Chapter 17 – Put to the Test (3)

“Don’t additional production batches come out periodically?”

Because I wanted to avoid the future of being beaten to death by Jeremy Scott, I asked the owner in the spirit of clutching at a straw.

However, the middle-aged shopkeeper clicked his tongue and spoke.

“Hey. Do you know what it means for whiskey… no, alcohol to be expensive? It means the production cycle is long. You’ll have to wait at least two months for additional production batches to come out.”

“Do I have to wait that long?”

“Two months is short. It takes a year to distill a bottle of ‘Eternal Thirst’.”

Two months… I could not wait. To finish the examination as soon as possible, return, and seize control of our embers, I could not afford to waste a single minute or second.

But the words that followed cut off all possibilities.

“I’m telling you this in advance so you don’t waste your time, but among the liquor distributors, the one I have is the last bottle.”

“…Are you sure?”

“Eternal Thirst can only be supplied by entering into an official contract with the leadership, and this delivery was only shipped to our merchant group. You won’t find it anywhere else. No, it’s not there.”

My hope vanished at the shopkeeper’s guaranteed assertion.

I did not know if I could secure the money, and even if I did, there was no telling if the inventory would remain. If it was an item popular enough to be completely sold out, there was absolutely no way any would be left.

‘What should I do? I really want to present Eternal Thirst as a gift…’

I could compromise with some other decent whiskey, but because Jeremy was my benefactor, I did not want to do that.

Above all, he was someone I had to keep encountering within the same embers, and he was also a capable man who had been a general from the Third Embers. It was better to act in a way that would build favorability as much as possible.

“Boss. It is an item I must buy, so could you please set it aside for me?”

“There are plenty of other people who will buy it anyway. Why should I do that?”

The owner’s reaction was natural. This was a request that could only be made if there was some friendship, but there was nothing between him and me.

Though I did not know for sure, my credibility must have hit rock bottom due to the fact that I was a yellow-bander.

In that case, I had no choice but to make a deal. Presenting conditions that the other party would find tempting, that was.

Clack!

I placed the gold coin that I had kept carefully in my bosom onto the counter and spoke.

“I will give you one gold coin first as a deposit. Please give me a week. I will bring the remainder within that time.”

“…How is that any different from the request you just made?”

“It is different. If I do not come within the time limit or fail to secure the remainder, you may keep the gold coin I just gave you. Since it is an item that will sell anyway, there will still be demand a week from now, so it won’t be a losing transaction for you.”

This was a gamble where I was risking my entire fortune as well. However, if I wanted to persuade the shopkeeper, this was the only way, so I boldly pushed the gold coin toward him.

“You are a more interesting fellow than you look.”

Without even touching the gold coin placed on the counter, which was now closer to him, the shopkeeper merely stared at it and smiled faintly.

I was nervous for a moment, unable to fathom his meaningful expression.

“Fine. I will accept your proposal.”

“Thank you.”

In the end, he picked up the gold coin.

However, the shopkeeper merely tossed the gold coin carelessly into a sack in the corner.

“Do not misunderstand. I did not agree to your proposal just to obtain a single gold coin like this.”

“Then…?”

“It is because I like your boldness in negotiating with me. The price of that boldness seems to be worth one gold coin.”

The owner of ‘Jack Daniel’s’ chuckled as he spoke.

A single gold coin would certainly not be a small amount of money even to him. Even more so for a merchant.

‘He really seems to have no interest in the gold coin. The owner seems even bolder than me…’

However, the shopkeeper’s attitude truly seemed as if he did not care about a gold coin at all. It felt as if he were chasing the fun of life that transcended money in his deal with me.

Anyway.

“Then I will visit you again soon.”

“Sure, make sure you don’t exceed the deadline. I won’t return it even if you beg.”

Having no further business, I said goodbye to the owner and left the shop.

“By the way, I have no money, so where do I go…”

I should have asked him to pay for my lodging; such a thought crossed my mind at the sudden rush of cold.

However, I had already set my next destination during the conversation with the owner.

