Netooku Otoko no Tanoshii Isekai Boueki (LN) Chapter 62

Translator: Mana
Editor: The Blacksmith
Proofreader: Rinkage

Character page: 

Rinkage: Sorry for the delay as the editors for Netooku were busy. I was unexpectedly swapped with work too after switching to a new job this month (I had to work overtime for the past few weeks even on weekends), but I'll get at least one chapter of Yuusha Party out by this month regardless.

Also, if you have donated for Netooku before in the past, please contact me in discord so I can give you the access to read the advance chapter in discord.

Chapter 62 – The smell of self-defence goods is gold bars

Even in the Erishe that I fervently believed to be peaceful, I was attacked by bandits.

And even if that weren't the case, monsters and demon beasts still sp.a.w.ned.

It should go without saying that something like that definitely couldn't be called peaceful. In the first place, the empire that Erishe was a part of was in the middle of a war (though it was at a ceasefire right now).

Looking back on the bandit case now, it was a blessing in disguise.

Firstly, the enemies were weak. I believe that truly was a blessing.

Furthermore, after receiving training from Sh.e.l.lo-san, my interest in buying a proper weapon was piqued. If I hadn't bought a weapon and just wandered around in my easy-going j.a.panese att.i.tude, there was a large chance it would have gone badly. Even if Diana's spirit magic could restrict one person's movement, it probably wasn't enough to go against three opponents. I was carrying my self-created knife around in the beginning, but it wouldn't be enough to go against bandits armed with broadswords. Rather, there was no way I could have resisted at all. In other words, I would have been 'dead'— to put it precisely, I would have been 'killed'.

"So because of this, I have decided to set aside some time to train. Of course, this includes combat training, but I want to prioritise my horse-riding. Nothing is as important as being able to run away, after all. Marina, you will be following Rebeccsan's training as usual. Diana will practice using weapons I bring from the other side. Apart from that, there'll be battle tactics. You'll have to ask Rebeccsan and Hetty-san for instructions though…"

"T-That's fine, but what about the stall?"

"I'll only go in the afternoons. Etowa can handle the mornings by herself now, probably."

The only reason why we were able to evade the bandits this time was because we were 'lucky', 'too bad' wouldn't be good enough… I was still a little anxious about leaving the store to Etowa by herself, but I had to prioritise training otherwise, the next time something happened there, wouldn't be a next time! To be honest, if there was even a single skilled person amongst a group of five attacking us, I cannot confidently say we'd be able to resist in our current state.

I handed Diana the weapon I ordered through the internet.

A crossbow and polycarbonate s.h.i.+eld.

Most people imagine crossbows to be large-scale items, but the one I bought this time was comparatively small in size. Rather than calling it a crossbow, it was more like a one-handed bowgun in appearance. For the record, 'bowgun' was apparently the product name of a crossbow company. Kind of like the era where smartphones were equivalent to iPhones. Probably.

At any rate, it was still a crossbow. The more expensive ones exceeded 100,000 yen, but those were the ones used by the more serious hunters. (Perhaps the cheap ones were used in target shooting sports. Not that I knew what was involved in that. Or maybe in bird hunting? Like for ducks.) The ones with mechanisms installed for the string to be pulled by a crank were difficult to maintain and over-the-top in terms of power, so I pa.s.sed up on them. (I wouldn't know what to do with a shooting range of 100m anyway.)

From what I tested, the one I bought had more than enough power when used against other people. The accuracy wasn't bad within 20 metres, and the people here wouldn't be able to recognise this as a weapon, so it could be used as a surprise attack. However, it was necessary for the support string to be rigid, so the fact it acted up during battle sometimes was a weakness. (The time spent pulling the string resulted in complete defencelessness. Which wouldn't be much of a problem at the rear of a formation.) It seemed like using regular small-sized arrows was the safest option for battle. The reality was that the crossbow could only be used as a single surprise attack… It seemed like Americans actually used bows in hunting (it was illegal to do so in j.a.pan). I wondered why that was. It'd be the end if you missed. I could kind of understand why bows became obsolete once the use of hunting guns spread. Well, if I could get my hands on a gun, there'd be nothing left to fear in this world.

