Episode 35 – Shopping
After returning to Inferno, Nada arrived home to find a letter from Kanon, summoning him to come to her mansion at once.
Iris apparently had something to take care of, so they parted ways at Inferno’s entrance, leaving Nada with no choice but to head to Kanon’s mansion while still bringing Tayla along.
When they arrived, it seemed the maids would look after Tayla, so Nada went straight to the same reception room he had visited before.
What Kanon told him there, put simply, was: “Work.” Since forming the contract with her, he hadn’t supplied any Calvaon at all. He had only gone dungeon diving twice since then—once he entered the dragon’s body, and Corvo processed all the Calvaon. During the second dive, all the Calvaon they found was junk, so Nada processed it himself.
Meaning: despite making a contract, he still hadn’t delivered any Calvaon to Kanon.
She seized on that and, almost wailing in the reception room, repeated again and again, “Work. Work.”
Nada said that because he had Tayla, long-term expeditions were difficult, and that he could only do day-trip dives, which made increasing Calvaon supply hard. At that point, the butler stepped in to help. “If you’re willing,” he said, “we can look after Lady Tayla while you are in the dungeon. That way, you can dive without worry.”
Nada scratched his head, but realized that if he wanted to both take care of Tayla and honor his contract with Kanon, this was the only solution. After briefly telling Tayla—who was already being doted on by the maids—he left the mansion.
“I’ve got something to do. Wait for me here a bit—”
He roughly ruffled her hair as he said it.
Tayla felt a bit uneasy about living in a new mansion, but when Nada added, “The food here’s good, everyone will play with you. It’ll feel a lot better than waiting alone in that cramped room,” she accepted his suggestion and decided to stay.
After leaving the mansion, Nada immediately headed into town. It was time to prepare for dungeon exploration.
The amount of Calvaon Kanon demanded wasn’t something you could gather on a day trip. Nada considered two options: hunting a big one—an exceptionally rare and strong monster like a stray—or going solo on a long expedition, spending anywhere from a week to a month in the dungeon instead of returning daily. In the end, he chose the expedition.
Hunting a stray would take less time, but the risks were higher. A stationary stray, like the gargoyle he had fought before, was rare; most stray monsters wandered alone through the dungeon. Even if there were sightings, actually finding one was hard, and he could waste days searching for it. And hunting a stray—especially alone—was extremely dangerous and could easily get him killed.
So despite the physical strain, he chose the expedition, which offered stable, abundant Calvaon.
First stop in town was the usual adventurers’ provisions shop that sold preserved food. He bought dried meat, hardtack, and some dried vegetables and fruit. Then he stocked up on several types of Pills.
Among the pills, Nada’s preferred one was the Ferocious Tiger Pill. It granted temporary superhuman strength—like a tiger—but left lingering numbness in the muscles afterward. The price was high, so he could only buy four. Ideally, he wouldn’t rely on something with recoil, but experience had taught him that in life-or-death moments, you needed things like this.
So he bought them without hesitation.
He had already arranged for recovery potions from Dan and could trade money for them at his house, so after finishing at the food shop, Nada headed straight to Astuto Breza.
His goal: weapons.
He pushed the door open with a loud clatter into the usually quiet shop.
“...Welcome. Oh, it’s you, Nada.”
Balba, the owner, was in the same place as always—sitting at the workbench behind the glass-case counter, deeper inside the store. He was examining some ominous-looking long sword with a poisonous purple sheen.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“Unfortunately, I still haven’t gotten any kukri knives in. I’d like to keep some stock just for you, but the Inferno blacksmiths still don’t want to mass-produce them. They’re scarce right now.”
“That so?”
“Yeah. The only ones who can get them are adventurers with a decent connection. Or someone lucky enough to find a used one… and by the way, even the used ones have gone up in price.”
Balba rambled on fluently.
But his sharp eyes quickly noticed the kukri knife on Nada’s lower back. He pointed at it and asked: “And that one?”
“I got it from someone.”
“...Ah, I see. That little lady, huh. Yeah, if it’s her, she probably has some decent connections.”
Hearing that Nada had a kukri knife, one female adventurer came to Balba’s mind.
An eccentric adventurer who had doted on Nada since long time. She had her own routes even in Inferno, and likely had an easier time obtaining weapons than Balba, the owner of Astuto Breza.
After all, she had an exclusive contract with one of the top blacksmiths in town and could probably have any weapon she wanted made at that workshop.
“Seems like it.”
“So? What do you want today? Don’t tell me you’re after a new main weapon again like before?”
