Volume 6 - CH 15

Chapter 15 – Luxury Liner’s of Concern and Balance Inquiry

The barrier experiment was over, and they returned to the Southern City. The members of the Girasole, who had not been to the Lutto in a long time, were pleased with the food from the vending machine corner that I had repatriated for them, took a shower, and left.

Thank goodness the Girasole was there today. Ines said she had only heard about Paris-san from stories but had never seen him before. Felicia said she didn’t even know he existed.

If she had seen the attack of such a monster without prior knowledge, I am sure she would have been freaked out. The whole seawater thing launched the Lutto into the air is…

Well, the bottom of the ship is in contact with seawater, so I guess I can see how launching the entire ship with seawater would help, but how can a spear launch seawater? I don’t understand.

“What if we were on the Lutto and the ship was launched as Paris-san did?”

“Well, I don’t think we’d have a problem if it were that high up, would we? If you are worried about that, you can ask Felicia to set up a barrier inside the ship. That way, if we bump into something, we’ll be safe, and you’ll have time to call up the big ship.”

“Ah, I see. Felicia, can I ask you to do that?”

“Yes, I’ll make sure everything is covered.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Maybe I’m being overly paranoid, but it was unexpected, and I’ll do what I can. This should be a relief.

Now that I have some time, let’s check out the luxury liner and pick up a ship that looks good.

I thought that the bigger the luxury liner was, the better, but if I wanted to enjoy it as a guest, there were various options to choose from.

I was so concerned about the facilities that I didn’t even think about that. There are classes like luxury, premium, casual, and so on.

Well, since I am the buyer, I should choose the ship I like after all. I found several luxury liners that I want, but it’s hard to decide which one to choose.

Looking at them, I’m interested in Oasis of the Seas or Harmony of the Seas. Two hundred twenty thousand tons… makes me wonder how they can stay afloat in the ocean.

The food is not just the main dining room, but buffet restaurants, Italian restaurants, steakhouses, hamburger stores, Japanese food, and pizza…

Facilities also include a movie theater, pool(s), mini golf, ice skating rink, solarium, zip line, rock climbing, and library…

There are somehow too many facilities to remember, a place that recreates 20th-century America, a boat park with real trees and flowers, etc. The scale is too big to imagine on the screen.

The advantage is that there are so many facilities that look like fun anyway. There are many places to eat, and the food is quite good. After that, there are a lot of free eating places… which you can eat for free, right?

The downside is that the ship is expensive, 1255 platinum coins, and it’s too big and can carry more than 5000 passengers, which isn’t necessary…

But I admire big ships and feel safe. With this ship, I could live on it for years, holed up in my room, which was gorgeous.

There are various other luxury liners, around 50,000 tons, 100,000 tons, 150,000 tons, and so on, but in terms of facilities, the 220,000-ton luxury liner is inevitably superior.

It is a difficult question whether to save up to buy a 220,000-ton luxury liner for the facilities or to be satisfied with a 100,000- or 150,000-ton luxury liner, which seems to be easier to buy to some extent…

Especially the luxury liner of around 150,000 tons has substantial facilities, and it is a problem to be concerned about. It is difficult to buy another one just because you don’t like it since it is a very expensive one.

…It’s all about money, after all. If I can afford a 220,000-ton luxury liner with the money in my account, the money from wholesaling 60 pepper ships, and my subsequent income, I’ll do my best, even if it takes a long time.

Since I’ve fallen into another world and received the unique skill of summoning ships, I should buy the ship I want most.

Tomorrow I’ll go to the merchant guild and make sure I get the money right. …No good, I’ve been thinking about it, and Paris-san is in the Southern City. It’s probably okay, but if he attacks us, we’re doomed, so let’s be cautious.

I’ll ask the staff of the merchant guild at the port to go to the merchant guild to run an errand and get Camille-san to come. I wonder if it is possible to check the balance in my account without my guild card. I’ll ask her for that too.

The next morning, I asked the staff of the merchant guild at the port to pass a message to Camille-san, and I disguised the inside of the Lutto and waited for her… What if she was absent?

But it’s also a hassle to be vigilant like this, so after finishing my business, I’ll quickly leave Southern City. If I hadn’t seen Paris-san, I could have walked out a little more comfortably.

