Chapter 12: What’s an elf?

Erna and me left the building and decided to go shopping for the time being. I think it is the best way to see the culture of this world.

“Erna, guide me to the market.”

“Market?”

She tilted her head. Helpless, I can only ask her to guide me to the market with gestures. Perhaps it was transmitted, she took my hand and we begin to proceed through the city.

“Market!”

The place she guided me to is a bar. This time, I took out paper and pen, I effortlessly showed her a drawing of the market.

 “This is the market!”

“Market? … ΨΔ *!”

Perhaps she finally understood as I am guided to a similar place this time. Many stalls are lined up in a row and vegetables and fruits placed in boxes or stands are piled up. The clerk calls out to the customer, and when the customer pays, the customer receives the product and leaves. The market is full of vitality, and it seems that business is flourishing everywhere.

While looking at the store, I pick up new vegetables and fruits and use the appraisal.

【Appraisal Result: Pupu’s Fruit: A common fruit from the Kingdom of Rogas. It has a strong sourness and is often used for cooking. 】

【Appraisal Result: Cabeji: Common vegetables from the kingdom of Rogas. It has a light taste and a pleasant texture. Used in many dishes】

I see. Thinking about it, I tried Appraisal on Erna and I found out some interesting information.

【Appraisal Result: Erna Frederia: The race is an elf. Age is 19 years old. She is the second daughter of the Frederia family and has a complex being a beginner mage. Current obsession is to observe Shinichi Tanaka】

19 years old is very young. Oh right, I am also young. If so, she is older than me?

It is a strange feeling. But what is an elf race? Unlike me, Erna has long and sharp ears. I am convinced that it is a racial characteristic, but is it different from me?

….Well, I think it’s wrong to compare it with a homeless race, so I’ll stop prying. I choose vegetables and fruits then I hand over a gold coin to the clerk.

“Ψβ§ !?”

The clerk who looked at the gold coin showed a stern look. Erna immediately takes the gold coin from the clerk and hand over a silver coin.

“§ * Ψ! ΞξΛ!”

For some reason, Erna dropped her fist on my head. My aching head gets confused. Why did she knock me?

Erna takes out the silver coins, she arranges the silver and gold coins in front of her. She then drew a picture on paper and told me that gold coins are worth one hundred silver coins.

“I see, that means I paid a lot of money… I feel bad.”

If you pay 100,000 yen or 1 million yen at a stall, anyone would be troubled. I can consent that Erna got angry. Just in case, I also used appraisal on the gold coin, I got some useful information.

【Appraisal Result: Rogas Gold Coin: Gold coin circulating in the Kingdom of Rogas. From the bottom, the values ​​are copper coins, silver coins, gold coins, and pure silver coins. Gold coins are worth 100 silver coins, and it is said that one gold coin can live for a year in the Kingdom of Rogas. 】

It’s a good amount to live in a year!

If so, once converted to yen, would it be about 1 million yen? It is probably that much as I see that the explanation does not say that you can live and play. In that case, it’s really silly that I try to pay a million yen at a stall.

I wish I could just disappear…

After I receive the vegetables and fruits from the clerk, I thank Erna and give her one gold coin. She look at me from head to toe, I bet she must have doubted my actions. She then went inside a store, she bought shoes and put them in front of me.

 “Shoes?”

Her hand holds a leather bag full of silver coins. Why did she buy shoes here? Thinking of it, I look at my shoes, it’s worn out but there are no holes on it though. Originally, the shoes were collected from the corpse, so I remember that they were already worn out.

So Erna was observing me before...

“Thank you. I’ll use it carefully.”

The size of the shoes was perfect and the comfort was excellent. Erna is also happy to see my appearance. She must really be a good girl with a beautiful heart. After that, we went around the market and bought a lot of vegetables, fruits and meat. However, the store I was looking for didn’t seem to be on the market. So I could only ask Erna about it.

“Is there a place that sells pepper and sugar?”

She has a dubious look. I take a bottle of pepper from my bosom and show it to her.

