The Jewel Merchant
After I received the flower crown from Mari, the festival stopped feeling quite so overwhelming. Evelyn and I ranged farther through the grounds, eating street food and browsing the peddlers' stalls as we went.
I didn't actually need to eat, but Evelyn did, so we bought all sorts of things, and every time I stole a taste.
"Well? Not bad, is it?"
"......I think what I made was better."
"That's true, but...... you only got a single bite."
So Evelyn had liked that poisonous-mushroom chicken of mine after all. It really had been absurdly good when I tried it. And now that we had an antidote, if she liked it, couldn't she just finish the plate and swallow the antidote afterward? Terrible for the body, sure. Wonderful for the mouth.
Anyway, among foods that wouldn't actually make you sick, the best so far was roasted pork on bread, slicked with thick gravy. Honestly, even that was pretty bland—but it still beat those grassy dumplings Evelyn had been eating last time by a mile.
We kept wandering, and before I knew it the sky had begun to dim. The circus ought to be starting soon. I headed for the tent full of anticipation, only to find a notice asking for patience: the preparations would take a little longer.
What? Had something gone wrong? I was staring at it with uneasy eyes when Evelyn stepped forward and spoke to one of the staff.
"Has something happened?"
"I'm terribly sorry. We're still sorting things out among the performers. We'll sound a trumpet once we can let people in, so please bear with us a little longer......"
Trouble between the performers? What, had the tiger that was supposed to jump through a flaming hoop suddenly declared a strike?
"Looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer for the show."
I didn't answer. Late was fine, so long as they actually performed. I was really looking forward to it. I just hoped they wouldn't up and cancel.
So what were we supposed to do until the trumpet sounded? I felt as if I'd already seen everything the festival had to offer.
That was when I noticed a tent with a strangely unsettling air—one that hadn't caught my eye until now. Another peddler? It looked awfully gloomy. Some kind of secret shop?
I tried to steal a glance, but the flap was shut, and I couldn't tell what the place was.
"What do they do over there?"
"Hmm. I'm not sure...... Was there a merchant like that?"
Even Evelyn seemed to be seeing the shop for the first time. I was curious what they sold in there. The other stalls hadn't amounted to much—toy swords, cloth dolls, decorative cords, junk with no value to me at all. But call it a gamer's instinct. I had a feeling that place sold something you wouldn't find at any of the others.
"Shall we take a look?"
"Well, go on. We've got time anyway."
We pushed through the gloomy canvas, and what greeted us was......
"Ah, welcome!"
A shopkeeper beamed an excessively bright smile at us, and behind him wooden cases displayed ornate precious metalwork.
"A jewelry shop," Evelyn said. "Why did you keep the tent closed?"
"Haa. As you can see, business isn't happening at all."
So he'd shut the place up entirely because nothing was selling. I could understand that, more or less. This village was a quiet beginner town that didn't even have a lord right now. Jewels were never going to move in a place like this, and if he put them on display and got robbed, the loss would be enormous.
"Oh dear. However did you end up in a village like this?"
"Well, I'm partnered with the Haity Circus. I follow them and open a stall wherever they go. The places they usually travel are wealthy territories. But here......"
In other words, he'd picked the wrong spot to lay out his wares. I almost felt sorry for him. Everyone else was at a festival, and he was the only one with no business.
"By the way, your companion there......"
As he said it, the merchant looked me over from head to toe, as if appraising how I was dressed. It felt unpleasant. I flinched and took a small step back—and whatever he saw in me, his face suddenly lit up, and he launched into a warm welcome.
"Haha! I knew even a village like this would have a noble young lady or two come to look around!"
Startled by the sudden hospitality, I slipped behind Evelyn. She eyed him warily and asked, sharp:
"......How did you know this child is a noble young lady?"
"That ring. I make my living off jewels. Did you truly think I wouldn't recognize a family ring?"
"A family ring?"
Only then did I realize I was wearing the ring of House Elysia.
Still—how could he tell I was a noble young lady from a single ring? It could have been something I picked up off the street. I actually had picked this one up at the mansion. But the jewel merchant dismissed even that possibility and went on.
"And a ring engraved with a family's crest can be worn only by someone the family itself has acknowledged."
Wait. What?
Was that a thing?
The realization hit a second later. Now that I thought about it, there had been something like that.
Rings bearing a family crest—other than House Elysia's—had a mechanic where you could equip them only after raising that house's affinity past a certain point. I'd never bothered with that kind of hassle in the game, so I'd forgotten all about it. But the House Elysia ring was basically a tutorial item. You could wear it without building any affinity, couldn't you? Did that mechanic apply to this ring too?
