Rice

  Wataru wanted to somehow give Nayuta and Setsuna some rice, so I decided to cooperate just a bit.

  “Oi Wataru, a little help here?”


  “Ah, coming.”


  I had Wataru bring a bag filled with husked rice out from the warehouse into the kitchen.

  And then Kinue-san turned them into rice balls.

  Then, I—


  “We made rice balls out of some rice Wataru brought, want to eat them? We’ll just treat it as part of your free meals, so go ahead.”


  With that, I gave them to Nayuta and Setsuna.

  They looked like something surprised them, but I didn’t lie.

  Wataru was also surprised by seeing them. Why?

  “Wow, this is the legendary rice that everyone in Wakoku has only ever heard in legends. The ultimate item, onigiri…!”


  “Is it alright for us to eat them…? They would sell for a high price if we brought them back to Wakoku.”


  No, they’ll go bad on the way there… ah, maybe they have [Storage]?

  “Om, nom… un, it’s delicious, but it’s not that good. Maybe genuine Wakokuans would have a different impression of it? I’d expect nothing less of something that has been passed down by Hero-samas…”


  “If you want, why not buy a bag of rice? A hundred gold should be enough.”


  “… How much is ‘a bag’?”


  “This much.”


  I held up the bag.

  A single bag is ten kilograms. I tried out overcharging them by asking for a hundred gold (equivalent to around a hundred million yen), but will they buy it?

  “A hundred gold coins… that’s expensive for a single bag…”


  “Hero-sama, by the way, how much are these wholesale?”


  “U-umm… one bag is ten gold coins.”


  Asked for the wholesale price, Wataru answered with the price he pays.

  Incidentally, this guy’s buying a bag of this every month despite having a debt. He seems to be halving it with Haku-san though.

  “Such a markup.”


  “Oi oi, the number of people that can buy this is limited, you know? Also, resale isn’t allowed. Wanting to sell it out of the country is a ridiculous thought. You can’t miss this chance to get it yeah?”


  “… Twenty gold.”


  “Out of the question. A hundred and ten.”


  “It went up!?”


  “It goes up with my mood, didn’t you know that? I gotta make a profit.”


  There’s no other suppliers, so I can be as bullish as I need in negotiating.

  To say it another way, I don’t really mind not selling it. It’s not like it’ll rot and it’s not taking up storage space. DP is super convenient.

  “Well, it’s not like I have to sell it. Well, guess you don’t want it.”


  “W-wait! … Th-thirty gold!”


  Nayuta called out when I started putting away the bag of rice. However, I still haven’t raised the price enough.

  “… I’ll assume this talk never happened.”


  “Forty coins, t-that’s my maximum… could I talk to my boss? … Immediate cash is impossible.”


  “Well, sure. I’ll give you it ahead of time. I’ll set the preferred price as forty gold coins as a minimum… The talk will go faster with the actual thing yeah? I’ll send them a bag a month from now on according to how much they pay alright? Tell them to think over it carefully.”


  With that, I handed the bag of rice to Nayuta… it was heavy, so Setsuna picked it up.

  “Don’t you think that we’ll run away with it?”


  “It’s alright. I’ll just add a hundred gold coins to Wataru’s debt if that happens. Sound good, Wataru?”


  “H-hey, Kehma-san, could you come here for a sec?”


  Wataru called me over, so I followed him.

  “Why’re you wanting to increase my debt!?”


  “The whole thing about giving rice to Wakoku was brought up by you after all. Go ahead and be the guarantor as well. Ah, if you don’t want to, I don’t mind not giving them even a single grain of rice. That way’s easier for me.”


  Moreover, there’s no problem even if they escape.

  “… Understood. I can get a hundred gold in a month… they definitely won’t run away though!”


  How very Hero-like of him, being able to get a hundred gold in a month.

  “Why do you trust those two so much even though you just met them for the first time today?”


  “Well, it’s cheap considering the fee for information about Wakoku. If everything works out, it’ll have been free. I don’t know if they’re genuine or not, but they did show me their passports and identification.”


  I see, so he thought about that too?

  By the way, their passports were lacquered black with Wakoku’s golden crest on it. It’s relatively extravagant.

  With that, our discussion ended so we headed back.

  “I’ll be adding a hundred gold coins to Wataru’s debt if you run away. Make sure to pay if you do not want to lose the Hero’s faith in you.”


  “Definitely! Please Nayuta-san, make sure not to run away with it, alright?”


  “Ah, un… understood. I can’t betray Hero-sama’s faith.”


  Incidentally, one bag of rice is 50 DP. I’ve gotten used to overcharging recently, haven’t I?

  “Well, if you’re able to find a direct route rather than procuring it through the empire, you can end the deal right then.”


  “How gracious. Hmph, we’ll find it right away. There has to be a route that they use to get it in the first place.”


  Be that as it may, it’s coming from right here.

  If you’re able to find somewhere other than here, I’d love to hear where it is.

  *

  Done with introducing the three of them, I went back to my room as the village chief.

  Wataru won’t go off blabbing his mouth after I said that much stuff to him, and more importantly, Nerune’s monitoring him.

  “And now we have another source of easy money.”


  “You’re so good at making money, Kehma. Reliable!”


  And for some reason, Rokuko dropped by. The timing was so good that it felt like she was watching me through the monitor the whole time, but I didn’t say anything in particular about it.

  “But still, those sisters, they were Wakoku spies?”


  “They weren’t exactly trying to hide it, so maybe they’re ninjas.”


  “Ninja? Is that the name of some secret service?”


  “Well, that’s a possibility too. It’s the name of an occupation associated with the Mikado and Daimyo of Japan.”


  I just gave her a simple explanation of it for now. I said that they were shadows specializing in intelligence gathering and craftiness.

  “… Ninjas! Shuriken, caltrops, smoke bombs… ninjutsu!”


  “By the way, there’s shinobi too. They’re much more pragmatic.”


  “Ah, that’s okay.”


  What’s okay?

  “Haah, but that’s a bit refreshing. Those sisters are actually ninjas… that aside, they’re Wakoku’s spies. In that case, we don’t need to fire them then!”


  “… Well, handling them will be easy enough if they’re gathering information that openly and we can even exchange rice with them. But there’s still an important point remaining.”


  “… The hermaphroditism?”


  “It’s not a problem if she was just born with that body. Rather why’d you say that? There’s something more important.”


  “Well, Kehma’s been watching them for a while now, so I was wondering if you had a preference for it or something. I wouldn’t lose in terms of boobs, but I don’t have anything down here… would it be better if I grew one too?”


  “You absolutely shouldn’t.”


  “It’s not like I could even if you wanted me to, it’s not like I’m Kehma.”


  “Like I could do something like that…. ah, I do have [Super Transformation] huh. Yep.”


  There’s a restriction that the thing I want has to exist though. Ah, we went off topic.

  “So what’s the important thing?”


  “DP, her DP. The elder sister’s daily DP is 0, remember?”


  “Ah, that was a thing, huh!”


  Right. The mystery of why Setsuna’s daily DP was 0 still remained.

  … And yet Rokuko forgot such an important matter. Maybe it’s a reaction from her doing her best recently? That’s relieving.