Otoko Nara Ikkokuichijou no Aruji o Mezasa Nakya, ne? Chapter 82

The first month since Bel has joined our party is about to pa.s.s. Every week we challenge the dungeon on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and we've set Wednesday and Sat.u.r.day as our rest days. In particular because my party does {search and destroy}, we progressively try to fight as much as possible so when we start exploring we get pretty tense and exhaust our stamina and mentality quickly. In reality I thought about putting a day of rest between each but around the time we enter the 2nd floor I thought that we might end up having to spend the night in the dungeon so I stuck with 2 days of work 1 day of rest as the base.

During this roughly one month period we've been careful not to overdo things and if anyone gets hurts or right before lunch we turn back. Combat occurs every time we enter the dungeon. That's why in regards to gathering magic stone's were largely in black on the balance right now. There were no bonuses like obtaining the articles of deceased adventurers like the first day but other than Zenom and I everyone has gained 1 level each. I've stopped at just a.s.sisting all of them occasionally and since Zenom was originally a pretty high level it takes a lot of experience points for him to get to the next level.

Furthermore, I wrote a letter to my family, and just in case Webdos Company. I drew a foot template of Ralpha and the others feet on some paper and included that. I wrote that I want Ralpha and Bel's to be made slightly large but I don't know how much time it will take for it to reach Bakuddo. I think at the shortest it should take about four months for them to arrive but I wonder if that will actually be the case? Since I left it with a caravan heading towards Keel I can't predict it at all.

Since today is Sat.u.r.day it's a day off. After eating breakfast together with Zulu the same as usual, I handed Zulu his wages for this month of 5 silver coins. Annual income of 600,000 Z. It's an income that's slightly larger than a small farm owner that doesn't own any slaves and is the equivalent of 10,000 Z per week pay. Honestly speaking, in a large town like Baldukk it would be difficult to live on just this amount but since I pay for his inn and food costs it's an exceptionally high pay for a slave. Though, I decided on it after watching him for this month. He can be useful. He listens well and he can decently use the sword as well. And above all it seems that he's quite loyal so unless an extraordinary talent appears from now on then he's going to be my head slave.

Since we've only started to get to know him for about a month as expected we still haven't told him that we're reincarnated people. It's because I somehow got the feeling that if he knew there could be conflicts between groups of reincarnated people that appear from here on then he might think of searching for them. Since this isn't modern day j.a.pan, I know it's not good to be nervous about him being scouted or betraying but I'm not so optimistic nor have I seen through enough of his personality in just one month so it shouldn't matter right. For the most part I've told the other members about this as well.

On the side of Zulu who's grateful for his high pay, I'm getting right to setting the goals for next month. This month I had made a secret goal of "confirming the ability for our party to cooperate and if possible improve that" but since you could already say we've more or less cleared it so I need to decide on next months goal.

- In regards to clearing the 1st floor we're still just randomly wandering around and haven't properly drawn a map. It seems impossible.

- I feel it's unrealistic to try and draw a proper map with this situation where Ralpha's MP is still 3. I've told her not to use her Unique Ability but magic twice every day but going off this pace it will take another five months before her void magic reaches level 1. As expected using magic three times a day and getting her MP to 0 is something I want to avoid because of her age. It can't be helped betting on the 1% chance of raising her MP and above all Ralpha seems to stay the night the same room as Zenom so it would be too late after something happens. I somehow don't like the idea of her visiting Zulu at night for s.e.x as well. Maybe I'll buy a map. Then it's not a dream of clearing the 1st floor... If she just had 7 MP, if she could just reach 7. Since it's already started to feel annoying I was thinking maybe I should just starve her and then have her use up her MP to 0 then after feeding her let her go to sleep. If I wake her up in the middle of the night and make her do it twice then she should be able to earn 5 experience points a day and it will level up in 2.5 months. But, I guess it's a bit too pitiful...not letting her eat properly together with everyone else.

- In regards to the objective of leveling myself up I feel it's kind of half-hearted but if I were to seriously stand at the front and engage in combat all day I can solve it all at once. If I felt like it then I could even go and do it all today I'm sure. Though overdoing it is no good because I have no backup members. It's not so important to make into a goal.

