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The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 1 Chapter 25


TL Note: Raypin is the one that keeps saying –de aru and is not a samurai. Asagi is the one that keeps going –de gozaru and is samurai. I may have mixed this up a while ago, but only in the TL notes I think.
Also when you see the words old man, it’s usually Jeff talking.

Volume 1 Chapter 25

After Ryouma left, the onlookers all started talking.

“Old man, can’t you stop them?’
“If I could I would have already had! They’ve already agreed to duel so there’s nothing we can do anymore!”
“If you leave them alone like that the members of the Fang of Orbtem will be in danger –de gozaru.”
Syria-san tilted her head.
“Eh, the Fang of Orbtem is? Not Ryouma-kun?”
Wogan nodded.
“Umu, most likely even if the Fang of Orbtem uses all their members they won’t be able to stop Ryouma.”
“It looks like Sacchi has pissed him off, nya.”

Pondering, Jeff san said,
“He probably feels some sort of gratitude to the nobles that Sacchi was talking about. Old man, do you know something?”
“Whether I know something or not, the ones who put up the request for today is them, the Ducal Household of Jamil.”
At that the group couldn’t help but exclaim in unison.
“What!?”
“The Duke!? Isn’t that like a super big thing!?”
“Why is something like that involved!?’
“Like I’d know! Even I was surprised. That guy actually came over with the entire household of the duke to register, you know?”
Jeff shook his head.
“I don’t understand that guy…”

Pondering, Syria-san asked,
“Ryouma-kun isn’t a noble, right?”
“I’ve never heard of the Takebayashi Family so he most likely isn’t. And besides, if he were a noble then there’s no way he would have taken the job to clean the latrine pits –de aru.”
Mizelia-san sighed.
“Ryouma-kun is quite the mysterious child, huh? In a lot of ways.”
Nodding, Syria-san said,
“He also has a lot of high level and difficult skills at his age.”
“Holding several resistance skills, and that story about him being an orphan, it would appear that he has suffered quite a lot –de gozaru.”
Jeff-san nodded.
“There’s no mistaking that. Lv7 Disease Resist and Sleep Resist, isn’t something you get by living normally.”

“Everyone, rather than inquiring about Ryouma’s past, right now we need to find out how to put a stop to this mess –de gozaru.”
Wogan sighing said.
“Even if you tell me that… fortunately I’ll be the referee again. So I’ll stop it when things get bad, then under the pretense of following the order of the referee, you guys will interfere and stop them. Asagi and Jeff, you two should be able to stop Ryouma… but in the worst case I’ll go as well.”
“Understood –de gozaru.”
“Guess we’ll have to go with that.”
Mizelia-san nodded.
“Understood! By the way, Ryouma-kun said that he’d bring his slave monsters but…”
As if he realized something, Jeff asked,
“By monsters, he means those slimes, right? And when he mentioned that he’d bring them back with him… he wouldn’t actually go all the way back to the town, would he?”
Shaking his head, Wogan replied,
“It would be great if he just ran away like that but… That guy is unusually earnest so I doubt he’d run. He also doesn’t have any reason to run.”
“Ah, he came back nya!”

Ryouma came back with his slave monsters following him from behind. Seeing that, the Fang of Orbtem’s members that were insulting Ryouma, became even more enraged.

“Hey, that guy brought slimes!”
“Slimes? The asshole is treating us like idiots!”
“Wait a minute… isn’t there a bit too many?”

The slimes were bouncing behind Ryouma in a straight line, but that line was extending continuously, seemingly having no end.

“Sorry, my bad. Slimes are really quite slow so… And then, there’s also a lot of them so I figured that if I brought them all at the same time it would be quite shocking… so instead I made them line up behind me. We could have come faster if I didn’t make them line up but…”
“Whatever, let’s just start this stupid duel! Brat!!”

Because Sacchi yelled that, Ryouma ordered the slimes to break formation and to come as soon as possible. Doing so, a great number of slimes gathered.

“Eh? Wai–, kyaa!?”
“So many!”
“How many are there!?”

After they had all gathered, Ryouma spoke.

“I made you wait, these are my slave monsters. 4310 slimes in total.”
“That’s too many!”

Sacchi’s yell spoke not only for himself but for everyone who saw that scene.

“Seeing all the slimes gathered in a bright place like this, it certainly is an amazing sight, -de aru.”
“This is the first time that this one has seen so many slimes –de gozaru.”
Syria-san glanced at the Fang of Orbtem’s members.
“Looks like some of them have already withdrawn.”

Sacchi was shocked at the number of slimes that came out but he still yelled to start the duel. And so the two of them went to their starting positions, and at Wogan’s sign, the duel began. However, because of the great number of slimes, the members of the Fang of Orbtem were confused. Seeing that, Sacchi jeered at them.

“You idiots! Why the hell are you being scared just because there’s a lot slimes!? Kill them all!”

At those words, around ten men stepped forward. Within that ten, one man tried to cut one of the nearby slimes.

“Ha! Che! Next… shit!”
“What are you doing? You suck!! You still call yourself a D Rank with that!?”

Dodging and dodging, the Slime continued to dodge the man’s sword. That man being completely unable to beat that slime, was joined by another man, but…

“Arrgh! What is this slime!?”
“It moves so damn quick while it dodges!”
“Why can a slime dodge like this!?”
“Even if I graze it, I just can’t hit the nucleus…”

The 10 D ranked adventurers swung their swords many times, but they couldn’t kill even a single slime. Seeing that, the onlookers were left speechless.

Looking at that scene, Mizelia-san praised,
“Unexpectedly, those slimes can move pretty darn well.”
“Yeah, those slimes are unusually strong.”
“Umu. Completely seeing through their opponents attacks, they dodge while taking only a paper thin space – de gozaru.”
“I heard that amongst the slave magic users, there were some people that strengthened their slave monsters by training them. Looks like, Ryouma’s slimes have received some sort of training -de aru.”
“It’s not the kind of movement you’d expect from a slime, nya.”

Seeing that the slimes couldn’t be hit at all, they looked at it admiringly. Hearing that, Sacchi yelled jeers even harder.

“How long have you dumbasses been adventurers!? Stop messing around and get rid of those slimes!!”

And so it became a rough melee between the 33 adventurers and the 4310 slimes… or so it should have been.

“Uwaah!? What is this!”
“I can’t move! Help me!”

While rushing in to attack, the Sticky Slime spit out its Strong Sticky Liquid, tripping seven of the men and turning them over. Five other men tried to save them, but the liquid got stuck to them too. Having been entangled, all 12 of them where stuck on the ground. Seeing that, the other adventurers stopped moving.

“It’s a high class race! Don’t save the people that have fallen over! You’ll get stuck too!”
“Aah!! What is this!?”
“Now what!?”
“The, the spear…”
“What about the spear!”
“My spear is melting!”
“It’s acid slime! There are acid slimes mixed in with those!”
“What!?”
“Be careful! Your weapon will be melted!”
“This isn’t funny! My sword was expensive, you know!?”
“Hey! Your armor is being melted!!”
“Che! Zeno, Kotor… what’s wrong Kotor!? Get a hold of yourself!”
“Be… care….ful… the…re….are….ev…en….poi…..son…..sli…mes…”
“Ko, Kotor-san has been done in!?”
“Seriously?… What’s wrong with these slimes!!?”

At the unexpected fierce attack of the slimes, the members of the Fang of Orbtem were defeated one after another. Seeing that one-sided fight, the onlookers were stunned.

“How frightening…”
“It gets really troublesome when you gather these many high class slimes… One at a time can be disposed of easily, but…”
“Unless you wipe them all out with magic, this is impossible.”

“Because the slimes’ movements are good, it’s become even more difficult to kill them –de gozaru. The members of the Fang of Orbtem needs to attack the nucleus. In contrast to that, all the slimes need to do is spit out poison and acid without needing to actually target something so precise, while the members of the Fang of Orbtem, because they need to get close to attack, are basically targets that keep coming to get hit. If they throw up the acid and the poison they’ve dodged, it’s also easy for it to hit their allies or their armors. On top of that, because of the number of slimes there are they won’t be able to dodge – de gozaru.”

“As a magician, it’s still fine for me, but it’s extremely difficult for warriors. However, even for a magician, if one were to be attacked by this many slimes, there’s a possibility of eventually being grabbed. I will definitely not make an enemy out of Ryouma – de aru.”
Jeff showed a hint of disdain.
“That bastard, Sacchi. It became like this because he let his guard down because they were slimes.”
“And on top of that, they’re also really slow at dealing with them, nya.”

The onlookers now all believe that the Fang of Orbtem’s defeat has already been decided.  And opinions about it have been coming out here and there. As for the leader, Sacchi. His comrades have all fallen, and the only thing he can do now is to keep yelling.

“Son of a bitch! Why are we, by that brat!? Why, by something like a slime!? This is dirty you brat!”
“The one who said to use my slave monsters was you, right? I did tell you that I didn’t mind fighting alone.”
“Arrgh… then, you, using poison is unfair!!”
“Is that something you should be saying!!!!?”

Right after Ryouma’s thundering roar against the Sacchi who was blind to his own shortcomings, more members of the Fang of Orbtem fell, and for a moment the battle stopped. Because of that what Ryouma had just said echoed.

“Using poison is unfair? You also used poison, right? Then we’re the same. You don’t have the right to say it’s unfair or to call me a coward. At the very least I don’t want to be told that by someone like you.”
“Wh, what are you talking about!?”
“Don’t play the fool… Raypin-san!”
“What is it –de aru?”
“Please use Identify on the contents of this wine.”

Saying that, Ryouma threw the wine Sacchi had thrown him before to Raypin. After that, Raypin who had used Identify on the bottle, yelled.

“This wine is poisoned!!”

At those words, the entire area broke into an uproar. Wogan stopped the duel, went over to Sacchi, and said this.

“The duel is being postponed! Sacchi, I would like to hear an explanation from you.”
“Wait, I didn’t do something like putting poison in the wine! That kid put it in the bottle himself and is trying to screw me over! Didn’t he add the poison when he called the slimes a while ago? As proof of that, that kid is perfectly ok, isn’t he!? He drank the wine, so isn’t it weird that he’s perfectly ok!?”

“Not really – de aru. This poison will only lightly paralyze the limbs. It will be problematic to hold one’s weapons, but just standing alone shouldn’t be a problem. – de aru.”
“Ryouma, are you paralyzed?”
“I have the Poison Resist Skill, so no. If I didn’t have the poison resist, then I wouldn’t have drank it to begin with.”
“Don’t lie! Even if you had 1 or 2 levels of poison resist, this isn’t the kind of poison that you could…”

At this time Sacchi who has been enraged until now has become shocked and impatient upon finding out that Ryouma knew about the poison. And upon knowing that Ryouma drank the wine while knowing about the poison in it, he became even more enraged. Having been taken over by his emotions, he couldn’t help but explode at Ryouma.

“… Certainly, just as Sacchi has mentioned, this is not the kind of poison that you could stop with a level or two of poison resist – de aru”
Wogan shook his head and stared hard at Sacchi.
“Sacchi, you did say that you didn’t know about the poison in this wine, right? You said the one who put the poison in this was Ryouma. Then, how come you know the strength of the poison mixed in with this? Hahhhh?”
“Gugugu…
“Give it up, Sacchi.”

