Ch.49Earning, So Enjoying: NPC. (1)

Haven’t we all had that experience? Buying a lottery ticket around 6 PM on Saturday, watching your favorite show, and then going to bed.

And before falling asleep, you fantasize.

You imagine that the lottery ticket sleeping in your wallet is actually the winning one, and tomorrow morning—or maybe Monday morning—you’ll take it out, check the numbers, and then call your boss to say, “You bastard! Have a nice life!!” and quit your job. That hopeful fantasy where Monday blues will never plague you again! Haven’t we all done that?

But this actually happened to me. Damn, there’s no company here to call. Wait, there’s not even a phone. Actually, I’ve never even had a job here.

“What should I use this money for?”

“Do you have to spend it all? Just buy a decent carriage and horse, get Ira some prettier clothes, and keep the rest, don’t you think?”

“Skewers! Ice cream!!”

“…With this much money, we don’t need to travel anymore. Actually, do we even need to continue being adventurers?”

[Personally, I recommend purchasing champion or boss-level magic stones to invest in me. I guarantee it will be tremendously helpful in protecting Lady Ira. You might even gain additional skills.]

While I was sleeping, Ragni and Rey had converted all the jewels they’d taken from that woman into cash.

Apparently, they had originally planned to go with Gor, but Gor was strangely disobedient and refused to leave my side after holding Ira.

Because of that, they couldn’t move all the heavy jewels and gold at once and had to make two trips. When I asked Gor about it:

[The demon tried to attack master by activating the [Power of Greed].]

Ha. Seriously? We made her swear on a magical contract not to touch us, but she tried to attack us the moment we left? I wondered if I should hunt her down and kill her.

But Gor said he blocked it with [Mimicry], and the woman was so terrified by her misunderstanding that she probably wouldn’t attack again.

Why are you so good at your job? Huh? Is my heart fluttering a bit?

“Hmm. Twenty million can. That’s too much money. It doesn’t feel real.”

In my previous life, that would be 200 million won. Not the kind of money someone like me who only did part-time jobs would ever see.

“Want me to put it in perspective? It’s enough to buy 66,600 skewers at 300 can each, with money left over.”

“Skewers!! 60,000 of them!! Wow~!! Big brother!! Skewers! Let’s have ice cream too!”

“Ira, if you eat 60,000 skewers, you’ll turn into a little piggy.”

“Eek!! N-no! I want to eat skewers, but I don’t want to be a pig!!”

I couldn’t help but smile as Ira buried her face in my chest, insisting she didn’t want to become a pig. Both Rey and Ragni were silently laughing too.

But seriously, what should we do? At least tonight’s dinner of skewers and ice cream is already decided.

“If you don’t know what to do with it, how about buying a nice carriage and staying at a good inn—no, a good hotel? The security at this inn was ‘very very’ poor.”

Hmm. That demon first came to this inn yesterday, and it’s obvious the innkeeper was the one who handed over our information to her.

I understand why Ragni wants to leave this place, and I agree. However…

“If we don’t deposit this money somewhere, I’ll be too nervous to move around.”

“Huh? Deposit the money? Is that possible?”

Well, I’m not sure. There weren’t any banks in the game, though there was an episode in EP6 [Magic Engineering City Aiti] about creating spatial boxes, but that’s much later.

Of course, in my previous life, there was a personal storage system in the game, so I never had to worry about losing money, but this is reality now. Is there nothing like a box that only I can open?

Reality means there’s no robot cat to cry to for help.

Thinking about it simply, why did that demon woman carry around so much money and jewels? The carriage itself was her wallet and safe.

Sigh, should I follow Ragni’s suggestion and buy a luxury carriage to store the money? But how much would such a carriage cost…

“The kind the mayor was riding would cost about 15 million can, not including the horse.”

“…That’s rejected.”

In my previous life, I drove a used Morning car, and now I’d be a Porsche owner in this world? My hands would shake so much I’d crash into a utility pole. Absolutely not.

“Well, if that’s too expensive, a normal carriage costs about 500,000 can. One with a roof and good ride quality would be around 2 million. Without the horse, of course.”

“The price suddenly dropped a lot. But Ragni, where do you learn all this stuff?”

“Huh? Isn’t this common knowledge? How could a royal who needs to understand the lives of her people not know such things?”

What? In my previous life, there were plenty of people who didn’t even know bus or taxi fares.

Wait, what? As Ragni looks at me with eyes that say this is basic knowledge, my sense of common sense crumbles. Am I the one who’s wrong?

“I agree with Jack that even if we buy something or move somewhere, the amount of money is too large. If someone finds out we’re carrying this much, we’ll definitely become targets. We might be fine, but…”

Rey ignored my confusion and looked with slightly anxious eyes at Ira, who was still in my arms, wanting to eat skewers but not wanting to become a pig.