- It might be a good idea to get one more additional combat slave. My earnings for this month have exceeded 10,000,000 Z by a little bit. I've given Zenom, Ralpha, and Bel about 300,000 Z each in bonuses. If I increase the number of members who can fight then we should be able to have more stability in combat I'm sure. I've used quite a bit of the money I received from father and even if it doesn't quite reach the original amount I've been able to recover back to close that much. It might be a good hand to add one more slave around here. If we earn another couple million Z then I think I should still have plenty of leeway even after buying a slave. Let's go with this.

I was lost in my thoughts while sipping at my bean tea after breakfast but after deciding on the next goal there's nothing left than to take action. I bid farewell to Zulu for a while until dinner and after leaving the restaurant I went back to my inn to put my protectors on and go running for today. Ah, I've haven't said it until now but the inn I'm staying at is the "Boil Manor" and the inn that Zenom and other's are staying at is called "Shuni" it's just a step above a cheap lodging house.

After finis.h.i.+ng my running and was.h.i.+ng my protectors I changed and went out to "Slave Store, Ronslail" again. I already found out. Reserving slaves is an obvious practice. That s.h.i.+tty gnome from "Tani Company". He deceived me in order to try and make me impatient thinking I was an amateur at buying slaves. Like I'll ever go to that store again.

After entering the store and calling out and Madam.Ronslail approached me with her usual sociable smile. As usual this madam has a strong sales disposition.

I name myself and after sticking out my right I let her use Status Open on me. After all when you're dealing with expensive things like slaves then you need to properly confirm each others ident.i.ty, so I've already gotten used to this being common, or rather the correct mannerisms. It's an extremely rude behavior to suddenly use Status Open on someone but it's not rude to reveal yours from your end. Rather, it's closer to the meaning of, my ident.i.ty is this, so I want you to have faith in and do business with me.

After confirming my status and the madam looked at my face strangely she finally realized that I was a previous customer since I dyed my hair. That's fine but she also said something that bothers me at the same time.

"I've heard plenty of rumors about you lately."

What does she mean? Why would there be rumors about us? Because we saved Bel and handed over the criminal?

"There's quite a few rumors that even though you're new adventurers you're earning several hundreds of thousands of Z every time you enter the dungeon. Thanks to that, we can hold our heads high in the fact that we sold you a combat slave."

So it was that sort of thing. It's true that it's normal for people to avoid fighting as much as possible and hurry to the next floor. They say that you fundamentally only find the special items that would make you rich quick starting from the 2nd floor after all and I'm sure that I'm about the only one that knows that you gain experience points from defeating enemies and level up. I'm sure if I didn't know about that then I would have been devoted to avoiding combat as much as possible and aimed for going as far in as I could as well. If that wasn't the case then who would bother fighting Goblins and things which only give magic stones with such a low value? The magic stones of Orks and Hobgoblins are considerably high but they're strong enough that someone among us gets injured pretty easily. Although, I guess it had gotten to the point where we've entered the rumors of other adventurers?

Thinking that I tried asking her about it but it seems it was a bit different. It seems she heard about the fact that we're often going to the magic tool shop to sell magic stones from the magic tool shop owner while having tea with them. She was shrewdly using that as publicity. I guess it's fine though. In any case, after telling the madam that I want her to find me a new combat slave and if possible get first pick on one and the madam immediately went into the back to prepare the combat slaves.

After waiting for a short while I was called to the back by the madam who appeared again. Che...There's nothing but female combat slaves again. Since women won't add to the combat potential...Huh? Even if Ralpha and Bel are special cases because they're reincarnated people, wouldn't it be fine as long as they're in their early 20s? Come to think of it, I wonder if I was insistent on a man last time because I was feeling impatient with increasing our combat capabilities? Somehow I don't feel like that's quite right either. I started identifying with an unexplainable feeling and after all there was no one special so I ended up leaving the store with those unexplainable feelings remaining.

With my arms crossed and my head I walk heading towards "Boil Manor". Come to think of it I feel like I've had a lot of uneasy and unexplainable feelings late. I wonder what it is? This? Is it just my imagination? After arriving at my inn feeling like something is stuck in my teeth I lay down on the bed and look at the ceiling.

