The stalls at the flea market were something of a mixed bag.
One stall had very junky looking accessories crafted from bone, mixed in
with some lovely silver earrings.

"These would match your blond hair perfectly, Zena."

"They are very nice…"
Zena looked pleased as she held them up to her ears and asked how they
looked, so Satou was quick to praise her.

Off to the side, Arisa announced that she wanted something, too. So they
bought some ribbons at the stall next door.
Satou bought enough for everyone, of course, including Lulu, who was resting
back at the inn too.

Zena looked reluctant to part with the earrings as she put them back. 

/Huhf, I
would've bought them for her right away if she had just asked like Arisa did/

Arisa and the girls took Zena's hand and led her to the next stall. So Satou took
that opportunity to buy the earrings she'd been looking at.

/I'll give them to
her on the way home or something/

They met up with Liza once she had gotten the tickets, and Satou also bought her a
tassel for her spear as thanks for her troubles.

Thanks to his *Negotiation* and *Haggling* skill he have, wherever they went, Satou was able to buy things for much cheaper than the
price that his "Estimation" skill suggested.
On their way toward the stage, pickpockets and extortionists approached us
twice, but with his radar, he know that someone hostile was approaching, so he was able to take care of it easily.
He caught the pickpocket and turned him in to a group of stern faced men who'd been hired to patrol the area by the person running the flea market.

This sort of criminal would probably be dealt with by the law, so
that was all well and good. Other then that, Satou also had to deal with the men that trying to hit on
Zena.
Whenever they went after Zena, Liza or Satou stepped in to physically remove
them.

***

"Beautiful maiden, I long to admire your smile not beneath the moonlight but
beneath the bright and shining light of the sun"

"Aah, my beloved Zen, this castle is but a prison to me. Use your magic to
whisk me away from here!"

On the stage, a man in a sorcerer's hooded robe was romancing a black haired actress in a gown. Their enthusiastic performance lost a bit of its
impact in front of a cheesy painted moon.

/Though… Zen, huh? Ever since meeting Arisa, I'd been on the alert whenever I
heard a Japanese sounding name. Zen could definitely be written like the
Buddhist concept or the kanji for virtue/

Satou wasn't really interested in stories of star crossed lovers. Yeah, because he himself is someone who's meet with his loved one because he cross dimensions, so he couldn't
focus on the story, and his mind ended up wandering in the past memory.

On the other hand, Zena and Arisa seemed to like the story very much.
They were leaning forward in their seats, completely absorbed in the story.
The play was apparently based on a true story, so the number of
characters made things a little confusing. It must have been too hard for
Pochi and Tama to follow, because they had fallen asleep using Satou lap as a
pillow.

Liza was watching the stage with a serious expression, but she seemed to
be focusing on the scent of spit-roasted meat wafting from somewhere behind
the stage, not the play itself.
Her eyes had narrowed as if she was sizing up her prey the moment the
scent of roasting chicken fat drifted toward us, so there was no question about
it.

While Satou been entertaining himself with his memory and by pinching the noses of the dozing
Pochi and Tama, the story unfolding on the stage had moved forward.

"I have you now! How dare you, a lowly plebian sorcerer, abduct my fiancee, Princess Liltiena? I, Marquis Muno, will see that you pay for this
crime!"

With his knights in tow, the one called himself marquis had apparently tracked down
the heroes of the story.
Standing at the edge of a set made to look like a cliff, the hero waved his
staff, protecting the heroine. But for some reason, there was a woman in a maid like outfit standing behind them.

'Partner, that maid sure looks like she'll raise an event flag'

'Yeah, and why she bring her maid in the first place? she want to secretly meet her lover, right?'

With a dramatic flourish during the final line of his speech, the actor
pulled away the black curtain at the front of the stage to expose the painted
backdrop to the bright sunlight.

"Ahhh!"

"Geh!"

Zena and Arisa recoiled in their seats, each grabbing on to one of Satou's
arms.
The painting that had been revealed depicted a gallows and the bodies of
those who had been beheaded.

'Personally, I thought it was in bad taste, but judging from the shrieks and
cheers of the audience, it seemed to be well received'

'It's seem that the people in this city seemed pretty open to violence'

"Father! Mother! Damn you, Marquis, you've claimed even the lives of
my young siblings and cousins…!"

