Pathfinder
Chapter Sixteen
After thoroughly searching every room at the police station, Garam could fortunately find some ammunition.
It was a room in the basement, but someone had left the door open, perhaps intending to enter.
Had the door been closed, she would never have been able to enter.
Police armories are strictly monitored with surveillance guards.
However, with no one around and the door open, it was just like an unattended shop.
Garam entered the room and gathered the ammunition stacked next to the revolver.
There were three types of bullets: one was blank, one was long and thin, and the other was chubby and slightly shorter.
Garam disregarded the blanks, thinking that they were used, and carefully examined the revolver’s magazine.
She selected ammunition that fit the gun’s size and collected it.
With nearly 200 rounds of revolver ammunition in her possession, Garam unexpectedly found something else nearby—a rifle.
To be exact, it was a K2 rifle that soldiers used.
She thought rifles were typically used by the military, but it turned out that police stations also had rifles in their arsenals.
Next to the rifle, there was also a K3 submachine gun and other firearms, but they were too heavy for Garam to carry around.
She decided to take only the K2 rifle for that time, as anything heavier than that didn’t seem to be necessary unless she would raid a dragon’s den.
“Why won’t it fire?”
Garam wondered, attempting to shoot a test round, but the gun didn’t fire.
She examined various parts of the rifle, suspecting it might be malfunctioning, and eventually found safety near the grip.
The mechanism wasn’t too complicated, and Garam could quickly switch between both single-shot and automatic fire modes.
Firing the rifle indoors was a reckless act, and her ears rang from the noise.
Occasionally, stray bullets bounced off the walls, causing her to flinch.
Garam stopped shooting and stared at the bullet holes in the wall, thinking of the cockroach-like creatures she had encountered before.
If she had had a gun at that time, she wouldn’t have had to run away.
She had no intention of using it on people, but in case she encountered such creatures again in the future, carrying it didn’t seem like a bad idea.
Despite its considerable weight and her lack of knowledge about how to maintain the firearm, she thought that if it ever malfunctioned, she could return and exchange it for a well-maintained gun.
For the rifle, Garam took about ten times as much ammunition as that of a handgun, considering its rapid rate of fire.
Since it looked significantly different from handgun ammunition, it was easy to distinguish.
She collected about five magazines’ worth of ammunition and loaded them all into the cart.
With five filled carts, Garam didn’t want to go far to open the dimensional gate, so she immediately opened it right in front of herself.
After confirming the dimensional gate was connected to the inn’s bathroom, Garam tossed each item from the cart into the portal.
Finally, she picked up the tote bags containing precious metals and stepped into the dimensional gate.
Fortunately, in the other world, only a little time had passed since lunch, and there were no significant events in the meantime.
Garam deduced the time based on the shadow from the window and checked how much time she had spent in her base camp with the wristwatch she had.
The wristwatch indicated six o’clock.
That meant about six hours had passed in her world.
The times of the two worlds almost matched each other.
Garam roughly adjusted the wristwatch to read around 2 p.m.
before leaving the bathroom.
When Garam observed the door, the note she left for Roana was not there.
Perhaps Roana had been there while Garam had been collecting items in her base camp, so leaving that note turned out to be a wise decision.
If there hadn’t been a note, Roana might have gone so far as to break down the door to check her safety.
Garam might have even encountered the guards investigating her missing person’s case.
Feeling at ease, Garam gathered all the items she had brought and sorted them into one corner.
She had brought quite a lot—especially the food; she wondered why she had brought so much.
If she tried to load all of that onto a horse, he might refuse to carry her.
First, Garam picked out the items she would actually use from the miscellaneous items.
The rest were meant for sale.
After sorting them out, the items for use turned out not to take up a significant amount of space, except for the food.
Since she had brought a large suitcase to transport the items, she figured she could put them there.
Bringing the suitcase had indeed been an excellent choice, and Garam congratulated herself for that.
Garam then opened one of the tote bags.
If someone had looked inside, they would have been shocked.
One of the tote bags had been stashed under the bed, and Garam began sorting out the jewelry by type.
She selected necklaces, rings, bracelets, and earrings sets made of various gems like diamonds, sapphires, opals, emeralds, and pearls.
Among the rings, there were about thirty made of gold, twelve made of silver (since silver wasn’t as valuable, there weren’t many rings made of it), and twenty-eight platinum rings.
In total, there were about seventy rings.
Besides those, she had about four hundred items, including bracelets, necklaces, and earrings.
What was more impressive was that even after sorting them out, the tote bag was still about two-thirds full.
Having spent a considerable amount of time sorting earrings to match the pairs, Garam got a little tired of it.
