Chapter XII – Wherein our hero finally starts his first quest after engaging in some commerce.

The next day, Watanabe woke up as he heard Hans calling to him. “Sir Watanabe, wake up, it’s time to break camp!”

Watanabe felt the opposite of how he had felt last night. His legs ached greater than before, his head felt like it had been crushed under a truck and he was as animated as a rock.

Hans watched Watanabe as he slowly got up from the mattress. “I’d like to know sir, what story she read that was so captivating as to leave you awake until two hours ago.”

“I- I only slept for two hours?” asked Watanabe as he tried to recall the events of last night.

“You were awake until Nicholas on guard duty found you two still deep in literary passion.” replied Hans. “Your situation truly shows Brassicus Prima’s benevolence. He has not only led you to the light of His faith, but also the light of fine literature, Sir Watanabe.”

Hans was about to harp on more, but the batman called him. Hans quickly left the tent, leaving Watanabe alone.

Or so he thought.

“Morning...” said Rabanowicz as she woke up. “Why in the Divine’s name am I sleeping on the ground?” Rabanowicz looked around her before noticing Watanabe. “Oh right, I was lecturing you last night, and then I couldn’t bother to take out my mattress so I just laid here.”

“Morning, doctor.” said Watanabe as he had no idea what to say anything other than that.

“Right,” said Rabanowicz as she opened her journal and flipped to the page containing various numbers. “This one, what is this number?” she asked as she pointed to one of them.

“Twelve thousand six hundred twenty-two myriads six thousand and five hundred sixty-eight, I think. I feel like garbage right now, don’t know if I could even read my own language properly.”

“That is mostly correct, though you should stop using ‘myriad’ and instead use ‘million’.” said Rabanowicz after she observed Watanabe. “Also, you should stop feeling like garbage in a few hours or so. Just a little side effect of my special concoction, it’s nothing out of the ordinary.”

I think making me work so hard as to forget about sleep would be counted as something out of the ordinary, thought Watanabe. He had, many a time, foregone sleep to work but never on the scale of last night. That thing felt like I inhaled a bucket of pure caffeine… It seems to have done its job though. Watanabe dared not to ponder too much about the potential negative health effects of what he had drunk last night, he instead chose to look at the positive side of things and be happy that he now knew how to read and write numbers.

“Oh, by the way, last night we only went over the number system that I use, which is the Eirois system. You’ll also have to learn the Lahanezite system to be able to read most of what is written around these parts.” added Rabanowicz as she got up from the ground.

“Does that mean-”

“Yes, that does mean that you’re not getting sleep tonight. We’ll also go over the Lahanezite writing system so that you can read and write something other than numbers. We’ll probably finish everything by the time we reach the capital if you remain on schedule.” replied Rabanowicz.

I guess I do have to go through some trials as the protagonist, huh, thought Watanabe. Actually, thinking about it, isn’t her weird concoction basically like a cheat? You drink it, bam, you comprehend how to do numbers when you wake up the next day. Imagine if I did it with something like learning magic. Bam, I get to be overpowered when I wake up! Yes, I do not have to worry, I have worked the night shift many times back in my previous life. My body should be used to all-nighters. I just have to persevere a little bit before the floodgates open and I level up like crazy using this method!

…Not that I can actually level up in this setting, but I can still study like crazy and level up metaphorically!

Finally, the future seemed bright for our hero. He had acquired a female deuteragonist, a source of income and had found a cheat item that’d help him reach his dreams of overpowerment.

Rabanowicz blankly stared at Watanabe for a moment as he had his monologue. “…Well, don’t blank out for too long now, we still have a company of soldiers to follow.”

“Ah right, sorry doctor.” replied Watanabe as he finished his monologue two paragraphs earlier and followed Rabanowicz to their place at the front of the marching column.

That day the march was a bit relaxed than usual, the last day of marching till night had tired out most of the men, and the company came to a stop around late noon to set up camp for the day.

