Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, the only contact I’ve had with refugees was with the news or fund-raisers, but in this world--I unexpectedly come across some.”

It was already late in the afternoon when we arrived at Nouki town.

This town is the second biggest town within Earl Kuhano’s territory, it’s designed like a typical fantasy trading town. Nevertheless, the population is just under 20,000. The size is also only about quarter of the size of Seryuu City. As high as 30% of its population are slaves, but most seem to be general or born slaves--there are very few criminal slaves.

When I showed the guard the weapons taken from the thieves, they counted them, and then gave me ten copper coins for each thief they represented; they however, didn’t confiscate the weapons themselves.

The taxes for entering the city are: five copper coins for a commoner, two copper coins per slave, and eight copper coins for the wagon--the total price was 18 copper coins which I had taken from the reward for the slaves.

I only made 1 silver, and 22 copper coins.

I talk with the gatekeeper while he’s looking for a silver coin, which doesn’t take him long to find. His shirt is dyed blue, which is also the colour of the other guards I’ve seen.

“You’ve really saved us. Nowadays, a lot of refugees are coming from other territories and becoming thieves.”

Is that so?

I shouldn’t feel bad because they were forced to come here and be thieves to make money. Most of the men had ‘Murder’ and ‘Rape’ as well as ‘Thief’--so killing them was probably the right choice.

“Was there a disaster somewhere?” I asked the gatekeeper.

Speaking of refugees, it means that there’s probably a war or disaster.

According to his words, it seems that there are a lot of refugees who have run away from the nearby Earldom to become either serfs in a rural farm village or general slaves in this city.

People who don’t want to become slaves or serfs hide in the mountain and live by hunting animals--they also work the fields, but since it is now winter, they can’t anymore; the numbers of thieves are increasing.

I almost feel sorry for them--and I definitely feel sorry for the ones who still stick to hunting the few remaining animals, keeping some pelts to make clothing and shelter, selling the others; sticking to their values, even though it would be difficult.

 

>>Title: Bounty Hunter Acquired.

***

Now then, we were able to quickly finish the errand at the entrance, but since I wanted to buy various things, I decided to stay the night. The inside of the town is similar to Seryuu City, but there aren’t a lot of two-story buildings, but there are a lot that are only a single-story tall.

I made sure to check with the gatekeeper, but this town also has a strong prejudice against Demi-Humans, but they’re allowed to stay in the inn if one pays extra and they can normally buy things from shops if they behave and pay well. However, they’re not allowed to go inside areas for the rich and the nobles--we are warned not to even get near the entrance.

After storing the wagon at the inn we chose, we’re going to buy equipment for all the members. In shops not far from the inn, armour and weapons are lined up on display.

First, let’s buy armour for five people in the armourers--they’re for me, Nana, and the Beastkin girls. Since armour that covers the entire body seems to require too much time to put on, I buy iron helmets without face protectors, breastplates with a belt fixture, light greaves of the same type, and gauntlets that are basically leather gloves with metal plates on the back of the arm and the hand.

The remaining three say that they don’t need armour, so I don’t buy them any, but in exchange I buy some extra shields; bucklers and round shields made from wood braced with iron, three of each type.

The old man who owned the Armourers tried to touch Nana’s butt while he was measuring her for the armour, but I blocked him by grabbing his arm from behind; I will touch it first!

I didn’t think that Detect Danger would detect something like this--who, or what, exactly would be in danger from him doing that?

The total price is 20 gold coins, which was just above Market Price--which was 18 Gold Coins, but I didn’t mind paying two extra gold coins.

Next, in the weapon shop, I bought sand arrows for Mia--since there were only three short bows that Mia was actually strong enough to pull, it didn’t take long; in the end, it only cost 1 gold coin, when including the cost of thirty arrows--but I will learn to make them later, since thirty arrows would only last one or two proper battles.

Afterwards, we divided into three groups, to move separately, after we put the luggage in the room we rented at the inn.

The Beastkin girls, Arisa and Lulu were entrusted to buy ingredients, daily necessities, and cookware--I gave them twenty silver coins for the shopping list, and ten coppers each for their allowance; the reason for so many silver coins is because I asked them to buy a lot of groceries.

Like the gatekeeper said earlier, the situation is a bit rough with all the refugees, so I’m buying enough for anticipating the worst situation--that we have to sustain ourselves for quite a while without being able to get to a town or village.

