Extra 13: A certain day in Kuzunoha
TLN: Boom! Surprise Tsuki Extra Chapter!
I know I said I would take 1 week more, but I couldn’t take it and decided on making it a little surprise :D. For the ones that don’t know, I am now translating the extra chapters to alleviate that little tsuki thirst I myself have.
This chapter takes place before the mutant attack in Rotsgard.
Also, for the people that don’t know where are the extra chapters, they have always been in the index of Tsuki (you have to scroll all the way down though).
Enjoy the chapter :D!
There’s a girl walking around the market.
That girl has brown skin color and her ears and eyes had traits that resembled that of elfs.
At first, I couldn’t believe that view. The reason is simple. This market is a place made by hyumans for hyumans.
Who knows what will be done to her if she were to recklessly enter here. Even if she came here under the orders of someone, or she explains that she has the permission, their treatment would be far from that between hyumans.
The hyumans were calling her out as if she were a fellow hyuman, and she responded to them while raising her hand. I was simply watching that sight with my mouth open. It is true that, compared to me, her features are closer to a hyuman. But that treatment is definitely weird.
“A company armband?”
There was a blue armband around the shoulders of that girl’s clothing, so I ended up unconsciously saying it out loud.
She enters and leaves the market like normal, moreover, she works at a company? Impossible, I have never heard of that!
Normally, I would have felt jealousy at that. But for the current me, that was something of no importance right now. I was wondering about how to enter the market, and that girl will definitely be of use.
I continue observing her.
She was truly doing normal shopping. Exchanging casual talk, I couldn’t feel discrimination at all in their words. What in the world happened to make such a thing possible?
Her shopping must have finished. She leaves the market. I decide to tail her without a moment of hesitation. Erasing my presence is my specialty within specialties. Moreover, our race has high physical ability. Most tailings can be done until the end without having the other party notice.
The shadows of buildings, the crowds, and blind spots; by using all of those, I follow the brown girl. If she goes to a place where there’s no people, I can talk to her, and if she is returning home, I can gain a variety of information from that. I steel myself until then.
We were now at the main street. This is good luck. It is daytime, so there’s quite a lot of people in the main street. Just concentrating for a little bit to erase my presence was enough.
After walking for a bit, she entered a building. Looks like a store.
Does she work there?
If I remember correctly, the stores at that area had failed not that long ago and were currently in sale. Maybe they have been sold and are now back in business. In that case, it shouldn’t have been long since they opened.
Oh well, let’s investigate that later. For now, I will remember the name of that store, and if I can enter, I will check out what kind of store it is.
…It is a store that faces the main street, and there’s practically no stores that allow the entry of demi-humans, so my expectations are without doubt low.
I move slowly to the front of the store.
At the top of the entrance, there should be the name of the store written there. There was a wooden sign there. It is indeed there, but I can’t read it. It is written in quite the difficult to read letters. Even I who am uneducated know that this isn’t regular writing.
“That’s the sign of the store, right? Is it really okay to not know it?”
“It says Kuzunoha.”
“I see, Kuzunoha. I can’t tell what kind of store it is with that name.”
“It is not a drug store. It is an anything-goes store; a general goods store? Well, there’s medicine, food, and repairs for equipment.”
“…It makes it harder and harder to understand what this store wants to do.”
“The same goes for you.”
“Eh?”
When I look back, the girl that I was tailing was there. On top of that, at her side, there’s a tall slender woman. The same brown skin.
The same demi-human race?
This is the first time my back has been taken so easily.
Damn it, this is bad. Uneasiness is running through my whole body.
“We haven’t even met once and I am already getting tailed. It has already passed the passionate stage and entering the creepy one.”
“Eris, it is because you wander around the market. Even though Waka-sama and the others have said that we should increase our exposure little by little.”
