Chapter 37

Enough time has passed since we started accepting the exchange of incense leaf peeps . There are no people coming .

Noswell has drastically lowered the price from what they are selling and advertises that they will accept exchanges based on two benor copper, but on the contrary, it may be that they are too cheap to be considered shady .

Benor copper is one of the magic ore substitutes for money that is recommended by the example chief .

In this village, approximately a handful of the size here is treated as equivalent to 200 yen in Japanese yen .

In other words, Noswell’s incense leaf cost 5,000 yen, and this one’s incense leaf cost 400 yen .

I didn’t think it was a bad idea to gobble it up at a low price .

Since price isn’t an issue, is it the same if you give away free samples?

We have to do something about this “I can’t move because I’m afraid of the Karlco family” atmosphere .

A man approached the stall here .

I thought it was only cold and disturbing, but there was no such atmosphere .

The man glanced at the line and then let out a huffy sigh .

Apparently, Noswell’s stalls were slow to negotiate, so they drifted over here out of numbness .

“…… if one bundle is two benor copper, then can I ask for four bundles with this?”

The man looks at me with a dried chunk of bow tied up with string .

I did it .

This may turn the tide .

”Yeah, that’s okay . Five bundles as a bonus…………………… . . ”

“Hey! You! I’ll remember your face! You know what’s going to happen!”

Noswell stands up and barks at us .

The man looked at Noswell, took a bunch of incense leaf to snatch from me, put down a chunk of dried meat and ran away .

“I told you I’ll remember your face! Damn it! I’ll make you regret it!”

Noswell screams, then clicks his tongue and sits wildly in a chair .

They got me .

He nailed it to me that if I buy a incense leaf from over there, he’ll consider me hostile to the Karlco family .

Now the hope of that line flow here has diminished considerably .

“Abel -san! As I thought it’s impossible! Let’s pull out!”

Just like Shibi says, should we move even now?

No, but you can’t do much damage to the Karlco family if you don’t hit the customer base directly .

The only thing to do is to persevere here and wait for the turning point .

“… It’s all right, Gizel should be able to bring back two secret weapons . ”

However, Gizel’s return is a little late .

I wonder if something happened .

“That Ortem, what is it? I didn’t hear anything about it . ”

“One side has the business prosperity magic . ”

To tell the truth, there is no magical basis for the spell, which is a spell for business prosperity .

The back of this Ortem was supposed to be carved with a specific magic circle, and I’ve tried to analyze it .

There were symbols and partial encryption that were not in the least meaningful way, and the analysis was extremely difficult .

I managed to investigate all the movements and functions of the magic, and discovered the horrible fact that nearly 80% of it was in a form that could not interfere with the magic at all .

The remaining 20% of the magic circle was also meaningless, only consumed by bouncing and spinning magic .

This is not good .

The refrigerator didn’t work, so I took it apart and found it was a chest with a light bulb on it .

Shine it on, chill it out .

There are many such pseudo-magical things happening in this world too .

But I love that kind of shady stuff, too .

Maybe it has a tremendous power that can not be understood by the current magic theory .

If you think about it, it’s quite romantic .

“…… does it have a meaning, that thing?”

“I, It’s better than nothing . I believe it has meaning, don’t you? Do you have a problem with that?”

“Brother! I’ve got it!”

Just in time, Gizel returned holding the two ortems .

“Gizel, well done! It sounds like you’ve been taking your time, did something happen?”

“I’m very sorry … The truth is, father caught me to clean up my brother’s coming-of-age ceremony… As for that one, I got Philo-san to help me out and managed to finish it quickly, so don’t worry!”

…… ohhhh .

Then, I wonder if I’m in the shape of a sister and the granddaughter of the patriarch who threw away the cleaning up of an adult ceremony and ran away .

I can imagine my tired father’s face .

I should apologize to Philo too .

“…… I’m, I’m sorry . Um… That ortem, put that in the corners of the carpet . ”

Giselle put the red Ortem on the far left and the blue Ortem on the far right .

The red one has the spell of business prosperity .

Blue Ortem has the power to interest animals .

Originally, it was used as a kind of trap or a decoy in hunting .

It’s not that the customers don’t come because they don’t stand out, but rather because they don’t come because they stand out .

“well… how are you…”

Giselle glanced around on the carpet, muddying her words .

She must have realized that the situation was not good .

“…as you can see, right?”

I may have licked the influence of the Karlco family a bit .

”But, when I was cleaning up earlier, Mr . Garia was advertising it! I also gave away a prototype that I had left out, and it seemed to be well received! They might be here soon!”

