An Extreme Foodie, A Homely Fox Lady, And A Diligent Elf (1)

Hey, Shun here!

I love to eat delicious dishes and I also love to cook them so I consider myself as a foodie. However, I never someone who's an extreme foodie, someone who'd do anything in order to taste good food.

I've tasted some dishes during my stay in this world and I gotta say, it's not so tasty... Compared to the food made on my dimension's Earth, that is.

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(Shun's POV)

Looking at the selection of slaves before me, I kind of already made up my mind on who I should take with me but... I should talk to them first.

"Can I ask them a few simple questions?" I asked as I turned towards Doscosp.

"Of course, of course. Feel free to do so."

First, I approached the most expensive of them all and asked her a few simple questions like, "Are you fine with doing some chores?", "Are you okay with children?", "Can you cook?" and etc. During my questioning, this lady answered it all perfectly.

Eh, she's the perfect maid, alright. However, like Ms. Receptionist, this lady seems to be too dedicated with their work and is not warm enough. Zenko and Ikumei might not open up to her because of her extremely stiff way of communicating.

Next, I tried asking similar questions to the gloomy-looking elf girl but she just would give me a reply so, after a few more attempts with no result, I eventually gave up. She seems to not like communicating so let's just not force her into talking.

After that, I talked to the dignified-looking knight woman but, like the maid earlier, she's too stiff and she only knows a few things outside of what she learned from her Knight Academy. Long story short, I don't think I'll be taking her.

Now, after I'm done with the three most expensive ladies, I moved on to talking with the next person, a normal human from top to bottom. She's really beautiful, definitely way above the female knight earlier in looks and is near the realm of beauty that elves are well-known for having.

"Excuse me Mr. Doscosp. Why is she priced so cheaply? As far as I can tell, she doesn't have any animal ears in her nor a tail."

"Aaah, erm, how should I put this… She has a, shall we say, troubled history. I brought her out due your request for a cheap slave. Shall I take her away?" Oh, Mr. Doscosp seems to be troubled by this girl. I'm curious of what she did to get such a huge price drop placed on her.

"I'm curious. I'd like to hear what that troubled history you're talking about is..."

Based on the many fantasy novels I've seen, you could usually count on people with 'troubled histories' being the exact kind of people you want on your side. That's just how fantasy logic works.

"Very well. Allow me to explain then."

Sure enough, I was not disappointed of what I heard. Like sir Melon-Puke's story, this one is also really very interesting.

To summarize what Mr. Doscosp said:

・She had fallen into slavery after being unable to repay a loan she took out for gambling and extravagant foods.

・Her last owner returned her after she wounded him.

…The man who bought her said that he'd give her "a real tasty meal," but then came back the next day saying that she had bit his, uh, little junior. The slave herself, when questioned, would only say "It tasted like total garbo. Gimme my money back." In the end, his wounds were healed with Restoration Magic and that settled that.

That man was definitely stupid. Looking at this girl now, I think she's one of those people. Those people who dedicated themselves to one thing. In this girl's case, I think it should be food.

From what I heard from Mr. Doscosp, it seems like she was able to bite off the guy's junior because... Uh... Let's just let Mr. Doscosp explain it again.

"So she was basically able to harm her previous owner because he said that his little junior is a tasty meal?"

"Yes, that seems to be the case. It seems that she sincerely considered the… thing presented to her to be food, rather than a part of her master. Naturally, her collar activated after the deed was done. The… conflict arose due to the fact that her master had promised her a good meal, and then thrust out his member while saying 'Come on now, eat it.'" So basically, the guy dug his own grave. He basically gave her permission to bite him.

Seeing me remain silent, Mr. Doscosp hurriedly tried to explain.

"H-Have no fear! There is no issue with the Contract Magic cast upon her whatsoever. It was just a series of unfortunate coincidences."

Since it was so important to slavers that their products be restrained by Contract Magic, Docosp had apparently taken her to the Merchant's Guild and used lie detecting magic tools to determine the exact truth of what had happened. That's why he knew the exact statements they had said to each other.

"…That said, we've naturally been struggling to sell her again due to that. We paid a large sum of money for her, however, so we've been hesitant to get rid of her. Especially since she has an appealing appearance. We'd at least like to make some of our money back. So… What do you think? I believe she is quite the steal."

Certainly. She does have a nice and shapely body, with healthy curves where you'd want curves and a narrow waist to boot. Her hair was blonde with a hint of red, as was common in this area.

Visually, I think she's absolutely stunning. Enough to be called, in wuxia terms, a country destroying beauty. Also, to be honest, she is the ideal receptionist I've been looking for.

"Alright. Allow me to talk to her first and the remaining ones before I come to a decision."

"I completely understand."

Once Mr. Doscosp backed away to his previous position, I began talking to the girl in question.

"So? I think you've heard my questions on the slaves that came before you. Can you do those? If so, what would you like in return?" I have a vague idea as to what she'd want but I want to hear it from her.

