I ended up shoving two potions into each of the chest pockets on my clothes. I arranged them by color according to a game I had played a long time ago. There were three types of healing potions: blue, yellow, and red, with each one more potent (and valuable) than the last. Since it was so easy to tell them apart at a glance, I decided to adopt those colors for my own labeling system as well. The blue ones were just your run-of-the-mill potions and could heal your everyday external wounds like gashes, bruises; that sort of thing. Yellow was your intermediate potion, and fixed up things like internal damage and broken bones in addition to the other wounds the blue could. Finally, you had your red potions, which were powerful enough to bring you back from the brink of death, but you’d probably want to wait and see if the situation could be solved by taking a blue or yellow potion first. My policy would be to wait a day at least a day before deciding to use a red potion.
I’d make my goal for today to get enough money for dinner and a place to sleep, so there was no reason for me to take any risks while I still didn’t know up from down in this world.
I headed along the main road until I found an inn, so I could check out their rates. A night at the inn with dinner and breakfast cost four silver coins. I guessed a silver coin was something like 1,000 yen, then? If that was the case, then I guessed my blue potions were worth one coin, and my yellow one about five? Well, I should be fine for tonight, so long as I could scrounge up about five coins.
Following that, I decided to head to the Hunter’s Guild right away, after asking a nearby hunter where it was.
Welp, I’d say the building in front of me definitely seemed like the Hunter’s Guild.
There was a mark on the front with a sword and a spear clashing with each other, and the sign on the front said “Hunter’s Guild.” All right, I can actually read it! The place had swinging doors that looked like they were right out of a Western flick. I didn’t know if it was because it was nighttime or what, but those swinging doors were the only things being kept open, while the normal doors were shut tight. I bet it was the opposite during the day—so long as it wasn’t winter, or if the weather was bad, or something.
Hrm... It was kinda hard to get myself to go inside... But if I didn’t go in there, then I could say goodbye to having dinner and a place to sleep tonight...
I steeled myself and finally made my way through the door. I shouted out, “Anyone here!” in my mind...but in reality, I slipped in through the barely ajar doors without saying a word. Life was cruel, however, and the bell hanging above the door made the loudest jangling sound you could imagine as I snuck inside, causing everyone in the room to stare directly at the entrance to the guild—and at me.
It looked like working hours were over for most of the receptionists here, since most of the counters were completely devoid of people. Only one of them was still open... I wondered if that was the nighttime service counter or something, but no one was lined up there.
In stark contrast with this side, the area just behind the counters was roaring with activity. There were tons of tables all lined up over there, with people who were probably hunters stuffing their faces and downing all kinds of alcohol as they chatted away with each other. It looked like there was some sort of counter way in the back providing food and drinks for everyone. Yeah, these kinds of places always seemed to be set up like this.
Wait, shouldn’t this be the part where someone says, “Hey, this ain’t no place for a kid,” or something? Or maybe, “Hey there, little missy, how’s about pouring us another glass of the good stuff?” You know, something like that...
Huh? Were they ignoring me? I mean, it wasn’t like I wanted to get involved or anything... It was just, I had my pride as a woman. And I felt like that pride was slowly being chipped away... No, it was nothing! I was just going to head over to that counter now like a good girl!
And so here I was. I’d made it to the nighttime counter.
The receptionist here looked pretty intense, and she gave off a harsh vibe... But I bet she didn’t want to hear that from me, especially when people always told me that I was the one who always had a harsh look in her eyes. There were no other counters open right now, so it looked like I had to take my chances with the scary lady.
“Um, excuse me...”
She’s totally glaring at me! But still, I couldn’t back down now. My dinner and my place to stay were both riding on this. All those potions I drank earlier were sloshing around in my stomach right now, but I wanted some actual, solid food, dang it! Oh, and a soft bed as well, of course.
“Erm... Is it possible for me to sell potions here?”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
Eep!
“What are potions? Some type of medicine? Go to the apothecary if that’s what you have. Why would you even bring them to the Hunter’s Guild? Are you stupid or something?”
Shot down...
Right, so this wasn’t the right place to sell potions... Then that meant I had to at least try and move on to the next step!
“I’m sorry, this is my first time leaving my hometown in the sticks, so I don’t really know anything... If I don’t sell these, I won’t be able to eat or find a place to stay tonight. Where could I find the apothecary and the doctor?”
“Yeah, fat chance either of them would be open right now. Besides, the doctor is out of town for a while; he’s off to a nearby village. The apothecary went to a neighboring town to see a couple that just got married. Seems like they had a kid or something. I’d say they’ll probably both be back sometime tomorrow or the next day, though.”
Ahhhhhh... It’s all over...
I slumped down to the floor, my dreams of hot food and a warm bed fading into nothingness. Why didn’t Celes have any money ready for me before she set me loose here?!
...The answer was simple of course: because she was Celes.
Damn it, damn it, damn iiiiiit! My tears were completely blurring my vision at this point.
Thankfully for me, it looked like the sharp-eyed receptionist had a heart of gold after all. After watching my miserable breakdown, she took pity on me and came to my rescue.
“All right, guess there’s no way around it... I’m in charge of the place till morning, so I’ll use my authority to help you out a little. I’ll say it now, but this is only for tonight, got it? There’s no ‘next time’ for this, even for the days I’m on duty again!”
“Y-Yes, I got it! Thank you very much!”
A drowning woman would take any lifeline she could get, and it was safe to say I was pretty desperate right now.