“If you’d like, should I drink what’s left of that wine in front you? I’ll do it just like a while ago.”
“Certainly, with that you’ll definitely be able to provide proof that you did drink it, but… is that alright – de aru?”
“There’s won’t be any problem because my poison resist level is 7. Most poison won’t work on me.”

At those words, the people around started to murmur.

“Ryouma, how have you been living up till now? Level 7 poison resist is definitely not something you can get by living normally – de aru.”
“Ahh, I became a target of gambling, you see? So it was probably because of that, that it rose.”
“Gambling?”
“I’m an orphan who was taken in by my grandparents who lived in a village that was extremely cruel to outsiders. My grandparents raised me up, but because I’m an outsider the villagers hated me. And so they made me drink things like dirty water and poison. They then made me the target of their gambling and gambled as to whether or not I’d end up suffering because of the poison or because of a disease.”

Ryouma smoothly mixed the memories of his past life with the settings that the gods had set up for him. And after having said that, the people around him looked at him with eyes of pity.

“I asked you something bad. My apologies – de aru.”
“Please don’t mind, it’s already something of the past. Ah, and guild master please use this as evidence for the time being.”

As he said that, Ryouma showed the poison resist Lv7 on his status board.

“I’ve confirmed it. You certainly have poison resist Lv7. With this, unless it’s a really powerful medicine, then it won’t take effect on you. Now then, this duel, because of Sacchi’s foul play! This duel goes to Ryouma!!”

At Wogan’s decision, the people around shouted cheers and showered Ryouma with praises. At the same time they threw jeers at Sacchi and the Fang of Orbtem. After that, Sacchi and the Fang of Orbtem’s members, were taken to the guild by a number of adventurers and guild employees. Glancing at that, the onlookers finished their lunch break and went back to subjugate the monsters.

However at that time, Sacchi, who was unable to accept the result of the duel, did something reckless. We thought Sacchi would obediently allow himself to be taken, but he went against that expectation and knocked the adventurer, who was taking him to the guild. He then stole that adventurer’s one-handed axe and jumped at Ryouma from behind.

“Die brat!!!”

However that was also meaningless to Ryouma. Ryouma, without even turning to look at Sacchi, took a step back, and while dodging Sacchi’s stolen axe, bent his back backwards and grabbed Sacchi’s Adam’s apple with the thumb and index finger of his left hand.

“Awk!? Gak! Gah……”

At that attack, Sacchi unintentionally stepped back and coughed violently. During that time, Ryouma turned and stared at Sacchi.

At the same time, Sacchi glared at Ryouma again and came slashing with his axe diagonally down. Ryouma closed the gap between himself and Sacchi, and with his left arm he hit Sacchi’s right hand which held the axe, and averted the attack.

And then with Sacchi having swung the axe and extended his arms, Ryouma entangled his own right arm underneath the other side of the elbow of Sacchi’s right arm and like that kicked the back of Sacchi’s right knee. Having made Sacchi kneel, he hardened the arm he had taken Sacchi’s back with. At that, Sacchi dropped the axe he was holding.

After tightening his arm, Ryouma hit the back of Sacchi’s head with a karate chop from his left, grabbed Sacchi’s collar, pulled him behind, bent him backwards, then putting his arm around Sacchi’s neck, he strangled him and took away his consciousness.

Because of Ryouma, Sacchi was quickly arrested, preventing things from escalating. However, seeing Ryouma easily subdue Sacchi, who is a C Rank adventurer, the people around couldn’t help but be shocked.

Ryouma handed Sacchi over to the adventurers responsible for taking him to the guild. And then went back to Jeff and the others, only, the face he had was clearly not happy.　

Jeff-san seeing that expression.
“Something wrong, Ryouma?”
“Is the poison taking effect, nya?”
“No, there’s no problem with the poison. It’s just that… in the past, I wasn’t able to lash out. And so, while I thought of that, I thought of lashing out this time… but now that I’ve tried it, it doesn’t really make me feel that much better.”

Until the incident had ended, Ryouma had been remembering something painful. But, hearing Ryouma’s words just now, the expression of Jeff and the others who were there, softened. Seeing that, Ryouma was a little bewildered.

“What is it?”
“It’s nothing.”
‘We were just a little worried – de gozaru. Ryouma already possess a suitable amount of strength. If today’s incident caused Ryouma to become drunk on violence, then it would be quite bad for Ryouma, himself, as well as his surroundings. – de gozaru. But it looks like there’s no need to worry about that. –de gozaru.”

Mizelia-san nodded.
“Among the adventurers that raised their rank, there are definitely those that become arrogant and become violent… The members of the Fang of Orbtem, especially Sacchi, are that kind of adventurer.”
“In the past, he was also a serious adventurer… still, he was never the type who would poison someone in a duel. But then he rose up in the ranks, got drunk in power, and now he’s nothing but a shadow of his former self.”

Glancing at Ryouma, Wogan said.

“It’s good that you’re not that kind of person. It was a little flashy, but something like this is a normal occurrence for us adventurers. Also, you don’t have to worry about those guys, since they only have themselves to blame. As for Sacchi’s comrades that haven’t done that much wrong, we’ll let them off with a light warning and punishment. Of course, provided that they’re really innocent, right?”

After talking for a bit, Ryouma and the rest went back to subjugating monsters.  

 

 

Jigglypuff, Schedules, and Donations


I am Jigglypuff!
Right, I’ll try to keep this short. Basically I’m a really whimsical person and I chose the series I’m translating now randomly, I also chose my name, blog name, and site randomly. Didn’t even know if I could actually translate with my level of Japanese, although, I have read novels in Japanese… but I’ve never translated.

Anyways, I’ve finally decided on a more apt name for myself. I chose my avatar randomly too, but it’s grown on me. And as such from this day on, I shall be referred to as Jigglypuff! Jiggly-sensei! 😀


Translation Schedule
TLDR: 1 Chapter everyday. If it’s one of the longer ones I’m cutting it into parts.
So I’m going to change the schedule again. This time I’m going to do things by parts. A normal Chinese webnovel chapter actually goes for around 2k to 2.5k words in English after translation. Or at the very least CD does.

The Man Picked up by the Gods goes from 2k to 6k+ words in English after translations. This discrepancy is just ridiculous. So I’ve technically been doing double or triple releases on some days. Chapter 22 is an example of almost 6k words at 5.6k words, and no, that’s not the longest one. Just one of the more recent long ones. 

And so I’ve decided to post chapter parts every day from now on instead of full chapters for a total of seven chapter parts. Don’t worry, I’m not just doing this because I like cliff hanging people. It’s because it’s actually annoying to randomly realize that I have to write a 6000 word translations on some days. Anyways each chapter part will have around 2k to 2.5k words. That chapter part may or may not actually be a full chapter. It’s so random so who knows, you might actually get seven chapters in a week or just two long ones and one short. But regardless you’ll get similar number of words.

If there’s any discrepancy in the number of words between chapter parts from now on, that’ll be because I’m looking for a good place to cut the chapter. So one may end up longer or shorter than the others. But you won’t get a situation where one chapter is 2k and another is 500words. That won’t be happening.

Donation and Extra Chapters
So this is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now, I hope you guys don’t get mad. It’s optional anyway. I’ll do an extra chapter part whenever the donation box reaches 50$. And I’ll commit to releasing a total of at least three of these in a week. Anything more than that, depends on me. If I can afford to release more, then I will. I’ll make some site changes to make the queue number viewable.

Schedule for Extra Chapters
In every week from now on there will be 7 regular chapter parts each at 2k to 2.5k words. With extra parts I’ll simply increase that from 7 to 8 to 9… etc. And I’ll be releasing it sometime in that week.

To a Different World with the Red Star – Series Info

Author:凜乃　初
RAW: http://ncode.syosetu.com/n6147be/
Urushi Touka’s overwhelming power is just too much for his day to day life.

Touka was on his way home from school, when he ends up using his power to save a child, causing him to destroy an oncoming truck with his fist.

Seeing that, god decided that his power was too abnormal and called him over.

It was there, that Touka found out the reason behind his power.

According to god, the power he has is too much for this world, and mentioned that it would be possible to send him over to a different world.

With two replies he gave his OK. Here begins Touka’s life in a different world!


Tags: R15, Cruel Depiction, Other World, Overpowered Protagonist, Magic, Other World Transfer, Male Protagonist

Chapters: 151 (Complete)

Translation Schedule: Once a week

TL Note: Read ahead a bit on the other one, and apparently I do not enjoy SF. Yeah, so I’ll just go with this one for my side project. Yes, that means I won’t be translating the emperor thing anymore. 

Anyways, if you guys like op protagonists that beat the living crap out of stuff and amaze people then you’ll like this. He’s no chufeng… but I guess he’s close enough. kinda…

The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 1 Chapter 24 1/2

Tl Note: This chapter was split into two parts due to length. The next chapter contains the whole length, just go there. I left this version here, so people can read the comments or experience the split version if they want.

 

After declaring that he’ll be accepting the duel, Ryouma made a rod with his short sword by cutting off and shaving a moderately sized branch of a nearby tree. The adventurers surrounding him, gave a sidelong glance as they whispered amongst themselves.
 
These kinds of squabbles are fairly common amongst the adventurers. Well, for it to reach to the point where it turns into a duel is pretty rare, but fist fights do happen a lot. So with that in mind the adventurers basically didn’t try to stop the fight.
 
Because adventurers put their lives on the line for their job, the ability to be able to judge the strength of their opponent in comparison to theirs is very important. Even if one were to end up badly hurt after picking a fight with someone stronger, the one at fault is the person who couldn’t properly gauge his opponent’s strength. This is true even if it’s not a quarrel between two adventurers and is a job. If you take a request that you can’t handle, if you fail, then you’ll lose your life.
 
Normal people would fail that once or twice, after which they’d understand their limits. But even then, there have been hardly any deaths when it comes to arguments between adventurers. Even if an adventurer was known for his bad deeds, he would still remember the days when he too was inexperienced and will keep himself from going overboard.
 
That’s why, other adventurers won’t do anything else aside from spectating. Unless the members of the Fang of Orbtem really try to kill Ryouma, or injure him in such a way that it will leave irreversible injuries, they won’t do anything.
 
These people are the same, believing that Ryouma is a novice that picked a fight with an opponent he cannot win against, and plan to leave them alone for it to serve as a lesson for him, going in only to help when his life is in danger.
 
However, not all the adventurers are just there to watch over them.
 
There are also people that are cheering. For example, the group of Wereanna who had just finished eating and had come back.
 
Since they can’t fight, they decided to at least throw Ryouma words of encouragement.
 
After that, Wereanna asked Ryouma,
 
“Ryouma, why did you accept the duel when you didn’t even say anything to the six in the cave?”
“Those guys were also annoying but these guys are wearing armor so it won’t end that badly for them. I wanted to settle it by talking, but that doesn’t seem to possible right now… and also…”
“And also?”
“Actually, there’s also that urge to let loose, you know? I believe I’ve talked about this a little while ago with you guys, but I haven’t actually fought a lot. I’ve always remained defenseless except for situations where I’ve decided that my life is in danger.
 
