BXBX NOVEL (343) Suzuki’s Home
Chapter (343) Suzuki’s Home
The address that Suzuki gave us and the nameplate that read ‘Suzuki’ (Naturally it was written with Otherworld letters).
Relying on that information, we arrived at a Japanese house surrounded by a bamboo fence.
It was so massive that I wanted to ask just what kind of high-class hotel was it.
“Is this truly Suzuki’s home? Hopefully it’s not a mistake like another person having the exact same name.”
“But Master. I don’t think that’s possible with a unique name such as Suzuki.”
“ … Ah, I guess you’re right.”
Even though names such as Satou, Suzuki, and Yamada were very common names in Japan.
I wondered if a house that size was common for a Baron?
I was a Quasi-baron but I still didn’t own a house of my own in this world.
Was it because of the ‘Quasi’ prefix? Or was it because of Jobless?
Well, it doesn’t matter.
I may not have a home in this world but I had a home called My World.
I had an entire star as a home. Rather than losing out, I believe I won instead.
After regaining my self-esteem, I passed through the door.
I heard the sound of water-filled bamboo tubes serenely tapping against a stone in the distance.
There was no doorbell so I knocked on the sliding door of the entrance.
“Excuse me, is anyone home?”
The sliding door opened when I called out.
A beautiful woman dressing in a kimono appeared from inside. She had red hair and blue eyes so she was probably from this world.
Her job was an ordinary Cook: Lv3.
“Here, I received this from Suzuki.”
“Let me see - - Kusunoki-kun, I believe? You have traveled a long distance. Welcome.”
“Thank you very much.”
I thanked her and followed her.
I took off my shoes at the entranceway and changed into slippers.
“ - - ?”
“Ah, Haru. You must take off your shoes in this house. Jofre and Elize and Centaur too - -“
The kimono beauty’s face twitched when she saw Centaur enter the house as though it was natural.
“Eh … erm, I was told to lead the horses to the stables beside the house but what should I do with donkeys? Stables? Even though it’s a donkey? In the first place, it shouldn’t be possible to bring a restricted monster into town - - eh?”
The kimono beauty suddenly started acting strange.
“This can’t be found in the manual ─ ─ this is an emergency, what should I do? Right, I recall asking master before. In master’s hometown, horse meat was called sakura meat. Donkeys are similar to horses so it is an ingredient souvenir. Yup, in that case, it can be found in the manual. In the event of receiving food ingredients ─ ─”
She wrinkled her eyebrows and muttered some strange words before saying with a bright smile.
“Jofre-sama, Elize-sama. How well done would you like your meat? Or do you prefer it stewed? According to master, the recommended method is to eat it raw.”
“Meat!? Grilling is the best when it comes to meat.”
“Yup, over a flame until the insides turn brown.”
Jofre and Elize gave their request for how well done they would like their meat.
Should I ask what meat was she referring to?
Just as I had that thought, Suzuki came back.
“Wait, Lana-san! This donkey is not food! Treat this Centaur like a horse. Please escort it to the stables.”
“Master, welcome back. Understood, I will treat it as a horse.”
The girl called Lana led Centaur to the stables with a bright smile.
“Suzuki, who was that?”
“Sorry, it’s been a long time so I forgot about Lana-san’s personality. She’s the caretaker for this house but, how do I put it, she’s an instruction manual person. Because everything she does has to follow the manual, sometimes she causes weird problems.”
I see ─ ─ in her manual, there were no instructions for when a donkey visits so she recognized Centaur as a food ingredient souvenir and wanted to prepare it for dinner. When there is fresh meat souvenir and guests, serve the meat during dinner ─ ─ the manual probably stated something like that.
“I’ll have to add into the manual that if guests bring a donkey along, bring it to the stables.”
Suzuki sighed.
I’m pretty sure the manual was considerably thick by now.
“Can’t you just state in the manual to contact a supervisor if emergencies outside the manual occur?”
“In a world with no mobile phones, contacting me is not that easy. Furthermore, wouldn’t it be troublesome to be contacted when firm tofu is sold out and if silken tofu can be used instead?”
“That would certainly be a hassle.”
I smiled wryly and thought to myself - so this town sells tofu.
We changed into slippers and were led into Suzuki’s home.
“This is a beautiful hallway. It looks just like a mirror.”
“So the hallway has nightingale flooring that makes noise when people walk across it?”
“It doesn’t have such a feature. With Shinobi and Assassin skills, they won’t make a sound even when walking on nightingale flooring.”
