An A-Ranked Adventurer's 'Slow-living'

Chapter 9: Cleaning, Done

Since it was already around noon after my new home was chosen, Ergys-san and I decided to eat our boxed lunches by the stream.

While sitting at a slightly sloped spot, we took off the cloths that were covering the baskets.

Then, there were the tightly packed sandwiches inside. Between the pieces of bread were fresh tomatoes, lettuce, and herb-fried chicken meat. It looked extremely delicious.

The smell of the fresh ingredients and wheat is irresistible.

My hunger surfaced with a growl from my stomach because of such a good smell.

「 This looks delicious, doesn’t it? 」

「Yes, why don’t we quickly dig in? 」

To keep the conversation to a minimum, I bite into the sandwich immediately.

The texture of the soft bread with the crunchy lettuce brought a pleasant bite. And, because of the high level of moisture from the lettuce and tomatoes, it resulted in holding down the strong flavors of the dry, herb stir-fried chicken, making it taste just right. The very balance of flavors from the ingredients used was heavily considered. I can just feel how much thought Flora had put into making these sandwiches.

I kept on eating in a trance for a while, but when my stomach had somewhat calmed down, I started to notice my surroundings.

A comfortable breeze blew, as waves in the stream repeatedly formed and expanded.

When I looked at the stream before my eyes, I could see small freshwater fishes in the water swimming along following the river current.

「Do the fish in this river taste good? 」

「Yes, they taste very good if you can prepare them properly, since the fishes here don’t have that much of a fishy smell」

I didn’t think much about this stream other than it being beautiful, but it looks like the fishes here are also delicious. Even though I do cook fish from time to time, I never had a good way to completely get rid of their fishy smell since the rivers they came from were always dirty.

「It’s been a while since I had some salt-grilled fish 」

「Ohh, that sounds good. Do you want me to lend you some fishing rods or nets from my house? 」

「Really? That would be a big help. Thank you」

「Sure, no problem. You can just share some of those fish with me in return. You’ve got me wanting to eat some too」

「Yes, of course. Well then, I shall catch lots at that time」

We annihilated our sandwiches while we had such an amicable conversation.

「Well then, it’s about time I take my leave since I know you have some cleaning to do for your house, Aldo-san」

Ergys-san stood up with both of our lunch baskets in his hands while I was relaxing and taking sips of water.

I was planning on having some more leisure conversations with him as it is, but I do have to clean the house or it won’t do. If I relax too much here there might be not enough time until the sun goes down.

「Yeah, thank you so much for introducing this nice house to me. Ah, by the way, is there anyone that makes furniture in this village?」

After I clean up the house, I will need to arrange daily necessities such as furniture and tableware.

I’d like to quickly get those necessities so I’ll be able to live out my daily life.

「Ah. That’s right. It’s good for you to ask early since it takes time to make them. But yeah, there is. He’s close by too」

With those words, Ergys-san pointed his finger in the direction of a private home that was mixed in among the forest from earlier.

「Over there is the home of Toack-san, a furniture craftsman. I’ll let him know after this, so please go over there tomorrow morning and ask him about it」

I was surprised that we are living so close to each other. If we’re this close to each other I can even go right now.

「Understood. It’s Toack-san, right? Thank you very much! 」

After my words of gratitude, Ergys-san lifted up the baskets with a look of content.

「Let me know when you’re done with setting up your home. I’ll introduce you to the hunter of the village next time」

「Got it! 」

「Well then, I’ma get going」

After giving me a reply, Ergys-san turned around and started walking.

I watched a while to see him off, and then went back into my house.

Now it’s time for a major cleaning.

◆ ◆　　　◆

I will get started immediately as I have plenty of strength and energy now from having my stomach filled.

Even though there was no one living here, the house isn’t in horrible shape.

It seems like it’s all thanks to the villagers of this area who were taking turns maintaining these empty houses in order to not let them deteriorate.

