I Opened an Inn Next to a Dragon’s Lair - Chapter 163



Only Noblemtl

Episode 163

Keras is a trader who has been in business for 10 years this year.

He was a peddler who traveled around the continent buying and selling various things. Although he didn’t make a lot of money, he managed to make a decent living.

Moreover, since this job of traveling around the world suited him very well, he was proud of living a relatively happy life among merchants.

But his satisfying work life had one drawback: he was extremely sensitive to heat.

That’s why he was particularly weak in the summer. Since there are four seasons in a year, he actually lived a very painful life for about a quarter of the year.

That very summer has come again this year. It means that the next few months will be hellish. Keras cursed as he walked along the forest path.

“Damn it. When on earth will this summer go away?”

“Brother. What are you going to do if you look like you’re going to die already? There are still two months left until summer.”

“What? Two months? What the hell. Are we still going to have to endure another sixty days of this fucking heat?”

“No, that’s not true. It’s summer, so it’s going to rain a lot, and if it rains, it’ll cool down a bit, so it’ll be a lot better, right?”

“It’s hotter when it rains. Don’t you know that humid weather is driving you crazy?”

“Well, that’s true. I’m not sure. I don’t really care about heat.”

“That would be nice. I don’t get heatstroke. I’m the only one who gets heatstroke easily, just me.”

“Let’s hurry. There’s not much time left until the inn. Let’s rest a bit at the inn. Wouldn’t it be better to lie down on the bed and rest?”

“I don’t have high expectations though.”

Keras knew the place called the inn very well.

An inn is a place that is hot in the summer and cold in the winter. The floor of the inn is crawling with bugs, and when you walk inside, the wooden planks creak and sound like they are going to fall. The beds are hard and hurt your back, and the blankets are dirty, so you shouldn’t expect good quality.

But what? It’ll get better if I go to a hotel? Oh, that’s obvious. If I lay in bed, sweat will pour down like rain.

I didn’t have any expectations, but I still didn’t complain. I didn’t want to do something stupid like camping instead of staying at a hotel.

“So, is that why the inn is so great?”

“Yes. It’s so famous that people call it the ‘Delphir Forest Inn’. There are over a dozen inns in Delphi Forest. That shows how much people trust it.”

“Hmm. If it’s to that extent, I could believe it.”

But it is true that expectations are not high. If a person is fooled once or twice, will they be fooled more? If you go to a place that is famous, you will find that it is mostly a facility that is no different from an inn in the countryside.

So, it seems like this inn is famous but has no substance… … .

“Brother! They’re here! Over there!”

“Huh? They’re all here! Where… … Huh? What’s that?”

Ceres’ eyes widened. What are all those buildings?

There were more than ten buildings in the wide open space. They were all tall and stylish.

What should I say? It was like a village in the forest. Was there a village where people lived in the forest like this? I heard that no humans live in the Delphi Forest.

Ceres rubbed her eyes. Well, that could be true. It was originally a forest where no humans lived, but now people are gradually coming here. It could easily become a village.

“Where is the inn here? There are a lot of buildings, so it should be hard to find.”

“What are you talking about? Those are all inns.”

“What, what?”

“You didn’t know anything, brother. The entire building in this empty lot is the Delphi Forest Inn.”

“Ah, I see. So this is the place where the inns are located? Not the village? Then where do I go from here to find the inn?”

“Oh, how frustrating. All the buildings here are run by one manager.”

“… … ?”

Ceres stopped dumbfounded. What on earth does that mean?

Each one of them looks so good that you could almost call it a luxury hotel, but this entire building is a single inn? Run by one person?

“Not a large-scale business?”

“What are you talking about? Anyway, follow me. This is the main building.”

Ceres followed her companion into the inn.

Although I was a bit embarrassed, he was still a veteran merchant. I checked in as usual and was assigned a room. After being instructed on how to use the room, I went straight into the room.

“Oh, you’re crazy!”

Immediately, a torrent of curses burst out of Ceres’ mouth.

Not a cry of disappointment or anger, but a cry of admiration.

* * *

“Master! I have been a merchant for ten years now. During those ten years, I have been to most inns. But this is by far the best inn I have ever been to. It is the best!”

“Is that so? Even if it’s just empty words, I really appreciate it.”

“I’m not just saying this! I can say this on my name, Ceres! Hahaha! The best! Seriously the best!”

Eugene looked at the man who was saying that. The man, who introduced himself as Ceres, had been praising this inn as the best.

It wasn’t a surprising reaction for Eugene. That’s understandable, because that kind of reaction is surprisingly common. It’s usually the first-time guests to the inn who react that way.

But this time it was different. It was because the words coming out of the guest’s mouth were different from the ones I usually heard.

“That air conditioner thing, it’s really the best! Ceres, it’s a whole new world I’ve never experienced in my thirty years of life!”

