The Secret Merchant's Hidden Stash
Iris kept calling out to me. Over and over.
“Master? We just passed the blacksmith’s!”
“Master! We walked right by the shops a moment ago!”
“Huh? You’re passing this one too? Master!”
“Seriously, Master! Where on earth are you going?!”
That damn word—Master. How many times was she going to say it? My ears were going to grow calluses at this rate. I had never once grown tired of hearing her call me that… until this very moment. Right now, I genuinely wanted to either clamp my hand over Iris’s mouth or stuff my own ears.
“Master!!”
If she would just shut her mouth and follow quietly, what would it hurt? I pressed my lips into a tight line and continued walking toward the city’s outskirts. The bustling central district grew distant, and the crowds thinned out. Where the people in the heart of the city had worn flashy, colorful clothes, the ones out here looked drab, the kind of folks who probably smelled of dirt the moment you got close.
Now that we had reached the outer edge, it was time to get serious.
The special perk I possessed only helped me locate a Secret Merchant among goblin merchants. Actually finding the goblins themselves was something I had to do the old-fashioned way—through pure effort.
“Master. At this rate we’re going to leave the city entirely.”
“That’s exactly what I want, you troublesome disciple.”
“Pardon?”
“The merchant I’m looking for is someone the city center would never welcome. And since we can’t exactly turn back now, they have no choice but to retreat as far to the outskirts as possible and somehow scrape by.”
Goblin merchants were a subset of their kind that had blended into human society for a very long time. They could speak the human language, didn’t run around in nothing but a loincloth like their wild cousins, didn’t eat greedily, and made an effort not to clash with humans. Because of that, people treated them not as monsters, but simply as goblins.
Still, it was inevitable that their treatment was far worse than that given to actual humans. Especially the self-important big shots up top—they looked down on goblins and treated them like trash. That was why most of them lived on the outskirts rather than in the city proper.
“Eek! Master! Look over there! There!”
“Oh.”
I never expected Iris to spot them before I did. Where she was pointing, several goblins had laid out their wares on mats. If they had been ordinary goblins, they would have been screeching “Krrk!” while brandishing crude weapons, threatening people and sometimes even harming them—true monsters in every sense.
But these ones were different.
“Herbs here. Good condition! Very good!”
“Fresh mountain berries, just picked! Come taste how sweet they are!”
Having lived among humans since ancient times, one could even say they were more human than most humans.
“Um, Master? Aren’t goblins supposed to be monsters?”
“They are. They’re small monsters, but they can easily overpower and harm a single person.”
“Then why are they inside the city? Even if it’s the outskirts and not the center, how can monsters be—”
“They are goblins, but don’t call them monsters, Iris.”
“Huh?”
“As shabby as they look, these goblins have lived among humans for a very long time.”
“That’s impossible! In the cities you and I used to visit, there were always stories about goblins kidnapping children or attacking women!”
“Those stories are true too. But these particular goblins would fight their own kind to rescue children or women if they saw it happening. Think of them as a special case.”
Iris let out a small “Hmm,” and nodded as if she roughly understood. When you thought about it, beastkin and elves were in similar situations. Many of them chose to live in isolation, avoiding all contact with humans. But others rebelled against that decision and lived perfectly well among human society.
The difference with goblins was that beastkin and elves were born with beautiful appearances. So even the high-and-mighty didn’t show any particular disgust toward them.
“But wait a second, Master. You’re not seriously planning to buy my present from these goblins, are you?”
“That’s exactly what I’m planning.”
“N-no way! Master! Are you really going to give me some weeds?!”
“Why not? Aren’t you pretty close with weeds?”
“No way! Why would you even think I’m close with weeds?!”
“Whenever you went out to gather herbs, half of what you brought back were just weed friends. So I figured you two were close.”
I delivered the line with a perfectly straight face, and Iris’s expression turned into a total mess. She clearly wanted to scream, You can’t be serious! That doesn’t make any sense! But my face was too sincere for that. At the same time, the idea of me genuinely giving her weeds as a gift was so ridiculous that she couldn’t quite believe it either.
I briefly considered teasing her a little more. But if I pushed any further, even Iris would definitely get sulky. And not just a little—she would stay completely silent for a whole day, at least.
“As if I would give my precious disciple weeds as a present, Iris.”
“…You’re really not?”
“Would I lie to you? Anyway, my disciple really is a fool.”
“Uuuu! It’s not that I’m a fool, it’s that Master looked way too serious!”
The one who got tricked is the one at fault. I shrugged and walked over to the goblin merchants. They immediately launched into enthusiastic sales pitches—how wonderful these herbs were, how fresh the fruit had been picked, please try some, and if it wasn’t good they would take responsibility. Aside from their appearance, they were almost indistinguishable from humans in every other way.
“…They really are working hard.”
“They are. In a world full of people trying this desperately to survive, the Demon God Worshippers are the ones who would shove them off a cliff and cackle with glee.”
“How did they—and the world—become so twisted?”
“I don’t know. If there were someone who could give me an answer, I would have no other wish.”
