ch20

Kyle and the others entered Pöheln and headed to their respective trading partners.

I followed Kyle and traded the furs I had collected during my travels.

Then, we all gathered at an inn known to be frequented by traveling merchants and travelers from outside.

Rudolph was too big to easily take around, and he seemed reluctant to enter the stable. However, I coaxed him with honey snacks, and gave the stable keeper two copper coins, asking him to take good care of him.

He was amazed that I brought a deer instead of a horse, but I’m sure he’ll treat him well.

Everyone except Kyle had residences in Pöheln, but they all had families, so they were reluctant to gather at their homes, as they were conscious of their families.

Still, they must have sold their goods for a good price, because they were in high spirits and started ordering food and drinks.

However, the food served in the bowls was a kind of slop, with various ingredients cut into moderate sizes and mixed together.

Frankly, the smell and appearance weren’t very appealing, so I pushed the bowl towards the others.

“Maybe it’s because there are so many people, but the prices of goods seem to have jumped up,” someone said.

“I thought it was a good deal, but the prices themselves have risen here, and there’s something called a tax? That…”

“If that’s the case…”

“So next time we leave…”

Perhaps it was because they were in a safe city with food and drinks after a long time.

The merchants quickly got into the mood and started chatting away.

I wasn’t interested in the humans’ money-making stories, so I thought about what happened at the gate earlier.

Is it similar to a barrier or formation in the Central Plains?

It was a work of considerable skill.

Judging from the fact that it only applied to me and that monsters didn’t approach after the gate was erected, it seemed to selectively block the approach of non-human entities.

And the most important element of a barrier or formation:

Stealth.

The best formations are those whose existence is unknown until the moment they are needed.

Something with the presence of a snake coiled around me, but the people passing through the gate didn’t even notice the barrier, and even when it was scattered and disappeared by Yeo Yul-ryeong, the other humans didn’t notice.

In my previous life as a martial arts master, the only areas where I lacked experience in the world of martial arts were sorcery martial arts and mechanical formations.

Sorcery martial arts were martial arts that one couldn’t even begin to learn unless they were born with the talent.

The senses and principles of implementation were completely different from ordinary martial arts, and since they usually required excessively unique and individual talents, they were usually passed down through one-person transmission.

Mechanical formations, on the other hand, were mostly deployed as a last resort in case of emergency, or to protect important forbidden areas that the sect couldn’t normally reach.

For these reasons, it was an area where I had never received a request for improvement.

‘It would have been a waste to just destroy it with force.’

It ambushed me suddenly after probing me in an unpleasant way, and I had just caused a commotion to pass through the gate, so it was awkward to wave my hands in the air to subdue a snake that others couldn’t see.

So, I just crushed the entangling barrier with force, but I felt regret, perhaps because I wanted to analyze it as a martial arts master.

‘If I only knew the methodology, I might be able to use it, apply it, or it might become an inspiration… It’s broken, but should I go back and take a look later?’

While I was lost in thought about going out to examine the barrier at the gate at night, Baldin, who had been eating, drinking, and talking for a while, tapped me on the shoulder.

Baldin had tidied up the scruffy beard he had grown during the trip, and looked neat.

Of the six merchants I had hired, Kyle and Remil, excluding Deador and Baron, whom I had left in the village, didn’t seem to be wary of me from the beginning, but Baldin and the remaining one, Volan, were quite afraid of me for a long time.

Because they were merchants who had to risk their lives every time, they showed a superstitious side, and the longer they had been merchants, the more severe it was.

Perhaps because the first meeting was so shocking, they had suspected me of being a witch for quite a long time, but later, Kyle and Remil became close enough to speak informally, and after arriving safely in Pöheln and having some drinks, they became unusually friendly.

“Hey, Araya. What have you been spacing out about since earlier! And you keep wearing that weird bamboo hat indoors.”

“Hmm?”

“Doesn’t the food suit your taste?”

Kyle asked with a slightly worried expression.

“Hmm… Frankly, I don’t have much of an appetite. But don’t worry, as you saw on the trip, I can manage without eating.”

“You want to grow bigger, but you’re too picky about food, aren’t you? Is the reason you’re not growing because you’re a picky eater?”

Volan also joined in, caught up in the excitement.

“Hmph.”

