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Volume 3 Chapter 6 Part 1

Chapter 6 It was a great success, but I almost suffocated to death.

We had left the orcs’ village and were back in the apartment’s room.

「We’ll get going then!」

「Sure. Take care!」

Ria, Deet, and Miri headed down to the first floor underground to set up the night stall for the festival.

After sending the three of them off, I sat back down at the table we usually used to eat our meals. We needed to complete the manual for the night stall.

Tateishi was seated beside me as she continued drawing those illustrations that she often used to snag part-time jobs. The model for the illustration this time was the leader of the Thieves’ Guild, Noella.

Noella was sitting across from Tateishi as she scribbled down some text for the pamphlet and made a map indicating where the night stall was located on the first floor underground.

Neither of them said anything as they silently proceeded with their own tasks. After some time, my mobile phone started vibrating.

Ayame:「The character design for Noella is done Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ」

The illustration for the Noella-looking character included a front view, a side profile, and a back view. This character was just needed for a simple pamphlet, yet Tateishi had surprisingly come up with a complete character design. Moreover, it was quite an innovative piece of work.

I could not help thinking that it would probably sell pretty well at a doujinshi convention. [1. TN: A doujinshi convention is a Japanese event for the sale of self-published works.]

「I-Is this me?」Noella was startled at the illustration of her. Perhaps her shock might even be because of how she had been made to look cartoonish and especially cute.

「I-It’s cute, but do I really look like this?」

「All your features are well captured. This is the Japanese Moe art style.」[2. TN: Moe art is meant to stir affection and delight.]

「O-Oh, I see. I’m fine with it on the pamphlet as long as it draws people in.」

「I’m sure it’ll be a hit!」I told her.

Since the Japanese Moe art style is also popular with American and European audiences, I was certain that it would be equally attractive in the isekai realm.

With this remark, we resumed work on the manual and the pamphlet.

Shizuku then padded over to my feet. 「Master~ We ran out of pet food. I’ll go to the dungeon.」

「Th-Thanks. Stay safe.」Even as I worked on the manual, I started up the automatic level-up program on the computer.

The orcs had probably learned from Enami that pet food referred to things that animals ate. It was unlikely that Enami or the orcs, who were vegetarian, would ever get caught in those traps again.

If the bait in those traps were to run out, Shizuku would help to add more.

「I’m back!」

「Thanks, Shizuku!」

I used the computer to run the auto clicker macro. The automatic level-up system started operating once more.

Right now, I wanted to level up as much as I could within 24 hours and catch up to Ria and Deet. Only by doing so could I explore the dungeon further with the two girls.

I returned to the table and resumed my work on creating the manual. The thought of a candied apple store delighted me. Having a crepe store next would be fabulous too. With these ideas in mind, I hurriedly continued with my task.

「The text for the pamphlet and the map are done!」

Ayame:「I’m also done with the illustrations (*^^*)」

Noella and Tateishi wrapped up their work at the same time.

「All right. Let’s combine everything you guys made with the photo editing software and come up with a sample!」

Ayame:「I’m so excited hee hee (^ー^*) ♪」

I went to the computer and halted the automatic level-up system. After that, I scanned Tateishi’s illustrations and Noella’s text and map with an all-in-one printer. When that was done, I opened the photo editing software and drafted a copy of the pamphlet.

The pamphlet’s text was in the language of the Francis Kingdom, whereas the map described the dungeon’s first level underground. Even as I tried to arrange the Moe illustrations alongside these elements, I had no clue if I was doing it correctly.

「Noella, is it all right if I place this miniature figure here? It’s not weird, is it?」

「Yes. I think it’s a good spot. Seems like a computer is really convenient if you can do all this with it.」

「Yeah. It’s also capable of many other things. By the way, is it all right if I place this image that’s pointing in a direction over here?」

「Well, aren’t the breasts a little too big? Mine aren’t that…」

Breasts tend to be drawn quite big in Moe art. I couldn’t deny that. However, it was understandable that these illustrations might seem like a ridiculous exaggeration when based off a real person.

