24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 94

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

24-Hour Friendly Market Specializing in Dimensional Items Episode 94

Episode 94. Player Entry (7)

‘Does smiling kindly solve everything?’

Bewildered, I stared at Nasmith with my mouth agape.

No, honestly, shouldn’t the king of a race know about most things?

Even if my question was vague, I expected him to give a hopeful answer saying he had some idea.

‘If you don’t know, then don’t ask as if you can answer anything!’

That kind smile looked like a defense mechanism to avoid the situation, making me want to let out a hollow laugh.

It was a moment when I missed Gilliard, the shell-detaching turtle who would say anything helpful even with his memory erased.

Perhaps my expression was too obvious, as Nasmith lightly cleared his throat.

“If you have other questions, I’ll answer them.”

“Really?”

“Hey.”

Maybe it was because I unconsciously replied in an irritated tone.

Kim Seol spoke irritably as if telling me to get it together.

Right, Hae Won. If you break down, sociability will disappear from this party.

Encouraging myself, I managed to put on a kind smile again.

‘Something else then…’

“Why are you being so friendly to us?”

Including Nasmith and Dolphina, there were nine merpeople in total at this place.

Except for Dolphina who looked ready to bare her teeth at any moment, all the merpeople were looking at us with curiosity.

Even an idiot could notice that Kim Seol and I were being very blatantly observed.

Moreover, they weren’t just observing us out of curiosity, but showed clear signs of joy as if they had been waiting for us for a long time.

That’s what was strange.

To them, we were just different species who had been screaming in the Kraken’s territory.

‘I shouldn’t just trust this kind of thing.’

I’ve been around Babel society for years, so there must be some reason for this.

Sure enough, Nasmith’s mouth, which had been wearing a benevolent smile all along, stiffened.

He wouldn’t say something boring and obvious like he expected us to come, would he.

“There was a prophecy.”

‘Seriously?’

Can’t this damn fantasy world function without prophecies?

After being bewildered by the absurdity for a moment, I pulled myself together.

‘Well, if they’re welcoming us so groundlessly, at least a prophecy story would make it plausible.’

Since it’s not because of good energy or ancestral spirits watching over me.

“What kind of prophecy?”

Even at Kim Seol’s question that abandoned courtesy, Nasmith didn’t seem uncomfortable at all.

He just calmly nodded a couple of times.

It was several more minutes before Nasmith, who had been carefully choosing his words, opened his mouth.

“It was a prophecy that two humans would appear to guide us… under the moonlight.”

His voice was so low it made me wonder if my ears had gone deaf.

I narrowed my brow and quietly stared at Nasmith’s utterly despairing face.

‘Just listening to it, there doesn’t seem to be any hidden meaning.’

It sounds like it means helping them get out into the world, but it doesn’t feel that dramatic.

Kim Seol seemed to have similar thoughts, barely holding back from asking ‘So what?’

Perhaps noticing our thoughts, Nasmith lightly cleared his throat with disapproving eyes.

“I suppose I need to explain what happened to the merpeople.”

“That’s what we wanted.”

“Please, Kim Seol.”

Holding back Kim Seol’s rudeness that was about to burst out again, I nodded toward Nasmith.

Surely my eyes also blatantly revealed my intention to hear it quickly and completely satisfy my curiosity, but Nasmith didn’t mind.

He just quietly nodded and continued speaking.

“We used to be beings who freely traveled between the deep sea and the surface. But from some day on, the Kraken began blocking us from going above the surface. It’s been decades since it started attacking us merpeople on sight whenever we roamed the seas.”

His face clearly showed his complex feelings.

This problem probably continued from 110 years ago when the last subjugation of Raoko village happened until now.

When Nasmith closed his mouth with a gloomy face, a blonde merperson next to him murmured in a sorrowful voice.

“On moonlit nights, we used to sit on reefs and sing songs…”

Despite her young appearance, she was like a grandmother reminiscing about old memories.

“Why didn’t you fight back?”

“The Kraken is strong. Hundreds of merpeople have already fallen to the Kraken. There was no choice but to wait endlessly until the prophecy was fulfilled.”

My prejudice that other species would be superior ends here.

Since both Kim Seol and I received help from the merpeople, I never thought merpeople would be this weak.

Creating air bubbles and hiding for 15 minutes must have been the only survival method given to them.

