A Banquet with Beastmen by the Riverbank

I made the acquaintance of some beastmen who wanted to eat spicy food, so I decided to camp by the riverbank and treat them to a meal.

"Here, the bread is all-you-can-eat."

I pointed to the large platter piled high with bread in front of us.

"Whoo-hoo!" "What is this bread? It's soft and sweet—and delicious!"

"It's delicious, nya!"

"It's really soft and delicious."

Everyone seemed to like the bread. I wonder how they'd feel about the curry-flavored stir-fry?

"This spicy food is great too! It's hot, but delicious!"

"What is this? I've never eaten anything so delicious! This soup is great too!"

"Nyaa! It's tingling! It's so spicy, nya! But it's delicious!"

"Wow, is it really okay for food to be this delicious? And eating with silver spoons makes me feel like a noble. I was worried for a while there, since I'd never seen any of these vegetables before..."

They were stainless steel, not silver, of course. Ordinary households apparently used wooden spoons. Ceramic plates were expensive too, so they used wooden ones instead.

Shangri-La sold wooden plates as well, but ceramic ones would fetch a higher price.

In any case, I was glad the food suited them. But they were eating with astonishing gusto. Was this really enough? I'd thought I'd made quite a lot...

If it wasn't enough, I'd have to fill them up with something else...

While I was thinking that, the beastmen polished off all the food, leaving me speechless. What an appetite—they must have incredibly high food expenses at home.

I couldn't help it, so I bought an additional one-kilogram assortment of sausages.

"If you're still hungry, roast these over the campfire and eat them."

The beastmen did as I said, skewering the sausages on branches and roasting them. It was a surreal sight... Somehow, it made me smile.

"Oh! These are great too! The skins are nice and crisp!"

"What are these?"

"They're meat that's been ground up and stuffed into an animal's intestines."

"Really?"

"I've heard of something like that. Other countries apparently have preserved food like this."

Apparently, Amana had heard of something similar to sausages.

"Still, eating something like this makes me want a drink."

"Come on, you lot, show some restraint. Normally, eating this much would blow through a week's worth of food money."

"Now, Amana, everyone's having a good time. I suppose I can bring out some alcohol too. It might not suit your tastes, though."

"As long as it has alcohol in it, anything will do."

I bought four liters of shochu in a plastic bottle from Shangri-La. It was the kind of drink that could get a serious drinker into trouble.

"Here you go. But what we eat and drink here is a secret between us—don't tell anyone."

"We understand."

"What's this clear container, nya? Is there water inside, nya?"

"It's a container made with magic, and what's inside is alcohol. This is a secret too."

I bought cups and handed them out, letting everyone pour their own drinks. The beastmen gulped down a cup without even tasting it first.

"Whoa! This is strong liquor!"

"It tastes like water. I've never had anything like this before."

"But compared to the smelly stuff and the sour stuff, this is way better."

"This is pretty good."

It was honestly the cheapest alcohol available, but everyone seemed to like it. Still, what were the smelly and sour kinds? I'd heard that alcohol made from animal milk was sour, but...

All the men were drinking, but the female beastman wasn't.

When I asked, they said they always left one person sober in case something unexpected happened.

Everyone else was drinking, but I was basically a non-drinker. I kept the drinkers company with a glass of juice in hand.

I gave some juice to the woman who wasn't drinking alcohol, too.

"Mmm, delicious~ This is fruit juice, nya~"

They looked like they were about to finish the four liters in no time, so I brought out another four liters. I tossed the empty plastic bottle into the trash can.

"Boss, you're spoiling them too much."

Amana seemed to be the sort who was always scolding people.

"Come to think of it, I never asked your names. I'm Kenichi."

"I'm Nyakero. The girl's Myaree, and the other two are Nyarumero and Nyanji."

The one who had bought the straw mat from me was the leader, and his name was Nyakero.

――The sun had already set, and darkness was beginning to envelop everything around us.

I was cleaning up, and Amana was helping by washing the dishes with ash from the campfire.

Apparently, using ash was the usual method here. I'd lent her a sponge.

"Boss, is this a sponge?"

"Oh, you know what a sponge is?"

"Yes. I used to work as a servant in a large mansion, you know."

"Did they use sponges there?"

"There were a lot of expensive dishes, after all."

I suppose it was to avoid scratching the dishes. On a whim, I checked Shangri-La and found that sponges were sold there as an ordinary item.

I had no idea.

