The Dorky NPC Mercenary Knows His Place: Volume 4 (eBook)

Toryuu (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-7504-8 (ISBN)

Infos

Much maligned mercenary John Ouzos has just returned from a mission that saw highs and lows, triumphs and woes. He was responsible for discovering a hitherto unknown ancient sentient superweapon, but lost his own trusty spaceship, the Patchwork, in the process after a tense conflict that was supposed to be a cakewalk. Not only that, but a good chunk of his anime collection was onboard when the ship exploded! Once back on his planet of residence, Ouzos hopes to take things easy and spend his generous insurance payout on a new ship (and more anime), but the galaxy has other things in store for him. Before the paint dries on his new craft, a vicious coup d'etat against the reigning empress breaks out, and it's not like Ouzos is about to ignore a lucrative call to the battlefield. Will his often shrewd, sometimes cowardly tactics be enough to help him survive this time? Wherever he goes, he'll no doubt attract resentment for being so good at his job despite being short, portly, and nerdy!

Textauszug

NPC No. 81: “Welcome! We buy, sell, and repair. What brings ya here today?”

I’ve already looked at a bunch of catalogs, but I’d better talk to Pops first.

Going straight to a manufacturer after looking at a catalog was an option, but since their salespeople would no doubt try to push the most popular models on me, I really didn’t like doing that. That was why I ended up walking to Pops’s place, the Dolg Repair Shop.

“Good mornin’!” I called out as I entered the workshop. Pops and his apprentices were rushing about, trying to get things done.

Pausing in his work, Pops wiped the sweat off his brow and came to greet me. “Hey. You don’t often come without your ship. Did it get blown up or something?”

Since I only ever came here to have my ship worked on, I usually came by spaceship, hence Pops’s joke.

However, this time, it was no mere jest.

“That’s right,” I said. “My ship just happened to get bombarded—and blown to smithereens—while it was parked...”

“What?! Well, at least you got away with your life...”

“I’m really sorry... You helped me out so much with that ship.”

Pops was awfully shocked but pleased to see I was unharmed. “Unbelievable. Well, I’m just glad you didn’t walk away with a new cyborg body for us to maintain, though I guess that would have given you a chance to pick a more handsome face!”

There’s no need for him to make fun of my looks, though.

“In that case... How about this?” said Pops, opening a pamphlet from the Eyofs Corporation. He showed me a page highlighting their Noltegrame model. “A bunch of different manufacturers all came and left these catalogs, hoping I’d show ’em to customers looking for new ships.”

“Can you order this model?” I asked.

“No problem. Of course, you’ll be wanting a high-end radar too, won’t you?”

“Absolutely!”

“Then I’ll be sure to look for a better unit for ya. I’ll call you once I’ve got it in, and you can pay me then,” he told me. “And I assume you’ll be wanting to make some adjustments once you’ve purchased it all, won’t you?”

“Yes, thank you so much! I’ll have to rent some space and some tools from you again. Oh, and I’ll do some shopping around for a radar myself.”

Since I’d left acquiring the new ship completely up to Pops, I felt like I should at least look for a new radar on my own. It wasn’t like I was looking to pinch pennies, though. If Pops were to find a unit with better performance, I was totally prepared to go with his recommendation.

My search for a new ship had ended much sooner than I’d expected, so I had time to spare. I decided to go and perform some purification rites.

It may seem pretty unscientific coming from someone living in the age of soaring spaceships, but shrines, temples, and churches were still around. The fact that all these religions and rituals still existed made me think that there had to be some kind of divine intervention at play.

Anyway, I made my way to a shrine on Planet Ittsu that was modeled after the home of a character in Breath Comet, a spot that was famous among anime fans. Thankfully, the clergy there were more than happy to grant my request for an emergency purification. After making the proper offering, they exorcised my demons.

Under normal circumstances, since this was a place renowned by anime fans—and as I was being attended by living, breathing shrine maidens—I would have been excited. But since I was serious about ridding myself of bad luck, I managed to keep a cool head throughout the rites.

Incidentally, they sold both regular good-luck charms and anime tie-in versions. Naturally, I bought the full anime-themed set. I also bought a regular charm to ward off evil. I hoped that all of this would be enough to save me from calamity.

If Arthur had been here instead of me, I bet he would have had a dramatic meet-cute with one of the shrine maidens...but, of course, there was no way that would happen to me.

Once I’d taken care of ordering a spaceship at Pops’s shop and purifying myself at the shrine, it was more than time for lunch.