“If I did something like that, I would be wearing only panties by the end of the summer, Akua.” (Eris)
“…Listen seriously.” (Akua)
“Waka is too careful. Hyumans are as easy to deal with as twirling them around the tip of our fingers. Those bitches that quickly jump onto you just by giving them a little delicious bait—” (Eris)
“You see, Eris, leaving aside Waka, Shiki-sama has a certain amount of freedom to change the employees of this store, you know?” (Akua)
“Ah!” (Eris)
“I accidentally ended up eavesdropping on a conversation between Waka-sama and Shiki-sama, you see. You understand what I am getting at, right? With a single error, we might end up returning ‘there’.” (Akua)
“Oh…Ooooh…” (Eris)
“Looks like you understand. Then, let’s report this guy to Waka-sama. And let’s apologize. You don’t want to return to that camp—” (Akua)
“Camp! Camp is scary! Scary scary scary……” (Eris)
It looks like the small one is beginning to show PTSD.
The tall one lowers her fist onto the head of the small one along with a sigh.
The blank eyes, that looked as if she were under the effects of drugs, disappeared with the shock of the pain. Good. Looks like she isn’t actually doing drugs.
“Ah! Thanks, Akua. I was about to be killed by my trauma.” (Eris)
“At any rate, we have to move immediately. Let’s act at once. We have to maintain this haven.” (Akua)
“Roger! Oi you, resisting is pointless, so be obedient. If you stay obedient, we probably won’t do anything bad.” (Eris)
Oi, what’s with that probably.
While feeling uneasy, I was brought into what the two called as the Kuzunoha Company.
****
“A big cat?!”
“Huh?”
“A-Ah, excuse me. This is the first time I meet a cat demi-human, you see. Nice to meet you, I am the owner of this company, name’s Raidou.” (Raidou)
“Thanks for the courteous greeting. I am a demi-human living in the slums of this Academy Town, my name’s Bor. I am honored to meet you.” (Bor)
“And so, why did you tail Eris?” (Raidou)
“…Before that, I have a single question I want to ask no matter what!” (Bor)
Seeing the demi-human that the two Forest Onis brought with them, the owner of the Kuzunoha Company, Raidou, accidentally lets out his voice in surprise.
He has seen many demi-humans since coming to this town.
In other words, he was already used to meeting people that were not hyumans, but he didn’t have immunity towards the demi-human that called himself Bor.
Putting it in words, Bor is a cat standing on his two feet.
His face was close to that of a hyuman and the hair in his whole body is thin, but the ears were not at the sides, they were at the top like that of a cat, and his eyes and nose were closer to that of a cat rather than a hyuman. In this moment when he is meeting with Raidou, his nose has been twitching every now and then, as if chasing after scents.
Raidou’s gaze was pinned at the thin and glossy white hair that was covering his hand.
Raidou is a cat lover —and a pretty big one.
“Okay…if it is something that I can answer.” (Raidou)
Even with the desperate expression of Bor, Raidou was incredibly interested in whether Bor has paws or not.
“How did a demi-human like you become a merchant in Rotsgard?! You…You are the miracle of demi-humans!!” (Bor)
“Geh!!” (Raidou)
“……”
Bor and Raidou were facing each other with a table between them. The two Forest Onis that had brought Bor here were also standing by at the back though.
The bare emotional words of Bor made the two of them laugh out loud. Raidou also showed a bitter face and was troubled in how to respond.
“Please! Tell me!” (Bor)
“Uhm, Bor-san.” (Raidou)
“Yes!” (Bor)
“You see…” (Raidou)
“Yes!!” (Bor)
Yes_plankton
“…Even if I look like this, I am a hyuman.” (Raidou)
“Yes?!” (Bor)
“I am hyuman.” (Raidou)
“Wa, eh?” (Bor)
“It looks like I gave you false hopes there. Uhm, sorry after all that praise.” (Raidou)
“Hyuman? You are? …Ah, uhm, my condolences.” (Bor)
“Thanks…” (Raidou)
The awkward exchange ended.
A silent atmosphere takes place.
“Bor, do something about this atmosphere.” (Eris)
The one who cut through this atmosphere was Eris.