“Master, Camille-san is here.”

“Thank you, I’ll welcome her.”

I give Camille-san permission to come aboard and show her around the ship.

“Sorry to bother you, Camille-san.”

“No problem. I understand Wataru-san’s current situation. I also wanted to ask you about the pepper, so thank you for your cooperation.”

“Pepper?”

“Yes, it will take some time to prepare the payment for the pepper to be wholesaled and the money to be withdrawn from your account in platinum coins, so it would be a shame for the quality of the pepper to deteriorate in the meantime.”

“Oh, I see… let me think about it.”

“Yes.”

The quality of the pepper, huh…? It’s set up to have made several round trips to the southern continent, so it’s been a long time. And yet the wholesale pepper is of pretty high quality… and that would make people suspicious of the quality of the pepper.

I’m too greedy because I can wholesale a lot of pepper, and deciding things on the spur of the moment is a bonus. What should I do?

…I can’t even come up with a good idea. The more time that goes by, the more people will be suspicious of the quality, so it’s better to wholesale as soon as possible.

It would be good to do the wholesale after the platinum coins are prepared and then go on a trip immediately after receiving the money, but it would be hard to come to the Southern City the next time… Should I give them the pepper first?

“I understand. I’ll give you the pepper first.”

“Thank you very much.”

When Camille-san thanked me with a smile, I felt a little bit excited, but I was afraid of my own naivete.

“Then, the morning after tomorrow, could you come to the port to pick up the pepper? It will be divided into three shipments, so I will bring the same amount of pepper as last time.”

“Understood. I will prepare it for you.”

“So, did you know how much money is in my account and how long it will take to collect the platinum coins?”

“Yes, Wataru-san’s account has the payment for the Ryu scale and the contract fees for pudding, ice cream, Reversi, and Jenga, which amounts to 242 platinum coins and 30 gold coins. The price for the pepper is more than 200 platinum coins, depending on the quality of the pepper, so we need to prepare more than 450 platinum coins in total. It will take some time because some people have already withdrawn a large amount of platinum coins a short while ago. The master is going to talk to the merchant guilds in the royal capital, so could you please wait for about 20 days?”

“I understand, and thank you in advance for your cooperation. I will also leave the money below the gold coin as it is because I don’t want to leave the account empty.”

It was Girasole who unloaded a large amount of platinum coins a while ago, wasn’t it? I have a feeling they are causing quite a bit of trouble for the merchant guild.

“I understand. Shall I give you a detailed accounting of the contract fees for the pudding, etc.?”

“Oh, that’s right… I’m fine with a rough estimate of how much it all came to.”

Huh? What’s with the dismay?

“Wataru-san, you are a merchant, so you have to manage your finances meticulously, don’t you? Well, you’re making huge profits from pepper, so maybe there’s no problem…”

“Hahaha, sorry.”

Impossible. I’ve had a veto problem with numbers since my arithmetic days. Come to think of it, I’m not even a good merchant, except for summoning ships.

“Roughly, every contract has one platinum coin and sixty gold coins in it. We are in the process of spreading them out, so I’m sure the deposits will continue to increase.”

One platinum and 60 gold coins… I think I get 3% of the profits, right? It is amazing how the power of numbers can exceed one platinum coin for something that doesn’t cost much.

“I understand. Thank you very much. So, when you have collected all the platinum coins, can you bring them to me?”

“No, I’m sorry, but there are some formalities that need to be completed before you can withdraw it, so the only way is to come to the merchant guild. If you don’t put the money for the pepper in your account, we can bring it to you.”

“I see…”

Hmm, what should I do… I should talk to Girasole.

“Okay, please bring the money for the pepper here. I’ll see what I can do about going to the merchant guild.”

“I understand.”

After we had finished most of our conversation, we had a chat over a cup of tea. I wanted to have a pleasant chat, but in between conversations, she casually asked me where I kept the pepper and other information, which made me feel subtly uncomfortable.

It helped that there was no actual place to put the pepper, but if it had existed, I would have said something about it. Camille-san, I’m terrified of you.

