The Scent of a Jackpot
They say that hundreds of years ago, people lived in towering buildings and existed in a world where everything could be solved with the flick of a finger.
But the world collapsed. The land became desolate, and to grow even a single crop, one had to search for soil that wasn't contaminated. Most people survive by scavenging the remnants of a fallen civilization, yet the vast majority remain destitute.
But what can you do? You have to earn a living somehow, whether by scavenging or trading whatever you can find. Kaira was a wandering merchant who traveled far and wide, peddling anything from scraps of the old world to handmade goods and food.
She had forced a broken-down cart into a state of semi-repair, piled it precariously with her wares, and set out on the road.
"This damn wheel screams every time it turns. Hey, hold it together! We're almost there!"
Kaira grumbled, kicking the cart wheel as it threatened to sink into the mud. There was only one reason she traveled all the way to this godforsaken backwater, leaving behind the underground city where she usually operated: to scrape together every last coin the poor had left. They didn't know the market prices of the city, and they were blinded by the trinkets of the ancient civilization.
'The decent trading spots have already been picked clean by those wretched hags, so I’ve got nowhere else to go!'
Places where you could actually make money were already occupied by established merchants or associations that guarded their territory jealously. In the first place, those places wouldn't even deal with a nobody like Kaira, and if she were caught trying to trade on the sly, she’d be blacklisted and vanish from the city without a trace. That was just how the world worked.
Left with no choice, small-time merchants like Kaira had to turn their eyes outward. Even out here, small-time traders fought over territory, leading to cutthroat price wars and sometimes even brawls. Fortunately, in the village she was heading to now, Kaira had been the only one monopolizing trade for several months.
A small village near the forest. The place, ruled by an elderly village chief, was essentially a "dud" from a merchant's perspective. It was such a destitute town that even if she swindled them on the price of her goods, all she’d get in return were a few damp leather scraps or some dried medicinal herbs. But it was better than coming up empty-handed, so Kaira entered the village entrance today, too, with a fake smile plastered on her face.
"Aigoo, everyone! Kaira has arrived with the freshest new goods from the underground city!"
"Oh! Kaira, it's been a while!"
She exchanged greetings with the woman who was standing guard at the village entrance at this hour. At first, it had been difficult to even enter the village because they were wary of strangers, but after months of coming and going, she was greeted with smiles and allowed in without any trouble.
'Hmm, still looks like a dirt-poor village.'
She grumbled inwardly, but on the outside, she bowed low with a bright, beaming smile.
"Everyone~ I'm here! New arrivals from the city! Hairpins! Plastic cups! Waterproof tarps that don't let a drop of water through! I've got everything!"
When she shouted at the top of her lungs inside the village, a few people reacted and gathered around, but...
'Huh? What's this? Why is the reaction so lukewarm?'
During her last visit, they had all gathered before she even finished speaking, eyes practically popping out of their sockets as they asked what she’d brought, but today was different.
The atmosphere of the village was definitely quite different from usual. The energy she felt the moment she entered the village wasn't the usual gloom, but rather a strange sense of vitality and heat. The women gathered in the square didn't even glance at her cart of goods; they were huddled together, chattering away with intense fervor.
"Aigoo, welcome!"
She still had to do business. After selling a few items to the handful of customers, they quickly dispersed. Something felt off. Kaira moved her cart to a corner and wandered deeper into the village.
She spotted a group of women chatting nearby. She leaned in to listen. To a merchant, information was money, and if she was lucky, she might stumble upon something profitable.
"...No, you really should have seen those eyes. It felt like I was being sucked into pitch-black pupils."
"I can't forget that jawline when he bit into the potato. How can a person's skin be that fair without a single blemish?"
As a woman with pigtails exclaimed with a flushed face, the woman next to her clutched her chest and chimed in.
"Don't even get me started. The scent that wafted off him when he brushed past my shoulder... there wasn't a hint of sweat, just the smell of morning dew in the forest. I really thought an angel had descended right there. I wanted to grab his pant leg and beg him to marry me."
"Marriage, my foot! If I could just bear his child, I'd have no other wishes in life. I could give birth to ten of his children!"
"Ten? I'd give birth to twenty."
"Hey, hey, do you think you could even touch the hand of a nobleman like that?"
Kaira couldn't make heads or tails of what the women were saying. She’d been visiting this village for months, and she’d never even seen a man. Of course, it was common for women to talk about men, but she’d never seen a reaction this specific and reverent. Phrases like "like a fairy," "smooth skin," and "nobleman" sounded like a handsome man had visited the village.
'A man... in this backwater?'
Kaira grew suspicious. Even the high-ranking officials from the underground city rarely came out to this filthy forest. And yet, a man so handsome that the entire village was buzzing had appeared and been welcomed? She slinked into their circle.
"Oh my, what are you all talking about so excitedly? Let me in on it, too. Did someone important come down from the underground city?"
At Kaira's sudden appearance, the women momentarily shut their mouths and exchanged glances. The atmosphere turned cold, and no one spoke. But it was impossible to keep their mouths shut after they’d already been so worked up.
"Oh, Kaira, you're here? No, it's just... a great benefactor stopped by."
They brushed it off, but their eyes were already glistening with longing for that 'benefactor.' She pressed for more, but they wouldn't say another word.
'Hmm? I smell something. I smell it! The scent of a jackpot!'
Kaira nodded vaguely and started her business again.
The women swarmed her, but their interest was still focused on that mysterious man. Kaira tried to probe the villagers further, but she gained nothing.
