Bon Appétit

Bolg, I assumed, was James's beast companion, just as Dia was mine. Bolg was a bear with grey fur all over his body and a black 'V' on his chest, but his lithe body shone through even with the fur.

"Ya sure ye can carry them home by yer lonesome?" James inquired, eyeing the trolley beside me.

It'll be fine, right?

—Thud! —Grunt

Bolg threw the crates to the ground and went to the back.

"Don't worry, I can handle it." I patted my chest and said,

"Why should I be concerned about you? Just pay up and leave; you're blocking other customers," James said, mining his 'sacred ore' with one hand and making a 'shoo shoo' motion with the other, making my brow twitch.

There no other customers beside me, okay, man? I grumbled in my head.

"Sure, here are 80 Bronze Vels for these. And may I have another one of those seals? I'm going to need one of those." I said as I handed over half of today's bounty.

"Whatever," James said, taking the money from my reluctant hands and placing a white paper slip in the crate.

'Here goes nearly three-quarters of my hard-earned money.' I approached the crate on the ground and tensed my muscles, then reached for the handles on the crate's sides and tightened my grip on them.

"Hup!" I yanked it up with all my strength, and it began to lift in the air as I moved quickly towards the trolley before my hands gave out.

—Thud! —khinch

"Huff…!" As the crate made a strange noise, I dropped it on the trolley and shook some blood into my palms.

"Pffft."

Without glancing at the obvious source of snickering, I pulled the trolley hosting a wooden crate back home.

—Click

—Khinch—Tinch

"I'm finally home, and oh man, I'm exhausted."

My legs finally gave out as I collapsed on the wooden floor of the building, right next to the trolley carrying a crate full of empty glass vials.

Because the trolley was sluggish from the weight, it took me thirty minutes to drag it home. I had to take extra care to prevent the glass bottles from breaking.

'I really want to get some shut-eye.'

After sighing for the umpteenth time, I stood up, shaking my head and smiling.

As a programmer on Earth, I had to deal with bugs all the time. In our line of work, even getting a good night's sleep was not guaranteed. We were taught not to give up no matter how many times the program had to be rewritten.

'In short, 'git gud', heh.'

How could I give up and lie down after enduring such torment?

"Hup!"

After a brief pause, I removed the crate from the trolley and placed it on the ground.

—Thud

"Fuuu…" It took me a while, but after so much weightlifting, I adapted to the muscles of this body and built enough muscle memory to not be clumsy.

If they are this heavy right now, how heavy will they be once they are filled to the brim?

Let's not think about that right now …

After shaking my head to yank out all the useless thoughts, I stood on one side of the crate and put my hands into one of the side handles, and pulled the crate in the direction of the wall nearby.

—Khii

—Tuk

'Nice.'

~Growl

As I was nodding in appreciation of my own work, some ancient beasts woke up from their slumber and started playing hopscotch in my tummy.

'Let's go get dinner, shall we?' I muttered under my breath as I urged my body to walk in the direction a delicious aroma was coming from.

I climbed the flight of stairs and a table filled with steak and soup entered my vision.

"Wow, Mum! So many delicacies!"

I was truly surprised by the fact that mom cooked such a royal meal for tonight.

"Is something special going on today, Mum?" I asked as I gulped down a mouthful of saliva, which was soon replaced by more.

There was the steaming white rice, and also spicy curry and juicy gravy chap. The soya sticks were numerous and fat in the gravy. 

"Hmm…, no particular reason. Just thought that we should enjoy ourselves once in a while," Mom replied as she added the proverbial icing on the cake to the table, a veggie salad!

"What's the holdup? Dig in!" Mom with an enchanting smile on her face.

"Just a moment, Mum," I said as I went to wash my hands. Who would want to dirty such an awesome meal?

Certainly, I won't.

After washing my hands, I approached the table as my belly announced its impatience.

""Thanks for the meal."" We both said at the same time, with our eyes closed and hands joined.

I immediately poured curry onto a plate full of rice and impatiently mixed them thoroughly. As I dropped a spoonful of curry rice in my mouth, my jaw hurt from the flavors.

I picked up a soya stick after stirring it in the gravy with my free bare hand and chomped down on it.

The gravy dripped down my fingers and the corners of my mouth as I shoved another spoonful of curry rice as soon as I felt my mouth getting empty...

–

–

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—Burp

"That sure was tasty. Oh, right, I forgot." I ran to the stairs as I remembered something.

"What happened?"

Without replying to mom, I ran down the stairs and neared the trolley, and opened its drawer to reveal a cloth pouch. Taking the pouch out, I hurriedly closed the drawer and ran back up the stairs.

"Mum! Here," I said while grinning from ear to ear.

"What is this?" Mom asked, visibly confused.

"Hehe. Open it and see for yourself," I chuckled before pushing the pouch towards her.

Though she raised an eyebrow, she complied because her curiosity was piqued.

"Oh…!" she exclaimed in surprise as her other eyebrow went up to accompany the first one.

"Is this the money you got for selling the potions?" she asked.

"Yup, Mum!" I nodded.

"I also bought empty bottles for the next batch of potions with half of the money. You can have the rest to use however you'd like," I admitted.

"No, son, you earned it, you keep it. You need it more than I do."

'Seriously, Mum?'

"Isn't it good manners to give your first salary to your parents?" I wondered aloud.

"Is it written somewhere?" she asked back, as a sly thought came to my mind.

"Well, just for curiosity's sake…. There is no written rule about eating food without talking… no?" I asked, as politely as possible, while looking at the ceiling to avoid mom's gaze.

'Well, either way, it is my win.'

But, who was I up against here? My Mom!

"It is written here," she replied, pointing at her beautiful and silky silver-white hair. "Want to open it up and take a peek at it?"

No, her head!

"No, Mom…," I replied as I sighed in defeat while taking the pouch back.

"Hmm, I can use this however I please, right? So, I want to use it to renovate the building," I announced, nodding to myself at the brilliant idea.