Side story 7: Temptation
[Edited by: deathbricks, Arthur300000, Bunny, and ArchmageNaoki]
‘Being Kuro’s maid is difficult’ I concluded as I rolled around on a large luxurious couch, munching on BBQ meat and reading a Weapons Today magazine.
This seemed to be a comfortable life and the room temperature was on the warm side, but I didn’t even dare to remove the outer layer of my clothes as I feared for my life.
I swung my tails in discontent and waited for troublesome people to come.
“Miss Cocoa, may I come in?” The owner of the shop knocked on the door. That guy was one of the troublesome people that I mentioned.
“Ahem, you may come in.” I got up and tried to act as pompous as possible and let them in.
Why do I have to do this? As I said, it was because of Kuro again.
This morning, Kuro offhandedly transferred all of these precious monster corpses for me to sell. And she just said, “It’s for the household budget.”
Because of her statement and that I didn’t actually see the corpses, I didn’t think much about it. So I went into the first decent looking butchery I could find and just poured all of them from my storage device.
Of course, everyone in the room was shocked, and that included me.
Who would have thought that she would just hand me rare monster corpses like that!
In retrospect, I should have noticed it since most of their names included the words, ‘King’, ‘Queen’, ‘Emperor’, or ‘Kaiser’. However, I was too sleepy due to yesterday's robot explosion incident. So, I thought that their names were along the lines of emperor penguin or something.
Anyway, because I had offhandedly shown these corpses to the butcher, they thought that I was an elite adventurer from far away land.
Of course, I wanted to correct their misunderstanding, but if I did that I had to answer a lot of questions about how I acquired all these corpses. Also, if they knew that the one who carried this many valuable assets was a weakling like me, they might just rob or kidnap me.
“Here you are miss Cocoa, 550 big gold coins and premium cut from all of them, all accounted for.” A lanky woman dropped two big bags on a table in front of me with a loud clang while the chubby shop owner politely handed me the receipt.
Both of them were as big as my laundry basket. One of them should be filled with gold coins while the other one should be the premium cuts from the corpses that I sold.
“Is there anything else you need from us?” The shop owner politely asked while rubbing his hands in a nervous manner.
“I need to count it.” I said pompously. Each coin in the bag was more than my salary after all, there was no way that I could trust a shop that I’d only entered for the first time.
“Certainly miss.” He answered while smiling. Then he turned to his lanky female assistant and whispered something like “Hey, bring more tea!”
“I also want one more plate of this barbecue meat.” I pointed at the dish beside me. Being needy was an act of high class people, I think.
“Certainly miss, certainly.” He bowed and left the room with the lanky woman.
After the shop owner left, I sighed and pulled the first bag open. The inside of it was filled with large golden coins as he said. These coins reflected the light so much that it hurt my eyes.
I picked one of them up to look more closely. This was a rare chance to see these kind of coins.
Normally, these weren’t used on the market. A single one of these is worth ten normal gold coins. From what I researched, they would reserve these coins for big transactions like what I just did.
The website also mentioned things about the more expensive coins, but I think that this shop wasn’t big enough to have any of those. Well, just the amount inside this bag was enough to buy a big house after all.
However, today, I piled them in several stacks in front of me. And it was a sight to behold.
There were 55 stacks of ten in total. So it was 550 coins, no more no less. And all of them are legit. That means there was 550,000 credits or more than a million gems on this table...
Is Kuro actually sane? Who in their right mind would let their maid handle this much money!?
I brushed off the sweat from my forehead and began to pack the coins back.
For the household budget my ass. How many bottles of shampoo could I buy with these? Do you want me to bury our house in shampoo? Not to mention that the grocery store wouldn’t have enough change if I bought a bottle of shampoo with one of these coins.
Hmm, maybe that girl doesn’t know the true worth of those monster corpses. What if I remove a few zeros from the receipt and take all the money for myself? I could open my own weapon shop and have money to spare…
No, no, no, that wouldn’t work. She might try to test how trustworthy I was after all. With her strength, there was no way that I could run away… Wait, maybe the erotic book under her pillow was actually a manual on how to torture me.
I felt a shiver run down my spine.
“Miss, is everything alright?” A sudden knock from the lanky woman caused me to jump up three feet while subconsciously moving my hands to protect my ass.
“Yes! Yes, I mean, give me a minute.” I shifted my hand away and I shoved all the coins back like my rear end was depending on it. After I rechecked around the table to make sure that I didn’t miss a single coin, I called her inside.
“Here you are, miss.” She served the tea and a plate of grilled meat while eyeing my tails.
“Thank you, just put it over there.” I knew that the fur on my tails stood to their very end, but there was nothing I could do at the moment except pretend that everything was normal.
“Is there anything else you need?” She asked while rudely staring at my tails.
“No thank you. Wait, can I have the recipe for this meat?” I tried to distract her by pointing at the BBQ dish that she just served.
“As you wish ma’am.” She bowed and left. However, I noticed that she tried to peek through the door as she closed it.
I wiped my cold sweat for the second time then I dropped myself back on the couch while letting out a big sigh. Handling a large amount of money was stressful after all. So, let’s fill my stomach with this yummy meat first. Mnn, delicious.