And even if I were to resist, it would be as self-defense. Without killing my opponent and dedicating myself to running away, and no matter what fighting only when it’s not possible to run away. That is my way of living. Because I had to do that, that’s why. But, right now is different.
 
I thought I’d try to choose how to live my own life. So I thought that I’d like to use the skills I’ve trained in my life, and resist unreasonably for once. That’s why those kind of guys are really convenient. Not only are they wearing armor, they have also been trained. If it’s like that then they won’t end up too hurt.”
“Ryouma-kun…”
“Ryouma. I can’t stop you guys, but be careful.”
“We’re ready!”
 
Having talked up to that point, the place where they were going to duel was finally prepared, and so they called Ryouma. Ryouma took the rod he made out of a tree, and went to duel. Seeing that, the six members of the Fang of Orbtem and the surrounding adventurers couldn’t help but laugh.
 
“Hey, hey, hey, what is that piece of wood?”
“How funny, it’s perfect for an F rank!”
“I’m just holding my weapon, isn’t it fine?”
 
As he said that, the adventurers of the Fang of Orbtem laughed even harder.
 
“Hey brat! Are you seriously thinking of picking a fight with us with that?”
“That’s right. I’m not good at holding back, if I use a weapon with a blade attached I might accidentally kill you.”
 
At those words, the surrounding voices quieted down, and the faces of the adventurers of the Fang of Orbtem flushed deep red.
 
“You looking down on us bitch?”
“I am not looking down on you. I have taken into consideration your ability as well as mine, and have decided that this is for the best.”
“You fucking brat! I’m gonna fuckin’ kill you!!”
 
At those words the other adventurers also raised their voices. Right after that, Wogan, who took the role of the referee, gave the signal to start, and two of the men came rushing at Ryouma.
 
Ryouma quickly swung the rod he was holding up, hitting the pommel of the sword the man swung down with his right hand and repelling it. He then took a half step and hit the solar plexus of the man with the opposite side of the rod.
 
As if he was flowing, he kept moving and swept the rod to his left, hitting the grip of the man to his left. Returning the rod, he hit the wrist, and with the kote, a gauntlet used in kendo, he slapped down the sword, and thrust the man’s throat.
 
Having lost the grip on their sword, and receiving a blow to the pit of their stomach and to their throat, the two men gave a painful moan as they backed off. At that opening, Ryouma rushed in, and quickly hit the chin of the two with his rod, giving the two a cerebral concussion and knocking them out. As the sound of the swords hitting the ground echoed, the two men fell to the ground.
 
The onlookers believed that Ryouma didn’t have the ability to win against the six people in front of him. And even if he had fought only one, he still wouldn’t be able to win, in the end the six would have just made a sport of him. But seeing the scene unfolding right before them, they couldn’t help but tremble as they were left speechless.
 
The 6 people before Ryouma were the same. Failing to understand the sight of two men falling into the ground, the four remaining members completely forgot to move.
 
“Hey! The four over there, you coming?”
“Che!”
 
At those words, one of the men clicked his tongue, wielded his axe and jumped at Ryouma.
 
The axe came falling down at Ryouma’s head. Seeing that, he spun his body, and as he did so he hit the side of the axe with the rod, moving its trajectory, and allowing him to dodge. Continuing that, he moved the rod that had just hit the side of the axe and thrust it into the man’s throat. As he took control of his spinning body, he turned the rod and used the tip that had just plunged into the man’s throat to hit the chin. Doing so he sent another man into a cerebral concussion, putting the number of men down at three.
 
When the three remaining men saw that, one of them put his sword back into the scabbard and walked out. What was he planning? Is he giving up? No. The man that has now become unarmed, plans to take Ryouma’s rod. Once he has taken control of Ryouma’s rod, the two behind him will make their move and attack with their spear and knife.
 
The man succeeded at grabbing Ryouma’s rod. At that moment he believed that Ryouma has now been pushed into a corner.
 
“Ha!!”
 
However, in the next instant, Ryouma poured out his fighting spirit as he thrust his rod into the man while the man was still holding it. As the man was thrust away, he let go of Ryouma’s rod, and came crashing at the two men behind him.
 
Because of that the man ended up receiving the knife of the man behind him, and the man that had a spear had to dodge the man, causing him to stagger and show a huge opening. Ryouma did not miss that opening. He quickly took his rod, and hit the man’s head to knock him out.
 
When the man with a knife saw that his comrade that held a spear has been knocked out, and the unarmed man was beside him squatting as he held his stomach, he clearly became panicked. To such a man, Ryouma leisurely walked closer.
 
They all thought that they had the advantage, everyone did. However when the battle had begun, Ryouma one-sidedly trashed the other five. Unable to come to grips with the reality before him, the man couldn’t accept their loss.
 
The man frantically held his knife and rushed at Ryouma, but such a thing wouldn’t work. Ryouma quickly swung his rod diagonally from his right below going up to the left, and knocking down the knife. Continuing that, he swept against the man’s leg with the rod, hit the head when the man fell, and thrust at the throat.
 
“Uwaaaaaaaa!!!! Aga!”
 
These men kept spitting insults at Ryouma, yet this men’s abilities were no better than an amateur’s. These guys were the kind that would pick on people weaker than them or around their level, and would only overpower them by their number.
 
Since from the start these men didn’t have any guts to fight people stronger than them. When they see that there’s a difference in power, they will immediately withdraw, and without any hesitation surrender like this.
 
“I, I give up! I’m surrendering!”
“Winner! Ryouma Takebayashi!”
“Wahoooooo!”
 
At Wogan’s declaration, the surrounding onlookers all cheered for Ryouma. The eyes and the comments that were around when they thought Ryouma was someone who didn’t know his own limits had all disappeared, and now the crowd unanimously admired Ryouma.
 
A man came out from the ring of onlookers with a double-edged axe on his back. As he moved closer to Ryouma, the crowd grew quiet.
 
“Not bad. For a brat. I’m the leader of the Fang of Orbtem, Sacchi. What do you think? How ‘bout joining us?”
“I refuse.”
 
It was a sudden invitation, but Ryouma gave a prompt reply.
 
“You’re refusing my invitation?”
“There’s no way I’d want to suddenly become the comrade of a bunch of guys who were looking down on me just a while ago.”
“Well, that’s true. But you see… we need to do something about the fact that you sullied our name.”
“Wait!”
 
At Sacchi’s words, Wogan put himself in between the two.
 
“The one who proposed this duel was your men. It’s unreasonable to say that just because you lost.”
“Unreasonable? That kind of thing doesn’t matter. The problem is that what belongs to me just lost to this brat. You also understand, right? Just how important this thing called ‘face’ in this job is. An adventurer with good reputation will find a lot of jobs, and a poor reputation will find few. And for an adventurer, the worst kind of rumor, is the rumor of being weak. A weak adventurer can’t do jobs, that’s what it means to be an adventurer. To an adventurer like that, jobs won’t come.”
 
As he said that, Sacchi looked at the six men on the ground and then declared this,
 
“From now on you bastards aren’t allowed to use the name, Fang of Orbtem! You’re fired!”
“W–wait Sacchi-san, please wait!”
“Shut up!! To think you would actually, in front of all people, lose to this brat! I don’t need weak bitches like you in my team! Right now I really want to kill you fuckers! If you’re going to surrender then you might as well die!”
 
At those words, Ryouma remembered something from the past. Sacchi’s words right now were similar to the behavior of an authority in the company that his deceased mother had insulted. Realizing that, an unspeakable displeasure crawled through Ryouma’s body. It’s not like Sacchi hasn’t done anything to Ryouma. If I must say it then right now Sacchi is trying to find fault with Ryouma. But, that’s just it. Between the two of them, that’s all there is.
 
However, right now, Ryouma has the urge to thoroughly tear Sacchi apart. The reason for that is the repugnance and hate that he had continuously piled up for the authorities and the company employees in his past life that he had forgotten since coming here. But of course, Sacchi had nothing to do with that. Understanding that, Ryouma kept his urge. But that was extremely unpleasant.
 
Furthermore, Ryouma is as calm as he can understand the difference in ability between them. However, what that means is that even if Sacchi were to attack with all the members of the Fang of Orbtem, he would deal with them without question. And that prediction was correct.
 
Although the members of the Fang of Orbtem are D Rank up, that is not because of their own individual strengths but because of their number and the quality of their equipment. The only ones that actually have ability are Sacchi and several of the cornerstones of the Fang of Orbtem. Moreover those people are Rank C. If Ryouma were to seriously go at it, he would be able to deal with them easily. To put it bluntly, there isn’t a single factor for Ryouma’s defeat.
 
However, strangely enough, it was that calm judgement that became one of the factors that loosened Ryouma’s bound of reason. If the one here right now was someone that he absolutely could not win against, then he would have made a decision to withdraw. Even if it was only dangerous and he could actually win, he would still make the decision to put up his guard and try to avoid fighting.
 
But, Ryouma can win. Easily too. Because of that all thoughts of running away ceased. Right now, just keeping himself from picking a fight with this man has already pushed his reason to its brink.
 
And in that brink, Sacchi’s words reached him and… it broke his last sense of reason.
 
“If you just hand that brat over to us we can settle everything peacefully. It’s better even for that brat’s sake, right? I heard it you know? That brat is being raised by some noble. From now on he’s going to be kept until he dies, and if the nobles get tired of him they’ll just throw him away. If he does something poorly, won’t they just throw him away? Rather than being treated like a tool by some noble, it’s better for him to go with us and live more freely…”
“Shut up.”
TL Note: So proud of myself 

 

 

 

Emperor of the Galaxy – Prologue 1


TL Note: This is actually quite difficult to translate… I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry knowing that I actually finished this.
Changed Braubelk to Breuberg as per lygartranslations’ suggestions (ブラウベルク ) 
Prologue

The human race’s embark to space was earlier than expected. The ground breaking progress of the technology of computers was put to practical use in spaceships. Because of this the development of space technology greatly sped up.

First, the humans developed the moon. And as expected, it was a treasure trove of resources, which greatly changed the problem of energy. It was no longer a problem of exhausting resources. It was now a problem of scrambling for it. With this came the interest of mankind, as well as the struggle for survival.

Among others, the antagonism of America, China, Japan, the Pacific Rim Nations, and Europe became steep. The Pacific Rim Countries requested a significant portion under the pretense of their huge population. But since Europe had already requested the rights for control beforehand, neither of them yielded.

The ones who tried to mediate this, were Russia and India. They went over to the Pacific and mediated in order to gain an advantage. Europe showed great displeasure at this, but because of the overwhelming power of the Pacific and because they were able to secure their own share, they withdrew. This mediation was called the Singapore Treaty.

Since of all things this treaty was signed within the headquarters of the Pacific Rim Nations, it was possible to guess what the true nature of this treaty was. Moreover, this treaty had great influence over the expansion of humanity into space.

