524 Touring The Outpost

"Does she… Always look like that when eating sweets?"

"You shut your mouth right now before we shut it for you."

Nom nom nom~

These sweets are so gooooooood~ The breads are delicious too~

Hmm? I think I heard the others talking about something? Or was it just my imagination?

I paused for a moment and looked up, only to see all of them munching on their own pastries while looking elsewhere.

I guess it really was my imagination after all?

"Is something wrong, Mistress? Is one of the sweets not to your liking?" Katsuki asked, concern evident on her face.

"Hmm? Oh, not at all~ I just thought I should see if everyone else is also enjoying their sweets~"

"Oh, you need not worry about that, Aster! They're all delicious!" Lisa assured me.

That's good to hear~ It would be pretty awkward if I was the only one who found the pastries here nice and everyone else was just putting up with it for my sake.

Also, the sweets here aren't like the usual sweets I'm used to and seemed to be a little more on the salty side.

It's not a bad kind of salt, mind you. They're still sweet but most of the sweets have a salty aftertaste to it.

I actually half expected them to all be made or filled with some kind of alcohol or something, given my past knowledge of them from my old World's media.

Then again, considering that Balin was over there drinking a mug of beer, I'd like to think that there's at least some truth to that perception of them. Maybe the sweets here are specially baked for outsiders too?

Speaking of which, I still have a few more pastries left, must not forget to enjoy them! Om nom nom~

Soon enough, my plate was empty again and Katsuki wiped my mouth clean with a handkerchief.

Balin's voice came from the side, "I got to say though… This is the first time I've seen this kind of interaction between you maid trainees."

Odeta looked at him, the sides of her mouth still plastered with crumbs from her meat pie, "Whaddaya mean?"

He gestured towards Katsuki and I, "I mean that. Well, I'm in no position to say anything considering I don't really know how you maids work, but this is the first time I've seen one of you trainees address another as 'Mistress'."

Without missing a beat, Katsuki replied, "That is because she is my Mistress."

Balin simply shrugged as though he could not be bothered to know more.

He then took another swig from his mug, emptying the rest of its contents down his throat before slamming it down on the table with a sigh of contentment.

"Alright! You ladies ready to continue the tour?"

Everyone turned to look at me.

Err… Well… I see everyone has finished eating, though you might want to wipe your mouth first, Odeta…

I nodded at him, prompting him to lead the way out to continue the tour.

As we left the bakery, we noticed a trio of rather familiar Mahuns on the street opposite of us talking to a few Rejmars that looked rather important.

"Hey, Balin?" I called out, prompting our guide to pause. "What are they doing here?"

He looked in the direction of the Mahuns, "Oh, they're already here? Remember what I said about us finding a Dungeon nearby? I believe those should be Adventurers sent here to inspect the Dungeon. They'll report back to the Guild about its size and threat later on."

Ohhh~ So they're actually Adventurers? That's pretty cool.

"Where's the Dungeon?" Odeta asked, her eyes shining.

Hehe, sounds like Odeta wants to go Dungeon diving again.

Our Rejmar guide pointed towards the entrance of the village, "Not that far. Just follow the road out of the village and keep to the left. You'll see a cave with a sign we placed in front of the entrance. Why? You wanna go take a look too?"

Odeta smirked, "Yeah! Especially if there's strong monsters for me to challenge too!"

"Hmm… I don't know about the monsters since none of us took a look inside. But maybe you can ask those three to bring you along on their survey?"

The Amrap immediately turned to me, "Can we, Sister Aster?! I wanna go see the Dungeon!"

Lisa stuck out her tongue, "Bleh… Can we just relax these few days, Odeta? We've been fighting that Head Maid constantly the past few days and I would prefer not to do more fighting if I can help it…"

Hmm… I actually agree with Lisa for this one.

As much as I'm curious about the Dungeon, we really have been doing nothing but fighting Mary for quite a long time. Even if the others don't say it, I think they're pretty sick of it too.

"Maybe we'll just let those three survey the Dungeon first and go after they are done? Or we can take a peek at it in a few days after we've rested a bit more?" I suggested.

Odeta didn't even argue and gave me a thumbs up with a dazzling smile.

I wanna pat her…

Ahem…

Our guide continued our tour of the trading outpost, showing us a few other shops that cater towards outsiders in particular around here.

The interesting thing was that aside from those three Mahuns, I have yet to see another being that wasn't a Rejmar inside the outpost.

I guess they aren't that popular with outsiders yet?

Then again, I suppose there's not a lot of reasons for anyone to come all the way out here in the middle of nowhere on top of a blistering cold mountain range…

"What is the specialty of this place?" I asked our guide.

"Huh? Specialty?"

I nodded, "Yeah. There must be something this place has that would make people want to come here right? I don't think a Dungeon is enough of a reason for people to traverse the mountain range to get here unless that Dungeon is special?"

He scratched the side of his head, "Err… If you ask me, I think we're just a normal trade outpost though? There's several places like this spread out around the mountain since we have a good relationship with the Magridars around here."

"Oh, but what do you two get from each other?"

"Ah… Young missy is talking about why we're working together like that aye? There's ores and materials that can only be found outside of the mountains that the Magridars can easily get to so we rely on them for that. In return we have stonemasons, Geomancers and smiths who would trade their services for such goods."

"Eh? But I thought the Magridars have their own Geomancers?"

"Oh for creating their homes, sure. But the smaller and more delicate stuff is made by us. Ya know, their water supply, their Mana dependent furniture and what not. It's an interesting relationship we have even if I do say so myself. Plus, they like our alcohol too~"

I'd bet the last reason is the real reason why they work together.

Oh well, as long as it works for them? Not like it's any of my business anyway.

Speaking of which…

"How did you guys even build these outposts? Do you also trek up the mountains from somewhere?"

He let out a bellow of laughter, "Oh by Ralaie no! There's no way outposts like ours can survive on our own!"

Balin then pointed towards the largest building all the way at the end of the path, also carved out of the mountain.

"You see that building there? That's our meeting hall. At the back there's a tunnel that's connected to the other tunnels that we dug out inside the mountain. We have a network of them that connects to all the major cities and outposts like ours so it's not like we're cut off from our cities. Besides, only a few of us actually live here. Most of us are just here on rotation and we switch out every couple of months."

Ah, I see… So that's how this place works.

"So you get your trade materials and stuff from the main cities too, right?"

Balin then raised an eyebrow at me, "Are you training to be an admin maid or something? You're the first one I've met to ask such questions about us."

"Oh! That's because I intend to explore the rest of the World in the future! And I fully intend to explore the Frostiminir Kingdom too!"

"Huh… And here I thought that every one of you who attends this training camp is a… What did they call themselves? Combat maids? Did the criteria change this year or something?"

"Wahaha! That's just because Sister Aster is special of course!" Odeta laughed.

Well, she's not wrong… Since I'm not exactly an actual maid but he doesn't need to know that…

Balin then turned to me, "That's good then. Since no one has shown any interest before, I haven't actually shown that place to any outsiders before because they aren't interested. But do you want to take a look at our tunnels?"

"Eh?! I'd like to but could we fit?"

"Bwahaha! Don't worry about that! Our tunnels aren't that small! Even your Amrap friend over there can fit comfortably! Otherwise we would not be able to transport the larger sized ores through them after all!"

Since you're already offering… Let's go!!