CH 97

Words : 1204 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

I checked the terms of the contract After I had finished talking with Mr. Ekenhart and the others, I returned once to my room. “Phew… Things somehow wrapped nicely, eh?” “Wuff.” The nervousness before meeting Mr. Ekenhart had disappeared immediately, but he was still the head of a great noble house. And he had a different, unexpected impact. So I must have become tense without knowing it, since my shoulders were a little sore. It had been a while since I had last gotten sore shoulders… Maybe I could make a remedy with Weed Cultivation… No, it was best not to waste it right now. I doubted it would be enough to have such an effect, but I had to be careful so that I didn’t faint again. “Wuff. Wuff.” “Hmm? What is it, Leo?” As I sat on the bed and rotated my shoulders and stretched, Leo came close and pushed her nose into me. “Wuff. Wuff.” It looked like she wanted me to give her some attention. I had been quite busy today, after all. “There, there. Sorry that I couldn’t play with you today.” As I patted Leo on the head, she wagged her tail happily. There was still some time until dinner, so I would play with her until then. And so I hugged Leo, just like Tilura did, and scratched her under the jaw and between the ears, and combed her body with my fingers to her heart’s content. However, it was while doing this that I realized that Leo was pretty dirty. Because we had been exploring the forest… While she went swimming in the river, she still was not clean enough. “Leo…you’re quite dirty, huh?” “Wuff!?” Leo twitched and then froze when I muttered those words. I guess she knew what I was going to say next. But even if Leo didn’t like it, I couldn’t let her stay this filthy… And as Leo stood there frozen, I continued to announce her sentence. “After dinner, you’ll have to take a bath.” “…Wuff…” The expected words came from my mouth, and Leo’s head drooped weakly. I tried to console the depressed Leo by petting her. Then there was a knock on the door. What was it…? It was too early for it to be dinner. “Yes?” “Mr. Takumi. Do you have a moment?” It was Sebastian’s voice that came from the other side of the door. Has something happened? “Of course.” “Excuse me. Oh, I see you are playing with Leo.” “Yes. I haven’t been able to give her much attention lately. And she seemed a little lonely.” “Wuff.” “I see. That is a good thing. However, she does not appear to be in high spirits now?” “Ah. Well, Leo’s coat has become quite dirty. And so I said that she’d need to take a bath. That’s why she is like this.” “Hohoho. That cannot be helped then. After all, it’s important to stay clean. Especially when one’s fur is as beautiful as Leo’s.” “That’s true. Did you hear that, Leo? Even Sebastian agrees, so don’t be so moapy about taking a bath.” “…Wuff…” Leo nodded as if forced to agree. Still, she had already bathed once since becoming so big, so I expected it would be easier this time. Huh? We had gotten distracted by talk of Leo. But why was Sebastian here again? “Mr. Sebastian. I believe you wanted to say something to me?” “Oh, that is right. Here, Mr. Takumi.” “What’s this?” Sebastian handed me several sheets of paper. They were close to A4 size and bound like a booklet. And each page was filled with letters. A quick glance at them showed that they were written in some language that was not Japanese. And yet I could still read it just fine. I wonder why… But then again, we were able to speak to each other…perhaps I had received a bonus, aside from getting the Gift when coming to this world. I didn’t know what the answer was, but I pushed it away for now, as there was no point in thinking about it. “This is the contract with His Grace. In your case, Mr. Takumi, you are entrusting the selling of your herbs to the company. There are clauses related to that and payment. While His Grace and you have already agreed to it, such things need to be properly confirmed. And so you must read this carefully. And if you still agree, the contract can be signed.” “I see.” I had assumed that the matter was settled in the drawing room. But I suppose it had to be checked first. If it was all just verbal promises, then that could lead to trouble in the future. And so I stopped petting Leo and then sat down on the bed in order to read the contract carefully. “Please read through the contents carefully. And let me know if you have any questions or if there is anything you want to change. Now, please excuse me.” “I understand. I should be finished reading it by dinner, so I’ll let you know if I have any questions then.” “Yes, very good, sir.” And then Sebastian left the room, and I began to read through the contents of the contract. Now that it was decided that Leo would take a bath, she rolled up into a sulky ball on the floor. I was sure she would be better by dinner time. “Hmm…I see…” I had seen contracts like these many times at my old job. However, compared to those ones, the contract with the duke seemed to lean highly in my favor. But there was still a lot that I didn’t know about this world, and so I would have to ask Sebastian about them later. …Like this stuff about dealing with monster and bandit attacks… It was probably about compensation when products were lost, but then again, I could be wrong. But the duke was doing his best to treat me fairly, and so it would be rude if I didn’t even understand the contents. And so I would make a check mark on the parts I didn’t understand or had questions regarding. Ah, I needed something to write with… Now that I think about it, I did buy a pen last time I went shopping. I got up from the bed and grabbed the pen that was on my desk. This wasn’t like the fountain pens from my old world, but was a quill pen. And so it was part of a set that contained an inkpot. And while it looked luxurious, I was not used to writing with it, and so it was with shaky hands that I marked the contract. And so for a while, I read the contents until Ms. Lyra came to tell us that dinner was ready. By then, I had most of the contract in my head. And so Ms. Lyra and I woke up the sulking Leo, and then I took the contract and headed to the dining hall.

CH 97

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