The town of Grantham that Baron Ethel oversaw was a large one surrounded by castle walls. Both agriculture and business seemed to be flourishing here, and the townspeople looked more lively than those in the capital. I had thought that the baron was just a plump and good-natured uncle type, but maybe he was actually an astute ruler? That was the impression I was getting anyway.
The carriage arrived at the baron’s residence located in the center of Grantham. My body was all stiff, probably because of how rough the roads were as well as the inherently low quality of a horse-drawn carriage. If I hadn’t had Michelle use her Healing Magic on me, my lower back pain would have been pretty bad.
“Sir Yahagi, how fared you on your trip?” Baron Ethel chirped cheerily, coming out to greet us in the parlor.
“Nice to see you again, Baron,” I said. “We made it safely here, thanks to you. This is a good town. It seems to be flourishing.”
“Thank you. Now, make yourselves comfortable. I shall have some tea prepared for you.”
I then took out some new additions to the Mobile Force Series that I’d brought as souvenirs.
“This here is the easy-to-use Jam model, and this one is the powerful Zuccotto.”
“Oh, you have my thanks!” He already owned all the other models I’d sold up until this point, yet he was pleased with these two new ones as well. “Once you have had a break, I will have you guided to the hotel where you will be staying. Afterward, perhaps you ought to have a look at the venue where you will be doing business, yes?”
“I would appreciate that. We’ve made our preparations on our end.” At most, I’d only see a restock of forty Mobile Forces per day. Setting up shop as soon as possible and selling at least some of them now would help more people obtain them in the long run.
We left Baron Ethel’s residence and arrived at the hotel we’d been directed to. It was a splendid stone building and a high-class luxury hotel at that, with a doorman waiting by the entrance. It was probably among the best of the best in this world. I could really sense Baron Ethel’s passion for the Mobile Forces from the fact that he had gone out of his way to prepare a hotel like this for us.
“Hello! I’m Yahagi,” I said. “I was referred here by Baron Ethel.”
“Sir Yahagi, yes? I’ve been told about you. Please, right this way.” Once we were checked in at the reception desk, the concierge took our luggage and showed us to our room. That was a high-class hotel for you.
“This is your room,” the concierge informed us.
“Whoa, it’s really nice.” Just like Baron Ethel had promised, it was a suite with two adjoining rooms furnished with some wide beds. There was also a parlor area in the inner room. The suite had a spacious bathroom and a toilet as well. It was a far cry from the Swindoll Con Inn I used to stay at.
“You can see the Kumpf Plaza from the balcony,” we were told. The Kumpf Plaza was where we planned to open up Dagashi-ya Yahagi. There weren’t many people there right now, but I’d heard that it’d be packed come the festival.
“Please, make yourselves at home.”
“Thank you... Wait, what?!”
“Is something the matter?”
There was plenty the matter! With how things were right now, it was as if...
“Um,” I said, “is there only one room? What about a room for Minerva here...?”
“Our hotel becomes booked solid around the time of the festival, so we have no single rooms to offer. Will that be a problem?”
Of course it would be a problem. I mean, Michelle and I would be staying in the same room...
“If you can, I’d like for you to prepare two rooms for us. Of course, I’ll pay for both of them.”
“Unfortunately, we’re fully booked. We apologize for the trouble.” With a look of remorse, the concierge then took his leave. Michelle and I were left in the room at a loss for what to do. She hadn’t said a single word the whole time.
“I’ll look to see if there are any inns that have a vacancy,” I told her.
“I-I don’t mind,” she stammered. “You’ve stayed at my place plenty of times before, right? Don’t act like it’s such a big deal now.”
“Michelle, your hands are shaking. Aren’t you the one acting like it’s a big deal? Also, things have changed now. I didn’t know you were a girl back then.”
Michelle hesitated for a second before she protested once more.
“W-We’re only staying the night. All we’re doing is staying the night in the same room together, right? There shouldn’t be any problems then.”
“I mean, yeah, but...”
“Considering the festival, you won’t find any rooms available anywhere.”
It wasn’t like I didn’t have a sex drive. On the contrary, I really wanted to take my relationship with Michelle to the next level. To make matters worse, I found her pretty dang attractive. But there were no condoms or birth control pills in this world. If we did the deed without any contraceptives, we might suddenly have a kid on our hands.
“Puh puh... Goo goo.”
All of a sudden I was visualizing our baby, dark circles just like Michelle’s under its eyes. Its name was Macherie. How cute... No, snap out of it!
My love for Michelle was growing stronger by the day, but I wasn’t prepared for that yet. Besides, we couldn’t give it a stable upbringing when its mother was still a wanted criminal. We couldn’t relax until we had sorted all those problems out. But if all we were doing was staying the night together...
“Got it,” I said, finally relenting. “I promise I won’t do anything to you.”
“Oh, wait!” she said, waving her hands in a panic.
“Did you change your mind?”
“That’s not it... It’s just, you can do a few things...to me...”
How much was a few? No, no, no, I can’t. It’d definitely snowball from there. I just knew it.
“Now, let’s leave our luggage and go set up shop at the Kumpf Plaza. It’s about to get real busy...”
Without giving her a clear response, I hurriedly prepared to open my shop.