kscans

Chapter 163 - Huh?

Satsuki-san was tapping and stroking Nanapon's gold bar. Nanapon was desperately reaching out to get it back, but the small and weak Nanapon was easily held back by Satsuki-san.

"Please give it back."

"Now, wait a minute."

She's like a child who had her toy taken away.

"We're done."

I announced as Kaede-chan and I sat down across from Satsuki-san and Nanapon.

"Good work. It was real gold. Wow, this is amazing. Does this weigh about ten kilos?"

"It's heavy, so it might be around that much."

"You said there were fifty bars. Five hundred kilos of gold... that's incredible, man!"

Satsuki-san was excited.

"Well, yeah. I gave five of them to Yoshino-san. Nanaka-san got five too. I have forty."

"Uh-huh. Well, show me them right away."

At Satsuki-san's request, I piled up the forty gold bars on the floor like a mountain.

"Amaaazing!"

"It's so bright. So this is the shine of gold!"

Kaede-chan and Satsuki-san's eyes sparkled as they gazed upon the forty gold bars.

"I'll give you one, Satsuki-san, so give that one back to Nanaka-san."

Don't be mean.

"You will? Then I'll take it."

Satsuki-san happily took the gold bar and began to admire it. Nanapon immediately put the returned gold bar into her bunny backpack.

"A lot of things happened."

"I heard the gist of it from Nanapon. Well, I thought something like that might happen."

She meant the SDF trying to steal my gold bars.

"You did?"

"Money drives people mad."

I can understand that.

"Well, it's fine. I feel sorry for the four who died in the line of duty, but it's none of my business."

That's the SDF's problem, and it has nothing to do with me, who did the job I was told to do.

"I suppose. More importantly, what are you going to do? Sell them? To be honest, gold itself is an asset, so it's better not to sell it."

I hear the price of gold goes up every year.

"But I have to sell them, right? That was the promise. The head office director will be angry."

"You can just sell a few. You don't have to sell all of them. We never promised to sell everything."

"Huh? Is that right?"

Wasn't that what we talked about?

"The promise was that anything you obtained from this investigation would be sold to the guild or put up for auction. We didn't specify a time. You can hold onto it and sell it to the guild when you're ready. Besides, we can't suddenly come up with the money to buy an estimated 400 kilos of gold."

That might be true. I don't know how much it'll sell for, but it seems like it would exceed a billion yen.

"I see."

"Yeah, so just hold onto it as an asset."

"Understood. Then I'll sell about ten bars, so tell the head office director that."

If I sell 100 kilos, the director won't complain.

"Got it."

"And keep the emergency quest a secret."

"Right. This is a card to hold. It shouldn't be played so easily."

She thinks just like her cousin.

"I agree. Also, please buy up all the Sparkling Grass."

"Sparkling Grass? The material for Buff Potions, was it? Why?"

"The walls inside the building and in the basement were glowing like electric lights, and the name of the paint is Sparkling Paint. It's an important ingredient, and I don't want it to be stolen."

It's debatable whether I need a potion that increases attack power, but I want a stockpile.

"Hmm, alright. Kaede, I'm counting on you."

"Understood!"

Kaede-chan saluted.

"That's about it. I also sold the map."

"Well, that was the main job."

"It was easy. It was full of nothing but small fry."

That place is really nothing but bones.

"Were they small fry? The Giant Skeleton looked incredibly strong to me."

Nanapon, who had been watching my fight, tilted her head.

"It was just a bone creature that was big, fast, and strong."

"Isn't being big, fast, and strong just normally strong?"

Well, yeah.

"Its movements were completely predictable. It was a weakling, a weakling. Yoshino-san thought so too. Otherwise, she would have come to help."

Yoshino-san gave me advice, but she showed no sign of moving.

"Huh. I couldn't imagine myself winning at all."

"Well, that's you. You're a mage, aren't you."

There's no way you could win.

