ch22

I was touring the city, guided by Kyle, who had offered to show me around Poheln.

“Don’t pick fights with passersby, Rudolph.”

Apparently, he didn’t like the stable. When I visited after compensating for the damaged bedding, the first thing I saw was him picking a fight with the horse in the next stall, and the stable keeper was at a loss, unable to approach him because of his fierce behavior.

I hurriedly calmed him down and got him out, but while moving around with Kyle, he kept picking fights with anyone who passed near him, or even people who were just curious about the deer-like creature walking around the streets.

“Hmm… I’m out of honey cookies now…”

I wanted to give him honey cookies to appease him, but it had been almost four months since we left the forest.

The honey cookies Ati had made in abundance were all gone as of yesterday.

“Well… I wonder if I can get honey cookies or even just honey from the humans.”

“You can.”

“Huh?”

“It would be stranger if you couldn’t find honey in a city of this size.”

Kyle, who had been watching me and listening to my muttering, started explaining without waiting for my reply.

“It’s almost winter, so things like salt and vinegar will be in high demand for preservation, and honey will also be more expensive, but if you have money, there’s nothing you can’t get. Honey is expensive, but not so expensive that you need to offer gold coins. Shouldn’t be a problem, right? We have plenty of money from the silver coins we were given and the bundles of leather we sold when we arrived.”

At those words, I reached inside my clothes to touch the now quite heavy pouch of silver coins.

Were there about seventy of them?

Honestly, they were a bit cumbersome because of their weight and solid texture.

Even though the Central Plains martial attire Ati made for me was generally loose-fitting, it was made based on my small stature, so the pouch inside made the clothes look unflattering.

I was thinking of exchanging the silver coins for gold coins to reduce the bulk, but I figured I could just buy and give him some honey cookies or honey.

“Then, do you know a place where I can sell things?”

“I may not have a house here, but I’ve been here for two years. It would be strange if I didn’t know.”

“Okay. Then, I’ll ask you to guide me.”

As Kyle guided me, I stroked Rudolph’s neck to soothe him as he was getting angry. Kyle spoke in a cautious voice.

“Are you… going to keep using that 말투 (manner of speaking)?”

“Hmm! After much contemplation, I’ve come to a conclusion.”

I wondered why he had been watching me so carefully since earlier; it seemed to be because of my disgraceful behavior yesterday.

But I lived to be around twenty in my previous life, and adding this life, I’m 29, aren’t I?

That’s enough age to get married and make a name for myself in the world.

As an adult, as a noble person, should I be swayed more than necessary by the petty words of lesser people?

Last night, I was swept up in the atmosphere of two drunken people and ruined a blanket, but this morning, while practicing 운기조식 (energy cultivation), I thought about my 말투 (manner of speaking).

At first, I was insulted with terms like “old man” and “geezer,” but… if I think about it calmly, isn’t it a 말투 (manner of speaking) that makes me look mature?

I may look like this on the outside, but I’m about to grow up soon, and my mind is already that of a fully formed adult.

It just seems like my body and mind are mismatched from an external perspective, but that’s something that will be resolved with time.

In fact, it wasn’t something I needed to worry about much.

Once I came to that conclusion, I was ashamed of myself for not acting like an adult at the drinking party.

I straightened my chest and raised a finger to Kyle, saying,

“First of all, who am I?”

“Uh… Araya, right?”

I clicked my tongue and explained to this incredibly dull friend.

“Tsk, tsk. I’m not just saying my name. I’m talking about the representation I hold.”

“Representation?”

“That’s right. Right now, I am the first Elf in Elf history to come to the human world, and one of only seven High Elves. If I, who am like that, were to use a 말투 (manner of speaking) that only matches my appearance as a young girl, what would happen? Where would there be any dignity or weight in that?”

In a way, I am like a princess of the Elf race.

Do the precious guests of a country act like the children of commoners just because they are young?

“As a representative of the Elves, I need to govern my conduct and 말투 (manner of speaking) accordingly.”

Despite my logical explanation, Kyle looked me up and down with a subtle expression.

He didn’t seem convinced.

Humans, in general, are creatures that rarely change their minds once they’ve thought something.

Even though Kyle is still young, barely over twenty, he’s such a petty person.

The mindset of ‘I am not wrong’ is not very helpful for self-improvement.

A noble person should listen to the words of wise people and correct their own mistakes.

“And in the case of Elves, life is long unless something special happens. When you look at the overall lifespan, I didn’t think it was necessary to change it just for a short period.”

“Didn’t you say before that the Elves were born ten years ago? How do you know you’ll live long?”

“That part is still just an assumption. Elves were created to harmonize the world, but paradoxically, they are far removed from the normal clock of life. Have you ever seen a wild god?”

“Wild god?”

I thought of Fenrir and the other wild gods in the forest where I used to live.

