Touring the City (2)
Dragging Iseria by the wrist—she was too busy gawking at the city to watch where she put her feet—I made straight for a restaurant.
I'd said I was going to sell the meat, and the moment we walked past the butcher's, she spoke up.
"Where are you planning to sell it?"
"There's a place nearby that specializes in meat dishes. I'm selling it to them directly."
The cuts were already well dressed and perfectly fresh. No point dumping them on a butcher. People without the skill handed their kills off cheap to a slaughterman. I had the skill.
"Excuse me. Anyone in?"
"Busy getting ready to open—who is— Oh. Black hair. It's you."
"It's been a while. Business treating you well?"
"Monster Wave season's coming up, so it feels like we've got even more customers than usual. What brings you by?"
I stepped aside so the owner could see and gestured at the slab of meat floating beside me. Only then did the fifty-odd kilos of wild boar monster meat register, and his eyes went wide.
"That's a Wild Boar, isn't it? Since when could you take one of those down? You selling?"
"Got lucky. Bled it properly and butchered it clean. Fresher than anything you'd get from a butcher, I'd wager."
He didn't spare a thought for the fact that the meat was hovering in midair. He looked it over, smelled it, pressed it lightly with a fingertip, and only then gave his verdict.
"Condition's solid, all right. Less of that gamey stink, and the meat's tender. Must've dropped it in one clean hit."
"Not a bad eye, for a human."
"Hm? The way this one talks..."
"Ah, sorry. She's not quite right in the head."
The owner's remark had caught it—the Wild Boar's head had been sheared clean off by a single spell—and Iseria's pride had swelled on the spot. She'd tugged the hood of her robe low when we entered the city, so no one had realized she was an elf. Passing her off as someone a little touched was the easiest cover I had.
Stay still. If they figure out you're an elf, you'll only draw eyes we don't need.
Kh... I'll pay you back for this insult someday.
Leaving Iseria glaring daggers at my back, I opened the deal.
"Took some doing, dressing what I caught in the Kalian Forest and keeping it fresh on the way in. How does sixty silver sound?"
"Hoo... Condition's good, but that's steep. Make it forty-five."
"You'd be hard-pressed to get meat like this from a butcher, and you know the same coin there buys you worse. How about fifty?"
"Fair point. Fifty silver, then."
"Thank you!"
Fifty had been my target all along, so I'd opened at sixty on purpose, and the haggle landed exactly where I wanted it. Even so, the owner was no fool. I hadn't exactly fleeced him. Quality goods, with labor and a little personal pull tacked on—more like he'd thrown in a modest commission.
My shoulders felt lighter and my purse felt heavier. There wasn't much to spend money on in this world, but old capitalist habits die hard. A fat coin pouch clinking at my hip put me in a fine mood.
"Owner. What's a Monster Wave, anyway?"
"You don't know? Well, thinking about the timing, I suppose you wouldn't."
I asked about the phrase he'd let slip. It sounded like pure fantasy, and dangerous besides. He gave me a reasonable explanation.
North of Silbaerin lay the Kalian Mountain Range. To the east stretched the vast Kalian Forest and the elves' territory. The elves kept fiercely to themselves, and whenever the monsters in the forest grew too numerous they handled it on their own, so the east didn't need much worrying over.
The problem was the beasts of the northern mountains. Anything that survived that brutal wilderness was, without exception, tough and savage. If they only bit and tore at each other up in the peaks, no one would care—but these monsters attacked the city on a regular cycle. Mostly autumn and spring, and right now it was the latter. In autumn they came down hunting food to last the winter; once they'd eaten through those stores and gone hungry again, they attacked a second time.
I'd crossed into this world in winter, so the timing had never overlapped. Living in ignorance could have gotten ugly. Useful to know.
"Thank you. Hope you sell plenty today."
"Yeah. Wave's coming—watch yourself."
We left the shop and started sightseeing in earnest.
Iseria had left the elven lands hunting for something to stir her blood, and her first brush with human civilization had her poking at every novelty like a five-year-old. Harmless goods were one thing. Delicate ornaments, grimoires, and other expensive wares were another, and she grabbed at those too, which landed us in trouble more than once.
"Hey! If you're not buying, don't touch!"
"Ahaha... Sorry about that."
In the end, the bowing fell to me. A stallkeeper's bark only cowed her for a moment. Then her eyes lit up again and she went right back to browsing.
"Iseria. Take this."
"What is it, Jin?"
"Half the money from the meat. Your share."
I split the fifty silver and handed her twenty-five. I hadn't lifted a finger when the Wild Boar went down, but the trimming, the packing, and finding a buyer had all been me. Half seemed fair enough—she was staying at my place, besides. Even an elf wasn't wholly ignorant of money, so I only had to explain roughly what silver was worth.
"Why do humans treasure this stuff? Honestly..."
She took the pouch looking awkward, as if she couldn't quite grasp its value, then followed the clink of the coins straight into a bakery.
"Here. I want to buy this bread."
"Welcome! Twenty copper."
What she pointed at, striding right up to the counter, was a muffin still steaming and fragrant with butter, as if it had just come out of the oven. It looked delicious even to me. For Iseria, tasting the mortal world for the first time, it was a temptation she had no chance of resisting.
She handed the baker a single silver coin. Hardly glancing at the change, she snatched up the muffin and started wolfing it down.
"Mmmph! Mm!"
"What—what's with you. Is it good?"
"Phaah! Sweet and fluffy! And the inside's so soft and crumbly, the texture is incredible. What's this called?"
"Ah... that would be a muffin."
Having demolished one in a flash, she pulled out the change and counted it. Twenty copper for the muffin, eighty copper back. Finished with the math, she broke into a bright smile.
