The Stone of Days Chapter 37

Flipping the sign, before writing, I was lost in thought.

'Exceptional Sale for Service!', 'General Store Owner is Crazy', Mm, or 'There's Nothing else that's Cheaper or Better!' Should I add a few more exclamation marks?

'The Best Treasures in the Continent, Storage Clearance Sale! ! ! '

Was the exaggeration a bit too severe? Then let's induce some sympathy.

'The Will of Life Reborn in the Land Devastated by a Terrible Disaster' , 'Life Lives On the Land of Calamity,' or also… the blade that rises from my chest cuts sorrow… ….
How melodramatic.

The clear skies. Today's weather was quite clear. And that brisk fresh air.
In the midst of Troubard Arund, people are confused, as if they could feel that spring was about to arrive. In this time, the weather was greatly peaceful and good, as snow didn't appear as often. As such, it occurred to me that the weather would continue to get warmer as it transitioned into spring.
But that's a ridiculous saying. Before the start of spring Arna Arund lies in wait of the Darkness Arund. Amongst the year, it's the continent's most apprehensive period and weather, a month that brags of its severe weather.
In front of the fallen sign, I was uselessly wasting away my time while being trapped under the peaceful weather that felt like Spring.

I cleaned up the store.
Before the month of Troubadour Arund pa.s.sed, I thought I should arrange and tidy up all of the leftover items. To throw away the goods that I had bought of which didn't match my personality. The things my mother had taught me are still there. Hmm, does that even make sense.
After the items were somewhat rearranged, other than a few possessions of my mother and others that I needed, I decided to either throw the rest away or give them to someone who needs it. Whether I should nail boards on the front of the store or burn it, I haven't decided yet. Though it will soon be decided.
Finally, I will leave for my journey taking this ambiguous, yet significant mission at task (actually, the most important task is to not lose the necklace in my opinion).

That warm and peaceful air. I can't believe it's still winter.
It would be quite nice to go on a vacation in this weather, but the fact that the Arund of Darkness is arriving worries me a bit to be quite honest.
The snow had nearly completely melted.

After my father had left yesterday, I began to tidy up the store from today.
To live with my father for about one and a half months.
Truly, the existence of a father definitely has many differences from my mother. Since the time we spent together was short, we weren't as intimate as I was with my mother, however the weight of calling him 'father' was quite unconventional. That was what I honestly realized in this short moment.
And the lessons my father had taught me, reminded me, and made me think of.
The new things that I had to do.

The blue sky that still emitted a colder air.
In the center of the sky was a black winter bird that flew by.
I rose myself up from these ruins. And then I looked up into the skies. Our store was built on an elevated area - I could nearly see all of the village from here. The low hill that led to Ember, the destroyed roof of that carpenter's room, the empty long alley, that slope that was connected to the White Mountains. All the stuff that surrounded my view. Even if I were to forget some of the memories they left me, I wanted to remember all of these one last time.
But now, those memories don't bind me down anymore.

The brisk air was good.
I deeply inhaled one slow breath in. I entrusted the tails of my hair to flutter in the cool mountain winds.
I'm fine now.
Even if all the people I once knew had departed to a different world, I'm fine.
Even I don't have the strength to exact my mother's revenge, or that indomitable will that could fill up my body, I will do the things I have to do.
The cool breeze gently whispered as if it were foreboding spring.
Even if that feeling was slightly wrong.

After dinner, I went into my room that was in the interior of Mr.Cindebolp's home. I decided to officially start selling tomorrow, and so I had moved all my items to Grillard for the whole day (Mr.Cindebolp called me a fierce boy after seeing me transfer all those goods, but I thought of it as a compliment). There's no way there would be people who would come to buy goods at that ghost town of Habiyanak.

I sat in my room. In this room, there was no bed. Well, there was no room for a bed anyways. I pulled the blanket over my head in the corner. It's the one I use to sleep with.
Turning over the blanket, I crawled in.

I began to play around with my somewhat unfamiliar necklace on my neck. It's a habit that was recently formed. In case I might lose it while not having it on, or in case I might miss some sort of hint that could coincidentally help me, I could not have the necklace separated from my body.
As my father had done, I wore this inside my clothes. Since this was so unique and noticeable, it would be quite problematic to have to this exposed. I'm not sure what the stones that are embedded on the necklace exactly are, but they're quite heavy.
And the three empty dents. My homework.

