Chapter 36 – It seems to be the search for a base of activity for starters

Renya hates debts.
In the first place, he is unable to like the deed of buying something with money, he hasn’t on hands.
It is only obvious to be unable to wave around something that’s not there, therefore he is unable to stomach a character, who tries to accomplish a goal with money brought in from somewhere else.
But, there are also time when he thinks, even that depends on the occasion, I guess?
Exactly such was the occasion now.
The total reward, they received for capturing the dungeon the other day, was 100 gold coins.
As a consequence of giving half of this to Az’s party, Renya’s party’s share is 50 gold coins.
He received strong protests from Az against this.
According to Az, he insisted on them having no right to receive anything like a reward concerning the destruction of the dungeon core, because they were equal to useless in regards to the matter of repulsing the demon.
However, as result of Renya firmly and stubbornly insisting on an equal split, Az helplessly folded.
Looking at it from Renya’s view, Az’s conduct of trying to firmly refuse was a mistake and they should equally split the reward in halves after all, since there was no doubt they were on the verge of death all the same.

“Weren’t we even unable to fulfil our role as tanks!?” (Az)

Due to the pressuring Az, Renya told him in an as flat as possible voice,

“So what? Since I approved of it, that’s all there is to it. Or did you even think that I would be able to compete with the demon by myself without you guys? It’s disagreeable, if you overestimate me too much, Az.” (Renya)

If I conceal the emotions in my voice and expressions, he might end up noticing that this is no practical argument.
Having gotten close to this magician in front of him beyond a certain degree, Az’ continuous, expressionless face was quite troublesome for Renya, but Renya pretended to be expressionless by mobilizing his mimetic muscles.
After glaring at each other for a while, Az whispers,

“Got it. … I will receive it this time … Sorry.” (Az)

Saying this, he bowed deeply.
After seeing off such Az leaving to talk with his party members about the reward, Renya sighs very deeply.
In the first place it was plainly obvious that Az’ group needed money a lot more than Renya’s group.
Even if they are able to continue as adventurers temporarily, the four guards have lost almost all of their equipment. If they were to buy new items again, this time’s reward, which they should accept, won’t be sufficient at all.
If it turns out that they will stop being adventurers after this time’s incident, it will become necessary to have money to cover the costs of living and such until they search for their next occupation or until their next occupation returns money.
No matter which of either, it was always better to have money.
Speaking of Renya’s group in comparison, it was certainly true that they were working with the main goal of earning money, but that has absolutely no urgent nature.
If they have money at hand for at least the inn fees and meals, there wouldn’t be any problem, even if they postponed other things.
Since he has certainly understood that, it would have been fine for Renya even if he ended up giving most of the reward, obtained in this time’s job, to Az, but on top of his position as party leader, there’s no meaning in forcing it either. Since he couldn’t come up with a reason to persuade him except sympathy, it was settled by the method called equal split.
Renya’s scheme was that even if Shion’s group tries to say something, they wouldn’t be able to talk back persistently since they did the job together. But at the moment he told the two this story after the fact, he received a reply “Isn’t it fine, as long as it’s okay with Renya?” in a carefree manner making him disappointed.
Apart from that, it’s a different story too.
As for the split of Renya’s group’s share of 50 gold coins, Rona and Shion each have only requested 2 gold coins. As they told Renya to take the remaining money, Renya’s current assets are 46 gold coins.
At the time he is wandering aimlessly around the city wondering what to do with those gold coins, Renya, who suddenly stopped at a place that looks like a real estate agent, found a poster of a certain property up for sale.
That property, which is located in the business ward, was something used as residence and a store with big merchant shelves everywhere. Is it the result of being in a place close to the outer circumference of the city? It is a building made out of solid stone with a spacious garden. In addition the the store portion of the building itself faced towards the street. It seems to have been made with a structure of even having a workshop and a storage.
It was a property that truly met Renya’s requirements, but the problem was its price.
With an amount of 80 gold coins for the sale, 40 coins have to be paid upfront and the remaining in instalments. The instalments’ frequency is agreed upon consultation, but it’s as far as possible in accordance with the purchaser’s wish.
Renya isn’t well-informed about the market price at all.
Nevertheless, Renya has heard that for this sort of property at least one platinum plate has been previously necessary.
It might also depend on the scale of the building and the property’s extent, but after looking at the information of the property, you have to consider its scale as large once you attach the adjective ‘somewhat’ to it. Since that’s the case, isn’t its value more than one platinum plate? He considered.
Even if there is some problem, 80 gold coins is cheap.
I’m not able to pay the total sum in one go, but I have sufficient money on hand if it’s only the down payment.
Getting a loan is a bad way no matter what, but if I let it get away this time, there might be no next time.

