Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Translator : Elizabeth
Buzz buzz, the murmuring of people is heard in my sleep. Did someone come to the house early in the morning? At the sound of people, I first open my eyes groggily. I try to sit up, but flinch at seeing the unfamiliar ceiling. In the haze, I gradually realize where this is.
‘I came back, right….’
I scratch the back of my head roughly and mutter inwardly. The return to the city still doesn't feel real. After sitting up, I looked around. At the very least, no presence of anyone was felt inside the house. Only the sound of people talking outside was heard occasionally.
Where did Haley go? Relieving my body creaking with muscle pain, I get up from the bed. A strange feeling where everything is unfamiliar yet familiar. After stretching, I walked toward the table unconsciously. On the table, what was reflected between my eyelids was a small note. In my sleepiness, I grabbed it nonchalantly and checked.
[I’ll go to work and be back!]
Haley
What was written inside the note was handwriting with quite neat strokes. A smile leaked out unknowingly at the cute exclamation mark and the sincerity of writing her own name. Closing my eyes tightly and opening them to chase away the drowsiness for now. I started to examine the house I returned to after 7 years.
The house hadn’t changed to a wondrous degree. Starting from toys to various picture books, everything was as it was. It was just that Haley’s belongings were replacing the space where my things used to be.
‘This isn’t even a museum….’
Breathing in deeply and exhaling at the appearance of the house that had hardly changed, I trudged down to the basement holding the bundle I packed when leaving the village. The cool and damp basement where slaves once were. That place seemed to have already changed its purpose, becoming quite practical in appearance.
‘Oh?’
The space that was blocked by iron bars was wide open, and there were various vegetables or fruits in baskets or soil boxes. Dangling from the ceiling. Salted or dried meat was also hanging. Come to think of it, it’s a perfect space to use as storage. No light enters, humidity is appropriate, and it ventilates. Perhaps Haley thought so too; the once humane slave prison had already transformed into storage.
After looking around here and there, I placed the jar containing pickles and pickled vegetables on a suitably empty shelf.
‘To think this place would be used in this way.’ Living long in the world, I thought all sorts of things happen, and left the basement holding the deflated bundle.
Now the items remaining in the bundle were just a pouch with a bit of silver coins and minimal clothing. Thinking there was no need to categorize them annoyingly, I placed the deflated bundle on a chair. After finishing organizing my luggage like that, I sat on a table chair. Along with hunger, a short phrase crossed my mind.
‘I’m hungry.’
The past 7 years, a day that started with a meal upon waking up. I became a body that wants food as soon as I open my eyes. Then, what should I eat for the first meal of today? The vegetables I harvested with effort were left behind when leaving the village. The pickles or pickled vegetables put in the basement were originally able to be stored for a long time, so it was a waste to eat them unless it was winter or an emergency.
‘But using the basement food is a bit….’
No matter if the other party is Haley, that was a bit much. As someone living off her, I can’t use the food in the storage when I don’t even know what she planned to use it for.
Eventually, I decide to buy something in the city. I grabbed the small key next to the note Haley left. Naturally, this is the front door key. I stuff all the remaining money into my pants and head out to the street. It’s sudden to say, but the scenery of the street is quite different from 7 years ago. First off, most of the shops I knew had changed. Like a meat shop becoming a clothing store, or a large slave training center everyone knew just by name becoming a procession of mere vegetable shops.
Looking at the street that changed in less than 10 years, I thought briefly.
‘Slave trade really went completely bust.’
Although I knew it to some extent through knowledge, news that I just glossed over thinking ‘I guess so’ inwardly. The prohibition law definitely seemed effective; the sight of selling slaves was not visible on the street. Instead of the blatant soliciting of slave traders, what is heard is the conversation of general merchants and customers.
“Cut the price a bit, old man.” “What? It’s the cheapest time now, what more to cut?” “Oh my, so?” “I just gave his back a smack; he got caught by the guards causing a disturbance while drinking….” “Sigh, what’s the deal with that booze.” “That’s what I’m saying.”
Sounds of various people mix together and become part of the street. The meat shop I scan with my eyes while walking through that. The density of people increases as I go out to the main road. People trying to sell even a little more expensively, and people trying to buy even a little cheaper. Such people tangle together, and the congestion reaches its peak.
