The Red Moon had passed, and the Northern Rock Tribe village was enjoying peaceful everyday life.
Yet another storm was raging within my heart, and that storm was called material desire.
Barbarian Izak does not hold back.
“Chieftain! It’s here!”
CRASH—!
I kicked aside the entrance flap of Jakan’s tent, which I knew better than my own home, and barged in. Jakan did not seem especially surprised to see me.
It felt oddly awkward that he was no longer surprised whenever I suddenly barged in, but I got straight to the point.
“What is it, Izak?”
“I need something.”
“What is it? Just say the word. Even if I have to scour the entire wasteland, I’ll get it.”
Jakan’s answer was dependable, but this time, it was not a problem his muscles could solve.
I shook my head at the commendable young chieftain.
“No. I want to go see it myself.”
“Where?”
“A market. Or a shop.”
The moment those words left my mouth, my heart began pounding as though rows of shelves had unfolded before my eyes.
With a blissful expression, I listed the things I wanted.
“I want to buy things. Salt, tools, seeds.”
Jakan stopped polishing his greatsword, looked at me, and tilted his head.
“A market? A shop?”
“......”
What was that response?
“A place where people buy and sell goods. A place where people gather to trade.”
“Ah, a place for trading.”
Only then did he nod, though his expression turned troubled.
“You know many difficult things, but it seems you do not know simple things very well.”
“......Ahem.”
He was unexpectedly good at hitting the nail on the head.
He was pointing out that I knew advanced information, such as wyvern weaknesses and strategies, yet did not know the geography of this area or even the names of the Barbarians I lived with like family.
But that could not be helped.
I was Kang Jin-ho borrowing Izak’s body, not the real Izak.
The real Izak’s memories were not in my head.
At times like this, brazening it out was best.
“I became this way after receiving the wisdom of the ancestral spirits.”
I put on the most solemn expression I could manage and clutched my head.
I was practically Academy Award-winning material.
“A vessel that holds wisdom must be very large. But my vessel was too small, so my old memories are gone.”
Perfect method acting.
Amnesia was a fantasy novel protagonist’s all-purpose cheat code, so it would probably work well.
But Jakan’s reaction was strange.
He set down the sword in his hand and strode toward me.
‘What...... What is it? Why, why are you acting like this? Did he figure out the truth? Is he going to kill me!?’
I flinched and tried to step back, but he firmly grabbed my shoulders and looked down at me.
Gulping, I slowly raised my head. Deep sorrow and sympathy shimmered in Jakan’s eyes...... Why?
“I am sorry. I did not know.”
“......??”
“They say there is no strength without a price. To think you sacrificed precious memories in order to obtain such great wisdom.”
Jakan’s voice trembled.
“If you cannot remember your father’s face or your mother’s embrace, it must hurt. Have you been enduring that loneliness alone?”
“Huh? It isn’t that hard......”
“Do not worry, Izak.”
Jakan gripped my shoulders hard enough to break them and spoke with the most serious eyes in the world.
“I am your brother. All the children of the tribe are your family. We will make new memories to fill the ones you have lost.”
“......”
I was at a loss for words.
Something deep in my chest tightened.
I had only lied to cover myself, yet this guileless teenager was sincerely trying to comfort me.
The Intelligence score I had checked with the Peek skill came to mind.
Intelligence: 11.
Considering that the Barbarian average barely reached 4 or 5, he really was intelligent.
Yet that intelligence had not manifested as the cunning of adults worn down by the world. It had manifested as the wisdom and sensitivity to empathize with another person’s pain.
‘But...... isn’t this unfair?’
He was good at fighting, his Potential was S-Grade, and he was rather handsome...... Did he even have to have a good personality?
For a moment, I felt sorry for Malko, who was sleeping in the tent next door.
If Malko had been smart as well, he would have been S-Grade. Instead, God had given him an enormous nose.
In any case, receiving that unexpected, gentle comfort did not feel bad at all.
Kang Jin-ho in the real world had terrible luck with people. Who would have thought I would find such warmth in this land of savagery?