“Unfortunately, the Green Dragon Crescent Blade is still in active use. More importantly, what I want today is the usual consumables. A few throwing knives, a few paralysis agents, and if you’ve got poison powder, that’d be great too.”
“Ahyahyahya. Oh, that stuff. You got it. I’ll get it ready, so browse the shelves while you wait.”
Saying that, Balba placed the purple long sword on the counter and disappeared into the back. It seemed he kept a decent stock of Nada’s usual supplies, because he returned quickly.
While waiting, Nada glanced over the shop’s inventory.
Unfortunately, nothing caught his eye.
The trend these days leans toward lightweight weapons, and this shop followed that trend. The most popular items—rapiers and slender longswords from well-known workshops—were displayed in the glass cases. They did carry short spears and powerful hand axes as well, but compared to the swords, those selections were noticeably smaller.
As expected, swords were the most popular. Different blade widths, lengths, shapes, double-edged or single-edged—wide varieties lined the shelves. Most were straight-bladed, but a few unusual shapes like Nada’s kukri knife were mixed in.
His gaze then drifted toward the few large weapons displayed.
They weren’t as popular anymore, but a small number of adventurers still preferred greatswords, greataxes, and scythes.
Nada was one of them. But even large weapons these days were being lightened through each workshop’s unique techniques—using lightweight materials like orichalcum to reduce weight drastically.
He picked up a double-edged greataxe, but compared to his usual crescent blade, it felt lacking. He put it back immediately.
For someone who didn’t have an Ability or a Gift, weapon weight mattered as an attack factor. Nada compensated for his lack of personal firepower by using heavy weapons.
While he was picking up a few weapons and returning them again, Balba came back.
“Hey, I’m back.”
Hearing his voice, Nada went straight to the counter. Balba pushed aside the purple sword and spread out the items he’d brought.
The usual small throwing knives. Paralysis agents. Poison. And then—an unfamiliar, suspicious-looking pill and even a sword.
“What are these two?”
Nada pointed, one by one, at the unfamiliar pills and the sword.
“First, this one. It’s a prototype from my buddy’s workshop. Apparently, it makes smoke.”
Balba held up the strange pellet.
“Smoke?”
Nada tilted his head.
“Yeah, that’s right. Supposedly, if you throw it at the ground, it releases enough smoke to completely hide your body. My buddy originally made it as a toy for kids, but when he showed it to me, I felt it—bam.”
“On that shiny bald head of yours?”
“Yeah, on that. I thought: if you use this right, it might help you escape from monsters. So, Nada, try it once and tell me what you think. If it works, I’m planning to mass-produce it and sell it.”
“...Since it’s your request, I’ll try it. But honestly, are there really adventurers out there who’d go out of their way to run away from monsters carrying Calvaon?”
Nada looked at the pill again, but his impression was that it probably wouldn’t be very useful.
“Well, that just depends on how you use it.”
“Yeah, fine, I’ll take it. …So, what’s this sword for?”
Nada pointed at the sword next.
It looked like an ordinary longsword—nothing unusual about it.
About eighty centimeters long. A square guard. The grip was wrapped in animal hide. The blade gleamed silver, likely kept in decent condition, though on closer inspection, fine scratches covered the surface.
“Ah, that one? That sword… an adventurer stripped it from a monster.”
“Ah. Got it.”
Nada took the sword and felt its heavy weight settle in his hand.
There wasn’t much demand, but some adventurers stripped not only Calvaon from monsters, but they also took whatever weapons the monsters carried. This sword must have been one of those.
Sometimes, a monster’s weapon happened to be light, durable, and quite good—but most of the time, they were like this one: heavy, dull, and not very practical.
They were durable, sure—but only in the sense that they didn’t break. Even if you sharpened them, they dulled again almost immediately.
“This sword apparently belonged to a knight from Tohe. At first, not many monster-carried weapons entered the market, so it was cheap, and I picked it up out of curiosity. But… yeah. It’s not something that’s gonna sell. Leaving it in the shop just takes up space, so Nada—please take it off my hands. With your stupid brute strength, you could chuck this thing and do some damage, right? I paid for it, so I’d feel bad just tossing it. Put it to use somehow. I’ll knock the price down a bit for you because of it.”
After being told that much, Nada couldn’t really refuse. He bought his throwing knives and other consumables for cheaper than usual.
Of course, it meant he also had to take home useless junk like the smoke pills and that sword.
Once everything was packed into a paper bag, Nada slipped out of the shop like he was fleeing—before Balba could force any more trash onto him.
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