“Is there some property you are interested in?”

Due to the appearance of Renya, who intently stared at the paper stuck to the store’s wall, a middle-aged male clerk addressed him with a “Did you see something hopeful?” and lowered his back.

“It’s this, but isn’t it somehow far too cheap?” (Renya)

“Ah, you mean this…?”

With only a short glance at the paper pointed out by Renya, the clerk’s face became gloomy.
By only seeing that expression, Renya sensed that there was some issue, but the male clerk quietly brought his mouth close to Renya’s ear and whispered while visibly hesitating,

“As for this property, you know…”

“Yes?” (Renya)

“Grudges have… malice.” *

Renya definitely didn’t know whether it’s fine, if the clerk explains it with such moment of silence.
But, his hand reached out to the katana hanging at his waist ordered by something else than his thinking. The clerk, who saw that, leaped back from Renya in a panic.
While falling down overenthusiastically, he switches over to a stance of dogeza skilfully and begins to rub his forehead against the ground.

“I’m sorry. Please excuse me. It’s a joke!”

“… Well… I thought so.” (Renya)

While highly praising his self-control within his mind, Renya slowly lowered the hand, which was on the katana.
He was at the point of seriously killing him.
He believed that he wouldn’t have any feelings of guilt at all, if he ended up cutting the clerk, but normally he would be arrested for violation of the laws.
However, coming to another world, Renya received a large shock for having thrown a bad pun, he wouldn’t be able to hear even in his former world, at him without any kind of resolve either. (T/N: See above at the * … 怨念 and おんねん, both mean grudge/malice/hatred as far as I know, just one is the kanji, and the other is the katakana)

“B-But, that doesn’t mean that all of it is a joke…”

“Ha?” (Renya)

“It is mostly a rumour that this building has been cursed.”

A certain, prospering merchant lived in that mansion.
That merchant, who possessed a beautiful wife and bright children, employed a large number of servants. He was a merchant carrying out huge business at the level of competing for the number 1 or 2 spot even in the city of Kukrika.
The wages he paid to the servants were nice as well. Because he was taking good care of others, his house was continually visited by people wishing to work at the stores, managed by him.
His reputation in the trade was great too. It seemed that the shops of that merchant would flourish for many years to come.
The abnormal event occurred some years back.
It was a serial kidnapping incident of young women in the city of Kukrika.
It was an incident of girls in the latter half of their teens going missing one after the other.
The city guard ran around the whole city searching for the whereabouts of the vanished girls. They put out an official notice for women to avoid walking alone, regardless of day or night.
And, the people, investigating that case, stumbled upon a single name in their search.
The victims were all working at the store of the merchant or they were only people, who received an interview as they wanted to work there.
It was the only thread connecting the victims.
The guards, who notices that, immediately rushed to the house of the merchant in order to interrogate him about the circumstances.
What they saw there was…

“What did they see?” (Renya)

“It’s the same as you might have imagined.”

The clerk whispers in a lowered voice.
It’s likely to raise the excitement of the story, but for Renya it doesn’t make it sound better at all.
I can’t hear anything but a bizarre serial murder case, whatever he might say, so what about it?  
It certainly is a tragic story, but if he looks around for stories resembling this in his previous world, it’s a story that can be found at a frequency on the level of being vaguely similar to bumping into a discarded stone.
If that’s the degree of its curse, it will be a weird talk, if that world (T/N: Earth) isn’t filled all over the with curses.
Isn’t it strange that dozens of ghosts don’t appear in it either? He wonders
Rather than his reaction being extremely weak, Renya has absolutely no reaction that could be labelled as such. Due to that, the look of the clerk was dejected for some reason.

“So, well, this is the history of that property.”

