■■■
── Three weeks ago… When they took the ‘Closed’ sign down from the Elkian castle, a certain group of people appeared.
People from the Chamber of Commerce, the guild, and various upstart nobles gathered and called themselves the ‘Association of Commerce and Industry.’
They went on a strike and challenged Sora and Shiro to a simple game. They took the people’s livelihoods (i.e. the infrastructure) as hostage. It was a simple, yet unwinnable game…
And that’s it. That was the only thing needed to get the strongest gamers to forfeit the game and yield the throne.
── The secret to staying undefeated is not playing games that are impossible to win in the first place.
Thus, with a coup d’état that wasn’t difficult by any means, Elkia went from a total monarchy to a constitutional monarchy.
In other words, the lords and the bourgeois used their connections and money to interfere with the government and made the country switch to a parliament, but ──
“Well, it’s something that was going to happen sooner or later, you know? So don’t worry about it.”
“You are the ones who should worry about it!! Hey, are you listening!?”
Thus, after carefreely reminiscing, their work (game) for the day was over. Sora started climbing the stairs that led to the living space on the second floor of the store when Kurami screamed at him.
However, there were two condescending voices climbing up the stairs on both sides of him ── Jibril and Shiro rejected her arguments:
“The Eastern Federation needs resources from the mainland. Normally, those resources are sold at an exorbitant price, however──”
“… In a multi-race Federation… those resources will… eventually be sold at a reasonable price… it’s only a matter of time…”
“I. Already. Knew. That…!”
──That’s right… Sora and Shiro’s ultimate goal was to challenge the One True God, Tet, and this was just part of the plan. A plan to bring all the races together without ruling over them.
I see. A plan where no one loses anything sounds good on paper. However, what about the ones who were forced to sell supposedly expensive resources at a reasonable price? The merchants would clearly lose out on profits.
Kurami knew their dissatisfaction would reach a breaking point sooner or later. However, on top of that they had──
They arrived at the bedroom on the second floor, and the three of them sat on their respective beds when:
“The government is supposed to do something about that using politics, right!? And yet, why did you add fuel to the flames!?”
── Instead of oppressing them, negotiate! Kurami insisted. But Sora and Shiro, together with Jibril ── just smiled even more sarcastically.
“Hey, Kurami… why do you think a gamer would fan the flames?”
“… Politics are… not our specialty… so the reason why… we are fanning the flames… should be obvious, right…?”
Politics are a politician’s job. That’s right, a certain red-haired girl should manage somehow.
Sora and Shiro put on a wicked smile ── And announced their intentions as gamers──
“If the coup d’état is an event that must eventually happen, then──”
“… We can accelerate it… by raising flags…♪”
────
Kurami and Fiel are by no means dumb enough to underestimate Blank. So when they heard Sora and Shiro’s words their expressions said that it was ── ‘as expected.’
As expected ── they caused a coup d’état on purpose…
The two of them looked for Sora and Shiro even knowing that, but what they are looking for now is ── a ‘why?’
“Kurami. What happened after the Association of Commerce and Industry chased us out? What happened here?”
“… ? When they relaxed your foreign trade policies, trade surged. Is that what you’re talking about?”
Kurami answered dubiously but also warily. Sora solemnly nodded and continued:
“More specifically, ‘here’ we are on a stopping point in a trade route. The flow of products concentrated here, on a trading outpost.”
── ‘The Association of Commerce and Industry’ ── The ‘trading business’ that Sora and Shiro were regulating so much was their main source of funding.
The coup d’état’s purpose is profit. In other words, the deregulation of trade and a free market.
If you already know what is going to happen ── then, you just have to make use of that.
Or in other words──!
“Don’t you think it’s a bit dull when an isekai protagonist just manages a store?”
“……………………….huh? Who are you talking about?”
“Making mayonnaise or miso with their knowledge from another world to win in the taste department? Ha!! Everyone’s ambitions are too small! And it’d be way too slow! They have a big misunderstanding: just because your product is higher quality, it doesn’t mean it’ll sell. They are narrow-minded too!!”
