VendM 017: Gold Coins and Silver Coins

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Jidou Hanbaiki ni Umarekawatta ore wa Meikyuu o Samayou
Author: Hiru Kuma
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Gold Coins and Silver Coins

Leader Keryoil unsteadily tottered back in grief.

In my opinion the refusal was obviously the correct answer. Even if it’s a famous brigade, if you enter it then your battle scenes will increase. I understand the reason why Hunters would do so even if it brings them side-by-side with danger. But you know, right now that girl is among veterans, without worries; here she can take her time to sit down and stretch, and I think it’s a convenient place.

But, all of that is my opinion; the important point is Ramis’ opinion, why did Ramis refuse?¹ This didn’t remain a mystery.

“Oi oi, you, why did you refuse an invitation to the Fools of Whimsy!?”

O, short-haired Hunter, nice tsukkomi. That, that’s what I want to know.

“N-, because, this town is in the middle of reconstruction. If there’s not enough people to help, won’t it be a problem?”

All the Hunters who heard her weren’t able to close their mouths. A-, Ramis … I don’t think he particularly meant right away. If you said something you probably could have waited and joined after the reconstruction was over.

“OK, everyone let’s continue to work hard, ne!”

Everyone other than that girl heaved a sigh and went back to work. Not understanding the situation, with her head tilted to one side, Ramis also returned to removing rubble.

Like that, nothing particularly interesting happened after. And then it was noon. I sold tons of cup ramen and oden to the inn reconstruction corps, and then, burdening Ramis once again, I moved to the front of the Hunter Association.
To everyone who had been waiting for our arrival, one after another I sold goods to. With this kind of trend, I’ll make back my minuses from yesterday in a flash.

Most of the customers who have purchased things before have returned, but today there are also a lot of people who haven’t tried even once before. With all these faces I don’t recognize, that means they’re people who have just come to this Clear Stream’s lake level.

These people’s common points are having a cloth wrapped around their heads with long ends, and wearing trousers with a lot of pockets. How do I say it, they’re really carpenter-like. Just from what I’ve seen, there are roughly about 100 people here, zo. With this, the community’s population will probably jump up to at least double the original.

What a paaain-, haven’t I just about sold out of goods again? What a paaain-, what should I do, what should I do … I guess I’ll calculate my points later.

“Yoooosh, Hakkon let’s get back to woork-.”

“Welcome.”

Once again I return to my original position in front of the inn; the people who come to buy things accompany me while they spend. Suddenly there’s a person standing in front of me.

So people who wear glasses and suits exist in this world. Wearing black-rimmed glasses, with a green shirt and a skirt that reaches slightly above the knees, is a woman; she’s really staring in my direction.
If we were in Japan she would be an accountant or a lawyer type of person. With her sharp, upward-slanting eyes, she’s a beautiful woman who has a bit of a scary image.

Behind her, standing over 2 meters away, is a giant man; I assume that man is an acquaintance. With an inverted triangle body shape mass of muscles and long arms², on his face he has a wrinkle between his brows, downward-slanting eyes, and a low nose. Honestly, from a first impression, it’s a gorilla with the good parts of a human.
His clothes are really tight and suit-ish; it looks like it will rip at any moment. He’s carrying an enormous backpack-like thing.

“There’s no mistake that you are the box with a will. It appears you are called Hakkon-sama.”

Suddenly she throws those words at me. E, exactly how should I respond? Fo, for now, let’s just make my usual greeting.

“Welcome.”

“According to the information that was previously investigated, that was what we can assume to be ‘yes’, I believe.”

… It’s so hard! Talking to this person!
Her facial expression doesn’t change one bit; this air of intimidation isn’t half-baked at all. Just having her look at me and my body stiffens. Maa, I’m a vending machine though.
I wonder what her objective is. It looks like a serious-ish talk, but wha, what should I do?

“Are? Hakkon, what’s going on? Umm, who might you be?”

