The Northern Principality of Kartz (1)
"Haa... From here, I'll have to walk... won't I?"
Lights were just beginning to glimmer far ahead. I set down without a sound and hid my wings with Polymorph. A person sporting a dragon's wings drew eyes far too easily, whether the attention was kindly meant or not, and quiet was all I wanted. So I set aside every option that didn't look sound and kept only the safest one.
"...Come to think of it, there isn't a checkpoint or anything out here... is there?"
In the game, map transitions had been nothing more than a loading screen. This, though, was a world where people actually lived, and I had no idea how things would go. I started forward one careful step at a time. A woman clutching a blue-glowing herb and a crystal to her chest would look suspicious beyond words to anyone who didn't know her.
If there were no guards, so much the better. If there were, my only choices would be to slip in unseen, or else greet them as if nothing were amiss and move as naturally as I could.
"For now... I won't know until I try... And if I only have enough money, I'd like to stay a night at an inn..."
The hot-spring inn of northern Kartz—the place I had stayed at countless times in the game, both through the protagonist's eyes and simply to push the story along. The thought that I could actually go there lifted my spirits considerably. Visiting, in the flesh, spaces I had only ever known on a screen was something worth looking forward to.
"Haa... For now... I don't see any guards or sentries..."
Fortunately, there seemed to be nothing like an entry inspection on the way into Kartz's busy streets and market, nor any troops posted on watch. Stationing people along every stretch of the outskirts would have been too much to ask, I supposed. I started toward the market street, one cautious step at a time.
The world was nowhere near as developed as the modern age, so only a few softly glowing magic lanterns stood spaced along the road, lighting that quiet street. Night had fallen and footsteps had grown sparse, and yet the taverns still kept up their boisterous clamor. Seeing with my own eyes scenes I had only ever watched as a game, only on a computer screen, stirred a strange feeling in me all over again. Actually beholding the scenery I had loved so much—a fullness close to being moved—brought a faint warmth to the rims of my eyes.
"Ngh... Th-the wind..."
Embarrassed at the thought that someone nearby might be watching, I offered that small excuse and walked the street as if fleeing, looking only for a general store. I remembered clearly that a general goods shop, a magic shop, and an alchemy shop had all stood together on this street. My memory couldn't be wrong, so I went along quietly and looked around.
"Bonfire of the Snowfield... That was definitely the name of the inn I'd seen in the game... so somewhere near here..."
Ah. Found it. The place with its entrance covered by a beige canvas awning—that had been the general store. At the sight I remembered so clearly, I clutched the crystal and the snowghost herb tight against my chest, hurried over, drew the canvas aside with a soft rustle, and peered in.
"Hm? Who..."
"Ah... is the shop open right now, by any chance...?"
At my words, a man with a splendidly groomed mustache gave a quiet nod and smiled.
"What brings a pretty young lady out at this hour?"
"Ahaha... I came hoping to ask whether this general store buys goods like crystals and herbs."
At that, he quietly rose and began to look over what I held in my arms.
"...Miss, there's quite a lot I'd like to ask you, so I won't go prying into where you're from and the like. First, though—could you tell me where you got those goods?"
"Ah, these... I happened to find them up in the snowfield. A faint blue light was showing through a crack in the cliff."
"Hmm... You don't seem to be lying. But the Northern Snowfield is a place with quite a few fierce wild animals."
"I was lucky today. It was quiet—not a single monster or wild animal. Of course I thought it was strange too... but even if it is strange, isn't this better than letting the chance slip by?"
He gave a light nod, as if granting the point, and let out a warm chuckle.
"Right you are, miss. On a day when the snowfield is unnaturally still, going out to gather is exactly the thing to do. Unfortunately, though, what you've brought doesn't look like something I can put a price on."
I tilted my head at him. His eyes were plainly saying that quite useful goods had ended up in an unexpected person's hands, and yet his answer was that he couldn't buy them.
"Um... would it be all right if I asked... why...?"
If I could only sell them and be paid, I might have had a warm supper and spent the night at an inn with a hot spring cozy enough to unwind my whole body. When my face fell of its own accord at the sense of that hope crumbling before my eyes, the man quietly offered me a way forward.
"Don't be too disappointed. I'm only saying this shop can't take them. Goods like what you've brought would fetch a fine price at a place that handles alchemy materials."
"Ah, an alchemy shop... Would the one right next door be the place?"
"Yes. The owner over there looks a little gloomy, but she's a good person, so don't worry and go on. Unlike me, she won't put you in a difficult spot."
Perhaps it had bothered him that I'd answered his earlier questions while watching his mood. He said as much and waved me on.
"Ah, thank you. I'll stop by again next time, then."
I didn't feel I had all that much time either, so I slipped carefully out of the general store and turned to the shop beside it. The interior looked dark, as if an obscurement spell had been laid over the glass. When I stared at it with focused attention, what the magic had hidden slowly began to come into view. On one side a cauldron full of potions was boiling, and a single witch stood stirring it.
I'd forgotten to ask what point in time this was, so I still couldn't be certain. Even so, seeing that witch—Ibella, an NPC I had known from the game—meant it probably wasn't so very far off. If that was the case, the odds were high that this was a few years before the beginning of White Snow's Guardian Knight.
The magic on the shop was something Ibella must have designed with considerable care, and yet it had come undone with simple ease—perhaps because this body, Mircania's, overflowed with talent for magic, and because its race was dragon. With nothing more than a very small, very simple wish to see what lay beyond with my own two eyes, I had broken the spell and looked through. It was rather wondrous. I felt, in some real way, that my will could become a magical ability, or something close to one. A dragon was never a common creature, nor a weak one. Even if things went awry, I had enough power to keep my own life intact, and that thought brought me a little relief.
Still, I couldn't waste time lost in thought forever. I knocked quietly, and the shop door creaked open on its own, as if telling me to come in.
"Would it be all right if I came in?"
"Yaaawn... My shop, at this hour... A crystal?"
True to Ibella, whose eyes spun the moment the subject was a material for alchemy or potion-making, she looked not at my face or my body, but at the crystal in my arms.
"I came to sell this crystal and... a little snowghost herb. Do you buy them, by any chance?"
"Obviously. If anything, hauling a crystal all the way here to sell it is something I ought to welcome. It's a pain to go out and gather. Same for that snowghost herb."
They were materials from the Northern Snowfield, an environment far too harsh for humans to live in, so Ibella seemed interested in them for that alone. For now, though, so long as she bought them, things would turn out well either way. No need to think about anything else.
"About how much could I get for this much?"
"Hold on. What's the big rush? What, did you steal them? Stolen goods or something?"
She squinted at me, suspicion plain on her face. I gave an awkward laugh and shook my head. Saying I looked rushed because I was hungry would have been a little too embarrassing. I simply went on waiting, taking in the sight of the witch staring fixedly at the crystal.
"Hmm... Pretty high purity. This much would be useful all over the place... But it works for smithing as well as alchemy. Couldn't you have sold it at a forge?"
"Ahaha... This place just came to mind a little sooner."
"...Yeah? Fine by me, then. Crystal's about fifteen gold, and the snowghost herb five, so I'll call it twenty gold. That all right?"
Even twelve gold wouldn't have been bad, but twenty was more than I'd hoped for. I nodded happily.
"Yes, that's fine. If anything, it's better than I expected."
"Right. Have a good day. Night already, but still."
"Yes, you have a good day too."
I turned with a bright smile for Ibella and stepped out of the alchemy shop. I had plenty of money now. It was time to go and truly fill a starving stomach.