“Thank you, Jakan.”
I cleared my throat and restored the mood.
“So...... where is the shop?”
Jakan looked at me as though he had just remembered something, then returned to his troubled expression.
Then he declared boldly.
“I do not know.”
Why? Why do you not know? What am I supposed to do if you do not know!?
As if he had heard my inner cry, Jakan continued.
“We have never left this Black Frontier. Have you not been taught that it has been our mission to guard the wall since the time of our grandfather’s grandfather? That is why I do not know.”
What a thing to be proud of, you bastard.
Suppressing a fury I had not felt in a long time, I asked him a question.
“Then what about that pot? The leather armor you are wearing? Humans made all of those.”
“Ah, a merchant gave them to us.”
“A merchant?”
My ears perked up.
“A merchant comes here?”
“Yes. A merchant visits us periodically.”
Oh! Of course!
The flower of fantasy: a wandering merchant!
A mysterious being who appears in the wasteland, sells rare items, and then vanishes!
“When does he come? Where does he come from?”
Jakan fell silent again.
Damn it...... You cannot be serious, can you?
“I do not know.”
“Hey!”
I shouted before I realized it.
You said he came! You said he came regularly!
Jakan tilted his head as though he did not understand.
“Are you not the one who records dates, Shaman?”
Ah......
Right. My mistake.
“I may not know today’s date, but I know that the merchant comes on the fifteenth of every month.”
Hah...... Sometimes talking to him makes my blood boil.
He had a talent for making even simple things unnecessarily difficult to say.
Tsk.
.
.
.
In any case, I was lucky.
The day the Red Moon had risen was May 8, and today was May 15.
Amazingly, it was the very day the merchant was scheduled to arrive, perfectly timed for when material desire had driven me wild.
My heart pounded.
A merchant. What kind of goods would he sell? We had more than five hundred D-Grade Potatoes.
How much would that be worth when converted into currency?
‘Fuck, what should I buy?’
Just imagining it made me happy.
A sack of salt? No, two sacks? What about an iron pot or a frying pan?
‘Give me everything from here to here.’
Could I really do something like that?
“Izak! He’s coming!” Malko shouted from his post at the village entrance.
I threw aside what I had been doing and rushed out.
I saw someone approaching with a string of children trailing behind him like the Pied Piper.
‘......Huh? That’s the wandering merchant?’
The merchant I had imagined was a friendly—or perhaps greedy—middle-aged man with a belly and a beard.
But the figure walking toward us from afar completely defied my expectations.
He had a gaunt body.
He wore an old turban on his head, and his skin was dark from the sun.
His freckled face belonged to a boy who looked no older than his mid-teens.
What was unusual was the load on his back. He carried an enormous pack that looked three times his own size as though it were nothing.
The boy strode forward and politely bowed to Jakan, who was waiting in the middle of the village.
After Jakan nodded wordlessly,
“Good day.”
What was this now?
The moment he opened his mouth, out came a warm country dialect.
His gentle, camel-like eyes curved into an amiable smile.
“It has been a while, Chieftain. You have had no troubles, I hope?”
He greeted us warmly.
“Yes! Been a long time, Tofu. Barbarians have been waiting for Tofu!” Malko answered in Jakan’s stead.
The boy grinned and set down his enormous pack.
His name was Tofu? Like bean curd?
THUD—!
The sound was so heavy that the ground seemed to shake.
“I was a little late this time. The monsters were causing such a ruckus on the road, you see. I had to risk my life getting here.”
The young merchant, Tofu, joked as he wiped away his sweat.
With his innocent-looking face and youthful voice, Tofu quickly put the tribe members at ease, and they approached him.
But I stood behind them with my arms crossed, narrowing my eyes as I looked him over.
‘There’s a reason they say physiognomy is a science.’
In my experience, the ones who pretended to be that innocent in the trading business were the most frightening.
And more than anything, he had crossed this harsh wasteland carrying that enormous load?
With those scrawny limbs?
