Chapter 38 - A Help Request for Temporary Base Construction (2/2)

“We approximated that it should take you only about 1 hour. I won’t tell you to rush things up, but do it faster next time. That’s all.”

“…Roger that.”

Akira ended the call. He was a bit depressed after being told that he was less skilled than expected. Looking at that, Alpha just smiled trying to cheer him up.

“Don’t worry about that, let’s just continue like this. There’s no reason to get yourself in more danger just to rush things up.”

“But what if it causes me to fail this request?”

“It doesn’t really matter. It’s way better rather than getting injured badly. Your safety is number one priority. So if you try to rush your exploration, I’ll force you to stop, you know.”

Since Alpha told him firmly like that, Akira cheered up feeling lighter.

“You’re right, I understand. Let’s continue carefully.”

“Yep, that’s good. But you need to remember that you have to enhance your detection and stealth abilities as soon as possible, you know? So you need to hurry up to improve in that aspect.”

“…Please be gentle on me.”

“Nope, I’ll work you hard.”

Akira and Alpha smiled as they exchanged jokes. He then changed his gear and headed to the next building.

Akira took control of so many other abandoned buildings after that. Eventually, his navigation map led him back to the temporary base. So he went back and gave his terminal back to one of the staff there. With that, his job for today was finished.

Akira felt tired as he let out a sigh, though, he was not tired to the level of exhaustion. He only met some monsters during his exploration and his augmented suit greatly reduced the stress on his body, but it did not help in reducing his mental stress at all.

“This will be all for my today’s request, huh…? I’m tired. As I thought, since I always rely on your support during my exploration, it’s really tiring when I do it myself.”

Alpha smiled and complemented Akira.

“You did very well. Let’s take a rest for now. Since we’re here, how about we look for something to eat? After all, you’ll only get to eat that frozen food if you’re back in your room, right?”

The construction site was surrounded by many trailers, they were owned by the merchants who were selling their stuff for the Hunters and the workers from Kugamayama city.

There was a bus in the construction site that travelled regularly from here to Kugamayama city. But since it took time to go back and forth, these merchants catered to the Hunters who wanted to get ammo refills and food but did not want to take the bus.

Some of them sold ammo and guns, some sold food. There were even some renting their camping trailer as a portable inn. The construction area was bustling with people.

Seeing how the Hunters were eating soft and warm food rather than their usual hard Hunter ration, Akira felt hungry out of nowhere.

“You’re right, I guess I’ll buy something to eat too.”

Although Akira went and browsed the trailers, he did not know which food was tasty and which one was not. He felt like he would end up picking up something bad if he just chose randomly, so he observed other Hunters. Although there was no queue close to him, he spotted a relatively long queue nearby.

After adding himself in that queue, Akira peeked at the price and the food that the trailer was selling. It was a hot sandwich, 980 Aurum per portion. With Akira’s sense of money in his current situation, he felt it was quite costly for a meal. But it would not feel right if he just left after lining up, so he ended up deciding to buy the hot sandwich.

As Akira’s turn was about to come, he heard a familiar voice coming from the transaction between the seller and the buyer in front of him. Akira tried to remember whose voice it was, but before he could come up with any conclusion, his turn came and he stepped forward. He immediately realized that it was Sheryl.

Sheryl looked surprised for a moment, but she quickly returned back to her usual smile.

“Welcome. The hot sandwich is 980 Aurum per portion.”

“…I’ll take one, please.”

“Certainly. If you are going to pay with card, please place your card over the terminal.”

Sheryl operated the terminal at the counter. The upper part of the counter showed 980 Aurum, as Akira put his Hunter ID on it, it made a beep sound and the payment was completed.

Sheryl then took a warped hot sandwich and gave it to Akira, but as she handed it over, she leaned towards him and said.

“I’m happy to see you here.”

Sheryl indeed sounded very happy when she said that, but she returned back to her normal smile almost immediately after.

“Thank you very much, please do come again.”

Sheryl then smiled at Akira with a smile that she directed towards other customers.

After Akira left that trailer, he quickly noticed that Katsuragi’s trailer was also present.

Katsuragi spotted Akira who was standing not too far from Sheryl’s shop.

“Akira! So you’re here too, huh?! Good timing! I have something to talk about, come in! Darris!! Watch the shop for a bit!!”

Darris’ voice echoed from inside the trailer.

