Side Story 01 – A Certain Innkeeper’s Reception
The side stories will primarily be from the perspective of other characters, and unlike the main story, the tone will be more serious and more horrific.
However, having already read the main story and knowing full well how things are actually progressing, I think that the readers will instead read the stories with a grin and find them fluffy instead.
…I can’t imagine that there are any people out there with weird reading habits like reading the side stories before the main story, but if you do exist, you were beyond my expectations, so please go ahead with this in mind.
There will be 11 side stories in total, and the length of each one varies.
Let’s start with a bit of a jab.
“Oh, a guest? Welcome, this is an inn.”
Around the time when the sun was about to set, hearing the sound of the door opening, I turned and greeted the customer. They looked suspicious; clad from head to toe in a black robe, but having worked in an inn for many years and having seen countless customers before, I could immediately tell from her figure that she was a young girl and so I wasn’t particularly suspicious of her. If a young girl walks around with her face showing she’ll meet a lot of trouble after all, so it’s natural to protect herself.
Now then, for some reason it feels a bit colder in here but… Well, I’m sure it’s just my imagination.
“How much is one night?”
“One night is 1 silver, breakfast is 5 coppers, dinner is 10 coppers, and a tub of hot water is 5 coppers.”
It’s a little more expensive than other inns, but I think our rooms and food make up for it. We aren’t connected to a tavern so it isn’t noisy, and there aren’t any rough customers either, after all.
“Five nights, with the food and water too please.”
With those words, I was handed some silver coins. One, two, three… Mn, there are certainly 6 here. Most customers pay by the night, but she seems to be quite used to spending money. I hadn’t even told her how much it was yet, and she’d already calculated it herself after all. She must be the daughter of some major merchant, right?
I don’t think it’s the case, but it couldn’t be that she’s a noble, right? The robe she’s wearing is quite well made, though. No matter how much better our inn might be compared to the others, this isn’t a place that a noble would stay.
“Got it, your room is on the second floor, the final door on the right. This is the key. Do you want to eat straight away?”
“Yes, if that’s possible.”
“Right away. I’ll prepare it now so wait in whichever seat you’d like.”
After handing her a key attached to a wooden plate, I went to the kitchen to tell the innmaster to prepare a person’s share of dinner.
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Because the girl I mentioned didn’t seem to be a very talkative person, we never even chatted so I didn’t know her name. Seeing as she always keeps her robe on whether she’s going out or eating dinner in her room, I’m sure she has some circumstances. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t interested, but it isn’t good to pry into the business of the customers after all, so I’m not going to ask.
But still, although she told me not to clean the room or change the bed sheets while she was staying there, she isn’t doing anything weird in there, is she? I’m a little worried.
Eating breakfast, going out, and then returning at night. The girl continued to repeat this, but after a few days, there was a time when she came back earlier than usual. Although she was silent, she would at least reply when you called out “Welcome back”, but that day for some reason as soon as she entered the inn, she immediately headed for the stairs. Wondering what was wrong, I looked towards her, and through the gap in her robe, I saw her face for the first time────
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──────!? W-, What the heck was that!?
Her face was more beautiful than expected, but more importantly what was with those eyes!?
Anger, hatred, disgust, disdain, bloodthirst, resentment, anguish, grief, despair; those black eyes were filled with every negative emotion imaginable. In my years working here I’ve seen the eyes of all sorts of customers, but this was the first time in my life that I’d seen eyes like those.
No, those aren’t eyes that a human would make. They’re the eyes of something much more sinister and terrifying. The moment I saw them, it was like my heart was in a vice-grip. Aahh, how terrifying…
..*
Aahh, just what kind of customer are we hosting.
If possible I’d like them to leave right this instant, but they’ve already paid for two more nights. If I could return that money then I would do so this instant, but if it flew into a rage and attacked…
There’s just two days left. Just two more days. It’s been fine so far, so it should be fine for two more days. That’s right, isn’t it?
..*
..*
After that one day that was different, the thing that looked like a girl went back to normal. Fortunately it seems that she didn’t realise I had seen her face.
I was so afraid that I almost couldn’t do it, but so that it didn’t show its true colours, I had to talk to it like normal, after all. If it knew that I had suspected its true form, I can’t even imagine what it’d do to me. Please deliver me from evil.
And like that, I somehow managed to pass the two days.
