Forgotten Gloves in the Ruins
The morning arrived alongside a sky that was gradually clearing, though the situation inside remained far from settled. “Heh, heh… heh-choo!” Despite Rein’s efforts to keep me warm, sneezes kept escaping me the entire ride in the carriage. Even as I sniffled and swallowed the mucus running down the back of my throat, the damp smell of rainwater from the soaked tent fabric tickled my nose. Rubbing the spot beneath my nostrils with a finger to shake off the irritating sensation, I heard a worried voice beside me.
“Are you okay? You didn’t catch a cold, did you?” Rein asked cautiously, her expression anxious. Whether I had caught a cold or not, this was exactly the kind of situation that would make her feel self-conscious. No matter how hard I tried to suppress the sneezes, the human body simply refused to cooperate so easily.
“I-I’m fi… heh, hehh.” I tried to answer that I was fine, but my wretched body betrayed me once again. It would have been better if I could have just let out a proper sneeze. The tickling sensation at the tip of my nose gradually faded. Whether it was trying to turn into a cough or simply dying out, the unpleasant feeling—like dust floating inside my nostrils—lingered, and the bothersome sneeze retreated for the moment.
Reina noona, who had been watching me continue to sniffle, muttered a few words. “You’re going to have a rough time for a while.” As if responding to her grumble, another sniffle echoed through the carriage. Before long, the thin drizzle lost its strength, and intense rays of sunlight began to pierce through the clouds covering the carriage. The chilly air and rain clouds vanished as suddenly as they had appeared.
The wheels, which had been rolling and leaving tracks in the still-damp earth, came to a stop at the entrance to Caldera. As the murmur of people’s conversations reached our ears, the other passengers, including us, began gathering their belongings that had been rolling around on the carriage floor. The moment I stepped down from the carriage and set foot on the ground, I carefully offered a suggestion.
“Should we head to the inn first…?”
“Yeah, we need to drop off our luggage anyway.” With her ready agreement, we made our way to the inn in Caldera for the second time. After resting briefly, we decided to go out for a meal. Sitting on the edge of the bed in my separate room, I peeled off my sweat-soaked combat uniform.
“Hoo.” A long sigh escaped me, releasing all the stuffiness. The combat uniform, with its long sleeves and full coverage, offered no distinction between seasons. It was decent enough for winter as protection against the cold, but in summer it was truly unbearable. Once I removed the uniform, what lay beneath was skin the color of apricots. There were no visible muscles to speak of. Even so, the strength I could exert far exceeded that of most muscular adult men. Thinking about it, there really was no element as contradictory as the concept of levels. The same went for items with level restrictions…
Wear it if you can, don’t if you can’t. Mulling over the contradictory nature of levels, I let out a quiet chuckle to myself. Accessories were probably the same—one necklace or ring category could likely hold multiple pieces at once. Right now, I was already wearing a ring inside my glove and a brooch against my chest simultaneously. If I gathered every ring and necklace in this world and equipped them all, wouldn’t I become the strongest from that moment onward?
Huh? Wait a second, items…? The word suddenly brushed past my mind. Items. “Ah.” While I had been focused entirely on hunting and growing stronger, I had completely forgotten about them. A sigh mixed with realization slipped from my lips. I had completely overlooked farming items in Caldera. That said, if I rushed out right now, we were supposed to go eat soon anyway…
Would there be any free time after the meal? With that thought lingering, I spent a brief moment drying myself in the natural light. A light tapping sound came from the door, followed by a voice from the other side. “We’re heading out soon, so get ready.” Reina noona’s voice came through, short and decisive.
“Okay~” Drawing out my reply, I moved away from the window and began gathering my still-damp clothes to put them back on. They felt a little unpleasant, but they would dry slowly as I moved around under the sunlight. Walking through the daytime streets of Caldera alongside two women—enough to be called flowers in both hands—I noticed that the river and lake, swollen from the heavy rain the night before, had swallowed far more of the city center than during my previous visit. Regardless, the fishermen sitting along the edge of the lake were an impressive sight. For lunch, we naturally filled our stomachs with a full course of fish dishes.
Even after finishing the meal, the sunlight remained harsh and unrelenting. It was the kind of weather that made me instinctively raise my arms above my head in an attempt to create even a little shade. Hoping for some free time, I casually asked noona, “What are we doing now?”
“Hmm, since we’re here, how about some fishing?” However, Reina noona’s answer was far from what I had expected. The topic of fishing came up immediately. It seemed she had been disappointed that we had only looked at the lakeside last time without actually fishing.
“Fishing…?” Rein also seemed to find it rather sudden, tilting her head to one side as she repeated the word. Seeing our less-than-enthusiastic reactions, Reina noona scratched her cheek awkwardly. If it had only been me, she would have said something like, “What, got a problem?” But with two people now, she seemed to feel a bit embarrassed herself.
