Chapter 4: Exchanging Gold Coins and Gold Dust for j.a.panese Yen
After doing it three times, I understood the essence of it. Without any difficulty, I returned to modern day j.a.pan.
Though I feel something off with the word “returned.” If I were to choose between the two, I would say that in my heart I would “return” to the other world. Such feelings gradually developed in me.
On the other side it was still evening, but here it had become completely dark.
Ahh, it’s certainly another world, I thought to myself.
I put my hand in my pocket. Four gold coins, and a heavy leather bag packed with gold dust. This is real, not an illusion.
The parallel world really existed, and I had gone back and forth to and from it.
For now, I’ll return to my room. I need a place to rest my eyes. Tomorrow looks like it’ll be busy.
◇The next morning◇
I woke up at the same time as usual. I laughed. Even though I “quit” already. Despite not setting my alarm clock, I woke up at the same time out of habit.
To begin with, I took the alarm clock from the bedside and threw it into the wastebasket.
With the gold coins and bag of gold dust in hand, I left my room.
My destination was a large discount ticket shop in the neighborhood. This is because I remembered that written in huge letters on the signboard was “We purchase precious metals, Gold, Silver.”
However, they will not buy old coins. They won’t buy old coins that don’t have a seal embossed on them. They require proof of purity. On top of this, if I tried to sell these coins it’s likely I’d be arrested by the police, so I quickly gave up on this idea.
I visited these kinds of stores one after the other with no luck. The last one I visited was one that looked like it had been in business for decades and about to go out of business. It was that kind of old, old shop.
It’s one of those so-called “p.a.w.n shops.”
The old man in front of the vintage CRT television held a magnifying gla.s.s to his eye, and carefully inspected the gold coins.
“I have no idea where this coin is from. Rather than selling it for the gold content, if you take it to a specialty store you may be able to sell it for more. I’ll buy the gold dust. However, I’ll pay just 2000 yen per gram.”
“You mean for one gram you’ll pay 2000 yen?”
“Correct,” the old man said casually.
“How many grams are in this bag?”
“It’s one kilogram.”
“By one kilogram, you mean, in other words, 1000 grams?”
“Correct,” the old man casually said again.
“Ummm…”
I calculated. 1000 times of 2000 is… ummm…
“Two million,” the old man said casually.
“Eeeeeehhhhh!?”
I was startled. I was stunned.
“If you’re dissatisfied, take it somewhere else. We only buy at that price here.”
“Nononono! I have no complaints, but!” I shook my head furiously from side to side.
“Is it really OK for me to receive that much?”
“Even with this amount our shop is kind of ripping you off you know?”
“I-I see, is that so.”
Actually, he said it. That, he actually said it. Thanks to that one sentence, I decided to trust this old man. If a person actually intended to rip someone off, there’s no way they would say that.
“Please buy it at that price.”
“Hey,” the old man said with his back turned to me.
“Yes?” In the back of the store, there was a girl around high school age with braids. That girl responded to the old man.
“Money. Take it out of the safe, two million.”
“Yes.”
The door of the, again vintage, safe opened with a slow and heavy feeling.
Two bundles of one million yen were removed from the contents of the safe.
Uwa! Uwa! Uwa!
“You’re rich now!” The high school girl who looked like the old man’s granddaughter smiled brightly and cutely at me.
The first thing that I, who had just acquired two million yen, did was go to a specialty store specializing in mountain climbing goods and buy a large backpack.
The items I could take to the other world were restricted to just those items which I could carry on my person. With handheld bags, 20kg was the limit. A specialized mountain climbing backpack would allow me to carry goods up to my own weight.
The next thing I did was to consider which goods I could take back to the other world. For now, I’ll go about this without worrying about my budget. With two million yen, I could buy quite a large amount of goods. There’s no need for them to be particularly valuable either. In any case, only those items which can fit in my backpack can be carried to the other world, so…
Products which are plentiful in this world, but would be received with great thanks on the other side. I just need to look for those kinds of goods. I want the people of the other world to be happy. That was the only thing in my head at the time.
I went to the supermarket where I had bought salt yesterday.
While pushing the largest cart they had available, I walked around here and there within the store.
Anything and everything that caught my eye, I put into the cart.
Food products, daily care products, miscellaneous goods. At first, I thought about finding “products that people on the other side would be thankful for,” but eventually I stopped thinking so deeply. However, I didn’t choose bulky items like rolls of toilet paper.
Eventually, when the cart was beginning to get full, I began to regret not calculating the capacity of my backpack. Will all of this fit?
Well, in hindsight this was expected, so I resigned myself and headed towards the register.
“Oh, I know.”
I remembered at the last moment and threw felt-tipped pens as well as product label stickers into the cart. I have to label each product with a price of course.
Regarding the felt-tipped pens, since I suddenly remembered to buy them I just took all of them from the shelf. These kinds of items would be cheaper at a 100 yen shop, but it’s not like I’m doing this for the sake of making profits. I didn’t really worry too much about the prices.
When I was pa.s.sing through the checkout, the same cashier from yesterday was making a weird face again. The total came out to just 20,000 yen.
I pushed and squeezed the items into my bag. It just barely fit in the end.
Alright! To the other world!
The backpack on my back weighed heavily, but with a light stride I began walking.
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This chapter has translator’s notes available.