TRHK Chapter 20

"I appreciate the thought, but."

Arranging my face and voice into something apologetically uncomfortable turned out to be easier than expected. I'd watched Eifel turn down persistent servants before.

"We're very short-handed in the hall."

"The castle doesn't fall apart over one person."

"Still, I'd be uncomfortable..."

"Maylin."

Joel's expression shifted—more urgent, somehow. Like someone genuinely in love.

"This time..."

He started to say something, then abruptly stopped himself. What had he been about to say?

"No. I think I'm rushing things."

The sigh, the smile that followed—it looked like someone barely containing what was underneath. I couldn't quite understand the feeling.

"Go ahead, if you want to leave."

"Yes. I'll be going."

I left promptly. Joel watched me go with something bitter in his expression. If the original Maylin had been here, she'd have been taken in by a look like that—and I'd have grabbed her by the shoulders and told her flatly that he was going to stab her in the back, eventually. But she wasn't here. Only I was.

I hurried back to the banquet hall, and when the head maid spotted me, she looked, unmistakably, relieved.

"Well done."

I wasn't entirely sure what she was praising me for, so I smiled and let it go. She reverted to form immediately—a smack on the backside and a sharp word to get back to work.

The date of this party—larger in scale than the last, apparently—was approaching steadily.

I'd never come to the back gate at night before, and my heart was pounding with it. The only sound was the insects in the grass, but whenever the wind caught something and sent a creak through the dark, I startled and looked wildly around.

Kahron, contrary to expectation, kept his appointments reasonably well. Getting him to agree to one in the first place was the ordeal—but once agreed, he showed up on time. He apparently only played truant when it came to training. I smiled when he appeared at the appointed hour, same as always.

"Why are you grinning like an idiot?"

He genuinely seemed to want to know, without malice. My expression went flat in an instant. I redirected to the closed gate.

"Do you know how to get out?"

"With a key."

"There's no key—"

Jingle. He tossed a key up with one hand and caught it. My eyes lit up.

"Where did you get that?"

No answer. He slotted the key into the lock. The back gate—barely more than a mouse-hole compared to the main entrance—opened with a groan of old hinges. I followed Kahron quickly through. He shut it behind us.

"The black market," I said, already walking toward the village, already wrapped in the black robe from crown to ankle. The feeling came out before I could stop it. "I'm so nervous."

The black market appeared in countless novels, not just 〈The Sword God's Adventure〉. Protagonists tended to find treasure there, or meet companions who changed everything.

"Have you been to one before? A black market?"

Kahron, walking beside me, nodded. His eyes went slightly distant—a faint crease at the corners, like an old memory surfacing. It was, unexpectedly, a little endearing.

"Before. Somewhere else."

Was he talking about where he'd come from? In the original story, he'd been—probably—a noble from another country. I swallowed the urge to ask more.

Kahron led me to a tavern. Just before we entered the village, he took the lead, black robe drawn close around him.

We cut across the interior of the tavern, and the people drinking at tables glanced our way. Perhaps our robes, which covered more than half our faces, seemed unusual—though several of the other customers were dressed the same.

"Black wind to wind, wind to earth."

Kahron spoke to the rough-looking man who appeared to own the place. The man nodded and opened the door behind him. The scene felt like something straight out of a novel, and I was nearly giddy with it. I steadied myself and followed Kahron through the door.

"Oh."

Stairs going down—very dark ones—and I nearly caught my foot on the first step. Kahron held out his arm for me to take.

"......"

This was exactly the sort of thing that made it feel like we'd genuinely grown closer, somehow. I gripped his arm and went down.

At the end of the long staircase was another door. When it opened, a whole other world unfolded before me.

The space was incomparably larger than the castle's practice grounds. People from gods-knew-where, too many to count. Stalls and shops stretching in every direction. Auctions running in various corners. If there was ever a place that earned the phrase the underworld, this was it.

"Did you come to sightsee?"

Kahron flicked my hanging jaw shut with one finger. But this was the very black market I'd only ever read about. How could I not look? And besides, we had to cover significant ground just to find herb sellers.

"I'm finding herbs and sightseeing. Both at once."

Kahron snorted at my shameless answer. I pulled him by the arm toward the nearest stall.

"This is a love jewel. As long as the target isn't a mage of the fifth circle or higher, it can make anyone fall in love. Anyone."

The market vendor indicated a red gemstone I'd been eyeing. I'd looked at it only because the color reminded me of Kahron's hair—and I hadn't known it was that. Kahron, dragged here by my grip on his arm, gave me a deeply significant look. Surely he didn't actually think—?

