Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for my Retirement (Light Novel) Vol. 1

by Funa

  “Think you can point me to somebody who’d buy—”

  Before she could finish her sentence, Szep—who was standing behind her—clamped a hand over her mouth.

  “Guh, mmgh! Grrrmgh...!”

  An instant later, she shouted, “Why the hell’d you do that?!”

  Sven was profusely apologizing, while Szep made a disheartened face. There was a five-fingered mark on his left cheek.

  “I-I did it for your safety, you know?” Szep made the same excuse as always, but Mitsuha’d had enough of it.

  I know he’s not lying; he really did do it for my sake. But there are limits! You don’t just grab a girl from behind and cover her mouth! Hmph!

  According to Szep, the first gravure magazine had become such a hot topic among the nobles that it had actually reached the royal palace. Some wanted to know its source, others demanded more copies, others still offered to buy the one she’d brought. Eventually, things had escalated to the point that even the church got involved. They could now declare it heretical, take and use it themselves, or demand the rights to it. Regardless, getting involved with it wasn’t a smart move at this point.

  Out of respect for Szep and a desire to monopolize, the guy he’d sold the magazine to hadn’t let anything slip, but it was possible he’d tell someone about Szep someday. If that were to happen, Szep planned to say that he’d gotten it off a wandering merchant and had no idea where the man had come from or where he’d gone. If Mitsuha were to put something similar on the market, Szep’s protective lie would be pointless. Thus, he’d done his best to silence her, even if it meant using force.

  Man, this sucks, Mitsuha thought. I was planning to sell the mags through Szep. As in, without any official involvement from my store. I don’t mind selling p... romance mags in secret, but I don’t want my store to be known for that kind of stuff. My establishment is wholesome! I sell children’s toys, not adults’ toys!

  In any case, it looked as though Mitsuha had no choice but to give up on this venture. It was such a great idea, too. What a shame. Oh well, it’s best if I just let it go and move on to something else!

  Hmm... People in this world can’t read books from my world, and I can’t sell anything with pictures or photos depicting progress they haven’t made yet...

  I guess I could copy and sell famous paintings from Earth, but even if this is another world, I’d feel bad for the original artists. Mechanical copies of true art are nothing but sacrilege. It’s nothing like making derivative works, like translations, adaptations, and so on.

  Maybe I could try that? No. I don’t have the time or the talent for it. I can’t draw, carve, sculpt, or—HEY, THAT’S IT!

  A few days later, Mitsuha wound up in a quarry during the night. She was focused on mining stone suitable for sculpting. If you’re wondering why she was in such a dangerous place alone, at such a late hour no with no tools in hand, don’t worry... You’ll find out soon enough.

  “Hrmmm... Venus de Milo with arms, Venus de Milo with arms... C’mon!” Mitsuha repeated this strange mantra, touched the rock face, and jumped back home to Japan, bringing a chunk of it with her. Right away, she arrived in her garage. Filled with anticipation, she turned to the rock she’d brought along, expecting to see a complete Venus de Milo, but...

  “WHAT THE HELL?!” What she saw was a vaguely feminine creature with arms at such disturbing angles that it’s better we don’t describe them here. Let’s just say that if you saw this thing at night, you’d immediately run.

  “Nike with a head, Nike with a head... Come oooon!”

  ...Why’d she end up as a harpy? This has to be because I’m trying to imagine something that isn’t there and impose it on the result. That means I have to go for something that’s already complete! Aren’t I a clever girl?

  “The Thinker, The Thinker... Come on!”

  He was sitting on a toilet with an expression of pure ecstacy. This was no “Thinker”. In fact, it didn’t look like he was thinking anything at all.

  “David! Come on!”

  “The Little Mermaid! Come ooon!”

  “The Statue of Libertyyyy!”

  Mitsuha had completely forgotten how dreadful she was at drawing and, well, any other kind of art.

  Weird, since I’m pretty good at die cutting... Anyway, I’ll have to think of something else. I can’t keep these freaky statues at home, though. If anyone sees them, they’re gonna think I’m in the cult of some evil god.

  With that, Mitsuha brought them back to the general store.

  “Excuse me, how much for this one?”

  Yay! A customer! What’s he buying—Huh...?

  “This evil-warding monster sculpture is so well-made. The ugliness, the eerieness... Most magnificent!”

  Mitsuha sold it for quite a lot but didn’t feel happy in the least.

  Whatever, I’ll just think of something else! Moving on!

  Afterword

  Hello, my name is FUNA. Thank you so much for reading this book!

  This is my third work to get published, with Didn’t I Say To Make My Abilities Average In The Next Life?! (Earth Star Novel) being the first, and I Shall Survive Using Potions! (Kodansha’s K Light Novels) being the second. However, this was actually the first work I uploaded to the web novel site, Shosetsuka ni Naro (I uploaded Potions alongside it, but 80K started a day earlier).

  Just like Potions, 80K concluded without anyone ever coming to license it. But right when I thought these works would be forgotten by society and live on only within my heart, I suddenly got an offer to turn both into light novels and manga! That even led to me resuming the web novels...

  The works that were the foundation for publishing the younger Average Abilities have now caught up and stand beside it... I don’t have words to express just how moved I am. This is all thanks to those who supported these works while I was still uploading them and during the year after I was done. Thank you so much!

  Now, I can only hope that you, dear reader, can become the reason the next volumes see the light of day...

  Please watch K Light Novel for new releases for both I Shall Survive Using Potions! and Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for my Retirement! Do it for the new volumes... and my ambitions...

  And please check out the webcomic magazine, Suiyoubi no Sirius, for both! (http://seiga.nicovideo.jp/manga/official/w_sirius/)

  New Potions chapters come out on the first and third Wednesdays of the month, while 80K’s come out on the second and fourth! You basically have a “Weekly FUNA” thing going on there!

  Welcome to FUNAFUNA World!