As for the polycarbonate s.h.i.+eld—it was just that. A light, transparent s.h.i.+eld. Apparently, its official name was riot s.h.i.+eld. It was lighter than a mythril s.h.i.+eld and as for its abilities—I hadn't tested them yet but they had an established reputation of being used by the riot police (I bought it through online delivery so its quality was probably not as good, though). I also bought a large one, though it was a little more expensive. It was big enough to cover the whole body and could guard against most projectile weapons in the other world, or at the very least against arrows. It should also be able to block most average physical weapons. Though it was probably like paper to people at Sh.e.l.lo-san's level.

I had already given Diana tear gas and a stun gun (bought online) before this for self-defence. She hadn't had a chance to use them in the last battle with the bandits, but these self-defence items should prove effective in situations where she's targeted.

Other self-defence products obtainable in j.a.pan included slash-proof vests and stab-proof s.h.i.+rts, which I had considered, but decided against as the amount of defence they provided was not worth their cost. To put it bluntly, the leather armour at Erishe had a better cost-performance ratio. Well, there were disadvantages like weight and noise to consider too. Perhaps it would be better to have boughten a mythril 'Scale Mail' instead. It was pretty expensive— roughly around 200,000 yen—so I couldn't buy it that easily.

My net auctions were going well too. I was regularly putting out the items I bought at the marketplace and flea market, the number of regular customers were increasing, and the bids were gradually getting higher too. Demand for fabric was high (especially for linen), so I would sell the fabric I bought from j.a.pan in the other world, then use that money in the other world to buy fabric to sell in j.a.pan… kind of like an international trade. I should just buy all the second-hand fabrics in the Erishe like this. The more I sold, the more I made, so having some stock buildup wasn't really a problem. I had given out flyers stating I would buy any fabrics at my store too, and people sometimes came to sell theirs. There were all kinds of items, but it wasn't a problem. I was buying the items directly so the price was much lower than anything from the marketplace or flea market, and even if the items were ragged second-hand ones, quant.i.ty mattered more than quality.

Furthermore, 'antique' items like sheets, s.h.i.+rts, and one-piece dresses were hugely popular in this international trade with the other world, so having unsold stock of those was useful. Strictly speaking, that unsold stock was still newly made other world items, so it wasn't exactly antique.

Fabric—especially this 'antique linen' term—was undeniably attractive to women, and looking at the bid history it was evident that there was quite a lot of demand.

Cotton was also quite popular… but linen was overwhelmingly so.

And so I was earning j.a.panese yen at a fairly good rate. At this pace, I could leave my parents' house and live on my own soon. I had moved most of my life to the other world already and the only thing I used money for in j.a.pan was on stocking fabrics and purchasing self-defence items, which was another reason why my savings were going smoothly.

Speaking of j.a.panese yen, the self-defence tools were unexpectedly expensive, so my mother scolded me. "Are you going to put any money into this house? You parasite!" I lost to her pressure and went to the gold p.a.w.n shop again. Last time I sold gold coins, but this time I had a gold cup I found at the flea market. It was only as small as my palm but it was quite heavy and I doubted the technology for 'gold coating' existed in this world yet, so it was undoubtedly gold. The Mirror of Truth also said as much. Though I had no idea what percentage of gold it was. In the end, I sold the 126 gram 24K gold cup for 456,300 yen. The conversion rate at the gold p.a.w.n shop was less than the time I sold the gold coins, but it was more than enough cash. …Especially since it only cost me 1400 el (or one gold coin and 4 silver coins) at the flea market… One gold coin was 40 grams so the value of gold was a little over three times as much. Perhaps the seller hadn't realised it was pure gold…

Anyway, I received 450,000 yen so now I had some mental leeway. Enough leeway to slam 50,000 yen on the table and say to my mother, "Here's this month's!" …Well, it might be a little dishonest earning 450,000 yen so easily like this, but it was also in a grey area where neither I nor the p.a.w.n shop trader and cup seller lost anything—in other words, a win-win situation!

Battle training was usually held in the morning.

While I often had mock fights with Sh.e.l.lo-san, they were always one-on-one—so we went through nearly every combination you could think of. Like 'Sh.e.l.lo-san and Rebeccsan vs me', 'Sh.e.l.lo-san and Rebeccsan vs me and Marina', 'Sh.e.l.lo-san vs me and Marina', or 'Sh.e.l.lo-san and Rebeccsan vs Marina'. Within them, the most helpless combinations were 'Everyone vs me' and 'Everyone vs Marina' (even when the opponent's weapon was a wooden stick).