After all the chit-chat, I was tired, so I let the ship sail. I’m tired today, so I’m going to have dinner on the Stronghold and relax in the massage chair.

From then on, every two days, we return from the open sea to the Southern City to wholesale pepper. Although people are still suspicious about the quality of the peppers, I don’t know about it, so I just go through with it and finish wholesaling peppers for 60 boats.

Every time we go out to the open sea, we run with our boats on the lookout for a tail, but we get no response, which makes us feel a bit empty. I keep this inertia going just as a precaution, but I wonder if it is necessary.

I ask Girasole about the pros and cons of heading for the merchant guild, and they say it’s impossible for an S-rank adventurer to attack you in broad daylight. At the time of the experiment, they were alarmed by the sudden appearance of an S-ranked adventurer, but he would not do anything nefarious in a public place.

They said that I should stay away from unpopular and dangerous places and not act alone. It sounds like the kind of precautions one would take on a trip abroad.

Felicia has put up barriers around me, and my level is high, so as long as I don’t leave Ines and Felicia, I should be fine during the daytime. In the meantime, they said they would escort me when I went to the merchant guild, which was reassuring.

“Hey, Wataru-san, do you have any plans for tomorrow?”

“Plans? Nothing in particular.”

I answer Alessia-san’s sudden question. She’s kind of smiling.

“Fufu, then tomorrow night, I’d like to come back with everyone again. Is that okay?”

“Yes, that’s fine.”

“Well, I’m going home. See you tomorrow. Also, Wataru-san, you haven’t dropped your polite language.”

She left after saying that… What’s going on? Also, since polite language has become a habit, it’s difficult to change it now. Well, let’s get used to it gradually.

The next night, Girasole came to ask me just as Alessia-san had said. Alessia-san and the others, carrying a big bag, came over to me and happily offered me the bag they had been carrying, saying it was a souvenir.

“A souvenir? What is it?”

I looked inside the bag and found a large crab…What’s this? …Ah, could it be a big crab?

“Alessia-san, is this a Big Crab?”

“Yeah, you said you wanted to eat it before, right? We just got a request for it, so we caught it today.”

“Thank you very much. I am very happy. But I didn’t know that Big Crab was like this. I thought they were bigger than a person.”

“Fufu, if there were a crab that big, there would be a big commotion, even though the request was for a place close to the city. Well, even at this size, it’s a monster and dangerous.”

“Ah, if you think about it, that’s true. I had only heard that it was a huge crab, so I imagined it to be a huge one.”

Considering it calmly, the shell alone is 50 centimeters high and a meter wide. …It’s big enough, isn’t it? How should I cook it?

“I’ve heard that some crab monsters are so big that you can hardly look up at them. If we get a chance, shall we go and catch some?”

“I would appreciate it if it tastes good, but I don’t know how to cook a crab that big…”

“I guess you’re right. I wonder if we can manage to carry it without dismantling it to some extent.”

“I don’t know. Well, let’s enjoy this Big Crab this time. Hmm, let’s cook in the Hideaway. Do you all bring your bathing suits?”

“No, we’re not bringing our bathing suits for the request. But it sounds like fun, so we’ll just put our stuff down for a while and go get it.”

“I understand. I will prepare it as best I can.”

“Yes, we’ll go then.”

“Master, how are you going to cook it?”

“Well, I’ve never cooked a crab this big before. I suppose it can be baked, boiled, or steamed, but I don’t have the cooking utensils to put a whole crab of this size in the pot. If I cut it into pieces, the flavor would be lost, though…”

“But it’s hard to find cooking utensils now. Would you like me to cook the whole crab with my magic?”

Ines has cooked a gratin for me before with her flame magic, but it’s too difficult to cook a crab this big. I’d like to boil the whole thing somehow.

…Right, a rubber boat. I’ll clean the rubber boat with my thoughts, put a lot of baking stones into it, and boil the whole crab. If they say they don’t like crabs boiled in a rubber boat, I’ll just cut them up and boil them.

Well, if I cut and boil it, the boiled water will taste good, but this time I plan to boil it in seawater, so if possible, I would like to boil it whole. I think it would be better to have the seawater purified.

I think it’s hygienically safe, but in the end, it’s a matter of mood. What do you think will happen?