Chapter 206

Probing

Several days passed .

I was watching for that message bird coming back to the sisters, but it looks like the letter arrived through the guild instead .

And the letter was this:

[Please show this letter to the Village Chief . ]

… They don’t intend to hide it?

Well, because of that, Nayuta was bringing the letter to me . Keeping Meat at my side, I met with her in the parlor with a table between us . Setsuna wasn’t here since she was working .

“Village Chief-san, a letter arrived from my client for you . ”

“Nn? Nayuta’s client…? Who? It’s not Rokuko I take it?”

“Yeah, it’s a long term commission . Wakoku’s daimyo… Ah, a daimyo is like an empire’s emperor . ”

Wakoku . So it’s showing up now…

“You two came from Wakuko?”

“Me? No, my name’s definitely in Wakoku’s style, but I’m from somewhere else . They’re just employing me . ”

“Hoh… so, what does Wakoku’s daimyo want with me?”

“Maybe to be a scout? I reported that you were strong after all . ”

Ah, she didn’t hide that either . Isn’t she actually pretty open about all this? She might even tell me a few things if I asked her directly .

“… Oh, right right . Before that, could you check this out for a moment? I picked it up in the dungeon, but I don’t know what it is . ”

Nayuta suddenly pointed a gun at me . It’s a revolver-type pistol .

She said she didn’t know what it was, but she’s pointing the muzzle at me with her finger on the trigger . My body jumped from the surprise .

… Meat responded to my subtle reaction, standing in front of me as though to block the way . Man this girl’s so awesome…

“Oh, you reacted? As I thought, you—”

“That’ll happen if you suddenly send so much bloodthirst my way . And don’t you actually know the way to use that thing? It feels like you’re accustomed to it . ”

“Mu, now that you mention it…”

Nayuta took her finger off of the trigger and pointed the gun down .

… By the way, I don’t recall putting something like that into the dungeon . It’s not even in the DP catalog in the first place, so Nayuta definitely brought it along herself .

Now that I’m taking a closer look at the gun, isn’t it odd? It’s a revolver, but there’s no hammer . Moreover, the revolver’s cylinder is copper… huh? There aren’t any holes that should be there to load bullets into? Capped?

I’m not a gun maniac so I’ve never seen a real gun in person, so I wouldn’t be able tell if it’s real or not if someone told me there was a gun like that .

“So, would you explain to me what caused you to send so much bloodthirst to your employer?”

“… You’ll go bald if you fuss on the details—sorry Kuroinu-senpai please stop it with the knife on my neck sorry Village Chief-san sorry for what I said sorry!”

Yep, Meat closed the distance in an instant and held the knife up against her throat . As for her standing on the table to do it… well, let’s go with it being fine for this . Nayuta’s holding up her arms like she’s in a holdup . She even dropped her gun to the floor .

“Ah, yep . I’m not going bald, I’m still young . Well, it’s all good… Kuro, let her go . How about I read the letter from that daimyo person now?”

I opened the letter .

… A part of it is weird in that I can read it normally, but hey, isn’t it written in Japanese? Sure, Japanese characters flash in my head as I read this world’s writing, but I can only see this as Japanese . Honestly though, if I had to say, the handwriting looks great .

Are they trying to see my reaction, or is there another reason? … I don’t know .

By the way, this is what the letter says:

Dear Golen Village’s Village Chief-sama,

How is this vividly green season treating you? If you don’t mind, would you pay a visit to Wakoku? I’m certain that Nayuta must have done something rude, but as it was due to my instruction, she had no choice . If you are Japanese, I would absolutely love to speak with you . If the time comes that you would pay a visit, we would shoulder all of the traveling expenses for you to do so . We have sashimi, soy sauce, and miso soup . [1]

… A Japanese person? Really . Really now .

This is a seriously troublesome person . Super troublesome .

Alright, I decided . I saw nothing!

For the time being, I can’t read it .

After turning the letter upside down, narrowing my eyes, flipping it over and scowling at it, I held it out to pass to Meat .

“Hmph, Kuro . Can you read it?”

