Chapter 294: Uniform
I had some doubts about the town on the island, but I shrugged them off. Exploring the alleys was fun after all.
A long main street stretched from the pier to the tallest fortress, with the town built along its length.
Near the pier and the fortress, the street bulged out a bit, but in between, it turned into just waterways and stone walls. It was quite long.
Once I entered the alleys on the southern side of the fortress, the slope became steep—more like a cliff—so there were plenty of slopes and stairs. But it was nice how the view suddenly opened up to the sea from the narrow paths.
The town built on the cliff was designed not only for the beautiful scenery but also to preserve as much of the fertile “soil” as possible.
“Hmm… Maybe I should get a house in town too.”
“That sounds good, doesn’t it?”
But then again, I thought it might be a bit much to increase my secret base locations.
The main street was just ahead. However, the branching alleys either led me toward the main street or took me to dead ends. If you knew the way, it was easy enough.
Right now, a building blocked my path, leading to a dead end, with a short staircase against a wall where young grapes were stretching their vines. Since the town was built on a slope, I needed stairs to enter the first floor from the back.
At the top of the stairs was a small door, nearly blackened dark brown. A small dog emblem was engraved on the door—a mark of the guard post.
“Good work~”
As I called out while passing by, one of the guards at the counter glanced over and checked, but upon seeing Auro, he immediately stood at attention.
—Is Auro in charge of the guards too? Even though he looks like a pretty boy, he has muscular subordinates…
Since the island was hot, armor was usually exempt. Spare weapons hung on the wall, and armor was prepared to be donned in case of emergencies.
I thought about making the uniform look like knight attire, but that seemed too hot, so I went with an Aodai style for fun. The lower ranks wore white, and the higher ranks wore darker shades of blue with patterns.
Of course, uniforms were provided to signify “Change your clothes!” Here, it was customary to gift employees new clothes or fabric for tailoring once a year.
The uniforms fit snugly, so I thought they should work hard to maintain their figures as I squeezed past the narrow counter and stepped out front. The front of the guard post faced the main street, and it was a slightly more imposing building than the surrounding ones, with a heavy door and a larger dog emblem. The stones of the stone walls were a size larger, and the mortar connecting them was darker than the others.
By the way, the dog emblem wasn’t like the “Beware of Dog” signs in Japan; it was a stylish relief carving. The area outside the guard post was free to enter and exit, one of the hidden paths that couldn’t be exploited by bad people.
I handed out candy to the children I encountered to win them over and asked about the recent happenings in town. It seemed the original residents who had come for fishing had settled in well. There was also a tip about a somewhat rough craftsman, and when I glanced at Auro, he nodded lightly, indicating that some educational guidance would likely follow later.
Perhaps because I gave them candy or treats every time we met, or because I treated their words seriously, the children remembered various things that happened in town and shared them with me. They even mentioned that someone had a couple’s quarrel three days ago!
I didn’t run into any familiar adults. It was understandable since it was work hours.
Back at the tower, I took a breather with some coffee. After showing him a bit, Auro mastered the siphon from grinding the beans. I heard that Changelings were good at mimicking, but they struggled with adjustments based on temperature—at least that was his self-assessment. He seemed quite dexterous, though.
For lunch, I had yuzu radish and rösti made from finely shredded potatoes fried in plenty of butter. Also, a cold tomato soup.
It was a bit unbalanced, but since Auro and Charles joined me in the castle square, I decided to focus on meat dishes for flavor…
I wanted to increase the livestock on the island since the dairy products made from our cow’s milk seemed to have good flavor. But like the vegetables, it was probably influenced by the Spirits. Our livestock munched on grass along with tiny Spirits.
Ah, maybe…
“Come forth, Fire Lizard!”
As I stirred the embers with a poker, calling forth the Fire Spirit, the flames danced as if they were alive.
The Fire Lizard was a retainer of the blue lizard, the master of this tower. Although its attributes were different, it had lived in the stone fireplace here for many years. It had been so small it seemed like it might disappear, but since I started using fire in the tower, it had grown back to the size of my palm.
The fire attribute lizard that often sniffed Dean’s armpit had some darker red spots, but this Fire Lizard was a beautiful, uniform orange like burning charcoal. It didn’t seem to sniff around, though.
The Fire Lizard brushed the bottom of the frying pan with its long tail, heating it up in no time. I pulled out the sausage I bought in the fortress city and tossed it in.
“Alright, alright. Experiment time! Try this. If it doesn’t taste good, you can leave it.”
I placed the browned sausage in front of Auro and Charles.
“Yes, my lord.”
“My lord, thank you for the meal.”
These two were oddly obedient. I secretly thought it was a bit unsettling.
“Ah—!!! They’re eating it!!!”
Kiel burst in through the door just as he knocked. What was the point of knocking?!
Meanwhile, it seemed like my treatment here was rather careless. I was showing off my impeccable service elsewhere, but here it was a different story.