Chapter (292) Beef shock
“So this is the Mercenary Country, Goats Rocky. Master, let’s go buy something to eat first! I smell something delicious from the shop there.”
“You’re seriously energetic. We will start with shopping.”
“Underwear!”
“I leave that to you. I’ll buy some books.”
For some strange coincidence, the bookstore in the town was beside the clothes store.
Using the sharing of tasks as an excuse, I could avoid getting reverse sexual harassed by Neete who accompanied me to purchase underwear.
Thinking about it, wasn’t that calculated? The men would enter the neighboring bookstore while waiting for the women to buy clothes. It’s a common problem for couples. Men can’t feel at ease accompanying women to buy clothes or underwear.
“Neete, take both these paper bills and coins.”
“Paper bills?”
“This is the currency in circulation in this country. This country is mainly formed around guilds and mercenaries who want money immediately after finishing work but they can’t prepare gold and silver coins so quickly so the country introduced a system of using paper bills guaranteed by the country.”
“In that case, isn’t it better to use the paper bills first? These kinds are prone to harsh inflations and it might turn into waste paper in the blink of the eye.”
“Uu, that certainly sounds plausible but it’s all right. See, the grilled meat skewers sold there were 100 Goats yesterday … or not.”
The price was 100 Goats but it had now been raised to 500 Goats.
The inflation was 500% in a day.
Nononono, thinking about it normally, yesterday was probably a bargain.
“Uncles! That grilled meat skewer was 100 Goats yesterday.”
“Ou, yes that’s right. So what?”
“I was just thinking that was a huge rise in price.”
“What, you don’t know? I’ll let you know, this is the correct price. Buy some meat skewers if you wish to know the reason why.”
” … All right. I’ll buy two.”
Well, there are some shops that sell a skewer of beef for 500 yen when they just open their shop. One Goat was roughly 1 yen so as long as it tastes good, I don’t mind buying it thinking that it was just slightly on the pricier side.
It just seemed unbelievable because I saw it was 100 Goats yesterday.
“Ou, thanks for the business.”
I handed over ten 100 Goats paper bills and received the meat skewers.
“So, question … is the inflation in this country that severe?”
“No, it’s not. It’s not inflation because the value of Goats did not decrease. It’s because there is a lack of meat.”
“Lack of meat?”
“The Sugyu in the farm nearby has been getting killed one after the other since two weeks back. Thanks to that we have a shortage of meat.”
“But it was cheap yesterday. If the Sugyu were being stolen then the meat price should have been expensive yesterday as well.”
“They are not being stolen, I said they are being killed. I don’t really know but they killed 90% of the Sugyu in the ranch because of some Sugyu Disease.”
The Sugyu Disease was a disease that only affects Sugyu and was apparently a disease that has a high chance of death once infected.
As the infection risk was high, the affected Sugyu were apparently culled.
“It won’t be an issue when consumed so yesterday the skewers were made using the meat of the Sugyu that were culled that were about to go bad. Today there was no more discount stock so the price went back up. My sales dropped and can’t earn a profit so I’m facing a big deficit.”
Disease … huh.
There’s no helping it if that’s the reason.
“They were certain with the diagnosis?”
“Yeah, they were.”
“That’s unfortunate. Sorry, I made false charges just now. I’ll buy another two.”
“Ooo, I’ll add a little more as service.”
I thanked the grilled skewer stall uncle and moved toward the bookstore.
“Dear, could I have salt and pepper?”
Neete asked for salt and pepper from me.
Dear … ah, our setting was the same as Hanmuno town, to be a married couple.
“Were you listening to the conversation just now? It’s a precious meat skewer so savor it.”
I said but I still obliged and passed salt and pepper kept in a glass container which I took out from my Item Bag. Neete sprinkled the salt and pepper on the beef skewer before eating.
“Hamuhamu … yeah, I heard. Sugyu disease. So it happened again.”
“You know about it?”
“The Sugyu Disease is certainly a deadly disease but it is a human-made disease engineered in a way that it will destroy a part of the survival instincts in wild Sugyu such that they will not flee or retaliate when attacked by carnivores to allow humans to safely kill them. Infected wild Sugyu will be a free-for-all buffet for carnivorous monsters so it isn’t wrong to say it is a deadly disease.”
“A man-made disease? Are you serious?”
In that case, who spread the disease?
