Chapter 44: The Foxes Residence and the Shrine of Inari – Part 1

A/N: Hello there people! It feels good to be back on schedule like before. By the way, reading my unread notifications in WordPress, I read a reminder of mu first year in wordpress… I’ve been more than a year around here. Heh, time sure does fly, doesn’t it? Now then, enjoy!

I’m bored, so I’ve decided to go to another world

Author: Me

Editor/Prof reader: Hilltopy1

Wolvarhelm – Central District

Ikki was walking through a street very early in the morning. He was going to the Merchant’s Syndicate. Walking alongside him was a handsome man in his mid twenties; he had long hair of the same color as Ikki, his eyes were of a blood-red color, and was wearing black pants and a red robe. He was also carrying a short sword.

“You know, Tsuyoshi, it wasn’t really necessary for you to come.”

“There is no way I would let master wound himself just to let others see how effective the potion is. Please, do allow me to accompany you and be the one to use the potion.”

“… Well, whatever.”

After letting out a sigh, Ikki said that to the man he called Tsuyoshi in a tone expressing that he gave up.

It has been five days since the incident with Szuran on the border between the Lemurian Kingdom and Aurian Empire. After accepting the clan of the Ten Tailed Fox as his followers… they could not move to where Ikki was living. There was not enough space for all of them even if they changed to human form.

Several of the foxes have been working to solve that problem. Since they had used a lot of magic power to make the place the fight occurred look like it did before, by growing new mountains and so on, they were left with little magic energy again. But they recovered fast and started to work again.

By the way, like Ikki had told Katy before, he wanted to expand the mansion, in order to receive the villagers from Eileen’s village who are to come soon. With the Ten Tailed Fox Clan following him now, there were no problems with that. After having finished in the borders of Auria and Lemuria, Tsuyoshi and the other foxes were planning to make Ikki’s mansion humongous, but Ikki said there was no need to go that far, and that it would be a massive pain in the ass to clean, too.

In the end, two more floors were added to the mansion, becoming twice as big, which was plenty big. A new building adjacent to the mansion was also created, just in case. With the problem of rooms for Eileen’s fellows villagers solved, Ikki and the foxes needed to tackle the matter about their living place next.

The number of foxes totals to around two hundred and fifty, by the way.

In fox form, Tsuyoshi is the biggest one by far. Most of the rest of foxes are half his size, at best. But even so, all of them are quite big, so they need a lot of space to live in.

The problem was that, if possible, the foxes wanted to be in a place where they could be in their fox form. Of course, if Ikki were to said so, they would change to human form and be wherever he told them to. Ikki was fine with that, so he started to look for a place to move, but with more than two hundred foxes of six/seven meters high, at least, it was difficult. In the end, Tsuyoshi came up with an idea, but time was needed.

Meanwhile, while the foxes were working to solve the problem, Ikki had to worry about the merchants’ exam.

Ikki thought about it for a bit, and came to the conclusion that it would be bad to present something from what he’s actually planning to sell in the third exam.

But then, what can he present?

It had to be something that can make him pass, but that wouldn’t be a problem to have other merchants to know about it. And so, after consulting with Mio and Tsuyoshi for ideas, the later one proposed a potion. It wasn’t like Ikki didn’t think about that, but he doesn’t know how to make them, nor does Mio or anyone else in the mansion, so he had discarded the idea.

Luckily, Tsuyoshi knew how to make them.

With that settled, Ikki, along with Tsukiko, went to gather the materials needed to make the potion. While they were going from place to place searching for those materials, they also hunted down the most powerful monsters, including the wyverns from the mountain where Ikki meet with Dion and his group.

After gathering all the materials, Ikki left the production of the potion in Tsuyoshi’s hands and went to see one of the merchants that were listed in the parchment he was given at the guild, in order to sell the parts of the monster he and Tsukiko defeated for the second exam.

It has been a few days since then.

Today was the day for the third and last exam for merchants at the syndicate’s building. The production of the potion was a success and it has been tested already. The potion was inside a bag hanging to his back, attached to his waist.

With all that done, the only thing left to do was to go the syndicate’s building to present the potion in the third exam.

Originally, Ikki planned to wound himself with some deep cuts that would be lethal for a normal person or something like that, in order to demonstrate how effective the potion was. Hearing that, Tsuyoshi immediately opposed to the idea and insisted in being the one to be used as a demonstration in order to show the potion’s effect.

