After a few long minutes of waiting, the door to Sophia's room slowly opened. The three women were wearing their respective dresses. Both Nayta and Melina wore the same dress they used during their breakfast yesterday. As the dresses and equipment from the dungeon core's store were magically made, they also had an auto-clean function incorporated into them.
"Let's have breakfast first," Sophia said to Ein, standing guard at the door.
Seeing her acting normally after what happened, Ein was convinced that nobles really don't care about having their bodies seen by their servants. Ein just smiled wryly before guiding them to the first floor's balcony table again.
While they were moving towards the balcony, the maid who stayed up with Ein guarding said her goodbyes as another maid replaced her as Sophia's aide. For some reason, though, the young lady maid was glaring at Ein with a deep frown. Ein, having no idea why she was glaring at him, just left it alone.
"Mr. Rain, you can eat with us too, you know?" Sophia urged. "I remember that you didn't have lunch and dinner yesterday too; you should eat while you can."
Ein, who didn't really need to eat human food to maintain his body, was a little troubled. However, turning down the offer from the employer seemed out of the question. Having no choice, Ein sat down and joined the three for breakfast.
'The others would be suspicious of me if I didn't eat anything for a long time.' Ein thought.
Soon after, food came streaming in from inside the inn. The three girls, who got close to each other in a short time, were chatting enthusiastically amongst themselves. Ein felt so out of place that he just tried to focus on the taste of the food.
Ein, who had the taste buds of a veteran warrior, could deliciously eat almost any meal as long as it was edible. However, to him, unpalatable food was still unpalatable. The food, similar to yesterday's, was still lightly seasoned. So much that he felt that he was almost eating everything raw, with no seasonings whatsoever.
Thinking back, even the food they ate back at the guild was the same blandly seasoned food.
'Maybe this is part of their culture?' Ein couldn't help but wonder.
Similar to yesterday, he just ate slowly, acting as if he was savoring the food.
"All sorts of seasonings, such as pepper and sugar, are currently lacking," Sophia muttered while eating. "That's why food all around the southern part of the Kingdom, the farthest from the other territories, has degraded to such a poor level."
"As of now, only the minimum amount of salt manages to reach remote areas such as Jurim City."
Hearing this, Ein suddenly realized, "Then the talk with the city Lord is..."
"Yes, it is actually regarding this matter." Sophia nodded.
"As you have probably heard already, due to the increased activity of monsters, a lot of farms were unable to reach their target harvest. Our Auxburn territory was similarly hit as hard as Count Jurim's territory." She spoke as if this information was commonly known.
"Luckily, the normal food crops were safe and were harvested early. Only the high-value ones like black pepper, sugar, chili, and such were affected heavily, almost reducing their circulation to a stop. Even importing the products from other territories had its limits." Sophia sighed deeply.
"So the Auxburn family wants to join hands with the Jurim family in reviving the farms?" Ein asked.
"That may solve the problem later on, but the problem is that it would take time. We needed a faster solution." Sophia squinted her eyes as she stared at Ein. "And that is by resuming trading with the demi-humans down south."
Ein now noticed why Sophia suddenly spoke about such things to him. Currently, he was looking like an elf; in other words, he could be a representative of Sophia in relaying this information to the other demi-human communities around the forest. With his help, as a demi-human himself, the other party should at least not doubt the credibility of her words.
'Wait, can't I use this opportunity to promote my territory?' Ein suddenly thought.
"So you mean you want me to be a middleman in your negotiation with the other demi-humans?" Ein asked.
"Fufu. If my eyes aren't lying to me, then you should be someone of high standing amongst the elves." Sophia giggled as she stared at Ein. "I believe that if I have your help, the elves at least should quickly agree."
Ein, as the dungeon master, is someone of high standing if looked at from a demi-human perspective. He can even be called the God of demi-human races if they believe in the creation myth of the world. However, no matter how high his standing was, he was still an outsider to the elves. His words may contain some weight, but he doubts if his opinion can have any significant effect in convincing them to agree with the trade.
Ein looked at Nayta and Melina, both of whom had stopped eating and were looking a bit downhearted. Their people, probably the closest to the edge of the forest, were attacked by a dragon and were displaced. Now, the elves were scattered all around the forest, with no single place to stay.
He tried to think about what would happen if he told Sophia about the situation with the elves. However, he ultimately decided not to. If he did tell her about the story, then sooner or later, the humans would send a subjugation squad for the dragon, aiming to gain the favor of the elves. However, along the path to the elves' territory, they would be passing by the newly established Castle Town. A subjugation squad strong enough to dispatch a dragon shouldn't have any problem eliminating the whole dungeon in an instant, and Ein couldn't afford such a risk.
"Thank you for believing in my abilities, but I cannot promise to get the other elves to agree," Ein said with a smile. "Though I promise to do as much as I can to convince them."
If he were to gather all the scattered elves around the forest, make them live in his town, and then make them agree to the trade with Sophia, Ein would greatly profit. Ein decided to send a message to Lilith regarding his current idea of saving the scattered elves. After sending a one-sided transmission of his order to Lilith, Ein refocused on his current conversation.
"Then I'll hold you on that promise as I wait and pray for a positive reply." Sophia smiled sweetly.
Shortly after, the group finished their breakfast and returned to their rooms to change. Although the three girls went to Sophia's room instead, Ein was alone as he went to their rented room. There, Ein was allowed to rest until noon, as he should be tired after not sleeping all through the night. The guarding duty during that time would be handled by the other guards, Nayta and Melina.
Ein, having nothing to do, took out the remote dungeon core and stared at the catalog. However, he almost dropped the orb as he was looking at it.
"M-My DP is just three digits?!"
Ein was shocked. Although he did say to Lilith that she could use DP as she saw fit when he ordered her to gather the scattered elves, he didn't expect it all to vanish instantly. It should have surpassed a million by then, but it just all vanished like ice to the spring sun.
However, he had already given his order, and Lilith had already spent the DP they had. Ein can't do anything but trust Lilith's judgment for now. Although spending such an amount willy-nilly caused him heartache, the results should be several folds of their invested amount. Just remembering how Lilith used around 50,000 DP to earn around half a million DP in a week, he decided to leave things to her for now.
"Although I don't have enough DP in case of an emergency, I think we can already handle just about any trouble with our current equipment," Ein convinced himself.