I Just Traded in the Forest of Monsters, but the World Changed - Chapter 38

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 38
Se Hee stared at the window.
‘Regular customers can do this too?’
Her gaze drifted naturally toward Erasmus and Choco.
Choco, lying at her feet, tilted his head in confusion.
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
Se Hee spoke, feeling oddly guilty.
‘Can I count a monster as a regular customer?’
After a moment’s hesitation, Se Hee shook her head.
If the system recognized monsters as regular customers, then perhaps Choco qualified.
‘I don’t know.’
This wasn’t the time to worry about such things.
The system usually wouldn’t answer questions like that anyway.
‘If it works, fine. If it doesn’t, there’s nothing I can do.’
Se Hee glanced out at the Clearance.
‘First things first with those people.’
Having gathered her thoughts, Se Hee muttered to herself.
“I won’t be able to sell like this again tomorrow.”
“What are you talking about?”
Erasmus, hearing her words, asked the question.
“Oh… I was just wondering if we’d have this many customers again next time.”
At that, Erasmus let out a soft, hollow laugh.
“What we sell here can’t be found anywhere else.”
He said this while stroking his beard.
“So don’t worry too much.”
With that, Erasmus said he was leaving and vanished before her eyes in an instant.
Se Hee swept her gaze across one corner of the Clearance.
Then Cassian spoke up.
“You worry a lot.”
“You heard that?”
Startled by his sudden words, Se Hee jumped.
“It’s not just that worry—I’m afraid the nobility will start fighting over who gets to buy things.”
Se Hee rested her elbows on her knees and clasped her hands together.
“So I’m thinking of setting up an order system starting next time—selling to whoever arrives first.”
“An order?”
“Yes. First come, first served.”
Cassian fell silent for a moment.
“Will the nobility accept that?”
“They’ll have to.”
Se Hee spoke with absolute certainty.
“The rules here are set by me. If anyone has a problem with it, I simply won’t sell.”
Cassian looked at her for a moment after hearing that.
“…I see.”
He murmured quietly, then turned his gaze forward.
* * *
Word of what Se Hee said spread quickly.
Before evening fell, rumors circulated among the nobility and merchants.
The shop at the center of Greenhal, the monster forest, would sell only in order of arrival starting with the next sale.
One nobleman grabbed his attendant and asked.
“If I go at dawn tomorrow, I can buy something, right?”
“The other nobles are likely thinking the same thing, my lord.”
“Then I’ll wake up a bit earlier.”
The attendant continued with an awkward expression.
“…That’s not quite the problem, sir.”
“Then what is the problem?”
“There will likely already be a line by dawn tomorrow.”
A brief silence fell.
“A line, you say?”
Even as he spoke the words, his face showed he couldn’t quite grasp what he’d just heard.
“Yes…”
The nobleman’s expression twisted subtly.
“So you’re telling me I should wait in line like a commoner?”
His attendant added carefully.
“You saw for yourself today. If you don’t queue, you won’t get any.”
Another nobleman nearby, overhearing the exchange, leaned toward his companion and whispered.
“……This won’t do. We need to move faster.”
Among the merchants, a different calculation took shape.
“If it’s truly first-come, first-served, couldn’t we just camp there the night before?”
“Is it even possible to spend the night at the entrance to the monster forest?”
“Hire some mercenaries.”
“If we grab the exclusive distribution rights to Yogurt, we’d make back that cost in no time.”
“They said no exclusivity deals.”
One merchant pulled out a notebook and began jotting down calculations.
“It’d be better to set up a temporary base near the forest. Better than making the round trip every time.”
“Given the unit price of that beverage, yeah, that makes sense.”
Each of them was quietly turning over in their minds how to secure the front position tomorrow.
Se Hee had no idea the nobility and merchants would go to such lengths.
As she cleared the Clearance and stored the remaining inventory, a system window appeared.
[Regular Customers Secured: 5/20]
‘Wait. Five?’
Se Hee stared blankly at the window for a moment.
She couldn’t quite pinpoint what the criteria were.
Did it count if they showed intent to return, or was there some other metric?
‘I don’t know. It’s happening anyway, so that’s good enough.’
And so the day faded into evening.
* * *
The pre-dawn air was still bitter cold.
A few dim torches flickered in the darkness.
People had already gathered before the parasol.
Choco ambled slowly along the line and, as if catching a familiar scent, sauntered up to one merchant.
The merchant Choco had approached was selling meat.
The man flinched, but Choco merely yawned widely and wandered back toward Se Hee’s tent.
A line had formed naturally, with no clear beginning or end.
Some stood wrapped in cloaks, hunched against the cold; others had spread blankets on the ground and spent the entire night waiting.
From their long vigil, everyone’s eyes were bloodshot and bleary.
