The Otherworld Antique Bookstore is a Life-Risk Chapter 13

 

Chapter 13: To the Tower of the Fallen Kingdom's Witch

 

Blue sky, pleasant breeze. If only there was delicious food, it would be perfect traveling weather. If it weren't for this direct pain in my backside from the bouncing carriage...

I'm Yuki.

I'm currently riding in one of two carriages from the White Trading Company, delivering food and daily necessities to a place called "Witch of the Lost Kingdom." The first carriage is fully loaded with cargo, driven by a White Trading Company member and accompanied by an adventurer skilled in archery. The second carriage is half-loaded with cargo. I'm sitting next to Mr. White, who's driving, while three adventurers serving as guards occupy the empty space in the back.

Residents don't venture outside the walled city without special reasons. Even in the capital city of Zero, knights and adventurers hunt monsters almost daily to ensure some level of safety for farmers. Still, terrifying monsters can appear near the city walls at night. The area outside the walls is that dangerous.

In this context, traveling merchants who drive carriages between towns and villages are praised as courageous individuals working for the people's benefit, even if it's for financial gain.

It's a two-day journey by carriage from the capital Zero to our destination, the tower. It's relatively close compared to other towns and villages, and monsters rarely appear. This tendency strengthens as we approach the tower, supposedly due to the witch's protective barrier. Despite this safety, no village has been established near the tower, perhaps due to a strong sense of awe towards the witch.

Mr. White says they still need to hire guards, not for monsters, but for protection against bandits. Even so, it's strange that the carriage cargo is mostly beans. Although edible, in this world, beans are more commonly used as horse feed.

"Mr. White, isn't this transaction a loss for you?" I asked.

"Hahaha, you noticed? Indeed, this transaction is a loss for our company. That's why no other merchant would take it. But wouldn't the people living in the tower be in trouble otherwise? That's why I decided to accept it," he replied.

Mr. White has taken on this job out of pride as the capital's premier trading company and to maintain connections with skilled magicians. He hopes it might finally bear fruit with the development of a magical toilet.

 

* * *

 

Having been accustomed to heated toilet seats with bidet functions in my previous life in Japan, I couldn't tolerate this world's toilet situation, even though I didn't need to use them myself. That's why I came up with this idea. But it's strange - this world has supposedly been receiving summoned individuals for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, and there are quite a few reincarnated individuals too. Yet, the progress of civilization has been extremely slow.

Moreover, it's puzzling that there seem to be many Japanese among the summoned and reincarnated individuals. I asked the shop owner, Mr. Tubai, if there were any books analyzing past otherworldly summons and reincarnations. There was one.

According to the book, otherworldly summons and reincarnated individuals in this world have very high environmental adaptability and quickly blend into this world's society. Many summoned individuals are warriors or young people, with no technicians or researchers among them.

In my opinion, the hero summoning performed by the empire is aimed at finding people who can fight the Demon King, which explains this trend. As for reincarnated individuals, their destination is determined by that questionnaire, so technicians and researchers are unlikely to choose a world of swords and magic.

The high percentage of Japanese people is likely due to their national characteristic of "reading the air" - the ability to adapt to their surroundings. Additionally, they might have pseudo-knowledge about sword and magic worlds from games and anime.

One description caught my attention: "They have peculiar habits; males tend to be obsessed with beast-people and demi-humans, while some females immerse themselves in male-male relationships." I couldn't help but smile wryly at this.

I think the slow progress of civilization is definitely influenced by the convenience of magic and the bias in the quality of otherworldly summons and reincarnated individuals. This might be a good thing for this world, though.

Personally, I think it's amazing that books are even circulating at all.

 

* * *

 

"Miss Yuki, we've arrived," Mr. White called out, bringing me back to reality. We'd been able to see the tower for quite some time, but it took a while to reach it, giving me time to think about various things.

