It was an even worse day than the one before.
I'd come to sell off yesterday's haul.
It went for a decent price.
While I was at it, I brought up the knife.
Leaning against the counter, Arifa mused aloud.
"A knife, huh."
"Do you have anything cheap and used?"
"Blades—used and cheap is never a good combination. Go with something new."
"Now you sound like an antique dealer."
"Fair point."
Arifa gave a wry smile.
"Oh, right. Wof—about that ring."
"Now that you mention it, whatever happened with that?"
I'd completely forgotten until she brought it up.
"Turns out it was a commission piece. I'll hand over the commission fee straight to you, no middleman, like we agreed."
She said that and set a bag on the counter.
"This is it?"
"That's right. Take it."
"How much is it?"
Anything to help pad the wallet would be nice.
After all, I can't get into the dungeon for a while.
Before coming to the antique shop, I'd gotten curious and gone to check on the dungeon, only to find it sealed shut.
Being sealed means the entrance is blocked by a barrier from a Relic that holds one.
I'd had a hunch ever since the earthquake hit.
But seeing the sealed entrance in person filled me with so much anxiety and worry about the coming days that I felt sick.
I also need to buy a knife, so at the very least, this would help a little.
"127,000 oro."
"Huh!? 120,000!?"
The shout escaped me before I could stop it. More than I'd expected.
Wait — it even surpassed the delver registration fee!?
"The client was overjoyed. They said they wanted to meet you in person to thank you directly, but..."
"Oh — ah — I'm sorry about that."
"—so I went ahead and accepted their thanks in your place."
"Thank you so much!"
I bowed my head.
Arifa sighed.
"It's no big deal. But once you're a delver, you can't always get away with that."
"Y-yes."
"Going solo as a safety measure isn't the worst idea, though."
"In my case, it's also partly a personality thing..."
"Probably, yeah."
Arifa gave a faint, rueful smile.
I've always been bad with people, ever since my past life... and that hasn't changed one bit in this one.
Ha ha ha... the soul of a three-year-old lasts till a hundred, as they say.
"I know I need to do something about it, though."
"Normally, if you're aiming to become a delver, you'd sign on as a hireling."
"...Right."
My face fell. A hireling.
That's basically a gofer hired by delvers or their party.
The main work is doing errands, carrying luggage, that sort of thing.
There was apparently some pay involved, but it was said to be next to nothing—pennies, basically.
To put it bluntly, the image that came to mind was that of a convenient little slave.
In practice, it probably was something like that.
I'd heard that the poor treatment of hirelings was a recognized problem even at the Delvers' Guild.
But nothing had been done about it.
Or rather, it seemed like nobody intended to do anything about it.
The reason was Hydrangea's largest clan.
"Kuun Hunt"—there was no one in this frontier region who didn't know the name.
"It used to be better, back in the day."
"Has it changed from how it used to be?"
"Back then, they treated you more like a knight's attendant or an apprentice under a master."
"Ohhh…"
"I was one of those hired hands myself, y'know."
"You were?"
Arifa, back when she was a kid.
I could sort of picture her being full of energy back then.
"Well, honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about how they treat hired hands these days."
"So it really is like that, huh…"
"I can feel the quality of delvers going down too. It's not like I don't know the reason, though."
"Kuun Hunt… you mean?"
Arifa gave a faint, wry smile, as if to confirm it.
Hydrangea — no, the largest clan on the frontier: Kuun Hunt.
The master of that clan was a first-class delver.
One of only twenty-seven Delver Kings in the world.
That was why the name was so widely known.
At the same time, Kuun Hunt — a clan that could never shake its bad reputation.
It was said that Kuun Hunt kept hiring enormous numbers of hired hands, which was why nothing ever improved.
That was the story going around.
I had a feeling it was probably true.
"You be careful too, Wof. Especially, okay?"
"Y-Yes."
"Anyway, hey, Wof. Now you can buy a knife."
Arifa grinned.
"Oh, that's right."
"They're secondhand, but there are knives lined up on that shelf in the back."
"Wouldn't used blades be a bad idea?"
"Ahahaha, well, why don't you take a look?"
"Understood."
I headed toward the back shelf as instructed.
All sorts of swords and knives were crammed in there, filling every inch of space.
I peered into the dusty wooden shelf.
Knives of various shapes and sizes were scattered about, some in sheaths, some bare, with no particular order.
"This one's nice too. This one too. This one, and this one as well, huh."
Even among secondhand goods, there were good finds. I picked them up one by one.
The prices were... 20,000, 40,000, 60,000... 150,000... Expensive.
Even used ones were this pricey?
No, well, they were expensive by my standards, but for a delver, probably not that bad.
At 120,000, I couldn't keep my composure.
And then there was Arifa, a Rank III delver, looking perfectly unfazed.
This must be the difference between a delver and a kid like me who has nothing.
Knives lined up on the shelf.
They all seemed good, but each one felt like it was missing something for me.
What was it? What was missing?
They were all clearly better than my previous knife, so that wasn't it.
Every single one felt lacking.
I didn't know what was lacking.
"Hey... what are you... doing?"
"Just picking out a knife. Somehow... it doesn't feel right."
"Doesn't feel... right?"
"I don't know what that means, exactly. It's just... different. Like something's missing."
"Hmm... something's missing..."
"Ugh..."
Wait. Who was I just talking to?
I turned toward the voice and was startled.
There stood a beautiful girl with peach-white hair.