Chapter 7

Chapter 7

7. Louiswell (3)

Benrik, who finished preparing to go out, came down the inn stairs.

“Where are you going?”

It was Jenkinson gambling with other guests at one side of the first floor table.

“Trying to sightsee the city a bit.”

Jenkinson, who squinted his eyes and checked the cards, overturned the cards with a ‘tsk’ sound, then looked at Benrik.

“Sightseeing, huh.”

At the meaningful muttering, Benrik added.

“And buying some clothes too.”

He, who had been blankly looking at the child, shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, don’t get ripped off. Come in before sunset.”

“If you’re that worried, want to go together, Jenkinson?”

Jenkinson, who was scratching his bearded chin, chuckled. Because the guy who was dealing like a skilled gambler last evening came to mind.

“Thinking about it, it seems fine.”

Jenkinson ended with those words and withdrew interest from Benrik. Benrik, who simply avoided suspicion, received recommendations for a few shops from the inn owner Hanson and left the inn.

The first place he stopped by was the everyday clothes shop on one side of the square. It said it handles broadly from commoners’ everyday clothes to the wealthy’s living clothes.

Benrik, who pushed the door and entered, said abruptly.

“I want to sell the clothes I’m wearing.”

The shop owner, who swept Benrik’s attire up and down, retracted the sales smile he was forcing.

“I’m having bad luck.”

He crumpled his expression and waved his hand as if chasing flies.

“Don’t play around and go, while I’m speaking with words.”

“This is Crimson Bear leather.”

Muttering, he paused.

“Mr. Hanson recommended so I deliberately came here. It can’t be helped.”

As Benrik turned his back as if having no lingering attachment, a thick palm urgently grabbed the child’s shoulder.

A hand sweeping the fabric as if confirming once.

Turning around, he smiles with the irritation nowhere to be found.

“···It was Hanson’s introduction, you should have said so in advance.”

Benrik, who smiled a confident smile in return, pressed on.

“How much will you give?”

Benrik does not know how much value Crimson Bear has in the secular world. He only knows that it is a species that only inhabits the Golden Mountains and that it is an item that the peddlers who stop by once or twice a year are anxious to buy from each other.

But seeing the reaction, he vaguely seemed to know.

“Hmm let’s see. Crimson Bear’s leather always has overflowing demand, but the color has faded too much.”

The merchant, who was rolling his eyes, spread five fingers.

“I’ll give one set of change clothes and fifty silver coins.”

He recalled the price at which Gerik supplied newly tanned furs. He shook his head.

“One gold coin and two sets of clothes.”

Because it rolled roughly it was mended and worn several times, but the fur itself was still new. Because it was the trophy obtained after raiding a hibernating bear magical beast family last winter.

In short, it means the color hasn’t faded.

The shop owner, with a bitter expression, raised and stuck two fingers.

“···Seventy silver coins and two sets of clothes.”

“Let’s do that.”

The deal was concluded.

While the shop owner prepared the payment and clothes, Benrik unfolded the mental job list and put a star next to the magical beast hunter item and jotted a small memo.

Magical beast byproducts ‘very much’ become money.

“Change clothes.”

Benrik, who tried on the clothes the shop owner handed, was surprised.

The first reason was that the wearing feeling was soft unlike the rough-looking exterior, and the second was the weight that didn’t feel like wearing it.

Exaggerating a bit more, it was at a level as if wearing nothing.

The seasonal changes in Logon Village located in the high mountains are not distinct. There is only a fierce winter and a less fierce early winter.

For more than half the year one had to wear thick fur, and for the remaining less than half one couldn’t help but wear stiff leather clothes.

Because he lived his whole life like that, the sensation was much greater.

Above all, he liked that there was no need for a breaking-in process. No matter how well leather clothes are tanned, a process of breaking them in to fit the body shape was needed.

It exceeds expectations.

Even though it’s ready-made not tailored by measuring, the way it fits perfectly as if tailored, and the way no sense of incongruity is felt in any corner.

“It feels like not wearing clothes. It’s also convenient to move, how did you know my size?”

At that, the merchant who was examining the fur clothes chuckled.

“I’ve been making only clothes for 20 years, of course. At this point one should get a sense just by looking at the rough outline.”

Indeed, is it a craftsman’s eye. He, who was making a proud expression, added.

“Since you seem to be in the peak growth period, I put the other one in a size larger.”

“Thank you.”

“I myself, such items are not easy to obtain.”

Seeing what he said, it seemed he also properly examined the clothes and noticed.

It was clothes made from a young individual’s to match Benrik’s physique. Softer than the adult’s fur, and good insulation.

“I put in a bit more. If you have more to sell, come to our shop next time too.”

Certainly a skilled person in both quality and business sense.

“Yes, take care.”

Probably Benrik won’t have a chance to come again.

The deal satisfactory to both people ended like that.

***

Leaving the shop, Benrik headed to the western outskirts of Louiswell.

Passing buildings with clean exteriors plastered with whitewash on bricks, and passing a few alleys with severe slope differences and curves, the atmosphere of the street changed.

People sprawled like corpses, unconscious.

Kids Benrik’s age shining eyes like stray cats in the gaps of narrow alleys.

Men staggering drunk on something unknown whether alcohol or medicine, and women fawning while stroking such men’s arms, etc.

‘I came to the right place.’

It was the entertainment street where brothels, gambling dens, taverns etc. gathered.

What changed was not only the appearance.

Benrik, who was wrinkling his nose at the powder scent piercing the nose, intuitively felt that his prediction was correct.

‘It’s the same smell as that woman.’

Walking following the scent for a while.

