So That Means To Say, We're Broke?!

The news about the incident yesterday quickly spread like wildfire among the neighborhood around the Sandy Fish inn, even reaching as far as the adjacent towns.

After a 'thorough' and 'careful' analysis conducted by the people, especially those group of housewives that has a vast network of information gathering system throughout the town, the culprit of the incident has been easily found out.

Sources say that those cattle are owned by an someone who runs a meat shop on the street near the town plaza. The owner, an old man, told the residents that when he was about to transport the Demon Cows in one of his carriages, the beasts became agitated for some unknown reason, and tore through the carriages as they started to rush out of the old man's place. Luckily, as he told them, he managed to leap out of their way before he gets trampled by multitudes of iron-like hooves of the Demon Cows. With regards to the damages due to the incident, they said, the owner pledged to pay for all the properties affected, including the replacement of the crushed statue at the plaza.

"Well, I guess everything got resolved quickly because no one got injured by the stampede. I'm relieved." I said while lightly sighing.

Saku nodded. "Indeed. It's all thanks to those two people who killed the Demon Cows that no one got injured by the incident."

I quickly leaned forward on my seat in surprise. "T-Two...p-people...?"

"Yeah. No one saw their figures or knew what they looked like, but many people said that there are two people left on the plaza when everyone ran away in safety, and one of them killed those beasts faster than an experienced Demon Cow slaughterer could do."

"U-Uhh..."

Cold sweat suddenly dripped from my back.

"And if I remember correctly...aren't you guys one of those people who left the place last?"

"H-Huh...?! N-Nn, that's right..."

W-W-Wait, wait, wait--what is this, a sudden interrogation?

"B-But we left immediately after we noticed that it's just Aoi and I the only ones in there..." I said as I quickly thought of a convenient (totally sloppy) alibi.

No good. I know we did nothing wrong but, my hands are shaking right now from some phantom guilt inside me.

"Hmmm...that's regrettable." Saku paused for a while to sip on his tea. "Did you even see just a glimpse of their faces?"

"If we still had time looking at their faces, wouldn't it be better if we used it to escape instead?"

"You're right, you're right." He lightly nodded, seemingly lost interest to push the matter even further. "Other than that Ren, I'm glad that you two are in good terms again."

"Uh, yeah? After all it was just something that shouldn't be made complicated even further so...um, we're good now. Yeah." I responded rather quickly, trying to put up a normal expression in front of him.

"That's great, Brother Ren," Saki spoke happily. "Aoi won't sit on your lap right now if she's still mad at you, right?"

As Saki pointed out, Aoi is indeed sitting on my lap right now.

This girl, no matter how much I try to tell her not to do that in front of other people, she just feign ignorance as she made herself sit comfortably while swaying her feet back and forth. Good thing, we're the only ones here at the inn at this time, making my nerves relax even more.

"I'm already used to this, though it makes me somewhat uncomfortable after a long time."

"If Saki were to sit on my lap as well...maybe I'll die from pure bliss instantly..." Saku muttered as he lightly squirmed his body while thinking of such thoughts.

"Stop it, Big Bro, it's gross." Saki retorted quickly to her brother, obviously disgusted from his words.

Yeah, it sounded so wrong when it came out of his mouth. I can't blame him though for thinking that way, for Saki is also a cute girl just like Aoi.

"If it's gross then what about the dishes on the sink? It's your turn to wash them, right?"

"Ugh..." Saki groaned in displeasure.

"Then..." Saku spoke in a threatening tone. "Would you rather wash the dishes, or I'll have you sit on my lap for an hour?"

"I'll go now!!!"

With a light shriek, she jumped away from the seats and rushed towards the kitchen, where a mountain of plates are waiting to be cleaned.

"See that? Whenever I tell to her things like that she my workload suddenly gets halved immediately." Saku said with a wide grin on his face.

Good grief, now I'm contemplating whether to call the authorities on him or not for his actions.

-----

No matter where I look, I'm surrounded by a certain reality that is well established both in Earth and here in another world ever since the foundation of the first civilizations from both sides.

"Tomatoes, four coppers each! Fresh and juicy! Four coppers each!"

"Pepper, garlic, chili! You name it...we have all the spices that you need here!"

"Orc meat! Orc meat! First twenty buyers will receive a special discount! Hurry, hurry!!!"

Here, standing in the middle of the street where the town's market is located, I strained my ears to hear the voices of vendors and buyers alike, as they nonchalantly proceed with their everyday transactions.

"Aoi," I called at the little girl who's standing beside me, while munching on a crepe that I bought for her earlier.

"...Hm?"

"Don't you think...we're missing something important ever since we came into this town?"

Aoi hurriedly swallowed the food in her mouth. "...What is it, big brother?"

Finding out that the little girl here is still unaware of our situation, I let out a deep sigh. "All this time...we're technically broke, right?"

Save for some silver coins left in our pockets and the clothes the Rainen siblings lent to us, we don't have anything in our possession as of this point. Of course, there was no need for money in the desert but here in the civilization, being penniless is a big no-no in this place.

In other words, WE'RE BROKE AS HECK!!!!

