Kenja ni Natta - Volume 1 - Chapter 6

Chapter 1-6: Looking for an Inn, First Job, and Loli Harem

While those bright gold eyes were staring at me, I honestly informed her that I was penniless.
Those once gentle eyes gradually changed into a look of sympathy, the fox-eared onee-san shaped her eyebrows into the character ハ.
It was as if she was thinking of herself, she looked at me with sincerity in her eyes.

「I see……, you came from the countryside to work」(Fox ear receptionist)
「Yea, I ended up using all the money I had just to pay for my travel expensives」(Ayame)

I was a bit troubled for having told a lie, but there was no helping it.
If I had told her that I was penniless from the very start, then it would become even more problematic.

「Ayame-san might not know since you just came here today, but just in case, this Guild deals in public services you see」(Fox-ears)

The fox-eared onee-san took three silver coins from a box beside the counter, and grabbing hold of my hand she placed them in together with the identification card.
My hand enveloped by those long and lovely hands, it was warm.

「It is already late today, so with this you should be able to stay and an inn. Please come here first thing in the morning. If we take what is owed from the service reward tomorrow, then it will be fine」(Fox-ears)

I was a bit worried that she decided on her own to hand out money, but the other onee-sans behind the counters, they didn’t seem to mind it.
If that is perhaps the case, then maybe this kind of thing happens pretty often.

「For the full details, I will explain it to you when you come tomorrow」(Fox-ears)
「Thank you so very much」(Ayame)

Lowering my head many times, I expressed my thanks and left the Government Office.
Opening up my hand, three coins were shimmering with a silver glow. Together with the cost of issuing identification, it should be fine if I pay it off tomorrow.

As the surroundings have now become dark, many people who looked like they were coming home from work were having friendly conversations while walking down the main-street.
Although there wasn’t anything like a streetlamp, perhaps it was because the stars and moon had appeared in the clear sky, it was surprisingly bright.
Grasping my entire life savings in my hands, I walked back under the moonlight.

An inn huh. When I was going between the shopping district and the residential district, I think I saw a few buildings that looked like inns.
Solely relying on that memory I head back to the street I started on, and I started to see the words『Lodging』 show up from time to time.
Exactly how much is three silver coins worth in this world, I’m still not completely sure.
But for the purposes of staying at an inn this money loaned to me was, at the very least it should let me stay at a cheap inn.
According to the Soldier-san I met before coming here, there were bad inns that charged expensive prices so I should be careful. But if I think about it conversely then that means that there might be cheap inns that are really good, at least I assume so.

「If I’m going to stay here for a few days, then it would be better if I stayed at the same inn huh」(Ayame)

If I went around looking at their business rivals, then the landlords probably won’t take too kindly of that.
If I was a landlord, then I would hate having my prices and services scrutinized like that.
If you don’t like it being done to you, then don’t do it to other people.
After all, if I did it poorly and made them hold a grudge against me then my livelihood would be in danger.

Discretely  observing from the side, I more or less began evaluating.
Having just entered, it would be bad if a bunch of “scary” onii-sans starting coming out, so I want to be careful here.
That being said, most of them were just stone buildings, so I didn’t have much choice but try evaluating them to see any major differences.
Yup.

「Now then, what should I do」(Ayame)

I was planning on quickly making a hut and sleeping in it, but it seems that I can’t really do that.
From the looks of it, pretty much most of the land in the royal capital is owned by someone, so there doesn’t seem to be any place I can arbitrarily go constructing something.
There were people who looked like soldiers around, so I can’t going around doing outrageous things.

「ahh……, where should I stay」(Ayame)
「Hold up, Onii-san over there! Perhaps, could jya be looking for an inn to stay at tonight?」

*Bashin!* Something smacked into my back, and I ended up stumbling forward a bit.
Once I turned around, no one was there.
What’s with that, Scary.

