The gatekeeper instinctively pressed his hands together, tightly clutching the still-warm silver coin in his palm.
Seeing this, a glimmer of delight flashed through Yuli’s eyes—there was hope.
Sure enough, after gripping the coin, the gatekeeper cleared his throat and dropped the stern expression from his face.
“Why do you want to enter Iron Anvil City?”
“Because…”
Yuli looked up, her stunningly beautiful face showing a pitiful expression. In the next second, the girl squeezed out a broken, tearful voice, as if she were about to cry.
“Our village was destroyed by those monsters. I barely managed to escape… I just want to take refuge in Iron Anvil City.”
This appearance suited her new self even better than before—much easier to play the role of a pitiable girl. To make it even more convincing, she had purposely smeared some ash from the carriage on her face.
Though her beauty was still impossible to hide, the dust only made her look more pitiful and helpless when paired with those pleading eyes.
For a moment, the gatekeeper was utterly stunned.
“Big brother gatekeeper?”
She waved her hand before his eyes. Only then did he snap out of it.
“Go on in, but be careful—things haven’t been so peaceful in the city lately.”
“Thank you.”
Lowering her hat brim to hide her striking features in the shadows, Yuli quickly passed through the gate and entered Iron Anvil City.
“Yuli-chan, you’re quite skilled at this. So? Did you sneak in like this before too?”
Iris had been waiting to see Yuli slip up, but to her surprise, Yuli had pulled it off perfectly. She’d only become a girl yesterday, yet already she was acting all pitiful?
She really picked it up fast for someone who’d never done it before.
“Something like that, though pretending to be pitiful is a first.”
After all, who would ever suspect a poor little girl? Her old self couldn’t have pulled off such a role and could only bribe her way in.
Still, parting with even a single silver coin made Yuli ache inside.
She didn’t have much money on hand, and one silver coin in Iron Anvil City could cover almost a week’s worth of food.
To get in, she had no choice but to bribe the gatekeeper.
It hurt, but such expenses were necessary. Without giving the gatekeeper a little something, no matter how pitiful she acted, he would never let her in so easily.
At least she’d made it inside Iron Anvil City now.
Yuli kept her hat low and walked into the small city nestled on the southern border of the Kingdom of Aslant.
Her eyes swept over the street ahead. Compared to when she had left, nothing much had changed.
This small city wasn’t wealthy, but it wasn’t poor either—solidly in the middle. However, due to the frequent invasions from the Abyss lately, city defenses had been strengthened, and as a result, the residents’ quality of life had fallen.
Still, as things stood, order within the city remained stable; no major unrest had broken out.
During her carriage ride, Yuli had overheard the coachman mention that frequent searches were being carried out in the city lately, though their exact targets were unknown—most guessed it was related to the Cursed Ones.
Unlike the gatekeepers at the city gates, the search teams couldn’t be bribed with coins. And with Yuli’s thin purse, there was no way she could afford to try anyway.
The best option was to learn when and where the searches took place and just avoid them altogether.
The first thing Yuli decided to do after entering the city was to exchange some coins.
Her equipment and weapons needed repair and maintenance, which would cost a fair bit. The rest would go toward food and lodging—if she was careful, her expenses wouldn’t be too great.
Passing through several streets, Yuli arrived at the Adventurer’s Guild inside Iron Anvil City.
Besides posting commissions, the guild also bought up various materials and items. However, they always asked about the origin of goods before deciding whether to buy.
Fortunately, the prices the guild offered were always fair, so during her stays in Iron Anvil City, Yuli always sold her collected items to them.
She approached the counter in charge of acquisitions and took out some odds and ends she’d picked up while searching for hidden doors in the catacomb.
A few rusted metal trinkets and a small stone fragment carved with faded markings. All the valuables in the tomb had long since been stolen, and what couldn’t be carried away had been destroyed—so Yuli could only scavenge scraps like these.
In addition, she had some wild animal pelts from hunting outside the city, and a few common medicinal herbs.
“Is this all?”
Behind the counter was a lean man, who scrutinized the items Yuli brought.
“That’s all.”
“Alright, let me assess the value. Hmm… the metal’s pretty badly rusted, but the material’s decent. This stone piece isn’t worth much. The pelts are well-processed—a few more would’ve been even better. Then these herbs…
About this much—are you sure you want to sell, miss?”
As he spoke, the man took out two silver coins and more than a dozen copper coins.
To be honest, Yuli had expected to get only a single silver coin at most. Getting two far exceeded her expectations.
“Of course.”
“Alright, here you go.”
Taking the coins, Yuli put them into her nearly empty purse. With these, her total wealth now amounted to four silver coins and a few dozen copper coins.
A single silver coin was worth about a hundred copper coins. As for the even pricier gold coins, each was worth one hundred silver coins. She’d seen gold coins before but never owned one.
After exchanging the money, Yuli decided to secure a cheap inn before repairing her gear.
With the recent influx of refugees into Iron Anvil City, rooms might run out if she went too late.
Leaving the guild, she paused in front of a bakery, tempted by the scent of fresh bread wafting from inside.
She fished out a few copper coins and bought several pieces of black bread—enough to cover today’s lunch and dinner. For Yuli, saving wherever possible was the way to go; as long as she didn’t go hungry, it was fine.
After buying the bread, Yuli continued along the route she remembered to the cheap inn. The conditions there weren’t great, but it was better than sleeping on a bed of fallen leaves.
As she crossed an intersection, Yuli caught a glimpse from the corner of her eye—a small figure curled up in the shadows by the wall.
It was a little girl, not even ten years old, dressed in rags, her face dirty. She held out a thin, bony hand to passersby, begging, but no one paid her any mind.
Yuli stopped and fixed her gaze on the girl. The sight stabbed into a memory buried deep in her heart like a sharp thorn.
Without thinking too much, Yuli walked over and, under the girl’s wary and hopeful eyes, picked out the softest piece of black bread from her bundle, took out a few copper coins, and gently placed them in the girl’s grubby little hand.
The girl froze, staring in disbelief at the food and money in her palm. She looked up at Yuli, her eyes shining with gratitude, and whispered, “Th-thank you, big sister!”
Then, Yuli watched as the girl stood up and ran into a nearby alley.
Yuli couldn’t help but follow. In the alley, besides the girl, there were two or three even younger children.
The girl worked hard to break the bread apart and shared it with the younger kids.
Silently watching the scene, Yuli set down her bag of bread in the alley and turned to leave.
Faintly, she felt as if a gaze had settled upon her back. When she looked over her shoulder, there was nothing to be seen.
Was it just an illusion?