A single intelligent-looking woman in a maid outfit was waiting at the base of the tower to greet our party. At Mr. White's command, the adventurers began unloading the cargo from the carriages. Small, rough-looking doll-like objects carried the goods into the tower.

"Is this your first time seeing golems?" the woman asked as I sat down, looking curiously at the doll-like creatures.

"Ah, yes. I'm Yuki, a merchant," I introduced myself.

"How polite. I'm Moose, a servant of this tower," she replied.

After exchanging greetings, she quickly turned her attention to Mr. White.

"Mr. White, have you come all this way for some business with my mistress?"

"Today, I've come to request the creation of a magical item. I was hoping to at least discuss it," he replied.

"Understood. Then I'll guide you to my mistress."

Mr. White beckoned to me, and I followed behind Moose.

When Moose touched the tower wall, stairs appeared in the ground. Instead of going up as I expected for a tower, the stairs led underground. I had thought the tower looked like an enoki mushroom with a thin, weak base, but it seems there's a huge foundation buried underground.

After walking for a while through an underground corridor lit by magical lights, we entered a room with a magic circle on the floor. When we stood on it, our vision distorted for a moment before quickly returning to normal. It was just like what I had experienced in the Abyss Dungeon.

We instantly ascended to the top floor of the tower and walked along the outer corridor. There were sturdy railings, but the view of the outside was still scary. I peeked over briefly, and the two carriages we had parked below looked tiny.

"It's as if people look like garbage from up here, isn't it?" Moose commented.

I never thought I'd hear that line in real life...

The top floor of the tower seemed spacious with various rooms. Moose knocked on one particularly grand door and entered without waiting for a response from inside.

In the room, a robed woman was pacing back and forth, talking to herself. We watched her for a while, and it seemed she was voicing thoughts about "solving food shortages by enlarging crops."

Although we were apparently in her line of sight, she was ignoring us.

"You there. What are the disadvantages of enlarging crops?" she suddenly pointed at me and asked.

I don't know anything about that. "The inside becomes hollow and the taste deteriorates?" I answered randomly.

The robed woman raised her index finger and said, "That's right," then began writing something in a notebook on her desk. Seemingly satisfied, she turned to face us.

"Moose, who are these people?"

"This is Mr. White, the head of the White Trading Company, and Miss Yuki from the same company, Young Mistress."

"I see. I am Fam Fatal, the mistress of this tower. Welcome."

Up close, this person looks quite young. She has childlike features but appears to be around twenty at first glance. However, she also gives the impression of a young girl trying too hard to appear mature.

And she's former royalty - or maybe still royalty since she uses her family name? Her attitude is a bit haughty, though I won't say that out loud...

"So, what business do you have with me?"

"We've come today to request the creation of a magical item we've conceived," Mr. White answered humbly.

"A magical item? I like it. I'm especially pleased that the company head himself has come to make this request, rather than some random underling. So, what exactly am I supposed to create?"

"A toilet, Young Mistress."

"I must have misheard you, Moose. What did you say?"

"A toilet, Young Mistress."

"..."

"This toilet is revolutionary. It might bring about a revolution across the continent. That's how significant it is," Mr. White pressed on enthusiastically. However, I could see the witch's enthusiasm rapidly declining.

"Let's say, hypothetically, that it's an excellent item and becomes widespread across the continent. What do you think I'd be called then? 'The Toilet Witch'? 'The Witch of Filth'? Ugh, it's disgusting just to think about. Moose, we're declining this request. Please see them out."

"As you wish, Young Mistress."

The negotiation seemed to have failed, but Mr. White didn't back down.

"We'll pay 1,000 gold coins upfront as development costs, and another 1,000 upon completion. Furthermore, we'll pay royalties for each toilet sold."

One gold coin is equivalent to about 100,000 yen, so that's 200 million yen. Mr. White really has high hopes for this magical toilet. But even with such a large sum offered, the witch has turned her back on us, completely disinterested.

Suddenly, as Mr. White's shoulders slumped, Moose grabbed his hand.

