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Volume 1 Chapter 5-3: Art of Negotiation

「Alright! Next!」

A middle-aged guy wearing light armor and carrying a spear looked as if he was the essence of the word “gate guard” as he yelled out self-importantly.

Sistina pulled on the llama’s bit and led it forward to the gate.

I was sitting on the driver’s seat of the carriage watching the proceedings. Hotaru-san had returned to her Katana form and was settled on my hip.

「One person passage to the interior is 200 mars. Two people passage is 400 mars.」

Mar was a sort of transit credit in this world. The currency itself was simply divided by copper coins, silver coins, and gold coins. One copper coin was equivalent to one mar. One hundred copper coins was 1 silver, One hundred silver was 1 gold. In addition to that, especially large copper and silver coins would represent 10 of each respective currency.

I had asked about various prices of things I remembered from back in Japan so I had a general idea of the prices of things.

1 yen——Nothing
10 yen——1 Copper——1 mar
100 yen——1 Large Copper——10 mars
1,000 yen——1 Silver——100 mars
10,000 yen——1 Large Silver——1,000 mars
100,000 yen——1 Gold——10,000 mars
1,000,000 yen——10 Gold——100,000 mars
10,000,000 yen——100 Gold——1,000,000 mars

It was something like that.

So in essence he was asking 2,000 yen for one person to enter. However, we didn’t even have a single one.

「Thank you for your efforts. I am Acolyte Sistina. I have arrived along with my Master to explore the tower and have decided to sojourn in Mikrea for the time being.」

Explore the tower? Somehow she was spouting some important sounding words. Tower huh…if I remembered correctly there was something written about a tower on the signs posted along the highway.

「Ohh, a Lady Acolyte? Thank you for your efforts in exploring the tower. I’m sorry but I will have to confirm your window first.」
「I understand. 『Emerge』」

『Sistina Job: Acolyte (Fujinomiya Soujirou)』

Sistina showed a window that had nothing except her name and job blocked out. At some point my name had been added to her window as well. Apparently the one she had a contract with had their name written alongside hers.

「Very good. Then would you please show me yours as well?」
「Yes. Soujirou-sama please show him your window.」

Sistina had asked me to keep quiet as to not invite suspicions. So I simply sat there and only spoke…

『Emerge』

『Fujinomiya Soujirou』

And so, just as Sistina requested, I blocked out all information except for my name.

A contracted Acolyte can apparently serve as a guarantee of identity. That meant that if the contract holder was there along with the Acolyte they only had to show their name.

In that situation hiding all the other information was a matter of fact. One of the biggest reasons was that if some people got to know what your job was, they could start to think up counter-measures to you.

「I have confirmed it. Thank you for your visit. According to regulations I must send someone to contact the Tower Gate, is that acceptable?」
「Ah…well, that should be no problem. However, we have preparations to make and plans for tomorrow, so I would like you to inform them that we will only be arriving the day after tomorrow.」
「You will embark the day after tomorrow. Roger that.」

The guard gave a signal and the gate opened to allow us through. Then after we reached some distance away from the gate Sistina turned to me.

「Good work. For now we’ve safely entered the town. Hotaru-san should be able to come out now.」
「I don’t really understand what’s the big deal, but since we were able to enter without an issue I need to thank you. Thanks, Sistina.」

I thanked her as I removed Hotarumaru from my hip and placed her in the enclosed back while still in her sheath. If someone caught sight of her turning into a human it would cause all manner of problems.

「Fuu, after feeling the freedom of being in human form it feels constraining to be stuck as an immobile sword ja.」

Hotaru-san said as she stretched her hips and back before sitting next to me on the coachman’s seat.

「Now then, it’s great we managed to get in, but where are we going now?」

Hotaru-san asked as she gazed around at the first other-worldly town we had entered.

Inside the rounded walls we saw the large town radiating out in a circle. According to Sistina the Lord’s manor and many of the important facilities were concentrated in the center.

The larger, more established, brick and mortar stores were located in a larger central shopping district and those who operated stalls and booths were more concentrated on the outer edges.

In short that was the district we were passing through at the moment. On both sides of the street were people hawking and peddling goods.

Daily necessities, weapons, armor, and groceries were all sold randomly along the way. Many things caught my attention, but since we were penniless we couldn’t purchase a thing.

Even so, I could see so many different people and things that just looking was interesting enough.

Among them I could see people who were obviously not humans. They were demi-humans. Apparently when they introduced themselves they would say they were the blank tribe/race then their name. First they introduced their species then their names.

「Alright, first we should head to the vigilante corps to receive the reward for subjugating the bandits. Without any money we won’t be able to find an inn for the night. Then we should go sell the grass wolf pelts and fangs…then if you’ll allow me Soujirou-sama…I have something I would like to request…」

Sistina said with a bit of sadness in her expression. So I said…

「Okay go ahead.」
「Eh!? I haven’t even asked yet though?」
「I said it’s fine. If you make a face like that I can’t say no to your request, Sistina. Even if you asked me to release you from the contract, asked me to allow you to have the proceeds from selling the pelts, or even to help you kill some bad guy I would do it.」

That’s what it meant to be comrades. Hotaru-san smiled as she pet my head.

「…Soujirou-sama…th-thank you so much.」

Sistina said a bit tearfully so I couldn’t help but get off the carriage and pat her head.

「So where and who do you want us to give it to?」
「…you know what I wanted to do?」

Sistina asked as she suddenly raised her head in surprise.

「I kinda figured. I thought you would want to do something for the previous owners of this carriage.」
「The sun’s going to set so we should move while we talk.」

So we set off for the vigilante corps home base.