“§ * Ψ”

As she understood, we move to the center of the city, I was guided to a store instead of a stall. The signboard has a pot and black fruit on it, so it seems to be a seasoning store. Above all, the smell of spices drifted from inside the store.

There are many spices and rock salt in a box inside the store, and it seems that female customers mainly purchase them. A man dressed in light equipment is thinking while looking at something like curry powder.

For the time being, I asked the clerk for the pepper and sugar, he immediately prepared it as if he could understand my language. I licked a little, and it is definitely pepper and sugar.

“This is good, I want to buy 500g each.”

When I make a gesture of 500g, the clerk nods and presents the pepper and sugar in a hemp bag. Erna gently hands over 10 silver coins to the clerk.

“If one silver coin costs about 10,000 yen, so 500g is 100,000 yen. It’s quite expensive. Maybe that’s why I didn’t find much pepper on those corpses.”

I’ve been feeling that way for a long time. I had obtained rock salt and pepper by looting the corpses but pepper was overwhelmingly less frequent than rock salt. In addition, one out of hundred corpses carrying sugar is already a blessing. I smile happily after receiving the pepper and sugar.

“This will not make my life more challenging. I’m worried about other spices, but I’ll settle with this for now.”

After I put the seasoning in my rucksack, it’s time to start walking around the town to get back to the hideout.This is translated by Yume Neiji

“§Δ * !?”

Erna holds me back and asks where I am going –I gradually understood what she was trying to say with her facial expressions and gestures, but how far is this child going to tag along?

“I’m going home, you should go home too.”

I took out the map and pointed at it and gestured that I am now going home.

“ΒΛΨ!? Ψξ !?”

Erna showed a surprised expression, she looked amazed but she kept on holding her head. It feels like she’s making fun of me. She takes my hand and leads me somewhere.

“W-What’s going on? Where are you taking me to?”

After walking for a while, we arrived at a place like an inn. She tells me to wait here while she rush into the inn-like building.

“What the heck…” translated by Yume Neiji

About 20 minutes later, Erna came out with a bag that was enough to make a big rucksack. She is also holing a cane in her hand and she’s gasping for breath. There’s even a bra hanging from the mouth of her rucksack, perhaps it’s because she prepared it in a hurry.

“ΨΘξ! §Δ * Ψ!”

She starts walking with the luggage on her back, like she’s saying, “Let’s go!”

I finally become aware of it from there. She said she will live with me!

“W-wait! I didn’t say we’ll live together! And it’s dangerous for a woman of age to sleep together with me! It’s really dangerous! Think again!”

“§ * Φ!”

Even if I persuade her, she doesn’t seem to listen. What on earth is happening! I couldn’t understand her at all so I held my head in frustration. I wonder if she’s worried for me that’s why she want us to live together…

If so, I’ll be really grateful, but she doesn’t have the obligation to do that. As expected, I am worried that a woman of age will follow me home.

I am certainly not a Saint!

I am an ordinary man who reads erotic books and has been to brothels. And now I have a young body. I don’t know what can happen next. This really is dangerous after all!

I still attempt to persuade Erna as we continue on the way but she refuses to respond, as if all my words fell into a deaf ear. Before I knew it, we already left the city and finally returned to the dungeon’s entrance.

I can’t help but settle on taking her to the hideout.

“What are you trying to do by coming with me?… I don’t know what young people think these days…”

As I said that, I pulled Erna to the Temple of the Teleportation and then I placed my hand on the black stone plate.

【Welcome to the Temple of Teleportation. Shinichi Tanaka has one transfer point registered. Will you be transferred as it is? YES / NO】

Without any hesitation, I select YES.

I immediately feel nauseous afterwards. The surrounding scenery distorted, and the dizziness and nausea attack me as if the body and head were stirred. Even so, I held on Erna’s hand. translated by Yume Neiji

She holds unto my hand and does not let go. Somehow I remembered my wife. When I opened my eyes, it was the miniature garden.

Success! As expected, this was connected to the ground.

“Uhahahahaha! I did it! Now I can go to the ground anytime!”

