Pathfinder
Chapter Nineteen
Should it be described as the sensation of the brain demanding to be let out of one’s head, repeatedly pounding against the skull?
Just a slight movement of Garam’s head felt like smashing it against a metal barrel.
Her morning began with a rather unpleasant hangover.
Lying in bed, Garam rolled over halfway in pain.
Her skull felt like it rolled over halfway too.
‘Jeez, that really hurt.’
Garam lay still, contemplating what had happened last night.
Her memory had a gap, starting from the point where she was gambling with the beer-bellied sailor sitting beside her about who could drink more.
The memories resumed with an abrupt shout: ‘Next time you board a ship, try fishing on a calm day.
It’s way more fun!’
Was that the person who claimed to catch a mermaid in the sea?
Did he say the mermaid had tasted good?
No, that was a different person.
It seemed like the person who talked about mermaids and the one who talked about fishing were different.
Or were they not?
Initially, it seemed like they were definitely drinking beer, but by the time she had a blackout in her memory, it seemed like they had switched to some rather strong fruit liquor.
Yes, that was clear.
Fortunately, seeing herself lying in bed, it was also clear that she had successfully managed to crawl into her room.
By the way, what time could it be?
Her wristwatch showed two o’clock in the afternoon.
Suddenly, she vaguely recalled glimpsing the first light of dawn.
Had she said anything weird due to the alcohol?
Perhaps that was not that important.
Even if she had rambled, people would have brushed it off as the drunken nonsense of a regular customer.
In any case, after getting thoroughly drunk and waking up late, it seemed like her heart had lightened a bit.
In reality, the pain in her head had been too overwhelming for her to contemplate anything else, though.
She had spent a long time lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, until someone knocked on her door.
The knocking sounded like nails hammering into her head.
Garam clenched her head in her hands and groggily walked towards the door.
Even in her fully inebriated state, it seemed that she had managed to lock her door.
“Garam, are you awake?”
As Garam expected, it was Roana who stood outside.
The voice had become familiar, and as Garam unlocked the door, Roana entered the room with a tray of food in hand.
Inside Garam’s room, the smell of alcohol she had been emitting filled the air.
Roana, with her fresh face that now seemed accustomed to such sights, placed the food on the table as usual.
She then opened the window to let in fresh air.
With the refreshing breeze flowing in through the window, Garam finally realized how much her room had been saturated with the smell of alcohol.
Feeling somewhat embarrassed, she tried to avoid Roana’s gaze and approached the food.
As if to take care of Garam after she had been binge drinking the night before, the dining table was adorned not only with the regular meal but also with a bowl of watery oatmeal and an unidentified green tea emitting a faint fragrance.
Garam grabbed the oatmeal and quickly downed it.
The watery oatmeal smoothly slid down her throat, soothing her somewhat bitter stomach.
Roana, who had opened the window and arranged the bedsheet, waited patiently until Garam had finished the oatmeal before speaking.
“It seems you missed breakfast this morning.”
“Oh, right.”
“As for the drinking last night…”
Upon hearing Roana’s words, Garam recalled that she had offered to pay for everyone’s drinks the previous night.
As she nodded her head, Roana responded as if she had been waiting.
“It came to three gold, twenty silver, and fifteen copper.
But I’ll round down the fifteen copper, so it’s three gold, twenty silver.”
Garam took a moment to calculate.
Considering that one glass of premium alcohol cost twenty copper, this meant everyone had consumed more than 1,500 glasses of alcohol in total.
Given that beer was also mixed in, the actual amount of alcohol might be even higher.
Garam, who quickly finished her calculations, felt a bit perplexed for a moment, but she soon recalled the number of people who had filled the inn last night and understood.
In fact, Garam also felt like she had drunk at least thirty glasses.
“I’ll pay now.
Just a moment.”
Garam reached into her pocket and retrieved her coin pouch.
However, the pouch contained only the 170,000 gold she had received from the jewel store, the 10,000 gold from the general store, and the single gold coin left after buying the horse along with a 100 gold coin and fifteen silver.
Garam found herself in a bit of a predicament when it came to paying the three gold.
She rummaged through her pouch again in hopes of finding some small change, but all she found was the 101 gold along with ninety silver.
“Um, I don’t have any small change.
What should I do?”
“Oh, don’t worry.
If you don’t mind, I can exchange it for you.
I was planning to go to the bank today anyway.”
Garam thought it might be a good opportunity to experience going to the bank together.
Her headache was still lingering, but sipping the tea that Roana had brought, which tasted somewhat like green tea, made her feel better.
The headache persisted, but not having an upset stomach was already a relief.
“In that case, I’ll go with you.”
Roana nodded in agreement.
She welcomed the company since it wouldn’t be as boring as going alone.
“Alright, let’s go together after you finish your meal.”
