Boring everyday lives (Part 1)

It was raining outside. The autumn rain, complete with its thick dark clouds, seemed to bring the sunset earlier for that day. Inside their house, Astrid was clumsily laying on the living room’s sofa with a book on her hands,

“Ash, I am hungry.”

“You just chomped my pumpkin pudding minutes ago.”

Ash grumpily answered. He was on the other side of the table, doing his artificer jobs. His hands never stopped even when he was conversing with Astrid.

“But pudding is not food.”

Astrid pouted while she flipped a page of the book. She was reading one of Ash’s books, ‘Adventurer’s Manual.’ It was actually his grandfather’s book that already collected dust inside the storage room. Nevertheless, Astrid read the book with eagerness.

“Said someone who cried about her weigh—”

Whiz, whiz, whiz~

Shatter!

Astrid fired three ice projectiles toward Ash but he easily blocked all of them at once using his barrier. Ash put his artificing activity on hold, turned to face her, then yelled,

“CAN YOU STOP ASSASSINATING ME?!”

“It’s your fault for calling me fat, bastard!”

“I didn’t say anything!”

Astrid strengthened her sitting posture and fired another barrage of ice projectiles towards Ash. Instead of deploying another barrier, Ash unsheathed his dagger,

‘One to my face,’

Clink!

‘Next, my right shoulder, tch!’

Splatter!

‘Middle chest,’

Clink!

‘Throat—”

Clink, clink, clink—

For almost one minute straight, Ash kept trying to block Astrid projectiles purely using his dagger. He didn’t move at all from his current position, nor did he try to dodge any of them. In the end, only around ten out of hundreds of projectiles found their mark. Of course, Astrid used blunted projectiles so they only left minor swollen marks,

Clap, clap, clap, clap!

“Not bad, Ash. Only twenty got around this time~” Astrid stuck her tongue at him.

“It was twelve, dammit!”

GROOOOWLLLLLLL!

‘DAMN STOMACH!’

Unfortunately for Ash, his stomach completely betrayed him. Astrid clasped her hands and looked at him with a very smug smile that even Ash found it unsettling,

“Bring me to the kitchen, I will prepare it. You only ate pudding for your lunch, didn’t you?”

“O—okay,”

In a complete defeat, Ash meekly obeyed Astrid and brought her to the kitchen on his piggyback. Four days ago, Ash modified the kitchen to the ground-level after Astrid said that she wanted to try cooking. Surprisingly, her cooking was better than Ash’s because she didn’t forget to add salt or sugar to her dish. That was why, for the sake of their stomach’s prosperity, they decided that Astrid would be their cooking supervisor.

Ash put Astrid down in front of the table and then he went to take the ingredients in his root cellar. A chunk of chicken meat for two, onions, garlic, parsley, pepper, and the others. He didn’t forget to bring the knives, cutting table, and plates to Astrid,

“Hmm, let me see what we have here~” Astrid inspected the basket of ingredients that Ash just put in front of her. After looking at them for a while, she asked Ash with a grin,

“Roasted chicken?”

“It will be cold tonight but that’s my idea!”

“Hahahaa, we are weird, aren’t we? Normal people prefer eating soup or hot meals. But—”

“ROASTED CHICKEN IS JUSTICE!” They shouted in unison and began laughing.

Without skipping a beat, Astrid peeled the onions using her wind blade magic instead of a knife. As for Ash, he washed the chicken and boiled it on his magic stove along with the onion, parsley, and garlic. While waiting for the chicken, Astrid chopped the other seasonings and placed them on a small plate.

After a while, Ash took the chicken out and Astrid marinated it with the seasonings before she used her ice magic to gradually chill the marinated chicken. She didn’t forget to add salt and coat it with butter! As for Ash, he was preparing the oven.

“Ash, I am done.”

“Okay, just put it in the oven. I forgot to take the bread so I will be back.”

“Okay~”

Around fifteen minutes later, they ate their early dinner. The rich taste of the roasted chicken, the one with Astrid’s complete seasoning, quickly filled their mouth. But their peaceful time came to an end when,

“Ash, that’s my chicken!”

“You haven’t brought it to your plate.”

Ash quickly chomped the chicken before Astrid did something.

“I am leaving that for the last, dammit!”

“Just like a wise man said, early—”

Stuff---

‘Damn you, Astrid!’

Cough, cough!

Ash couldn’t say anything for his complaint because Astrid just peacefully shoved a big part of her chicken bones, the one she had eaten the meat from, into Ash’s mouth. Thus, their chaotic day came to an end after Ash nearly died because of that chicken bone.

