Pathfinder
Chapter Fifteen
Roana vehemently protested, but Tolan firmly shook his head.
“No, absolutely not.
I can’t go any lower than this.
Destière-grade warhorses start at 4,000 gold.
Even though he has a gentle temperament and can’t be a warhorse, his grade easily surpasses that of most premium riding horses.
His bloodline is mixed with the legendary Fourier’s lineage.
This has already been greatly discounted because of you, Roana, but any price lower than this is absolutely unacceptable.”
Tolan said this and waited for Garam to give up.
Contrary to Tolan’s expectations, Garam gazed at the dark brown horse intently.
After locking eyes for a while, Garam spoke quietly.
“I’ll come back with the money tomorrow.
I promise.”
“What?
Are you really going to buy this one?”
The young lady was unusually stubborn.
Tolan had hoped that his horse, which he cherished the most, would eventually be sold to a knight and its grade rise as a warhorse.
However, it seemed like Garam and the horse had already reached an unspoken agreement with each other, so Tolan shook his head in resignation.
Perhaps, the gentle creature might be happier living with such a young lady.
Tolan doubted whether Garam would actually bring the money, but he decided to wait a day because she was Roana’s friend.
“Alright, I’ll wait one day.
No longer.
I’ve met more than enough customers who claimed they would come back with the money.”
Garam left with a nod, leaving Tolan at the horse market.
Roana thought Garam was just refusing to yield.
The little lady was not a bad match for riding the pony, and whether it was worth paying such a large sum for the horse, Roana couldn’t be sure.
As they headed back to the inn, Roana tried to persuade Garam to reconsider her impulsive decision, but Garam dismissed her with just one sentence.
“I liked the horse.”
Roana gave up on further persuasion.
The idea that Garam might be an aristocrat’s daughter was deeply engraved in Roana’s mind.
To her, Garam, who hadn’t hesitated for a second in choosing which horse to buy, seemed to be more than just a commoner.
Perhaps she was a noble lady from Asia, she thought.
It was a misunderstanding, but Garam, who couldn’t perceive Roana’s inner thoughts, missed the chance to correct it.
When Garam returned to the inn, she set her purchases aside and quickly had a bath.
Roana suggested having a meal first, but after not sleeping properly for two days, the fatigue hit her as soon as she entered her room.
After she handed the romance novel to Roana, Garam put on the tunic she had purchased that day and jumped onto the bed immediately.
Almost in an instant, Garam was swept away by exhaustion and quickly fell asleep.
The second day in Verok ended like that.
Perhaps due to accumulated fatigue, Garam woke up slowly, even though she had gone to bed quite early the previous night.
The meal that Roana had brought early in the morning was still sitting on the table, growing cold.
Garam stretched herself out.
Her body didn’t ache or feel stiff like the day before.
Thanks to her proper sleeping posture, she had enjoyed a sound sleep for the first time in a while and woke up feeling refreshed.
[You were sleeping so soundly that I didn’t wake you up.
Next time, please lock the door before you sleep.]
After reading the neatly placed note on the table, Garam realized she had fallen asleep without locking the door the night before.
She must have been too exhausted to do so.
Startled, she belatedly locked the door.
Fortunately, it didn’t seem like any thieves had entered, but her heart raced in surprise.
Unlike the ones in Garam’s world, the lock couldn’t be opened from the inside if locked from the outside.
It appeared that Roana had left without locking it because of that.
Locking the door by herself, Garam felt at ease and started to eat up her cold and tasteless breakfast.
It consisted of a large slice of oat bread, honey-drenched grapes, and a thick fillet of whitefish the size of her arm, sprinkled with coarse salt.
She devoured it quickly, as she had been quite hungry.
In less than five minutes, Garam had finished her meal and headed to the bathroom to wash up with cold water.
Judging by the amount of sunlight coming through the window, it still seemed to be morning, perhaps around nine o’clock.
While Garam was thinking about getting a watch, she recalled a large stone tower in the city center.
It was somewhat similar in shape to something she had learned about in world history called an obelisk, but the difference was that while an obelisk was a mere sculpture, the tower in the city center existed as a building.
In large cities, there were over ten of these structures, and they served the role of telling the time to the city’s residents, acting as sundials.
‘I probably won’t find a wristwatch anywhere in this place.’
Garam had a vague sense that their lives were very simple.
People started their days when the sun rose and went to sleep when it set.
On the other hand, time was a refined and aristocratic concept.
There was no better tool than a watch to flaunt one’s competence, pretending to be busy. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Although obelisks did tell the time, hardly anyone knew how to read them accurately.
Only wizards, who were obsessively fixated on precision in everything, used those clocks.
