Jidou Hanbaiki ni Umarekawatta ore wa Meikyuu o Samayou
Author: Hiru k.u.ma
—
The Power of Money "The strategy meeting will now begin."
The morning of the next day, the hunters and civilians gathered on the first floor and the important meeting to decide on our objective from now on began.
"This is dangerous. This cold is seriously tasty."
"Right, Hyurumi? This is the first time I"ve eaten something this cold and delicious. Ah, let"s exchange a bite of each other"s."
"Oh, "kay. Ramis" looks tasty too."
Hyurumi and Ramis compared the flavors of both of their ice pops. By the way, Hyurumi"s is rum raisin, and Ramis" is choco-banana.
All of the other hunters are also sitting on the floor, partic.i.p.ating with ice pops in their hands. The surviving civilians also appear to be interested, as they"re lined up in the corridor of the second floor, looking down. They"ve also been properly given ice pops.
Of course I"m the one who provided it.
The indoor temperature shot up as soon as the morning sun climbed into the sky, so I set out ice, but unlike at night, it melted in less than an hour. That being the case, I set out ice once again, distributed ice pops to everyone, and now we"re back at the present.
Looks like it"s well received.
"First of, the Big Eaters" Leader, Mikene, who was out gathering information up until last night. Won"t you tell us about how things are?"
"I want another one of those cold things … eh? Me? A, okay. Uum, about what we found after running around the community, right?"
Mikene stood up while staring longingly at the left over ice pop stick after he had finished eating.
Let"s distribute another one for everyone afterwards.
"The enemy"s land forces are mostly frogmen demons; alligatormen demons are the next most, and then it would be the twin-snake demons, I guess. That"s what it seemed like by what we saw."
"Hm, so it"s only monsters that live on Clear Stream Lake Level. It"s a small relief that there aren"t any monsters from other levels."
"Yeah, that"s pretty much it. For the flying forces, it"s basically flying-fish demons and false-dragon demons."
I"s pretty sure the flying-fish demons are the sweetfish-like demons with four dragonfly wings growing from their backs.
Then the false-dragon demons are those 1-meter long lizard guys with bird wings growing from them. Just as their name says, they give off the feeling of lizards who wanted to be dragons but failed.
Looks like this level doesn"t have any monsters other than reptiles, amphibians, and fish.
"Do you have an idea of their numbers?"
"Uuh, let"s see; the land troops are all about 5,000, probably. I think the sky troops are a few hundred."
It would seem hopeless if we were just comparing numbers, but the people on our side are excellent and the opponent"s monsters aren"t that strong. With these types of forces, I feel like it"s possible for us to overturn the situation with brute force.
"If it"s like that, then…"
"Ah, but President. The monsters are coming one after another from outside the community. We also caught sight of a few individuals that looked like king-frogmen demons."
That"s right. If we just have to defeat the existing enemies we might be able to make it through with continuing being sieged, but at this point in time, it seems like there"s no sign of the opponent"s reinforcements being exhausted.
We haven"t been here for two full days yet, but the hunters who have already been continuing the fight for nearly a week have begun to grumble about how there"s no end to it no matter how many enemies they cut down.
As expected, we have to block that hole in the outer wall or else who knows how many enemies will be coming in.
"However, exactly how did that giant hole in the wall get made?"
Ah, I also want to know about that. I can still kind of understand it if the gate was destroyed, but who blasted that giant hole in the wall?
"As for that, President, the hunter here knows the details about the situation."
The Hunters Guild staff member, who had been standing this entire time, pointed at a single young hunter.
While tapping his head, looking downwards, he stood and bowed his head.
"Um, so, see, this is what my friend said, but somehow, a group of the craftsmen and hunters that were in charge of the wall maintenance seemed to have cut corners in the work, so although the outer appearance looks fine there, inside is barely … with just a little bit of force, it becomes like that."
It"s unknown whether he was involved in that instance of negligent construction, but there"s probably no point to pursuing that at this point. Because right now we want all the fighting potential we can get.
"I was thinking that the wall had just been restored; was the inspection not thorough enough…?"
"It"s not President"s fault. This was the fault of us, everyone who was in charge. Our apologies."
The situation might have gotten this bad because of the cut corners in the construction. It might have been possible to save more people otherwise.
A number of the civilians who understood that averted their hate-filled looks from President Bear. They seem to have understood that this isn"t all President Bear"s fault in their heads, but they can"t admit it yet.
"Let"s decide who"s responsible afterwards. Breaking out of this situation is our first priority. I want to block off that giant hole some how, but does anyone have any ideas on how?"
When President Bear asked for opinions, Hyurumi"s hand went up.
"Hyurumi, do you have something?"
"Nah, it"s not really a plan, but there"s a ton of rubble around the giant hole, right? Using that … An" then, how many people we got that can manipulate dirt?"
"Hm, that"s true. I think, that"s you and you and you that can use earth-related magics."
President Bear seems to have memorized which hunters can use earth magic, so he pointed his finger, or claw, at them.
There was a young man in his teens, and another two in their twenties to thirties.
"And also s.h.i.+merai, huh?"
"I"m not good at earth magic, but I can use it."
Grandfather can do anything. This person"s "not good at" is so far above ordinary magic users" "good at" that it"s scary.
