CH 75

“New Equipment.”

Translated by Dawn

Edited by Dawn

“New Equipment.”

—rip rip… rip…

A short time after I came outside to escape from the Adventurer’s Guild, I heard a disturbing sound. Upon trying to figure out where the sound was coming from, I realized that it was apparently emanating from my body.

To be more precise, it was coming from the equipment I was wearing, and the reason I knew this was because the shoulder part of the leather equipment I was wearing had been torn off.

“Oh, it’s already reached the end of its useful life.”

I had not mentioned it before, but the equipment I was using was actually equipment for novice adventurers, newly purchased in the town of Laresta. This was due to the fact that I had not given much importance to my equipment up to this point because of my high ability and my ability to deal with magic.

Naturally, the question would come to mind as to why no one else who saw me in such a state said anything. Well, the answer, as you can imagine, was alluded to again and again.

I’d been told by Gyrmzak and his party, Mirian, Nicole, and everyone else I’d ever met that I had to get new equipment….

“So, I guess it’s time for me to buy what I have to buy. I’ve got a lot of money now, so I’m going to take this opportunity to buy new equipment.”

I phrased it like a wayward villain, but even I was not averse to new equipment, so I decided to go straight to a store that handled equipment.

I didn’t know if this world’s stylistic beauty was such or if it was functional, but the structure of the city of Orargrand was a city inside a circular outer wall around the perimeter, which was maintained in sections.

The city was divided into four districts: residential, commercial, public, and aristocratic, each of which had different types of buildings. The residential district was mainly occupied by commoners and was similar to an apartment complex in my previous life.

The commercial district was the busiest section of the city, lined with stores selling and buying goods, as well as stalls selling snacks and foodstuffs. The public district was designed for public organizations such as the Adventurers’ Guild and the Commercial Guild, and as a result, there were a large number of accommodations such as inns and other lodging facilities.

Finally, the Aristocratic District, as the name implies, was designed to house aristocrats and other wealthy people, and was also lined with the most luxurious buildings in the city. Because many of the country’s important people stayed there, entry was restricted to the general public, and only those with special permission or those who lived in the aristocratic district were allowed to enter.

Naturally, these divisions were made in a very rough manner, as there were stalls and stores in the residential areas, and there were even people who lived in the commercial areas. In addition, there were many places that did not belong to these four zones, such as the slums.

Slums were considered to be places where people who didn’t have a fixed residence and didn’t have a fixed job went to live for the day, and naturally, security was quite poor. Other areas of the city were patrolled by soldiers, but the slums weren’t included in their patrol routes.

Since the scale of Orargrand as a city was considered second only to the royal capital of the Kingdom of Shells, it was quite a task to divide the city into these four sections.

With such a large scale, it would be extremely difficult to move around on foot, if at all. As a countermeasure, there were horse-drawn carriages that travel back and forth between certain sections of the city, although they were limited to the main streets.

“Welcome. Where to?”

“To the commercial district, please.”

“Alright.”

As I mentioned, it was difficult to walk to the commercial district, so I also used a horse-drawn carriage to get to the commercial district. Incidentally, the fare was very reasonable at three small copper coins, but commoners did not have much chance to use it because the price of an apple was two small copper coins.

After more than ten minutes of being jolted by the rickety carriage, I arrived at the commercial district where I wanted to go. Once entering the commercial district, many stores were lined up on both sides of the main street, and all of them had signs saying that they were open for business.

I went into one of those stores that had a sword sign on it, and when the clerk tending the store saw me, he raised his voice.

“Welcome! What kind of stuff are you looking for today……what, it’s just a kid.”

“I need you to get me some new equipment.”

“There’s no way a fledgling like you can afford our products! You’re in the way, so just get out of here!”

“Wait, I’ve got money.”

“Hmph, if you’re going to tell a lie, you’d better tell a better one!”

“……it’s true, though. Oh well.”

As a result of being yelled at over my head like that, I was kicked out without even hearing my argument. ……Well, this wasn’t the only store that sold equipment. I could have just bought it at another store. There was a time when I also used to think that…….

“Get out, there isn’t a thing a fledgling like you can buy!”

“….”

……Why? What’s going on and how did this happen? Why won’t any store would sell it to me?

I’ve been to every store that deals in armor since then, and still, no one will treat me as a customer. I don’t understand…….

As a last resort, I could slap a bag of gold coins on them before they said anything and they would sell it to me, but I did not want to buy anything from such people. I would feel better buying from someone who treated me as a customer, and above all, I thought that if such a person made the product, it would be valuable without regard to price. It would be priceless.

So, after seven stores that kept turning me away with my appearance, I was about to step into the eighth store. The thought crossed my mind that if this place didn’t work out, I might as well ask for a referral from the Adventurers’ Guild.

This time the store was a bit smaller in size than previous stores, and the grade of the armaments it handled did not seem to be as good as at other stores.

“Welcome. Welcome to the Dolf Armor Store”

“….”

As soon as I entered the store, a girl who worked there approached me. She was a short, brown-skinned girl in her mid-teens. She had a well-proportioned female body for her height or transistor glamour in the old-fashioned sense of the word. She had dark brown shaggy hair and was dressed like a blacksmith’s apprentice.

