v1c1 (1/2)

第一章 「酷幻想[リアルファンタジー]」

Chapter 1 - “Real Fantasy”

One week has pa.s.sed since I was transported from modern j.a.pan to this countryside village, called Losgow, in a parallel universe. Since I was exhausted from working for a farm family, I was thoroughly weakened.

“Aaaah, d.a.m.nit, why don’t they have faucets!”

From early in the morning, I have been drawing water from a far away well, and have gone back and forth several times to carry water into the barn.

My current job is to take care of the cows, which replaced agricultural machinery of modern times.

Once I replenished the cows’ drinking water, their feed was next.

I put a heaping portion of hay into the feed trough.

You could say that the fact that I needed to feed the livestock before I could receive my meal showed my status. In other words, I was below even livestock.

Since they knew that I would give them food, the cows let out a happy “moo”.

I gradually grew more attached to them as I took care of them, and you could say that they were cute, but my physical labor is severe, so I don’t have the time to play with you.

So stop licking me already.

I do like eating grilled cow tongue , but I don’t really enjoy being licked by a cow’s tongue.

“Haha…… really.”

It was fatigue after fatigue.

Pain after pain.

As for how I came to do live-in work at this farmhouse, the Rodd house, it was thanks to Louise's introduction.

Since even a deadbeat like me could probably do something to help at the farmhouse, I was thankful, but after a week I was dead tired.

Furthermore, even though I'm supposed to be hired as a farmhand, for some reason I was always made to work dairy farming jobs, which I think is a problem.

As an exceptionally wealthy farmhouse in this village, the Rodd house kept pigs and horses alongside cattle. Since they didn't seem to be a dairy farmhouse I supposed they were work animals.

Nononono hold on, I didn't want to be a farmhand or a dairy farmer to begin with. It somehow feels weird when a person going on an otherworld trip goes on and does plain jobs like these.

The reason why these complaints surface is because the work is too severe. I thought that if I worked for a while, I would get used to the hard manual labor, but I just can’t get used to it. Thanks to the muscle pain upon muscle pain, my body hurts, no matter how much time pa.s.ses.

I am clearly being overworked. Though, since there are no labor laws in this medieval fantasy, it can’t be help even if I complain.

Also, according to the father of this farm family, it’s not the busy farming season yet, so the workload is on the leisurely side.

The reason why it’s hard for me to complain about something like ‘the work is hard’, is because the husband, wife, and even their small daughter have much heavier workloads than me.

Even though it’s tough enough just drawing water and splitting firewood.

I really like fantasies, but I had never thought that there would be such hards.h.i.+ps in everyday life.

One week has pa.s.sed since I came to this Real Fantasy world. Through seeing and hearing things in the village, I gradually understood more about this parallel universe.

The small village I’m staying in, Losgow, is inside the territory of Earl Est, within the Silesie kingdom. Silesie kingdom is located inside of the Eula continent. I can’t affirm it, since there’s no map, but from what I heard about the land and climate, if compared to my original world, it would roughly be around the middle of France.

Although it’s far from ideal, this fantasy world has magic too, in place of modern science.

However, the ones who can use magic are only special people that possess magic power by birth, who are called magicians. Since the number of magician is low, if they don’t make a name for themselves as adventurers, then they would generally serve n.o.bles or become government officials, it seems.

Finally there are some who can use holy magic and become priests of the state religion called the Asama Church. These people are mostly powerful or influential people.

In short, the life of the common people hasn’t changed at all since the old times, when they didn’t have magic yet.

From the viewpoint of a modern kid like me, the physical strength of the people who don’t use magic in their normal life in this inconvenient world is, it’s like they all possess a superhuman strength cheat skill.

If it’s like this, then how will I survive the busy farming season, I wonder.

My arms would fall off, maybe.

“Aah jeez, I can’t do it anymore.”

I laid down on the pile of hay.

Hay is an indispensable part of a farming family. It isn’t infested with insects, so it’s clean and feels good. I just want to leisurely fall asleep like this.

After ditching work, and then getting fired, even though I’m just a farmer, I will even get driven out of the village and die in no time at all, because this world is a harsh one.

Even though Louise saved me and extended my life, I’m gonna die just because of this, huh.

“No, if I give up then it’s game over.”

