The Beginning Of Life

“Hey there, friends. Judging by your outfits and your eyes, you’re adventurers, aren’t you?”

“Huh?”

“Who are you?”

It happened after they had left the gate and walked for a little while.

There was a small stall standing alone by the roadside, with a flag and something like carts piled up beside it.

The instant Tooyama and Lazaar passed by, a somewhat shady-sounding voice called out to them.

“Whoa there, please don’t be so wary. We’re still near the city gate. No monsters that you adventurers need to watch out for will appear here.”

A middle-aged man with his hair tied into one bundle and wearing a plain shirt waved his hand lightly.

“I think there are enemies we need to watch out for besides monsters, though.”

“Oh? Hahahaha, well, well. I see. It seems you have a sharp tongue too, adventurer.”

The middle-aged man returned a grin to Tooyama’s sarcasm.

Tooyama had intended to glare at him a little threateningly, but the man did not seem bothered at all.

“……Who are you?”

Lazaar also looked at the man while lowering his voice. His vertically slit pupils narrowed.

“Please don’t be so wary, Lizardonian. When I see those vertically slit eyes of yours, they remind me of my dear homeland.”

“Are you a citizen of the Kingdom?”

At the man’s words, Lazaar’s mood softened slightly.

“Formerly, yes. I obtained citizenship records as an Imperial citizen one month ago. Now that I have transferred all my assets to this country, I am already an Imperial citizen.”

“……So, old man, do you need something?”

Tooyama observed the man. He could not read the writing on the stall’s flag or signboard, so that was that, but the things piled up behind the shop were carts.

He was probably a merchant. A young man who seemed to be another shop employee was polishing a cart with a cloth.

“Ah, of course, of course I do. And there is only one reason a merchant talks to people. I wanted to introduce you to a wonderful product.”

“A cart?”

The man indicated the goods behind him with his hand, and Tooyama and Lazaar looked at the product as prompted.

“Oh, my friend, that is exactly right. It is surely a product needed precisely by excellent adventurers like you, is it not?”

“I see…… For transporting prey, huh. True, I hadn’t thought about that.”

“Ah, right. When I was an explorer, there were Guild recovery teams and patrol units and all that.”

He had overlooked it. Hunting meant disposing of monsters and selling them. Now that he thought about it, he had not particularly considered arrangements for dismantling them or methods for collecting them.

Back when he was an explorer, the division of labor had been fairly advanced, so Tooyama had not paid attention to that area.

“Hehe, I can tell. You two are extremely capable adventurers. You may become assets to the Empire, cornering prey and bringing back its materials. That is why I am doing business here, to help people like you.”

“Huh. So, how much?”

The shopkeeper wore a grinning smile, and Tooyama began negotiations without a moment’s delay at his words.

“Hehehe, you are quick to talk. It seems you understood the value of this product at a glance. Ah, my friend, I did say help, did I not? This pushcart is a one-of-a-kind article, made with Holen timber cut from the Kingdom’s Sea of Trees and designed and manufactured by workshop engineers. It is sturdy, light, flexible, and wonderful. Normally, if you were to buy it, well, it would cost two gold coins.”

The shopkeeper thinned his smile and began drawing out his words.

“That is quite overpriced. Two gold coins is equal to one month’s wages for an official in the Imperial Capital.”

Lazaar crossed his arms, snorted, and pouted slightly. The shopkeeper did not seem to care at all.

“I am glad you understand its value, Lizardonian. But I have no intention of placing that much burden on you. It is a rental. I shall lend you this cart for one large copper coin for the day. What do you say?”

“One large copper coin? That would be helpful to us, but……”

At the shopkeeper’s words, Lazaar’s eyes widened slightly. As expected, or perhaps unsurprisingly, Lazaar did not seem very good at this sort of verbal maneuvering.

“Mm, I see. So that’s how it is. ……Old man, how’s business been lately? Supply and demand, for example—are there any monster materials that are in short supply in the market?”

