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Volume 1 Chapter 4 Part 2

Yoshiharu thought.

「Hey Nobuna. Won’t you give me one Uirou too? 」

「Hmph. I have no obligation to give Owari’s specialty to a freeloader. 」

「*Chew* *Chew*. Lets’ talk about the work, 」

While eating Uirou with her mouth fully stuffed, Inuchiyo urged them once more.

「That’s right, that’s right. Be overjoyed. I have decided to have you do a job. Or an errant, to be precise. 」

「Finally, the conversation has progressed in the right direction! The conversation up till now was all useless, so you should’ve said that faster!

「Don’t fuss over the small details. You’re being unpleasantly noisy again. 」

「So, what should I do? A once in a lifetime job over here is bound to be something good, like building a castle, or plotting against the enemy general… 」

「Huh? I am once again amazed by your stupidity. Who do you think you are? Is your brain rotting? There’s no way I am going to give that chief retainer class job to a newcomer foot soldier like you, not to mention to come over here lost from the Monkey Kingdom. 」

「I am more fired up with the big jobs! So, what… 」

「Rice. Buy rice. 」

As soon as Nobuna flicked her fingers, the servants brought the piled up koban and laid them out at Yoshiharu’s feet.
「There’s 3000 kan for you to use. Time limit is 2 weeks. Buy rice with this. 」

「Yeah. It’s a way too easy job. It’s going to be like a child’s play for me! 」

「However! 」

「However? 」

「At the very least, I want you to buy 8000 koku worth of rice! Any less than that, and you’re going to be beheaded this time for sure! 」

Since he didn’t know the market price of rice in the Sengoku era, Yoshiharu tried asking Inuchiyo beside him about it. As it turned out, at the current market rates of Kiyosu castle, he could only buy 4000 koku worth of rice with 3000 kan that Nobuna provided him with, or at least that’s how Inuchiyo explained it to him.

「So you want me to procuring 2 times the rice of current market rates, which means… hmm, interesting. Very well! I accept that challenge! 」

「It isn’t a challenge, you really are an idiot. It’s an order! Since you’re running your mouth a lot, this much should be a piece of cake for you, right? 」

「Oh yeah, definitely. This job really is a simple one. The money making tactics that I cultivated
thanks to the Sengoku era games, it’s time to put you to good use! Right now, the surest way of making sure that I’ll obtain the necessary amount of money that I’ll need is to double what I already have through gambling. 」

Yoshiharu nodded his head, feeling full of confidence.

Since the Sengoku era wasn’t free from the shady side of entertainment, then even without going to Las Vegas there should be plenty of gambling halls and smaller spots in town where he should be able to get the necessary money.
「Expect to hear good news from me in two weeks! 」

While saying that, he stood up. He was about to leave the room, but then he heard the teasing voice of Nobuna from behind.

「That’s right, I forgot to say. In the case you lose the money that’s been given to you and fail to procure the required amount of rice, the law dictates that you’re going to be beheaded for your failure. 」

Yoshiharu froze in place when he heard that.

「Plan for increasing the money via gambling, suspended indefinitely! 」

After returning back to his room, Yoshiharu rolled on the floor with his arms wrapped around his head, until he rolled into one corner where he stayed for a while.

「… What are you going to do? 」

Inuchiyo asked.

「Well, aside from gambling, there’s a second option in the money making tactics that I cultivated thanks to the Sengoku era games, but in order to properly execute that method, we’re going to need more men. 」

「Inuchiyo wil do everything in her power to help. 」

「Thanks, your support is going to be greatly appreciated. However, just samurai won’t be enough. We’ll also need the help of the Shinobi. 」

While staring at him in puzzlement, Inuchiyo tilted her small neck to the side.

「Will you have the Shinobi steal the rice? 」
「No, of course not. If I steal it from the town surrounding Kiyosu castle, then the only reward waiting for me would be certain beheading! 」

Yoshiharu shouted.

「Hey, Goemon! You’re here now, aren’t you? I need your skills now, so show yourself! 」

「… Hachisuka Goemon, at your service. 」

Without making a bit of noise, a girl wearing a completely black Shinobi costume appeared in the garden in front of Yoshiharu’s residence. Her nose and mouth were concealed as by a mask just like the last time he saw her, but due to the suspicious red-colored pupils of her eyes, he knew that it was definitely Goemon.

「That was surprising. 」

「Really? Because you don’t look like you’re surprised at all, Inuchiyo. 」

「Who’s she? 」

「She’s Goemon, a ninja who’s teamed up with me. Goemon, you may enter the room. 」

「No, I am fine with being in the garden. We Shinobi are the ones who hide themselves in shadows, so that’s more comfortable with me, Sagara-sama. 」

「Alright then. Just don’t say such formal stuff all the time, or you’ll once again start lisping if you speak long sentences. 」

「S-Shut up. 」

「……Yoshiharu-san, no matter who the other person is, whether your master or your retainer, your attitude doesn’t change at all. You use the same way of speaking without regard for the other side’s standing. 」

「I had rather you say that I am equally frank with everyone, Inuchiyo. 」

「F-Frank? I don’t get it. 」

In the end, Goemon conceded and entered the room, albeit reluctantly.

While surrounding the pot with the Five Leaf Aralia stew, the three of them started the tactical meeting. Goemon was the first one to speak.

「My followers are at Kawazoku, and is should be easy for them to break into the pantries where rice is being kept and steal it… 」

Interrupting her mid-sentence, Yoshiharu raised his hand and said:

「The money making tactic that I cultivated through the Sengoku era games number 2 is what we’re going to go with. I called it the 「Plan for making a killing through trade! 」strategy. 」

「…Trade? 」

「No, before that, what are Sengoku era no-arts supposed to be? 」

「Well, just listen to me. The plan is going to be as follows: If we increase the original amount of 3000 kan to 6000 kan, then we can buy the target of 8000 koku of rice. 」

They both understood what he was saying until now, so they nodded their heads.

「So, firstly, we’re going to use the 3000 kan and purchase goods from the Kiyosu merchants. And once we do that, we will then proceed to sell them at a higher price, such as 4000 kan or 5000 kan to merchants of other towns. Using the increased amount of money, we will once again buy goods from the merchants here in town, and once again sell them in another town at a higher price. Repeating this many times,3000 kan will eventually become 6000 kan, and once the budget reaches 6000 kan, we will buy rice at Kiyosu. With this, we should be able to achieve the target quota of 8000 koku of rice. 」

「Target? Quota? 」

「Hmm… Why would the things we buy be able to be sold at a higher price elsewhere? 」

「… Because we will haggle? 」

「I see. First we name the price that is going to be the most acceptable to us, and if the merchants don’t buy our goods at the price we tell them, we will kill them. 」

「No, no, no, nobody is going to kill anyone! Don’t say dangerous things! It’s called market price. 」

「Market… price? 」

「According to my (limited) knowledge gained from the Sengoku era games, the price of the same type of goods should be different depending on the city or town in which you’d want to sell your goods. We are going to buy a lot of goods from a town where the market price is cheap, and sell them at a town where the market price is going to be higher, thanks to which we will increase our income exponentially. 」