(16 years and 6 months after reincarnation)
[Takina's POV]
I exited Takashi's workshop afterwards. Going through the front gate, I was met face to face with a robbery.
A small stall was set up on the roadside right in front of Takashi's font gate, and the man who appears to be the stall owner was being held back by one of the robber.
Something's very wrong though, because the stall is completely empty.
'Thud!' The other robber slammed a shovel into the cabinet of the stall, opening a hole in it.
"Stop breaking my things you buffoons! I'm broke, there is no money left for you two to steal!"
Wow.... Now that sounds kind of sad.
"Can't you be at least of some use?! What kind of merchant don't even have change money when setting up a stall?!"
"Well excuse fucking me for being a failure of a stall owner!"
Hearing the understandably pitiful words of the stall owner, the robber released him from his chokehold and let him go.
"Tsk... We'll come back for you tomorrow, you'd better have some fees to pay by then or else...!"
"Back for what, dust? I'm broke, my wife took the kids and ran, I have nothing left for you to take! You can have my stall or even my arm if you want, like hell do I give a shit!"
"Wow...." (3x) The robbers and I exclaimed in pity....
"What?! Haven't seen a broken man before?!"
"....You know what? Take this." The robber took out a small pouch of what appears to be coins and handed it off to them.
"Huh? Why are you giving me money?"
"Hope you get better business, we'll be back for the coins at a later date. Let's go brother."
"Yeah."
"Hey what?! Why are you giving me pity money-"
"Here..." I took out a silver coin and handed it to him.
"What?! Who are you?! Why are you giving me pity money as well?!"
"You don't want it? Fine by me...."
"Wait wait, I didn't say I don't want it! Or rather, I'd like something better."
"Huh?"
"You're that famous dancer at the Shibata Castle's Dining Hall right? I've seen you drink with Shibata Genji and even Uesugi Kenshin himself, you have connections."
"Right...."
"Consider this as an investment, how about you tell me what the samurai people need for sales right now? I'd be willing to pay you back later for the information even."
"Hmm.... Very well, I'll find out what the samurais need and tell you tomorrow."
"Thank you very much, lady! Now then, I'm going use these money to buy some goods to sell...."
______________
(Later)
(At the dining hall)
"Fujiwara-dono? What business to you have here?" The chef said to me.
"I was planning to ask, do you have some goods that are high in demand or you are running out of?"
"Goods huh? That'd be-"
"Chef, we are out of sake! Are the next batch here yet?!"
"...Well, you have your answer. Sake is used to make dishes and to be drank, running out of it is certainly an unfortunate thing."
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(At the barracks)
"Fujiwara-dono?"
"What goods we need huh? That'd be sake. We haven't had a good drink recently because the common distributing company is down.... Us soldiers need the booze to keep the morale high you know?"
__________________
(Enna's room)
"Takina-san? What do you need?"
"Things that I am running out of huh...? I need some high concentration alcohol really soon."
"Its not sake, because that's a drink! I need alcohol to clean my equipments, not to drink!"
_________________
Anyway, it was pretty clear that what the samurai people need was alcohol.
After getting the info that I needed, I headed back to my room.... 'Goo'
"Ah Takina-san, I was looking for you."
"Sora-sama, what's the matter?"
"I got permission to come on the trip!"
"Whaaa?! I thought I would be able to take a rest on this trip...!"
"You can't escape from your Lord that easily, I am very determined in achieving what I want after all!"
"Tsk.... Fine, do as you please."
"Yay!"
I already have to guard Genji during the trip, and now I have to take care of this child as well? Give me a break!
_____________
And so, the next day came.... I went back to Takashi-san's place to get my newly repaired equipment.
It was then....
"Hey, dancer lady!"
Someone called out to me from the sides.
"Hmm?"
"It's me, the merchant from yesterday."
"Oh, the pitiful merchant... I almost forgot about you." It seems that he has a new stall set up, and some new goods to sell as well.
"Now that is a painful thing to hear from a woman.... Regardless, what information did you have?"
"The samurai people at Shibata Castle need alcohol, both drinking Sake and other clean alcohol for use."
"This is actually a very big secret that you are telling me.... I've heard that recently there's been a big drama with the usual sake distributor, but I never would've thought that it'd affect the nobles as well."
"So then, how can this knowledge help you?"
"Of course it can help by making me sell big money! I know someone from another city that has extra alcohol to spare, it wouldn't be unreasonable for me to sell it here at a slightly higher price than usual...."
"Right right you greedy old man...."
"Oh by the way, I bought new goods from the money that those thugs gave me yesterday. Since you helped me out, I want to return your favor now. Take a look and see if you find anything you like here, I'll give it for free."
"Really? Let's see here then...."
The merchant has a lot of tools and equipments put on the stall, many have no use to me but some are weapons that can be used.
"....Wait, aren't these Takashi-san's things?!"
"Ahaha, you noticed it huh? I bought these equipments from old Monkey at a fair price. They were lying around at his shop doing nothing but gathering mold anyway, I might as well redistribute it to the market and get the money flowing!"
"You really know your stuff huh...?"
I didn't notice it yesterday, but it looks like Takashi really knows a lot about odd items and magic items.
"Well I was a successful merchant from Edo, before my wife took my entire business and left me here anyway...."
"....I'm sorry."
