episode_0138

It was already a repulsive odor, but it had been somewhat tolerable mixed with Tia’s fresh scent.

…Now, that refreshing apple fragrance couldn’t be smelled anywhere.

Tia had to go around with a body caked with sweat and semen until she could bathe just once at night.

No matter how much Fosao wiped off the semen he’d wildly ejaculated on her stomach, they had to have sex again before the smell faded.

“Huu… huu! Ti-Tia. Does it feel good?”

“Yes… it feels good….”

I don’t know.

If sex was truly that pleasurable. I couldn’t know, never having experienced it.

But looking at Fosao’s face, panting and wide-mouthed as he frantically thrust his hips, and Tia’s face, flushed and gasping with moans…

I felt like I understood.

For a girl as bold, courageous, and brilliant as Tia to appear so helpless and breathless…

It must have felt incredibly good, right?

Otherwise, ‘the Tia I knew’ wouldn’t make such a foolish expression.

Watching Tia’s beautiful back as she struggled in Fosao’s embrace… I collapsed into a chair.

It was so painful that I closed my eyes.

I wanted to escape this very moment right now.

I didn’t want to see her expression gradually becoming one that knew nothing but sex.

I didn’t want to hear Tia’s voice whispering ‘I love you’ in Fosao’s arms any longer.

*Clench!*

I clenched my fist.

And with what little will I had left, I quickly accelerated time.

*Whoosh!*

The sun swiftly dropped behind the mountain.

The two figures in front of me disappeared.

Moans could be heard from the second floor.

I accelerated it even faster.

Morning came again. The two entwined their bodies next to the table with empty dishes.

“Haa… haa….”

I couldn’t count anymore.

How many times they’d done it, what words they’d whispered.

It became meaningless to even remember… they were always making love, in any time, any space.

Even with my eyes closed, I heard those sounds unfiltered.

*Whoosh—!!*

And as the rapidly spinning time slowly came to a halt,

I saw strangers walking towards the main entrance.

***

*Knock knock knock!*

One person at the front knocked on the general store’s door.

It was early morning, with sunlight streaming through the cool window.

Six men stood before the main entrance.

*Creak—.*

The person who opened the general store’s door was Fosao, looking utterly exhausted.

A visitor asked.

“Are you… Modaless?”

“Ah, yes, yes.”

“We’ve come to look at the goods.”

Merchants had arrived to inspect the household goods for moving.

Fosao guided them inside with a forced smile.

“Ah, yes, yes! Uh, please come in.”

“Hmm.”

The men entered the building with serious expressions.

Household goods were not easy to dispose of. Unlike items put on the market, they had been worn and corroded over time, lowering their value. Even if they looked fine on the outside, they were often rotten inside, so there was no guarantee of quality.

Unless it was a couple urgently needing to furnish a home, or someone settling from afar, there was no reason to look at these items.

Nevertheless, the reason six merchants had come here was because it was a ‘general store’.

As a place that had once formally sold goods, they visited for the sole opportunity to purchase relatively untouched and clean items at a low price.

The first merchant to enter looked inside and asked.

“Hmm. Have you tidied up beforehand?”

“Yes. Th-that’s right. Pl-please feel free to look around.”

“Haha. Good. It saves us the trouble of a treasure hunt, so the work will finish quickly.”

The merchants chuckled.

They seemed to like the arrangement Tia had proposed.

Indeed, by simply walking from the entrance, the items and furniture Tia had pre-selected were easily visible on both sides.

A somewhat younger merchant asked with a puzzled voice.

“Wow—with such excellent preparedness and sense, you’re quitting business due to lack of profit?”

“Ugh—Th-that… It, it just h-happened so suddenly. Heheheek—!”

While a flustered Fosao stammered his reply, one man slightly frowned. He covered his mouth and quietly whispered to the merchant beside him.

“Is that fatty a stammerer?”

“Looks like it.”

“No wonder he’s stuck living in a useless mountain village like this.”

Everywhere, stammerers were regarded with disdain.

That alone invited contempt, but for a ‘merchant’ who needed to speak well to be a stammerer was…

From the perspective of those in the same profession, it was nothing short of an insult.

Merchants who could gauge an estimate from a customer’s appearance had already quickly assessed Fosao in their minds.

A stammerer he was, and ugly too, but above all, his rambling behavior, which completely lost all the goodwill Tia had painstakingly built up, could never be viewed favorably.

That was the common view.

The merchants slowly walked around, beginning to inspect the items.

If they showed interest in an item, they would immediately haggle on the spot and set a price for the transaction.

A man pointed to a silver plate.

“How much for this?”

“3 gold, ho-how about it?”

“Too expensive. The silver luster is faded.”

“Then 2 gold… le-let’s make it.”

The merchant flatly stated.

“90 silver.”

“Wha-what—?”

“Let’s settle for around 90 silver. What’s 2 gold?”

“But 9, 90 silver is… too ch-cheap. Let’s do 1 gold 30 silver.”

“No. I’m not interested if it’s not 90 silver.”

