Vol 2 Chapter 12 – The Empire Asked Me for a Loan, So I Went on a Money-Spree

“Do you two have motivation or not? Which is it?”

““…S-sorry.””

After getting beaten down by Alisa and then thrown into the imperial capital’s holding cells for a night, Kitazawa Ryuji and Nanba Yosuke were recovered by Yunix again—and were in the middle of a lecture.

“To begin with, why pick a fight with someone you can’t beat? This time, your opponent was a monster said to be on par with an S-class adventurer—someone even called Yumeba’s rival, you know?”

“Ehh…”

“You never told us…”

Yunix hadn’t actually made contact with Alisa, but he knew of her.

More precisely, he didn’t know her as the adventurer Alisa, but as Alisa the ‘rival’ of Yumeba.

“You said you wanted to work as adventurers, so I gave you permission, but why didn’t you even look into something that even children in the imperial capital know? A little information gathering would have made it obvious.”

“Uh, well…”

“Sorry.”

Yes. Just as Yunix said, if they’d done even a little information gathering, they should’ve found out right away that Alisa had strength on par with an S-class adventurer.

But telling these two—originally shut-in, socially awkward types—to do proper information gathering in the first place is the real mistake.

They’re a pair who lack even basic adventurer common sense, like collecting information.

“Ugh. First the red-haired woman, and now the black-haired woman was a monster too. Is there some rule in this world that beautiful girls become monsters?”

“Ugh… this is unfair.”

“This world?”

Yunix didn’t miss that remark—made by the brown-haired one, Nanba Yosuke.

“What do you mean? You’re talking as if you came from some other world, not here.”

“Ah, yeah. We’re… right?”

“Uh, yeah. Huh?”

They hadn’t been specifically told to keep quiet, but only now did they realize they couldn’t put it into words properly.

Normally, guiding the souls of the dead and reincarnating them is the domain of a reincarnation god.

Earth’s god may have ignored that domain and forcibly reincarnated souls that died on Earth into another world, but she wasn’t careless enough to leave behind ironclad proof.

Earth’s god had put a lock on the cheat reincarnators, so they wouldn’t blurt out unnecessary things and expose her wrongdoing.

It was the kind of thing you’d expect from a god skilled at self-preservation.

“Huh? Huh?”

“Whaaat~?”

And because of that, Yunix ended up throwing away his biggest chance to obtain Earth knowledge.

(So these guys seem to have accepted some kind of restriction in exchange for power.)

Even so, Yunix became certain the cheat reincarnators were hiding something.

Meanwhile, as for Serina—who was aiming to break off her engagement with Yunix…

“Hmm. Today I don’t feel Lio-sama’s gaze.”

For the past few days, she’d been shut up in her room, dressed provocatively, eagerly waiting for Emilio to peek in on her.

“Um… are you sure Prince Emilio was actually peeking at you, Lady Serina?”

“There is no way I would mistake Lio-sama’s gaze! There’s absolutely no doubt—that was Lio-sama’s gaze!”

“I-I see…”

Serina’s maid suffered.

Should she blame Emilio for peeking at Serina, or should she blame Serina for dressing provocatively because she wanted to be peeked at?

(…Let’s not think about this.)

With a normal sense of decency, the maid chose to shelve the issue for now.

“It’s regretful, but it can’t be helped. Let us proceed with the broken engagement plan.”

“Prince Yunix’s bad reputation has spread through the palace quite well. If you directly appeal to His Majesty the Emperor soon, couldn’t you get the engagement annulled?”

“You could, but even if I break it off at this stage, I’ll only be forced into another engagement with some other gentleman. I want to be united with Lio-sama!”

“…Isn’t that impossible as long as Yumeba-sama exists?”

“That’s the problem.”

Even Serina understands that as long as Yumeba is around, the future where she ends up with Emilio won’t come.

But if she tried to remove Yumeba by force, Emilio would never accept Serina—and besides, removing Yumeba by force is unrealistic in the first place.