…
After I finished my free meal, I cleaned my hands and face with a napkin. Then I shifted my gaze to the next bag.
Usually, when one sells a monster corpse to the butcherer, they would try to haggle for a higher price first. After the price was settled, they could still try to negotiate with the shop to have a small cut of the meat as a souvenir.
Since I was pretending to be as pompous as possible, I couldn’t haggle much. So I asked them for small cuts of the best parts from each type of monster instead. “I’m going to celebrate with my teammates later.” I lied.
Anyway, I pulled open the bag string and peeked inside. There were eight packs of marbled meat that were wrapped in thin plastic. Each of them weighed around one kilogram, and its elasticity seemed right. When I flipped to the other side, there was a tiny label that said ‘Doomworm Kaiser’.
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I checked them one by one and all of them seemed to be really good stuff. This way, I could save a lot of the meat budget and have a luxurious meal at the same time.
…
“Thank you ma’am, please come again.” The lanky woman and the shop owner sent me off as I left their establishment. In my hand was the cooking recipe that I requested written in neat handwriting.
I kept looking back to check for an unwelcome stalker while the cold outside hit me like a thousand needles being stabbed through my skin. The warm climate of the VIP room was to blame, it made me sweat too much and sweaty clothes don’t help keep my body warm that well.
I sped up along an ankle deep snow path which was actually a main road’s footpath that was covered by the recent snow. There was a group of plowbots cleaning the footpath’s snow a few blocks in front of me, but it would take me a few minutes to reach them.
I pulled up memos from my pocket. The green cover booklet was for accounting, and the pink one was for the chores. I opened the pink one and crossed out ‘selling monster corpses’.
Let’s see, I already took the new dorm key from the dorm manager, and the groceries were taken care of. What was left was buying some snacks for Kuro and Barbara and to clean up my new temporary home.
“Kya! That fox girl is so cute.” A teenage girl spooked me as she suddenly yelled.
I looked at them in surprise as I nearly dropped my pencil in the snow. Her friends did apologize to me with a silent gesture, but I still glared at them as we passed each other.
I knew that some humans tended to act like idiots when they saw those that are different, but yelling at point blank range was really rude. It seemed us Beastkin were more composed in this matter. Well, we consider humans as Monkeykin after all, so no one in my country would go ‘kya kya’ like those girls.
Anyway, I ignored them and quickly walked to my next destination, the pastry shop.
“Greetings, may I have these baumkuchen, a strawberry cheesecake, and two pieces of that chocolate cake?” I pointed at the freshest looking cakes in the showcase.
I tiptoed to get some warmth from the shop’s heater as I waited, but the warmth was fleeting as the wind kept blowing it away. I considered using the personal climate control device that Kuro gave me, but I didn’t want to remove the spell bouncing jacket.
“It’s eight small silver coins.” The cashier told me the price of just four pieces of cake. They were expensive, but I paid it anyway since they were necessary items.
Why was it necessary? Well, Kuro’s mood seemed to be tightly related to her sugar intake. She might not have noticed that, but from my close observation, she became a few notches more grumpy when her meals lack them.
Also, when she eats too many sweets, she becomes somewhat hyperactive. And the worst part of it, she kept venting her grumpiness and hyperactivity on my ears and tails.
So, for the sake of my peaceful life, I can’t compromise these desserts' quality and quantity.
“Thank you for your patronage.” The shopkeeper said after we exchanged the goods and money.
After that, I followed the main road back to the dorm. There were also several shortcuts to get there sooner, but with so much money in my storage device, it was better to take the safest route.
“Here, please visit our store. There is a big sale at the moment.” Suddenly, a pamphlet was thrust in front of me. Damn these tall people, they keep coming out of nowhere.
Anyways, I took the glossy paper from her hand and thanked her. No matter what, one shouldn’t miss these kinds of free items. There might be a discount coupon on them.
I quickly read the pamphlet.
Uncle Gram weapon shop present.
Full moon festival madness sale. All items discounted up to 90%!!
This offer lasts until 94755.4
Well, there was no discount coupon, but this was still interesting.
I checked the map behind the pamphlet, and it was just a few blocks ahead of me… Hmm, let’s check it out. Human towns should be safer after all.
...
“Welcome!” The uncle behind the counter greeted me as I entered the shop.
I looked left and right and was a bit disappointed in what I saw. The shop was too small, and the selection was even less than what I got from Kuro.
Anyway, since I already came in, there was no harm in checking around.
Most of the items displayed on the shelves was of student grade. It was understandable since this was an academic city. Still, since I could buy adventurer grade devices, thanks to Kuro, they were less interesting to me.
I made a round trip and noticed that there was a model of wand that was recalled due to the safety issues displayed next to the cashier.
“Are you looking for something, miss?” The uncle behind the counter asked.
“Uhm, do you have the S12M automatic shotgun?” I asked for an adventurer grade shotgun that had a good review on the magazine that I just read.
“S12M, S12M, ah, they just delivered this morning. Wait, wasn’t that an adventurer tier weapon?” He scanned me up and down.
