Chapter 1 – Where am I? (part3)
The face of people gathered slowly became clear as the carriage getting closer to the huge gate.
“Yeah, I can"t deny it anymore….” (Yashiro)
I mean, the face of a soldier with spear is that of a lizard. There are also those with the appearance of cat but wore clothes and walking on two legs. He"s talking with someone with face similar to that of a sheep.
I"ve never heard about animal people lived in medieval Europe. There"s no doubt that I"m in another world right now.
“○ ▲ ☆ ◆ × @ &% $ #”
When Yashiro"s attention was drawn to the impossible scene before him, the cosplay-man hit his back with a proud expression.
“○ ▲ ☆ ◆ × @ &% $ #”
He seems to say: “How"s that? Isn"t it a great city?”.
“It"s not like you made it!!” or that"s what I wanted to say, but it"s just a waste of energy because he won"t understand it.
The horse-drawn carriage slowed down and eventually stopped. The coachman came down from his seat and approached Yashiro who was leaning out his body from the carriage platform, to look outside. His face was that of a bird.
“Oh, it"s a bird…. Java Sparrow?” (Yashiro)
“I"m not Java Sparrow, Sir. I"m parrot anthromorph.”
“Oh, please excuse me.” (Yashiro)
“No, don"t mind it!”
The parrot anthromorph answered Yashiro politely.
Hmmm………… wait, what!?
“I can understand his words!? How can it be!? I can talk with a bird but not with the armor-man!?” (Yashiro)
“I"m not a bird, Sir. I"m parrot anthromorph.”
“I heard you!!” (Yashiro)
“Hahaha~ You look surprised!”
Yashiro heard a different voice from behind when he was talking to the parrot anthromorph. Looking back, he found the armor-man (former cosplay-man) was watching him while laughing.
“….is this your first time coming to Olbrum? No, it seems that you never even went on a journey to start with. Looking at your appearance, I wonder what kind of life you"ve been living.”
The armor-man suddenly began to speak in j.a.panese. He nodded while admiring Yashiro"s clothes.
“Wait, why did you suddenly speak j.a.panese?” (Yashiro)
“Well, it"s because this place is under the influence of Spirit Church”
Yashiro turned his line of sight. The parrot anthromorph cleared his throat and started explaining.
“There were wide variety of ethnic groups and races gathered in this city, so it was very difficult to communicate with each other. Therefore, our venerable G.o.d, Alvie-sama, bestowed 【Forced Translation Magic】 and the power of miracle to the entire city. Under Alvie-sama"s divine protection, Olbrum has made remarkable progress and became the biggest city in the entire Galeabrum.”
“Forced Translation Magic…?” (Yashiro)
I somehow could guess its meaning from that name alone.
“Yes. Under the influence of this magic, whatever the other party is, whatever language they speak in, it will be translated to the most familiar words for you and transmitted. Not just words and letters, you can also know the value of the currency and the price if you ask it.”
“Ask? To whom?” (Yashiro)
“Of course, to the Spirit G.o.d Alvie-sama.”
The parrot anthromorph put his hands together in front of his chest and made a praying pose.
Hmm, ask…. G.o.d!?
Yashiro imitated his pose while thinking of it.
Umm, I"d like to compare the currency here…. and the j.a.panese yen…. please?
Suddenly, a semi-transparent window appeared in front of him. Yashiro touched a monitor-like image that appeared from nothing with his finger.
Oh, I can touch it and…. scroll it…. It"s like a touchscreen!
I don"t know the principle behind this, but it floats in front of me and can be operated, too. Hmm…. is this the power of Spirit G.o.d?
The characters shown on that window are as follow:
【Olbrum"s currency is Rb (Reuben).】
【100 yen = 10Rb.】
【The average price of wheat bread that ordinary citizens are eating as staple food is 20Rb.】
Yup, it"s an easy-to-use system.
“How is it? Convenient, right?”
The armor-man said those words proudly.
Why do you act so proud? Well, even if we now can understand each other, I don"t want to protest to every single thing he said.
“There are a lot of people here, so naturally, the merchants also come flocking to this city. Various problems will occur if we can"t communicate to each other in such a place, right?”
Yeah, I understand what he meant. Negotiations won"t be established if the words can"t be communicated. Using an interpreter in negotiation, we won"t know when we"re put at a disadvantage. Our business partner could say: “there"s no such things written in contract”. It"s good and all if it"s just a miscommunication from the interpreter side, but it"s going to be really bad if it"s actually something intentional to trick us…. Thinking about it, there will be no end of the example.
However, if all words and letters are converted into a language familiar to themselves, such problems will be solved.
But, well…. fraud will be hard to put in work. Excuse like: “it"s your own fault for not understanding it” will be unusable.
“Oh right, I haven"t said my grat.i.tude. I"m Oba…. Oba Yashiro. Thank you for saving me.” (Yashiro)
I think it"s fine to use my full name in this world.
“I"m Norbert, a personal merchant of Wishart house who governs 30th ward.” (Norbert)
He mentioned Wishart name in his introduction as if boasting…. Hmm, I guess that was a name of influential n.o.bleman here.
“Oh, you work for that Wishart house? It seems I was saved by an amazing person.” (Yashiro)
“Hahaha~ I"m just a merchant. Besides, helping someone in trouble is just a normal.” (Norbert)
See? That"s the face of someone with an ulterior motive.
He works for a n.o.ble means lots of money involved. Considering his behavior so far, he must have been given considerable preferential treatment by them….
Fufufu~ it seems I"ve found a good catch…. Ok, let"s keep the polite language from now.
“I"d like to give you something as thanks but…. Unfortunately, I"ve lost all my luggage…. If I could return home, I might be able to give something appropriate as token of grat.i.tude, but….” (Yashiro)
“No, please don"t trouble yourself! I simply did the obvious thing.” (Norbert)
Though he said that, Norbert"s nostril was expanding greatly. It was the face of a hyena that caught a smell of gold.
He seems to be confident that I have a lot of money, but…. why!? I didn"t bring anything with me. My appearance is like that of a normal high school student. I wonder where did he catch the smell of gold on me….
Oh, I see! It"s my clothes, the high school blazer. He seems to be convinced I"m rich because of my appearance.
Norbert"s armor is made quite carefully. If he"s really a merchant working for a n.o.ble, we can a.s.sume his armor is in a high cla.s.s category. It"s the same with the clothes his attendant, the parrot athromorph.
Then again, they don"t look like the high cla.s.s products in my eyes. To be frank, they"re poorly made. It"s clear that the level of sewing technology in this world is low. If these are the high cla.s.s clothes, it seems that ordinary people are dressed more shabby.
On the contrary with my clothes, the sewing is solid and the fabric color is vivid above all. Light navy blue jacket, maroon necktie, light grey pants, and brilliant pure white shirt. He wouldn"t find someone wearing such clothes unless the rich.
In other words, Norbert thought I was a n.o.ble or someone related to n.o.bility because of my appearance, and decided to help me.
He kindly nursed an unconscious stranger he found the road, sharing his food without hesitation, and even brought him to the city. For Norbert, that would have been selling a big favor. He must be thinking that he could convert the favor into lots of money later.
Yeah, I can see it now….
This world in no different from j.a.pan.
No one will help the others without ulterior motives.
Everyone loves money after all.
Yup, this world is not that all bad. It seems I also can make a living here…. as a con artist, of course.
“Norbert-sama, I will go to pay the entry tax.”
“Umu, pay the tax for him too.” (Norbert)
Norbert winked as if saying: “You don"t have the money right now, are you?”, and Yashiro answered him with a nod.
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