Chapter 14: A Trade

「Fairy’s Wings? What’s that?」Yōsei no hane? Sore wa nanda?

I had absolutely no idea what that item was. The only thing I could tell was that it had something to do with fairies and that it was extremely valuable. I’d read about fairies in books. They were a major race that often appeared in many fantasy worlds.

「Oh, you do not know of Fairy Wings?? Northwest of here is a forest known as the ‘Fairy Garden’, where elves and faeries^[1] and other such fairy-kin dwell.  All you need to do is head there and take the wings of a fairy or two and return. A simple matter is it not? 」Yōsei no hane o gozonji nai? ? Yōsei no hane wa koko kara hokusei ni aru “yōsei no en fearīgāden” ni wa Erufu ya fearī nado no yōsei shuzoku no iru mori ga aru. Antara ni wa soko ni mukatte yōsei no 1-biki 2-biki kara hane o mogitotte kurya ī hanashida. Kantandaro?

Zeni threw away the cigarette in his mouth and put a new one in.

「And just what are you going to do with those Fairy Wings if I give them to you?」Sono yōsei no hane o motte kita to shite, ittai nani ni tsukau nda?

「Why I’ll turn it into money of course!! Fairy Wings are in high demand on the black market. That is because fairies are a race with strong magical power. You can extract a tremendous amount of magical power from their wings. However it’s forbidden for humans to trade in Fairy Wings, which makes them very hard to obtain. Nonetheless, there are people who want it and are willing to pay for it, and I intend to sell it to them. Now do you understand?」Sore o kin ni suru nda yo!! Yōsei no hane wa urade wa kanari no atai ni naru nda. Nazenara, yōsei wa tsuyoi maryoku o yado shita shuzokuda. Soitsu kara toreru hane wa saikō ni maryoku ga takusan haitteru nda. Daga, soreha ningen-kan de baibai suru koto wa kinji rarete irukara nakanaka te ni hairan. Shikashi, sore o hoshi teru-sha-tachi ga iru. Soshite oretachi wa sore o uritai. Wakaru ka?

From the explanation it’s obvious that this deal is highly illegal. And naturally the fairies are living beings too. They’re clearly telling us to forcibly take the wings of fairies, which are probably the very representation of their lives. In other words their basically telling us to go rob them. I haven’t forgotten the promise I made to Elma-san. I’d already decided that I won’t needlessly hurt anyone, no matter what race they are of. However, if we refuse this deal here and now, let alone Sarah and Ukyou, even we may not leave here safely. I thought about it for a while, then made my decision.

「Alright, I just need to bring you that right? However I have a condition. Naturally you understand that I can’t hand it over right now, yes? In other words, I need some time. Until we’ve completed this task, I want to be sure that absolutely harm will come to those two.」Wakatta, sore o motte kureba yoi nda ne? Demo sukoshi jōken ga aru. Mochiron imasuguni wa yōi dekinai no wa omaetachi mo wakatterudesho? Tsumari wa, jikan ga hoshī. Soreto oretachi no irai ga kanryō suru made zettai koitsu-ra ni kigai o ataenaide hoshī nda

Zeni finally laughed.

「Aah. As long as you can actually bring me the good stuff. Good~! We have an accord!!! I’ll be eagerly awaiting your return, dear customer.」Ā, yoitomo motte ko rareru nonara nā! Yo ~oshi! ! Torihiki wa seiritsuda! ! ! Tanoshimini shitemasu ze? Okyakusama

Having accepted the deal, we were allowed to leave the place. And then it was time for us to think about our next move.

「Damn it-!! I couldn’t do a damn thing…」Kuso--! Ore wa nani mo dekinakatta……

Yushiris bit his lips, expressing his regret.

「Yushiris, don’t be depressed. I’m the one who held you back. None of us were able to do anything. Aaah… I should have used my powers back then.」Yushirizu, sō ochikomu na. Omae ni shite wa iikaeshita katada zo. Oretachi no kata ga nani mo dekinakatta. A~a ̄ … ano toki nōryoku tsukattokeba yokatta na

No, you’re wrong Euvis. If we’d carelessly used our powers just now and blundered, they may have come at us with full force, knowing we have special powers. It was the right decision to hold back just now. Though I didn’t say it out loud.

「At any rate, let’s take stock of our current situation. Right now, we’re kinda like people who’re deeply in debt and we’ve been requested to procure an item called ‘Fairy Wings’ eh….. Also, we need to head to a forest northwest of this city to get it from the fairies… We have to acquire it no matter what, by force if necessary…. This will likely be quite to be quite a difficult problem to solve. 」Toriaezu hanashi o seiri shiyou ka. Oretachi wa iu nareba shakkin o kakaete iru yōna monoda. Soshite yōkyū sa reta no ga yōsei no hane to iu aitemu ka…… shikamo sore wa kono toshi kara hokusei ni aru mori no naka ni iru yōsei-tachi kara morau ka, ubau ka shite kakutoku shinakute wa ikenai…… kore wa kekkō taihen'na koto kamo shirenai na

「Yea, it’s just as Gakuto says. It aint like them fairies are just gonna be all “ here ya go” and  just handover sum’in that represents their lives…」Tashika ni gakuto no iu tōriya de. Yōsei-san-tachi mo jibun-ra no ikiru shōchō o hoihoi ageyou to hao mo wandaroukara nā…

Seeing as our discussion wasn’t getting us anywhere, I made a decision.

