Arcana Online
We barely shook off the guards and headed in the direction the compass pointed. Then, far off in the distance, something came into view.
A person in a robe, carrying a huge bag on their back.
The compass was pointing straight at them.
“That’s her!”
“Kkyuuung!”
The person—no, the Kraken grandfather’s runaway youngest daughter—realized we were charging toward her and nearly jumped out of her skin before bolting.
“Aaaah!! Don’t come any closer!”
Why was she running?
It was only a slightly oversized bear rushing at her. If she shrieked and fled like that, our bear was going to get its feelings hurt!
No good. I had to clear up this misunderstanding.
“Stop right there, and I’ll spare your life!”
“Aaaah!!”
Even with that giant bag on her back, she could run like the wind. The distance between us didn’t shrink at all.
I reined the bear in and shouted at the top of my lungs.
“Let’s talk! Let’s talk!”
At the sound of my voice, she stopped running and turned to face me warily.
“What do you want!?”
“Kraken grandfather hired me to find his runaway youngest daughter!”
“Dad did!?”
When she heard that, she dropped her guard and came closer.
As she approached, she peeled off the robe that had been covering her from head to toe.
Was it some kind of item effect? Just a moment ago she had looked to be about 170 centimeters tall, but now a young girl who seemed closer to my own height—around 130 centimeters—was standing in front of me.
“You should’ve said so sooner! I thought you were trying to kidnap me!”
“You didn’t give me a chance to speak before you ran off!”
“How was I supposed to stay calm with a giant war bear charging at me!?”
Come to think of it, she had a point.
The bear was roughly fifteen meters tall, so if I imagined a giant robot chasing me, I’d probably run too.
After some back-and-forth, we finally cleared up the misunderstanding, and when I handed over the letter Kraken grandfather had asked me to deliver, she read it for a long while before tearing it to pieces.
“Hmph! You think I’d ever go back to that boring sea!?”
A mysterious girl who was a Kraken and yet hated the ocean.
Experience and favorability gained.
Well, the quest was cleared, so I guess that was that. She’d handle the rest herself.
More importantly, we still hadn’t even introduced ourselves.
“Nice to meet you. My name’s Yuna. I’m a traveler.”
“Lara. As you can see, I’m a merchant.”
The silver-haired, red-eyed little girl introduced herself as a merchant, smiling brightly and asking me to take care of her, but there was no mistaking it—she was human through and through.
Polymorph sure was convenient.
“By the way, can I ask you something?”
“Sure! Anything!”
“What’s in the bag you’re carrying?”
As if she’d been waiting for that exact question, she set the bag down and started showing me the contents one by one.
“You don’t get days like this every day! Look at this! It’s a sword with roses engraved on it, and it can cut through anything!? Buy it now for the low price of only one million gold!”
A peddler...?
Starting with swords and ending with dolls, there was nothing she didn’t have in there.
She really did have every kind of item imaginable stuffed into that bag, and among them, one thing caught my eye.
Choker of the Divine Dragon
A choker once worn by a shrine maiden who served the Divine Dragon.
The final set item I’d been looking for.
“H-how much is this!?”
Lara must have noticed how desperately I wanted it, because she broke into a grin.
“Well, that one was hard to get, so it’s a little pricey. You sure you can afford it?”
“How much...?”
“One billion gold.”
I stared at her, eyes wide enough to fall out of my head at that jaw-dropping number.
“Too expensive! Give me a discount!”
“No negotiations.”
Lara said it flatly.
If I didn’t want to buy it, then she wanted it back. She held out a hand, but I asked her to wait a moment and dug through my inventory.
If I sold all the Magic Stones I had on me, I’d probably just about manage it...
No, impossible! Yongyong and the bear would never let me get away with that.
While I was letting out a sigh, something else in my inventory caught my eye.
??? Box
I had no idea what it was.
An item I’d received as a gift from Grandpa in Sage Village.
Right now seemed like exactly the time I needed help.
I opened the box and checked the contents, only to find a single note inside.
Law Is Far, Fists Are Close
Law is far away, but fists are close at hand.
I folded the paper back up and slipped it into my pocket, and the moment I snapped my fingers, the bear sprang into action.
