Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! Volume 6

by Funa

  It was a match in which defeat and humiliation were not an option. And he had lost.

  The butler’s face was now colored deeply with despair.

  “So, how about it? Will you forfeit?”

  “Nh… Uh…”

  The butler was pale as a sheet, sweat pouring down his face.

  “At this rate, that butler’s gonna have to slice his own stomach open to take responsibility…” Mile uttered, though she had no idea whether the practice of seppuku was commonplace around these parts.

  Of course, Reina and the others had already had this explained to them in a story Mile told about a group of individuals who had become unemployed after their employer attempted to murder someone in the palace and then broke into that person’s home and perpetrated a massacre.

  Suddenly, the other three noticed Pauline, and how her face spasmed, a glare in her eyes.

  “Here she goes, huh?” Mile asked. The others nodded.

  “Might I have a word?”

  At Pauline’s further intrusion, the merchant, whose victory was already assured, gave a nonchalant nod.

  “Sure thing, miss. It’s thanks to your prompting before that I thought of this auction to settle things, after all. Now, what can I help you with?”

  “Ah, actually if I could get you to wait right there a moment, that would be perfect. Miley, a sound barrier, please!”

  “On it!”

  “Huh? What is…?”

  After the merchant gave his consent, Pauline had Mile erect a sound barrier. This put Pauline and the butler in a separate sphere from the merchant so that neither side could hear the other’s words. The merchant had been put in his own sphere at Mile’s discretion so that he could neither issue a complaint nor try to butt in while Pauline and the butler were speaking.

  From the outside, all anyone could see was the merchant wordlessly flapping his mouth, and Pauline and the butler deep in some sort of conversation.

  Gradually, the butler’s eyes began to open wider, in some sort of surprise.

  And then, the butler bent his back toward Pauline; it was much less a bow than an almost-military salute. His upper back was angled deeply, at almost 45 degrees.

  To give an uncapped salute in the Japanese SDF, one normally bends about 10 degrees. 45 degrees is unheard of outside of bowing to the emperor himself or to the casket of a comrade killed in the line of duty. Was Pauline truly someone worthy of such a deep show of respect in the butler’s eyes?

  Pauline then turned to Mile and gave a twist of her wrist. That was the signal to dissolve the sound barrier. Seeing this, Mile complied straight away.

  “Wh-what was that just now…?” asked the merchant, who, judging from his tone of wonder, had surely neither seen nor heard of such a thing before. Pauline ignored him. She had to press on before any of them could change their minds and object to Pauline’s intervention.

  “Everyone!” she shouted loudly to the surrounding onlookers. “All assembled, you are well aware of the situation. In the name of the house of the Baron Aura, I entreat all of you here to invest your funds in this butler!”

  “Huhhh?!”

  The crowd’s voices rose in confusion, unsure of what she meant.

  “In other words, I’m asking you all to lend this man your money. Whosoever lends him a coin now shall receive it back double with interest as soon as he can go back to the estate to retrieve it. Double your money, just like that!”

  “All right!!!!” the crowd roared.

  “And also!” Pauline continued. “If the young mistress should recover thanks to your help in obtaining this medicine! Then! All those who made a contribution will be invited to the party to celebrate her good health! You’ll be invited to the baron’s mansion as a benefactor and perhaps even have the chance to shake the young mistress’s hand in thanks! For we common folk, this is the dream of a lifetime!

  “This is an honor you’ll be able to remember for the rest of your lives! We’ll be accepting contributions until we’ve collected ten gold pieces—first come, first served! Please, everyone! Lend us your money! Whatever you can give!”

  “Yeaaaaaaaahhhh!!!”

  There was a mad rush.

  Pauline’s face twitched. The response was far greater than even she anticipated. Reina and Mavis rushed to Pauline’s side, to keep her from being swallowed up in the tidal wave of bodies.

  And Mile muttered, dumbfounded,

  “A m-money bomb…”

  ***

  And so, it was settled.

  This was a city of commerce, so there were many other shop owners among the spectators. Naturally, every shop owner around kept one or two extra gold pieces on their person at all times, separate from their coin purse, just in case of an emergency—an emergency like that merchant’s orichalcum coin.

  Thus, the ten gold pieces were collected in short order.

  Even if this proved insufficient, it was obvious that they could collect plenty more if necessary. Already there was no way for the merchant to win.

  “28 gold pieces!”

  The butler made a scant one coin increase to the bid, but anyone could see that the match was already over. Continuing the fight any longer was futile.

  “I fold.”

  Just as the owner of a large business should, the merchant dutifully recognized his defeat and gave up the fight.

  “You really got me there. I am completely defeated. Well done, well done…” he said with a smile, gathering up all the coins that he had piled on the table. “I look forward to next time!”

  The Crimson Vow and the butler stared agog as the merchant left in unexpectedly good spirits.

  “He’s up to something. We should be careful…” Reina said, glaring at the merchant’s retreating form from behind.

  “No need,” came a voice from the nearby crowd.

  “Huh?”

  Reina looked suspicious, but the man who had spoken explained, “That guy likes to put on a show, but he really is a good person when you get down to it.”

