Chapter 67
Chapter 67. Summer! Vacation? Business! (2)
[Ladies and gentlemen, we will be arriving at the Costa Dock in Soltera Protectorate shortly. The current temperature is 34 degrees. The wind is blowing strongly, so please be careful when disembarking.]
[Please be careful not to leave the safe zones in Costa. We wish you a safe trip. We look forward to seeing you on your next journey. Thank you for using the Britannia Airship Guild.]
"Wowww......!"
"My goodness."
After a 22-hour flight south, what unfolded before the three who arrived at Costa Dock was......
Deep green foliage forming a rainforest along the mountain ridges, and a vast white sandy beach spreading wide along the azure boundary line.
An emerald sea as if all the refreshing words in the world had been alchemized into salt water.
It was a spectacle of the southern land that couldn't be seen in Britannia.
"Wow, wow! This is insane! I can't believe such a beautiful place exists......"
"The scenery is passably decent."
Not only Serena, who had been chattering the entire 22 hours, but even Penelope, who liked to act dignified, couldn't hide her surging anticipation.
From Jurgen's perspective, having generously paid the expensive ticket price and resort accommodation fee, it was a gratifying reaction.
"If I'd known it would be this nice, I should have traveled abroad more."
"Right, then you wouldn't have packed your carrier like you were moving."
"I-it's not that bad. Don't exaggerate......"
"Five carriers is plenty for moving."
"I just packed this and that as I thought I'd need them......"
Surprisingly, this trip is Serena's first overseas trip and first time boarding an airship.
"Serena is frugal."
"No? Look at her usual outfit. She's definitely not frugal by nature."
It was a bit puzzling.
While airship tickets are expensive enough to be permitted only to the wealthy, it's not a price Serena can't afford.
Serena may be treated as a nobody in high society (especially among the upper ranks), but isn't she wealthy enough?
"A-actually, I like cars...... I invested almost all my earnings into cars, so I didn't have money left over."
"How much did you spend?"
"Umm...... About 90% of my income?"
"......90 percent, you say?"
"Well...... As long as you're happy."
Jurgen and Penelope were at a loss for words at Serena's innocent declaration.
Normally Serena would mumble 'Th-this level is reasonable consumption,' but the current Serena was a hyper-tensioned Serena.
Arriving at the dock entrance, she threw aside even her carrier and rushed outside.
"Yay! This is Costa Bay......!"
"Serena! What are you doing so embarrassingly!"
That moment.
Whoooosh!
Heat of a different dimension from Nortaris's heat, dense and sticky scorching heat, struck.
"Uh, uh...... Uh......"
Super high-tensioned Serena took a few dot damages from the blazing sun......
Her eyes lost focus and she collapsed with a thud.
Jurgen rushed over in a hurry and rescued Serena from the blazing sun hell where shimmering heat waves rose sizzling.
"......You said summer getaway."
Penelope looked at Jurgen as if dumbfounded.
"Didn't I say business trip combined with summer getaway?"
Jurgen, with Serena tucked under his arm, made an awkward excuse.
***
A fact unknown to Serena, for whom this was her first overseas trip, and also to Penelope.
Costa Bay at this time is the off-season.
Setting aside the hellish scorching heat, it's the rainy season when squalls—that is, localized heavy rains—pour down several times a day.
The carriage heading to 'Del Alba Resort.'
Serena stared blankly at the rain pouring down as if a hole had been punctured in the sky.
"Off-season...... Rainy season...... Even though it's Costa Bay...... Even though it's my first overseas trip in life......"
Should I say the disappointment was great in proportion to her expectations?
Normally I would have teased her moderately, but she's so dejected as if she's lost the world that I can't bring myself to.
"Miss Serena, don't be too disappointed. Just because it's the rainy season doesn't mean it rains all day."
"Really......?"
"Since it's off-season, we got good accommodations cheaply. Have you heard of a private beach?"
"P-private beach......?"
"As soon as the rain stops, we'll go to the market and try some food. What kind of food do you like, Miss Serena?"
"I...... like any kind of meat."
Watching Jurgen console Serena with utmost care......
"She really is a child."
Penelope shook her head side to side.
In any case, the carriage arrived at Del Alba Resort through the torrential rain, and after checking in, the group unpacked.
Fortunately, by this point Serena's mood had improved quite a bit.
Just because off-season discounts are applied doesn't mean the facilities become shabby.
The 'Ocean Front Suite Villa,' which enjoys the highest popularity even among resorts, seems to have captured Serena's heart.
"It's much more spacious than it looked from outside!"
"Wow! It really is a private beach! We can play there by ourselves, right?"
"Brother Jurgen! There's a fountain in the backyard!"
"Sister Penelope, Sister Penelope, did you see the second-floor room? Each room has its own bathtub!"
Brother Jurgen! Sister Penelope! Brother Jurgen! Sister Penelope!
Like a mole in a whack-a-mole game, Serena popped her head out here and there around the accommodation, bustling about in admiration......
"Jurgen, where did Serena go?"
"She's sleeping in her room. She didn't sleep a wink on the flight and wandered around, so she's bound to be tired."
......And fell fast asleep in 5 minutes.
"It's finally a bit quiet. I thought I'd die from the chaos."
Now that Serena, who had taken up 80% of the audio throughout the journey, disappeared, it finally became a bit quiet.
Only then did drowsy fatigue wash over.
It seems I had forgotten about fatigue while taking care of Serena, who was acting so restlessly beside me.
The accommodation I had no great expectations for is actually good enough for Serena to make a fuss about.
Should I say the Solteran architectural style for overcoming heat is functioning well?
With good ventilation and dehumidification, just turning on the ceiling fan was enough to forget the humid heat.
"Miss Penelope, you should rest too if you're tired."
"Yeah, I should wash up and take a nap."
Penelope, who answered thus, spotted Jurgen preparing to go out.
"What? Where are you going?"
"I'm planning to visit the nearby market. Travel is travel, but I need to take care of business too."
The reason for deliberately traveling to Soltera was partly to spend vacation time together and strengthen the bond between partners, but......
It's to obtain peppers.
There's the primary purpose of getting peppers for the seasoned chicken, and even if the seasoned chicken fails, there's the secondary purpose of securing peppers, the core ingredient for 'spicy taste,' in advance.
In Jurgen's view, there's currently a severe lack of 'spicy taste' in Britannia.
Returning to the primary purpose, then why specifically Soltera?
Soltera's climate is classified as savanna climate according to Earth-style classification.
True to its name as the 'Land of the Sun,' it's an environment with abundant sunlight and a rainy season that can provide sufficient moisture.
This is a very pepper-friendly environment.
For instance, in temperate climates like Korea, pepper farming is treated as an annual plant.
However, in Soltera, peppers grow into large shrubs up to 5 meters tall, and a single tree can yield as many as ten thousand peppers.
That's why most of the peppers gradually flowing into Nortaris are also Solteran-produced.
"I heard there's a large-scale market around here. I'm thinking of looking around and making a supply contract if the products are good."
"Then I'll go too. Ah, just let me change clothes."
"If you insist, I'll move the schedule to tomorrow, so there's no need to overdo it. Isn't today the first day?"
Penelope must be very tired too.
While the airship cabin is comfortable as befits an exclusive privilege of the upper class, it's a 22-hour flight, isn't it?
While business trips are important, it's also a vacation trip.
He had no intention of making Penelope overdo it.
"If I say I'm going, I'm going. Wait a moment."
However, Penelope ran up to the second floor before he could repeatedly dissuade her.
When she appeared shortly after changing clothes, Jurgen was slightly surprised at her appearance.
"Why are you staring so much?"
"How should I put it, didn't you dislike...... dressing lightly?"
Because Penelope was wearing a red sleeveless dress that revealed her white forearms.
By modern standards, it's an outfit where you'd say 'Summer clothes~,' but for Penelope, who would stubbornly wear a summer shawl even when about to collapse from heat stroke, it was a very bold outfit.
"What does it matter? There won't be anyone who knows me anyway. Everyone dresses like this here, right?"
"That's true, but......"
"Anyway, let's go quickly. Quickly."
Even though she said that, Penelope seemed a bit embarrassed.
Especially the way she urged while tugging Jurgen's sleeve with her fingertips.
Del Alba Resort had a service that rented out carriages for guests.
Befitting a resort that boasted ultra-luxury facilities, the carriage fare was expensive enough to make even the middle class cough up blood, but it was worth the money.
The ride was excellent and the coachman's attitude was professional.
By the time the sky, which had been covered with clouds thicker than a down comforter, cleared and was being dyed with bright orange sunset.
Penelope and Jurgen arrived comfortably at their destination.
Marcado Market.
The largest market in the Costa region and a logistics hub where all kinds of agricultural and marine products as well as various spices and alchemical crops gather......
......But actually, expectations weren't high.
Whether traditional market or wholesale market, isn't it a scene seen every day in Nortaris?
Compared to the wholesale market at Lichfield Square that handles the massive logistics produced in the Labyrinth Demon Realm, he doubted there would be much to see.
"Is that all? You said it's the largest market. There are a lot of people though......"
Indeed, contrary to the title of Costa's largest market, the old plaza where auctions took place itself wasn't very wide or splendid.
"It's not that, it's the inside over there."
"Inside?"
"The alleys."
When Penelope stepped into the alleys stretching out like a spiderweb from the plaza, she understood viscerally.
That these alleys were the real Marcado Market.
"P-people are tremendous...... tremendously many......"
"Be careful of pickpockets."
"Will being careful do any good......?"