***

It was the night of the same day as the chicken bone incident. The autumn rain hadn’t stopped yet and the wind blew stronger than that of the evening. Astrid was lying on her bed with the ‘Adventurer’s Manual’ book still in her hands.

Knock, knock, knock...

“Come in, Ash.”

Ash casually slid the sliding door open and entered her room. He then sat near Astrid’s bed while Astrid sat on her bed and leaned against the wall,

“After almost killing me, you have the gut to call me.” Ash grumpily said to her.

“I already apologized, dammit. Moreover, you stole my chicken.”

Sigh...

Ash could only sigh. Nevertheless, he never let his guard down because he was inside Astrid’s room, the room that made his face become as beautiful as a flower garden the other day.

“So, do you need anything? You are not calling me here only to shove me later like two days ago, aren’t you?”

Yes, it happened. Astrid had called Ash to her room before just to make him leave directly after he entered her room.

“Hehe, no, no. Come closer, there are plenty of spaces here.” Astrid said while she tapped the vacant place on her bed.

“I have a bad feeling about this, Astrid.” Ash frowned.

“Have a little trust in me, bastard.”

Nevertheless, Ash did as Astrid just said. He climbed the bed and sat beside her. They were close enough that their shoulders were touching. Astrid took the blanket and placed it on top of their feet. They stayed in silent for a while until,

Boom~~

‘Damn, she noticed it?!’

A thunder struck near their window on the outside. But instead of panicking, Astrid pinched Ash’s forearm and grinned,

“That was your thunder magic, right?”

“I—I don’t know what you are talking about.” Ash answered while he cast his eyes away.

Sigh~

Astrid sighed but she continued,

“Before I forget to tell you something important again, I will keep myself from making a bigger thunder than yours.”

“So, you have something important to tell me, huh? Too important that you eventually forgot?”

“Can you stay silent? This is about my end of deal after all.”

‘Wait, does that mean that—”

“As you’ve guessed, Ash. I will tell you the easiest way I know how to get a legendary magic item.”

‘ASTRID IS A GODDESS!’

Hearing Astrid’s words, Ash suddenly looked at her with shining eyes. Instead of sitting beside her, he moved himself to her front. As for Astrid, she smiled and nodded in satisfaction. No, not smiling. She was grinning ear to ear!

Astrid cleared her throat,

“Ehm... So, do you want to know?”

“YES!”

“I can’t hear you, Ash?”

Astrid extended her right ear to Ash’s direction while she cupped her hand around it,

“YES, YES, YES!”

“Louder~”

“YEEEESSS!!!!”

Astrid’s grin grew wider and wider,

“Prostrate in front of me while saying, ‘Please tell me, Goddess Astrid.’”

Without thinking, Ash prostrated in front of her. While prostrating, Ash shouted loudly,

“PLEASE TELL ME, GODDESS ASTRID!”

Astrid, the one asking him to do that, was clearly taken aback by his resolve. Her face became redder after getting second-hand embarrassment. She regretted her action but she laughed it off anyway,

‘Ugh, Ash just can’t be helped! Hahahahaa!’

“Ash.”

“Yes, Ma’am!” Still prostrating, devoutly.

“Can you stop prostrating? I am embarrassed, bastard!”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

Ash sat with a corrected posture. He literally saluted her as if he was an obedient pet. Even inside the imperial army that Astrid knew, no one could do the salute as perfect as Ash. Nevertheless, Astrid could not hold her embarrassment any longer and began covering her face,

“Can you behave as usual, bastard? I cannot tell you if you are like that.”

“I am behaving as usual, Ma’am!”

“No, you are not, bastard!”

Chop, chop, chop!

After some chops, Ash came back to his usual self. His forehead was a bit swollen after all. Ash then sat right beside Astrid again and tucked his feet under the blanket. Then, Astrid began her explanation,

“In the imperial castle, there is a five-yearly auction event held by the imperial family.”

Astrid stopped for a while after mentioning her family. Ash worriedly looked at her but she shook her head and continued,

“Sorry, I am fine. Even though it is the imperial family’s event, the goods aren’t exclusively imperial-family’s. There are items from the collectors, merchants, or nobles from all around the world. From what I can remember, someone even sold a legendary healing staff—”

‘A legendary healing staff?! It sounds so cool, dammit. What kind of item is that? It must be far greater than my simple healing ring.’

“Ash??” Looking at Ash’s absentminded state, Astrid tried to address him.

“Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about tons of cool items they might be auctioning.”

‘He is kinda cute when he is this enthusiastic~’

“Hehe, no worries. But here are the hard parts.”