Then for species preservation, hiding in such deep places was the only option.

They must have waited all this time with the vague hope that someone from the prophecy would save them.

‘And they think that’s the two humans, namely us.’

I tried to understand the merpeople’s pain.

But I had to address what needed to be addressed.

“Did that prophecy also contain content about us saving the merpeople?”

At my question, Nasmith’s eyes, which had been colored with despair, became strangely hazy.

Then he gave a surprisingly absurd answer.

“That… no.”

Kim Seol muttered as if bewildered.

“Then what? But why are you welcoming us?”

Exactly.

Kim Seol’s point was accurate.

The prophecy Nasmith mentioned only said ‘guide under the moonlight,’ not ‘humans will save the merpeople.’

That’s what I found strange.

Kim Seol, who had been standing on one leg and letting out a hollow laugh, opened her mouth in an irritated tone.

“You, fish-“

I hurriedly tried to cover Kim Seol’s mouth.

However, Kim Seol quickly wielded her magic to push my hand away.

She looked disgusted as if she had touched something dirty even though I hadn’t even touched her.

That expression hurt my tender heart, but anyway I was glad to have stopped Kim Seol’s unfiltered harsh words.

‘Of course, I was thinking the same thing.’

But what Kim Seol was about to say was a racially discriminatory remark!

Most importantly, once the 53rd floor is cleared, Raoko will become a new territory where resources can be mined.

So we need to maintain an amicable relationship with the merpeople, who are the natives of this place.

Kim Seol didn’t care about the wounded soul of one woman and firmly added.

“We need to return to Raoko, so let’s end this waste of time here.”

Sigh, I’m also a cold person if I’m being cold, but I really feel like nothing compared to Kim Seol.

At Kim Seol’s statement, Nasmith’s expression hardened coldly.

Perhaps they had been arbitrarily assuming we would definitely help, as the other merpeople also began murmuring in disbelief.

“No, this human means we can’t solve it right away, so we’ll look for more clues.”

“Couldn’t we find those here too?”

“Why, want to give it a try?”

At that moment, thorn-shaped ice shards began rising from beneath Kim Seol’s feet.

I had forgotten since we could communicate reasonably well, but Kim Seol was ranked 4th among hunters and one of South Korea’s greatest powers.

Especially now in the ocean depths, there wasn’t a single being here who could face Kim Seol.

Moreover, she had such an outstanding personality that the words “no manners” naturally came to mind.

Under Kim Seol’s fierce intimidating aura, Nasmith cowered and averted his gaze.

Even his snow-white beard trembling in the current made him look so pitiful that I felt sympathy.

‘Ah, how pitiful.’

Living in hiding was already miserable enough, and now the prophesied human he thought would help was threatening him.

For a king of a race, it was such a pitiful sight that my heart naturally softened.

Perhaps thinking he could no longer reason with Kim Seol, Nasmith looked at me with quite desperate eyes.

He had shown a favorable attitude until now and even helped me control that Kim Seol, so he seemed to place his last hope in me.

“We need to go. We have something important too.”

I shared the same thoughts as Kim Seol.

While the merfolk’s situation was unfortunate, our top priority was completing the scenario.

When considering priorities, this naturally came first.

If we couldn’t get clues about the scenario here, we had to return to Laoko immediately.

Fortunately, as soon as he heard my words, perhaps realizing it was time to step back, Nasmith asked in a calmed tone.

“Can you… come back to help again?”

‘At least he has some sense.’

It seemed he hadn’t just stumbled into the throne after all.

I nodded with a gentle smile that could give him trust.

“I can’t promise for certain. But if we learn something, we’ll come back to help.”

“Why would I-“

Just as I raised my hand to cover Kim Seol’s mouth again, this time she spat on my palm.

I frowned and roughly wiped my saliva-covered palm on my pants hem.

‘Ah, what a truly rotten personality.’

Kim Seol, when we get back I’m unfollowing you on Upstar.

I whispered in a very small voice to Kim Seol, who was glaring at me with venomous eyes.

“For now, talking our way out of here comes first.”

Perhaps thinking my words made sense, Kim Seol sighed with a displeased face and soon said in a grumbling tone.

“If we learn something, we’ll come back.”

To my ears it sounded like ‘If you don’t know anything, absolutely don’t come,’ but even that seemed to move them as the merfolk murmured in bright voices.

