Several days passed.
And the letter was this:
[Please show this letter to the Village Chief.]
… They don’t intend to hide it?
Well, because of that, Nayuta was bringing the letter to me. Keeping Meat at my side, I met with her in the parlor with a table between us. Setsuna wasn’t here since she was working.
“Village Chief-san, a letter arrived from my client for you.”
“Yeah, it’s a long term commission. Wakoku’s daimyo… Ah, a daimyo is like an empire’s emperor.”
Wakoku. So it’s showing up now…
“You two came from Wakuko?”
“Hoh… so, what does Wakoku’s daimyo want with me?”
“Maybe to be a scout? I reported that you were strong after all.”
Ah, she didn’t hide that either. Isn’t she actually pretty open about all this? She might even tell me a few things if I asked her directly.
“… Oh, right right. Before that, could you check this out for a moment? I picked it up in the dungeon, but I don’t know what it is.”
Nayuta suddenly pointed a gun at me. It’s a revolver-type pistol.
… Meat responded to my subtle reaction, standing in front of me as though to block the way. Man this girl’s so awesome…
“Oh, you reacted? As I thought, you—”
“Mu, now that you mention it…”
Nayuta took her finger off of the trigger and pointed the gun down.
Now that I’m taking a closer look at the gun, isn’t it odd? It’s a revolver, but there’s no hammer. Moreover, the revolver’s cylinder is copper… huh? There aren’t any holes that should be there to load bullets into? Capped?
I’m not a gun maniac so I’ve never seen a real gun in person, so I wouldn’t be able tell if it’s real or not if someone told me there was a gun like that.
“So, would you explain to me what caused you to send so much bloodthirst to your employer?”
“… You’ll go bald if you fuss on the details—sorry Kuroinu-senpai please stop it with the knife on my neck sorry Village Chief-san sorry for what I said sorry!”
Yep, Meat closed the distance in an instant and held the knife up against her throat. As for her standing on the table to do it… well, let’s go with it being fine for this. Nayuta’s holding up her arms like she’s in a holdup. She even dropped her gun to the floor.
“Ah, yep. I’m not going bald, I’m still young. Well, it’s all good… Kuro, let her go. How about I read the letter from that daimyo person now?”
I opened the letter.
Are they trying to see my reaction, or is there another reason? … I don’t know.
By the way, this is what the letter says:
How is this vividly green season treating you? If you don’t mind, would you pay a visit to Wakoku? I’m certain that Nayuta must have done something rude, but as it was due to my instruction, she had no choice. If you are Japanese, I would absolutely love to speak with you. If the time comes that you would pay a visit, we would shoulder all of the traveling expenses for you to do so. We have sashimi, soy sauce, and miso soup. [1]
… A Japanese person? Really. Really now.
This is a seriously troublesome person. Super troublesome.
Alright, I decided. I saw nothing!
For the time being, I can’t read it.
After turning the letter upside down, narrowing my eyes, flipping it over and scowling at it, I held it out to pass to Meat.
“Hmph, Kuro. Can you read it?”
“… I’m not too good at reading and writing. So, how about it, Kuro? Can you?”
“Umm, Goshujin-sama. This letter appears to be written in unreadable characters.”
As a result of her education, Meat’s able to read this the letters commonly used in this world. In other worlds, this is probably written in Japanese after all. Wakoku has a lot of mysteries to it.
Come to think of it, didn’t Wataru end up heading over to Wakoku? Let’s ask him about it next time he’s here.
“That so? Well, if those characters aren’t from around it, it’s natural I couldn’t read it either then.”
I pleaded that I couldn’t read it since I was stupid… was I a bit too forceful about it there?
“So, what’s it say? You can read it, right Nayuta?”
“Yeah… Hmm, it’s about being a scout after all. It’s talking about the conditions for being employed, it even looks like the annual salary’s a thousand gold! That’s as much as an A-Rank adventurer.”
I doesn’t say anything about a thousand gold income anywhere though? Guess they worked that out beforehand.
Oh right. I saw nothing. I read nothing.
“Unfortunately, I’m this village’s Village Chief, so I have responsibilities. I’ll have to refuse… I’m not troubled by money either though, and most of all I look shady.”
“If Goshujin-sama refuses, so do I.”
“Yeah, I get it. Well, I’ll write back saying you refused then.”
Her hand waving, Nayuta responded as though it were trivial.
Looks like decided that I saw nothing was the right answer. Booyah.
“Incidentally, could you give me a closer look at that item? You said you got it from the dungeon, but this is the first time I’ve seen it. I’d like to check it out as the Village Chief, even buy it if I could.”
I touched on the subject of that gun.
When I said ‘buy it’, Nayuta’s tail sprung up.
“Ah~, sorry. To be honest, this is something I made myself. Me getting it from the dungeon was a lie.”
“… As you guessed, it’s a magic tool weapon. It’s something I tried reproducing from the world of the Heroes. Its strength, currently… well, it’s basically a kid’s plaything.”
Saying that, she shot the gun towards the wall. With a sound that felt lacking, something lightly struck the wall much with a sound that sounded like a small rock hit it.
… When I looked at it, the conical bullet looked like a dart. Bullets weren’t this shape right? They should be more aerodynamic. Moreover, judging by the feeling of this, it’s iron, not lead. Heeeh.
“The real thing seems to be something that fires bullets through an explosion though. It didn’t shoot like I’d planned when I tried making it as a magic tool, so it’s not even strong enough to stick to wood doors. It’d be bad if it got you in the eye though… Honestly, it’d be stronger to just throw the bullet. Haah… I wonder if I should come at it from some other way?”
It’s apparently something that came about through Nayuta’s own trial and error.
Looks like she wasn’t told much about guns and gunpowder. The looks of it surprised me though.
“… You’re reproducing magic tools from the heroes’ world? Well, if it’s something that originally has enough power to be a weapon, I’m sure their world has developed their understanding of magic considerably.”
“Really now? Then how are you having it explode?”
“Ah, yeah. I do.”
When I said that, Nayuta shot forward, leaning over the table.
“… Um, could you introduce me? I’ll pay for the referral fee!”
“I’ll introduce you to him the next time he’s here.”
It’s about time Hero Wataru will be heading over to make a payment on his debt.
According to him from when he came before the Dungeon Battle, Haku-san gave him an absurd job for the duration of the whole thing. Moreover, he even brought the portion of the payment he wouldn’t be able to pay for the time he couldn’t come here.
She’d meet him at reception or while waiting on tables either way, so it’s not like I’ll be asking her for a referral fee though.
Note that Wakoku is written in kanji in the letter. The daimyo also refers to themselves as [Watashi (feminine ‘I’)]. Return