I jump while running around the plains of the miniature garden. Erna looks around in amazement while sitting on the ground. The vegetation is rich, but you can still see a ceiling when you look up. Surrounded by walls, it’s easy to tell that it’s a different place.

This is the miniature garden in my house.

“We finally get here, I’ll guide you to my hideout!”

I pulled her hand, we crossed the miniature gardens as I led her to the first miniature garden.This is translated by Yume Neiji (yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com)

“This is my field! Delicious vegetables –Hn-Ah?!”

After I guided her to the field, I was startled. The vegetables that were just replanted are now blooming. Timewise, it shouldn’t have bloom yet… no matter what I think, it’s strange.

I quickly take out a cloth, I touch the flowers to pollinate them. This should increase the number of vegetables, but I am a little worried because I am not familiar with plants. There is no wind here and there are no insects to help pollination, so I’m wondering how it had increased, but it’s better than not blooming at all.

“Φ§ *”

Erna looks around the field and stares at it with admiration. She didn’t hate touching soil, she picks some with her fingers and smells it.

 “Alright, this should be fine for the time being.  Should we head to the hideout now?”

I take her hand and we move on. If she really wants to live with me, I would like to tell her a little more but I think it’s faster to show her the bedroom. In such a small space, I must tell her that it’s impossible to live there alone with a man. Rather, that should normally be the case.

As we climbed to the floor with the water canal, Erna rush to the water canal and stared at the water.This is translated by Yume Neiji (yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com)

“Ψ * §Σ !?”

When she scoops water with her hand, it drops down vigorously. The particles of light twinkled in the water that fell, and the light was fantastically emitted. If so, does she know what this water really is? As I think of it, I realized that I didn’t use the appraisal for this water.

【Appraisal Result: Saint Water: Mysterious water containing a large amount of magical power. Its effect keeps magical beasts and monsters away and brings various benefits to drinkers. 】

As expected, it’s not ordinary water. I use this much water for bathing and drinking water. Is it bad? When I think about it, my guilt rises up.

Erna takes out the water bottle, draw some water and begin to drink.

“Though it’s okay to drink water, we should hurry ahead. Hey, let’s go!”

Erna persistently drinks the water. In fact, she even holds out her cane, “mumumu”, she chants something.

 “ΨΣΦΛ!”This is translated by Yume Neiji (yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com)

―But nothing happens.

It’s said that she had a complex being a beginner mage, so maybe she thinks that drinking saint water will enable her to use stronger magic. What a pitiful child, I almost shed tears but I have to hold it in.

“Hey, I’ll really get going.”

This time, she comes with me when I pull her hand. She look so dispirited, perhaps she really want to use magic. Since I can’t use magic from the beginning, it’s hard to sympathize with her feelings but magic may be a big status in this world.

Upon arriving at the hideout, I thrust my finger into the eye of the lion.

“This is my house.”

With a clank, the invisible mechanism begin to move and part of the ceiling begin to open. The scaffolding is lowered as I pulled the chain till it almost reached the water canal and stopped. Looking next to me, Erna was completely stunned. Her expression tells that she don’t know what happened.

 “Hey, let’s go inside.”

Though she’s still bewildered, I pull her hand and entered the hideout. As if welcoming my return, the lighting stand automatically turned on. I checked each room, it is the same as when I left.This is translated by Yume Neiji (yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com)

I put my luggage on the floor and take out the frying pan, I begin to grill the orc meat. I also bought bread at the market, thinking that I should prepare a lot of food today, I glance at Erna only to see she’s seated on the floor with a stunned expression.

It seems that it will take some time for her to take in everything.

I put the meat in a pan and place it on a plate. I also put the soup in a bowl and place it on the table. Erna finally begins to move due to the smell and stare at my face.

“It’s yours. I don’t know if it’s delicious, but try it.”

As I said that, I sit on the floor and bite the meat and bread. Me and her silently finish our meal and decide on our room. The place with the bed is Erna’s room. I decided to sleep on the sofa in the living room.

In this way, I decided to share my house with a woman named Erna – without even understanding her.

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