「Where are you looking? I’m over here, here!」

From around the height of my navel, a voice called out.
Turning my head down, fluffy bright yellow hair was swaying about. Must be a tiger’s, looking more closely I could see that the hair and tail had a light brown striped pattern etched into it, The face also had wire-like whiskers growing out of it.
*Nico~* with widening the cheeks, the smile revealed jagged fangs.
An animal on two legs, though I shouldn’t put it like that. You could say it would be a bit closer to “beastkin” rather than “animal”.

「If perhaps jya don’t have a place to stay, then why don’t cha stay with us? It’s cheap you know! The bed is soft and fluffy, it’s popular you know! the food is, the grade might’ve gone down but……」(Tora-ko)
「I’ll hear you out just in case, but how much would it be?」(Ayame)

The tiger-like child, held up a small finger.

「One night with a meal is just one silver coin!　……But jya know, apparently the much bigger places around here charge ya 5 copper coins to let ya stay there」(Tora-ko)

Are you trying to promote your own inn? I don’t really get what this child is saying.
But still, one silver for dinner huh. I pretty much had some leftover nuts and berries, so that didn’t really matter.

But this inn makes that makes such a small child do work, I’m curious about their honesty.

「You are, are you working there?」(Ayame)
「Yup-yup, Jii-chan is managing it all by himself you know. Women~ Employees~? we don’t have any, so females don’t really like it though」(Tora-ko)

I see, a small inn managed by an old man and his grandchild huh.
If that this child is saying was true, then it doesn’t seem like I would be ripped off.
I don’t really have a basis for it, but I sorta have that feeling.
Those eyes were sparkling after all.

「So? Just one night is fine, please come~!」(Tora-ko)

Joining their^[1] hands together, they brought their face really close.
That pair of brown eyes were glittering and sparkling, from the gaps between those jagged fangs「Fuu~!　Fuu~!」beastly deep breaths were escaping.
It felt like those fangs were going to sink into me at any moment.

「Well, if that’s the case then I guess I’ll take you up on the offer」(Ayame)
「Yay~!　Thanks so much!　Well then~, Follow me!　It’s this way~!」(Tora-ko)

Grabbing the edge of my clothes, the Tiger-like child led me down the back alley.

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「Here’s the place」(Tora-ko)

After exiting the back alley and heading down a small street, I was constantly being pulled left and right.
Gradually losing my every sense of direction, it was around that time, the tiger-like child came to a halt.

「Jii-chan~! I brought a customer~」(Tora-ko)
「Nn」

From within the darkness, came a short answer. The appearance of the one called “Jii-chan” was, he was enveloped in the dark so I couldn’t get a good look.
Hearing that response, the tiger-like child brandished their fangs while smiling.

「Well then~, that will be one silver coin. It’s already too late, so there won’t be any meal though……」(Tora-ko)
「I don’t really mind. If it’s food your talking about then I’ve got some, more or less」(Ayame)
「That so, That’s good! Ah, I’ll guide you to your room okay~. The bed is soft and fluffy ya know, it’s popular you know!」(Tora-ko)

I heard that earlier you know, but I didn’t say. Pushing my back, I was led up the stairs.
The exterior was made of stone, but it seems the the interior is made of wood. Since it there weren’t any sources of light, it was pitch black.

「Okay then, Enjoy your time~!」(Tora-ko)

Having escorted me to my room, the smiling tiger-like child waved good-bye and went down the stairs.
Sitting on the bed, all my fatigue came out at once, and just like that I flopped down.
Just as advertised, The bed was soft and fluffy.

◇　　　　　　　　　　◇　　　　　　　　　　◇

Morning.
Maybe it was because I recently made a habit of waking up early, I woke up while it was still a little dark outside.
Gathering my belongings, I descended down the creaking stairs to reach the first floor.

‘Leaving without saying anything would be bad,’ while thinking that I went outside. The tiger child from yesterday was out front swinging a sword.