Well I'm sure it's nothing too important but somehow it bothers me.

I start organizing my thoughts which has already become a habit.

Huh? What was I thinking about again? Ah that's right, about feeling something is off or something like that. Somehow I feel like I was about to forget about it. It's really troublesome but I think I should write stuff down as I organize it for once.

I got up from the bed and opened the window but since it was still dark in the room I lit up the lighting magic tool. After sitting down on the chair in front of the table and I took out a couple of pieces of paper I bought for drawing a map.

I write out each and every one of the things that I felt was unnatural, felt something was off with, or I couldn't explain. A bit after I started writing them I realized.

What's this!?

Each one of them doesn't particularly matter at all. If you just look at that then there's no particular problem. But, just going off the number of times I remember feeling something was off I started trembling.

Something is strange.

If you were to ask how it's strange and I would be a bit troubled to answer.

But, I somehow think it's strange.

There's several instances where I feel like my own actions are strange. When I try my best to remember that time I can think of several things I said or did that were strange for me. Putting it simply, it's almost like I was acting like a big-headed child. If I just take a glance at it then going off the result it shouldn't be all that mistaken so I can almost just let it pa.s.s by as it being a one-time occurrence. Though going off this then there's probably several other times where I acted or said strange things that I can't remember. Or rather it's probably more realistic to think that's the case.

Huh~? I wonder what in the world this means?

It's fine if I organize and think about each of them individually but I should probably think about it generally first. Though it's important to think about what I said and did and what I normally would have done but I can't redo something that's already been done. Rather, what's more important is from here on out. It's necessary to carefully think this matter out without coming to a simple conclusion.

If I look at the outline and there's some places where it would be strange to end up with my way of thinking. For example if an event called A were to happen. And myself in the past used method B to resolve that. However, after thinking it through more calmly I felt it would have been more like me to use method C, that sort of thing. This "think more calmly" is the difficult part. Since I'm not actually thinking, I'm remembering. Going off of my actions from my past life and if I was this sort of person then I wouldn't I pick method C, that sort of thing.

Well it might be easier to figure out by remembering and matching it up right now than thinking.

I follow my memories back. Gradually, gradually I keep going back. I remember as far back as I can. My oldest memory is from when I was three years old in my past life. I remember laying down and playing around on the futon in the sun of the house that I lived in back then. The warm and smooth feeling of the futon and the nostalgic smell. I can't remember anything other than that but this is probably my oldest memory. It's vague but I remember the round lights hanging from the ceiling and the scenery I could see from outside the sliding door. Anything else than that including the appearance I've completely forgotten.

After that along with my growth my memory got a lot better. Though I say that my memories from grade school and middle school are already pretty fragmented but the number increases. If I remember right then the anime about a s.p.a.ce battles.h.i.+p was broadcast before I entered grade school. My three year older brother was hooked on it. Until my later years in grade school the mobile suit was broadcast. I woke up in the early morning at around 5 am and went to the model store to line up with my friend in order to buy a plastic model with a ticket. The first one I bought wasn't the leading actors machine but that green one the villain uses.

I think it was around then, or maybe a little bit before that the I entered the boys baseball team in my local area... we never really won but it was fun. Ah, I remember playing with the dial-type TV and changing the channels while still in my uniform so I must have entered the baseball team a bit before. After I got into middle school I quickly entered the swimming club. I was in the swimming club in high school as well. I went to the point where I was almost able to enter inter-high...My first girlfriend. She broke up with me quickly. My next girlfriend after that we continued for a decent amount of time but when I entered the Self-Defense College we ended up losing contact and that was it...

After that was my rich memories of my past last until I died. Things that were fun, that were painful, that I was happy about, that I was sad about, that I got excited about, that I got depressed about...I can clearly remember the things I did that at that time. Though it's only obvious that the vague stuff from when I was a child isn't a lot. Of course, they've gotten fragmented and things like the faces of the people I met, and the faces from the last time I met them I feel are slightly different. But, I can remember them without problem. It's the same for stuff after I reincarnated. And, I was somehow able to understand it.

Since I have memories, I have knowledge and wisdom that go with it. But...but, what about the mentality that makes up the basis for my personality?

