“Now, how much are you selling me your clothes for? I’ll spare no expense, of course, but did you have a particular charge in mind?”
“Well... I’m afraid I don’t really have a good estimate in mind. This isn’t my field of expertise, you see. I can only assume they’d be expensive, but... To be completely honest, I’m penniless right now.”
“I see... That is rather sad to hear. Well then, how does ten gold pieces sound?” Without any knowledge of the currency in this world, I had no way to judge the worth of ten gold pieces. As such, I accepted.
“Sounds good.”
“Wonderful! Well, here you are,” Zanac replied, clearly pleased by my answer.
Ten gold pieces jingled into the palm of my hand. Each one was about as big as a 500 yen coin, and had engravings of something resembling a lion. It was my entire life savings. Something I had to spend wisely.
“By the way, you wouldn’t know where I could find someplace like an inn, would you? I’d like to find a place to rest my head before the sun goes down.”
“An inn, yes? Turn right as you go out onto the street, then follow the road. You should see a sign for the Silver Moon Inn, won’t be hard to find.” Even if I did spot it, I wouldn’t know because I couldn’t read... Well, it wouldn’t be a problem since I could just keep asking people as I went. Even if I couldn’t read, I could still talk.
“Got it, thanks. I’ll be on my way then.”
“Very well. If you come across any other unusual garments, please bring them my way.”
I said my goodbyes to Zanac and left the shop. The sun was still high in the sky. I took my smartphone out and turned it on. The time seemed to be just before 2PM.
“I wondered this in the carriage, but... the time should be accurate too, right...?” Going by the sun, it couldn’t have been too far off at least.
Right then, something suddenly came to mind. I fired up the map application. It showed my current location on the town map, and sure enough, the street and shop names were also displayed. I certainly wouldn’t be getting lost now. I found the Silver Moon Inn on the app quickly enough. Oh, wait a minute...
I turned back and looked at Zanac’s store. “...«FASHION KING ZANAC» That’s seriously what the sign said...?” I set off for the inn, all the while feeling bad for poor Zanac and his terrible naming sense.
◇ ◇ ◇
After a bit of walking, I found the sign for the Silver Moon. The logo had a crescent moon design. Fairly standard, all things considered. The building, which was made of brick and wood, looked like it stood three stories tall. It certainly seemed sturdy enough, at any rate.
I passed through the double-leaf doors. The room inside resembled a bar or dining hall with a large counter on the right. To the left, there were stairs leading upward.
“Welcome. Are you here for a meal, or is it a room you want?” The lady behind the counter called out to me. Her red hair was tied up in a ponytail and she looked quite lively. A woman in her early 20s, or so I guessed.
“Ah, I’d like to rent a room please. How much a night?”
“Two copper! Meals are included with the price. Oh, you’ll have to pay up front as well.”
Two copper coins...? I couldn’t tell if that was expensive or cheap. Logically it was at least cheaper than one gold coin, but I couldn’t guess how many copper made up one gold.
With no other option, I took one gold coin from my wallet and placed it on the counter.
“How many nights will this get me?”
“Whaddya mean, how many? Fifty, right?” She replied, clearly exasperated.
“Fifty?!”
I felt stung by the sudden look she gave me, which made me feel that she was basically saying “Hey, can’t you count?” or something. So then... one gold equals one-hundred copper. Ten gold could buy me five-hundred nights. I could live comfortably for around a year and a half without lifting a finger. Well, that meant I had a lot of money, didn’t it?
“Well? What’ll it be?”
“Err... one month’s lodging, please.”
“Alrighty! One month it is. I haven’t had many customers lately, so you’re kind of a life-saver right now. Haha, thank you. I’m out of silver coins though, so I’ll just give you the change in copper.”
The lady took my gold coin and returned forty copper to me. If she took sixty copper, then that meant one month was roughly thirty days in this world, too. Pretty close to the old world, then.
