As Long as You Have the [Shop] Skill, the Dungeonized World Is a Breeze ~The Bullied Youth’s Payback

Chapter 96 – Elf

“Shiki, go to Enjou at once and convey my words to him.” (Bouchi)
“But what about guarding you, milord…?” (Shiki)
“Sol is nearby, so it’s fine. Go ahead.” (Bouchi)
“…Understood.” (Shiki)

In a flash, Shiki moved from Warehouse No. 4 to Warehouse No. 3, where Enjou was. While everyone was looking at the elf, he moved in the shadows and got behind Enjou.

Shiki spoke to Enjou in a whisper, and I could see from the look on his face that he understood my intentions. Through Shiki, I instructed him to get a story out of the elf.

“…Ahem! Err, young miss?” (Enjou)
When Enjou spoke to her, the elf turned to him and muttered, ‘eh?’

“My name is Yuri. And yours?” (Enjou)
Enjou gave her his name while pointing to himself. Then, he gestured towards her and asked her for hers.

“Y-Yuri? My name…? I’m Yofel! Yofel Sanbraun!”
“…Yofel Sanbraun?”
“…?! That’s right! Yofel! You understand me?!” (Yofel)
The elf, who identified herself as Yofel, broke into a smile when she realized that she could speak with Enjou.

When Enjou gestured for Yofel to wait a moment, she nodded her head vigorously, seeming to understand his meaning.

“Otaka-san, apparently her name isn’t Youfe, it’s Yofel.” (Enjou)
“Enjou… you know what she’s saying?” (Otaka)
“I can at least understand what she’s saying. I don’t know if I can talk to her though.” (Enjou)
In the end, it was only because Shiki was listening to her words and conveying their meaning to Enjou.

“As expected of a merchant that travels the world. I knew I was right to bring her here. So? Who is she?” (Otaka)
“Ah, it’s a bit hard for me to ask questions. Like I said, I can’t speak to her.” (Enjou)
“Ahh, I see… Then what should we do?” (Otaka)
“Don’t worry. I have a contact with someone who is an expert in linguistics. I can take her to see this person if you’d like.” (Enjou)
“Oooh, that’d be good! …But you won’t do it for free, am I right?” (Otaka)
“Ahahah, naturally, I’d normally request an intermediary fee, but… as thanks for your help with the matter from the other day, I’ll do it for you as a service. But please do buy a nice variety of weapons today.” (Enjou)
“Alright. I mean, that was the original objective for today anyway. Here’s the list.” (Otaka)
Enjou looked down at the list handed to him. Looking at it from my end, I decided that it was something I could provide with no problems.

“Then I’ll see you again three days from now at the same time. Don’t forget the money, alright?” (Enjou)
“Yup, yup. Err… So I can leave her with you, right?” (Otaka)
“Yeah, no issue there. Rather… are you sure you can trust me so easily?” (Enjou)
“You may be an eccentric, but you aren’t scum, right?” (Otaka)
“No, but arms dealers aren’t necessarily upstanding people either, you know?” (Enjou)
“I trust you because you can say that. Besides, even if we took her with us, we wouldn’t be able to figure anything out about her. Just let us know what you learn about her.” (Otaka)
“…I understand. Then, see you in three days.” (Enjou)
After that, Otaka left the warehouse. Yofel anxiously watched them leave, but I turned to her and spoke.

“―Rest assured.” (Shiki)
Suddenly, Shiki emerged from the shadows, causing Yofel to cry out in surprise. I was just as astonished, not understanding why Shiki had called out to her all of a sudden.

“You were called Yofel-dono, if I recall? You must be anxious about not being able to speak their tongue. But you may rest assured. My Master understands your language.” (Shiki)
“R-Really?!” (Yofel)
“Yes. But the one here is not my Master. This is just a body double, if you will. Allow this one to show you the way. Please come along.” (Shiki)
“O-Okay!” (Yofel)
…No, wait, wait, wait.

“Hey Shiki, what’s the meaning of this?! You can communicate with her, can’t you?” (Bouchi)
“Yes. I can understand her words.” (Shiki)
“Huh? Is that true? Then why didn’t you tell me that?” (Bouchi)
“Sincerest apologies, milord. You didn’t ask me after all. But I thought that if it was milord, you would want to find some means to understand her.” (Shiki)
Well, it would surely have been a waste of time for Shiki to go through the trouble of translating when I had bought the [Translation Earring] already.

“Fine then. How come she can communicate with you though?” (Bouchi)
“That’s most likely because we are beings from another world. Ask Sol over there.” (Shiki)
When I asked Sol if she could understand Yofel, she also replied that she could also converse with her.

But there was one thing that still bothered me.

“I wonder how you guys were able to communicate with me then.” (Bouchi)
“Hmm… Probably because we’re your Familiars, no?” (Shiki)
At the time that I bought them, I thought I was just lucky that they happened to be able to speak human language, but that was probably just a trait attached to them being my Familiars.

Since I was Japanese, they came to be able to understand and speak Japanese. Now that I thought about it, there was no doubt about it. It was truly a convenient specification.

“I see. Well, I do want to talk to Yofel. In any case, please come to my location while being careful not to be seen by anyone.” (Bouchi)
Under my orders, Shiki, who understood the elf’s language, brought her to Warehouse No. 3.

—

I couldn’t help but stare at the elf standing before me.

I knew from seeing her through the monitor that she was beautiful, but seeing her in person like this made me realize it was on a different level altogether. It was as if an elf had actually jumped straight out of a video game.

As a woman, she was attractive, not just purely based on her facial features, but also in terms of her voluptuous breasts and slender waist. She had long, slender, and well-proportioned legs that looked like they belonged on a model. On the whole, she looked like a work of art crafted by the hands of God.

“….U-Ummm….” (Yofel)
“…! Ah, sorry.” (Bouchi)
I had just been silently staring at her, which seemed to have made her a bit uneasy.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Bouchi Hiro.”
“…?! You can… u-understand me?” I’m Yofel! Yofel Sanbraun!”
“Then would it be alright for me to call you Yofel-san?” (Bouchi)
“No need for honorifics.” (Yofel)
“…Then you can call me however you like, Yofel.” (Bouchi)
“O-Okay… errr… Bouchi?” (Yofel)
Ah, so you’re gonna go with the last name then. Well, not that I mind.

“Well, I was hoping you’d tell me a little bit about yourself. Are you…from a different world?” (Bouchi)
“….Probably.” (Yofel)
“Probably?” (Bouchi)
“You see—” (Yofel)
After that, she told me that she had been picking plants in the forest where she lived when her vision suddenly went white, and afterwards she found herself standing in the middle of some strange, unfamiliar forest.

Naturally, she had panicked and immediately tried to leave the forest, but she was unable to do so. That was when she met Otaka and his comrades.

“….The forest you live?” (Bouchi)
“The Forest of Femir—the forest blessed by the World Tree, Yggdrasil.” (Yofel)
Wow… There’s the classic fantasy genre lingo.

“The World Tree, Yggdrasil…? At the very least, there’s no such tree in this world.” (Bouchi)
“Ahh, so that really was the case… There are all these buildings and vehicles that I had never seen before, so I thought that it might be like this…” (Yofel)
I proceeded to tell her that this was Earth and we were in a country called Japan. I also explained to her that most of the things that she saw were created by the development of science.