Opportunity
Opportunity
Once a decision was made, swift action had to follow.
I pulled out proper casual clothes for the first time in a while and headed to the Adventurer's Guild with Asilie. It wasn't as if the city had changed dramatically over the past few days, but maybe it was the sense of accomplishment from dealing with one of life's burdens—somehow the world felt a little more cheerful and bright.
This was... yeah.
It felt like taking a solo vacation day and strolling through the neighborhood while everyone else was at work. I was self-aware enough to notice I'd gained a certain ease—my gaze drifting more readily toward interesting things, my feet stopping more often.
I was sure Asilie had picked up on that change in me too, but she simply smiled a bit more than usual and looked at the same things, matching my mood without saying a word about it.
The Adventurer's Guild hall we arrived at had been furnished with all sorts of things I'd never seen before—maybe they were bracing for winter.
Nothing particularly remarkable, but it was quite striking. Thicker curtains, firewood blazing in a second fireplace that would normally have been left cold, a small magic stone heater set up at the reception desk, and so on.
As I watched adventurers coming and going in clothing noticeably thicker than my last memory and approached the counter, the receptionist who had glanced up with businesslike efficiency broke into a bright smile to greet me.
"Eldmia! It really feels like forever since I've seen you! I thought something must have happened to you!"
This was the receptionist who had cheered and knocked down my postage fee back when I beat the shit out of that Dantel bastard.
"Hey, tell me about it. I've been ridiculously busy with other things. You've been well?"
"Oh, we're always the same here. About the only thing that's changed is I haven't seen Dantel's face since then, I suppose. Ah, shall I check if any mail has come for you?"
"No. This time there won't be any. The person in question is right here."
Since my main reason for frequenting the place as much as taking quests had been my pen-pal correspondence with Asilie, I waved off the receptionist's well-meaning question and pointed at Asilie. The receptionist's eyes went wide.
Realizing that even a few other receptionists who'd been half-listening while handling other tasks were reacting, I quickly changed the subject.
"More importantly, I came today to ask about something. When I was moving on a guild commission a while back, I received some supplies—a tent and such—and I was pretty pleased with them."
"Supplies, you say? That's quite a rare occurrence, so I'd likely remember... might I ask what the commission was?"
"It was one led by the Guild Master."
"Ah."
My guess had been right—it wouldn't have been a common occurrence, so anyone who wasn't the one in charge wouldn't know. The receptionist excused herself and asked me to wait a moment, then soon returned with a middle-aged male receptionist.
"Good to meet you, Eldmia. My name is Mekelin, and I managed the supplies used in the commission you mentioned."
"Good to meet you, Mekelin. What I'd like to know is—I want to purchase items like the tent we used back then. Would you be able to tell me where I can get them?"
"I'm glad to hear you were satisfied. That particular product was brought in from the Seneran Magic Library. It's a place that makes and sells various magical tools for adventurers, so individual purchases should be entirely possible."
Whether he'd been briefed on my situation before coming to meet me and had a prepared answer, or he'd simply recalled it on the spot, I couldn't say, but Mekelin answered without a moment's hesitation and then pulled something from beneath the counter and handed it to me as he continued.
"The proprietor who runs the place has considerable business acumen. She left this amusing little item with the guild precisely for cases like this."
What he held in his hand was a simply designed... what did they call that thing? A pendulum?
With a string that looked like it was braided from about ten strands of hair and a teardrop-shaped blue something dangling from the end like a clock weight—it was definitely a pendulum.
"If you carry this with you to the Dwarf District, it will react on its own and guide your way. Take it along and return it, and I'm told they'll give you a small discount as well."
"Oh..."
The item itself was intriguing, but the owner of that Magic Library who wielded business acumen in this manner was even more intriguing. And Asilie must have felt the same, because she stepped up beside me and began examining the pendulum with a deeply interested gaze.
"Come to think of it, I was told that the additional reward payment for that commission remains outstanding. I will make arrangements to have it disbursed to you as soon as possible."
In all likelihood, since the royal family was handling the response, the guild had nothing to do but wait idly, yet Mekelin still bowed his head and sought my understanding.
"Please don't trouble yourself over it. Those things always take a long time, after all."
Cordial, civilized people were always welcome. I smiled and bid him farewell, then left the guild with Asilie. I caught a faint murmur from behind as the receptionists started gossiping about my relationship with Asilie, but I had no interest, and Asilie was too absorbed in looking at the pendulum.
"Simple, but... clever. I won't really understand this properly until we enter the Dwarf District."
"It's interesting enough for you to take notice, big sis?"