"Human! Four more of these muffins!"
"Of course~ Thank you~"
"Ugh. I'm stuffed."
"Called it."
Eyes gone wild for muffins, Iseria had eaten five of them in a row on the spot. She wasn't ill—just gasping under ordinary fullness—so it probably wasn't a real problem. After that she stopped hunting for sights. The first look is the marvel. Stare long enough and it's the same scenery over and over; she seemed to have gotten used to it. I headed for the ingredient market with an easy mind.
Winter had only just passed, and the selection was thinner than I'd hoped. The usual aged flour, salt, and spices, with the occasional spring green. There were animal goods too—butter, eggs. Milk was hard to find unless you came in the morning.
I passed the familiar ingredients and pushed deeper into the market. Before long the proper shops gave way to mats spread on the ground, and the people behind them weren't merchants so much as adventurers. Exactly what I'd been after.
Adventurers wandered the world trading this and that. Human honeybees, if you like. Sure enough, their mats were crowded with things that caught the eye at a glance: suspiciously glittering powder, a white and wickedly sharp horn...
I was still looking for anything usable in a kitchen when a stall run by an adventurer with striking bronze skin caught my eye.
"Goods from the desert kingdoms and the coral isles! Have a look~"
While I examined the stall of that blond, sun-baked adventurer—GoldTan, I dubbed him on the spot—I couldn't hide my surprise. Just as he'd claimed about the desert, the mat was lined with every kind of spice: turmeric, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves.
Coriander and turmeric were love-them-or-hate-them; that I could set aside. Cinnamon and cloves, though, ought to fetch a high price even from nobles. Why was he selling them here?
I asked GoldTan what he wanted for them.
"How much for this?"
"Three silver a bottle. The rest are about the same. Buy the lot and I might knock a little off."
"I'll take them. Everything you've got."
At that outrageous offer he blinked several times, then came to his senses, grinned, and started packing the bottles. Twenty-two silver for the lot. It should have been twenty-four; he cut two.
None of the bottles was even a handspan tall, but that didn't matter. Once I registered the items in the Mana Market, it was just a click...
Back in the medieval stretch of Earth's history, spices had been so precious that a kilogram of pepper was sometimes traded for a kilogram of gold. By that measure, what I'd just bought was absurdly cheap.
"You weren't buying anything, and then you load up on stuff that reeks. Ugh... Achoo!"
"Just you wait. With these, I can make food way better than tofu."
"Hmph... No way! Nothing tastes better than tofu!"
Iseria, who'd been watching the shopping, sneezed at the sharp smell of the spices. Fair enough—unless you had a knack for cooking, the value would be hard to see. What I'd bought today didn't show up often in Korean food, but I wasn't going to cook only Korean food forever, and there were plenty of uses. Chinese dishes, food from Central Asia and the wider stretch of Eurasia, even drinks.
Hummus? Lamb skewers? No—maybe curry?
"Kang Jinwoo!"
I was happily agonizing over a culinary horizon that had widened in an instant when my name rang out behind me. Who was that? Did I even know anyone who'd call me so familiarly?
Puzzled, I turned. Arthur—the knight who always came with Duke Kailan—was waving as he approached.
"Hello. Fancy meeting you in a place like this. What brings you to the city?"
"Ended up hunting a Wild Boar, somehow. Figured I'd sell the meat and see the city while I was at it. It's been a while."
"I see. And the person beside you...?"
"I'm Iseria. I'm staying at Jin's place."
I'd been about to introduce her myself, but to my pleasant surprise she did it without a scrap of her usual disdain for other races. Why so tame all of a sudden?
Iseria and Arthur narrowed their eyes at each other. Then, almost in the same breath, both looked away.
Real recognizes real. Is that what this is?
I was a clueless nobody, with neither a fighter's body nor a drop of mana worth mentioning, so I couldn't tell. Arthur and Iseria were both exceptional, though, and something must have registered between them. He didn't seem to have judged her suspicious. He went on in his usual manner.
"It's my day off, so I came to the market for the first time in a while, and what do I see but a familiar back. To think it was really you, Jinwoo."
"Now that I look, you're in civilian clothes. You work hard."
"Haha. Not at all."
Looking closer, he wasn't even wearing light protective gear—plain clothes, head to toe. There was a different sort of charm in seeing a man who always kept that sharp edge inside his armor let the edge go.
So Arthur, Iseria, and I walked the streets in easy talk. The city was well kept and pretty. He'd gotten a good price on something today. Trivial everyday chatter, but meeting outside the restaurant instead of across a table made us feel oddly like friends, and I liked it. Arthur and I were probably around the same age... whether he thought of me as a friend was another matter.
When we reached the central square, he spoke.
"I'll be going a different way from here. Are you heading back, Jinwoo?"
"Yes. Nothing else to do, so I was about to head out... Huh?"
Bong—! Bong—! Bong—!
Just as we were about to part and leave the rest for another day, the bells along the northern wall began to toll one after another, and the peal carried all the way to the bell on the square's watchtower. I was still flustered by the sudden ringing when Arthur's expression hardened all at once.
"Blast. Now of all times?"
"What? What's going on?"
"This is an emergency. I have to leave at once, so I can't explain properly. The guards will be along shortly to help with the evacuation. Follow their instructions."
He sprinted for the knight order's garrison as if he couldn't spare a single second. He must have been using mana. He vanished faster than a decent horse.
The city turned chaotic in an instant. Shops and stallkeepers scrambled to pack up their goods. Amid the milling panic, my eyes happened to lift toward the lofty northern peaks.
The white clouds and blue sky were already buried under black stormclouds, throwing a shadow across the ground.
And I saw them.
Monsters, no more than black specks at this distance, pouring down off the mountains in a swarm.