by Mamare Touno
“Rrgh.”
As a result, Akatsuki resigned herself to being put on display any way they wanted. She stared accusingly at Henrietta and Shiroe. Akatsuki meant the look as a glare, but the flaw in the gem was that, to the other two, it looked for all the world as if she was gazing up at them and pleading.
“It’s all right, Akatsuki. It really does look good.”
She resented the absurd way her temperature jumped when Shiroe set his hand upon her head. To Shiroe, the words were probably more of a conditioned reflex, or perhaps diplomacy, than anything. The problem was that they made her happy anyway.
Grr! I’m a failure as a ninja!
She desperately pulled her expression back together, but she couldn’t muster as much confidence as usual today.
“What did you want me to do?”
“You’ll be wearing these clothes, Master Shiroe.”
When Shiroe unfolded the clothes Henrietta gave him, his shoulders slumped. The outfit looked comfortable, but apparently he didn’t like it. Akatsuki thought it served him right.
That’s what you get for embarrassing me, my liege.
Besides, Shiroe always wore roughly the same thing, and she wanted to see him in casual clothes. Akatsuki had just begun to say something when a clear chime sounded from outside the venue.
For an instant, a hush fell over their surroundings. Then there was a cry of anticipation, like several hundred gathered sighs. Then a burst of applause began, although no one in particular had started it.
When Marielle came up to the three of them, she was applauding happily, too.
The doors had opened. It was the first festival held by Adventurers in this other world. At its main event—the exhibition and sales here in Silver Hall—clothes and accessories of all sorts were on display.
“All right, let’s see who stops by today! I hope we sell a ton. …I think makin’ a hundred sets might’ve been too much, but anyway, let’s do our best.”
“They’ve opened the doors. Master Shiroe, Akatsuki. …Thank you in advance for your help over this next half day. You’ll be show models and salesclerks. Let’s sell, sell, sell!”
Giving in to the pair’s happy smiles, Shiroe and Akatsuki nodded.
The second day of the Libra Festival. Just like this, the curtain rose on its main event.
1
The moment the doors opened, the floor was flooded with people.
A group of Adventurers who’d come on a pleasure trip as a guild. Young girls who were here to pick up the latest clothing creations at low prices. Skilled merchant traders lining up for the famous Tailoring guilds. Peddlers who’d come to lay in goods without even taking the time to undo their traveling clothes. Aristocratic merchants in resplendent clothes.
There had probably been some who’d anticipated the crowd, but it was likely that only a few guilds had expected business to be this good. There was a panic at all of the sales booths, and they were hard-pressed to provide service.
The event that was underway in this hall was a clothing exhibition and sale.
Since it was limited to garments, not all of the production guilds were present at this locale, though many were. It was only natural for guilds as large as the three major production guilds to have divisions that covered every facet of daily life, since they easily counted more than five hundred members each among their ranks. However, production guilds that were midsized or smaller tended to choose a theme for their guild and collect members around it, so only the garment-making guilds were here.
For example, Amenoma was a guild known to Akiba insiders that specialized in weapons forging, and more specifically, swordsmithy. Most of its members were high-level Blacksmiths, and there was a rumor that their fanatical pursuit of quality had finally, in this post-Catastrophe world, led them to forge by hand. But, not unexpectedly, their guild had no Tailors, so they weren’t participating in this particular hall’s sales space.
Of course, the Libra Festival as a whole held opportunities for all sorts of guilds and artisans.
The garment market that was being held on the first floor of the Silver Hall had been set up indoors at the request of the female Adventurers, but there was a flea market being held at the same time, centered on the town’s main street, at which all kinds of items were being sold from stalls.
The clothing-only indoor market, and the outdoor market that included everything from weapons and defensive gear to jewelry: If asked which one was the main part of the festival, the answer was, naturally, the outdoor flea market. That said, it was also true that this indoor exhibition was attracting enthusiastic attention from some very interested parties.
The highlight event of the garment market was the fashion show. It would be exactly what it sounded like: models, dressed in various elaborate outfits created by a wide range of guilds, strutting across a stage. The show would feature a big lineup of Akiba’s most popular people and Adventurers who were considered beautiful, and as an event, it was quietly drawing fanatical attention. Considered thus, a certain percentage of the people who’d flooded into the venue were probably spectators, and couldn’t really be called customers.
The booths were roughly divided into large and small sizes.
The large booths had many workers and lots of merchandise on display. These were the spaces rented by the so-called major guilds. These megabooths were set up along the wall and were designed to make it easy to carry in stock.
The scale of the small booths, which were like little, half-open rooms set up along a partition wall down the center of the floor, meant they were for the small and midsized guilds.
The Crescent Moon League’s booth wasn’t in a terribly good location. It was rather removed from the center of the floor, but it wasn’t along the wall, either. In terms of the flow of customers, it was a fairly disadvantageous position. It was far from the stage where the show would be held as well, and they expected to have a tough time of it.
