The street Subaru and Satella were on wasn’t far from the main road, but the hustle and bustle from before now seemed like a far-off dream.
“We heard from that guy that if we were looking for stolen goods, they would be handled and sold in the slums, but…” whispered Subaru as he peered down the street that supposedly would lead them to the slums, “…the air down there and the mood, not to mention the general character of the people down there, are all probably going to be pretty terrible. Are you sure you really want to go?”
“You’re the one who suggested that my badge might be there in the first place, and the owner of that shop said it would probably be there, too…”
“You shouldn’t forget that right after he said that, he added that we should probably give up,” said Subaru, reflecting back with a sour face on what was said at the fruit shop.
Thirty minutes after unexpectedly reuniting with the little girl and her mother at the fruit shop, and using that coincidence to turn the situation around and gain some valuable information, Subaru and Satella were now at the entrance to the rumored slums, where most stolen goods were said to be brought.
After realizing that Subaru and Satella had helped his daughter, the stern-faced shop owner had warmed up to them, and listened to their plight. Because of that, they were able to get information about the slums, but now they were hesitating.
“I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but wouldn’t it be better to ask for help? Like, if we asked the police, or…I guess they would be guards in this case…I’m sure if we asked those kind of people to help us search and they sent a team out to find it, this would get resolved a lot more quickly.”
“We can’t.”
Satella immediately rejected Subaru’s suggestion. In fact, she so flatly rejected it that it took Subaru by surprise.
“I’m sorry, but…we can’t. I also don’t think we can get the guards to act over such a small theft, and…I have other reasons that I can’t ask the guards for help,” said Satella, pausing for a moment with her lips shut tightly, before looking at Subaru with a look of pleading in her eyes. “I’m sorry, but I can’t say why.”
Realizing that she quite clearly didn’t want to be asked, Subaru raised his hands slightly, conceding. “So, what should we do, then? I suppose we can still employ team tactics with just the two of us,” said Subaru in a light and joking tone, trying to keep the mood up.
“Don’t forget me!” replied Puck, who had reappeared on Satella’s shoulder, looking at Subaru and Satella as it wiped its face with its paw. “But we don’t really have the time to just sit around and talk anymore. Even if you want to try those team tactics with two humans and a cat, I’ve only got about an hour before it’s time’s-up for me.”
As Puck looked up at the sky, Subaru followed its gaze and saw that most of the sky that was peaking through the buildings on either side of the street had already shifted from blue to orange. The reason the slums seemed so dark and dreary wasn’t only because of the damp and sour smell coming from it. It was getting closer and closer to sunset—which of course meant that Puck would soon reach his limit.
“So whether you decide to go or turn back, it’s best to make that decision soon,” finished Puck.
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘team tactics,’ but we’ve got to keep going. There’s no way that we can let this chance go and risk having my badge be out of our reach forever,” Satella said, answering Puck. She then turned to Subaru. “All right, so I’ve decided I’m going, but…the people who live here are probably used to getting into fights, so I want you to be careful, even more than before. If you’re scared, you can just wait here for me to come back.”
“Wait here?! Just how much of a chicken do you think I am?! I’m going! I’m going to stick to you like I’m a spirit who’s come back to haunt you!”
“So in other words you don’t want to be in front. That would really, really make it easier on me, though.” Satella sighed yet again in the face of Subaru’s energetic readiness to flee.
Subaru thought about how, ever since he and Satella had met, he had only made her look troubled. The few times she did smile, the reason had nothing to do with Subaru. It was unfortunate. Given how cute she looked even when she was displaying negative emotions, Subaru thought it would be wonderful if she ever did smile at him.
“All right! Let’s do this! It’s about time I do something to show you what I’m made of!”
“What are you so excited about all of a sudden? I can see up your nostrils.”
“Well, that was a great way to ruin my display-of-determination scene! Thanks!”
Even though he had his energy tripped up a notch from the start, Subaru hurried his pace so he wouldn’t fall behind Satella, his arms flailing back and forth as he rushed to not be left behind by this girl who kept continuing on toward her goal.
10
Now, Subaru and Satella entered the next stage on the way to completing their task—the slums. And it looked like they were going to have a lot of trouble… That is, until it became clear that an unlikely character would prove themself very useful; very useful indeed.
“Who, you ask? Me! Yes, me! For some unknown reason, the people here in the slums are really nice to me! Just what unknown variable is responsible for this?! Has my charm stat finally been adjusted?! I haven’t felt so loved since I was in preschool!”
Back in preschool, Subaru was quite the cute one. His hair was long and he was often mistaken for a girl. Given the change to his current state only took ten plus a few years. The passage of time really is cruel and unforgiving.
“Has something about me changed from before? Do I, like, have something on my face?”
“Well, you do have your evil-looking eyes, short ears, and flat nose on your face…”
“I could have gone without the evil eyes and flat nose description!” retorted Subaru before hanging his head.