However, this man was different. Verbal maneuvering, threats, lies, persuasion—anything went. The explorer, who possessed an intellect that a grave good had called creepy and a happy head capable of killing when it was time to kill, immediately understood the shopkeeper’s intention.

“Naruhito?”

Lazaar did not seem to understand Tooyama’s words at all. He tilted his head and fell silent.

“Oh! Oh, oh, oh! Hehehe, wonderful. It seems you truly are not only skilled with your arms, but also smooth with your mouth and sharp with your mind. So much so that I feel it is a waste to leave you as an adventurer. Adventurer, I shall answer that question.”

But the shopkeeper seemed to have understood what Tooyama meant. He completely erased his grinning smile,

“It can only be called interesting. The Empire is presently at peace, with no major civil war. Distribution moves without delay, there are no disasters to trouble us, and prices are not fluctuating wildly. It is what one might call a peaceful situation. In such social conditions, the goods that rise in value are—”

The shopkeeper twirled his finger as he spun his words, and in the pause between his breaths,

“I see. Luxury goods, huh. And among those, high-class goods and rare items that raise the desire for recognition. Simply put, things that are difficult to obtain and rare.”

Tooyama predicted the continuation of the shopkeeper’s words and overlapped him. The smoothly flowing words and breath stopped for the first time then.

“—Forgive my rudeness, but are you a person with a degree from the Imperial Capital? Or an adventurer who was once a merchant…… The son of a good family…… No, you do not have the atmosphere peculiar to someone blessed. If anything, those are the eyes of a person who knows hunger and thirst…… What are you?”

His eyes narrowed smoothly, and his airy attitude vanished. What remained was the merchant’s true face, coldly trying to measure the value of the person before him.

“I’m an adventurer who just became one today. I’ve decided. I want to borrow a cart from you. One large copper coin. Lazaar, do we still have money left?”

“Ah, yes. Barely, but we can pay.”

Tooyama smoothly evaded the merchant’s cold gaze while confirming the contents of Lazaar’s purse. He tried to tell him that they would pay the fee,

“Wait. I changed my mind. It is free. I do not need money. Use it.”

Without accepting the large copper coin Tooyama held out, the shopkeeper pointed at the stacked carts.

“……A merchant’s free offer cannot be trusted, Naruhito.”

“Yeah, I think so too. But this time, it’s probably a different story, Lazaar. ……Old man, you thought up a good business. True, with this method, your chances of directly negotiating with adventurers who hate troublesome things go up.”

Tooyama grinned at the shopkeeper, and the shopkeeper showed a similar smile.

“Naruhito, what are you talking about?”

Lazaar was confused by the two creepy men who had suddenly started smiling. However, Tooyama and the shopkeeper continued chuckling at each other.

“Hehehehe, so you really had noticed. If you were not an adventurer, I would want to hire you as one of my shop employees. Yes, exactly. However, please do not misunderstand. I will force nothing upon you. I ask only one thing of you. Once you are finished using the cart, simply return it properly to me.”

“Mm, understood. By the way, just for reference, among the monsters in this plains region, which one do you think could become the market’s biggest highlight from here on?”

“My friend, plains-region monster materials are highly versatile, and all of them are wonderful. But if I were to name one in particular, it would be the second-rank monster, the Titanos Mare. Its eyes and hide are high-class goods in demand even among the nobility. Any merchant with even a little foresight would try to become close with adventurers who bring back such materials. Hehe, of course, I have no ulterior motive.”

“Hm. I see. Okay, got it. I’ll gratefully borrow this.”

“Ah, good hunting. I will be here until noon. If you return it after noon, I will be in the open-air market in the commercial district. Please return it there.”

“Yeah. Got it. I’ll be careful not to break it.”

“Hehe, I wish you luck, my friend.”

Tooyama and Lazaar received the cart that the young man had pulled over and left the shop behind.

Tooyama, pulling the cart, was surprised by how light it was. It was about the size of the canopy of a small carriage, yet it was impossibly light.

He dodged Lazaar’s offer to take over the cart, and the two continued walking along the road for a while.

The wind crossing the plains was cool, making him feel as if they had come for a picnic.

