Chapter 79

"Combat strength... I understand."

Hearing what Is said, Isv remembered what Shirou boss had told him during the last dinner party: apart from the housekeeper's salary, the rest of the money should be used to ensure that he could protect everyone.

It just feels like this amount of money is a bit much, but since it's from the boss, it's fine.

"I'm glad you understand. Are there any other questions? If not, I'll get back to work."

Once he was sure the person involved understood, Isv asked.

There was one more thing that Is not explicitly stated: with Isv's abilities, Shirou could have obtained higher rewards elsewhere.

That's why the Emperor gave more; partly to keep Shirou, and partly because he felt Shirou was worth investing in.

"There is none left."

Texas looked around at everyone and, after confirming that there were no problems, said...

After the call ended, Shirou immediately sensed something was wrong and took a few steps back.

The next second, Exusiai and Croissant pounced on the spot where he had just been.

"Please help me out, boss!"

Croissant is trying to attract some investment for herself.

"Please take me with you too!"

Exusiai is trying to feed herself for the next month.

Unfortunately, the two pounced on nothing and ended up colliding head-on.

"You two..."

Seeing the two of them being so shameless, Texas, as their teammate, felt ashamed for them.

"Ignore the two of them."

Sora stood between the two and Shirou and spoke.

She knew that Shirou was easy to talk to, and that Exusiai and Croissant might be able to borrow money from Shirou by playing the victim a little. She hadn't paid attention to it before because Shirou didn't have any money.

But things are different now. Shirou now has a huge sum of money and doesn't usually spend it, so the two of them naturally set their sights on Shirou.

"You two stop fooling around, and Shirou, don't lend them any money."

Seeing the situation, Texas stopped the two and gave Shirou a special instruction.

After all Exusiai and Croissant aren't really poor.

The only reason is that guns are very expensive, and I want to get more Guardian Gun, so I'm short on money.

Another reason is that they always wanted to expand their stall and try to grow their business, but sometimes they would accidentally lose money.

In the past, Texas and Sora might have offered them some assistance.

But now that the boss is paying for Shirou's meals, the two of them only want to borrow money because they want to live a more comfortable life.

"Yes, I understand."

Upon hearing Texas's words, Shirou nodded to indicate that he understood.

However, in his opinion, Exusiai and Croissant were probably just playing around, but even so, he wouldn't easily lend out the money.

He needs money for some things going on, and this money is enough to support him in carrying out his ideas.

97 Self-satisfaction

Finally, thanks to Texas's efforts, the evil Bread Man and the Fluorescent Lamp Person's conspiracy was thwarted, and Mama Emiya got through another day safely.

Afterwards, the group left with their breakfast and lunch boxes, leaving only Shirou in the dormitory.

"Hmm... 100,000?"

Sitting at the table, Shirou stared at the six-digit number displayed on his phone screen, deep in thought.

This money truly belongs to him; he can spend it however he wants without worrying about anything else.

In addition, he doesn't have to worry about living expenses, since his boss pays for his meals and he has enough daily necessities for a while. There's nothing he wants to buy recently.

"Considering what's to come, I need to save some money..."

Shirou carefully planned how to use the money. Thanks to Sister Fujie's conscious control over his finances, he developed a proper understanding of money.

Therefore, Shirou decided to save most of the money for emergencies. This money was not only for emergencies but also his savings. He could then use it to buy whatever he wanted later.

As for the remaining half, Shirou already has a plan.

Ever since learning about the plight of some infected children in the Slums, Shirou has been thinking about whether there is a way to help them.

Help these infected children.

From the information obtained from Zi, it can be understood that most infected children, like Ansuo, are seeking survival in the Slums. However, compared to Ansuo, at least they have first-hand intelligence gathering and entrapment skills. Most infected children find it difficult to survive in such an environment.

After all, very few people would be willing to hire an infected child.

So what he needs to do is very simple: use the money to help those people.

However, the only help he can give is to children, since they are too young to do many jobs, even the simplest physical labor.

"Hmm... it seems a bit too basic."

Shirou felt that his plan was somewhat rudimentary; in fact, it couldn't really be called a plan at all, but rather a collection of naive ideas put together.

They rented a relatively comfortable spot in the Slums and then took in some children.

This was Shirou's original plan, but there were many problems to solve.

The main problem now is... he has no connections.

Shirou wasn't familiar with the Slums; he only knew that they were rife with gangs and very chaotic, but these problems weren't major issues.

Problems that can be solved by force are not problems. The Slums are a gray area in Lungmen. As long as you act within the rules, nothing will happen.

"Hmm... Go ask Jie, he should know a lot about the Slums."

After thinking for a long time, Shirou still couldn't figure it out, so he decided to ask someone for help.

Of all the people he knows, only Jie seems to know anything about the Slums. He gets his information about the Slums from Jie.

After sending a message to Jie, I received a reply that everything was fine and that I could just come to the fish stall.

Having finalized his itinerary, Shirou made some preparations and set off.

When visiting someone for advice, it's natural to bring a small gift, so Shirou brought a bento box containing rice balls.

Wrapped in warm rice, the fried minced Scale Beast meat tastes similar to the salmon rice balls that Shirou made before, making it a popular breakfast and lunch option among Penguin Logistics.