To be honest, I had no hobby in wearing such a heavy necklace (It's the same context of me disliking the heavy sword). I'll admit that it's beautiful. If I were to complete the other three dents, I wonder just how heavier it'll be.
Those 4 s.h.i.+ning stones that I have to find, I wonder where they are. Will this necklace truly lead me to the right path?

I lightly touched the commendable green jewel already in place. The more I see it, the more I feel just how much of a treasure it feels as I can never get tired of seeing that mesmerizing color of light.
As if spring had sprouted around like a newly born, glazed green leaf, a light that was fragile yet filled with life. And it was an opaque light that you couldn't see through either. Different from a normal (Never! This is an exaggerated lie) transparent jewel, that odd and faint sparkling above that dark background was quite unusual.
Beautiful.
But, it must be very expensive. No, it's probably immeasurable in value.
… …

If I sell this for a bargain, I'm confident I can leave a profit that will last me for a very long time (the problem was I'm not sure what the true value of this was). What words I would use to advertise dimly materialized in my head.
Of course, I wasn't really on thinking of doing that. I was scared enough to lose this item. To. Sell. It. Frankly, that was an illusion I couldn't even dream of, but only imagine.
When I first received this from my father, those first words that ran through my head unfortunately was 'Not for sale' this. No matter how I think about it, I think that I prefer selling items far more than keeping them. Not because of the money, but just the fact of 'action of making profit' that itself was a job that was quite exciting to me. Maybe if I stare at this which I can never get bored of, maybe these feelings don't matter with this.
If you think about it, I really did decide on a good occupation.

But now, I will be turning a new page in my life. In other words, the lingering attachment I have for the past would be meaningless. For a moment, if I recall the words my dad said before…….

"Fabian. If you can complete this necklace, come to Nim-Nars.h.i.+nyak. Of course, I would like to take you right away and announce you as my son, but if I were to do that, the pain and difficulties that you will have to suffer from the eyes of society, I can't do that to you for my own selfish reasons."

Right… in fact, though it was quite thoughtful, it was also ambiguous.

I can roughly guess my father's thoughts. My father, of course, appended this at the end of his words. If, you can't find it for a long time, you can also just come to Nim-Nars.h.i.+nyak. However, I didn't have such thoughts at all. Maybe it's because of my rusty shabbiness, but I was determined to be adventurous. And I had the desire to definitely succeed wonderfully and be acknowledged. I had the aspirations to satisfy the expectations of my father.
So I stared at the pointy ornamented necklace that looked perfect for scratching my head quite seriously. I can't afford to sell it, or leave it, or ignore it, but I have to carry it with me cautiously with a care  of never losing this item (in other words, a very troublesome item).
For my father, in order for his son to receive recognition, it was a very expensive gamble for him, and it was a priceless responsibility that I uphold to while not falling short of my father's expectations. I must find the other three stones and most definitely return to Nim-Nars.h.i.+nyak.
Although I can't foresee that type of n.o.ble lifestyle, I just want to be besides my father.

Whether it was due to the fact that it wasn't warm inside the blanket, I couldn't fall asleep. But compared to my bed from my old home, it wasn't like it was extremely warm either. It was just that if I could return to that place, I had the feeling that I could comfortably fall asleep.
The surroundings were dark, and the window was tightly closed so that the cold wind wouldn't be able to come in. I was thinking of the moonlight s.h.i.+ning down above the roof. That clear and brisk cold air, the weather outside would probably be clear.
Those countless black designs above those scattered stars.
I could imagine them all over the place as I closed my eyes.

"Now, I sell cheap, I sell cheap I say! Welcome, what would you like? Over here, miss. I have a lot more goods that are better inside. Don't just leave like that, have a look around. If you think another opportunity like this will come again, you're greatly mistaken. The headstrong auntie over there! I have a pile of useful things that can last you a lifetime, a stockpile."

