ISGW 03

Chapter 3

Harin Goes Out into the Outside World (3)

Murmur, murmur.

It took Harin and the others four full days and another half a day of walking before they finally left Rosentina Forest and reached the land of Asyria.

At the edge of Asyria, there was a place marked on the map as a village called Alouis.

They entered the village in the afternoon, after lunchtime, when the sun had already begun to sink.

For the first time, Harin saw people other than herself who were her own kind.

She stood frozen at the entrance of the village for a while, her eyes wide.

My kind.

Humans I’ve never seen before.

Without a doubt, they’re the same humans as me.

In truth, aside from their ears, which were the most obvious difference, there was not much difference between them and the beastfolk.

Still, the fact that she had finally met the people she had wanted to see for so long made Harin’s heart ache with emotion.

Perhaps it was because of the hope that she could finally satisfy the sense of belonging she had longed for since she was very young.

“What are you standing there like an idiot for? Move!”

Asbel shouted irritably.

Unlike Harin, who looked deeply moved as she watched the people passing by, Asbel seemed quite on edge at being around another race.

In fact, there were quite a few people glancing at Asbel and Leod’s furry, triangular ears.

Hearing the curious whispers around them, Asbel was already annoyed by being surrounded by so many humans. On top of that, the fatigue that had built up over the long journey made her expression sour the entire time.

“Um… Wouldn’t it be better if we ate something first?”

Leod, who had been watching Asbel’s mood carefully, cautiously spoke up.

They had been eating mostly simple jerky throughout their walk through the forest, and they were sick of eating the same thing.

They had also skipped lunch and were walking through the marketplace, so seeing all the delicious-looking fruit, bread, and other food along the road made their hunger hit them all at once.

Apparently, Asbel felt the same way, because she did not object to Leod’s suggestion.

She looked around at the buildings before spotting one with a sign showing meat dishes and a crossed fork and knife.

“We can eat there, right? Let’s go in.”

Ding.

When they opened the door and entered, a clear bell rang, and the restaurant owner came over to greet them.

“Welcome! Oh, um… Are there three of you?”

The pleasant-looking man, who seemed to be in his late forties, flinched for a moment when he saw Asbel and Leod’s ears. But he quickly recovered and continued to speak politely.

Instead of answering, Asbel sat down in a nearby chair and picked up the menu.

“They have meat dishes here, right?”

“Of course! We have beef steak, bacon, and whole-roasted barbecue!”

“Then we’ll have all of those.”

The restaurant owner smiled broadly at Asbel’s words.

“Of course! I’ll bring them right away! By the way, you look like travelers. Our place is both a restaurant and an inn. Would you like to stay here for the night?”

Only then did Asbel realize that, unlike in the forest, they could not simply sleep on the ground wherever they wanted.

She nodded.

“Oh. All right. We’ll do that.”

“It looks like there are two women and one man… Would you like one double room and one single room?”

“No. Three single rooms.”

“Yes, thank you. Then… including the food and one night’s stay for all three of you… that will be 1,150 sel. Would you like to pay in advance?”

Asbel’s expression stiffened slightly.

She had stupidly forgotten that money with a currency system was used in human countries.

When Asbel’s expression hardened, Leod, who had been looking worried beside her, quietly called her.

“Asbel…”

The restaurant owner narrowed his eyes, sensing something strange from their reaction.

“Do you not have any money?”

Asbel looked flustered for a moment. Then she took off the bag she was carrying and pulled out a round red jewel.

“Will this do?”

“Oh, yes, of course! I’ll prepare everything right away. Just give me a moment!”

The owner, who had been looking at the group suspiciously, quickly put on a smile again and accepted the jewel before hurrying into the kitchen.

“That was a ruby, right? Wasn’t it pretty expensive?”

Leod did not know much about the currency used in human countries either, but he figured it had to be worth more than a meal and a night’s stay.

Asbel also frowned unhappily.

“After we eat, let’s go exchange it for currency.”

After their meal, they went to a jewelry store.

Asbel was the daughter of the White Fang tribe chief, and her father had filled her travel bag with valuable items before she left.

When she took them out and asked to exchange them for money, even the shopkeeper, who had initially looked wary upon seeing that Asbel was beastfolk, widened his eyes in surprise.

“Exchange all of these for money.”

“These are extremely… high-quality jewels.”

As if he were appraising them, he carefully examined the jewels she had laid out with a magnifying glass.

This was the first time Harin had seen the jewels Asbel possessed.

Even she was amazed by how beautifully crafted the ornaments were.

Most of them were necklaces, earrings, or delicately cut gemstones. At a glance, they were valuable treasures that only high-ranking nobles or royalty would normally use.

“Hmm… I’ll give you 825,000 sel for all of them. That’s a very generous price for this area.”

When Asbel showed no particular objection, he took out gold and silver coins from a drawer and counted them in front of them.

“Eighty-two gold and fifty silver. Please check and make sure.”

Asbel looked confused and said nothing.

The shopkeeper then remembered that two of the three unusual customers were beastfolk. He realized that they might not know much about the human currency system.

He gave them a slightly strange look before explaining.

“Just in case, let me explain the currency system. One sel is a copper coin. One hundred sel is a silver coin, and ten thousand sel is a gold coin. Since I said the total was 825,000 sel, I’m giving you eighty-two gold coins and fifty silver coins.”

