Good Morning, and a Little Enlightenment
I burst into the first floor with all the energy I could muster and shouted, “Good morning, everyone!”
But Elly’s reaction was… less than enthusiastic.
“Gruuuh…”
She was slumped over the counter like a half-melted candle. It didn’t look like an act—her usually perky ears drooped limply, and her tail, which normally swayed lazily, hung completely still.
“Did Elly die…?”
“Ugeeeek.”
Even when I poked her shoulder, the only reply was that zombie-like groan. Worried that something might actually be wrong, I stepped closer.
“Whoa! That smell… just how much did you drink?!”
“……”
Elly held up two fingers in response to my startled retreat.
“What? You’re saying two bottles did this to you? I didn’t realize you were such a lightweight.”
“No…”
Her voice was still cracked and gravelly, like she’d crawled straight out of hell, and it corrected my assumption.
“Ah, so after those two bottles you kept pounding drinks for another two hours straight! Well… if you drink nonstop for two hours, this is what happens. Come to think of it, you smoked a ton yesterday too. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Th-that’s not it either… and no, I’m not okay…”
Elly’s face had gone deathly pale. Wait, then what the hell did those two fingers mean?
I tilted my head in confusion for a moment before the source of the unease finally clicked. The shelves behind the counter, which should have been packed with bottles, were completely empty. Only two expensive-looking ones remained.
Don’t tell me she drank everything except those two?
That’s actually kind of terrifying.
“Elly… what kind of bar owner drinks all her own stock?”
“Yona, when you grow up you’ll understand… there are moments when you just want to get wasted…”
Why wouldn’t I understand? Sure, I look like this now, but back on Earth I was a proper adult. Still, I shrugged and played along.
“Sigh. So this is what being an adult is like! Why do people even drink anyway?”
“Because there are things they want to forget?”
“What do you want to forget?”
“Beats me. What was it again? I already forgot.”
Even while dying from her hangover, Elly let out a silly little laugh. Seeing her like that, I couldn’t help but chuckle too.
“You’re such a dummy, Miss Adult.”
“Dummy is what adults are, huh.”
She said it like that, but it must have been something genuinely important to her. I’d never seen her look so dark before. I don’t know what happened, but… I’ve given up plenty of things myself just to survive on the Pan continent. Writing was one of them. In my previous life I’d acted like I’d die if I couldn’t write, but after dying once, I was more than willing to abandon it if it meant staying alive. Besides, I was too busy trying to eat and survive to have time for leisurely writing. Still, every time I stumbled across a setting I’d come up with back on the Pan continent, the longing for Earth hit me like a truck. Even though I knew I could never go back, I found myself thinking in these helpless moments that it didn’t matter—I just wanted to drink until I blacked out. To forget everything about my past life and just sleep soundly with a clear mind. Especially since this wasn’t some world destined for destruction or anything. It made the urge even stronger.
Anyway, that was a long tangent. The point is that excessive emotion breaks people. Maybe Elly felt something similar?
Whether from the hangover or not, the first thing Elly did after getting up was pull out one of those magic herb cigarettes and light it. She reached into her pocket out of habit, then froze.
“Huh? Where’s my lighter? Has anyone seen my lighter?”
“…I don’t know about the lighter, but you’ve got me!”
I scampered over and lit her cigarette with a tiny spark of flame. That’s right—this responsible puppy right here is me.
Elly looked dazed as she put the cigarette in her mouth, but soon she melted into a languid slump. The pain-relieving effect of the magic herb must have kicked in. Only after confirming she looked more comfortable did I speak up.
“I’m planning to head over to the commercial district for a bit today, so I’ll grab lunch on my own.”
“…I don’t remember ever saying I’d make you lunch.”
“But if I hang around in front of you like this, you’ll end up making it anyway, right?”
“……”
Elly said nothing and just kept puffing on her cigarette. I giggled at the sight and started walking.
When I was about halfway out the door, Elly’s low voice drifted after me.
“I’ve decided to trust you, Yona.”
“Huh? Where did that come from all of a sudden? Don’t tell me you couldn’t trust me until now…”
“Just saying. If you’re going, go already. My head hurts, so stop talking to me.”
A clumsy attempt to shoo me away. I let out a long sigh and waved.
“I’ll be back.”
“Yeah.”
Dropped alone into the Pan continent with nothing to my name. But now that I had a place to return to, the feeling was strangely ticklish.
The reason I decided to take a day off even though I hadn’t pushed myself that hard yesterday was simple. It was my first trip into the labyrinth, after all. She’d given me time to reflect on what had been lacking and what had gone well. She’d also told me to prepare anything I might need. In other words, it was reorganization time.
In my case, I planned to take the huge haul of magic herb and recovery herb I’d pulled and have a decent alchemist refine them into elixirs.
…Though I’d dumped all that money into the gacha instead.
That’s why I’d secretly borrowed the lighter magic tool from Elly without her knowing. It looked pretty expensive, so selling it should cover the commission fee and still leave plenty left over.
But I also have a human heart, you know.
Elly seemed to have gone through some kind of emotional shift without me realizing. And she’d only told me she trusted me ten minutes ago—how could I just flip around and sell her lighter?
“So I’ll just pawn it.”
I can always go get it back later. That’s how considerate and warm-hearted I am.
Humming a little tune, I stepped into a small pawn shop tucked in the corner of Pangrave Square. True to its elven owner, the place treated me with cool professionalism regardless of who I was or what I’d brought. I liked that.
“Five silver. However, if you promise to use only this shop instead of any other pawn shop from now on, I’ll add another fifty copper.”
“Deal!”