We can get quite a bit of meat, mainly from hunting, but we don’t have enough vegetables and salt.

Of course, Pochi and Tama reply with, “Meat”, when I give them their allowances--even though they eat meat every day, they still want more, huh?

That’s amazing, even for a favourite food.

Then again, they are Demi-Humans of predatory species, it’s possible that they can live on purely meat.

 

“I’m tired.” Mia looks sleepy.

 

“Do you want to rest at the inn?”

 

“Nn.”

 

“Nana, I’m sorry, but could you stay with her?”

 

“Yes, Master--I will stay beside Mother.”

 

“No.” Mia looks at Nana, “Not daughter. Still young.” For some reason, she looks imploringly at me when she says the second part.

Well, I feel sorry if I leave her alone, so I suggest Nana to accompany her, but she doesn’t want supervision, maybe she thinks it is us treating her like a child, so she refuses with, “Don’t need.”

Even though Nana has become emotionally attached to Mia, but I don’t think Mia returns the feeling. Nana calls her ‘Mother’ because Mia is the one who provided the blood to create her, and a Homunculus is different from a clone, so for Nana--it’s like Mia is her genetic mother.

But since Mia doesn’t like Nana calling her ‘mother’, I ask Nana to call her ‘Mia’ normally.

 

“Nana, let’s go together. Mia, what do you want as a souvenir?”

 

“I want a lute.”

 

“I understand, I’ll buy one if someone happens to be selling them. I have left money and fruit on the table, so eat something if you get hungry, okay?”

“Nn” Mia responds with her usual small sound of affirmation; before sitting on the bed in the room.

I put ten coppers and several fruits on the table.

***

Our first destination is the Magic Tool shop.

This shop, however, doesn’t just sell Magic Tools and Magic Books, but it also sells Alchemy supplies, and normal books.

The shopkeeper is wearing a hood and a thin veil that hides her face, except for her eyes, so I can’t see it well. Since the Heads-Up-Display shows that she’s 16 years old, she’s probably the daughter of the shopkeeper; seeming another family run business.

When we enter the shop, I see that the girl is wearing glasses with green lenses that seem to glow. The Heads-Up-Display is distorted as always, but from what I can guess, it either replicates sight for a blind person--or functions similar to a Yamato Stone; so I ask Nana to wait outside, just in case.

“Hello, I’d like to buy some reagents for Potions, do you have any in stock?”

“I could sell you three packages, two for Beginner Alchemists, and one for Intermediate. 1 silver coin for both Beginner’s package, and 1 silver for the Intermediate. We’re a bit short on Magic Cores, so I won’t give you any form of discount, and you cannot negotiate with the price I tell you.” She speaks with the voice of an old woman.

It seems that she is using some kind of voice disguising Magic Tool--I wonder if she sells any of those.

She actually gives me something like a receipt when I pay her.

By the way, the reagent for the Potion is a powder that glimmers, the Beginner and Intermediate reagents glimmer in different colours--they work by binding a Magical Effect to the liquid.

Well, there aren’t many, so I want to be able to make my own, and I have books with the needed instructions. So, let’s buy the needed materials to begin practicing with.

 

“Do you have stabilizers?”

 

“Yes, I have a lot. If you have Magic Cores, won’t you share them?” As soon as she affirms that she has stabilizers, she asks to buy my Magic Cores.

Well, the are one of the main materials needed for the reagent, and the stabilizer itself.

I take a Magic Core out of my pocket, and estimate its Market Price--it seems that it’s about three times higher here compared with Seryuu City--yet it’s only 30 copper coins; I put five on the table.

“You, stop putting Magic Cores inside your pocket even if you keep them together with stabilizer powder--what would you do if they absorb Magic Power when you use Magic, and explode?”

 

What the?

They can explode?

 

I thank the girl for the advice and ask her the right method to keep them--it seems that you have to smear them in stabilizer and then cover them with cloth.

The girl speaks ill of the Magic Cores, saying things like, “They’re small”, or, “Their colour is light’, but she still buys them for 40 copper each. Instead of taking the coins, I have her give me an amount of stabilizer worth that price.

The girl comes back with a 10 kilograms bag of stabilizer--the bag is somehow floating lightly while following beside the girl.

Oh, that looks Magic-like, or rather, like a magic trick from Earth.

 

“Is that Magic?”

 

“This is Self-Propelling Board--it’s not really rare Magic, is it?” Although she’s saying that, I could sense that she looked slightly proud. If I recall correctly, the name of that Magic does appear in the Introductory Magic book.