When she was collecting them, they didn’t seem to be that many, but she realized she had brought too many of them while sorting and counting them.
Eventually, she put the earrings and the rings back into the tote bag.
Then, she decided to keep only fourteen jewels—gold and platinum ones with pearls, diamonds, emeralds, or rubies as well as silver ones with gemstones that were finely crafted. Visit NovelPing for the full chapter.
For the bracelets and necklaces, she also took only the finely crafted ones with gemstones.
Once she had sorted all the items, Garam put the remaining under the bed and silently left the room with her suitcase.
The hallway was almost full that day, unlike the day before.
Roana, who was busy serving customers, recognized Garam and greeted her with a warm smile.
Garam, thinking she was busy, simply nodded in response and headed to the general store to sell the goods.
Throughout her walk, Garam attracted curious glances from people, who marveled at her carrying a bag larger than herself.
Being an Asian in itself was already strange enough to them, so it was nothing weird.
After a few days of getting used to such stares, Garam had reached a point where she could ignore them without much trouble.
Thanks to the wheeled suitcase, Garam was able to transport the monstrous-sized heavy load without much difficulty.
She was immensely grateful for the well-maintained roads in that area.
Even if it had been a dirt road, it wouldn’t have been a problem as long as it was flat, but the roads there were paved with cobblestones spaced closely together, just like the sidewalks in Seoul.
Each stone seemed to have been carved manually.
Although there were some uneven edges, they were generally smooth, with no visible bumps or irregularities.
It seemed that they were made like that for the convenience of carriages and carts passing through.
“Ah, you’re here.”
As Garam opened the door and entered, Rabun, who was serving another customer, warmly greeted her.
Garam nodded politely and stood beside the male customer, waiting.
While Garam was inspecting dried herbs, unidentified horns and leather, chunks of metal, and sealed containers inside the store, she couldn’t help but overhear an intriguing conversation between Rabun and the man with whom he was negotiating.
“500 gold is too expensive.”
“Expensive?
This lantern doesn’t even require much effort to light up.
Look here, you just need to press this button to turn it on, and it recharges itself with a simple shake.
It’s not like those magical orbs that require you to concentrate and sweat.
If you don’t want it, just don’t buy it.
It’s not like you’re the only potential buyer around here anyway.”
That lantern was the same one that Garam had sold him the day before.
Garam was certain that she had sold it to Rabun for thirty gold, but Rabun was saying it was worth 500 gold.
“Alright, let’s do it for 450 gold.”
“What did I just tell you?
You don’t seem to understand.
I guess I’ll have to sell it for 550 gold.”
The man felt that if he kept haggling any further, he would end up buying the lantern for 600 gold.
He begrudgingly reached into his pocket and took out a hefty pouch containing one gold coin double the thickness and size of a 500-won coin along with five triangular gold coins equivalent to ten gold each that Garam had seen the day before.
The round gold coin had a staff with a ruby embedded in it carved onto it, and below that, it was inscribed with the characters for “500 gold.”
“Now, hand it over.”
Rabun nodded and gave him the lantern.
It was placed in an elegant velvet box.
Having observed the entire transaction from beginning to end, Garam kept her disdainful expression intact and continued to stare at Rabun without any attempt to conceal her emotions.
Rabun felt uncomfortable under the weight of that look and awkwardly smiled.
“Alright, what are you selling today?
Oh, by the way, that bag-like item looks quite unique, too.”
“Nothing.”
Garam responded curtly, shaking her head at Rabun, who had been giving an expectant gaze to her suitcase.
She was upset that someone introduced by Roana had scammed her.
Garam thought that she should charge a minimum of 200 gold for any electronic device and tried to leave the general store.
If Rabun hadn’t stopped her in a hurry, she would have just walked out like that.
“Wait, hold on.
I think there might be a misunderstanding.”
“What misunderstanding?
Oh, the fact that I believed I was getting a fair deal after Roana introduced you to me, but it turns out I actually could have sold it for over ten times the price?”
Garam’s biting words made Rabun break into a cold sweat.
“I didn’t know it would sell for that much.
Well, calm down.
I’ll give you a fair deal this time.”
“You didn’t know?
What do you mean?”
Garam’s tone seemed to have calmed down a bit, and Rabun smiled warmly, his face filled with relief.
“Yeah, listen to me for a moment.
I thought it required concentration to turn it on, like a magical orb.
Yesterday, when you pressed the button, I thought it lit up because you were concentrating.
But when I tried to turn it on after you left, it actually didn’t require any concentration.
Is that not true?
That’s why it was sold for such a high price.
If you’re upset, I apologize.
If it were a magical item that required concentration, I wouldn’t have resold it for more than fifty gold.”