For most people, there were just three times of day: morning, when the sun rose, noon, when the shadows gathered almost beneath their feet, and evening, when the sun set.
The phases of the three moons were used to specify more detailed times.
When the first moon appeared, it was “evening when the first moon rises,” and as time passed, it became “night when the second moon rises,” and after some more time, “deep night when the third moon rises.” Then the cycle repeated with the rising sun.
There, each moon had about nine days in its cycle.
Full moons were the times when wild beasts and their primal instincts were at their strongest, and the people there regarded them as ominous.
That was a far cry from Garam’s world, where full moons were associated with festivities like Chuseok and people singing songs about that.
‘I should probably get a wristwatch.’
As she picked up her notebook to add “wristwatch” to the list, she suddenly thought that Roana might bring lunch.
Since Garam didn’t know what time it was, she couldn’t be sure if Roana would come in and see the dimensional gate still open.
In that case, it would be a disaster.
Garam dragged the table over to the door, blocking it, and firmly fastened the bolt one more time.
Despite all this, she still didn’t feel completely at ease, so she piled the clothes and books she had bought on top of the table.
Lastly, Garam placed a note on the door that read “Do not enter.” Then she went into the bathroom and closed the door.
She thought that opening the dimensional gate from the bathroom would prevent her from being spotted by anyone in the meantime.
After making her preparations, Garam opened the dimensional gate.
It had only been two days, but it felt like she was opening it after a very long time.
As the whirlpool of light, which she had seen several times before, appeared, Garam took a deep breath and stepped inside.
The room she entered after a long absence was exactly the same as before.
The notebook where Garam had taken from this world and had written down the items was still on the desk.
Her father’s travel belongings, which were on one side, were also neatly arranged.
Everything was reset as it originally was.
Garam went around the house out of habit, and at 12:01, she headed out into the deserted streets.
Passing by a narrow alley with a rice cake shop, a fruit store, a chicken soup restaurant, and various other eateries, Garam turned the corner and arrived at a convenience store.
Although the convenience store had some of the items Garam wanted to buy, the place she was actually heading to was the supermarket.
There was a large supermarket just across the street from the police station in her neighborhood, and she believed she could find most of the items she needed there.
It also had a pharmacy on the first floor, which was even better.
Walking briskly, Garam stopped in front of the police station.
The jeweler’s shop across from the police station sold not only jewelry but also high-end watches.
As soon as Garam noticed them, the clock hands that had been stopped at 12:01 began to tick.
She could see the second hand move.
It was a chilling sight that could appear in a horror movie, but Garam calmly entered the open watch shop.
She picked up a reasonably light-weight wristwatch and put it on her wrist.
Then, she found some more watches and put them in a velvet cloth bag she had found there.
Next, Garam began to rob the jeweler’s shop in earnest.
She collected the rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets displayed on the sales counter and the items from the drawers below as well.
She didn’t care if they were diamonds, cubic zirconia, emeralds, or sapphires.
She also discovered gold bars and silver bars and took them.
Then, she packed all the items into a large tote bag that seemed to belong to the owner of the jeweler’s shop.
After sweeping everything into it, almost half of the tote bag was filled.
The large bag, filled with sparkling jewelry, appeared impressive even to Garam, who was not in the position to feel any desire for material wealth.
Considering that there were likely more jeweler shops in the vicinity, Garam decided to rob the other three shops nearby.
At first, she felt guilty for a moment, but soon Garam found herself enjoying the situation.
In the end, Garam filled two tote bags with jewelry.
However, she struggled to lift them because the weight was close to almost forty kilograms.
She felt like they could break her waist.
At first, she thought, ‘It’s heavy, but I can carry it,’ but as she tried to lift them, her arms began to tremble, and her steps faltered under the weight as if her waist might give in.
Garam eventually had to put the tote bags down.
She had only walked about 200 meters, but her whole body was drenched in sweat.
She decided to change her plan.
First, she would go to the supermarket, get a shopping cart, and transfer the items into there.
She could have also discarded one of the bags, but she simply couldn’t bring herself to do it.
Garam’s twenty-five-year accumulation of a middle-class mentality made it impossible for her to give up on those precious metals after walking 200 meters, drenched in sweat.
As unreasonable as it was, there was no way around it.
Setting the bags down on the street, Garam walked again, feeling relieved.
Engraving the saying “All suffering comes from greed” on her heart, she straightened her back and headed towards the supermarket.
At the supermarket, Garam first went to the pharmacy and picked up painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs, all-in-one cold medicine, disinfectants, and antibiotic ointments.
She didn’t pick up any fever reducers since they were mostly included in the cold medicine.