"You think you've any right to be angry? A commoner rebelled against
the marquis. It's only natural that his entire family should be beheaded! Be
thankful that I saw fit to spare them any torture before disposing of them!"

A flood of red tears poured from the hero's eyes. 

/How did they do that?/

The protagonist's magic blew violently, sweeping the knights who
protected the marquis off to the side of the stage.
Of course, it wasn't real magic, just some tacky cut out images and lame
sound effects, but it garnered another big cheer from the audience.

'Considering that there were real sorcerers in this world, shouldn't they be
using Light Magic or Wind Magic or something to liven up the play?'

'Their education and especially on entertainment part didn't reach that hight host'

"Such fine knights you have! But there is no one left to protect you. Now
I will take my revenge for my family!"

The protagonist brandished his long staff.

Then, just as they expected, the actress in the maid outfit began to move.
Deliberately facing toward the audience, she pulled out a dagger and
raised it slowly.

"Behind you!"

"Look out!"

The audience screamed at the hero.

'Yeah, I know the feeling'

'We fell like that a lot right, when we observe the world we visited'

Zena didn't cry out with the others, but she was clearly wrapped up in the
story. Her hand gripped Satou arm with such force that it was hard enough to be little painful for normal man.

'Human often forget. The scariest thing is is human themselves, right darling'

'With all their sin and mind. Human can do anything. Even kill a God if they want too'

'Yeah, we have life example here'

Naturally, the protagonist gave no reaction to the audience's cries and
slowly began to walk toward the actor who played the marquis as he chanted
a spell.

At that moment, the attendant rushed over and thrust a dagger into the
hero's back.

"You! You were working for the marquis all along?!"

"You are unworthy of the princess's hand!"

Despite having been stabbed in the back, the protagonist quite loudly
denounced the maid. Once his line was delivered, he very dramatically fell to his knees.
The came too late heroine, rushing up to the fallen hero.

"That dagger is coated in deadly poison from the tail of a wyvern. You
will never be able to save him" The maid gave some exposition
to the crowd.

The heroine simply cried and clung to the dying protagonist.

"Let us meet in the afterlife, my love…"

"Oh, Zen!"

Finally, the leading man expired.

"Princess, you must return to the marquis"

"Never! My love and body belongs only to Zen. I shan't let the marquis do as he
wishes with me!"

With that, the heroine pulled out the dagger from Zen's back and plunged
it into her own chest. There were cries of empathy from the crowd for the heroine, especially
from the female audience members.

Startled by the noise, Pochi and Tama looked around frantically until Satou
reassured them that the crowd was only cheering for the play.

Both of them plopped their heads back into his lap contentedly. Satou
scratched them behind the ears and turned his attention back toward the
stage.

'I'd heard this was a tragic love story, but I was surprised it was so
depressing'

'But partner, isn't this story a little too forced? Normally a princess will not like or loving a commoner you know'

'Yeah, they will never meet or talk to each other in the first place'

'But they said that this story based on true story thought'

'Oh host, the play not yet finish'

Tossed over the side of the cliff, the protagonist's corpse was brought
back to life, and one by one, the undead hero took his revenge on the
marquis's family.
The maid who had killed the hero before stabbed him again with the
poisoned dagger, but with a cry of *Poison has no effect on this undead

body!* the protagonist avenged himself. The manner in which he defeated
her had been cleverly foreshadowed by their relationship in the first half, so it
was actually pretty interesting.

However, in an unsatisfying twist, he was inexplicably defeated at the last
second by a Holy Knight just as he was about to finally take his revenge on
the marquis.
Apparently, many of the other audience members felt the same,
as booing arose from the audience.

But some of them were booing with a smile on their faces; it seemed that
the audience was expected to jeer the marquis and the Holy Knight at this
part of the play.

/Oh, it's still going?/

"Yes, I will rot away in this earth! However, I will take this land, your
marquisate, along with me! I curse you, Marquis Muno!"

Black smoke spouted from where the hero had fallen, and when the smoke
cleared, the painted backdrop had been changed to depict what looked like a wasteland.

"Holy Knight-sama! I cannot bear to see my people suffer because of my own
deeds. Please do whatever you can, for their sake!"