Because of the advantage given by this treaty to the Pacific, Russia gained strong influence within the Pacific Rim Nations. Until then, Russia had a slightly weaker position compared to the three countries, Japan, America, and China. But then Russia ended up becoming responsible for mediating between these three countries.

This also had the support of Japan and the ASEAN who was wary of the despotism of America and China. Also, for Japan, Russia was a troublesome issue but after they had settled the Northern Territories Issue
(http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/europe/russia/territory/overview.html) they were able to fix their relationship. And as for Russia, something like the Northern Territories was no longer a big deal since they were already entering an era of space expansion.

Central and South America also joined into this. As for the leading powers of the oceanic countries, Australia and New Zealand, they were already important members of the Pacific Rim Countries, so they had no issues. Korea, Mongolia, Mexico and the Caribbean Countries also joined. After that, the surrounding countries of Russia and a member of EU, Turkey, also joined. They used the overwhelming power and population in order to proactively propagate the expansion to space. But there were also many who had already known much about the know-hows of space expansion.

India didn’t join them. It may be that it was because of their culture that they weren’t able to get along with Russia or the Pacific Rim Countries, and instead chose to walk on a path by themselves. But because they were also unable to get along with America and China, until today they have been estranged.

However, because of their cordial relationship with Japan, they were able to use Japan’s technology to expand to space. An act at which Europe was vexed. Because they were beaten at acquiring the resources in the moon, they were greatly delayed despite having the manpower and the technology. To begin with even if you have the technology, one can still end up behind. And just like that, in the end they were left behind by the Pacific Rim Countries. With the vestiges of the former EU nowhere to be found, it was believed that Europe had once again become content with the borders of the human world.

It was at that moment, however, that fortune paid them a visit. The birth of a new leader, Heinrich Von Breuberg. A man born in Austria and has the lineage of a duke. This man went from the European Parliament’s number one opposition party, the Progressive Political Party, to being a diet member candidate of the European Parliament. With his tall stature, bountiful blonde hair, those blue resolute eyes, and a face that looked like a sculpture from Greece, this young, 25 year old man, managed to charm the people of Europe with his speech.

Before entering the parliament, he first gave the world famous Easter speech. At the same time, the European Parliament began the Easter Festival. During which, they reinstated Greece’s and Scandinavia’s different gods and fused them with the Catholics and propagated it. Although the reinstatement of the old gods was seen at the 19th century, in order for that to become a reality it still took several hundred years. This speech gave a closure to the state of affairs and ignited the fire of the Europeans. The Progressive Political Party also gave their approval and he immediately became the young leader of that political party.Breuberg announced policies one after another. The proactive expansion to space, the protection of the engineers and the scientists, and the protection of the rights of the laborers. All of these things were entwined with the expansion to space.

He also immediately gained influence within the governing party. They then left the party and merged with the opposition. Because of this the power balance in the Parliament changed, causing the Parliament to be dissolved. Putting this together along with the election, the Progressive Political Party had an overwhelming victory and Heinrich Von Breuberg became the chairman of the European Parliament, or the leader of Europe.

He proceeded with his own policies, and through this he was able to restore the power of Europe. And Europe was also able to go into space.

There were also those who did not look favorably upon this effort. The Pacific Rim Countries for one. And among others, countries such as America, China, and Russia was greatly displeased.

In their displeasure, they sent out assassins, only to fail. And what’s worse is that their behaviors were put to light. These three countries’ intelligence agency received harsh criticism, and their reputation greatly fell.

With this they had no choice but to stay meek for a while, and during this period, Europe vigorously pursued its expansion to space. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to do anything. The assassination incident that was brought to light, caused the Anti-European diehards in the Pacific Parliament to be replaced by the moderates. These moderates, however, also considered Breuberg to be someone that cannot be ignored.

However they didn’t expect any results even from the economic sanction because Europe had already managed to get a strong footing in its economy and has even managed to get the resources it needs.

They contracted the Singapore Treaty. Because of that they were able to monopolize a good part of the expansion to space. Even if they were try to cause a war, they couldn’t expect support for that because it everyone knows that the one who made the first move was them. Moreover, the Pacific Countries also had a problem with the other countries.

The peculiarity they had was that they had many countries participating. However, that actually became a disadvantage to them. Because they didn’t have someone who could lead them.

The four countries, Japan, America, China, and Russia, are its leader. However between those leaders, there were plenty of disagreements. And what’s worse is that other countries also participated. In any case, the point is that it was very difficult to progress with any conversation.

This was a clash of interest. And because they were not unified, they were not able to take a resolute position against Europe.

That is something that Breuberg himself acknowledged. He said, “When there are too many boatmen, the boat will not move.” To actually have taken out a Chinese proverb, he was a first rate cynic with a wealth of words.

Regardless though, the power difference was left unchanged. He too also believed that something needed to be done about the Singapore Treaty. And desperately needing to do that something, the only card left to play was war. However, that was not something he could afford to do. If a war were to occur, the opponent would definitely unify. In that instance, the one who would lose would be his side. And so he instead strengthened the influence of Europe.

Emperor of the Galaxy – Series Info

Emperor of the Galaxy　(星河の覇皇)

1000 years later in the wide galaxy, amongst the four civilizations, the human race is currently in turmoil. In these conflicted times within the many stars, the heroes appear. Will these heroes change the galaxy with their hands? This is a tale about these heroes and the stars around them.

Author: 坂田火魯志
Chapters: 5307
Tags: World, SF, War, Politics, Armada, Serious, Humans, Battle, State/Nation, High Tech, Military History, Army, Nobles, Future, Space
RAW:　http://www.akatsuki-novels.com/stories/index/novel_id~2795 

TL Note: I’ve been looking for something less light-hearted to TL for a while now. I haven’t read this yet, so I might translate a few chapters then see what to do. Oh, and I did google around to see if anyone else was TL’ing this, but apparently no one was. So yeah, let’s see where this goes.

The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 1 Chapter 23


TL Note: So I heard you guys wanted action…


Volume 1 Chapter 23
Break Time

Ryouma was eating by himself in a corner where the adventurers were gathered after he received his portion of lunch.

As for Jeff-san and the others, they went with the other adventurers to exchange information while eating, but since Ryouma didn’t know what to talk about with other adventurers, he was by himself.

“Even though I can talk normally now, it’s not like my fear of strangers has been cured… oh yeah, now that I think about it I did keep my conversation with other people to a minimum… it was normal for me to wait until someone talked to me…

As Ryouma dropped his head to his own cowardice, a group of men came over and spoke to him.

“Hey.”
“Eh? Ah, yes, is something the matter?”

Although Ryouma felt the men come close to him, he didn’t expect them to actually talk to him, so his response ended up being late.

“You’re wearing a pretty nice armor, huh?”
“My armor? Well, yeah, it was quite expensive.”
“Wow, bastards with money really have it nice.”
“Won’t you give some of that to us?”

At the start, Ryouma responded normally. But with those two comments, Ryouma finally realized that these adventurers were up to no good.

Adventurers would normally make a party of up to six and move as such. In the instance where they have to fight a lot of monsters or a particularly powerful prey, then they would gather more members and become an even bigger group. That kind of group normally disperses as soon as the job is over, but there are some rare instances where adventurers who worked in the same town would work together for a long time. 
　
These people belong to that kind of group. The members of the adventurer group who calls themselves, The Fang of Orbtem, are famous in the Town of Gimuru. Not because they’re strong, but because of their bad deeds.

When they find beginner adventurers and lower level adventurers with plenty of money, they do things like what they’re doing right now, and try to extort money and equipment. There are plenty of beginner adventurers who give up their money after being threatened because of the difference in numbers. And even if they were to fight back, because there’s simply too many, they still end up being stolen from.

Right now, the prey of this group is the lonely adventurer who has no friends beside him, eating food by himself. When they saw this weak looking adventurer, well they just couldn’t help themselves. And so, they planned to do their usual stuff, but…

“Sigh… extortion… I thought there were people who finally came to talk to me, but it turned out to be extortion…”

Muttered Ryouma as he sighed disappointedly.

For Ryouma, being caught up with people like this was an everyday occurrence for him in his student days. Because of that, he didn’t feel anything anymore in situations like this.

Seeing the Ryouma who was acting boldly and sighing, the six faltered a bit. That’s because it’s normal for people to resist. Well, at the very least that’s how it was for the adventurers they’ve extorted from until now.

“That’s cruel, man. This isn’t extortion, we’re just…”
“You said you wanted money right? I won’t give you any, you know? Please work honestly and make money for yourselves.”

Ryouma has always been entangled with people like this during his school days. But amongst those countless times he was being harassed, not once did he give money to them.

There were many who would give their money and live peacefully, but Ryouma didn’t give in to extortion. He could have beaten them up, but because he was forbidden by his father to fight, he lived his days irritating the bullies and being hit.

Because of his bad habit from those days, Ryouma also acted rude in response to the six people. And as one would expect, they were enraged and started trying to threaten Ryouma. The voices of the six people reached even the ears of the surrounding adventurers, catching their attention.

“You have some guts, don’t ya…? Don’t screw with me you shitty brat!! You think I don’t know? The only job you’ve taken till now is a measly cleaning job! A brat like you who doesn’t know how to fight only needs to do what he’s told!”
“Don’t bloody get cocky just cuz you bought some nice armor!! You’re just a little brat who can’t do anything but loiter around in a weird outfit!”
“I’m telling you to just hand over the damned cash! You want to make this difficult?”
“You went against us, so leave your armor and your weapons!”
“It’s better than getting hurt ya know?”
“What, can’t you hear me!?”
“I am able to hear you just fine even without you shouting. Or are you perhaps unable to hear? In any case, I will not be handing any money to you people. Nor will I hand my weapons and armor.”

As he said that, he went back to eating his meal. Seeing that, the six people took out their swords. As expected, Ryouma was alarmed and he steeled himself for battle.

Ryouma generally didn’t fight back in his previous life, but there were exceptions. That exception being when his life was in danger. In cases like that, Ryouma fought back. As for why he would only fight when his life was in danger, that’s because he was bad at holding back.

Even if he was forbidden by his father to fight, he was still given permission to defend himself. Only, the difference between his strength and his opponents were too much. So if Ryouma were to try to fight back, it would only end up as excessive self-defense. The techniques Ryouma had learned from his father were meant to efficiently destroy one’s opponents. And those techniques were ingrained into him by his father’s strict training.

When he fought back during his school days, even the person who suffered light injuries had the hand he was holding a weapon with broken. That was the best Ryouma could do to hold back in his student days.

This also means that in situations where Ryouma’s life isn’t in danger, he won’t fight back.

But this time, his opponents tried to take out their swords. If he were to be hit by those swords, his life would be in danger. Ryouma is the kind of man who wouldn’t hesitate in a situation where his life was in danger.

While Ryouma had his guard up, and as the men tried to take out their swords, someone called out to them.

“What are you guys doing!!?”

That voice came from the man standing in the middle of the onlookers surrounding them from a distance.

The guild master of the Adventurer’s Guild, Wogan.

Wogan glared at the six guys as he walked over to Ryouma.