Satella put her finger to her lips and thought. “Hmm… It probably has to do with the way you look and are dressed right now. You’re covered in dust and dirt and there are even traces of blood. The people who live here also have it hard, so they must look at you in pity and can’t help but be kind to you…”
“Right now you’re doing a good job of making me feel as bad as I look! But you’re right! It makes perfect sense! Damn it all!”
As they say, people with the same sickness pity each other. While it was great that Subaru seemed to be more likable in the slums in an unexpected way, Satella’s likability was at an all-time low. The reason again probably had to do with the way that she was dressed.
“The thugs from before made similar comments, but you really are dressed pretty well, aren’t you?”
“I guess I do stand out, don’t I…?” replied Satella, looking at Subaru nervously, as she rolled down the sleeves of her white cloak.
However, while she acknowledged the problem with her fine clothes, she seemed to be oblivious to the fact that it wasn’t just the clothes, but the person wearing them as well.
“Um, I have something I’d like to ask you, but—”
“What’s that? This is no place for you and your fancy clothes to be walking around in, young lady, so go on now, get outta here!”
Again, Satella was brusquely turned away as she tried to ask someone for help. Given that her low rate of success had to do with both her good looks and her fine clothes, rather than twice worse off, it was better to say she was “worse off squared.” However, it wasn’t as though Subaru could suggest that she get all dirty like he was.
“At least you might be a little better off if you take off your cloak…” Subaru suggested.
“…I know, but…” Satella gripped both shoulders of her cloak with her hands, but would not take it off. Subaru thought that her response was a little bit strange, but he didn’t bring it up.
As Satella looked down, she lightly brushed her hand against the red flower decoration pinned on her left breast. Subaru, seeing
how Satella found comfort in that decoration, couldn’t help but feel like smiling, and it made him want to try even harder for her sake.
If Satella couldn’t do this on her own, he was glad to make use of his dirty appearance to make progress. I guess this means that good things can come even from getting beat up by a bunch of thugs in an alley, Subaru thought. “Well, don’t worry too much. You can leave this to me. Anyway, with the fruits of my labor, we’ll soon have her cornered, so let’s keep chasing after that criminal. So yeah, with the fruits of my labor, we’ll soon have her cornered! So! Let’s…keep…searching!”
“I understand that you’re happy to be useful for once, but it’s really lame when you put so much emphasis on yourself like that.”
Subaru had struck a pose with every pause of his sentence, which he thought was cool, but when Satella put it like that, it just made Subaru seem like he was hopping up and down as if to say, Look what I can do!
Satella stared at Subaru with a face that looked like she regretted raising her opinion of him earlier, and Subaru just responded with a weak smile.
It had been little more than two hours since they had met, but with things like this, Subaru already felt as though he had known Satella for a long time. However, this little episode had a different ending than the last few.
“I’m sorry, but I’m already at my limit,” said Puck weakly as he leaned up against Satella’s neck. His gray coat glowed with a weak light, and his figure blurred as if he were going to disappear at any moment.
“The way you disappear kind of looks like you’re dying.”
“I tried to stick around longer than usual because I wanted to protect my precious daughter from this evil-eyed guy hanging around her. But when I work myself to the bone, I end up fading away when it’s time for me to disappear.”
“That’s terrible! But leave it to me! I won’t let any dangerous guys near her after you disappear!”
“Wait, does that mean it’s okay for me to wipe you off the face of the Earth before I disappear?”
“No! Not okay!” shouted Subaru, stepping away and hugging himself.
“I’m joking,” said Puck with a small burst of laughter.
After that, Puck looked to Satella, who took from her breast pocket a crystal that was glowing with a green light.
“I’m sorry for pushing you so hard, Puck. I’ll do my best from here on out, so you just get some rest.”
The green crystal continued to glow with a faint light in Satella’s hand as she held it. It looked different from what you might call a jewel. So far as Subaru could tell, “crystal” was the word that fit best.
Puck crawled down Satella’s arm and approached the crystal, then reached out and hugged it to its small body. Finally he turned back toward Satella.
“I’m sure you know this already, but be careful, and don’t push yourself too hard. If something happens don’t hesitate to use your od to call me back out.”
“I know, I know. I’m not a child. I can take care of myself.”
“I wonder about that… My precious daughter here always makes me worry when it comes to things like this. I’m counting on you, Subaru.”
Puck looked at Satella with affection, the way a parent looks at their child. Satella blushed, but also looked annoyed.
With the conversation thrown his way, Subaru beat on his chest. “All right! Just you leave it to me. You can trust my sixth sense. When it sounds the danger alarm, I’ll get us out of there in no time!”
“I really don’t understand half of what you’re saying, but all right. Now with that out of the way, good night. …Be careful.”
With a last glance directed at Satella, Puck finally vanished. His small body became a small ball of light, which gradually melted away into the world around it as he disappeared.
Other than the fact that it was a talking cat, this was the first time Subaru had seen Puck do anything spirit-like. Now, having seen this fantastical display, he felt mixed feelings of excitement and awe welling up inside him.