No matter how fancy the magic tool was, it was still the lowest-grade kind that only lit fires. And this was Labyrinth City, where mages were practically rolling around on the ground. I wasn’t even selling it outright—just using it as collateral for a loan—so five silver was already generous. Throwing in another fifty copper on top of that?
I knew I’d have to pay it back eventually, but there was no reason to turn down money right now, so I nodded immediately.
In truth, the elf wasn’t offering generous terms for any special reason. The more he lent out, the more customers he’d attract. If he could beat out the surrounding pawn shops in competition, it was obvious he’d monopolize the market in a hundred years. That’s why he lent generously. And while he was lending a lot, he was confident he could sell that lighter magic tool for more than five silver and fifty copper if things went south. In Labyrinth City, where adventurers dropped dead left and right, pawn shops were famous for never taking a loss.
“This is why elves make great business partners.”
I could tell he had his own schemes, but the story was so relaxed that it was nothing but profit for me. The elves probably thought the same.
The weight of my newly bolstered wallet brought a big, goofy smile to my face. My steps toward the alchemy shop I’d scouted earlier felt light—almost bouncy.
After losing the World Tree during the Divine War of Destruction, the elves had suffered from extreme spiritual emptiness for a long time. The World Tree had been an undeniable divine being, but its domain was slightly different from the other gods. It was simply the first tree to take root in this land, the oldest lifeform—an awe-inspiring existence that simply was. It was impressive, but it had no particular role. Just a really big tree. What gave it color was the elves who lived centered around it.
Why? It’s a common enough story. Primitive animism that treats wondrous natural objects like gods. The elves revered the World Tree as a deity and worshipped it devotedly. Thanks to that, even though it had only been an ordinary tree with tremendous vitality, it gained ego and divinity. Because of that origin, an unbreakable spiritual bond formed between the World Tree and the elves. Based on that bond they developed slowly but steadily… until the final stages of the Divine War of Destruction.
The World Tree offered itself as a sacrifice for the elves and the land they lived on. The connection between them was severed, and the elves, having lost their spiritual pillar, wandered in hardship for a long time.
But all wandering eventually comes to an end. As the Pan continent rapidly rebuilt itself with the power of the labyrinth, the elves who had been sitting in despair began to stand up one by one. The moment they resolved to adapt and live in a world without the World Tree, they realized something.
They already had a new spiritual pillar.
And the name of the new god suited to the new era was…
Humanity, having fought until they nearly destroyed themselves, had learned the horrors of war. Thanks to that, large-scale conflicts and race-based discrimination had mostly disappeared. Since the labyrinth existed, martial power still held value, but it was only natural that wealth had begun to carry just as much weight.
The elves, having realized this truth, began doing everything the law allowed. They used their beautiful appearances and long lifespans to repeat political marriages and widowhoods to increase their land and assets. They took advantage of the fact that rising prices always meant profit in the long run and engaged in three-hundred-year long-term investments. Using the capital they’d gathered, they willingly took short-term losses to win price wars and monopolize surrounding markets. Little by little they began to grasp the financial power of the Pan continent, and though it might not be obvious now, someday they would become the most corrupt race on the continent.
“Mmm…”
My thoughts had gone on a bit long, but it wasn’t like I suddenly dug through my memories of elven lore just because I’d borrowed some money from a pawn shop. The point is that while elves are dead serious about money, they know they’ll profit in the end anyway, so they generally pursue legal methods. That’s why elven criminals are extremely rare. And if there are any, they’re big shots who rule the underworld. It’s only natural for a race that asks why they’d bother with crime when the benefits of staying clean are so great.
Thanks to that, I spotted them immediately even in the middle of the crowd. That back of the head with its distinctive elven beauty mixed with a sleazy vibe.
“It’s those bitches from before.”
Back when I still hadn’t realized the gacha system existed, I’d been wandering around begging when I ran into a pair of elven scammers. I’d followed them because their pretty faces caught my eye, only for them to snatch every last copper I’d worked so hard to beg for. That day I swore I would definitely pay them back for that humiliation someday.
“The chance has finally come.”
I focused, lightly lifting my heels. It didn’t show much on the outside, but it definitely reduced the sound of my footsteps. Using my small frame, I slipped through the crowd. To anyone watching, I probably just looked like a kid desperately trying to weave through the throng.
Little by little, but surely, I closed the distance until I was right behind my targets. Up close, there was no doubt. These two were the utterly wicked thieves who had stolen the eight copper I’d earned from begging all day. That was enough to buy a single piece of cheap, almost moldy bread!
Return favors twofold and grudges tenfold. It might be someone else’s family motto, but who cares? For this moment, call me Vengeful Yona.
From the closest distance I could naturally approach, I held my breath and let my body follow the flow of the crowd. My presence faded to almost nothing. The strange sensation of my existence vanishing and becoming part of the background, as if I were looking down on everything from above, enveloped my whole body. And then, as if possessed, my hand moved on its own.
Swish.
My hand shot out faster than the eye could follow, making a round trip through the two elf bitches’ pockets. Its final destination was, of course, my own.
…Easy.
A perfect relocation that no one had noticed. I inwardly showered myself with praise as I slipped sideways out of the crowd, as if I’d been pushed out to the edge of the street.
I watched the backs of the elven thief bitches as they moved away, leaving only their wallets behind, and smiled with satisfaction.
This is true education. This is enlightenment…
Just as I was about to continue on my way in high spirits, someone grabbed my shoulder from behind.
Tap.
“Yona. Take your hand out of that pocket.”
“Aieeeeeeeee!!!”
Rydia?! Why is Rydia here?!?!