“You guys, I can still let you off if you’re only arguing, but I won’t approve of you taking your swords out.”
“Why is the guild master…?”
“Withdraw!”
“Even if it’s break time, we’re still in the middle of a job. So stop fighting with your fellow adventurers!”
“Fight? There’s nothin’ like that. We’re just teachin’ this brat a lesson.”
“Cuz this kid don’t have a single inkling of respect towards his senpai adventurer.”

As the two men brazenly said that it was education, Ryouma said this while he was eating.

“You can’t call extorting money, then getting mad when refused and trying to threaten me to get my armor and weapon, ‘education’, you know?”

At those words, four of the men were startled and two of them stared at Ryouma with resentful eyes. Naturally, having something like that said while the guild master was around was bad.

Of course, Wogan responded to those words,

“Certainly, that isn’t education. What’s the meaning of this?”
“Hey, hey. It’d be problematic if you misunderstood us… what we were trying to do was for you…”
“Exactly how is trying to take my money, armor, and weapons, for my sake?”
“You bastard! Stop trying to slander us!!”
“I’ll kill you you little brat!”

The previously calm four, started to shout angrily at the few calm words Ryouma spoke. And then,

“Duel me!”

Ryouma thought he had heard wrong at those sudden words and asked,

“What did you say?”
“I said to duel me you brat!”
“Why?”
“Because you falsely accused us is why!!”
“If you lose you have to give us your money, armor, and weapons!”
“Consider it payment for the class, brat. Because we’ll be teachin you exactly how cruel adventurers are.”

Ryouma opened his eyes, shocked. And then after his shocked had lessened, he said what he thought,

“This is the first time I’ve seen someone ask for a duel.”

Those words that didn’t carry a hint of tension caused the six to become irritated.

“Who cares about something like that!?”
“Are you going to accept?! Accept or not, which is it!?”
“There’s no way I would accept something like that, right? Trying to justify your crimes is meaningless, you know?”
“You scared, you brat?”
“This coward!”
“You’re pathetic!!”

This time, the six started to shower Ryouma with jeers.

Although Wogan tried to stop that, he couldn’t completely stop it. As Ryouma was gloomily thinking of that, he suddenly thought,

(Now that I think about it, Jeff-san said that if I don’t fight them and show my strength, that I’ll be looked down on.)

Having remembered the words he was told this morning, Ryouma thought a little.

Why won’t I fight them? Well that’s because I’m bad at holding back. It’ll just end up as excessive self-defense.

But this world is different. If one is attacked, as long as it’s for self-defense, then it’s legal even if you kill. This is a world where the fracture Ryouma caused in his school days when he held back wasn’t even worth mentioning. This is a world where you can’t avoid fighting if you want to protect your daily life and your rights.

And also, the opponents right now have a good build, unlike the kids he faced back then. Even if they’re a bunch of thugs, they are adults that have trained how to fight.

What’s more, is that compared to his school days, Ryouma can hold back better now. As he was thinking that, he thought again,

(Oh yeah, I was pretty unsatisfied back in my previous life, huh?)

Although Ryouma had endured the extortion and bullying, it’s not like he didn’t feel anything.

It hurt when he got hit, and when he was spoken ill of, it also hurt. So he also thought of wanting to let loose. But by muttering to himself about excessive self-defense, he was somehow barely able to keep that urge. In other words, he had always wanted to beat those guys up.

Having noticed that, Ryouma heard the jeers of the other men again.

“Coward!!”
“Don’t run, and accept it!”
“A scared adventurer that can’t accept should just retire!!”

At those words, Ryouma said this,

“I understand, I’ll accept it.”

The moment he said that, the jeers stopped. And the onlookers watching all looked at Ryouma.

However, Wogan, wanting to confirm Ryouma’s intentions, asked with a serious face,

“Ryouma, you plan to fight?”
“Yeah, it’s no use even if I kept doing this.”

Like this, Ryouma accepted the duel of the six members of the adventurer group, The Fang of Orbtem.


TL Note:
Where’s the action?
Over here

 

 

The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 1 Chapter 22

TL Note: 
Special Thanks to Mee for donating! 

I couldn’t figure out a western way of making the samurai sound samurai, so I just started attaching ‘de aru’ at the end of Raypin’s sentences.


Volume 1 Chapter 22

Elia seems to have taken her contemplations yesterday seriously and is again in the abandoned mine, training.

Because of that Rheinbach-sama told me to take care of the monster subjugation request put up by the Adventurer’s Guild today. I told them it would be fine if Elia also came with me, but Rheinbach-sama and the Madam were against it.

There’s a huge difference in battle experience and fighting abilities between me and Elia. So, because of that there’s a very high probability that she’ll only end up relying on me a lot.

Well it is true that if she were to ask me for help I wouldn’t really be able to refuse…

In any case this is why I ended up going to the guild and being called into the guild master’s room.

“Ryouma, you came.”
“I came when I heard the Guild Master was looking for me. Is there something the matter?”
“The butler of the duke’s family came a while ago. And after putting up the request I wanted to confirm something. Did you go to the abandoned mine yesterday?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Right, I want you to tell me what kind of magical beasts came out. The big request I mentioned before already came, but it’s really too dangerous without having a good grasp on the monsters beforehand. I also heard from the butler, but the more information the better. So I want to get whatever information I can get before starting the mission.”

“The ones I fought were the cave mantis, the cave bat, and the small mouse. From the looks of things the Ojousama also seemed to have defeated a slime. And then, there’s also the metal slime which the Ojousama found.”
“Alright, looks like this time I can allow members from G Rank up, to take this request. But… to think there was also a metal slime.”

“Yeah, that time we were moving separately but the Ojousama captured it and gave it to me as a present. Like that I was able to tame it.”
“Oh yeah, you liked to collect slimes, huh? From what I’ve heard you actually managed to get over 1000 slimes.”
“That’s right. Right now, I have 728 sticky slimes, 323 poison slimes, 211 acid slimes, 11 cleaner slimes, 3033 scavenger slimes, 2 healer slimes, 1 metal slime, 1 normal slime, which in total makes 4310 slimes.”
“That’s too many.”

“The reason the scavenger slimes ended up this many was because of the previous case, you know? Because of that I ended up making them split so many times in a short period of time and they quickly surpassed 3000. On that point, slimes are able to live largely on water alone, so it’s not a problem.”
“So that’s why. By the way another request to clean the latrine pits came out so… mind taking that?”
“No problem. Still, that is quite fast. It hasn’t even been a few days since the last one.”

“Well the previous request took 5 months before it was accepted. So since there’s no telling when the next request to clean will be accepted, there are plenty of guys who are thinking, “Let’s start putting up the request now!” And they also threatened us by saying that if no one comes for a long time they’ll complain until they die or something. In the end the public office wasn’t able to come to an understanding with the slum and now they’re just ignoring them and not doing their job.”

“Alright, I got it. How many pits do I have to clean today?”
“All 30 pits. Can you do it?’
“Because of the previous case, the slime’s ability to deal with that kind of stuff has greatly increased. And so, if I were to use it for an entire day, I think I should somehow be able to do it…”
“Then I’ll leave everything to you. The townsmen are really annoying.”
“Got it. Ah, can I also take the monster subjugation request?”
“Yeah, there’s no limit on the number of people participating, so there won’t be a problem. You can even process the documents as soon as you get home after the quest, today.”

“Alright, I understand. And then, regarding the monsters in the abandoned mine, can the corpses be sold?”
“Nope. Based on the information we have now, you can’t sell them. The reward for this request is simply for the subjugation of the monsters.”
“Then, if I were to pay up, will I be able to get the corpses?”
“Well to begin with, those are pretty much only garbage. Even if you buy it, what will you do with it?’

“I’ll feed it to my slimes of course. Even though they’re not really eating that much I want to make sure I have supplies while I can.”
“So that’s why. Then in that case leave the handling of the corpses to the guild. I’ll make it so that there’ll be an extra reward for people that bring the corpses back.

To begin with, leaving the corpses there was never really a good idea since other monsters may just end up living there after scrounging for those, so I was already planning to have those gathered. Even if the bonus is dirt cheap, if there’s a bonus then they’ll end up wanting to do it. Also, you’re the one paying for the bonus, alright?
“Of course. In the meantime, will 20 small gold coins be enough?”
“You don’t need 20. Even 10 is plenty.”
“Then I’ll leave you with 10 small gold coins. If that becomes insufficient, I’ll pay it afterwards.”
“Got it. However, are you able to bring that many with you? And also, it’s going to rot, you know?”

“It’s alright. I can use space magic and preserve it with ice. And even if it rots, there are slimes that like that, so it won’t be a waste.”
“Slimes are quite convenient, huh?”
“Yes. Very much.”

After talking with the Guild Master, I left the room and took the request we talked about a while ago from the receptionist.

“Thank you so much for taking this quest again. There really aren’t any people who wants to take this quest, you see?”
“Well, it’s because I have my slimes and magic which make this job convenient for me, but as for others, there probably won’t be anyone who’d want to do this job.”
“Honestly we’d be better off, if they just took the odd jobs instead of pushing themselves and failing a job… Oh by the way, Ryouma-kun, because of the previous job you took your rank rose. From today on you’re an F Rank.”

“Is that so?”
“That’s right. In order to go from G to F, you need to complete 20 missions of any kind. When you cleaned the latrine pits, there were 30 pits in total. Each pit counted as a mission, and so you were able to fulfill the conditions to go up to F Rank.

In order to go from F to the next rank, E. You need to complete 40 missions of any kind, plus some kind of subjugation request. You went 10 jobs over the 20 jobs required to go from G to F, so I’ll add that towards the completion of your Rank E. If you’re able to finish the cleaning of all of the 30 latrine pits again today, you’ll be able to clear all the conditions for Rank E aside for the subjugation request.”
“Really? Thank you very much. Umm…”
“Oh, that’s right. I haven’t introduced myself have I? It’s Meilin.”
“Thank you very much, Meilin-san. Well then I’ll be on my way.”

I left the guild and then did my best to clean the latrine pits again today. Because of the King Scavenger Slime’s ‘Enlarge’ and ‘Overeat’, I was able to finish all 30 latrine pits in one day. Although the skill level rose, the amount we had to deal with today were quite few…

I then went to report the completion of the request. After a little bit of time, they were able to confirm that I finished the job, and the request was completed.

“Alright, you’re good to go. Take care of it again in the future, ok? And then… Ryouma-kun will also be taking the subjugation request for tomorrow, right?”
“Yes, please let me take it.”
“Then in that case I’ll take care of the papers…… OK. If you come over to the guild by 8 in the morning tomorrow, there’ll be a stagecoach that you can ride for free. If you miss that, you’ll have to either borrow a horse or walk there, but regardless, if you fail to get there by 11, then you’ll have your pay reduced.”
“I understand. Thank you very much.”

After that, I went back to the lodging, prepared for tomorrow, and then went to sleep. It would be nice if a metal slime were to come… if I spot one, I’ll tame it. Definitely.


The Next Day

Because of my appointment today, I was sent off by the four members of the Jamil Household and the guards. I then headed towards to the guild in order to be able to ride the stagecoach. When I got to the guild, there was a huge crowd of adventurers and many stagecoaches lined up.

