Dawn arrived sooner than one would expect as the Hero woke up, his hands now healed from all the wounds he got from making the porridge.
Yet a piercing headache replaced the burning sensation he once felt on his hands, with a few deep breaths, the Hero then calmed as he looked at himself through the dim reflection on the living room’s windows.
Within a blink of an eye, the Hero’s expression was back to usual, just in time too as he soon noticed the Guide exiting the bedroom’s door.
With an ever bright smile, the Hero mischievously began to pester the Guide once again.
“Hey~ guide~ you healed my cuts didn’t you? Well aren’t you getting pretty chummy lately”
“…. The way you speak somehow irritates me.” Speechless yet not surprised at the Hero’s ever childish personality, the Guide couldn’t help but show a slight irk despite smiling at the former.
“Hehe~ well regardless of that! I’m starving! Feed me!! Breakfast breakfast!”
“Fine… Oh! Then while we're at it, let’s make this your first cooking lesson.” With a slightly mischievous smile, the Guide quickly made his way towards the unguarded Hero.
“Huh..? wait, nooo!! Let me rest ahh!!”
The Hero could only scream as he was dragged into the kitchen or rather, the abyss as the Hero calls it as.
.
.
.
.
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“The omelet tasted kind of bland…” Forced to wash the plates, the Hero then wholeheartedly complained about the food.
“Well of course, we can’t afford sukkar here.”
“Ah right it’s one of those tropes huh… the nobility claiming the royalties on sugar and other spices…”
“Oh? Is that also common in your world?”
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“Nope! Aside from there being a government or a hierarchy in your terms, anybody can buy spices as it is practically everywhere and not at all scarce.”
“I see, well if you really want it to taste better we could always get some Honig. Drying them resembles sukkar.”
“Honig…???”
“Hmm the equivalent to your world’s ‘Huuney’ was it?”
“Ohhh! Honey! Wait you guys seriously have honey here?”
“Yes, that is in fact correct.”
“Are they made by bees as well?”
“…” the Guide then suddenly started to look pale as he seemed to have imagined something that the Hero is better, not knowing.
“What’s with that look?” Confused by the Guide’s sudden change of expression, the Hero could only tilt his head in wonder.
“It’s nothing you should be concerned about. You’ll get to see why soon enough so no more questions, we are heading out!”
As they went out the inn, the air around town seemed heavy as of late. Even before they arrived, the signs were evident that the townspeople were on edge one way or another.
Not only did the people buying from the night market seem to be scarce, various shops like bookstores didn’t even have customers.
Although the most noticeable part was that the streets were lined with various Missing persons' Magic Diagrams drawn on paper.
“Please tell us if you’ve seen my child” A woman along with a few other people was showing various Magic Diagrams of missing children, asking any passerby for a few details of their possible whereabouts .
They are likely to be the source of the various posted Missing persons' diagrams.
Magic Diagrams so to speak are like portraits yet one would see the subject in the diagram at the state that the person drawing the diagram has seen.
So hand-drawn portraits pales in comparison to the detail presented as the diagram shows the object or person to the viewer like they are seeing the subject in person.
Silence descended as a few comments here and there from the townspeople were heard and exchanged.
“Ahh… the poor children.”
“Those people are just wasting their time searching, as even someone with a [Tracking] skill can’t detect the whereabouts of anyone that had gone missing these past few days.”
“Yeah, this has gotten pretty normal now in these parts. No surprises there.”
The air grew heavy yet the cloaked duo, silently slipped passed the commotion and headed to the forest just to get some Honig.
--Trivia--
Papers are abundant in this world as creatures called Tiredtrunks or mutated versions of a tall tree, produces fibers by 'vomiting'.
People can even ask for the Tiredtrunks to 'move' by pouring mana on the mutated tree.
The tree would then begin to shift to the direction which the caster had instructed for the tree to 'move', bit by bit.
Though it takes time for the Tiredtrunks to fully move, it still saves the people from resorting to deforestation.
Well other factors may affect the Tiredtrunks to wither and vanish even without the influence of humans so overpopulation of those creatures are avoided.
The docile Tiredtrunks do turn hostile when faced with direct fires, resulting to those creatures in casting [Wind] and [Water] magic and in some rare cases even using [Earth] magic directed at the source of the fire.
Though these creatures are surprisingly fine with lamps and whatnot.