"You lived until you were 45 years old in your previous life. Though you're still 1 year old in this world it's no different from saying your mental age is 46 years old. However, your current body is that of a 1 year old. Your stamina has also become appropriate for that age. Your emotions and way of thinking are being pulled by the sensitivity of the age of that body. However, in another two - three months the adjustments related to that should pa.s.s, or rather your current body should adjust to your mentality, so you should be able to speak in a way appropriate for your mental age, and control your emotions without problem. Just think of those sorts of things as occurring in a matter of time."

"Your emotions and way of thinking are being pulled by the sensitivity of the age of that body. However, in another two - three months the adjustments related to that should pa.s.s, or rather your current body should adjust to your mentality, so you should be able to speak in a way appropriate for your mental age, and control your emotions without problem."

The thing that gets adjusted is my mental age gets younger to match up with my body!

- On that occasion I inherited my memories and the consciousness, or rather wisdom that goes with that.

- But, it said that the mentality would take some time to integrate with the new body.

- It's just a guess but I think that it took around that much time for 90% of the integration to finish. After that I feel like it's spending a much longer period of time performing the rest of the integration.

- My mental age has gotten somewhat close to the age of my body but it's not like my original personality will completely disappear. It was limited to just integrating them after all. This isn't just a hopeful observation. I can naturally act like an adult more than what a normal 14 year old would and normally I wouldn't feel that my own actions are unnatural as well. The unexplainable feeling I've been getting lately was, over a certain action, if it's the person I know as me in my memories then they wouldn't do this, or close to that.

- It's unknown if the personality that I'm missing is hidden or has completely disappeared. It's just my guess based on memory but I don't feel like it's not disappeared.

I don't know if this correct. I'm sure I don't have enough material to make a decision yet. It's probably better to think that I'm mistaken on something somewhere or I'm overlooking it because I don't have enough to go on. In the first place it was difficult just trying to remember the strange parts in my own actions that I let pa.s.s by because I didn't feel there was a problem with them. I'm sure there's a lot of instances where I felt something was off and even more I don't remember. Rather it would be more natural to think there's more of them that I can't remember.

I think during the first year to year and a half I suddenly got a lot younger to around 20 years old and after that I slowly got younger over a number of years. However, it never went as far as the age of my body. Did it stabilize a bit above that? Did it grow a bit over time after that? I don't know at all around that part but if I think about it like this then it makes somewhat sense, I think. I'm not overlooking anything right? Well, even if I am overlooking something it can't be helped.

The problem is whether or not there's bad things that could occur because of this. One of them is the misunderstandings and brash decisions I might make because my mentality has gotten younger. Even if I try to be careful of this if it's a decision that exceeds my mental age right now then it would be difficult to decide. Of course, if I think carefully then I should be able to reduce the number of mistakes so caution is still necessary. I'm sure it's necessary to carefully consider everything.

Next is if something I decided in the past is strange and the potential problems that I've already caused or will cause in the future because of that. This is the difficult part. I would need to think back on everything I said or did until now and question them. In order to decide whether I made the proper decision would take an immense amount of work. If I were to think about it in extremes then I'd even have to verify if the amount of wages I gave to Zulu this morning was reasonable.

Or if I put it even further why I even bought a combat slave, or was Zulu a good choice, those sorts of things would need to be verified as well. If I go back even further then the development of rubber or in the first place if it was necessary to leave the house, or the validity of making a country, if I start thinking there's no end to them. For example, since I already know that I can make cotton gunpowder wouldn't it be better to start making guns already, and, it might be necessary to start thinking about developing a detonator and stuff like that.

After thinking about it this far, since I'm already not Kawasaki Takeo, but rather Alan Greed, is it really necessary to be so particular about the values and way of thinking of Kawasaki Takeo? and thinking like that I was even about to start abandoning the annoying thought work. I guess stuff like that is where my young mentality is kicking in. In the first place I've even found thinking itself to be troublesome lately so I haven't even made a comparison table. In the past I used to write up something like a report going over the main points in an easy way whenever I tried to organize things. I wonder when it started to get too troublesome.