"Mr. White, we accept your request."

"Eh?" The three of us - me, Mr. White, and the witch - all exclaimed, turning around.

"Young Mistress, please clean out your ears and listen carefully. Tonight's dinner is bean soup."

"Didn't we just get new ingredients today?"

"Yes, we got lots of beans. At this rate, it'll be bean soup for the foreseeable future."

"Nooooo!"

Ah, the witch has broken down. She staggered and slumped to the floor, her shoulders drooping.

"If we succeed with this request, we can expect stable income in addition to the development costs. It will solve our financial difficulties, allow your research to progress, and above all, we can say goodbye to our bean-centric diet."

"Moose, if we make this toilet, we won't have to eat beans anymore?"

"That's right, Young Mistress."

The witch clenched her fist and stood up.

"Let's do this! If it means escaping this bean hell, they can call me 'The Toilet Witch' or whatever they like. Ohohoho!"

I'm glad the witch seems to have come to terms with it. But it's kind of ruined my initial impression of her.

"Now that everything seems settled, I'll go prepare some tea," Moose said as she left the room.

The witch cleared her throat, adjusted her appearance, and invited us to sit at the reception table.

"Now then, what exactly am I supposed to create?"

I took out the concept drawings for the magical toilet from my bag and spread them on the table, explaining the cleaning and drying mechanism using elemental magic stones.

"So you sit on this horseshoe-shaped seat to do your business, and then it cleans and dries you. It eliminates the need to wipe, that's good. And this mechanism for the water jet outlet - by making the tip smaller, it achieves high water pressure with less water. The magic circle will be a bit complex due to activating multiple magic stones simultaneously and adjusting the power, but it seems doable by applying existing magical stove and water supply techniques."

With the witch's seal of approval on its feasibility, Mr. White and I high-fived.

"I want to spend time adjusting the magic circle, so I'll quickly make a prototype of the horseshoe-shaped seat using golem alchemy. It'll be heavy, though. So please find some good material and make the seat on your side. We'll also need a sealing lid to prevent odors from coming up from the sewage."

The witch added that and then asked Mr. White if he intended to sell these toilets to royalty and nobility. Mr. White seems to be considering that as the main target, but apparently, this toilet has a major flaw for that purpose.

"Noble ladies use the toilet while wearing their dresses."

 

When she said that, I realized it too. The control panel is currently positioned between the legs, which is fine for commoners who can lift and hold their skirts, but noble ladies wouldn't be able to reach the controls.

"I have a suggestion. How about we separate the control panel from the horseshoe-shaped seat and make it operable from a different location?"

I didn't know that was possible. According to the witch, it's doable by extending and drawing part of the magic circle, but this would reduce magic efficiency and decrease the number of uses.

Mr. White then asked questions and made proposals about the size of the magic stones to be used, simplification for mass production, and measures to prevent other trading companies from easily replicating the magic circle for confidentiality.

The development period was set at three months, with plans to prepare five prototypes initially. The business negotiation was concluded.

I noticed Moose, who had been quietly listening to the conversation behind the witch, looking sad, so I asked her what was wrong.

"Once that toilet is completed, there will be no need to wipe the Young Mistress's bottom anymore. That makes me very sad."

"Oh, stop it, you fool," the witch said, her face turning bright red. It was cute.

When we left the tower, it was already getting dark. We decided to camp there for the night, and the adventurers started a fire to prepare dinner.

Next to them, golems led by Moose were carrying several bags filled with gold coins.

The adventurers looked pale, realizing they had been guarding such valuable cargo without knowing it.

The meal consisted of dried meat boiled with salt in a soup, with rock-hard bread soaked in it. While it couldn't be described as delicious by any stretch of the imagination, it was still a good experience.

Once we return to the capital, I'll start properly cleaning up the main store. I still haven't confirmed the employee recruitment request I made to the Commerce Guild.

I think I've packed my schedule a bit too tightly. I need to reflect on that.

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