24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 34

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Dimensional Item Specialty 24-Hour Friendly Market Episode 34

Episode 34. 51st Floor (4)

‘I miss you, Necros.’

I never imagined I’d come to miss a dark mage with half his face rotted away.

The memories of the 49th Floor, where I was treated like an honored guest, feel so distant now.

Spotting a centaur passing by, I brazenly approached and tried to strike up a conversation.

“Excuse me, I’m a merchant. Do you perhaps need any goods…?”

“Get lost.”

I couldn’t even finish my sentence.

Having accumulated my fifth emotional wound, I slumped my shoulders and fled to the roadside.

Honestly, aside from the Irregular Dimensional Market, this was my first time directly encountering Beastkin, so I had some expectations when entering the village.

The Beastkin village certainly looked like something out of a fairy tale.

But the atmosphere was closer to a war documentary than a fairy tale.

Every Beastkin’s face was deeply shadowed with fatigue and wariness, and their gazes toward me were uniformly cold.

I even got kicked out when I tried to sell potions.

It’s surprising that the gruff bear gatekeeper was the kindest Beastkin I’d met.

The blatantly hostile stares that poured down whenever I passed by were concerning, but they were bearable enough.

At least they weren’t hurling direct insults at me.

“Tch, disgusting.”

Hey, spitting crosses the line, doesn’t it?

I turned my head to see buffalo-headed Beastkin chewing grass with savage expressions, then quietly turned away.

‘Well, I can’t always walk the straight and narrow.’

Sometimes you have to cross lines.

As I ventured deeper into the village, I saw more diverse Beastkin.

A young Beastkin with perky dog ears was running urgently past, while wolf-faced adults were seriously polishing their swords.

There were Beastkin swishing horse tails while carrying loads, and others with rabbit ears twitching as they crafted something.

But most of all, what I saw most were injured Beastkin.

There were quite a few hobbling on crutches or wrapped in blood-stained bandages.

‘Are they at war?’

If it’s a wartime situation, such hostile reactions would be understandable.

With so many Beastkin suffering, it makes sense that the bear gatekeeper was wary of me.

But I had no idea where this village even was.

‘It would be nice to know the scenario.’

It’s deplorable that our country isn’t kind enough to share scenario details.

Houses built with planks using lush trees as pillars, and watchtowers visible above them.

It was then, as I continued deeper into the village.

“Mmm…”

A very small groan that could easily be missed.

I unconsciously turned my head toward the sound.

A very small figure that didn’t fit with this place full of despair, fatigue, and wariness.

It was a child with cat ears and tail.

The child, who looked about seven years old in human terms, was clutching their stomach, their face deathly pale.

But no Beastkin showed any interest in the child.

“Hey, are you okay?”

The child looked up in surprise.

Then showed a reaction that wasn’t particularly surprising anymore.

“A-a human…!”

Fear different from the adult Beastkin’s hostility filled those bright yellow eyes.

‘Somehow feels pitiful.’

I’m just a weak E-rank human whose skin would tear if Bear-bro swung his paw once.

I spoke calmly.

“That’s right. I’m human. But I have no weapons and no strength. I’m just curious if you’re okay. There are lots of adults passing by. If I seem suspicious, just scream. Then everyone will come running.”

This was quite a kind explanation for Lee Hae-won.

No matter how thick-skinned I am, I’m not cold-hearted toward children.

Perhaps my sincerity got through, as the child’s puffed-up tail slowly began to settle.

If the tail fluff disappeared, that was a green light.

I carefully approached and crouched down beside the child.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt somewhere?”

The child glanced at me repeatedly before mumbling hesitantly.

“I’m hungry…”

Ah.

I was momentarily flustered by the unexpected reason.

It’s true that many people go hungry during wartime, but to think even such a young child was starving.

‘What the hell is going on in this place?’

I clicked my tongue softly and opened my inventory.

In my inventory were two sandwiches I’d bought after running to get in line for lunch.

I took out the sandwiches and some excess Vita100 stock and offered them to the child.

“Want to eat this?”

Joy filled the child’s eyes as they stared intently at the sandwich.

The child frantically grabbed the sandwich and began stuffing it into their mouth.

The wrapper that had neatly covered the sandwich instantly became rags scattered on the ground.

“Eat slowly. Here, drink this too.”

“Th-thank you.”

How hungry must they have been to be in this state?

The sight of the child frantically swallowing without properly chewing was heartbreaking.

The child devoured both sandwiches in an instant.

As if that wasn’t enough, they licked clean even the sauce around their mouth, then looked at me with embarrassed eyes and carefully spoke.

“Thank you… It was really delicious.”

I waited in line for an hour to buy that, so of course it was delicious.

‘Good that they ate well.’

Now that I’ve fed them, shall I try to get some answers?

“That’s good then. I’m Lee Hae, a wandering merchant. What’s your name?”

“I’m Echo. I’m from the Cat tribe.”

“Echo? Do you happen to know how to do time jumps or cloning?”

“…There are Beastkin who can do such things?”

I came to my senses at their confused look and asked the main question first.

“Where is this place?”

“It’s ‘Kona’ village, located inside the Ganasia continent. It’s the last village where we Beastkin live. I heard there used to be tons of Beastkin villages before, but now only this one remains.”

