Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume SS - Chapter 30

Short Story:

What if it Wasn’t a Mercenary Band I Came Up With?

 The Story So Far 

BURIED IN CRUSHING DEBT, Linia was taken in by Eris! One thing led to another and she became our maid, but she was so bad at housekeeping that Aisha flipped out, and so Linia got sacked! There was nothing else for it—I had to find Linia another job!

“Haah…” Right then, I was lounging in a nap spot that came recommended by Linia, absorbed in my thoughts. It was grassy, and the sunlight was warm. There were cats everywhere. I got the sense I was cramping their style, but with Linia’s coaxing, they’d resigned themselves to clearing space for me. It was comfortable enough.

I’d spent the whole day trying to find a job I could entrust to Linia, but I hadn’t come up with any good ideas. Zanoba and Cliff had both been non-starters. Ideally it would be a job where, even if she couldn’t pay off the whole debt of 1,500 gold at once, she could at least chip away at it little by little. But I didn’t get the feeling Linia had any aptitude for that sort of steady work.

I shot a glance at Linia. She was talking to the cats who had come to share her perfect patch of sunshine: “Meow meow meow.”

Among beastfolk, and especially beastfolk with the Doldia name, people who could converse with dogs and cats were common. Apparently Beast God Tongue was easy for beasts to understand, but there weren’t many races who could understand the languages of beasts. Take our Leo—he could understand what I said, but I couldn’t understand him. We couldn’t have a conversation—though sometimes I thought I understood him. Hmm. Was there something clever I could do with this that would make money? A service to communicate a pet’s feelings to its owner—love, discontent, the whole shebang… So Bow-Lingual.

Huh. That wasn’t half bad. I wasn’t sure about these parts, but in the Asura Kingdom, there were loads of nobles with pets.

“Hey, Linia,” I said.

“Mew?”

“What’s that cat there saying?”

“Nothing much. Just saying hello, mew.”

“Huh… So, uh, can you understand bugs and snakes too?”

“Don’t be silly. All I can understand are things like dogs and cats, mew.”

That would make my service tricky. From what I heard, the Asura Kingdom’s long history meant that what I’d think of as strange pets were more common than cats and dogs. You got stories about people keeping centipedes as big as dogs. Unlike in my previous life, in this world, there was no common assumption that “pet” meant a cat or a dog. Basically, everything was what you’d call an exotic animal. If she could only understand what a tiny handful of that wide range of pets were saying, it was likely that the business wouldn’t get off the ground. And here I’d thought it was a good idea…

“Meow…prrr, meow…” Linia was on all fours as she chatted to the cats. Her butt was pointed at me, and her fluffy tail twitched. It was so alluring. Like, I could grab that tail and just… No, I mustn’t! Begone, tempting demon! I quickly took the holy relic from my pocket and held it up to my face to calm my mind. But the next moment, there was a big whoosh and a sudden gust of wind. It set my robe billowing like you wouldn’t believe, and snatched away the item in my hand.

“Crap!” The frilly white material flew through the air. 

It was precious. I couldn’t lose it. I’d never get it back. Those thoughts flashed through my mind. I threw my arm out desperately, but I was too far away. In the blink of an eye, it had flown up high into the sky. 

I had pushed mana into my legs and was about to jump when I heard a “Meow!” Linia sprang.

She shot straight up like a rocket, slicing through the wind to catch the holy relic mid-flight before somersaulting about three times to hit the ground in a silent superhero landing.

“Whew, that was close, mew…” she began, then exclaimed, “Wait, are these panties?! Eww, yu—mew?! O-oh, those…?! Not yucky, mew! No purr-oblem! Here, your holy item, mew, here, mew…”

Linia held the holy relic out. She was respectful, but she also held it with only her fingertips, like she was trying to touch it with as little skin as possible. I took it back and took a deep sniff. Clarity came over me. 

A job that combined the Doldia tribe’s ability to converse with animals, Linia’s physical capabilities, and her sexy butt…? I had it.

“Linia,” I said, gripping her by the shoulders.

“Y-yes, mew…?”

“Let’s put together a circus troupe!”

And so the Ruquag Circus Troupe was born.

***

“Nya hah!” Linia soared through the air before me on a trapeze. She wore a leather leotard and fishnet tights—in short, a bunny suit. Accompanying her, acrobats in clown costumes and trained magic beasts cavorted about. 

“Good, good. Another great success.” Standing right beside me and dressed in the same bunny suit as Linia was Aisha. She was counting silver coins, looking smug. It’d already been a year since we formed the Ruquag Circus Troupe. Many beastfolk were physically gifted, and at Linia’s invitation, a whole lot of thugs and goons had changed careers to become acrobats. Because Linia could communicate with magical beasts to a degree, it wasn’t too difficult to train them to perform tricks. 

When I appointed Aisha as advisor, she threw herself into the task of realizing my vision: a big tent full of acrobats and magical beasts, strong men, beautiful women, and ferocious, terrifying creatures, all coming together for a show of lights and shadows. 

In the Asura Kingdom, our circus was a runaway success. After she became ringmaster, Linia paid off her debts just like that, and Aisha was smiling again. The circus also seemed like a good way to find employees for the Orsted Corporation and to sell Ruijerd figurines, so I was feeling smug too.

After that, if you’re interested, the circus made it big on the world stage. Linia became one of the world’s richest people, but she let it get to her head and ended up losing all her money again…but that’s a story for another time.