24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 49

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Dimensional Item Specialty 24-Hour Friendly Market Episode 49

Episode 49. The Arrow That Left the Bowstring (8)

A uniquely shaped house with walls built between the roots of a giant tree.

“Should I do the knocking…?”

“Ah, yes. Please do.”

Han Romi knocked on the door with difficulty, her hand as lifeless as her tone.

We had come to the same place.

No, the very situation where Han Romi and I were grouped together in the category of ‘us’ was absurd to begin with.

This woman, I had no idea what she was doing here instead of completing the scenario she was supposed to do.

That said, having pretended to be an ‘ordinary human from the Ganashia continent’ all this time, I couldn’t show hostility toward Han Romi.

Han Romi and I were, if I had to put it in words, cellmates.

‘Let’s maintain composure.’

I should make an effort to clear the scenario, but not lose sight of my initial resolve to avoid getting entangled with the strategy team.

I waited for quite a while with that determination, but no signs of life could be heard from inside the house.

“They were here just a moment ago… I guess they’re not in right now.”

Clara said with a shrug.

At least it was fortunate that it wasn’t just Han Romi and me alone.

Clara, who had gone to meet the turtle beastkin, seemed to have been held up by acquaintances during that chaos.

Well, even I wouldn’t have been able to resist asking about the current situation of a friend who had eloped with a human.

Of course, I had also been held up for quite a while explaining why I had become an adult man, keeping it secret from Han Romi.

More than that, it was disappointing that after finally coming here, they weren’t home.

“They usually seemed to be in the backyard around sunset. Shall we take a look around?”

…this might be an opportunity.

Clara readily stepped to the right.

Behind the giant tree was a not-so-large vegetable garden.

A vegetable garden where various plants I had never seen before were growing.

The fence surrounding the area was utterly shoddy.

And in the middle of that vegetable garden stood the beastkin we were looking for.

“Grandpa Gilliard! It’s me, Clara!”

“You came quickly, Clara.”

‘Wow, it’s really a turtle.’

The turtle beastkin named Gilliard was small enough to reach about my waist level.

However, the shell he carried on his back was so large that overall, he felt quite imposing.

His aged-looking face was deeply wrinkled.

His gait as he approached with a cane was very slow and careful.

Gilliard, who had closed the creaky fence gate, looked at Clara affectionately and asked.

“Are these humans the ones you mentioned earlier?”

“Oh, no. This one is the human I told you about, and this one is a human I don’t know.”

The former was me and the latter was Han Romi.

Gilliard didn’t even glance at Han Romi and firmly grasped my hand.

“You saved Clara? Thank you so much. She’s a child I’ve cared for like a granddaughter.”

The smile he gave me was so kind that I bowed my waist deeply.

This was the first beastkin who had been favorable toward me from the start since coming here.

Gilliard’s thick hand patted my hand.

“I happen to have just enough tea for about three cups. It’s tea that’s good for recovering from fatigue, so it’ll be exactly what you need.”

My whole body had been stiff from climbing up and down ladders with trembling legs.

I was happy at the thought of drinking a warm cup of tea and relieving my fatigue when it happened.

“I’m here too though…?”

Ah, right. I had brought something along.

“What are you?”

At the pointed question, Han Romi slowly blinked and answered.

“I’m… Han Romi.”

That wasn’t what he had asked for.

Gilliard lightly clicked his tongue and shook his head.

Unlike the tree-dwelling beastkin who had experienced Han Romi’s nature while getting angry and flustered, this experienced turtle beastkin seemed to have noticed her troublesome nature the moment he saw her.

Gilliard ignored Han Romi and looked at me again with a warm smile.

“What’s your name?”

“Ah, I’m…”

I, who was about to blurt out my name without thinking, hesitated.

With Han Romi standing right there with her eyes wide open, it was a bit awkward to openly reveal my manager name…

But then again, Clara, who was standing nearby, already knew the name ‘Lee Hae.’

To give a different name seemed strange too, since my face was obviously Asian, yet attaching a Western name to it would be odd.

I quietly answered, hoping that Han Romi had no interest in the Friendly Market’s manager.

“My name is Hae, and my surname is Lee. Just call me Hae comfortably.”

It was sad that this was the extent of changing my approach.

Although my name seemed to be getting shorter and shorter, I smiled shamelessly.

“I see, Hae. A bright and cheerful name of the day. I heard you were desperately looking for me, what’s the reason?”

I was stuck again.

‘Damn it!’

I wasn’t supposed to come with Han Romi.

What I wanted to ask Gilliard about was the ‘Ancient Oath.’

It happened to be a name explicitly mentioned in the scenario.

Everyone would know that one person from the strategy team couldn’t enter, and by now they’d be desperately searching for the intruder.

In such circumstances, to ask about the Ancient Oath here?

It would only be a matter of time before Han Romi noticed my identity.

My broken brain, having come up with flimsy excuses more than once or twice since entering Floor 51, was desperately seeking a solution when.

“Hey, where are you going?!”

Clara shouted in a shrill voice.

Han Romi, who had been standing still, began to move in an unexpected direction.

The place Han Romi was heading toward was the vegetable garden where Gilliard had been standing just moments before.

“What’s with that human? Is she your companion, Hae?”

“No, she’s a human I first met here today too… She was looking for blending grass?”

“…Blending grass?”

“Yes, the plant that helps those herbs mix well together.”

“Ah, are you talking about Gromia grass by any chance?”

