“What the hell was with that idiot?” I mumbled.
“But, lad...” the slime said, wibbling and wobbling on my head.
“What?”
“He said that he would sell it to you for three hundred thousand... Isn’t that a bargain?!”
“Who the hell’s gonna save me if you end up getting infected with stupid too?!”
Well, not that I wanted to be saved by a slime, but it was Leen’s guardian, so I’d rather it stay sane.
“That was totally a scam. What a waste of time.”
There had been countless attempts in the past to create fake Carbuncle Stones and just as many suckers who’d bought into the scam.
“And your proof?”
“I was the one who called it a Carbuncle Stone. The merchant didn’t say a word about it being one.”
Whereas I didn’t have the know-how to identify gemstones, I imagined that the merchant had polished up a Color Stone and was using it to try and catch the eye of a stupid adventurer. The impact of the reveal would make you think it was the real thing. Once you bought it and realized your mistake, the merchant could just say: “I didn’t say a single word about it being a Carbuncle Stone. Who in their right mind would sell a real Carbuncle Stone for that cheap?” All the same, I thought that he should work on his scam a bit more.
“Are you sure? In my eyes, it seemed like a genuine piece.”
“Where even are your eyes?”
I glanced up at the slime, and its two cores—that may look like eyes at first glance but aren’t—wobbled in its body.
“What a waste. If my lady were here, she would have been able to identify it.”
“It wasn’t a waste. Even if it is the real thing, there’s bound to be some kind of catch.”
Maybe they were trying to sell stolen goods. If someone was trying to get rid of items that could be tracked if they went through the proper channels, then the simplest way was to sell it for upfront cash. No matter how you sliced it, this seemed like a sketchy deal. It was my ironclad rule to not bother poking anything I couldn’t work out properly.
“And anyway, I don’t even have three hundred thousand ennies.”
“The world is a tough place...”
Your average working citizen earned around thirty to forty thousand ennies per year, with differences due to situation and occupation. As for a mid-ranking B-rank adventurer (in other words, me), you needed to earn triple this amount—around one hundred or one hundred and twenty thousand—in order to make a living when you factored in equipment, supplies, bed and board, travel, food, et cetera. I had a few personal reasons why my savings weren’t all too large. The final amount that the merchant had offered wasn’t exactly impossible for an adventurer who was a high earner, so he had made a rather good deal on paper.
“Hmm... It says something that he called to you, I think.”
“He probably looked at the color of my Sphere.”
This didn’t apply to every case, but you could roughly gauge how much experience an adventurer had racked up by looking at their Sphere. My own was a deep color, so he probably thought I had money despite what the rest of my appearance would suggest.
As an aside, the smallest room in the cheapest inn would cost you around one hundred ennies per night. However, due to Leen’s unflinching request that we stay at a place with hot water on tap, ours cost us a whopping seven hundred per night. It was part of the contract, but factoring in that she was paying for that and all of our food, I wondered just how deep her pockets were.
“Anyway, I gotta find something...” I said.
The can that Crescen had thrown at me was pretty much empty. It would do as a hint, but even I knew if I gave this to Leen, I probably wouldn’t be able to see the next sunrise.
“At this stage, you just need to throw yourself at the problem.”
“I feel like I’ll end up broken in the process...”
“Perhaps... My lady does like to throw things around. If things go poorly, she’ll probably throw her staff or stones if I’m not around.”
“Is it really okay to throw that staff?”
Leen’s super tough staff had a huge jewel on its end and was evidently made of wood from an ancient tree, so I wondered if she should really be swinging about such a valuable item.
“It’s a precious and valuable staff passed down the Lingreen line since the first Lingreen. I feel like fainting every time I see her mistreating it.”
“What’ll she do if it snaps?”
“The staff has been subjected to similar treatment since the second Lingreen, and yet it has never broken.”
“So...that’s how you’re supposed to use it...?”
I wondered if it was so tough because it was a magical item... At any rate, if I didn’t cheer her up, then there was no guarantee I would live to see tomorrow.
“Hey there, mister!”
People were calling out to me so much today. I decided to learn from my earlier mistake and vowed to ignore the voice and keep walking. However, I did not. One reason was the delicious smell wafting from the building nearby. I realized then that it was near midday. I’d headed out without breakfast and had ended up walking past a restaurant without thinking—it was my fault.
I turned around toward the voice and saw a charming hawker outside the store. She had long brown hair tied into a ring and was flashing a pleasant smile to attract customers.
“Have you eaten yet? We have some seats available, so I can get you seated right away,” she said. She must have been calling out to people without much thought, so it seemed like she had only just clocked my appearance. Her smile froze as she saw the slime sitting on my head, and she carefully chose her words. “That sure is a unique hat...”
“They’re all the rage in Clovel. A recent fashion trend of slime hats.”
“Ohh! Wow! It’s so cute!”
I made sure my Sphere was visible as I spoke, but she either believed me or simply didn’t care, for she didn’t question me any further and pointed at the signboard which read the Ram’s Hoof.
“So how about it? We’ve got a super tender lako-lako lamb stew today. It’s only eighty ennies, and you get bread and salad with it. Sounds good, right?”
If Leen were here, she would’ve been leaping for joy at this. It was pretty cheap too, so I thought I’d stop by.
“Can I order takeout too?”
“If you let us know beforehand, then of course. I’d recommend our meat pies!”
I’d crossed off the idea of buying food for Leen, but I realized that food along with my apology gift was a great idea. It also covered my losses in case I came back empty-handed. And I was hungry, so this would be a good opportunity to rest and refuel while seeing if any useful hints cropped up.
“All right, I’ll stop by.”
“Great!” She opened the door and called, “One customer!”
I followed the girl inside, her long skirt fluttering as she walked. The restaurant was clean and seemed relatively new. Unlike the cheap taverns that adventurers frequented, which served big portions of simple food for low prices, this place looked like it was frequented by mostly regular folk. It was designed so that customers could have a little privacy and chat during their meal, because there were dividers between the tables.
“I’ll have the stew and a meat pie to go. And...”
I remembered the slime on my head. Leen always fed it bones and the inedible parts of the food she ate.
“I’ll take two grilled lamb chops,” I went on.
“Thank you for your order! Hey, boss, one stew and two chops for table number three!”
“You got it!” came the voice from behind the counter. “Can you bring these to table six?”
“Right away, boss!”
The girl called Sharney replied and dashed away to the kitchen with energetic footsteps. When she was gone, the slime, which had remained stuck to my head, jumped off and sat(?) opposite me.