I’m not sure if it’s to cheer me up or not, but Gisele speaks up as if she’s talking .

I see, if that group of people comes, this situation may change .

“Hey, Give me one bundle . ”

“Yes yes… Wait…”

A kappa-headed young man with a grin and a creepy grin .

No matter how you look at it, it’s Noswell . Thank you very much .

He finally came to harass me by leaving his own stall out?

”No… . I didn’t know that I had succeeded in mass production . I’ll have to check later to see who was cooperating . Well, I guess I didn’t need to be alarmed at this rate . So, how do you feel about that, Abel? It looks like you put your store at this side to be spiteful, but it’s a total waste . ”

Noswell leans back and pulls his face closer to mine .

Shit, that’s just plain annoying .

To be honest, I didn’t expect to be so miserable .

Shall I turn this kappa into a cigarette butt dump?

”Just because you’re useless at the stall, you don’t have to come here to make fun of us, do you? What happened to the easy job that a dog can do with a yelping dog like that?　Have you finally been restructured?”

I also approached his face undaunted by him .

Noswell pulled his face away and rubbed his eyes with his sleeve . Apparently my hair got in his eyes .

Sorry, I don’t have a well-maintained haircut like you .

“Ha! Don’t get crunchy . My incense leaves are the result of my father’s inheritance of the Karlco family’s traditions and techniques, and he took a long time to sublimate them . If a kid who can’t even smoke a incense leaf is getting carried away, it’s like this . You could have seen it from the beginning . What, is this a gag? Hmmm?”

What the hell, you bastard!

You’re the one who made it hard for us to trade!

In the first place, the quality of the incense leaf wouldn’t matter when you’ve only established an exchange with one person .

I won’t allow you to make fun of the incense leaf that I made while coughing up blood without sleep or resting, even before you’ve smoked it .

“Tradition? Technique? To be clear, I can’t see the concept of that incense leaf! Why don’t you just shift it from a safe mold and wait for a better one to be made? The details are almost a no-brainer . No, I guess it’s because the individual differences in Ortem itself are too big to play with . Touching it poorly would make too much of a difference to the individual!　Because that’s how rough it is!

It’s clear that they’re not happy about supplying the magic . Incense leaves are going to be a living ortem . If you keep smoking magic from bad feelings and stress, even the leaves will taste bad . Is it a tradition at your place to cheat by forcibly overwriting it with a different approach than the original?　Why don’t you tell your father to start over at the root of things once…”

“Abel-san! Hold it! Hold it! Everyone is looking! It’s embarrassing!”

Shibi feathered me .

“Let go of me, squeaky! I’m going to smash his proudest plate!”

“Calm down! Calm down! I understand how you feel!”

I met Gizel’s eyes as she looked at me in a daze .

“Gizel! Peel Shibi off!”

“Wait Gizel-chan! You don’t have to obey that! Help me stop Abel-san! Wait, really! Don’t touch my sides! I’m a little flattered, but later! Please!”

No matter how much it took, Shibi didn’t even flinch .

In the meantime, I started to cool off .

No, losing your cool will only make the situation worse .

“C’mon, do the street vendors here beat up the customers?”

Noswell said, taking out the magic ore containing the magic circle from his pocket .

The Karlco family is not supposed to use any demon ore coins, but apparently one of their cronies received them by mistake .

He was fussing over it earlier, but I could hear him .

”If it’s Akore copper, it’s five bundles…”

“I said one bundle is all I need”

Noswell said, then licked the akore copper that he had taken out, sticking it to my forehead .

Then noswell grabbed one bundle of incense leaf and pulled away from me with a teasing laugh .

I was so angry that my thoughts stopped completely for a few seconds .

“What have you done to my brother? Let me go, Shibi-san! I can’t kill that guy!”

Gizel blurted out first .

“Calm down! Calm down, really! Just calm down! If it doesn’t go away, you can hit me later, but in the meantime, count to ten seconds before you get angry! Because that alone makes a huge difference!”

Noswell unwrapped and removed the incense leaf and slammed it to the ground .

Then, with his foot, he stomped on it again and again and again and again .

“Mwahahahahahahahahahaha!”

Noswell looked back at us lightly and then walked back to his stall with a loud laugh .

“Oh, I feel so refreshed!　Hey, you guys, your hands stopped moving, If you keep going like that, it won’t be over by the end of the day, incompetent!”

For nearly 30 seconds after that, the three of us were speechless .

He simply put the killing intent on his gaze and stared at Noswell’s back .