Chapter 4 - (Chapter 58): Invitation
Year 7442, Month 4, Day 16
Now then, it"s a different day, I"ll change my feelings and head out. First I need to get some new pants. After that I"ll go to Janlud"s shop that Begulu A is using
as base and gather information for breakfast. I"ve heard it"s dangerous and that they"ll pick a fight me or all sorts of troublesome things but for the time being I
still haven"t done anything for Begulu A to think of me as an enemy so if I go in the same poor person appearance as yesterday I doubt it"ll be very dangerous.
Even if they do pick a fight with me I can use that as a leverage point to bite into him. It"s fine if I discipline anyone not related to Begulu A, and if they are
related to him then I might be able to make contact. Since I have magic even if it becomes a slightly bad situation I should be able to cut my way out, I think...
I"m a bit too easy-going. According to the conversation I heard yesterday there"s a magician on Begulu A"s side as well. If it were a matter of persistence then it"d
be no problem but if I take a surprise attack, it could be bad. Since it"s my first time, I guess it would be safer to stop at just taking a look. It"s probably best
not to overestimate my power too much.
If I look at the results of Identify then it"s true I"m strong because my level is high. However, this is limited to "for a 14 year old". I"m sure there"s
adventurers and failed adventurers the same level as me and I"m about the same or a bit behind them. It"s amazing that a 14 year old brat can match up with a 30
year old adventurer but putting aside sword technique, mana amount, and magic if it just comes down to the power of my body I"m at the same level as a normal
adventurer or a bit weaker. I"ve only ever done Judo or those sorts of hand-to-hand combat in the far past when I was in the self-defense force after all, it"s no
good to get self-conceited. It"s better to think that I have no advantages.
After preparing my resolve once again, I change after buying some more pants and then head towards Janlud"s shop. The normally clean scenery of Keel gradually
becomes worn-out and filthy. There"s still uneven portions of the ground remaining along with sludge and mud, trash that you can"t tell what it was is laying around
along with an increase in the number of dirty human and non-human vagrants sitting and laying around (to be more accurate there shouldn"t be vagrants around so
they"re probably the super lower earners). If you were to ask then the majority of them are either extremely young or old. I guess people of a good age to work
don"t have that much trouble finding it. Since children younger than five and elders over 50 are exempt from taxes it seems to be mostly those ages.
I walk while making sure to step on the decent areas in order to prevent my boots from getting dirty and enter Janlud"s shop calmly as if "I"ve come to eat
breakfast". While this shop is facing the road there weren"t any tables outside. Although, since the road is cramped there just might not be enough room to put
tables outside. It was surprisingly wide inside of the shop and there were 12 tables. The entrance facing the road was open and if you go further in from the left of
the entrance it"s the kitchen.
I sit down at a seat close to the entrance and immediately start identifying the customers. I guess it"s only obvious but because it"s still early morning there"s
not
that many failed adventurers or yakuza-like hoodlums yet. I order the breakfast set of black bread and soup for 50Z and slowly started eating. I dip the black
bread that"s as hard as a rock into the lightly salty soup with almost no vegetables and slowly eat the soup while sipping it. Yeah, it"s bad. Even if it absorbs the
soup the black bread isn"t getting very soft, and the soup itself has almost no stock used so it"s just like lightly salted hot water.
I"m aware of the fact that I"m gradually making a bitter expression as I continue a useless fight with the hard bread and soup and somehow manage to finish eating.
Hmn, since sunlight is valuable in Orth, fundamentally people wake up with the sunrise and start activity and go to bed with the sunset, and since my habits are
pretty much the same I wonder if I misunderstood? Since light magic tool are pretty common in a city the size of Keel, it"s possible there"s a lot of stores open at
night.
We had a lighting magic tool in my house as well. However, since it uses magic stones, we almost never used it and whenever we absolutely needed light at night we
just used the type of lamp that burns tallow. Since magic stones are a source of income after all. In the 14 years since I reincarnated the only times I"ve stayed up
late when I"m going to hunt at night and for that I just went to sleep right away then wake up once in the middle of the night, exhaust my mana and then sleep until
morning again. That"s why I thought it was good that it was pretty healthy for that portion but it might be good to give up on sleeping more than 10 hours a day as
an adventurer.
Since that"s all settled I"ll head to the magic tool shop and check the retail and selling prices of magic stones and if necessary ask the way to manufacture them as
well. Putting aside a clock it might be a good idea to purchase a lighting magic tool. I leave Janlud"s shop that I went to the trouble of going to and return to
Bins Manor. After changing in to high-quality clothes I head to the magic tool shop.