"I, I'm fine, thank you."

I waved it off hastily and moved to the next stall.

A book said to have been stolen from a dragon's lair.

A legendary sword a famous knight had wielded until his dying breath.

An artifact crafted with a mage's entire heart.

All the things I'd only ever imagined, reading aloud to my mother in our forest cottage—and here they were, spread out before me. I felt, unexpectedly, moved.

When I thought about it, Kahron and the Count and Countess and Joel were all people I'd first encountered as characters in a book, imagined from the inside of a small forest house. It was just that at the castle, I'd been too busy surviving to feel anything about that. And a castle didn't carry the same romantic charge as this did.

"Are you seriously here to play—"

I stopped up Kahron's grumbling mouth with a special snack I'd bought from one of the stalls. Small, square-shaped sweets, intensely sweet. A specialty of an island far from the continent, the vendor had said.

"It's sweet."

Kahron complained further, apparently not fond of sweet things. Doesn't like sweet things, doesn't like bitter things. But he didn't walk off and leave me, which suggested he was willing to accommodate me, to some degree.

We'd made it about halfway around when we stopped at an auction. What had caught my ear was the lot the auctioneer was calling—herbs.

The number of bidders didn't look large. There were other auctions running throughout the market, probably with more dramatic lots on offer elsewhere. Whatever the reason, it was good for us. Less competition.

"Now, the first item—!"

The auctioneer, apparently sensing no more bidders were coming, launched in quickly. We took seats in the bidding area and waited for the herbs to come up.

"The third item is a fine selection of herbs! I'll introduce each individually!"

Finally, what we'd come for. I leaned forward—and then grew progressively more deflated as the descriptions continued.

"Any takers?"

A handful of the herbs sold, but several were left over. The auctioneer scanned the seated crowd with a flustered expression, then brought out a box with a resigned air.

"Those of you who weren't interested in the herbs may want to reconsider once you see this!"

What he lifted from the box looked, at first glance, like a poisonous plant—fan-shaped leaves, a slightly alarming appearance. Of course, depending on preparation, it could genuinely be poisonous. But it was a medicinal herb. At least, for Kahron's purposes.

"That one, Kahron!"

I slapped Kahron's thigh and whispered urgently. It was the shock and joy of finally finding the herb I'd been searching for—not something I'd have done with any forethought—and Kahron looked at me like I was doing something deeply bizarre.

"Starting bid is 10 gold!"

My delighted smile vanished in an instant. Ten gold? My entire monthly wage didn't reach one gold? The other herbs had started at one gold—why was this one starting at ten?

The auctioneer must have sensed the dissatisfaction in the room, because he launched into an extended recitation of the herb's merits.

"This herb is called kisen! Extraordinarily rare—it may be found only once in a decade. In the hands of a skilled healer, it can bring the dying back from the very edge of death!"

It was a useful herb, but not quite that dramatic. And once in a decade—in the forest back in my previous life, this plant had practically grown underfoot. Had it genuinely been this rare here? That would explain why we hadn't been able to find it.

I tilted my head toward Kahron.

"Kahron. Do you have money?"

This would be a significant problem if he didn't. Fortunately, Kahron raised his hand without argument. The auctioneer's eyes lit up.

"Ten gold bid!"

With so few bidders, and none of them having shown much interest in the herbs before, I'd assumed we'd have it to ourselves—but from across the room, a hand went up. Three people in black robes, identical to ours.

"Twenty gold."

"Twenty gold! Generous! Any more?"

Kahron said, quietly:

"Thirty gold."

I, the auctioneer, and the three who had bid twenty all turned to look at Kahron at the same moment. A sudden anxiety settled over me. He does actually have money, right? Just because he was a Sword Master, I hoped he wasn't thinking that if things went sideways he could simply cause a scene and bolt—

"Thirty-five gold!"

The competitors raised again. The auctioneer was visibly pleased with himself. Kahron:

"Forty gold."

"Forty-five!"

"Fifty."

"Gah. Fifty-five!"

A brief silence. Apparently that was the ceiling. I wasn't entirely confident Kahron actually had fifty gold, so if anything I felt almost relieved.

I was beginning to think it might be better to go back to the forest and comb it more carefully.

"Fifty-five gold! Going once, unless there are any further bids—this fine herb could be going to those gentlemen over there—"

"One hundred gold."

Kahron dropped it like a stone.