Prologue

"Well, what can I say... The view sure has gotten better, huh!"

It had been a few days since the hellflame grizzly attack.

Finally free from the muscle pain that had afflicted my entire body, I was heading out to survey the damage for myself.

Hearing this desperate attempt to remain cheerful, Lorea-chan and the others, who were tagging along with me out of concern, forced themselves to smile.

Hey, could you really blame me, though?

Without even opening my back door, I had a clear view all the way from my backyard to the forest.

There wasn't a door to open-or ever a wall, for that matter!

The wall around my backyard, the gate that had been built into it, and the garden of herbs I'd gone to so much effort to care for had all been ravaged! Ha ha ha!

"Hahhh..."

I'd already known about it, but I still sighed at the disaster that was every bit as bad as I thought it would be.

The newly built walls and herb garden were a blow to the psyche, but the real blow to my pocketbook was the destroyed crests inside the wall.

How much is that going to set me back...?

Just the thought of how much the materials to repair them were going to cost was enough to make me want to clutch my head.

"Shopkeeper-dono, we've taken care of some of the cleanup for you, but we were unsure how to handle the herbs..." offered Iris-san, concerned about the gloomy look on my face.

"No, no," I hurriedly shook my head. "It's fine. Thank you."

The kitchen had been a mess with debris scattered all over. I was grateful enough that they had tidied that up.

Besides, this is my house. Maintaining and repairing it is my job.

But where do I start...? Should I patch the holes in the walls, at least for the time being?

Since I wasn't the only one in the village with damage, if I asked Geberk-san for help, he might not be able to get to it right away.

"This is a good opportunity, Sarasa-san. Let's make a kitchen!" Lorea-chan said, thrusting her fist in the air.

"A kitchen? You want to work on the kitchen before we've fixed the walls?"

"No, I mean a proper kitchen. One where we can cook things. We didn't have one before now, remember?"

Well, the magic stove had been removed, and we didn't have an oven, so it was like having a kitchen/dining room combo that we couldn't cook in.

I guess the lack of walls does make it a lot easier to do major construction...

"But I, uh, don't cook all that much..."

I usually made do with the preserves and sundries available at the general store, or ordered takeout at Delal-san's restaurant. Neither required a kitchen.

Plus, any time I spent on cooking was time I wasn't spending on alchemy. Moreover, the price of ordering takeout was quite reasonable, and the food was delicious besides, so I would be going to great time and expense just to eat much more mediocre meals if I made them myself.

I kinda don't need a kitchen, huh?

"But once the gatherers come back, the restaurant will get crowded again. Weren't you just saying that was a problem a little while ago, Sarasa-san?"

"Urkh..."

She had me there.

When I first came to the village, it was easy to get a seat without waiting, but shortly before the whole incident with the bears, not only was it hard to get a seat but even ordering takeout was starting to take a while.

So long as I avoided the busy meal hours, it wasn't so bad, but...

"Do you think the guys who ran away because of the hellflame grizzlies are really going to come back?" I wondered aloud.

I didn't think there was anything wrong with a gatherer considering their strength relative to the enemy's, and then deciding not to fight. But in a village like this, where everyone knows everyone, being branded as someone who up and ran when things got dicey would be pretty rough.

If me, Darna-san at the general store, and Delal-san at the restaurant were to refuse them service, then they'd be left with no source of income, no roof over their heads, and nowhere to buy food.

Now, setting aside the question of whether any of us would do that, they'd definitely still feel like they were being judged.

"Shopkeeper-dono, while they themselves may not return, won't there be others who come in their place?"

"Hrmm, once word gets out that it's safe now, I suppose they might."

The number of gatherers in this village had initially started increasing because once I opened my shop here, they were able to turn a profit.

That hadn't changed, so maybe it was a given that the gatherers would start coming here again once it was safe to do so.

"Actually, maybe even the ones who took off will come back too? I'm sure a lot of gatherers don't even care what people think of them."

"You have a point there. Honestly, it's deplorable," Iris-san said indignantly, her nose flaring. "How dare they show their faces after fleeing when the village needed them."

"Iris, you can't blame them like that," Kate-san countered, putting a hand on her partner's shoulder as she tried to calm her down. "Gatherers aren't knights, you know?"

"But they ran when they could have defended people. Is that any way for a person to act?"

It's not that I don't see where Iris-san is coming from, but I think I'm more on Kate-san's side here.

There were not that many people out there willing to risk their lives for people they weren't even that close to.

I mean, if I weren't so close to Lorea-chan, and the enemy had been too strong for me to handle, then I think I'd have considered running away too.

"They're grown men, and they ran away!" Iris-san continued loudly. "Why, even a little girl like Shopkeeper-dono stayed to...!" Glancing at me, she lowered her tone. "No, I suppose you're something of an exception, Shopkeeper-dono. Yeah."

"I'd like to remind you, I'm an adult, okay? I'm just a little on the petite side!"

"I-I'm well aware of that! By no means do I think of you as a child!"

She was stuttering, and looking away as she said that, though...

"You definitely were thinking of me as one!"

Otherwise you wouldn't have said that like that!

I'm sensitive about it, okay?!

My development's just delayed a little!

"Now, now. Let's set that aside for now and talk about the kitchen, Sarasa-san. We can't leave the area around the door broken like this, so let's take the opportunity to do everything properly."

Lorea-chan took hold of my arm, trying to calm me as I started angrily flaring my nose the same way Iris-san had been before.

Listen, that soft sensation I feel is just adding fuel to the fire, okay?

Things could get heated at this rate.

"Even if you won't use it, I will."

I paused for a moment. "You will, Lorea-chan?"

"Yes. I'll make lunches. It pains me a little, accepting the kind of wage you pay me when all I'm doing is watching the shop for you. I'll cook breakfast and dinner for you too."

"I'd...be incredibly grateful for that, sure."

This news helped cool my temper a little.

I dunno how good of a cook Lorea-chan is, but if she's offering, then...she's gotta be confident in her skills, right?

Heck, even if she's kind of bad at it, if it saves us a trip to the busy restaurant, that still makes things easier.

"I'm sure Iris-san and Kate-san would like that too, right? You've been having trouble eating, haven't you?"

"U-Us? N-No, we've been eating properly. Yeah."

"R-Right. A gatherer's body is her most important asset, after all."

The two of them had both insisted to Lorea-chan that they were fine, but the way they were acting was clearly suspicious.

Their eyes were wandering all over the place.

"Oh, really? What have you been doing for food while I've been stuck in bed?"

I had just been sending Lorea-chan out to buy food and then eating it in bed, so I had no idea what the two of them were doing for their meals.

Now that I asked, there was a brief silence, and then Iris-san slowly opened her mouth and ventured, "Bread...?"

"Bread? And what else?"

"Erm..."

"Well..."

The two of them were clearly being evasive, but Lorea-chan didn't hesitate to reveal the truth.

"I don't think I've seen anything but bread."

"W-Well, we haven't been out gathering these past few days! Yeah."

The two of them had stayed around the house out of concern for me.

They didn't work, or even go out all that much.

On top of that, because they owed me money, they were trying to be frugal, but...no, this just wouldn't do.

"Okay! I'll make you a kitchen! And we're all going to...