With that sorted, the lady brought out what appeared to be a hotel register from behind the counter. She opened it up in front of me, then handed me a feather pen.
“Okay, then. If you could just sign here, please.”
“Oh, excuse me... Thing is, I can’t actually write. Could you fill it in for me, please?”
“Really? Well, that’s fine. What’s your name?”
“It’s Mochizuki. Mochizuki Touya.”
“Mochizuki? That’s a pretty unusual name.”
“Ah, wait, no. My given name is Touya. Mochizuki is my surname... my er, family name.”
“Ooh, okay! Your given name and family name are reversed. Are you from Eashen?”
“Err... somewhere around those parts, sure.” I hadn’t the faintest clue where in the world Eashen was, but I couldn’t come up with anything better, so I left it at that. I resolved to look over my map later to see if I could find this Eashen place on it.
“Okay. Your room’s on the third floor, right at the end. It gets the best sunlight out of all of our rooms! Here’s your key, be sure not to lose it. The toilet and the bath are both on the first floor, and this room here is for dining. Speaking of which, will you be having lunch today?”
“Oh, please. I haven’t eaten since this morning...”
“I’ll whip up something real quick, then. You can use this time to go check out your room, maybe rest a bit.”
“Got it,” I said. I then took my room key, went upstairs to the third floor, and opened the door to my room. It was roughly the size of a six tatami room featuring a bed, desk, chair, and closet. I opened the window and looked down on the street. The view was really nice. Also, it was heartwarming watching children running around and playing below.
Invigorated, and in a surprisingly pleasant mood, I left my room and locked it shut. As I made my way back downstairs, I was greeted by a lovely smell.
“Here you go! Sorry for the wait.” I took a seat in the dining room and the lady carried my meal out to me. There was some soup, something resembling a sandwich, and a salad. The bread was a bit hard, but very good for the first loaf I tried in another world. Delicious, even. I devoured the entire thing.
After that, I gave some thought to my next course of action. I was going to be staying at the inn for a while, so I figured I should go get a feel for how things were around town.
“I’m heading off for a walk.”
“Alrighty! See you later, then.” After the innkeep, who told me her name was Micah, saw me off, I left to go explore the rest of town.
Being a town in another world, everything was unusual and fascinating. My wandering gaze made some people regard me with suspicion, and whenever I grew aware of that fact, it caused my gaze to wander even more. Carrying on like that would just put me in an endless loop... That was no good.
One thing that I did notice about the people in town was how many of them were carrying weapons around. Some had swords or axes, others had knives, and a few were even carrying whips. It struck me as somewhat dangerous, but I figured that was just how it was in this world. I made note to consider buying a weapon of my own.
“First thing’s first, though. I need to start making money. I can’t very well live in this world without a source of income...”
Never would have thought I’d be job-hunting so soon. Honestly, it would’ve been nice if I had a specialty of some kind... Alas, my best subject in school was history, and the history of another world wasn’t exactly much help.
The only othe
r thing that came to mind was music. Did this world even have pianos? Well, even if there were some around, it wasn’t like I was especially talented at it.
“Hmm?” Something suddenly caught my attention. Noises... Voices, even. Loud voices coming from one of the alleyways off from the main road. Sounded like an argument of some kind.
“...Guess I can check that out.” With that thought, I set off for the back alley.
◇ ◇ ◇
When I made it to the end of the narrow back alley, I found four people. It looked to be two men having an argument with two girls. Both of the men seemed the nasty, rough sort, but the girls were exceptionally adorable.
The girls looked to be around my age, perhaps younger. The two of them were so alike that I almost thought I had been seeing double. I wondered if they were twins, perhaps. Looking closer, they had their differences. They looked different around the eyes, and one had long hair while the other wore hers short. But even then, they had the same silver hair.
Both of them wore the same black jacket and white blouse, but the girl with longer hair wore culotte shorts with black knee socks, while the girl with shorter hair wore a flared skirt with black tights. It was easy to tell that the long haired girl was full of energy, while the short hair girl was more neat and composed.
