Today will be my first time having a friend over, I'm rather excited and a bit anxious about it. Even though I have all this knowledge from another world, and already have dinner planned out, I still can't shake off the nervousness. I eventually finished my morning routine, it had taken a bit longer than usual because of my thoughts wandering to dinner. It was still a bit too early to go to the marketplace and look for mustard seeds, so I walked around looking at different things, trying to think if there was anything I overlooked.

The only thing I came up with was preparing a gift to give them, but that isn't something done in this culture and may be considered as looking down on them for not being very wealthy. Since it might be taken wrong, I decided against giving them a gift, and by then, sellers were setting out their goods at the market. Fortunately, I was able to find seeds that were close enough to mustard, so I should be able to make a good vinaigrette.

Now that I had the last ingredient, I went home to make the salad dressing and to try germinating some of the seeds, so that hopefully I could start growing my own. Having finished making the vinaigrette, I left it in my room to let the flavors blend together properly and went out again to look for some fresh fruits. I decided to have juice for dinner, and while fruit water was fairly common, fruit juice was not, so I had to make it myself.

When the afternoon came around, I went to help my mom prepare for tonight's dinner. Together, we cleaned the house, prepared some bread just in case, cut the meat into steaks, and chopped up sausages and vegetables for the soup. I roasted some Rush Boar bones and boiled them to make a stock for the soup, which is very time-consuming, and not something commonly done. Once it got closer to dinner time, I set out the steaks to let them dry out for a bit and started preparing the salad, while mom worked on the soup.

When dad got home, he was immediately kicked out of the kitchen area by mom and told to go clean up for dinner, she seemed more nervous about the dinner than I felt. After leaving the steaks out for about an hour, I prepared to cook them by frying some garlic and rosemary in butter, then straining them out of the melted butter. Next, I seared the sides of the steaks before laying them down and basting them with the flavor-infused butter. After getting a nice brown, I set them in the oven to finish bringing them up to temp.

As soon as appraisal told me the steaks had reached a nice medium-rare temperature, I removed them, setting them on a wooden board to rest. The steaks had cooled to the proper serving temperature before Miya arrived, so I stored them in my item box to keep them hot. I also grabbed the vinaigrette from my room and shook it up before tasting the flavor, I had to add a little honey to cut the bitterness of the vinegar, so I was glad I tasted it.

Shortly after I finished my preparations, I saw Miya and her mom Maya standing on the road with Maya looking between the house and my map. Realizing why she seemed so unsure, I quickly left the house to greet them and bring them in.

"Good evening, you are at the right place," I called out to the two of them before they could decide whether to come up to the house or not, "Come on in, we just finished cooking dinner."

"So this is the right place, I thought maybe I had read the map wrong," Maya responded with an almost strained smile.

"Your house is so big! Why didn't you tell me?! We could have played here!" Miya cheerfully commented on the size of the house and property

"Ha ha, perhaps next time we can use my place instead, but it is pretty far from your place," I replied with a wry smile, taking the map that Maya held out to me and leading them inside.

Once we were inside and introductions were done, I led them to sit at the table before pulling out a bottle of nice wine that I had gotten from Jay's store and helping my mom serve the food. I had guessed correctly, Maya brought some fresh bread she baked, and it was delicious. The dinner was a big hit with everyone, dad was saying that he would never eat plain salad again, and Miya agreed, saying plain vegetables were no good, and she also drank quite a bit of the juice I made.

While Maya and my mom didn't actually may not have said anything, it was apparent that they also preferred salad this way, and they also seemed to like the juice when they tried it. I offered the leftover fruit from making the juice as dessert, but Miya was the only one who accepted with her eyes shining.

"I'm going to start the water heater," I said after a few minutes of resting post-meal.

"What's that? I'll go with you." Miya quickly said, still somewhat overly energetic, and brimming with curiosity. She's definitely one of those energetic types.

"Alright, come with me and I'll show you," I said, leaving the table and heading toward the back door.

Miya quickly followed behind me, and I heard Maya asking my mom about the water heater while we were exiting through the back door. Showing Miya over to the water heater, I explained what it was and what it did, telling her about the bath I had built. She seemed very envious that I could use so much hot water during the winter and started bothering me to let her use it too.

With the fire going, I also used magic to heat the water faster since in normal circumstances, I would have started the water heater before dinner. Then, with a wry smile caused by Miya pestering me about using the bath, I led her back into the house, where I learned that Maya had also expressed interest in the bath, so I had my mom take a bath bomb to get more opinions on it, and told the girls to use it first, saying that the water should be ready shortly since I used magic to speed up the process.

While they went to the bath, dad continued drinking, while I busied myself making more soap and shampoo, and preparing the ingredients to make more bath bombs. An hour or so later, the girls came out of the bath, all of them raving about the bath bombs, but said it would be nice if there were different scents. Miya and Maya were over the moon after having experienced a bath for the first time, it seemed like they would be coming by at least a few times a month to use it.

