- (Anna’s POV) –

I left the adventurer guild a few minutes ago. They told me that my guild card would be ready tomorrow morning… And according to the location of the sun, the time should be approximately 3PM.

I wonder what I can do now…~

What I need the most now is money. I don’t want to depend too much on Alice’s house and I also wish to buy what I want!

And the best way to make money with what I have… is selling the things that I don’t need from my inventory! But I wonder where I can sell them, I don’t think that a random merchant will buy random stuff…

Oh, I know! I will try to ask at the Merchant Guild if they know someone that is buying all kind of stuff! While thinking about it, I feel someone approaching me from behind.

“Excuse me, Onee-san, can you give me some money, pretty please?” (boy)

A boy that looks like 8 years old came to me and asked me that… Why is a boy this small begging for money in the street?! Well, let’s jump on this occasion to get some information!

“Do you know where the merchant guild is? I can give you money if you tell me!” (Anna)

His face instantly lit up. So cute!~

“Ah yes! I know where it is! It’s not very far from here. Follow me Onee-san, I can guide you!” (boy)

Oh! I was not expecting him to guide me but it’s good for me! I follow him until we reach a large building built with a mix of stone and wood.

“This is the Merchant Guild!” (boy)

“Thank you! You are very kind! Here is the promised money!” (Anna)

I give him 1 silver coin and his face lit up again. I swear I can see dog hears behind his head!~

“Ohh! Thank you very much Onee-san!” (boy)

“Where are you living? Are your parents okay for you to beg money in the street?” (Anna)

What kind of parents would let a boy this small become a beggar??

“I’m living in the orphanage over there!” (boy)

He points at an old building a few hundred meters away.

“The headmistress said it’s too dangerous to go out, but I sneaked out because I want to help her to make money!” (boy)

I see… that’s how it is…

“Alright, thank you for guiding me, I might visit your orphanage later if I have time!” (Anna)

I say that, then I enter the Merchant Guild building.

Inside the building, there are several tables where people are talking about business. A clerk come toward me and ask,

“Hello young lady, welcome to the Merchant Guild, what’s your business here?” (clerk)

“Hello, I would like to ask where I can find someone who might be willing to buy some exotic items.” (Anna)

“Sir Floyd is doing this kind of business; he is buying all kind of items then he transports it and resell it to other merchants. You are lucky because he coincidently happens to be here today. Follow me to this room.” (clerk)

I enter a room and sit in front of the clerk.

“May I look at the items before calling him? There is a lot of people calling for him, so he wants us to call him only if the item is worth his time.” (Clerk)

Well, it’s pretty obvious. I take a few gold coins (from the game) from my bag and place it on the desk between us. I asked Eleonora to give me an empty bag; I don’t need it but it’s to hide the fact that I have an inventory. He analyzes the coin for a few seconds and say,

“Mhh, interesting. It might be useful. I will call him, stay here.” (clerk)

**********

5 minutes later, a skinny man in his thirty enter the room and sit in front of me.

“Hello, my name is Floyd, I’m glad to meet you. I heard that you have something interesting to sell, may I ask what it is?” (Floyd)

I point at the few gold coins on the desk.

“Those are gold coins from my home country, I would like to trade them for money from this country.” (Anna)

“Mhh, I see, those coins are 2 times larger than the gold coins of our country, but I never saw this currency.” (Floyd)

“It’s not surprising, it’s very far away, and my country rarely trade with other countries. I would be the one surprised if you already saw this currency, haha.~” (Anna)

Well, I have to lie once more but it can’t be helped, right? I don’t want him to suspect me and think that I did something illegal or something.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter where it come from. This currency can’t be used here but those coins are large and I’m pretty sure that I can find some merchants who would be interested to have pure gold as material.” (Floyd)

He put back the coin on the desk and continue,

“Even if it’s 2 times larger than a gold coin, it’s forbidden to create money without the king’s permission. Also, it will cost money to destroy the coins to recover the material. I can offer you 50 silver coins for each of your coins. What do you think about it?” (Floyd)

It’s not a bad deal at all! 50 silver coins is approximately 3 weeks of salary for an average commoner. But let’s try to negotiate a bit more.