“Hey, Naruhito, what on earth were you and that guy talking about?”

Suddenly, Lazaar, who was walking beside him, asked Tooyama.

“Ah, sorry. I hadn’t explained. It’s nothing. We were lucky. We already found a potential sponsor.”

Tooyama answered the question while pulling the cart with a rattle.

“Sponsor?”

“Lazaar, from a merchant’s position, if they want to trade directly with adventurers, do you know what the biggest obstacle is?”

“……Hmm. Let me see…… The Guild?”

“Correct. From the Guild’s position, they want monster materials wholesaled through them as much as possible. They’re lumps of profit, cash cows. But from a merchant’s perspective, honestly, if the other party can trade properly, they want to procure goods directly without going through the Guild. Wanting to save even one yen in expenses is a merchant’s nature.”

“One yen? But what does that have to do with the conversation earlier?”

“Lazaar, do you remember the conversation with the Guild Master? She said adventurers don’t negotiate directly with merchants much. Why do you think adventurers have the Guild buy their materials instead of merchants?”

“Hmm, perhaps it is a matter of trust? Merchants are smooth talkers. Adventurers honestly are not the sort of people who take jobs because they are good at verbal maneuvering.”

“Yeah, that’s part of it too. But in my opinion, the biggest obstacle is that it is troublesome.”

“Troublesome?”

Lazaar asked back at Tooyama’s words. Tooyama nodded and spun out his words.

“Yeah. The reason many people wholesale materials to the Guild is probably because that’s the easiest way. If I remember right, the theory is that beginners start with ‘requests,’ jobs brought into the Guild.”

“Ah, it would be rare to go hunting from the very start like this.”

Lazaar shrugged and looked at Tooyama.

“That’s it, Lazaar. In other words, proper adventurers have the custom planted into them when they’re fledglings. The Guild provides the work, and the results of the work are submitted to the Guild. When those who have been scraping by through steady requests become able to aim for hunting too, where do you think they end up selling the results?”

Tooyama raised a finger toward Lazaar and asked him.

“……I see. So that is what it means. The Guild. They use the habit planted into them when they were rookies. ……Heh, that Guild Master really is thinking about all sorts of things.”

After thinking for a moment, Lazaar nodded. Conversations with people whose minds worked quickly were easy and pleasant.

“Yeah, she’s not half-baked smart. She’s seriously smart and understands human psychology well too. And that merchant old man has noticed that mechanism. After noticing it, he probably thought up a business structure that allows him to procure directly from adventurers.”

Basically, it was a Guild-favored system built on the premise that adventurers hated troublesome things. The fact that she naturally operated it showed that Guild Master’s competence.

“But how does that connect to a cart rental business?”

Lazaar’s words were reasonable. However, Tooyama had a firm conviction.

“Lazaar, think back to the location of the open-air market that old man mentioned and the location of the Adventurers’ Guild. Don’t you notice something?”

“The location……… They are close. There are several roads to the Adventurers’ Guild, but if it has to be a road large enough to pull a cart, one inevitably passes through the open-air market in the commercial district…… Ah, so that is it!”

Lazaar looked at the map he had taken from his breast pocket, then suddenly raised his voice.

Tooyama nodded.

“You noticed. Exactly. Adventurers who borrow a cart from that old man are highly likely to come into contact with that merchant old man again before reaching the Adventurers’ Guild.”

Tooyama cast a glance at Lazaar while pulling the cart.

“When an adventurer finishes hunting, a trade partner they meet before the Guild naturally appears. Of course, he won’t be able to trade with everyone, and he won’t necessarily be able to procure exactly the right goods. But his chances will go up. I like him. That old man smells shady, but he’s shrewd. If I’m going to partner with someone, I’d prefer someone like that.”

In other words, that merchant was

“Which one of you is shrewder, I wonder……”

Lazaar muttered with a sigh, but the eyes he turned toward Tooyama looked somehow happy.

“Hehe, I’ll take that as a compliment. Well, for now, no matter what, we need to make the hunt a success. I wonder what kind of guys are out there.”