..*
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..*
Aahh, it’s finally gone…
That thing that looked like a girl was talking about extending its stay, so after pleading with it, I somehow got it to accept my refusal. To be honest, the whole time I was afraid running a cold sweat from worry of being attacked, but it seemed to have sensed something because it obediently left.
Completely exhausted, I collapsed backwards into a chair. There’s no doubt that these last two days have taken three years off of my lifespan.
I took a rest on the chair for a little while, but pulling myself together, I decided to go clean the room. If possible, I want a decent customer next.
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Wai-, what is this!? What’s this black canopy bed!?
i was tricked
this is just a re-edit, right?
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What do you mean “tricked”? I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned that I’m re-translating the side stories, and no, it’s not an edit.
I translated from scratch.
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Countless, countless times, I’ve mentioned that I’ll be re-translating the side stories.
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Literally five posts ago, I mentioned that I would be re-translating the side stories.
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Pretty sure you mentioned it when they were first translated by the other person.
i enjoyed it t least. Thanks.
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i have been awake for longer than i am comfortable with and reading the words on the screen were difficult
it was a new post instead of editing the previous post so upon seeing the new post on aho updates, i clicked with fervor, and began reading
after reading a paragraph or two at a snail’s pace, i was very confused, as when i was skimming the title, i read “interlude arc chapter 1” but i dismissed the interlude part, not thinking that it was the side stories, and not associating it with the re-translations that you said you were going to do earlier
sorry if that got on your nerves
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Mn, it did. So I’m going to finish my ‘edits’ first.
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I previously said that I would be alternating between re-translations and new chapters. Side Story 07 was a new chapter, so naturally this one was a…
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It’s understandable to be confused by a side story from earlier in the story if you didn’t read intro.
Complaining about your dismay from chapter when you didn’t bother to read explanatory intro,
kinda cheesy.
Ah well. Water under the bridge 🙃
Lol
I enjoy side POV. Can give good chuckle.
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Take your time, mon.
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whip this hereticfor anri sama sake, btw sheeprabbit your char avatar is original?
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Mn! Should be an original illustration.
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You know, since items she touches for too long become cursed and refuse to leave her side…
Why isn’t she constantly being flattened by a flying black canopy bed? :)
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The equipment that she was wearing became a set of cursed items. Since they were already equip, she couldn’t desequip them.
However, I don’t think that every item that she blesses becomes a cursed object.
For example, the priest of her cult was okay with the black staff she gave him.
Tena doesn’t seem to have a problem with her clothes (or Anri didn’t find that pertinent enough for us to know).
The armor that she blessed and made into the second boss of her dungeon is jsut alive and doesn’t appear near Anri when she tries to leave.
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I, too, would be very amused by the bed following her, unfortunately, I think it’s only “equipment” that must be “equipped” during the time limit that forcefully follows her. Can’t equip a bed…
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What do you mean?! beds are the armor and blade of the great goddess of mass destruction! How dare disrespect the great bed-sama!
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You don’t equip beds.
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it’s funny, it doesn’t matter how many times I read it. Btw, It’s a bit strange how anyone has’t tried shipping anyone in this novel yet.
Poor Anri, if this was the pokemon game, they wouldn’t heal her pokemons free XD
As always, thanks for doing this, I love this story.
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THERE ARE NO OPTIONS. Except Yuri ones…
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The hero or the dark high priest? The reaction of the hero companions would be amusing.
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Obviously, everybody was waiting to find out what it happened to the bed so that then they could proceed to ship Anri and the bed.
Duh!
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Thanks for the chapter
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Thanks so much for all your hard work ani-ue!!! In the end… yep, your translations are my favorites!!
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So you’re saying you’re going to alternate between redoing the ones done by the other translators and the ones that haven’t?
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I WAS but then people kept annoying me. In particular somebody exclaiming “You tricked me! This is just an edit!” so now I’m doing thing sin order.
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Think he was actually joking. Internet. Some jokes don’t transmit too well. Remember the people who dumped you thinking you were serious about the $80 per quarter chapter? lol
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No, this guy was dead serious.
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This is funny. I like this. Yay for good side stories~
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aaahh how glorious, the euphoria… the ecstasy… Reading about main characters like these from other peoples points of views are SO FREAKING HILARIOUS. Definitely some of the greatest, most glorious moments in any story. I LOVE THIS, AUTHOR AND TRANSLATOR BANZAAI.
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I was expecting the bed to growl and charge, forcing her to close the door and seal the room.
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