Like the grumpy old merchant’s passing remark, from around now until late autumn is the time when crops are cheapest. Simply because it is also the time when the most crops are harvested, and accordingly, many people are preparing to spend the winter in advance.
“Meat, give me one big chunk.” “Yees~”
The merchant putting in a bizarre interjection at the short order. Soon, a hefty lump of flesh wobbles and gets cut off by the blade. An amount enough for four people to eat, as always. The moment I turned the doorknob with a handful of meat. Flinch, I stop at that spot as if time froze.
‘It’s not… four, anymore.’
A sense of disparity felt at the number the head remembers belatedly. Familiarity was something much scarier than I thought.
At the moment one man was frozen at the front door. A girl was becoming the center of attention at the request center.
Haley. There was no adventurer who didn't know the story of her, who appeared like a comet a few years ago and became a legend. Genius of battle, Flash, Monster, Monster Slaughterer. Various aliases followed in front of her name, but arriving at the present, only one remained.
Ruby. A title allowed only to a unique legend.
Since such an existence returned without any notice and was wandering the request center as if it were natural…. Of course, it’s bound to become a topic among adventurers. The girl, who didn’t even care about the gazes directed at herself, spoke dryly to the receptionist.
“Please tell them, that I will stay in the city, for the time being….” “Ye… Yes! Understood! Do you have any other business!”
At the short request, the receptionist’s energetic voice returned. A voice that seemed fully tense no matter who looked. You don’t have to be that tense…. I just wish you would treat me appropriately like others. While feeling burdened on one hand by the surrounding behavior treating me, I thought it was something unavoidable.
“No, then keep up the good work.” “Goodbye-!”
As I answered the receptionist asking if there was other business, a loud answer filled the request center again.
‘I can’t force a normal reaction.’
Because a Ruby-rank adventurer was such an existence. The summit of adventurers symbolizing overwhelming combat power. Even every single ordinary action gets all sorts of meanings attached.
‘I just, became this hoping Mister would know.’
I let thoughts flow inwardly that I couldn’t bear to voice out. If I became famous enough for anyone to know, wouldn’t he hear my name even in a distant land and return? A title no longer needed now that I met Mister. From the perspective of other adventurers, the motive itself would be absurd, and it was clear they would show a reaction of incomprehension if I said I wanted to put it down for merely this reason.
If I knew it would be like this, should I have just promoted appropriately and found Mister first? Nothing changed even if I regretted the past already gone. It was good enough that the condensed impatience disappeared. If I go back home, Mister is waiting. That alone was enough.
‘I should go back quickly.’
Steps filled with expectation speed up. Steps walking clearly, one by one, were already gone. My usual stride wasn’t this wide. Movement that was merely a fast walk becomes a run filled with sincerity before long. What reason is there to run like that from broad daylight? Gazes seeming to think that way direct at me, but…. Far from reducing speed, I ran until my breath was short.
“Phew….”
Arriving in front of the house, I took a deep breath. I’m nervous about entering even though it’s my house now. I wasn’t this nervous even when facing a dragon. Did Mister wake up from the bed? He looked very tired yesterday. Since he was sleeping deeply, me stealthily lying on the same bed with distance wouldn’t have been caught. Gulp, swallowing dry saliva and opening the door to enter. I sighed inwardly at the familiar smell tickling my nose.
‘Ah.’
A scent that makes even the briefly held tension disappear. In the kitchen, there was Mister, slightly different from before.
“Uh, you’re here already? Good timing, it’s just finished, want to eat?” “Ah, yes….”
I answer bewilderedly to Mister’s sly question. On the table, there is bread stuffed full of meat in a plate. That food which became a mess no matter how much I tried to copy. Every day this came out, I ate until my stomach burst. Although the amount I eat wasn’t much like before, unknowingly I grabbed a bread first before even sitting. The surface of the bread feeling moist from being slightly wet. The moment I took a big bite, food filled inside my mouth.
“I don’t know how it is since I made it after a long time, is the taste similar?”
A question mixed with laughter lingers in my ears. Chewing the bread bigger without answering the question. Moisture enough to swallow the food was sufficient in my mouth. But, for some reason, it didn’t go down well past my throat.
“Woo, ugh….”
Shaking my head from side to side, I bow my face deeply. Only an unidentified moan flows from my mouth. The food I’m holding in my mouth is far, far more delicious than I remembered, so…. I choked up too much at the preciousness that was once natural.