Kays Translations

Chapter 39: Gun-Staff “Giant Slayer”

Two weeks have passed since the creation of the new currency molds.

In the city, an announcement about the issuance of the new currency to coincide with the New Year has been made.

First, the value of the currency is being revised. The new currency will have a conversion rate of 1 new yen ≒ 10 old yen.

This means the new 500-yen coin will effectively function as the equivalent of the old 5,000-yen bill. This decision anticipates the natural inflation of currency value in the future.

Issuing denominations like a 10,000-yen coin from the start would eventually require higher denominations like 100,000-yen coins, which would make calculations cumbersome. Reducing the face value to 1/10th is likely the correct choice.

…Probably. I’m no economist.

The new currency will be backed by food as its economic foundation.

Currently, over 90% of the food supply sustaining Tokyo residents is produced publicly. If the Witches’ Assembly guarantees, “You can exchange 100 yen for one rice ball,” the new currency will undoubtedly gain value.

Previously, food ration coupons had been circulating as a substitute for currency, so this is essentially just replacing those coupons with coins. In fact, currency exchanges between ration coupons and the new currency are scheduled to take place around the New Year.

This is similar to how rice was the economic foundation of Edo-period Japan. Although there may be minor issues, it is expected to work out smoothly.

Efforts are already underway to reclaim land for agriculture in the vast barren areas of Katsushika Ward, following safety inspections for latent monster transformations in livestock and the propagation of defensive artillery plants. If food production stabilizes, so too will the economy.

The long-term vision includes privatizing food production, moving away from the current labor allocation system in most Witch-Controlled Zones, and transitioning to a system of free professions and free markets. Along with that, a taxation system will be introduced—but all of this hinges on the success of the new currency system.

This isn’t a matter I can dismiss as unrelated.

Until now, I’ve been paid for my staff-making services with goods like food, medical supplies, clothing, fuel, tools, or art materials. When there was nothing I particularly wanted, I’d receive handwritten vouchers from witches and wizards stating something like, “Equivalent in value to X days of food.”

But from now on, I’ll likely be paid in the new currency. If its value plummets or skyrockets, or if its circulation fails, I’d be in trouble too.

I sincerely hope the Witches’ Assembly and the Experts’ Council handle these adjustments skillfully.

The new currency issuance will also occur simultaneously in the Tohoku Hunting Union and the Hokkaido Magic Beast Farm.

In Hokkaido, the defeat of the Kraken has reopened the coastal routes along the Pacific side, enabling the use of aquatic monsters to tow ships. The new currency will likely stimulate trade and interaction.

As for the Tohoku Hunting Union, they’re eager to follow suit. However, one major obstacle looms large.

Tokyo’s Witches’ Assembly nearly collapsed during the Great Kaiju Invasion.

Hokkaido Monster Farm had to contend with the long-standing menace of the Kraken.

Similarly, the Tohoku Hunting Union faces its own monster issue: the Daidarabocchi.

The Daidarabocchi is a massive giant, standing around 100 meters tall, a bipedal beast clad in sturdy rock-like armor.

Its sheer size makes it a threat, but the fact that it possesses the intelligence to craft and wear armor, as well as its ability to use multiple magic attacks through its cries, has earned it a threat level of Class A-1, equivalent to the kaiju that nearly destroyed Tokyo.

There are no survivor communities within its vast territory, which spans from Fukushima Prefecture to Niigata Prefecture, centering on Lake Inawashiro.

The Daidarabocchi reshapes its territory by carving mountains, creating new lakes, or repeatedly pounding the ground to trigger earthquakes and volcanic activity. It seems to be modifying its habitat to suit its preferences.

It tolerates no intrusions into its territory. Wolves and sheep-sized monster might pass unnoticed, but anything human-sized or larger, or anything with significant magic power, will be immediately detected. The Daidarabocchi responds by hurling massive rocks or releasing magic poisonous gas to exterminate the intruder.

Why Now?

For the longest time, the Tohoku Hunting Union avoided the Daidarabocchi due to its territorial tendencies.

But with the issuance of the new currency, they’ve decided it’s time to hunt the monster. The landlocked center of Japan, with all its inland routes completely sealed off, is an enormous obstacle to trade and interaction. Simply put, the Daidarabocchi is in the way.

Flying over its territory at a high enough altitude avoids detection, but only the dragon witch can achieve such feats.

The Union has concluded that now is the time to act. Their years of ecological observation, conducted from high-altitude watchtowers on the outskirts of the Daidarabocchi’s territory, have led to the conclusion that hunting the beast is now feasible—provided they have the right tools.

This is where I come in.

Previously, Hiyori pitched the idea of magic staffs to the Great Wolf of the Tohoku Hunting Union. After reviewing the sample products, they’ve sent a formal order, accompanied by two magic stones.

The first is a heavy, gray Killing Stone, and the second is a jet-black Celestial Stone, speckled with starlike inclusions. Both are clearly fragments, roughly one-third of their original size—the rest presumably used in crafting anti-monster tools.

The Tohoku Hunting Union wants me to use these stones to craft five gun-staffs and at least five sealing bullets for the purpose of hunting the Daidarabocchi.

In return, they’ve promised to give me all the Gremlins extracted from the Daidarabocchi after its defeat.

The challenge lies in the Daidarabocchi’s sensitivity to magic power, making it nearly impossible to trap with conventional monster-capturing tools.

The strategy involves creating sealing bullets with miniaturized and optimized monster-trapping mechanisms. These bullets will be used to snipe the Daidarabocchi from outside its territory, immobilizing it.

Once weakened, the beast will be subjected to concentrated firepower boosted by the magic of staff-wielders.

