Jashin Average Side Story 01

Translation by Vidar

“Oh, a guest? Welcome, this is an inn.”

It’s currently evening. I turned to face the door when I heard the sound of it opening and called out to the guest.

The one who entered had a suspicious appearance with a black robe which covered their entire body, but I who have run an inn for a long time immediatly realized from the guests physique that it was a young woman, and thus didn’t particularly question her.

If a young woman easily shows her face, unsavory types will gather, so her behaviour is natural.

For some reason I’m getting chills though… It’s probably 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 slightly more expensive than other inns, yet for that extra the rooms and the meals should be slightly better. There’s no barroom so it’s not noisy, and there are no guest with bad character either.

“Five nights, with the food and water too please.”

Silver coins were given together with the words. One, two, three, indeed, 6 silver.

The guests usually pay for one day at a time, she’s surprisingly used to paying, huh.

She didn’t ask how much it would be either and calculated it herself, she’s probably some great merchants daughter or something like that.

The thought crossed my mind, but surely she’s not a noble.

The quality of the robe she’s wearing certainly seems to be quite good though.

No matter how much superior we are to similar inns, all the same, it’s not at a level where nobles would choose to stay here.

“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.”

I gave the girl a key with a wooden plate attached to it, went to the kitchen and told the master to prepare one persons portion.

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The girl turned out to be quite close lipped, since she didn’t participate in gossiping I didn’t even catch her name.

To say nothing of when she goes outside, when I see her wearing her robe and covering her face even when inside the inn and while eating, it makes me think she has some special circumstances.

I would be lying if I told you that I wasn’t anxious about it, but because prying too much into the background of the guests is no good, I won’t ask.

At any rate, she told me that I didn’t need to clean her room or change her bedding while she’s here, I wonder if she’s doing anything strange in the room. I’m slightly worried.

After eating breakfast she leaves then comes back in the evening but, one time she came back earlier than usual. Even if she’s usually reserved, if I say “Welcome back” when she returns I at least get an answer, yet for some reason that day, the very moment she entered she went straight for the stairs. Since I was worried I looked at the girl, and through a gap in her robe I for the first time caught sight of her face—

—!? Wh-, What the hell is that!

Her face was prettier than I’d have thought, but more importantly than that, more important than everything, what’s with those eyes!?!

Rage, hatred, disgust, scorn, envy, killing intent, malice, anguish, grief, despair, those black eyes that seemed to contain every possible negative emotion. In my years as an innkeeper I’ve seen the eyes of various sorts of people, yet those eyes aren’t the eyes a human should have. Those are the eyes of something more ominous, terrifying. The moment I saw them, I thought my heart would stop. Aaah, how terrible….

Uuuuh, why did I allow her to stay here.

If I could, I would ask her to leave this very moment, but she’s paid for two more days. If she asked me to return the money I would return it, but what if when I asked her to leave she would attack me in a frenzy…

Only two more days, only two more days. So far it’s been fine, so I should be fine for two more days. That’s right!

That day was the only irregular day, the next day she went out and came back in the evening like usual. Luckily, it didn’t seem that she’d noticed that I’d seen her face.

It can’t be helped that I’m scared but I somehow managed to not show it on my face and treated her as much as possible the same way I’ve been treating her until now. If she realizes that I’ve seen her true colors, I’ve got no way of knowing what she’ll do to me. Absit omen!

And like that, two days somehow passed.

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Ahh, she’s finally left.

The girl wanted to extend her stay at the end, but I somehow managed to refuse her by begging her. I was honestly afraid she’d attack me so cold sweat drenched my back, yet the girl might have sensed something, because she withdrew surprisingly meekly.

Since I was completely exhausted after this ordeal, I leaned limply against the back of the chair.

These two days feels like they’ve shaved three years from my life.

I rested like that for a while, but to pull myself together I decided to clean the room she’d been staying in. I hope that the guests coming next will be decent folk.

W-, wait! What’s with this black canopy bed!?