Ikki wasn’t really approving of the idea, but since Tsuyoshi was so persistent, he agreed. After that matter was solved, Tsuyoshi took on the form of a human, and so, he was allowed to come with Ikki.

The two of them were walking through the street that led to the Merchant’s Syndicate.

“Still, things sure have changed a lot in human society.”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“I am referring to things like architecture and society in general.”

“You… when was the last time you were in a human settlement?”

“I think it was about seven hundred years ago…?”

Being asked that, Tsuyoshi tilted his head, trying to remember how long has it been.

“At that time, I hadn’t even reached fifty years old, I was quite young. Back then, houses were made of bad quality wood, at best, and humans had barely developed magic. Now, their society is heavily dependent on magic.”

“Seven hundred years… Now that I think about it, the number of tails in a magical fox denoted its age, right?”

“That is right, master. Right now, I have eight tails, so I am eight hundred years old. I just got my eighth tail very recently, kukuku~”

Tsuyoshi was saying that proudly while puffing out his chest. Seeing that, Ikki smiled wryly.

The merchants’ syndicate building was close. The two of them could see it from where they were already, they only need to walk a couple of blocks more and they’d be there. On the way, the two of them were talking about the progress of the living place for the kitsunes. While they were talking about it, suddenly, three men intercepted them in a rather impolite, threatening manner.

“This is the one, right?”

“I think so. The description fits, and he is heading to the syndicate’s building, too.”

“You kid, come with us.”

“Who the hell are you people?”

“Just shut up and come with us.”

Without replying to Ikki’s question, one of the men grabbed Ikki by his clothes, lifted him, and started to drag him to one of the alleys that were near. The other two men grabbed Tsuyoshi and were trying to drag him to the alley, as well.

In reaction to that, Tsuyoshi’s attitude changed drastically and was about to shake off those men and give them a lesson, but Ikki, who was completely unfazed by the situation, signaled him with his hand to calm down. Tsuyoshi did exactly that and limited to let himself be dragged to the alley by the two men.

The people who witnessed that, who were mostly people starting to open the shops in the street, were stunned by the sudden event, but most of them decided to not get involved and ignore the situation, while a few others were talking about calling the soldiers.

Once in the alley, Ikki and Tsuyoshi were violently pressed against the wall. Tsuyoshi looked irritated, to the point it looked like he would get rid of them at any moment, while Ikki was still unfazed.

“You, are you Ikki Mitsuki?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“You bastard, you’ll regret having made fun of our young master.”

“Young master? Who the hell are you talking about?”

“Don’t feign ignorance! I am talking about William Lambros! The third son of Lambros household whom you, a filthy peasant, dared to disrespect at the merchants’ syndicate building!”

“…?”

Despite being told all that, Ikki tilted his head still unable to remember who the man was talking about. Seeing Ikki’s expression, who was trying to remember while being pressed against the wall, that man got incredibly irritated and, still holding Ikki by his clothes, lifted him angrily.

By the way, the other two men were restraining Tsuyoshi while also pressing him against the wall.

“Humph, well, whatever, try to feign ignorance all you want. You won’t be arriving to the syndicate’s building, anyways. Regret having made fun of our young master in the other world.”

“No, seriously, who are you talking about?”

“Enough of that, now die!!”

Yelling that, the man drew his sword from its scabbard and was going to stab Ikki. Likewise, the other two did the same and were about to stab Tsuyoshi.

“How annoying…”

The people, who were near that alley, could hear the angry yells of that man, but shortly after, those yells turned into screams. They could also hear the sound of someone being punched really hard.

After that, they saw how Ikki and Tsuyoshi calmly came out of the alley. Looking slightly annoyed, he and Tsuyoshi resumed their talk and started to walk towards the syndicate’s building. After Ikki and Tsuyoshi walked out the alley, some people who had been watching decided to go look at the alley out of curiosity.

Once they saw what was there, they were stunned.

Those three had not only been tied up, their faces were all swelled up and bloody. They also were stripped from their clothes. Not to mention that they were tied in a bondage-like way. Seeing such a sight, they averted their eyes in pity and called for the soldiers.

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“It finally will be beginning, took them long enough…”

“Seriously, what was the point in calling all the applicants so early in the morning if they won’t be able to finish all the preparation by then? Even if they meet an unexpected problem, they should have been prepared for it. How dare they waste master’s time like this?”