Ramis popped out from behind me, showing her face, and without hesitation she called out to the black glasses lady.

“You are Ramis-san, correct? Please excuse me. I am in the money-exchange business; you can call me Akoui. From hereon I hope to become acquainted with you. The one waiting behind be is my assistant, Gogai.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you.”

The cold, clear voiced Akoui and the warm, laid-back tone of Gogai. A pair of two extremes they are.

But, money exchangers, huh. It’s like that, in the modern age where they exchange Yen to Dollars. Certainly in the old days there were professions to exchange gold coins for silver coins, and vice-versa. They’re something like the original banks is what I heard from somewhere.

“I have received information that this Level has a shortage of silver coins, and so we have come concerning this.”

Who is it, the guy who’s hoarding silver coins. For crying out loud, what an outrage.

“A-, that’s because you can only pay Hakkon in silver coins!”

Shhh, Ramis, you can’t say that. E, could it be, that another way to say their complaint is that hoarding all of one type of coin caused it to stagnate in circulation?
Even if you say that, since they’re converted into points there’s nothing you can do about it now.

“So it was like that after all. With that, we have come here and decided to offer an opportunity, a proposal for Hakkon-sama. We have brought about 100 gold coins, so why don’t we exchange them with some of your hoarded silver coins?”

Are, it’s a business discussion? I don’t really have any opinions on exchanging silver and gold coins, but I’m pretty sure 1 gold coin is the same value as about 100 silver coins. In Japanese Yen, a gold coin is probably around 100,000, probably. Maa, there’s probably some fluctuations in there, but overall that’s probably what it’s worth. But anyway, 100 gold coins is a really large amount of money to be carrying. Is that gonna be ok?
I’d like to exchange it if I can, but how should I go about it?
There’s probably some function like <Exchange>. But for a regular vending machine, they don’t usually have an exchange function. Eeto, looking quickly, it doesn’t look like it’s there.
“Too bad.”

“Does that mean you won’t accept?”

I’m terribly sorry. I’d like to if I could, but I have no way to.

“A, even if exchanging is impossible, it might be fine to buy things with gold coins. Like that you might be able to get them as change, maybe?”

At Ramis’ casual words, Akoui’s head, which was hanging slightly in disappointment, regained its vigor and faced forward. Her eyes were sparkling with fire; it was the first time I saw something like emotions from her.

Actually, I wonder what would happen if you put gold coins in. Up until now there hasn’t been even once where gold coins were inserted. It’s a situation where I don’t know if you’ll get change, since there’s not been a brave soul who was willing to use a gold coin and test it out.

“I see! In other words, Gogai, buy something. With gold coins.”

A, the first investor, huh. Wh, what should I do? If, by any chance, the change doesn’t come out, then I’ll try to return the gold coin as is.

Oo-, for the first time in my vending machine life a gold coin is inside Mine body. If they buy a one silver coin product, then 99 silver coins should come out as a result. Men should have guts; let’s try it out.

For the first ever, a feeling welled up and the vending machine vibrated with its entire being. This is, I guess it means a gold coin has entered my body. This isn’t time to be immersed in the afterglow. What of the change?

Clanking, silver coins flowed into the change tray; the overflowing silver coins spilled onto the ground. All the surrounding Hunters were watching swallowed their saliva.

So the change came out normally. If it didn’t I might have been treated like a thief.

“Like this it’s fine, ne. Let’s keep on buying.”

Gold coins were put in one after another, and silver coins were ejected one after another. Gogai bent that enormous body over and gathered the silver coins that were left.

After 10 gold coins had been put in, Akoui-san also seems to be satisfied. With a pleased face she gazes at the backpack stuffed with silver coins.

“Any more than this and we might burden Hakkon-sama, so we’ll stop here for now. Then, in the future, we’ll come to buy things. From here on, continue at your discretion.”

