A few days after the Razboard.
"Huh, what's that?"
There was a large figure at the entrance to the village. Next to them, someone about the height of a child.
"Oh — that's Piuri."
Teok, who'd been wandering the village with me, said it casually.
"Piuri?"
"A merchant. Comes through from town every now and then."
With that he said he was popping home for a moment and jogged off.
"A merchant, hm."
The town he meant was a place called Marten — apparently about a day and a half on foot from Asteno. Making that trip all the way out here struck me as an unusual amount of dedication.
I was assuming the large one was Piuri, when the shorter figure noticed me.
"Oh! A human!"
I walked over. The two of them had a pair of horses with them. I'd half expected the horses here to look different somehow, but no — horses were horses. Completely ordinary horses.
"Ohh, you really are a human, how rare!"
Looking more closely at the shorter one: green skin, hair a light orange cut to roughly chin length, wide round eyes. She'd looked like a human girl at first glance, but she was a Goblin.
"Are you Piuri?"
"Yep, that's me! And this here is Furidoo."
So Piuri was the girl.
"Hey." Furidoo dipped his head.
He had to be well over two meters tall. Brown skin, two small horns on his head. An Ogre, I thought — a race I'd heard about but hadn't seen in the village. He looked intimidating at first, but something about his manner and his slightly drooping eyes made him come across as quietly gentle.
"So how come there's a human in Asteno? Are you travelling?"
"It's a long story…"
I gave her a brief introduction, covering the basics.
"Huh, sounds rough!"
While Piuri was responding, "Hey, Piuri—!" came from behind me, and Teok reappeared carrying a burlap sack.
"Oh, Teok!"
"This is this month's batch — can you take it off my hands?"
He held the sack out.
"Let me have a look~"
Piuri dropped cross-legged onto the ground and opened the sack. Furidoo sat beside her and they started going through the contents together.
Inside was everything Teok and I had gathered from the forest — medicinal herbs, spices, mushrooms.
"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm…"
"Whenever Piuri comes through, this is how it goes — I sell her the herbs and things I've collected. The other villagers sell her fruit they've grown or things they've made."
Teok explained while they worked.
Inside Asteno, most exchanges were barter, so I'd rarely seen coin change hands. Now that I thought about it, I hadn't really considered money at all since arriving.
"So you need it when you go outside the village, or when you're buying from Piuri?"
"Right. She also brings things in that you can't get in Asteno. It's a long way from town, so it's generous of her to come all the way out here — a bit eccentric, too, honestly."
"Town, hm…"
I'd been too busy getting used to daily life to think about it. Marten. What kind of place was it?
"The herbs from around here make good medicine — and there are rare ones too. It's solid profit for me."
Piuri said this while still examining the contents.
"Appraisal done~. This haul comes to 180 Rant."
"'S right."
"Ooh, that's a good amount."
Teok looked pleased.
"Lots of rare herbs in there, and a good volume too — I threw in a little extra."
Piuri counted out eighteen silver coins and handed them to Teok.
"Here — your share."
Teok held nine of the silver coins out to me.
"Are you sure?"
"You helped me get it."
I felt like half was more than I'd earned just by carrying things, but this was Teok's way of looking after me. I accepted it without arguing.
"Thank you."
"Yep." Teok pressed the coins into my hand. "I'm going to go drink with Alderin and Rapido — south side of the village, if you feel like joining."
And he headed off.
A merchant had come all this way — I figured I might as well see what she had. Before I could say anything:
"Hey, Yohei — those are interesting clothes."
Piuri was looking at me with open curiosity.
My outfit was the same as the day I'd arrived: sweatshirt, chinos, sneakers. Back home it had been my go-to for both indoors and out, and I'd liked it for exactly that reason. Here, I wore it on days I stayed in the village; when I went into the forest, I changed into a hand-me-down linen outfit from one of the villagers.
"Could I take a closer look?"
She was clearly not going to let it go.
"Sure."
"Yes!"
Piuri moved in close and started touching the sweatshirt, running her fingers along the chinos, examining the sneakers. It felt like being descended on by a very small, very focused child. I'd never been in quite this situation before, and I wasn't sure what to do with myself.
After a while, she stepped back.
"These clothes are amazing!"
Her eyes were shining.
"First — that top. Incredibly soft. And the texture tells me it gets wonderfully warm once you're wearing it. But it's still got real durability. Then those trousers — that's an exceptional grade of cotton. The stitching is so fine — I'm not sure how many tailors in this entire country could do work like that. And the breathability looks excellent, so you'd stay comfortable in heat or cold. And those shoes — such an unusual shape, but the material is so supple and flexible, and the sole—"
"Boss. That's probably enough." Furidoo stepped in.
"Oh — right, sorry, I got carried away!"
She didn't look sorry at all.
"Clothes this fine — you might be some kind of noble. I'd have offered 1,000 Rant for them if you were willing to sell."
That was probably a significant amount. But these were more comfortable than anything this world had offered me so far, and they were the one thing I still had from home. I wasn't ready to let them go.
"These mean a lot to me. Sorry."
"No worries~"
Still — I couldn't keep wearing them outside the village. The hand-me-down linen was fine for the forest, but I couldn't rely on borrowed clothes forever. I needed something of my own.
"Piuri — do you have anything tough and easy to move in?"
"Clothes, hm~ Just a moment."
Piuri and Furidoo opened up the packs they'd unloaded from the horses.
"Asteno folks don't buy much clothing, so I haven't got a lot. Sorry~"
She laid out a small selection. A leather-paneled piece of armor, a well-made cotton shirt, an oversized garment that was clearly the wrong build for me… And then the last one caught my eye immediately. The construction was different from everything else.
The torso was a pale blue, the sleeves grey. The lower half looked equally sturdy, with a belt arrangement that cinched around the waist.
"Oh — that one caught your eye?"
Piuri had noticed.
"It's linen, but it's been made extra tough — built to stand up to adventurers and travelers. Durable enough to hold up in a fight with a magic beast! It's my one-of-a-kind recommendation for this trip~"
After the Razboard, that kind of durability wasn't optional. I ran my hand over the fabric. Not as comfortable as the sweatshirt, but far from bad.
"How much?"
"Normally 200 Rant — but I'll do it for 150, special price! The people here have always been good to me~"
…Yeah. I was short.