“Oh? Village Chief-san, you can’t read the characters?”

“… I’m not too good at reading and writing . So, how about it, Kuro? Can you?”

“Umm, Goshujin-sama . This letter appears to be written in unreadable characters . ”

As a result of her education, Meat’s able to read this the letters commonly used in this world . In other worlds, this is probably written in Japanese after all . Wakoku has a lot of mysteries to it .

Come to think of it, didn’t Wataru end up heading over to Wakoku? Let’s ask him about it next time he’s here .

“That so? Well, if those characters aren’t from around it, it’s natural I couldn’t read it either then . ”

I pleaded that I couldn’t read it since I was stupid… was I a bit too forceful about it there?

“So, what’s it say? You can read it, right Nayuta?”

“Yeah… Hmm, it’s about being a scout after all . It’s talking about the conditions for being employed, it even looks like the annual salary’s a thousand gold! That’s as much as an A-Rank adventurer . ”

I doesn’t say anything about a thousand gold income anywhere though? Guess they worked that out beforehand .

Oh right . I saw nothing . I read nothing .

“Unfortunately, I’m this village’s Village Chief, so I have responsibilities . I’ll have to refuse… I’m not troubled by money either though, and most of all I look shady . ”

“That’s too bad, I thought it’d be fun if you were a coworker . Ah, Kuro-senpai got an invitation too?”

“If Goshujin-sama refuses, so do I . ”

“Yeah, I get it . Well, I’ll write back saying you refused then . ”

Her hand waving, Nayuta responded as though it were trivial .

Looks like decided that I saw nothing was the right answer . Booyah .

“Incidentally, could you give me a closer look at that item? You said you got it from the dungeon, but this is the first time I’ve seen it . I’d like to check it out as the Village Chief, even buy it if I could . ”

I touched on the subject of that gun .

When I said ‘buy it’, Nayuta’s tail sprung up .

“Ah~, sorry . To be honest, this is something I made myself . Me getting it from the dungeon was a lie . ”

“Heeh, handmade? It looks like a weapon, is it a magic tool?”

“… As you guessed, it’s a magic tool weapon . It’s something I tried reproducing from the world of the Heroes . Its strength, currently… well, it’s basically a kid’s plaything . ”

Saying that, she shot the gun towards the wall . With a sound that felt lacking, something lightly struck the wall much with a sound that sounded like a small rock hit it .

… When I looked at it, the conical bullet looked like a dart . Bullets weren’t this shape right? They should be more aerodynamic . Moreover, judging by the feeling of this, it’s iron, not lead . Heeeh .

“The real thing seems to be something that fires bullets through an explosion though . It didn’t shoot like I’d planned when I tried making it as a magic tool, so it’s not even strong enough to stick to wood doors . It’d be bad if it got you in the eye though… Honestly, it’d be stronger to just throw the bullet . Haah… I wonder if I should come at it from some other way?”

It’s apparently something that came about through Nayuta’s own trial and error .

Looks like she wasn’t told much about guns and gunpowder . The looks of it surprised me though .

“… You’re reproducing magic tools from the heroes’ world? Well, if it’s something that originally has enough power to be a weapon, I’m sure their world has developed their understanding of magic considerably . ”

“Huh? It’s the opposite . Their world doesn’t have magic at all . ”

“Really now? Then how are you having it explode?”

“The materials don’t exist . It’s just reproducing the looks… uumu, I’ve been wanting to talk to a Hero about it, Village Chief-san, do you know a Hero?”

“Ah, yeah . I do . ”

When I said that, Nayuta shot forward, leaning over the table .

“… Um, could you introduce me? I’ll pay for the referral fee!”

“I’ll introduce you to him the next time he’s here . ”

It’s about time Hero Wataru will be heading over to make a payment on his debt .

According to him from when he came before the Dungeon Battle, Haku-san gave him an absurd job for the duration of the whole thing . Moreover, he even brought the portion of the payment he wouldn’t be able to pay for the time he couldn’t come here .

She’d meet him at reception or while waiting on tables either way, so it’s not like I’ll be asking her for a referral fee though .