While there’s no precedent for sealing magic on a creature of the Daidarabocchi’s size, it’s known that larger, more powerful creatures tend to have shorter seal durations. According to the Union’s estimates, at least five, ideally ten, sealing bullets will be necessary to bring the Daidarabocchi down.

The order form had a note: “If fulfilling this request proves difficult…”

I skimmed over that part.

Leave it to me.

Creating magic items to take down a Class A-1 monster? I’ve done it before.

With the order form and materials in hand, I’m diving into the design and crafting of sealing bullets and gun-staffs.

The four wizards and one witch from the Tohoku Hunting Guild are all gun users, so it seems best for their magic staffs to function both as staffs and as guns. Carrying both a staff and a gun is less practical than combining them into one. It’s sort of like a bayonet.

Since spare hunting rifles used by the five were sent as materials and references, I measured their dimensions, disassembled them, and analyzed their structure. Although I had the impression that guns were relatively precise weapons, their construction was much simpler than I expected. With this simplicity, integrating them into staffs should work well.

After drawing several blueprints and creating wooden prototypes, I finalized the design for the gun-staff.

After experimenting with different ideas, I decided on a design similar to a walking stick. It would have a hidden mechanism like a cane sword, with two modes: a standard staff mode where the stock serves as the grip, and a gun mode where the mechanism unfolds, revealing sights and a pistol grip.

Weapons with such unfolding mechanisms often have weak joints, but since this isn’t a melee weapon, the issue of strength should be minimal as long as the structure properly disperses the recoil from firing.

Once the design of the gun-staff itself was complete, I moved on to designing the sealing bullets, which would be crucial in the operation to defeat the Daidarabocchi.

That said, since the caliber of the gun was already decided and the bullet shape was mostly fixed, the internal structure only needed some minor adjustments.

The Tohoku Hunting Guild has specialists who use detection magic and sensory enhancement magic for support. They plan to pre-enchant the bullets with detection magic, allowing them to be retrieved and reused multiple times.

Because of this, the bullet heads needed to be durable for reuse.

However, I prioritized ease of maintenance over durability, so I adjusted the specifications slightly from the original request.

No matter how durable a bullet is made, if it’s repeatedly fired with gunpowder and slammed into targets, it will inevitably bend or break.

So instead of having the bullets bend or deform when breaking, I designed them to fall apart into separate components.

This way, if they break, all you need to do is reassemble the parts and reforge the casing. Repairing a bent or deformed bullet is extremely difficult, so this approach is better.

The client requested unbreakable bullets, but their true intention was to have bullets that could be recycled infinitely.

Thus, bullets that are hard to break yet simple in structure and easy to repair when broken best meet the client’s needs within realistic constraints. Even I can’t make bullets that are completely unbendable or indestructible.

I believe I managed to capture the client’s intentions without overstepping my bounds.

Once the designs were complete, it was finally time to begin production.

I gathered the necessary materials and tools and headed to the backyard furnace.

The fire lizard team was ready for its first mission.

It’s time to show the fruits of their training…!

“Mokutan, Sekitan, Tsubaki! Gather up!”

“Miiii!”

“Mii!”

“Mimi!”

At my call, the three fire lizards, who had been playing with pinecones around the furnace, scampered over and lined up at my feet.

“Activate the furnace. Prepare for flame projection.”

At my solemn command, the fire lizard team chirped and entered the furnace, spreading out in a fan formation and taking a “standby” position at the furnace’s opening.

Good, good. They’re such good kids. I’ll give them plenty of treats later.

After numerous training sessions, the fire lizards and I had learned to work together seamlessly for fire-related tasks. Thanks to their ability to control their flame output, the metal in the crucible melted at an incredible speed, far beyond what a purely physical smelting process could achieve.

I adjusted the metal mixture for each component, melted it, poured it into molds, and let it cool.

The work that was expected to take an entire day with the furnace was completed in just an hour.

Fire lizards are amazing! But the fact that I trained them so well is pretty amazing, too.

Can we all agree that everyone here is a winner?

Of course, it wasn’t a one-shot success. Some components failed the strength tests and had to be remade, but even with that, the entire process took less than four hours.

All thanks to the fire lizards. Magic creature workshops are the best!

Once the metal parts were complete, the rest was smooth sailing. Using the skills I’ve honed over the years, I carefully crafted five gun-staves.

The final design was a cane-like staff with a transformation mechanism.

The core used a three-layered magic stone structure.

It featured the latest anti-reverse-flow mechanism.

Using leftover fragments from creating the five cores, I was able to craft 15 sealing bullets—three for each hunter.

The name I gave these creations was inscribed in a Japanese cursive style: “Giant Slayer.”

Each of the five gun-staves was numbered from one to five.

While the Daidarabocchi is called a “giant” rather than a “god,” calling it a “god” just sounds cooler. It’s the kind of thing where the one who names it wins. “Giant Slayer Staff” doesn’t have the same ring to it as “God Slayer Staff.”

I also paid tribute to my firepower assistants by secretly engraving a small fire lizard logo on the inside of the staff handles.

Things like this are a must.

Sure, there’s something cool about a masterpiece that doesn’t bear the creator’s name and is only recognizable to connoisseurs by its quality. But it’s also fun to hide a logo somewhere subtle.

With the five completed gun-staffs, “Giant Slayer,” and the sealing bullets safely stored in a custom gun case I made as a bonus, I was ready.

Up until now, my genius works had only been famous within Tokyo.

It’s time for them to spread across Japan.

Now go forth, my staffs.

Slay the Daidarabocchi and make your names known far and wide!

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