Chapter 235: 235 Investment

As the sunset faded and night arrived, darkness swiftly blanketed the streets of Labyrinthos.

In this world, where streetlights did not exist, pitch-black darkness settled over the avenues. Only in front of a few shops doing business at night were small lanterns hung, scattering dim, flickering light.

Thick shadows seeped into Ian and Rin’s bedroom as well. Only a small lamp flickering on the table dimly illuminated the room.

Being in the same mercenary group meant staying at the same inn.

And being in the same party meant sharing the same room… Come to think of it, it was only natural.

As that thought occurred to them, Ian and Rin’s eyes met by chance, and both immediately looked away.

“Um… Captain, which bed do you want to use?”

“…I’ll use this one.”

“Then I guess I’m over here.”

It was a cramped room with two beds squeezed in, leaving only a narrow aisle to walk through.

There wasn’t much point in choosing, but once the beds were decided, Rin plopped down onto her side.

Rin fiddled with the cheap fabric sheets of the creaking wooden bed and looked around the room with a sense of wonder.

“Still, a double room is quite spacious.”

“…Is it?”

“Yes. Compared to the lodging houses…”

Ian tilted his head while looking at the cramped room where there was hardly enough space to stand except for sleeping, but Rin wasn’t exactly making empty talk.

The “lodging houses” Rin had stayed at previously were essentially warehouse-like rooms strewn with blankets, where one squeezed in just to sleep alongside total strangers.

There was no set capacity; they would shove people in as long as there was an inch of space, and as soon as morning came, everyone was woken up and kicked out.

To Rin, who used such places, a double room with individual beds was a sufficiently luxurious place to sleep.

“I wouldn’t know, since I haven’t been to a lodging house.”

“Pardon? Then where have you been staying all this time, Captain?”

Rin tilted her head with a puzzled look.

While looking for work and part-time jobs, Rin had searched far and wide for cheaper places to stay, but in the end, the lodging houses were the most efficient.

She hadn’t stayed in this city for long, but by her common sense, it seemed difficult to find a better place for that price.

“I rented a double room and slept alone.”

“…”

Ian, who was completely unaware such lodging houses existed, had simply followed his gaming experience, assuming that sleeping naturally meant staying at an inn, and thus rented a room for himself.

Rin gave Ian a strange look. He acted like an experienced mercenary, yet he was ignorant of the places travelers naturally used.

His skillful command was one thing, but this…

…Was he perhaps a noble?

If a noble ended up as a mercenary in a place like this, he must have been kicked out of his family or something.

Surely if he was a fugitive fleeing for something like treason, would she get dragged into it too?

Countless thoughts flashed through Rin’s mind.

When Rin remained silent for a while, preoccupied with Ian’s identity, Ian assumed she was tired. He glanced at the time and spoke.

“Shall we head to sleep?”

Lost in thought, Rin snapped her head up at his words.

Sitting on their respective beds, Ian and Rin’s gazes met awkwardly.

“G-go ahead and sleep first. I have something to do…”

“…Alright. Don’t stay up too late. We have to work starting tomorrow.”

As Rin gave a clumsy excuse, Ian simply nodded and lay down on his bed first.

Rin stared intently at Ian’s back as he lay turned away. Once it seemed he had truly fallen asleep, she tilted her head to sneak a peek at him.

“…Phew.”

What am I even doing?

Letting out a quiet sigh, Rin silently stood up.

She had made an excuse about having things to do, but since there was nothing really to be done, it felt like a waste to keep the light on. Rin reached out and extinguished the lamp.

As the sole flame illuminating the room vanished, the bedroom was instantly engulfed in darkness.

As Rin lay down on her bed and closed her eyes, the small noises in the now-quiet room that she hadn’t noticed before began to sharpen.

From beyond the thin walls of the cheap inn, noisy murmurs and voices leaked in faintly.

Right next to her was the soft sound of Ian’s breathing as he slept.

And Rin’s own pounding heart echoed loudly in her ears.

Haa….

Rin, who had been inwardly tense, let out a silent sigh.

’He doesn’t seem like a bad person, at least.’

Sleeping in a lodging house had always been nerve-wracking for Rin as well.

The people in the room were all strangers, and rumors of pockets being picked in lodging houses were everywhere. Hiding her wallet in her clothes and sleeping with her guard up every night was incredibly exhausting.