Despite it being broad daylight, the appearance of half-naked women coming out in front of the building with hazy eyes and gestures was seen.

Approaching closer, it became certain.

The sweet smell mixed with fragrance, it was medicine.

Benrik immediately excluded the woman from the list of suspects.

There’s no law that a prostitute shouldn’t pickpocket.

But those busy chasing ideals with hazy eyes didn’t seem to live life enthusiastically enough to do a side job.

'Let’s see, next the high possibility one···.’

Benrik recalled the impression of the ill-looking man he had chewed over last night.

The scar mark that long crossed from the eyebrows to below the chin, bald head, dark skin. And he was wearing light leather clothes over a yellow tunic.

‘He was also wearing a knife.’

Normally he would have ignored and passed, but the fact that he deliberately apologized was also like that, and the exterior that anyone would see as likely belonging to the underworld was also like that.

‘Is this side the highest possibility.’

It was when he was thinking. With a clattering sound something tumbled in front of Benrik.

‘A person?’

It was almost flying and crashing so ‘is he okay?’. A man who stood up quickly like a flying squirrel as if nothing was wrong shouted.

“Damn, really! I said I have money!”

But somehow the face of the man shouting while vigorously scratching his straw-like hair was familiar.

“Matthew?”

It was Matthew, the Bronze Badge mercenary of Jenkinson’s mercenary group.

He, who was crumpling his eyebrows to the fullest as if wronged, suddenly turned his head with a sound.

“Benrik? Why are you here, no, I met you just in time!”

The delighted him put a hand on the shoulder.

“Do you have some money? Lend me some. Hyung will double it for you.”

···It was a gambling den. Kicked out because money ran out. The guy who is only twenty years old already falling into the wrong path.

Did such inner thoughts show on the expression.

“······It’s a joke, a joke.”

He self-corrected on his own. Fortunate.

Because the future of the colleague in the same organization still remained.

It was then that a chilly voice descended on the crown of his head.

“No different from human scum. Even extorting from a kid?”

“Extorting, your words are harsh! We’re in the same mercenary group?!”

A voice somehow familiar to the ear.

“Is it true?”

Benrik, who confirmed the face of the gambling den guard, nodded his head.

“Yes. For now. Excuse me.”

“Hmm. Is that so?”

As Benrik readily affirmed, the ill-looking guard withdrew with an unsatisfactory expression.

Benrik, who pondered for a moment, called the regretful-looking Matthew.

“Matthew.”

He deliberately took out the money pouch received from selling the clothes so that the guard could see it well, then took out twenty silver coins and handed them to Matthew.

“I’m lending it.”

“What, really? Really?”

The delighted him glanced slightly.

“······If I lose?”

“You have to repay later. Double.”

Matthew felt that the expression of the child saying so was somehow the same as the expression on the day of the bet with Jenkinson, but.

“Good! This time the feeling is good!”

He couldn’t ignore the brilliant attraction of the silver coins.

Benrik naturally followed behind Matthew who entered the gambling den rejoicing.

***

It was around the age of seven that Benrik followed Gerik out for magical beast hunting.

“Look well, Benrik. That is a Poison Fang Rabbit’s cub. What looks different from a rabbit?”

“The teeth are bigger. And the color is black.”

As things that harbor poison usually are, it was flashy and cute.

Moreover a cub. Cuteness added to cuteness so it was extremely cute.

“Again? Is there something else you feel?”

Gerik asked persistently.

“Something I feel? It’s cute?”

Young Benrik said so and casually reached out his hand. The rabbit that was looking up at Benrik with innocent eyes jumped up.

─Kyaak!

In an instant, Benrik’s body floated into the air.

A strange appearance was imprinted on the retina of the child flying weakly toward the tree trunk.

Crack- the snout opened to the limit, teeth densely grown inside it.

The teeth of the guy in the form of a herbivore were dense and sharp like a shark’s.

Gerik, who snatched Benrik’s nape, kicked the body of the rabbit magical beast that weakly bit the air.

Crack, along with the sound of bone breaking, red blood and saliva poured out from the mouth of the guy floating in the air.

─Crash!

Benrik crashing into the tree trunk and the rabbit magical beast crashing into the ground were simultaneous.

─Hiss···.

The weeds hit by the blood and saliva the guy vomited melted.

If Gerik hadn’t properly snatched Benrik’s nape and thrown him, Benrik’s hand would clearly have melted like that.

Benrik, who swallowed saliva, his gaze reached the dying Poison Fang Rabbit.

The eyes that sparkled like pomegranate seeds now looked like an unpleasant blood color.

Even though what changed was only his own heart.

Gerik, who grabbed and twisted the neck of the Poison Fang Rabbit crashed into the ground, asked.

“What did you learn?”

“···Don’t judge just by appearance?”

“Yes, don’t let your guard down, develop your eye. Saving you from the Poison Fang Rabbit is only this once.”

“······But was there a need to throw me?”

Asking while stuck upside down, Gerik laughed refreshingly.

“Originally learning is accompanied by pain.”

“That’s not saying that pain must necessarily follow, is it?”

“Don’t talk back.”

.

.

.

“Kahahat! Did you see, did you see Benrik! What did I say, I said the feeling is good!”

When recalling the not-so-distant past, the gambling den guard who was watching the board together behind Matthew said.

“······It’s meddling, but don’t associate with gamblers.”

“Yes?”

“I say so because I have a younger sibling exactly your age. They’re a breed that is of no help whatsoever in life.”

Benrik engraved the realization deep in his heart once more, and checked if the pouch at his waist was safe.

And,

“Thanks for the advice.”

Excluded the gambling den guard from the list of suspects.

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