The Straw Millionaire, the Cat, and the Princess Volume 1 Chapter 2 part 2

 
The change happened slowly. The day after the cry echoed in the underground plaza, one of the party-goers from the previous day approached us.
 
“Do you have coffee?”
 
“We do.”
 
“In cans, right? Black? Lightly sweetened? We also have café au lait.”
 
After Mars and I continue, the young adventurer with two golden-hilted Japanese swords hesitates a bit and answers, “Café au lait, please.”
 
“It’s three hundred yen.”
 
“That’s a tourist price.”
 
As I place the coffee on the table, he gives a wry smile and takes out three one-hundred-yen coins, placing them next to it.
 
“By the way, you two always come together. Is there a reason for that?”
 
“Well, you see, we’re putting up a barrier…”
 
“A barrier? Ah, that’s the Cat Sith skill, right? Both of you have rare skills. Well, otherwise, how could you have come this far without weapons…”
 
“Yeah, that’s true.”
 
Glancing at Mars, who’s playing with his smartphone, he takes the café au lait and says, “Oh! It’s warm!” with excitement before leaving.
 
Certainly, it’s suspicious to be wrapped in yellow cloth and fused with a cat. Perhaps, not having customers for a long time was because of that suspicion… but there’s no alternative.
 
In the end, we come to the dungeon plaza the next day in the same attire, take our usual spots, sit at the table, and wait on the chairs. Around the same time as yesterday, the same guy with two swords appears again. Today, he seems to be accompanied by two women. Are they all from the same party? He seems like the protagonist of a harem adventurer story.
 
“Hey!”
 
“Hey, thanks for coming again today.”
 
“Well, you know, even though it’s expensive, being able to buy things here is convenient. I’ll take two café au laits and one black, please.”
 
“Thanks.”
 
As Mars waves his hand like a beckoning cat, the two women exclaim, “So cute!”
 
“Hey, Reina-san! Umeda-san! That’s rude!”
 
The guy with two cigarettes in his mouth turned around with a startled look and immediately scolded the two loudly. Well, that makes sense. In a Japan filled with immigrants from different cultures, it was frankly careless to utter words that could be perceived as mocking someone’s appearance.
 
“Oh, right…”
 
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
 
“It’s okay, it’s okay.”
 
“Sorry about that.”
 
Upon Mars’ words of forgiveness, the guy with two cigarettes also bowed his head. Truth be told, Mars didn’t really care about this kind of thing. It was just because the other person was an adult that things turned out this way. Mars even gets called “kitty” and hugged by neighborhood kindergarteners. According to him, “I’m just lucky not to be grossed out.”
 
Actually, discrimination based on appearance doesn’t disappear anywhere in the universe. It’s natural to be different, so as long as there’s goodwill, it’s all good, according to Mars.
 
“Here, a thousand yen.”
 
“Oh, thanks!”
 
In exchange for the thousand-yen bill on the table, three canned coffees and one hundred-yen coin were placed.
 
“Bro, don’t you smoke?”
 
“It’s a hassle, and if you drop a cigarette butt underground, the management association will get mad.”
 
“Oh, cigarette butts… yeah, I guess.”
 
Unlike magical dungeons where corpses and garbage disappear, that kind of thing doesn’t happen in reality. A major cleanup by the management association is conducted every three months, and there was once a big fuss when used contraceptives were found. Of course, it’s difficult to identify the culprit, but investigations are conducted. It’s a dangerous job diving into deep, dark holes. Everyone tries to avoid weird rumors, so they’re especially careful in such matters.
 
“Bro, I’ll take care of the cigarette butts. They’re our trash after all.”
 
“Really? Then do you have Parliaments?”
 
“Oh, we don’t have Parliaments, we have Marlboro, Setanta, and Echo.”
 
“Then give me the stronger Marlboro.”
 
“It’s a hundred yen per stick.”
 
“Ouch! What a rip-off!”
 
“That’s how it is with luxury goods.”
 
Despite complaining, he didn’t seem to have any intention of quitting smoking. The guy with two cigarettes took out a hundred yen from his mountaineering brand coin purse. We exchanged a lighter and a cigarette for it and took the hundred yen.
 
“I’ll return the lighter later.”
 
“I’m happy with the service, haha…”
 
The guy with two cigarettes laughed weakly while opening the can of coffee.
 
“Um, do you have cigarettes?”
 
Was he watching that exchange…? A man from another party, his face covered with a gray balaclava, approached and spoke.
 
“Yes, we do.”
 
“Do you have 12 millimeter Setanta?”
 
“Yes, we do. It’s a hundred yen per stick. We lend out lighters, so please return them along with the cigarette butts later.”
 
“Expensive…”
 
Despite saying it was expensive, the man firmly handed over a hundred-yen coin. Well, after coming all the way to the square near the entrance for almost an hour and doing some work, he’d naturally want a smoke. I placed an empty candy can near the chair to put cigarette butts in.
 
Perhaps suspicions are lessened when there are other customers around. When I returned to my seat, another customer was there. This time, it was a woman with a bright boar jacket and dark circles under her eyes. She was dressed as if she were going camping, but she was carrying a camo crossbow with a scope, which was incompatible with her outfit.
 