"Oh, how very noble! Just as one would expect from the head of the
Muno family, which has existed since the era of the ancestral king Yamato!"

'Did the marquis's personality changed all of a sudden?'

'Yeah, it's too forced at this point'

The Holy
Knight was praising him quite a lot, too.
In the end, the marquis sacrificed himself to protect his people, and the
play concluded with the scene of him taking the curse from his land at the
cost of his own life.

'It's kusa'

'Yeah, kusa desu'

'Too many kusa and it's already a forest nanodesu'

Satou and dea facepalm in their mind.

***

After the play ended, Arisa (who'd been watching enthusiastically) said
she was thirsty, so Satou gave her some fruit water and let her rest under a nearby
tree.

"Would you like some, too, Zena?"

"Thank you"

"Which one do you want?" Satou ask her while handed her a fresh fruit water and drink that he has been drunk.

Zena immediately take the one that Satou already drank without to much thinking. Accepting the bisque mug, Zena brought it to her lips and gulped down
the fruit water. ehem,,, She must have been very thirsty.

Satou also gave a cup to Liza as well, who offered the flavored water to Pochi and

Tama.
Feeling a bit hungry, they went to buy something that looked like flatbread

from a nearby cart.

The stall next door was selling thin pancakes that looked sort of like
okonomiyaki. They seemed tasty, so Satou ordered some of those, too. These were
called crappes, a name he never heard before.
While he was waiting, a middle aged woman holding a crappes approached
him.

It was the person who'd been sitting in the seat in front of him at the
play.

"My, aren't you the gentleman who was sitting behind me? Are you a
foreigner, by chance?"

"Yes, ma'am. My name is Satou. I'm a traveler"

"Goodness, you're that Satou. The one who saving all the people from the labyrinth! I'm sorry for not knowing" The woman lower her head.

That stun make them became the center of attention in the market.

"She said Satou"

"He look young"

A lot of people crowded them after that.
Once the woman introduced herself, they chatted while Satou crappes were
being cooked, and she explained to Satou the reason behind the farce at the end
of the play.

"I'm sure you found the last bit of the play rather awful, didn't you?"

"You mean when the Holy Knight showed up without an introduction,
and the marquis's character suddenly changed?"

"Yes, well, you see…"

According to the woman, when the play was first written some twenty
years ago, it ended with the sorcerer taking his revenge on the marquis and
then being defeated by the Holy Knight. However, it had apparently been

changed due to complaints from the nobility.

Furthermore, Princess Liltiena had been the daughter of a commoner in
the original story, and the events were set in motion when the amorous
marquis abducted her away from her husband.

'I see… So those developments felt so out of place because they were
changed later'

'Talking about kusa right'

Once my flatbreads and crappes were ready, I thanked the woman and
returned to the spot where everyone was waiting.

"What did you buy?" Ask Arisa.

"Normal and onion-filled gabo flatbreads and some kind of snack called a
crappe"

Everyone was very intrigued, so Satou broke the gabo flatbreads into small
pieces and handed them out.
Zena politely declined her portion with a dry smile, so I split it with

everyone else and tried a bite.

'Ugh. What the f*** is this poison!?'

'Khakhakhakaha'

'It was a strange, terribly acrid taste that made me feel nauseous with every
bite'

It might have tasted good to the locals who were used to the flavor, but Satou
couldn't eat it. 

*Skill PAIN RESISTANCE acquired*

'The f***!!! i even get a skill'

'It's a grace in disguise. Khakhakhakha'

Satou quickly washed it down with a gulp of fruit water.
Once he recovered and looked around at everyone, he saw that the beastfolk

girls were making slightly strange faces but still eating normally, while Arisa
looked like she was on the verge of tears as she chewed.

"Arisa, if it's too gross, you can just spit it out in here."

"Fanks… I can'f eaf fhis (Thanks... I can't eat this)"
Satou held out a handkerchief, and Arisa quickly rid herself of the stuff that
was in her mouth.

Zena giggling seeing Satou and Arisa reaction.