Adela, the same lady from last time who explained the outline of the exams before the written one began, appeared and started to call the applicants who were idly waiting in the same room as before.

Those few who don’t seem to belong to a noble or merchant household were cool with it, but several of the applicants who were dressed with expensive looking robes and dresses looked a bit irritated. Some of them even angry, and so were their parents, brothers, or guardians who had come with them. By the most part, anyways, as some of them doesn’t seem to mind.

After taking care of those men on their way to the syndicate’s building, Ikki and Tsuyoshi resumed their trip and arrived without any more inconveniences.

They arrived a bit earlier than most, so they were prepared to wait for a bit.

When Ikki and Tsuyoshi made it to the syndicate’s building, there were already about half the applicants waiting there. Without paying heed or talking with anyone, Ikki and Tsuyoshi took some drinks and snacks that had been prepared for the applicants beforehand and went to one of the benches in a corner to eat.

Little by little, the applicants started to arrive. By when it was time for the third exam, all of them had arrived, but then, someone of the staff announced that they had a delay and that it was needed to wait a bit more.

Since then, it had been half an hour.

Not having anything to do, Tsuyoshi tried to ask Ikki about the men who intercepted them in their way, but Ikki replied that he didn’t know what that was about. He had really forgotten about that. With nothing else to do, they just waited idly in one of the benches.

“Now then, please follow me to the room where the third exam will take place.”

Being urged by miss Adela, all the thirty-or-so applicants followed her to a room located deeper in the building. This time, those accompanying the applicants were allowed to go. The room itself was plain. It had a stage set up at the back, and several seats arranged in front of it. For some reason, there already were several people seated there.

All the applicants were guided to a side of the stage, while those accompanying them were guided to the seats. Only those like Tsuyoshi, who were going to help in the presentation, were allowed to stay.

“These people here are who probably will be your senior merchants. They have come to see the presentations. Now, come to the stage when I call your names. The first one is…”

After short introductions were the applicants politely bowed their heads towards these merchants and greeted them, everyone but Ikki, that is, the presentations started.

The first person went to the stage and presented his product, but Ikki and Tsuyoshi were not interested and sat on the floor with their backs resting on the wall. Amongst the other applicants, there was one in particular who was looking at Ikki with great rage. Ikki wasn’t even paying attention to him, which irritated him even more.

Though the people around noticed, they decided to ignore the matter. They remembered what happened the day of the written exam and came to the conclusion than that was the best thing to do.

Ikki was clueless about all that and was just resting, waiting for his turn.

(That bastard… what is he doing here? I sent people to all the streets that lead here to take care of him. Did all of them miss him…? What a bunch of useless- I cannot make a scene here… I guess I have no choice but to let him be for now. I will deal with him at a later time.)

Reaching that conclusion, William Lambros, who was the applicant Ikki had a quarrel with the day of the written exam, decided to ignore Ikki and watched the presentations with an enraged expression.

Like that, one by one, the applicants introduced their products to the audience. Then, Ikki’s name was finally called.

“Master, it is your turn. Please wake up.”

“Hmm…? What…? My turn, you say?”

Ikki was taking a nap when his name was called, so Tsuyoshi had to wake him up. He was a bit sleepy, so when he stood up, the first thing Ikki did was to stretch his arms. After that, Ikki went to the stage with a bit of an unmotivated attitude, with Tsuyoshi respectfully following behind him. The spectators who saw all that had a very bad first impression of Ikki. They started to murmur and say all kind of things about him regarding his appearance and attitude.

The Lambros boy was looking at Ikki with eyes full of disdain, too.

Tsuyoshi, who is a magical fox, has very sharp hearing, so he was able to hear everything. Ikki also has very good hearing, though, so he also heard everything. Tsuyoshi was going to say something to the spectators in an irritated manner, but Ikki said to ignore them.

While a bit reluctant, Tsuyoshi did exactly that. Ikki started with his presentation after Tsuyoshi calmed down.

Ikki started by showing the potion. He then named and talked a bit about the ingredients used in its elaboration such as the gesundheit plant, amongst others.

Hearing about the materials used, the spectators started to murmur again, but this time it was due to a different reason. They were talking about how those were some quite rare to find materials, and that some of them were used in the elaboration of high-grade potions. Some of them didn’t even know what some of those ingredients were and were either showing puzzled expressions, or were having the people accompanying them explain it to them.

