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Nanana’s Buried Treasure Volume 1 Chapter 4.2

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“Translator: Goma/Editor: TheNix”

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Then, I saw a young man who was cleaning the area within the Happiness Dorm grounds with a broom.

「Hello Mr. Kadono」

    The person who was cleaning in front of the Happiness Dorm with a broom is Mr. Satoru Kadono. He is my neighbor who lives in room 203.

    He is a college student with an amiable smile. If I remember correctly, he is a second-year college student.

「What are you doing? 」

「I’m coming back from a secret part-time job」

    It sounded inappropriate, but it wasn’t.

    The part-time jobs on Nanae Island were a little special.

    It was fundamental knowledge of doing part-time in Nanae Island that, 『The pay is just amazing』

    It did not matter if one was a high school student or not. No matter where one worked the hourly pay was at least ¥1000. The jobs weren’t that special. It was a normal part-time job. I had been puzzled why the pay was so good and asked Mr. Kadono, who is a self-proclaimed part-time master, a few days ago. He replied.

「Ah, it is because none of the stores on this island prioritize earning money」

    According to the part-time master, in order to increase profits, a normal store would try to decrease the cost in various areas. In most cases, the first thing that gets targeted is the labor cost. This is because the labor cost is the easiest to cut costs in and would affect the quality of the store’s service the least. However, thankfully the stores on this island did not follow these strategies. According to the part-time master, the main goal of this island’s stores was 「circulation」instead of 「profits」. However, the information was too complicated for me, and I could not understand it totally.

    Well, it was good that the pay was good on this island, but in exchange, the things sold on this island were not cheap. This island did not have cheap fast-food restaurants that often appear on TV commercials or reasonably priced family restaurants that were common in my hometown. The stores unique to this island sold merchandise that was not too cheap but not too expensive. I had asked the part-time master why 「It is probably because there is no concept of price competition. They genuinely compete with the quality of their products」. 「Is it a good thing not to be cheap? 」, when I asked him so, he said, 「I do think it is good. It is proof that money is circulating in an efficient way」

    According to the college student who studies economics, the economy of this island is really doing well. I had listened to him talk about various other difficult subjects, but I shall cut it out of this description.

    I had digressed from my main point, but I should ask the fundamental question.

「Then? Why are you secretly working part-time? 」

「Well, I had finished working the maximum allocated time allowed for part-time for this month」

    The second fundamental knowledge one must know for working part-time on Nanae Island was, 『Students are not allowed to work more than 40 hours a month』.

    If one breaks this rule they would actually be chased off the island.

    It was not that they were chasing people out just because they did not have money. In fact, students who lacked in finances would be forced to take a scholarship.

    Although full-time jobs were not allowed, it was not that students did not have money. Usually, students were allowed to receive money from their parents. The bar to receiving a scholarship was quite low so anyone could receive a scholarship.

    That is why if one lives normally, one would not be troubled financially on this island.

    If you appeal that you still want to earn money, apparently, the higher-ups would reply.

『If you want money right now, stop going to school and work』

    That was the unanimous opinion of this island.

「Sigh, I am jealous of the universities on the main island」

    Mr. Kadono had come to the college in Nanae Island this past spring for the second-year. He always complains that he has money troubles.

「On the main island you did not need to worry about lectures as much, but here you do」

    It seems that on the main island, Mr. Kadono had attended lectures in the afternoon sparsely and worked part-time in the evening all the time. And he always drank with his friends from the evening to dawn.

    Things worked differently on this island. The college gave tons of assignments and reports, and students would be busy enough with just finishing those. It seemed that he did not have the time to go play.

「Is this a foreign university? Even university students should be playing」

    By the way, when he had mentioned this complaint to his lecturer before, the lecturer had said to him, 「if you want to play around, just quit school. If you don’t want to do that either, go from this island and go back to the main island’s university」

「On top of that, one cannot slack during part-time」

    The third fundamental knowledge of working part-time in Nanae Island is, 『If you slack, you don’t get your pay』

    No, really. If one gets spotted slacking off on the job, it seems they are immediately fired and chased out of the store. On top of that, do not receive their pay. According to Japanese law, one must be paid the appropriate amount that one works, but it seems that this did not apply to this island at all. According to Mr. Kadono, if you are persistent, you can at least receive the pay. However, you would then be chased off of the island.

「But would this island’s stores function if they just fired people? 」

「Ahh, this island’s stores generally do not need to hire part-timers」

    It seemed that the stores were fully staffed with full-timers. It seemed that part-time was merely a way for students to financially support themselves while learning about society.

 「So that lead to this huh?」

「Yes, this」

    The fourth fundamental knowledge about working part-time in Nanae Island was, 『If you still want money, one would have to work part-time illegally』

    Even if it was not in a store, there are people that look for human labor. For example, the lazy caretaker of the Happiness Dorm who does not do work at all. Or the student who still needs money since he had spent all his money playing and worked all his 40 part-time hours. These kinds of people had to work part-time illegally.

    I said 「hang in there」, and parted with the bad university student and returned to room 202.

「I am home」

「Welcome home, do you have any gifts? 」

    Nanana welcomed me with a gleam in her eyes. I passed her the three for ¥100 pudding that is sold at the convenience store.

    Nanana seemed overjoyed while still having a gleam in her eyes.

    That being said, I am amazed at how she eats puddings every single day.

「If you eat so many, you are going to get fat」

    When I said so, she laughed at me.

「You are so stupid. Earthbound ghosts do not get fat」

    Thank you for your cheerful reply as per usual. I am always moved by your words. As moved as I am with the famous quote of Marie Antoinette [1. TL Note: Last Queen before the French Revolution happened. Her famous quote is “Let them eat cake”.].

    However, I shall at least point out in my mind like a noble.

    That hey, earthbound ghost usually don’t eat puddings.

    While keeping Nanana in my peripheral vision, I prepared dinner. Of course, I was the one cooking.

    Although for Mr. Kadono, the part-time system on this island was quite tough, I was very grateful for it. Because of the good pay, I could earn quite a decent amount of money. On top of that, I got paid daily. I was very thankful for the amount I was paid every day.

    That is why I could now cook. Since I had started living alone, I had become quite hooked on cooking. Actually, I had to be interested in it.

    I had not known that when living on just cups of ramen, my body would turn into a mess. By the way, just by eating cups of noodles for one week I got non-stop headaches and was frequently dizzy. I had to vomit in the toilet until everything in my stomach would be empty. I finally understood that I must have a healthy diet that includes proper nutrition.

 

    One grows every day by gaining such knowledge.

 

    The only things that never grew or changed around me was the earthbound ghost who lived in my house, or my future that was still uncertain.

    It had been three weeks since I had come to this island. I had faced several odd occurrences and had overcome them. I was living a more or less fulfilling independent life. 

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