“Eh? Wait, what are you talking about!? Misunderstanding!?”
Ignoring Kurami, who was overwhelmed by Sora’s sudden and passionate topic change, Sora laughed. Selling an excellent product in order to satisfy a demand. That’d be the usual. Something very honest.
── And that was precisely why Sora mocked them!
“No matter how excellent your product is, if there is no demand it’s worthless!!”
That’s right… it’s fundamentally the opposite. Supply isn’t what’s important, it’s demand!
── Even if you displayed gems in a deserted island, who would buy them──!?
── In a desert, water would sell more expensively than jewels──!!
Predicting who wants what and where comes before things like quality ── therefore!
“Let me tell you something!! As long as you understand the basics of business, forget about excellent products. You wouldn’t even need a shitty fake boobs medicine!! Just slap a label that reads ‘ion infused air’ on an empty bottle and watch them sell so much you could save an impoverished store in only three days and make them rich──!!”
Sora passionately said, and slumped back into his bed with a sharp gaze. He was telling them the fundamental secrets behind business. A simple truth. That is────
“… If you want to provide a supply, first you must create a demand.”
Indeed ── when he provoked the Association of Commerce and Industry into making a coup d’état, he wasn’t merely predicting that there’d be a demand. He was creating one. That right──!!
“You just need to find a place where people and products flow ── a place with a good location and popularity!! More specifically, a place that would prosper with the Association’s deregulation of trade!! There, paper money would be printed to facilitate trade!! If you know where that is before anyone else, you can make a profit by selling literally anything!!! Do you understaaand!?”
──staaand!
…….taaand…
…………….aaand… Sora’s voice resounded, and:
“Do you reaaally underestimate us sooo much that you expect us to believe you caused a coup just so you could play pharmacist～…?
“We won’t let you pretend you don’t know what’s really happening in Elkia right now, you know?”
Fiel and Kurami replied with freezing cold gazes, but Sora and the others just smiled bitterly in their heads.
They weren’t underestimating them.
──── Because the truth was just as they said.
What’s happening in Elkia right now? Sora and Shiro don’t have the slightest idea… therefore──
“Even if you tell us that… right now we’re just ordinary citizens. Simple pharmacists.”
However, if there’s something he does know ── it’s what will happen. Sora thought and laughed in his head.
“We’re playing by selling medicine. Is there anything else the current me can do?”
Sora said sarcastically as he lied on the bed. But the one who answered was──
“Suggestion: I shall now list some of Master’s possible choices: A bath. A meal… or perhaps… this unit.”
Whoa──
Sora was barely able to swallow his scream, and bounced back up from the bed because of the voice coming from it ── correction.
── ‘Do you want a bath? Dinner? Or me?’ A certain someone was talking like a newlywed wife when she appeared from below the sheets. It was a girl with iris-colored hair. No ── it was a machine that looked like one. She was ‘naked’ below the sheet, and her lustrous part-machine skin could be seen below it.
“Recommendation: Execute all the choices. Specific process: Eat this unit in the bath. That is this unit’s suggestion.”
The one who approached Sora without hesitation was ── another new game+ exclusive──
“── E-Emiline!? Eh? You were here!?”
“Affirmation: This whole time.”
“No, what do you mean all this time!? What about your job!? Someone has to tend to the store, right!?”
“Report: This unit has been waiting here, naked, since 1507 hours when the products sold out. Wait… naked?”
As she dispassionately answered Sora’s question, she suddenly realized her situation ──
“Error: Embarrassment surpassing all previous estimates detected…… No, this unit is ready now so… Sofort?”
… She tried, but since it was more embarrassing than expected she told him to hurry up and do it. Emiline averted her glass eyes ── but the one who unexpectedly answered was:
“Aah, that’s right… there’s no way you guys would ever do customer service, huh…”
Kurami said. She finally had the answer to the sense of wrongness she felt since a while ago:
── Who has been dealing with that crowd? And…
So this is one of the famous Ex-Machina… Kurami and Fiel thought that and narrowed their eyes at the same time.