「Teya-! Teya! Tee――――eyaaa! Ah, Onii-san. Good morning」

The child was wearing white clothes that resembled a judo uniform, a headband was wrapped around the head.
Wiping their upper body with a cloth, they placed the wooden sword against the wall.

「It’s really early huh. Are you heading out already?」(Tora-ko)
「Yea, I’ve got to go to the Guild first thing in the morning you see」(Ayame)

That building was, it was both a Government Office and a Guild wrapped into one.^[2]
In other words, where I’m going today is the Guild. Yesterday where I went to was the Government Office.
Because there was only one entrance, there wasn’t too much of a different though.

「Is that so. Please have a good day! If it’s possible, please come back and stay here tonight!」(Tora-ko)

The tiger child saw me off with an energetic voice, and I made my way to the Guild.

I exited the back alley and entered the main street. While trying to look for landmarks that I remember seeing… Okay, We’ve Arrived!
It was still only dimly lit outside, but the Guild was open.

Heading inside, I told the person at the counter「I’m the person who borrowed money yesterday, Kazami ・Ayame」.
She told me “please wait a minute,” and a few minutes passed. The door behind the counter opened up, and the Fox-eared onee-san from yesterday made her appearance.

「Good Morning」(Ayame)
「Good Morning, Ayame-san. Now then, I will begin the explanation. Please have a seat」(Fox-ears)

A different onee-san brought out a stone stool, and left it before the counter.
I figure that this is going to be long.

The fox-eared onee-san arranged a few documents on the counter. Winking her golden eyes, she looked towards me.

「The jobs that I would like for Ayame-san to do today, here they are」(Fox-ears)

Across all the papers, emoji’s that looked like earthworms were listed on them.
But, for some reason I could read it so there was no problem.

The First One:
No Specified Time/Date.
The Fredoll Clocktower, Cleaning the wind-up room.
For the cleaning equipment and the water needed, Please use the things within the room.
Time duration: Unlimited

The Second One:
Helping with Highway Road Repair.
Morning or Afternoon, Either one would do.
Together with the vigilance committee, help fix the damage to the highway.
No specified age, sex, or race.
Or, together with the [Sisters] stationed there, perform simple healing magic on injured peoples.
For this part, as long as you are 15 year or older, we will accept help regardless of race or sex.

「Since you said that your specialty is cleaning, how about doing this one?」(fox-ears)

Pointed at the first job, she recommended it with a smile on her face.
Certainly, this one did seem fitting. I’m bad at manual labor that requires carrying and moving things after all. It didn’t seem like I’d end up fighting any monsters, and it doesn’t look like my life would be in danger either.

「Sounds good, I’ll do this one」(Ayame)
「Also, it’s about the second one but, how about it? Might Ayame-san be able to use healing magics?」(Fox-ears)

Healing magic huh. When I tore off a fingernail, a single weed was able to restore it immediately.
However, if it’s within an indoor place with only man-made objects, then that would be a little difficult.

「Uhm, if it’s outdoors, then I can use it」(Ayame)
「Eh, only… outdoors?」(fox-ears)

Huh? Crap. Maybe I said something strange.

「Oh~ I get it. One of my friends is a librarian who can use wind magic, but I remember her saying that it was indeed easier to use magic when she was outdoors」(fox-ears)

“I see~”, “There’s a difference between indoors and outdoors for healing magics as well huh~”, murmuring things like that, she was nodding her head *yup-yup* while making a serious expression.
As expected, There isn’t anyone like me. Even though I could use magic, to be a person who can’t stimulate my Od…

Anyways, I learned one thing.
From that conversation earlier, within this world there are people who can use healing magic.
If that wasn’t the case then she wouldn’t have asked me “Can you use it?”.

「Yea-, that’s how it is. Although, if there is Mana from nature around, then I can use healing magic without a problem」(Ayame)
「Huh, Mana? Ummm…… Instead of Mana, You mean to say Od, right?」(fox-ears)

Hmm? Huh? Did I perhaps make a verbal slip and stepped on a landmine?