Her retreating figure almost looks like its skipping. Without any trouble, Gogai-san carries the backpack stuffed with a large amount of coin and goods. It’s a muscle strength that doesn’t go against his appearance.
We’ll probably have a long relationship with those people. They don’t seem to be difficult people though.

“Hakkon, you had an amazing amount of money, ne. Be careful so no one steals from you.”

“Welcome.”

That’s true. Maa, if I’m ever destroyed and dismantled, I have suspicions about whether there will be coins or not inside, though.  Since it’s a system where even the goods are spouted out, aside from whether or not the coins are inside my body, it’s more a feeling that things appear when they’re requested for.

During the span of this discussion, there was many a hot stare directed in my direction. From the young Hunters’ point of view, right now there are 10 gold coins sucked into my body; it must look like a really enticing opportunity.

Oh yeah, a vending machine won’t be left somewhere with poor public order, like that, the fact that Japan has vending machines is good evidence that there’s peace and security.
For a while, it looks like it’ll be good to be wary of the people who will be thinking about doing stupid things.

“A, right, right. Sorry, Hakkon! I kept forgetting to tell you, but it looks like we won’t be able to meet with Hyurumi for a while. I sent a letter but there wasn’t a response … it’s probably that she’s moving between Levels. So, until we get a response we’ll be on standby here, ok?”

To the Ramis with her hands together and *pekopeko* lowering her head at me, I reply “Welcome.” For a second, I couldn’t remember who Hyurumi was, but it’s the magic-tool engineer friend she told me about when we met for the first time, huh.
Oh yeah, there was that kind of goal too; like a bystander would, I had that kind of thought.

It was a day with a strange encounter, but the first day of reconstruction ended without anything particularly problematic to report. When night came, I remained at my spot in front of the Hunter’s Association and the dinner goods also sold out; I stared absentmindedly as the community’s lights went out one after another.

There’s something like a magic tool here in place of light bulbs, and the community has these lights scattered about, but as expected, compared to Japan’s nights it’s pretty dark. Since magic tools look like they’re pretty expensive, it looks like the common household doesn’t use them. There are also quite a few of the standard lanterns and tents with torches.
Just within range of the lights is it bright, but just go a little away you’re standing in a deep, black darkness.

The spot I’m in is away from light, so normally people would have a hard time spotting me. But, I am a vending machine. Because I emit a personal light, like usual I stand out because I’m weird.

However, today I turned off Bright Luminescence Mode and, furthermore, I selected the Coating Change function, and painted my body completely black all over.  At the time of the exchange there were Hunters watching too, but there was one look that was from the small-time villain who had been aiming for money during the expedition. With the night’s darkness they can take cover in, they come hoping to avoid too much trouble.

“Are-, it looks like it’s always right around here.”

“Isn’t it ‘cause it doesn’t have any way to move? I mean, look, that super-strength girl is always carrying it around, right?”

“Dammit, it would have been easier to get around it at the inn site.”

Just when I was talking about them. It’s not the young Hunters we were working with, but a group of 3 men who look like they were looking for me.

Actually, in case they try to make a pass at me I still have <Barrier>, and if I playback my voice at the highest maximum volume, countless numbers of people will come flooding out of the Hunter’s Association so there’s no problem. But you know, if this can be dealt with peacefully, that would be for the best.

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1. kanjin na Ramis wa naze kotowattanoka – I don’t know if it’s a change that needs its own writeup, but saying “why did the important Ramis refuse” kind of made it sound like Ramis was feeling self-important for some reason so she refused, but the implication is that Ramis’ opinion is more important than the MC’s own, so I mussed with the sentence a little.
2. inverted triangle– refers to the body profile of broad shoulders, narrow waist. Often indicates a very masculine, buff body.

<T/N: Fumu, I’ve been having insomnia, so OVRMMO and Wfb will be out in just a few more days. I’d say 2 at max, but that’s if I can trick myself into sleeping. When I’m this loopy, my time management gets a little wonky.
Also my judgment goes down the tubes. Are? Why did I start translating ANOTHER series?>