It rose to its full massive height and subdued Lara in an instant, making sure she couldn’t run.
“W-what!? What are you doing!?”
“Let’s begin negotiations. I’ll spare your life, so give me a discount.”
“That’s extortion!”
The negotiation, which had been going nowhere for ages, moved at lightning speed once the bear bared its claws.
So this was what all the Magic Stones I’d fed it were good for!
“C-customer. How about a special first-payment event—five hundred million gold!?”
“One hundred million gold.”
“Four hundred fifty million!”
“One hundred million gold, split into three monthly installments.”
“You’re ruthless!”
We sealed the deal with bright smiles and a handshake, and Lara glared at me like I’d personally ruined her life.
“In ten years of selling, this is the first scam deal I’ve ever seen.”
“What goes around comes around. You’ll be rewarded for it.”
“I’d rather get paid!”
The moment I put on the choker Lara had sold me, a message appeared.
Choker of the Divine Dragon
A choker once worn by a shrine maiden who served the Divine Dragon.
When equipped, greatly increases a summon’s stats.
When equipped, greatly increases a summon’s stats.
When equipped, greatly increases a summon’s stats.
When equipped, greatly increases a summon’s stats.
At the flood of notifications, I’d acquired a new skill.
Revival brought summon creatures back from the dead, and descent was supposed to let the Divine Dragon dwell inside a summon’s body?
Judging by the dragon character in the name, was this only usable on dragons?
Yongyong had dragon right there in his name, so maybe it would work on him too?
“Divine Dragon Descent!”
The notification said a giant bolt of lightning had struck Yongyong from the sky, but nothing changed.
“How is it? Do I look like a dragon now?”
“Kkyuuung?”
Yongyong tilted his head and burped.
What the heck. Why was nothing happening?
After waiting a long time and seeing no change at all, I was disappointed and tried another skill.
“Divine Dragon’s Revival!”
Restores a summon’s life through the effect of a special skill.
But again, nothing happened.
I’d picked up two dud skills, but at least I’d gotten the choker, so I supposed that was something.
“I’ll make good use of this.”
I comforted Lara, who was sniffling and crying, and we set off together.
Since she was coming with us to the next village, we started down the road, but her sales pitch still hadn’t ended.
As if trying to make up for her losses, she kept pulling out one item after another and saying she’d give me a discount, even trying to sell a High Magic Stone for thirty million gold.
The list price is ten million gold—how dare you try to make three times your money off me!?
“You crook! You’re marking it up three times!?”
“That’s how mobile sales work!”
“It’s way too expensive!”
*
*
*
News of a new development reached the information guild in the commercial city of Talisa.
Apparently, Yuna now had a bounty on her head.
“Is that true?”
“The war bear our benefactor keeps with her was caught trying to sneak into the city illegally.”
“Haah, if she’d just brought it in properly and shown the travel permit, there wouldn’t have been a problem.”
I took a sip of warm black tea and gathered my thoughts.
There was no way my benefactor didn’t know that.
“It seems she has a plan, so let’s leave her be for now.”
I didn’t know what she was thinking, but I had to support her as best I could.
“If any moths are drawn to the light of that bounty, eliminate them all.”
“Understood, Master.”
With those words, the shadow disappeared.
The tea was a little too bland, so I added more sugar and was just about to take another sip when hurried footsteps came racing in.
“I-it’s bad!”
“What’s all the commotion about?”
A guild member burst in, out of breath, and began reporting. To sum it up, the monsters were coming back to life?
“T-the dead monsters have revived and are causing havoc!”
“Locations?”
The areas around Cradle Village, the City of Stars, and Talisa Village—all the places our benefactor had passed through.
There was only one being in this world who could cause something like that.
Our benefactor.
I drummed my fingers on the desk and sorted out my thoughts.
“Ask every information guild for help and keep it covered up as much as possible. If you tell them our benefactor is the one behind it, they’ll cooperate.”
“Yes, Master.”
Every village and city had an information guild.
And there was no information guild that didn’t know our benefactor.
My head hurt just thinking about all the flashy chaos she’d caused again, but there was nothing for it.
Honestly. Our benefactor never had a quiet day, not even once.