As a precaution for unforeseen situations, she also grabbed a comprehensive multivitamin and iron supplement.
In addition to first aid supplies like band-aids and bandages, she picked up some toothpaste and a toothbrush.
She also gathered digestive aids, burn ointments, insect bite creams, and finally, some adhesive patches that could be applied for pain relief.
For food, she chose sealed bread, compact snacks, long-lasting canned fruits and dried jerky, small packs of kimchi, and canned meats.
She had to keep the amounts small as they would be carried on horseback, not in a carriage.
She grabbed a pack of wet wipes that she thought might come in handy and then moved to the miscellaneous goods section.
While walking through the supermarket, Garam picked up anything she found useful and placed it in the cart—stainless steel pots, decorative lamps, perfume, pens, a package of forty lighters, duct tape, rubber bands, a large suitcase, chocolates, wallets, a Polaroid camera and film, and even pure white chiffon curtains.
She grabbed so many items that she had to bring another cart.
She didn’t forget to pack underwear for herself, apart from the items she intended to sell.
As for outerwear, she would have to wear what was available in the other dimension, but there was no need to buy and use local underwear from there.
With two fully loaded carts in tow, Garam headed to the sports and leisure section.
She picked up a top-notch sleeping bag and a cooking set, a high-quality backpack, a sturdy umbrella, a self-generating flashlight, scissors, a mini gas lamp, a portable heater, a pocket knife, a hip pack, a portable water filter, and even five padlocks.
With just these items, her third cart was completely full, which made Garam slightly anxious.
It seemed like she was going to fill up about half of the inn room with her belongings.
Therefore, Garam decided not to be too greedy and only took one of each kind of camping item.
When she saw all the items she had chosen in one place, it became apparent that she had filled four carts in total.
The first was filled with sweets including candies, chocolate bars, and long-lasting snacks.
The second was filled with miscellaneous goods.
The third had white chiffon curtains and soft velvet curtains.
And the last one was filled with travel gear.
The carts were large enough for Garam to sit comfortably in, and when she gathered everything in one place, it truly seemed like it would occupy about half of the room where she was staying.
Even though it would take a tremendous amount of time to sell all these items, Garam did not change her mind.
Learning the economy by selling various things was also a very good idea, she thought.
After organizing all the items, Garam took an empty cart and left the supermarket.
It was time to go and get the gold and jewelry she had left on the street.
The tote bags Garam had left there were still in their place.
She picked up the bags and loaded them into her cart.
Instead of going back to the supermarket, Garam headed to the police station.
Among the things on Garam’s list, the most difficult item to obtain would undoubtedly be a gun.
With transportation halted, she couldn’t go to the United States and pick up one, nor could she search through a military base.
Garam didn’t know where any military bases were, and women of Garam’s age usually didn’t know what military bases looked like either.
Garam thought vaguely, ‘Police officers sometimes have guns in movies, so there must be some in a police station.’
Surprisingly enough, that thought was not far off from the truth.
Police stations usually have a significant level of weaponry in case of extreme situations.
Once inside the police station, Garam started by opening all the drawers in the first hallway.
Some drawers were locked while others opened easily.
However, the open drawers only contained documents, and there was nothing she was looking for.
As she moved on to search other areas, Garam unexpectedly spotted a revolver sticking out from among the outerwear hanging on a coat rack.
It seemed like someone had hung their coat along with the revolver and left briefly for some other business.
Garam quickly took off the holster, which was similar to a vest, and put it on securely.
She pulled the gun from the holster located near her left rib and fired a shot against the wall to test it.
Her shoulder lifted due to the recoil, but because of her initial tension from firing the gun for the first time, her wrist didn’t sprain, and the revolver didn’t slip from her hands.
The fact that it was a blank round also contributed to the recoil being less severe than expected.
Garam found it weird that the recoil was weaker than expected and approached the wall to check where the shot had hit.
There was no sign of a bullet on the wall.
The police usually followed the rule of loading the front three rounds with blanks and the rear three rounds with live ammunition.
Not knowing that rule, Garam thought she simply missed her target.
Then, she cautiously stepped back, aimed at the target, and fired again.
Her aiming method was something her father, who had served as a sharpshooter in the military, had explained with a mixture of stories from his experiences.
Were her father’s skills passed down to her?
The first live round fired in succession, hit precisely where Garam intended it to.
Garam continued to fire until all the rounds in the magazine were expended, creating a series of loud gunshots that echoed in the quiet world where nobody else was moving.
The three live rounds were densely packed into a space as large as a 500-won coin.
Due to the shots fired inside the building, Garam’s ears were ringing and her head was pounding, but she felt refreshed as she placed the revolver back in the holster.
After that, it was time to search for the ammunition.