“70 silver coins each. I have a lot more coins in my bag.” (Anna)

“I won’t go higher than 60 silver coins for each. How many do you have?” (Floyd)

“Deal for 60 silver coin each! I have thousands of them, but I don’t plan to sell everything right now. Tell me how much you want, and I will see.” (Anna)

“It’s dangerous to bring THAT much gold with you as a young lady you know?” (Floyd)

He looks at me with a worried look.

“Haha, don’t worry, I don’t look like it, but I know how to defend myself.~ So how many coins do you want?”

“Mhh, I’m still not sure if I can find someone that will buy it from me, so I don’t want to take too much risk. I will buy 300 of them right now, but I might buy more if I find an interested merchant.” (Floyd)

It sounds like a good amount. I don’t want to sell everything right now because I might need it in the future. I plan to open a company so I might need gold as a material, I might also find a better deal than this one.

“Alright, it sounds good to me.” (Anna)

I take 300 golds coin (from the game) from the bag (it’s from the inventory in reality) and put it on the desk, we spend approximately 5 minutes to count everything. During this time, he also brought 180 gold coins (from this country).

“Ok, I have finished to count everything. I also have a magic item that might interest you.” (Anna)

I take out the magic item and show it to him. He tilts his head because of the unfamiliar shape; I giggle a bit seeing his reaction.~

“May I ask what it is?” (Floyd)

“This is a magic item with a cooling effect. When you turn it on, it sends fresh wind toward a certain direction. It’s something that might be useful when it’s hot.” (Anna)

Yup, it’s a small fan. Its size is approximately 10 centimeters in diameter.

“There is a monster core inside and it’s fully charged with mana. There is enough mana to make it last at least 1 year for a regular use. But don’t worry, it absorbs the mana in the air so it should work indefinitely except if you turn it on 24/24h. You can also charge it by putting your hand on top of it, it will automatically drain your mana. Here, I will make a demonstration look~.” (Anna)

I turn the fan on and point it toward him.

“Ohh! It’s really refreshing! I’m sure several nobles will be interested by this magic item! For how much money do you want to sell it?” (Floyd)

I don’t know at all about the price, but let’s try to ask for a huge amount first and go down later.

“100 gold coins sound good to me.” (Anna)

“Deal! Here they are!” (Floyd)

Wow, he didn’t even try to negotiate. Was the price that I asked lower than the actual price? Well whatever, this is something useless to me anyway since I can use my own magic to cool myself. It was pretty useless in the game aswell, but people made those kinds of item to experiment and train in order to make a better item later.

“Alright, I count 100 gold coins! It was a pleasure to have business with you. I hope that we can meet again!” (Anna)

“Yes, it was also my pleasure.” (Floyd)

His business is really interesting for me. I plan to open a huge company that sell several items. He might be someone that will furnish the raw material or buy the items that I sell. I really hope I can count on him in the future.

We shake our hands and I leave the Merchant Guild with the 280 gold coins from this world, hehe~

It’s actually a HUGE amount of money. An average commoner has to work for 33 years approximately to get it!!

But for me, it’s not enough. I have a lot of projects in mind and I will need a good amount of money to make it real. Furthermore, this is money that I got for selling items from the game; I need a way to make a lot of money in this world without relying on my inventory. What I have in my inventory from the game is not infinite so it will be empty if I’m not careful.

I look at the sun, it looks like it’s approximately 4PM according to my analysis. I have a bit of time before dinner so let’s visit the orphanage like I promised to the boy from earlier.

From what I heard from the boy, it sounds like the orphanage has a financial crisis. I want to somehow help them if they need it and there are 2 reasons for me to help them.

First, I like kids and I love to see them smiling and in good health.

Furthermore, I want to find some talents and eventually employ some kids for my company. It might sound evil but both side profit so it’s fine, right?~ I would of course pay them correctly and they would get a legal and decent job, so everything is good, right?~

Well, it would be for later. First, let’s check the situation and try to make a good impression on them.

I walk toward the old building that the boy pointed earlier.

There is a small garden in front of the building, and I can see several kids playing. Their clothes are ragged, they must be really poor, uh. Also, the building is old and there is a lot of broken part and small hole here and there.

One of the kids is staring at me. I recognize him, it’s the boy that I saw earlier! He run toward me and say excitedly.

“Onee-san! You came!” (boy)

“Oh! Hello again! May I meet the one in charge of you?” (Anna)

“Of course! Follow me, onee-san!” (boy)

((A/N: For those that don’t know “Onee” is the Japanese way to say “big sister” and “san” is a suffix that you add for politeness. I will use a lot of those in the story, because it’s cute and I’m used to see them in many novels.))