“Then we have no choice but to draw out a point of compromise from Yumeba-sama…”

“Would a young lady of House Saionji really compromise?”

“…That’s the problem.”

The day Serina’s wish comes true is still very, very far away.

◇◇◇

Progress was partial, but my smartphone analysis advanced, and I managed to build in a telepathy function so we could contact each other.

“Ohh. It feels kind of stylish—or maybe just easier to use.”

Of course I gave the first unit to Yumeba, and she was happy that she could place a telepathy call just by operating it in her hands.

Well, even with the old telepathy device, it was linked to Yume II, so if you asked, she’d connect you anyway.

What I really wanted was to be able to use all kinds of apps on the smartphone, but I’m nowhere near that far in the analysis.

Honestly, it only has telepathy built in, and it can’t even do email, so performance-wise it’s worse than a flip phone.

“By the way, I heard another unsettling rumor—do you know anything about it, Lio?”

“Are we about to get another war?”

The Alcian Empire doesn’t have room to breathe as it is, so if wars keep getting thrown at it nonstop in a short span, it’s a pain for us too.

“We still don’t know if it’ll become a war, but I heard this time it’s not neighboring countries around the Empire—it’s a faraway country preparing for war against the Empire.”

“Faraway… that would take months just to march—oh. The sea.”

“Yeah. The common thread is that they’re all coastal countries.”

True, even if they’re a bit distant, if they form a fleet and attack from the Empire’s ports, distance doesn’t matter.

“Is that the mastermind who formed the allied army?”

“That’s what some people are saying.”

“…So it was a two-layer plan.”

The original plan was to weaken the Empire with the allied army, then send in fleets to finish it off.

“They really do hate the Empire, or rather… the obsession with wiping it out no matter what is still alive and well.”

“It’s still just rumors, though.”

“Hm.”

I used map magic: World Map to check the coastal countries across the continent, and…

“Uwaah…”

In several countries, the sight of numerous ships that looked like warships was already in place.

“This is not good.”

“Seems like it won’t end as just a rumor.”

It was winter.

The continent is huge, so not every region gets cold, but winter in the Empire is definitely cold, so they probably won’t march during winter—still, it seemed safe to say they would attack eventually.

Most likely, they’d invade in spring.

“A naval battle, huh… We can’t exactly go out to intercept with propulsion magic: Water Jet.”

“At sea, it’s vague where the Empire’s territory even begins and ends. We’ll probably only be able to deploy after the enemy lands.”

It’s annoying, but House Saionji isn’t allowed to launch preemptive strikes in war, so we have to accept the enemy’s first move.

Even if we intercept at the port, we probably can’t reduce the damage to zero.

“By the way, what’s the Empire’s navy like?”

We could tell the port town we visited on our trip was still intact, so there hadn’t been sea-based invasion during the war with the allied army.

The land they carved away from the Empire came from invasions by neighboring land-adjacent countries—ports along the sea were fine.

So the navy should have been fine too, but…

“The ships are there, but the manpower isn’t. In the war with the allied army, marines were drafted in and a lot died, so there’s nobody left who can properly command the navy.”

“Ah. That’s why a trash count’s house could throw its weight around.”

That Mareliya Count House was never a family that should’ve been entrusted with administration, but since there weren’t other surviving noble houses, they were put in charge out of necessity.

By the way, we crushed that house properly, and that idiot woman is probably doing her best today too—in a place you’re happier not knowing about.

Apparently the successor administrator is a baronial house, and they’re doing a decent job.

“A navy, huh… Even if we train them now, it’ll be a drop in the bucket.”

“Training has started by His Majesty the Emperor’s order, but…”

“Naval combat is probably hopeless.”

Unlike fighting on land, fighting on ships lays bare the gap in experience.

A newly trained soldier, no matter how much training you cram in, can’t compete with veteran marines—there’s that kind of difference.

“Ah. So that’s why the Emperor wanted the magic ship.”

He asked for blueprints, so I submitted them, but craftsmen in this world can’t understand the science and technology behind it, so even if they copy the shape, they won’t be able to reproduce the engine and such.