“I’m all done.”
Lunch had consisted of crispy fried whitefish, and while Garam wasn’t sure what kind of fish it was, the chunks of meat were substantial.
Anyway, Garam picked up the fish meat as she intended to eat it on the way.
“I have enough time to wait for you.”
Roana spoke to Garam in the sense that there was no need to rush her meal, but Garam shook her head.
If she continued sitting and eating like that, she might just fall asleep right there.
Given her current physical condition, that wouldn’t be an unreasonable thing to happen.
“Let’s go.”
As Roana had mentioned, the bank wasn’t far from where they were.
It was located near the Mercenary Guild and the bookstore, but it looked a bit different from what Garam had imagined.
The bank had a somewhat antique outlook as if it were a mix between an antique shop and a library.
Instead of the bank tellers being friendly, most of the people behind the reception counter looked irritable, with faces that seemed to be advertising, “I will treat you unkindly.” There were five counters in total, and Garam and Roana stood in front of the one with the shortest line.
It was also the one that was moving along the fastest.
Anyway, while Garam was eyeing the antique-like artifacts and books behind the bank’s reception counter, the line had steadily shortened, and it was Roana’s turn.
“I’d like to make a deposit.”
Roana said, placing her pouch and a mythril coin on the counter with a clink.
It was quite a heavy pouch.
The man sitting at the counter seemed like a scholar, somewhat frail-looking, and appeared to be in his early thirties.
Interestingly, he was wearing glasses.
Even in that world, there were glasses, though they looked thicker and sturdier compared to those from Garam’s world.
And because of those glasses, the man appeared even colder.
The man opened her pouch and transferred the coins into a container.
The coins were a mix of gold, silver, and copper, and it seemed like it would take quite some time to count them individually.
However, with a simple gesture, he magically separated the coins into their respective units, stacking them like poker chips, neatly organized in groups of ten.
This spectacle caught Garam’s attention as she watched in fascination.
“You have 520 gold and two silver to deposit.
The deposit has been made.
The fee is fifteen silver.”
Roana handed over the pre-prepared fifteen silver and accepted the mythril coin.
The man paid little attention to Roana’s transaction and instead shifted his gaze toward Garam.
Actually, Garam had become somewhat desensitized to all the stares by then, but her uncommon Asian appearance still made her an interesting sight.
“Next.”
With a gesture, Roana signaled to Garam that she should step forward and wait.
She then left the line.
Garam, who had been exchanging glances with Roana, quickly turned her attention to the pouch in her hand, feeling rushed by the man’s irritable gaze.
“I’d like to consolidate these mythril coins into one and change this 1,000 gold coin into nine 100 gold coins and ten ten gold coins.
And also, I have some questions.”
“What questions?”
The man asked as he accepted the mythril coins she handed over.
At the same time, he changed the 1,000 gold coin into smaller changes.
With one hand, he used magic to make the conversions, and with the other, he retrieved the coins from the coin box.
Still, his face remained indifferent, as if all that was nothing amazing.
“Do you happen to have a vault or something similar here?
I need a place to store some items, and it would be great if I could access them from anywhere.”
The vault was meant to handle the aftermath of Garam’s greed, hidden under her bed at the inn.
Garam didn’t have high expectations.
She just wanted a vault with postal service, even if it took a few days to retrieve the contents.
However, the bank offered much better options than she had imagined, though It was a bit expensive.
“We do have that.
If you want, you can use warp magic to access your items on the same day.
The price is ten gold per use.
Vaults come in different sizes.
The smallest can fit only a ring case while the largest can hold a whole house.”
“It doesn’t need to be that big.
About this size should be enough.”
When Garam roughly gestured the size with her hands, the man nodded.
“You might want to use a number ten vault.
The rental fee for a year is 100 gold.”
“I don’t have the items to deposit with me right now.
I’ll come back tomorrow.”
“Alright.
Here is the mythril coin and the change.
The fee is fifteen silver.”
Garam reached into her pouch and pulled out the silver coins.
The man took them indifferently, as if he had done it a thousand times before, and called out, “Next.”
As Garam had found a place to store her gems, it was time to figure out how many items she could carry on a horse.
As Garam and Roana left the bank, the sun had already set.
Garam briefly considered visiting the Mercenary Guild to find someone who could teach her horseback riding but decided to take a break for that day.
Sometimes, it’s best to take it easy and get some rest.
Besides, she hadn’t even bought horse riding equipment yet, so finding a riding instructor felt a bit premature.
Instead, she bought a special treat for her horse from a nearby market.
They were called puppy carrots, a peculiar type of vegetable.
Despite being carrots, they made constant barking-like sounds, and the fresher the puppy carrots, the louder they barked.