Only then did Asbel nod.

In the beastfolk village, most things were either self-produced or exchanged through barter, so there had never been any reason for her to learn about the currency humans used.

Asbel took the coins from him, separated the gold from the silver, and put them into two separate pouches, which she tucked away inside her clothes.

“Let’s go.”

“Ah… Wait!”

As Harin watched Asbel exchange the jewels for money, she suddenly remembered the few pieces of jewelry she had brought along just in case.

One necklace made of round, white pearls, and one ring with a green emerald set into it.

“Please exchange these for money too.”

“Huh. I wonder where she got things like those.”

Asbel muttered under her breath.

As if she has no parents.

The jewelry had been left to Harin by Grandma Iyore, who had raised her when she was little.

When Harin left the beastfolk village, she had packed them in her bag because she thought there was a chance she might never return.

“A pearl necklace and an emerald…”

The shopkeeper examined them.

“I’ll give you 14,000 sel for them.”

He handed Harin one gold coin and forty silver coins.

Harin put them into a small pouch and tucked it inside her coat.

As far as her own personal belongings were concerned, separate from the group’s possessions, this was all the money she had.

The jewelry shop owner, who had been watching her, suddenly looked at the white necklace around her neck.

“Could I take a look at that necklace for a moment?”

Harin instinctively stepped back and covered the necklace with her hand.

“This isn’t for sale.”

“I just want to take a look. It’s my profession, after all. I’m very interested in jewels and valuables. Do you know what it’s made of?”

“No.”

“Aren’t you curious? Let me take a look.”

Harin was reluctant, but since he said he could tell her what it was, she approached him without taking off the necklace.

For some reason, he seemed almost entranced as he touched her necklace.

After examining it closely from every angle with his magnifying glass, he spoke.

“…If you were to sell this, I could give you a very high price.”

“What?”

“One million… No, I’ll give you one and a half million sel.”

Harin was stunned and could not say a word.

She was not the only one who was speechless.

Asbel and Leod also stared at the shopkeeper as if they could not believe their ears.

He had valued all the jewels Asbel had brought at around 800,000 sel, yet he was offering more than that for one small white necklace?

Asbel looked at the shopkeeper incredulously.

“What exactly is that?!”

“It’s a jewel known as ‘Frozen Moonlight.’ It is produced only in small quantities in our country of Asyria, which receives the blessing of Shyene, the Goddess of Ice. But how could something so rare have so much of it…?”

He stared at Harin’s necklace as if he were under a spell.

Harin, too, looked shocked as she learned for the first time just how valuable her necklace was.

“I’m not selling it.”

“Well, instead of wearing it around your neck like that, wouldn’t it be much more useful to sell it and use the money for your travel expenses?”

Asbel’s pride had been hurt by the fact that the jewels she had brought were worth comparatively less, so she spoke sarcastically.

Harin’s emotions flared up before she could stop herself.

“This is what I need to find my parents!”

There was no hesitation in Harin’s firm expression.

The shopkeeper stared at her necklace for a long while, looking disappointed.

“I see. There’s nothing I can do, then. If you ever change your mind, please be sure to visit our shop.”

He saw them off with a lingering look of regret on his face.

That evening, with darkness covering the village, Harin lay alone on the bed in her single room at the inn.

It was the day she had met people of her own kind for the first time.

Her heart was still pounding because it hardly felt real.

She could not fall asleep easily, wondering if all of this would turn out to be a dream when she closed her eyes and woke up.

No one… looked at me as if I were a different race.

No one looked at me strangely or tried to push me away.

An indescribable happiness filled her heart.

Harin hugged the white pillow in her arms even tighter.

This was what she had always hoped and longed for.

The familiarity and sense of belonging she could feel among people who were the same kind as her.

Even thinking about the people she had met today made Harin happy because none of them had treated her with hostility simply because she was human like them.

“‘Frozen Moonlight,’ huh…”

She had been truly shocked when she first learned how valuable the necklace was.

Hearing that it was an extremely valuable jewel made her wonder if perhaps her parents belonged to a good family or were wealthy.

Then why?

Why would people like that abandon me in a beastfolk village so far away?

Did they leave me somewhere so distant because they never wanted to find me again?

The thoughts that came to her mind did nothing to help her mental state.

Harin shook her head repeatedly, trying to drive away the negative thoughts.

But there was one thing she now knew for certain.

Her parents were very likely people from Asyria.

After all, she had been told that Frozen Moonlight was a jewel produced only here.

“I’ll find them someday…”

Thinking about this and that, Harin slowly began to fall asleep.

That was, until she heard a noise coming from the room next door, where Leod was staying.

Bang!!

Harin’s body shot upright at the sound of something breaking.

Then she heard what sounded like a pained groan from the room next door.

Someone suddenly slammed into Harin’s door with a loud BANG!

Harin froze on the bed and stared at the door with a frightened expression.

“Harin!! It’s me, Leod! Open the door, quickly!”

At Leod’s shout, Harin immediately threw open the door.

His clothes were torn and covered in dust as if he had been thrown around in a fight, and his dark brown eyes were tense and filled with caution.

“The humans attacked us!! Damn it! Just as I thought, humans can’t be trusted!”