Chapter 17 – 17. Merchant

I had a nightmare. A nightmare of something huge weighing me down.

‘…… It’s heavy.’

Something weighing about 50 kg weighs down my entire body. You can tell what it is even with your eyes closed. I slowly opened my eyes and looked at Master lying on top of me.

Perhaps it was a reaction to revealing the secret, or it seemed that Master was trying to make me remember every single pore of her face beyond showing her face to me.

“Master…… It’s morning. Master?”
“Ugh…….”
“I know you are awake.”
“Huh-uh-!”

She even buried her head in my chest and started whining. The attitude of not wanting to get away from me. However, I couldn’t hold her and start my day.

As I forcibly removed her, she looked up at me with a look of despair like an abandoned child.

“Yo, John…… You’re leaving me now…… ?”
“Yes. Master, if you don’t want to be abandoned, quickly wash your face and come out to eat.”

At times like these, I had to step out. Because I couldn’t accept her complaint forever. She, who had been whining, heard my determined tone and headed to the bathroom as if giving up.

While she did a quick wash in the bathroom, I prepared a meal. I went to the city and used the ingredients I had bought to make dishes I wouldn’t normally eat.

Even before the cooking was complete, Master, who had lightly washed her face, came out to the living room and watched me with her chin resting on me while I was cooking.

“John, how are you?”
“Yes. You are beautiful.”
“Hehe, how much?”
“The best in the world.”

Ever since I revealed the secret to her—she’s always wanted my compliments. I didn’t get tired of it, so I begged for compliments enough to make my tongue cramp every hour and every minute.

But it wasn’t a compliment out of mind, it was true that she was beautiful- I gladly praised her. Every time I heard such compliments, seeing Master like it made me happy too.

“…… What are you two doing?”
“Ah, Mr. Margaret.”

As I was praising Master, Margaret came out of the room and glared at the two of us frowning.

I explained what had happened last night to her, who was looking at us with an expression as if she didn’t know what she was doing from the wind in the morning.

Margaret, who had heard about the story of last night, stopped and looked at Evangeline.

“…… I told you not to.”
“Ah- it was.”
“…… Tell Evangeline, it wasn’t intentional.”
“Um, Master. Margaret-san—”

I relayed Margaret’s words to Master. Margaret was nervous as she gulped down her saliva, probably thinking that Master would spit out hot fire.

Actually, there is no need to be so nervous. Indeed, Evangeline, who had heard Margaret’s message as I had thought, tilted her head and acted as if that was the problem.

“What is it, Ritsu, do I look like someone who would get mad at me for something like that? Ehehe, aren’t you looking at people too badly?”

“…… Aren’t you mad?”

“Ah, a person could be like that. Is it not?”

After saying that, Master asked me to compliment her appearance one more time. I responded. It was only after seeing that scene that Margaret seemed to realize why her master was behaving like that.

‘Would this person be angry right now? ….’

If yesterday’s master had known that Margaret had revealed her secret to me, she might have driven her out of the cabin in a rage, as Margaret feared.

However, it was not the current Master. With Margaret revealing her secret to me- the current Master, who has a deeper relationship with me.

‘As long as the results are good, the process will be forgiven.’

Thanks to Margaret’s telling of the secret, Master did not hide her face from me. I like that I can always see Master’s beautiful face, I like Master who doesn’t have to hide his face from me, and I like Margaret who reveals her secret and doesn’t get punished.

Everyone is happy, so that’s OK.

“Ah, Master.”
“Yes. Why eh-?”
“I’m going to go to town today.”
“Oh, is it that kind of day already? Yes. Bye.”

Having received Master’s permission, I finished my meal and prepared to go to the village. In the backpack were the hides and corpses of the monsters that Master had dealt with.

Today was the day the top was heard in the village.

* * *

Several wagons go up the mountain road.
Not long after, Elesis found a mountain village and asked the merchant.

“Is this here?”
“Yes, yes! That’s right…….”
“Okay, go inside and don’t be fooled – move naturally. As usual.”

Hearing her order, the merchant led the wagon and entered the mountain village. Once a month, it was the day when the guild came to visit, so the villagers were waiting for them with money or agricultural products.

As Elesis had commanded, Sang Sangju naturally, as always, lined up the goods and started doing business.

“Come on, let’s go to sleep! It doesn’t come every day!”

At that, the villagers came over and started looking at the items. Some of the items brought by the guild were ordered by the villagers, so more than half of the items the guild brought were sold out in an instant.

The empty space that had disappeared began to be filled with vegetables, fruits, and monster corpses that the villagers cultivated themselves.

And— Elesis, who saw the monster’s corpse, twinkled her eyes.

“…… Chief, this thing. Where did you get it from?”
“Yes? Who are you?”
“—Ah, ah! Chief! This is my daughter! Daughter!”
“It’s the first time I’ve heard that you had a daughter.”
“Otherwise, as you can see from her appearance, it must be because she hides her pampering. Yes.”

