Chapter 53

I left Chimeras Tail and walked alongside Mea through the shopping district .

I was holding the branch of the World Tree I had safely purchased with my arms full of it .

Really, thats good . It seems like you were losing money for free, but they left you enough money to live on for a few days . On top of that, they converted the money into cash, so it saved me a lot of trouble .

Mea holds up the bag of coins .

The bag was put on by the owner as a service .

Mea, I dont know much about this kind of thing, and if I had gotten it exchanged at another store, I would have been ripped off, you were lucky in many ways . That owner seemed to be a nice person, so it doesnt seem like theres anything like that!

If she had been really nice a person, she would have stopped Mea from lending me money .

That shopkeeper was happy to go on with her story .

Im not sure what to say since I was an accomplice also to it .

The debt I had managed to get Mea to pay was a little over two million Gs .

The G is gold, a common currency in this continent .

I wanted to know how much it costs, so I asked the shopkeeper, and I found out that a piece of fruit costs around 100G .

It seems to me that it is safe to assume that 1G = 1 yen .

In other words, its a debt worth 2 million yen .

Ummuh Mea-san?

Hey, wait, why the -san? Doesnt it seem like the distance between us is wider than when we first met? Why are you looking away?! Its not that Mea wanted you to use an honorific?

Im sorry, Mea .

Thats what money lending and borrowing are all about .

After this, after enough questions and answers, it was safely decided that as I thought Ill drop the honorifics .

I hope I can pay back the money soon .

To to

I stagger a little .

My fingers slipped and I quickly lifted the branch back up .

The branches of the World Tree were of a reasonable size and had a reasonable weight .

It wasnt something my poor arms could withstand the movement of carrying it around .

The muscles in my arms quivered as I plodded along . I might be at my limit soon .

Wait, stop for a minute .

I stop and gently place a branch of the world tree on the aisle .

Careful, careful, I was about to put it down roughly .

I rub my muscles laboriously .

Um? Whats the matter, Abel?

Mea also stops and looks back at me .

Um, Im sorry, but its heavy, so take it .

What?! Ah, ahhhh, yes . I dont mind that much, but .

Mea looked dumbfounded for a moment, but she quickly agreed to it .

Its shameful, but it cant be helped .

Forgive me, I dont have the strength .

And two people who looked like a couple were watching our exchange with stunned faces .

Suddenly, I calmly reviewed my actions .

I bought a thing from my own hobby with the money I borrowed from others, and even with the reason because it was too heavy, I let the person who lent it to me have it .

And to a woman who, on average, would be inferior to a man in terms of muscle strength .

If Im not wrong, I think Im a bit of a bastard .

I met the eyes of the woman of the two people .

The woman must be glaring at me with intensity in her eyes .

The man took her by the shoulders, shot a glance at me, and then quickly moved away .

As, as I thought I should carry it .

No, but my arms are already bulging

Maybe I should do some muscle training for the first time in a while .

Oh, whats the matter? Your hand, if you dont let go I cant carry it, you know?

Oh, please .

I hand the branch of the world tree to Mea .

For now, lets get a good nights rest at an inn somewhere . We can start planning our money-making plans tomorrow .

Yeah . Its been a while since Ive walked through a busy place like this either, so maybe Im starting to get a little people-sick .

Look to your right or left and youll see people, people, people .

In some places, its not possible to keep walking through such crowded places .

There were crowds of people when I was selling the incense leaf, but I was the seller, not the one standing in line .

There really are all kinds of people .

Some wore heavy armor, some had big sickles, some wore masks .

There was a short girl . Snappy, pointed ears .

Thats probably the Noirs . Matches the features Ive seen in the books .

They are a race that ends their lives in the form of children . They were said to be powerful and dexterous despite their appearance .

There must be beastmen in this world, too . Ive seen this in books too .

There are beastmen who are covered with hair all over their bodies and half-beastmen who only have ears, tails, and other features .

I would like to see a beastman in the flesh just once .

As I looked around to see where I could find one, a strong-looking man with rabbit ears walked past me .

I pretended not to have seen anything .

Finding an inn .

We approached a man who seemed to be busy and gave us a brief guide to the way .

You can find it if you go straight from here . There is a wizard shop with a prominent sign, across the street .

Thank you very much .

I bowed my head and left the man .

Really, Im relieved its a nice person .

A magicians shop . Lets take a look around .

Across the street .

Its probably similar to the shop in Chimeras Tail, but Id like to take a look .

There were a lot of shops that interested me, so I thought Id start tomorrow, but since its so close .

But the money is only enough for the bare minimum of living . To begin with, its Meas money .

Ill just look to see what is available .

After taking a room at the inn and dropping off our luggage, we walked into the shop across the street .

The owner of this shop was an old man with a white beard .

The selection of goods is better than that of the previous store . Its kind of more consistent throughout .

I pick up a bottle from the store .

I look at the label and my eyes widen .

T-this really has unicorn blood in it, right? A-amazing, wow, amazing! Its more affordable than I thought .

I shouted unintentionally .

It is a high-grade paint made from the blood of unicorns .

Unicorns are treated as phantom beasts .

A phantom beast is a term that refers to a rare demonic beast with a small number of individuals .

In short, they are rare monsters .

Recently, weve been experiencing an outbreak of unicorn swarms . Its called the Monster Disaster Monster Panic . There was so much commotion about it, but you dont know about it?

Monster Disaster Monster Panic, a disaster in which a large number of the same kind of monsters occur .

There are many theories as to the cause, but it is not known in detail .

However, I didnt expect such a thing to happen to a unicorn, which has been designated as a phantom beast .

Well, I dont know much about the world . Wow, good! This is so good!

Im glad youre so pleased . Now, the bill . .

Uh, no, I dont have any

Oh my goodness thats a shame . I, too, find pleasure in this business to have people like my customers buy from me .

The branches of the world tree were used to carve the totem .

It is a mans heart that I want to use expensive paint anyway .

Its regrettable . I bought a tree that cost millions of Gs worth of wood, but I have no choice but to reduce the quality of the workmanship by sparing tens of thousands of Gs worth of paint .

Thump, tap on the shoulder .

Abel, Abel . You want it?

Mea calls out to me while holding the sachet of coins .

No, but if we use it, starting tomorrow

Excuse me, can I have this paint, please? Mea will buy it!

Haha, Im jealous that you seem to be on good terms with them . Well, youre buying

Ah, ah, ah . .

I thought it was no good, but I couldnt speak .

I had repeated the same mistake again .