## Chapter 78 – 1 Gold
Having spent all my energy over two sleepless nights, I felt like I was about to die.
Actually, it was three days. One day catching the ogre, one with Winia, and now this one.
I had all my vital energy sucked out by two women.
Death was near. My vision went black.
Lying in bed, I spoke emptily like an old man on his deathbed reciting his will.
It was like the sound of a gaunt branch being struck by the wind.
“Yeah, I was pissed because you were trying to send me to another woman like it was nothing. I guess we have different ideas about that, you absolutely can’t do that.”
Claudie was lying next to me, holding me. She replied in a somber voice. Her long ears were drooping.
“Yeah… I see. I just thought you’d want to have children… I’m sorry. You’re my first man, so I guess I made assumptions.”
You’re my first woman too.
“Okay, just so you know, monogamy is the norm, one woman per man, one man per woman. Your boyfriend is definitely not something you can just hand over to someone else. You said you’d be with me forever.”
“I understand, I’ll apologize, so please forgive me now, okay?”
“Okay.”
I stroked her ears. When I did, her drooping ears perked up again. Is this some kind of reflex?
“Ah.”
Anyway, I decided to forgive her. I’d been hearing her apologize all night, hadn’t I? That was enough punishment.
“I forgive you.”
I felt like I could close my eyes in peace now.
It was a short life.
I had lived my twenty-something years without much excitement, but my life in this other world had been an incredibly intense and stimulating experience. I lived fiercely in that harsh place and now I’m going like this.
I wanted to see my hometown one last time.
It flickered in my mind, but now I didn’t even have the strength to reach out.
I barely avoided dying from overexertion, but now it was too much.
All my energy had been sucked away.
My eyes closed.
Death was near.
“This is death.”
Like this, I di—
.
.
.
—No, goddammit, if I close my eyes here, I’ll really die!
“Haa!”
I gasped and shot up.
“Haa… Haa…! Holy shit, I almost died just now!”
“Katt? Why, what’s wrong, what happened!”
“Haa… Haa… No, it’s okay. Just had a seizure.”
I feel like the frequency of these seizures is getting shorter and shorter.
Is it because I’ve seen too many corpses? I feel like I need to take medication regularly. If I start seeing the Teletubbies again, I’ll have to seriously consider it.
My body felt heavy. I stretched. My neck cracked as I turned it. My whole body was stiff. I’d been moving so violently, it was no surprise I had muscle aches.
After a simple stretch, I took out my wallet from the clothes I had taken off and held a 1 gold coin in my hand.
“Hey, Claudie. 1 gold.”
That’s right. It was the 1 gold I received for playing the crucial role of bait in killing the ogre. Lady Isvant finished it off, but she gave me a reward. The gold coin shimmered.
“Let’s split this in half.”
Of course, it was money to be split. If Claudie hadn’t snatched me away at the end, I would have died. She was the one who came up with the plan in the first place.
“…Do we really need to split it? You can just keep it. I was waiting on purpose to give it to you…”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Everyone should keep their own money. It’s safer that way.”
If I get pickpocketed, I’ll just regress into infancy, goddammit.
“And if I die with all of it, it’ll be unfair.”
Since I couldn’t split the gold coin in half, I needed to exchange it first. What should I do with this money? I’m thinking of stopping by the Swordsman’s Guild.
“Hmm, then, Katt.”
“Yeah?”
Claudie got up. She was naked and also stretching. It was a flexible movement, bending her waist and touching the floor with her fingertips. Seeing her from behind made my heart flutter again, but I desperately suppressed my erection.
“Let’s use it to get a.”
If I did it one more time, I swear I’d be taking a one-way trip to the afterlife.
I’d be crossing the River Styx.
After stretching, she started putting on the clothes she had taken off.
“Let’s go find a good room.”
Come to think of it, that’s what we decided to do. Well, fine. Now that I had money, there was no need to sleep in such a shabby place. Thinking about the inn where I spent the day with Winia yesterday, a good living environment really does improve the quality of life.
“Yeah, sure. Let’s do that.”
And so, we went outside. We went out and ate this and that, had some snacks, and looked around the city. Our destination was an area with a concentration of high-quality accommodations.
“If we rent a room by the month, they’ll probably give us a discount.”
As expected of a place with inns that charged high prices, it was a clean neighborhood. I linked arms with Claudie and went into a suitable place.
Inside, there was a clerk wearing clean clothes. No, not a landlord, but a clerk. It was like a big hotel. I spoke to him.
“I’d like to stay for about a month, how much is it?”
“Are you hoping for a long-term stay? If you pay for a month in advance, it will be 4 silver.”
That’s fucking expensive.
I almost fainted.
But Claudie wanted it, so I could bear that much expense.
“Hmm, can I see the inside first?”
“Of course.”
The clerk led us to a room on the second floor. It was a room with a reasonably large living room and a shower and toilet. I really liked the room itself. Just having a shower was worth 30 coppers. The entrance fee to the bathhouse was 1 copper, so that’s how much I’d save in a month.
“What do you think, Claudie?”
“I really like it.”
“Then let’s take it.”
Cool payment. I handed over the gold coin.
“I-Is that a gold coin?”
“Don’t you have change?”
“No, please wait a moment. No, please follow me.”
Following the clerk into a small room on the first floor, he took out a leather pouch. He poured silver coins onto the desk and counted them.
