Chapter 9
“Are you, by any chance, from the Moro Principality?”
The man visibly paused.
“Why… would you think that?”
His expression was strange.
He looked suspicious, guarded, and at the same time almost surprised.
I had asked lightly, but with that kind of reaction, I could no longer brush it off with something like just a feeling.
“It’s nothing spe— ahem.”
Damn it. Because of that lunatic who had told me it was “nothing special” and then asked me to buy him, I felt like I had lost one of my everyday expressions.
I shot the lunatic a secret glare and opened my mouth.
“It’s not some grand reason. I just once heard about something that happened at pawnshops in the Moro Principality.”
I answered as if I had only heard it as a rumor, but in truth, it was a story I had heard directly from someone in the principality during my previous life, when I had fled there.
At least I had appraisal skills, so I had tried to get even temporary work at a pawnshop.
But the moment I mentioned pawnshops, the employment office worker’s face had gone stiff.
“Why? Are you from the back alleys too? Is that why you’re looking for a place like that?”
“What? What do you mean?”
“We’re not involved in filthy business like that, so get out!”
At first, I had no idea what they meant, but as time passed, I found out.
A few years earlier, some madmen had used a pawnshop to do everything from smuggling and loan sharking to identity laundering and even human trafficking.
And they had done it on a pretty organized scale, so there had been a lot of victims.
After that, pawnshops had become illegal in the Moro Principality.
‘Seriously, it was like a complete crime gift set. No wonder people hated them.’
Once I knew the details, I could understand it.
It still felt unfair, though, seeing how a bunch of lunatics had ruined the reputation of a perfectly normal business.
“But while listening to what you wanted, it came to mind. So I wondered if you might be from the Moro Principality.”
“You heard about what happened in Moro…? Who told you that?”
I narrowed my eyes.
‘It was almost just an icebreaker. Why is he reacting so sharply?’
If I said it was a friend, it felt like he would immediately ask what friend, and how I knew them.
If he was from Moro, then he could just say yes. If not, he could say no.
Only someone with something to hide would react that sharply.
‘Could he be a criminal from the Moro Principality…?’
I remembered the stories about criminals once living on Gray Street.
Helena had driven them out, but that did not mean there could not still be leftovers.
“It’s nothing special. I was hoping you might buy me.”
What if that crazy thing he said earlier had really been him testing whether I might be interested in becoming an accomplice?
‘It all fits together!’
My thoughts started racing. How should I deal with this?
“I asked who told you that story.”
No matter which way it was, there was no reason for me to answer obediently. He was not my superior.
And now that I had clearly said I did not deal in stolen goods, there was no reason for me to do business with him anymore either.
Once I finished thinking it through, I took a step closer to the lunatic.
Moving hesitantly, with my lips pressed together.
“Sir.”
One step, then another.
Like someone about to share a very important secret.
“I’m not really sure how to say this.”
“How to say what?”
I glanced around a little, then gestured as if telling him to lean in.
After hesitating for a moment, he moved closer.
I suppose he was trying, in his own way, to bend down for me, but I still had to go up on tiptoe to whisper into his ear.
Did he not realize how tall he was? Really, this man had no manners at all.
But surprisingly, he smelled nice, which at least softened my irritation a little.
“Well, you see…”
I deliberately hesitated by his ear, as if I were thinking hard.
Then the man urged me on in a low, slightly rough voice.
“…Go ahead. I’ll hear whatever it is.”
But unlike this considerate-smelling yet inconsiderate man, I had already explained plenty.
I had clearly stated the shop’s policies too.
So now…
“Are you, by any chance, interested in me?”
It was time to drive him away.
“…What?”
The man jerked back.
He looked like he was wondering whether he had really heard me correctly.
Inside, I held back a laugh and blinked innocently.
“No? I thought you might be interested in me.”
“How did you arrive at that conclusion?”
“Well, because you seem more curious about my personal life than about the things in this shop.”
It was fun seeing his whole attitude change. He clearly had never imagined he would hear something like that.
Should I push it even further while I was at it?
“And you came after business hours, when no one else was around. And you kept asking one difficult question after another.”
I even put my hands under my chin like a flower and asked in the sweetest voice I could manage,
“Right! You even asked me to buy you. Oh my, could it be that you wanted to hear my voice all by yourself for a very, very long time? Is that why?”
Did he think he was the only one who could say ridiculous things? I could do it too.
He looked so stunned he could not even speak, and I smiled at him with my eyes curving.
“But even so, you can’t keep me all to yourself. I can’t give you special treatment either. As you can see, I have the kind of face that gets a lot of attention. Sadly, there’s more than just one or two people like you.”
‘Well, that part is true. Because there are exactly zero.’
Making up lies like this was making me want to cry inside, but I refused to back down and kept my chin raised proudly.
“What kind of ridiculous nonsense are you even saying…?”
“Well, still, I could show you a little consideration. Would you like to leave a business card? If a ‘legal’ pearl-decorated sword comes in, I’ll contact you first.”
“Consideration? First priority?” he repeated, then shook his head with a quiet ha.
It seemed he had finally concluded that continuing the conversation with me would get him nowhere.
At last!
‘Hard to listen to, isn’t it? It’s hard for me to keep making this stuff up too. So just hand over your card and go already.’
“Fine. I’ll leave one.”
To my surprise, he obediently placed a business card into my outstretched hand.
Clutching it, I waved exaggeratedly.
“Bye now— goodbye—”
Whether he answered or not, I had already achieved my goal. I pressed the button and slammed the door shut.
‘He probably thinks I’m some unlucky narcissist with flowers growing in my head, but I can live with that.’
What is the best way to stop questions that keep leading to more questions?
Answer them sincerely?
No. The right answer is to stop the questions themselves.
And to do that, the best way is to seem like someone impossible to communicate with.
After all, the only thing that can deal with a lunatic is another lunatic.
‘He definitely seems curious about this pawnshop… but it would be risky to provoke him or dig into it right now, and I don’t have the energy to worry about it today. Keeping this kind of distance is probably best.’
That was my cold, practical conclusion.
The reason I still took his card was just in case.
Grandfather had once told me that knights sometimes came around asking questions as part of investigations.
If someone with an appearance like his ever ended up on a wanted notice, I planned to report it. No matter how I looked at it, that man was suspicious.
I unfolded the card, which I had crushed in my grip, and turned it over.
‘A card from the Information Guild?’
It was made of very luxurious dark blue paper, stamped with the Information Guild’s mark.
Over that mark, there were only a few silver letters.
[Alter]
No family name?
I had heard that people in the Information Guild sometimes used code names. Was it a fake name?
“Alter, huh. That’s a pretty name.”
More precisely, only the name was pretty.
The card could have been forged, of course. For now, I decided to keep it safely as evidence.
As I prepared to sleep under the counter, I rubbed my temple.
‘Still… I’m sure I’ve seen a pearl-decorated sword somewhere before.’
It was not a common decoration.
But it was not extremely rare either. I had a feeling there was some other feature that “Alter” had failed to mention.
I tried to dig through the hazy memories of my previous life—everything except the things related to Grandfather felt unclear—but maybe because it was the aftermath of my first day reopening the shop, sleep quickly overcame me.
Now it was time to prepare for the next day. I had done everything I needed to do today.
‘Ah, I should have sprinkled salt before lying down…’
I had forgotten the one thing left—
sprinkling salt to ward off troublesome people.
Tessach’s adjutant, Milton, secretly glanced at the Grand Duke, who had been silent ever since returning from the pawnshop.
He already had the kind of face that made people want to lower their eyes and apologize on instinct—
but today, there was an extra shadow hanging over it.