“Do you need something?”

“Yes, as you can see, my equipment is no longer in use. I want to buy a new one.”

“Understood. Please wait a moment.”

After I told her the reason for my visit, she entered the door to the workshop where they were making armors. A short time later, the man who appeared with the girl was a bearded old man with a stern face. His body was as well-trained as steel, and his musculature could be described as muscular. However, his height was much shorter than that of a normal adult male.

“So you’re the kid Prim was telling me about? I hear you’re looking for a new piece of equipment.”

“Yeah, it’s just that it’s no longer useful.”

“Hmm. Let’s see some of that equipment, kid.”

When the bearded old man looked at my equipment, he asked me to show it to him while making an impressed sound, so I took off my equipment and offered it to him. When he received my gear, he began to observe the details, and when he was done, he began to laugh loudly.

“Gahahahaha, hey kid. This equipment looks pretty well used, how long have you been using it?”

“A month or so.”

“Fuun, I see…so what kind of new equipment would you like?”

Since the bearded man asked me that, I thought again about what kind of equipment I would like to use. The equipment I had been using up to now was the minimum equipment for a novice adventurer, so unless I chose the same equipment, the performance itself would be better than any of the others.

However, I also believe that if I was going to go into the trouble of buying new equipment, I should get the best I could afford right now. Of course, this would be within the amount of money I could afford at the moment, but my hope was to get the best performance possible.

“It’s about the same weight as the previous equipment, and as a systematic thing, like light armor. Anyway, I want it to be easy to move around in.”

“Fumu, by the way, what’s the upper limit of your budget?”

“There isn’t any. So I want something high-performance light armor.”

“You said it, kid. I’ve got just the thing for you right now. But it’s pretty pricey. Are you sure?”

“It might be tough if it costs a few hundred large gold coins.”

“It won’t be that much! I’ll bring it to you anyway, so just wait a minute.”

After saying this, they both went in the direction of a door opposite the workshop. It seemed to lead to a warehouse, a place to store the finished products.

After a while, they brought a set of light armor. It had a grayish hue, and although it was plain, it had a somewhat different atmosphere.

“Sorry for the wait. This is made from the material of a monster called Rock Lizard, but as you can see, it was made in a child’s size. It was hard to find a buyer for it.”

“Why child-sized?”

“To tell the truth, a certain nobleman was originally going to buy it, but it was canceled at the last minute because he had found some other equipment that was better. Even if I wanted to reprocess them to adult size, I could only afford the materials for child size, so they have been sitting in the warehouse for a long time.”

“Hmmm. So, how much does it cost?”

I sort of understood the situation, but the problem was the price. Without the background of how this equipment became useless due to the cancellation, I could tell just by looking at it that it wasn’t a bad piece of equipment. Depending on the price, I would have no problem considering purchasing it.

“The original price was eight small gold coins, but the nobleman who was supposed to deliver the goods paid for the materials as a cancellation fee, so I’ll give you a special discount of five small gold coins–”

“I will buy it.”

Without waiting for the bearded old man to say a word, I took out five small gold coins and paid him immediately. For a novice adventurer, five small gold coins were not a small price to pay. In the Japanese yen, they were worth five million yen.

However, I could afford to pay the price, so I made the decision to buy it immediately. He seemed to be stunned by the small gold coins that suddenly appeared in his hand as if he thought that I could not pay the price.

Perhaps he wanted to blast me to work harder so that I could buy this kind of equipment, but unfortunately, he didn’t have to do that.

“Hey, what are you dumbfounded about?”

“O-oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d really buy it…”

“Well, that’s all the armor I need, and I also need a knife for dismantling and a sword.”

“….”

He was again silent as if he did not expect me to purchase more additions. In the end, I purchased a steel dismantling knife and a sword, and my new equipment was complete. By the way, the price was seven large silver coins for the knife and four small gold coins for the sword.

Since the magic bag was more expensive, this price seemed cheap to me, but now my equipment was ready. Then I had the armor fine-tuned and adjusted to fit my body.

“Kid, who exactly are you?”

“No one, I’m just an adventurer. Can’t you see?”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“Well, let me introduce myself first. My name is ROLANDO. I’m an adventurer.”

Remembering that I had not yet told them my name, I introduced myself to them. Upon hearing my name, they reflexively responded.

“I’m Dolf. As you can see, I am a blacksmith and a dwarf.”

“I’m Prim. I am 16 years old. I’m the store’s signature girl, and Dolf’s daughter.”

“I see, it’s nice to meet you both. Well then, I’m going to the dungeon now, so I’ll see you later.”

Having finished acquiring new equipment, I turned on my heel to leave the store. As if in a panic, Dolf asked me as I turned on my back.

“Kid, what’s your rank?”

“B. See you later.”

With that out of the way, I left the store. Dolf and Prim, who took a few seconds to process the information that was suddenly handed down to them, were too late to stop me.

“”Eh?””

And just as they understood the meaning of the word, a single word in the form of shock turned into a shout and was spirited into the store.

“”EHHHHH””

I, who was not there at the time, did not hear it, but from the point of view of the two people who were told, that was not the point. Later, they checked with the Adventurers’ Guild to see if I was telling the truth, and were even more surprised to learn that it was true, but that’s another story