Chapter 57 (1/2)
Chapter 57
Chapter 57 – The smell of the disciple is beastly
“Ehem, so what you’re saying is… That ‘Uncle Dida’ is Jephthah-san’s uncle, who—despite being a young weapon merchant heir and the president of a large trading company—set forth to support Diana’s guidance. A troublesome KY man who Jephthah-san can’t stop either, ehem.”
“Jirou-san, lower your voice a little. Uncle has really sharp ears. And what’s with that way of talking?”
“There’s no way his thoughts aren’t shady. It wouldn’t be odd if he was thinking something along the lines of ‘Normal elves are boring. I should go play with a High Elf’, don’t you think? You don’t often see people with such an evil look in their eyes and gait.”
“That’s a bit too much… Like I said before, if anything happened to a High Elf, it would turn into a problem between the entire race. If anything, I’m worried about Jirou-san.”
“How rude… We have a very sincere relations.h.i.+p, hmph.”
I ignored the grinning Chubby who reappeared and secretively consulted Jephthah.
Apparently, that Chubby was the real uncle of Jephthah (and Hetty-san) and the commander-in-chief of the ‘Balbacro Trading Company’, the largest weapons merchant in the empire. With his abundant fortune he used a ton of ‘de-aging’ spirit stones, when his real age was 54 (and apparently had 6 children)… quite the bourgeois.
“If you think about it normally, there’s no way the commander-in-chief of a huge trading company would come all this way to directly support someone without an ulterior motive. Is it really okay?”
“Actually… the Solo family support of Diana-san’s guidance started over two years ago. Apparently, my uncle heard that and stated ‘Leave it to me, I’ll wrap things up within a month’…”
Jephtha explained hesitatingly.
It seemed like Jephthah found his uncle rather overwhelming too, as his opinion leaned more towards mine. Well, he did call him a rich boy. But if he intended on wrapping things up in a month, did that meant he knew what Diana’s guidance was too? Diana said it was a secret, but I guess it wasn’t very well kept.
“So… I guess it has something to do with the reward the Solo family will get when Diana fulfils her guidance? Does that mean that person will benefit from the reward too…?”
He brushed off the question with a “That’s probably true,” but I was probably on the right track. Don’t tell me it wasn’t actually in order to obtain a high elf!
I believed the item the Solo family would have received for completing the guidance was said to be some secret treasure of the elves called The Alchemy… It was a secret that I knew this, so I couldn’t tell Jephthah or Chubby.
After that we introduced ourselves to each other despite having met before, since we didn’t know each other’s names. I really didn’t want to have Chubby support the guidance, but thankfully the mansion was complete and the shop had started, so I didn’t have to rely on his support for my living at least. I could earn enough to keep Diana and Marina easily.
Chubby lightly said “Well, feel free to ask me anything,” but I didn’t like the way he looked at Diana so I wouldn’t be getting close to him anytime soon. I would have liked to refuse his support outright, but because of her family’s contract with the Solo family, even Diana couldn’t refuse, so my own opinion was completely shut out. Well, I’d do my best to rely on him as little as possible, but… since I didn’t know the detail
s of Diana’s guidance and Chubby did, he’d move to accomplish it and end up getting me involved anyway.
It was such a depressing thought… My only countermeasure was to not let him into the mansion.
Aah…
Just as I got the ball rolling on my business, it started to rain on my parade… As I was ruminating in my depression, Chubby said something I never expected.
“Oh, right. I know we just finished introducing ourselves, but I’m about to head to the famous scenic spot, Heripa Lake. If you need anything while I’m away let the guild know and have them get it for you.”
He left behind those words as he departed jauntily with his slaves.
Eh…? Could it be that this person thought he would complete his support while sightseeing? There was no way that the sightseeing was his true motive, right… Come to think of it, a few days had pa.s.sed since I first saw him, but he seemed to be sightseeing back then too. He also said the velvet was a souvenir for his wife…
Now I look like an idiot for worrying so much about him!
