A Merchant And A Friend

About three years had passed since I was summoned to this world.

The people I normally interacted with were my master, Garmon-san, and Bella, the Cerberus who served as the tower’s Guardian.

But once a week, I had the chance to meet one other person.

Today happened to be that day of the week, and I waited for my visitor while preparing tea.

Garmon-san was busy because his sorcery research had reached a critical stage, while Bella was napping in the sun, so I would probably be the only one greeting our guest today.

The knocker at the tower entrance sounded.

Looks like she’s here.

“Coming! I’ll be right there. Just give me a moment!”

Calling out to her, I hurried toward the entrance.

There was no chance Bella would allow someone she didn’t know to approach the tower, so whoever had knocked was unquestionably the person I’d been waiting for.

And standing on the other side of the door when I opened it was—

“Thank you for your continued business! Traveling merchant of the Sorcerers’ Association, here once again this week to deliver your orders!”

A chestnut-haired woman wearing a cheerful smile, Annie Mitt.

That’s right. She was the merchant who had been coming and going from the tower every week ever since I first started living here, delivering food, daily necessities, and materials Garmon-san used in his sorcery research.

“Welcome, Annie. I’ve got tea ready. Come on in, come on in.”

Annie nodded at my invitation, and at first glance, she appeared to be carrying nothing except a small bag.

But that was precisely what made her so remarkable—all the goods we’d ordered, including enormous quantities of food, were packed inside that one bag.

Annie certainly was a merchant, but she was also a fully fledged sorcerer.

And an exceptionally elite one affiliated with the Sorcerers’ Association, at that.

Her specialty was spatial sorcery, particularly storage sorcery that allowed enormous quantities of matter to be packed into a tiny space, as well as gate sorcery that let her instantly travel great distances.

In other words, Annie packed huge quantities of merchandise into her bag with storage sorcery, then used gate sorcery to travel between the sorcerers’ towers scattered throughout the region and deliver the supplies they needed for daily life.

The moment I learned about Annie’s sorcery was when I became completely convinced by the claim that “countries want to keep sorcerers under their control.”

After all, if you multiplied the amount she could store by the number of times she could travel through gates in a single day, she could probably handle the logistics of a reasonably sized army all by herself.

Of course, she couldn’t create products from nothing, so the actual production still had to be handled by others, but even so, her transportation capabilities were extraordinary.

“Mmm, delicious! This tea is really good, Lept-kun. You’ve gotten even better at making it.”

Annie’s face softened with pleasure as she drank the tea I’d brewed, and she looked like a perfectly ordinary wom—well, when we first met, she’d still seemed like a girl, but three years later, she now looked like a perfectly ordinary, lovely young woman. You would never guess she was such an incredible sorcerer.

Despite possessing considerable skill in sorcery, she never acted arrogant in the slightest, and to me, she had become a very good friend.

“That’s because you bring me all sorts of things, Annie. Ah, yeah, this really is good. These tea leaves were from the northeastern part of the continent, right?”

I took a small sip myself to taste it and found myself satisfied by its deep flavor.

It was a somewhat expensive luxury item, but with a taste like this, I had no complaints.

Once Garmon-san reached a good stopping point in his research, I’d bring some to him later.

Whenever Garmon-san devised new sorcery based on knowledge from another world, he credited me as a co-creator, so I was actually fairly wealthy.

Though since the only thing I really had to spend money on was ordering luxuries from Annie, I was currently just accumulating it for no particular reason.

“You could go there yourself if you wanted, couldn’t you, Lept-kun? You’ve completely mastered my sorcery now. For the coordinates, I’ll travel with you the first time, and somewhere around the northeast is still peaceful compared to this region.”

At Annie’s words, I gave her a vague smile.

Her sorcery was based on some unusual concepts, so it had taken me a little while to understand, but it was true that I’d finally become capable of using it as Magic recently.

Still, I almost exclusively used the storage version, while as for gate Magic—well, I only ever used it when Bella and I wandered too deep into the forest and I couldn’t be bothered making the trip back.

I wasn’t particularly interested in visiting distant towns the way Annie suggested, either.

Garmon-san had taken me to the nearest human town once, but I couldn’t imagine wanting to go there a second time.

Garmon-san and Annie were precious people to me, and there were probably plenty of other good people like them in this world.

But most of the humans I’d encountered in this world had been my enemies.

Adventurers, the outsiders who periodically came attacking us, were the most obvious example.

And then there was the nearby town I’d visited that one time, where countless posters and public notices offered enormous rewards for Garmon-san’s capture as an “evil sorcerer.”

Back then, I’d been overwhelmed by such intense anger that I’d wanted to burn the entire town to the ground, but I could never forget how desperately I’d forced myself to swallow those emotions, knowing that if I did such a thing, the label of “evil sorcerer” they had placed on Garmon-san would become justified.

“…Oh, these honey sweets are delicious too. The honey from this forest really is high quality. Hey, Lept-kun, do you have any extra honey? If you’ve got some to spare, I’ll buy it from you.”

Perhaps she had sensed what I was thinking, because Annie briefly looked a little sad, but she quickly returned to her usual smile and changed the subject.

Honey, huh?

Bella and I had harvested an entire giant bee nest the other day, so technically, we did have some to spare…

“We’ve got extra, but Bella would probably get angry if I sold it without asking her. Besides, I’ve already got more money than I know what to do with… How about trading it for something sweet instead?”

It would have been easy enough to simply refuse, but I appreciated Annie’s consideration in changing the subject for my sake, so I offered an alternative.

Watching Annie rummage eagerly through her bag warmed my heart, and I raised my tea to my lips.

I still didn’t feel ready for it now, but someday, just as she had suggested, visiting a distant town for fun would probably be enjoyable.

Me, Annie, Garmon-san, and Bella… I’d like for all of us to go to a hot spring or something.

I wonder if this world even has those?

No, actually, I can’t imagine Bella being allowed into a human town in the first place.

Still, imagining a happy future brought a smile to my face.

The person I used to be had never been able to feel any hope for the future.

It felt strange for a devil to have hope, but right now, I was probably—surely—yes, I think I was happy.