Shut-in Magician - Chapter 42

Chapter 042: Rare Beast Exchange

Feles was used to people and was a very sociable kid. He did things at his own pace, but didn’t get angry wilfully. However, he was sensitive to people who held ill-will towards Shiu. Or, perhaps because Shiu was troubled, Feles was openly glaring at Sofia. He was doing his best to be intimidating, “Ngyaa, Ngyaa!” He let out a strange cry and Shiu couldn’t help but want to laugh.

On the contrary, Sofia’s face twitched and she started talking very fast, “That kid, his name’s Feles, right? He’s still a kid. I heard that he’s only 3 or 4 months old.”

“…… He’s 5 months old, you know.” He couldn’t see where this conversation was heading and Shiu answered honestly even though he didn’t trust her.

But, her next words threw his thoughts out the window. “I want to exchange my Ruco with him.”

“What!?”

“I said! Ruco is also a Rufusrukus. She’s also a small beast mount type, so it’s what you’re looking for, isn’t it? I think that kid is a useless treasure to you. Give it to me.”

He was so surprised that he blanked out. He could also use the metaphoric expression of ‘his eyeballs popping out of his head’ in a situation like this. Shiu stared at Sofia in amazement and she stomped her feet strongly on the floor.

“Are you listening? He’s more than you deserve. This kid seems like he’ll have graceful features in the future. I don’t think Feles would have any use like Rufusrukus’, but if he’s beautiful then that’s fine. That’s right. He’s what I need!”

“You need?”

“That’s right…… I’m so irritated. You don’t even know anything. Don’t reply so stupidly!”

Feles mood got worse and worse, probably because of Sofia’s rage, or possibly because he understood what she was saying. Feles breathed heavily and his tail puffed up. Shiu petted Feles trying to calm him down and she kept talking, “This is a compromise! I’m telling you I want to exchange them, so you should respond, shouldn’t you? What’re you trying to do when I’m being this nice to you? That’s enough!”

Feles ruffled his puffed up tail and growled at the extremely high-pitched voice.

“Feles, calm down. It’s alright. I definitely won’t give you to this person.”

“Hey, You! Stop it. This kid’s mine!”

Rather than be angry at how she came, he was appalled. He was worried about how screwed up she was and if she wasn’t then someone must’ve been pulling the strings to this. Shiu protected Feles with spatial wall and then turned towards Sofia.

“You said you wanted to exchange them, but do you not love Ruco? You picked her up, didn’t you?”

“Love? Towards a beast mount? What are you saying? You’re so odd.”

“…… In other words, beast mounts are just 『beast mounts』to you, am I right?”

“You only spout out strange things. Weird kid. Did you misunderstand the guild’s explanation? Nah, you’re too naïve. Fine, then I’ll forgive you for everything up until now.”

Sofia snobbishly raised her chin and glared at Shiu as if she was looking down on him. But it was an unusual stance since they were both the same height.

“Instead, I’ll take that kid. I feel sorry for you, so I’ll give you Ruco in exchange. You should be grateful.”

“…… You, do you really think that? Mm, are you alright in the head?” Seriously, he’d asked in concern, but her face turned red and she yelled.

“What’d you mean?! What’s up with you?! Are commoner’s this stupid? Ah, whatever! This is why I don’t like commoners. The hell!”

Shiu gradually became scared as she stomped her feet around angrily. When Shiu thought about running away, the patrol guards came out from within the crowd of people.

Darrel was behind the patrol guards. He’d called them over. He approached Shiu and told him, “I heard the commotion after I split up with you. I came back because I was worried and saw that girl again. I panicked and went to search for the patrolmen. Luckily, there were some nearby so I brought them here.”

“You’re a lifesaver……”

“I gave them a brief explanation when I took them here. Another patrolmen was there and he went to call someone that knew about this situation ―――.”

“Oh, the patrolmen from that time?”

“We also talked about that, but Zafiro-san from the guild would wrap this up faster, right?”

Ah, Shiu understood. The girl shrieked while the two were talking, “That’s my Feles! That kid over there doesn’t deserve him!”

“But that beast mount is registered under his name.” An elderly patrolmen said calmly as if he was trying to calm her down.

But Sofia continued to shout in anger, “Li-ke I sid! I’m giving him another beast mount in exchange! Why don’t you understand!? This is why I hate uneducated people.”

She was treating the patrolmen as if they were idiots as well. The smile on the young patrolmen’s face quickly disappeared and was replaced with a serious look as if he was wearing a Noh mask.