'Host, did you forgot that Zena did tell you a while back that gabo fruits
were gross'

'Damn I got caught off guard because of the deceptive smell of soy sauce'

Luckily, the crappes were normal and delicious.
It was somewhat like a thin, hard okonomiyaki, but since it was made with

miso sauce instead of tonkatsu sauce, it was really something else entirely.
Under the shade of the tree, they chatted idly as we enjoyed the crappes.

"Even when you know they're coming, those emotional scenes at the end
coming one after another are too much to bear!" chirped Arisa.

"I have to admit, I cried at the part when Princess Liltiena committed
suicide to follow Zen into death" Zena rubbed her eyes, which looked a little
red.

"Really? If it were me, I would've grabbed the dagger and taken revenge
on the marquis myself! You can't do anything if you're dead" Arisa's cheeks
were full of food as she rebutted Zena's remark.

"It's so crisp and tasty, nanodesu!"

"Yummyyy!"

"I wonder what they used to make the sauce... I'm picking up a very faint
taste of meat"

Meanwhile, the beastfolk trio was more interested in discussing the
crappes than the play.

"But surely you agree that the marquis is at fault for tearing the lovers
apart?"

"Well, since Princess Liltiena is the one who betrayed her fiancee by taking
a new lover, I think you could say she set the tragedy in motion…"

Arisa and Zena seemed to have a slight difference in values, as their
voices were getting louder and louder.
Arisa was asserting that *love is all that matters* while Zena insisted that
*it's only natural to marry a noble for the sake of your family*

"Well, in that case, shouldn't you be happy with the fiancee your family
picked for you instead of our master?!"

"…I...I didn't mean it like that…" Zena quailed a bit at Arisa's words.

'Actually, Zena and I can't really be called a *lovers*. We indeed have a plan for married in 4 year. But it's all depends on the Lord right?'

'Why not? You just need to take her right? Why not take her after the house finished?'

While Satou discuss in his mind with Dea. Arisa and Zena still have their argument.

"Isn't you joined the army to avoid getting a fiancee? I'm
pretty sure the kingdoms around here don't let you retire from the army for at

least five years"

That Arisa sure was well informed.

"What does retiring have to do with being engaged?" Satou asked her.

"Non-combatants in the military can still get married, can't they? When women get married here, they're required to join the household
right away" Answer Arisa.

I see, so if you couldn't get married for five years while you were in the
military, that sort of discussion wouldn't come up until your retirement was
approaching.

'Partner, it's not just for the wedding, but it's the army rule that make her need to wait for 4 year'

'Wait, host. You really didn't know about that?'

'No, i sincerely think that it's because of the wedding preparations you know'

'What the f*** are you read at the lord's library!?'

'Monster and God'

'I'd imagine circumstances would be different for high-ranking nobility. But Zena was from a lower-class noble family, so it probably
wouldn't happen at such an early stage'

'Ahh, so she use her low nobility status and magic soldier status so that she can avoiding a fiancee from his parent'

'Something like that. But when she meet you and fall. She regret it because she need to finish her first service at the army first before she can be allowed to marry someone'

"A woman has to be willing to throw away everything for the person she
loves, or she shouldn't fall in love at all" Said Arisa.

"But to ignore the will of the head of the family, as a princess is…"

"If you're such a Goody Two-shoes, someone else will steal your beloved
away from you!"

Arisa seemed to be getting a bit carried away. So Satou stopped their debate by
whacking her lightly on the head.

"You're going too far"

'I could understand Arisa's point, but I didn't think she should go around
pushing Japanese values in a foreign country with a different culture'

'But actually it's not just for Japanese host. It's work for all woman'

'But that's came from a freedom people not nobility'

Satou apologized to Zena, who was close to tears, and forced Arisa to bow her
head in apology as well.
She seemed reluctant at first, but after a moment she apologized to Zena.

"I'm sorry" Arisa can be surprisingly meek.

* Skill MEDIATION acquired*

*Tittle MEDIATOR acquired*

Pochi and Tama looked anxious, maybe thinking we'd gotten into a fight.

"Want to get more crappes? Or should we go get some of those meat
skewers?" Satou offered.

"Meat skeweeers?"

"The crappes were yummy, but meat skewers sound even better, nanodesu!"

"Shall I go and buy them, master? How much?" Liza already in position for a run.

Satou had suggested it only to improve the mood, but the beast folk girls were
very quick to respond.