  “Wh-what are you talking about?!” Reina shouted in confusion, having never heard of oxymorons such as “a mini monster truck,” or “an honest liar.”

  “What I mean is that he likes to push the limits of what’s allowed within the rules of business, but he never does anything truly unreasonable to actually cross that line. Even his crude way of speaking is just to teach his opponents a lesson or to have a bit of fun himself. Even if he’d won that auction, he probably would have just sold the medicine to the butler for a few gold more. The whole auction was probably mostly for the sake of giving the apothecary a larger profit. That, and…” he trailed off as he looked toward the owner of the medicine shop. “Anyway, it seems like he had a lot of fun this morning, so I don’t think he has any animosity toward you. On the contrary, he seems to have taken a liking to you all. He might even come to your aid sometime. Man, am I jealous!”

  The man laughed. Some of the other mercantile folk in the crowd laughed along with him, as if they were in the know as well.

  The Crimson Vow and the butler were stunned.

  “Wha…?”

  “B-but then why would you all help us out with that loan?” Pauline asked. “If you all already knew that, then even if you hadn’t bothered…”

  Another man who had contributed to the loan piped up.

  “That’s because we’re merchants. Did you really think we were gonna pass up the chance to instantly double our money? Plus…”

  “We wanna shake a young noble maiden’s hand and hear her thank us!!!” they all shouted.

  The Crimson Vow and the butler all slumped their shoulders in disappointment.

  Pauline, however, was quick to recover. There was still something that she had to do.

  “Mister Apothecary, what do you intend to do with all that gold?”

  “Uh…”

  The shopkeeper, who had been gazing at the mountain of gold that the butler had piled upon the table, looked blankly at Pauline.<
br />
  What did she care? Whatever he planned on doing with it, it was his money, won fairly at auction.

  “Imagine a shop that, despite having made a prior agreement with a noble family, failed to refuse someone who tried to snipe their goods and forced them to compete for much needed-medicine, causing them to pay almost six times the original asking price for said goods. If such a precedent were set under the watchful eyes of an entire crowd, do you think that anyone would continue to place orders at that shop from that day forward?”

  “Um…”

  The owner was speechless. He finally seemed to realize what it was that he had done.

  Merchants who dealt in goods where the competition was high, such as clothing and foodstuffs, had experience and knew their markets, and there were some sly devils among them. However, for an apothecary, as long as you were knowledgeable and had a knack for putting out well-made goods, it didn’t matter if your personality was a little rough around the edges. It wasn’t the sort of sector where you had to scramble for customers or even talk very much.

  This is precisely the kind of shopkeeper this apothecary was… In other words, as merchants went, he was a little estranged from the intricacies of human nature.

  “N-no, I… That wasn’t what I…”

  “Whether or not you intended to do it, that doesn’t change the facts. Plus, it’s not even as if you didn’t know or that this happened by accident. You allowed the intervention and the competition while fully understanding the circumstances. So there is no arguing with the fact that you are the sort of person who would do such a thing, and that this shop is the sort of place that allows those sorts of practices, with no regard for anything except for turning a profit. I want you to take a nice long moment to think about what you’ve lost, all for the sake of earning twenty-odd gold coins.”

  Truthfully, the spectators probably would have given him some leeway, understanding that his failure to refuse the merchant came from a place of fear. But now that that merchant was gone, leaving everyone with only the reality that the shop owner was willing to take 23 gold coins beyond the original price of his goods, the spectators, merchant and consumer alike, were uncertain that such a thing was just.

  “………”

  Cold stares from the crowd all focused upon the owner.

  When he considered his shop’s lost reputation and customer base, 23 gold pieces was as good as dirt.

  The owner’s face went pale, and sweat dripped down his brow.

  The reason that the man who’d been explaining the merchant’s nature to Reina earlier had trailed off was probably because he anticipated this. The merchant had not only been having a bit of fun—he was testing the shop owner as well…

  “Wh-what are you saying there? I did not want to come on too strong because angering the leaders of the Merchants’ Guild would be very bad for my business’s longevity, but naturally my intention was to give the medicine over to the butler no matter what. The auction was just for the sake of holding a bit of a competition, you see! The sales price of the goods was settled from the beginning. Come now, that’s reasonable, isn’t it?!”

  The weak-willed merchant had suddenly become overly formal. This was understandable, of course; if he made the wrong move now, his business would be ruined for certain.

  “Oh, is that so? My goodness! Pardon me, then, for throwing such accusations…”

  “No no, it’s no bother. Hahaha…”

  “Ahahaha…”

  “Ahahahahahahaha!”

  It was a refreshing little farce. Blessedly, everyone around, the onlookers included, were kind of enough to realize that the shop owner was not a bad person at all and ignored the awkwardness, with winces all around.

  ***

  “I truly must thank you all for this. Despite what that man and the shop owner said, I’m not sure how things would have turned out had you not been here. When it seemed the worst was at hand, you helped me safely obtain the medicine without even sullying the Baron’s name…”

  After packing all but the initially promised five gold pieces back into his bag, the butler extended his thanks to the Crimson Vow with yet another deeply humble, 45-degree bow. As far as the butler was concerned, the Crimson Vow were as good as gods in the form of young women, or the spirits of legend incarnate.

