Ryuji once again awoke with a huge hangover in the form of a splitting headache, an aversion to the sunlight, a severely queasy feeling, and a horrid taste in his mouth. He washed up with a hand towel and water in a basin that he got from the bucket near the privy. He had a new set of clothes waiting for him this morning. This was the fourth set of clothing he now owned and the third set to be delivered from the tailor shop. This was a sharp-looking ensemble in a dark tan color with cream-colored pants to compliment it.
When Ryuji went down to get something for breakfast, he found Karen was wearing her Cream-colored dress that he had bought her the same day he bought his new clothing. She now had three dresses of roughly the same make. One was light green, one was a medium-dark blue, and the last was the cream-colored one she was wearing today. On the same day, Teresa gave her a few of her old gowns and dresses that would fit her or could be taken in to fit her. Karen however, only seemed to wear the three dresses that Ryuji bought for her.
He noticed that Karen was blushing but pretended not to notice, after all, he was supposed to be asleep at the time she kissed him so passionately. She sat down across from him at the table with a bowl of some kind of porridge and a couple sweet loaves of bread. The bread seemed to have been delivered this morning, courtesy of Lizbet, the old woman that he had bought a bakery for. Ryuji grabbed a couple of the buttery loaves and left a large copper against protest from Teresa. He had eaten light because he intended to have a second breakfast later.
After finishing breakfast, he said his goodbyes at the inn and headed towards his apprenticeship at the shop of the old dwarven wizard. Leaving the inn it was a short walk to the end of the street then left onto the main road through the city. After an equally short walk, he made it to the mercenary’s guildhall in the center of the city. This building was the largest and oldest in the entire city, actually predating the city by nearly a century. At one time it had been an old fort and monastery next to the river.
After passing the guild he had to cross the bridge over the Lyrill river. The town was named after that river which was in turn named after an elven goddess of the river that was said to have fallen in love with the first lord of the city but Ryuji suspected that that was just a fable. He couldn’t completely discount it however since this was a world with real working magic. The gods might be just as present as magic.
After strolling through a plaza full of small lean-to-style stands full of various goods he spotted his destination. The shop he was heading for was named Potions and Such and it was run by the gruff old wizard, Dorn Firefist. The reason Ryuji was headed for this shop was because he was apprenticing to be a wizard from the old dwarf wizard who owned the shop. He was surprised to find out that the knowledge of different minerals and rocks gained in geology class was enough to get him the first apprenticeship the old wizard had ever given in his fifty-plus-year career. The old dwarf was surprised by that too but even more so by his appetite for bacon and other meats, a trait not shared by other sun elves, and by his remarkable uptake of the knowledge he was given access to.
To Ryuji, the lessons were fun and not nearly as stressful as the memorization of facts, dates, and formulas that he was used to in high school. not only his studies with Dorn but all of the things he had heard as historical facts of the area from various people and any other knowledge he came across just stuck with him easily. He also had a natural charisma that he only had a fraction of in Japan and while his appearance as a tall handsome sun-elf could explain a large portion of it there was more to it than that. He suspected that it was because he had been given extra help in that regard by the Youma that reincarnated him here.
As he reached the front door to the shop, he set aside all of his distracting thoughts and concentrated on what he would be doing today. When he checked the front door, it was locked so he had to use the key Dorn had given him to let himself in. after entering he relocked the door and checked the store to see if Dorn was up. He found the old dwarf snoring loudly in the bed in the rear of the store. The store was his home much like many of the other people in town who owned a shop.
Ryuji checked his forehead to see if it felt hot but it didn’t feel hot to him. Dorn had left a note on the door the previous day telling Ryuji that he was sick and wouldn’t open the shop. Since the note was gone, Ryuji assumed that the old dwarf must feel a bit better. He certainly didn’t want to push his master to do lessons if he wasn’t feeling well but since it seemed like he was okay Ryuji got started on some breakfast. Both of them were fans of a full breakfast and it was something they could bond over before starting the day.
