"What, is that old fellow trying to rip us off?"

Coming out through the guild entrance, Banxia noticed the blue-haired girl beside him had kept her head down and said nothing since they left. He spoke up.

"Not really." Roxy shook her head, the tip of her hat swaying with the motion.

"The guild appraiser's valuation is actually considered quite decent in the industry, at least far better than those unscrupulous merchants outside. I turned it down not because the price was too low, but because selling this kind of thing to the guild is the least cost-effective choice there is."

"Why?"

"Mr. Banxia, you didn't know?" Roxy seemed mildly surprised. "That guild appraiser is famous for only caring about weapons and equipment. Anything else gets valued at the absolute lowest market price, without exception."

"Huh, really..."

"That's hardly a secret in adventurer circles..."

"So what do you plan to do?"

"For antique artworks like these, the best route is to find a high noble who knows what they're looking at, provided, of course, they have more money than sense.

"Failing that, selling through a reputable major chamber of commerce works too.

"Handing it to a guild appraiser is the absolute last resort when there's truly no other option."

"I see." Banxia nodded.

Another useful piece of knowledge filed away.

The guild appraiser's floor valuation was eighty gold coins. As long as they sold it for anything above that, it would be a solid profit for both of them.

"Do you know any high nobles or major chambers of commerce, then?"

"..."

Roxy shook her head in silence, then looked over at him. "Mr. Banxia, surely a powerful warrior like yourself must have been hired by high nobles or major chambers of commerce at some point?"

"Never once!"

"...That is nothing to be proud of." Roxy felt a mild headache coming on. She had assumed someone of Mr. Banxia's caliber would naturally know plenty of people in high society.

"Though I do know one merchant. We could go try our luck."

"Then I'll leave it to you." Roxy nodded. "As long as the selling price clears eighty gold coins, everything above that is pure gain."

"The way you're saying that — are you not coming with me?"

"...I have something important to deal with shortly."

"What could possibly matter more than at least forty gold coins? Aren't you worried I'll pocket the difference?"

"Even if you did, that would only be what Mr. Banxia deserves. After all, without you, I never would have gotten these three grimoires in the first place."

"Alright, I'm joking. I'll hand you your coins afterward — a promise is a promise."

"..."

...

The inner city. A shop under the Star Moon Chamber of Commerce.

The air inside was wound tighter than usual today. Even the clerks who normally couldn't stop chatting had dropped their voices to murmurs, their peripheral vision constantly drifting toward the entrance.

The reason was simple enough. The chamber's old president had recently announced that several key sectors would be divided among his heirs to manage separately, whoever produced results would inherit the presidency.

The tailor shop wasn't the largest piece of the chamber's holdings, but it had been the very first foothold when the Star Moon Chamber of Commerce started out years ago. To the old president, it was practically sacred.

Naturally, it had fallen to the eldest son.

Today was the eldest son's first visit to inspect the shop in person. Anyone who caused a problem at this particular moment would be lucky if all they got was being thrown out of the inner city.

"Hey, beggar. Stop blocking the door."

A clerk on patrol frowned, eyeing the man standing in the entrance, dressed in tattered clothes, a few burlap sacks hanging from his hands.

"Are you talking to me?" Banxia pointed at himself. Not a trace of irritation, if anything, he was curious.

After living this long, no one had ever greeted him quite like that.

Was this the part where he was supposed to flash a crooked smirk and then,

Actually, how did the routine go again?

He hadn't even had time to dig up those power-fantasy tropes from his memory before a voice came from behind him.

"You must not be rude to a customer."

"...Yes, Master Luke." The clerk lowered their head immediately and stepped to the side.

Banxia turned around. Standing behind him was a young man with blond hair, dressed in a finely tailored dark coat with a silver brooch at the collar, unmistakably upper-class at a glance.

Though for some reason, the way Luke was looking at him felt a little off.

"Sir, I apologize. I haven't kept my staff in line." Luke bowed slightly, tone easy and warm. "As an apology, please feel free to select any piece of clothing in the shop."

"It's fine." Since the other party was being perfectly reasonable, Banxia couldn't be bothered to make anything of it. He waved a hand. "I ordered something earlier. I'm just here to pick it up."

"Is that so? Then allow me to take you there."

"Ah — thanks."

"My name is Luke Burns. Luke is fine."

"Banxia works for me."

A few paces later, the two stopped in front of the wooden door to Hashaka's workroom.

Banxia raised a hand and knocked. The door opened.

"Mr. Banxia, you're here. Your clothes are,"

The blond youth inside and the female companion seated nearby had barely begun their greeting when their eyes moved past Banxia's shoulder. The moment they saw the smiling young man standing behind him, both of them went visibly still.

"So Hashaka knows Mr. Banxia as well. How wonderful."

Banxia looked between the two of them, puzzled by the strange tension.

Luke had made a decent enough impression so far. Surely nothing clichéd was about to happen.

"I still have other storefronts to look in on. I'll leave Mr. Banxia with you, make sure to take good care of him." Luke nodded to the two of them, gave Banxia one last smile, and turned to go.

The door closed. Only after those footsteps had fully faded down the hallway did the two people in front of him let out slow, almost synchronized sighs of relief.

"What's going on?" Banxia sat down, genuinely puzzled.

"Mr. Banxia, are you close with Master Luke?"

"Not at all. We met for the first time just now at the entrance."