Of course, even if they had only marched for a few hours, Watanabe still felt like he had marched for an entire month. The aching in his legs was not getting better and he was feeling nauseous as the company set up camp again. Compared to him, Rabanowicz had already gotten rid of her fatigue and was ready to get back to work.

As the pair entered the tent of Hans again, Watanabe stared at Rabanowicz, wondering what sort of torture he’d need to endure today so that he could become the overpowered protagonist he so righteously deserved to be.

“Fear not, monsieur, for today we shall take it a bit easy.” said Rabanowicz as she opened her journal. “Today… Yes, today I planned to go shopping to acquire some much-needed materials. After that, the soldiers will be gathered to listen to the Saga of Egilhard, which I’ll be doing the reading while you…” Rabanowicz stared at Watanabe as she tried to find him a job to do in the meantime. “Well, I’ll probably figure out something for you to do in the meantime.” she said as she exited the tent as quickly as she entered it.

We are in the middle of nowhere, where are we going to go shop, thought Watanabe, but he had no choice but to oblige to his new boss and follow her.

To his surprise, he found that there was already a decently large open market set up in the camp. It was as if, like mushrooms in forests, stalls, carts and carriages had suddenly popped out of thin air and placed themselves in the camp. The market was surprisingly busy too considering its location, there were attendants at stalls buzzing around attending (as their name implies) to the soldiers who were spending their hard-earned money buying whatever.

“How- How is there a fully functional market outside of civilization?” thought Watanabe out loud. Is there some sort of market-making magic that they cast to summon commerce?

“It’s quite obvious you’ve never marched with an army, monsieur.” replied Rabanowicz to the loudened thoughts of Watanabe. “Where there are people, there is business to be made and commerce to be engaged in. There are around three hundred people who are members of Hans’ company. Three hundred people who are far away from civilization, who still need goods and services produced from aforementioned civilization. Many, like me, follow armies to make a living for themselves.”

“Wait, you’re not a member of the Royal La-somethingoranotherite Army?” asked Watanabe in response. “Though, I guess armies don’t usually hire people to read and write books for them…”

“Most importantly, they definitely wouldn’t let a ‘heathen’, let alone a woman join their army for any job.” replied Rabanowicz. “But enough talking about commerce and other related activities, for we need to engage in commerce personally rather than watch from afar.”

So, our hero marched forth, following Rabanowicz into the market with great expectations. For markets like these hold many a potential for lucky encounters. Like a maiden being harassed by a pickpocket, or a dishonest shopkeeper trying to fleece a maiden, or an honest businessman about to apprehend a maiden that is a pickpocket, the possibilities were endless. Among so many people there was bound to be conflict, and one of those conflicts he’d come across would surely involve a damsel in distress.

Yet, the ratio of women to men was atrociously low due to the fact that all of the customers were soldiers who were most coincidentally all men. That makes it even likelier that one of those soldiers will try to harass a beautiful shopkeeper who’ll definitely need my help, thought Watanabe. You know, those shopkeeper characters in RPGs usually look very fine. I wouldn’t mind adding one to the harem if I get the chance.

Rabanowicz (and Watanabe) passed many a stall as she marched forwards towards her intended goal. Watanabe carefully observed the marketplace, and the people in the marketplace were also carefully observing Watanabe who looked most unusual to them. Watanabe had slowly gotten used to the feeling of being observed since coming to this world though. He stuck out like a sore thumb, which meant that he was under the constant watch of curious onlookers

Watanabe found many goods that he would have expected from the marketplace of a fantasy setting. There were smiths who were making and selling various tools and, more importantly for a hero like Watanabe, weaponry. There were clothiers with an assortment of garments that’d fit well in a Renaissance Fair. There were a wide array of fruits and vegetables (mostly cabbage), that were looked vaguely (emphasis on ‘vaguely’) to what Watanabe was used to seeing back on Earth. Though there was a distinct lack of a rice-like grain, which worried Watanabe greatly as more than half of the (admittedly measly) amount of cuisine he knew how to cook by himself contained rice in some form. He looked for some sort of cereal that could be a substitute for rice, yet he found no wheat, oats, barley or rye to be found. The only cereal-like thing he could see were dark green seeds that looked like wheat.