For what reason?
Is somebody planning to starve this mercenary country … ?
No no, even if they plan to utilize starvation techniques, killing cows would be too inefficient.
“I predict —”
“Neete’s prediction?”
“It is a conspiracy by the pig farms. Once the cows are gone, the need for pigs will increase.”
” …… I was an idiot for listening to you seriously.”
What kind of criminal will prepare biological weapons against cows in order to sell pork.
That’s like a convenience store robber preparing a rocket launcher for his crime.
“In the first place, the meat skewer stall wasn’t selling pork either.”
“That’s true. Moreover, I am more of a chicken person than a pork person so I have been looking forward to preparing the chickens my dear caught that I can only sleep at night.”
“Sleeping at night is more than enough.”
We arrived at the street with the bookstore and clothes store while having that pointless conversation.
I entered the bookstore.
The interior was dimly lit and there were a ton of books piled into mountains. It felt like pulling a single book out would trigger an avalanche.
I could read the words in this world thanks to the Universal Language skill but there seemed to be words that could not be translated using the Universal Language so for those I didn’t know what book it was even if I saw the cover.
“Welcome, what kind of books are you looking for?”
The old shopkeeper with a monocle asked me.
“Ah, erm, is there a book that lists out the jobs that can be acquired through methods other than leveling up?”
“A book regarding the Inheritance Bosses and a book regarding the Training Institutes. 300 Sense and 200 Sense, which comes to a total of 500 Sense.”
“500 Sense so will 50,000 Goats be all right?”
I handed him 5 pieces of 10,000 Goats bill but the old man frowned and,
“Sorry but I do not wish to sell my important books for these paper cut-outs. I do not trust them.”
A shop selling books made with paper is refusing paper bills?
I was told that all the shops in the country accept it but I didn’t wish to question him there so I passed him 5 silver coins.
“Ah, this is fine. Here, these two books.”
The old shopkeeper stood up using a cane and found the book he was looking for in the mountain of books with a single glance and held his cane up.
(That stance!)
That was a perfect stance of a Samurai ready to draw his sword … this old man —
【Samurai: Lv32】
Uwah, he’s a veteran Samurai.
But why was he taking such a pose now?
The moment I had that thought, the old man drew his cane.
Then, one book from the stack of books came flying in my direction. The books above it fell neatly down a level.
That was some amazing technique. But more importantly, what a waste of skill.
Moreover, didn’t he say the books were precious to him?
Well, there weren’t any scratches on the book.
【Complete works of the Inheritance Bosses】 【Step book to aim for a new path】
They certainly seemed like the books I wanted.
” … Erm, also, I would like some books that are popular with girls. About 10,000 Sense worth and only completed works please.”
I took out 1 gold coin.
“In that case —”
The shopkeeper sent books flying my direction one after the other.
It was actually slightly over 10,000 Sense but he gave me a small discount.
I ended up buying a total of 100 books and I passed the old uncle 10,000 Sense — 1 gold coin.
“Phew, I have not moved my body that much in a long time.”
“Shopkeeper-san, were you a great mercenary in the past?”
“That’s in the past. A stupid man who continued to challenge the Demon Lord on his own and got beaten down. Thinking about it now, perhaps I fell in love with that Demon Lord.”
The old man spoke and showed me a photo inside a photo stand.
It was the drawing of a black-haired beauty.
“This is a portrait of Demon Lord Famiris?Raritei. I took it without permission when I attacked the Demon Lord castle.”
“This is —”
Miri’s past incarnation — Demon Lord Famiris?Raritei.
She didn’t look anything like Miri.
But looking at this, I could understand Haru’s feeling of respect for her when she was a child. It was a portrait so it was probably drawn a little more dignified but she possessed a splendid atmosphere like the great people in textbooks.
“She’s an amazing beauty, right? This is not for sale. She’s my woman after all.”
” … She’s already passed away, right? That Demon Lord.”
I actually wanted to shout ‘I won’t hand over my precious younger sister to an old man like you!’ but I would be seen as a strange man if I did that.
“Yeah, she has passed away. But I will die soon too. I will meet her on the other side. But I’m not going to die so easily.”
Make up your mind if you want to die or not.
Also, Famiris?Raritei isn’t on the other side. She’s already reincarnated to be my younger sister a long time ago.
I had no intention of saying any of that though.