Chapter 17. Gathering Household
Sakimori was sitting cross-legged at home with his eyes closed. I heard there is a legitimate way to sit in zazen or something like that, but I don’t know much about it because I have never experienced zazen or anything like that. Well, it would be appropriate. I’m not good at religions because many of them have become cults.
The old man was sitting cross-legged in the living room, but I wasn’t relaxed. Sweat was pouring down my forehead, and I was letting the magic power in my body circulate through my body. Mana doesn’t increase by exhaustion, but its operation improves. It’s routine training.
I trained every day to activate his magic faster than the water flow, hard as a mineral, and instantaneously.
After about an hour of training, I slowly opened my eyes to see Shizuku shadowing me. Although she’s a ghost, she never misses a training session, and she’s a seriously beautiful girl. It was beautiful to see her unleash her fists and kick with suppleness. She’s usually pretty, but such a figure is like looking at art, her movements are lean and sharp.
Shizuku seemed to have finished her training as well, and she let out a sigh of relief. There was a calmness and dreadfulness that did not match his age. She’s all the more so because she usually only looks stupid.
[I’m embarrassed when people stare at me. Shall I lie on the floor and show you a spin?]
She smiles nihilistically and says it mischievously, and I can’t help but laugh as well.
“You’re going to spin again, right, with the cry of hell I don’t understand? Okay, it’s more than that. I think it’s time for a sensory overhaul.”
I’ve been training, and I’ve been feeling it lately. I ask if Shizuku does too, and she nods in agreement.
[Yes, I do. I can feel my body filling up with mana. I think it’s time to raise my skill level.]
“You still think so. I know that’s what this body feels like, like it’s on fire, it’s mushy. And then it’s level 3. How much more powerful will it be?”
Shizuku hmms my question, puts her hand on her chin, and simply tells me.
[There must have been a lot of change from 1 to 2. But 3 is proof that you’re on your own. I thought you could use peculiar magic. It should be more than just manipulating shadows and creating fire.]
“Can you tell me how you got that information?”
I gave my partner a wry smile as he told me the details of a skill he had never obtained, and he gently pressed his index finger to his mouth and chuckled.
[That’s forbidden.]
“Hmmm.”
[Shizuku cross-thunder chop!]
Somehow, Shizuku got angry and started to chop me, but I wonder what it was. She’s a girl I don’t understand at times.
I’ve been to the outer town a few times since then, making good money, and two weeks have passed quickly. The sky is cloudy, and it looks like it will become rainy season a little early. And there was another problem.
As I left the penthouse and struggled downstairs, where the barricade had been put up, I found many signs of people on the ground floor, which had been deserted and unpopular before.
I took a quick peek. That’s a problem that has been increasing over the past week. No, I’m not in trouble, but I wonder if I’m in trouble.
When I peeked in with a troubled look on my face, I saw a lot of people on the entrance floor.
There were many children, but there were people of all ages, men and women. A young man who looked frail. A woman, perhaps a widow, nursing her baby. Old people with disability. To put it bluntly, they were the weak of society.
It’s the stove I bought on my last visit. On top of the stove, there is a small bowl on which something is simmering. It was probably a soup or a pork miso soup with little meat.
“Sakimori-shan!”
I smile at the little girl who is the first to notice my presence and jumps on me. So I give her a high hand. The little girl was so happy and excited.
I let her down, thinking how much she missed me, and everyone noticed and greeted me.
“Good morning, boss.”
Good morning, Sakimori-san.”
“Today, we’re serving pork miso soup.”
I tilt my head back as they smile and greet me with a hawkish wave of their hands. At a glance, there are fifty of us. Why are they all gathered here?
[It’s because word got out that you were making money by sheltering children, Sakimori-san.]
While Shizuku was floating, she spoke with an exasperated voice. Yeah, I knew.
[I wanted to escape reality, but I guess you’re right. But how could anyone ask for protection from people like me?]
I’m sorry to say it, but I’m an old man in black, okay? I’m an old man who is beyond suspicious.
[Strong. A man with just that one thing in common began to expand his power. Surprisingly, he’s very protective of the weak children. It’s better to start from the beginning than from the end. If you welcome an aspiring reporter boy generously with a wooden horse, it means that newcomers will come].
[Kai-san isn’t an aspiring reporter. He’s from the Spring and Autumn period.]
[It’s time to evangelize, I think.]
It doesn’t quite fit the story, but I know what it’s about. So they thought I was gently protecting the children.
“Oh, here’s what we made yesterday!”
The leader boy comes in with a burlap sack. I take it and groan when I see what’s inside. Inside the jute bag were nearly 500 monster cores. Probably all F-rank.
“There were this many big rats?”
“Yes. Mike-chan and the others took them down, so it was easy. We hunted in 5 different places. But we didn’t gather nearly enough in any of them.”