“Do you have anything sweet and tuna mayo onigiri?”
 
“Oh, do you prefer Japanese-style or Western-style sweets?”
 
“Huh!? I can choose? Then I’ll go with red bean paste.”
 

READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM


The woman spoke with a slightly unique elongation at the end of her words. Red bean paste, huh? It was worth going through all the desserts in the duty supermarket’s dessert section.
 
“Then it’s six hundred yen for the daifuku and tuna mayo.”
 
“Expensive! …Well, whatever.”
 
“Sis, how about some warm tea?”
 
“It’ll get closer, so I’m keeping the drinks light.”
 
A somewhat lethargic-looking woman took a thousand-yen bill out of her monogrammed brand wallet, handed over the change of four hundred yen along with a daifuku, and left. Ah, perhaps the toilet situation here was also a concern… Would there be a demand for makeshift toilets with partitions brought in? Before I could ponder over this idea, another customer arrived.
 
“Do you have cup noodles and hot water?”
 
“Oh, yes, we do!”
 
As I began to explain the flavors, two hands stretched out from the side, holding two hundred yen notes.
 
///
 


 
scene transition
 
 


 
///
 
“Oh, thanks for the lighter and the empty can.”
 
“Thank you!”
 
“Can I get another Setanta?”
 
A person in a balaclava also chimed in from the side.
 
“Oh, just a moment, please! One at a time!”
 
“I think I’ll take some tea too.”
 
The daifuku lady returned, and suddenly, it was chaotic!
 
“Please wait in line! I’m sorry, but we’re serving one at a time!”
 
“There’s plenty of merchandise, so just hold on!”
 
It seemed like the whole square had crowded into our shop. That day, we made fifty times the sales from the previous day and ended up with a profit of fifteen thousand yen.
 

 
“We made a good profit today, didn’t we?”
 
“No, not really. It would be even better once the bento starts selling.”
 
After wrapping up our dungeon exploration around noon and finishing my part-time job at the pizza place in the evening, I sat at the low table with Mars, chatting away. On TV, there was a variety show with a star-studded lineup for the year-end special, and I was enjoying the typical year-end excitement.
 
“It’s tough not being able to take time off during the year-end holidays.”
 
“Why don’t you quit?”
 
“Well, I’ve just started this business, and I’m still nervous… Besides, I actually like working at the pizza place. It’s like playing a game with time limits.”
 
“You like games, Tonbo.”
 
“I do. I wanted to work for a gaming company after graduating… Not that it matters to Mars, but in Japan, they’ve been talking about recession for twenty years [the Lost Two Decades]. Honestly, it’s tough to get a job even at a regular company, let alone a gaming one.”
 
Mars looked at me with a puzzled expression as I complained.
 
“Why? Why do you want a job?”
 
“Huh? Well, isn’t it normal to get a job after college… if I can, that is.”
 
“No, you should just continue with this business. You have a powerful skill the item box – junkyard. Besides, you come up with various ideas for doing business in the dungeon, so I think you’re suited for it.”
 
Peeling a tangerine on the low table with agile claws, Mars laughed as he spoke.
 
“Really? You think so?”
 
“Of course! It’s obvious.”
 
“Well, if that’s the case…”
 
“Maybe you’ll gain more confidence if you earn more in the dungeon? Heck, earn big and even start your own gaming company.”
 
“Huh!? A gaming company? That… might be good.”
 
I somehow imagined myself being interviewed for a game magazine in a cool way. Back in middle school, while playing games with friends, I secretly wished to be on the side of creating such interesting things someday.
 
Yes… I had a dream. My dream back in middle school was to create a game with a profound and innovative world view, win Game of the Year, and adorn my hometown as a rising charismatic creator. I would hide from my little sister who barged into my room without knocking and scribble down the coolest dark protagonist setting in a secret notebook.
 
People are creatures who forget their dreams and become adults. But it’s also true that humans are creatures who can’t truly forget their dreams. While imagining myself being interviewed, I was nudged by Mars.
 
“Tonbo? Are you listening? And then, once you’ve done all that, you can leave the business to your subordinates and focus on delivering pizzas without a care in the world.”
 
“Ehhh… If it comes to that, I might as well quit delivering pizzas.”
 
A charismatic creator wouldn’t deliver pizzas, right? Or maybe, precisely because they’re charismatic creators, they’d do things that people wouldn’t expect?


 
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!


BUY THE SOURCE MATERIAL TO SUPPORT THE AUTHOR !!!

Kindly click on the green button above and contribute to filling the green bar if you’re interested in having another LN from the request page translated.

Also, every donation is being used to purchase the source material and to fund more English translations.



Please consider joining my Ko-Fi membership. By becoming a member, you’ll also gain access to 2-10 additional chapters of all of the novels from this site translated into English. Last but not least your support will also assist me in upholding the translation quality and speed. For more information, please follow the link.


Donation for faster release is always welcome

Additionally, I am now accepting translation requests.

Spread the translation

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *