Ch.17Chapter 17 – Meeting the First Customer (1)

About 14 days after leaving Belsarem. After a long journey by carriage, I finally found myself standing before Glesius Academy.

To be precise, what’s currently spread out before my eyes is the metropolis called “Archenium.”

Archenium is a city that began construction simultaneously with Glesius Academy, and I’m told it was initially a city where about 5,000 people lived.

However, as time passed and Glesius Academy grew in size, it has now become a metropolis where approximately 50,000 people live.

This information was provided to me by Marcus, the head of the Bleas Merchant Group, who helped repair my carriage wheel.

I had no particular difficulties on my way to Archenium thanks to the kindness Marcus provided.

First of all, I got to ride in a luxurious carriage with soft, springy cushions instead of the uncomfortable carriage with no cushioning at all.

This carriage was originally prepared for nobility, he said.

I was curious about why they were taking an empty carriage to Glesius Academy, so I asked Marcus.

“Ah, this carriage is due for its regular maintenance period, so we’re taking it to the certified carriage repair shop in Archenium. Among those going to Glesius Academy are children from noble families. Regular carriages are fine as is, but carriages used by nobles must undergo periodic inspections and repairs.”

Just like how we get our cars inspected annually, it seemed they had carriage inspections in this world too.

However, since this was a world with nobles and commoners, it appeared that only carriages used by nobles, not ordinary carriages, were regularly inspected and repaired.

Thanks to that, I was able to comfortably travel to Archenium in a carriage used by nobles without any inconvenience.

No one would complain about me riding in a noble’s carriage.

According to what Serin told me, ability users receive treatment equivalent to minor nobility.

In other words, I could essentially receive treatment on par with nobles, so I could ride in carriages meant for nobles.

Because of this, I not only got to ride in a comfortable carriage but also learned about Glesius Academy and Archenium, the city surrounding the academy.

According to Marcus, people collectively refer to Archenium and Glesius Academy as “Glesius Academy” for convenience.

However, when writing official documents or sending items, one must always distinguish between Archenium and Glesius Academy.

This is because although Glesius Academy exists within Archenium, administratively, the two areas are classified as completely separate regions.

In simple terms, it’s like the relationship between Jeollanam-do and Gwangju Metropolitan City, Gyeongsangnam-do and Busan Metropolitan City and Ulsan Metropolitan City, Gyeongsangbuk-do and Daegu Metropolitan City, Chungcheongnam-do and Daejeon Metropolitan City, or Gyeonggi-do and Incheon Metropolitan City and Seoul Special City.

It means that Archenium and Glesius Academy aren’t subordinate to each other; they’re just geographically positioned that way, but in reality, the two regions are equal.

Whew, thank you, social studies teacher. I’m actually using the knowledge you taught in class.

Anyway, I was able to gain a lot of knowledge about this world through Marcus.

If I use this knowledge well, I shouldn’t be treated like someone from another world.

Oh, and when parting with Marcus, I received quite a substantial reward.

Of course, I didn’t receive actual money but a check that could be used at the Imperial Central Bank.

The amount was a whopping 200 gold coins.

Based on the information I gathered from my conversation with Marcus, in this world, one silver coin is worth about 10,000 won.

Then, one gold coin is equivalent to 100 silver coins, so it’s worth about 1 million won.

In other words, what Marcus gave me was a fortune of 200 million won.

When I asked why he gave me such a large amount, he said that in his eyes, I looked like someone who could potentially influence the world in the future.

So rather than investing when it’s too late, he gave me a large reward as a preemptive investment.

He said that with this money, I could open a small repair shop in Archenium and live comfortably for about two years.

And then he asked me not to forget him if I became successful.

I, in turn, asked Marcus not to forget me.

After parting with Marcus with a smile, I headed straight to the city hall.

The way to the city hall wasn’t difficult at all because Marcus dropped me off right in front of it.

‘To get an ID card, I need to find a city hall official with this paper, he said.’

The paper I’m holding now isn’t the check Marcus gave me but a kind of letter of recommendation.

To summarize, it stated that I am a person who doesn’t harm society and whose identity is certain.

It seemed like having an ID card would make it easier to function properly.

If I were planning to cause trouble, not having an ID would be more convenient, but having grown up in South Korea, a country serious about resident registration, I couldn’t help it.

Surprisingly, the registration process went smoothly.

After filling out the basic identity registration forms and presenting Marcus’s letter of recommendation, a manager-level official immediately came out, greeted me respectfully, and helped me with the registration process.

Thanks to this, the identity registration, which I expected to take two days, was completed in just 30 minutes.

“If you have any civil complaints in the future, please don’t hesitate to visit the city hall.”

Seeing how kindly the manager-level official treated me, it seems that the fact that I’m an ability user had a significant influence.

This small card-like object in my hand was the ID card that would prove my identity.

I was told that commoners have copper-colored cards, nobles have silver, and the imperial family has gold. What I held in my hand was silver with a gold border.

This is given to ability users who haven’t yet attained noble status, and the manager explained that this ID card means I can receive treatment equivalent to a noble.

Anyway, now that I’ve got my ID card, there’s only one thing left to do.

“Let’s open a shop.”

It was the first step and core process for meeting the heroines of Glesius Academy: “starting a repair shop.”

I had thoroughly discussed the idea of opening a repair shop with Marcus.

After deep conversations with Marcus, we finally concluded that a repair business could be profitable.

This “repair” ability I possess was an ability that had never appeared before.

Moreover, unlike other abilities that could kill people or risk going berserk, my ability had no risk of going out of control, which was a plus.

According to Marcus, in the past, there was a tendency to subtly or overtly discriminate against ability users who weren’t nobles.

Eventually, a major accident occurred when an ability user went berserk due to psychological damage from being discriminated against by a noble ability user, resulting in the disappearance of an entire city.

As the saying goes, all safety regulations are written in blood. After that incident, regulations and social awareness emerged that ability users should be treated on par with nobles regardless of their background.

And in exchange for receiving treatment equivalent to nobles, ability users were required to register their identities and be managed by the country.

This was because to treat someone like a noble, one needed to know who that person was.

The ID card I received was the item that distinguished ability users from ordinary people.

Through this, they managed ability users while simultaneously monitoring those with the risk of going berserk.

However, since my ability wasn’t specialized for combat but for repairing items, Marcus said that the country would probably just observe me carefully without any special surveillance.

Whether it was because he was a merchant or because he was the head of a merchant group and knew a lot, Marcus was truly a man who knew everything.

Returning to the topic of the repair shop, he was confident that quite a few people would visit my shop if I opened one.

This was because the ability I possessed was in a realm that no one else could replicate.

If there’s anything similar to my repair ability, Marcus said there’s a magic called “time reversal” that high-level magicians can use.

However, using time reversal requires such a large amount of magical power and computational ability that even a grand magician would need to be bedridden for three days after using it once.

But my ability just required hitting something three times with a hammer.

It didn’t require exerting so much energy that a person might die, nor did it cause problems for the item.

“With time reversal magic, sometimes the object completely disappears if time is turned back too far. In such cases, the disappeared item never returns.”

So, my ability was more stable than time reversal magic, which was both risky and costly.

Because of this, I asked Marcus if it would be better to run a secretive business in anticipation of a crowd, but he advised me to do business openly instead.

“If you hide too much in the shadows, it could cause problems if you find yourself in danger later. Since your ability isn’t for illegal activities, it would be safer to come out into the open and receive protection from public authority.”

Honestly, I was skeptical of his words.

But I was convinced by Marcus’s argument that since my ability was unprecedented, the country could only actively protect me if I operated in the open. So I gave up on working in the shadows and set up a shop in plain sight.

Marcus helped with everything from determining the shop location to purchasing the building and doing the interior design.

Thanks to him, I was able to save most of the costs and start the repair business sooner than expected.

And on the grand opening day, someone I never expected visited my shop as a customer.

“Excuse me, could you repair this item as well?”

Brown hair, blue eyes. A seemingly bursting pocket of generosity and a gentle impression.

It was “Mina,” the heroine I cherished the most in Erasto Chronicle, opening the door and entering my shop.