Tooyama bared his teeth in a bright grin and imagined it. Monsters from a different world—what kind of creatures could they be?

“……It feels like downloadable content for a game I played to death. Hehehehe, I’m looking forward to it.”

Tooyama was, after all, an explorer through and through.

Desire and dreams—that was the root and trunk of Tooyama Naruhito. But apart from that, he liked it. The moment when he wagered everything and killed each other with a monster. He liked that way of living.

“Heh, I’m counting on you, Naruhito. Let me see. Something like a Giant Boar should be good, since it can also be used for food, yes? I hear parties of third-rank adventurers often target them.”

“Hm, like a Gray Goblin? Mm, no, but depending on the group, those things can have beginner-killer elements too, so I can’t say for sure.”

“All riiight, let’s kill them left and right and earn piles of money! Sounds fuuun.”

The cart rattled carefree. As Tooyama cackled, Lazaar relaxed and laughed.

“Truly, you are a reliable man.”

………

……

…

“I am surprised. To think an adventurer would see through the structure of my business. It seems I underestimated them a little too much.”

They were a strange pair of adventurers.

A Lizardonian, a discriminated-against race, and a black-haired man, rare in the Southern Territory.

The fact that he treated the Lizardonian not as an adventurer slave, but as a companion, was also rare in this Empire.

A member of the Merchant Guild, the chairman of Dromora Trading Company, Dromora Vremen, stared at their backs as they pulled the cart away.

Well, the strangest point of all was their observational eye and reasoning ability, which did not suit the kind of people called adventurers. Since they had said they had just become adventurers, they were probably fourth-rank adventurers. However, they had a strange air of experience that did not make them seem like such rookies.

“Manager, are we already going back to the open-air market? Normally, this is still the time when we’d still be staying in front of the gate for suckers—not that, for rentals, right?”

Having received the instruction to withdraw, the young man, an employee from the Kingdom, raised his carefree voice.

“Bise, go to the Merchant Guild immediately. Get information from the appearance of those adventurers just now.”

Without turning around toward the employee behind him, Dromora gave a concise instruction.

A black-haired man and a Lizardonian. He knew of a pair like that. His feeling that it could not be true was strong, but the attitude of not ignoring even a slight doubt was what had raised Dromora into a merchant who owned his own trading company.

“Ehh, you’re making me run errands?”

“Fool. You are my employee, are you not? It is within your duties. Those adventurers may be a tremendous find. Not only in the Kingdom, but even in this Empire, that is the first adventurer who has seen through the structure of my business.”

He might have to revise his perception of the people called adventurers.

Especially that black-haired man. If anything, he was a person on this side, a person who accomplished things by using his head. He should have had those eyes.

Though he seemed a little too dangerous.

“Isn’t that just your imagination, Manager?”

“No, at the very least, that black-haired man should have borrowed the cart from me after seeing through everything. He understood every part of my intention in lending him the cart for free. Hehe, it seems I may be able to do business with a proper person for the first time in a while. I will have the apprentices carry the remaining carts. Hurry. Business is always—”

Dromora began reciting the company motto.

“Correctly, early, quickly, swiftly. I know.”

The male employee interrupted those words. He had carefree aspects, but Dromora liked this employee’s clever side.

“Then it would help if you hurried in accordance with those words. After you confirm the information from the Guild, return to the stall in the open-air market. We will absolutely call out to those adventurers before they return to the Adventurers’ Guild. ……No, if it is them, perhaps they will return to us themselves.”

“Hoh.”

Suddenly, the male employee, who had at some point been standing in front of Dromora, burst out laughing.

“What is it, Bise?”

Dromora furrowed his brows and tilted his head at the sight.

“Nah, nah, nothing. It’s just, I thought that was the first time I’d ever seen you smile, Manager.”

The amiable employee laughed briefly with a “shishishi.”

“Hmph. Who knows?”

Dromora snorted, but he exposed his face.

Indeed, the conversation from earlier had been enjoyable. Though he had no intention of ever saying so aloud.