“Is it the only history?” (Renya)

Renya is amazed of himself holding quite the expectations in comparison to that.

“No, well, they seem to really come out, but…”

The clerk lowered his voice having once again a strange atmosphere, however Renya has absolutely no intention to go along with it.

“What is?” (Renya)

“It seems to be ghosts. The customer-sama, who moved into that property, has cancelled the contract saying he saw them every time it became night.”

As expected of another world, Renya stopped leaking those words triggered by his surprise this time.
Somehow or other, it seems real ghosts are created in this world through grudges and resentments.
Renya wasn’t able to recall the memories of his former world at all as they were erased according to what he was told before, however he likely shouldn’t have ever met existences called ghosts or spectres in the environment of his previous existence.
That’s the reason why Renya currently doesn’t believe in something called ghost at all.
In case he met them, he should be able to properly believe in their existence. In other words, the matter of him not believing, was likely a matter of him not having met them.

“Are those spirits only appearing frequently at night?” (Renya)

“Yes, that’s how it seems.”

Even if this might be a different world, it seems to be the same in this aspect to his original world.
The spectacle of ghosts boldly exposing their appearance during the day can’t be observed even if it might be a different world.

“Is it possible to confirm that? I’m considering to buy it, if there’s no problem.” (Renya)

Although it’s dirt cheap in regards to the market price, the property concerned has a history of being infested with ghosts and their likes.
The mind of Renya, who ended up thinking that it somehow seemed very interesting, plunged into a mood of already buying it at that point in time.
But, do they really appear or not?
The clerk nodded to Renya asking with the remaining discernment at the degree of thinking that it’s probably necessary to confirm what kind of danger the ghosts are, if they really appear.

“Since it is extremely rare for me to welcome such a whimsical person like you… it will be possible to stay a night for the sake of checking, but there is no furniture nor any bedding. As it has stayed in the same state as the time when the former owning merchant sold it, please stay over with that belief.”

“You are at least able to clean it in advance… it’s up for sale, right?” (Renya)

“It can’t be helped since no one wants to enter there as it’s spooky.”

“Ah, right. Got it. By the way, what happened to that merchant?” (Renya)

“Of course he was arrested and put to trial. The verdict was capital crime, but it was in order to soothe the cruelly murdered women, even if only a bit,…”

Lowering his voice once again and for some reason putting on airs in the way of talking, the clerk said with plenty of ambience,

“He was beheaded in the garden of his mansion.”

The clerk laughs in a low and eerie manner.
Even this late in the game the clerk was trying to produce a scary story, but he completely failed at that.
Renya, not caring at all, started to talk quite indifferently,

“The cleaning of that was difficult, wasn’t it? I don’t know how decapitation is performed in this world, but it’s quite complicated in fact. The neck is quite muscled. The bones are reasonably hard since they are thick. If your aim is off, you will end up hitting the back or the shoulders. The neck of those grown fat, where is it? it might become that funny kind of story too. Besides, as for handling a sword or an axe, if you aren’t able to cut it off in one blow, the criminal will suffer. If an unskilled fellow does it, it won’t be off even after slashing several times. It will even become a story of the criminal writhing in agony… well, if you call that their atonement, that’s how it will be, but it will be horrifying story, if you consider having done that to yourself, no? After having definitely placed the criminal’s head on the executioner’s block, you hit the neck with an axe. It’s possible to finish it with a single blow even for an amateur, if you strike with a hammer from above, but it will become a disaster, if it penetrates only half-heartedly because the hammer-swinging fellow hesitated. But did you know that?” (Renya)

Due to Renya starting to smoothly reveal the techniques and knowledge concerning decapitation, the clerk’s face turned pale, not comparable to a person having heard a ghost story. He withdraws into the store’s interior to hand over the key of that building to Renya.
Renya even continued to call out to his back as means of harassment.

“In my home town they are saying that lovely flowers bloom under trees with corpses buried below, but that guy’s corpse, hasn’t it been buried in the garden?” (Renya)

“I don’t know! Please quickly go confirming now that you have the key!”

Due to the answer of the clerk, which was similar to screaming, Renya smiled wryly it’s out of the question to get the jitters in this way, if you started with the ghost stories, right?

 

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