The woman stared at Arthur silently for a few seconds with the sword still aimed at his neck as if she were contemplating whether to slice his head off or not. Arthur remained motionless, not daring to make any sudden moves.
‘I don’t really want to die now, that will be really inconvenient.’ Arthur thought to himself as he kept eye contact with the lady. ‘I don’t want to lose my items and levels because of such a stupid mistake. I swear I didn’t mean to anger this woman!’
The situation was all his mistake and he had to admit it. If he died now then there was no one to blame but himself for being nosy and too curious for his own good. However, if there was a chance he would be spared, then Arthur was ready to do everything he can do to get that chance.
“You’re looking for new armor?” The woman asked as she looked down at Arthur’s body. The current armor he was wearing looked battered and old, with dents and cracks. It didn’t seem like it could hold on for any longer with all the damage it sustained.
‘… He doesn’t seem like he’s lying.’ The woman thought to herself as she exhaled a small breath and slowly retracted her sword from Arthur’s neck. “You’re lucky I couldn’t smell any lies on you.”
“Am I spared?” He asked.
“For now.” The woman replied.
Hearing that, Arthur exhaled a long breath of relief. He felt quite delighted that he dodged such a dangerous situation. ‘This lady is no joke… That speed is insane. I couldn’t even see her pull the sword out.’
Arthur was quite confident in his own agility and reaction speed as he had almost 50 points in it so he was quite fast. But, compared to this seemingly normal lady, he was moving like a turtle.
“Thank you for sparing me. I’m really grateful.”
“Don’t bother. I was simply being cautious. I wasn’t going to kill you either way. I don’t kill children.” The woman replied.
“Oh, hahaha, of course you won’t kill chi-” Arthur wanted to laugh awkwardly, only to get cut off again by the woman.
“Unless there is a good reason to do that.”
“…”
“Now, tell me who you are and where are you from?” She said as she turned around and walked toward her carriage. “Follow me.”
“…” Arthur stared at the woman for a second before he looked over his shoulder. ‘There is really no point in running now. If she wants, she could easily catch me and kill me. Oh well…’
Deciding on his next move, Arthur started moving after the woman.
“Mm, my name is Arthur.”
“Arthur? You have a nice name. Your parents must really love you.” The woman said.
“… Yeah, sure,” Arthur replied with a blank expression. “What about you? What’s your name?”
“Merry. You can call me Merry.”
“Nice to meet you, Merry.”
“Don’t get too comfortable with me. You might regret that.” Merry lifted her finger in the air as she stopped in front of the carriage. “One thing to know, never trust anyone you just met. Especially if that person had just pointed a sword at you a few seconds ago.”
“… But, I don’t feel any malicious intentions from you,” Arthur replied. Although Merry seemed terrifying, she didn’t give Arthur a horrible feeling like many instances before that. She was in fact quite… peaceful.
“…” The woman stared at Arthur. “Ohoh? And how did you reach that conclusion?”
“My guts. They never miss when it comes to judging people.”
‘They have truly never let me down and I doubt they will let me down now.’ The boy thought to himself. This entire time, Arthur was relying heavily on his gut feeling to do things and they never really brought him any bad outcomes.
Merry watched the small smile on Arthur’s face and she could only be taken aback for a moment. Then, she realized something. Apart from the jumpscare Arthur had when she first appeared beside him, Arthur hadn’t shown a single instance of fear toward Merry, not even when her sword was aimed at his neck.
‘… He looked worried that I might kill him… But I couldn’t smell any fear on him.’ She mused. ‘What an odd kid he is…’
This was the first time Merry had met someone like Arthur and that left some impression on her.
“Merry?”
“So, what kind of armor do you want?” Shaking her head, the lady focused on the matter at hand. “Yours look quite battered.”
“Hm? Oh, hahaha, yeah, it had been through a lot.” Arthur said. ‘This armor had seen hell. It had really served me well this entire time, saving my life more than once.’
Arthur was actually quite fond of this armor and its beautiful design, but he knew that it was time for a change whether he liked it or not.
“Can I take a look at your breastplate?” Merry asked.
“Hm? Sure.” Arthur nodded as he took the armor off and looked at it. His finger rubbed the broken parts of the armor for a moment, looking at it fondly. Then, he gave it to Merry.
The woman took the armor and stared at it, inspecting it thoroughly with her eyes. A few seconds of silence passed like that. Arthur noticed how interested Merry was in the piece of armor as she kept looking at it.
“Is something wrong?”
“… This armor. Where did you get it from?”
“Huh? Why do you ask?”
“The material this armor is made of… I haven’t seen it in a while. ‘Dragon Realm Obsidian’…” She muttered. “This is quite the rare piece of work you have here, kid.”
‘I haven’t seen this obsidian in decades, where did he find it I wonder.’
‘So she knows about the Dragon Realm Obsidian. Well, I can’t tell her where I got it either.’
“Sorry, but I cannot disclose that.” Arthur shook his head. “I hope you understand.”
Merry nodded her head faintly. “Well, that is no problem. But, this thing is certainly something rare. I don’t think you should get rid of this armor, Arthur.”
“Huh? Then what am I supposed to do with it? It’s a piece of scrap now.” Arthur raised an eyebrow.
The woman thought for a moment as she looked at the armor before she shifted her gaze to Arthur. “Follow me.”
After saying that, the woman walked to her carriage door from the back and pulled a huge key out of her pocket. The key looked almost comical with how ridiculous it was. Putting it in the socket, she twisted it slightly until it clicked.
Then, what happened simply blew Arthur’s mind away.
*Click*
As if the carriage gained sentience, it suddenly started moving on its own, making clicking noises as gears moved inside of it. The closed door slowly opened on its own while the walls of the carriage shifted in real-time. Arthur watched the scene with a stunned look on his face.
The walls slowly tilted out and the ceiling of the carriage expanded even further, creating even larger space in the carriage. Then, a set of stairs descended to the ground, leading to the now elevated platform.
The carriage had transformed into a shop.
A//N: Don’t forget to give the book some golden tickets for good luck! :3
