Survive in the parallel world, please!

134 The faithful mage (that can’t cast any spells)

The dark figure of a tall and bulky man was towering on the entrance of the bakery. The girl behind the counter felt a shiver running down her spine as the man stepped inside panting heavily.

It was almost closing time and she wasn’t supposed to be alone that day, but her co worker left early to take care of her son.

A loud metallic sound echoed in the bakery, it was Bob who left his hammer in the ground.

Poor Mary was scared out of her wits, her hands started shaking in fear and her teeth clattered against each other.

“Oh, I’m sorry, you must be cold. I’ll close the door right now”

Bob said in a friendly manner, thinking that maybe the girl felt cold because he left the door wide open behind him. But it only made things worse, feeling trapped, the girl was about to scream bloody murder, only then she noticed Bob’s glimmering eyes as he leaned on the counter.

“Oh! these look so good! Veronika’s gonna love them! and this!? what’s this?”

Bob walked from one side to the other inside the bakery with a broad smile.

.....

“T-that’s a mirth cake”

“Mirth cake!? I want it! and these ones too! oh, and a loaf of breed. Whew I’m so glad I made it in time”

“What do you mean?”

“My girlfriend asked me to bring a loaf of bread, but the quest took too long”

For some reason, Bob felt comfortable speaking with people behind counters. They never judged the client, the only downside was they always tried to push him to buy more stuff than he needed.

That’s how Bob met Mary, it was scary, but it soon became a good memory thanks to the friendship they built over the time.

The first encounter with Bob usually went like that and soon people began chatting behind his back. Bob was completely oblivious of his fearsome appearance, but the main topic of the rumours had nothing little to do with that. Instead, everyone talked about the gentle warrior who was always smiling, the same that would remember everyone’s names and yet he would only speak to them when he was buying something.

Veronika, of course, found out about these rumours, but she didn’t mind at all. All she wished for was to live a peaceful life with Bob, marry him and start a family. But there was something worrying her.

She used to be a prostitute and, as such, she had to take contraceptive medicine for years and its side effects were well known. Said medicine was actually just an infusion of a poisonous herb named Vadila, it was dirt cheap because it was found nearly everywhere and was mostly considered a weed. It wasn’t toxic enough to kill people, but a woman wouldn’t be able to get pregnant if she consumed it regularly. Sadly, long term ingestion also caused infertility.

It was impossible for Veronika to bear Bob’s child.

Everytime she thought about this she would cry herself dry. Bob was the most gentle, kind and pure hearted man she had ever known, while she was an old prostitute that had nothing to offer at all. She felt worthless,not only she had been with many different men and done unspeakable things, but also she would never be able to give him a son, she was poor and as if that wasn’t enough she was also weak.

Although she did everything in her power to keep her insecurtities from Bob, he eventually noticed and tried his best to make her happy again.

Everytime he would go questing, he would come back with gifts, flowers, pastries, anything that brought a smile to her face.

It wasn’t until she found about the rumours from Mary from the bakery, that a glimmer of hope came to her in the form of an idea. If she convinced Bob to take a second wife, they would be able to build a normal family and would finally be completely happy.

But Bob didn’t want that, everytime Veronika brought up the idea of finding another woman, Bob would try to reassure her that he would always love her and only her.

The more Veronika tried to push him, the more he would cling to her. The first thing he always did after finishing a quest was to go back home as soon as he got his hands on something to gift her. He ended up going to every single shop in the city and became quite popular among the ladies, which made Veronika really happy.

“Oh! Veronika, just where did you find such a lovely man?”

“Veronika, tell Bob I got some new goods at my shop, I’ll give him a nice discount”

Most people where aware of their relationship and were friendly towards Veronika, she was all Bob talked about after all.

“Say Mary, what do you think about Bob?”

Veronika asked Mary after buying Bob’s favourite cake.

“He’s ok, I guess...”

“Please darling, I’m asking seriously, I won’t mind if you’re honest”

“Well.... At first I thought he was scary, but then, he turned out to be so sweet”

Veronika nodded in agreement, she actually thought the same when she first met him.

“Would you say you like him?”

Mary was taken aback by her question.

“Miss Veronika, what are you saying all of a sudden!?”

Veronika closed in and whispered in her ear

“Mary, I’m looking for a fine and decent woman to be Bob’s second wife”

Mary’s expression brightened.

At the same moment that conversation was taking place, Bob was dealing the last blow to a big rat at the farmlands.

“Thunder bolt!”

He yelled as he let his huge warhammer fall down right on the rat’s skull.

Lorenzo shook his head in resignation, it didn’t matter how many times he begged Bob to not yell random words whenever he was about to hit something, he would still do it the next time.

“You’ll get used soon enough”

Luke placed a hand on his instructor’s shoulder.

“I really don’t want to get used to this, what happens if people listen to him making a fool of himself like that?”

They were on their way back to the adventurer’s guild after finishing a D rank quest that should have taken them at least two days, yet they finished it in the same day they accepted it. All thanks to Bob’s impatience to get back home.

He in such a hurry that when the big rat appeared in front of them, he wasn’t even startled and dealt with it so fast Lorenzo wouldn’t even have noticed if it wasn’t for Bob’s loud fake spell.

“Why does he even do that? he does know he’s not a mage, right?”

Luke shrugged in response and they quickly resumed their walking. After the incident with the red cobra, they made sure to always bring many supports with them. Bringing the loot back by themselves was difficult and supports didn’t charge that much.

Lorenzo’s only worry was that people might start talking about Bob’s weird behaviour behind his back, an adventurer’s reputation meant a lot when trying to rank up and he wanted his students to rank up as fast as they could so he could get his hands on a bigger comission.

Bob said goodbye to everyone as he rushed towards the bakery as he usually did before going back home. He didn’t even give his companions a chance to invite him for a beer or something.

Usually, whenever he went to the bakery he would be greeted by Mary’s smile. But this time he found her blushing in a hot red, almost fuming.

“M-mister Bob! what are you doing here!?”

“Uh? Didn’t you say there would be a fresh batch of mirth cake today?”

“Oh- I mean- I- yes!”

Bob watched Mary as she stuttered, even biting her tongue, thinking maybe she wasn’t feeling ok. He was disappointed when he saw there wasn’t any mirth cake in the counter and Mary couldn’t find the words to explain to him why there wasn’t any cake without telling him that Veronika had been in the bakery just a few minutes ago to ask her if she was interested in becoming Bob’s second wife.

“If you’re not feeling well, I’ll just come back some other day then. Please take care of yourself and let me know if you need anything”

Bob left the bakery in a hurry and went home with a wry smile. ‘I couldn’t get the mirth cake for dinner today, I hope Veronika doesn’t think I forgot about her’ He thought inwardly.

Veronika greeted him at the door and kissed him deeply.

There was a mirth cake and hot tea waiting for him at the table, Veronika had also prepared the bath for him but Bob, thinking he had to make up to Veronika for not being able to bring the cake, didn’t even notice.

He simply held her in his arms and carried her to bed.