Chapter 172

My first impression upon entering the place was ‘dark.’ I assumed that they sold items that would change color if exposed to sunlight. The little light that did appear through the windows made the dust glimmer in the air.

There was armor in rough piles all over the place. It looked like one of those ‘hoarder’ rooms you see on tv. But it kind of made sense here, seeing as they sold antiques.

I navigated my way through the piles, careful to not knock anything over, until I found Daniela in the back. She was talking to an elderly man who was likely the owner.

“I have a feeling that I will find a good gauntlet here.”

“I see. I see…”

“However, there are too many to search through here. If you could at least show me where to look.”

“I see. I see…”

This guy she was talking with…he might just be senile…

We moved to a corner and discussed our plan of attack.

“That owner is no good.”

“That sounds a little harsh…”

“It is no good at all.”

Daniela was in a rush and it caused her to be sharper than usual.

“Still, there is no mistake. I can find good armor here. My intuition is telling me this.”

“Really? Well, I don’t doubt you, but…”

I looked around the room.

“It’ll be back-breaking work trying to find anything here…”

“That is why I asked the owner, but it does not seem…”

Daniela looked through the cracks in the pile next to us and saw that the old man had dozed off. She shook her head.

“Daniela, let’s split up and look. There must be a pile of gauntlets somewhere.”

“Yes… Alright, we will do that.”

“Wait, Daniela. Take this…”

I took out a clean cloth from the hollow bag. Daniela took it and tied it around her face so that it covered her mouth and nose. It was to keep the dust away. I tied one around my own face.

Then we nodded to each other and went our separate ways. I turned my back to the entrance and went to the left side. Daniela took the right. At the same time, I moved some of the armor closer together so that there was a clear space in the middle of the room. We would need a place to test the armor when we found them.

“…Hmm. That’s good enough.”

I made a clearing of about one square meter before starting the search.

□ □ □ □

I started at the far edge. The armor had to be handled carefully as I rummaged and shoved my arms into piles and piles.

This went on for several hours. My back hurt from prolonged bending and so I stretched my limbs and started to walk around the store. I had been moving things around at random, and yet somehow the place seemed a little neater than it had been at first. Perhaps I had been organizing things without thinking about it.

“Considering I had to organize products once, maybe this is some kind of disorder I developed from my old job…”

I couldn’t help it. These movements had been carved into my very soul, and I didn’t even know what I was doing most of the time. Oh, well. I better continue organizing…I mean, searching.

There was no ‘gauntlet corner’ anyway. There weren’t any kind of corners in this store. Everything was scattered in every direction. Shields popped out of armor and gauntlets popped out of boots… That’s probably why I had started tidying up.

I thought of such things as I concentrated on searching once again.

A few more hours passed. Quite a few gauntlets now lay in the small clearing I had made. And as it was getting late, I wanted to stop here for the day…

“Asagi. You should have a magic lantern. Take it out.”

“You’re going to continue…?”

“Aye.”

She said, looking quite serious. She was serious. Which left me no choice but to stay with her…

I took out the lantern and hung it up in the store. And with that, the dark interior lit up brightly. It made me wonder why we hadn’t used it in the beginning. As it wasn’t sunlight, it shouldn’t affect anything here.

And so it was overtime. This time I checked the right and Daniela went to the left. Perhaps we had missed something. The lighting seemed to help too, because we found gauntlets in places that we had already searched before.

The search did not finish until midnight. The old man had left his counter at some point and gone to bed. He was like some kind of zombie who was dictated by an old routine…

“Hahh…I’m tired…”

“We can come back tomorrow and inspect them with the Appraisal glasses.”

“Yeah… I doubt the old man will clean this up.”

It was evident from how scattered things were, that he did not care. And he wasn’t likely to start caring now… And so we left the store and returned to the inn. But first, Daniela asked some wind spirits to lock the door.

The next day. The morning of our twelfth day in Usk. We woke up early and went back to the antique store.

“Hmm…Is it open?”

“The elderly tend to get up early.”

“You are probably right.”

I was reminded of an elderly couple who used to come to the store at four in the morning in their small truck. I wondered if they were still doing well.

“Hello?”