“Your break is still later, you know!!”

“Akira is here!! There’s something I want to talk to him about!! So just watch the shop while I’m gone!!”

Darris appeared out from inside the trailer while looking annoyed. But the moment he saw Akira, he was taken aback by Akira’s equipment. Akira looked completely different compared to the boy that he met not too long ago.

Darris looked at Akira’s equipment and understood what Katsuragi meant when he said he had something important to talk about with Akira that he would even ask him to watch the shop. Thus he went to watch the shop without complaining any further.

Katsuragi went into his trailer with Akira. He and Akira then sat on a table together, Sheryl was there too. She had also left the shop to one of her subordinates. There were 3 hot sandwiches served on the table.

Akira and Katsuragi looked a bit troubled while Sheryl was smiling very happily since she was able to meet Akira again.

Akira and Katsuragi looked at each other and noticed both of them looked a bit worried about Sheryl’s behaviour.

“So then, Katsuragi, what do you want to talk about?”

“Well, it’s not something that big. I just wanted to know how you are doing lately. To be honest, I’m just wondering why you haven’t brought any relics since that time. I thought you were injured or something so you couldn’t do any Hunter job. But since you’re here, it means that it’s not the case, right?”

“I’m focusing more on taking monster-hunting requests lately. I do hunt for relics in the Kuzusuhara ruin usually, but I’m sure that you know it’s not the right time for that, right?”

“Well, it’s true that it’s not a good idea to explore Kuzusuhara ruin in the current situation. I heard that the distribution of monsters in the ruin changed greatly after that battle and strong monsters started roaming the outskirts of the ruin. And since there’s no expensive relics left in the outskirts, I guess it isn’t worth the danger, huh. But on the other hand, I heard that battle greatly culled the number of monsters. So this is a good chance if you want to grab some relics from the deeper part of the other ruins, right? Isn’t that the reason why the manager of the city would even spend a huge amount of money to build the frontline base like this?”

“It’s kind of difficult to go to the other ruins since I don’t have the means of transport. I can’t rent a vehicle with my current Hunter Rank, you see.”

Katsuragi took another look at Akira’s equipment. An augmented suit, AAH a.s.sault rifle, CWH anti-material rifle and an information-gathering device. Akira did not look like someone who would have a problem with transportation.

“…You have pretty good equipment though. I don’t think anyone would refuse a Hunter like you if you want to rent a vehicle for your Hunter job, you know?”

“It’s because I’m selling my relics to you, so my Hunter Rank doesn’t go up much. I only got the augmented suit from the money that I earned back then, and for my information gathering device, Elena-san was nice enough to sell it for cheap to me. I put all of my money into my equipment, that’s why I don’t have much left, and not to mention I need money to rent a vehicle after I get my Hunter Rank high enough. It’s because I promised to sell my relics to you, I have to do monster-hunting jobs to increase my Hunter Rank now. So there you have it, I can’t do much even if you say that to me.”

“Well, it can’t be helped if that’s the case.”

“Just wait for a bit more. It’s not like you’re in trouble just because I’m not bringing any relics to you, right?”

“Well, yeah.”

Katsuragi actually just wanted to make sure whether Akira had abandoned Sheryl or not since Akira did not bring any relics to him lately.

Akira then s.h.i.+fted his gaze to Sheryl and she smiled happily at him.

“So then, Sheryl, what are you doing in this place?”

“I’m managing the children from the gang who are working for Katsuragi-san. And I’m also managing a simple shop with help from Katsuragi-san. That hot sandwich was made by us, you see. This is also thanks to Akira, so thank you.”

Katsuragi then added some more explanation.

“I’m basically just doing my part of the deal with you. I’ve also offered Sheryl and her gang some jobs like helping us load goods or stuff like that to help them earn some money.”

Katsuragi pointed at some children who were moving his goods around when he said that. All of them were the children from Sheryl’s gang.

“I still buy metal wreckages from them, but at least this work should earn them a bit more compared to that. You do know what to do if you want me to give them a better job, right?”

“I know, I’ll sell relics that I find to you.”

“Well, I’m looking forward to that.”

Katsuragi finished the hot sandwich that he had been eating while talking.

“…That wasn’t enough. Sheryl, bring me one more.”

“Of course. Akira, how about you?”