“Here are exactly 96 silver coins. Please confirm.”
Thorough. I counted them and there were no errors. I put them in my wallet. Then he handed me the key.
“Ah, but I’m going to be storing luggage and things inside, if a thief breaks in and steals something, is there any compensation?”
“Please take care of your valuables yourself, and if other items are stolen, we will provide some compensation depending on the liability.”
I asked about the essentials before a long-term stay. It was my first time staying for so long, so I needed to get as specific answers as possible.
“Specifically, how much compensation is provided?”
“Are you planning to leave a golden calf or something?”
“Well, clothes and things like that. Things that are awkward to carry around.”
“That’s enough. But please don’t leave valuable items behind if you can help it. It’s difficult to compensate for valuable items.”
“I’ll be careful.”
That won’t happen.
As an adventurer, I always carry my wallet, which is like my entire fortune, in my arms.
“Oh, right.”
“Do you have any more questions?”
“How good is the soundproofing here?”
At my last question, the clerk looked at Claudie and nodded with a stiff face.
Hmm, satisfactory.
I received one key, and the innkeeper said he had another one. He added that if I lost the key, I would have to pay compensation, so I should never lose it.
Claudie and I went into the room. I avoided her trying to hug me from behind.
Are you trying to kill me?
“Katt?”
“Let’s get some sleep first. I need to shower first.”
I threw off my clothes and went into the shower. A pipe was connected to a wooden tub, and it seemed like some kind of device was pumping up groundwater. Unfortunately, only cold water came out. But even that was satisfactory.
After washing for a while, Claudie came in.
She asked me to wash her together, so I sat her on a chair and washed her from behind.
“Hee, I can wash myself…”
“Stay still.”
Claudie’s hair was a light purple. The color contrasted with her brown skin and was very mysterious. It’s a shame there’s no shampoo to wash her hair.
“Your hair color is so pretty. Which parent’s genes is that from?”
“…My mother. Her color was a little darker purple.”
“Really? So you look like your mom? Then your dad is human?”
“The opposite.”
“That’s surprising.”
A dark elf man?
According to Claudie’s explanation, dark elves and desert orcs live in her hometown of Shurdic, as well as humans. Orcs are enemies, but humans and dark elves have a good relationship.
“Hieeut!”
While listening to the explanation, I rubbed her long ears with my fingers. I could see her flinching noticeably, so I played with her ears a little more intensely. Come to think of it, Claudie was wearing six gold earrings. Three on each ear, for a total of six.
Other than that, she didn’t have any other accessories, and she didn’t seem to have any tattoos on her body. Does she like earrings?
“Do these earrings have any meaning? Oh.”
I was absentmindedly thinking about that while touching her ears for a long time. When I came to my senses, Claudie’s face was red and she was leaning against me, panting heavily.
“Haaeeuh…”
“W-What’s wrong? Were your, were your ears a weak point?”
As expected, she’s an elf.
She was completely limp, like she’d gone all the way.
I wiped her body with a towel and lifted her up and put her on the bed. Then I lay down next to her and closed my eyes immediately.
***
And so, I slept for a whole day.
I felt refreshed, as if I had died for a moment and come back to life. Maybe that’s what it would feel like if I was resurrected as a zombie from a corpse. It was a sweet sleep that made me feel deeply why the dead hate the living.
I put on my clothes. I’m going to the Swordsman’s Guild today. I had to say hello to the guild master, and I also had to tell him that I had passed on his regards to the black magician Risha. Come to think of it, I haven’t visited her since then.
Now that I have money, it would be good to go and learn some swordsmanship.
“Hmm, I wish I could teach you.”
Claudie said when I mentioned going to the Swordsman’s Guild.
“Unfortunately, I’ve always been on my own, so I’ve never taught anyone. It’s too difficult. I don’t really understand other people’s senses.”
“Well, so what? Everyone has different specialties. Just because you’re good at studying doesn’t mean you’re a teacher.”
I had asked Claudie to teach me how to use a sword before. I tried it once, but she didn’t seem to understand my movements at all. Just because you’re good at swordsmanship doesn’t necessarily mean you’re good at teaching it.
“Anyway, I’m thinking of going today and relearning how to use a sword. If you have money, you have to invest it. Otherwise, there’s no difference between earning money and not earning money.”
“That’s a good mindset. A man should always pursue strength.”
Claudie also put on her clothes. She said she was curious about what the Swordsman’s Guild was like. She came out with me.
“If I start, I’ll probably be doing nothing but that for a month, is that okay?”
“I don’t care. I have money anyway, and a place to stay for a month, right? Or it might be fun to watch you train.”
“Oh my, how embarrassing.”
People who live by the sword must always strive to improve their skills.
To become a true swordsman, you have to train for the rest of your life. Skill was wealth. An intangible asset that doesn’t run away, follows you for life, and helps you.
Therefore, it is common sense to invest whenever you have the opportunity.
Someday, there will definitely be a moment when life and death depend solely on one’s own skills. As long as you live by the sword, it was inevitable. So I had to prepare for that day. To win and survive.
Actually, there’s nothing else I can do with the money. I don’t do drugs or gamble, so if I have money, I should use it in the right place. I have about 50 silver in total, so it’s not a loss at all to pour half of that into the guild.
Anyway, we arrived in front of the Swordsman’s Guild.
Hearing the shouts that always rang out, I opened the door.
