Chapter 15.
Although b.l.o.o.d.y did not learn magic, he had experienced its usefulness and power while working for the empire.
When the b.u.t.terfly Tribe, a battle tribe that focused on magic, launched their magic with their entire might, its power was enough to wipe out a village.
Even such a tribe could not freely use magic in Olympus, but to think that someone had defeated a dragon using magic in such an environment... And that person who killed a dragon had left the forest...
If there were a mishap of sorts, it was very possible that the empire could be destroyed. b.l.o.o.d.y did not believe that his thoughts were exaggerated.
His nephew was an idiot who ran away from home when it was virtually confirmed that he would be the next chief of the tribe. Even the current chief in his youth was not as strong as his son but was still branded as a dangerous monster by the entire world. And Denburg was now strong enough to be compared with a present-day Doomstone, not a Doomstone in his youth.
Hestia wanted him to find someone who was on the run and then contact her if he found him?
Perhaps it was a good idea to call back the Dragon Tribe from Demon’s Territory and head there again...
This was what b.l.o.o.d.y was thinking.
-o-
Upon entering the town, I encountered a problem. I had no money to spare. To be accurate, I did have money. I had the allowance I had earned from Father and Hestia while working as well as the money I’d taken when planning my escape. Whether it was the money I had earned while working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the money I had swept into my pocket s.p.a.ce before leaving the village, I had plenty of money on hand.
But the problem was that I could not spend any of that money.
My hometown"s main source of income was the by-product of demons and monsters, and super rare metals such as Adamantium, Mythril, and Orihalic.u.m. There were also magic catalysts and rare medicinal herbs that grew only in Olympus Forest. Unfortunately, most of these items that my hometown sold were so rare that ordinary people, as well as low-ranking n.o.bles, rarely encountered them. In other words, my village traded with high-currency that ordinary people, those with knighthood and low-ranking n.o.bles would perhaps see once in their lifetime.
Imperial money consisted of eight types of coins in the following order: iron, refined iron, bronze, refined bronze, silver, refined silver, gold, and platinum.
Although it was a bit late, I visited the market and discovered that the main types of coins used by commoners ranged from iron to refined bronze, with iron and refined iron coins being the most common. I could occasionally find items priced with silver coins, but they were mainly expensive items or buildings. It seemed that silver coins were the limit for most commoners, and currencies of higher value were mainly used by the n.o.bility.
My problem was that I only had platinum coins. I did try to convert my platinum coins into change.
I hadn’t realized when I had been looking from far away, but it seemed like the size of the market here was almost as large as an entire city. Perhaps this was the reason the guards at the entrance had been wearing such high-quality armor.
In any case, a market of this size definitely had special shops for n.o.bles. I managed to find a jewelry shop after looking around for a while. The shop owner eyed me suspiciously when I entered. My clothes may look dirty right now since I had been running around in it for three days without was.h.i.+ng them, but it was actually made of dragon hide from the dragon I had killed when I was twelve.
Adding on the multiple layers of magic I had cast upon it, I was sure that the clothes I was wearing were at the very least more expensive than the sword I had put in my pocket s.p.a.ce.
When I showed my ID to the suspicious store owner, his att.i.tude suddenly took a 180-degrees turn. He said, "I am very sorry for not realizing you were the count"s son."
It seemed that this ID card was of a higher rank than I had previously a.s.sumed. Anyhow, I chose some jewelry and took out my platinum coin.
When he saw the coin, the owner told me with an awkward expression that even if he were to give me all the items in this shop along with the building, it still wouldn"t be enough to match the value of my platinum coin.
I thought to myself that he was unexpectedly a nice person since he could have just considered me a sucker and taken my coin. Although I didn’t want to be considered a sucker, I decided to give him the coin anyway since I needed some change.
"Then I"ll just buy all the jewels in the shop and take all the remaining money you have as change. I don"t need the building."
The shop owner trembled, fell to his knees and began to beg me.
"Young Master? Please have mercy. I can"t handle that kind of money on my own. Please! I have a wife and children back home."
"I just need some change, that"s all—"
"I"m terribly sorry. If it is because I ignored you earlier, I apologize and beg for mercy."
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The shop owner started pounding his head on the floor until it started to bleed.
"Please stop. I will just leave."
"Thank you! Thank you!"
He thanked me as if he had just come back from the brink of death. I had no choice but to leave the shop.
I ended up finding myself squatting in the corner of the street next to an inn.
Dammit!
Being homeless when I have money?
Lying on the street when there is an inn right next to me?
Thinking about it again, I think I had placed the owner of the jewelry shop in a hard spot.