“Uh, you don’t want to…?”
“N-no! It’s just unfamiliar since we don’t have it in our village… Let’s go right away!”
“I think I’ll look around a bit…” Unlike Rein, who was forcing herself to match noona’s plans, I had suddenly remembered something I needed to do. Since they were accommodating each other, it should be fine for me to slip away. Without waiting for noona’s reply, I watched as she led Rein toward the lakeside and quietly left the area.
Thus, I finally obtained some time alone. Digging through my fading memories, I began wandering freely through the streets of Caldera. Starting from the city entrance, I moved carefully, counting each step as if traversing a single tile at a time. Where was that isolated building again…? My wandering footsteps eventually stopped at the outskirts of Caldera. It was not the city entrance with its lined carriages, but the very edge where there were no walls. This place had few people and almost no passersby. There stood a wooden building that had become a ruin, its door not merely open but completely torn away.
This seems to be the right place… Even in broad daylight, the atmosphere was far more desolate than expected. No one would come in and out of a place like this, and it was unlikely anyone lived here. Since there didn’t seem to be anyone managing it either, I boldly stepped inside. Light seeped through the gaps between the broken and rotted planks. Despite it being midday, an eerie energy lingered, and the stains splattered across the remaining workbenches and chairs created a frightening atmosphere. The only thing that hinted at the building’s former purpose was the sign illuminated by the incoming light, bearing the words “We’ll clean your fish for you.”
Regardless, this was not a place I wanted to linger in. Urging myself to find the item quickly and leave, I quickened my steps. Is this it? Before long, I discovered a small pile of dirt in a corner of the building. When I kicked over the obviously unnatural and crudely formed mound, a worn and tattered pair of gloves tumbled out. Bending down, I picked up one of the gloves that had been buried in the dirt… and the other glove came up with it, as if glued together. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the dark red stains inside the gloves had dried and stuck to each other.
Well, I had found the item… Honestly, I don’t really want to use it… If it were merely old, that would be one thing, but I had no desire to wear gloves stained with blood. Judging by the fact that I couldn’t even remember what effects they had, it was probably just a passing item anyway… Using gloves covered in someone’s unknown bloodstains felt repulsive, no matter how much I washed or tried to remove the blood. Given the location, they were likely gloves used for cleaning fish. If I had known the item would be like this, I wouldn’t have come at all. Losing interest, I tossed the gloves back onto the dirt pile without even bothering to bury them. Since they had been in a building where fish were once cleaned, their effect was probably something like “increased fish cleaning efficiency.”
Casually leaving the building behind, I set off on my journey to find the next item. Usually, there were two “special items” obtainable in a single city. In Windren, there were the boots I was still relying on and an old brooch whose effects I couldn’t recall. In Selindale, there was the accuracy necklace treated as a souvenir and something obtainable through a yet-to-be-activated request. By that logic, Caldera should also have two types of items available. What was the other one again…? Though faint, I had a sense that it was an item I absolutely needed to obtain. When I first learned of Caldera’s existence, I had thought “Ah!” only to immediately forget and let it slip away. Even that memory was from nearly three years ago. Perhaps because I had been worn down by the world in various ways, those memories were gradually fading. If only I could see the item’s appearance, I might remember it properly.
“Ugh…” As I walked out onto the main road with my arms crossed, a troubled groan escaped me. My hesitant footsteps wandered without a clear destination. While I was walking aimlessly like that for quite some time…
“Torn and worn leather clothes, shoes, gloves! We’ll repair anything—! This is Margaret’s Leather Workshop!” A lively voice echoed through the daytime streets. It was a woman’s voice, thin and delicate yet cheerful at the same time. As if responding to the voice, I slightly raised my head and met the eyes of the woman promoting her shop. After glancing over my outfit, she soon fixed her gaze below my pants.
“Young mercenary over there! Your boots look quite worn out. How about getting them repaired?” Whether from experience or not, the woman immediately identified me as a mercenary based on my clothing. Contrary to her speaking with her head raised again, I lowered my gaze. Boots? Just as she said, my boots had deteriorated significantly from long use. I had grown so accustomed to their poor condition that I had forgotten about it. Since they were still useful equipment, I had no intention of discarding them so easily. Somehow, it felt like I had been neatly drawn into her solicitation… but I obediently followed her guidance and entered a shop. The shop’s name was Margaret’s Leather Workshop. Inside, a sturdy-looking middle-aged woman stood behind the counter.
The moment I stepped into the shop, the middle-aged woman immediately began scolding someone. “Emily! Instead of bringing customers in from outside, you should be improving your own skills first! At this rate, when are you ever going to turn your mother’s shop into your own?!” Emily? Amid the scolding exchanged between mother and daughter, I heard a familiar name.