The boy brings me inside the orphanage. Yup the interior looks very old too. Then I see an old lady playing with 2 other children.

“Headmistress! The beautiful onee-san came to visit!” (boy)

“Ohh! Welcome! What’s your name?” (Headmistress)

“Anna. Pleased to meet you!~” (Anna)

“Welcome Anna-chan! I heard from Rudy that a beautiful onee-san gave him some money in the street. Thank you for taking care of him!” (Headmistress)

So, the boy’s name is Rudy? Besides, the headmistress looks nice and she really cares for the kids. Let’s try to get more information about this place.

“Hehe, I promised to visit! I heard from him that you have some problem with money and this building looks quite old too.” (Anna)

The headmistress lowers her head with a sad face.

“Well… Yes. This orphanage exists since more than 80 years. I used to be a child from this orphanage before taking the role of the headmistress… The orphanage used to be way better in the past and it always worked thanks to the donations from the citizens of the town. However, less and less people are donating, and it’s always a small amount like copper coins… I’m taking care of all children while my daughter is working in a nearby store and give more than half of her salary to the orphanage. Thanks to her, we barely have cheap food, cheap clothes for all the children and a ceiling even if the building is full of holes.” (Headmistress)

Wow, it’s even worst than I thought! It must be hard to take care of all those kids alone while being at least 50 years old…

“Mhh, I see… Even if I look like this, I’m quite good in magic so I should be able to do something about the holes in the building.” (Anna)

“Well, that would be helpful, but I don’t want to bother y-“ (Headmistress)

I cut her mid-sentence,

“It’s fine! It doesn’t cost me anything and I have time!” (Anna)

“Thank you very much, we will be in your care then.” (Headmistress)

She bows, then she shows me every hole in the building, and I fill the holes using magic. All the children are following us and watching me with sparkles in the eyes during the procedure.

The operation took approximately 1 hour. And there are no holes remaining in the building now!~

“Alright! It’s done!” (Anna)

I turn my head and I see a lot of children looking at me. The youngest one looks like 3 years old, and the oldest one looks like 15 years old. I heard that they leave the orphanage to find a job after they become 15. In this world, 15 is the age when you are considered an adult.

“I also want to donate some money, here there are 100 silver coins. You can use it to buy clothes, food or whatever you want!” (Anna)

I already prepared the amount and put it in my pocket before entering the orphanage. I give silver coin instead of gold coin because it might be dangerous for them to go out with a gold coin. Those silver coins come from my trade with Floyd, I asked him to trade some gold coins to silver coins for an easier use.

The headmistress reluctantly accepts the money. She might think that it’s too much, but it’s fine for me, I’m only investing on a bigger project!~

“Thank you very much, Anna-chan, for everything that you did to us.” (Headmistress)

The headmistress thanks me while bowing. Then she turns toward the children.

“Alright everyone! Give your thanks to Anna!” (Headmistress)

Then all the children turn to me, bow, and say at the same time:

“”””Thank you Anna-oneesan”””” (All the children)

“You are welcome!” (Anna)

Then I smile at them and say,

“I will be leaving for today, it’s soon the time for dinner! But I will visit again another day!” (Anna)

I will ask them for the job another day, I still need to make more preparation.

I leave the orphanage and buy all kinds of food at the market: meat, vegetables, and spices.

Then, I go back to Alice’s house and I find Eleonora.

“Eleonora? May I borrow the kitchen for one hour or two?” (Anna)

She is the one that asked me to call her by her name and drop all honorific. There is still 2 or 3 hours before dinner so I would like to cook food for 100 people at least and I will keep everything in my inventory. My inventory has a ‘frozen time’ function, so I can keep food for a year, and it will never rot.

“Of course, Anna-chan!” (Eleonora)

By the way, I lived alone on Earth, so I learnt to cook over the time, and I must say that I became pretty good at it!~

I proposed to Alice’s family to cook for dinner since I was already in the kitchen. The meal is a mix of meat and vegetables with spices on it. Nothing original, but I still did my best!~

Everyone complimented my food. So, it seems that the citizens of this world enjoy the way we cook on Earth!~

After dinner, I gave some advice to Alice to train her magic for approximately 1 hour.

Then, I finally went to bed. It was a long and busy day!

But tomorrow will be busy aswell!