When I looked up at the sky, stars had appeared against the blackness. The air must have been clean, because there were an incredible number of them.

"It's gotten pretty dark."

Nyakero reacted to my mutter.

"We can't stay much longer."

"What do you mean?"

"The gates are going to close."

Ah, I see. The gates closed once it got dark...

Apparently, they closed the gates to keep monsters and bandits from getting inside.

"Does that happen often?"

"Not around here, but there's a dangerous bunch called Shaga in the mountains about forty leagues away—around sixty kilometers."

Amana spoke with a hint of excitement.

"What, bandits?"

"That's right. They're a huge band of bandits, a dangerous bunch who'll do anything."

Apparently, they used the ruins of a decaying old castle in the forest as their base, attacking and repeatedly looting the nearby villages and towns.

"We're camping out here tonight, but this area is safe, right?"

"As long as we don't go into the forest, we're fine."

Come to think of it, I'd bought firewood earlier. I took some out of the Item Box.

"I've still got firewood, so use it."

"So that's your Item Box? It can hold anything, can't it?"

"It can't hold anything too large, though."

"Even so, that's pretty convenient."

"Yeah."

Was he drunk? His speech was starting to slow down.

I thought they'd keep drinking in silence, but then the beastmen began taking off their clothes—of course, the woman too.

"Hey, what are you planning to do?"

"We're going to wash ourselves."

What a relief. I was worried they were about to have an orgy right in front of me. They entered the pitch-black river, illuminated by the campfire, and began scrubbing themselves.

Apparently, neglecting their fur could lead to serious problems with ticks and fleas, so they washed themselves every day. They were real clean freaks.

Since they wore fur, the beastmen apparently didn't feel embarrassed about taking off their clothes.

"Here, I'll lend you some soap!"

I took soap out of the Item Box and tossed the white bars to them.

"Whoo-hoo! We get to use soap! We're practically nobles!"

"Nyaa!"

They rubbed soap all over their fur and began scrubbing. Naturally, it produced a tremendous amount of foam, and they ended up looking like snowmen.

"Kenichi, scrub my back, nya."

Myaree came over with the soap, so I scrubbed her back for her.

I hadn't realized it because of her fur, but she was practically a solid mass of muscle. No wonder she could run so fast.

"Boss, that's merchandise, isn't it? Is this really okay?"

"It's the soap I use, so it's fine. I've set aside the ones I'm selling."

"People don't often tell you that you're too softhearted?"

Apparently, Amana saw me as someone who was wasting money.

"People do say that sometimes. But I'm not a good person, and I'm not kind either. I'm selfish and self-centered. Today was just a whim."

"Is that so?"

"I'll treat you today, but if they start mooching off me, I'll turn on them. And I don't like people getting overly familiar with me, either."

"That puts my mind at ease."

"Why don't you wash yourself in the river too, Amana?"

"I'm a woman, you know!"

"Ha ha, sorry."

I continued watching the beastmen, and then the men began swimming in the river.

"Whoo-hoo! This feels great!"

The cold water probably did feel good against bodies heated by alcohol, but...

"Hey! Is it really okay to go swimming in the river after drinking?"

"Hahaha! I'm fine—ah—glug, glug..."

Nyakero suddenly stopped moving as he answered. He seemed to be drifting helplessly with the current, and then disappeared into the darkness.

I hurriedly took an LED headlamp out of the Item Box and shone it over the surface of the river.

"He's already drowning!"

When I tried to enter the river, Myaree jumped in and began heading toward Nyakero.

Honestly, I wouldn't have been able to pull a huge man like him out of the river myself.

After dragging Nyakero back, she effortlessly hoisted the giant onto her shoulders and tossed him onto the riverbank.

"Gyaa!"

Nyakero let out a croak like a frog being crushed, but he was completely limp now. He'd probably drunk too much strong liquor and then gone swimming, causing it to hit him all at once.

"This happens pretty often, so one of us stays sober, nya."

"I see. Even so, how could you see in this darkness?"

"We can see in the dark, nya."

That's beastmen for you—natural starlight scopes. They had excellent noses and ears, and they could see in the dark. Their eyesight itself was apparently no better than a human's, though.

"Boss, is that a magic lamp?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"People who are good at business have all kinds of things, don't they...?"

Amana sipped her shochu unhappily, but there was no way I could explain my strange ability to her.

Even soaking wet, with their bodies' outlines visible, the beastmen were incredibly muscular. If something like that attacked me, I definitely wouldn't survive.

