I left âChimeraâs Tailâ and walked alongside Mea through the shopping district.
I was holding the branch of the World Tree I had safely purchased with my arms full of it.
âReally, thatâs good. It seems like you were losing money for free, but they left you enough money to live on for a few days. On top of that, they converted the money into cash, so it saved me a lot of trouble.â
Mea holds up the bag of coins.
The bag was put on by the owner as a service.
âMea, I donât know much about this kind of thing, and if I had gotten it exchanged at another store, I would have been ripped off, you were lucky in many ways. That owner seemed to be a nice person, so it doesnât seem like thereâs anything like that!â
If she had been really nice a person, she would have stopped Mea from lending me money.
That shopkeeper was happy to go on with her story.
Iâm not sure what to say since I was an accomplice also to it.
The debt I had managed to get Mea to pay was a little over two million Gâs.
The âGâ is gold, a common currency in this continent.
I wanted to know how much it costs, so I asked the shopkeeper, and I found out that a piece of fruit costs around 100G.
It seems to me that it is safe to assume that 1G = 1 yen.
In other words, itâs a debt worth 2 million yen.
âUmmâŚuh⌠Mea-san?â
âHey, wait, why the â-sanâ? Doesnât it seem like the distance between us is wider than when we first met? Why are you looking away?! Itâs not that Mea wanted you to use an honorific?â
Iâm sorry, Mea.
Thatâs what money lending and borrowing are all about.
After this, after enough questions and answers, it was safely decided that âas I thought Iâll drop the honorificsâ.
âŚâŚâŚI hope I can pay back the money soon.
âTo toâŚâŚâ
I stagger a little.
My fingers slipped and I quickly lifted the branch back up.
The branches of the World Tree were of a reasonable size and had a reasonable weight.
It wasnât something my poor arms could withstand the movement of carrying it around.
The muscles in my arms quivered as I plodded along. I might be at my limit soon.
âWait, stop for a minute.â
I stop and gently place a branch of the world tree on the aisle.
Careful, careful, I was about to put it down roughly.
I rub my muscles laboriously.
âUm? Whatâs the matter, Abel?â
Mea also stops and looks back at me.
ââŚâŚ Um, Iâm sorry, but itâs heavy, so take it.â
âWhat?! Ah, ahhhh, yes. I donât mind that much, butâŚâ
Mea looked dumbfounded for a moment, but she quickly agreed to it.
Itâs shameful, but it canât be helped.
Forgive me, I donât have the strength.
And two people who looked like a couple were watching our exchange with stunned faces.
Suddenly, I calmly reviewed my actions.
I bought a thing from my own hobby with the money I borrowed from others, and even with the reason because it was âtoo heavyâ, I let the person who lent it to me have it.
And to a woman who, on average, would be inferior to a man in terms of muscle strength.
If Iâm not wrong, I think Iâm a bit of a bastard.
I met the eyes of the woman of the two people.
The woman must be glaring at me with intensity in her eyes.
The man took her by the shoulders, shot a glance at me, and then quickly moved away.
As, as I thought I should carry it.
No, but my arms are already bulgingâŚâŚ
Maybe I should do some muscle training for the first time in a while.
ââŚâŚOh, whatâs the matter? Your hand, if you donât let go I canât carry it, you know?â
ââŚOh, please.â
I hand the branch of the world tree to Mea.
âFor now, letâs get a good nightâs rest at an inn somewhere. We can start planning our money-making plans tomorrow.â
âYeah. Itâs been a while since Iâve walked through a busy place like this either, so maybe Iâm starting to get a little people-sick.â
Look to your right or left and youâll see people, people, people.
In some places, itâs not possible to keep walking through such crowded places.
There were crowds of people when I was selling the incense leaf, but I was the seller, not the one standing in line.
There really are all kinds of people.
Some wore heavy armor, some had big sickles, some wore masks.
There was a short girl. Snappy, pointed ears.
Thatâs probably the Noirs. Matches the features Iâve seen in the books.
They are a race that ends their lives in the form of children. They were said to be powerful and dexterous despite their appearance.
There must be beastmen in this world, too. Iâve seen this in books too.
There are beastmen who are covered with hair all over their bodies and half-beastmen who only have ears, tails, and other features.
I would like to see a beastman in the flesh just once.
As I looked around to see where I could find one, a strong-looking man with rabbit ears walked past me.
I pretended not to have seen anything.
Finding an inn.
We approached a man who seemed to be busy and gave us a brief guide to the way.
âYou can find it if you go straight from here. There is a wizard shop with a prominent sign, across the street.â
âThank you very much.â
I bowed my head and left the man.
Really, Iâm relieved itâs a nice person.
âA magicianâs shop. Letâs take a look around.â
âAcross the street.â
Itâs probably similar to the shop in âChimeraâs Tailâ, but Iâd like to take a look.
There were a lot of shops that interested me, so I thought Iâd start tomorrow, but since itâs so close.
But the money is only enough for the bare minimum of living. To begin with, itâs Meaâs money.
Iâll just look to see what is available.
After taking a room at the inn and dropping off our luggage, we walked into the shop across the street.
The owner of this shop was an old man with a white beard.
The selection of goods is better than that of the previous store. Itâs kind of more consistent throughout.
I pick up a bottle from the store.
I look at the label and my eyes widen.
âT-this really has unicorn blood in it, right? A-amazing, wow, amazing! Itâs more affordable than I thought.â
I shouted unintentionally.
It is a high-grade paint made from the blood of unicorns.
Unicorns are treated as phantom beasts.
A phantom beast is a term that refers to a rare demonic beast with a small number of individuals.
In short, they are rare monsters.
âRecently, weâve been experiencing an outbreak of unicorn swarms. Itâs called the Monster Disaster Monster Panic. There was so much commotion about it, but⌠you donât know about it?â
Monster Disaster Monster Panic, a disaster in which a large number of the same kind of monsters occur.
There are many theories as to the cause, but it is not known in detail.
However, I didnât expect such a thing to happen to a unicorn, which has been designated as a phantom beast.
âWell, I donât know much about the world. Wow, good! This is so good!â
âIâm glad youâre so pleased. Now, the billâŚâŚâ
âUh, no, I donât have anyâŚâ
âOh my goodness thatâs a shame. I, too, find pleasure in this business to have people like my customers buy from meâŚâ
The branches of the world tree were used to carve the totem.
It is a manâs heart that I want to use expensive paint anyway.
Itâs regrettable. I bought a tree that cost millions of Gâs worth of wood, but I have no choice but to reduce the quality of the workmanship by sparing tens of thousands of Gâs worth of paint.
âThumpâ, tap on the shoulder.
âAbel, Abel. You want it?â
Mea calls out to me while holding the sachet of coins.
No, but if we use it, starting tomorrowâŚâŚ
âExcuse me, can I have this paint, please? Mea will buy it!â
âHaha, Iâm jealous that you seem to be on good terms with them. Well, youâre buyingâŚâ
Ah, ah, ahâŚâŚâŚ
I thought it was no good, but I couldnât speak.
I had repeated the same mistake again.
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