Chapter 48 (1/2)
Chapter 48
Chapter 48 : The smell of a large-sized pet from the horse market
The next morning, Hetty-san and Rebecca-san came to pick me up.
The horse market started in the morning.
I guess it was probably because most of the good horses would generally be sold out by early afternoon. As such, if one wanted to acquire good horses, it would be best to go there in the morning.
Nevertheless, I had not expected them to come at 6 a.m. If I hadn’t noticed Marina making pantomime gestures in front of the mirror, I might have taken my sweet time messing around in my room until 8 a.m. rolled around. It was fortunate that I had set the alarm for 6 a.m..
When I showed up in the mansion’s living room, the two of them seemed to have been engrossed in some kind of discussion for some time.
“It’s better to limit our choices to male horses.”
“The horses won’t be used on a battlefield, so female horses are obviously better.”
“We need to make sure to have horse hooves that are made purely of mithril.”
“What should we do about the horse’s armour?”
“Didn’t I just say that we’re not preparing the horses for a battlefield!?”
The two of them seriously got along well together.
After that we took some time with a little preparation, so it was already close to 8 a.m. by the time we reached the horse market. The reason being that I had thought we should put on suitable horse riding attire before we left. However, when I told Diana and Marina to wear the UNIQLO clothing I got for them the other time, Diana came out with the same exact clothing combination as the previous time, and since I had to pick the clothes for Marina as well, we were delayed as a result.
If you are reading this on any other place than rinkagetranslation.com, this chapter has been stolen and is neither the most recent or complete chapter
The market had already begun, and there were probably no less than a hundred livestock, mainly horses, lined up.
Well, more or less, horses…I originally thought that only horses that could be ridden would be for sale, but there were also farm horses, buffaloes, donkeys and ponies available for purchase too. (Although, in my eyes, farm horses and riding horses look the same, and I couldn’t really tell the difference between donkeys and ponies as well)
There were merchants who brought nearly thirty donkeys, surprising me at the demand for donkeys in this world.
“That’s because donkeys are cheaper than horses. They can be used to transport goods, for riding, and it doesn’t take a long time to raise them. Their milk is drinkable too.” [Hetty]
Certainly, purchasing expensive horses that could run fast might be useless to the majority of people who are living a normal life. To put it into perspective, I guess it could be akin to the difference between a K-car and a sports car in j.a.pan.
At any rate, the purpose today is to purchase horses. They need to be riding horses too. Donkeys are cute, but riding a donkey around would look quite stupid.
Nevertheless, neither me nor Diana or Marina could discern between young or old horses. As such, I decided to essentially leave the task of selecting the horses to Hetty-san and Rebecca-san.
“White horses are better. Let’s get white horses.” [Diana]
I chose to look the other way.
It’s not as if we’re a group of chindonya. (1) White horses are hardly available for sale and Diana as it is, has already stood out. Hence if one conspicuous looking person were to ride another conspicuous looking horse, wouldn’t the effect be catastrophic? As her master, this was something that I couldn’t possibly permit.
While Marina, on the other hand….
.
“M-Marina is fine with just that. That one is good enough.” [Marina]
She pointed at a donkey. As I thought, I should ignore it too.
Although, I did tell Rebecca-san that I preferred a black one for myself, just in case. Then I could name it Kokuoh-Go… (2)
Even though it was said to be a horse market, there didn’t seem to be many people who were actually purchasing the horses. There were still quite a number of them available even after 10 a.m. I don’t really know what the prices of the horses are since the buyers negotiated with the merchants directly (after all, there are no price tags attached), but it was certain that the value of a horse would be incomparable to a donkey.
In fact, donkeys were actually sold like hot cakes. If there were, for example, 30 donkeys up for sale at one point, around 20 of them would be sold off within the blink of an eye. That was the extent of their popularity.
Hetty-san and Rebecca-san were preoccupied with inspecting the horses carefully one by one, as if they were purchasing it for themselves. Hetty-san, who was test riding the horses while still in her maid clothing, stuck out like a sore thumb.
“I felt like getting one too.” [Rebecca]
On the other side, Rebecca-san was bombarding the horse merchant with various questions as well.
I did not expect the two of them to be in such high spirits… On the contrary, Diana and Marina were completely uninvolved even though they were dressed in their horse riding attires.
Well, Hetty-san and Rebecca-san are like a pair of professionals in this area, so it was right to leave it to them so that no problems would arise.
If you are reading this on any other place than rinkagetranslation.com, this chapter has been stolen and is neither the most recent or complete chapter
Thus, Hetty-san and Rebecca-san were, at that moment, having a discussion in front of a certain horse.
“….What do you think, Becky?” [Hetty]
“Let’s see… I think this one’s really good too, but will the budget be alright, Hetty? You did say that it was left to personal discretion, but there should still be a certain limit, shouldn’t it?” [Rebecca]
“To be honest, the budget is quite tight… But you should understand that it will not be an unwise decision to acquire valuable a.s.sets like horses even though it might be a little difficult on the budget, right?” [Hetty]
“It’s not like Jirou will be going to a battlefield, isn’t it?” [Rebecca]
“That might be true, but merchants are exposed to a lot of dangers too. If they are attacked by bandits on the road, the strength of the horses’ legs can determine the outcome between life and death.” [Hetty]
“If they really are attacked by bandits, the strength of the horses’ legs would probably be the least of their concerns.” [Rebecca]
“Oh my, scary. Knight-sama doesn’t seem to know she could handle any horse easily by utilizing the effect of her vocation.” [Hetty]
“I-It doesn’t really have anything to do with my vocation, does it-?” [Rebecca]
“It does have something to do with it. Any packhorse ridden by you will become a fine horse. For the sake of protecting their masters, they’ll be able to escape from any bandits or demon beasts.” [Hetty]
“…Umm….Aren’t all horses like that?” [Rebecca]
“Seriously, this Becky. There are indeed horses like that, but there are also quite a number of them that are easily frightened over little things and become immobilized, and ones that become uncontrollable too.” [Hetty]