With Kurami’s next line Fiel’s eyes filled with caution, and Kurami’s with kindness──
“Heh… So you guys had a friend too. Good for y──── eep!?”
“… We’re not friends… she’s my enemy──!! Emiline… what happened with… your other job…!?”
“I see. So disconnecting from the cluster not only lowered your performance, but also your memory♥”
However, Shiro’s sudden burst of hostility and Jibril’s murderous smiling face changed Kurami’s line into a scream. They also had an effect on Sora:
──── Aaah… this again, he thought, looking up to the sky with melancholy. It was already something of a daily routine for him, but leaving that aside.
Even after receiving hostility from those two, Emiline didn’t react at all. She just crawled out of the bed, and in the next instant, she was wearing her maid clothes again. She turned to face Shiro and Jibril and politely bowed:
“Report: The shop-closing operation finished at 1409 hours. Then, I used optical camouflage to transfer the money at the exchange, and finished at 1503 hours.”
She had also cleaned the store, did the inventory ── and even made the market analysis that was originally Shiro’s job.
She had finished everything. And with that report, Emiline tilted her head expressionlessly:
“Problem: A certain someone just sat idly by Master’s side during all that time. But who was it～? Hint: she’s a birdbrain.”
── To be more precise, Jibril had also been floating, but Emiline laughed at her all the same.
“Hmm… Someone more useless than an Ex-Machina with limited Lesens… what a wonderful unknown♥”
“Agreement: They are less efficient than this unit alone and in safe mode. This unit’s computational and analysis capabilities decreased to 32% due to the disconnection, so it’s already beyond my understanding. A Flügel’s uselessness is indeed wonderful. Surprisingly so.”
The two overpowered persons were exchanging blows with words, and in contrast Shiro had been quiet this whole time, but…
──── *Rumbling*… Sora was certain he could hear the earth rumbling because of them.
And then as if to fan the flames ── or perhaps to put an end to this, Emiline said:
“Conclusion: Your plan to hinder this unit’s conduct by pushing your jobs onto me has failed.”
She put on a splendidly expressionless face with double peace signs, and said a small sentence with an emotionless voice:
“Summary: This unit wins～”
── Emiline left a declaration that made Shiro and Jibril’s expressions turn stiff, and turned on her heels. She gently picked up the hem of her skirt, bowed, and softly sat down next to Sora. It looks like even Shiro and Jibril’s craftiness wasn’t enough to stop her. Today too, the daily melancholy has started… that’s right──
“……….. Observing:…….. *stare*”
── Emiline stared at Sora. And that’s all.
That had been her daily routine for 3 weeks ── and also the cause of Sora’s melancholy. That’s right… she kept trying to seduce him like this every day, but that part’s fine. The thing without a single redeeming quality was a different, much more serious problem.
Emiline was just sitting next to Sora ── still expressionless, but──
“…………..Trance: ………mm♥”
Happiness faintly tinted her cheeks as she stared at Sora ── she just leisurely spent some time like that. In order to avoid this, Sora tried to not give Emiline any free time. Why? Because whenever this happened──
────
“……………H-hey. May I have a moment?…… what’s up with this atmosphere!?”
“No idea ～ That’s what I want to know!! Why am I on a bed of thorns!?”
Sora responded to Kurami’s scream with one of his own ── it was because whenever it happened, this atmosphere was created.
“… hey, don’t tell me… Emiline? D-do you maybe ── like Sora?”
The very first person to eat sea cucumber must have made a face like hers.
Kurami was having some serious doubts, however she received her answer in a fraction of a second:
“Assent: I like him. This unit loves Master. I’ll say it as many times as necessary. I love you. Ich liebe dich.”
Aah ── she really doesn’t lie about ‘love.’ She’s just acting as she said she would the other day.
