Kanna no Kanna Chapter 9

//typos at the end, please//

Chapter 9 : n.o.body said that I can’t use defensive gear to punch

 
It’s been 4 days since we left the village at the foot of the sacred mountains; we have finally reached another town– if I judge it from Real’s story, this town is quite decent in size and liveliness. This is technically the first town I visit, that castle town I only glanced it a little from the sky thanks to the dragon and the village at the holy mountain was very small scale.

The landscape gives the impression of any western country middle ages town that you would read in a manga; unlike the mountain village, the material for the houses was not wood but mostly built with bricks. The attire of the people we pa.s.s by too, was varied in colors and brightness. In other words, if I had to explain it compared to somewhere in the world （I mean, the world were I was summoned from）, I had to say that resembles the feeling of the old Italy.

「Humans are a thing that perhaps, even if you change the world; you won’t change how they develop」

As for the schedule, we plan to spend a few days in this town; replenish the food we have consumed up to this point, and if possible; acquire useful goods that couldn’t be obtained in the mountain village. It’s obvious that a town of this size performs trade with other cities; the influx of goods should be numerous.

「We should at least get one horse」

「Is that possible with the money we have？」

「Horses quality comes in all sizes, with what we have now we should be able to afford a cheap one. If it’s not possible, we’ll just have to hold it… but having one would change drastically the expenditure we need to endure during our travels.」

Indeed, while riding a horse our own legs will get some rest. If you b.u.mp into beasts or thiefs or something else then; you’ll be in perfect condition to face them. In fact, four days ago during our travels, a group of monsters came attacking when we were about to sleep… An enemy ambush when you are high on mental and physical fatigue is actually quite the ordeal. While there it was no danger scene there; fighting during the break period after walking the whole day is something unpleasant.

「By the way, can you handle horses, Kanna？」

「I’m completely city brew. The last time I rode one was when I was taken to visit a ranch when I was a kid.」

At the moment we are searching for an inn to as our base while we stay in this big town. While there is quite the diversity of inns, it’s natural that the accomodation quality has plenty of different ranks. As I’m ignorant of the ways of the world, I leave judgement in that area completely to Real.

「Then, let’s stay here tonight.」

What she chose was a 3 storey inn which seems to be of quite elegant making. The accomodation fee was priced in a signboard outside, it’s slightly higher that the ones we have pa.s.sed by so far.

「Isn’t it a little bit expensive？」

「That might be so; but there is the thing that while it’s not well known, we are currently wanted people. Cheap inns don’t really do much about preventing info about their guests leaking out; on the other hand, those that demand firm payment are also more tight lipped about customer’s personal information.」

「Buying safety with money.」

「That’s how it is. For those who have scratches in their shin, it’s an habitual practice to put more money in a good inn; in the end this is convenient for us. Rather than creating problems for being stingy; better make sure it’s ok by choosing something pricy… As expected, that won’t work if the state uses it’s power; but that’s exactly why we don’t want to make any noise.」

//TN : not wanting showing a shin injury is a saying that means that you have something that you want to cover, so you do (in the case of a shin, it’s with clothes); but the cover doesn’t work 100% of the time, so you need to take that into account //

I have no recollection of getting any shin injury… Swallowing my small indignation, we opened the door of the inn.

 
After negotiating with the reception desk, we rented 2 single rooms, naturally divided by gender. The period is 2 days and 3 nights and the price was relatively high after all; and as Real said, we should consider this an investment towards safety. Each room has a doorlock and even a vault

In addition, each room has a bath. It’s great to be able to soak in the bath without thinking about the opposite s.e.x.

ーーーー Truth be told, while we were staying in the village; I happened to b.u.mp once into Real who was just done with the tub.

Of course not her armor clad figure, but one donning thin underwear… That soft hair which was damp with moisture; the fickleness of the skin that overflow with feminine appeal; it was seriously bad. In fact, she has quite the amazing figure, way more than grandma– Letters such as Ｇ or Ｈ kept showing up in my head for some reason; along with the doubt of how could such a plentiful ma.s.s possibly fit inside any armor piece. Furthermore; the person herself was completely indifferent in that area, so I was really troubled then.

Elven ears, cool beauty and hidden huge breast can only be called foul play… Just how many attributes is she in possession of? If we throw her to a certain place where Otaku have their holy land; she’ll create enough happiness that it’ll look like a chapter of the pandemonium.

And it was for that reason that; while we were at the village, I put a great deal of attention so that I wouldn’t b.u.mp heads with Real in the bath. If you are shown a body like that in the raw; I don’t think the young me who is a teenager in p.u.b.erty will be able to keep it together. To that avail, I made sure of not to fall in a situation where my libido would overflow; better diminuish the places where I could have a strange accidental discharge.