“Generally, living beings live normally in their own time, according to their species, but there are beings that deviate from that. Elves haven’t been around for very long, so I can’t say for sure, but it seems like they have little or no concept of aging.”

Not only me, but also our mother and the smart Saras said that the lifespan of Elves is very long compared to ordinary living beings.

“Basically, Elves have similarities to humans, but in terms of species time, they are closer to wild gods than humans. Since I’m a High Elf, unless someone physically kills me, the possibility of dying from old age is low, right?”

I added with anticipation, “If I train 무 (martial arts) for that long, to what level will I be able to reach?”

“Even though there’s no order in which people go, unless something special happens, my life will be much longer than yours, Kyle, who is human. Well, even so, don’t worry. If I ever write my biography, your names will be in the first chapter of the human story.”

Kyle, who had been walking next to me, stopped and stared blankly.

He had a complicated look on his face.

“Huh? What’s wrong? Does your stomach hurt?”

“…No.”

Kyle started walking again and continued the conversation.

“I don’t know if they’re the wild gods you’re talking about, but we have beings we call land gods. They’re similar to what you described.”

“The names themselves may vary by region, so they’re probably the same kind.”

In this world, strangely enough, intelligent beings who can communicate can understand each other.

High Elves are transcendent beings, and since our mother gave birth to us, we can understand each other from birth, but the same goes for the wild gods I saw in the forest and the giant brothers who blocked my way when I first came out of the forest.

In my previous life, I heard that in the old history of the western country of Persia, there was a myth that the Tower of Babel, a tower built by humans to reach heaven, angered the gods and was destroyed, and the languages were divided so that humans could not understand each other in order to divide them, but perhaps there was no such mythical event here.

However, what I learned from visiting human cities is that while the words themselves are understood, the proper nouns referring to specific objects or beings are called differently, and the writing system itself is different from that of the Elves.

Looking at the length of the 원기 (original standard), which seems to be the standard for weights and measures outside the castle walls, it seemed different from that of the Elves.

Listening carefully, it seemed that they used units called ‘yards’ for length and ‘pounds’ for weight.

As I was thinking about this and talking to Kyle, I arrived near the market.

Because it was daytime, the market was crowded with people.

“…There are so many people.”

In my previous life, I had lived in seclusion all my life, and in this life, the Elves, who are not very numerous, live scattered in the vast forest, so I had never seen a sight like this, where people gathered to form a river.

“Let’s go.”

Kyle, noticing that I was distracted, grabbed my hand tightly, thinking that I might get lost, and went against the flow of people.

Actually, I wasn’t being pushed around that much because people were avoiding Rudolph, who was giving off a sense of intimidation with his huge body, but the pressure on Kyle’s hand didn’t decrease.

The place we arrived at was unexpectedly not a grocery store or a spice shop, but a pharmacy.

Originally, merchants were supposed to be in charge of only the products they specialized in to prevent disputes, but products with ambiguous classifications like honey were handled in several places by taking advantage of such loopholes.

It’s said to be one of the secrets to getting honey-related products cheaply.

Sure enough, when I looked around, in addition to various herbs and medicines, they also sold honey and honey-preserved foods, and honey cookies, although different from Elf honey cookies.

The pharmacist and Kyle talked for a few minutes and bought honey cookies.

After handing over seven silver coins, the empty honey cookie pouch was soon filled as it had been before we left the forest.

I took one out and put it in my mouth, and then put one in Rudolph’s mouth, who had become sharp.

“Hmm… well, it’s so-so.”

“Haha…”

The pharmacist gave an awkward laugh.

“We must find our rights!”

“That’s right! That’s right!”

In one corner of the market, burly men with their shirts off were gathered, muttering among themselves.

“What’s that?”

“Ah… it’s because of the castle wall construction. King Prigos is using mostly slaves for this castle wall construction and hardly using stonemasons or laborers from the city. They’re saying he’s encroaching on their territory.”

“…But why are they making a fuss in one corner of the market?”

“These days, King Prigos is so powerful in Poheln that he can bring down a flying bird. They’re afraid to go directly to him. So they’re gathering their strength to create something called a guild. They even came up with a name… Pri… Pri Me… something like that. Separately, merchants who handle the same products seem to think that this method is okay, so they’re thinking of creating that guild.”

“I see.”

The conversation ended, and Kyle approached.

We started walking to leave the market area because of Rudolph, who was annoyed by the crowds.

“Come to think of it, I came to Poheln to meet Prigos, but now that I’m here, I’m at a loss as to how to have an audience with Prigos. From what I hear, he won’t just meet you if you go and ask to see him.”

“I guess so? I’ll ask Remil and other acquaintances for advice.”

“Thank you. Well, there’s no rush. Hmm?”

As I was leaving the market and looking around, a group of people caught my eye.