A gentle smile also appeared on Nasmith’s face.

‘I feel like I’m scamming them, which doesn’t sit well with me.’

I wasn’t actually scamming anyone, so I couldn’t understand why my conscience was pricking me so much.

“Wait, let me give you some seaweed that can temporarily avoid the kraken’s gaze. It will take at least 30 minutes to reach Laoko. I hope you can leave safely.”

Don’t give us stuff, fish-human!

Now it really feels like we’ll have to come back.

But regardless of the sense of obligation, I couldn’t refuse a free safety measure.

‘Right, let’s take what we can get first, and if we can repay it, we’ll do so later.’

It wasn’t like they threatened us to help or we’d be in trouble, and they were just subtly hoping without using any coercive tricks.

I showed an upright smile to the naive alien race that believed in human verbal promises.

Perhaps reassured by my smile, Nasmith smiled kindly in return.

“You’ll be guided by my daughter Dolphina. Then you’ll be safe on the way there. Prepare some ethonol for them, Dolphin.”

Kim Seol, who had been wearing a sour expression from holding back her anger, asked in disbelief.

“…Dolphin?”

Dolphina, who had been standing with her arms crossed watching us, swam over with a distrustful expression.

Then she began heading toward the corridor in back with an attitude as unfriendly as her expression.

“This way.”

Nasmith gestured gently as if telling us to follow.

“Thank you.”

Behind us, who had helped with nothing, came Nasmith’s quiet farewell.

It wasn’t even putting any burden on us.

Just a single word of thanks.

In other circumstances, it would have been the kind of words that would have bothered me so much I wouldn’t know what to do.

But as I followed behind Dolphina, I was absorbed in one particular thought.

‘How is a mermaid’s nickname dolphin?’

* * *

On the way to get something called ethonol, Kim Seol, who had been glancing at me, asked bluntly.

“What are you thinking about?”

Ah, my expression must have looked serious.

I had indeed been having a very serious contemplation.

“There’s something I seriously can’t figure out.”

“What is it.”

Kim Seol stared at me intently as if telling me to confess quickly.

I quietly lowered my gaze and voiced the question that had been floating around in my head.

“When you say mermaid, isn’t it human-fish? If it’s fish-human, wouldn’t calling them fishmen fit the word order better?”

Kim Seol instantly scrunched up her face and got irritated.

“What nonsense, so annoying really…”

Then, as if she didn’t want to deal with me anymore, she walked away quickly.

Dolphina, who had gone ahead, was waiting for us in the seaweed field.

Seaweed growing from the soft-looking sand swayed gently with the current.

Was it because we were underwater?

A seaweed field instead of an herb field – what a fascinating sight.

Dolphina pointed to a yellow seaweed and said.

“If you use this, you can hide your appearance underwater for a short time. But you can’t hide your scent, sound, or presence, so be careful.”

“Thank you.”

Ah, even with this, it wouldn’t really help with sneaking around.

“But why aren’t you giving it to us…?”

“Harvest it yourself.”

“Ah…”

“Once you’ve harvested it all, chew it while swimming up to the surface. That’s it then.”

Dolphina, as if she didn’t want to exchange more words, finished what she had to say and gracefully swam away.

Leaving behind humans she barely knew and was wary of – you merfolk really won’t survive long.

While I clicked my tongue lightly, Kim Seol grabbed some seaweed first.

“It won’t come out.”

“She said to harvest it, so we need to dig up the roots too, right?”

At my words, Kim Seol sighed deeply.

Anyone could see she was suppressing her anger.

‘Why does it seem like her patience is gradually disappearing?’

But if I said this out loud, Kim Seol would probably stick ice in my forehead, so I held back.

Harvesting seaweed was a peaceful moment we’d encountered in a while.

In one corner, a young mermaid was taking a nap, and nearby an elderly-looking mermaid was humming a lullaby.

Well, merfolk hiding from the kraken wouldn’t always be in a rush.

The lullaby’s melody was simple enough that I soon started humming along too.

Just as I was carefully harvesting seaweed while humming along to the unknown lullaby.

“What are you doing?”

Kim Seol, who had already harvested a truckload, tilted her head and pointed toward the surface.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

I stood up, chewing on the tough seaweed in my mouth.

Now then.

It was time to enter Laoko, the setting of this scenario.

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