could do nothing but meekly agree with her.
They got busy after that, so it wasn’t until spring that they got time to go on the sort of date the receptionist had advised.
“It’s always fun to go with you when you’re gathering plants, though.”
“I like watching you have the time of your life hunting too.”
Of course, they were always going to the dungeon, whether it was just them or whether Kuntz, Nelly, or Chris came along. According to the receptionist, however, no matter how much fun they had there, it didn’t count as a date.
If they couldn’t go into the dungeon, Hydrangea also had lakes and meadows. They were perfect places for picnics, but medicinal plants grew everywhere and there were horned rabbits in the meadows, even if they weren’t very common.
Sara didn’t mind that, but Allen gave the matter some thought, which was how they ended up on this date in town.
They walked side by side to Allen’s lodgings. It was an inn for Hunters, but the place had a restaurant as well and took long-term lodgers, so it was popular with bachelors like Allen and Kuntz who didn’t want to cook for themselves. Allen had invited Sara for lunch, wanting her to taste the food he typically ate, and Sara had taken some time to consider whether she wanted to go or not.
“I went there once back when you were injured.”
“You did? I’m really sorry about what happened back then...”
“It’s fine. I’m over it now.”
Neither of them had intended to, but they’d gotten the whole Hunter’s Guild involved in their squabble, and it had taken the two quite a while to make up with each other. At the time, a lady at Allen’s place of lodging had scolded Sara for treating him like a child—a wound which still prickled. But she couldn’t hold a grudge against a person who was looking out for Allen.
“Come to think of it, she said to come back for a meal sometime.”
“Oh yeah? This is perfect, then.”
Allen smiled carefreely. He probably didn’t even remember how much of a busybody Sara had been back then. She’d been a busybody out of affection for him anyway, so there was no reason for Sara to hold on to the matter either. She was going out on this date today to try and change her perspective on things, anyway.
Sara’s chest pounded as she entered the restaurant, only to find that the woman in question was in fact there.
“Welcome! Oh, Allen. You made a reservation today, right?”
“Yep! Two of my usual lunches, please.”
Allen ordered like a regular and then led Sara over to a seat near a window.
“They only ever have one lunch option, but it’s really good and it comes out fast.”
“Oh yeah? I can’t wait.”
Having entered the restaurant without issue, Sara started looking forward to lunch. It was nice to not have to pick between multiple options as well; she’d get what she got.
“Here you are. Thanks for waiting.”
Two plates piled with large pieces of meat were set down before them, along with some soup with vegetables. Finally, a basket of bread with what looked like omelets on top was set between them.
“You can get more bread if you like, no charge. The soup has horned rabbit in it, and the omelets are made of cockatrice eggs,” said the waitress.
Sara thought the explanation was for her, but it seemed it was for Allen as well.
“Cockatrice egg? That’s rare.” He looked down at the food as if it wasn’t what he was expecting.
“We just happened to get some. Thought you’d like to try my hometown’s egg dishes.”
Sara’s eyes were glued to the food as the woman conversed familiarly with Allen. She gave a shrug at this.
“Enjoy,” said the woman, swiftly leaving to serve other customers.
Sara could hear cries of surprise similar to Allen’s here and there, so cockatrice egg really must have been a rare offering. Sara reached out to the egg with a grin, glad that they’d come on a good day.
“Oh, there’s a lot of mushrooms in it! And onions... The seasoning seems to be just salt and pepper, but it really brings out the taste of the mushroom. I should try making this sometime.”
Cockatrice eggs had a mild flavor, so they went well with anything, but Sara had never thought to cook them with mushrooms.
“Come to think of it, we went to that mushroom town, didn’t we?” Sara remembered.
“Yeah. The seven-colored swallowtails and white moonlight mushrooms. That takes me back.”
“I’d like to go back there sometime.”
“Yeah, when there aren’t any monsters to deal with.”
The horned rabbit soup was well stewed and tasty as well.
“You can serve stewed food right away, and I never thought about putting such large chunks of meat in my soup. It really is good to eat out every once in a while. You learn a lot.”
Allen and Sara had come a little early, so the lunch rush was just getting started when they finished. The restaurant’s seats had almost completely filled up by the time they were done.