“Then first off, I’ll let you borrow one of the folding beds we use for employees who need some emergency shut-eye. I can’t actually let you into the staff-only area or anything like that, so you’ll have to make do with one of the corners around here. If you come crying to me about how the floorboards are too hard or if your blanket is too thin or something, I’m tossing you back out on the streets!”
“U-Understood!”
“Next up is food. I don’t plan on giving you any kind of money, so you’ll have to do something about that on your own. I’ll be nice and give you permission to work here for the night, so go earn your dinner money by selling your potions or whatever to those hunters back there. You could also run errands, rub their shoulders, or pour them drinks or something. That could also be a good way to get them to share some of their food with you... However!” The receptionist slammed a hand on the counter for emphasis. “HOWEVER! No selling your body, got that?! If you do, I’ll beat you AND the guy who paid for you half to death before kicking you out, so make sure that sits tight in that pretty little head of yours!”
She glared even harder at me with those piercing eyes of hers. Even though I was able to pull off being pretty firm with God and Celes, I wasn’t about to push my luck with the receptionist from hell here. I bowed over and over to express my gratitude before scurrying off to the dining hall packed with tipsy patrons. If the doctor and apothecary were out of town, then I should have plenty of chances to peddle my potions to everyone.
The receptionist’s shouts rang throughout the dining hall, clearly audible for everyone to hear. Despite the harsh look in her eyes, the hunters were all totally on board for doing anything they could to help the cute young girl with her plight. Not to mention they were all pretty used to women with harsh expressions thanks to the receptionist, Gilda.
Kaoru looked to be about fifteen years old...but that was only if she was still in Japan. To the people from the land of the rising sun, Westerners who were twelve or thirteen looked like high schoolers, or even college students, if they were unlucky enough. The opposite was also true, of course. There were plenty of cases where Westerners would mistake fully grown Japanese women for children. To this day, that they would be given all sorts of candy and treats when traveling abroad never ceased to baffle these women.
In this world, people looked at Kaoru like she was around twelve years old at best—the sharp-eyed receptionist included. If she actually did look to be fifteen or older, there was a chance everyone here wouldn’t have been this nice to her. It was possible they could have told her to put up with an empty stomach for a night and just sleep outside since she was an adult. No matter what world you ended up in, it seemed like children and all the beautiful people were still the only ones to get special treatment.
“Would anyone care for a potion? The blue potions can heal any type of cut or wound, and they only cost one silver coin! The yellow one can cure everything from broken bones to internal damage, all for the low price of five silver coins!”
That was the sales pitch Kaoru tried going with, but all she got from the hunters she was trying to help were bitter smiles. A single silver coin could buy about three or four mugs of ale, and all it would take was another silver coin to get you a decent amount of food and other snacks. No matter how much they wanted to help her, they weren’t about to cough up a silver coin for medicine a kid probably made out of weeds or something. They might have been able to at least laugh it off and call it some type of diet supplement if she made it cheaper, but that would only be if it was for a few copper coins. They would’ve sprung for a small silver coin at most.
Kaoru was beginning to panic once she realized the potions she was so proud of probably weren’t going to sell.
Why can’t I sell these? There seems to be plenty of injured hunters here from what I can see.
Were they planning on having their friends heal them up with magic later? Maybe they had to rely on potions when they were on the job and didn’t have a healer in their party, but they could get healed on the cheap from another party’s healer when they were back in town. It was true you probably didn’t need to worry about MP once you were back, and they may be able to get fixed up for the same price it would cost to treat them to a drink or something...
Crap, I made my prices too high! But, wait... They should need potions for when they’re out there on the job too. I could be making all sorts of trouble for myself if I make them too cheap... What should I do?!
A tough, middle-aged hunter called out to Kaoru as she agonized over her next move.
“Hey, little missy, think you could rub my right leg for me? I think I might’ve been a bit too rough with it today, since it feels like it could cramp up any second. Man, that’d hurt like hell if it did. How about we make your payment these two sausages here?”
“One leg rub, coming right up!”
Kaoru happily bounded over to the man out of sheer joy. She’d always given her mom and dad massages for tips, so she was fairly confident in her skills. The hunter was just about the same age as her dad as well, so she didn’t shy away from doing it at all. It was almost the exact same feeling as when she would do it to her dad. Besides, who could say if the man really was feeling like he would cramp up, or if he simply made it up as an excuse to give Kaoru something to eat? No matter the reason, the hunter’s eyes were half-closed in pure bliss, as Kaoru put her all into massaging his leg, which was around the time the other hunters saw that and started getting rowdy.
“Do me next! My shoulders need a good rubbin’, and I’ll give ya two of these chicken skewers for it.”
“I’ve got a quarter of a boar steak for ya if ya can gimme a back massage!”
“All that’s gonna get stuck in her throat if you lot just keep giving her food! Here, I’ve got a mug of grape juice for you! That’s way more valuable than these scraps they keep trying to give you!”
“Damn... Then, I’ve got fruit! Go ahead and ask me for anything you want! Oh, but peaches’re out of the question. Those things are way too expensive!”
“Oh, come on, you lazy bum! It’s the hunter’s spirit to act tough. Man up, and get the girl a peach, dammit!”
“B-But...”
The fierce-looking receptionist took a look back at the dining hall, raising her eyebrows somewhat. It even looked like the corners of her mouth were pulled up ever so slightly. Perhaps you could call that a smile on her part, though there were very few hunters who’d believe that theory. That went especially for those who knew just what type of personality she had.