Kaira turned her steps toward the village chief's house. There, the old woman's granddaughter, 'Ria,' was wiping something down in the yard. Kaira approached Ria and slipped her a piece of candy she’d brought from the underground city.
"Ria, is your grandmother in? By the way, the village atmosphere is great today. Did you have some kind of festival?"
"Hehe, Merchant Sister! Do you know? A really cool older brother came to our village! He even solved all of Grandma's worries."
The girl's mouth was much looser than an adult's. She entered the old woman's house, coaxing more information out of Ria. But in the corner of the room, a long, slender rod that Ria was waving around like a toy caught Kaira's eye.
At first, she thought it was just a well-polished wooden stick. It was dark, so she couldn't see it clearly, but the moment the sunlight streaming through the window hit the object, Kaira gasped.
A subtle yet heavy luster. A perfect smoothness where not even a microscopic grain could be seen on the surface. It was unlike any metal Kaira had seen in her life while scouring the scrap warehouses of the underground city.
'...Wait, is that, by any chance?'
She approached Ria and asked cautiously.
"Ria, can you show that stick to Sister? It looks very fascinating."
Ria handed the rod to Kaira without a second thought. The moment it touched her hand, a cold, heavy weight traveled up her wrist.
"......!"
Her heart hammered violently. This wasn't rusted, filthy iron. It was a 'high-purity iron rod,' practically a relic of civilization with almost no impurities. It was a top-tier metal that only the direct technicians of the underground city's upper levels would ever handle—no, even they would struggle to see it due to a lack of raw materials.
"Ria! Where did you get this?"
"That older brother gave it to us! As a reward for being thankful!"
She didn't know what they had done for him, but he’d thrown away such a precious item in this backwater as a thank-you? Was he out of his mind? A few of these iron rods would be worth more than enough to buy a small house in the underground city. Kaira said urgently.
"Ria, will you sell this to me? I'll give you all the candy I have and all the fabric over there! No, I'll even throw in more money!"
"No! Grandma said this is something we must never sell!"
Just as Ria was getting scared and trying to take the rod back, the village chief walked out from the back of the room with a cold expression.
"Ria, what's the matter?"
"Oh, that is..."
"Ah, Chief! That's not it... it's about this item! Where on earth did you get this? It's quite a decent piece, so why don't you sell it to me!"
Kaira grabbed the old woman's hem in a panic. But the old woman firmly shook off Kaira's hand, snatched the rod from Ria, and hugged it to her chest.
"This is an item given to us by the benefactor of our village. Kaira, I'm grateful that you visit our village often, but this is not for sale."
The old woman's gaze was adamant. She seemed wary that Kaira, a merchant, would recognize the value of the item and bring harm to the village. In the end, realizing that further persuasion was meaningless, she shut her mouth. But her mind was already in chaos, like a storm.
A man who casually hands out high-purity metal as a reward. A peerless beauty who had bewitched every woman in the village.
'What kind of person is he to come to such a remote place and bewitch everyone?'
If she ever met this so-called benefactor of the village, she had to build a connection with him. It was clear he was someone with significant power outside the underground city.
She left the chief's house and was about to lay out her goods outside again when the area became noisy.
"Huh? Where is everyone going? Did something happen?"
She tried to grab a villager to ask, but they ignored Kaira and ran off somewhere in a hurry.
'Wh-what?'
Kaira was flustered, leaving her cart behind and chasing after the people. As if by agreement, the villagers were gathering toward the back of the village, near the small rabbit hutch. It was a place everyone usually avoided, calling it smelly and unsightly.
Then, she heard it. It was a clear, transparent 'boy's laughter'—something she hadn't heard in this dry forest village for decades.
"Big Sister, look at this! The rabbit is licking my palm!"
Kaira doubted her eyes. Inside the hutch fence, a boy with features as pretty as a doll was surrounded by the village women, laughing brightly. The women were at a loss, their expressions as if they had gained the whole world just from the boy's laughter.
'...A boy? There was a boy that pretty in this backwater?'
Kaira's mind spun rapidly. In a world where men were rare, the value of a boy with that level of appearance was beyond imagination. Between the benefactor everyone talked about and the pretty boy who had suddenly appeared in the village...
"My god... something is not right. If I play this right... this isn't just a jackpot."
Kaira felt her heart pounding as if it would burst. She finally understood why the village chief had been so sharp and tried to hide the iron rod. The moment this information leaked to the underground city, it was obvious that this quiet village would become a harvest ground for greedy power-mongers.
The merchant quietly slipped out from among the villagers and returned to her cart. Selling goods was no longer the issue. She hitched her cart and began to head back toward the city.
"A handsome nobleman, high-purity metal... and even a hidden boy. If I play my cards right, I can hit the jackpot."
Instead of thinking about how to sell the iron rod, Kaira began to contemplate how she should 'manage' this village from now on. To whom should she sell this information first? Or should she make contact with the man called the benefactor herself and secure exclusive trading rights?
The scent of money. A scent so intoxicatingly fragrant it was tickling the tip of Kaira's nose on the wind. She pushed her cart and left the village entrance. Usually, she would be light after emptying her goods, but even while pushing the heavy cart, her footsteps felt as light as a feather.
"Looks like I'll be coming here very often~"
Kaira muttered to herself as she disappeared into the wilderness heading toward the underground city. Her eyes were already flashing with plans to prepare for her next visit and to track the traces of the man known as the benefactor.