It had been three days since Ketron settled in at the inn.
The festival was also entering its third day, and the inn was relatively quiet in the middle of the day. Unless someone was groaning from a hangover from the previous night, most people had rushed out to enjoy the festival.
Right now, the income was decent thanks to the tourists, but afterward, they would need even more customers, not just tourists but also the regulars who frequented the place.
Hmm. To do that, the only option was to revitalize the restaurant and tavern.
Eddie, having brought the ingredients to the kitchen, set them aside for the moment and immediately started warming up the porridges he had brought in a pot.
Ketron had accepted the banana milk from Eddie, but that was it. He hadn’t left his room since.
In other words, he hadn’t eaten a single meal.
In 〈Hero Doesn’t Hide His Power Too Well〉, Ketron once went on a crazy forced march for over a week without sleeping, drinking water, or eating a single meal.
He endured and endured through that grueling march, which was painful for the reader, and defeated one of the Demon King’s executives. Although he fought alongside Augustine of Divine Power.
It was probably the most painful part to read. And it just had to be set in the desert.
Arthur did a lot of trolling there. Even when his companions tried to stop him, he would run after mirages, claiming there was an oasis over there, and get lost, or drop the only water bottle and get rid of their drinking water…
Usually, if something happened to the group, Arthur was the reason.
Well, he was a cliché character who was jealous and envious of Ketron, but eventually accepted him as a comrade.
He didn’t have great skills, but he was good at improvising and was a scene-stealing character in a comedic role.
Maybe even that trolling was part of the author’s grand plan for the ending.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that ending is forgivable.
[Aaaaaaaaaaaack! I told you to ditch Arthur a long time ago!!!]
Someone’s dying scream left in the review section came to mind, hmm.
While he was thinking about that, all the different kinds of porridge were warmed up. Eddie carefully placed the porridges on a tray and headed towards Ketron’s room.
Perhaps because of the savory and unfamiliar scent, some of the guests on the first floor sniffed and looked towards Eddie, but since it wasn’t a menu to be presented to the guests right now, Eddie ignored their gazes and went up to the second floor.
Actually, it was the room next to Eddie’s, so he often saw it when going back and forth, but the door was closed so tightly, as if it were a space isolated from the hallway, and he doubted it would ever open on its own.
Eddie first knocked on the door out of courtesy.
Immediately afterward, he opened the door without waiting for a response. That was the extent of the courtesy he would show.
Ketron, who was in the same position as two days ago, just tilting his head towards the bed, opened his eyes wide.
“Did you sleep well?”
Eddie greeted him cheerfully.
“…”
Of course, even though he was indebted to him, Ketron looked dumbfounded at Eddie’s arbitrary intrusion into his space.
Eddie didn’t know, but every time Ketron’s consciousness was about to fall into the abyss, he found him with uncanny timing. It was the same this time.
Of course, it was purely coincidental, so Eddie, unaware of that fact, lifted the tray again and naturally entered the room.
“Ugh, heavy.”
It wasn’t really that heavy, but Eddie deliberately exaggerated and placed the tray in front of Ketron. A savory smell rose from the three steaming bowls of porridge.
I didn’t know what you’d like, so I prepared one of each, or something like that?
It would have been nice to have a small table, but unfortunately, there wasn’t one, so Eddie carefully lifted the hot bowl, took a spoonful, and brought it close to Ketron.
“This is porridge, and it’s made by grinding the rice well, so it’s easy to eat because it’s liquid food, you know? Try it.”
Even if he hadn’t eaten for days, he should be able to eat porridge without any trouble. However, even with the savory abalone and innard porridge in front of him, Ketron only twitched his eyebrows and didn’t open his mouth.
“You don’t like this? It looks like this, but it’s really savory and delicious.”
Eddie knew that the taste wasn’t the problem. From Ketron’s point of view, he must be wondering why this innkeeper was doing this.
But Eddie had already learned that it was better to act shamelessly like this with Ketron.
“Hmm, if you don’t like this, how about this?”
This time, instead of the abalone and innard porridge, he scooped up the beef porridge and brought it to his mouth. But his mouth still didn’t open.
It should be less polarizing than the abalone and innard porridge… He was a little disappointed that it was beef porridge, which everyone likes, and tried to offer it a few more times, but Ketron’s mouth remained firmly closed, not allowing any intrusion.
“Hmm.”
Eventually, the beef porridge went back onto the tray. Ketron only stared at Eddie with wary eyes, and perhaps because of that impression, it seemed like he was glaring at Eddie.
But Eddie knew how much misunderstanding and embarrassment Ketron had experienced in the novel because of that unique look in his eyes.
So, that’s why that appearance looked like this to Eddie.
A wary cat.