However, since it has been a long time since the last cleaning, the inside of the house was covered in dust.

Firstly, let’s open up all the windows to let some air in.

From there, I will bring out the broom and sweep the place, then make it all shiny and clean with a dust cloth.

With that plan in my mind, I begin to open the window in the living room.

「*cough*, *cough*」

The moment I opened it, all the dust whirled up unexpectedly and made me cough.

It would have been better if I covered my mouth with a cloth first before doing that.

I take a small piece of cloth out of my hemp bag and wrap it around my face, covering both my nose and mouth with it.

I could not do anymore than this because a little bit of dust has gotten in my eyes.

Next, I will be opening all the remaining windows in the living room, bedroom, bath area, storage room, and the toilet.

By doing so, the airflow of the house is now all connected as the dust and air drifted together. I can see the dust clearly through the sunlight that’s coming from the windows.

I think it’s better if I get out of house for the moment, so I headed out in a hurry.

However, I don’t want to be standing here and doing nothing in the meantime, so I went to look around my home to see if there were any cracks in the walls.

I observed the walls around the house, but there doesn’t seem to be any damaged areas with cracks.

The house is in a pretty good shape.

There are weeds growing rampant around the outside of the house, with some even growing along the walls, but removing them won’t be a problem.

I’m thankful to the ones who took up the maintenance while there was no one living here. I have to thank them in person when I get to meet them.

I put on a pair of gloves and started pulling out the weeds that were sticking to the walls.

For the weeds that were too hard to be plucked by hands, I removed them with a knife.

I continued doing so until all the weeds around the walls were removed, then I walked back into the house to see what the situation is.

Okay. The air is now clear for the most part. This seems to be alright.

I grabbed the broom that was lent to me from Ergys-san and dusted the floor.

I’ve borrowed all the necessary cleaning tools I’ll need for this from his place so this is perfect.

The dust that was piled up on the floor flew up again, but I was fine this time thanks to the cloth covering my mouth and nose.

After sweeping the storage room, the bath area, and the bedroom, I cleared out all the dust that gathered in the dustpan.

Next, I went into the large living room and swept that with a broom also.

As I confirmed that most of the dust was gone, including the dust from the kitchen, I headed to the stream outside with a bucket to draw some water.

It’s okay even if I don’t use the water from the wells to mop with. The stream’s water is plenty clean enough.

I soak the rag with the bucket of water, and start to wipe down the kitchen first. If I suddenly started with the floor, the rag would have gotten all soggy with dirt.

Then, I wipe the walls of the living room and the kitchen, rinse out the dirt with water and repeat.

Next were the walls in the back of the room. When that was done, it was the floor.

I went back and forth many times to the stream to change the dirty water, and squeezed the rag many times.

As soon as I noticed a pain coming from my lower back while I was wiping the floor, I knew that I have strained it unintentionally.

I reached for my back to loosen the tight muscle.

「Uuu… 」

I really have to give it to the housewives here who do this. In addition to the cleaning, they also handle chores like cooking, laundry, and child care. Then, they also help on the fields…

Since I’m desperately doing what I can like this, I feel like I can now understand the feelings of housewives who complain about their husbands not praising them for their hard work.

While admiring the greatness of housewives, I focused on the wiping and managed to finish the cleaning before sunset.

「Ohh, it looks pretty nice. I can hardly recognize this place from before」

I let out a voice of admiration by simply looking at the clean room.

The dusty walls and floor were polished beautifully, thus regaining their original color.

Their vibrant colors look much nicer than what I first saw.

The feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction from making my own home look all nice spread throughout my chest. I feel refreshed.

I sat on the cleaned floor and muttered as I looked at the living room.

「Is this what is called the joy of a housewife? 」

This feels completely different from the feeling of accomplishment I get when I complete a quest. Is it because the quest this time was in this house that I’m living in?

I found this somewhat funny to myself and let out a laugh.

