Chapter 57 (2/2)
After waiting impatiently for an hour, the guild member came back with the Canaan tribe disciple candidate. The guild member introduced her and she made her greetings.
“Nice to meet you. My name is Etowa Waz. I’m 13 years old. Are you the boss? Pardon me for saying this, but you seem quite young. As you can see, I am a Canaan tribe, are you fine with this? Are the people behind you my sister disciples? A Turk tribe and an Elf-sama? I’m not sure what kind of arrangement that must be, let me think about it for a moment. …Ah, I got it! The Turk tribe is my sister disciple and the Elf-sama is a stranger pa.s.sing by. That’s the most logical answer!”
“Uh… yeah.”
The cat girl suddenly started talking a mile a minute. However, my mind was completely focused on her appearance and I didn’t hear a word of what she said.
Let me interrupt for a moment to introduce the five levels of beast girls, known as the Beast Level! Let’s look at cat girls as an example.
Level 1 is the ‘just cat ears and a tail, so close to human that the ears may even be human ears, that everyone usually imagines. To put it bluntly, basically cosplay. Generally accepted amongst everyone, not just furries.
Level 2 has fur all over the body, with paws for hands and feet. At this stage the hair is still of human standards, and the face is still mostly human. Clothes are also worn properly!
At level 3, the Beast Level rises quite dramatically. They could be described as an animalistic state on two legs. They still wear clothes, but they’re so furry that no one really cares if they’re naked. Up to here, they can still be called partly human.
At level 4 they’re mostly animal, and the only human-like characteristic is that they walk on two legs. Tom and Jerry would fit around here on the Beast Level.
Level 5 is a four-legged beast. The beasts that appear in animal manga are of course at this level and you could even be said to be the most popular, but in terms of fetish, it has to be level 5.
To simplify the categories, level 1 and 2 have human heads, level 3 and 4 have beast heads, and level 5 is a total beast—a good reference for categorising furries too. Sinful furries loved everything past level 3, including their body—etc.
As for the one standing front of me…
“No way, a level 3…?!”
I had underestimated this world. I thought they would only reach level 2 at best.
Rebecca-san had said “they also look like cats”, but Etowa was most definitely a cat. It was mystifying to see that cat mouth speak so fluently.
Though it may be strange to call her long-haired… her fur was thick with a blue-gray striped pattern, white on the inside. It was like the Northern European cats I saw at the pet shop a long time ago. Her face was, well, pretty much a cat (there were some human-like features to it) and while she didn’t have anything resembling human hair, she had styled the fur on her head with oil to look human-like, which was unexpectedly cute. She wore clothes, but considering the state of her exposed arms and legs she had plentiful amounts of fur covering her whole body, making it seem a little hot to be wearing clothes. Her hands and feet were a little more big-boned than human ones, making them seem robust.
I was worried that having the hands and feet of a cat would cause problems… but it seemed like that part of her was still human-like. They were hairy, though. It would be easy to just call her a werecat, but a talking cat on two legs that was around 140cm tall had a kind of ‘hard-to-describe cuteness’ to her, even if it did feel a little strange calling it that.
It was understandable how some people might feel hesitant about.
It didn’t feel right to keep chatting while standing, so I pointed to a table for us to continue our simple interview. Etowa had already heard part of the story from the guild member and confirmed she wanted to be my disciple. A whole year had pa.s.sed since she registered, so I guess she wasn’t in a position to be picky with her choices.
“So uuh, Etowa’s vocation is a ‘mathematician’, right? Are you good with numbers?”
“Yes. I can proudly say I have a better understanding than the average person. I can do mental arithmetic and definitely won’t screw up any money calculations. I can promise to handle money and inventory perfectly, and I’m fine even if discounted items are mixed in. Even amongst the merchant vocations there are people who are bad at maths, so I can wholeheartedly recommend myself for the position! Also, since I am Canaan, my feet are fast and can do errands well. And lastly, err, long-haired Canaan are rare and my fur feels nice to pat!
