TPIMAWW Chapter 4.2

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Chapter 4.2: When You Can’t Use Your Resume For a Job Interview

Shun was in trouble. If things continued like this, they were going to take him back.

“Well, I have the second grade in the English proficiency test!”

“Oh?”

In front of Shun’s throat was the point of the sword and a scream nearly left his lips at the sight of it, it was never more apparent that Craig was a master swordsman of the quintessential rough-and-tumble. Shun had nearly been buried on this sofa. However, he was still just a step away from it.

Desperate to keep the rest of his life, Shun managed to stay put on the couch. He shook his head desperately. I have a second-class kanji test and I have a teacher’s license… No, that’s not what they’re asked for.

“Chief¹! I’ve returned!”

Suddenly, a section of the floor near Shun opened up like a lid, and a bald, bearded man came out.

Shun, who was currently holding onto the sofa, watched in astonishment as the man, who was at least 190cm(6’3″) in height, lifted himself the rest of the way out through the hatch that was apparently connected to the outside world, while carrying a large bag that made him look a bit like Santa Claus.

“Gold!”

Two men appeared from the back of the room where Gin had gone earlier and rushed over to the Santa, checking the contents of the bag and bursting with joy. With the Santa’s boisterous laughter and the scattered voices of the men, and the room had suddenly become noisy.

“He looks like a ruffian on the outside, but he’s quite the bounty hunter, isn’t he?” A young man with short, honey blonde hair and blue eyes said with satisfaction when he came from the back. Although he looked mature, his laugh revealed his age. He was young, possibly a teenager. His belligerent face made him seem like he was someone who would be the delinquent in his class and from the look of his cloak, it looked like he should be approached with caution.

“Well, I guess we’ll get to eat luxuriously this month, huh?” A man about the age of Shun’s father said with a keen gaze, arranging the gold coins on the table beside him. As soon as Shun saw him, Shun shrank back further into the sofa. He had short cropped, black hair and fine, Latino features with narrow eyes. If you only looked at his wheat-colored skin, you could say he was a slightly strong and healthy, mature man, but his aura was that of a yakuza clan leader stepping out of a black Mercedes, due to the large scar that stretched from the top of his left eye to his cheek.

And yet Gin slaps him on the shoulder and says, “Let’s get some meat, meat!”

“Hey, my share is still three times that of everyone else’s as we discussed before. After all, I earned it all myself,” the black bearded Santa said to Gin, leaning heavily in his chair. Then the blonde, delinquent boy cut in, shaking his finger.

“Don’t forget that it is thanks to my information that you succeeded. I don’t want as much as Dian, but I’d like twice as much as everyone else.”

“Oh?” with these words, Gin looked away with a bitter expression, casting his eyes toward their Latino boss² for aid. The boss held his arms out in an exaggerated shrug as if to say there was nothing he could do.

Was he maybe European American and not Latino?

“Oh, that’s too much trouble! It’s because you guys are always saying such troublesome things that the bookkeeper can’t keep up. There’s 205 gold coins once you subtract the guild fee, and there are twelve of us now. Dian’s share is three times everyone else’s, and Dian’s is twice as much… so for Carl and the others…”

“Oh, I didn’t do anything this time, so you can have my portion.”

“Ah! I can’t do that!” When Craig quietly intervened, Gin, who was in charge of distributing the money, became worried that he would be too much for him to accept.

“…Yeah! I have no idea how much that is! Let’s just make it a grab-and-go format!” Then after adjusting his beautifully trimmed hair, he threw a spoon into the air in less than a second.

“Then the person with the biggest hands would get the most!”

“Think about it for a moment.”

The Santa drew his sword, pointing it at the delinquent boy, who looked dumbfounded. The boss didn’t seem to have anything to comment, but when Shun noticed him rolling up his sleeves, he looked rather eager.

When Shun heard a sigh nearby, he instantly remembered what he was there for. He had gotten distracted while watching them all. Craig was scratching the back of his head, looking troubled.

Then Shun had an epiphany. How could he have forgotten about his special skill?

“You know, you guys, that–“

“Yes!”

When Craig stood up to interfere, who had been unable to see the four behind him descending into chaos, Shun sat up and shouted vigorously. He raised his hand up high.

“…what are you doing?” Craig, surprised by him suddenly raising his hand, made a valid question. Shun could feel the eyes of Gin and the other three on him, seemingly just now noticing that he was there.

It was obvious that his current posture warranted a “what are you doing?” since they had probably never seen anyone do this before, and Shun’s cheeks were gradually growing hot at the realization.

“Well… Maybe we should guess like in school, right?” Since Shun was no longer nearby Gin, he nodded deeply to express his thanks to him. Thankfully, they seemed to still have schools like he did in his original world.

