"One!! Two!! Three!!! Four!!!"
"Two!! Two!!! Three!!!! Four!!!"
The sound of clanging rang out.
Under the pretense of making room for the basement of the new mansion, the day labor fairies were happily swinging their pickaxes again today.
"All right!! One-hour break!!!"
The foreman blew his whistle and announced the break.
Even fairies, who did not need food, sleep, or excretion, still needed rest, so they apparently copied what humans did and took a break around lunchtime.
"Ugh... damn... I’m dead. Is this really all I can do...?"
And our Capris angrily gulped down the water from his canteen.
Should he be glad that Britain’s weather meant this wasn’t work under the blazing sun, or curse his own penniless condition?
...Forget it, damn it. It’s the Mors’ fault.
"At least it’s a relief the first person I met was the landlord... man, if I’d had to think about finding lodging too, that would’ve been awful."
He thought back to when he first arrived in Darlington and realized he didn’t have a single coin to his name, so he tried to repay the landlord’s kindness by quickly finding work.
"No, I’m saying there really are only construction sites like this?"
"No, I’m telling you there are. Right now, the only people making any real money in Darlington are loan sharks who caught some huge sucker, and...
"The people in food service were already swarming with flies from the start,
"the shops can barely afford to pay their employees,
"and the fisheries are already saying they have too many hands and don’t send any more.
"The jobs you can get quickly at the level you asked for, Capris, are basically two things... mining and construction. Which one will you take?"
"...I’ll go with construction."
...Sigh, haaaaaa.......
What kind of place was this, anyway, where only half-baked businesses sprang up everywhere?! Why was everyone in the same line of work, shrinking the market like that?!!!!!!
Does capitalism not work here?! What is the invisible hand doing?! If business isn’t going well, you should switch to something else, shouldn’t you?!!! You fools!!! There’s a blue ocean right in front of you?!!!! Darlington stocks are crashinggggg!!!!!
Ugh, damn it. So in the end, the only work left was the dangerous mines and labor for the lord’s mansion construction.
...It’s not like I had a choice... I’m human, for crying out loud. Mining’s out. My body would be ruined one hundred percent.
"At least it’s something that just has us digging up the ground nonstop... I guess."
Still, as with these kinds of jobs, the daily wage was generous, so just one day’s work would be enough to buy food for the day and iron plates and hammers to reinforce the landlord’s house.
Wow, the lord may not know how to manage land properly, but he sure knows how to manage people.
"You there!! Break time is over!!! Get back here!!!"
"Ah, yes, yes. I’m coming, I’m coming."
With the foreman’s shout, he picked up his pickaxe once more and headed back to work.
*
"...No, wait, shopkeeper, one more time. Really? You’re really selling it that expensive?"
"I told you, yes. If you’re not buying, get lost. There are fairies who will buy it even if you don’t. I’ve got a disposal buyer lined up too."
"No, this, um..."
A hardware store in Darlington.
Capris had planned to buy some iron plates and a hammer on the way back to the landlord’s place after work, so he could reinforce the house, but that plan had gone to hell from the very beginning.
"...It’s a little strange to say this, but if you keep doing business like this, you’re going to go under."
"Hey, shut up! What do I care if business goes under or not?! If you’re not buying, get out!! The disposal buyer’s coming today!!!"
"Ugh, damn it..."
The reason was that the hardware store’s scrap prices were completely insane.
Normally, when goods don’t sell well, merchants are supposed to lower prices and somehow move the stock.
And Darlington should have been the same. No, since business was supposedly bad here, he had assumed prices would be cheap.
Instead, the shops here were proudly displaying utterly deranged prices.
Were they seriously insane?
No matter how much profit they wanted to make, if nothing sold at all, it was pointless. And if they raised prices this much, there wouldn’t be anyone willing to buy either.
But this guy had said a disposal buyer was coming.
That meant there were fairies who would still buy things even at these absurd prices... what in the world was this place?
"Just answer me this. Are you buying or not?!! Decide already!!"
"Ugh, damn it... fine, I’ll buy, s..."
Ding-a-ling
Just before the words "I’ll buy" came out of his mouth, the hardware store door opened with a jingle, and a fairy stepped inside.
Red hair, ragged clothes. The fairy, who was holding a coin purse and wearing a relieved expression as she opened the door, was...
"Wait, landlord s..."
"Well, well, well! If it isn’t our customer, Baban Si!!!! What brings you in today?!!!"
Before he could even finish speaking, he was shoved by the shopkeeper’s hand and sent flying into a corner of the store. Damn it, that bastard...!!
"Well, I was thinking of getting some iron plates and a hammer to patch the roof of the house a little..."
"Oh, perfect timing!!! We just happen to have all these iron plates left over!!! And plenty of hammers too!!!! Now then, how about a drill or a saw as well? Ah, by the way, the price of the iron plates is like this..."
"Hey, wait a second...! Let me see that too...!!"
Forcing his trembling body to move, he snatched the bill from the shopkeeper’s hand.
.............................Were they insane?
"Hey, hey, hey...!! This isn’t right, shopkeeper...!!! That’s nine, no, ten times higher than before...!!!"
The bill in the shopkeeper’s hand listed an amount more than nine to ten times the price he had just been told.
What kind of ridiculous nonsense was this?!!
But the even more infuriating part was...
"Y-Yes?! Isn’t, isn’t this cheap...?"
"...Huh? Wait, what are you talking about? You’re joking, right?"
"No, but... the wages I get from working as a maid, and the hardware store I can afford by borrowing a little from the loan sharks is only this one..."
"...........................Huh?"
A dumbfounded sound escaped his mouth.
And then he remembered what he had heard before about loan sharks being the ones who were doing well after catching some sucker.
...Loan sharks? Loan sharks are essential?
Were they insane? Those loan sharks, notorious for their absurd interest rates and viciousness?
He didn’t know what fairy society was like here, but those were the same moneylenders infamous for chasing people to the ends of hell and stripping them bare, and you had to rely on them just to buy things?
"I-I’m fine. This time the loan sharks said they’d only take twice the existence tax instead of money, so I’ve got plenty today!"
"........Hey, buddy. You heard that? That Baban Si says it’s fine too. So why don’t you stop bothering business and get lost?"
The landlord. That is, Baban Si, sensing that the atmosphere had turned bad, tried to smooth things over by saying she was fine, and the shopkeeper, following her lead, impatiently waved Capris off to leave quickly.
...Phew. Damn it. Yeah, if the two of them were saying that, then I guess I should go.
But still... this might be none of my business, but...
"...Haah, shopkeeper."
"Hm? Hey, I said get out already! The stock’s all gone!!"
"No, no matter how you look at it... charging ten times the price is crossing the line, you son of a bitch!!!!!"
"Kuhh──wuh?!!"
The right straight that shot out cleanly from the arm muscles honed by blacksmithing work landed squarely on the shopkeeper’s jaw.
And perhaps because of the impact, despite the difference in basic physical ability, the shopkeeper toppled backward in a disgraceful heap and groaned.
Serves you right, you bastard.
Of course, a lunatic who tries to sell things for ten times the price because he thinks he’s caught a sucker deserves this much.
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