Surprisingly, it seems this infinitely spreading alley in its entirety is the market.
The first floors of buildings sold mysteriously-shaped fruits or handmade crafts, and above the narrow alleys, colorful parasols and awnings cast dappled shade like a cathedral's mosaic.
Sweet fruit scents and exotic spice smells make the nerves flush hot along with the sticky heat.
On top of that, hawking sounds, music somehow playing, curious gazes from locals with different skin colors, pedestrians brushing shoulders as they pass by due to the narrow path, and incomprehensible bustling voices.
Even when speaking to Jurgen right next to her, she had to half-shout.
It felt like being dropped into the world's most crowded marketplace.
"It's almost sunset, why is it so crowded?"
"Soltera is so hot during the day that people move in the evening."
"If we'd brought Serena, she would have fainted...... So where do we need to go?"
"Probably toward the spice district."
"Phew...... Let's go."
Penelope steeled her resolve with a deep breath and advanced deep into the market using Jurgen as a shield.
With each step inward, strange scenes never before seen in life were displayed here and there in the alleys.
An old man lying at an angle on a straw mat rolling tobacco leaves, sacks piled mountain-high with tropical fruits like mangoes and pineapples that receive quite special treatment in Nortaris, stalls selling food wrapped in large blue leaves, accessories with crude materials but delicate touches added......
"......"
Actually, Penelope didn't like such noisy and crowded places.
Though she sweats a lot, she's fastidious enough to shower several times a day.
If the etiquette shown in front of others is the result of training not to be disrespected, liking cleanliness is her nature.
In that sense, this Marcado Market was a place she originally wouldn't go near.
What reason would there be to stop by a local market when coming to play at a famous resort?
She could just leisurely read books within the resort where everything is perfectly equipped.
Sticking her head into a crowd where just walking gradually drains strength—such a thing would absolutely never happen if not related to business.
"Wh-what a surprise."
Then something suddenly appeared in Penelope's view.
It was a pretty garland.
Beyond the ring of round flowers, a girl who seemed about 10 years old grinned, showing her missing front tooth.
"Sister. Flower headband. 2 Pence. 2 Pence."
The girl pointed at the garland on her own head while speaking in clumsy Kingdom language.
While Jurgen had been moderately fending off other solicitations from the front, it seems he couldn't be that cold even to a girl.
"Why don't you buy one?"
Jurgen grinned slyly.
"I don't need such childish things?"
"......"
Penelope, who retorted as if it were absurd, flinched.
Because the girl's grin from just moments ago had changed to look like an abandoned puppy.
"In Soltera, there are many people who can't speak Kingdom language but generally understand it."
"You should have told me that earlier......! It's pretty. Well made, will you give me one?"
Penelope hurriedly opened her wallet and quickly pressed a silver coin into the girl's hand.
"Sister, thank youuu. Sister, one more."
The way she smiled brightly as if she'd never been tearful the moment the garland was bought and induced an additional purchase felt somewhat like being tricked......
"And one more thing, market children are merchants to the bone."
I was definitely tricked.
I gave a silver coin for nothing.
"Little one? Sister only needs one. Go find another customer."
"Yesss."
Penelope let out an empty laugh watching the detestable girl's back as she disappeared energetically.
Should I call her cunning, or brazen?
Though the tactic was a bit underhanded, the garland itself was pretty.
The abundant flowers she'd never seen before were pretty, there were no bugs in the flowers, and the scent was even good.
"When was the last time I wore something like this......"
"Try wearing it now. I think it'll suit you well."
"......Why should I?"
"Wouldn't it be more comfortable than carrying it around?"
Certainly, the unfamiliar atmosphere of an unfamiliar place seems to have something that impels people.
Seeing how she accepts Jurgen's suggestion, which she would normally refuse lightly, without much thought.
She put on the garland and glanced at her appearance in a mirror placed at a general store stall.
The combination of a sleeveless dress with flower patterns and an incredibly colorful garland......
She really looked like a woman with a flower garden full in her head.
It might have suited Serena better.
Still, adding a spoonful of exotic sensibility made it look reasonably pretty.
"How is it? Does it suit me?"
"Hmm, you look a bit younger."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Penelope chuckled at the subtle praise that she couldn't tell if it was appreciation or what, and this time received an absolutely iron-clad escort as she headed toward the spice district.
Penelope adjusted the crooked garland while looking around.
"......"
Looking again, there's nothing enjoyable about this place.
It's already hot and humid, and with people swarming, it's twice as hot; there's an oddly unfamiliar and uncomfortable smell; people keep glancing at her like watching a monkey as they pass by......
She even bought a silly garland, tricked by a cunning kid.
She would probably never come again alone.
"Jurgen."
"Mm?"
"Let's come here again next time."
However, Penelope felt a scent subtly wafting in her heart.
It was a diverse yet unfamiliar scent, like that wafting from an exotic market.