We arrived at the inn just a bit before sunset. A horseshoe emblem was drawn on the wooden signboard hanging over the entrance. It seemed this inn had originally been built for traveling merchants and peddlers, as there was a row of roofed spaces for parking wagons. It felt like a kind of motel, so for someone not from this world, it was utterly intriguing. It was also Teru’s first time in an inn, and she shared my fascination.
We had dinner in the bar attached to the inn before being shown to our room. Mr. Chotos’s judgment was good, at least in this regard. The meal was delicious and the inn had a rather clean, pleasant feeling. We also decided to share one room between the four of us since the bill was per room, which made it the better option financially.
For this party formation, two beds in one room was just right. Firstly, Mr. Chotos and Teru obviously had to sleep together. It wasn’t a particularly large bed and would have been terrible to sleep on every day, but it was fine for just one night. And even if this parent-child duo was unable to get a good night’s rest, they would probably be fast asleep in the wagon when we headed back.
I’m sorry to say, but the other bed was for me alone. As for Gol, I intended to make a special bed for her on the floor.
“Just a moment, Gol. I’ll set up a wonderful bed for you.” Before we went to our room, I had asked to borrow several layers of thick, soft blankets from the innkeeper. These I now spread near my bed. Finally, I prepared a comforter. With this, I completed a fluffy bed for a golem.
I knew how to do this from my experiences in dog-ownership. No matter how precious you find your partner, or how close you are…you cannot let them sleep in your bed. Although this may seem heartless at first glance, it’s an essential line to draw in order to ensure humans and dogs can happily coexist.
To tell you the truth, though, I only stopped my dog from getting on my bed when I went to sleep. Otherwise, I usually let him wander freely. This wasn’t great for discipline. I mean, look, it started with my cat. He frequently stayed in my room, and he wouldn’t listen to anything I said. He definitely slept on my bed without my permission. And if the cat was on my bed, how could I refuse the dog? That was too sad.
My partner in this world, Gol, really wanted to get on my bed, and she tried to do so every time we had one. I knew she was innocent and I had great sympathy, but at night I had to harden my heart and put her back on the blanket on the floor. This was a habit I had strictly observed since our time in the basin hideout.
“Hey, Nemaki, it’s about time we sleep, so I’ll turn off the lights.” Mr. Chotos called from the other bed.
“Oh, okay.”
“G’night, Mr. Nemaki.”
“Mmhm, good night, Teru.”
Mr. Chotos covered the mana tool providing light to our room with a cloth and the world dimmed. The light that leaked out from the cloth was only as bright as a miniature light bulb.
This was that same strange lighting device that operated on a timer mechanism. They were mana tools with the Lightning attribute and reproduced a beginner Lightning spell, so once you imbued mana into one, it would remain lit for a predetermined amount of time. In other words, there was no switch that could automatically turn it off. As such, you needed to use a cloth to adjust its brightness.
This inn provided covering cloths of various thicknesses. As a matter of fact, several such cloths had been left in the bedroom where I was staying at Mr. Chotos’s house. However, I hadn’t known what they were, and I had just used them to wipe down Gol.
That meant the piece of cloth that Gol was suddenly holding that first night was one of these adjustment cloths. While I had been engrossed in my investigation of the lighting device, she had carefully picked out the softest one and secretly wet it in the kitchen sink. Her obsession with being wiped down was fearsome.
Finally, the room’s light turned off. Gol was acting well-behaved in the makeshift bed, so I closed my eyes and sank into the fairly soft bed of this fairly decent inn. My consciousness gradually faded into a gentle slumber.
Just then, I thought I heard a faint creak, but it was so quiet that no one else would have noticed. It might have been my imagination, but I felt like something warm slipped beneath my blanket. I felt like this warm, soft thing often pushed against me in my daily life. I wasn’t the least bit wary of something so familiar and gentle.
More importantly, the snuggles of this blanket-intruder didn’t feel at all uncomfortable. Their actions were natural and dexterous, as if they did this every day.
In any case, by the time it happened, I wasn’t conscious enough to protest.