Gilliard, who mentioned an unfamiliar name, looked at Han Romi with displeasure.

Meanwhile, Han Romi, who had arrived in front of the fence stepping on the rustling grass with bare feet, gazed endlessly into the vegetable garden.

“A human who makes medicine.”

“It seems that way.”

Well, if I mentioned that she had made medicine that instantly healed Onak’s major wound, Gilliard might welcome her with a brightened expression.

But I didn’t particularly want to help Han Romi, so I kept my mouth shut.

However, Gilliard seemed to have softened slightly at the very fact that she was ‘a human who makes medicine.’

“You there.”

“Me…?”

“Have you ever given medicine to beastkin? Have you ever healed us, I mean.”

“Just now. Someone called the warrior chief was injured, so I gave him medicine and treated him…”

Even without me saying anything, Han Romi was proving her harmlessness on her own.

Her casual attitude, as if it was nothing at all, made Han Romi appear even more upright.

If this was how it would turn out, I should have just spoken up myself.

‘Making me look petty for no reason.’

Nobody would know, but I felt like I was the only one who lost out.

Gilliard stared at Han Romi for quite a while.

Eventually, having made his decision, Gilliard asked in a somewhat softer tone.

“Why do you need Gromia grass?”

“Among all the blending herbs I’ve discovered so far, there’s no blending herb that raises the blending rate as much as this grass… No matter what blending herb I added, it always failed…”

Han Romi, who had been staring at the blending herb called Gromia grass all this time, raised her head.

Han Romi looked straight at Gilliard.

“There’s a medicine I need to make.”

For this moment alone, she answered clearly without drawing out her words.

It felt as if a cold wind was blowing between Gilliard and Han Romi.

Gilliard, who had been standing quietly without a word, slowly opened his mouth.

“I’ll give you the Gromia grass.”

A faint smile, so subtle it would be hard to notice unless you looked closely, appeared on Han Romi’s face, which had been hazy throughout.

‘What exactly is she trying to make that she wants that blending herb so badly?’

Even pushing the scenario aside from her priorities.

As I was staring at Han Romi’s incomprehensible expression, Gilliard spoke up.

“But everything must have a price. For beastkin who bear the duty of records, there are such rules.”

Well, he was offering a blending herb I hadn’t seen anywhere while climbing 51 floors.

Han Romi would probably try to pay whatever Gilliard demanded.

Seeing her reach into the air, she was definitely searching through her inventory.

“That applies to you too, Haeya.”

“Huh? Me?”

I looked at Gilliard with wide eyes.

Gilliard, who was still looking at me with warm eyes, nodded.

“Yes, answering curious questions also requires payment.”

But I never said I wanted to ask anything.

‘Is this what experience brings?’

“Well, I’m not asking for much. Just…”

Both Han Romi, who was rummaging through her inventory, and I, who was flustered, focused on Gilliard’s mouth.

The price that beastkin and humans want might be different after all.

Gilliard, who had been rolling his eyes as if thinking for a while, smiled lightly.

Then he added casually.

“Clean the barnacles off my back.”

…What?

* * *

What a shocking discovery!

A turtle beastkin’s shell has a detachable structure!

When he asked us to clean the barnacles off his back, I thought we’d have to use tools on Gilliard’s shell while he was lying down, but fortunately that wasn’t the case.

“That barnacle over there hasn’t come off yet…?”

“Ah, I know…”

I answered curtly and hammered in the direction Han Romi pointed.

Using a chisel and hammer for a long time makes your grip hurt.

That’s a fact I didn’t want to know.

Still, I could ask about the Ancient Oath without spending Gold.

Being able to pay with physical labor – what an efficient trade this was.

Spin, circuit of hope.

I glanced at Han Romi, who was diligently hammering on the opposite side.

Perhaps because she was such a pale person, her reddened palms were starkly visible.

‘Come to think of it, this is quite a surreal moment.’

The situation of cleaning a turtle beastkin’s shell together with Han Romi, the guild leader of Verdant, one of South Korea’s seven major guilds.

I never could have imagined this.

Even if I bragged to Guk Min-seong, Aegis’s slave, he’d just snort and tell me to stop lying.

“We’re almost done…”

At Han Romi’s casual murmur, I raised my head.

After hammering silently for 2 hours, we could finally count the number of barnacles left on the shell.

“That’s right.”

I gave a half-hearted response and started attacking the barnacles at the edge.

Wait, hold on. But.

‘Where is Han Romi going after this?’

It wasn’t because I thought of barnacle ‘attacking,’ but Han Romi’s whereabouts were really an important issue for me.

Because wherever Han Romi went, there would be raid teams, and I had to avoid them.

Without taking my eyes off the hammer, I casually asked.

“Where are you going after you get the Gromia grass?”

“Me…? I don’t know…”

No, what am I supposed to do if you don’t know?

“I’ll know when the time comes…”

No, I need to know that now so I can decide my next destination!

I couldn’t reveal my identity outright, so I was frustrated to the point of going crazy.

That’s when it happened.

The hammering sound stopped, and Han Romi straightened her back and stared into the air.

Her eyes moving busily left and right were clearly reading something.

“Oh… someone is looking for me.”

“Really? You should go then.”

“I suppose I should…”

Han Romi let out a short sigh and slowly continued hammering.

I didn’t need to ask where she was going.

I was also seeing the window that Han Romi was looking at.

[■ Babel System > Scenario Participant Shared Message

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