Firstly, if you were surrounded like the s.h.i.+nsengumi (1), it was over. There was no way to fight back in this situation. That was why you had to defeat each unit before that happened, in any matter you could. Like if you judged yourself to be disadvantageous, run away as soon as possible. Or if just retreating the moment you sensed any danger at all.

Sh.e.l.lo-san had said something like, "If you defeat one of them, the rest will falter, so just use that chance to get all of them. Wahaha!" which wasn't useful at all, so I asked Rebeccsan to teach me like I had intended on doing from the beginning. It would have been nice if Hetty-san was there too, but because of that Chubby, she was nowhere to be seen.

"Against many people, hmm. That's pretty difficult. If you're against someone with any battle experience at all, even 2-vs-1 would be tough…"

"Yeah… So that means it's crucial to avoid being in that situation in the first place… right?"

"In most cases, yes. Since Jirou's aim is self-defence, prioritise turning the situation away from becoming a battle. Battling should be the very last resort in any situation."

Ugh, she had a point. Ever since the encounter with bandits, my thoughts had been leaning towards fighting.

"That's why you first have to make sure you won't be attacked. If you detect someone about to attack, you run and hide. If you're attacked, you run. And if you can't run, you make the best of your situation and fight. Something along that line."

"That's quite a few patterns…"

Though detecting presences and running and hiding were pretty difficult skills…

"First is the very important method of not attracting bandits. Do you know what to do?"

"Erm… refrain from acting flashy and avoid catching their attention by taking simple actions… maybe?"

"Nope. If anything, you should do the opposite. You become strong enough to make the bandits think 'That's an impossible target'. Even if you aren't, you just need to seem that way. For example… bringing a small troop with you. That uncle of Hetty had slaves he brought along as soldiers, right? Bandits avoid those types. Well, actually, the number of people that large may actually attract more bandits."

"I-I see. But for me to increase my personnel by that much is a bit…"

I could understand the logic, but it wasn't realistic for me. A small number of people would be possible though.

"Fufu, why don't you just become a famous soldier in Erishe, Jirou? But it might bring out challengers and get irritating.”

"Please don't. No matter what my vocation is, I'm useless."

"Oh? It might just work, you know. There aren't many strong opponents in Erishe. If you get an A rank at the hunters' guild, barely anyone would touch you."

Rebeccsan seemed to be having fun, though I didn't know if she was serious or teasing me. It was fun doing business, but focusing on battling wasn't for me… Also, there was an A rank in the guild after all…

"I'm not hesitant towards becoming strong, I just want to live my life without standing out."

"Really? That's a shame. Then let's continue. Err, first is making sure you won't be attacked, right? If you can't become strong, then you just need to be 'unrecognisable'. If you're not targeted, you can't be attacked."

"I see… But thinking about it logically, the horses and Diana and Marina all stand out a lot… Already… Like, at a counted yak.u.man (2) level."

"I don't know what a ‘yak.u.man' is, but it's true they stand out. Hetty and I join you sometimes too… that probably wasn't good."

For the record, last time I bought Marina's equipment, I was the only plain man amongst a party of women. Turk tribe Marina with her mythril knight armour and halberd (super stands out), the tattooed high elf Diana (super stands out), the really tall Rebeccsan (stands out), and the beautiful maid Hetty-san (stands out).

Ah, that was bad. There was no way bad people wouldn't have their eyes on us.

"It's true that I've already stood out quite a lot. It was alright during the preparations for the festival and during the festival itself, but now that it's over…"

"Yeah… But there's no helping it anymore… Wanna go the knight route after all?"

"Please let me stay on the merchant route…"

In the end, like the famous 36 ancient Chinese military strategies said, running is winning… that was the conclusion we came to. After that, it was probably best to just defeat them in the order that they caught up in, like some other famous strategy once said. All that was left then was to bring something that could be used as a distraction from j.a.pan… I could think of many items that could be used in a retreat.

Well, there was no helping any situation where a huge number of people attacked… like a group of 10 or more bandits. If it ever came to that, there wouldn't be any escaping anyway.

However, I should at least make the right preparations to counter small groups of bandits.

(1) s.h.i.+nsengumi = A special police force organized by the Bakufu (military government) during j.a.pan's Bak.u.matsu period (late shogun) in 1864. More interesting facts
(2) (a very high point hand) is a term used j.a.panese mahjong terminology. Counted yak.u.man is also called Kazoe yak.u.man. I've not played mahjong of any kind myself, to be honest, so I'm not that clear about it (really curious about it though, so if anyone has played it before let me know)