Compared to that, while the sleeping arrangements here in a double room were much more comfortable, being alone in a room with a man brought a completely different kind of tension.

Since she had unexpected income from today, she could have paid for a separate room if she really hated this.

However, she had no intention of wasting her own money by paying for accommodation that was already provided.

Either way, they were the same mercenary group.

They would have to stay together for a long time, and she couldn’t keep paying her own money for separate rooms forever.

…And he didn’t seem like someone she couldn’t trust that much.

Thanks to the fatigue and tension accumulated from her first real battle, Rin fell into a slumber much faster than expected.

* * *

The next day at dawn.

Even before the sun had risen, shop doors opened and lights flickered on, signaling the start of a day in Labyrinthos.

Mercenaries gradually increased in the streets, and shops began their business from the early hours.

A mercenary must finish preparations before the sun rises and head out the city gates with the dawn to make the most of the daylight hours.

In particular, the street where the guild was located was packed with people trying to receive missions first, and nearby shops opened before daybreak.

Some shops only opened in the morning and closed early in the afternoon, so one had to come out early to buy goods.

“I’ll take this, and two more of these.”

“I-isn’t that the same thing you just bought?”

Rin, who was following Ian with a basket, spoke in a flustered voice as she looked at the orb Ian had just picked out.

As if asking what she was talking about, Ian held up two orbs to show her.

“No. This one is Defense Reduction. This one is Armor Reduction.”

“A-aren’t they the same thing…?”

“Sigh…”

Receiving a cold stare from Ian, Rin shrunk back and quietly followed him.

“Of course! Customers who can distinguish them so professionally are rare. You truly have a high eye for quality!”

The shopkeeper was sticking close to Ian, who had been sweeping up merchandise for a while, wearing a massive grin.

Given the price of the items currently in Rin’s basket, it was understandable.

“Ah, Rin. Put that one next to it in as well.”

“Th-this one is definitely the same, isn’t it?”

“The previous one was Evasion Reduction. This one is Evasion Rate Modifier Reduction.”

“…”

Rin was about to put the orb in with a slightly annoyed expression when she saw the price tag and gasped.

She placed it into the basket very carefully so as not to damage the product.

“My! Thank you very much!”

Rin left the shop while receiving a thank-you she had never heard from any shopkeeper until now.

Having finished shopping in the market district, Rin’s hands were full of various potions and magical items.

“I think we’ve bought most of what’s necessary.”

Can I really trust this person…

Looking at Ian, who had bought a mountain of consumables with purposes she could hardly understand, Rin wore a suspicious expression.

Though they had gained unexpected money from yesterday’s goblin subjugation, the amount spent today was far beyond what that could cover.

It was clear Ian had poured in his own personal savings.

“Um, Captain. Is it okay to spend money like this?”

She had zero experience running a mercenary group, but shouldn’t operating funds… be kept as much as possible for a rainy day?

With that in mind, Rin asked cautiously.

“It’s fine. We still have a margin.”

In terms of amount, it was a significant expenditure for an E-rank standard, but the initial starting funds in this game were quite generous, so Ian still had room to breathe.

Systemically, if you couldn’t pay wages to the mercenaries, they would leave immediately. If the money ran out, the group would disband, which was practically no different from a Game Over.

Perhaps to prevent novice users from falling into that situation in the very early stages, this game tended to grant a fairly generous amount of initial gold.

Of course, veterans like Ian could never stand to see money sitting idle.

Just like now, they preferred to invest all starting funds into growth as soon as they began.

Ian was actually on the conservative side; many players would immediately buy the most expensive sword possible with their starting funds and hand it to a mercenary.

“They were items we needed anyway, so it’s just an investment in advance.”

“Do people… usually use things like this?”

Rin looked down at the various items in the basket in her hand.

Potions that temporarily boosted physical abilities just by drinking them.

Orbs that, once thrown and shattered, activated the magic within, allowing even non-mages to exert magical effects.

They were expensive items; usually, if you stared at them too long, the owners would chase you away suspecting you were a thief. They were things she had only ever caught glimpses of while passing by.

She had wondered who on earth would use such expensive items.

It was this man.

“Don’t worry. We’ll be able to earn this much back in no time.”

Is this man really from a noble family…?

Just yesterday he seemed like a reliable person, but seeing this sense of finance, she worried they might soon fall into massive debt and be chased away together.

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