Chapter 210: Your Favorite Place

Having acquired the land, we immediately called in the other members. There’s only so much time for sentimentality over farewells.

The purpose of the gathering, of course, was to relocate from our homes in Japan to this village. Our options are limited at home, and now that our involvement with the authorities is known, there’s little point in sneaking around. We want to move our base quickly and get on with fortifying our position.

But before that, let’s review the situation in the village.

Apart from the old man’s house, there are six other houses in the village. It’s centered around the old storehouse, with seven houses in total. All the houses are connected to electricity, gas, water, and even sewage. It used to be septic when I was a child, but it switched over about ten years ago.

There are flush toilets and even soft paper, complete with bidets. I’ve gotten used to the otherworldly standards, but the satisfaction here is on a different level.

But I digress…

First, we decided to make the old man’s house the village chief’s residence. We plan to use it for meetings as well. Of the remaining six houses, one will be used exclusively for broadcasting, and the other five will be used as temporary accommodations.

“Hey, Village Chief. Are we not going to surround the village or something?”

“You mean with a barrier? That would draw too much attention. Let’s just focus on the houses for now.”

“True, there’s no need to do it right away.”

“However, once everything’s ready, I’ll do it all at once.”

First, we need to focus on purchasing additional computers, broadcasting equipment, and essential supplies, and protect the houses and the storehouse in the same way we did at home.

With that in mind, I thought we could start by cleaning the houses, but to my surprise, each house was remarkably tidy. There were hardly any household items left, and not a single piece of trash on the floor. They were practically vacant.

“Keisuke-san, all the houses here are also cleaned up.”

“Oh, Tsubaki’s too, huh? Maybe we don’t need to clean up after all.”

“With everything like this, they can move in right away. But we’ll still need to buy a lot of things.”

“Shopping, huh… Alright, I’ll head out right after lunch.”

“Please do. But don’t go alone, okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll definitely bring someone with me.”

But wait a minute… Everything was so neatly arranged. They couldn’t have thrown everything away, right? Did the old man have some kind of spatial organization skill?

◇◇◇

Later that afternoon…

With a long shopping list in hand, I took Hayato and Touya along for the shopping trip. We brought the car this time to load up on purchases.

“Oh, let’s make a quick stop.”

“Sure, but where to?”

“Where else… your favorite place, of course.”

“Favorite place… Where could it be?”

“The place we talked about last time.”

“Huh!? You mean there!? And today, with Touya here too…”

“Huh? What are you talking about, Hayato? Isn’t that more convenient?”

As Hayato whispered to Touya, the two of them began to look strangely nervous.

“Uh, Village Chief, this is bad… I’m still a minor…”

“Even if you say that, I’m already married. I can’t betray my wife!”

These two are probably misunderstanding something big. And in broad daylight… where are they even planning to go? I shouldn’t have kept the destination a secret, but oh well, it’s amusing, so let’s continue silently.

(Huh? But wait a minute? Did I actually tell Hayato about that?）

And so, with myself falling into suspicion and doubt, the atmosphere in the car became oddly tense.

After a while, as we drove for about 10 minutes, we arrived near the park where the dungeon was located. To be clear… we absolutely did not intend to go to any shady places.

Everything within a 500-meter radius of the park was cordoned off, and it seemed we couldn’t get any closer. We should be able to see the park from here… but it was surrounded by a versatile fence, and we couldn’t see inside.

“Huh? Wait, huh? Is this the destination?”

“This is where the dungeon is, right…?”

“What? Isn’t this your favorite place?”

This place is currently under investigation by the Self-Defense Forces. There are also returnees from another world accompanying them, and it seems they’ve already achieved some results. By the way, these two are extremely angry.

“No, but Keisuke-san. We talked about that shop last time!”

“Oh, I’ve heard about that too!”

“Touya-kun too. …We’ll have to report this to Tsubaki-san.”

“Hayato, shouldn’t we inform Sakura-san too?”

“Oh, that’s a good idea.”

“Wait, wait. That was just a general conversation—”

The situation inside the dungeon is also widely publicized. The government’s policy seems to be to gain the understanding of the public by disclosing everything. It’s probably better than concealing it all.

“…Now that we’re done with the on-site confirmation, shall we head straight to the store?”

“…Let’s go. To a reputable establishment.”

“You know… I couldn’t really grasp most of the explanations about the location.”

“I’m really sorry about that… Just went in one ear and out the other…”

◇◇◇

Putting an end to the pointless argument, once we reached our original destination, we quietly began purchasing the necessary items. We split up to search for items, settled the bill, then discreetly stowed them away in the car before returning to the store, repeating the process.

Naturally, our cash was disappearing rapidly. With the added cost of ordering computers and such, I was worried about how much longer our funds would last. We probably had a decent amount in savings, but at this rate, it would quickly diminish.

(Wonder when the ad revenue from the videos will start coming in… I wonder how the approval process and payments work…)

In the worst-case scenario, we could sell the magic stones from the other world to the authorities. However, since the unit price for the stones was 2,000 yen, if we brought in a large quantity, we would surely attract attention. …That was a bit of a concern.

However, we couldn’t keep hiding forever. Creating a village in Japan and setting up a barrier would inevitably cause a commotion. Rather, since we were moving forward with that intention, we considered the financial issues to be temporary.

“Alright, did anyone forget to buy something?”

“I’ve got everything on the list!”

“I’m all set too!”

“Well then, how about we make a detour on our way back?”

“Sounds good!” “Let’s do it!”

With all the miscellaneous items gathered, the three fools drove off. They didn’t dwell on their previous mistakes—they just enjoyed their drive, exchanging banter that only men could share.

At this moment, they were completely unaware of what was happening in the village…

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