I guaranteed that he was no ordinary person.
Regardless of my suspicion, the trade began in earnest.
The Northern Rock Tribe members were used to it. They brought out the things they had gathered.
‘Animal pelts, monster teeth and bones, and various odds and ends.’
They were trophies the hunting party had risked their lives to bring back.
Unfortunately, Demonic Beasts were worthless even if you killed them.
Unlike ordinary monsters, they turned to ash when they died.
‘If they were worth money, nobody would have left this frontier before the wall like this.’
In any case, Tofu took out a monocle and fitted it over one eye, looking every bit the professional.
He turned the pelts over this way and that, examined the cross-sections of bones through a magnifying glass, and carefully began appraising the goods.
“Hmm......”
Whenever he clicked his tongue or tilted his head, the tribe members grew tense and swallowed nervously.
Their anxiety was obvious. They feared that their goods might not be worth much.
After a considerable amount of time, the appraisal finally seemed to be over. Tofu respectfully folded his hands and bowed.
“Chieftain, and Lord Barbarians.”
Tofu spoke with a troubled expression.
“To be frank, the quality of this batch is simply no good.”
“......Is that so?”
Jakan asked with disappointment.
“Yes. Just look at this pelt. There are too many knife marks, so it will be difficult even to sell. And these teeth are too old and have deteriorated.”
Tofu pointed out the defects one by one.
As he explained with difficult technical terms mixed in, the innocent Barbarians could only nod along.
“Still...... we have ties with the Northern Rock Tribe, do we not? Even if I must take a loss, I will buy all of it.”
As Tofu made a show of generosity, the Barbarians’ faces brightened.
“Thank you, Tofu! You really are a good friend!”
“Tofu is kind!”
Oh, you kids......
I had already checked the value of the items our people had brought out with the Peek skill.
[Winter Wolf Pelt – E-Grade (Good), Tusked Boar Tusk – D-Grade (Excellent)]
At the market prices of the old game, these items would fetch at least one hundred thousand Shillings.
Yet that swindler was treating them like garbage.
“So how much is all of it?”
When Jakan asked, Tofu pretended to think for a while. Then, with an expression as though he were doing us a great favor, he answered.
“For all of it...... I will give you three sacks of potatoes.”
What???
I doubted my ears.
Not money...... He was giving us potatoes?
“They are in much worse condition than last time. Normally, around twenty potatoes would be just right, but I am giving you much more than that, especially for you.”
Tofu rummaged through his pack and pulled out potatoes.
They were wrinkled, low-grade potatoes that looked as though they were about to sprout.
F-Grade Potatoes—no, they were no better than refuse.
They were the very potatoes I had seen in the storage shed on my first day here!
But the truly shocking part was our people’s reaction.
“Ooh! We got three whole sacks of potatoes. Tofu is kind!”
“So many potatoes! Barbarians are rich.”
Hah......
They were genuinely happy.
I was finally beginning to understand why they were so damn crazy for potatoes.
These children were not fools or idiots. They were merely naïve marks, unfamiliar with the ways of the world, deceived by people whose insides had been ground pitch-black.
My anger swelled until I felt like crying.
“Here you are. The deal is done, yes?”
Tofu grinned as he handed over the potatoes, and just as Jakan nodded and held out his hand—
SNATCH—!
I roughly seized Tofu’s wrist.
“Freeze.”
A voice so cold that even I was surprised flowed from my lips.
Tofu looked up at me with startled eyes.
“W-what is this, Shaman?”
“Are you dealing from the bottom?”
“What do you mean? I do not rightly understand. It hurts!”
When I tightened my grip around his wrist, he recoiled in shock.
My Strength was 24, after all. I could crush the wrist of a scrawny merchant like him.
Tofu’s face twisted.
‘He must take me for a fool.’
Staring straight into his eyes, I spoke.
“Where do you think you are trying to pull tricks?”
Had he really thought he could swindle our people?
He had picked the wrong day.
Everything he had swindled from them so far—no, double that—I would wring it out of him.