“Eh?! Ah, yes.” (Bor)
“Sorry for the rudeness of my employee. Well then, can I please hear the reason why you tailed my employee.” (Raidou)
“Understood. Ah, you see, I…” (Bor)
“Feel free to talk as you please. I speak in this way by nature, so there’s no need to match me.” (Raidou)
“Thanks for the consideration. As I said before, I live in the slums. And so, there has been a little problem there and it will get bad if we don’t obtain goods by this season.” (Bor)
Even when the talk begins, it was content that didn’t make a clear point.
Raidou tried to ask for more details, but no words came out regarding that.
“You see, Bor, say everything at once. If you don’t finish before Shiki-sama returns, it will definitely turn a little bad.” (Eris)
Contrary to the lightness of the words and expression of Eris, it seemed as if she were hurried.
She had a personal reason and was clearly fearing a person that evaluated things in a stricter way than her master Raidou.
Just a few moments ago, she directed a piercing gaze at Bor and his whole body shivered.
“I-I will speak!” (Bor)
“Bor-san, about the slum; if I remember correctly, I heard that there’s no slums here though.” (Raidou)
Raidou took the lead over the resolve of Bor.
When Raidou went to greet the Merchant Guild and was searching for the articles companies use, he asked about the districts of Rotsgard. In the explanation of the Academy Town, there was no slum district, so Raidou didn’t understand the place Bor called slum.
“There’s…a slum. The amount of demi-humans in Rotsgard is small, and most of them are treated as slaves or something close to that. The real few that don’t fall in that category have no decent jobs and live depending on others. They can’t rent a decent house, so they have no choice but to live in a place that’s basically abandoned. It is illegal usage, but the place itself has little value of use, so it is tolerated. That is the slum.” (Bor)
“The usual huh. In the first place, the demi-humans that flatter the hyumans are making the hyumans get even more arrogant. Learn a bit from the demons.” (Eris)
“…Eris, shut up. Bor-san, continue.” (Raidou)
“And so, well, we are somehow managing to live by, but this time it is big. Do you know about the curse diseases?” (Bor)
The words of Bor made the brows of Raidou rise.
Curse disease; one of the triggers for Raidou to become a merchant.
“We are a company that deals with medicine after all.” (Raidou)
“Then there’s no need to explain. If it were a normal disease, we would be able to use magic or medicines to deal with it. But that one disease needs an elixir that is properly made in order to cure it. It looks like one of my comrades has ended up with a curse disease, you see.” (Bor)
“Do you know its level?” (Raidou)
“I also know the name of the disease. Level is three, and it is the infectious type; name’s Nail Drang. It mainly infects demi-humans and it is especially strong towards beast type of demi-humans and the symptoms are also heavier. A feeling of drunkenness and a deterioration of your physical strength; if left alone, depending on the case, it might cause death. For the demi-humans that are of a different category, it is not that infectious, but there’s mostly beast types within our comrades, so…” (Bor)
“Nail Drang. If it has a name, it must mean it is a known curse disease huh. If it infects demi-humans, then if it is me—” (Raidou)
“Waka! We are thinking of redeeming ourselves here for allowing someone to tail us!” (Eris)
“‘Ourselves’?!” (Akua)
Akua reacts to the sudden statement of Eris. She turned her head to the side at incredible speed.
“Wait, he said that it infects demi-humans.” Raidou)
“Leave it to us! No, leave it to me! Yeah, I will do something about it, so I want to make it so I am guilt free of the recent outings I have made!” (Eris)
“Your real reason is spilling out grandly. You are truly a pitiful girl among pitiful girls…” (Raidou)
Raidou looks at Eris in amazement while saying this reality twice.
Bor was simply watching this scene with serious eyes.
He felt surprise over the strange hyuman and brown demi-humans that are trying to help him as if it were natural.