The entire group knew that my height was basically my sore spot, so Kyle and Remil tensed up and started trying to stop them, but they had survived a life-threatening situation and returned to their hometown after a long time, with bulging pockets, and food and drinks.

It was the perfect situation for two middle-aged men with families to get carried away without realizing it.

They clinked their mismatched, ugly pewter cups and laughed heartily.

“Araya doesn’t have any charm! No charm at all!”

“That’s right! She’s pretty, but she’s not just an old soul! She uses the speech of some old country bumpkin!”

“My daughter! When I came back this time, she peeked out and then came running like a squirrel and hugged me, looking up and saying, ‘Daddy! You’re back!’ Ah, that’s why I raise a daughter. Of course, it’s obvious that she’s more interested in the presents, but that slyness is even better! “

“Sons don’t have that kind of charm.”

“A son only needs to be good enough to inherit the family! You have to raise a daughter!”

“Anyway, Araya, you’re a little runt who imitates old geezers. Can’t you talk like a kid? I thought you were an Elf or something and lived a long time, but you’re just a 10-year-old shrimp! Not even a clown.”

“‘It’s alright, I say.’ ‘Hmm. No problem, I say. Let’s go, I say.’ ‘Don’t worry, I say~ I’ll be back soon, I say~'”

“Heh heh! That’s disgustingly accurate!”

“…Old geezer? …Clown?”

I didn’t hear a word of what the two immature middle-aged men were saying as they imitated me and laughed, drunk.

In my previous life, the martial artists who sought me out as clients all had extraordinary backgrounds.

In the case of small and medium-sized sects, the sect leader himself would come.

But what made my heart race more than anything else in my previous life were the young heroes who were a generation ahead of me.

People who could be called the rising stars.

Bodies that had been meticulously built from the foundation under the strict teachings of a great sect.

A confident attitude visible even within their humble dignity.

And weighty words that showed respect for the other person, even though they were older than me.

I, too, wanted to be like them, traveling as a hero with only a sword and companions, wearing silk martial robes and a hero’s sash, instead of being a weakling who had to avoid even strong sunlight.

In the end, I couldn’t achieve it, but I tried to imitate them as much as possible, and that was their way of speaking.

When they talked about the future of the martial world in elegant language, I hoped that I, too, could one day join them.

I rarely had the opportunity to use it when I was living in the forest with my brothers or the Elves, but now that I was out of the forest, I was feeling the excitement of entering the martial world in my previous life and imitating the rising stars.

I thought it was cool…?

Wasn’t it cool?

I turned my head towards Kyle and Remil to ask for their agreement, but they subtly averted their eyes and tilted their pewter cups.

I felt a silent affirmation in their actions, and the heat that had risen from my solar plexus reached my face.

“…I’m going to bed.”

“…Huh?”

“Oh! That was kind of cute just now! Like our sulky daughter!”

“Should I introduce you to our son?!”

I pressed down on my bamboo hat, my face flushed with shame, and stood up from my seat.

Then, I flicked my fingers twice towards the blood points of the two despicable middle-aged men who were acting up after having a drink, even though they were too scared to speak to me a few weeks ago.

“Hahaha–thud”

“Heh heh–thud”

Baldin and Volan fell as if they had frozen in place, still laughing.

“You might as well just die like that.”

I glared coldly at the two who were staring up at me with wide eyes, seemingly panicked by their unmoving bodies, and left.

Remil was flustered as he took care of the two, who seemed to have stiffened and fallen while holding their cups.

Kyle, who had hurriedly followed, grabbed my hand and pulled me.

“Where are you going!”

“…To my room…”

“I’ll go with you. It’s not good to send a girl up alone.”

As if.

Whether Kyle followed or not, I headed to the room I had rented.

I was about to open the door and go inside, but I looked at Kyle, who had followed me to the door and was checking on my mood, and carefully opened my mouth.

“Um…”

“Yeah?”

“Is my way of speaking that weird? Or is it weird?”

He made a face that showed he was having trouble answering.

“That’s an answer. I’m going to rest first, so drink downstairs.”

I didn’t want to talk anymore because I was ashamed, so I closed the door and locked the latch.

Whether it was the barrier at the gate or whatever, I didn’t want to think about anything else right now.

The next day, I had to pay an additional five copper coins to compensate for the torn blanket that I had kicked in the inn.

From an Elven perspective, human weaving technology was still terrible.