"The idea behind it is interesting. The person who made this is clearly more merchant than mage."
Asilie, who'd voiced an impression similar to my own, must have looked her fill, because she handed the pendulum back to me with a satisfied expression.
"She'll have set something up in the Dwarf District, too. Being able to arrange something like that across an entire district means she's a library director with quite a bit of trust placed in her—so it's not just skill, the scale of her operation must be large as well. It might be more expensive than you're imagining, Eldi?"
"Still, I do have gold coins. Surely not."
Not silver—gold. And not just one or two, either. Over twenty of them. Part of it was that being the exclusive personal butler to the young heir of a knightly house was high-grade labor, which meant I'd been drawing a salary of more than one gold coin a month. But the real reason I'd been able to accumulate that much was that I'd kept at it truly steadily, even while working as an adventurer on the side.
If someone tried to charge me that whole pile for a tent, I'd split their skull open with a gold coin.
"Heh heh. It's all relative, I suppose. Still, at least you get to try it out yourself before buying—that's a relief."
"You'll like it too once you try it, big sis."
She'd called it a library, so if I picked up something like that magic stone heater that had been on the counter earlier while I was at it, at the very least I wouldn't have to suffer from the cold when sleeping in the tent. It was a fairly high-end item, but it wasn't particularly bulky, and if you put a glowstone in instead of a magic stone, it doubled as a lantern—so there was no reason to pinch pennies and pass on it.
Shopping was a fascinating thing. Even when I wasn't buying anything extravagant, just the act of going to buy something I needed with my own money made me feel strangely cheerful. It was a sensation I never felt when buying food or consumables, and it had me feeling a little excited for the first time in a while.
Maybe it was having someone to talk to, or maybe it was the excitement, but the path to the Dwarf District felt incredibly short. And the moment we passed through the gate that divided the districts, the pendulum in my hand began to glow faintly of its own accord and lifted into the air.
"Oh."
This time even I couldn't help but be intrigued. I immediately used Magic Power to shift my vision, and sure enough, I could confirm that thin threads of Magic Power were connected between the streetlamps lining the road and the pendulum.
"Looks like it interacts with the streetlamps somehow?"
"Huh? How do you... ah. You said you could see it, didn't you? That really is fascinating."
This must have been the first time I'd used it directly in front of Asilie, because her reaction was one of genuine novelty.
"But using it doesn't really seem to change anything. Normally, magic that affects the eyes shows on the outside."
"Because it's not magic...?"
"Mm. Even mystic eyes usually have a distinct visible difference. Well, the fact that it doesn't show on the outside is a good thing."
I explained roughly how I saw things and how the connections worked as we walked, and before long, a building came into view that could never be called a library.
"Welcome to the Seneran Magic Library! What brings you here today?"
"If I may say a word about this product, it is the latest release this quarter—"
"Magical tools are on the first floor, and magical supplies for mages can be found on the second floor!"
I'd stake my life that if you asked where the busiest place in the Dwarf District was right now, it was here. Not even the weapon shop where Balkun worked was this crowded.
"...This is... a magic library...?"
"This is just... a shop?"
To be honest, since this was my first time coming to a library, I'd been quite curious what it might look like. But as Asilie had just said, this was less a library and more just a general store. I checked the pendulum, just in case, but it was now standing perfectly rigid, pointing at the shop—which only meant I could no longer deny reality.
"Welcome, dear customer! Judging from that pendulum, you've come by way of a guild recommendation! What sort of item are you looking for?"
Astonishingly polished and natural customer service. It had been the same at the weapon shop—for some reason, the shops in the Dwarf District that greeted customers had a whiff of modernity about their service.
The scent of a pitfall crafted from smiles and questions, designed to sink its teeth into a customer and never let go.
"I've come to look at the tent the guild used, and some other travel supplies."
"Ah! Our Magic Library always selects only the finest goods to satisfy the guild's discerning eye! To think you have the taste to recognize that—you've truly come to the right place!"
Faced with salesmanship that was, in a way, utterly predictable and familiar, I simply nodded with an impassive expression. Watching me, Asilie put on a very serious face and whispered quietly.
"Eldi. I don't know what level of goods this place sells, but you need to be careful not to get swept up in that kind of sales pitch."
"...Yeah. I'll be careful."
I couldn't exactly tell her that in my past life, I'd frequently encountered sales pitches indistinguishable from thuggery, so this time too, I merely nodded.
A modern person who'd lived through an apocalyptic world where 'Wanna get hit, customer?' was commonplace was made of sterner stuff.