Read the chapters at rinkagetranslation.com. The chapters for this series will NOT be posted anywhere else other than on that site itself. If you are reading this from somewhere else then this is chapter has been stolen.
◇◆◆◆◇ Sneaky potato comment… hehehe
Also… have a nice day random person
Read the chapters at rinkagetranslation.com. The chapters for this series will NOT be posted anywhere else other than on that site itself. If you are reading this from somewhere else then this is chapter has been stolen.
As Chubby had left, I returned to my original plan of having the guild introduce a disciple to me. I told this to the receptionist of the guild.
“Then please present your guild card.”
I’ve always thought this, but the guild card was really technologically advanced compared to everything else… The action of taking the card out of my wallet was exactly like presenting a members.h.i.+p card in a j.a.panese store. Well, it was a world where magic existed, after all. You could only write it off as part of the fantasy.
“Alright, Jirou Ayase-sama. You have requested the disciple introduction service. Right now we can introduce you to this person, this person… and this one.”
The receptionist said as they took out three sheets of parchment. It seemed like all the necessary information was written on that, and you could decide the kid you wanted based on them. You could even hold an interview.
“What do you think, Rebecca-san? I can’t read the writing, could you tell me what’s written on here?”
“Yeah, sure. Erm… first, this is a 12-year-old girl with the ‘merchant’ vocation. This one’s a 14-year-old boy with another ‘merchant’ vocation. And the last one’s a 13-year-old girl with—”
“Hmm? What’s wrong?”
“With… a ‘mathematician’ vocation. It’s my first time seeing one.”
Huh, what an intellectual vocation.
I was interested, but it would probably be safer to choose a child with a ‘merchant’ vocation. But a mathematician probably meant she was smart, and usually smart people could do whatever you asked of them. It was something to consider. Besides, I was probably the most qualified to develop the talent of a mathematician vocation. While I couldn’t teach anything as a high school graduate myself, I could at least buy books full of maths problems. I didn’t know how far the maths in this world had developed, but it shouldn’t be as advanced as Earth. If I was to take on a disciple, I had to raise them properly.
…Well, I had no idea if being a successful mathematician would even have any meaning in this fantasy world.
“The mathematician child, has she written anything else?”
“Eh? Did the mathematician child catch your interest? Hmm, this girl… you’ll have to meet them to be sure, but over a year has pa.s.sed since they signed up, so they might not be too good, you know? And… Jirou probably doesn’t care, but this girl has written that she’s a ‘Canaan’. Ah, but her father is a military police.”
“Erm, what’s a Canaan?”
“Ah, Jirou doesn’t know. The Canaan tribe.”
Another new tribe! But I wondered if there was a problem. Were they another discriminated tribe like the Turks?
“Err, Canaan are relatively common around here, but many of the families are poor so there are lots of pickpockets, burglars and thieves. Since they tend to be nimble and clever… Of course, that’s only one part of the Canaan tribe, but because of that people usually avoid them. And they also look like cats.”
“Please give more details about that last part.”
“Eh? They’re werecats, so they have the appearance of cats. So it’s not like they’re discriminated against, it’s just that people try to avoid dealing with them.”
“Then I’ll go with that girl.”
“Eh? Eeeh?”
If she’s already been waiting a year for a master then her parents wouldn’t be too fussy over where she gets her apprentices.h.i.+p, and I can pat her cat ears and tail all I want. Win-win. In the first place, I didn’t really care too much about the details of the disciple as long as they could work decently.
“W-Wait Jirou, are you sure you want to decide so easily?”
“Well, there’s no point in worrying, though it might be better to interview everyone. I just think it might be better to take one of the unwanted kids… Like I said before, I don’t feel too confident about having a disciple anyway…”
“If Jirou says so then… But will you at least decide after an interview?”
And so, we decided to hold an interview just in case. But how were you supposed to call them out…? As I was wondering that, a young guild member was sent out. The guild sure worked fast.