Translator: Mana
Editor: Anonymous_Neko
Proofreader: Rinkage
Character page:
Rinkage: Another chapter this week
Chapter 64 – The smell of j.a.pan is the real world
The other world was the best! That was fine and all, but I couldn"t move to the other world altogether. It was needless to say, but as long as I was selling j.a.panese products in the other world, I"d have to work in j.a.pan as I needed j.a.panese yen and not gold and silver coins to buy j.a.panese products. Plus, I was a citizen of j.a.pan and it was my duty to pay my national pension and prefectural residency tax. If I was making a certain income from net auctions then I needed to file my taxes too. It was easy to forget that while having the time of my life in another world, but reality was salty like that.
And so, today I had left the store in Erishe to Etowa and went to visit the tax office to file my tax return. The amount wasn"t much. My only income was what I received in net auctions. I only began making large profits by selling the other world items in the last few months, so my profit was only a little over a million yen. As most of my profits were either invested in stocking up on cloth to be sold in the store or spent on mobile bills, gas bills and other expenses, there really wasn"t much left, which helped, in a way.
There were no issues with my doc.u.ments, so I finished paying them smoothly. It was pretty annoying preparing doc.u.ments focused on auctions, so I wondered if there was a better way to do it.
After finishing my taxes, I left the tax office. It was February, so the afternoons were a little chilly. Calendar-wise it was spring, but February felt the coldest. I was wearing the leather coat and leather pants I bought in Erishe, feeling like an outlaw. I called it leather, but it wasn"t the skin of a cow, pig, sheep, nor horse. It was the skin of a demon beast called a Lucalf.
An old man in the waiting room commented on how cool it was, so I considered putting it out for net auctions, but since it wasn"t a material found on Earth, I decided against it. It was unfortunate, but I could just enjoy it for myself. There were quite a few materials that can only be found in the other world…
Demon beasts were what they called highly aggressive wild animals in the other world. Regular animals that didn"t attack humans, were different to demon beast, and were referred to as simply beasts or animals. In j.a.pan, rabbits would be beasts and bears would be demon beasts. Or perhaps a pig would be a beast and a boar would be a demon beast—something like that. Anyway, that"s how they were cla.s.sified. This was related to the management of the most important group in the other world, the Hunter"s Guild – a guild which Sh.e.l.lo-san was also a part of. The guild members would call the animals they hunted demon beasts, I think. I didn"t really care, so I didn"t know the details.
Come to think of it, the first time I met Sh.e.l.lo-san was after he had hunted a huge boar—I didn"t realise that was a demon beast at the time. Marina fought a similar thing in her training, but I had yet to fight one. I had graduated from being a monster-fighting virgin, nevertheless, I was still a demon beast fighting one. Whatever.
After eating lunch at a ramen shop, I went to the convenience store to buy a real estate listing magazine. My life in Erishe had settled down and the store was going well. Living at home was nice and all, but I wanted to move out soon. After all, I mostly lived in the other world, only going home to eat meals every now and then anyway. Although I still slept in my own room.
I was going to rent an apartment when I moved out, but if I had the money to spare, I could rent an office too – so long as I had somewhere to put my mirror and products. If I were to continue my net auctions, a place near a post office would be better. Other than that… I would also need a car. I was using a bicycle at home right now, but I"d have to buy my own car once I moved out. Considering the possibility of a large deal, I should probably buy a van, but the maintenance cost would be tough.
I pondered over such things as I went around the home centre, second-hand shop, 100 yen shop, and crafts shop to stock-up on my products. The items I had bought were mainly household items that I"d need to use in the mansion, products to be sold in the shop, and items that I"d like to use to test the waters in the flea market sale. There was still a lot that I didn"t understand about the market in the other world, so it didn"t hurt to have more options.
By the time I arrived home it was 5pm. Placing my things down in my room, I peeked into the living room. My mother was making dinner.
Of course, I hadn"t told my parents about the other world.
Just that I had found a way to make a fast buck, so I"d be out of the house often. I hadn"t lied, but still…
"Oh Jirou, you"re home. I have something to tell you, come eat dinner today."
I was going to retreat before she saw me, but I was a step too late.
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Dinner was stir-fried vegetables. Stir-fried vegetables and cold tofu on rice. Clam miso soup and pickled side dishes. A traditional meal of my home.