「Being outside makes it easier to stimulate Od―― Is what you mean, right?」(fox-ears)

While fox-ears-san was making a perplexed face, she posed a question using a tone that sounded like she was apologizing for mishearing it.
It wasn’t really the right mood to go saying things like “You didn’t hear wrong, I can’t stimulate my Od at all~!”
Huh, why is that? Healing magic that uses Mana, maybe its forbidden to do that?
“Using the power of nature, you can heal the wounds of the afflicted people”―― Should I just say that?
But if I said that, then I don’t think she would believe something I got from this old worn-out Magic Textbook.

「Ah, yea. Being outside in the sunlight, it makes it easier to stimulate Od……」(Ayame)
「So that was the case, Please forgive me for my misunderstanding. ――By the way, which one will you choose?」(fox-ears)

Being inquired by the fox-eared onee-san, I delve into thought.
Which one should I choose… I guess I should do the cleaning first, and then decide what to do next if there’s some time left over.

「Then, the cleaning first. I’ll be in your care」(Ayame)
「Understood. Then once you are finished, please return here once more. Ah, this is a map of the royal capital. Since we’re handing them out, please help yourself to it」(fox-ears)
「Thank you」(Ayame)

Grabbing the documents and the map, I departed from the Guild.
Well then, first is the Fredoll Clocktower.

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The Fredoll Clocktower.
A long time ago, there was a legendary craftswoman by the name of Fredoll.
This Clocktower that She immersed herself in creating, it was the tallest building in the entirety of the royal capital.
Of the period of several hundred of years, the clock has not once ever stopped.
Of course, gears had to be replaced periodically, and it appears that the spring needed to wound up as well.

The head caretaker was, an old man with a grey hair was managing it all by himself.
While recalling a certain movie about a witch that did home deliveries, he was a short and gentle Ojii-san.^[3]

The wind-up room, apparently it was at the pinnacle of the tower.
Of course, there wasn’t any as convenient as an elevator, so I was made to climb 15 flights of stairs.
As one of the harmful effects of having insufficient exercise, I was tired beyond imagination.

Alright, taking a breather after arriving at the room, we’ve reached the reached the main dish of “Cleaning Up”.
Clean Swiftly, with Careful Precision.
This was Kazame Ayame’s formula for cleaning success.
If you cut corners and do it sloppily, then it will never become clean.

I started in the morning, but I had finished cleaning the wind-up room faster than expected, it was still mid-day.
Not a single speck of dust―― Saying that would be an overstatement, but the room had become nice and sparkly.
The Ojii-san caretaker, his eyes were wide open.
Saying “You made it so clean, it would be rude to give you just 5 copper coins as a reward,” He added on a silver coin.
Apparently, in this world they give you bonus wages for doing mundane tasks like this.

While he was at it, he also treated me to lunch.
It was only something simple like two pieces of rye bread, but having bread after such a long time, the nostalgia made it all the more delicious.

Since I wasn’t all that tired, I immediately set afoot and headed to the highway restoration site.
‘I might get some free lunch there as well,’ Having my actions driven by that thought I went there, but, unfortunately, there was only enough food supplied for people who did manual labor to repair the road.

While wandering around after arriving there, a man from the vigilance committee called out to me.

「You ought to be Kazami Ayame huh. 18 years old, alright. Since the road repair involved jobs done by children, Let’s have you heal the children that get injured」(worker)
「Yes, understood」(Ayame)

Doing the jobs that didn’t require work tools, everyone gathered were children. In Japan, the children would’ve been between ages ranging from elementary school to middle school, All silently working to repair the broken road.
Those who were called for healing duty, all of them were Sister-sans.
There were no males aside from me.
In other words, if a male child gets injured, then I suppose it should be fine if I just head over and heal him with magic.