However, unlike most of the guilds assembled in this hall, the Crescent Moon League wasn’t a straight production guild. It was a lifestyle guild, the sort whose motto was “Do anything that anyone’s interested in.” As a point of fact, the exhibition booth was being run by volunteers from the guild, and it didn’t have the guild’s full power behind it.
Because it was a good-natured guild that attracted people who liked to party, if they’d asked, the combat-type guild members would have helped, too, but compared to the pure production guilds, their enthusiasm toward sales was rather low. That meant that, if the Crescent Moon League had taken a good location, people would have been bound to say they’d abused their authority as one of the eleven guilds on the Round Table Council. In that sense, this location was safer.
“Say, isn’t this gettin’ kinda outta hand?”
Marielle was calling “Whoa! Whoa!” in a loud voice and wandering around. Henrietta caught her. She dragged her guild master’s infuriatingly feminine body back behind the cashier table and pushed her down onto a small stool.
“Mari. You’re the guild leader. What good does it do for you to panic? Just sit there and be quiet for a while.”
“Yeah, but, it’s just… I haven’t seen this many people in f’rever…”
Marielle fidgeted restlessly.
Come to think of it, she was right. When they’d been in the old world, they’d ridden crowded commuter trains every day. It had been routine for them to see several thousand passersby in front of important train stations or crosswalks.
However, after the Catastrophe had sent them to this world, they’d stopped seeing sights like that. Akiba’s central plaza was lively, but because of its vast, open-air construction, it never felt all that crowded.
The venue was packed enough to remind them of the old world. The horde of visitors that had streamed in when the doors opened promptly crowded around booths here and there and launched into negotiations.
The fact that they could do this sort of comedy routine even in the midst of tha
t bustle meant that the Crescent Moon League’s booth really was located away from the main flow of people.
The big guilds along the walls were inundated with customers right away, and, like rebounding spray, others began flowing toward the small and midsized guilds near the stage.
However, they only had the leeway to watch the flow of people for about thirty minutes after it had begun.
Once lines formed at the big guilds, some people began to think, If we’re just going to be standing in line, let’s look around at the empty booths instead. There were a formidable number of such wanderers.
Henrietta had planned to put Marielle(’s smile) on the front line and keep track of their accounts herself acting as the cashier, but as it turned out, she wasn’t able to do that.
There were more People of the Earth than she’d thought.
The Crescent Moon League members who’d come here to do business were Marielle, Henrietta, and two guild members with Tailor subclasses. The Crescent Moon League was also running a snack vendor stall and a weapons-forging shop at the flea market, in addition to the fashion-show exhibition.
As the guild leader, Marielle would probably need to put in an appearance at those as well. Once the afternoon fashion show ended, Henrietta had assumed she’d have to release her from this booth. That would leave them with two younger members as their main force.
Henrietta glanced over at the two. They shook their heads emphatically.
Their meaning was clear: We can’t, we can’t. We’re amateurs!
As Henrietta moved forward with the sales talk she was conducting, she sighed inwardly.
If the other party was an Adventurer who’d come in search of casual clothes to wear around town, they’d have almost no problems. They’d all be from Earth, and they’d all be aware that they were conducting business they weren’t used to. The activity taking place on this floor was an advanced version of playing store, but for the Adventurers, that was enough.
On the other hand, most of the People of the Earth were merchant traders.
Not only that, but they hadn’t come simply to purchase clothing. They seemed to be here to gather information, to network, and, if possible, to request negotiations that would lead to laying in stock in the future. As a result, they would ask sharp questions about things like price setting, materials and sewing methods. Those sales talks would be a bit too difficult to leave to young members who’d been no more than students back on Earth.
Well, it isn’t as though I’m all that experienced or can take responsibility myself…
As Henrietta responded to cross-questioning from a middle-aged merchant Person of the Earth, she smiled superficially, but in her mind, she was examining herself.
The negotiations with the three big production guilds regarding the establishment of the Round Table Council… Henrietta wondered whether she’d acquired gambler’s courage after making it through that deal.
Henrietta was still in her twenties.
There was no way she could be experienced enough.
When you were in your twenties, even if you said you were a full-fledged member of society, once you found a job, you realized you were no more than a chick with pieces of eggshell still stuck to you. This was something Henrietta had been painfully aware of in her life back on Earth. However, it was also true that unless you stood on the front line with those bits of shell still sticking to you, you’d never graduate from being a chick. She’d stood on the front line long enough to know that.
I mustn’t push this off on the younger members… At the very least, I’ll need to handle the difficult negotiations until we know how things stand.
Henrietta’s intent must have gotten through.
Either that, or they’d unconsciously formed a system of cooperation. Their natural formation was to have Henrietta deal with native merchants, while the other three Crescent Moon League members fielded Adventurers.
The two younger members wrapped up merchandise, and a beaming Marielle accepted money. All three bowed their heads in unison, and the sale was complete.