“This isn’t what we agreed on! You said you’d buy it for one gold!” The long haired girl yelled at the men, who both stood grinning as if arrogantly mocking her. One of the men held something like a deer’s antler made of glass.
“Hmm? Whaddya mean. I said we’d buy your Crystal Deer’s antler for one gold if it was in perfect condition. But lookie right here, it’s scratched! A damaged antler’s only worth one silver, so that’s what we’re paying you. Go on, take it and scram!” A single silver coin rolled to the ground at the girls’ feet.
“That doesn’t even count as a scratch! You were never planning on giving us a fair deal, were you...!” The long-haired girl glared menacingly toward the men, while the short-haired girl quietly bit her lip in frustration.
“...Fine. I don’t want your money. Just give us back the antler.” The long-haired girl said that and took a step forward. Disproportionately large gauntlets appeared on her arms as she advanced toward them.
“Oh, afraid we can’t be having that. This was a fair trade, y’know? I never agreed to give it back—”
“Ah, excuse me. Do you have a moment?” I spoke up, and everyone’s eyes fell upon me. The girls seemed confused, but the men looked almost ready to jump me.
“Huh? Whaddya want, kid?” one of the men said with a snarl.
“Ah, not you. I meant the girl over there,” I replied calmly.
“Eh? Me?” was the only response I got from her as I ignored the scowling man and called out to the girl behind him.
“I was just wondering if you might sell me that antler for one gold.” For a moment she stood flabbergasted. Then my words finally seemed to click with her, and she answered me with a smile.
“It’s a deal!”
“The hell it is! Don’t go selling things that belong to other people—” Suddenly, the crystal antler shattered to pieces in the man’s hands. The stone I had thrown met its mark.
“Wha...?! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
“Whatever do you mean? I’m free to treat my belongings however I’d like to. Oh, though I guess I haven’t paid for it yet. I’ll do that now.”
“I’ll kill you!” One of the men bellowed as he pulled a knife and charged right at me. I managed to dodge him easily by paying attention to his movements. For some reason I just knew that I’d be able to dodge his attack. I could see everything, from the man’s movements to the knife’s trajectory.
That had to be the result of one of those gifts that God had given me to bolster my body and my senses. I bent down and swept the man’s legs from under him. He collapsed to the ground face-up, and I drove my fist into his body in one swift motion.
“Gah...!” He passed out right on the spot I had knocked him down with that one final grunt. It seemed that the move I’d learned from my grandpa had come in handy.
When I turned around, I noticed that the other man was fighting the long-haired girl. He swung around a hatchet, but he couldn’t seem to get a good hit on her and his blows kept bouncing off her gauntlets. When she saw her chance, the girl stepped forward, quick as lightning, and swung a tremendous right hook straight into the man’s face.
He collapsed to the ground with his eyes rolling back in his head. Amazing.
Well... if I had known it’d be that easy, then maybe I wouldn’t have shattered that crystal antler... I actually regretted doing so. There was no point regretting past decisions. I’d thought to calm the situation peacefully by removing the source of the argument, but it seemed that had been a poor plan. I took one gold coin from my wallet and went to hand it to the long-haired girl.
“Here, one gold coin.”
“...Are you sure? I mean, it’d really help us out, but...”
“It’s fine. I’m the one who smashed the antler to pieces. Wouldn’t be fair to go back on my word now.”
“In that case... thank you.” With that, she accepted the coin with her gauntlet-clad hand.
“Oh, and thanks for helping us out there. I’m Elze Silhoueska, and this is my younger twin sister, Linze Silhoueska.”
“...Thank you very much!” The short-haired girl spat out those words, bowed, and gave me a little smile.
Seemed they were twins, just as I had thought. The long-haired one was Elze, and the short-haired one was Linze. Easy enough to remember. Though I still couldn’t tell them apart except by hairstyle and clothes.