I thanked my mother for the meal and the two of us started eating.
My father was absent due to a job transfer and only ever came home during the New Years and Bon Festival (come to think of it, he came back this New Years too, but I was so occupied with the other world I barely talked to him). My older brother and sister were all living in their own homes, so it was just me and my mother in this house. I hadn"t been eating at home much lately as well, so I was feeling a little heartless for not spending time with my mother as much. Perhaps I was a bit too obsessed with the other world. Well, my mother worked as a nurse so she didn"t always make dinner either. In fact, it was pretty rare for her to do so.
"What have you actually been doing recently? You suddenly disappear from your room when I think you"re in there and appear in your room when I think you"re not. You barely eat dinner at home either."
We were eating silently for a while, but my mother"s patience ran short and snapped as I was pouring soy sauce on the tofu. But I knew how this usually went. It always ended in "Go to h.e.l.lo Work tomorrow". I didn"t spend two years as a NEET for nothing.
"I told you I was busy with the profitable job I found. I eat outside. And I"m putting money into the house, so it shouldn"t be a problem."
"Are you doing something dangerous? There are so many strange things in your room too… Like dolls and stuff…"
"I told you, I"m not. I"m just making some profit off net auctions. All the items in my room are stock to be sold. The dolls, too."
I hadn"t been putting any money into the house because I was a NEET, but when I sold the gold cup I gave my parents 500,000 yen. But getting that kind of money in such a short time was a little suspicious. I guess I couldn"t blame her for doubting me… The antique doll (a pretty big one) enshrined in my room probably didn"t help either.
"I don"t care if it"s a profitable net auction or not, but can you live off that for the rest of your life?"
"I don"t intend on living off auctions for the rest of my life either. I"m either going to open an auction store or establish a net shop in the future."
"There you go dreaming again! Make sure you go to h.e.l.lo Work tomorrow and find a proper job! You might think you"ll be young forever, but you"re already 22 this month!"
There it is! Go to h.e.l.lo Work!
As long as my other world trade was going well, I had no intention of finding a job. It was obvious since I had earned enough from the auctions to require a tax return, after all. But I couldn"t tell my parents about the other world and had no idea when they"d notice the mirror. My mother had been going into my room too.
Looks like I have to leave the house soon…
"Then I"ll get a job when I turn 22! Thanks for dinner!"
I blurted and left.
I was a master at avoiding my mother and putting things aside for later.
…Although, I guess I was turning 22 this month.
Entering my room, I opened the real estate listing magazine. There was a lot that could be cla.s.sified as real estate, but first, wooden apartments had bad security and earthquake resistance so those were out of the running. A reinforced concrete condo seemed good, but condo rent was too expensive. A one-room condo could be rented for around 700,000 yen, but then I wouldn"t be able to rent an office. I could also rent a shop and sell other world groups… but while it sounded fun, it wasn"t possible for my current situation. I didn"t have enough hands.
For now, I made a list of all the condos with a single room and separate kitchen that seemed good. They had to have a parking lot and were preferably located on the first or second floor (high floors shook a lot during earthquakes). The actual transportation of the mirror would be done by elevator, so that wasn"t a problem. All that was left was the post office…
I turned on my PC and opened a used car site. There were many cheap ones to choose from. If you packed your luggage in tightly, any car could carry quite a bit, so I decided against choosing a van. I wanted to find a fairly new one with good gas mileage, unpopular but cheap, and was capable of carrying a lot of stock…
……
It was then when I discovered one that was abnormally cheap…
A Toyota from the 2000s. A 2000cc wagon priced at 300,000 yen. A cheap one would start at around 200,000 yen… A real gas mileage of around 10 litres…
A Vista Ardeo, huh…
I"d better remember that. It was big enough for plenty of luggage too. Though it didn"t look very cool.
Hmm. But it sure cost a lot of money.
If I moved, it"d cost a month"s rent, key money, and four month"s rent as a security deposit, right? The moving itself wouldn"t have much luggage, so I could do it myself, but I had to be quite careful with the transportation of the mirror. Even if I chose a cheaper car, it"d cost about 300,000 or 400,000 yen. It"d definitely go over 600,000 yen with everything else.
But even so, it was a necessary expense… What to do…
I didn"t have any savings yet, but I"d aim to move around spring… probably. I should have a bit more saved by then.
Then I could indulge in my other world life as much as I liked!