I turned to look behind me. As expected, Noella was standing there and watching me work on the computer.

It’s really not big. Well, whatever.

「I can select the area where the breasts are and do this.」

I selected a portion of the image and then clicked on the scale tool to make the size of the breasts smaller.

「Oh, the breasts are smaller now.」

「Is this size right?」

「It’s a little too small now.」

I made the selected portion a little bigger.

「Ah, it seems a little too big now.」

I made it smaller again.

「I-It’s probably a little too small this time…」

The atmosphere in the room seemed to turn a little strange. Rather than fiddling with these breasts on the computer, a desire to touch them in real life bubbled within me. While I kept these thoughts to myself, I continued making these subtle changes for another thirty minutes.

「Perfect, but this image is pointing to the left. It’s probably better to make it point to the right.」

「I can flip the image horizontally too.」

「A-Amazing!」

「All right. It’s done. Let’s print it out.」

The printer started churning out a piece of the pamphlet noisily.

「Th-That’s it?」

「Yeah. This is just a all-in-one home printer, so the quality isn’t great… Oh! It’s not bad! Though, I can’t read all these isekai text!」

Noella stared fixedly at the printer and the pamphlet.「I’m really taken aback by the computer, and the printer too. The pamphlet came out really well.」

「Great. We can start printing then.」

The printer started chugging away loudly once more. Meanwhile, the traps meant for leveling up also started running.

「Noella, Tateishi, thank you. All that needs to be done is to print them out.」

Tateishi sent me a message with「You’re welcome」and an emoticon, whereas Noella bowed low to me.

「It was no trouble at all. You’re doing so much for the Guild. This printing must cost a fortune.」

「Well, it definitely doesn’t cost a fortune. It doesn’t cost much at all.」

Paper was a valuable resource in the isekai world. If they wanted to print anything, it would probably cost a lot of money. Hence, most of their documents were copied by hand. However, it cost close to nothing to print something in Japan.

The only thing that could be considered expensive was probably printer ink.

I was using refillable ink cartridges and a printed page costs about 10 yen. The paper probably costs about 0.50 yen. Since we were printing 3000 sheets, everything would add up to approximately 35000 yen, which was quite a hefty sum after all.

Even though no one would realize that these were isekai text, it was still a tall order to request a professional’s help for this matter.

「I-Is that so? But I should give my thanks somehow… I heard from Miri that gold coins have value in Japan too and you can trade them for money. How about I pay you with gold coins?」

「They are of value, but it’s not so easy to trade in gold in Japan.」

These gold coins would be insignificant when compared to the scale of gold transactions in Japan by large corporations. Even though this was pure gold and I could melt them into accessories, there was a limit to how much I could make. It would be really troublesome if this place was exposed to the world.

「I see. Do you like girls?」

「Huh? Uh… Well, I do…」

「That’s good then.」

「Why?」

「My predecessor entrusted Miri to me, so offering her to you isn’t that great of any idea. However, there are many other girls who are at a suitable age in the Thieves’ Guild.」

「What?!」

「There’s a shop in the Thieves’ Guild who manages this kind of thing. Please feel free to use anyone, with the exception of Miri.」

「Is this supposed to be a gift of thanks?」

「Yes. I’m very sorry that I can’t offer anything more than this.」

As much as they claimed to be chivalrous thieves, they were still a band of outlaws.

「Is anyone fine except for Miri?」

「Well, I’ll have to apologize in advance if anyone rejects you. However, I’m sure there’ll be quite a number of people who’ll be interested once I explain the situation to them. I’ll pay the shop’s fees. I’m certain you’ll be very popular.」

This first thing that popped into my mind was not some boobs of strangers far away, but the ones right before me. Just moments earlier, I had been fiddling with the size of those exact breasts on the computer countless times. These were the boobs of the Thieves’ Guild’s leader, the boobs of an intelligent woman who happened to be a little older than me.