I rose up from the pile of hay.

I cheered myself up with a line from my favorite manga.

Then I picked up a tree branch and started drawing something like a plan on the ground.

I don’t even have paper or pen, so this will have to do. Rather than complaining by myself, trying to write it out like this will make it easier to connect my thoughts.

The theme is “Somehow make money using modern knowledge”. If I think about it, am I not a engineering student?

TL note: engineer is like modern day wizard - Yuus.h.i.+n

For example, rather than complaining about the lack of faucets, how about making it myself, even if it’s a primitive one.

It’s tough to make it by myself, but I can consult the blacksmith, sell the idea to someone who can make it, or something similar.

On the nearby river, there’s a water wheel for the miller, so I can use it as a water pump and draw water, can’t I?

For example, the well, just making a hand pump would make it easier to draw water.

While I was lost in thought, a blond-haired girl showed up.

“Aah, Takeru is ditching work again.”

“No no, I was doing some thinking.”

It’s Sara-chan, the daughter of this farming family.

She isn’t an especially beautiful girl, but since she has silky blond hair and beautiful emerald green eyes, she’s small and plenty cute, so it’s a feast for sore eyes, and just seeing her is enough to relieve my fatigue.

Sara-chan’s wearing an ap.r.o.n and a cape over her normal clothes like Heidi, really like a village girl in medieval times. Her appearance is really cute, but she’s a bit too noisy, even though she’s a kid, so it’s like a flaw in the crystal.

No, she’s noisy exactly because she’s a kid, isn’t she. It seems that, since I came to this house, an existence lower than her appeared, so she’s very happy and acting all bossy.

To be frank, it’s annoying.

However, since I’m already an adult, I don’t fuss over small matters like being bossed around by a little girl.

I retorted to her, not out loud but only in my head, that ‘your parent probably only named you Sara because of your silky (sarasara) blond hair, didn’t they’

TL note: is that an insult or a praise? I don’t even

“Huh, Takeru you can write sacred letters?”

“Of course I can, it’s only letters…...”

Somehow, Sara-chan was surprised at the diagram and text I drew on the ground.

“Amazing, you can write sacred letters, so Takeru is a scholar-sama!”

“......Sacred letters and scholar you said, what are those?”

From the details I heard from Sara-chan, the letters I can write naturally are a higher form of letters called Sacred letters, and they’re used in official doc.u.ments, it seems.

I see, this is the ‘language cheat’, huh.

If one was transferred to another world and couldn’t understand words or letters, they wouldn’t be able to live, so as a plot device, they were usually given the power to understand the native language.

I thought I couldn’t do anything, but to think that I was equipped with a hidden skill like this. It was so basic that I didn’t realized it.

To be able to freely read and write in a world with a low rate of literacy is already enough skill to do a respectable job, especially people who can write sacred letters, who are respected as intellectuals and called scholars.

When the farm isn’t busy, Sara-chan gets taught by the only scholar in the village, even though it’s only the lower form of letters, it seems.

These sacred letters are used all over the world by the Asama Church and so on; they’re like Latin and Greek in my world.

Low rank letters are regional language like English and France, huh.

I tried writing a single word with the low rank letters used by Silesie Kingdom, and it was possible.

It’s mysterious, I think of j.a.panese, but I can naturally translate and write it like I’m multilingual.

I thought ‘oh c.r.a.p maybe I can’t write j.a.panese anymore, since I used low rank letters’, but it turned out that if I was just conscious of it, I could still write kanji, so I was relieved, but maybe I will forget it if I don’t use it sometimes.

“So smart, Takeru is a scholar-sama, so why are you doing ch.o.r.es at a farm house? Are you stupid?”

“So am I smart or stupid, which is it?”

If I’m a scholar, then I can immediately work in the village’s administration office, so I better quit doing this s.h.i.+tty job and go there, or so Sara-chan told me.

She will introduce me to her sensei, who is in the village’s administration office, it seems.

Since I was able to converse normally after being transferred here from j.a.pan, I didn’t think that being able to write this world’s letters could get me a job.

I want to thank Sara-chan for teaching me this.

But hey, Sara-chan, you speak ill of this farming job even though you’re a farmer’s daughter, what are you parents gonna do with you.