"Hmm, I know you're amazing, but why can't I just praise you honestly?"

How should I know? Just do it.

"That's because every other word out of this guy's mouth has a nuance of 'I'm amazing, everyone else is a weakling,' I'd bet."

Hey!

"Ah, that's it!"

Hey!

"..."

Kaede-chan, say something. Back me up!

"I've had enough. I'm going home."

Hmph!

"Good work. The auction will be over next week, so rest up until then."

"I'll do that. Oh, did you hear about the instant sale?"

Last night, I asked Kaede-chan to tell Satsuki-san that I sold a level 3 Healing Potion to an organization called Minerva.

"I heard from Kaede. It's a suspicious organization, right? Be careful. I don't want to hold a press conference with you over a scandal."

"I don't want that either. Well, it's fine. I'll leave it to Claire from now on."

"You guys are close, huh."

"We're a society of people who are dissatisfied with Harry always wanting to eat tempura."

It's not that I hate ramen, but not every time. Claire also says she wants to eat sushi and tempura.

"It's always popping up on the internet, isn't it. The Ramen Witch."

That's so lame...

"That's terrible... well, whatever. We're going to a tempura restaurant next time. Anyway, I'm going home. I'll leave ten gold bars here, so sell them or whatever."

"Got it. I'll contact you when the sale price is decided."

"Please do."

I left ten gold bars, stored the rest in my bag, and decided to go home. I could wait for Kaede-chan and go home together, but it was still before 4 o'clock, so I decided against waiting.

As usual, I left through the back door, and in a deserted place, I drank an invisibility potion. Then, I changed back to Okita-kun and went home.

When I got home, no one was there, of course, so I sat on the sofa and waited for Kaede-chan to come back while watching TV.

"Come to think of it, I might have leveled up."

I defeated several Eight-Armed Skeletons and a Giant Skeleton. It's possible that I've leveled up.

"Let's see... Oh! I have!"

--------------------
Name: Eleanor Ocean
Level: 11
Job: Swordsman
Skills:
≪Swordsmanship lv6≫
≪Speechcraft lv1≫
≪Provocation lv3≫
≪Presence Detection lv1≫
☆≪Alchemy≫
--------------------
Level 11
Healing Potion Lv1, Gender Reassignment Potion
Sleeping Potion, Pure Water
Translation Potion, Item Bag
Invisibility Potion, Appraisal Glasses, Appraisal Contacts
Healing Potion Lv2, Buff Potion (Strength)
Buff Potion (Speed), Buff Potion (Defense)
Auto-Map, Healing Potion Lv3
Water of Life, Cure Potion
--------------------

"Cure Potion?"

What's a cure?

"Ah, so it cures diseases."

Don't Healing Potions do that too? Well, I don't know what level of illness it can cure, but I guess I can drink it if I catch a cold. It seems like it would work on the flu too.

"It's more for daily life than for adventuring. Let's see, the ingredients are..."

The ingredients were a Healing Potion and a Healing Potion.

"Hmm? Let's see, ah, I get it..."

Cure Potions also have levels. So, if I use two level 1 Healing Potions, I can make a level 1 Cure Potion, and if I use two level 3 Healing Potions, I can make a level 3 Cure Potion. Also, if I use a level 1 Healing Potion and a level 3 Healing Potion, it seems I can't make a level 2 Cure Potion, but a level 1 Cure Potion instead.

"I can make this right away, so I should prepare a stock..."

But can I sell this? Healing Potions are supposedly just drinking water, but isn't a Cure Potion medicine?

"I'll have to consult Satsuki-san."

As I was thinking that it might be difficult for me to sell it, I heard a loud ping-pong, ping-pong from the TV.

"A news bulletin?"

Was there an earthquake?

Wondering what it was, I read the text at the top of the TV screen.

[Reports Indicate the Frontier Government is Demanding the Extradition of Eleanor Ocean]

...Alright! Time to retire! Goodbye, everyone!