. It"s my disguise, but actually, those two are also disguised.
Unlike usual, Ramis let her hair down instead of her side-ponytail and wearing a soft, wide-brimmed straw hat. Her clothes also conceal her usual vigorous atmosphere with a cardigan and long skirt; it"s like she"s a secluded young lady.
"I,it"s weird isn"t it, Hakkon? Does it suit me?"
"Welcome."
It"s the exact opposite of her usual image, but coupled with her embarra.s.sed gestures it"s unbelievably adorable. Let"s record this with the security camera.
"You"re completely different, Ramis."
Looking hard, I see that the one who said it, Hyurumi, is also looking different.
Appropriately, she just tied back her hair in a braid along her back, and if I look at her head overall, she"s wearing the hat from before.
She"s wearing sleeveless clothes, but at the neckline it"s a turtleneck; her body line is obvious, but … there"s padding at her chest. It"s more splendid then normal. From the low-rise hotpants around her b.u.t.t and thighs extend slender, well-proportioned white legs.
It"s not her usual, unwholesome, slightly dirty appearance, but an outfit that looks athletic.
"Hyurumi"s clothes are cool. Right, Hakkon?"
"Welcome."
"I hate this kinda thing, though."
Scratching her head, she"s embarra.s.sed for once. She"s normally wearing all black and refraining from showing her skin, so I see a new charm to her. The original is good, but if only she took a little more care for her grooming, she"d be popular.
"Then, let"s go spying!"
"Aa, I"m a li"l embarra.s.sed, but shall we go?"
"Welcome."
The three of us are walking about within the community, but since a while ago I"ve been feeling like we"re getting stared at, by both guys and girls.
The men"s glances are those that reveal their desire when they"re faced with great women, but the women also leak out a sigh of admiration from being charmed from time to time. Their levels are high with both genders so I understand why the lines of sight are gathering, but for reconnaissance it"s the wrong disguises.
"Nee, the fake Hakkon"s spot is definitely here, right?"
"Aa, the place is … look, around where that drugstore in front be, looks like."
The moment I heard that, I got a bad feeling. No, rather than a feeling it"s more like a conviction. Or like, I feel like I can see the punchline of this tale.
If the Chain Restaurant is involved in this situation… then it won"t be good to call them out on it. First let"s go to the scene of the crime before coming to any conclusions.
As we proceeded down the main road, gradually the people increased. Right now it"s right before noon, so normally there are a lot of people who gather in front of the Hunters a.s.sociation, but today there weren"t that many people. It seems that they"ve moved over to here, I guess.
When we extracted ourselves to a spot where we could oversee the place the Chain Restaurant had been, the figure of people standing in a line jumps out clearly. Looking at the very front row, there"s a giant white box. Somehow, looks like that"s my fake. From this distance, you can"t make out any more details.
The amount of people lined up for the products is about ten or so. The other twenty or so are eating at the chairs and tables installed outside.
"We"re linin" up behind "em."
"Un, got it."
We line up last and I observe the surroundings until it"s our turn. The fake stands in a way with its back up against the wall of the former Chain Restaurant. The management of the Chain Restaurant isn"t re-starting business; the shop remains closed.
It"s something I realized after gradually getting closer and closer, but that fake is about two times bigger than me all around. The height is well over 2 meters, about there with the Bear President. The width and depth are also about two times mine, you know.
The color and design are close to mine, but it all gives off a cheap kind of feeling. It really feels like somebody put in a lot of effort to hand make it, but it absolutely feels like someone made it in imitation of me.
"-tto, finally, it be our turn."
My face is sticking out of the upper part of the bag, so I can see it well. Yup, it"s imitating my design. But the products lined up are completely different.
Displayed on the top row of the two rows, drinks are splayed out. First, the containers are completely different. They"re all gla.s.s with a cork stopper for a lid. Since the words above the switch for the product names are written in this world"s letters, it seems to be a more user friendly design than mine.
"Sweet tea and water, as well as a fruit juice thing, looks like. Price be 1 silver coin, about."
Hyurumi informs me the information with a whisper. Looks like the beverages available are ones that can be prepared in this world.
"Underneath is food, ne. There"s something with meat, and pasta, and even ingredients sandwiched in bread."
The second row presents the food; kara"age, a ramen look alike, sandwich, and even an oden-like stew is there. They really did a great job, but can they really provide it hot when you order it?
"Right then, how "bout we buy a beverage and food each to try it out?"
Hyurumi pushed a silver coin into the coinslot. That shape is about the same as mine, too. The silver coin entered, but the switches didn"t light up; like this it"s hard to tell whether you can make your purchase.
"One silver coin has been received."
Uooo-!
A voice came from the vending machine. E, so this world"s mechanisms can produce a voice recording? Hyurumi had said that it was still in research and difficult to implement, though.
"A voice recording, is it… in that case."