Anyway, anything more than this I'll need to think about when the chance comes up I'm sure. But, it's a good idea to consider things that have happened lately. Starting with the big problem of Ralpha's mana amount. I'm sure we should hurry her magic training. If it was the me in the past then even if it's pitiful to Ralpha I would have put in the effort to make her gain as much experience as possible with the magic special skills. This is something that needs to be done. In any case, while this is a day off it's too naive to make it a completely free day. It's only obvious that it's necessary to rest and relieve some mental strain but there's no particular need to sleep it away.

Next is a new slave. Though I told Madam Ronslail to prepare some better combat slaves in stock, I didn't give her any tangible orders on what kind. I guess I'll think about it a bit. Also, when I think back to the time I bought Zulu. That time I didn't even glance at the large number of female combat slaves. I can't say it was a completely strange decision because women do fall behind men in terms of power but I can't even remember checking their ages or levels. There were even some decently good looking slaves. In my case since I have to look after the trouble of the slave, I think I would pick a male who's got as good of a disposition as possible and if I go off combat potential then a male would be better on that end as well so this is fine.

I'm not hoping for a skill with the sword like my older sister or sister-in-law who've trained in knight groups from something like a slave.  Even though Zulu was a squire and he can use the sword somewhat his rough movements still stand out after all. In the first place, if there actually was someone like that there's no way they'd be at a price I could buy them. If a knight falls to a slave then it would be like Zulu where they ended up as war prisoners and no one paid the ransom for them. The ransom for a commoner knight is over 20 gold coins. It's only obvious that they'd have a price on that level and if there was a bargain like that then in the first place the slave trade would say something. There's no way they wouldn't say anything.

However, if it's slave, then, I could even use the condom...No wait, I don't have the interest of using my authority to forcefully do it. And...it's embarra.s.sing. If it's a prost.i.tute that takes a number of customers then even if they make fun of you it's just a temporary thing and in the first place you're paying them money so it's unlikely they'd say it to your face. However, if it's my slave then I have to remain with them even after. Even in the worst case I can't let them know that there's still an extra armor sheet remaining. If the idiot girl finds out then she'll definitely make fun of me. Until I grow, get unmasked, and become a {big} man, female slaves are prohibited from now on as well.

Though saying that is a joke but even then it's strange. I have enough self-control to not lay a hand on my own slave. I should have. I want to think I do. Then why did I insist on Zulu, no, male slaves so much that I didn't even confirm the others at that time? I'm sure it's true that one of the reasons is I was desperate for more combat potential. But, I wouldn't have lost anything just confirming them right? Was I being timid in front of adult women because my mentality has gotten younger? At this point? There's no way. Ah, since I would hate it if I'm misunderstood I'll say it from the start but I'm not a Holy Being but a Martian. A Martian. I'm a man that will go far. Go far...since I'm 14 years old hold hopes for me from here on out.

It really can't be helped just thinking of strange things like this. This probably isn't a problem with my mental age.  Let's go to the next point, next. Bel's magic. She has quite a bit of MP. That's why if she can learn to use magic then it would be directly related to raising our combat potential. And just perfect she's a rear guard as well. For this past month, she's been training with magic but while she's not very good at it she's giving it her best. Since it's more unusual for people to be able to use it right after they start training I'll have her make an effort over a while.

..It's about a good time. I ended up spending several hours thinking without eating lunch. When I handed Zulu his wages I told him he could do whatever he wants for lunch on days off but without intending to I spent quite a while thinking. I'll talk about the magic training and that I intend to buy a new slave at dinner tonight.

On my way to the restaurant we're meeting up at I stopped by Ronslail's store and made a detailed order. It doesn't matter if they're male or female but if possible I want someone around 20 years old in age. It's not better if they're as young as possible so this should be about right. Also if possible then someone who  became a slave from being a war prison. And I said it's fine even if it's with a wooden sword but I want to test their skill before I buy them.

When I went to the restaurant everyone was already there. While looking at the carefree Ralpha I started thinking that I would take her to the limits with magic training starting tomorrow as I started explaining my plans from here on out.

Author's note: Al has realized a number of things, it might seem unnatural to notice it but just think of this has protagonist power. Also, he hasn't realized everything, so it's unknown if his hypothesis is correct or not, I'm sure it won't be clear for a while yet.