However, instead of a school, these things were taught in classes hosted by the Church, where ordinary children were taught how to read, write, and make simple calculations. It was probably similar to the Temple schools from the Edo period.

“Well, then… Shun,” Craig was amused, but surprisingly adopted Gin’s theory. He had finally gotten to call him by his name.

Combined with the elation of finally getting through the interview, Shun couldn’t help but smile. When Craig saw this, he made a somewhat difficult expression.

“It’s 42, 28, and 7.”

“Oh?” His thin, beautiful eyes narrowed. Shun was almost frightened by Craig’s expression again, but he reminded himself that as long as he worked there, he should at least not get scared so easily by such a thing.

“Well, there should be forty-two gold coins for the man with beautiful beard, twenty-eight for the blonde boy, and seven for the man with short, black hair, and fourteen for Gin.”

The room was completely silent. Their eyes were even more focused than before on Shun.

“Oh, I rounded it down to the nearest whole number, so there should be two coins left over. It’ll probably be good to keep as savings or used for some common tools…”

Since the silence was uncomfortable, Shun continued, but the wrinkles between Craig’s brows seemed to have increased. Handsome men were still handsome, even when they were angry, but this handsome face was full of an intimidating force.

However, Shun was determined. With a deep breath, he approached Craig and pleaded his case once again.

“I can be the bookkeeper. I’ve taught math before, and I can easily do four-digit equations in my head! How about it?”

It was a good thing the decimal system hadn’t changed. He’d still want to do a confirmatory calculation if the equation had seven or more digits, but he’d still be able to manage. According to Gin, there was no one who handled the accounts for their organization. Gin also didn’t seem to be motivated to do the job either, so it seemed like Shun was in luck.

“If that’s so, I’ll be saved. The money management has been in tatters lately.”

The Santa Claus had appeared, peering over Craig’s shoulder.

“That’s right! It’s my fault, but I’m tired of looking at the numbers.”　

Gin stood next to Shun, who was surprised at how close he was suddenly, and said this irresponsible line with a good face. Before Shun knew it, even the boss and the delinquent had gathered around him and nodded in agreement.

“Everyone is just a bastard, proud of his skills. Bookkeeping is nothing but an insomnia-relieving good.”

“There’s no way a delicate guy like this has insomnia.” The delinquent grinned and looked at the others, sure of his refutation of his stern criticism.

Shun looked back over at Craig in anticipation, since the atmosphere of the others was very accepting of him. However, Craig had a bitter expression on his face.

“…I’ll have test you. Are you really good at math?” When Craig said this, the four others looked at each other in surprise.

“I think he’s proven enough. I’m tired of numbers now.”

“You’ve never been so thorough in your interviews before.”

“He might have looked into us and calculated it beforehand,” Craig looked away from the four pairs of skeptical eyes and turned back to Shun when he gave his annoyed response. How could he still say that after seeing Shun’s ineptitude in the earlier interview?

However, Shun was impressed.

Craig, who had sensed Gin was about to complain, grabbed Shun by the wrist and walked into the back room.

“Eh, um…”

“Just follow me,” Craig didn’t even turn his head to look back at him, but his strong tone still left Shun meekly silent.

Shun followed him out into the chilly corridor and through the door at the end of it, finding a small study. It was only about eight tatami mats³ in size with books that looked similar to the ones in the previous room lined up on the surrounding walls and the floor was fitted with Bordeaux carpet. There was a umber reading desk and chair in the center of it, overlooking the room.

As Shun moved over toward the desk, Craig shut the door behind them. Shun assumed it was so that they wouldn’t be disturbed, but he was growing more nervous because Craig’s atmosphere seemed to be growing more uncharitable.

Shun sat down obediently in the single-legged chair as he was told. Craig remained standing, folding his arms and leaning on his desk, and the “test” began.

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1. In the raws it’s this: お頭―！and “head” just sounds weird without additional context… so I put “Chief” instead (I couldn’t think of anything else other than “master” and I didn’t like that too much since they’re his employees and not servants…) I’m open to other suggestions for what I should have them call him. (Maybe “Guild Master”?? Since it is a Bondsman’s Guild?)

2. He’s referred to as basically a leader in the raws, since he looks like a yakuza boss… so I’m going with boss for him until he’s named.

3. Tatami mats are 5.9ft by 3ft (1.8m by 0.9m) in size. So an eight tatami mat room is about a 11.9×11.9ft or 3.6×3.6m sized room. So about the size of your average bedroom (10’6″x11’6″).

TL Note: Almost done with the first five chapters! After this big release, I will be dropping down to once or twice weekly releases (depending on how things go).

Word Count: 1,738

Also, you can now download this TL as .mobi or .epub for convenience on the summary/ToC page for this.

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