It’s that, you know? While at first glance it looks like a development worthy of an eroge… when it comes down to it, the anxiety is just too much; it’s obvious an issue that can be problematic in a relationship between different genders, and the after something happens it’s quite awkward…

//TN: he is using different gender in a non s.e.xual way, aka; it’s a thing about basic etiquette//

But let’s return to the main subject.

We left our luggage in the inn, and decided to discuss concrete policies during lunch. While this inn provides meals during morning, midday and nights; just like the mountain village inn, the dining room is not open at all times– The time we arrived here was already a little bit past lunch, and more time pa.s.sed while we were sorting our luggage.

The place selected for the meal was a trendy shop with an open terrace; their selling point was pasta with sauce. The flavor was similar to spaghetti á la bolognese.

「Tentatively, I would like to take my equipment to the blacksmith; not only the defensive gear, but the sword as well have been used quite a lot without getting professional manteinance. Besides that, I would like it if you choose something as well; as expected leaving you with just some clothes won’t be acceptable from now on.」

My current equipment consists of plain cloth, clothes made of hide, some breast plate and arm protectors; I have leg protectors as well. Speaking of protection, this is practically naked; if something that has even the slightest cutting power strikes, this might as well be paper made armor… Back then I learned some means of defence from that spirit-sama grandma; but using that at the spur of the moment is an unreasonable request– It’s essential that I increase my defensive power.

「You did a one week training period at the village, additionally you put that into use four days prior to arriving to this city; your muscle strength doesn’t seem bad… It looks like gear that put emphasis on movement might suit you well. I think you didn’t say anything about it, do you have some previous experience with martial arts？」

「The childhood friend I have since I was a brat is a trouble maker and another one of my close friends is a black belt in Karate, so this much is natural.」

「karate？」
//TN : Kana says it with a kanji and Real repeats with with hiragana, hinting that her p.r.o.nunciation of this is not smooth//

「It’s a martial specialized in bare hands; when you become proficient in it………… How to put it? You can pill up several thin bricks and then you break the with your hand.」

In Misaki’s case, with her bare hands she can manage five; but she proudly boasted that with a kakato otoshi she can score for about twenty… I don’t think that’s something you should boast so much if you are a girl, though.
//TN : it’s a type of Axe split kick//

「Ohh, That sounds interesting; I would like to have a match someday if possible.」

The warlike Real said this as her lips raised.

「In the end it’s a happening in a world that’s at peace. There is probably no match for Real who can make fully armored soldiers fly away; additionally, the prerequisite can’t be fulfilled in the first place.」

For starters, that person is in another dimension

「Well, hanging around friends like that, it’s natural to move your body. Even casual skinship can become quite painful; when focusing in evading, you do it as if your life depends on it.」

Yuuzuki was the one that mostly got those injuries… But that’s just getting your own just deserts.

「As a result, I have enough guts that I can still move when a battle ensues… One really never knows what can actually be useful in life.」

「Indeed; at least now, you should thank that trouble maker and the karate weilding friends」

ーー Long after this…

I will come to realize that said trouble maker is the root of all evil; but that’s not something I can tell at this point.

 
Before going to the buy the gear, we need to drop by the p.a.w.nshop to increase our funds– Reason being, we are going to trade some precious metals we borrowed from the castle; we won’t trade stuff that has engraving or that the making is too luxurious, only focusing in selling simple jewels and ornaments that have no unusual characteristics. It’s likely that the luxurious stuff comes from a well known craftsman; and if they appear in the market it might be possible to trace it back to the original seller which would be us.

Speaking of, I haven’t explained how we got those treasures; in other words, how we got into the treasure warehouse of the castle. Normally speaking, a room like that will be locked by secure methods…

Real said :

「That door that has no keyhole, is probably sealed by a special magic tool… It has a mechanism that only allows a person whose magic power has been registered to open it. If anyone else tries to open it, some sort of security measure is sure to activate.」

Then, I just opened it normally.

「Even the technician that desined that magical door, as expected did not took into account the existence of 『someone who has no magic』. It does not matter who it is, even if small, you expect everyone to possess at least some magic in them; thus your existence was not considered in the design. Perhaps, againt you the most simple and common lock would be the most efficient crime prevention measure」

It seems that high tech（？） always has it’s downside, regardless of the world.

And that’s the story of how we got to hoggle some good stuff; it ended up as quite the anecdote.

