Chapter 137: Side Story – A Story of a Novice Adventurer Part 1
I’m Triela, a novice adventurer and a former orphan1.
It was only recently that I left the orphanage to become an adventurer. In that sense, I was still less aware that I had become an adventurer. Besides, I hadn’t done any adventurer-like yet, and I hadn’t fought any tough monsters. But if I fight one, I would definitely die.
Speaking of which, you could say that our journey to the royal capital was an adventure, right? But we just moved in a carriage, so I couldn’t say that I was proud of my adventure.
Well, leaving that aside.
Today, I was reunited with my best friend, who left the orphanage to get sold as a slave. I thought she died in an accident, so I was so shocked I cried a lot. When I think about it now, it was very embarrassing.
…My best friend, Ren, clung to me and patted my back to comfort me until I stopped crying. It’s like she was comforting a child. …Uu, so embarrassing.
“…I’m glad she looks healthy.”
I remembered how my best friend seemed to be doing well, causing my cheeks to relax.
“She became so cute…”
Yeah, she was so cute. And she became so amazing. Like her *****. And other things.
Ah, but I was surprised that I was taller.
“The sandwich was delicious. I got everyone’s share, but will this be enough? And what should I do with this sword? Cain will be noisy again.”
I muttered while stroking the handle of the sword that Ren made. Aside from the sandwiches for everyone, this sword would most likely cause various problems. Mainly because Cain would want it.
Cain didn’t really think highly about my craftsmanship tour. He insisted that we should earn more money by doing chores.
But I know that Cain wanted to be a sword fighter and was trying to save money so he could buy a sword quickly. And Cain was pretty selfish. Once he saw this sword, he would definitely make a noise.
“…Well, I won’t give it to him.”
Considering Ren’s character and feelings, I absolutely wouldn’t give it to Cain.
“There’s no use worrying about it, so let’s go to the reference room she directed me to.”
Cain would want the sword, but I couldn’t give this up. No matter how much he asked, I would just refuse.
Rather, it would be far more productive to do a lot of research on the library Ren told me rather than wasting my time thinking of such trivial things.
I never went to the headquarters of the royal capital adventurer’s guild. But Ren said that anyone could use the facility, so I decided to try it out, thinking that we might learn something out of this.
“Umm, this is the reference room?”
That’s why I came to the reference room of the Royal Capital Adventurer’s Guild. …Yeah, there were so many books.
In the first place, I couldn’t read that much. However, Ren said that these books also included the picture of medical herbs, so it would be helpful just to have a look at it… But there were more books than I expected. I was at a loss as to where to start.
“What should I do…?” “Miss, what’s wrong? Are you looking for something?”
When I was wondering what to do, I was approached by an old man who seemed to be managing this library. I told him that I wanted to find the books related to medicinal herbs, but I didn’t know where they were since there were so many books. He then took me to the shelf with the books I was looking for.
And as I thought, this old man was working as a librarian in this reference room. He said that he would help me if I had trouble in the library, so I decided to take his offer and have him help me a lot.
It’s better to overcome my embarrassment for lacking knowledge. I didn’t hide the fact that I couldn’t read the letters that well and asked the librarian to read the unreadable characters.
“I think that a child who can ask properly like you can survive longer and succeed than pretending to know what you don’t understand. It will be difficult, but please do your best.” “T-thank you very much!”
It’s embarrassing to ask what I didn’t understand, but it’s even more embarrassing to pretend I know something and leave it as it was. I had no hesitation in asking other people who knew what I didn’t. Since it would help me in the future, there’s no need to be hesitant.
…Actually, that’s what Ren told me when we were in the orphanage.
When I was researching the herbs that could be collected around the royal capital, I found many things.
Depending on the herb, the medicinal effect would change… In short, each herb had different parts that were needed. It might be the leaf, the root, or the pe… petals.
Then, of course, the quality of the material would be affected by how we collected various herbs.
If the roots were important, we need to dig them out carefully. If we need the leaves, we need to make sure they wouldn’t tear.
The herbs we collected so far were cut into pieces. That should explain why the prices were different.
“We need to use proper tools to collect it and store it carefully… What we’ve done so far is completely wrong…”
To be honest, that saddened me.
I thought it would be better to take as many herbs as I could. However, the price of the herbs would be higher if we collected them properly. The price could be two or three times higher. I didn’t know what to feel when I realized that.
Furthermore, it might be ten times more expensive depending on the type of herbs…
Ah… We could buy things we wanted if we knew this faster… Oh no, I’m really going to cry.
But it’s only been around two months since we came to the royal capital. We could still get it back. Rather, let’s think positively here.
That said, I couldn’t be sure until I actually used the knowledge I gained today.
By the time I left the reference room, the sun had already begun to set.
In the end, I didn’t do any chore today. However, I got sandwiches from Ren, a sword, and knowledge of herbs… I got equipment and benefits for the long run in just a day.