So far I never once saw a group of monsters outside of the Labyrinth. Be it the zombie Slow Rabbit or Gummi Slime, there wwas always only one opponent, no more, so it probably is the same here.
「About your husband, Miss Honesta… is he an Adventurer?」
「No, he is actually a Blacksmith. See that cabin over there in the distance? That is the one that we own and it is also where we create the ironware that I'm selling in my shop. Well, part of it, because the other half is being sold to the other cities, including the Imperial City.」
「A Blacksmith?」
「Yes.」
「He certainly looks the type. And based on what we saw in your store, I can tell that all the tools you create are of exceptionally high quality.」
「Well thank you, I will be sure to pass that on to him.」
Thanks to Roxanne chatting Honesta up, I have learned another piece of information that could come pretty handy further down the road. If he is a Blacksmith, then it might be a good idea to ask her how did he managed to obtain that particular Job.
「You said that your husband is a Blacksmith, but how did he got that Job?」
「Interested in Blacksmithing as well as being an Explorer? My oh my, what a curious customer I managed to obtain. However, I'm afraid I have to disappoint you on that matter, because only Dwarves can become Blacksmiths.」
「Really? I thought that smithing is something that anyone can do as long as they have the necessary skills for it.」
「What you're talking about is not blacksmithing, but regular smithing, and those are two entirely different procedures.」
「How so?」
「Smithing is when you have a small workstation and a kiln or a fireplace where you can then solidify and finish the goods you created. That is what you had in mind, the job that pretty much anyone can do, regardless of their race. However, blacksmithing is the art of creating weapons and armor specifically using the Skills that are unique to the Dwarves, that's why I said that only they can become proper Blacksmiths.」
「Ohh, I see now. That does sound different than what I had in mind.」
I wasn't expecting this, but apparently smithing is an entirely different beast from blacksmithing, but when I thought about it carefully, it made a surprising amount of sense. After all, the Job of Honesta's husband was a Villager, not a Blacksmith. But I have to say, that bit about Blacksmiths creating weapons and armor by using the Skills that are unique to their Job got me all the more interested in them, which is why it is a damn shame that I won't be able to become a Blacksmith myself, but this is one of the things that my Bonus Skills cannot circumvent because there is no Bonus Skill that would allow me to change my race at will.
「And here it is. We have arrived.」
Going a little further, when we walked along a narrow path, Miss Caretaker pointed to one of the white houses. It was a two-story white house painted with mortar. It is a house identical to those that you could often see in this area and in the town of Veil, so it was probably your typical style of making ordinary houses. It looked pretty plain, but at least the area around it was pretty spacious, which was a welcomed thing in my book. There was a small forest in its immediate surroundings, and it was around ten minutes of walking from the city's center. If I were to compare it to the cramped, suffocating style of building that was typical to modern-day Japan, then I guess you could say that the usage of space was another thing in which this world had my old one beaten, the other being a fact that there are animal-eared cuties like Roxanne in it. There is absolutely no way for me to stop praising the cuteness of her droopy dog ears and petting them whenever I get the chance to do so!
「Is this part of the property the garden?」
「That's right. And since this is a part of it, then you can use it however you like.」
So in addition to the house itself, we will also have an entire garden at our disposal, huh? It was at the other side of the road across from the building itself and was pretty wide, having some bushes and low growing trees. However, that was about it, because the rest of the garden's contents could be summarized with only one word: weeds. A whole lot of weeds, and all of them so overgrown as if nobody took care of them for a pretty long time.
「Looks kinda rough if you asked me.」
「There is a lot of wild Rosemary here, but it truly looks like it's not doing all that well.」
Roxanne informed me as he kneeled down and had a closer look at one of the bushes and plants that still didn't completely turn into weeds. So apparently this herb-like looking thing is Rosemary? I have heard about it back when I wa still on earth, but I also have to admit that I have mainly dealt with the store-bought kind and rarely saw how it looked in its regular plant form, so I had no way of confirming whether or not it was the same as Earth's rosemary or was it different in some way.
「I guess you can say that's what happens when there is no one who would want to rent the property and take proper care of it.」
Honesta explained with a dejected smile on her face when we inquired about the poor state of the garden. I see. Since the garden is part of the entire property, then it being poorly kept would led to the lowering of the property's value as a whole, and that's why Roxanne purposefully mentioned that the Rosemary looks like its in an especially bad state. Nice thinking, Roxanne. Maybe we will be able to actually eat a cake and have ourselves a cake if we play our cards right here.
「You know, I'm not an expert on the subject, but if the garden is in such a state, then doesn't that meant that it will be especially hard for it to make a complete recovery, even if we were to start taking care of it right away?」
「That's true. Even more so since we lack the specialistic knowledge required for the proper care of the plants and trees. ]
Roxanne and I continued our verbal assault. With every word that was hitting the jackpot of the issue here, I could almost see our words stabbing themselves into Honest like in some comedy manga. Who knows, maybe she will really give in to the pressure if we maintain the offensive for a bit more?
「Y-You know, I know it might look like things are pretty bad, but trust me, right now this garden is still at the point where everything can still be recovered back to the state of being perfectly usable, and you should be able to plant and grow other herbs if you want to.」
Growing and cultivating herbs ourselves, huh? Well, when I took a quick look at all the surrounding houses, pretty much all of them had something planted around the areas that were probably their gardens. There were no fences around any of the house premises, so my guess was the the borders between their vicinities were all agreed on between the residents themselves, or perhaps they were strictly visual according to the rule that 「everything from here to here is mine, and from there to there it's not mine, but yours」. In such conditions it would be problematic if we wanted to start growing not only plants, but vegetables as well (assuming that the soil in here would be sufficient enough to even accommodate them), and there was also the issue of monsters and stray animals ruining the crops we would cultivate if they ran through the garden even by accident, so maybe having a fence around our house would not be such a bad idea after all?
「Would it be possible for us to get new seeds to plant them around if we decided to restore the garden after all?」
「If you really decided to do that, then I would be extremely grateful to you. In that case I could give you new seeds and saplings of various plants as a way of thanking you for deciding to rent the property. Oh, we could also sell you hoes, rakes and other gardening tools you would require to maintain the proper care of it.」