"'Course I could do all that. I'm an adventurer before becoming a slave so I needed to know lots of things to get by. What I want? I want some tasty food. That's why let that turbojerk buy me. It's 'cause he said he'd give me some tasty food. I was super hungry and really looking forward to whatever good stuff he had ready for me, only to have his nasty thing dangling in front of me the second we got back to his place. Really, like, did I have any other choice but to give it a bite and see if it really did taste good? But y'know, trust me, if he actually gave me a good meal and filled up my belly first, I definiiitely wouldn't have pulled any tricks like that. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, 'kay?"

Okay. That's enough evidence. She's an extreme foodie, alright.

"I care more about food than my own life. I'll like, die if it means eating a good meal. For real." She's dead serious.

"Alright. I understand you somehow now. Anyway, I'll get back to you in a sec."

After my talk with the foodie, I went ahead and talked to the three remaining ladies, the enthusiastic-looking elf, the fox lady, and the bear-eared lady. The elf seems to be genuinely interested in working for me, even going as far as making an oath, whilst the fox lady readily volunteered in helping on looking after Zenko and Ikumei.

As for the bear-eared lady, as much as I like animal eared girls, I don't think she'll work out as a receptionist since she's prone to becoming nervous when speaking to others. However, she did say that she's quite confident when it comes to making jams and sweets.

Does it have something to do with her being a bear-eared girl? I guess red would fit her perfectly then.

Despite having already decided on who we should take with us, I decided to get the opinions of the girls.

"Rokuko, Ikumei, Zenko, Tsuka. What do you girls think? Who should we take?"

"Well, I think it's best if I buy the cheapest one. Plus, our food is good so we wouldn't have any problems taking her in." Rokuko immediately suggested to buy the cheapest one. You sure are being frugal right now after all the spending that you did before we reached this place, Rokuko.

However, she does have a point.

"Master. Could you buy the member of my race?" Oh? Looks like Zenko is interested in conversing with someone from her own race.

"Umm... The girl from the bear demi-human race will be good if master train her... I heard that they make tasty jams..." I think your aim is to taste the tasty jam, right Ikumei? I wonder what it is what black-eared dog girls and their fondness of good food. As an aside, Ikumei likes meat the most, like Pochi.

"Squeak squeak, squeak~! Elf girl, energetic, Tsuka new playmate!" Uh, you just wanted her because she could become your new playmate? Seriously now, Tsuka.

Upon hearing about our food and Ikumei's comment about taking the bear girl who's good at making jams, the talkative lass was extremely stoked.

"Oooh, really now! Buy her then! Buy her with me! If you do, are you gonna share that tasty food with me?" I don't think you could butt into the conversation like that... Oh, there it is, she's choking a little because interrupted our conversation.

I guess that just goes to show how much she cares about food. I asked Mr. Doscosp to give her permission to continue speaking.

"If you do become one of our companions, I wouldn't mind providing you with good food, the same food as what we all eat."

"Really?! Just so we're totally clear, I'll bite your thing off if you're lying, okay?! You don't wanna make a gourmand angry."

"Yeah, that's a promise. That's as long as you also make a pledge that you'll do your work to the best of your ability."

"I like this guy! Hey, hey, Mr. Doscoooop, would you be super duper nice and lower my price for him? Please? I'm actually worth like forty-five silvers, aren't I?"

"Hey! Don't say that! Ah… Uuuh, my valued customer, this is… I mean…" Mr. Doscosp paled and stumbled over his words. It's like he's gonna pass out anytime soon.

This girl, she seems like she'd be a handful but I gotta give it to her, she seemed smart. After sensing my intent to buy her, she tried to lower her price to help solidify that decision.

She even knew what her actual value was. That all could have been an act planned by Mr. Doscosp, but even if it were, I'd have to praise the sincerity of her acting.

Alright, this settles it. Taking my thoughts and the opinions of the girls into account, it seems like I'll be spending quite a hefty sum.

"I want to buy all of the four girls starting from the left. Could you maybe sell them all to me for 3 gold coins as a discount?" I don't really want to go over the budget I stated so...

Surprisingly enough, Mr. Doscosp showed an extremely relieved expression before it morphed into that of a smile.

"Thank you very much for making the purchase!"

"Ooooh! You're also taking the others? Hell yeah dude! Trust me, you have made a fantastic purchase today. Oh whoops, I've gotta start calling you Master now, huh? Haha!" Mr. Doscosp is now shrugging his shoulders. Even though he is basically earning less by giving me such a huge discount, he had finally sold a major pain in his side for a decent sum.

Though he did make sure to inform me that he wouldn't pay me anything if I were to return her. As for the other purchase I made, he said he'd give back the money I paid to him in full.

He really doesn't like the girl, eh. Well, anyway, I'm glad the negotiations were short.

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※~To be continued~※

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Author's Remarks:

※ Well, that's about it for this chapter. It's a two parter since I wanted to introduce the new characters a little more. After that, we'll be moving on to a more fun part of this arc.