●

I informed everyone of the Rodd house that took care of me about my resignation.

Thank you for you work, they said, and then they handed me the pay for this one week of work.

By the way, the pay for one week worth of labour that was in the palm of my hands was 7 small copper coins.

2 small copper coins equal 1 big copper coin.

If I were to convert it to j.a.panese yen based on the market price here, 1 small copper coin is about 50 yen. So with three meals and a living place provided, one week of back breaking labour only gets me a mere 350 yen.

No matter how poor a farmer is, isn’t this wage too low?

The labour cost is too cheap. In Silesie Kingdom, there’s no Labour Standard Bureau or Minimum Wage Act.

“Well isn’t it good that you got another job.”

“Yes, thank you very much.”

The missus of the Rodd family said so and sent me off with a relieved face.

They didn’t show it, but it seems that the Rodd house hiring me was just them doing their duty by replying to the request of the influential female warrior Louise.

Well, it wasn’t even busy farming season, so of course they wouldn’t hire a part-timer.

Even though it’s just 1 small copper coin for one day of helping out with farm work, my labour was still nowhere near enough, it seems.

This is just their way to discreetly get rid of me.

Well, if I can’t get this scholar job, then I won’t be able to live in this world.

While realizing the feeling of danger once again, I followed Sara-chan to the village’s office.

“Sensei~, I’ve brought the scholar-sama along.”

Small shops and an inn were lined up side by side, and the office was in a corner of the village square.

It is firmly made with stone, a remarkably splendid building in this village. It even has a proper name plate with ‘Losgow Village Office’ on it.

Once I come inside, I see that it even has proper wooden flooring. In this Losgow Village, just having a wooden floor is enough to make it an extravagant building already.

By the way, even for the Rodd family that has plenty of farmland, more than half of their house is still dirt floor. Everywhere else has stone and plaster for flooring, but it gets cold in the winter, so they cover the floor with straw.

Just having wooden floor is already a real luxury.

However, inside of that most extravagant building in the village was only one girl.

Uum, that’s a girl, right?

The person who was sitting at the table while writing something was wearing snug male clothing.

What she was wearing couldn’t be seen as anything other than a black suit that modern office workers usually wore, but it wasn’t that efficient of a design.

TL note: it’s more fancy

Even the neck is b.u.t.toned, and the vest is worn formally, so it looks swelteringly hot. It’s an attire that gives off a feeling somewhere between that of a medieval n.o.ble and a gentleman.

It was clearly different from the plain clothes of the village people. Considering the pretty b.u.t.ton made with a gemstone, or the beautiful embroidery, or the firm sewing line, it may possibly be the official uniform of the country.

She’s a personnel of the village hall, so I guess that is the bureaucratic uniform.

It’s just that, despite being dressed up in formal clothes, I could only see her as a beautiful lady with short brown hair.

“I’m a man.”

Probably figuring out what I was thinking by my gaze, the beautiful person wearing men’s clothes raised their delicate face and said so with a gentle voice that sounded like ringing bells.

What a slender chin. Is this guy a model? He’s way too pretty.

The government official presenting himself as a man looks just over 20 years old. It wouldn’t be strange for a pretty young boy to look like a girl, but it’s impossible for an adult man to look like nothing but a woman…… in my opinion.

image00235.jpeg

TL note : Beautiful enough to be banged. Heh. - rei_hunter

Of course, this is a fantasy world, so anything could be possible.

“Umm, h.e.l.lo. My name is Sawatari Takeru. This is the first time we meet.”

“My name is Lyle Laertius. I am serving in this region as a secretary.”

Even though he already looked sharp, he adjusted his collar, even without the need to, and responded politely.

“Secretary?”

I wonder what kind of official post a secretary is.

“Yes.I am also a teacher, and the one teaching Sara-chan letters.”

“Then, I will call you sensei.”

When I said that, Lyle-sensei raised the corners of his mouth just a little bit.

“Also, I am a man, so I sincerely ask you to not make that mistake.”

“Ok……”

If you repeat it so much, it decreases your credibility even further.

Even for a Caucasian, he’s way too fragile, and his skin is too smooth. Maybe he’s so beautiful because he’s an elf.

But, his ears aren’t pointy, so he must be human.