… Whisperings of love with no lies and from a beautiful girl who is literally like a doll. Any man’s heart would throb at that, it’s just the way of things.
However, Sora can swear that his heart isn’t throbbing. But it isn’t throbbing because it can’t. There’s no way it can. After all──
“Are you insane!? This thing doesn’t have any likeable ── waaah h-help meee!!”
“It’s all right Kurami ～ I’ll protect you, even if it costs me my life!!”
That’s right ── *stare*… Shiro and Jibril were just glancing at Emiline.
But that was enough to put Kurami on the verge of tears, and even Fiel was prepared to die ── it was that kind of atmosphere!!
A silence full of enmity and killing intent. There’s no way his heart can throb in such an atmosphere. In fact, it could very well stop────
“Ah～Ah～! I’m sorry Emiline! I forgot to ask you to harvest the field, so──”
Sora screamed. He finally found an excuse to run away from there, but Emiline just smiled lightly:
“Initiative: That was within my expectations. I finished doing that at 1501 hours. Resuming standby next to Master. I’m so happy ── ah.”
Hearing that Emiline had anticipated his next move, Sora fell back into despair, however ──
“… Apology: I’m actually not finished yet. Since I couldn’t determine if it was alright to harvest it, I put a single item’s collection on hold──”
“Alright, let’s go and harvest that then. Actually, I’ll go alone! With Shiro! So, what kind of produce was it!?”
Sora literally put Shiro under his arm and ran away, but.
“Response: It was a small Exceed (produce) with only their head coming out of the ground. Designation ──── Dwarf.”
──────── What? Emiline’s answer made him frown.
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── Exceed rank 8th: the Dwarves…
The race below the elves, who rank 7th. A race with high magical aptitude.
Their country of Hardenfell is the world’s second most powerful country both in terms of land and influence ── and they also use their territory to make magic tools. Their manufacturing capabilities using spirits couldn’t be matched by the Elves, or even the Exceed in general.
Sora and Shiro had heard of them many times before. They were a famous race that Sora and Shiro had even seen on the Eastern Federation’s monitors before ── However…
“… I’ll ask just in case. Are Dwarves things that you harvest at a field?”
“… Dwarves created from the earth… are faithful to… the classical setting…?”
In a corner of the field, there certainly was one lined up with the lettuce.
It was covered with a hood, but brown skin and silver hair could be seen from the opening ── it was indeed a ‘head.’ Sora and Shiro tilted their heads at this new type of ecology, but Jibril just casually said:
“Well, I don’t remember planting anything as rare as a Dwarf seed ── Hm?”
A single piece of paper floated down from the presumed Dwarf.
Then, Sora and Shiro calmly picked it up and started reading────
────
“… Eeeh? A Dwarf came all the way from Hardenfell… to a mere self-proclaimed pharmacy. And with this timing? Well then, I wonder what could they possibly want?”
Kurami probed for their true intentions with her sarcasm. Sora answered with a small smile:
“If they have come to a pharmacist then what they want is surely some medicine. They are a customer in wait. It’s just that, well…”
They looked at the piece of paper again, and Sora’s smile disappeared. Shiro also lowered her eyes.
──It didn’t have the sender or the receiver’s names and addresses ── No.
It did have a very dumb signature, written in bad Immanitian that was like a child’s, and a short yet concise sentence. However, that one sentence was written with very harsh handwriting:
── ‘It’s me. Put the medicine on my tab and hand it over, outsiders.’
“… It looks like this client is going to be more troublesome than expected…”
“…………………………”
The two outsiders (otherworlders) ── Sora and Shiro had countless memories pass through their minds. They had turned their backs on those memories, and ran away from everything to come here.
── The due date for a debt (past) they could not pay was finally approaching.
That’s right… they flickered like a flash, accompanied by pain that rended their hearts……
Credits:
TL: https://www.patreon.com/hikarinokaze
Editors: Qzhuo, New-specialist, DigzGwentplayer, elysainempire