Field Trip(3)

If asked to name the most famous thing in the underwater kingdom, people would first mention the Library of Records.

Although no one has ever been inside it until now, just looking at the Library of Records gave a mysterious feeling.

That aura, which felt new every time even after experiencing it several times, was enough to make the Library of Records the number one attraction in the underwater kingdom.

However, excluding the Library of Records, which is overwhelmingly considered the attraction of the underwater kingdom, the rest of the places called attractions were all similar, but there was one place that attracted as many people as the Library of Records.

The weapon shop <Kraken>.

To describe it in one line, it was a shop full of equipment imbued with all kinds of magical mysteries.

Kraken, a huge weapon shop that occupied more than 1/4 of an entire district, naturally couldn’t help but be popular because it had so many weapons on display that it took at least 3 hours just to look around lightly.

Moreover, Kraken was even more popular because it dealt not only with weapons like swords and spears, but also sold various types of weapons such as staves, wands, daggers, throwing weapons, magic books, and so on.

Of course, since they were all weapons made with magic imbued in them, they were incomparable to ordinary weapons and were so expensive that one weapon was worth the price of a house.

Therefore, most people either compromised within their funds to buy slightly lower quality weapons or just enjoyed looking with their eyes.

For this reason, the weapon shop Kraken located in the underwater kingdom was truly a dream paradise for all swordsmen, mages, archers, and others who lived with combat in the world.

A paradise far away, blocked by the realistic wall of money no matter how much one reached out.

And that’s why Arin wondered if she had misheard just now.

It must have been a mishearing if she was in her right mind.

But to such reactions from Arin and the other children, Professor Aria, who had brought everyone to Kraken, said again cheerfully:

“I told you to choose any weapon you want, what are you doing? I’ll give you 1 hour, so pick whatever you like! I’ll buy it for you as a field trip souvenir, no matter how much it costs!”

I’ll buy anything. There was no one here who didn’t understand what those words meant. However, because this was Kraken, their minds couldn’t quite comprehend it.

But towards such children, Aria grinned and added one more thing:

“By the way, I won’t buy for those who come after 1 hour.”

At those words, Arin and the children rushed into Kraken simultaneously, without anyone going first.

To not miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

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Weapons, weapons, weapons. Only weapons.

On the walls of Kraken’s interior corridor, which stretched for about 100m, all kinds of swords were hung in abundance.

Walls hung with swords and knives that gave off an extraordinary aura at a glance.

And in front of that, Arin and Kana, who came to the sword section together, let out exclamations simultaneously at the sight of numerous people looking at the weapons hung on the wall.

“Woooow…!”

“Whoa… Q-Quick, let’s go look, Arin!”

Kana, who had been blankly staring at the weapons in such amazement, suddenly came to her senses and pulled Arin.

To this, Arin nodded vigorously and moved towards the inside of the corridor with Kana.

Thud── Thud──

Perhaps befitting a popular weapon shop, the feel of a luxurious carpet was pleasantly felt under their feet.

A carpet that wrapped around their feet softly, reducing fatigue.

Enjoying that sensation she had only felt in the royal palace, Arin was appreciating the weapons hung on the wall when she suddenly stopped in front of one weapon that caught her eye.

“This is…”

A sharply extended straight blade and a crimson cross guard. And a golden grip to top it off.

That sword was very similar in shape to Carnia, the sunset sword Arin was currently wearing at her waist.

“I can’t believe there was such a sword.”

Unable to pass by that familiar appearance even if she wanted to, Arin slowly reached out her hand towards that sword and soon lifted the sword that fit perfectly in her hand.

The sword, which she thought would be cold since no one had been touching it, was very warm contrary to Arin’s expectation.

A sensation like holding a small hand warmer in her hand.

Even this was exactly the same as when she first grasped Carnia, handed to her by Aria in the past. When she first held Carnia, it was warm just like holding a hand warmer.

At this chilling similarity, Arin turned to tell Kana about this fact, but stopped as she saw the empty space beside her that had become vacant at some point.

“Ah, she already went to look for kitchen knives…”

Come to think of it, she seems to have said earlier that she would go somewhere else first.

Since the weapon Kana used was a kitchen knife unlike her own, it was perhaps natural that she had no interest in a place decorated with swords like these.

No, in fact, she probably was interested, but with the time constraint of 1 hour to choose what she wanted, she had no choice but to skip the corridor that wasn’t her weapon.

Arin eventually felt a bit lonely in the place left alone, but soon turned around again and looked for the description of the sword she was holding.

She wanted to learn a bit more about this sword she didn’t yet know properly.

“Let’s see…”

Finding the description wasn’t difficult. There was a paper that could only be a description stuck right below the stand where she had just taken the sword from.

As expected of Kraken. Thinking that they were quite kind in this aspect, Arin approached the description closely and murmured the name of the sword written at the very top.

“Sun Sword Solid.”

Sun Sword. At those words, Arin felt her conviction grow stronger as she alternately looked at her own Carnia and the sword called Solid.

Sunset Sword and Sun Sword. No matter how she looked at it, they could only be seen as sister swords or series swords.

Smiling at her guess being correct, Arin turned her head to match her gaze with the description text that continued below the sword’s name, and.

“Huh?”

She couldn’t help but utter a questioning sound at the description texts written below the name.

“What is this…”

It wasn’t that there was no description or that the description had been torn off. There were certainly things that looked like descriptions stretched out below the name.

However, the reason Arin uttered a questioning sound was that those characters were ones she couldn’t read.

“I’ve never seen these characters before…”

As the daughter of the Phara Kingdom’s Knight Commander, Arin had studied hard and had some knowledge about the characters of other countries and races, but the characters written on the description were ones she had never seen before.

However, it’s not like unreadable characters would suddenly become readable just by looking at the description continuously.

Eventually, Arin took her eyes off the description and got up from her seat, scratching her head as she picked up the scabbard that was below the Sun Sword.

“I won’t be able to read it anyway, so there’s no choice… I’ll take the sword for now.”

If she left it here, someone else might take it.

She looked around at the surrounding swords once, but there was no sword that caught her eye as much as the Sun Sword, so Arin half-decided and hugged the Sun Sword to her chest.

“I wonder… if the professors might know?”

And as Arin got up from her seat with the Sun Sword, she muttered a thought that suddenly occurred to her.

The question of whether the professors might know these characters she didn’t know. Thinking about it, it somehow seemed really likely, so Arin nodded and turned around.

Anyway, there was more than 40 minutes left. And since Arin had already chosen the sword she wanted, she decided to go back to the professors who would be at the entrance of Kraken during the remaining time to ask about the evaluation of this sword and its description.

“Alright, then let’s go.”

As soon as she finished thinking, Arin moved immediately.

While glancing at the surrounding weapons, Arin diligently moved her feet towards the entrance, and just like when she arrived at the corridor where the swords were displayed, she was able to reach the entrance in less than 5 minutes.

The figures of Professor Aria and other professors faintly visible in the distance.

At that sight, Arin was about to quickly move her walking feet to run towards them, but she had to stop her feet involuntarily at the scene she saw before that.

The mountain of weapons placed on what was called the counter of Kraken, or more precisely, on the board called the counter.

Arin felt dumbfounded at that mountain of weapons that seemed to easily number at least 300.

Who on earth would try to buy that many weapons? Actually, Arin knew the answer inside, but she shook her head, denying the truth laid out before her eyes.

“No… Even if the professor is crazy, buying such weapons all at once is…”

“I’d like to pay in full, please.”

At the words she heard, Arin unknowingly covered her face with both hands.

…She didn’t want to know Professor Aria’s crazy side even in this aspect.