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Nanana’s Buried Treasure Volume 2 Chapter 2.1

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“Translator: Goma/Editor: TheNix”

Section 1

 

     Trouble is something that happens from a direction that no one expects at all.

「So please pay money」

「What? 」

     Usually, the landlady and caretaker of this apartment would be sleeping until noon due to a hangover. I had thought it was rare for her to visit me in the morning, but she suddenly passed me a bill.

「What? Why do I have to pay money? Hadn’t I paid one year’s worth of rent already? 」

「Yep, this is for the utilities, not the rent. I would want to pay them all together, but this apartment building is old. So the bill for all the rooms utilities come together. That is why I calculate the electricity bill for each room separately, and collect money」

     Shiki Maboro said so in a cheerful and excited manner. She is the landlady of this Happiness Dorm, and she calls herself the caretaker as well. But actually, she does nothing. She is just a useless woman. Actually, she is one of the GREAT7 that founded this island 12 years ago. This is just a weird coincidence.

「You seem like you’re having fun」

「Yep, I love collecting money♥」

     I thought she was really a disgusting human being.

「Erm, by the way, what do you mean by utilities? 」

     I had never heard of that before.

     Ms. Shiki looked at me with perplexed eyes.

「Of course, that refers to the electricity and the water bills」

「……What do you mean electricity bills? Does electricity cost money? 」

     When I asked her with a serious face, she scolded me, 「You Yutori generation kids [1. TL Note: Yutori generation refers to Japanese who received primary and secondary education between the late 1980s to early 2000s. This generation is perceived to be less educated, more psychologically fragile and generally lacks in competitive spirit, due to the Yutori education policy, which reduces the hours and the content of the curriculum in primary education.] are just such a disappointment! 」

     Upon receiving a basic explanation, I was dumbfounded.

「I had thought that we had an endless supply of water as long as you turn the faucet……. I did not know…. that water from the tap is not free……that the adult world works like that」

     I felt like an innocent child who had just been exposed to the dirty truth of the adult world.

「There is no such thing as free in this world. Your parents had paid everything you had thought was free until now」

     After living alone, I finally understood how amazing parents are. Anyways, I need to pay the utilities.

「Erm, how much is it? 」

     I looked at it again.

     The amount written on the paper was far greater than what I had roughly estimated it to be.

「What! Don’t lie! Are bills supposed to be so expensive! The electricity bill is especially nuts! 」

     The electricity bill was much more expensive than the water and gas bills. 

「Usually if a student is living alone, the bills wouldn’t be that expensive. But remember, that girl lives in the room also」

     Ms. Shiki looked behind. I followed and looked behind me. The earthbound ghost was there. She had been playing online games since the morning……actually, she had been playing games from yesterday night till now non-stop.

     It seemed that the earthbound ghost had noticed our gaze because she waved her hand and greeted her old friend while smiling. 「Hey Shiki」. Ms. Shiki also said「Yeah yeah, hey」, and nonchalantly waved her hand.

     Now then, where to begin? Actually right……

「I was not told I’d be paying utilities from you」

「You are supposed to know these kinds of things. It’s common knowledge」

「Not that. You didn’t warn me that if I were to live with her, the electricity bills would be so expensive」

「As I told you, usually you would be smart enough to realize」

「So what have you been doing until I came? When I was not living in this room? 」

「Of course, I was paying it」

     I had thought that she was just a stingy adult. Hence, I fell silent when she said so as if it was a matter of course. Usually, she would be quite unreliable. But sometimes, she would have some mature sides. I really did not know how to treat her.

「Aye, the bills shouldn’t be a problem. The rent is so cheap, and you have already paid one-year worth of it. You can consider the bills part of the curse of having an earthbound ghost」

     I was not satisfied with her explanation at all.

「Alright then, please pay the bills by this weekend」

     After finishing what she wanted to say, the landlady walked to room 203.

     I was a little curious, and wanted to know what my neighbor would say to the bills.

     It was Tensai who responded to the knocking. Upon receiving the paper with the bills on it, Tensai murmured, 「I see」

「So this is what people call a scam」

     The great detective smirked. Ms. Shiki scolded her, 「That is why you Yutori generation kids are just such a disappointment! 」

     I was a little relieved at this.

 

Section 2

     Now then, what should I do?

     I don’t have the money.

     Although I should work part-time if I don’t have enough money, sadly, I have already worked till the limited number of hours allowed of students.

     Working part-time on Nanae Island is a little special.

     First of all, apparently, every store on this island is required by law to accept part-timers all the time. Every store on this island has a part-time help wanted poster. On top of that, the pay is quite good in all stores: one gets at least ￥1000 per hour. you would not get fired as long as something major doesn’t happen. Additionally, as long as you show your student pass and the availability hours fit, they would immediately hire you. That meant you would be able to work part-time at any store you liked. Additionally, you would be able to obtain quite a large salary and you would be paid immediately each day.

     Since working part-time was like this, most students wanted to work as much part-time as they could. However, Nanae Island would not allow this.

     Apparently, working part-time is merely a lesson on this island for “learning about how society works”. Hence, students are limited to 40 hours of part-time each month.

     On top of that, as if that is a matter of course, there is quite a lot of responsibility that accompanies working part-time.

     The full-time staff of the store would actually check on how you work. If you mess around or don’t do your job, they literally fire you immediately. On top of that, they would not give you your pay upon firing you (apparently if you insist, they would pay you. However, instead, you would be chased off of this island).

     Furthermore, your work history would be recorded, so no one would hire you if you simply fool around all the time.

     Well, as long as you work hard and maintain a good track record you could work at another part-time job and they would definitely pay you more. That’s why this system isn’t too bad.

     That is what working part-time is like on this island.

     The bad thing is, I had already worked till the limit of 40 hours this month.

     Although I had to do something about it, the island recorded everything from what kind of part-time job you worked to how many hours you worked based on your student card ID. Hence, one could not cheat the system.

     Let’s re-examine the current situation now. Currently, I only had to pay for food expenses this month. Or I thought I only had to pay for food, and so I only left that much aside. I did not think about saving up and only left some for food. Instead, I had used the rest to impulse buy games and light novels. Hence, I did not have enough money for the bills.

     Now I regret refusing to accept Ms. Yukihime’s offer yesterday.

     It would be really hard to survive without the money from my parents.

     Now then, what should I do? Honestly, I had no clue where to get the money. I wanted to ask the landlady, Ms. Shiki, to wait for next month. However, since my former neighbor (who was a college student) had been chased out by her last month (through tipping him off to the authorities) I could not ask her that. She had once said, 「Money gone, friendship gone. 」

     What should I do? Should I just ask for the money from my parents? No no, I had a big fight with Ms. Yukihime.  Even if it meant my death, I could not possibly ask her for the money at this point. It was just too unsightly. I did not think she would forgive me either, since I had been so rude to her.

「……Argh, why do I have to remember such disgusting things.」

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