And even if they work hard starting now, it’s hopeless to finish before the war begins.

“If only they’d avoid naval battles and just draw the enemy onto land—then we could handle it.”

“That’s probably ‘because the Empire’s prestige’ or something.”

Annoying as it is, if they let the enemy navy pass through and then say “we’ll leave it to House Saionji,” it would make the Empire look weak, and that would probably cause all kinds of trouble in other ways.

“Looks like there’ll be a lot of casualties in the next war too.”

“Even if we kill the mastermind now… it’s probably pointless.”

The fact that information had already leaked not only to the Emperor, but even to Yumeba, meant the plan was already in its final stages.

Killing the mastermind wouldn’t stop it.

The Empire would be forced to face a naval battle in an overwhelmingly disadvantageous situation.

While swelling its debt to absurd levels.

◇◇◇

And then one day, out of nowhere, Yumeba and I—and even Yukina-san—were summoned by the Emperor…

“…Sorry, but I need you to lend me money.”

“““…………”””

We got hit with a loan request.

For the Empire to try borrowing money from House Saionji—who it absolutely can’t stiff—means the situation is worse than I imagined.

For now, I handed over all the extra money I had, and Yumeba and Yukina-san also lent the Empire as much as they could.

“At a time like this… no, because it’s a time like this, I’m going to go make money outside the Empire.”

“As Alisa?”

“Yep. As an adventurer, I can operate outside the Empire.”

No matter how hard I work inside the Empire, if it’s just the Empire’s money circulating, it doesn’t mean anything—but if I earn outside the Empire and then lend that money into the Empire, it does mean something.

“I want to come too… but I can’t, can I?”

“Yeah. It’d be hard for Yumeba of House Saionji to operate outside the Empire.”

House Saionji is far too famous as the protector of the Empire.

And since Yumeba isn’t an adventurer, her ways to earn money are limited.

“Hmph. You’re coming home at night, right?”

“Of course. The place I always return to is right beside my beloved wife.”

“Yeah♪”

It’s the kind of cheesy line that makes even me want to question myself, but if it helps Yumeba feel at ease, I’ll say it as many times as it takes.

So, as usual, after seeing Yumeba off with hugs and kisses as she went to the Imperial Guard’s training, I teleported into some random country, but…

(With no connections in a country like this, I’ll have to rely on my adventurer plate that shows my rank.)

In a reasonably large country with a reasonably large capital, the only thing I can lean on is the title of “A-class adventurer.”

I passed entry inspection into the city by presenting the plate, then made my way forward while asking for directions to the Adventurers’ Guild—and what I arrived at was a guild building that didn’t look inferior even compared to the imperial capital’s.

A little nervous, I opened the door and stepped inside, and what awaited me was…

(It’s crowded.)

It was packed to a degree that didn’t even compare to the imperial capital’s guild.

(Right, it’s still morning. The adventurers are probably at the stage of taking requests before they head out.)

In regions where hunting grounds are far away, adventurers might leave before dawn or stay overnight, but here, monster territory is probably relatively close.

With that thought, I checked map magic: World Map, and sure enough, there were two or three areas that looked like monster territory spread out about two or three hours away on foot.

(Hm. If there are this many monster territories, then…)

And what I thought when I saw that was…

(One or two getting wiped out should be fine, right?)

In short, it was time to make money.

A few hours later.

Seeing the corpse of the territory guardian—the monster I’d killed in one of the monster territories I’d gone to hunt—guild staff froze with blank, stunned faces.

“Honestly, I’d call it gold-class at best. It wasn’t even an opponent I struggled with.”

“““No, no, no.”””

“Ah. Also, please buy the monsters I hunted in the monster territory too.”

I dumped out a huge pile of monsters from my dimensional storage item box—already processed by dismantling magic.

“““No, no, no, no, no.”””

“Then please appraise them for purchase.”

“Wait! Please! This won’t be done in a day or two! If you dump this here, all it does is cause problems!”