I enter the magic tool shop that I was brought to by the squire the other day. It says "Magic Tool 7-9 Shop" on the doorplate. As I identify the value of the magic
stones decorated along the counters in the store the prices are roughly nine times the value listed using Identify.
Since I brought along several types of magic stones I immediately ask the store clerk to buy them and the middle-aged master of the store brought something out from
the back. It seems like a scale. It seems he prepared a lighting magic tool as well. I wonder what in the world he"s going to do with those? When I"m curiously
watching he sets the magic stones I brought in into the lightning magic tool and lights it up one after another. What meaning is there in this? I was thinking that
so I tried asking and it seems he has to be cautious of fakes being brought in so in order to prove they"re real magic stones he tests them out.
It seems this lightning magic tool for the sake of testing is special and the place which is like a battery box in the stand of it is larger than normal so any size
of magic stone can fit, also it was adjusted so the sensitivity of it is kind of bad as well it seems.
After testing all of the magic stones to see that they lit up this time he places them on the scale. The scale is a balance scale the type where you place a magic
stone on one side and a weight on the other side. It seems that the weight is precisely different proportion of the amount of mana packed into the magic stone. Even
if they"re the same size if one has a lot of mana in it then the weight will increase and if it"s low then the weight will decrease. Even if the size of magic stones
that have completely exhausted their mana are different they all weigh the same it seems.
The sizes vary heavily from ones as small as the nail of the little finger on an adults hand and the big ones up to the size of a child"s fist, but if you keep using
the mana in them they all end up the same weight in the end. It seems that this is the same even if you fuse several magic stones into one. How mysterious. Also it
seems that the maximum amount of mana they can have depends on the size of them, the larger one is the more its maximum mana amount is and the smaller the size the
lower the maximum amount of mana.
Since you can measure the amount of mana based on the weight, if you subtract the weight of a magic stone that"s exhausted it"s mana from the weight of a magic stone
that still has mana then while there"s a bit of measurement error you can almost precisely guess the amount of mana in the magic stone. That becomes the value of the
magic stone. So the reason why the sensitivity on the testing lightning magic tool is intentionally made bad is this. He was making sure that the magic stone didn"t
have anything stuck to it or was covered in dirt to falsify the weight.
However, it"s not like they can make perfectly accurate weights in Orth so I still feel like you quick fake it if you tried. Though I do think they are weights made
as accurately as possible. I guess he realized that I was staring at his hands so seriously that he made a bitter smile and said to me.
"It"s fine, I won"t fake the weight. Since faking the weight of magic stones is a felony on the level of murder after all."
I see, I guess it"s fine to relax a bit. I was able to sell the magic stones at roughly seven times the Identify value. The ones lined up in the shop are roughly
nine times. The total profits are about 22% huh. I guess that"s about right. Ah, buy at 70% and sell at 90%. I guess that"s why its the 7-9 shop.
I started running again until close to lunch and head to Janlud"s shop again. It feels disgusting but I intentionally didn"t take a shower. I smell like sweat but I
figured it would raise the reality. It should dry by the time I get to Janlud"s shop so it"s not like I"m entering soaking wet, it should be fine. I walk down the
road of the slum in a seedy outfit.
It seems that Janlud"s shop is open for business the same as this morning and I order a beer and some cooked beans as I sit at the same table as this morning. I
slouch over while looking around the shop with just my eyes and the customers are different from this morning, the number of hoodlums of both genders has increased.
I wonder if these guys are Begulu"s subordinates? I start Identifying them from the seat nearest to me and check their name and abilities one after another. Every
single one of them resembles the guys from yesterday and their levels aren"t very high and they don"t have any special skills.
And then he was there. In the back of the store sitting the two of them were sitting at a table drinking something while talking to each other.