Along with the paved road, there were dug up soil and rocks, so let’s hide some of them away in my left hand.
If I do that, then from the view of others it would seem as if I used my own Od to heal them instead.
Since I don’t expect for there to be any severe injuries, the Mana extracted from soil and rocks should be sufficient enough.

「――Owwie!」

A pure and innocent human boy, it looks like he cut his finger.
Getting up while thinking ‘Alright, Looks like it’s my time to shine,’ in that instant all the Sisters lying in wait simultaneously came rushing to the boy’s aid.
*Haa, Haa* while heavily breathing, they swarmed to gather around the injured boys.
What the hell, that’s creepy.

According to the information that one of the vigilance members discretely told me, it was one of the negative effects of abstinence after their baptismal time. Apparently, many of the Sister-sans that came for this job were Shouta-cons.
As “Work”, Using it as an excuse to touch the bodies of young boys without going against their precepts, they were indulging in their own desires eh.

――And, as a result, well, I only had on job to do.

The Shouta-con Onee-sans dressed like Sisters, they would immediately go off to heal injured boys.
Conversely to that, they ignored the injuries of the young girls.
In order to fill that need, I ended up being surrounded by little girls that needed healing.

「Onii-san, my tummy got hurt~」

Without hesitation she rolled up her clothes, she exposed her skin all the way up to the neck.
Since healing magic required you to touch the body, there was no way around it.
While trying as hard as I could to avert my eyes, I healed the wound that was a bit below her ribs.
The pairs of still developing mounds and the pink buds that had entered my sight, the girls showed behavior as if they didn’t particularly mind it.
Maybe it’s because they are still young, they weren’t very conscientious with their actions.

「Onii-san, that Onee-chan injured her back you know!」
「I-I’m fine! You don’t have to go saying unnecessary things!」(Onee-chan)

Conversely, the few Onee-san-ish girls among them, their eyes were glaring at me with undisguised cautiousness.
Maybe it was just a part of their personality, Maybe it was due to their age.
It’s probably the latter, huh.

「Onii-chan, my bottom got hurt you know~!」
「My thigh got cut~. Heal it~」
「My underarm got grazed~~」
「My side got hit~~」

Exposing themselves without hesitation, one after another I was surrounded by perturbing naked bodies.
Upon seeing what I haven’t seen before, it was a dangerous spectacle that stirred my imagination.
Although I shouldn’t have any preferences like that, halfway through I was no longer able to stand up.
(TL note: Ayame…. -_-)

The girl who refused to let her back be seen, her eyes looked at me as if she was looking at a piece of trash.
No, you’re wrong. I didn’t accept this job with that sort of objective in mind.

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I guess it because there were a lot of children helping out with the road repair, we finished before it became dark.
The pay should’ve been 3 silver coins, but once the Mister from the vigilance committee realized that I cared for all the girls by myself, he secretly passed me two extra silver coins.
Yesterday I used up one silver coin, and since issuing identification costed 5 copper coins, the reward from just the clocktower job would be enough to pay that back.
Let’s use the reward from this job to continue living peacefully.

On my way back I stopped by the Guild. Giving back what I owed yesterday and paying for the cost of issuing an ID, the day had come to an end.
Alright, for once I can spend tomorrow at my leisure. I can finally go to the library~.

Extra TL note: ………………. at least you’re funny, Ayame.

General TL note: A new addition from the past chapter of “names”
Jii-chan/Ojii-chan: Grandpa (this is different from Oji-san which means Uncle)

1.

TL note: Be aware that Ayame only refers to the kid as “that child” without gender. But since English sort of requires gender identifiers to make sense I decided to use “They”. The child said that there were no female employees so maybe it’s a boy but who knows.

2.

TL note: So apparently both “Government Office” and “Guild” were correct when referring to this building. Guess I will have to distinguish once side Ayame enters from now on. At least that clears up some of the issues with last chapter.

3.

TL note: Ayame is referring to a film by the name of “Kiki’s Delivery Service” For a picture of the movie caretaker see Here.