As Henrietta watched them out of the corner of her eye, she continued responding to People of the Earth. Even if they accepted big orders for a hundred pieces every month, a guild the size of the Crescent Moon League couldn’t fill them. Henrietta’s current policy was to turn down the things that needed to be turned down.
Heaven only knows what would happen if we agreed to a contract like that… There are people like Master Shiroe in this world, gentlemen whose hearts are truly black, and one really can’t be too careful—Hm?
Henrietta looked around.
Come to think of it, Shiroe wasn’t there.
She was sure she’d made him take a change of clothes, but she didn’t see an insolent young man with round glasses in the booth, or, for that matter, a small, black-haired girl.
“…Master Shiroe?”
After checking to make sure that there was a lull in the difficult customers, Henrietta stood on tiptoe, looking around the area. She was slightly taller than Marielle, but with the swollen torrent of people flowing down the corridor in front of the booth like a river, she couldn’t see very far.
“Where are—”
“That’s right. This merchandise is being sold on a trial basis. In order to get opinions from as many people as possible, sales are restricted to two items per person.”
“I said I’d pay for it.”
“That isn’t the issue.”
As Henrietta stood on tiptoe, straining her eyes, she heard Shiroe’s cool voice.
Apparently he was handling a complaint from someone. Henrietta looked around, and, through a momentary gap in the waves of people, she spotted Shiroe at a booth on the other side of the corridor.
The long, hooded, sleeveless vest lent him a casual air, and with a thin, long-sleeved T-shirt layered on underneath it, Shiroe looked right. His expression was composed, and he was standing in the way of a merchant who was so irritated his head seemed about ready to release steam.
In the clothes the Crescent Moon League had made, Shiroe looked not medieval, but like a perfectly ordinary young Japanese guy. They looked so right on him that Henrietta felt a bit tickled, as though she’d caught a glimpse of Shiroe’s private life on Earth.
“Excuse me. Let me through, please.”
She’d only been fascinated by that figure for a moment when her vision closed again, and Henrietta hurried over to the opposite booth, pushing her way through the customers who were enjoying the exhibition.
The shop belonged to the guild Cocoa Brown.
Shiroe stood surrounded by several staff members, facing a merchant who was trembling with anger, and he wasn’t about to give an inch. Akatsuki stood just beside Shiroe, and it looked as though he was restraining her rather than shielding her.
Although Cocoa Brown was a clothing and ornaments guild, it had narrowed its focus down to accessories. It sold colorful polished pebbles, necklaces that were chains of silverwork, and earrings.
Accessories that struck even Henrietta as tasteful were set out on display, and they’d attracted her attention when she’d gone around greeting people before the doors opened. The prices were also astonishingly low. The Cocoa Brown member who’d been minding the booth had told her, “We’re a small production guild, and the people from the combat guilds protect us, so we wanted to repay their kindness.”
“Listen to what I’m telling you! If you sell those to me, your names will become widely known among the People of the Earth—”
“I’m sorry, but I need to ask you to leave.”
Shiroe and the merchant were still arguing.
By that time, the people that were passing nearby had begun to realize that there was some sort of trouble. A growing semicircle of people was spontaneously forming around the Cocoa Brown booth.
In all probability, an unpleasant merchant was attempting to buy up Cocoa Brown’s accessories in bulk. Two or three might not do any harm, but if anyone started b
uying them by the case, they’d never manage to keep the booth running for the rest of the time.
Of course, if they thought in terms of sales amounts or prioritized selling their entire stock, they could decide to just sell it all off. However, Cocoa Brown hadn’t wanted to do that. They’d intended to have the residents of Akiba use their wears, and so they’d hastily introduced an item restriction and gotten into an argument with the merchant.
When it came to physical and magic specs, Adventurers were superior to People of the Earth. Even in terms of creating items, depending on subclass level, they could display expert-level skills.
However, arguments and negotiations weren’t conducted through physical specs. Some people had temperaments that were suited to them, and some didn’t. In that case, it became something almost no one was even conscious of anymore: A problem for the player (the spirit), not the character (the body).
That was why Shiroe had stepped in.
He’d extended a helping hand.
I expect that isn’t a bad guess, at any rate. But dear me, what a luckless Person of the Earth.
“Don’t get full of yourself, stripling!”
By the time Henrietta pushed her way through the packed crowd and broke into the clear space in front of the Cocoa Brown booth, the People of the Earth merchant had finally snapped. He swung a big fist down at Shiroe.
Most of the gasps in the crowd came from People of the Earth.
Some averted their eyes.
However, the result was just what Henrietta had anticipated:
Shiroe gently stopped that fist with a fingertip.
True, Shiroe was an Enchanter. Enchanter was one of the magic-user main classes, and, like the other magic users, its stamina and physical strength were set extremely low. However, that was in comparison to other Adventurers of the same level in different classes.
When there was a level difference of more than fifty, and the other man was a Person of the Earth, even a magic user’s agility and physical strength far surpassed those of his opponent. From Shiroe’s perspective, the arrogant merchant’s punch felt a bit like being hit with a balloon.