Ikki didn’t really pay attention to any of them, nor did he explain much about the ingredients or the method of elaboration. Ikki just gave a brief summary. Being done with that, Ikki proceeded with the demonstration.

“Now then, about how effective this potion is, we will show you all a live demonstration. Tsuyoshi.”

“Yes, master.”

After being called, to all spectators’ surprise, Tsuyoshi immediately took off all his clothes, except his pants. The now topless Tsuyoshi gave a step forward and stood alongside Ikki. He then drew the short sword he has been carrying the whole time from its scabbard and proceeded to slash himself.

This left the spectators baffled.

The diagonal cut Tsuyoshi did was from his left shoulder to his waist. He also self-inflected other cuts. Those were very big and deep cuts, to the point that if it were someone normal, that person would be death. Some people amongst the spectators started to panic seeing all the blood that was gushing out from Tsuyoshi.

Ikki and Tsuyoshi himself were unfazed, though. In fact, some people were looking at Tsuyoshi, who was standing as if nothing happened despite the severe wounds and loss of blood, dumbfounded.

After making sure that everyone has seen the wounds, Tsuyoshi took the potion Ikki handed over and drank it. In the next moment, all of Tsuyoshi’s wounds started to heal with dazzling speed. In just a couple of seconds, under the now even more dumbfounded gazes of the spectators, the wounds have been fully healed.

There were no scars left.

Everyone was surprised when Ikki mentioned the price he was going to sell those potions. He was only asking for fifteen silver coins. That price was considered rather cheap even for some low-grade potions. This alarmed those merchants amongst the spectators who specialize in medicine like potions.

Next, Ikki announced that his presentation was over and along with Tsuyoshi, who was putting on his clothes again, got down from the stage.

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After Ikki’ stunning presentation, the rest of applicants continued with their own. For those who came after Ikki, the expectations placed on them were much less compared to those who came before him. With a great part of the spectators still talking about Ikki and his potion even during other applicants turn, the presentations continued.

By the way, William Lambros was called right after Ikki.

With the humiliation of everyone still talking about Ikki during his presentation his hatred towards him increased. It increased even further after seeing how Ikki was placidly sleeping when he got down the stage.

Most of the presentation were of medicines like potions, armors and weapons either normal or enchanted with spells, magic item for both, daily life and adventuring travels and so on.

Once all applicants had finished their presentation, all of them were taken to a different room for a short rest. It has been twenty minutes since then. Ikki was, as always, resting in one of the corners of the room without trying to socialize with anyone. Tsuyoshi was by his side. There were people who were looking at him, and who seemed to want to talk with him, but Ikki wasn’t paying attention to them.

After a bit, Adela entered the room along with who seemed to be member of the syndicates’ staff and several people from the spectators. They went directly to the back of the room.

“Attention please. The results of all the exams will be displayed now. The scores are arranged in three columns, one for each exam, and are from the highest to the lowest. Search your names in each column to know if your scores are enough to pass and become a merchant.”

While Adela was saying that, the staff members were placing the scoreboard diagonally behind her.

Once Adela finished speaking, all the thirty or so applicant started to search for their own names on the scoreboard. Ikki didn’t have to search for long.

“As expected from master. You are the highest score on all three exams.”

“Not like that’s a compliment. Except for the last one, none of the exams were difficult. And the last one was a pain only because I didn’t know what to present.”

For some reason, Tsuyoshi said that somewhat proudly, which caused Ikki to retort indifferently. Hearing that, all nearby applicant looked at the top of the scoreboard. Indeed, the name Ikki Mitsuki was at the top of each column, a perfect score in each exam.

Seeing that, William’s hate towards Ikki grew even more.

In the scoreboard, the name William Lambros was positioned in second place in each exam.

“The exams had a total of one hundred points each. Those who have get less that one hundred and fifty points have failed. Those who have passed, please come here to get your merchant’s credentials.”

For the first time in the day Ikki showed an expression of amusement. That was because out of the thirty-or-so applicants, more that half was despairing due to having failed. Looking at the scoreboard again, and seeing how low some of the scores were, he was wondering how stupid one needs to be to fail like that.

With those who failed lamenting in the middle of the room, Ikki and the others who passed went to receive their credentials. After all had received them, the spectators, and now their senior merchants, went to talk with them to offer to employ them in their companies. Well, only a few of them received those offer, because most of the merchants surrounded Ikki to try to lure him to their companies.