“Did he say it was Namiya Bookstore? I wonder if it is still open.”

The bookstore he recommended, Namiya, was that very place.

* * *

The northeastern district of the First Embers.

As the largest commercial area of the Immortal Embers where shops lined the streets, there was a small, run-down bookstore.

Namiya Bookstore.

That was the bookstore run by ‘Namiya Pelroy’, the second-generation owner of the place where flies were chased all 365 days of the year.

“Sigh, what’s the point of it being examination week. Not a single customer comes to the bookstore. Should I just pack everything up…”

Namiya Pelroy, leaning on the counter with her arms propped up, let out a long sigh.

Having just turned twenty, she did not particularly like the bookstore that bore her name. As could be expected from the name of the bookstore, it was a family business inherited from her parents, which she had taken over at an unexpected moment.

“Mom, Dad… I miss you.”

Looking at the happy family photo hanging above the counter, Namiya’s eyes welled up with tears.

Even though it had already been four years since she lost her parents, she could not help but tear up whenever she faced the happy family preserved in the photo.

That was right. She was an unfortunate girl who had lost her parents to a sudden accident and inherited the bookstore as if taking on a debt.

Whether the shop did well or not, whenever she came here, happy memories would shimmer before her eyes, making her feel the miserable reality even more acutely, so she could not bring herself to like this place.

Yet she could not shut down the bookstore. She needed a means of livelihood to sustain herself, and since this tiny bookstore was the last legacy left by her parents, selling it was completely unimaginable.

This bookstore was practically a part of the family itself.

Indeed, ‘Namiya Bookstore’ could be described as a place of love and hate for her.

“Sniff, hic… Let’s read, let’s just read a book.”

Barely holding back the welling tears, Namiya picked up a book. Because she could forget reality when focusing on a book, she often immersed herself in reading.

However, the book Namiya picked up was not a novel or an autobiography, but a magic engineering book.

Namiya’s dream was to become a magic engineer.

Since her family was poor, she had to enter the expensive academy on a scholarship. Regrettably, she was not a genius. However, magic engineering was divided into dozens of factions, and the talent required differed according to each faction.

“If we intensively nurture Namiya’s mechanical engineering talent, she will be able to enter the academy as a half-scholarship student.”

So said the tutor who had charged a huge sum to prepare Namiya for the entrance exam. Her magic engineering talent was lacking, but her mechanical engineering talent was outstanding.

She was a student whose future was highly anticipated due to her own exceptional talent.

However, her admission to the academy fell through as her very livelihood became difficult due to her parents’ death.

She had to raise half of the admission fee, but doing so required running the bookstore, and running the bookstore created a contradiction where she had to give up her studies.

Moreover, the Immortal Embers of four years ago, when she was preparing for admission, had reduced welfare across all fields to support Herman Melville’s promotion to a high rank, making getting a scholarship as difficult as plucking a star from the sky.

Unlike in previous years, one had to achieve extremely outstanding grades to be selected as a scholarship student, but Namiya ultimately fell short. At that time, investment in mechanical magic engineering at the embers’ level was small, so she had no choice but to give up.

But now, four years later.

“Why are they pouring all their efforts into mechanical magic engineering only now… Why on earth are they doing this to me.”

It was safe to say that the Immortal Embers was staking its very life on the development of mechanical magic engineering. To the extent that the title of the highest position in the Magic Engineering Department, the President, was changed to the Dean of Mechanical Magic Engineering.

To put it simply, Namiya was out of luck. She had lost her parents just as she was on the verge of entering the academy, and the field she was confident in was outside the leadership’s interest.

She was truly born at the wrong time.

“No, it wouldn’t have worked even if I had pushed through to the end. Don’t linger on regrets.”

No, there was no telling what would have happened had she pushed through to the end. She had every right to harbor regrets.

Because her grades dropping was also due to the tremendous mental shock of her parents’ death and the reduced time to invest in her studies due to the early succession of the family business.

