Chapter 137 – Time difference

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「Please lend me some money!」

Nancy said to me straightforwardly.
Well, if not for her I wouldn’t be able to take a trip around the world?

「Let me hear the situation first.」
「I see, I’ll explain.」

According to Nancy’s story―
her jacket and luggage had been stolen by a ketchup burglar¹, she ran after the criminal for so many hours but he escaped in the end. It seemed that she run out of stamina due to dehydration and collapsed.

When the ketchup burglar had Nancy, the【Vigilance】magic should’ve notified me.
It seemed I didn’t notice because I was fast asleep at that time.

「I understand the situation, but, I also don’t have anything in hand right now. It’s impossible for it to be at once.」
「I see, it’s already past 21:00 and the banks are closed as well.」

21:00?　Ah, yeah, because of the time difference, it’s morning in Japan but it’s night here.

「Nancy, is there a place you can stay today?」
「There’s none. Only for today, can I be put up at the hotel where you’re staying.」

What to do, I haven’t managed to prepare anything as a result of rushing to help Nancy.~
I don’t have any local currency on me to reserve a room at a hotel too……

Pikon!

On top of my head, a Lightning・bulb・lit up².

「Actually, we were going to sleep in a tent today.」

I took out the tent from the inventory at the position invisible to Nancy.
Although I bought this tent in preparation for our activities during the Golden Week, we didn’t manage to use this thing at all. (※Chapter 86 reference)
Though I should’ve really used it in the other world, to use it in this world……

「Oh!　A tent!　Wonderful!」

An American way of being surprised.

「Nancy, is there a place around here where we can put up a tent?」
「If I’m not mistaken, there should be a vacant lot over there.」

We were guided to the vacant lot―

There were about 10 homeless children.

「Here?　But, aren’t there a lot of children?」
「When I saw it during the day, it was a vacant lot……」

Because foreigners who carried a tent came over, the children were on guard.

A leader-like child showed up and spoke to us.

「What did you guys come here to do?
This is our nesting place, don’t enter without permission.」

Nancy didn’t understand the language and shrugged.

「We are in trouble today because we have no place to stay.
Can we use this place only for today?」

『Oh!　You know Arabic too, Seiji!?
You’re amazing.』

Well, the humans and demonkind had me as their interpreter!

The children had some kind of discussion―

「We can let you use it but give us some food.」

and, he said.

Food, huh.~
If so, I have a lot of orc meat but……
that’s similar to pork, right?
Isn’t Egypt Islam?
Then, orc meat is no good, huh.

There’s rice but do they eat rice?

「I have rice but do you know rice?」
「Oh, rice,
I have eaten rice before.」

There seems to be rice in Egypt.

「Then, will that be fine since I’ll cook it?」
「Okay, one day only. I’ll let you use this place today for a rather large quantity of rice.」

Negotiation established,
I was in charge to cook the rice,
while Aya, Elena and Nancy had to put up the tent.

I took out a leisure sheet, spread it out and put a low dining table above.
I put the rice into the iron pot of the rice cooker 5 gō³,
and when the rice was being washed with a bottle of water―

the children had gathered to observed.

When I’ve washed the rice and throw away the water rice―

「Aa!?」

All the children are simultaneously surprised.

「What’s wrong?」
「So much water was thrown away?」

I see, water is valuable in this neighborhood.

But, a trouble occurred here.

I want to put the rice away in the inventory for it to absorb the water,
but I can’t use the inventory since the children are staring.

It can’t be helped, it’s a foreign country and they’re children,
let’s show them a bit.

「Look carefully now because I’ll perform a magic trick.~」
「Ojiisan can do magic trick?」
「It’s oniisan.」

I performed magic-ish hand movements and put the washed rice into the inventory.

「「Ooooo!　It disappeared!!」」

*clapclapclap*

I felt strange to receive an applause from foreign children at night in this situation.

I advanced the time of the washed rice in the inventory for about 30 minutes to let it absorb water.
With magic-ish hand movements once again, I took it out from the inventory.

「「Ooooo!!　It appeared!!!」」

*Clap Clap Clap Clap*

I was able to deceive them somehow.

And with the【Magic stone outlet】, which I made with Magic stone of Biribiri before, I turned the switch of the rice cooker ON!

「「Ooooo!!　The electricity came on!!!」」

*Clap Clap Clap Clap*

They seemed to have thought that it was a magic trick somehow or another.

I, who got carried away,
took a paper cup from the inventory and handed it out to the children.
I poured water similar to mizugei⁴ using【Water magic】.

When the children were overjoyed and made a noise, Aya and Elena came over.

「What are you doing, oniichan?」
「Magic tricks.」
「Magic tricks, huh.~」

「Other than that, where’s Nancy?」
「She’s already asleep.」

She seems to be pretty tired.

After a while, the rice has been cooked. By dividing the labor, Elena and I’ve made onigiris.
It has sea chicken⁵ with mayonnaise as filling.
Aya has been playing with the children.

The onigiris were placed on a cooking sheet and were handed out to the children.

「What’s this!?」
「Although it’s rice, it’s tasty!」
「It has something inside!」

Everyone was eating in delicious manner but since the 5 gō was divided among 10 people, there was only about a serving of a bowl each so they wanted to eat more.
Umu, I want a bigger rice cooker.

The onigiri party was over and the night grew late as well. The children had also went to sleep.

I set a barrier up on the tent where Nancy is sleeping,
and returned to Japan with Aya and Elena.

「Why did we return to Japan and leave Nancy behind, oniichan?」
「Why, Aya,
because today is weekday, you need to go to junior college.」

「N!?」

In Japan time, it’s 7:00 in the morning while in Egypt time, it’s 0:00 at night.

「I-, Is this what they call jet lag?……」

Aya was confused.

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Translator notes and reference:

¹Not sure but I’ve read in some article before about someone conning people by squirting tomato ketchup at the victim’s handbag and then snatch it while she attempts to clean it off.
²Inazumakyū(電球) which lit. means lightning bulb where as Denkyū(電球) means light bulb, probably a wordplay
³Rice cookers come with a 1 gō (180ml) measuring cup used to indicate the serving size for one person. As a rule of thumb, one gō is equivalent to about 150 grams of Japanese short grain rice.
⁴Mizugei is a traditional Japanese water magic, like this.
⁵A brand name for canned tuna.

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