His skin is so white and transparent that you would think that he hasn’t ever been under the sun, since the day he was born. I really want to ask what kind of perfume he uses…… but I will drop that matter.

I don’t know his circ.u.mstances, but he himself is claiming to be a man so persistently. If I stir things up in a bad way, I might offend him.

My livelihood is depending on this Lyle-sensei.

“Lyle-sensei is sooo amazing, he’s a secretary that was dispatched from the Kingdom Central, and to tell the truth, the mayor is nothing but small fry compared to sensei.”

Sara-chan, who was standing next to me, boasted as if she were talking about herself.

“Ahaha, Sara-chan. You’re exaggerating.”

He has a rather stiff expression towards me because this is the first time we meet, but I guess he can smile towards his pupil, Sara-chan.

I thought he was beautiful, but his cheerful smiling face is also cute.

Looking at how he chided Sara-chan but didn’t strongly deny her, It must be true that the occupation called secretary has a higher rank than the mayor.

Ok, so he’s an influential person, I’ll do my best at flattering him.

“Secretary Lyle-sama, umm, I…… No, I have a bit of confidence in myself as a scholar.”

“Alright, I’ve never heard the expression of “having confidence as a scholar”, but if you say so, let’s try testing your abilities.”

As expected of a teacher. I am immediately getting a test.

It seemed that Sara-chan had bitter memories of tests, so she looked at me with a sour expression while I took the test.

I also hate tests, but I was sick and tired of taking care of cows, so I desperately listed down all the characters I knew onto the starchy paper I was handed.

Ok, pencils down (actually, it was a quill pen rather than pencil), the written test is finished.

“Wow……, this is interesting. Excuse my impoliteness, but I hadn’t thought that such a young person could write this much. Where did you learn the sacred letters?”

“Umm, it seems that I was somehow transferred here from somewhere, but I have no memories.”

Thinking that he won’t believe me if I said I came from another world, I feigned losing my memories for now.

This is also just a parallel world theory.

Even if I were to tell the truth, I might be treated like a madman. I need to proceed with caution.

“Oh, so Takeru-dono is a lost person. This is rare indeed. It’s no wonder you have such an oriental name.”

“Umm, what exactly is a lost person?”

It couldn’t be that it’s just a person who simply lost their way.

“A lost person is someone who gets transported from a place that is unthinkably far away. It is said that the cause could be the spontaneous discharge of summoning or teleportation magic, but there is no accurate theory yet.”

“So, do you know the details?”

Even then, learning the existence of summoning and teleportation magic is a good harvest.

“Teleportation and Summoning magic are rare themselves, and when you talk about them going berserk, that is an ever rarer phenomenon. From what I’ve heard, it seems that there are people whose memory gets clouded or lost completely, or they gain mysterious knowledge when being transported, but if that happens, it becomes difficult to search for the cause.”

“Is that so…… You sure are well-informed.”

Upon asking, I learned that Lyle-sensei, who had deep knowledge about magic, was an intermediate level magician himself. Well, no wonder Sara-chan was saying that he’s an excellent person.

I let myself be deeply impressed by his extensive knowledge.

However, according to sensei’s story, is seems that generally, a lost person isn't just someone who came from a parallel universe. Anyway, if that is true, I can a.s.sume that I’m not the only person to have ever been transported to another world.

“Um, Lyle-sensei, please, could you please hire me?”

I cannot let this opportunity escape.

No matter what, I need to have sensei teach me.

“I can handle all of the jobs we get at this village hall by myself, but Takeru-dono is a precious lost person…… Since we’re both scholars, I will appoint you as a.s.sistant secretary.”

“Thank you very much.”

Just like in a western movie where a sheriff lightly hires a wandering gunman as a deputy, I was appointed as the a.s.sistant of a secretary.

My heart was pounding furiously. Upon hearing more explanations, a secretary isn’t like a sheriff. His role isn’t a village’s official, but a government official.

Even as the simple a.s.sistant of a secretary, I can become a proper bureaucrat. To appoint me on the spot on his own, is that even allowed in this administrative organization?

Despite being in the village hall of this remote village, doesn't secretary Lyle have too much authority?

I wonder what kind of person is he.

●

An a.s.sistant secretary’s job is pretty boring.

