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224. Childhood Friend – Initial Funds

“Come on! Come on!”

The shouts of merchants echoed back and forth.

Various vegetables and fruits were laid out on the stalls lining the street, and the bustling market was filled with the musty scent of inexpensive spices.

Passersby picked up goods to sniff and squeezed them to check the quality. The merchants jovially reassured them not to worry.

It was a colorful sight of the market.

People selling, people buying, those simply enjoying the visuals, playing children, beggars asking for alms, and residents just aimlessly wandering about.

Sometimes pickpockets caused commotion in this marketplace of Torito Village. People of all types were entwined for their own reasons, and among them was a wandering young man.

In fact, he was rather young to be called a young man. Standing tall but in his mid-teens, he trudged through the market with slumped shoulders.

– “Please. Can’t it work out somehow?”

– “It’s impossible. I’m not taking a rookie with no experience. If you really want to come, pay the proper fees. Then you can join the merchant group.”

The boy clutched a pouch containing eight silver coins and five copper coins. It seemed like a decent amount of money, but it was woefully inadequate to follow the merchants. He stamped his foot in frustrated anger.

– “I’ll work as a laborer. Isn’t that good enough?”

– “You’re not from our village.”

– “But I’ve been…”

He pleaded, but the merchant turned his head away, rigidly showing a ‘I can’t hear you’ expression.

Other merchants were no different.

He searched for those he thought he had some camaraderie with and even those he had only casually greeted, but none would take him along.

After boiling in frustration for a while, the boy quickened his pace in despair.

Leah had left.

For the Jerome Holy Kingdom.

The Holy Kingdom was far away. The money he had was certainly a fortune for a child, but it was nowhere near enough to get there. Moreover, it was supposed to be the capital for the business he planned to start one day.

But what good was business now? Leah was gone.

In his agitation, he began to blame Leah. It was absurd that he had to go through this just because of a girl. He felt pathetic for being so indecisive.

‘Priest my foot. What do girls know about being a priest? She probably just said that because she wanted to escape this little village.’

He started to belittle her. Then the weight of the situation came crashing down on him again.

He wandered aimlessly, and soon his steps led him to a dark corner of Torito Village.

“Come on in!”

The distracted boy jumped and looked up. A man welcomed him as he walked into an alleyway.

“Came alone? Oh, you’re rather young. First time here?”

“Uh? Yes.”

“Welcome. Come in.”

The man had a menacing appearance.

While their heights were similar, the rugged arms of the thug wrapped around the shoulders of the boy. Confirming the boy had money by patting his pockets, he led him into a shabby wooden building.

The terrified boy rolled his eyes. The long corridor with red lanterns hanging was an unknown place.

What should he do? He considered how to escape. However, the thug froze as he opened the door and said, “Have a great time!”

A half-naked woman was right in front of him. She pulled him in, saying, “Welcome.” Her hand boldly dove into his groin.

“Wow, you’re well-endowed. What are you waiting for? Get undressed.”

Like in a trance, the boy took off his clothes. Feeling shy for a moment, he suddenly pulled the prostitute close and toppled her onto the shabby bed.

“Oh dear. I need to get undressed too…”

“W-what’s your name?”

The boy desperately asked, clutching her chest. The woman chuckled and revealed her name. It was probably fake, but the boy mumbled it.

“What’s your name?”

The boy answered her, who resembled Leah in some way.

“I’m… Hans.”

*

“Take care.”

“Right. You said you’re going to the Bijan Tribe? I hear it’s quite far, so be careful on your journey and don’t trust people easily.”

“Yes, I will. Stay healthy.”

Reb bowed to the village elders.

After Leah had left, he spent days going around saying goodbye to the villagers.

Before leaving, there were many connections he needed to face. In previous rounds, he just took off in a rush, but now, remembering the past, he couldn’t do that.

Moreover, a lot had changed in the past.

Whether it was because his mother was alive or because his father, who had lived disconnected from the villagers, had changed, or perhaps both, Reb had many people to greet.

Last year, he had received pickles from Dino’s aunt. Hugo, from next door, shared fresh milk every morning, and Ruben, though an outsider, quickly settled into the village with his unique charm, generously shared fertilizer for the vegetable garden.

So he brought well-dried leather as a gift to these folks, and he especially brought fox fur for the village chief.

He also couldn’t forget the village elders.

Reb brought a bundle of soft bread to them, and the old men clicked their tongues, gazing at him with pity as he turned away.

