Published: September 10, 2025
This is a side story that took place between obtaining the title "Demon King Slayer" and the Purple Tower incident.
Note: On 2021/4/1, some terms were adjusted to align with the novel version.
“Master, customer!”
“Master, they’ve arrived!”
“Master, hurry up!”
While I was producing stock of magic potions in the kitchen at the back of the shop, a child clerk who looked like a knee-high hamster-like kemari mouse (Ham) person came calling for me.
“Got it. I’m coming right away.”
I stored the half-finished magic potions into the storage and headed to the sales floor, accompanied by the noisy little Hamsters tugging at my pant legs.
“Is Roro not here?”
“Roro went out.”
“Roro’s making a delivery.”
“Roro mentioned it just a little while ago.”
The Roro I asked about is the owner of this miscellaneous goods store, "Hero Shop."
“Oh, finally you’ve come out.”
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Nona. Are you preparing for an adventure today?”
“You can tell just by looking at this outfit.”
Nona, the female adventurer with a muscular physique bursting out of her leather armor, is a regular customer of this shop.
“I’ll take five lower-grade stamina recovery potions, ten ‘No Hesitation’ candles, and thirty servings of preserved food. Of course, the expensive kind! Once you eat that preserved food, you can’t go back to grass-sandal-like dried meat and hard bread.”
“That’s quite a stock-up. Going on a long journey this time?”
“Yeah, I was able to join an expedition hosted by a major adventurer guild.”
I was worried because she had been solo after a certain incident where we met, but now that she has companions, I feel a bit more at ease.
While pretending to fetch the items she requested from the shelf behind the counter, I actually took them out of storage and lined them up on the countertop.
The bulky preserved food was fetched by the Hamsters from the warehouse. The preserved food, packed with research results by Lulu and me, is a best-seller in this shop.
“The magic power of the Water Stone is almost depleted, so please recharge it. I’ve been an adventurer for a long time, but I never knew you could recharge it.”
“Recharging is a service unique to us.”
I charged magic power converted to water attribute into the Water Stone embedded in her water bag.
Nowadays, as long as there’s a core fragment, you can make as many Attribute Stones as you want, but I’m holding back on that. The price of Attribute Stones directly affects adventurers’ income, after all.
“Master, preserved food.”
“Master, I’ve carried it.”
“Master, praise me!”
“All of you did well.”
When I petted the Hamsters who had finished carrying the preserved food, they happily wagged their hands and short tails.
Nona looked like she wanted to pet them too.
Since it makes them happy, I think it’s fine to pet them without hesitation, right?
“All together, three copper coins and twelve coins—I'll let you off the smaller change, so just three copper coins.”
“Alright, thanks!”
Nona placed three strings of coins made by threading a hundred-holed copper coins on a string onto the table.
In this city, common people are prohibited from using silver or gold coins for transactions, so such bundled copper coins are prized.
For high-value transactions or savings, jewels are used, but they are inconvenient for commercial trades.
“Should I sharpen your waist sword too?”
“I usually do the sharpening myself.”
Despite that, Nona drew out her one-handed sword from her waist and placed it on the table.
Though maintained, the care is a bit rough. Since this is a hot and humid tropical climate, if care is lax, swords deteriorate quickly.
Because of that, metal swords like hers are rare here; instead, the majority use bone weapons forged by sorcerers or necromancers.
“Let me borrow it for a moment.”
I took out a specially crafted whetstone I recently succeeded in refining and quickly sharpened the sword.
“This should make it a bit sharper.”