By the way, everyone at Penguin Logistics had rice balls for breakfast and lunch today. Unless there are special requests, Shirou usually prepares everything for everyone to take with them, which is more convenient and saves time.

Soon Shirou arrived at the market. He even placed a table and chair in a relatively clean spot in his stall, since Shirou was one of the few people he could talk to.

Even without Hoshiguma asking him to pay more attention to Shirou, Jie would still get along well with Shirou. After all, there are very few people in Lungmen who can speak to him calmly and peacefully on their first meeting.

"Sorry to bother you at this time."

Looking at Jie standing on the stall, Shirou felt a little embarrassed, but there was nothing he could do. After all, Jie had to work at the fish ball stall at night, and if they really wanted to chat, it would be late at night, which wouldn't be good for Jie.

"No, the peak time has already passed, and there aren't many customers at this time."

He didn't care about that, since he had nothing to do when no guests came. However, he was puzzled that Shirou would have questions, since he wasn't exactly a scholar.

"So, Shirou, is there anything you want to ask?"

After washing his hands, Jie sat down opposite Shirou and asked, since he remembered that Shirou had mentioned in a text message that he had a question. Since there was a question, he didn't bother with small talk and got straight to the point.

"Um... it's nothing, I just wanted to ask about the Slums..."

Seeing that Zi was getting straight to the point, Shirou took out his phone and notebook and shared some of his thoughts.

After listening to Shirou's explanation, Zi roughly understood what Shirou wanted to do.

It's no wonder that she's someone who's been targeted by Hoshiguma and Officer Swire; she's actually willing to do something so thankless.

There are actually quite a few people like Shirou, but most of them are targeted and harassed by other gangs, and eventually, unable to bear the harassment and other factors, they choose to give up.

If Shirou were to do that too...

"Are you really going to do something that will absolutely lose money and attract unwanted attention from others?"

He directly pointed out what Shirou might encounter after doing this.

To be fair, while Shirou's idea was quite good, he felt that someone like Shirou was really not suited to dealing with the Slums; the situation there was too complicated.

If he hone his skills properly, then going to the Knights of the Round Table or somewhere else might be a better fit for Shirou.

"Um."

Without hesitation, Shirou nodded in affirmation.

He never intended to gain any benefit from others from the beginning; he simply felt that he should do so.

The reason I wanted to learn about Oripathy was simply to help those infected in the future.

However, that's a matter for much later. Right now, his life still revolves around Penguin Logistics. As for doing these things in the Slums... that's just self-gratification.

"Really? I understand."

Seeing that Shirou didn't hesitate, Jie didn't know what else to say. At most, he could tell Hoshiguma later and ask Hoshiguma to take good care of him.

No matter what, he's someone Hoshiguma said he wanted to keep an eye on.

"The housing issue is easy to resolve, but do you have the manpower to help out?"

After thinking about it for a moment, the house wasn't a problem. He remembered hearing people mention it before. But judging from Shirou's thinking, it seemed he was planning to go it alone.

Moreover, he remembered that Shirou seemed to have a housekeeper job. Although the work pressure was not high, he was still worried that Shirou might die from overwork.

If it gets to this point, it will be terrible. We need to find a way to deal with Shirou.

"Manpower? I haven't considered that yet; I feel like money would be a real problem."

Shirou hadn't considered this, since hiring people would incur additional expenses, and it would be better to use the money to buy more food or preventative medicine.

"I knew it... I can recommend someone, and you don't need to worry about money. All you need to do is provide her with three meals a day and a place to sleep."

Upon hearing Shirou's answer, Jie knew that was indeed the case, and he was glad that he had asked.

People from Slums are actually quite easy to find; offering free food and lodging can attract many people. However, if you consider the issue of character, the pool becomes much smaller.

"Huh? Really?"

Upon learning that Zi had recommended people, Shirou was naturally pleased.

After all, it would be best if someone could help, because he might have to go on a long trip sometimes and might not be available at all.

"You know her too, I'll call her and have her come over."

After saying that, Jie dialed the phone in his hand.

"Little Ansuo? Are you free right now?"

"Hmm? No time? That's a pity. I have a pretty good job here, with room and board included. If you don't want it, that's fine, I'll find someone else."

"Huh? You said you'll be there soon? That's great, hurry up!"

Because the speaker wasn't on, Shirou could only hear Ja's lazy voice, but judging from the conversation, Ja was probably looking for the Ansuo that he had broken a couple of days ago.

That's good too. After all, it was because of Ansuo that he thought of doing these things in the Slums. Besides, Ansuo was one of the targets he wanted to help. He remembered that Jie had said that Ansuo's condition was quite serious.

"Okay, she'll be here soon."

He put down his phone and spoke to Shirou.

"Yeah, it's a good thing I asked you, otherwise I don't know how long it would have taken me to do it myself."

Shirou sighed. Without Je, he would have had to figure things out in the Slums on his own, and after a while he would realize he couldn't handle it all before he started looking for help.

Now that there's Jie's help, things are different! He's directly helped Shirou resolve many problems; he's truly a kind person.

"It's okay, I'm free anyway."

Although it's a bit of a hassle, I won't refuse to help with this kind of thing, since it's not a bad thing anyway.

"Thank you for your help. Oh, by the way, I brought some food, rice balls made with your seafood."

After all, the two had been chatting for quite a while, and seeing that it was almost noon, Shirou took out the bento box and opened it.