“Sorry, but this is all pretty new to me. I’ll just take whichever room is the cheapest option for three people,” I said.
“Very good, sir. Please take a seat and wait just a moment.”
At times like these, I had no choice but to leave it up to someone else. Maybe he’d look down on me—or even rip me off—but this was clearly a legitimate (and very nice) establishment, so I was hoping not.
I sat down as the man instructed. I could feel how stiff and awkward my posture was.
Ralph and Hester remained standing, keeping an eye on the situation.
“Thank you for your patience. I can reserve a triple economy room as per your request. How many nights will you be staying with us?”
“Could you tell me how much it costs for one night first?” I asked. “Sorry to have to ask.”
“Please feel welcome to ask any questions you like. One night with breakfast included comes to one gold coin.”
“One gold coin?!” Ralph blurted out.
“That’s good to know, thank you. We’ll stay for three nights, then,” I said.
“Three nights?!”
“Shut up, Ralph!” I hissed at him, trying to put an end to his outbursts as I finished the reservation process.
To be fair, a night in a shared room at the Shangri La Hotel was only six copper coins, so this was about seven times that much. Three nights here could pay for more than a month at our usual place. Honestly, though, that said more about how cheap the Shangri La was than anything.
It might have been the lowest grade room available, but price-wise, it was actually pretty reasonable. So, I decided to go ahead and book at the Grabbel Hotel.
“Thank you, sir. I’ll begin the booking process. Could you please present your identity documents?”
“Sure. Here you go,” I said, handing him my adventurer’s card. Then I waited for him to finish filling in the documentation.
“Thank you, sir. Here is your card back. The bellboy will show you to your room now.”
The man standing at his side bowed his head politely and emerged from behind the front desk.
“Please allow me to show you to your room. I’ll take your luggage.”
“Oh... That’s okay. You can just show us the way,” I said.
I wasn’t about to entrust him with a bag full of money. I didn’t want to suspect him if anything were to happen.
The bellboy didn’t try to argue. Instead, he just escorted us to our room. We followed him, taking in the vast, luxurious halls of the hotel as we walked.
“This is your room and key,” the bellboy said, handing the latter to me. “Please ensure to always lock it when you leave.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome. Please enjoy your stay.”
With a final deep bow, the bellboy left us. We quickly unlocked the door and entered the room.
“Wow! This room is insane! The bedding is so nice and fluffy!” Ralph exclaimed.
“It really is amazing... It’s got such a beautiful view too. Can we really afford to stay at a place this nice?”
I could easily understand their excitement; the room was nice, and luxuriously large too.
On top of having a private shower and toilet, it even had a magical device that could control the temperature and air flow in the room.
After living at the Shangri La Hotel for so long, it was practically paradise.
Three beds were neatly lined up next to each other. It was honestly kind of hard to believe that this was the cheapest-grade room available.
“We’ve worked really hard, so I think we deserve at least a little reward, wouldn’t you say? We’ll get back to the grind once we return to Realzahd, so let’s kick back a bit while we’re in the capital,” I said.
“Yeah... He’s got a point, right, Hester?”
“Yeah... You know, I don’t think I’ve ever kicked back before in my whole life. I’m not really sure I know how to?”
Even though I’d been the one to suggest it, I actually hadn’t ever kicked back before either.
If I had to name a time, then I guess my plant gathering expeditions into Patia Forest might count...but that carried a risk of death, and the only meals I got out of it were a bunch of poisonous plants. So, honestly, I wasn’t sure if that really fit the bill.
“I don’t really know either, but I think we just have to take it easy and relax. Let’s start by taking turns with the shower,” I suggested.
“I like that idea! It’s so nice to have our own bathroom,” Hester said.
“Definitely beats wiping ourselves down with damp towels when we’re in a rush, that’s for sure. Still...even that’s better than when we were living in that abandoned house.”
“It might be nice to find a new place to stay once we reach the silver rank. We haven’t really been able to get to know any other adventurers anyway at the Shangri La, so I’ve been thinking it might be worth moving to the Pigeon Inn on the main street,” I said.
“That sounds awesome! The Pigeon Inn feels like the height of luxury for poor adventurers like us.”
“Nah, I wouldn’t go that far,” I said. “We can find somewhere even better if we want to. We’ve crossed Hester’s grimoire off the list, so once we get your surgery done with, that’ll be the last of the big expenses we were saving for. That being said...I’m thinking it’d be nice to buy a house for just the three of us, so I’d kind of like to start putting aside money for that.”
A house of my own was part of my own personal wish list, but I thought it could be appealing as sort of a clan-house-type deal too.
Not to mention...a house would enable me to cultivate my own garden of poisonous plants.
“A house?! Now that’s dreaming big... It does sound pretty great, though,” Ralph said.
“I agree wholeheartedly. It feels pretty good that we’ve reached the point where we can think about saving up for a house now!”
“I’m glad you guys are on board. But...we’ve wandered off topic. Who’s gonna shower first?” I asked.
“You go ahead, Chris.”
“Yeah, I’m cool with that.”
“All right, I’ll take you up on that, then.”
I was really ready to wash the sweat from today off, so I didn’t argue.
It really is pretty amazing that we’ve come far enough to think about buying a house, huh? I thought to myself.
Even just a few months ago, Ralph and Hester probably would’ve immediately denounced the idea as a pipe dream.
As I changed out of my clothes and headed for the shower, I couldn’t help but reflect on how much all of us had grown.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Think Chris is in the shower yet?”
“Well, I hear it running, so yeah... I’m gonna assume he is.”
“This really is incredible, isn’t it? I can’t believe we’re actually staying somewhere this nice,” Hester whispered, sounding deeply moved as she looked out the window.
It really was hard to believe. Before we’d met Chris, I could’ve never imagined that we’d be looking at a view like that.
“I know I said this on the road here, but our lives really have changed dramatically.”
“Yeah. We were barely scraping by just to survive, and then we thought the Heaven’s Blessing Ceremony would change everything for us...but it didn’t change anything. Nothing did, until Chris came along.”
“I can’t believe we actually tried to steal from him at the beginning. We really did that, huh?”
“We did. Sometimes my heart aches when I think back to that day, especially because of how nice he was to me even then, when I deserved it the least.”
“Chris always says not to worry about it, but...we owe him a debt we could never repay in all our lives.”
“I made up my mind when he agreed to form a party with us—no, actually, it was when he agreed to live with us. I swore to myself that I’d devote my life only to him,” Hester said with an earnest look in her eyes.
I’d never admit it—partly because I’d be too embarrassed, and partly because I knew Chris would hate it—but I’d sworn to dedicate my life to him a long time ago too.
“No matter what happens, you ’n’ me are always gonna be on his side,” I said.
“Well, that goes without saying. You’d better hurry up and get that leg healed so you can actually make yourself useful, though, Ralph.”
“It’s not the kind of issue you can just fix with hard work, you know... But if I can get it healed, then I’m gonna get way stronger. I’m gonna improve like crazy!”
“And I’m going to keep working like crazy on learning more magic. I’m going to study a whole bunch too.”
We finished sharing our resolutions with each other just as the sound of the shower stopped.
I gave Hester a meaningful look as if to say, Let’s never let Chris know we talked about this, before we switched to some small talk.