I went into a fast-food restaurant and grabbed something to eat before heading straight to Animember. As I did that, I realized I was also near Seizaban.

Now that so many of the manga, light novels, and anime data cards I’d previously bought had been reduced to ashes, I was going to have to buy them all over again. Sooner or later, at least. I knew I could easily get my hands on more recent series, but the older stuff was going to be pretty tough to find again.

With a glimmer of hope left in my heart, I walked into Seizaban and looked for some of the titles that had been burned to ash. They had It’s Just Wrong That My Big Sister Is So Cute and I Have No Friends in stock, but I didn’t see any copies of Cowgirl Swing or Heaven-Piercing Garon Baron. I wasn’t sure whether or not they’d still be available, but I decided I’d order those at Animember. As long as they weren’t out of print, I should still be able to get them.

At Animember, I saw there was a new volume of Assassin Family out and grabbed that. And while I was able to order a new copy of Heaven-Piercing Garon Baron through them, Cowgirl Swing was a different story.

Since I was already there, I wandered around the store, looking at the new releases. It was then that I ran into Gonzales. Instead of his usual lab coat, he was wearing a trendy casual jacket.

“Hey. Haven’t seen you here in a while,” I noted.

“But we used to bump into each other here all the time as students,” he replied.

It was a little disheartening to realize that we still frequented the exact same places that we had as students.

“What are you here to buy?” he asked.

“Well, I’m partly here to kill time in between jobs, but I also need to restock the series that burned up with my ship.”

For a moment, Gonzales looked shocked by what I had said. But then he broke the silence, saying, “Well, you couldn’t come here to buy anime if you hadn’t made it out alive.”

He’d gone right back to his usual demeanor.

“How about you?” I asked.

“I came to pick up some Titans Trooper and Fullsilver Summoner fan fiction. I’m preordering the next Assassin Family data card too.”

“Oh! Now that you mention it, I’d better order that too.”

After Gonzales had reminded me of that upcoming release, we went together to put in our preorders for the next data card in the Assassin Family anime series. After that, we left Animember and continued walking together to the nearest train station.

We had walked along the same street all the time when we’d been students.

When we walked together, we usually engaged in some manner of pointless conversation.

“Y’know, I was actually thinking of coming by your pharmacy tomorrow,” I said.

“Are you after info for your next job?”

“Nah. To be exact, I was going to stop by your store and some other shops nearby that deal with spaceships. I need a new radar. In the past, I used to have a mass-produced unit with particularly high specs, but I’m hoping to find an even better one now. And one that’s still a mass-produced model, of course.”

These were pretty tough criteria to meet, so I was planning to ask Gonzales to look into it for me before I made a circuit of relevant stores in the area.

“Ah, well, a new store recently opened that’d be perfect for you. I’ve still got some time to spare, and the sooner you get it, the better, right? Wanna go now?” Gonzales suggested.

After giving it some thought, I accepted Gonzales’s offer, and we made our way to the Black Market Shopping District.

The vibe there was the same as it ever was, but the setting sun made it look twice as suspicious.

The butcher there had a new flyer on the wall, announcing that “The Masses Born into the Greasy Mire Have Had Their Value Docked by Half!”

There were many kinds of shoppers here, crossing the street. Some of them laughed together while others talked to themselves.

With that scenery in the background, Gonzales led me to a store that not only sold supplies and armaments for ships, but home appliances, computers, droids, air-cars, and weapons. They sold intact units, but they also had parts and scrap for sale in a huge pile outside that was so high we couldn’t see anything about the shop before we entered. As we were only able to see the front door, it looked like a hoarder’s home at first. Anyway, this was called Qurees’s Recycle and Repairs Garage, and it fit right in with the other stores in the Black Market Shopping District.

In contrast to the outside, the store’s interior was pretty tidy. Secondhand laptops, Versitools, appliances, and weapons were all arranged neatly on the shelves.

At the back of the store was a petite woman—150 centimeters tall—with tanned skin, green eyes, and blonde hair that she wore in a bob cut. She was a young, pretty woman with a nice figure and curves in all the right places. She wore a yellow jumpsuit with tinted goggles on...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 13.11.2025
• Reihe/Serie: The Dorky NPC Mercenary Knows His Place
• Illustrationen: Hamm
• Übersetzer: Josh DM
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: abject cowardice • adult protagonist • combat • Harem • Otaku • Sci-fi • Space Opera
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-7504-2 / 1718375042
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-7504-8 / 9781718375048