I wasn’t sure what the value of a platinum coin exactly was, but since it was the highest form of currency, what I did was probably similar to going to a cafe, ordering all the items on the menu, and then handing out a hundred million won cheque while asking for cash as change. It was also questionable whether there was a bank in this village to deposit that much money.
If there were a rumor that the shopkeeper had exchanged his entire fortune for a platinum coin, it was possible that his whole family would be robbed and murdered.
Additionally, I had shown him my ID card to indicate that I was a n.o.ble, thereby rendering him unable to refuse my request.
Thinking on these lines, I concluded that I had acted like a piece of trash.
"Phew!"
I rummaged through my bag and took out a piece of dried jerky. Fortunately, I had stolen 10 days’ worth of food from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so I had enough food to last another week or so.
After that... If I didn’t manage to find some small change by then, I would probably have to rob some stores.
Right at this moment, raindrops trickled down the sky.
"Sniff, sniff."
My eyes glistened with tears as I felt sad about my current predicament. There was a saying, you will have a hard time once you leave home, and it seemed that I was now about to be homeless on a rainy street.
I wouldn"t have been this sad, had this been a meadow or a forest, but this was in the middle of a village and everyone else was already inside their houses.
The rain started to pour heavily. It looked like it was going to rain all night.
No matter how depressing my situation was, I couldn’t just spend a whole night in the downpour. I was about to cast some magic to block the rain when an umbrella suddenly appeared above me.
"Little Boy, where are your parents?"
The man who put an umbrella over me was a young blond with a nice haircut.
I might have fallen in love if I were a woman in this situation, but fortunately, I was a male and not into men.
"I"m not a boy."
Of course, I wasn’t a boy! My mind was over forty, and I was also, physically speaking, cla.s.sified as an adult according to the imperial law two days ago.
"Yes, I"m sorry. So where are your parents?"
I said I wasn’t a boy so why are you still looking for my parents?
What, did you want to inherit the long-standing tradition of Korea, the online battle race, by asking me how my parents were doing?
My dad’s gone to America!
"They are very, very far away."
They were at least 1,000km away in a straight line. My senses were telling me that I could add another 300km, but I didn"t like to count things if I wasn’t completely sure.
"—Okay—"
Suddenly the young man looked at me with a serious expression.
He wasn’t thinking that my parents were dead or sold to slavery right?
"Do you have somewhere to stay today?"
I shook my head. If I had a place to go, I wouldn"t be squatting in a place like this.
This guy, I could see that his expression was getting more serious.
"Then would you like to come with me today?"
I hesitated for a moment at his suggestion. If I were to say that my mom told me not to follow strangers, his expression would probably become even more serious. It wasn’t that I didn’t take into consideration the fact that this man might try to sell my organs or something, but this man looked too much like a sucker to do something like that.
Of course, you shouldn’t judge people by their appearances, but I was also confident that if he tried to do something to me, I could make him regret it for the rest of his life.
"I"m not a bad person. I"m training to become a knight. I would never do anything that goes against the chivalric code."
He started to give out excuses as if he could read from my face that I was suspicious of him. Rather than being upset about the skepticism, he looked at me with a face filled with compa.s.sion. He seemed to be pitying my distrust of people and wondering about the hards.h.i.+p I must have experienced to become this way.
No, it was unreasonable to expect someone to trust you right away when you approached them like this. This man did not seem capable of entertaining that kind of thought.
Sigh, it could become tiring when you mixed with people like this. However, it was a dilemma since I didn’t have any money to spend right now either.
"Hmm?"
The man looked at me with earnest eyes.
It was a bit despicable of me to think as such, but he seemed like the perfect person to use for a while then throw away.
All right, it’s decided!
If the man in front of me tried to do something to me, I would make him regret it for the rest of his life. If he was just a sucker, I would receive some help from him then back out. A platinum coin should be enough to return the favour.
When I nodded, the man reached his hand out to me.
"I"m Lisbon von Carter. My friends call me Lis."
Lis seemed like a girl"s nickname.
Well then… Lisbon von.
All right! From now on, his nickname’s Pongpong.
As I got up while grabbing Lisbon’s hand, I said, "Den Mark."
It was a name that reminded you of a white cross in a red background, but it was a perfect alias since it was a common first and last name. As I also went by Den with my friends and family, it was a familiar name.
"Okay, Den. I"m staying at that inn over there. Let"s sleep there tonight."
Lisbon took my hand and hauled me to the inn.
It was dinner time, so the restaurant inside the inn was filled with people.
"You haven"t had dinner yet, have you?"
Without waiting for my response, Lisbon dragged me over to a table where a girl was already seated.
"Let me introduce you... This is my younger sister, Alice."
The girl was his younger sister. They did look similar upon closer look.
"Oppa? Did you bring another person?"
Alice"s cry made me realize that this man really was a sucker.