「There’s just no point thinking about it anymore!! If we keep hesitating like this, the sun’s going to set. We won’t know how to get it until we see it for ourselves. Nothing’s going to happen unless we get a move on!! Let’s just go to the Fairy Garden.」Mō kangaete mo shōganai! ! Ujiuji shi tetara hi ga kure chau yo. Moraeru moraenai nante itte minakya wakaranai. Koko de oretachi ga nani mo ugokanakattara, nani mo hajimaranai! ! Yukō, yōsei no en e

「Even if we fail, we can at least pay our homage to the Elf nē-sans and come back.」Moshi damedattara, Erufu nōnēsan-tachi ogande kaereba ī hanashidashi

That’s the spirit, Yushiris.

「Yeahh!」Seya na

「Next time let’s use our powers.」Tsugi wa nōryoku tsukaou ze

「「「「「Yeahh!」」」」」Seya na!

Well…. so long as our power’s aren’t revealed….

And so we decided to head to a nearby provision store to prepare for our trip. Upon entering, I saw various herbs hanging about, along with some bottles of beautiful blue liquid lined up – exactly like an RPG equipment store to be. Incidentally, I figured we might as well try asking for some information about the Fairy Garden.

「Cominggg-!  Irasshai!」Ha~ i! Irasshai!

The person who greeted me was an oba-chan whose looked great wearing a triangle bandanna on her head.

「Excuse me, do you sell anything that can be used to heal wounds?」Suimasen, kono mise de kizu o iyasu dōgu toka oitemasu ka?

「Only as far as some herbs and low potions I’m afraid~ are you going off on a trip somewhere?」Uchide wa, yakusō to rōpōshon kurai ka ne ~ doko ka ni tabi ni demo iku no kai?

「Yup! I want to head over to the Fairy Garden.」Hai! Yōsei no en made ikitai ndesu

When the oba-chan heard that, her eyes became as round as saucers.

「Did you just say the Fairy Garden?! Why on earth are you lot going to a place like that?!」Yōsei no en datte! ? Anta-tachi an'na toko e nanishini iku nda! ?

「Well we have a certain situation…. why are you so surprised?」Wakearideshite…… naze son'nani odoroku ndesu ka?

「The Fairy Garden is a place filled with powerful monsters wandering around!! With the exception of the knights’ Research Squadron, no one else would typically venture to such a place! 」Yōsei no en tte ittara, asoko wa takusan no kyōryokuna mamono ga urotsui teru tokoro sa! ! Kishi no chōsa-dan igai wa metta ni iku toko janai yo! !

I see. In terms of difficulty, it would seem that area is on the high side.

「Well, if you’re going, be careful okay? I’ll give you six sets of Low Potions and these herbs for just 100G, so be sure to come back safely okay?」Mā, ikunara ki o tsuke nasai ne. Kono rōpōshon to yakusō 6-ko zutsu de 100 G ni shite agerukara ikite kaette kuru nda yo

「Thank you, oba-chan!!」Arigatō oba-chan! !

When I activated The System and thought of 100G, a single gold coin suddenly appeared in my hand.

「Thank you for your custom!!」Maido arigato! !

Leaving the store, I divided up the low potions and herbs and put my share into my inventory. And, when I checked The System, the item list had been updated accordingly. At the same time, I also noticed a new thing called 『Map』listed in the interface. When I opened the 『Map』, an illustration of the whole of Morika appeared. Naturally it also showed my position, and information of the surrounding area.

「Ama, was there always this ‘map’ function?」Ama, kon'na kinō atta?

「You mean you never noticed it before?」Omae kidzukanakatta no ka?

「Yea, you mean you did?」Un, kidzui teta?

「Yea. Well done for not having gotten lost thus far.」Un, omae yoku michi ni mayowanakatta na

「Next time tell me about these kinda things!!」Oshiete yo! !

To have such a convenient function, it kinda reminds me of smartphones from our old world. Still, with this we won’t get lost looking for the Fairy Garden. For now, lets spend the night in the grasslands outside Morika and make our way towards the Fairy Garden tomorrow. The oba-chan at the provision shop told us the place was full of powerful monsters, so let’s get an early rest. It’s going to be a while, so hang in there Sarah. Oh, and Ukyou too.

Thus, we headed for our next destination – the 『Fairy Garden』, in order to save our friends.

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TN: This chapter was a little shorter than normal. I’m wondering why Euvis didn’t use his timekeeper skill to freeze time, and then just take that trap switch away or something. Perhaps they aren’t quite ready to use their powers against people yet. They’d probably need to kill the slavers to get away from them…

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[1] In the RAW the author refers to the race as feari (in katakana), whereas the grouping that also includes elves as yosei (妖精). I will translate the yosei race as ‘fairy-kin’, and leave the species feari as ‘faerie’ to distinguish them. However the place is called yosei no hane (fearigaaden), so I leave the name as ’Fairy Garden’