“So this place was called Kona. Nobody would answer me.”

“Ah… The reason they probably didn’t answer is… probably because you’re human, merchant sir.”

“Why? I came from far away so I don’t know much.”

The child’s eyes widened in surprise at my innocent question.

Judging by how their ears perked up, they seemed quite shocked.

“Because we’ve been at war with humans for 10 years now… over the last sanctuary called ‘Prorovel.'”

So their war opponent was humans.

I had roughly guessed from seeing their hostility toward me, but hearing it directly really hit home.

In the midst of all this, I was even grateful to the little one who ate the sandwich given by a stranger without any suspicion.

‘But what’s this about a sanctuary?’

Is this part of the scenario content?

“Sanctuary?”

When I asked that, the little one looked even more flustered.

“You don’t know about Agemor… either?”

“I know Amor Fati.”

“What’s that…?”

Ah, I had completely forgotten that dad jokes don’t work on other species.

“Anyway, there’s a lot I don’t know. Could you tell me in detail what the situation is here?”

“Umm… okay. I originally lived in a village called Rotophem in the northern part of the continent. It’s a distant place that takes about 2 months to get to from here, but suddenly a black mist appeared and devoured both the land and sky.”

“Black mist?”

I reflexively asked back while glancing at the sky, but it was still blue.

Echo shook her head and continued her explanation.

“It hasn’t come down here yet. But they say it keeps approaching this way. I heard it’s the same on the human side.”

“When did this mist first appear?”

“Um… the adults said it was about 10 years ago. At first it was only visible at the edge of the continent, but now all the land where we could live has completely disappeared. This place is dangerous too.”

So does that mean this is the last line of defense?

“Then that place you mentioned called Prorovel, the ‘sanctuary’ – does that mean it’s safe?”

“Prorovel hasn’t been stained by the black mist. The adults also said we need to occupy that place to be safe.”

“It’s not that the black mist just hasn’t reached there yet?”

“I, I don’t know about that either. All the adults say that’s how it is…”

Echo lowered her head with a dejected expression.

I stared at her drooping cat ears while organizing my thoughts.

So this is Kona village on the continent of Ganashia.

An unknown poisonous mist called black mist is devouring everything, the land where living beings can survive is gradually shrinking, and the beastkin are waging war against humans to claim the sanctuary…

‘So is solving that mist the scenario content?’

No, that can’t be it.

That Seo Jae-hyuk gave up on such a simple quest and requested an alliance?

‘Could it be that ending the war is the scenario’s goal?’

Or maybe it’s both.

Babel isn’t that easy after all.

Echo, who had been watching me as I grew serious, added quietly as if muttering.

“If you get consumed by the black mist, your skin hardens and turns black, like frostbite. And then it shatters instantly like breaking ice. We…”

Before Echo could finish her words.

Clang- Clang- Clang-

A loud bell sound that seemed like it would burst my eardrums.

Echo and I both jumped up at the same time.

“It’s an alarm!”

Unlike me who was startled, Echo grabbed my hand as if she was used to this.

“We need to evacuate quickly! This is the outskirts, so we need to go inside!”

“Where are we going!?”

“The humans are coming!”

As if to prove she was indeed a cat beastkin, Echo began running quickly while holding my hand, dodging obstacles.

Meanwhile, shouts from beastkin erupted from all over the village.

“Take up arms!”

“Approaching over the eastern wall!”

“Evacuate the children first!”

The atmosphere flipped instantly, leaving no time to assess the situation.

The precarious daily life was shattered, and beastkin who had instantly become warriors were urgently running toward the direction Echo and I had come from, carrying weapons.

I tried to understand the situation even while running.

The village structure was more complex than I thought.

Echo seemed amazing as she unhesitatingly escaped through the maze-like paths between wooden houses in one go.

Was the direction I had come from, where the trees with sap collection were, close to the battlefield?

It was at that moment when I stepped forward with that thought.

“There, there’s a beast over there!”

‘What?!’

At what was clearly an insulting remark toward beastkin, I immediately raised my head.

Beyond the high wooden barrier on the left, a human with a bow was pointing directly at Echo and me.

“Wh, what do we do!”

Just as Echo, who had been running well, panicked and tried to stop.

I scooped up Echo and kept running.

“Uh, sister.”

“Echo, don’t panic and tell me the direction.”

“Turn right here, hic.”

Gone was the mature behavior from just before, and Echo now had the face of a frightened child.

I adjusted my hold on Echo to make running easier and kept moving my feet.

It was at that moment.

“Sweep away all those filthy beasts!”

“Prorovel belongs to humans!”

“Beasts should be in cages!”

I felt Echo flinch and tightly hug my neck.

There are things you can say and things you shouldn’t say.

We’d only been together for a few minutes at most, but how many humiliating words had this cat beastkin child heard?

Realizing this fact clearly, I unconsciously turned around and shouted.

“You fucking discriminating bastards-“

However, what I hadn’t expected was that my voice was incredibly, extremely, very loud.

“Where do you get off spouting such bullshit-!”

It was a roar drawn up from my core.

And at that moment.

“Sister-!”

An arrow that flew in a straight line struck precisely in the center of my chest.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————