As I took off of the cloth that was covering my mouth, I noticed it was fully covered in dirt.

Oh no, the cloth got this dirty. My hair and clothes must have gotten dirty as well. Wouldn’t I get the floor dirty again if I sit here?

Having thought of that, I ran outside of the house quickly to knock the dust off myself.

Dust flew up every time I hit my clothes with slaps.

When I noticed that my body was still dirty, I had an urge to take a bath as I was struck by discomfort.

I will pay a visit to Toack-san’s house tomorrow to order some furniture, so I better make myself look proper.

As I told myself that, I went to prepare the bath.

I took out two bracelets from my hemp bag, and headed to the bath area after I’ve put them on.

I’ve made the big, prided bathtub of this house all shiny and clean to answer the feelings that were left behind by the previous owner.

I extended out my hand that I’ve equipped with a bracelet with a light blue spell formation engraved on it and chanted,

「Water」

Light blue magic circles appeared on my palm from the short chant. Then from there, water flew out vigorously.

If the spell I was casting was “Water lance” or “Water bolt”, it would have shot out water shaped like spears or balls, but the consumption of mana would have also increased greatly.

But, if it was just “Water”, the consumption of mana would be small and I would be able to use this for a long time.

When the bathtub was filled with enough water, I closed my palms.

From doing that, the magic circle disappears, and the spell is stopped. It’s convenient to use.

Next is heating up the water.

This time I take out my left hand that was equipped with the bracelet that had a red magic formation engraved on it, and chanted,

「Fire」

Then, a red magic circle appeared on the palm of my hand, from which a flame the size of a fist shot out.

Due to the high temperature flame I shot in the water, the water in the tub started making bubbling sounds and started popping.

It looked a lot more scary than I thought it would, so I went to take cover in the change room area.

「Woah, scary. I thought this wouldn’t be such a big deal since Kurune always made it look so safe… 」

After the sound coming from the water had settled down, I went back into the bath area to take a look.

There were hot and steamy clouds coming from the water in the bathtub.

I guess if it was the wizard, Kurune, she would have been able to precisely adjust the temperature. Unfortunately, a spell from a magic tool can’t really be adjusted that much so it may have went over the appropriate temperature for the hot water in a bath.

For now, I’ll open the window and wait a while before I put my hand in the water to test the temperature of this horrifying bath.

Yeah, it’s still a bit too hot. Good thing I waited a bit instead of putting my hand in there suddenly.

After waiting even a bit longer, it was at a nice temperature so I started to undress in the change room.

Just like yesterday, I rinsed my body with hot water to clean off the dirt first.

It’s too bad that I don’t have soap yet, so I can only wash my body with a towel and hot water.

With my head and body thoroughly washed, I went into the bathtub to get rid of today’s fatigue.

As I got back up from the bath, I head to the living room to get a change of clothes because I had forgotten to bring a set into the change room.

Since I was warmed up by the bath, it was still comfortable walking around the house naked. I could get into the habit of doing this. I was living at someone else’s home yesterday so I couldn’t have acted like this.

While I was feeling exhilarated, I start to get the clothes out of my hemp bag. At that moment, I heard someone knocking on the door.

「Coming」

I gave a very natural reply.

–Oh, sh*t. It was already too late when I realized it.

「Sorry for intruding, Aldo-san. Um, I thought that I’d bring you dinner cause you’re probably busy cleaning the hous——-」

It was Flora who let herself in after opening the door, and my naked body was right in front of her eyes.

How come I want to scream like a girl right now?

「「………… 」」

I can feel Flora’s eyes slowly scanning down from my face. As she got lower and lower, her face started to get red.

「U, Um」

I stuttered unintentionally since I have no idea what to say at times like this, but then Flora picked it up from there.

「I’M S, SORRY!! PLEASE EXCUSE ME!! 」

She yelled as she dashed out.

Ah, now I’ve done it. I made her run away again this time.

Just when I thought that we had gotten a little closer.