"...Y-Yes, but there's those two, right? Big brother, let's ask them to extend our free stay by another week!" Aoi suggested.

"Listen here, you lass," I felt somewhat annoyed with her suggestion that I lightly flicked her forehead. "I won't let you abuse their kindness, you hear? Good grief, for me to not emphasize on teaching you good manners from the start..."

"...What should we do then, big brother? Are we going to be beggars starting next week?"

At that thought, Aoi's knees started to tremble.

"Well, I don't want that to happen to us." I assured her. "Maybe..."

"...Maybe?"

"We could low-key abuse their kindness." I said to her with a grin.

-----

"A job?" Saki looked at me with a surprised face when I asked her about my ideas.

"I-If you're not okay with me working here, maybe you know someone that needs helpers or anything like that? You know, our financial status is already on red alert for some time now."

Saki scratched her cheek while thinking deeply. "It's not that we don't want you working here in the Sandy Fish, Brother Ren, but right now I don't think there's an immediate need for us to hire reinforcements in our business operation. I'm sorry."

"Ah, no need for you to apologize! Hehe." I replied in panic.

"But if you're finding something like a job, maybe being an adventurer is the way for you, Brother Ren!"

"A-Adventurer...?"

"Nn. You may not know it Brother Ren, but about half of the residents here in this town are adventurers. There's also those coming from other towns, so I know that kind of job is very in-demand here, there and everywhere."

"Heeeeehhhh..."

"But if you don't want to become an adventurer," Saki added. "There's also jobs here in the town that also provides income with a lesser risk to your life."

"Eh? What's that?"

"I'm not sure, but I remember Big Bro saying something like giving comfort to huge, muscular adventurers after completing their quests."

"What the hell?! Something like that exist here in Plate Town?!"

"Yes, though when I asked Big Bro what does he mean by 'giving comfort', he suddenly scolded me. I mean, is it really a bad thing to provide comfort to those guys? I really don't understand Big Bro sometimes." Saki replied with a confused tone.

For some reason, I'm thinking suspicious thoughts about that kind of business. If Saki, and Aoi as well, were to know the truth behind those things, their childhood might be distorted at that instant.

"Then...adventurer it is, I think..."

"...Big brother wants to be an adventurer?" Aoi said as she instantly appeared beside me.

"What the fu--did you just came here now?!"

Aoi stuck out her tongue at me. "...Yes. I came here when you said that you will be an adventurer, big brother."

"Uh, I'm still not sure about that. Maybe there's some jobs here that isn't related to adventurers or..."

"Plate Town is currently in a crisis." Saku spoke suddenly from behind.

"Uwah--?! What are you doing there?!"

"I've heard everything that you've said but sadly the truth is, Plate Town doesn't have that much jobs to offer to people right now."

Saku then told us that in the past few years, more than half of the businesses here in the Plate Town and in the nearby towns have either closed or downgraded into smaller enterprises as a result of a failed harvest during that time, which brought widespread hardship for the residents who lost their jobs. Although the efforts to revive the agriculture sector of the town immediately took place, the townspeople were only able to produce harvest that is only enough for their own consumption, with no excess left to sell to the cities. When the king knew about the situation, he immediately ordered the provinces that had a bountiful harvest at that time to supply aid to the affected areas, in both financial and agricultural terms. During that time, the residents noticed that the help they received was brought to them by the adventurers coming from the big cities, that's why many of them got inspired to be like them as well. What followed after that was a result of that 'inspiration' that the people saw: an organization of adventurers coming from Plate Town and from those nearby, complete with stores, inns, and a headquarters that arose from the immediate need of the people to build one.

And with that, the area became well-known for supplying the country with fresh neophytes that aimed for a brighter future for their families.

"So that's what happened. The town focused so much on the adventurers that the businesses' workforce became limited." Saku spoke to us while feeling a bit unhappy with the situation.

"Typically about half of the population from the four towns are scattered throughout the country, so what's left behind are those people whose families run a business." Saki added.

"Hmmm...if the people from other towns aside from those you mentioned come here to work, would the situation improve?"

"I don't think that will happen." Saku shook his head. "We people of Plate Town have strong sense of nepotism coursing through our veins, so it might be hard for outsiders to find a job here."

What a flawed system, I should say. The town might be getting their income from the adventurers but in the long run, nothing would improve if this were to keep up.

Coming from a country where millions of its people go to other countries in search for work, I know that massive displacement of workforce would result in what they call 'brain drain', especially if the adventurers were to prefer going to faraway places than those nearby. Aside from that, with the businesses here preferring their workers to be within their family lines, the quality of work would also be affected.

That's what I remembered from the last lesson in my Economics class before being sent into this world.

"Whether you like it or not, Ren, the only way to succeed here in this place is to become an adventurer." Saku said as he patted my shoulder. I only kept myself silent, weighing the thoughts in my mind.

"...Big brother..."

Meanwhile, Aoi looked at me with a worried expression, as her hands tightly grasped mine.

After a few moments, I made my decision.

"Fine. Starting tomorrow I'll become an adventurer."

In front of three people, I declared those words with a silent prayer, hoping that I won't regret my decision following a path that is already beaten down by the characters of light novels and manga I've read long time ago back in Earth.