“Hey…… Listen alright? Only nobles are worthy of having rare beasts. Not to mention, they’re necessary for people like me who have high MP. Magicians need rare beasts to protect them, and beast mounts do a better job at that than the other rare beasts. It’s national interest, ok? Do you understand? They’re not something commoners should have. However, I said that I would give you another rare beast in exchange for raising Feles up until now. Even if I say it’s gratitude, there’s no need for you to be a nuisance. Please think about it a little more. You should be able to understand now with my explanation no matter how much of an idiot you are.” Sofia said in an extremely wound up way which caused Shiu, the 2 patrolmen and Darrel to become dumbfounded.

Afterwards, they listened to Sofia’s rant (?), but reinforcements arrived with Zafiro leading so they moved to a different place, the Merchant Guild. When they arrived, they went to different rooms. The dispute was extremely dreadful. The noisy one was, of course, Sofia.

“It’s gotten late, is that alright?”

“Yes. I got in touch with them earlier.”

Darrel delivered a message to Bariado Tool Shop for him. He felt sorry for making Darrel leave when he’d accompanied him because he was worried.

“Even so, you got involved in a mess.”

“I’m sorry. I should have ran away when she found me.”

“It’s not your fault. We’ve had trouble with the Oberio House for other things as well.”

Hahaha, Zafiro laughed dryly. He looked tired. But, “On a different subject…” he bent forward and looked as if he was having fun. Zafiro continued to smile.

“Actually, it’s about the stall that you were running.”

“Ah, ok.”

“A lot of people asked about it a lot after the birth festival. They asked things like if you have a shop and if you don’t then they would like to invest in one for you. Some people even asked to buy the rights to sell your products if you were working away from here.”

“Huh?”

He was surprised, “Lunch was definitely busy, but I was only there for two days,” Shiu said and Zafiro smiled.

“The recipes were new and they caught the eyes of the merchants.”

“Speaking of which, some people kept coming back to buy more.”

“Quick-witted people are successful in business.”

“That’s amazing.”

They talked like this for a while and then a woman entered the room.

“The person in charge from the Adventurer Guild has arrived.”

“Ah, can you let them through?” Zafiro replied lightheartedly and the woman guided Chloe into the room. Zafiro had called her. They exchanged glances in greeting and she sat in front of Shiu.

“Good job today.” They were kind words from the bottom of her heart.

Shiu decided to go have dinner after the brief interview because it had gotten late.

Chloe said that she would treat him to dinner, so it seemed that she was making good of her promise. Since Zafiro was also there, they invited him to come along with them.

The tavern that she recommended had no problems with children and was lively and popular. When she was at work she had a stoic aura, but in private she liked bright shops.

30% of what they talked about at the tavern was ‘I’m sorry for getting you involved in something troublesome,’ and the rest was about ‘What will you do with your recipe, Shiu?’ It was very exciting.

Shiu didn’t want to open a store and the only reason he wanted to run a stall was ‘I want more people to enjoy rice’. He was happy when people told him that it was delicious and appreciated that there were people who wanted to spread the recipes that complimented rice.

The three thought about how best to do this.

Chloe and Zafiro were both workaholics and were very enthusiastic when Shiu proposed an ‘auction’.

Finally, they decided that it was good to negotiate the price of the recipe with shops. They also had an auction system in this world, but auctions affirming to certain rules were unusual. Shiu thought that someone whom ‘wanted to know the brilliance of rice and learn how to cook with it’ was good. He also wanted them to set the minimum and maximum bids, because it was better to give it to someone with common sense.

He explained the franchise system to them while he was at it. Zafiro wolfed his food down and Shiu talked about the advantages and disadvantages of the system as best as he could remember.

Because of that, it had gotten late and the two sent him home because they were worried. Shiu did try to refuse their offer, but they insisted on escorting him since he was still a child.

And the two received an angry exclamation from Emina for sending Shiu home late, “How could you take a young kid out this late!?”

The next day was the day he’d decided to take a break from guild work, but he woke up early like always.

He brought bread to the main house to share with everyone and Emina was already waiting for him while fidgeting. Laetitia was coming to visit in the morning to discuss the magic bags. They were going to study after she’d finished.

“Emina, aren’t you a little early?”

“It’s fine! I wonder if this is enough.”

She prepared the sweets and checked the drinks a lot of times. She looked like a girl in love. Old man Stan looked shockingly at Emina and Shiu smiled wryly.

“Shiu. Are you going to eat first?”

“Yes, I am.”

Shiu had prepared a salad and easy to digest soup for old man Stan since he didn’t eat much in the mornings. They ate together. Shiu was a growing child so he ate a lot. Emina ate the bread he’d prepared because she saw them eating.

“…… You’ll get fat,” old man Stan whispered. Emina didn’t hear it and Shiu continued, “It’s fine. Mm, there’s a nutrition called germ in the bread and it controls the calories. It isn’t too filling and Emina’s still young, so her metabolism is fast.”

“You have unusual knowledge.”

The two of them whispered to each other.

Translator: Blushy
Editor: HSM