“How many times?”
“Let’s see. I’ve been doing this since noon, so about the 6th time. After about 100 pieces, I could only gather a few, and the monster incense was wasted.”
He reports to me in a daze, but Sakimori thinks quickly. He named the wooden sticks Demon Incense, but he could kill 20 at a time, so 100 was normal. There are countless dungeons for big rats, so I don’t know, but are they dying out fast?
And if so, we’ll have to monopolize the place we’ll continuously hunt. I didn’t expect it to die out so fast.
The total number of shadow cats I rebuilt is 6. I spent all 150 of my mana to make them. With a body size equivalent to a large dog and attack power equivalent to a leopard, they can easily beat a big rat. It could even beat a goblin.
“Did you get any rare ones?”
“Yes. There were no rares.”
I knew that, but I checked just in case. But the leader boy still shook his head and denied it.
Ummm, I don’t know the conditions for them to appear. I did the same thing several times, thinking if I killed hundreds of them. They would appear. But they didn’t. I guess rare is rare. If I knew the conditions of appearance, I would beat them all.
“Enough, you did well. You’ve learned to count too.”
I regain my composure and pat the leader boy on the head to praise him. He rubs his nose and looks proud of himself. He’s a good learner at his age.
I go to the outer town to sell every 200 coupe pan. They sell out in no time. Since I don’t need any money to get started, I make a lot of money. The gatekeepers and the thugs who run the black market are very kind to him because they think I’m a good source of money. After all, there is no line.
The thugs must know what happened to the people who attacked us. They’re rubbing their hands together and being bizarrely low-key.
So far, there are no competitors in the vicinity. There is no pretense that Shingen would even try to start, even though he could do it if he had the discernment to do so. I don’t know why. If I think he’s looking out for me, I think he’s not. The number of residents living in the outer town is enormous. Even if Shingen were to enter the market, sales would be the same.
It’s strange, but the profits are steadily increasing, and flowing from right to left. There’s very little left for me. I’m buying all the food, simple cooking utensils, towels, and other stuff. Initial expenses are always necessary, even for a small business. Even for a small business.
And in the process, somehow, the number of people has increased. I don’t understand.
“Yes, Sakimori-san. It’s freshly made.”
A woman with a baby on her back hands me a bowl of pork miso soup with a smile, and I accept it.
The miso taste is weak, but it’s edible. The pork is too much for my taste, but it’s edible.
“Itadakimasu!”
I don’t know who started it, but with a shout like at an old school lunchtime, they put the pork miso soup on a long, assembled desk they brought from somewhere, sit down on pipe chairs, and eat in good harmony.
I thought about it while looking at the situation aimlessly. I don’t know what to do with this.
“Um, thank you, Sakimori-san.”
“Hmm?”
As I sip my pork miso soup while thinking, a woman with a baby in her arms bows her head to me.
“My husband was killed by a monster, and I was wondering what I should do. I thought the only way was to die with the baby, but I could save his life.”
Dadaa, the baby reaches out to me, I give her a light squeeze, and he cackles happily. Huh~. That’s hard to leave behind.
[While saying that, you’re thinking about how to make money using this. And the weak people in dire need can do serious work if you use them well.]
[Don’t read my mind, Shizuku-san?]
It’s all about how you use things. It’s easy to dismiss these people as useless. But the world I wished for is there because I don’t discard them.
I’m not aiming for an ideal world, though.
“Well, then, I’ll think of jobs for people here. I’ll have a squad to hunt big rats, a squad to kill slime, a squad to clean this building, a squad to cook, wash and make monster incense.”
This number of people can be easily fed. Not yet. Should we add more to the store lineup? We need to find out what’s getting demand in the outer town. I need something that makes money.
But now I gather everyone and start explaining that I can make money with the large mouse-hunting corps. We’ll make our base here, so let’s start by preparing it so we can live here.
“It’s raining. It’s sprinkling!”
She’s a young girl who is tightly clinging to my side and points outside. I notice that raindrops are falling from the cloudy sky.
It’s the beginning of the rainy season, it makes me look disgusted. It’s easy to get damp, when I looked outside, I saw someone coming this way.
Someone is walking toward me, staggering and drenched, was a man of large stature. I think his name was Ooki-kun.
He must have noticed me, because he turned bloodthirsty and came running toward me, getting down on his knees.
“Aniki! Please help Master Shingen! The community will disappear because of me!”
The people around me looked at each other in bewilderment as Ooki-kun sobbed and begged for help, and I looked at him with a cold stare, thinking, getting down on one’s knees was a threat to one’s opponent.
However, it would be very troublesome for Shingen’s community to collapse. It’s a community that’s better than an abandoned town.
Sakimori listens to Oki’s story and says it can’t be helped.
