My first impression upon entering the place was ‘dark . ’ I a.s.sumed that they sold items that would change color if exposed to sunlight . The little light that did appear through the windows made the dust glimmer in the air .

There was armor in rough piles all over the place . It looked like one of those ‘h.o.a.rder’ rooms you see on tv . But it kind of made sense here, seeing as they sold antiques .

I navigated my way through the piles, careful to not knock anything over, until I found Daniela in the back . She was talking to an elderly man who was likely the owner .

“I have a feeling that I will find a good gauntlet here . ”

“I see . I see…”

“However, there are too many to search through here . If you could at least show me where to look . ”

“I see . I see…”

This guy she was talking with…he might just be senile…

We moved to a corner and discussed our plan of attack .

“That owner is no good . ”

“That sounds a little harsh…”

“It is no good at all . ”

Daniela was in a rush and it caused her to be sharper than usual .

“Still, there is no mistake . I can find good armor here . My intuition is telling me this . ”

“Really? Well, I don’t doubt you, but…”

I looked around the room .

“It’ll be back-breaking work trying to find anything here…”

“That is why I asked the owner, but it does not seem…”

Daniela looked through the cracks in the pile next to us and saw that the old man had dozed off . She shook her head .

“Daniela, let’s split up and look . There must be a pile of gauntlets somewhere . ”

“Yes… Alright, we will do that . ”

“Wait, Daniela . Take this…”

I took out a clean cloth from the hollow bag . Daniela took it and tied it around her face so that it covered her mouth and nose . It was to keep the dust away . I tied one around my own face .

Then we nodded to each other and went our separate ways . I turned my back to the entrance and went to the left side . Daniela took the right . At the same time, I moved some of the armor closer together so that there was a clear s.p.a.ce in the middle of the room . We would need a place to test the armor when we found them .

“…Hmm . That’s good enough . ”

I made a clearing of about one square meter before starting the search .

I started at the far edge . The armor had to be handled carefully as I rummaged and shoved my arms into piles and piles .

This went on for several hours . My back hurt from prolonged bending and so I stretched my limbs and started to walk around the store . I had been moving things around at random, and yet somehow the place seemed a little neater than it had been at first . Perhaps I had been organizing things without thinking about it .

“Considering I had to organize products once, maybe this is some kind of disorder I developed from my old job…”

I couldn’t help it . These movements had been carved into my very soul, and I didn’t even know what I was doing most of the time . Oh, well . I better continue organizing…I mean, searching .

There was no ‘gauntlet corner’ anyway . There weren’t any kind of corners in this store . Everything was scattered in every direction . s.h.i.+elds popped out of armor and gauntlets popped out of boots… That’s probably why I had started tidying up .

I thought of such things as I concentrated on searching once again .

A few more hours pa.s.sed . Quite a few gauntlets now lay in the small clearing I had made . And as it was getting late, I wanted to stop here for the day…

“Asagi . You should have a magic lantern . Take it out . ”

“You’re going to continue…?”

“Aye . ”

She said, looking quite serious . She was serious . Which left me no choice but to stay with her…

I took out the lantern and hung it up in the store . And with that, the dark interior lit up brightly . It made me wonder why we hadn’t used it in the beginning . As it wasn’t sunlight, it shouldn’t affect anything here .

And so it was overtime . This time I checked the right and Daniela went to the left . Perhaps we had missed something . The lighting seemed to help too, because we found gauntlets in places that we had already searched before .

The search did not finish until midnight . The old man had left his counter at some point and gone to bed . He was like some kind of zombie who was dictated by an old routine…

“Hahh…I’m tired…”

“We can come back tomorrow and inspect them with the Appraisal gla.s.ses . ”

“Yeah… I doubt the old man will clean this up . ”

It was evident from how scattered things were, that he did not care . And he wasn’t likely to start caring now… And so we left the store and returned to the inn . But first, Daniela asked some wind spirits to lock the door .

The next day . The morning of our twelfth day in Usk . We woke up early and went back to the antique store .

“Hmm…Is it open?”

“The elderly tend to get up early . ”

“You are probably right . ”

I was reminded of an elderly couple who used to come to the store at four in the morning in their small truck . I wondered if they were still doing well .

“h.e.l.lo?”