If I knew, I wouldn’t be doing any of this. I would have gone straight for the root cause and crushed it. The origin and beginning of every single event that had been completely useless and uninteresting to me when I played the game. Because I didn’t know, I couldn’t do anything. And because I couldn’t do anything, things had come to this point.
The only thing I could do was protect myself and my disciples from the Enemy’s Will. In order to do that, I had no choice but to push both myself and my disciples into this world.
While I walked along, lost in those thoughts, a brilliant golden light suddenly caught my attention up ahead.
“…Found it.”
“Huh?”
“I found him. The goblin who’s going to sell you something decent.”
Usually, the faint glow around them only meant “nothing special.” The items were passable at best and largely useless, so most Secret Merchants ended up being complete duds. But this one was radiating a very bright aura. It looked like I could get my hopes up.
“Hey.”
“Are you a customer?”
“I am a customer. But I’m not interested in weeds or weird fruit. I’d like to see something else.”
“Something else, you say?”
“Don’t play dumb. You know—things you just happen to pick up while wandering the mountains.”
The Secret Merchant’s eyes darted around slyly. Even though they lived like this, they only sold items they truly believed in. And they made sure to get a proper price for whatever they sold. The way his eyes were rolling around right now was probably him sizing up me and Iris.
“Is this what you’re looking for?”
I casually showed him a Mana Stone. The goblin’s eyes widened into perfect circles and he let out a “Krrk!” of amazement before quickly covering his mouth. No matter how hard he tried, he was still a goblin at heart.
“…Is that a mana stone? It looks quite high quality.”
“It came from a mid-grade monster. Should be pretty decent.”
“May I examine it? You won’t run off?”
“Go right ahead.”
When I handed the Mana Stone over, Iris narrowed her eyes. She looked ready to grab him on the spot if he tried to bolt with it. But that wasn’t going to happen. While Secret Merchants were obsessed with mana stones, they didn’t throw away their minimum credibility as merchants.
This place might be an independent world, but it still shared many similarities with the game. That meant there were predictable patterns.
“Customer.”
The goblin finally finished inspecting it and looked up at me.
“This is quite a fine specimen.”
“You’ve got a good eye. I worked hard to get it.”
“With this, I can offer you up to two items. Would that be acceptable?”
Two items for one stone. I had only expected one, so that was quite generous.
“Sounds good. May I take a look at the goods?”
“Of course. Then please follow me for a moment.”
He wasn’t desperate enough to risk his life for greed like the monster-type goblins, but in the end, they couldn’t escape their racial limits. There was still desire. If he brought out the real treasures here, his fellow merchants would keep him in check. And if he charged too high a price, it could easily lead to a fight. That was why the truly valuable items were always hidden away in their own secret stashes.
The goblin quickly gathered up the items he had been selling, glanced around at the other merchants, and cautiously gestured for us to follow.
“Master.”
Just as I was about to follow the Secret Merchant, Iris suddenly spoke up. Her worried eyes seemed to ask if I was really going to follow him without any suspicion.
“My disciple. I trust you’re not imagining anything ridiculous.”
“…Ahem. Of course not, right?”
“You, who can take down a mid-grade monster, falling into a trap dug by a goblin. Me, your master, getting defeated by a goblin. If your imagination is running to that level, I think you deserve about a hundred flicks to the forehead.”
“Ahaha! No way! I really don’t think that! I just remembered what Master always said about not following strangers, and it popped out reflexively!”
That was advice that only applied back when she was still helpless enough to get hurt by goblins. Now she could easily handle mid-grade monsters—what was there to worry about? Only something on the level of a Fragment of the Demon God could be called a real crisis. And those didn’t just pop out randomly. More importantly, since they were essentially boss monsters, they always gave off warning signs before appearing.
“So stop thinking weird things and go pick out something you like.”
After snapping at her like that, I followed the Secret Merchant. We entered a shabby warehouse, passed through a side door, came out into a tool shed, and then went through yet another door. The moment we stepped through the final one, the golden light grew even brighter.
“These are the items I recently acquired. Please take your time and look around.”
What the Secret Merchant showed me were two swords, one shield, one spear, a full set of armor, several accessories, and a strangely shaped mask.
“They all look useful.”
“You have sharp eyes. I barely managed to bring them back from a deep forest far from here.”
At a glance, they were clearly artifacts from an ancient kingdom. They were a bit rusted and gave off a worn aura, but restoring that kind of treasure was no big deal.
“What will you do? Since they are all of similar value, I can give you two of them.”
Two items definitely wasn’t a losing deal. But settling for just breaking even felt somehow unsatisfying. In the game, you could only obtain a fixed number of items per visit. But here, there was no need to follow those rules.
“Hey.”
“Yes, customer?”
“I know you can sell as many mana stones as you want through the regular routes. But items like these are different. There’s no fixed market price, they’re hard to sell, and just holding onto them can make people suspicious. So when an opportunity like this comes along, it’s better to sell quickly, right?”
“…What exactly are you trying to say?”
You already know what I’m getting at. Stop pretending.
“Two feels a little light. Let’s make it four.”