Of course, if you say, “Where in the world is there such a big cat!” he would have nothing to say.
Leopards, jaguars, tigers… It wasn’t that other feline animals didn’t come to mind, but somehow, that wounded beast just looked like a cat to Eddie.
“I guess you like sweet things because you’re a baby.”
Finally, there was the pumpkin porridge. Unlike before, when he brought the porridge with its intense orange color and sweet smell right in front of his nose, Ketron, unable to bear it any longer, opened his tightly closed mouth.
“…What are you doing?”
“Huh? I’m feeding you.”
Eddie tilted his head in response. As if what was strange in this situation was not himself, but Ketron.
“You keep being picky about your food, so I can’t help it.”
But Ketron didn’t waver this time. He had inadvertently drunk the milk a few days ago, but that was because he was flustered without realizing it, and he had no intention of being dragged along by this man this time either.
“I never asked you to.”
Ketron said, wary of the pumpkin porridge that was being held right in front of his mouth. Eddie chuckled at the way he kept glancing at the spoon, as if it might enter his mouth on its own, just like the stick had been shoved into his mouth against his will last time.
“You smell.”
“…!”
Ketron’s black eyes widened at the unexpected remark. Before Ketron could recover from the shock, Eddie continued.
“I like things clean. All the guests at our inn have to be clean. I’m feeding you so you don’t collapse if you wash with hot water on an empty stomach. Eat this and wash up. And after you wash up, let me take a look at your wounds?”
After saying that, Eddie once again brought the spoon to Ketron’s mouth.
“You smell, wash up, eat and wash up.”
Ketron was instantly battered by the shocking three-hit combo.
Of course, Ketron’s appearance was a mess. He looked like a beggar who could put his arm around another beggar and call him brother.
He couldn’t believe that his comrades had betrayed him until he saw it with his own eyes, so he crossed the distant desert and sold all his valuable possessions to teleport to the Empire.
In the midst of all that, there was no way he could have had the mind to wash and groom himself. It had already been three days since he had entered the inn, but he had been sitting in one place like a statue, so he was still in a grimy state.
Of course, it wasn’t that Ketron didn’t usually wash himself that much. On the contrary, he was quite fastidious, which was unusual for this era, but the situation was what it was, so he couldn’t help but look like this, which would only sound like an excuse to the other person.
That was somehow quite unfair.
The pumpkin porridge was once again held in front of Ketron’s mouth.
“You have to eat quickly and wash up.”
When Eddie emphasized the words “eat and wash up” again, Ketron’s mouth finally opened weakly.
The porridge was still hot, so Eddie carefully and slowly put it in his mouth, and Ketron mechanically ate the porridge slowly, and then his eyes widened again.
“How is it?”
His reaction was somehow the same as when he had the banana milk. But unlike then, Ketron quickly came to his senses and didn’t easily let him hear the word “sweet.”
It was a shame not to hear that cute expression of saying it was sweet, but Eddie secretly smiled because the face of him nibbling on the pumpkin porridge like a baby bird had a different kind of charm.
Actually, after eating a bite or two, Ketron could just take it and eat it himself since he wasn’t injured, but for some reason, neither Eddie, who was feeding him, nor Ketron, who was being fed, even considered that option.
The porridge wasn’t that much, so the plate was quickly emptied.
“Now let’s wash up, baby.”
At those words, Ketron jumped up as if he had been waiting for them. He had been so preoccupied with the thought that he smelled that he had unconsciously eaten the food.
He hadn’t even noticed that he felt grimy because he had been so deeply immersed in his thoughts until just now, but now his body, which hadn’t been properly washed for weeks, felt very itchy. Of course, the statement that he smelled was an exaggeration on Eddie’s part, but that wasn’t very important at this moment.
However, even in the midst of all that, it was difficult to just let the offensive title pass, so Ketron challenged Eddie’s words.
“I’m not a baby.”
“Then?”
His face as he asked was relaxed. In other words, he was asking him to tell him a new title to call him.
“…”
After his face became known and he became famous, Ketron had been wearing his hood low and avoiding telling people his name as much as possible because he didn’t want to be recognized as the Hero of the Sacred Sword.
Of course, it wasn’t easy to hide his identity because of the huge Sacred Sword, his superior height and physique, and his unique, unrefined aura.
He was about to habitually close his mouth, but then he realized that almost no one remembered that name anymore, and he slowly opened his mouth.
“…Ketron.”
“Ah, that’s a pretty name.”
As expected, the man acted as if he had never heard of it. Most people would react like this now, and just as Ketron’s expression was about to darken as he was reminded that people had forgotten him,
“Then go wash up quickly, Ket.”
Ketron’s eyebrows twitched at the strange title.