【Begulu · G.o.dbitt /14/7/7423 Begulu · G.o.dbitt /25/9/7402】
【Male/11/3/7401·Human· Kingdom of Rombert Marquis Webdos Territory Registered Free Person】
【Condition: Good】
【Age: 41 Years Old】
【Level: 14】
【HP: 112(112) MP: 9(9)】
【Strength: 20】
【Agility: 15】
【Dexterity: 22】
【Endurance: 19】
【Special skill: Small Magic】
【Experience: 379214 (450000)】
【Zakkwaiz · Begulu /6/11/7426 Zakkwaiz · Begulu /5/5/7403】
【Male/19/3/7402·Human· Kingdom of Rombert Marquis Webdos Territory Registered Free Person】
【Condition: Good】
【Age: 40 Years Old】
【Level: 11】
【HP: 93(93) MP: 32(32)】
【Strength: 14】
【Agility: 14】
【Dexterity: 22】
【Endurance: 13】
【Special skill: Water Magic (Lv.4)】
【Special Skill: Wind Magic (Lv.4)】
【Special skill: Void Magic (Lv.5)】
【Experience: 201825 (210000)】
Don"t f.u.c.k with me. Aren"t they both Begulu? Going off their levels and age the one who can"t use magic seems to be the boss. I properly engrave both of their faces into
my heart. Hmn, I think there"s no mistake that guy is Begulu A, but which is Begulu B? Or is there someone else as well? Hmm, this is troubling. They"re both past 40
years old, and let alone adults they were past 20 years old in the year 7426 when Myun said she came to Bakkudo so it"s not unnatural.
I intended to kill Begulu B so that"s fine but it"s not like I have any sort of grudge against Begulu A. At most how he lynched Kuro for leaving the group? It seems
he"s doing bad things in various places as well but it"s not like I"m a police officer. It"s true it p.i.s.ses me off that he"s causing trouble for j.a.panese the same as
me but I feel like it"s misplaced for me to get revenge for just that.
Even when I tried opening their names up in a sub-window there was nothing at all related to the Kingdom of Devas or the Sagual family. At most that they were Free
People who were born in a different territory of the Kingdom of Rombert. The one that can"t use magic was born in Viscount Penlaid"s territory and the one that can
use magic was born in Count Farlelgaz"s territory.
It"s close to being a situation where my hands are tied. It seems it would be faster to just go to Doritt and tie up that contact agent. I guess I"ll just be
satisfied that I was able to confirm their faces for today. I guess I"ll head out.
That night I departed to Binsil"s restaurant. Obviously I changed. I took a shower as well. I wonder if Kuro is already here? Ah, that"s right, tomorrow is Kuro"s
day off. If I want to have a complicated conversation then we need a place we can talk without reservation. If it"s after noon then Mary should have some time as
well. Three days ago that restaurant I went with father and the others the day before they departed should be good. It had private rooms after all.
I enter the restaurant and make a reservation for a private room for tomorrow afternoon. Since the clerk remembered my face I had no problem making the reservation.
After arriving at Binsil"s restaurant, Kuro was already there. He"s taken position in the corner quietly eating and drinking again. Since the restaurant is reasonably
packed I guess Mary must be busy. I sit across from Kuro and call out to him.
"Yo."
"Ah, Al huh. What"s up?"
Kuro looks at me with a calm face.
"I heard you have a day off tomorrow. Do you have time in the afternoon?"
"Yeah, I"m open. Is coming here fine?"
He said with a curious face. That"s right isn"t it. If I have something to talk about then I should just do it now. Though you know, since I don"t want anyone to
hear it, I want to talk in j.a.panese.
"No, I reserved a restaurant. I wanted to talk in {j.a.panese} after all. If possible it"s better if Mary can come along as well."
"Hmn? But I don"t have the money for too expensive of a place."
It seems he"s worried about the fact that I reserved a place.
"You don"t need to worry about that. Think of it was my treat. Let"s meet at the restaurant tomorrow at 2pm or so. It"s a restaurant with the name "Dakkuluton". Do
you know it?"
"! How would I not know of it, it"s a super high-cla.s.s restaurant on the central street! Is it okay?"
Eh? Is that so? Since it"s the restaurant I had my final meal with father and the others before separating, it has private rooms, and it was good so I chose it
though. I wonder if it was a bad idea? Well, I"m sure I can pay for it, I guess it"s fine.
"Yeah, I don"t mind. Since we managed to meet in Orth I"m sure it"s some kind of fate. I want to have a bit of complicated conversation as well, let me treat you the
first time at least."
"I see, I"ve never been to "Dakkuluton". I wonder if it would be better to skip lunch tomorrow?"
This guy is adorable. I knew that Mary was around the same age as me when I talked to her but Kuro might be young.
After that I talked about Kuro"s escort job and the delivery job I accepted yesterday, and some random conversation before I returned to Bins Manor. It seems that
Mary will come tomorrow as well. She was delighted hearing it was my treat as well but didn"t say anything about skipping lunch before coming.
As expected of an adult I guess.