Right. Even if we carried 200 million instead of 20 million, honestly, there wouldn’t be many people who could become our enemies.

But for Ira, even those who aren’t our enemies could be threats and dangers. We definitely need to reduce this money somehow.

“Hmm. Let’s go back to what we were talking about earlier. Depositing the money.”

“Huh? Is there such a method?”

“There is. It’s not a common method, but it’s possible in this city. It’s only possible in large cities. The withdrawal process might be a bit inconvenient, though.”

Ragni shook her head as if there was no other choice and stood up. Gor had already put all the money inside himself. Wait, can Gor act as a wallet? Hold on, don’t tell me you…!!

Help me!! Goremon!!

[Even after removing the acid, slime mucus still remains, which could cause the bills to decay.]

“Let’s move to another inn first.”

Let’s get out of here before all the money disappears!!

*

“Why do you two refuse to get two separate rooms?”

“I should be asking why we need two rooms when one room with three beds is cheaper and perfectly sufficient. It’s a waste of money.”

You’re a princess, woman. Has becoming a slave made her think like a commoner? Rey, say something…

“That’s right. One room is better! From now on, just one room! And I think we should gradually reduce the number of beds too!!”

“Why? So you can sleep on the floor?”

“Haah!!”

Don’t blush, it’s really off-putting.

To be honest, until now, we’ve all slept together because we couldn’t afford separate rooms.

In rooms with two beds, Rey and Ragni would share one, and I would sleep with Ira. Sometimes we’d even get rooms with just one bed, and I’d sleep in a chair while the three of them would squeeze onto the bed with Ira in the middle.

At first, Ragni complained about the terrible quality of bedding she’d never experienced in her life, but she adapted quickly, saying it was surprisingly pleasant(?).

But now that we have money and have moved to a larger, nicer hotel, I wanted to get another room for the women to sleep together, but…

“Even I’d prefer to avoid sleeping on the bare floor. I’d like to try it once, but I think it would be difficult to move the next day. I’ll pass.”

No one was forcing such hardship on you, Ragni.

But why are you twisting your body like that? Why are you looking at Rey enviously? Seriously, do you all want to be scolded?

“…Be gentle the first time you scold me.”

“Gulp. M-me too…”

“Aaaah! You crazy women!! Shut up!!”

Are you insane?! There’s a child here, why are you acting like this…!!!

[Lady Ira ran to the bed and fell asleep immediately.]

“What?! No! How did she fall asleep so quickly?!”

[She rolled around on the extremely fluffy bed and fell asleep.]

My only escape route, Ira, has fallen asleep. These women knew this would happen and that’s why they’re acting like this?!!

“If you don’t stop, I’ll really leave you both here?! You have plenty of money now. Should I just give you some and end our journey?!!”

“Well, let’s go deposit the money. The timing is perfect now. Ira has eaten well and fallen asleep.”

“Where exactly are we going that makes this time so good? I’m feeling a bit uneasy.”

Haha, hahaha!! These crazy women act like they didn’t hear my threat to leave, or rather, they completely ignored it and changed the subject.

What should I do with them? They’re not even trying to hide it anymore? I’m going to lose my mind!!

“Hehe. You’ll see when we get there. Oh, right, Jack.”

“Haaa. What.”

“Can you handle alcohol?”

“…What?”

“Alcohol? Are we going somewhere that sells alcohol?”

A place that sells alcohol and also stores money? Is there such a place? I never saw anything like that in the game.

Besides, my life is already difficult enough without adding alcohol to the mix.

Well, still.

“I can drink, yes. But where are we going that makes you ask that?”

“That’s good. It’s my first time going there too, but from what I know, it’s a place with alcohol and ‘women’.”

“…What?”

“…Gulp. R-Ragni. Where exactly are we going? When you put it that way, it sounds very excit—I mean, concerning.”

Right, I’m concerned too.

I’m not excited, just concerned. Besides, is it okay to let them drink? I never saw them drinking in the game.

Wait, there’s no age restriction here.

“Hehe. Don’t be so worried. We’ve all had a stressful day. When we get there, we’ll be able to relax completely. At least with me there, you don’t have to worry about losing anything. Come on, let’s go.”

Dismissing our concerns as groundless, Ragni started moving, and I left the sleeping Ira with Gor and followed her.

Sigh, I’m already worried about the heavy purse, and now where are we going that she talks like that?

With more than half my mind filled with unease, I followed her and…

“Pop! Pop! Master! Don’t let me sleep tonight!!”

“Nyaa~n I’m not a monkey~ Where in the world would you find such a pretty monkey~? Meow!”

“This is insane.”

I ended up writing a page of dark history that makes me want to lose my mind.