By Zephyria Seeing the man welcoming him unexpectedly, Flynn replied a little awkwardly.
“Hello? I see you again. I haven’t found that person yet.”
“Ah, not yet? You came all the way here while investigating.”
“Yes, somehow…. I have something to ask you. Would you mind cooperating?”
“Yes? Ah. I can, but I have to move all these things quickly right now. Actually, I was supposed to move them early this morning, but I slept in because I drank so much yesterday.”
The brown-haired merchant group member scratched the back of his head and said with a smile.
“Can we talk after I finish this first?”
Perhaps, if it were the Captain, he wouldn’t have cared about the circumstances and would have told him to cooperate with the investigation. That would be the right thing to do in this situation, but Flynn couldn’t bring himself to be that kind of person.
He didn’t seem to be lying or trying to avoid him, so Flynn nodded and said.
“Shall I help you? Then we can finish faster.”
“Oh…, really? I’d be grateful if you could help.”
As the brown-haired merchant group member spoke, Flynn approached the cart and took out his medium-sized artifact next to it. It was small enough to be held in one hand, but when it touched the ground, it grew as large as the cart and soon turned into a large box.
Soon, Flynn began to transfer the boxes from the cart to the artifact. Then, the man, with wide eyes, asked in a surprised voice.
“Wow, is that an artifact?”
“Do you know about artifacts?”
“Yes! The merchant group sometimes handles magic tools, and I’ve seen them a few times then. But this is the first time I’ve seen one that grows in size like this.”
“Ah, most of the ones on the market are small, but mine is a medium-sized artifact, so it can hold more things inside. If you shrink it and make it lighter, you can carry it around just like a small artifact.”
“Wow…, then do you have magic power, Investigator?”
‘Oops.’
Only then did Flynn realize that he had made a mistake.
Generally, magic power is required to use artifacts. Because of this, people who do not have magic power do not see much change even if they touch an artifact.
Sometimes, magic power is injected into the artifacts themselves so that ordinary people without magic power can use them, but in these cases, the price is quite high, so it was difficult to find them around.
Thinking about helping with the work and investigating quickly, Flynn momentarily forgot that he had been hiding his magic power until the fire in the next town.
However, the villagers who were outside at the time probably already knew that the Captain and he had put out the fire last night, so he naturally answered again, thinking, ‘Oh well, what does it matter?’
“Yes, I’m not in combat, but I have some…”
“I see. Really… seeing things like this, magic power is so convenient. I’m envious.”
“Haha, right. Having magic power is really… good. Convenient.”
Flynn felt a little embarrassed when his brown eyes sparkled. So, he awkwardly laughed and focused on putting the boxes into the artifact. As Flynn silently carried the boxes, the merchant also moved the remaining boxes.
After putting in the last box, Flynn shrunk the artifact again and picked it up.
Those with magic power are often said to be blessed. At least, they are stronger and have more convenient lives than those without magic power. This was like an innate talent, not something that could be developed through effort.
Therefore, Flynn sometimes felt a little embarrassed and uncomfortable when talking about this with people who didn’t have magic power. No matter how humbly he spoke, the other person would feel deprived.
Even people who are usually referred to as non-magic users often have some small amount of magic power from birth. Even if it’s not enough to use magic directly, having even a small amount of magic power can lead to outstanding development in physical or academic fields that use the brain.
For that reason, it was commonly believed that the more magic power, the better, and especially Laina Rogia had many magic power holders, so it was called the empire of mages.
Perhaps because of that, there were more people who possessed a small amount of magic power, even if they couldn’t make meaningful manifestations, than in other countries. In this empire, the young man in front of him surprisingly didn’t feel any magic power at all.
Flynn didn’t want him to feel deprived, so he tried to change the subject.
“Okay, where should we go now?”
“Ah, it’s nearby! Come this way.”
Unlike Flynn’s concerns, the man didn’t seem to have any particular thoughts. Flynn felt even more sorry for pitying and being considerate of him, so he silently followed him.
The place he followed the man to was an outskirts area that was a little off the mountain path. Unlike what he had expected, which was to move the boxes to a store, Flynn was quite puzzled as he went deeper into a deserted place.
He was worried that he might be deliberately leading him to a secluded place, so he became increasingly nervous and looked around.
After walking for a while, the man suddenly looked around at the ground and stopped at one spot, sweeping the fallen leaves aside with his foot. As the fallen leaves and dirt were cleared away, a surprisingly large wooden plank appeared on the ground.
As a very secret door, located underground in the outskirts as if trying to hide something, appeared, Flynn was inwardly surprised that such a thing was hidden. However, the man who brought him here casually lifted the wooden plank up.
As the seemingly heavy plank was easily lifted by his hand, a large hole that seemed big enough for two people to enter appeared, and a very cool air flowed out from inside.
Seeing him only blinking, the man who brought him here pointed inside and said,
“Just put them in here.”
“In… here? What is this place?”
“I think this is where our merchant group uses as a storage for materials, but it’s always hard to find because it’s in a remote place. Haha, please keep it a secret because I’ll get scolded if it’s known that I brought an outsider here.”
“Ah, yes, I will. Don’t worry.”
Flynn, who unintentionally learned one of Delberg’s secrets, decided to investigate the inside and went inside with him without showing any signs. As if it was really being used as a storage, the man held a lamp hanging at the entrance and walked down first.
Then, he waited for Flynn to follow him down, shining the lamp in front of him. Flynn was a little nervous, but soon took a step into the dark hole.
The further into the storage, the cooler the air became. The frost territory itself was quite cold, but going underground felt like being in a freezer. Flynn wrapped his arms around his body and rubbed them. His senses became quite dull, perhaps because of the cold.
The man going down ahead of him was also shivering as if he was cold. He was wearing a lot more clothes than yesterday, but he seemed to be particularly colder even though he was wearing thicker clothes than him.
“It’s quite cold, right? Be careful of the ledge over here.”
The man said, shining the light at Flynn’s feet. Flynn, who almost tripped, smiled awkwardly and followed him. After going down a certain distance and his feet touched flat ground, a large room with several lamps hanging was visible. It was filled with boxes of various sizes.
“Just pile them up here.”
“Wow… there’s quite a lot of stuff. I didn’t know there were so many things under here.”
“This frost territory has a very low temperature. So, it seems like it’s a culture for the residents to store things in the ground like this. Thanks to that, the merchant group people were happy that they didn’t have to install a separate freezer. The underground acts as a natural freezer.”
“A natural freezer…?”
“Can you take out the boxes we packed earlier?”
“Ah, yes!”
Flynn opened the artifact again. The two moved the boxes and stacked them neatly on top of the other piles of boxes. It seemed like they were stacking them too high only on the front side, so when Flynn tried to take the boxes to the back of the pile to stack them, the man said to Flynn.
“These boxes have to be moved to another place later, so it’s better to stack them in the front.”
“I see.”
At the man’s words, Flynn stopped trying to turn around and stacked the boxes in the front again.
He had been thinking about it since earlier, but the boxes didn’t weigh as much as he thought, so Flynn wanted to check the contents. However, he thought that a pointless action might cause a strange misunderstanding, so he decided to finish the work first and leave this place.