“I’m running errands for an adventurer.” I insisted and showed my ID card. There was Kuro’s name and face as my guardian on it.
“Wait wasn’t that Miss Kuro the beach angel? Then you must be...” I nodded as he pointed at me. I could guess what the beach part was, and was a bit offended that this guy only remembered Kuro. Maybe it was something like all nine tail foxes looked the same, I think. Anyway, as long as he believed me, I could take a look at the shotgun.
“Alright, one moment.” He took out a big box from his storage device, then he put it down on the floor for me to see.
As he allowed me to open the box, I quickly assembled its parts and checked the balance. Then I tried out how it felt in my hands while noticing the shopkeeper was staring at me. He looked like he was contemplating something.
“How was it?” He asked.
“It feels nice and the mechanics inside seem to work properly, but I can’t be sure unless I try it out.” I gave him my honest opinion.
“Oh, the testing range is behind this door.” He opened the door leading to the back of his shop for me.
There, I paid two big silver coins for the testing range fee and a box of testing ammunition.
Right, in contrary to most household equipment and student grade devices, this high end model used custom ammunition. Because of this, each shot was more expensive, but it was acceptable for home security equipment.
I tried single shot mode first, and its destructive power was peerless. The wooden target was blown apart even from 50 feet away. Then I switched to automatic mode and fire continuously.
The mechanics were smooth. The kick back was a bit on the hard side but still tolerable. Its spread control function also made it appropriate for any home defense situation. It made me recollect the glorious days when I was still living on vibrant hills.
There, I also had a shotgun like this. Even though it was inferior to this model, I could call it my own and it really made me feel safe. Kuro did give me a lot of weapons, but none of them could replace a good and reliable shotgun.
“How much is it?” I asked the shopkeeper and tried to suppress my feelings. I couldn’t let him know how much I want this.
“It’s 50 gold coins. As we are having a sale at the moment, I’ll give you two boxes of ammo for free.” He put up five fingers.
I checked my ID card.
Balance: 4,056 credits.
Damn, even with the 2,000 credits income from that beach trip, I’m still a thousand credits short. Maybe I can buy it next month if people donate a bit more on my weapon review channel.
“Ah, it’s too expensive.” I reluctantly returned the shotgun to him and prepared to leave.
“Wait! How about…” He grabbed my shoulder to stop me, but he took quite a while to continue his sentence.
“What if I give you a bigger discount… if you called Kuro for me.” … No, hell no. My ass- I mean my life was on the line in this matter. There was no way that I would disturb her just because of this matter.
“C’mon 10 seconds, just 10 seconds, I’ll give you a 10 gold coin discount!” The heck, why did you have to make an alluring offer!
“Can’t you just listen to her voice on TV?” I gritted my teeth and rejected his idea.
“It’s totally different, having her speak to me directly. I could, you know, for quite a while.” Maybe I did enter the wrong shop… I gave him a pitiful glare and prepared to leave.
“Wait, wait, wait! I’ll also give you something good! Look, it’s dwarven tech!” The disgusting uncle pulled something out from his shirt pocket. It was a rectangular box like a smartphone, however, that box was a bit longer.
“What is it?” My curiosity got the better of me as I heard the word ‘dwarven tech’.
“Next generation power armor. Its performance is less than a normal model, but exactly because of that, they allow the public to purchase them. Its power source is also revolutionizing technology-” The shop owner gave his passionate speech for a whole ten minutes. It sounded really good, but-
“An adult couldn’t wear it, right?” I guessed the problem. It was dwarf power armor after all.
“Yeah, and I already stockpiled several of them.” … How stupid can he be.
“Anyway, since you are small, it shouldn’t be a problem!” He suddenly pushed the rectangular box at me and pressed the button. “Authorize power armor deployment, code: 123456.”
“Hey!-” I wanted to protest on a lot of things but the device was already activated. It was a short moment of blinding glow, then my gambeson and jacket was replaced with a warm metallic feeling. My vision was covered by a blue-green transparent screen filled with several figures and numbers.
I reached out my hands to check, and it seemed like most of my body was covered with small streamlined metal plates. However, my tails were fully exposed…
“Ahem, it’s dwarf technology, so you know… But, don’t worry, the exposed parts were supposed to be covered by the last generation forcefield.” He said after he noticed where I was looking.
“C’mon, try it out a bit.” He ignored my glare and continued. “The bar on the right side is the battery meter, every action will drain it, the more vigorous your activities, the faster it drains. There’s also your speed, altitude and location on the left. And there is an auto-map in the lower corner-”
I checked the interfaces out and it looked fun. Then I tested its jump function which was even helped by an AI to select the best trajectory in a matter of seconds. And when I press commit, my body moved on its own.
I shoot up three meters high, and almost hit the roof of the testing range. On the top of my trajectory, my body did a somersault. Then I flipped back and landed like an athlete.
After that, I tried several consecutive jumps and acrobatic moves which was very invigorating. Moreover, there was even an aim assist function and close combat program pre-installed…
“How is it?” The disgusting uncle smiled from ear to ear as I landed next to him without any problem. Of course, I really want this, but…
“Ten seconds alright!?” I finally succumbed to the temptation.