As Subaru was getting excited all by himself, Satella ran her hands lightly over the crystal and put it carefully back in her breast pocket.
From the conversations that they had before, Subaru thought that crystal must be holding Puck’s core right now.
“Now it’ll be just the two of us…but don’t get any ideas. I can still use magic, you know.”
Apparently Satella had taken Puck’s last words seriously, and was on her guard.
“Hey, the last time I was alone with a girl was in elementary school. I’m not really capable of doing anything. Haven’t you been paying attention to my lack of human skills thus far?”
“You’re totally hopeless, but then again, I’m convinced. …All right. Let’s keep going. But remember, with Puck gone we need to be even more careful than before.”
Perhaps shocked by Subaru’s proud proclamation of his cowardice, Satella couldn’t seem to keep up her apprehensions of him, and so tied back up the front of her robe and went on ahead.
“I’ll be the vanguard, so you just keep your eyes on what’s behind us. If anything happens, call me right away. You mustn’t think that you can handle everything on your own. I don’t want be mean…but you’re really weak.”
“Well, when you put it that way, it’s hard to get angry about it…”
If Satella just wanted to push Subaru away, “You’re really weak” would have been enough.
Given that she couldn’t hide what she truly felt, Satella was soft at the core…too soft, even.
Subaru nudged Satella along, even though it looked like she wanted to say something, and the two continued their search.
Despite all the talk, their search continued in the same way as before. Their methods were basic. Whenever they found someone, they would describe who they were looking for and asked if the person had any ideas about who it might be.
Subaru, who was now doing all of the asking, had gotten better at it after having talked to so many different people. He was starting to hit his stride.
“You know? It might be that Felt girl. She was blond and really fast, right?”
A little under an hour after they had entered the slums and started asking around, they had finally run into some valuable information.
The guy who gave the information was someone that Subaru had gone straight up to and said, “Hey, my brother, how’s life?” like they were already friends.
“If it’s Felt you’re looking for, whatever she stole is probably sitting in the loot cellar. She usually takes things there, gets them tagged, and then the old man who’s the master there’ll get them sold at a market somewhere else.”
“That sounds like a pretty strange system… Doesn’t anyone worry about the master of the cellar taking off with all of the goods?”
“The reason he’s the master is because people trust him not to do that. But, well, even if you go up and tell him it’s stolen, he’ll probably just say ‘So what?’ right back at you, so you’d better be prepared to negotiate a price to buy it back. After all, it’s the original owner’s fault for being stupid and getting it stolen in the first place!” the man finished with a laugh.
Subaru was able to get the guy to tell him the location of the loot cellar, so they would probably be able to find it soon, but there was a new problem. Subaru and Satella were both penniless.
“That guy said we should buy it back, but without any leverage, I get the feeling this master guy would wipe the floor with us.”
“Why do I have to pay to get back something I already own…?”
As the problem veered back toward their combined lack of funds, Satella looked worried. She had a point, of course, but it wasn’t like they could expect the loot cellar’s master to agree.
In order to solve the matter peacefully, and with certainty, it would be best to follow that man’s advice and try to negotiate. However…
“It seems a little late to be asking this question, but that badge you say was
stolen from you…does it happen to look expensive? Even if we walk in expecting to be overcharged, it would be impossible to negotiate without having any idea of what it’s worth.”
“…It’s small, but there is a jewel embedded in its center. I don’t know how much money that someone might buy it for, but I am fairly certain it wouldn’t be a small amount.”
“A jewel, huh… That seems like it’s going to be a problem.”
Even for people unfamiliar with how much things are worth, a jewel is one of those convenient items that you can tell is expensive at a glance. Subaru doubted that there was the technology to produce imitations in this world, so most things that resembled jewels were probably jewels. In other words, they would all fetch a high price.
While none of this new information sounded like good news, Subaru thought there was something strange about what Satella was saying. Even though the badge was supposedly hers, she said that she did not know its value. While it was possible it was something she might have received from someone else, it stuck in his mind.
“Anyway, let’s first just find this loot-cellar place. It is possible that we can negotiate a way to buy it back at a reasonable price…”
In the worst-case scenario, Subaru had one way to secure funds, although he was reluctant to use it. And he didn’t want to tell Satella until right before he had to.
As they walked, Subaru and Satella spent the next ten minutes talking about various ways they might be able to take back her badge, but nothing seemed to come together.
Now that they were in front of the place called the “loot cellar,” Subaru and Satella looked at each other.
“This place is a lot bigger than I imagined. Just how well can the market for theft be going these days?” Subaru said.
“I understand them calling it a cellar rather than a shed…if this place is filled only with stolen goods… Either way I’m not sure the people here have any hope of salvation,” added Satella.
Of course, as the loot cellar existed as a place to hold items until they were sold, it was unlikely it would be filled to the brim. It wasn’t a high-storied building, but it was wide enough to the point where it looked as though it could function as living quarters for a large number of people. The building was right up against a tall defensive wall, and was in the deepest part of the slums.
Re: Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Vol. 1 Page 6
