(185) The oil peddling Ichinojo (will not happen)
Translator: Tseirp
“Do I seriously have to wear this?”
I immediately regretted promising to act as a Pirate.
There were plenty of types of Pirate so I thought I would pa.s.s as one as long as I wore a red bandana with a horizontal striped shirt and put on a fake mustache. I even considered wearing a sleeveless red shirt with a straw hat.
“Why do I have to wear armor?”
Full body armor — naturally, it wasn’t the armor of j.a.panese warriors, it was Western — a Full Plate.
Just what kind of knight am I — it was a bronze armor that gave me that feeling.
“I’m sorry, Sensei. It’s a customary practice from the old days, it has become a rule for the leader of the Pirates to both wear this bronze armor when they meet.”
“A person would normally die if they put on armor in this kind of season you know?”
Even if your level goes up, the heat is still equally tough for everyone.
The ambient temperate was about 28 degrees. Why must I wear armor in this kind of heat?
“That’s right, you put on the armor and I can act as support to threaten the other party.”
I selected the former Pirate Hallock.
“No, I have already promised myself to wash my feet off the Pirating career.”
“You bring that up only when it’s convenient for you —”
I once again looked at the armor. It was still something all men yearn to try once. However, there’s a catch.
“I ask again, why armor!? If somebody falls into the ocean while wearing armor, they can’t float even if they didn’t eat the Devil’s Fruit!”
“In the past, the Pirate leaders needed to have courage, perseverance and charisma and this was decided by the Pirate who controlled this entire area. Courage — just like Sensei explained, n.o.body can be saved if they fall into the ocean while wearing armor. Wearing such a thing takes courage. Perseverance — The fishing ban takes place during the midsummer day every year so it takes perseverance to wear that armor during that season. And charisma — as you can see, this armor is the embodiment of men’s yearning. No man will not feel the charisma that it exudes. This armor that combines all three pillars, courage, perseverance and charisma, is the proof of a Pirate leader.”
“Even if you call them friendship, effort and victory instead … I want to gather all three pillars together and break them.”
“Hahaha, it would become even hotter if you burn them.”
“That was bad — the temperature won’t fall even if you throw in lame jokes.”
Even though I was complaining, I did want to try putting on the armor.
Maybe I’ll try wearing it.
I got Hallock to teach me how to put it on and wore the armor.
It had a narrower field of view than expected and it was tough trying to move in it. More importantly, it stank. It was probably the remnants of the body odor of the previous guy who wore it.
“Clean!”
First and foremost, I cleaned the armor. The smell was a lot better now.
“Sensei, you can use Lifestyle Magic too?”
“Yeah, a little. Only until Lifestyle Magic III —”
“Lifestyle Magic III!? Doesn’t that mean you can even use Oil Create?”
“Yeah, I can.”
After I said that, Hallock prostrated on the ground again,
“Sensei, could you please give me a hand at night with that Oil Create?”
” … Let me stop you there if you intend to do anything weird with the oil …”
“Wa, please wait. Certainly, Lifestyle Magic is secretly called s.e.xual Life Magic but —”
” … So it’s really called that.”
“But my request is that I wish to eat fried fish. Oil is precious and rarely obtainable after all — ”
“Fried fish huh … I also want to eat that … or rather, let’s eat it!”
Now that I think about it, why have I not eaten fried fish until now? Ah, I see — on the ship, we mostly ate fruits and vegetables and the occasional dried meat. Even though we tried to catch some fish, we totally failed to get any fish to bite. Incidentally, I entrusted the cooking to Pionia in My World.
If we were able to fish, I would rather enjoy the luxury of eating them fried than eating them raw as sashimi. I would want soy sauce if we were going to have sashimi but I’ll end up wanting mayonnaise too if we’re eating them fried.
“Then, Sensei, will you prepare the oil?”
“Yeah — I’ll create the highest quality of oil — bring me a barrel!”
“Right away!”
My Oil Create could hardly allow me to choose the type of oil I create.
However, there was a trick in raising the quality.
“Sensei, I have the barrel!”
“Very well, step away and watch! Boost Oil Create!”
When I released Oil Create with amplified magical power, a large volume of oil gushed out of my armored hand.
With incomparable force and speed, the magical power amplification skill produced cooking oil.
The taste will definitely be better too!
“Oo, amazing! Hey, Sensei, that’s more than enough.”
“Well, it seems like a lot more is going to come out. Hallock, bring more and more barrels!”
“Ye, yes!”
In the end, the oil production stopped after I filled 50 empty barrels with oil.
… While being impressed that they actually had 50 empty barrels, I was reflecting on having gone a little overboard.
“Ichino-sama, apart from the oil you plan to use today, you don’t mind if I sell the others right?”
Carol said with a smile after she heard about the situation and went to the trading post.
In the end, 10 thousand sense — Carol returned with 10 thousand sense.
… Just how did she negotiate until she got approximately 200 sense (about 20 thousand yen) per barrel of oil created for free?
That’s what I thought but,
“No, I was wary of the price dropping so I only sold 5 barrels. I’m glad the trader knew how to evaluate the taste.”
She said with a laugh.
… A barrel was 2000 sense (approximately 20 thousand yen) … !?
“Sensei, won’t you strike it rich if you change job and open an oil store? If you plan to do so, please, by all means, hire us —”
“It won’t happen and I’m not hiring.”
I instantly declined.
But why is it that although I can do so much, I’m still currently jobless?
Incidentally, the fried fish that I enjoyed with everyone from the Fishermen Union was a masterpiece and even Pionia wordlessly requested for seconds when I let her taste it.
I stored a couple in the item bag for Haru and the others.
※※※
The next morning — I rode on my own sailing ship while in armor. The sail had already been swapped with that of a Pirate ship sail without me noticing but I ignored it. It was better than directly drawing on it.
I could not manipulate the ship on my own and I didn’t want to burden Carol with it so, in the end, I had Hallock and 4 others operate the ship. I wanted to complain that if there could be crew members then they could just wear this armor but it was something the leader had to wear so they rejected it.
“But, as expected — the navigation is smooth once you guys put in this much work.”
“Normally we would need even more personnel — it’s a lot stranger that you sailed through the ocean with just the two of you.”
“That’s true.”
The ship sailed straight to the west as we had such idle chat. It seemed like we were sailing up a river but it was apparently not a river but an inland sea.
Then, the ship stopped.
“Ahead is the aforementioned shrimp fishing ground so we don’t have permission to sail our ship further. Normally we can’t even come here but Sensei is a Pirate so we’re not bound by the rules.”
“That’s the setting — Well, the fact that Pirates are allowed to come here is also like an unspoken rule.”
After dropping the small boat down to the sea surface and leaving two people on the ship, we acted as Pirates and followed our original plan, landing on the island.
Now then, how will this unfold?