After walking them out of the house and saying goodbye to the mother/daughter duo, giving Miya another fruit while I was at it, I was finally able to take a bath and prepare for bed myself. During the bath, I was joined by Kaede and the group of bath-loving spirits. They drank the juice I had left from dinner while enjoying the bath and talking to me about a whole bunch of things, they did confirm that my mom was slowly being cured though.

After my bath, I did my usual routine of manipulating my mana until I was tired enough to fall asleep. I haven't been gaining much of anything from this practice for a while now, but I still keep at it every night, adjusting how much mana is being sent where by tiny amounts while also focusing on making sure the flow is consistent and smooth.

The following day, I went back to doing my usual stuff; physical training, magic practice, working on custom chess sets, etc. I also didn't forget to stop by to spend time with Miya, while I was at it, I gave some larger jars to Maya for making yeast in large quantities. After a few weeks of training, Miya was able to manipulate her mana at will, and I confirmed with Detailed Appraisal that she gained the skill for it. I told her to continue practicing every night and told her to try sending her mana to two different parts of her body at the same time in equal or differing quantities, changing it up regularly, and began teaching her magic.

Because Miya didn't have much talent for magic, I mainly taught her neutral magic, and then taught her basic wind and water magic as well. Despite trying, she was only able to use those three types of magic plus alchemy. Unfortunately, alchemy requires knowledge more than anything else, so it would not be easy for her to learn a lot of alchemy, which is why I focused on alchemy that would be useful in cooking and baking.

I managed to sell bath bombs to Jay for a large lump sum, I may have used slightly unfair methods to sell it though. I gave him two bath bombs and told him to try one out himself, and to have a female test out the other, due to his wealth, I was sure he had a bath at his home. From what he told me the next day when I saw him again, he enjoyed it, but the female he had chosen to test it had come at him with scary eyes, making sure he obtained the rights to it at 'all costs'. Judging by the look he had on when telling me this, he was not embellishing at all.

While we were finalizing the sale of the bath bomb, Jay told me that he would have to once again head to the capital to get the duke's assistance with the new products and that he would have to get other merchants involved to keep up with demands. Jay would head for the capital the week after next because he would be going to the city of Reginston in a few days to meet with a magic tool craftsman he had invested in.

Wanting to visit a magic tool workshop myself, I asked him if I could go with him if I got approval from my parents. He agreed, even though he had never met my parents before, so I decided to convince my parents to let me go as soon as my dad got home. I was sure my dad would easily approve, but my mom would certainly be more challenging.

I was right in my assessment of the situation. My dad gave me permission pretty much as soon as I finished asking the question. My mom, on the other hand, was not so keen on the idea, asking me a bunch of questions about the trip. I eventually got her approval by telling her that by going there, I may get ideas for new magic tools like the jetted bath, kitchen range, or the washer/dryer I had made more recently. I told her there was also the possibility that the workshop may be able to improve some of my creations.

After I got the approval, I started planning for the trip, storing magic tools in my item box, drawing designs for each, and creating modified versions. I also took my mom to meet with Jay the next day, so there wouldn't be any confusion. Both Jay and my mom were surprised at how I had kept the two parts of my life completely separate and secret from each other. I also had to tell Miya that I would be gone for a few days, which she did not seem happy about and gave Maya a recipe for an apple turnover and some sugar to make it with.

Three days later, we were preparing to leave town in the morning. Jay had three carriages this time, with him in the middle carriage and the front and rear carriages were for transporting goods. He also hired an adventurer party that specializes in escort requests, which my dad gave extra training to apparently. I decided to sit on top of the carriage after we departed since it was my first trip out of town, and I saw 2 adventurers on the back of the front carriage, and one standing next to the driver.

Talking to the adventurers, I learned that they would alternate between sitting on the backs of the lead and last carriages, standing next to the driver, and walking. This would keep them in peak condition to fight, and able to quickly respond to any situations that may occur. They taught me a lot about escort requests and general adventurer stuff since I told them that I planned to be an adventurer when I came of age.

Between presence detection, magic detection, and the fact that I was sitting on the top of the carriage, occasionally enhancing my eyes to see farther, I was able to detect when any monster came within my range. Because I noticed them the fastest, including some monsters that had stealth skills, they didn't have any problems with me using magic to kill them and collecting their bodies. They said that their main purpose was to protect their clients, and deal with any bandits if they see them, not to hunt monsters.

I tried shooting monsters with my bow from the top of the carriage to prevent myself from getting bored. I learned that enchanting the arrow with wind magic would improve the distance it could fly, while also helping to keep the arrow on course. Enchanting an arrow with earth magic would increase the impact force, water would freeze the impact zone, and fire would cause a small explosion. For obvious reasons, I did not use fire-enchanted arrows to hunt monsters that have usable materials.