“Ugh…”

As the merchant ignored his haggling and turned his head elsewhere, Fosao, in urgent need of money, had no choice but to agree to that price.

“I-I’ll mark it at 90 silver.”

Once the price slashing succeeded, the other merchants also began to offer prices less than half of the original.

Even silver candlesticks, bundles of glass bottles, and various goods that seemed quite valuable were sold off cheaply into the merchants’ hands.

After dealing with the relatively inexpensive items, it was time for the more costly ones.

The first item to come up was a ‘distiller’.

The very distiller Tia had sat in front of, clinging to it all night to save me… was now up for sale.

“How much is this?”

“12 gold, it i-is.”

I had heard that the distiller originally cost about 15 gold when it was first acquired.

So, even if it had been used a lot, it was an item that could easily fetch 10 gold.

Tia also seemed to have hinted to Fosao to get around 12 gold for it.

But the merchant mercilessly offered less than half.

“4 gold. It’s rusted in places, and the glass is opaque.”

“4 gold is a bit…”

“It’s a fragile item, so transport fees are high; this is already a generous offer.”

Fosao’s face hardened at the overwhelmingly low valuation.

“Th-then how about 8 gold?”

“5 gold. No more.”

It was just as a dejected Fosao was about to helplessly name a price.

“11 gold. Nothing less.”

Between the frustrating stammering and the soulless chatter of the merchants,

a soft yet strong female voice cut through everything.

“…?”

Everyone’s eyes turned to her.

A woman was descending from the second floor.

Her hood was pulled down deep, obscuring her hair and eyes, but the graceful figure revealed beneath the hem of her robe was unmistakably a woman’s body.

From her somewhat youthful jawline and cheeks, the merchants realized she was a girl young enough to be their daughter.

The merchant who had offered 5 gold for the distiller asked Fosao.

“Who is that child?”

“Ah, th-that… that’s m-my wi-wife.”

“Wife?”

At the mention of this ugly man, who seemed unlikely to ever marry, having a ‘wife’, all the merchants wore questioning expressions.

Moreover, the woman he pointed to as his ‘wife’ was a girl significantly younger, making it even stranger.

While it was not uncommon for wealthy nobles of Deseo to take younger women as concubines,

this undistinguished, ugly man from a mountain village, neither from a prestigious family nor a commoner with much money, was incomprehensible to them, having such a beautiful young woman as his wife.

But even hearing such an absurd claim directly, the girl herself offered no protest. Soon, the merchants realized Fosao’s words were ‘true’ and were aghast.

Whether she noticed their gazes or not,

Tia confidently walked to Fosao’s side and spoke.

“I’m sorry, but your claim about transport fees is simply incomprehensible.”

“What…?”

“I’m curious to know which merchant group is so incapable of moving just one distiller intact that they immediately consider risks.”

Saying such provocative words, she casually folded her arms.

Her fellow merchants stared blankly at Fosao and Tia.

With expressions that still didn’t understand how the small-framed woman standing next to the large, corpulent man could be his ‘wife’.

“From here to Taildon, carts can easily travel the road, and you can even use a sea route from the port. So where exactly is the risk of the distiller breaking? Are you perhaps planning to cross the Dragoness Mountains?”

“Don’t speak so carelessly, woman, when you know nothing. Do you not know how difficult it is to handle glass?”

Tia looked at the merchant with disdain.

“When that distiller was ordered, we only added a small tax for the Lord. I’ve never seen a separate charge for ‘transport fees’. The merchants I know take great pride in their transport, but your group doesn’t seem to?”

“Ha. How dare this…?”

The merchant flared up and took a step forward, but seeing Fosao’s bulk next to Tia, he didn’t advance further.

Tia’s sharp explanation continued.

“Furthermore, this distiller is in high demand everywhere. Every apothecary should have at least one distiller. And in the current ‘war atmosphere’… wouldn’t the demand be even higher? No, it might even be sold for an even higher price—.”

She then glanced at the other merchants.

Her gaze implied she might just sell it off to the Taildon market instead of to them.

Upon hearing such convincing words, the merchants’ eyes also changed.

There was nothing wrong with Tia’s statements.

With continuous rumors of soldiers marching towards Deseo, the prices of medical supplies, including weapons, had sharply risen.

It was common knowledge that a ‘distiller’ was necessary to produce such expensive medicines.

No merchant would just stand by and watch this opportunity for clear profit.

The young merchant stroking his chin suddenly interjected.

“11 gold. I’ll buy it.”

“No, 12 gold.”

Another competitor joined.

“12 gold, 20 silver.”

“80 silver.”

“13 gold. Let’s just settle this cleanly here.”

“15 gold.”

The merchants watched each other, continuously raising their bids.

Amidst the endlessly climbing prices, the original cost had long since been surpassed.

There was no longer any need for Tia to add anything.

They were raising the price themselves.

And so, the haggling, which had only involved relentless price cutting,

had turned into an ‘auction’ with rising bids, with just a few words from Tia.