"It's alright, she's kind of a bitch anyway now that I've distanced myself from her and saw her real side. So, do you have something you like here?"
"Hmm.... How about this?"
I took one of the thing on display, it was a steel visor with a fox's face design similar to the mask that I wear to perform on stage.
During my fights, I've frequently had my face be sliced.... I desperately needed face protection but can't seem to get any good looking helmets to use. This one fits just in my quota.
"Good choice, it's a solid visor made to mask against modern projectile weaponries. You may never know where a stray arrow or gunshot can blind you after all."
"It can block a bullet?"
"What bullet?"
"What do you mean- nevermind." I forgot that guns are not prevalent at this place yet.
"I see... You can have that thing for free."
"Really? It looks so expensive, how much does this cost?"
"Hmm.... I don't remember exactly but it should cost somewhere like 2 silvers?"
"That's expensive! Are you sure?'
"Just take it, I don't think anyone other than women would find that design attractive anyway. And you know, there's not a lot of ladies who even fights, let alone uses armour that's a bit unique."
"I see.... Thank you for this, I'll take it. Hope you have a nice business, I'll be going now."
"Right. I'll definitely be paying your share of money once the Sakes sold big!"
Afterwards, I headed for Takashi-san's place for real this time....
Opening the sliding door, I entered the workshop in the middle of the yard.
"Takashi-san?"
The old man was sitting on the ground, working on something. He stood up upon noticing me.
"It's you.... I fixed your Flame Vent, here."
From the sides, he took the fire barrel out and handed it to me. The fire barrel was polished and no longer has any dent on it, but the wooden handle was somehow replaced with some paddings.... There's also leather straps wrapped around the barrel.
"What's this...?"
"I tweaked the magic circuits inside a bit to make the flames more mana efficient, you should find the flames to be much stronger now.... As for the leather strap, it is for you to tie it to your left arm and use it without having to grab the handle."
"My arm?"
"Yes. Let me show you... Your left arm please."
"Right..."
"You strap the barrel on the inside of your forearm...."
"What's the point of doing this when you can just put it at your pocket?"
"It's for ease of concealment.... You can hide it under your kimono's sleeves and blast anyone who didn't expect it. A great tool for kunoichis like you."
"Wait, what? I am not a Kunoichi."
"You aren't? Interesting...."
"Why?"
"....Regardless, you may find this new design way less cumbersome than that of the old one. You wanted a portable flamethrower, not a gun, and this is what fits the description."
"Well I don't exactly dislike this new model, but wouldn't it burn my hands like this?"
"The paddings are to make sure that doesn't happen.... Just make sure to pull up your sleeves before you fire it."
"I see...."
I curled my wrist up to reveal the barrel inside, then I looked at the inside of it.... I poured a little bit of mana into the barrel, and blue lights can be seen coming out from inside.
'Grab!' Takashi gripped my left arm with his wooden prosthetic arm.
"Don't burn down my shop.... I trust you'd want to test out your new weapon, so do it outside."
"R-right...."
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'Bwuom!' The barrel blasts out a gush of flames, large enough to create a cloud of hot flaming gas that can engulf an entire person inside. Even my body moves backwards a bit from the recoil....
"Damn..."
"How is it?"
"This is way beyond what I expected, it's extremely powerful. I like it."
"Heh, I see...."
"....."
"...Why the sad face?"
"...It's nothing." I really misses my ability to use magic sometimes... My fire magic can easily overpower measly flames like these no doubt.
"I see. As for the price, it'll be 1 silver."
"That's very cheap for the improvements you've made to this thing...."
"That wasn't done without a motive however."
"Hmm?"
"In the end I am a toolmaker, this means that I live to create inventions that'd benefit others.... I want you to bring me any weird tools that you might find outside, this includes the tools in other shops. I will pay you for these tools, and give you discounts on other things as well."
"Really? I could use some more money, it'd be a great thing to be able earn more money on top of getting new equipments that are as good as this. Deal?"
"Deal. I'll be giving your cut of the money that I'll make off the gun prototype later, so remember to come back here once in a while to check that."
"Gun prototype? I didn't do anything though?"
"You showed me the way a gun works, it is essentially the same as bringing me odd tools."
"I see.... By the way, you seem to have sold your entire arsenal to that pitiful merchant out in front of your store."
"Ah, him? It was a way to clear my store a bit, and receive money on top of not having to move the things myself."
"Makes sense. It'd be hard for an old man like you to move those things by yourself anyway."
"So it would seem. Do you have any more business here? If not, then I'll get back to my work."
"No, I don't have anything else. Good luck on your work, farewell."
"Farewell." The old man said as he walks back into the run down shack.
"....What an odd oji-san...."
"I can still hear you, you know?" Said Takashi as he comes back out from the shack.
"Eh?! Umm, I wasn't talking about you...."
"Quit it.... I want you to take this." He hands a book to me.
"This is?"
"Shinobi techniques.... I think it'll be more of use to you than it is to me now. I can't bring myself to throw away all the painstaking research I did to create these techniques, so I intend on just giving it to you. Besides, you are one of the only one who knows my secret anyway...."
"If you are being honest, then I can't even thank you enough.... I'll surely give this book a read to learn new techniques, thank you."
"Right."
And thus, the preparations for the trip to Kyoto comes to an end.
(Chapter end)