“You should contribute to their sale too. Although you say that you don’t have much money, you at least have enough money for another sandwich, right?”

Akira had finished his own sandwich too, and since he also felt that he was not satiated, he decided to ask for one more. He then gave his Hunter ID to Sheryl while telling her to bring one more sandwich, so she went to process the payment.

When Sheryl left Katsuragi alone with Akira, Katsuragi suddenly asked Akira while making a puzzled look.

“…Say, Akira. Did you do something to her?”

Akira shook his head.

“When I noticed it, she was already like that… As I thought, it’s weird, isn’t it?”

“She’s completely different now compared to the first time I met her. I would even believe you if you say that she’s Sheryl’s twin, you know. Well, the current Sheryl is better as a business partner though. She’s good at handling people and she’s pretty smart as well. That hot sandwich was originally her plan, you see. And it’s selling pretty well too.”

“So that’s not your shop, huh?”

“Nope. I want to attain success by staying in my field of expertise, you see. So I have no plans to do any food business. Although I helped her to get that shop running, that shop is Sheryl’s own.”

“Is she going to be okay?”

“Hm? I’m the one who procured the ingredients. I’ve told her to make sure that the children who would help her are bathed and cleaned properly. I prepared them cheap but clean clothes and told them to properly use the food-grade disposable plastic gloves too. Moreover, they basically just need to heat up stuff and put sauces on it. So they should be okay.”

Akira thought that Katsuragi would make him pay and take care of the aftermath if anything bad happened to Sheryl’s shop, that was why he wanted to make sure the possibility of any trouble happening later was low and it was not like he was concerned about its hygiene. But since Katsuragi answered back with that, Akira thought that it did not seem there would be any trouble later anyway, thus he decided not to try digging deeper into the subject.

Sheryl came back with the extra hot sandwiches and placed them on the table. Akira took a second look at the hot sandwich that he just received. It had a thick sauce and the bread was soaked in the meat juice as if it would not even let a drop of that goodness to getaway. The meat was pretty thick and had a good texture when he bit on it. Strangely enough, it did not feel rough despite its appearance. But it was not strange enough that it warranted a complaint.

If someone asked him whether it was good or bad, Akira would answer back that it was a delicious sandwich. But if asked whether he would spend 1000 Aurum daily to eat that sandwich, Akira would hesitate to say yes. After all, the sandwich’s price was not affordable in a normal situation, it was only acceptable because they were in the middle of the wasteland.

But for the Hunters who were in that area for the construction help request, they did not mind paying such an amount for that sandwich. There were even people who would gladly pay for another portion after feeling that one sandwich was not enough. The price and the size of each portion of that hot sandwich were actually tuned very well to match the demand in such a situation.

Akira then asked Sheryl.

“Who decided on the price of this hot sandwich? Was it Katsuragi?”

“No, I did… Is it not a good price?”

Sheryl enquired, sounding a bit worried, but Akira replied as he shook his head.

“Nope, it’s good and I think that the price is acceptable for food in the middle of the wasteland.”

“I’m glad that you find it satisfying.”

Sheryl smiled with relief. Katsuragi then added while smiling.

“Well, it’s basically the wasteland price. It’s because an extra price is added since we took the trouble in bringing them all the way to this dangerous wasteland. So I hope people would not get offended by its price.”

“About that though, did you teach it to Sheryl?”

“Nope, I only helped her procure the ingredients and the equipment. I didn’t tell her anything about how to run her business. I only did what she asked me to do… Don’t take this wrongly though. I have no plan pus.h.i.+ng it to you if it fails, you know? I’m serious here, okay?”

Katsuragi mixed his joke when he said that, but it could also be interpreted as a subtle warning. He was making excuses for something that Akira did not ask about. But Akira just simply ignored it and instead he s.h.i.+fted his gaze to Sheryl and looked genuinely impressed by her.

“…I see. That’s pretty amazing of you.”

Sheryl blushed as she smiled happily.

“Thank you very much. But it’s all thanks to Akira and Katsuragi-san too.”

Akira and Katsuragi looked at each other, although he could not talk telepathically with Katsuragi, he understood what Katsuragi wanted to say to him. Katsuragi was really questioning whether Akira really had not done anything to Sheryl.

The stare that Akira directed to Katsuragi was saying that he really did nothing. But it was rather doubtful whether his thoughts were properly conveyed to Katsuragi or not.

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