abcnovels
Volume 1 - Ch 3.1
Volume 1 - Ch 3.1
Player Name: Kaga Michio
Character Information & Equipment:
Class: Villager Lv.3, Hero Lv.1, Thief Lv.3
Accessory: Ring of Determination, Sandals
Successfully selling all the stuff to the merchants meant that I have succeeded in doing everything that Ive set out to do in the town of Veil. This means that as of this moment, I am free.
When that thought occurred to me, I felt both happy and somewhat empty inside. Sure, I can do whatever I want without anyone bossing me around and telling me what to do, but now that Picker-san and I went our separate ways, there was no one here who knew me.
The reality that I was now alone in this foreign world hit me like a truck-kun hits a protagonist in an Isekai-story. That thought alone almost made me have an anxiety attack, until I remembered that I was technically not alone after all. Thats right, there is one more person whom I got acquainted with very recently, like, not even two hours ago.
The Slave Merchant! He must be waiting for me to get back to him so he can relay the information about that so-called Labyrinth to me! Since he offered to give me that information himself without me pestering him about that, it would be really dickish of me not to go and hear what he has to say, right? But first
I went into the shadows of the alleyways behind the Armor Shop with my new equipment in tow. I decided that it would probably be best if I wore the Leather Armor over my jersey for some extra protection, but I placed the Leather Shoes and Bandits Bandana back into the backpack. That bandana is different from the ordinary ones, so there is always a possibility that those in the know will recognize it right away, so if I wear it in public, I might end up being mistook for an actual bandit, and that is the last thing I want to be dealing with. Finally, I had the Copper Sword on my back and two Scimitars at my waist. That is the closest to being a samurai as I can possibly get at the current moment.
I made sure that no one was walking near me or looking at me and opened the bag with the prize money. It contained a total of 16 gold coins and a lot of silver coins, meaning that the total prize was more than 160,000 Nar! Its great that I have so much money now, but the sheer amount of coins weighing down my string bag began to feel like a great inconvenience. For someone like me, who is used to using the 5 or 10 yen coins, suddenly switching to the currency of this world which seems to be going up every 100 coins might require some getting used to. Also, if I remember correctly, the Village Chief gave me 15 gold coins total just before we departed from the village. I dont know if they are of the same exact value, but it should be almost as much as the prize money for those defeated Bandits. All right, time for some quick math!
15 gold coins from the Chief plus 16 gold coins from the bounty for the Bandits plus the two gold coins from all the shopping and selling Ive done with Picker-san so it should be 33 gold coins in total. In addition, I also have a lot of silver and copper coins. Since the gold ones are the ones that are worth the most, Ill put only those into the drawstring bag, and then put it at the very bottom of the backpack in order not to lose them. Okay, now I should be ready to move on.
I left the back alleyways and returned to the citys main street, which was still as busy as it was when we came here. Taking a closer look at the stalls, I noticed that aside from humans, non-human races were apparently also present here, and in surprisingly large variety. Tall, short, covered with fur, scales, even those with sharp ears sharp ears? Elves! So there are even elves in this world?! And wow, there are many more female ones than males, and and and OH MY GOD they are even prettier than the ones depicted in mangas, anime and books from my own world!
Now then, simply staring at the female shopkeepers like some kinda pervert would probably get me in trouble with the authorities, therefore the best course of action will be pretending that I am interested in buying the products they are offering and have a gander at them during that window shopping.
One of them was especially beautiful and had nicely shaped big breasts, so I spent the most time at her jewelry stand. Now, I know for a fact that when it comes to age elven looks can be very deceiving, so I tried checking her out with Identify, and the result is Age: 37? Shouldnt it be like, 370 or something, since shes an elf and all? I mean okay, as long as she looks like she just passed her twenties (in other words: perfectly smashable) Im fine with that. Oh and by the way, when I tried to Identify myself to see if it would display my age, it only showed my name and gender.
After a short walk I came back to the Slave Merchants shop, to which customers were coming and going as if they were out buying groceries. Welp, I get this is a world totally different from mine, but honestly, I expected at least one person to act suspiciously or nervously look around as if they have stolen something. Am I the strange one here, or are all those people not right in the head? Probably its the former. Also on a side note: while I was walking around the stalls ogling the nicely looking ladies I tried to listen in on the other peoples conversations in hope of gaining information about the typical slaves market price, but that plan went out the window pretty fast because most of them werent speaking in Brahim, so I simply couldnt understand a word they were saying.
Hello? Is now a good time? Am I not bothering you?
I asked after I finally mustered enough courage to go inside the shop.
Ah, the young lad from before. By all means, do come in.
The one to greet me was the same apprentice as before.
Is Mister Alan here? I would like to talk with him about the matter we discussed earlier.
Certainly. Come and have a seat while I go fetch master for you. Hell see to you in a moment.
I was shown to the room next to the entrance to the shop, not the one in the back. Could it be that this Alan guy has different rooms for different business purposes? Am I going to be treated like an official customer now?
This room was literally littered with expensive-looking furniture, complete with fluffy carpets, leather sofas, paintings on every wall and a big table and a pair of chairs made from what looked to be a dark oak. This must be a customer reception or something along those lines.
Welcome back to my fine establishment, Michio-sama! I have been waiting for you.
The owner, Alan, came to me right away. I havent even sat yet.
Y-Yeah, right.
But where are my manners? Please, sit wherever you like. Make yourself at home.
I took his advice and sat on one of the sofas. It was even more comfy than the one I sat on when I was here with Picker-san.
Before we get any further, there is something I would like you to know about the man you sold to me today.
Yes? What is it?
I had a little bit of a friendly chat with him to get to know him better, as per the usual procedure in my line of business and he revealed to me information that might be of interest to you. That man became a slave because he committed a crime of stealing the Bandit Bandana, which was among your spoils of battle, right? Well it turns out that he didnt commit that theft alone. He actually had an accomplice, unfortunately, he didnt want to share his name no matter how nicely I asked him to do so. Do you understand what am I going at, Michio-sama?
Yes, I do. Thank you for telling me, Ill be sure to remain careful.
Bandit Bandana is an item that raises the stats of anyone with a Bandit or Thief Job so criminals were ready to pay a high price for it. If that guy wanted to steal it from me, then that means he probably had someone willing to buy it off of him. I dont know who that someone might be, but I think we can safely rule out the Village Chief and his wife since they were very helpful to me after I helped stop the attack on the village and nothing in their behavior pointed towards them having any kind of ulterior motives. Maybe it was Picker-san? Hes a merchant after all, and they mostly have only one principle in their line of business: to sell to the highest bidder. Then again, dealing with bandits was probably too risky for someone like him. For all I know, when the transaction would have been completed they might have just offed him to get away with both the item and the money. Then, who might that supposed accomplice be?
But that is a matter for later. For now, lets focus on the task at hand.
When I came here earlier, you mentioned something about a Labyrinth, right? I would like to hear about it in more details, but first, where exactly is it located?
It might be best to ask him about everything I want to know about before we get down to business.
It has been discovered in the forest just west of the town.
Meaning the opposite of where we arrived from.
Thats right.
When we departed from the village, we followed the sun as it made its way across the sky, meaning we were going from east to west. So in order to reach the Labyrinth, Ill have to keep going west from the citys other gate, got it.
Shortly after we began our discussion, a female servant came to the room, carrying a luxurious tea set, probably with refreshments for me and Alan-san. But those clothes could it be that shes
UwU, whats this? A maid?
SWEET STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE ON A ROCK N ROLLIN JESUS WITH A FISHSTICK THEY HAVE MAIDS HERE!
Ok, thats it. This world is the best world ever!