Reminiscent

I placed the lit candle on top of the table, pausing and staring at the dancing flame for a few seconds.

It felt warm.

I took the backpack off and placed it by the table, leaning my spear against the wall. I also took off my shoes and left them by the door.

As I walked slowly around the room, stretching my arms, I could feel the soft touch of the wooden floor on my socks. There was barely any sound, the floor softly whispering under my weight. This inn was most likely fairly recent.

I let my body fall onto the bed, soft wails echoing as its frame wobbled. A hushed crunch sounded from beneath the covers. I couldn’t feel anything through the bed’s blanket, but the mattress appeared to be made out of straw.

As I shifted my body across the bed, the muted sound followed my movements. It felt quite relaxing.

The mattress moulded under my weight as I slowly sank down.

The comfort was greater than I imagined. It was also the first proper bed I had since arriving in this world.

Subtle shrieks sounded from the next rooms. There were other people sleeping on this floor. I couldn’t make too much noise.

I was tired, but I remembered there were some things I could do right now.

I hadn't counted how many coins the Old Man had given me or written down what I had learnt in my notebook. There were definitely some other things inside my backpack that I probably needed to check out as well.

I lazily got out of bed and slowly walked towards the table, my head lolling with fatigue. Yawning, I rubbed my eyes and took off my cloak, hanging it on the back of the chair.

I sat down and picked up the bag. Opening it up, I took out the sack full of money. The coins’ uneven jingle resonated as they pushed against each other and scraped the fabric. A sharp, metallic thud followed as I placed the bag on the table.

I untied the sack and opened it. The coins gleamed a gentle orange tint under the flickering candlelight.

I grabbed a single dull, silvery coin. I could feel the subtle ridges as I traced the border with my thumb.

I was finally able to see its small details.

In the centre, slightly raised, was the intricate design of what seemed like a coat of arms. A circle overlapped by a rhombus, with three parallel swords crossing them, the middle one larger and pointing upwards.

Above and below the central piece were two semi-circles, aligned with the tips of the swords.

I picked up a copper coin to compare, and its design was the same.

Curious, I reached inside my backpack, blindly feeling the insides, and I grabbed my guild card, tilting it against the candlelight to check the invisible pattern. As I thought, it wasn't the same as the one on the coin.

My expression unconsciously gleamed with joy as I looked at the card. It weighed gracefully in my hand, cool beneath my fingers.

It was mine…

I set the card aside next to the coin sack, the light shining on its glistening surface.

I then decided to count the number of coins I had of each type. Flipping over the sack, I slowly let them fall on top of the table, careful not to make too much noise. A large pile of coins with distinctive colours sat before me.

Echoing a rough scratching sound, I slid the coins to different sides of the table, grouping them by colour and counting each one.

In the end, I counted twenty-five copper coins, sixty-five dull silvery ones, and two shinier silvery ones I assumed were different from the others. I had ninety-two in total.

They clearly had different values. I recalled the guild receptionist telling me to choose a less valuable coin to pay for the room when I showed him a copper one.

Since the room cost five copper coins, a single copper had to be worth at least six of the dull, silvery ones. It would make sense for one to be worth ten instead, but I had no proof.

The shinier silvery coins seemed rarer and were probably above copper if they were real silver, perhaps ten times as much as well.

The dull ones, though, seemed lighter, some alloy maybe. Until I knew their material, it was better to call them dull coins.

I yawned.

It would be better to ask Talira~ or the other guild receptionist to explain their differences or even just watch how people use them in the market tomorrow.

I grabbed the empty sack and placed its opening against the edge of the table. I slowly pushed the tinkling coin piles into the bag, making sure not to let any of them fall to the side. I then tied the sack closed and placed it next to the guild card.

I reached inside my backpack once again, taking out a lighter, half-empty bag. It sagged as I lifted it. Small crunches sounded as it dangled from my hand. It was the bag of food the Old Man had given me.

I loosened the string as I placed the bag on the table. Looking inside, I had already eaten most of the things, leaving only a few biscuits and dried berries. Thankfully, the Armoured Guy was kind enough to feed me throughout the second half of the trip here.

Not being able to repay him left a bitter aftertaste.

Recalling today, I had completely forgotten to eat.