Behind them stood the nobles.
Just then, a nobleman who had arrived by carriage looked around and furrowed his brow.
“What is this?”
Another nobleman’s attendant spoke up carefully.
“A queue, my lord.”
“A queue?”
Nobles and merchants stretched out in a long line.
“Surely they don’t expect me to stand behind all of them.”
That was when it happened.
A small scuffle broke out in the middle of the line.
“Hold on—where are you going?”
One merchant stepped into his path, blocking it.
A cloaked nobleman tried to slip past him without a second thought.
“Out of my way.”
Those standing in line darkened at his words.
But the cloaked nobleman waved his hand dismissively, utterly unbothered.
“Get in line.”
“Unbelievable. Nobles acting like they can just waltz in wherever they please.”
At that remark, the nobleman’s eyebrow twitched.
“What? Who said that? Why should I follow some petty rule?”
Then it happened.
Someone from further back stepped forward and bumped the merchant’s shoulder.
“Move, will you?”
The newly arrived nobleman looked incredulous.
“Have you lost all courtesy? How dare you——!”
The nobleman’s escort knight stepped forward.
Click—
The blade half-slid from its sheath.
The air around them froze in an instant.
Erasmus, seated at a distance, turned his gaze slowly.
Under ordinary circumstances, a spell or two would have already flown.
But this was Se Hee’s shop, so he simply remained still.
The two mercenaries standing behind the merchant moved in unison.
Their hands drifted naturally toward the weapons at their hips.
Tension rippled through the Clearance in an instant.
“Enough.”
A sharp voice cut through the Clearance like a blade.
Every eye turned at once.
It was Cassian.
He walked forward slowly.
Three knights, including Rowen, followed behind him.
Cassian positioned himself beside the queue and surveyed the area with deliberate calm.
“Sheath your blades.”
There was no room for refusal.
The nobleman’s escort and the mercenaries immediately drove their swords back into their sheaths.
Cassian ran his eye along the entire line.
Merchants at the front, nobles at the back.
The order was exactly as it had been since dawn.
“The queue order does not change.”
Cassian’s gaze swept slowly to the very end of the line.
Of course, there was objection.
“Your Grace, surely that’s excessive. We are nobility.”
“It’s the rule here.”
“A rule, you say? Who established it?”
Cassian regarded the nobleman for a moment.
“The owner of this shop. And I follow it as well.”
The nobleman had nothing more to say.
Se Hee, just then waking, poked her head out from the tent.
‘What? When did it get like this?’
A remarkably long queue stretched before her.
People lined up from the parasol all the way to the entrance of the Clearance.
Se Hee stood dazed for a moment before her eyes met Cassian’s.
‘…Why are they all going to such lengths?’
But her confusion was brief.
Se Hee opened the system shop.
‘Time to sell.’
• ​[Zzapari (pack of 5)] … 500 Points [Purchase]
• ​[Thurebi] … 50 Points [Purchase]
• ​[Yogurt (pack of 5)] … 60 Points [Purchase]
‘Thurebi, twenty Yogurts, and five packs of Zzapari.’
After the purchase, her Points drained away sharply.
[Current Points: 1,976 Points]
‘Ugh… At this rate, I’ll never accumulate a hundred thousand Points.’
Se Hee sighed and thought.
‘Right, to reach a hundred thousand Points, I need to raise prices.’
Se Hee stepped to the front of the queue and opened her mouth.
“Hold on, let me explain something.”
The murmuring crowd fell silent.
“There’s no Yogurt today.”
Silence fell.
Count Salt’s brow furrowed.
“I came back to drink that beverage from yesterday. How is it possible there’s none?”
“This hardly seems fair.”
Se Hee let those words pass and opened her inventory.
A familiar pouch landed in her hand.
“What is that?”
The merchant standing near the front of the queue narrowed his eyes.
At that moment, the knight beside Rowen stared at the packet intently and spoke.
“Isn’t that Ramen?”
“It looks different from Ramen somehow.”
The murmuring grew louder.
Se Hee let out a soft laugh and held up the packet.
“That’s right. It’s Ramen.”
“I knew it.”
“But it’s different from what you had before.”
Se Hee extended the packet forward.
“This one is stir-fried and eaten without broth.”
Count Salt regarded the packet with skeptical eyes, but Se Hee continued.
“By the way, this is a product we’re only selling today.”
“Only today?”
“Yes. We have limited stock.”
The people in line stirred again.
Se Hee paused for a moment before speaking.
“So the price is a bit high.”
“How much?”
“Yes, how much is it, then?”
With the crowd seeming ready to pay anything on the spot, Se Hee answered immediately.
“One Gold Coin per packet.”
The Clearance fell silent.
Only the faint sound of someone swallowing hard could be heard.

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