The money that circulates in this world is separated in coins; there is no paper. Gold holds the highest value, then there is silver, cooper and even iron; all of them have their own type. A single gold cold would probably equate to 100.000 yen; silver would be 10.000 then cooper at 1.000 and the lowest monetary value would be 100 yen. That would mean that 10 of the same coin can be changed for a higher ranked coin; and as a reference a piece of bread being sold in the street goes for an iron.

For this opportunity the trade earned us 30 gold coins; that would be 3.000.000 in yen… That’s the average anual income for a salary man. In this world the anual income for any regular family would be between 10 and 15 gold coins; so this amount translates into quite the haul. Additionally; this time we did not trade everything, we only sold like a quarter of the booty, so we can still trade this amount 3 more times… Even if we don’t want to exaggerate, we still hold at least twice as much money as this.

It should be noted that we did not deal all of this at once; taking such a huge amount of precious metals to a single shop is bound to raise some suspicions.

While feeling uneasy over the weight of a bag that has 30 gold coins, we directed our steps to a blacksmith shop.

「Very well Kanna, I already entrusted the sword so that it gets maintenance; we should worry about your side………… What is it？」

Right now, I am speechless due to the price of a sword that’s placed in a wall of this shop.

It might be a long sword, it looks like a normal 2 bladed weapon; it’s 3 gold coins– 300.000 in j.a.panese yen… Even a short sword that’s right next to it is going for a single gold coin; and there is even a shorter sword beneath that, going for 5 silver coins.

「………… Weapons are really this expensive?」

If it’s for an early RPG weapon, you can already get something for like a thousand yen （wasn’t that right？）. Getting reality and games mixed up is obviously not good; but deep down I had some consciousness that it was similar; it is now that I realize this.

「The one who uses it is trusting his own life to it; the one who crafts it has poured considerable effort into making it; it has to be something that withstands actual combat. The price is fair in relation to the performance; even more than that, you should take into account that some weapons made with weak materials might have been mixed into the lot.」

「…………I can’t even joke around about any talk of adventurers aiming for ritches.」

「There is retrieving valuables from ancient ruins; there is also selling materials from rare magical beasts. Any of those can fetch high prizes; while there is a risk factor where you can die, the reward is appropiate to the risk– For that very same reason, the balance between supply and demand for these weapons is steady.」

So that’s how it is. Because there is someone who is willing to buy, naturally there is someone who sells; even if the weapons are at these prices, there are adventurers who have no problem meeting these bills.

「This is only for reference, but how much does your sword cost; Real？」

After I asked due to being interested, Real took a pensive pose with her hand in her chin.

「Let’s see………… The lowest price would beーー probably a hundred gold coins？」

「What’s with that? That’s too expensive…. And you were just swinging around something that costly?」

Isn’t this the same has having a bunch of gold bars in your back? And that’s even the lowest estimate… You can basically build a residence for that.

「Even if it has this unrefined shape; this is a heirloom that has been pa.s.sed down through my family even before my grandfather’s days. I might be praising one’s own wares, but I don’t think there are that many swords that possess this much st.u.r.diness and sharpness. The thing is that; even if it’s a heirloom pa.s.sed from grandfather to father and so on; the fact that a weapon is a weapon does not change; it’s value is on being present in the battlefield… I have not done a proper appraisal about the actual value, so this is merely an educated guess.」

「It’s fine to entrust such a thing to others?」

「I understand what you are going for; but if by chance a weapon shop losses equipment that has been entrusted with, the collapse in reputation of said shop will surely lead to falling out of business… Additionally, that probably will earn the grudge from the adventurer who was the owner of the weapon; that will be even more critical if it’s the weapon of someone whose name is well known.」

Even if it’s a fantasy world; the weight of business transaction is quite real… I learned this during this weapon shop visit; a relationship of mutual trust is really important.

What we brought this time, was iron made gear for my chest and hands; added to that was a change in the leg protection. Real went along with my wishes, an order for defense power that does not hinder movement. What I picked was a wrist cover that includes the fist and totally covers fingers; it’s something with a plain design. If you hold a sword, the design will probably get in the way; but that’s exactly why there is no problem if you just use it to punch the opponent… Better yet, since the defense in my arms and legs make them more heavy, my offensive ability has actually been increased. Real’s equipment was practically unchanged, there is only the issue of maintenance on the sword… Though the price of said maintenance is enough to match the cost of a new weapon.

The total price for getting together my armor was eight gold pieces; that would be 800.000 in yen… Perhaps it’s a fair price on necessary expenses; but it seems like an awful sum to me who is among the common people.

It’s better if I don’t carry back this money sense when I get back to my own world; my small worries continue to increase.