The Shitty Elf and the Shitty Dwarf (7)

It had been about a month since I came to the town of Vistcoat.

Work at the smithy was going perfectly smoothly, and the number of customers was steadily increasing.

The influence of White Lake, the town's top adventurer team, was apparently quite significant. Once Airena and her companions had overhauled their equipment, the number of customers seemed to increase all at once.

Besides, an elf working at a dwarf's shop was apparently something of a novelty, so quite a few customers seemed to come specifically for me.

My smithing training was also progressing bit by bit, but since I could see fire spirits, managing the furnace temperature had become my responsibility, and the things I could help with were gradually increasing.

In addition to being able to borrow the spirits' power, my manual dexterity had also been recognized, so I thought the day when I would be properly taught smithing was not far off.

That said, I planned to spend the next ten or twenty years immersed in smithing, so it wasn't much of a problem if I learned slowly.

However, although my work and training at the smithy were going smoothly, that certainly didn't mean I had no other problems.

For example, I got lost when I went to the town office to pay the tax required for staying in town longer than a week.

I had already let her pay for an entire month at the inn, and even though I said I wanted to rent a house because I felt bad about it, Airena wouldn't let me, saying she was worried about me.

There were all sorts of problems I simply couldn't do anything about.

By the way, my Shitty Dwarf master's wages were two silver coins a day. Since I had one day off each week, my weekly income was one small gold coin and two silver coins.

That was more than the average earnings of an adult man working in Vistcoat.

For someone employed as an apprentice, the terms were apparently exceptionally generous.

But my current inn charged five silver coins a day, and I had to pay whether I worked or took the day off, so my weekly bill came to three small gold coins and five silver coins.

My income didn't come close to covering that.

Airena insisted that I didn't need to worry about the inn fees because she was learning spirit arts from me—the method of borrowing the spirits' power.

But even though my Shitty Dwarf master paid me a perfectly adequate wage, I was still letting Airena, who was nominally my apprentice, pay my living expenses.

Even setting aside the fact that I was a High Elf, I couldn't help thinking this was wrong of me as a person.

“So, yeah, that's how it is. I just don't know what to do.”

I tipped back my wooden mug of ale and took a sip, then complained, letting out the feelings that had slowly piled up inside me.

The person listening to my complaints was Rodner, the guard I had first met when I came to this town—or, more precisely, the first human I had met in this world.

A friendly man with connections all over town, he had taken the day off to match mine and brought me to this eatery, which was reputed to be both cheap and delicious.

“Haha, but I think that's unavoidable too. Your guarantor is that elf lady, after all. She can't very well leave you alone—in every sense of the phrase.”

Rodner laughed as he bit into a sausage skewered on his fork.

There was no sarcasm in his smile, and it was clear that he was genuinely enjoying the food, the drink, and, for that matter, his conversation with me.

Still, it really was a good place.

The building and tables were old-fashioned, but everything was thoroughly cleaned, and even the floor was spotless.

The table was sturdy, so I didn't feel uneasy even when I leaned against it.

When I bit into the sausage, the meat juices burst and spread through my mouth, and the ale wasn't sour in the slightest.

The waitress was probably considered beautiful by human standards, too.

Watching her briskly carry the food around with a charming smile was pleasant in itself.

“That elf lady sure treats Eisa with remarkable deference. You know, Airena of White Lake was famous for never bowing even to nobles.”

Rodner waved to the waitress as she passed beside our table, then looked at me as though testing the waters.

It was a probing gaze... Or rather, he was probably simply curious.

Airena's attitude was so obvious that Rodner surely wasn't the only one wondering about it.

Yet she refused to show respect to nobles who demanded it while showing it to me, who wanted no such thing. What a difficult creature she was.

I held up my empty plate and signaled for the waitress to come take my order.

“I'm just as you can see. People do call me a bit of an oddball, though. Ah, I'll have two orders of bone-in meat and... Hey, do you have any fried potatoes? Oh, you don't? Then another plate of sausage, and a refill on the ale.”

The waitress gave me a smile, then walked off to pass my order along to the kitchen.

Swaying her hips as she went.

Still, if I was going to drink barley liquor like this, I really wanted some fried potatoes or karaage to go with it.

Unfortunately, this world—or at least the town of Vistcoat—apparently had no tradition of fried food.

I wonder if my Shitty Dwarf master would make me a deep fryer if I asked him.

If I served fried food with alcohol, I'm sure my Shitty Dwarf master would love it...

In any case, the words “as you can see” carried completely different meanings depending on whether a human or an elf said them.

That was because elves could tell a High Elf apart at a glance, while humans couldn't distinguish between an elf and a High Elf.

So to Airena, who was an elf, I was clearly a High Elf, while to Rodner, who was human, I was clearly nothing more than an ordinary elf.

Therefore, I hadn't actually lied.

“Hmm. Well, all right. But if you really want to leave the inn, come talk to me. I'll find you a place in a safe neighborhood. That should make that elf lady feel a little more at ease too.”

I nodded at Rodner's words.

I was sure I'd end up taking him up on that offer.

Even though I was grateful just for him listening to my complaints, he had also offered a solution without trying to force it on me. Rodner really was a reliable and good-natured guy.

Airena, my Shitty Dwarf master.

And Rodner too—I truly felt, from the bottom of my heart, that I was blessed with such good people in my life.