We ate lunch before arriving, but I hadn’t eaten anything since. Now thinking about it, I could feel my stomach churn faintly, though I wasn’t all that hungry.

Wondering for a bit if I should eat something, I reached for the small bundle inside and took a handful of berries. They would likely spoil faster than the biscuits.

I stared at the flickering flame, slowly munching away. They tasted mostly sour, with a subtle hint of sweetness underneath.

It felt nostalgic. I longed for this feeling once again.

Tears welled, catching the candlelight.

“I cry too easily,” I murmured, chuckling slightly as I wiped my eyes.

I tied both bags back and placed them on the right corner of the table. I was planning to eat something tomorrow morning, so it was better to leave them on the table instead of storing them after I finished checking everything.

I drew my backpack closer and checked the inside. It didn’t have much left.

Taking out the fur blanket and pushing it to the side of the table, I grabbed two solid objects from the bottom of the sack. These were the stones I used to light the campfires.

I had forgotten I still had them.

Now that I was in Riges, they wouldn’t be that useful. I already had the lit candle by the stairs, but I preferred to keep them in case I needed to leave Riges and found myself wandering far from a city.

Was I going to stay in Riges forever? Even though I just arrived, I needed to consider what I had to do.

I had no idea how life would turn out here yet. Was going to be able to learn magic? Was I going to be able to get stronger and protect others? Was I going to slip back into my life as a NEET, my old, aimless self?

I paused.

I knew I had the guild here. Doing quests could help me improve, and I hadn’t seen much of the city yet, but it didn’t look like an awful place to live. Nonetheless, I couldn’t picture myself staying here.

Now that I had a new opportunity, now that I could step away from my corrupted old-world self, I wanted to give it a try. I wanted to see what I could only do here.

I wouldn’t be leaving Riges any time soon, but I wouldn’t settle down here either. I didn’t believe I could accomplish my goals here.

I placed the stones next to the guild card and peeked inside the sack once more, taking out the last thing I could see, my pencils and my notebook.

Before opening it to write, I grabbed my backpack again and flipped it, shaking it to check if there was anything else I had missed. The straps flapped loosely as I shook it, tiny grains of bark and leaf dust scattering onto the table. I quickly brushed them to the floor.

I set both pencils to the side and dragged the notebook back before me. It softly whispered as its hard cover scratched on the table.

I picked it up and gently opened it, revealing the smell of campfire smoke still etched onto the pages. Its scent took me back to the forest.

The candlelight brought back the campfire’s glow, only missing the fluttering embers and the crackles of the wood. I was truly back. But I couldn’t decide if it felt right or wrong.

The tiniest hint of a smile broke through my expression.

I skipped directly to the closest blank page, avoiding the one Yrish engraved her words on. Staring at it for a moment, thinking of what I wanted to write down, my eyes wandered to the page before it, drawn to my sketch of the porcupine creature.

I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t think I could either. Whether or not it was the same one from the guild, I couldn’t know for sure, but it wasn’t a matter I wanted to go into right now.

I breathed in deeply once before focusing on the empty page once more and picked up one of the pencils.

Aside from writing down what I remembered from the butchered spelling of the words I had learnt today with their meaning and some phonetic explanations I hadn’t noted before, I also thought about sketching the guild card and coins but decided not to waste the space while I still had them.

The only other thing that also felt important to write was the difference between the coins' values, or at least my guesses.

I wanted to sketch the map of the world Talira~ had shown me, but there were several spots I didn’t remember clearly, and it would turn out quite sloppy. It was best to go back to the guild and ask her to see the map again.

I took in the smoke scent on the pages one last time before closing the notebook and placing it next to the other pencil.

My eyes kept drifting to the unveiled bits of my unsightly stomach as I looked down to write. I was still using my torn, white t-shirt. I vividly remembered ripping it but often forgot it was completely tattered. The cloak covered most of me, but I should probably buy a new one.

My spear was also fairly damaged but still usable. What I really needed was a better way to carry it. The backpack’s pressure wouldn’t hold if I had to run, and I didn’t want to be forced to carry it in my hand.

There were definitely still many things I needed to do here in Riges.

As my hand reached for the sack of money to start storing my things again, a feeling I was forgetting something came over me. I suddenly remembered the bag had an extra pocket inside that I hadn't checked yet.

[See the Showcase Section for the protagonist’s Notebook page from this chapter]