“If this Bor was in the market, it must mean that the goods for the medicine are being sold, or that he knows the recipe for it. And the Kuzunoha Company doesn’t have the treatment for the curse disease. In other words, this is an important job to benefit the company. This meeting was a heaven-sent!” (Eris)
“Uhm, I also request to help. Please give me the chance to redeem.” (Akua)
“…..Hah…Understood. Then, don’t forget to properly report the money you have used. Also, make sure not to affect the preparations of the company. I will be telling the Arkes about this later, so quickly resolve this, okay?” (Raidou)
“?! You are going to help out?! Why?!” (Bor)
“I hate curse diseases. Also, I am having impure thoughts of having you owe me one and relying on you at a later time. I am a merchant after all.” (Raidou)
Raidou was loose-lipped. A debt of gratitude is heavier than money. That is his way of thinking. But that is a way of thinking that’s pretty rare in this world and few understand it.
It seems like understanding the true meaning of those words would be at a later time for Bor.
Bor looked with doubtful eyes at the hyuman that was saving a demi-human on the meager reason of having Bor owe him one.
“Bor, permission has been granted. I will resolve it immediately. Let’s go.” (Eris)
“I will help as well. At worst, if one of us gets infected, we can serve as test subjects, so it isn’t that bad of a thing. If there’s medicine in the market, there’s no problem after all. And so, Waka-sama, excuse us.” (Akua)
“Do well. I will tell Shiki that I have left you with work. By the way, if you mess up, I will report it to Tomoe.” (Raidou)
“Hih! We will be taking our leave!!” (Eris)
Akua and Eris jumped at the name of Tomoe and reacted heavily.
For the Forest Onis, the name of Tomoe seemed to make them recall something that is embedded deep in their hearts.
The Forest Onis drag Bor out as they leave.
Raidou sees this off.
“Camp; looks like they were quite wringed out there. It works quite well……. At any rate, the paws…it still bothers me.” (Raidou)
***
“This is…rough.”
“To think we two would get infected… Bor is fine, so why? We got our hands on the medicine, so wouldn’t it have been fine if we had given it to the Arkes immediately and had them mass-produce it?”
“There was no assurance that the medicine actually worked. There was the need to confirm this with our own eyes. The stores that lacked the inventory are at fault; they are all at fault. The ill are not to be blamed, so we are not at fault.”
“Uuuh, I feel like vomiting. Let’s quickly have them make the medicine and get cured, Eris.”
Two people were fumbling as if they had lost their sense of balance.
The special space that’s also their home, Asora. To bring Bor there would be way too careless, so Akua and Eris headed to where the Arkes were on their own.
The two went to the market to buy medicine. It wasn’t the recipe but the actual thing that was lined up in the store, but sadly, there were only few in stock, so without much choice, they decided on saving one as a sample and the remaining ones, they had Bor take them to the slum together with them.
The effects properly showed and the demi-human girl that was bed-ridden and groaning was letting out low breaths now. Feeling the curse disease’s presence disappear, the two Forest Onis were relieved and tried to take the medicine sample to Asora to mass-produce it, but the moment they left the room, the two staggered and leaned on the wall.
That’s right, the two of them had been infected. Even when they are not beast demi-humans who have the high infection rate. Whether it was unlucky or was divine punishment, no one truly knew.
“Nice coming here, test subjects.”
“…I already have no energy to refute. Treatment, please. This is the medicine sample.” (Akua)
Akua decided on leaving Eris, who was leaning on the wooden wall of the house, on her own and gives the medicine bottle to the Arke that had come out after opening the door.
“This is the one huh. It apparently has plenty enough effect, right?” (Arke)
“It has been confirmed. There was luckily a previous case under the disease and it worked. We have already confirmed that the magic formation of the curse disease disappeared.” (Akua)
“Good work….. But the medicine that hyumans create is quite rough. There’s way too many people that don’t understand the art of making medicine. In the first place, elixirs are…” (Arke)
The Arke begins to mutter with bottle in hand. The pondering of his vast knowledge towards medicine continued. This contained incredibly difficult topics and any magician, no matter if they are not specialized in medicine, would want to hear about. However, sadly to say, this was nothing but torture to the two who were listening to that.