She put in a second silver coin, and
"Two silver coins have been received."
Once again a voice spoke. This time I was listening in a calm and collected manner so I realized it, but it"s a young man"s voice that sounds so real you wouldn"t think it was recorded.
Tilting her head, Hyurumi put in a third coin.
"Three silver coins have been… *cough* entered."
He choked! E, don"t tell me that within this vending machine is a person.
With a sneer and a s.a.d.i.s.tic grin, Hyurumi pushed down on both the tea and kara"age-ish thing at the same time.
"E-…"
Right now, that was definitely a confused man"s voice. If there"s someone inside, then I can come to an understanding. In this other world, vending machine mechanisms are still too difficult. But if there"s a human within performing the interactions, exchanging money and offering products is possible.
In the retrieval opening, a beverage was placed, but the kara"age hasn"t come out yet.
"Please wait a moment."
The person inside the vending machine said, but if the kara"age was prepared before, I"d think it would come out immediately.
And, over five minutes later, the product was placed in the retrieval opening.
What we took out of it was put on a porcelain plate, and the kara"age placed on top of it had steam rising from it. Rather than being warmed up, you can"t see it as anything other than being freshly fried.
No way, they"re actually preparing the food within this vending machine? No, there"s no way. Even if it"s bigger than me, there"s no s.p.a.ce for an adult to enter and prepare food.
"Then, I guess I"ll do water and soup pasta."
The water came out immediately, but as expected, the ramen-look-alike took some time; although it came out faster than the kara"age, it still took three minutes.
The products seem to all be freshly prepared. For the equipment needed to make kara"age and ramen to be placed within seems impossible. Just what are the mechanics behind it?
The two lined up the products on a nearby table and began to eat.
"O-, it be delicious. This ain"t made beforehand."
"Un, that"s right. It"s just ordinarily good, though, huh, this taste… it"s similar to when we ate at Chain Restaurant."
When I heard Ramis" opinion, a lightbulb went off. That vending machine"s location holds all the answers. The fake is related to the Chain Restaurant without a doubt.
It"s just a guess, but that vending machine"s back is open and connected to the former Chain Restaurant"s building. With the vending machine connected by a hole in the wall, when the products are purchased, they"re made within the Chain Restaurant. If I think about it that way, it doesn"t seem coherent.
That said, there"s the issue of why these opponents have gone through all this trouble, but the goal is probably stealing my customers, and also probably to hara.s.s me.
A large chain store"s reputation was overthrown by a single magical tool; the aim of this pull might be that, during the time they"re carrying out this plan, they"re buying time for preparations.
"Then, let"s go back. We"ll talk more at the tent." (Hyurumi)
"Un, okay."
I already understand how the fake vending machine works and who the people are pulling the strings from behind, so there"s only thinking up a counterplan now. Being copied isn"t a good feeling, but to be honest, I"m rather impressed with the amount of misplaced effort our opponents put into this business.
Like this, if I had been broken on the Maze Level, their takeover would probably have been a success. Though I think they imitated me well, it"s not at the quality where it would fool the regular customers.
In fact, there weren"t any of the regulars among the people who were buying products just now. The taste isn"t supposed to be bad, but if it"s like that, then my honest opinion is that other stores" food and drink will satisfy as well.
The taste and quality of the street stalls and the other shops have increased due to the previous incident with my help, so it can"t be said that it"s become a situation where the Chain Restaurant has the advantage in a taste war.
If it"s like this, even if I purposefully left it alone, it feels like they"ll self-destruct. After taking the orders, they have to cook the food skillfully or else, and since there can"t be more than one vending machine, the turnover rate is also bad.
It seems unlikely that they"re in the black. It feels like this wasn"t established to be a business.
After that, we returned to the tent the two girls are living in and the discussion began, but in the end we came to the conclusion that, wouldn"t it be fine if we started up the vending machine business as normal?
And so, from the next day on I resumed business by being installed in front of the Hunters a.s.sociation, and in the blink of an eye the information spread, the regulars swarmed all at once, and the products sold like they were flying off the shelves.
The chefs of the food stalls as well, they came to buy huge amounts of ingredients to restock; from dawn to dusk, there was no interruption in the wave of people. After one week had pa.s.sed, when it had finally gotten to calming down, the fake vending machine had withdrawn, and after that the place where it had been set up had boards nailed to the wall.
It would be great if Chain Restaurant would give up with this, but I can"t help but feel that they"ll come out and make another pa.s.s at me again. I"d guess that this time"s incident will have completely put me in their sights.
This is a problem with their reputation, so for a large corporation, they have no choice but to come seriously to crush me. Maa, if they lift a hand against me or my comrades, all I have to do is return the blow, though.
Taki from Eyes.h.i.+eld 21 has made me second guess myself for translating "arienai" every time. It"s insufficient unless you can scream it in a flamboyant manner. >