“That’s quite a crowd, huh?”

Seeing the stagecoaches, I wondered to myself whether to exercise by running while using the neutral magic ‘Strengthening’ since I still had some time, but a voice suddenly called out to me from afar.

“Hey! Ryouma!”
“Eh? Ah, Jeff-san!”

That voice was Jeff-san’s. Looking carefully, I can see Raypin and Shell as well.

“Good morning, Jeff-san, Raypin-san, Shell-kun.”
“Mornin’.”
“Good morning, Ryouma-kun.”
“Good morning – de aru. Ryouma took this quest too?”
“You guys took it as well?”

“It’s ‘cause the old man made us take this request. The request this time ‘round can be taken even by those of the Rank G, but if a strong monster were to come out it will be a huge disaster. So just in case, we’re participating too. Also, it’s not just me and Raypin, Miya and Asagi are coming as well. They’ve already gone ahead though.”
“Still, although there’s been big requests like this before, there’s quite a lot of people this time, huh?”
“That can’t be helped -de aru. The beasts in the mine are something that even Rank G adventurers can handle, and since this is a request given by the feudal lord, the reward for it is also suitable. Besides there’s also the bonus from the corpses, when they’re brought back to the guild.

This is one of the few good opportunities to earn for adventurers of low rank –de aru. And even people who can’t fight can get a reward just by gathering corpses. Like this there’s almost no one who is unable to take part in this mission –de aru.”
“Still, I wonder who’s the guy paying for the bonus and buying the magical beasts. I took a look at the list of the magical beasts, and no matter how you look at it those aren’t the kind of beasts that have any useful parts. These beasts are just small fries, you know?”
“Although it’s good for us, it is quite concerning –de aru.”
“Nah, actually, it’s nothing special. It’ll just be used for feed for the slave monsters.”
“Ryouma-kun, do you know something?”
“It’s because the one buying the corpses is me.”
“So the one buying the corpses was Ryouma? If you’re going to use the corpses as feeds for you slime, then I can understand –de aru. Because… you do have a lot of slimes…”
“What do you normally do for their meal anyway?”
“Depending on what kind of slave monster, it could be quite expensive. And those things look like they’d eat quite a lot.”

“Slimes don’t really eat that much. They can live largely on water alone with a little bit of feed. This time around, I’m planning to use Ice and Space Magic to preserve the corpses, so I can give it to the slimes little by little. Also, I can do this since, if something were to start rotting, then I can simply have the slimes deal with that in one gulp.”
“Well that’s true. Aside from you, there’s no one who can do this.”
“Now that you mention it, where are those slimes –de aru?”
“Today the slimes are resting because I worked them really hard yesterday to clean the latrine pits. And also they’ll just get mistaken by the surrounding people and end up getting killed.”
“Well that’s true –de aru.”

Shell looked at me quizzically,
“Wait a moment, you cleaned the latrine pits again?”
“Well I was asked to by the guild master and also, today, completing this subjugation request will apparently allow me to become an E Rank.”
Hearing that, Jeff-san was shocked,
“That’s fast! It hasn’t even been a week since you registered, right?”
“I cleaned 30 pits for 3 days during the incident, and then yesterday I cleaned another 30. Every single pit, counts for a mission, so all in all that counts towards a total of 60 completed missions.”
“I see…”

While we wear chatting idly, another stagecoach came over. Well, since an empty carriage already came near us, we took the opportunity and rode together.





Like this, we leisurely headed towards the abandoned mine while we chatted. When we got there, we were immediately told to go report to the reception desk they prepared in front of the entrance of the abandoned mine. We did as we were told and were then made to wait there. At 11, all the adventurers were gathered, and the guild master gave us some opening words.

“The people participating today number 264! In order to do this safely, you will all be going in as a 6 man party, one at a time! There will be no scrambling for prey! Those without a party, you were already grouped ahead of time! Come over here to confirm it! And lastly… earn as much as you can!”

Everyone rose their voice at those simple words. Then people gathered, and started entering the tunnel. I also went to check my group and my party ended up being Jeff-san, Miya-san, Wereanna-san, Mizelia-san, and Syria-san. Pretty much everyone was someone I knew. Was the guild master worried about me?

Looking around me, Wereanna-san led 5 other people as they walked towards me.

“Wereanna-san, please take care of me today. The others too, please take care of me.”
“Same here, Ryouma.”
“Take care of me, nya.”
“Take care of me ok?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll properly guide you as your senpai.”
“That’s probably impossible for Mizelia. We already met a while ago, but take care of me as well, ok?”
“Wai–, Jeff! Isn’t that rude to me!?”
“It’s cuz even though you’re good at fighting, you’re careless.”
“What do you mean by that!?”

Seeing the two argue, Wereanna-san couldn’t help but sigh,
“What are you guys doing…? Ryouma, let’s just leave these two. Just to confirm our fighting strength, what weapon do you have with you? And also, the magical beasts we have in this cave are the cave mantis and the small rat, have you ever fought with them?”
“I’ve fought with the cave mantis before. As for my weapon, I normally use my bow but, and I can also fight with my short sword as well as with my fists. And then, I can also fight with my magic.”

“I see… an all-rounder huh? Then in that case Ryouma will be in charge of attacking with magic since no one else can use magic aside from Ryouma in our group.”
“Well it’s not really like I can’t use it nya. It’s just that as beastmen we run out of magic power really quickly nya. So please don’t rely that much on our magic.”
“As for me, my magic power is relatively high but I can’t use anything except for healing magic. Sorry.”
After her, Jeff-san began to say as he puffed his chest up,
“As for me and Mizelia, we suck at all magic except for the neutral magic harden and strengthen!”
“… You just changed the way you phrased it. In the end it’s all the same nya. Well, Ryouma, what attribute do you have nya?”
“All of them, but, I mainly use earth.”
“All Attribute Aptitude huh? That’s quite rare nya.”
“With that, we can fight in a lot more ways. Regarding earth, is the only attack magic you have Earth Needle?”
“Earth Needle and Rock Bullet. As for the other attributes, the ones I can use inside the cave are the ice attribute, Ice arrow. And the electric attribute, Stun Arrow.”
“Then in that case, that’s more than enough. Alright, let’s go!”

And so we started the mission. Only, because the monsters were so weak, we ended up proceeding quite fast.

“These things just can’t fight back.”
Mizelia-san couldn’t help but shake her head,
“What’s the point of asking small rats and slimes to fight back?”
“Besides if a monster that could fight Jeff were to come out it’ll problematic nya. We’ll be fine, but the others who are ranked G and F will be in danger nya.”
“The reason we’re here is to deal with a situation like that.”
Said Syria-san, as Wereanna-san continued to explain,
“However, since we’re already here we can’t show a bad example to the lower ranks. It will be bad if they think that we’re making money even though we’re not doing anything. So let’s just keep killing these guys like this.”

These guys are amazing. They’re all high rank, right? Oh, wait a moment, why is someone like me grouped up with guys like these?

Seeing me deep in thought, Wereanna-san spoke up,
“Something the matter, Ryouma?”
“It’s nothing. I was just wondering why a Rank F like me was grouped up with high ranked adventurers like you guys. I wonder if it’s because the guild master was worried about me, thinking that it’s probably better for me to be with people I know.”
“There’s no such thing. That old man is definitely a busybody, but when it comes to request he’s quite strict. At times like these, he places priority on ability alone.”
Syria-san added,
“The guild master may have thought that it would be problematic if a monster that couldn’t be defeated with anything else except with magic were to come out with only the five of us, so he had you come along with us. I think he must value Ryouma-kun’s abilities quite a bit to make you come with us.”
“Actually, Ryouma-kun, the pace we’ve been going at is actually quite fast, you know? For a normal Rank F Adventurer, the most they would be able to do is to just keep up with us, you know?”
“At the start I thought that we’d have to slow down the pace once Ryouma started to get tired. But since you kept up with us calmly we just kept going like this.”
Said Mizelia-san and Wereanna-san as they tried to encourage me.

Really? I didn’t notice at all.

“Ryouma, your actual ability is definitely not at F.”
“What’s the strongest magical beast you’ve been so far?”
“The strongest I’ve fought isn’t a magical beast. It’s a beast that lives in the Forest of Gana, black bear.”

Hearing that, the five made a face that said, “Knew it.”

“Ryouma-kun, a black bear isn’t something that a normal Rank F can beat nya. In order to safely hunt it, one needs to at least be Rank D and have a party. To beat it alone, one needs to be at Rank C, nya.”
“Is that so?”
Syria-san nodded,
“That’s right. If Ryouma-kun can beat a Black Bear alone, then Ryouma-kun definitely has the ability of at least a Rank C. Did you show that ability to the guild master?”

Now that she mentions, yeah he has.

“When I registered, the proctor of the practical test was the guild master.”
“That must have been it.”
“Yeah, without a doubt. From that time on, he must have been watching you.”
“That’s why you were grouped with us.”
Said Mizelia-san as Jeff-san added,
“Since you have ability, you don’t have to worry about something like rank. With time, you’ll eventually reach the same rank as us.”
“Oh, now that you mention it what are your ranks?”
“Oh yeah, I haven’t mentioned it, nya?”
“We’re all Rank B.”
Responded, Mizelia-san.
“It’s the rank at which an adventurer can finally call himself first class.”
“And also, the ones who came with us when we did the job before, were Shell, who is Rank D, Gordon, who is Rank B, and Asagi and Raypin who are both Rank A.”

We were talking like that as we walked when Wereanna-san suddenly focused her awareness on what’s ahead of us, and began sniffing while she searched for something.

“What’s wrong?”
“From the smell, there’s a colony of bats ahead IT’s not dangerous but because there’s too many of them we won’t be able to beat them all as they’ll end up running away.”
“How troublesome… nya”
“Are there any person over there?”
“I don’t smell any humans. Do you have some kind of plan?”
“Yes, I have a magic that’s convenient for this kind of situation.”

As I mentioned that, I explained the effect of my ‘Sound Bomb’ from yesterday.

Wereanna-san showed me a look of admiration,
“Ho… you could actually do something like that?
Syria-san also nodded,”
“That’s a magic I’ve never heard of before.”

Well yeah… it’s something I made by using the knowledge I got from back in Earth.

“That magic will only knock them out, right? Can you finish the cave bats off before they recover?”
“The number is really a bit much. If you knock them out, killing them off will be quite easy, but as for whether or not we can finish them off in time…”
“Then in that case, couldn’t we receive the help of the people behind us?”

As I said that, the other people also agreed.
Then, Wereanna-san realized something,
“Wait, so you noticed too?”
“It’s because I’ve lived in the forest for 3 years. I’ve become quite sensitive to the presence of others.”
“Is that so? Then can you wait here for a bit?”

Actually, there was a group of six following us from quite a distance behind for a while now. Since they weren’t trying to attack us, we’ve left them alone until now. Also, hearing the conversation of the five with me, I mentioned that they were probably G or E Rank adventurers who were following us from behind to gather the corpses of the monsters to bring it back for money.