I said as we opened the door. The old man was sitting in the same spot as yesterday. Our work the previous day had made it so we could see him from the door. I smiled.

“I half suspect you spent more time organizing than searching.”

“I can’t help it.”

Then we went to the center of the room where the gauntlets had been gathered. Yes, it was as we had left them yesterday.

“…Alright, let us begin then. The good gauntlets will be placed in this box over here.”

“Got it.”

Obeying her order, I took out the Appraisal glasses from the hollow bag. They were magic tools I had found in an ancient elven ruin near an old building. They were brilliant tools that allowed you to appraise things that you were looking at. I had also found an automata, but that was still in the bag.

And so I tried looking at the closest gauntlet to me.

‘Armor Rabbit Gauntlet – Partially damaged.’

It read. Focusing on the words ‘Armor Rabbit’ resulted in a detailed explanation appearing.

‘Armor Rabbit – C-Rank monster. Has a hard, armored back. Delicious.’

It read. The goal for today was to use these glasses to find something that was made of either a high-ranking monster or very rare ore. In any case, this was clearly neither of those, and so it went into the trash heap.

I would have to repeat this many times today, which promised to be even more tiring than what we did yesterday… Well, I was ready.

…And before I knew it, it was night. Perhaps I had gone about it with too much enthusiasm, because I hardly noticed the passage of time. Daniela was the same. As it was to do with her, she was much more focused than usual.

Still, we had found some rather nice pieces. After a very thorough inspection and a severe selection process, we ended up with four candidates.

‘Wing Snake Gauntlet – Partially damaged.’

‘Whitened Wind Ore Gauntlet – Insufficient magic.’

‘Earth Wolf Gauntlet – Partially damaged.’

‘Chained Ore Gauntlet.’

The above four. The monster ones didn’t need much explanation. Whitened wind ore apparently had to do with a lack of magic energy. And so it would regain its wind ore power if jade-colored magic was sent into it. However, it would eat up quite a lot. The fourth, which was made of chained ore, felt like the most antique of the bunch. It was incredibly rare.

“This ore is rarely circulated out in the world.”

“Why?”

“Because filling it with power can cause people to freeze up, as if they have been chained.”

“That’s a weird ability…”

Apparently, it had been popular a long time ago with a certain trade.

“You fill it with magic and point it at your opponent. Then magic in the shape of a chain will extend out and bind them.”

“Huh…”

“And that is how you became a slave.”

Yes, the ore had been used to hunt for slaves. Many demi-human women and children were captured in this way. In fact, Daniela’s tribe had been made up of people who had escaped such a fate. They fled and fled and became people of the fields.

“By the time I was born, there were many people who saw this ore as a threat. Organizations were established in order to destroy them all. As the rumor goes, this organization was built by a Hero.”

“A Hero…”

Currently, I had been lucky enough to meet someone who had been from modern Japan. It would make sense if this Hero was also from the same age. Because there wouldn’t have been slavery, and so it would only be normal to help those who had fallen into it.

“Many slave businesses were crushed because of it. But you sometimes hear whispers of it continuing in secret, even now.”

“Human trafficking usually involves a lot of money.”

It was sad that a price could be put on people. There was also a price for labor. The slaves at the mines worked as an alternative to death. Because merely being alive meant you were worth something.

“It would be very bad if something like this passed into the hands of such people. And so I will take it. After all, it can be a great weapon as long as you do not misuse it.”

Daniela said that it could be used to bind the movements of monsters. Yeah. Most things could be bad or good depending on how you used it. And so this could be used for good. It would be a kind of redemption for this chained ore.

“So you finally found your purchase then.”

“Aye, I will go and take it to the owner.”

“I’ll clean this stuff up.”

I handed Daniela the money as I gathered the other gauntlets together. There was now a light armor corner, a heavy armor corner and several other corners, including one for gauntlets. It made everything easier. It was hard to believe that the store had looked so different only a day ago. I even decided to leave the magic lamp as a little donation. Yes, he should enjoy an increase in business now.

I thought smugly as Daniela returned.

“How much was it?”

“Eight gold pieces.”

Apparently, the old man wasn’t so senile when it came to money. Damn it. How very nice of him.