“My name’s Mochizuki Touya. Oh, uh, Touya’s my given name.”
“Hmm... Your given name and family name are backwards? Are you from Eashen?”
“Ah... er, yeah. Somewhere around those parts.” Met with the same reaction as Micah from the inn, I just left it at that again. All those reactions did, however, move thoughts of Eashen to the forefront of my mind. I wanted to know what kind of a country it was.
“Oh, I see. So you only just arrived in town too, huh, Touya.” I chatted with Elze over fruit juice. In my case, though, it was less having just arrived in this town and more having just arrived in the world.
After the events in the alleyway, we returned to the Silver Moon Inn. The girls had told me they were looking for an inn, so I took them back with me. Micah was overjoyed when I brought back more customers. So much that it showed clearly on her face.
Since we were all together anyway, we decided to share a meal. We talked a lot while eating the dinner Micah had made, and after dinner, we all had some tea to drink.
“See, we came here to deliver a Crystal Deer’s antler after those guys put out a request, but that went about as well as you saw. I mean, their request was plenty suspicious, so I did figure something was up, but still...”
“...That’s why I said we shouldn’t accept their request... But Sis, you wouldn’t listen to me...” Linze spoke up to reprimand her older sister. She seemed to be the one with a good head on her shoulders. Meanwhile, Elze seemed to have more of a wild personality. Elze the fearless older sister and Linze the shy little sister. At least, that was how they seemed to me.
“So why would you accept their request if you knew it sounded suspicious?” I voiced my doubts for the girls to hear. I couldn’t help but wonder why they’d bother to try and strike up any kind of deal with dubious characters like those guys.
“Funny story, actually... See, we’d just beaten a Crystal Deer and gotten one of its antlers when we heard that there was someone looking to buy one. Sounded almost too good to be true. Well, I guess it was, considering we got duped and all... Suppose we’ll only be accepting requests like that through the guild from now on. Hopefully that way we’ll get wrapped up in a lot less trouble.” Elze lowered her gaze and let out a big sigh.
“Wanna take this opportunity to get
registered with the guild, Linze?”
“...That sounds like a good idea. Better safe than sorry, after all. Let’s go some time tomorrow.”
The guild... As I remembered from games, it was something like an employment service center that would mediate jobs for prospective adventurers. They’d have lots of quests posted and completing them would net you some money. Hmm...
“If it’s alright with you, can I tag along tomorrow? I need to get registered with the guild, too.”
“Sure! I don’t see why not.”
“Yeah... We can all go together...” The two of them kindly agreed.
Alright. I’d get registered with this guild and see if I could make some money working through them. That might well have been my ticket to earning a stable income that would allow me to live comfortably.
With all of that decided, the three of us split up, so I went back to my room. My long first day in this world had finally come to an end. It sure was a busy day, too...
I was transported to another world, made to sell my clothes, searched for an inn to stay at, helped a couple of girls, and gotten myself into a brawl. What the heck was with all that...
For the time being, I decided to note everything that had happened that day down in my smartphone in place of an actual diary. After that, I opened up a few news sites and checked in on how things were going down in my old world.
Oh, the Giants are winning. Aww, that band’s gonna break up... What a shame.
I turned my phone off once I’d found a good place to stop reading, then crawled my way into bed. I would be registering with the guild the next day, so I wondered what it’d be like... Thoughts like that ran through my mind until drowsiness finally overtook me.
“Zzz...”
◇ ◇ ◇
The electronic noise of my smartphone’s alarm got me to sluggishly crawl out of my futon. I then washed my face, got dressed, and headed downstairs to the dining room. Elze and Linze were already awake and having breakfast. I took my seat and Micah brought out some food for me as well. This morning’s menu was bread with ham and eggs, vegetable soup, and a salad. What a delicious way to start the day.
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 1 Page 2