Although something like this isn’t prohibited, it’s not something to be praised either. It’s an act that can be considered to be in the ‘gray zone’. The monsters killed by someone normally belong to that person, but what they can’t carry and things that don’t have value are thrown away. Those kind of things being picked up isn’t an issue. But because it might become a source of a problem in the future, there aren’t a lot of people that do it without permission.

When we rested for a bit, the group came closer. Noticing that we had stopped moving, they were thrown into a panic and quickly stopped moving. At that, Wereanna-san called out in a loud voice.

“To the bastards that have been following us! You’ve already been found out! Show yourselves!”

Although the 6 were flustered, before long, they showed themselves. What appeared was a group of four humans and two beasts. Wereanna quickly began to question them.

“Why were you guys following us?”
“We were picking up the monsters that you threw away…”
“So you were just picking up the monsters we killed at your own convenience, huh? Well it’s not like we actually want to lecture you about this.”

At those words the 6 appeared to have been relieved as their expressions became brighter.

“We just want to know why you’re doing this kind of thing.”
When she said that, a young man replied in a panic.
“Y–Yes! Actually, we are still only ranks G and F so… we were having a bit… of a problem with money…”
“At the start we were still fine, but when we bought weapons and armors for ourselves we ran out of money…”
“And then as for me I failed a contract and ended up having to pay the fine and ran out of money…”
“We are also just barely getting by with our lodging fees and so we wanted to find a way to cut down on our expenses, when this request came out. We thought, that if it was this request, then we would be able to get some money for our current lifestyle for a while. The magical beasts are weak so it’s safe, as long as you join you get money, and if you bring monsters with you back you’ll also get money. So we thought that we didn’t have any way to get money aside from here!”
“And then after taking this request, when we got here we saw you guys. And…”

Jeff-san seeing the stagnant reply of the female human adventurer asked,

“And then what?”
“And…”
As the girl failed to reply properly, a male adventurer continued for her.
“We saw you guys take with you that brat. We figured if you’re taking with you into the tunnel a brat like that, then it’d be fine even if we took the corpses of the monsters you threw away. We thought you’d let us off with picking those up since your taking with you a brat that couldn’t be anything else except for a hindrance.”

At that young man’s unpleasant words, the other 5 gave off an unpleasant look. Well I mean yeah, even as a joke I am still a member of this group. You normally wouldn’t say that a member of a group is useless. But as for whether it was because they also thought what he thought, or because they were reflecting on the fact that they gave their approval and started acting on that thought, not a single one of them tried to rebut what the young man had said.

To that young man over there. You said it really arrogantly, but you know… the monsters I fell with my own magic were also included amongst the corpses you’ve picked up, you know?

I’m a little irritated, but it can’t be helped even if I were to mind it.

“You guys should know your…”

Wereanna-san who wasn’t happy about that raised her voice, but I stopped her.

“Its fine, Wereanna-san.”
“Ryouma, it’s better to tell it straight to a person like this, you know?”
“This kind of thinking isn’t something that can be changed by talking. It really can’t be helped that I look weak on the outside.”

I could also fix them up with brute force, but I’m not particularly good at holding back so… this guys will probably end up really hurt if I did that…

“… Got it. But… You guys! If you’re going to do something like that, at least say something! Just doing something like that on you convenience makes you look like a bunch of thieves! Don’t do that!”
“I’m sorry!!”

The 6 people apologized in a big voice. Well, they apologized to everyone aside from me. As expected the other five aren’t exactly reflecting, huh?

After apologizing, the 6 people tried to give us the monster corpses they had collected and then go home, but Syria-san and Mizelia-san stopped them.

“Wait! Although we told you it was wrong to gather the corpses without permission, we don’t think there’s anything wrong with the act itself.”
“If you have problems with money, then its fine. Take it.”

Hearing that, the six’s expression immediately brightened up. They showed their gratitude to everyone else except for me, and said their thanks. Wereanna-san wasn’t happy, but in the end we continued as we planned and Miya-san began to recommend the others to help us.

“Actually, there’s another reason why we called you guys, nya. There’s a colony of bats up ahead, but there’s too many so it’ll take time before we’re able to kill them all, nya. So, won’t you guys also help out? It’ll be fine even if you take all the corpses back with you, nya.”

The six agreed as if it was given. And then, while I confirmed that there were no people around with the magic ‘search’, Miya-san gave a simple explanation.

“First, Ryouma is going to hit them with magic, and then afterwards were going to rush in, nya.”
“That brat will?”
“Won’t that kid’s magic just make the enemy put up their guard?”

Yep, as expected they aren’t reflecting at all.

“If you have any complaints then go home!” roared Wereanna-san.

At that they withdrew, but after getting away a bit, they started whispering things like, “It’s the kid’s guard, huh?” or “I don’t like this” or “It’s for the sake of money so it can’t be helped”. I know, because they can be heard perfectly clear.

Even then though, I ignored them and continued with my preparation. After confirming that there aren’t any people over there, I put up a sound-proof barrier, and finished my preparation.

“I’m ready.”
“Alright, do it Ryouma. And you guys too, get going!”
“I’m going! ‘Sound Bomb’!”

As I invocated the magic, a sound exploded from within the tunnels. However, because of the barrier, we didn’t hear a single sound. So the 6 people from a while ago thought I failed.

“Nothing is happening though?”
“As expected it failed.”
“This is why brats are useless.”

These guys are really shameless. They already completely forgot about what happened a while ago, huh?

“It’s a success. It just happens to be a Wind Attribute Magic, so you guys can’t see it.”

Saying that, I went with Wereanna-san and the rest deep inside. At that, the 6 people made a bunch of excuses while they followed.

However, when they got inside they couldn’t help but look at the floor, dumbfounded. What lay on the floor was a great number of cave bats.

“These have all only been knocked out, so please divide the labor amongst yourselves and quickly dispose of them all.”

As I said that I immediately began. After we finally finished killing off all the cave bats, we left the six members alone in the deepest part of the cave and went out. As we went outside, Wereanna-san said this,

“Ryouma, is it really ok not to have said anything?”
“Yeah, I already showed off my ability with a shot of my magic. If they can’t understand it even with that, then that’s all there is to them.”
“Well that’s also probably true but…”
Jeff-san also couldn’t help but say,
“Having been slandered like that, if you don’t beat them up a bit and show off your strength, you’re going to be made light of, you know?”
“I also thought of beating them up… but I’m quite bad at holding back. I can’t do anything else except protecting myself, running away, or killing. If I were to deal with those six, even if I hold back, they’ll still end up getting hurt too much.”

I didn’t really get to fight a lot with normal people back in my previous world… and ever since I got here the only people I’ve had disagreements with are the bandits.

In elementary, junior high, and high school, if you were to resist someone’s bullying half-baked, then it will just end up getting worse… If I fought seriously I could have easily beaten them up but I went easy on them… Of course when my life is in danger I’ll resist, but even though I held back a lot, after that everyone started looking at me with eyes as if they were looking at a monster.

While I was thinking that Jeff-san said this,
“You don’t have to mind something like that, you know?”
“They also seem like they don’t have any money, so if I beat them up right now, they’ll end up unable to work and that’ll make me feel a bit bad, you know? Right now let’s just say that it’s because they’re desperate to make a living that they’re being a bit rebellious.”
“Rebellious… is that something that someone younger should say? They should be around 15 years old, you know?”
“Ryouma-kun are you really 11 years old?”
“Well, whatever… if that’s what Ryouma-kun has decided then just leave it be, nya. It will be fine as long as you raise your rank quickly, nya.”

Although it’s true that I’m bad at holding back, it’s also because I’m actually an uncle at heart, even though I may look like a kid that is… Anyway, I don’t really feel like scolding them over a minor matter, much less beat them up. I really can’t do something so childish.

Besides everyone had already scolded them. I’ve also shown them my abilities with my magic. Aside from this, all that’s left is to let them reflect on their own.

While we were talking about that, since it’s already time for us to start preparing our meals, we all went back to the entrance of the mine.



 

The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 1 Chapter 21

TL Note: Hi guys, I’ve made the front page more compact now and also added some buttons to the tab, like this it should be much more functional for the mobile users. I also moved the donation button to its own page to avoid cluttering the sidebar.


If you guys could spare some time, I’d like to know what you want to see more in the blog, functionality-wise, to make your experience better. Thanks. By the way, please write it down in the comments so we can all join in on the discussion.

Volume 1 Chapter 21

~ Side Ryouma ~

It’s the biggest store that gives off a high class ambience so far, but Rheinhart-san and the others went to the reception room as if it were normal.

I was a bit out of place, but… in order not to do anything that would inconvenience the others, I stayed meekly by Sebasu-san’s side.

After waiting for a bit, a man with a good build came. I think he might be the owner of the store.

“Well, well. What a pleasant surprise to have the members of the Duke’s Household come. Welcome.”

Rheinhart-san was the one to greet him,
“Serge, it’s been a while.”
“Indeed. It’s unfortunate that I am unable to get many opportunities to meet with the members of the Duke’s Household like this, but I’m happy to see that you are all doing well.

And as for this young lad here, I believe it’s the first time we’ve met. My name is Serge Morgan. I am the president of the Morgan Firm.”

Uh-oh, he also came to greet me.

“I am Ryouma Takebayashi. Because of some twist of fate I’ve come to be in the care of the Jamil Household. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

When I finished introducing myself, he gave me a smile.

He seems to be an acquaintance of Rheinhart-san. I wonder if he’s a good person. Then again, Rheinhart-san won’t introduce me to a weird person, right?

“Well, going straight into business…”
“Yes. I’ve heard you were planning to sell something new again.”

As I was caught up in my thoughts, these 2 suddenly went straight to business. Wait. Again? Rheinhart-san, exactly how many products have you already proposed to be sold?

“Before I show you the product. I need you to promise me that not a word of what I am about to show you will leak out. I know that someone like Serge can be trusted, but just in case.”
“But of course, the information of our business partner is very important to us. If Rheinhart-sama wishes for us not to allow the information to be leaked, then we shall deal with it in a way that will not attract eyes. However, I must say that this is quite unusual coming from Rheinhart-sama. To think that Rheinhart-sama would like to suppress something like that.”
“It’s just for now, and I do have my reasons. I believe that what am I about to show you today will bring us profit on a completely different level than everything so far.”

Will it really become something like that? In my previous world, things like raincoats were a given so… other than intuition, I don’t really know what he’s basing this on.

“Sebasu.”

When Rheinhart-san said that. Sebasu-san opened his item box and took out from it the waterproof cloth, the slime’s thread, and the iron ingot I made. Rheinhart-san took those and showed them to Serge-san.

“This cloth has been treated in a particular way.”
“Would it be alright to take it and examine it?”
“Of course.”

As Serge-san said that, he took the cloth and took a good look at it. He examined it curiously as he rubbed the cloth.

