Certainly, With This…

The sleepwear prepared for him was quite high quality—made of fabric far finer than even Kikori’s own clothes.

When he stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in it, Aria came closer and sniffed at him.

“Mhm, you’re properly clean now.”

“Uh…”

“I washed and hung your clothes earlier, so they should be dry by morning.”

“Thank you very much.”

“But still, you should buy a spare set of clothes too. It’ll add to your luggage, but it’s important.”

“Y-yeah. Once I can settle on a regular inn.”

“Yes, that would be best.”

At a one-thousand-yen flophouse where everyone slept together, having something like that would only raise the chance of being targeted.

At the very least, he needed a private room—and one that could be properly locked—for several days at a time. Otherwise, trying to live comfortably would only increase the danger.

“Alright, I’m going to take a bath too… so while I’m gone, why don’t you do a little studying, Kikori?”

“Studying…?”

“Yes, this. I found it earlier.”

As she said that, Aria handed him a single book.

He still couldn’t read the title… but when he opened it, it was full of pictures—more like a picture book… no, more like a textbook of some sort.

“Could this be… for learning letters?”

“Exactly right! That’s a children’s textbook. I didn’t remember throwing it away, so I figured it might still be around—and sure enough.”

“Yeah, with this…”

Even if it was for children, he still couldn’t read—but with pictures, he could at least tell “what it was depicting.”

From there, he could guess “it’s probably this,” infer the words, and by repeating that process, it felt like learning to read might actually be possible.

“Thank you. I’ll start reading it right away.”

“Good, good. I’ll test you later, so make sure you read it properly.”

“Ahaha… I’ll do my best.”

Seeing Aria disappear into the bathroom, Kikori sat down on the floor and began reading the book.

“This is… a horse, right? And this one’s a cow… this is firewood, I guess? If that’s the case…”

It’s well made, Kikori thought.

Since being born into this world, he’d never had the chance to learn letters, and in fact, unless you were a priest, there wasn’t much point in knowing how to read in daily life.

But for an adventurer’s life, understanding writing was essential.

Even the herb-gathering paper he’d been given on his first day—he still didn’t fully understand it.

If he could read… the things he could do would increase. That much was certain.

“This is a sword? No, a weapon? Not just weapon, then… so this is how you read ‘sword’…”

It was fun. Exciting.

Savoring that primitive sense of anticipation, Kikori immersed himself in the book.