Ikki rejected them all, but they were persistently surrounding him to try and have him change his mind.

During his presentation, it was mentioned that Tsuyoshi was the one who produced the potion, so seeing that trying to convince Ikki was useless, they focused their attention on Tsuyoshi.

“I offer you twice whatever he is paying you now, Mr. Tsuyoshi.”

“I offer you four times what you are being paid now.”

Tsuyoshi kept receiving offers, but he rejected all of them on the spot. Soon, the offers turned into threats from those merchants who are in the business of medicine. Fed up with all that, Ikki and Tsuyoshi ignored them all and forcibly made their way out of that encirclement.

Ignoring all the medicine-related merchants yelling and threatening them, Ikki and Tsuyoshi were about to leave the room, but they were intercepted by Adela.

“Ikki Mitsuki, I still have something I need to talk about with you. Please, come with me.”

“Okay… Tsuyoshi, you should go back ahead. There are lots of things you still need to do.”

“Yes, master. Please, go see us when you have free time. Now then, if master will excuse me.”

After bidding farewell to Ikki, and slightly bowing to Adela, Tsuyoshi left. Now without company, Ikki followed Adela to her office. Once there, she sat down on her chair. Ikki also took a seat in front of her desk. Before saying anything, she searched in one of her drawers and took out some documents.

“This is…?”

“These are the permits that will allow you to start business in any field.”

“Oh?”

Ikki started to look through the documents.

“I was surprised. Her Majesty Queen Elena rarely intervenes for anyone. It took me by surprise when she sent me a letter asking me to ready all those permits for one of the applicants. She did not even wait to see if you would actually pass and asked to have them ready by today. Well, seeing the results, I guess Her Majesty was sure you would pass without problems.”

“I see… She did say that I would need to go to her with my merchant credential to get these permits. I wasn’t expecting to receive them now. That saves me time, though, so I’m grateful.”

After saying that, Ikki stopped browsing through the documents and hold them under his arm.

“By the way…”

“What?”

“Would you mind doing this?”

“…?”

Adela gave Ikki a parchment. In there, there were several grade-school level exercises, similar to those he did in the written test. Seeing Ikki a bit confused due to that, Adela explained.

“You were the only one to get a perfect score in the written test. Not only that, you finished it in just a few minutes. There are some people here who think that you cheated somehow.”

“So this is to make sure I didn’t cheat…”

Adela nodded to that. Ikki let out a sigh and started with the test he was handed after being given a feather pen. Needless to say, Adela was watching over him the whole time. Well, it didn’t take him long, though. He finished the test of five pages in a few minutes. Ikki then handed the test to Adela, who started to check it right away.

“Everything is correct…”

After finishing checking the test, Adela let out a sigh and said that.

“Is that everything? Can I go now?”

“No well, I would like to ask something else…”

“What?”

“How did you get all those materials you sold for the second test? All were parts of monsters. Most of them of rank A, too… the sheer amount of material you sold was shocking…”

“How you ask… I just went around hunting monsters while I was gathering the materials for that potion.”

“You alone…?”

“I had strong, reliable people at my side.”

“… I see.”

Adela let out a sigh and gave up after seeing that Ikki had no intentions of saying any more than that. She was massaging her temples as if soothing a headache.

“Well, that is all. You can go now. And welcome to the Merchant’s Syndicate.”

“Good. Well then, bye.”

After that, Ikki left her office. Alone once again, Adela let out yet another sigh while further leaning on her chair.

“… It seems that Her Majesty bought a piece of land in the central district recently. Sigh… it seems like that boy will cause some problems here…”

Adela said that to herself.

Normally, after passing the exams, the new merchants are assigned a working place where they start their business under the watch of the senior merchants. They also control what the new merchants can and cannot do, while at the same time taking advantage of those who come up with good business ideas or revolutionary new merchandise, by monopolizing to themselves. Thanks to that, it’s extremely difficult for new merchants to rise up and flourish as merchants unless they belong to influential households.

When a new merchant who does not belong to nobility or a big merchant household does not follow that trend, they are usually crushed by the already established merchants.

Fully knowing all that, Adela was troubled.

“And he also came up with such a cheap and high quality item… Those merchants in the medicinal business will not stay quiet about this…”

While holding a bit of uneasiness about the near future, Adela started to work.