“Doctor, what are these seeds?” asked Watanabe as he pointed to a sack of the aforementioned green seeds.

“I think those are cabbage-grain.” replied Rabanowicz matter-of-factly.

“Cabbage… grain?” asked Watanabe again, unsure if he misheard.

“You know. Cabbages have grains that bud from their head. You ground it, make it into flour, and bake various items of food from it.” replied Rabanowicz in a matter-of-even-more-factly.

Did cabbages have grain, thought Watanabe. I don’t remember the last time I have seen a cabbage on Earth, so I guess I just never noticed such a thing.

Rabanowicz continued on her path without waiting for Watanabe to finish his monologue. Thankfully, as the previous monologue was so short, Watanabe quickly caught up to her as she reached her goal.

“Hello Lady Rabanowicz, hello…” said a voice behind a small stall filled with various books.

“Watanabe, Haruto Watanabe, chosen hero that shall soon save this land. Official computer of Rabanowicz and highly honored guest of Sir Hans.” replied Watanabe, which prompted a snicker from Rabanowicz.

“…Anyways, what brings you over here Lady Rabanowicz?” asked the owner of the makeshift bookshop as she ignored Watanabe’s introduction.

“I was going to ask if you had that book I had inquired about last week, you know, the one called ‘The Secrets of Nature and the Arts; or the Most Extensive Encyclopedia of Men’s Knowledge’”

How is one supposed to remember such a long title, wondered Watanabe.

“That one?” asked the shopkeeper as he looked a bit frustrated. “You see, someone just happened to steal that one yesterday along with a couple other books.”

Someone stealing an item… That sounds like a thing a hero like me could help with but, Watanabe stared at the shopkeeper as he pondered further, I don’t want to waste my time for a male shopkeeper.

“My daughter saw the thief, and tried to apprehend them, but the thief just vanished into the night without a trace.” continued the shopkeeper.

He has a daughter?

“What did the thief look like Sir Shopkeeper?” asked Watanabe, who was now very interested in helping the poor shopkeeper.

“The only thing my daughter could see during the night was that the thief had really long and white hair, sir.” said the shopkeeper as Watanabe gained even more interest in this situation.

Long, white hair… I remember someone similar I found lurking during the night, thought Watanabe. Maybe the ghost woman I saw a few days ago has been chasing me the entire way, which can only indicate that she wants to take revenge from me or she is in deep love with me. Since I have wronged absolutely no one since coming to this world, there is no way anyone has a feud so deep they’d chase me all this way. Which leaves one option, love!

Watanabe was ecstatic. He had, finally at chapter 12, began to achieve some very important goals. He had acquired a deuteragonist in the form of Rabanowicz, he had found a way to power-level thanks to Rabanowicz’s wondrous medicine and now he had a potential harem member chasing after him.

The earlier I get to meet up with this ghost-woman the better, thought Watanabe as he quickly hatched a plan to make contact. “Sir Shopkeeper, as a hero who believes in true justice, I cannot and will not stand the goods of a poor shopkeeper being stolen without the perpetrator being caught and brought to justice! If you would allow me to do so, I’d like to stay the night near your stand, to protect it in case the thief dare strike again!”

The shopkeeper was a bit taken aback due to how enthusiastic this stranger seemed to be. “Sir What-A-Neighbor, while I do appreciate your sentiment, the books stolen were only cheap copies that-”

“I insist, Sir Shopkeeper, that you allow me to help, for I couldn’t ever sleep soundly again knowing that evil may prevail if you do not allow me to help you.” declared Watanabe, not in earnest but in a manner seeming earnest on the outside.

“I- Fine, Sir What-A-Neighbor, but please be careful to not get yourself hurt.” replied the shopkeeper as he gave up resisting against Watanabe.

Thus started Watanabe’s first official quest.