I knew it would take almost 2 days to get to Reginston, so I wasn't surprised we stopped for the evening. When I got down from the top of the carriage I spoke to the adventurer group and got one of them to agree to help me dismantle my prey in exchange for meat. It somehow ended up with me being the one to make dinner for everyone, though the two female adventurers agreed to help me. I used magic to wash fresh vegetables from my item box and pulled out a portable magic stove I made to be able to cook dinner. Everyone made quite a fuss when I pulled out the portable magic stove for one reason or another.

"Seriously, if you have items like that, you should tell me about it, I would love to sell them!" Jay said to me in a scolding tone. It seems to think that I intend to sell all of my ideas through him.

"That's why I wanted to come on this trip, so I could meet with a trusted magic tool craftsman and talk about producing items like this. It wouldn't end well if I sold all of my ideas to only one person or company, so I need to diversify a bit otherwise people will start causing a fuss." I replied to him without even looking up from the stew I was making.

"Having a magic tool like that would certainly be helpful for adventurers like us who spend most of their time traveling." Said one of the girls that were helping me prepare dinner.

"Sure, if you have someone who can use Item Box, if not, then it would be pretty difficult carrying this with you. That's why I have an even smaller, more portable version. I call them both camp stoves, one is just a single burner camp stove, and the other is a double burner." I replied to her innocent musings without thinking, which caused another fuss.

When the stew was ready, we served it up, saying people could grab their own second helpings if they needed more and then I pulled out a couple of rounds of bread from my item box for people to share.

"The hell is this?! It's not hard at all?! It's delicious!" Yelled the first adventurer to try some bread, causing everyone to look at the bread before turning to me.

"It's bread, what does it look like?" I replied while shrugging. "There's a catkin run bakery on the southeast side of town called the Cat's Paw. You can buy this kind of bread there."

"Seriously?! Why have I never heard of the place?! I even live in that area!" Cried another adventure after trying it and hearing what I said.

"Huh, and here I was sure that this was another something you did. How did you even find that bakery?" Jay asked me.

"Mm… I'm friends with her daughter Miya, although I'm sure I would have found it eventually even if that weren't the case." I replied, after which Jay stared at me with obvious accusation in his eyes but I pretended I didn't see anything.

Eventually, the fuss calmed down, so everyone was able to finish dinner, after which the adventurer group talked about who was going to be on watch when and I asked if I should set up a monster warding barrier around the camp, which they were grateful for. I guess it is less stressful watching out just for bandits than it is watching for both.

In the morning we had leftover soup, bread, and bacon before starting to travel again. I alternated between sitting in the carriage with Jay talking with him about various things, riding on top of the carriage, shooting monsters that showed up within my range, and running alongside the carriage as training.

We arrived and Reginston in the late afternoon, and joined the queue of carriages to enter the city. There was a separate line for people traveling on foot since they didn't need as much of an inspection to enter. The line moved surprisingly quickly, and we were soon the next group in line.

"Please provide your identification. How many carriages are in your convoy, and what is the purpose of your visit?" Asked the guard, prompting Jay to open the carriage window to answer the guard.

"3 carriages, I'm a merchant here on business. I will also be meeting with Tristan Valeria tomorrow." Said Jay, showing his merchant's guild card.

After Jay spoke, we all showed our guild cards then the guards completed a quick inspection of the carriages before we were allowed into the city. We first went to check in at the inn, where Jay had made a reservation through his employees, who worked at the branch in this city. The adventurer party then went to check in with the guild, to report our safe arrival, and check for information about monsters and bandits in the area. We would be in town for three days, so they could choose to take on daily requests, or just relax until it was time to depart.

Jay took me to a restaurant with open-air seating on the roof, the ambiance was stunning, and the tables were separated by flowering ivy curtains that looked like clematis and cypress vines mixed together. There were trusses set up with dim lights hanging from them and dim candle-like magic tools on each table. Even though I was only 8 years old, the sight was the most amazing I had seen, even compared to my Earthly knowledge.

"Is something wrong?" Jay asked me after noticing I had gone quiet.

"No, it's just I didn't expect this place to have such an amazing view," I responded honestly.

"Thank you, I'll be sure to let the owner know you said that. Do you want to hear what we have?" Said the waitress that led us to our table.

"No thanks, we'll have two specials, ale for me and fruit water for the kid if you have it," Jay responded, ordering for the two of us with a confident tone.

"I come here every time I visit, and the special has never let me down," Jay told me after the waitress had left.

The special turned out to be a steak with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables on the side, fortunately, they at least put salt and butter on the vegetables. As Jay had suggested, the meal was quite good, much to my surprise. While food varieties were still limited here, they seemed to have a larger selection of spices available.

After dinner, we stopped by the merchants guild to check for recent bandit reports and such before heading back to the inn. It was a nice inn with comfortable beds, but only the best rooms have baths available, so I had to make do with wiping myself down with water that I had warmed with magic. Perhaps in the future, I could add a bath to my dimension home to avoid a repetition of this issue.