“I guess you’re right ─ ─ I can walk silently with Silent Room too.”
After walking through the hallway, we reached a garden planted with pine trees. There was a pond in the garden and it appears that the sound of water-filled bamboo tubes serenely tapping against stone was coming from here.
“What a beautiful garden.”
“Yeah, Lana did a really good job. She’s adept at this kind of precise work. And her cooking is amazing too. She’s especially good at making sweets.”
Ah, she did seem like the kind to cook while following the recipe exactly.
She wouldn’t try to change the recipe in a strange way and fail.
“Elize, did you know? The Showa Street home gardens are called dry landscape gardens.”
“Dry landscape gardens? What does that mean?”
“It means a garden with no water. They represent water with other features in the garden.”
“I see! Eh? But Jofre, there’s water there.”
“What! Umu ─ ─ right, that is a hot bath guise as water!”
“Using hot bath to represent water? Dry landscape garden is amazing. Then that is an open-air bath.”
“Right, an open-air bath! So this is that Japan wabi-sabi thing.”
That Jofre and Elize, they probably heard that from Daijiro-san but they were having a great misunderstanding because of their incomplete Japan knowledge.
Haru seemed to be convinced as she stood next to them. I’ll have to correct her properly later.
And then, we were led to the Japanese-style room.
Although it was a Japanese-style room, a sofa was prepared instead of cushions or chairs.
“I placed a sofa in the reception room. I can’t force the people of this world to seiza after all.”
“That’s thoughtful of you.”
I replied and sat on the sofa.
Lana brought Centaur to the stables so Suzuki prepared his own tea.
Incidentally, Jofre and Elize left to look around the mansion after drinking their tea.
They mentioned when Suzuki was not around that they wanted to find hidden doors and empty spaces in the ceilings.
Did they mistake this for a shinobi mansion?
“By the way, Suzuki. As a Magic Investigation Lab Member, you’re able to use Hair Examination, right?”
“Yup. What about it? I can help you study if you are interested.”
“No - - ah, hmm. I am a little interested. It would help if I could borrow some materials to look at.”
“Of course it’s fine. Wait a minute.”
Suzuki replied and left to grab a book.
It seemed to be going well as planned.
“This is it.”
“ - - That’s a huge number.”
There were 50 textbooks.
There were 7 textbooks just on Hair Examination alone.
“Well, it’s because there’s a lot of information.”
“Let me seem, here’s the list of results.”
I opened the book and examined the section that I was interested in from the beginning.
That was the Risk Factor value. (Note: Danger level -> Risk Factor)
My Risk Factor value was 【Risk Factor: 0?3?4?0】
What did it mean?
Let me see - - The values for the risk factor are related to the four types of abnormal state resistance?
Danger level 0 meant the lowest resistance while 5 meant high resistance.
Incidentally, the four types were 【Confusion?Paralysis?Poison?Charm】.
So I had completely no resistance toward mental attacks while I had high resistance to poison.
It’s great that it doesn’t mean risk factors for diseases or such.
Next, I opened my note and investigated the recorded values for Miri’s 【Desire】.
The result for Miri’s 【Desire】was - -
“ … Ah, Kusunoki-kun. The Desire field is basically ‘Complex’ in English - - in other words.”
“Yeah, I know even if you don’t say it.”
But looking at the results, I was beginning to doubt if that hair was actually Miri’s hair.
After all, the desire value had this explanation to it.
【52: Brother complex】
No no, there’s no way Miri is a Bro-con.
Well, Miri’s name was listed in the Home Return spell too but - - no no no.
As I was seriously having a headache, Suzuki looked at the note and the color suddenly left his face.
“Kusunoki-kun! The results on that note, did you actually appraise somebody’s hair!?”
“Hn? Ah - - well, I thought it would help give a clue to where Miri was. But it can’t be used at all.”
“Do you know who gave this result?”
“This result? Ah, it was quite strange.”
Suzuki was interested in the 【Hair Lifespan: 0】 field.
Well, it was certainly a memorable entry.
“It’s not just strange. This is very dangerous.”
“It’s dangerous but these kinds of things can’t be helped.”
“No, we still can make it. We must investigate who this belongs to.”
Hn? I can’t imagine this other world having hair tonics though?
Suzuki said with a serious expression.
“Curse value 42 … we must dispel it before the frenzy curse is activated.” (Note: The hair with Curse: 42 is the same strand of hair as the Hair Lifespan: 0 hair)