And their... well, they were huge too. Humans couldn't compete with that.

Unlike animals, they had intelligence and could use weapons. Myaree was apparently skilled at hunting with a bow, which seemed to be how she made her living.

They'd apparently made the straw mat they'd bought from me into a bag for carrying game.

Apparently, to do that kind of work, they had to register with an Adventurers' Guild.

Well, I didn't need one yet...

"That's fine, but won't you catch cold sleeping while you're soaking wet?"

"We're used to this, nya. It's fine."

I supposed that was normal for them. Still, I felt sorry for Myaree, who was dripping wet, so I took a bath towel out of the Item Box and dried her off.

"Mnyaa~"

She seemed to be enjoying it, but the bath towel was soaked through in no time. I bought another one from Shangri-La.

But even two weren't enough. We might need three or four.

"I'm all right now, nya."

She was still only half-dry, but she said it was enough. Apparently, she dried quickly. Even so, the bath towel was covered in fur after just one use.

The beastmen other than Nyakero, who was lying on his back after nearly drowning, were drying their fur by the campfire.

"I see. So this is normal for you."

Well, there were no hair dryers here. Still, if I dried them with a hair dryer, their fur would probably become wonderfully fluffy.

As the night grew later and the air began to cool, I bought two blankets from Shangri-La. The beastmen seemed fine without them.

"Amana, I'll lend you a blanket."

"Something this nice...?"

It was the cheapest one available, though. I wondered how much I could get for one of those high-end down comforters...

Lying down on the riverbank hurt because the ground was so uneven, so I bought a cheap sheet of concrete-form plywood and laid it down. It was too small to cover more than my upper body, but it was far better than sleeping directly on the ground. Since it worked well, I laid one down for Amana too.

As I dozed beneath the blanket, large blue lights began flitting over the surface of the river.

"Whoa! What is that?!"

"Boss, those are fireflies."

"Fireflies? Those are?"

When one stopped a little distance away, it looked like a large beetle. Was that really a firefly? It was about the size of a scarab.

"Even with this huge fire burning, why aren't any bugs coming near us?"

"I've got a magic stone that keeps insects away, nya."

As she said that, Myaree slipped under my blanket. She was like a giant stuffed animal.

A magical insect repellent, huh? I used insect-repellent spray, and Shangri-La sold mosquito coils too, but if this method could keep insects away without any smell, the other world's way might have the advantage.

"How much would one cost?"

"Two silver coins (100,000 yen), nya."

"Two silver coins?!"

"Nya."

That was expensive. But it sounded incredibly useful. A slow life in the countryside would be nice, but it would also mean battling insects. It might be worth 100,000 yen.

There were plenty of troublesome diseases spread by insects. Even my original world had many, from the famous malaria to Japanese encephalitis, scrub typhus, rickettsia, and more.

I'd once bought a product that claimed insects wouldn't come near if you simply left it out, but it hadn't worked at all.

"Are there magic spells that keep weeds from growing too?"

"I've heard of one, nya. They say large mansions use it."

But no matter how magical it was, it probably couldn't eliminate only specific plants. If they used it, it would surely hinder the growth of flowers and crops as well.

"It's warm, nya."

No, I was the one who felt warm with her clinging to me. Myaree seemed intent on sleeping like this, but she wasn't wearing any clothes, so technically she was naked... Was that really okay?

It seemed cruel to make her sleep on bare stone, so I bought another piece of concrete-form plywood and laid it beneath her.

Still, camping on a riverbank was ordinarily a bad idea, since the water could rise unexpectedly. The beastmen said it was safe because they'd camped here many times.

Apparently, it had never flooded here either.

I lay there, brought up the Shangri-La screen, and read an e-book.

Whatever the mechanism was, the white screen was clearly visible even in the darkness. But although the screen seemed to glow, its light didn't illuminate the area around it.

――Did that mean it didn't really exist?

Besides, if it were physically displayed in front of me, other people should be able to see it too. Maybe it was being reproduced artificially inside my brain?

Or perhaps some kind of interrupt processing had been applied to my optic nerves?

It wasn't just the screen. Where were the goods sent from, and how were the payments settled? The more I thought about it, the more mysterious this ability became.

Even when I said "Status Open," it only displayed my name and age. There were no Skills, Titles, Levels, or anything like that.

Apparently, things like that didn't exist in this world at all.

I closed the screen and went to sleep.