2-1. Sure, you have skills now, but nobody ever said you can use them as you please.

Translated by Yonnee

From the entrance, it didn’t seem like a big village, but it felt pleasant and refreshing for me. Especially since I was seeing another place that’s outside the manor for the first time.

It’s like I’m wearing a VR headset and walking around in a game that has a medieval setting. Still though, it was such a vivid sight that I wouldn’t be able to see something like this in any VR game.

“This evening gown had been worn by a princess from the neighboring country, and it’s only 30 gold. As low as 30 gold! Try it on before you go, hm?”

“A trip to Ghaliba, over the high seas and indeed difficult to obtain tickets to, only 5 gold now!”

“One last fountain pen left, one last highly rare fountain pen that even royal scribes can’t easily get their hands on!”

The marketplace here reminded me exactly of how it was in some traditional Korean street markets I’ve been to before. Merchants were out in front of their stores and shouted loudly about their products so that they could entice some customers, who would look at their goods and hopefully buy some. The only difference was the era and western setting.

“Hear, hear! This bastard sword¹ is made from mithril of the highest grade. There’s only five of ‘em left, so get ‘em while ya still can!”

Wow. He went on to list more weapons—swords, crossbows and iron clubs. My goodness, there’s even some wooden training swords here? I can’t believe I can see all the weapons that I’ve only seen in games. Those are all real. Wow, just look at that sharp blade…

I admired the sword that looked like it came straight out of a fantasy movie. I was really into RPG games some time ago, and I actually tried to remake a legendary weapon that I wanted for myself.

As it was only wrapped with tinfoil and was made so shabbily, that thing wouldn’t even compare to this sword right here.

I want one, that bastard sword. If I hold it real tight while I’m on my way back to the real world, won’t it come with me? I’d like to have one as a souvenir at least…

Drooling in front of the bastard sword, the arms dealer glanced at me with a strange look, but I remained stuck on that glass case for a long time still. Suddenly, for the first time, it didn’t feel so bad to be in this game.

“Ah, right, right, Catarina asked me to do some errands.”

I recalled it only after looking around the village for quite a while. I took out the memo that was crumpled in my pocket and read one item at a time from the top. Sewing needles, cotton cloth, thread, salt, pepper… Good thing these weren’t heavy things.

“Okay, let’s see. General store first then!”

Every game traditionally had a general store that carried some stuff like HP potions, MP² potions, archer’s arrows, and more. Even broke beginners who had low levels should visit the general store just to buy HP potions.

When it comes to dealing with items, there’s no gameplayer who wouldn’t head to the general store if they were told, ‘general store, go go’. It’s like the game version of a rendezvous point.

“Welcome! Oh, it’s you! You’re that child from the Pfalzgraf household, right?”

A middle-aged woman who seemed to be the general store’s owner welcomed me first. There were some other people looking around inside the store, too. I nodded and took out the note that Catarina wrote for me.

“Yes, uh, first of all, I need a sewing needle please, about five pieces for each length. And some cotton cloth.”

“Yes, yes. And you need some thread, right?”

“Yes. One spool, please. And…”

“A leather thimble, a metal thimble, yes?”

The store owner kept taking things out from under the counter and listed off the things I needed before I could even say them. She’s got real good business chops, I must say.

“Yes, and also two wrist pincushions…”

“We’ve got all different sizes. Take them all.”

“Huh? All of them? But there’s so many.”

I was still in the middle of reading through the list, but then the cash register was all ringed up with the items. They’re all obviously what’s on the list, but the quantity was too much.

There was a set of 60 needles that went beyond five lengths, and a large bag was filled with cotton cloth. There were also ten pieces each for each pincushion size. Catarina didn’t ask me to buy this much of everything though.

“Five needles are plenty, Ma’am. And I just need about half of the cloth here. I didn’t even bring enough money to pay for all this.”

“It’s fine. Don’t pay for it and just take it.”

“Pardon? You’re giving me all this for free?”

Just one glance at the items told me that they must cost around 50,000 won³, but the store owner was giving me all this for free?

Sus.

Since everything went much too smoothly today, was this supposed to be some kind of trap that the game system made? If I take this all with me without paying a single penny, that system would surely point fingers at me and tell me again that I have zero conscience—then it would rob me in broad daylight again as a reimbursement for stealing.

With a wary look, I waited to see if the white letters would suddenly pop up. All the while, the general store owner just smiled at me pleasantly.

“It’s not a lie, and it’s not a scam either, so you don’t have to worry. You can just take it all. You’re a precious customer from the Pfalzgraf household, so I’d like to just give you all these. We owe the household a lot.”

“Owe?”

“Oh my, oh my, of course we do. It’s not just me, but all the villagers owe a debt of gratitude towards the Count. When our village was attacked by the bandits who were from the mountains, the Count sent knights to help us several times. And when the river overflowed because of the heavy rain not too long ago and many houses in the village were about to collapse, he helped us again. Not only the Count, but even the Young Master is also such a good person. He’s so kind and gentle, oh he’s really like an angel.”

“Ha, haha. Oh yes, of course…”

¹ bastard sword – a variation of a longsword which could be used with either one or two hands; it was given the name ‘bastard’ due to its ambiguous categorization, irregular traits and misleading appearance.

² HP – health points; MP – mana points

³ 50,000 won = around 40 usd