“I-I am sorry. Can you please hurry on the creation of the medicine? There’s a few more diseased.” (Akua)
“Right… Hmph, we are talking about you people here. This was probably a job you took because you were worried about your own position. Listen well, in the first place, the thankful position of being close to Waka-sama’s side is something that even Mio-sama…” (Arke)
Akua did her best to join in on the conversation, but the topic changed and a lecture began. If their strength were higher than that of him, it would still be possible for something to be done, but fighting an Arke even when the two are in full strength was on a level where they would barely be able to hang on. The chances of winning are incredibly low.
“…Geez, I will give you a banana, so please spare us already…” (Eris)
“That yellow fruit huh. Don’t need it. But this medicine, with a little tinkering, it might be quite the interesting ingredient. Wait for a bit. I don’t mind if you sleep around here.” (Arke)
The heartbreaking proposal of Eris was easily kicked away.
Leaving words that were slightly different from consent and more ominous than that, the Arke returned inside and began to prepare his medicine manufacturing equipment.
In the end, he minutely calculated the cost of the medicine with its effectiveness, and after finishing medicine after medicine in a trial and error that took practically a whole night, by the time he finished one that was satisfying for him, the Forest Onis were in agony over how bad they felt and were rolling around with eyes that looked as if they were dead.
“Look, I have changed the liquid into an easy to bring around pill, and on top of that, it is now possible to create four times more of the medicine with the same price of the current medicine production cost. Also, the time it takes to recover has reduced from two days for full recovery to one day. It also creates anti-pathogens for future infections. Yeah, quite the great result. Now then, on to make the production process simpler. Wait for a bit more—” (Arke)
The Arke shows a bottle that was twice as big as the bottle Akua had given him before, around the size of a canned coffee. He showed a satisfied expression while looking at the pills inside.
““Please wait!!””
The two let out desperate voices.
“…What? I am on a roll here, you know.” (Arke)
“That bottle, please give it to us first….. We might be at our limits.” (Akua)
“Ah, I forgot. There were sick people.” (Arke)
The Arke begins to ponder after he clearly didn’t see Akua and Eris, who were breaking down in front of him, as sick people before.
“Waka-sama has also said to prepare it as soon as possible. Can’t be helped. Let’s leave the manufacturing simplification for later and deliver the finished product.” (Arke)
“!!”
“Here you go. There’s suffering demi-humans, right? Bring it to them.” (Arke)
““Thank you very much!””
Receiving the bottle as if they were stealing it away, the two Forest Onis made weak moves, that were unnatural for the usually quick-footed two, and returned to Rotsgard.
They already drunk the medicine, but it will take one day to recover, so it is not as if they will be at full strength immediately. Even so, they can’t just wait until recovery. They still have a duty to perform after all.
It was clear that this job had become a lot more tough than they thought. This bad feeling of drunkenness was the same as moving for the whole day after all.
The reason why they don’t throw the towel even with that was because, compared to the days of demi-human training, their job in the store at Rotsgard was leaps and bounds more pleasant.
Returning to the slum, they explain the medicine that changed shape to Bor. After having him take a pill as well, they distribute the medicine to everyone in the slum.
The next day, the effects of it were showing remarkably.
Bor brought a few influential people of the slums with him to the Kuzunoha Company, that was still preparing to open store, in order to give their thanks.
Just like this, the first actual incident that the Forest Onis faced in Rotsgard had safely lowered its curtains. Akua and Eris staying in Rotsgard even after that and they are somehow doing well.
This connection created from the slum, in time, would turn into part of the Kuzunoha Company for night stealth operations in Rotsgard.
The actual members of this are Lime, Akua, Eris, and the teacher of the two Forest Onis, Mondo, that sometimes comes to Rotsgard as well.
Shiki is the one that manages this, and at times, the residents of the slum serve as eyes, ears, and limbs.
In time, the slums will have proper facilities and will be acknowledged as an official district of Rotsgard. It will serve as a symbol of the better treatment towards the demi-humans in the Academy Town, but that’s a story for another time.
Even in places where Raidou -Misumi Makoto- is not deeply involved, the Kuzunoha Company began to spread its name.