It was the first feedback about the air conditioner. Eugene smiled.

‘I knew you’d react well.’

Air conditioning, there’s no way people wouldn’t like that great invention. Well, that’s true.

If there is a downside, it is that it consumes a lot of power. In the case of mana stone products, the mana consumption is quite large. Therefore, the period of time in which mana stones need to be replaced is shorter than that of other mana stone products.

But what does that matter? There are so many Mana stones. To Eugene, worrying about such things was as pointless as a chaebol worrying about his electricity bill.

“I’m glad you were satisfied. Then, I hope that you were able to completely relax both physically and mentally during your stay.”

“Yes, I guess so. Thank you for your kind words. Oh, thanks to you, my summer schedule will probably change every year.”

“yes?”

“I get hot easily. So I always worried about it. But now I don’t think I have to worry about it. In the summer, I can just travel around here.”

Ceres hated the heat so much that she changed the route she had been taking for 10 years.

“Hahaha. Thank you for listening to me. I know you’re busy, boss. Bye!”

Ceres flew away. Eugene scratched the back of his head as he watched Ceres like that.

‘You must be really suffering from the heat.’

* * *

What a tremendous response! Stormy popularity!

The guests’ response to the air conditioner was overwhelmingly positive.

A magical artifact that blows cool air!

Thanks to this, meaningful feedback poured in, such as, “Just lying still in the room makes life worth living” and “There is no such thing as heaven.”

“Mr. Eugene, the guests’ reactions are good.”

“I know.”

“I’ve explained it to about a hundred customers so far, and there hasn’t been a single person who didn’t like it.”

“That’s good. But, was there anyone strange by any chance?”

“A strange person?”

“So, there are people who are about to do terrible things.”

“Oh, there was no such person.”

“That’s fortunate. But it’ll probably happen.”

“Huh? How do you know that?”

Chloe tilted her head.

Eugene answered with a smirk.

“There aren’t only good people in the world. You guys know that too.”

“That’s true.”

“Look. If we just stay still, some people will show up and cause trouble again.”

“What would you do if you found such a person?”

“You just have to keep quiet and talk to Irina. Then you can watch the fun.”

“yes.”

Chloe nodded vigorously. If Eugene said that, there was a good chance it would actually happen.

What kind of fun thing could happen this time? She suppressed her rising curiosity.

* * *

“Wow, this is amazing.”

“what?”

“This is it. This air conditioner.”

“Oh, that’s true.”

Inside the large guest room, men in leather armor sat on the beds, staring blankly at the wall-mounted air conditioner.

A breeze blew through the long, thin hole. The wind was so cool that they had been staring blankly at the air conditioner hole for a while.

“Ha, this is the real heaven. Outside is hell.”

“That’s right. I told you it’s so hot I could die. If you go out, you’ll just have a hard time.”

It’s summer and the sun is high in the sky. It’s so obvious that the weather is hot. I sweat a lot just walking around, so what if that cool thing cools down the room? Is there any reason to go outside?

“I want to stay here for days on end.”

“me too.”

They sat there blankly for a while, enjoying the air conditioning. They had no thoughts. If they could just enjoy the air like this, wouldn’t that be happiness?

Then, out of the blue, someone asked a question.

“But you know, what the heck is that thing that gives off such a cool breeze?”

“How would I know that? The wizards would know.”

“Anyway, magic is truly amazing. The radio is already amazing, but now they’ve developed something so amazing that it blows cool air.”

“That’s right. Since he developed something so groundbreaking, the wizard who developed it must have made a lot of money, right?”

“Of course. Ha, I’m jealous.”

They gulped. Envy flashed in their eyes. They imagined. Imagine making a fortune.

But that’s impossible. Is it possible for a mere mercenary to do something like that?

“Ha, that must be expensive. I want something like that too. I could make a lot of money selling those things.”

“Hey, hey. Why are you talking about such useless things? How can we afford such expensive things? Just take requests and do them.”

There was a moment of silence. For a moment they exchanged glances.

“Are you guys thinking the same thing as me just now?”

“maybe?”

They looked at the air conditioner. And gulped. Greed appeared in their eyes.

“That thing, it’s definitely expensive, right?”

“Of course. It takes several mana stones to make something like that. And the wizard would have to work very hard to put a permanent magic circle inside it.”

Whoosh! Whoosh! They looked left and right. Then they drew the curtains on the windows and shut the guest room door tightly.

And then we put our heads together and whispered.

“Let’s steal.”

“You want to steal?”

“Yeah. Your quarters have one installed too. Take that off. We’ll take this off.”

“Is it possible?”

“What can’t you do? How could a great knight like you be in an inn like this?”

“Yeah. That can’t be true.”

Their eyes lit up. They spent the night discussing how they were going to steal the inn’s supplies. Little did they know that the air conditioners up there had multiple layers of anti-theft magic built into them.