  “Don’t mention it. We only butted in on a lark in the first place. Now, Mister Butler, I’m sure you’ll be wanting to get that back to your mansion as quickly as…”

  Hearing Pauline address him thus, the butler suddenly realized that he had yet to give his name.

  “Ah, I still have yet to properly introduce myself! And to my benefactors no less, how rude of me… My name is Bundine! I am the butler of the house of Baron Aura.”

  “Oh! My name is Pauline. I’m with the C-rank hunting party, the Crimson Vow.”

  “And I’m Mavis, likewise.”

  “Reina here.”

  “And I’m Minami Haruo… Wait, I mean, Mile!”

  Seeing the exhaustion on Reina’s face, Mile quickly corrected herself.

  However, a singular thought was running rampant through Mile’s head:

  O-oh my God, it’s the Aura Butler, Bundine!!!

  ***

  “We would formally like to invite you, as most honored guests, to the Aura family’s capital residence,” said Bundine to the Crimson Vow, after preparing a message to the residence for the purpose of repaying those who had lent their money to his cause.

  “You sure that’s all right? I’m not really good with nobles,” said Reina.

  “Huh?”

  The other three were bewildered. Hearing their confusion, a realization suddenly spread across Reina’s face. Now that she thought about it, among their party were individuals from the lines of viscounts and counts, which were even more highly ranked than a baron. In the case of the viscount, not only did their number include his daughter, but at this juncture, the viscountess herself.

  “Oh, uh, never mind…”

  One out of every two members of the Crimson Vow was noble. Among hunters, parties with such a percentage were exceptionally rare.

  “We will humbly accept your invitation!” Mile replied.

  “What?”

  The other three were momentarily stunned at hearing such a quick acceptance from Mile, who they had assumed would want nothing to do with any other nobles. However, since Mile wished it, they all readily agreed.

  No matter how low-ranking a baron might be, if the steward of a noble household was going to go out on an errand for his master, he certainly was not going to do so on foot. No matter how walkable the distance may have been, it wasn’t seemly. And so, though it was not as nice as the one that would have been used for the members of the baron’s family themselves, a carriage carried Bundine, with the Crimson Vow in tow, toward the capital residence of the house of Baron Aura.

  Though Bundine had ridden in the passenger’s box on his way out, he allowed the Crimson Vow to take the seats on the return journey, while he himself rode up beside the driver. There was plenty of space for him back in the passenger seats, but he probably felt it improper to ride alongside his guests. He could have had no way of guessing that half of them were nobles, from households that were more highly ranked than his own, so the decision probably just showed a bit of courtesy on his part, as he assumed the girls would be more comfortable riding along with just their companions. “Okay, so what are you after?” Reina asked.

  There was no way that Mile would have wanted to do something as bothersome as visiting the household of a noble without reason. Indeed, her reply was direct and immediate, with no attempt at all being made to mask the truth.

  “I wanted to learn more about the daughter’s illness… Since those herbs were mostly raw medicinal ones, I’m sure that they would strengthen anyone’s constitution, but they aren’t some sort of magical panacea that would cure any illness in a single swig. Also, I was thinking that the illness might be something that they’ve alr
eady found a treatment for back in my country…”

  “All right. I thought it might be something like that.”

  Mavis and Pauline nodded as well.

  “Don’t tell me, Miley. Have you got some magical treatment…?”

  “Mm, well, that depends on the illness. Since if we messed something like this up, we could be hung as murderers.”

  Indeed, unlike with injuries, applying healing magic to a sick person, if done poorly, could cause their status to deteriorate even more rapidly, urging the patient on to their death. This was another reason why magic was rarely used for illnesses.

  Plus, fevers and coughs were necessary responses to one’s body trying to combat an illness. If a fever began to approach 40 degrees Celsius, it was important to lower it to protect the brain and reproductive functions, except in the case of serious illness, when it was generally better to try and leave the symptoms alone.

  Because Mile had taught her some of the fundamentals of basic medical knowledge, Pauline knew that it was possible to treat illness with magic to some degree, if you were careful about how you used it. However, this still was not something you could embark upon carelessly when it involved other people, particularly not a noble. Even if your spell did show some results, if you failed and the patient did not heal entirely, the mage could end up shouldering the blame for it.

  “Anyway, I was just thinking I’d look in and see how things were…” Mile said, grinning sheepishly. “Oh right, Pauline—that reminds me. Why did you bother with all that, with the crowd? If you needed ten gold pieces, we could have just lent him that amount…”

  “What? No, we couldn’t have done that,” she swiftly replied. “If we just gave him money out of pity, that’s not a negotiation—that isn’t business. In times like that, you have to keep fighting, in a proper negotiation, to maintain the norms of proper commerce. Besides…”

  “Besides?”

  “If he up and ran with the money, that’d be a huge loss. You never lend money to family or friends, much less total strangers! No matter what circumstances they might have going on!”