When I arrived in front of the Adventurer’s guild at the agreed upon time, I found the members of Iron Will already waiting for me.
“Sorry I’m late.”
“No, we just arrived early. Don’t worry about it,” said the leader, Werner, laughing. Apparently, they’d drilled the habit of doing this quickly into their bodies. That’s a good habit to have, I thought.
“Okay then, let’s go.” I nodded, and set off on the road to Veenen.
Leaving the town of Kiels, we made smooth progress.
Iron Will’s formation had no holes. I was in the center, with Rita the scout in front, Vincent the swordsman to my right, Ramon the mage to my left, Franka the healer behind me and to the right, and Werner behind me and to the left. They were set up to protect me, the client, at any time.
“We should take a break soon.” At Werner’s suggestion, we decided to rest.
As promised, I started to prepare food. That said, there wasn’t much time, so it was going to be a simple meal. I took the mini-stove that I bought earlier out of my Item Box.
“Oh? So you were an Item Box user, Mukohda. And that’s a magic stove. You’ve got something pretty neat, there.”
In response to Vincent’s comment, I nodded, explaining, “My capacity is pretty small, though.” I did hear that Item Box users exist, so I decided to make it out that I have an Item Box, but that it’s small. That way, it would be more convenient to hold my stuff, which has been increasing, and this way, it should also probably better than going to weird lengths to hide it.
“I got the magic stove from an acquaintance. He said he probably wouldn’t have any chance to use it anymore, so I got it for pretty cheap.” I readily used the excuse I prepared beforehand for my mini-stove. “The end justifies the means” applies here.
While I talked with Vincent, I brought out a loaf of bread and some ham and cheese to make sandwiches. I also made some instant consommé soup in wooden cups. Of course, I made sure they couldn’t see while I made it.
After I poured in water that I boiled with the mini-stove into the cups, lunch was finished.
“Everyone, food’s ready.” I handed out a cup with soup in it and a plate with a sandwich on it to each adventurer.
“All right, I guess I should dig in.” At Werner’s signal, everyone began eating.
“D-Delicious!”
“This bread is very soft and delicious.”
“Yeah, yeah, this bread is crazy soft and tasty!
This soup’s good too.”
“Oh, this is pretty good.”
“Delicious...”
Those reactions in order were Vincent, Franka, Rita, Werner, and Ramon. It’s good that they liked it. I cut so many corners making this though...
They were especially surprised about the bread. Apparently, only nobles got bread this soft. Certainly, all the bread I’ve eaten up till now in this world has been black or brown and hard as a rock. In order to avoid further questions, I told them, “This bread is made from a secret recipe from home. I bought a bunch before I left and put them in my Item Box.”
Everyone froze up, and somebody uttered, “Something so precious...!” But I just replied to that by telling them that “food is meant to be eaten.” I mean, I can get more bread any time with my skill.
“At any rate, it’s really great that we can get hot food while traveling.” Werner said, and everyone else nodded in agreement.
“Too true. We were right to take this quest.” Evidently, while traveling, it would be normal to have rather tasteless foods like hardtack or jerky, so the food I put out is quite the feast to people who are going places. It seems that good food breaks the ice anywhere, as conversation flowed freely.
Apparently, the members of Iron Will had felt the unrest in the country too, so they had recently discussed moving to a different country as well. It was then that they saw my request, and thought it was perfect timing, so they accepted it. Actually, there were other requests that paid more, but they didn’t really need money that badly at the moment, and since I promised to provide the food during travel, they ended up taking mine. It seems that food fees for five people is no joke, I noted.
“No, no, I’m the one that’s thankful for you guys taking my request. I also came to Kiels because I wanted to get out as soon as possible, but seeing that the stagecoaches were stopped, for a while I was panicking, wondering what I should do. So it’s thanks to all of you that I’m able to travel to Veenen. Even though I look like this I’m pretty confident in my cooking, so leave the meals to me.” After I said that, everyone smiled.
They had good food to look forward to for the rest of the journey, after all.
I’ll try my best, so please get me to Veenen safely.