“Uh… yeah.”
She really talked a lot. Even though she was a cat. She really talked a lot for a cat. She doesn’t end her sentences with ‘Nya~’ either. She spoke so normally.
However, it was true that being able to do mental arithmetic without making mistakes was an advantage. Actually, it was a necessary skill, so if there were people who couldn’t do it, then I’d have to hire from those who could instead.
But I couldn’t tell what the potential of a ‘mathematician’ vocation was from only the conversation just now, so I decided to hold a little test.
“Then… I’m going to give you a little quiz. Even if you don’t know the answer, it won’t decide whether or not I hire you, so take it easy, alright?”
“Okay! Please do!”
“Let’s do this then! Tarou-kun went shopping. He bought 2 Witchetty and 3 Liliaram, totalling to 220 el. The Witchetties sold for 4 times as much as the Liliaram. What is the price of each Witchetty and Liliaram?”
I read out loud a quiz I had noted down on my phone a while ago.
It was quite a famous quiz, but not that difficult to answer. It was originally a quiz about chocolate and seaweed crackers, but I arranged it to suit this world. Etowa appeared to think for a moment, but answered with a confident expression.
“Each Witchetty is 80 el, and Liliaram is 20 el. That must be the answer.”
“Exacta!(1) How did you solve it?”
“Because the total worth is 11 Liliaram. I just divided it from that.”
She was surprisingly clever. Even though she was a cat. I wanted to squish her cheeks.
“Then the next question. The next one’s a little difficult.”
“Okay.”
“There’s a bucket with 12 litz of water. There are another two empty buckets that can hold 7 litz and 9 litz. Using these, fill a bucket with 1 litz of water.”
For the record, one litz was roughly equal to 1 litre. This was basic.
“Erm, let’s see… first you move the 12 to the 9. Then you move the water from the 9 to the 7 and throw away the extra 2. Put the water from the 7 into the 9. Take the remaining 3 in the 12 and fill the 9 so that 1 litz is left in the 12. This has to be the fastest answer!”
An immediate reply. Even though she was a cat. She was definitely smarter than me.
“Correct. How did you solve it so quickly?”
I raised my white flag.
“The difference between 12 and 9 is 3, the difference between 9 and 7 is 2, if you can create the condition 3 minus 2 then you’re left with 1. If you decompose it into basic numbers it’s very simple.”
“R… Right. Of course.”
When I tried to solve this problem I never considered throwing away the water, and never ended up solving it… Kitty-chan’s head sure was nimble.
So in the end, I decided to take Etowa as my disciple.
Normally, it was custom to pay disciples a pittance, but with potential like hers I believed it would be better to pay through commission rather than a fixed pay rate, and decided to give dedicate 5% of the sales to her salary. The contract was formed by binding a proper spirit contract at Priestess-chan’s place. I was thinking of just making do with a non-spirit contract like the time with Aurica, but because the guild was acting as a middleman, I couldn’t take shortcuts like that.
Well, the contract details included prevention against thievery, at the very least.
When I introduced Diana and Marina at the end, she was so shocked, her reaction surprised me. Apparently, the concept of elves as slaves was earth-shattering to her. “I… I do not understand…” she had mumbled, to which I could only tell her to get used to it.
But, well, at least I had my second worker after Aurica now.
I needed people whom I could leave my store to as well, and now the family was gradually expanding. Perhaps I could afford to go on expeditions a little more now. Like to the Heripa Lake that Chubby went to, or to Luklaela Mountain. I had a guidance to go to the lake and mountain anyway (that I had been ignoring until now).
Alright, once we made a little more money I’d leave the store to Etowa and go to Luklaela. I’d heard it was a lot closer than Heripa, and there were some good weapons and armour there too.
Just the fact it was a mining town was enough to make it somewhat exciting.
Footnotes
(1) ‘Exacta’ (Esakuta エサクタ in j.a.panese), is Spanish for “Exactly”. It’s a meme used by one of the Arrancar (Findor Carias) in the Bleach anime
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