“Leah, what’s with that priest? She should just marry that guy and be done with it…”

The villagers sympathized with Reb’s predicament. It was as if they all knew he was about to leave for good. There was even a girl who asked,

“Reb. You’re going for your coming-of-age ceremony, right? You’ll come back, right?”

Reb honestly replied, “I don’t think I’ll come back,” shattering her futile hope. Thus, he began to tie up the connections he had.

Their hunches were right. He had no intention of returning to this place anymore. In one way or another.

The next morning, Reb loaded a sack filled with jerky onto a cart. He pushed it with the village youths toward the big town and bid farewell at the edge of the village as the sunset bathed them.

Now truly alone, he could do anything he wanted.

But he still had ties that needed wrapping up. Following the direction indicated by his Tracking Skill, Reb walked into the market and encountered Hans.

“Hey, Reb! You’ve come at the right time. Come here for a moment.”

He knew where he was being led. But he never understood why Hans, who he wasn’t close to and had no real connection with, was calling him all this time.

Of course, he understood now…

Carrying jerky, Reb silently followed Hans. When they entered the alley leading to the brothel, he finally spoke up.

“Stop. I’m not going.”

“Huh? Oh, you’ve been there? That makes sense.”

Hans sneered.

“Hey, when did you go? I just went the day before yesterday, and guess what? There was a girl just like Leah. Even her height—I mean, she had a chest you could cup in one hand…”

“So, did you enjoy it?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m asking if you’re happy.”

Reb gazed intently at Hans. Hans’s face reddened at the calmness in his eyes.

“What business is it of yours?”

“You said you wanted to be a merchant, but you’ve spent all your money, haven’t you?”

“…There’s no point in making money if Leah’s not around. And you, pretending to be so close with Leah. Hmph! Did you see? She waved goodbye happily. Leah wasn’t interested in guys like you or me.”

Reb took a deep breath. He and Hans were intertwined in many ways.

When they were very young, the two of them would often fight over Leah as though they were competing for a mate.

Reb, always attached to Leah, hated it when Hans tried to intrude between them. Hans, too, disliked Reb for blocking him.

So the two little boys had a fistfight, with Reb as the victor. A bloody-nosed Hans ran off to tell his mother.

“We should be friends. You two shouldn’t fight.”

Both Reb and Hans got scolded by their mothers. How could it be otherwise? Hans was his cousin.

The only bakery in Demos village belonged to Hans’s mother, and she had a younger sister, who was Reb’s mother.

Hans’s mother, hardworking, learned the craft of baking from a young age, while his lively mother gathered herbs for bread. Then she fell in love with a barbarian boy.

That was why Hans would always approach him, even though they weren’t that close.

Hans had shown a similar attitude even when Reb’s mother had passed away and Reb’s family was somewhat isolated from the villagers, unlike his own mother.

Not knowing that… Reb used to beat on Hans. Luckily, he hadn’t killed him, but he had definitely beaten him badly a couple of times. One could certainly say Hans was pathetic, but Reb was no one to talk.

Reb declared to the sulking Hans,

“She’s not coming back to this shabby village again, you know? And what kind of studying would Leah be doing? I’ve heard there are plenty of handsome guys in the city; she’s probably going to fall for them. Ugh!”

“I’m going to Leah.”

“What? Are you out of your mind? Leah is going to become a priest at the Monastery Church…”

“I don’t care.”

“……Then I’m coming with you…”

“You?”

Reb ruthlessly cut off Hans’s words. Hans glanced back down the alley leading to the brothel, his face turning red. Perhaps his conscience had kicked in—he didn’t speak further.

“I came to give you a chance. I felt sorry for you. Take it.”

– Clink.

“What is this…”

Eight silver coins and five copper coins.

It was just like the money Hans had recklessly spent over the past two days. Reb, having tossed him the Initial Funds, nodded and said,

“You said you wanted to be a merchant, right? To live grandly away from this little place. Take it. Use that as capital to reignite your dreams, or go embrace a prostitute that resembles Leah over there. Do as you will. It’s your choice.”

Then he turned away.

Hans stood there, seemingly nailed to the spot. He could faintly hear a sob, but Reb didn’t look back.

After all, that guy had sold us out to the Merchant Group. Thinking of it that way, this was his just deserts for getting beaten and dying.

Reb, now having sold the jerky, left Torito Village. He headed toward Bijan Tribe, the hometown of his father who hadn’t been slaughtered.