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Ryuji wiped down the cast iron skillet and set it atop the magic oven. He then reached into the space under the oven and concentrated on the feeling of his mana flowing through him. He let a trickle of mana out and looked at the oven. The flame in the middle part of the oven was hovering above a glowing magic circle carved into the iron plate near the bottom but it was too small. Ryuji tried again and let a slight trickle more mana out and was satisfied with the size of the flame this time.
Ryuji went to the ice-box in the corner and opened it to fetch the bacon, eggs, milk, and a couple vegetables that he wasn’t sure of the names of but knew were edible. He grabbed an earthenware bowl and set about cracking the eggs into it before checking the skillet temperature. He cut the bacon into strips and laid them in the skillet to start frying. He then poured some milk into the eggs and used a wooden fork to whisk them together. Next, he pulled out his fancy dagger that he had never used and began chopping up some of the leafy vegetables.
Once the bacon was crispy he took it out and chopped it up into bits before carefully storing the bacon grease away for use in other dishes. He then quickly poured a thick layer of eggs into the still-greased skillet and used a wooden spatula to tend to them a bit before flipping the whole thing over. Ryuji quickly cut a few slices off of the wheel of cheese and layered them, the bacon, and the vegetables onto half of the round disk of eggs before quickly and carefully flipping the other side over the top to make a perfect western-style omelet.
It wasn’t until Ryuji was plating the omelet that he noticed that the old dwarf was watching him with rapt attention. Ryuji was going to offer the omelet to him but Dorn spoke first. “Lad, What be that? Ye’ve made somethin’ that I’ve ne’er seen before. It looks and smells incredible and I see ye’ve mastered yer flow of mana to a precise measure!”
Ryuji spent the next few minutes explaining the making of an omelet to Dorn, who was fascinated. Coincidentally, the next omelet that Ryuji made for himself didn’t turn out nearly as good and fell apart while he was trying to plate it. He was just happy that the old dwarf got to try the one that turned out perfect. It would be fair to say that the old dwarf liked it and ate the large meal very graciously even sopping the cheese and juices off the plate with his bread.
Ryuji spent the next hour engrossed in the last of his book on the apparently famous wizard, Sarindas. There were certain aspects of the story that were a bit more than suspect but the story was overall rather interesting. The old wizard created some of the earliest learning materials for wizards to learn from. Also, he supposedly had eighteen wives and his descendants formed dozens of kingdoms. Right! After reading that he was sure that this was written by a guy and was some kind of analog to hero stories from Japan.
It didn’t take him as long to finish the next book. The books became a lot easier after that. He had to stop several times to attend to customers. Apparently, Dorn wasn’t the only wizard in town but was the only one with a shop. Everyone who came in had the same shocked and contemplative looks when they saw Ryuji sitting behind the counter. By this point, he was getting a little tired of answering the same questions over and over. The looks of incredulity and in some cases indignation, as if they thought he had lied to them when he responded, were also getting rather annoying.
Ryuji had no problems finding most of the ingredients or books the customers were asking for. He had one customer who flatly refused to be waited on by him and insisted that he had to speak to Dorn. At this Ryuji just arched an eyebrow and asked if he was sure about that. The show that followed was quite entertaining and very educational to Ryuji.
When he told Dorn what the customer said the old dwarf was in the middle of inscribing a very delicate-looking set of glyphs on some magic contraption. When Dorn turned around, he was wearing a very meaningful scowl. He told Ryuji to watch carefully and went about casting about a dozen minor spells at the belligerent former customer. The whole time he was chasing the guy around the shop he was steadily explaining casting techniques and speed methods to Ryuji and using the hapless man as his test dummy.
After the first couple of spells missed the guy by inches, he bolted for the door but Dorn wasn’t done yet. He fired off a very accurate spell that locked the front door in the guy's face. He then proceeded to fire almost a dozen near misses at the formerly obstinate fool. When he was done, he informed me that his lesson for the day was over and that he didn’t want to be disturbed from his experiments again. Ryuji just bowed and said yes master. The bewildered man couldn’t get out fast enough.