Although there was some exaggeration in my words, if you didn't say it to such extent, then you wouldn't be able to sell your goods. Hmm, whether that's certain or not. So if you're wondering what kind of goods I have……
Herbs, hat, gloves, belt, flint, torch, lamp, oil, sheepskin, paper, quill pen, ink, rope, snowshoes, travelling backpack, types of nets, staff, ladder, boots, towel, oil used for leather, hourgla.s.s, types of manuals, instrument, doll… … whew, subtract the rest.

The goods sold well. I discounted a tenth of the expensive ones, and as for the cheap goods, I sold them for roughly about the original value. With the techniques I came up with last night, the goods were selling so well that I wanted to discard all of my plans and decide to keep doing business.

My plan was like this. At first, sell some expensive items and advertise them at an extremely low place to force a large crowd to gather. Then I place out the daily necessities that everyone needs and make them buy those by making them follow my lead. And I never advertise with my mouth other than the miscellaneous goods I have. Isn't this a great, wonderful three-in-one tactic? No matter how urgent my position is on needing to leave, I'm one that will never sell for a loss.

"Now, it's a clearance sale, clearance! I'm totally selling these goods at a loss. These items are looking for owners that aren't even half price of their original value. The sale period is only 3 days! Don't lose this opportunity."

By evening, I calculated, guessing that it would take about three days to sell these items, and saw that more than half of the goods I had placed for sale were sold on the first day.  To have this large of a crowd at a general store caused many to visit and gather seeing what kind of items were on sale. I was in a situation where I had to seriously consider extending the period to five days and sell the items that Mr. Cindebolp would hand over in replacement.

The next day, around lunchtime, nearly the same amount of goods was sold.

Since my throat hurt and I was quite tired, I went outside and sat on top of a wooden box eating an apple. In my sight far away was the cliff where my father and I had sparred and parted ways, and across that was the simmering green lake that looked as if it was purely sparkling. The warm sunlight was s.h.i.+ning down with the wind not cold at all.

Today was the 20th day of the 1st Arund. Today was the day where troubards that were met by girls, would sing songs that alluded to their future husbands. As for me, since I wasn't a little girl, it wasn't much to pay attention to, but strangely, there weren't a lot of young women here. I wonder if they're at the corner of the village.

Tomorrow was the day I would leave this place. To eat an apple like this while laid-back didn't make this feel as realistic, but since I had already selected all the items I need, and readily prepared my traveling clothes, it was certain that I was leaving.
The time was thought to be early tomorrow morning. Then, I wouldn't needlessly have to b.u.mp into a lot of people.
I had already shared my farewells to everyone that I somewhat knew, and I had no problems not returning back to this place again if that were to be so. Since I didn't have any sort of debt, or was leaving behind anything either.
It would be nice if the weather tomorrow was as friendly as today.

Now that not a lot of customers are coming, since I'm bored, I guess I should wield my sword.
Entering inside the store, I brought out my sword. Unlike before, this fella didn't feel as heavy as I once did. I grabbed the texture of the hilt that I was nearly accustomed to with my nearly recovered palms.

"Hiyab, Hab!"

Raising the two-handed sword over my head properly, I repeated the process of swinging it up and down. I was now accustomed to the weight of this sword, and this was a way to increase my arm strength. Moving the sword up and down, the stress wasn't too large as well.

"… Hayab, Heuyub…."

…… Okay, there was some stress.

After about the 50th time, I lowered my sword and rested. Due to the stamina I had spent selling, I could feel my arms becoming heavier. The rest of the 50, I'll do it once I have dinner.

"How's that practice with just that?"

Sitting on the floor, I was too tired to bother turning my head so I began to roll my head. A woman, and that voice was of a girl. But, it's not a voice I've heard recently?
Strange, girls that spoke to me like that had nearly all perished over a month ago.

"To collapse after barely doing that fifty times, it's better for you to rather abandon your sword and run."

Huh, I've heard that a lot from somewhere.
I turned my body towards the person that came to me and stared at her face.

PR Afterword:"Return of the Merchant"

TL Afterword

1st Arund = Troubard
2nd Arund = Darkness
3rd Arund = Arna

As for the rest, let's wait and see!

PR Afterword

"Return of the Merchant"

Translator: Calvis
Proofreader: Sai101