I didn't remember ever being acknowledged by House Elysia. And how were you even supposed to raise affinity with a house that was already gone—
Ah. Wait.
Don't tell me. That butterfly, back then? If that had been the soul of House Elysia......
The thought made me look back at Evelyn. Sure enough, the misunderstanding had sunk even deeper than before. She seemed fully convinced now that I was Ira Elysia herself.
...Any chance to explain myself is long gone.
Not that I'd had the courage to explain anyway.
While I stood there frozen solid, the merchant went on with practiced ease.
"Haha! Please don't worry so much. Coming dressed like that means you don't want anyone to know you're here, doesn't it? I understand completely. I won't breathe a word to anyone, so set your mind at ease and look around."
From the sound of it, he had me down as some noble young lady who had slipped out of her house in secret to see the circus. Picked apart, it wasn't that far off......
Still, I was curious what he sold, so I stepped toward the ornate ornaments in the wooden cases.
"These are......"
Every one of them was familiar. Jewels were always in demand as materials for the alchemist class, so a gold farmer like me had no choice but to learn them by heart. And seeing the real things, instead of tiny icons, was strangely nice.
I'd been staring for a while when Evelyn hesitated, seemed to make up her mind, came over, and smiled.
"See anything you like? If you do, you can pick one."
"Really?"
These had to be expensive. The moment that thought turned my eyes to the jewels, the merchant seized the opening and launched straight into his pitch.
"Oh, you've got an eye! That red gleam—a brooch made from a specialty of the Carlson region. Normally three gold, but right now I'll let it go for only two!"
"Two gold......!"
Evelyn looked horrified. I didn't know the state of a hunter's purse, but if even Evelyn—who hadn't shown much resistance to our spending so far—gasped like that, two gold had to be a serious sum. And she'd told me to pick whatever I wanted while reeling at a mere two gold...... She probably hadn't known jewels cost that much. Hard to imagine a girl born and raised in this little country village would be wise to the market.
Even so, having already made the offer, she quickly opened her purse and checked her funds. She looked ready to actually pay if I showed the slightest interest.
I had never intended to buy it. At the auction house that brooch didn't even go for one gold, and here he was trying to take two. I hadn't been looking because I liked it. I'd only been wondering why it was displayed more flashily than everything else.
I looked away from the brooch. It wasn't my money, but I still didn't want to let him fleece Evelyn.
The moment I did, the merchant held up another piece and started in again.
"Then how about these violet teardrop earrings, in a color that suits the young lady? These are two gold and ten silver......"
I turned my head before he even finished. I hated earrings no matter the price. You had to pierce your ears before you could wear them, and that sounded like it would hurt.
When I shook my head, I could feel him throwing everything he had at keeping me—the first and last customer this village was ever going to give him—holding up piece after piece.
"Then what about this necklace? The jewel used in the setting is like—"
"Or this ring, then? A fine piece as well, made in a rather renowned workshop—"
I refused them all. Every last one was a rip-off. After so many refusals, even forcing a smile seemed to be reaching its limit.
"Er, miss? You do intend to buy something, don't you......?"
"Hmm."
Haggling was a pain. Maybe I should just not buy anything.
"Evelyn, let's—"
I was about to say we should leave the tent when my eye caught a necklace in the corner, abandoned as if someone had tossed it aside.
"This necklace......"
When I picked it up, the merchant answered in the voice of a man who was tired and would be grateful if I bought anything at all.
"Ah, that one? Nothing worth explaining. Thirty silver. You buying it?"
"Thirty silver?"
A necklace set with a cloudy blue gem. The setting was crude, without a single flashy thing about it. But the stone was unmistakably Yurcon ore—the one whose price jumped past five gold after the new Swift Enchant was added. I'd once bought up necklaces set with it and made a tidy profit dismantling them, so there was no mistake.
And this was thirty silver? Had the Swift Enchant not been invented in this world yet? Or did the jeweler simply have no idea what the stone was worth?
Good. This much, I could buy. I wasn't out to get filthy rich off a price gap, but at this level it wouldn't hurt to pick it up as a small investment.
"I'll take this one."
"You're sure about that one?"
Evelyn, too, seemed privately and enormously relieved that I'd chosen something cheap. Her voice carried less a request for confirmation than a plea: please, let it be that.
"Yes. This one, please."
We chose the necklace and stepped out of the tent, and right then the trumpet sounded.
All right. Time to go see the circus.