As an a.s.sistant of secretary Lyle, making official doc.u.ments and clean copies of detailed reports is my job, but the amount isn’t that high.

Losgow village is a settlement lying at the foot of the Ye mountain range with a population of 200 at most.

There’s a country governed iron mine near the village. Living there are the mine workers and blacksmiths, or wandering adventures like Louise, but even combined it still isn’t over 300 people.

The village is really like a miniature garden.

Making the official doc.u.ments for such a village doesn’t amount to much.

I now understand why Lyle-sensei would have too much free time and become a private tutor for kids.

However, there are also benefits of doing this boring job of writing doc.u.ments.

As I investigated and wrote all sorts of reports for the king and feudal lords, I was finally able to learn about the geography and characteristics of this village Losgow.

I thought it was in a very remote area, but when I studied the geography, the distance from the village to the royal capital could be covered in four days by stagecoach, so it wasn’t that far.

Eventually, I would like to go to the royal capital, Silesie……

However, what bothered me more was……

“Secretary Lyle, I see that our village has hot springs.”

As a j.a.panese who likes baths, I cannot overlook this.

“Although you need to dig with a shovel if you want to go in the hot spring.”

It seems that it’s not something convenient like hot water gus.h.i.+ng out, but there’s a place along the small river at the edge of the village where hot water gushes in, and if you wanted to bathe, you would dig a hole with a shovel and make your own bathtub.

That’s kinda weird. I guess it would look like an outdoor bath on the river bed.

“Ok, then should we go together sometime?”

“Eh? …...No, for me it’s somewhat, I don’t really like getting in with other people.”

Aah, he made an unpleasant face. Well, as expected, there’s no way he would get in with me.

Lyle-sensei needs to hide the secret of his body, after all.

If I meddle there too much, it will spoil the mood of his Excellency, the secretary, so I’ll stop here.

Anyway, that wasn’t what interested me.

“Secretary Lyle, is there sulfur at the hot spring?”

“Ooh, you sure know your stuff. In the vicinity, there are areas where the sulfur is exposed.”

That’s right. Hot springs always come with sulfur…… well, I guess you can’t say that, but if there’s a hot spring, that means that the volcanic is active and in many cases, sulfur mines form naturally.

Lyle-sensei, who was a man of immense erudition and had a vigorous thirst for knowledge, was also a elementary level alchemist and had previously done some field work to research the minerals around here.

I will ask about the exact place afterwards.

“There isn’t also a saltpeter mine, is there?”

“Saltpeter, you say? There isn’t any around these parts. If you really wanted some, you would need to order some from the royal capital, or otherwise make some yourself.”

If I ordered saltpeter from a distant place, it would probably exceed the budget I have for my plan.

Well, it’s not as if it’s limited to mineral deposits. Saltpeter can be harvested from fermented animal excretions, if I remember correctly. You should be able to make it by boiling down the soiled dirt from livestock and human’s toilet.

If I could gather sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal, I should be able to make gunpowder.

“Are you maybe…… planning on making black powder?”

“Ooh, so you noticed.”

As expected of an alchemist. It seems that gunpowder isn’t that popular in this world, but he knew about it.

Hmmm, I was expecting a development where I quickly made gunpowder and impressed everyone, but maybe there are even places where the use of gunpowder is popular.

I was kinda hoping to sell it as my ownriginal technology.

TL note: he used oreginal here, ore as in watas.h.i.+, boku, ore, in other words, it’s a lame pun - cookie

I have no idea about the state of affairs of this field, so I would like to learn more from Lyle-sensei.

“I haven’t made gunpowder before, in fact, I’ve never even seen it before. I only know that it was written in a historical book, that it has been used in a distant empire’s war before.”

“I see, so it has been used in a war.”

So if Lyle-sensei, who knows about gunpowder, hasn’t made it before, it should mean that it isn’t being used in the Silesie Kingdom, right?

Even if it were invented, it must mean they haven’t realized its potential.

If that’s the case, my ownriginal plan might still work.

I was afraid of having my idea stolen, but I decided to tell everything to Lyle-sensei.

I’m really indebted to him, and if it was Lyle-sensei who copied my idea, I wouldn’t really mind.

“Actually, I’m thinking of making a huge bombs with gunpowder and selling them to the iron mines. Do you know about explosive blasts?”

