Chapter 16: Borrow Money, Miss?

Early in the morning, the novice mercenary Sijina turned over on the old wooden bed. Her forehead hit the corner of the cabinet by the window with a bang, causing her to flinch and spring up from the bed.

Hiss…

Sijina rubbed her forehead. After the pain subsided a bit, she pulled a cloth pouch from under her pillow and poured out all the copper coins inside.

She stared at the coins for a long while, then silently put them all back. Afterward, she closed her eyes in despair.

‘If I can’t get another quest, with the money I have now, I probably won’t last three more days!’

Sijina got off the bed and walked to the window, picking up the sword that was leaning in the corner.

The leather scabbard was already worn and a bit faded.

Sijina drew the sword halfway and gently ran her thumb across the blade.

‘It seems… it’s no longer sharp.’

***

In the first floor of the inn, the out-of-shape innkeeper was wiping the tables.

When Sijina came downstairs, the innkeeper lifted her eyelids.

“The bread is on the stove today.”

“Thank you.”

Sijina walked over, picked up the dark bread, and took a bite.

‘Mm, just as hard as I imagined.’

She had been staying at this “Oak Inn” on the edge of town for almost two months.

The room rate here was only five copper coins a night, and it included one meal.

Of course, that meal was just a piece of dark bread.

“Sijina.”

The innkeeper’s voice came from behind the girl.

“This month, you’re already thirty copper coins behind on your room.”

“I know.”

Sijina’s voice sounded somewhat lacking in confidence.

“Please give me a few more days. I’ll pay it back as soon as possible.”

“That’s what you said a few days ago.”

The innkeeper’s tone wasn’t exactly harsh, but it was far from friendly.

“It’s not that I’m rushing you, but I can’t let you stay for free forever.”

“I won’t. Don’t worry.”

Sijina stuffed the remaining bread into her mouth and got up to leave the inn.

Behind her, the innkeeper seemed to mutter a few more words, but Sijina couldn’t bother to think about them.

.***

The Mercenary Guild was located in the center of town. It was a two-story building with two crossed swords hanging at the entrance.

When Sijina arrived at the guild hall, quite a few people were already seated.

The girl walked straight to the quest board.

The board was plastered with all sorts of quest slips, but most were trivial little jobs with pitifully low rewards. Some quests even required you to spend your own money to complete them.

As for the combat-related quests…

‘My sword is already dull now. Even if I wanted to take one, no one would hire me.’

Just then, Sijina’s gaze was drawn to a notice posted in the corner of the board.

“This merchant association is willing to provide financial support to novice mercenaries. If interested, please contact…”

‘Financial support?’

Seeing this, Sijina’s eyes lit up. Without thinking too much, she tore the notice off the board.

***

His Blackstone had just opened his eyes from sleep when he saw a new intelligence report from the System.

[Today’s Flash Report!

The poor novice mercenary girl has fallen into a loan shark trap. What story lies behind this?

For details, please pay 100 gold coins to unlock.]

‘Oh? The System is being quite kind today.’

Moreover, judging by the title, it might be intelligence about Feng Aotian.

Coincidentally, recently, besides stockpiling military supplies, His Blackstone had also teamed up with Molis to use the “rich” knowledge he had learned in his past life to start some lending services in surrounding towns. This allowed him to have some income before the War of Two Realms broke out.

‘Pay 100 gold coins.’

Just as he silently recited that, His Blackstone suddenly realized something and double-checked the System’s intelligence again.

‘Wait a minute.’

‘Novice mercenary girl? Loan shark trap?’

‘Hey, hey, hey!’

‘No way?!’

[The novice mercenary Sijina, unable to find a suitable quest, ultimately chose to borrow 5 silver coins from a small merchant association under Molis’s name. According to the contract, Sijina needs to repay a total of 10 silver coins including principal and interest within two weeks.]

‘What the heck!’

Seeing the new intelligence pushed by the System, His Blackstone suddenly felt overwhelmed.

‘I actually gave a loan shark loan to Feng Aotian?!’

‘This is a huge problem!’

***

After receiving five silver coins, Sijina happily returned to the inn. She handed one silver coin to the innkeeper to cover the rent she had owed, and the rest counted as an advance.

Next, she planned to first sharpen her sword, then buy a decent set of leather armor to make herself look more like a mercenary.

That way, when she took on quests later, she would be more convincing.

With the remaining money, she would buy some healing potions. That way, her body could recover quickly, allowing her to take on more quests!

As for the contract’s mention of needing to repay an extra five silver coins in interest after two weeks, the girl didn’t pay it any mind.

‘After all, once I land a big quest and earn dozens of silver coins in one go, won’t I have those five coins?’

‘As the saying goes, sharpening the axe doesn’t delay the cutting of wood!’

With that thought, Sijina excitedly left the inn and ran to the market.

“Boss! I want to—”

Sijina’s words got stuck in her throat halfway.

The price list on the wall seemed different from what she had seen before?

Light leather armor: 3 silver coins

Healing potion: 40 copper coins each, or three for one silver coin.

Sijina rubbed her eyes, thinking she had misread.

‘Why have the prices gone up so much?’

“What do you want, little girl?”

The stall owner looked up, saw it was a young girl, and didn’t pay much attention.

He asked casually.

“Boss, did you mark the prices wrong?”

Sijina hesitated before asking.

“I remember a light leather armor was only one silver coin before!”

“It’s not wrong!”

Seeing Sijina’s reaction, the stall owner became even more certain that this girl wasn’t his customer. He simply turned away to organize his goods.

“Buy it or get lost!”

“What do you mean? How can you jack up the price so much?!”

“Haven’t you heard?”

The owner’s tone carried a hint of impatience.

“Leather has skyrocketed in price recently. Raw materials have almost doubled. Do you think I, as a finished product seller, can avoid raising prices?!”

“What?”

Sijina’s eyes widened as she stared at the owner in disbelief.

The owner sighed.

“I heard it’s that young master of the Blackstone family, named His, right? He teamed up with the big merchant associations and basically bought up all the leather and healing potions in the surrounding towns.

They’re filthy rich. With one move, they emptied the market. What can we small vendors do?”

“The Blackstone family’s… His?”