Garam spent a while selecting the freshest and loudest ones, and then she brought them back to the inn. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Back at the inn, after settling her tab for yesterday’s drinks, Garam headed straight to the stable instead of her room.
She had intended to rest for the day and give her horse the puppy carrots the next day, but the carrots were barking so loudly that she had to give them to him that day.
The noise of the five or so carrots barking loudly might lead to complaints from the neighboring rooms.
When Garam entered the stable, the horses were all excited, their tails swishing and hooves stomping in anticipation.
Garam passed by the unfamiliar horses and approached Poppy, who was tethered in the farthest corner.
The stable was crudely constructed with roughly woven wood.
Gaps between the wood allowed the evening sun to filter in, casting a long glow onto Poppy’s face.
“Bark!
Bark!
Snort!”
Poppy glanced at the pitiful carrot and soon crunched it up with a series of loud chomps.
The nearby horses watched in envy as Poppy enjoyed the treat.
However, Garam quickly fed Poppy the carrot and left the stable again because the strong smell of the horses in the stable was causing her head to ache once more.
The sound of Poppy chewing on the carrot, making a crunching noise each time, gave her a strange feeling as she continued to listen.
“I guess I’ll buy the equipment tomorrow.”
Garam thought as she tried to shake off her weary body.
She realized that maybe she was getting too old for drinking like that.
She used to handle it just fine back in college.
* * *
Usually, a first-time visitor to a city where many travelers come and go receives the impression that no one cares about them.
Hundreds of people pass by each day, and who would pay attention to just one insignificant person like them?
And, in general, this thought is not wrong.
The problem is the word “general,” and there’s only one reason why this is emphasized: Garam doesn’t really fit into this “general” category.
A common city dweller who heard the news that some wealthy traveler had paid for everyone’s drinks at Fairy of Rest didn’t consider it much of a big deal.
After all, in that bustling port city full of rumors, even such extraordinary news didn’t seem that significant.
However, the fact that she was a traveler wandering the city without any companions, while not even a magician or a warrior, had caught the attention of some thugs who were thinking about how they could pack up a real load of money.
Soon, Garam could confirm what kind of impact the rumor about her had brought.
“Smile.
Come on, smile.”
As soon as she got up in the morning and left the inn to buy a saddle, Garam, turning the corner of the building Roana had pointed out, suddenly found herself in the midst of a shocking scene.
To put it simply, a scruffy-looking man, dressed in ragged and worn-out clothes, suddenly put his arm around Garam’s shoulder and dragged her.
He also casually displayed a not-so-friendly dagger against her side and smirked.
It was quite a shock, to say the least.
Taken completely by surprise, Garam was frozen in her tracks.
She was instantly cornered into a back alley by the thug.
“Hey, who are you?”
“Me?
I’m your friend.”
As they entered the alley and Garam belatedly came to her senses, the man who had dragged her along coolly replied.
Five thugs in total surrounded her closely and grinned.
Finally, Garam had caught on to the situation.
In fact, she had sensed it when the man’s dagger pressed against her side, but at that moment, she was too shocked to think straight.
“They say you’ve got a lot of money.”
“Yeah, you are Asian, so it seems like you aren’t a noble or anything.
Probably got no backing either.”
“Why don’t you do us a favor and donate some of your hard-earned wealth?
After all, it’s money from our continent.”
Garam contemplated her options.
Should she reach for her gun or her money?
Her revolver was fully loaded, and she kept it close by for emergencies.
She felt a sudden urge to pull it out, but if she made a wrong move and killed one of these people, she’d be in deep trouble with the guards.
She remembered the voice of Trigger, who had sternly warned her not to cause any accidents.
Garam decided not to risk it and reached into her pouch, taking out one of the ten gold coins.
‘This should be enough.’
The gaze of the thugs, upon seeing the gold coin that popped out of Garam’s pouch, instantly changed.
They had been half in doubt, but she turned out to be a real jackpot.
Once it was confirmed that Garam indeed had money, they didn’t hesitate.
One of the men who had been blocking Garam’s escape from behind grabbed both of her hands.
As he did, another thug rushed in and began searching Garam’s pockets.
They were coordinated, and their skills were not those of amateurs.
“Hey, you bas-!
Let go!
I said, let go of me!
Hey!”
In reality, when encountering robbers on the street, it’s a wise choice to simply give them the money they want.
Most robbers aim to snatch the money and are satisfied with it.
However, in Garam’s case, it was akin to showing just a spoonful of honey from a pot full of it.
The thugs wanted to confirm if Garam had the honey pot.
“Don’t touch me!”
As Garam struggled, she managed to kick one of the thugs away.
The man with shoe prints stamped onto his face turned red and blue from anger, then unleashed a string of curses as he tried to strike Garam.
However, just as he was about to swing, one of the thugs suddenly exclaimed.
In his hand was a pouch filled with mythril coins.