Using the back of a sc.r.a.pped doc.u.ment as a memo pad, I explained it using simple diagrams.

“I see, so you let it explode and open holes in the hard bedrock. What an amazing idea…… I’ve never heard of such a method. Takeru-dono, did you come up with this?”

That’s right, it is my ownriginal technology.

TL Note : オレジナル - this f.u.c.king guy - yuus.h.i.+n

TL Note : I know right xD - cookie

TL Note : Basically, the katakana says OREGINARU, composite of ORE and ORIGINAL (in katakana) - rei_hunter

Well, if you had gunpowder at your disposal at a mine, anybody who knows a bit about engineering could come up with this idea.

So Lyle-sensei, if you looked at me with those sparkling eyes of respect, I’ll get embarra.s.sed, so please stop.

There’s no way I could say that it’s knowledge from another world.

Of course, manufacturing will take time and effort, and I don’t know yet if it would sell, but if all goes well, it should be profitable.

“Lyle-sensei. If you would like, could you help me with creating and selling the gunpowder products? I will give you compensation for your efforts.”

“Yes, I don’t mind at all. I was just bored as well, and I am deeply interested in making gunpowder. I don’t really need money either.”

Lyle-sensei is the type that wants knowledge more than money.

Well, he is more important than the mayor. I guess he’s not troubled by money.

Of course, I want him to help with the production, but the rights to the iron mine don’t belong to the feudal lord of this area, but to the Silesie Kingdom. Therefore, I want to use the reputation of secretary Lyle, who was dispatched by the Kingdom central, when I sell it to the mines.

It should go more smoothly than if a questionable person like me went by himself.

●

For now, I decided to go check the sulfur collecting site, as well as the hot spring by the riverside.

It’s boring going alone, so I decided to invite someone.

First candidate is Lyle-sensei, but he declined the naked bonding between men, so it falls to Louise, huh.

Now that I think about it, ever since I became a.s.sistant secretary, I have been meeting Louise more often.

Lyle-sensei rented a room in the only inn in the village for me to stay in as my official residence.

This Losgow village’s inn even has a bar, and it function as an adventurers’ guild as well. Well, since it’s a small village, the inn has to do everything I guess.

I easily finished up work just past noon today as well, and when I went back to the inn, I saw Louise drinking the speciality wine of Silesie there on her own. On the table was a wooden plate piled with roasted lentils, which was probably a snack to go along with the wine.

It looked delicious.

“Yo~, if it isn’t a.s.sistant secretary Takeru-dono.”

Louise raised her gla.s.sed that was filled to the brim with purplish red wine and smiled at me.

“Geez, please stop teasing me, will you.”

When I first told her that I became an a.s.sistant secretary and started living here, she congratulated me and treated me to some meat she hunted (dog meat again).

After hearing that the secretary Lyle, who is respected as the village’s great teacher, calls me, who is younger than him, by ‘Takeru-dono’, Louise laughed like she never had before.

Of course, I knew that such a formal way of calling me didn’t suit me at all, so I blushed as a result.

“Fufu, sorry for teasing you. I’m just happy that you’re able to live properly now. How about we drink together. Otherwise, I could also get you some crazy dog meat right now.”

“Well, other than that, would you go to the hot springs with me?”

I had thought that dog meat tasted good at first, but I got tired of eating it so I would like to decline the offer. I decided to invite her to the hot springs instead.

“Hmm, the hot spring, huh. For me it’s a bit…..”

“So it’s no good?”

She doesn’t seem to be very eager. Maybe I should have asked after she drank more alcohol.

There’s a chance that she saw through my skillfully hidden secret intention of bathing together with the beautiful and fas.h.i.+onable Louise.

“The hot spring thing, I still don’t really get it.”

「えっ……」

“Eh…… “

I would understand if she didn’t want to get in with me, but what does she mean with she doesn’t get it?

“Well, I don’t understand why you would go through the trouble of digging up a hole along the river, just to get into hot water. If you wanted to clean your body, you could just wipe it with a warm wet towel.”

“Hm~m, I see.”

It seems that the idea itself of getting into a bath isn’t that popular in these parts.

I guess you would say that the culture is different.

Well, Lyle-sensei wasn’t denying the act of going into the water itself, so I guess it depends on the person.