“Concentration?
Do you need concentration for other things?”
“Of course.
That’s why adventuring parties have a specific role for someone to use magical orbs.
If there’s a night battle, the person in charge of the magical orb has to concentrate to keep the light from going out.”
Garam nodded, as it wasn’t entirely illogical.
“I’ll trust you only this time.”
“Because it’s true.
Come on, let’s forget about it.
I’m not a swindler.
I’m just a cheerful man who goes to Fairy of Rest after work to have a drink and listen to the sailors’ stories.
Why would I want to upset Roana’s friend?”
Garam felt relieved by his words.
Rabun’s way of speaking, shaped by years of running a store, had something that could melt a person’s heart.
Seeing that Garam had loosened up a bit, Rabun quickly pulled a soft chair over and gestured for her to sit.
It was a completely different treatment from the first time she had stood and talked to him the day before.
“So, what are the items you’re selling today?”
Instead of answering, Garam opened her suitcase.
Then, she took out the jewelry pouch to keep for herself and calmly started to explain to Rabun, who was looking at the unfamiliar items with anticipation.
“First, this is a Polaroid camera.
When you look through here and press this button, it takes a picture and prints it.”
Garam slowly took out her items one by one, placing them on the counter and explaining them.
Intermittently asking questions, Rabun finally began to listen attentively after hanging up a “Closed” sign on the door.
While many of the items were already available in his store, their shapes and textures were completely different, making them quite rare.
Furthermore, they were items from the East, which were being revealed for almost the first time in his nation.
“Okay, so, how do these work?”
“Look.
If you do this, you can turn it on…”
Finishing her explanation of the lighter, Garam waited for Rabun to set the price for it.
She was curious about how much he would ask for the lighter, which she had sold for only fifty copper at the Thornwood General Store.
Rabun didn’t hesitate and priced it at five gold for each lighter, a total of 175 gold for all of them.
Upon hearing this price, Garam silently cursed Pollen, the owner of the Thornwood General Store, who had definitely scammed her.
“So, a total of 9,230 gold.”
It was an enormous sum.
That price was the result of bringing calculators, chiffon cotton, white velvet, and the Polaroid camera.
The cups, rubber bands, and pens were relatively inexpensive, and the former four items accounted for nearly 8,000 gold.
As expected, slightly unusual electronic items and luxury items like white fabric were quite expensive.
On the other hand, things that were not necessary for daily life or were somewhat unusual but not particularly convenient did not have high prices.
Of course, this comparison was all relative.
A rubber band or a pen was still a thousand times more expensive than a string or a quill pen.
It was an unattainable price for most commoners.
Suddenly, Garam became concerned about whether Rabun could afford the total amount.
Rabun stared at Garam’s items for a moment and then picked up the calculator.
It was a solar-powered one with a different design from those commonly seen in his world, but the numbers were the same, so there was no issue with its use.
Garam had brought five of those calculators, each with a different price ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 gold.
“Hey, what’s wrong?
Are you short on money?”
Rabun, who had been quietly looking at the calculator, shook his head.
“No, no, I have the money.
Don’t worry about it.”
Even Rabun, who prided himself on having handled many Eastern items, had never seen such items.
From the beginning, those items looked quite different from what he had usually seen.
Rabun, who had been quietly examining the items, made a serious proposal.
“Miss, would you consider making a contract with me?”
“A contract?”
“Yes, make a contract with me to import your country’s goods to this continent through me.”
Garam was taken aback.
She hadn’t expected it.
Such a contract was impossible because Garam’s country was something fictional for him.
Not only that, but she didn’t have the time to engage in such activities.
Garam shook her head slowly.
“I’m sorry, but exports are prohibited in our country.
In fact, even this was transported to me secretly through my contacts.
Large-scale exports are impossible.
I can’t supply regularly either.
Besides, I won’t stay here permanently.”
“Where are you going?”
“Well, it’s not decided yet, so I can’t tell you.
But it seems like I’ll be traveling around a lot.”
Rabun sensed that there were deep reasons behind young Garam’s hesitant words.
He quickly resigned himself to the situation.
“Well, if that’s the case, there’s nothing we can do.
If you ever have items to sell in the future, try going to the auction house.
In larger cities, there are auction houses where you can show your items to the auctioneer and prove the efficacy of the items.
They’ll be put up for auction.
Although they charge about ten percent as commission, you can get a much better price than selling to a merchant like me.
Competition can drive up the price.”
After saying this, Rabun grinned.
His warm smile was comforting and had the power to break down all suspicion and barriers.
However, Garam couldn’t help but ask.
“Why are you telling me this?
You’d be at a loss, Mr.
Rabun.”