“Hmph. Then I’ll go hunt in the next monster territory and kill time—”

“Please! Wait! Listen to me!”

In the end, with the staff begging me with tearful eyes, I reluctantly put the monster materials back into my dimensional storage item box and gave up on going to the next monster territory.

Apparently, unlike the Yamata-no-Orochi Yumeba and I defeated, they can also purchase the territory guardian’s corpse, so with the bounty for freeing the monster territory included, it would come to about ten platinum coins.

Yeah. The staff asked me for an installment plan with tearful eyes, but still.

◇◇◇

The next day.

I reflected that I’d overdone it yesterday, so today I decided to hold back a little.

I entered a completely different country, in a completely different capital, and checked the locations of monster territories at the Adventurers’ Guild.

Apparently, there were four monster territories around here, and there were so many monsters that people were hoping the territories would be cleared.

(If that’s the case, I probably won’t get complained at.)

I planned to hold back, but it looked like even if I hunted enthusiastically, it would be fine.

A few hours later.

After I cleared two of the four monster territories, the entire staff dropped to their knees and begged, “Please, spare us.”

“Didn’t you say you had too many monsters and it was a problem?”

“There are limits—limits to everything!”

“This city can’t pay bounties for clearing two monster territories at the same time! And on top of that, we can’t buy two territory guardian corpses either!”

“Hm… Then I’ll keep the corpses with me, so tell me when you’re able to pay.”

“““Installments! Please, we beg you—installment payments!”””

Are installment payments some kind of trend at Adventurers’ Guilds?

◇◇◇

The day after that.

(I learned. If the guild doesn’t have money even after you clear a monster territory, it doesn’t help. In that case, I should hunt monsters that can be turned into money directly, then sell them.)

So I hunted about ten gold golems—golems said to be shot through with a great deal of gold—that appear in mines, and brought them to the Adventurers’ Guild.

“Please buy these.”

“““No, no, no, no, no.”””

“They’re golems with a ton of gold in them, so that means you can turn them into money right away, can’t you?”

“No! Even if we turn it into gold coins, there’s processing and labor involved! And even before that, ten gold golems’ worth isn’t ‘coins’—it’s a fortune!”

In the end, the staff bowed and begged again, asking for installment payments.

And on top of that, I received the title: Rock Giant Crusher, Golem Buster.

I’d already slain a dragon before, so I already had Dragon Killer, Dragon Slayer—this made it my second title.

Not that it helps me earn money.

◇◇◇

“This isn’t going as well as I expected.”

I sighed to Saria as I clinked out the money I’d earned onto the desk at the imperial capital’s Adventurers’ Guild.

“It looks like you’re earning a lot. What’s the problem?”

“This is actually only about one-tenth of what I earned. Every guild asks me for installments, so cash just never piles up.”

“No, no, no, no…”

Saria shook her head hard, refusing the premise.

“Just from what I can confirm, you have twenty platinum coins! Saying you ‘aren’t earning’ is basically picking a fight with adventurers!”

“A fight with adventurers, huh… Do adventurers have money?”

“Please don’t! I’m begging you!”

Looks like that’s a no.

“I thought being an A-class adventurer was a job where you could make a lot more money, but it’s harsher than I expected.”

“You’re already above S-class adventurers! An A-class adventurer can’t earn twenty platinum coins in a few days! Even an S-class adventurer risks their life to earn that kind of money!”

“…I see. So S-class adventurers have money.”

“Please don’t dooo thaaat!”

With Saria begging me in tears, I had to give up.

“So, after working hard for a few days, I’m able to lend an additional twenty platinum coins.”

“…Are you sure it was a good thing you never became Emperor?”

When I went to lend the Emperor more money, he said something strange.

“I have no interest in the throne.”

“…Right.”

The Emperor slumped his shoulders, looking utterly drained.

“Even if my eyes were blind, to misjudge such a remarkable talent… I can’t deny they’ll call me the Empire’s greatest fool of an Emperor.”

The Emperor muttered to himself, but I wasn’t interested, so I went home.