I check the stabilizer that she brought, the Heads-Up-Display say: ‘Stabilizer/Finely Powdered Ugi Leaves’. The Market Price is 5 gold coins--1 gold coin is equal to 10 silver coins, or 50 copper coins--so what she brings is worth much more than reimbursing the Magic Cores.

 

“They’re finely powdered Ugi leaves, huh?”

 

“That’s right, you know well. These are usually rare around here, but just a little while ago, a merchant traded them in mass, as a payment for Medicines.”

 

“I think this quantity is way too much for 2 silver coins, though?”

 

“You, you know the value of such things, huh?”

 

“And I don’t need that much, really.”

 

“Please don’t say that, I’ll trade it for half the Market Price, so won’t you take it?”

 

“Are you desperate for gold coins?”

 

I could buy it, but do I need this much?

 

“No no, I need Magic Cores rather than gold--won’t you share a bit more?”

 

Well, they’re ingredients for making Potion reagents, so she probably has guessed that I have more with me--but what does she want so many for?

“You know that there will be a fighting tournament in the Ougock Dukedom next month, right? The participating knights are buying large amounts of Potions from the Alchemists--so they can’t make Potions for the sick people.”

I see, there’s a tournament, huh?

I don’t know if this girl would use it the way she’s saying, but it’s evident that she’s desperate--I have a lot anyway, so it’s fine to give 10 more, I guess.

 

“I would like these 5 and another 10 Magic Cores of the same level.”

 

“I’m not sure if I have that many, but I’ll thoroughly check my stock.”

 

“Please do so, you can take the stabilizer with you in advance.” This girl seems to be strangely trusting.

I bring the stabilizer to the wagon and put it in my storage, then I begin choosing Magic Cores. Since it’d look suspicious if they’re all exactly the same, so I mix them all carefully. I blend in 1 high-level one among them--it’s worth 3 silver coins.

This is from the Bone Golem, I believe--I can know the Market Price with my skills, but I want to see the reaction of a professional when they see one.

 

“How about these?”

 

“You’re fast. The qualities are the same like before, are they? Huh? This one is an awfully nice Core.”

 

The one she speaks about is the one from the Bone Golem.

 

“Is it to your liking?”

 

“Yes, I’m saved--I can make a stronger medicine with this.”

 

I see, according to this reaction, I can take out Magic Cores from Monsters with a level up to 20 without a problem.

It’s not written in the Intermediate book, but it seems that depending on the level of the Magic Cores used, the rank of the resulting reagent would be different.

“As gratitude, you can take one from among these.” While saying this, the girl searches among the shelves with a rustling sound, bringing out three scrolls.

The information on the Heads-Up-Display reads: ‘Scroll: Magic Art - Shield’, ‘Scroll: Magic Art - Sonar’ and ‘Scroll: Magic Art - Short Stun’. Each is priced at 5 - 6 silver coins.

 

How do I say this?

 

The shop will go bankrupt if this girl keeps working here.

Every one of the scrolls seem to be an Elementary level Magic Art--Shield is the most difficult among them.

“I’m sorry, even though you’re especially offering this, I already have Beginner-level Magic Books--”

 

“You, do you not know how scrolls are used? These are disposable Magic Tools--put Magic Power into it while uttering the Trigger Word, it’s convenient if you’re attacked by Monsters.”

 

Oh?

 

That’s great.

“That means you can use them even without the Magic Art Skills?”

“You can use them--you’ll use 20-30% more Magic Power, but there is no weird repercussions, like if a person without the Skill chants the Magic.”

I see, that’s convenient.

But they look like they may be easy to use--I guess that’s why the sale of scrolls is limited in Seryuu City.

That’s right, are there scrolls for Life Magic?

 

“Do you have scrolls for Life Magic?”

 

“None, if you have the money to buy such things--isn’t it cheaper to just hire people with the Skill?”

 

Oh well.

Nana can use the Magic in the scrolls, besides Short Stun--by the way, as well as Sonar and Shield, she can also use Magic Arrow, Body Reinforcement (Light Boost), and Signal.

“If possible, could you let me have the three of them? Of course, I will pay for the other two with cash.”

 

“I’m sorry, but if I sell more than one, the officials would get noisy.”

 

After being at a loss for a while, I decide to buy Shield.

Let’s try it when we get out of town.