"If we pull together earth magic and rubble, won"t it take "bout an hour to repair?"
I think the height of the hole is around ten meters, and the width is about the same. I think I can block the hole if I change into the giant vending machine, but the problem is the point expenditure.
"Can"t Hakkon block that hole if he turns into the giant one from yesterday?"
One of the hunters seems to have had the same idea, and everyone looked at me.
"I"ll be awaiting your next visit."
For now, let"s just play dumb.
"No, although the idea ain"t bad. A large amount of money is needed for Hakkon to change shape and hand out products. Changing into that stupidly big guy probably needs quite the amount of money, don"t ya think?
Nice follow up. You"re a lifesaver as always, Hyurumi.
"Yes I do n"t"
"Have e nough money."
"Can"t do it but for"
"a short time."
It"s frustratingly slow when I can"t just say yes or no. That last bit was like that, but Ramis" dialect is similar, so it"s probably okay.
"So it"s possible for you to change for a short time, but preserving it long term would be painful. If we can buy time with it, then we can take measures to repair the wall. If that"s the case, then money … How much savings does the Hunters a.s.sociation have left?"
At President Bear"s question, a staff member said, "Please wait a moment," and ran in a panic up to the second floor. I"m pretty sure there"s an inner room that"s used for storing important doc.u.ments and items there.
After a little bit, the staff returned, carrying some doc.u.ments.
"President."
Bringing her mouth to President Bear"s ear, she whispered something. Well, it"s no good to just blurt out the Hunters Guild"s finances.
"Just that much, huh?"
"We spent most of it on the reconstruction, so."
That"s right, isn"t it? Even if they were only working on the wall that goes around the community, it"ll be a colossal expense. And you have to add the labor fees for the craftsmen and hunters. It should be a sum where you wouldn"t have enough money no matter how much you had.
"Hakkon, can you tell me how much time you can maintain it for 60 gold coins?"
60!? So that means 6,000,000 yen. It"s 1 point per 100yen, so converting it to points, that"s 60,000 points? Thinking about it this way, to be offered the points from when defeating a Level Ruler, it"s quite an unbelievable sensation.
It certainly quite the large amount of money, but even so, it"s the same as the point consumption from last night, huh? I might be able to last a while without , but it"s a bit scary.
I want to tell him I can maintain it for the same time as last night, but I"m lacking the words for "yesterday,"(kino) and "last night."(sakuban) It really is tough not being able to use "ki," even though it"s a frequently used phoneme.
I have to tell him somehow with the words I can say for now. I don"t have the "na" and "ji" for "onaji"(the same). Uuuuum.
"Ain"t en ough maybe."
(tarinkamo)
Please excuse my slang usage. Honestly, I want just a little more leeway with points. If I can"t maintain it midway through our operation, then not only would we not succeed, we"d lose everything. 1
"If we"re going any higher than this, we do have expensive armor and magic tools, as well as valuable materials, but it"s impossible to sell them in this situation."
I can"t convert goods into points. If they"re coin shaped I might be able to manage somehow, but there"s no way for weapons and armor.
"Then why don"t I lend you some? Weapons and armor are fine as collateral."
The one who introduced herself into the conversation here was the moneychanger who would look good in a suit, Akoui.
"Would you?"
"Of course. Money is something to be used. This isn"t out of charity. "Business with the Hunters a.s.sociation is secure business," is a saying in our company."
I don"t know what her true motive is, but behind her is the giant Goggai, shrinking into himself as he bows his head apologetically numerous times.
"I"m grateful. How much would you be able to lend us?"
"I have 50 gold coins at my disposal. And furthermore, they"re in the storeroom here."
Come to think of it, the Hunters Guild bas.e.m.e.nt has individual safes, and I"ve heard of people treating it like a bank, depositing large amounts of money. It"s designed so that even the staff can"t open it without the personal verification card, I heard.
"That truly helps us. We have a number of arms and armor that are valued at 50 gold coins. I will have a staff member show you later."
"I"m quite looking forward to it."
It increased by another 50. With this, the amount of time I can endure has increased. Although if I could speak selfishly, I"d like to have a bit more points as profit.
"It cannot be helped. Our company will also lend out one hundred gold coins."
The one who said that was the blond tsundere young lady, Suori.
I"d completely forgotten, but she"s the young lady of quite a large company.
"M,my lady, if you decide such a thing on your own-"
"Silence. This is a situation where we"re unable to contact Father. I will bear all responsibility. If we cease to exist here, money will have no meaning whatsoever."
Bellowing at the men in black that stepped in to stop her, she puffed out her chest with such a declaration. I apologize for looking down on you as just a selfish, tsundere rich girl.
"However, our company did not deposit it here, it"s placed in the safe in our mansion"s bas.e.m.e.nt. Furthermore, only members of the family are authorized to open it. In other words, I am the only one in this location."
So you mean that we must take you to the mansion to retrieve what"s in the safe?"
"Exactly so. Please escort me."
At Hyurumi"s question, she grasped the sides of her skirt and elegantly lowered her head in confirmation.
Looks like her next mission has been determined.
Lose the origin and the child - I wanted to use "Going for wool and ending up shorn" as a replacement idiom, but I"m not sure how well-known that one is.