Still, thinking that way made her feel at ease. If she blamed external factors, the reality where she could change nothing by her own power would be endlessly miserable, so she had no choice but to blame herself.

In that way, Namiya…

“A dirty world where only talented bastards succeed. Everyone should just die…”

came to despise talented magic engineers.

And it was the qualification examination week when her mood, having become a magic engineer despiser with a deep story, was heading toward the absolute worst. The very today when guys brimming with talent would finally reveal themselves to the world!

Ring-!

“Welcome.”

Two welcome customers had appeared in the bookstore where only dust used to blow.

“Do you have intermediate books? Ah, not the public ones.”

One was a boy babbling about whether there were intermediate books without knowing his place, and

“I would like to see upper-intermediate books, particularly mechanical magic engineering books.”

the other was a crazy young man with a yellow armband demanding upper-intermediate books, and in a field that was no different from her sore spot, to boot.

* * *

In the Namiya Bookstore, which was unexpectedly open even though it was the early hours of the morning, there were two unexpectedly welcome figures.

A girl named Williana and her brother, the unnamed boy.

“…Did you follow me by any chance?”

No. They were unwelcome figures.

Ignoring the boy’s wary gaze, I spoke to the young-looking employee at the counter.

“I came on the recommendation of the Jack Daniel’s owner.”

“…Uncle Jack Daniel?”

“I don’t know if that’s his real name, but if you mean the owner of the Jack Daniel’s liquor store… yes, that’s right.”

The blonde female employee looked alternately at my shabby appearance and the armband, and

“Seriously, I told him not to send people over here…”

letting out a heavy sigh to make me feel embarrassed right in front of her, she spoke as if she understood.

“Half price.”

“…?”

“Among the books you bring, I’ll give them to you at half price, limited to textbooks.”

Were the Jack Daniel’s liquor store and Namiya Bookstore some kind of oasis for those going astray?

At the extraordinary condition of a half-price discount, I completely forgot about her rudeness. For the price of a book was quite expensive at fifty copper coins, even considering the Immortal Embers where paper was not even a luxury item due to its technology and finances.

‘One hundred copper coins make one silver coin, and another one hundred silver coins make one gold coin.’

Now I roughly knew the value of the currency.

Since the beer sold at Jeremy Scott’s ‘Night’s Haven’ was two copper coins… based on 21st-century South Korea, one copper coin is worth one thousand won, a silver coin is one hundred thousand won, and a gold coin is ten million won.

I was newly surprised that the price of Eternal Thirst was as much as twenty million won, and surprised once again that the value of the workers’ labor was extremely low.

According to Jack’s words, it meant that a worker’s annual salary was a mere ten million won.

In a way, it was natural. In a world where it was accepted as basic common sense that ‘what anyone can do has low value, and what not everyone can do has high value,’ regardless of the labor intensity.

In any case, the minimum price for a book was around fifty thousand won, and because it was lined with books more expensive than that, I certainly couldn’t afford to buy them, so I could only be grateful that she was offering a discount.

“Excuse me, I’m sorry, but… may I just look around today?”

But what was the point of a half-price discount. I didn’t have a single penny of the actual money needed.

Knowing it was a nuisance, I asked carefully. Being penniless was just as sorrowful in this world.

“Just read them cleanly. These are all items for sale, even if they look like this.”

Glancing at my armband, the female employee sat down heavily in her chair and spoke as if she had resigned herself.

There were times when the armband was actually helpful.

“Thank you.”

As I bowed and expressed my gratitude, my eyes happened to catch the book the female employee was holding, and

“It’s an introductory mechanical magic engineering book. Do you happen to have upper-intermediate ones as well?”

Mechanical magic engineering, a man’s romance that I had secretly harbored in my heart since seeing the off-roader. Since I had nowhere to go anyway, I resolved to sit tight and study mechanical magic engineering books until the examination.

However, the answer that returned was laced with endless contempt.

“…Pardon? What did you just say?”

To describe her expression in words…

‘Mechanical magic engineering books? Not even an introductory book, but an upper-intermediate one? How dare you?’

It could be said like that.