I said as we opened the door . The old man was sitting in the same spot as yesterday . Our work the previous day had made it so we could see him from the door . I smiled .

“I half suspect you spent more time organizing than searching . ”

“I can’t help it . ”

Then we went to the center of the room where the gauntlets had been gathered . Yes, it was as we had left them yesterday .

“…Alright, let us begin then . The good gauntlets will be placed in this box over here . ”

“Got it . ”

Obeying her order, I took out the Appraisal gla.s.ses from the hollow bag . They were magic tools I had found in an ancient elven ruin near an old building . They were brilliant tools that allowed you to appraise things that you were looking at . I had also found an automata, but that was still in the bag .

And so I tried looking at the closest gauntlet to me .

‘Armor Rabbit Gauntlet – Partially damaged . ’

It read . Focusing on the words ‘Armor Rabbit’ resulted in a detailed explanation appearing .

‘Armor Rabbit – C-Rank monster . Has a hard, armored back . Delicious . ’

It read . The goal for today was to use these gla.s.ses to find something that was made of either a high-ranking monster or very rare ore . In any case, this was clearly neither of those, and so it went into the trash heap .  

I would have to repeat this many times today, which promised to be even more tiring than what we did yesterday… Well, I was ready .

…And before I knew it, it was night . Perhaps I had gone about it with too much enthusiasm, because I hardly noticed the pa.s.sage of time . Daniela was the same . As it was to do with her, she was much more focused than usual .  

Still, we had found some rather nice pieces . After a very thorough inspection and a severe selection process, we ended up with four candidates .

‘Wing Snake Gauntlet – Partially damaged . ’

‘Whitened Wind Ore Gauntlet – Insufficient magic . ’

‘Earth Wolf Gauntlet – Partially damaged . ’

‘Chained Ore Gauntlet . ’

The above four . The monster ones didn’t need much explanation . Whitened wind ore apparently had to do with a lack of magic energy . And so it would regain its wind ore power if jade-colored magic was sent into it . However, it would eat up quite a lot . The fourth, which was made of chained ore, felt like the most antique of the bunch . It was incredibly rare .

“This ore is rarely circulated out in the world . ”

“Why?”

“Because filling it with power can cause people to freeze up, as if they have been chained . ”

“That’s a weird ability…”

Apparently, it had been popular a long time ago with a certain trade .

“You fill it with magic and point it at your opponent . Then magic in the shape of a chain will extend out and bind them . ”

“Huh…”

“And that is how you became a slave . ”

Yes, the ore had been used to hunt for slaves . Many demi-human women and children were captured in this way . In fact, Daniela’s tribe had been made up of people who had escaped such a fate . They fled and fled and became people of the fields .

“By the time I was born, there were many people who saw this ore as a threat . Organizations were established in order to destroy them all . As the rumor goes, this organization was built by a Hero . ”

“A Hero…”

Currently, I had been lucky enough to meet someone who had been from modern j.a.pan . It would make sense if this Hero was also from the same age . Because there wouldn’t have been slavery, and so it would only be normal to help those who had fallen into it .

“Many slave businesses were crushed because of it . But you sometimes hear whispers of it continuing in secret, even now . ”

“Human trafficking usually involves a lot of money . ”

It was sad that a price could be put on people . There was also a price for labor . The slaves at the mines worked as an alternative to death . Because merely being alive meant you were worth something .

“It would be very bad if something like this pa.s.sed into the hands of such people . And so I will take it . After all, it can be a great weapon as long as you do not misuse it . ”

Daniela said that it could be used to bind the movements of monsters . Yeah . Most things could be bad or good depending on how you used it . And so this could be used for good . It would be a kind of redemption for this chained ore .

“So you finally found your purchase then . ”

“Aye, I will go and take it to the owner . ”

“I’ll clean this stuff up . ”

I handed Daniela the money as I gathered the other gauntlets together . There was now a light armor corner, a heavy armor corner and several other corners, including one for gauntlets . It made everything easier . It was hard to believe that the store had looked so different only a day ago . I even decided to leave the magic lamp as a little donation . Yes, he should enjoy an increase in business now .

I thought smugly as Daniela returned .

“How much was it?”

“Eight gold pieces . ”

Apparently, the old man wasn’t so senile when it came to money . d.a.m.n it . How very nice of him .