Astrid took a brief pause before continuing,

“First, you must get a recommendation from a high ranking noble or another influential figure to enter the auction. Or else, you have to pay a huge amount of entrance fee. Second, the price of an item auctioned there is enough for two noble’s-generations living comfortably without working at all. Take an example of that legendary healing staff. Someone bought it for more than two thousand gold coins.”

Astrid stopped again to observe Ash’s expression. Astrid believed that even Ash could get one magic item, one in the lower price range, because she had bought one from the auction before. He didn’t necessarily need to get the main item because even the lower price items had outstanding qualities compared to the one sold in the market,

“Two, two thousand gold coins?!”

Ash opened his eyes wide while thinking about the money he should save to buy a similar item. For comparison, one gold coin was enough for someone to live in Medvale village for around two years.

“But, but rest easy, Ash. There are cool magic items sold for only twenty gold coins! Even, even I bought an item before and the quality is above the one you would find in the market.”

‘Even the cheapest one is around twenty gold coins???!’

Ash perfectly knew that getting his hands on an outstanding magic item, not even the legendary one yet, would not be easy. For him, it would take around ten or fifteen years of hard work to get that sum of money just to buy the lower priced ones. But at least, he finally knew how to get them and thus, he made a mental note about his future goal while excitedly nodding,

“As expected of the imperial-family’s auction event. I know that it won’t be easy to have an excellent magic item but I will be working very hard to enter the auction in the next twenty years or so, hahahaa!”

‘Huh?! He needs to work that long to save?! From our living conditions here I had guessed that maybe working around a year or two would be enough. I am an idiot!’

As for Astrid, she cast her eyes downward and wore both a guilty and a surprised expression. She just remembered that Ash was a commoner who needed to work to his bone to get more money to save, unlike her. They, too, were living in a remote village where the money circulation seemed to be stuck. Moreover, he needed money to take care of her.

“So—sorry, Ash.”

‘She looks down because her information isn’t enough to get me a legendary magic item, no?’

“You are scary when you are apologizing, aren’t you? It is not your fault that I cannot get any legendary magic items, or at least an outstanding one, anytime soon.”

“But it feels like I just took an advantage of your kindness. I literally didn’t know that you are just, sorry, an artificer from a small village when we made that deal—”

Ash pinched Astrid’s cheek,

“Stop right there, dammit. From the beginning, I knew that it is hard to get my hands on a great magic item, not to mention the legendary ones. If it is easy, I will already have hundreds of them, hahahaa! Moreover, the information about the auction itself is a good start for me to work harder~”

He released Astrid’s cheek. Astrid’s expression gradually changed from solemn to annoyed,

“The next auction will be in the next five years if you miss this one. I just remembered about this and my end of deal when I shoved that leftover bone in your mouth earlier.”

“That damned chicken bone!”

Ash clicked his tongue reminiscing his trauma for chicken bone but he continued with a calm voice,

“But as I said, maybe I will be joining the auction in the next twenty years or so. So, you still have more time to forget to tell me about that auction anyway, hahahaa!”

Ash looked at the ceilings with a distant look. Nevertheless, his artificer spirit hadn’t faded even once after he calculated the hard path ahead for getting a great magic item. Astrid could only look at him in silence,

“Besides, you said that there is another way to get a legendary magic item, didn’t you?”

“Ah, yes. But it is very very very not recommended and far harder and more dangerous compared to the auction.”

“Hmmm. Is it adventuring, then?”

“Bingo, Ash. As you just said, it is adventuring and exploring ruins or such. It is too dangerous and the success rate of finding a treasure, a legendary magic item, is less than zero-point-one percent.”

Sigh...

Ash exuded a very long sigh. Astrid stayed silent, with a little guilt clouding her heart. Ash suddenly looked at her and talked,

“I will surely die if I go adventuring. So, twenty more years, huh?”

“Sorr—”

Squish, squish, squish!

“Don’t apologize, dammit! I will just take it easy and enjoy the flow. To be honest, I hope that you will accompany me to that auction.”

Then Ash suddenly remembered something and talked to Astrid in a hurry and panic,

“No, no, no. I am not planning to make you captive or something by living with me for that long. You are free to go if you want and have your own life or such. I mean, I just mean that it would be nice if we can go there togeth—”

Astrid interrupted him with a sincere smile,

“Hehe, I am happy when you said that. But the future, huh? I cannot promise you but I will try my best to greet that exact future.”

After their conversation about the imperial auction ended, Ash and Astrid continued talking about the far future until they eventually fell asleep on each other’s shoulders.