The merchant acted desperately so that Elesis’ identity would not be revealed. While scratching his beard as if it were strange, the village chief answered her question.

“Yes, our village hunters caught it. Aren’t you good at it?”
“Yes. It’s great. I think I know why my father goes up to this village.”

It’s a lie.
Elesis realized that the village chief was lying.

If it were the other Paladins, this alone would have revealed my identity and knocked out all the villagers. Then he must have summoned my soldiers waiting below to escort him.

But she couldn’t. It was because he had a too weak mind to be a witch hunter.

‘…… If there is more accurate evidence-.’

This alone was enough, but it was not enough.
Feeling remorseful, Elesis asked the village chief several questions.

“Can I see the hunter who caught it?”
“Yes? No. I still go hunting…….”
“Okay. How many hunters are there? One person? Several people?”
“Hehe, there are times when one person catches it, and there are times when a group catches it.”

And as the questions grew longer, the chief felt as if she were interrogating him. His intuition was quite sharp, so the village chief realized that the woman in front of him was not the merchant’s daughter.

Steeply- The village chief glared at the merchant fiercely, then suddenly started to choke while laughing.

“Okay, Coke! K-! Coke! Coke!”
“Gwa, are you okay!?”
“Keuhuh! Kek, Colook-! …… Puha-Mi, I’m sorry. Now that I’ve gotten older, I often cough like this…… “
“If you’re not feeling well, can I get you some medicine?”
“Ahaha- thank you, but it will get better if you just go home and rest.”
“This… Okay. Enter carefully.”

While Elesis looks at the village chief with a worried expression, the eyes of the villagers change when they hear the village chief coughing.

The village chief does not have such a disease. Because, befitting the richest person in the village, he was healthy enough not to be petty.

A cough was a kind of signal. A signal to let people know that Elesis is a threat to the town’s existence.

“Oh, I left the pot on fire, really.”
“Go, I’m suddenly tired—Hey, shall we go for a drink?”
“Is that so?”

The villagers vacate their seats one by one. It seemed natural at first glance, but Elesis felt an unknown suspiciousness. I felt that they were leaving one by one so suddenly.

“Do you always break up so quickly?”
“Because they are from the mountains, they often leave as soon as we buy the necessary items and talk.”
“Suspicious…….”

However, in a situation where no proper evidence was found, it was impossible to rummage through the village. In the end, Elesis, who believed that she didn’t get much of a harvest this time, turned around and got into the carriage leaving the village.

“Oh, is it over already?”

A new guest has arrived.
A separate person who can’t be found in the list of people in this town. Elise looked at him with twinkling eyes.

-I found it.

* * *

The merchant who came to the village didn’t have a variety of items prepared like the fancy shops in the city, but there were plenty of items that the villagers needed.

It looked like a different world version of a golden carriage. Although it was a little different that this was not an army, and that they came on a monthly basis rather than a weekly basis.

I greeted the merchant as I put the bag full of monster corpses down next to me.

“Is it over already?”
“…… No! Still doing it!”
“Okay? Then I just wanted to sell this—”
“Tea, Mr. Charles!”

Just as I was about to say hello to the merchant, the village headman, who was returning home from far away, suddenly jumped in and greeted me.

It wasn’t such a friendly relationship, so I looked at the village chief with a frown.

“What is it, inspiration? Come on?”
“Heh, heh heh. Mr. Charles. It’s been a while, but isn’t it too much? Respect for adults…….”
“Respect? Did you really eat something wrong? …”

The village chief, whom I hadn’t seen in a long time, started telling me strange things, as if he had picked up poisonous plants by mistake. Called by different names.

I pushed him lightly and annoyed him.

“And who is Charles? Because it’s John. Why can’t you still remember?”
Haha- what does that mean! Mr. Charles! Even if you hit the wrong place—”
“Stop.”

While the village chief was screaming, a red-haired woman riding in a wagon cautiously cut off the village chief’s mouth and approached.

She approached with a smile and looked at her backpack that I had set down on the floor.

“Are you here to sell something?”
“Ah, yes. By the way.”
“Then can I take a look at the item?”
“Sure.”
“Oh, no…”

The village chief let out a sigh in despair when he heard that I was trading directly with the guild. So don’t be greedy, how long are you going to suck on honey?

She took the backpack I held out for her and looked at the corpse and skin inside her backpack her and her eyes her began to light up.

“—Is that a monster? It is also of very good quality.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Did you catch all of this by yourself?”
“Yes?”
“Okay.”

The red-haired woman began to look at the village chief and the merchant.
She and her eyes met the two of them, and she began to bow her head in sweat.

‘Why are these nobles talking like this?’

I couldn’t understand why, so I just tilted my head.