“Oh, it feels good to touch.”
“That cloth isn’t only good for that, you know? That cloth can repel water and prevent it from going through.”
“…Is that true?”
“If you want you can use Identify on it or try it out for real by wrapping it on your hands and dipping it in water. After all, it’s just a sample we brought, so I don’t mind.”
“Then I’ll accept your offer…”

Serge-san called a servant and asked her to prepare a bowl with water in it. In the meantime, while the bowl was being prepared, Serge-san used Identify and intently examined the waterproof cloth. After a while his eyes began to sparkle. When the servant came back with the bowl filled with water, he quickly wrapped the waterproof cloth around his hand, dipped it in the water, and after confirming that it is in fact able to repel water, he said this,

“Rheinhart-sama, this is amazing!”
“Right? Don’t you think that if we were to turn this material into raingear it would sell?”
“It will! It definitely will!”

Wow! He’s really into it!

“What’s surprising isn’t only that. Next, we have this thread.”
“I will examine it.”

This time he took a spool of thread, looked at it, touched it, and then tried pulling it. After he had done all that, he then said,

“Was this thread, perhaps, created by the same material used to create the treatment of the waterproof cloth?”

He noticed! That’s amazing! Even though he didn’t get any hints, he managed to figure something out by touching it?

Hearing Serge-san’s answer, Rheinhart-san smiled as he nodded.

“As expected of Serge. It is exactly as you have thought. The manufacturing process was changed a little bit, but the same thing was used. What do you think? It’s a good thread, right?”
“Certainly, if we were to have workers that deal with high-class clothes work with this, it should sell. This thread is also beautiful, but more than anything it’s durable.”
“We also have an outfit that was made out of that thread and the waterproof cloth from a while ago.”

Having said that, what they brought out was the jumpsuit and the waders that I made… wait, what? I have mine with me, so did they make a new one?

“This is an outfit for working in wet places and places where it is easy to get dirty. The design is a bit eccentric, but function-wise it is excellent.”
“Indeed, this certainly looks like the kind of cloth that a laborer would like to work with. If we can let the people know just how good this is, it’s possible for this to catch on like wild fire.”
“While that something to make this famous is needed, do keep the potential of this product a secret. Also, we have this for last.”

After Rheinhart-san put aside the jumpsuit and the waders, he presented the last item, the iron ingot.

“Would it be alright for me to use Identify?”
“Of course.”

Serge-san got permission and used Identify but afterwards, as if feeling a little disappointed, his shoulders fell and he said this,

“Since this iron is of good quality it can be put up as a product, however, if I may be so bold there is nothing exceptional about this iron.”
“That’s right, then how about you take a look at this iron over here”

Sebasu-sama brought out another iron ingot (ultra-high purity iron) and handed it to Serge-san.

“Is this aluminum? No, the weight is… I will examine this.”

As he said that, he used Identify. The moment he used it, the results that came shocked him. He was able to keep his composure, but his face was sweating a lot. It’s obvious that he has been greatly shaken.

“Rheinhart-sama, this ingot is…”
“Amazing, right? Don’t you think that if we were to start selling this, that it would cause a great commotion?”
“Of course, that’s a given. It wouldn’t even be strange for spies to come from other countries, looking for its source.”
“And that’s exactly why I want to put up the other ingot. The ingot you held a while ago is the same as the ingot you’re holding now. Only, it went through some process and had its purity reduced.”

At those words, Serge-san gave an understanding nod.

“I understand the circumstances, but in that case it will be treated as a normal ingot and will not have any special advantage. Is that ok?”
“It’s fine. What we want is for this ingot to be sold discreetly and legally. You see, this ingot came from the abandoned mine.”

“Discreetly and legally? If a new ore vein was found in the abandoned mine, then wouldn’t it be best to simply take back its status as an abandoned mine and send people over?”
“That’s not possible. Or rather, even if we were to send people there wouldn’t be any meaning since we didn’t find a new vein. Also, the normal method of mining and refining is also not possible.”

“I see. So Rheinhart-sama wants to sell the ingots produced while keeping the method of production of the high purity ingot under wraps, right?”
“Precisely. More specifically, I want it to be exported to a different country. If we were to simply sell it within the country, then it would be necessary to specify exactly where it came from. However, if we were to sell it to a different country, just mentioning what country it came from would be sufficient.”
“Yes. There should be no problems with that.”

Isn’t that alone a problem!? Isn’t that way of doing things too sloppy!?

“Also, along with the ingot I also want to entrust Serge with keeping the identity of the manufacturer a secret. Of course, I can ask this because I trust you.”
“Thank you very much.”
“Although there are 3 products…… the developer responsible for all these is only one.”

Oops, this really isn’t the time to be shocked. I’m being introduced.

“Each and every one of these three products is amazing. A single person had actually…?”

Hearing Serge-san’s words, Rheinhart-san broadly grinned and said this,

“That’s right. The man who developed these things and will produce it from now on is this young boy over here, Ryouma-kun.”

The moment Rheinhart-san said that, Serge-san’s eyes became a dot and alternately looked at Rheinhart-san and I.

“Right now, what did…?”
“The developer responsible for these products is the Ryouma-kun over here. I understand that this is hard to believe, but it’s the truth.”
“Did Takebayashi-sama truly make all of these?”
“Yes, I made these myself.”
“It’s true. Ryouma, despite being at his age, is already an accomplished researcher and an alchemist. Of course, I’d like for you to keep this confidential.”

When Serge-san heard the word ‘alchemist’ his eyes immediately gave off a quizzical look… as expected, alchemists are hard to trust, huh?

“I understand that you find it hard to believe, however, he created that ingot right in front of my eyes. He’s not a crook.”
“… I see, so he created it in front of Rheinhart-sama. If it’s alright, I would also like for Takebayashi-sama to show me that ability.”

Oh? Doubting is doubting but it seems he’s at least willing to see for himself. Well I am someone that the Duke brought along… I’m not confident about the remaining magic power I have, but I have to do it.

“I’ve already used up a sizeable portion of my magic power today, would it be ok even if it’s something small?”
“If that’s the case, then I can prepare some magic power recovery potions from my shop. It was my request after all, so at the very least I could provide something like this.”

Eh? Is it ok to take something like that? Well if that’s the case, then there’s no problem. Ah right, anything is fine, but I need to borrow something to write with or I can’t draw the magic formation.

“Then in that case, could I trouble you to lend me a potion, two sheets of paper, and a pen? I need to draw a magic formation, you see?”

Serge-san called the servant again, and made her bring over the magic recovery potion, the paper, and the pen.

“Would this be alright?”
“Yes, it’s sufficient. Thank you very much.”

I give my thanks, and then write two simple magic formations on the two sheets of paper. Afterwards, I take out a red stone block from my Item Box.

“This is the soil from the abandoned mine which I’ve hardened with Earth Magic. Please confirm it.”

Serge-san immediately used Identify.

“Certainly, I’ve confirmed it.”
“Also, it’s dangerous, so please don’t put your hand inside the magic formation. With that, I will begin.”

Just like that time while I was in the mine, I allow the magic power to flow through into the formation. The formation started to glow, and the stone block had its color changed from to red to black as it was pushed outside the formation. The formation shone again, and this time the stone block that had collapsed was pushed out, and all that was left in the formation was a silver-colored sand.

I place that on top of the other magic formation and make the formation glow. As I did so, the silver-colored sand transformed into a plank-shaped object. I then hand that object over to Serge-san.

“Please confirm it.”

When Serge-san used Identify on the plank he received, his body stiffened. And immediately, in the next moment, he stood up, kneeled on the floor, and with he’s head touching the ground, said this,

“I’m sorry!”
“No, no, no, no, no!! It’s fine even if you don’t do something like that so, please raise your head! I’ve already heard about alchemists being doubted, so in my opinion Morgan’s behavior was actually quite good.”

That’s just too much! Why does this person have to apologize to this extent!?

“I’m grateful for those words. I truly had not thought that Takebayashi-sama would actually be a true alchemist. By any chance, is Takebayashi-sama’s real age actually different from Takebayashi-sama’s outer appearance?”

…huh? …eh, no way… he found out!?

“Excuse me, what are you saying all of the sudden?”
“I’ve heard that a true alchemist was capable of creating immortal medicines and medicines that can bring back one’s youth. Because of all the swindlers, I had thought that it was a lie, but if it’s a real one…”
“No, that’s wrong.”

So that’s what he meant… he shocked me there for a moment…

I show him my status board.

“I can’t create things like immortal medicines or medicines that can bring back one’s youth. There may be a person capable of such things, but at the very least it’s impossible for me. At most what I can do is what you have seen today, which is simply gathering the iron content within the soil and making an ingot out of it.”
“Is that so? My apologies.”

At that, Rheinhart-sama joined in the conversation.

“Well then, now that you’ve confirmed that Ryoma-kun is the real thing, let’s continue with our conversation. Just as you have seen just now, Ryouma possesses great knowledge and technique, and with it he created the ingot and devised the water-proof cloth.

However, if the knowledge that he is an alchemist were to get out, then he would be grouped together with the other alchemists. And even if we were to show proof of his ability, because of his age, people who will detest him, and people who will try to win him over will definitely come.

As such, I would like for Serge-san to purchase the things Ryouma-kun has brought with him at a fair price. Of course, without making it public that the seller was Ryouma-kun.”
“I understand. If it’s something like that, then there’s no problem at all.”

“Ryouma-kun, Serge is a trustworthy merchant. If there’s anything you want to sell, then it would be best for you to come here. Also, if there’s something you want to buy, then buying from here would be best.”
“I understand, thank you very much. Serge-san, please take care of me from now on.”

“Please take care of me as well. I will be eagerly waiting for Ryouma-sama’s visit.”
“Also, Ryouma-kun, you may take as much soil as you want from that abandoned mine. That is, whether it’s for the sake of feeding it to your slime, or making ingots to sell.”
“Is that alright? How about the profit of Rheinhart-san?”

“It’s fine. To begin with, we’ve already decided to treat it as an abandoned mine. Not having profits from it is a given since we, who do not have the ability to use Alchemy, can’t do anything with it. Even without anything changing, you’ll be able to sell ingots to Serge and make a little profit on the side.

And since we already expect to make sufficient profits from the water-proof cloth you made for us, it’ll be fine for you to sell wholesale to Serge’s store or to a branch. Right, Serge?”
“Yes, there won’t be any problems regarding that. Also, if Ryouma-sama could tell me where he lives, I will be able to inform a nearby branch to buy the goods while keeping quiet about Ryouma’s case.”

I’m grateful, but aren’t these people being too nice?

When I mentioned that I lived in the forest, he was shocked. Since I’m still thinking of whether to go back to the forest or not, it was decided that I’ll let him know where I’ll be living after I’ve made up my mind.

For the meantime I’ll be selling to this shop while I’m still in this town. If I decide to go back to the forest, then I’ll end up selling the waterproof cloths to the branch in the Town of Gaunago.

Having been taken care of to this extent, I really don’t know how to show my gratitude… For the meantime I’ll just sell the ingots and the threads whole sale to this shop while I’m around. If I were to exhaust around two days’ worth of magic power, I’d be able to do something like that… Also, as an apology for doubting me, Serge-san gave me a large number of magic power recovery potions.

Well, at any rate, I’m happy that we were able to decide on a store where we would be able to sell safely. Serge-san also told me to come by whenever there was something that I needed. With this much, there’s no such thing as being ripped off.

After that, we were sent off by the female servant, and then we went back to our lodging.