"I see." Hashaka let out another visible breath of relief. After a brief pause, Hashaka's expression turned solemn, voice dropping low.

"Mr. Banxia, if you're still an ordinary man, please be very careful around Master Luke."

"...Huh?"

"Master Luke doesn't have much interest in women." Hashaka chose the words carefully. The female companion sitting nearby kept her face cold and blank, but the faint redness creeping up to the tips of her ears told a different story.

"Luke prefers men, especially the petite type, and also the exceptionally well-built kind, like yourself. There are even rumors around town that Luke once brought three professional warriors into the bedroom in a single night."

"..."

Banxia was quiet for a moment.

No wonder.

Back at the entrance, something about the way Luke had looked at him hadn't sat right, the apology, the personal escort, all of it.

He'd actually assumed the man was just overwhelmed by the aura of a seasoned expert radiating off him.

Chapter 30

"Does it fit well, Mr. Banxia?"

"Mm."

Banxia stepped in front of the full-length mirror and looked himself over.

A dark-gray duffle coat hung open at the front, showing a clean black short-sleeve underneath. The cuffs sat snug around his upper arms, and the fabric across his shoulders and back pulled just enough to hint at the muscle beneath.

Below the waist: dark straight-cut trousers, cuffs tucked into a pair of Martin boots crafted from monster hide.

He adjusted the wide hood, running his fingers along the lining. Some kind of beast fur, soft and dense, the name unknown to him.

The whole outfit was an autumn-winter set Hashaka had tailored to his exact specifications. They were in the southern reaches of the continent, after all. Winter was closing in.

His current body wasn't going to catch a cold from a little chill, but that didn't mean he wanted to be uncomfortable.

He rolled his shoulders and flexed his joints. The cut was generous, nothing that would restrict normal movement.

"Not bad." Banxia rarely handed out compliments, but he meant this one. No wonder the wealthy in his past life swore by bespoke everything. There really was a difference.

Seeing his approval, the golden-haired young man let out a quiet breath of relief. "Glad you like it."

"How much?"

"47 silver coins in total. Per your instructions, everything was sourced from top-grade materials—"

"Fine." Banxia didn't wait for the rest. He reached into his pocket, counted out the coins, and handed them over.

Hashaka took the money and couldn't help remarking, "You really don't hold back, Mr. Banxia."

That amount, spent carefully, could keep an ordinary family going for months. Plenty of minor nobles came in for custom work and spent ten minutes agonizing over anything past ten silver, not this one. He hadn't even glanced at the total.

Hashaka had fully expected to spend several rounds haggling.

"It didn't exceed what I was willing to pay." Banxia crouched and picked up a cloth sack sitting by his feet, pulling the drawstring loose with one hand. "Besides, I came into some unexpected money recently."

"Unexpected money?"

"I'm not sure if you'd be interested." Banxia smiled and opened the sack wider, letting them see what was inside.

The bag was packed full, bronzeware and decorative pieces crammed in at every angle, each one carrying the deep, muted luster that only genuine antiques wore.

Both people in the room went quiet for a moment.

The kind of pieces that any sensible collector would lock inside a velvet-lined case, tossed loose inside a rough cloth bag without so much as a layer of padding. One bad knock and an edge or corner was gone for good.

And this was only one of three bags.

Hashaka glanced uncertainly toward the woman nearby. She gave a small nod.

"Mr. Banxia — are you looking to have all of it handled through us?"

"If the price is right, sure."

"Please give me a moment. I'll go find the guild's appraiser." Neither of them had the expertise to name a figure on something like this. "I'll be right back."

"Mm."

Banxia nodded. Hashaka headed straight for the door at a half-jog.

Not hard to understand the urgency, anyone with half an eye for valuables could see this collection was worth serious money. If the deal went through, the commission alone would be well worth it.

After Hashaka pulled the door shut behind them, the modest room fell quiet.

It was just Banxia now, and the dark-haired woman who had been sitting in the corner without a word since he arrived.

Being alone in a room with a beautiful woman didn't make him awkward. He was well past that stage.

Besides, there was something more pressing to deal with right now.

He crouched down and began lifting the antiques from the bag one by one, setting them on the floor without ceremony. Then he stood, walked into the fitting room, and picked up the tattered old clothes he'd just changed out of. He folded them carefully, one piece at a time, and tucked them back into the sack.

The dark-haired girl watched him do it, and after a moment she said:

"I wouldn't have guessed, Mr. Banxia. You're a sentimental one."

"Mm." He didn't argue the point, just nodded. "These came with me from my old world. They're the only proof I have that I came from somewhere else." A pause. "And my sister bought them for me."

Even for him, talking about family brought something up, a quiet, unhurried kind of longing.

It had been over a month. He wondered what things looked like back there now.

"A sister," the dark-haired woman said, and then went still.

She had family in her old world too. But thinking of them now, she didn't feel much of anything particular.

What she did notice was the look on his face when he said it, that expression. It felt unfamiliar to her. Almost strange, in a way she couldn't quite name.

"She must be exceptional," the dark-haired woman said.

"Of course." Banxia glanced at her, and there was no hesitation in his voice at all. "Age-wise, she's probably around the same as you. Do the math and she'd be starting high school next year, give or take."

"...Mr. Banxia." The dark-haired woman's eyelid gave a faint twitch. "Do I really look that young to you?"

Since arriving in this world, she had been deliberate about everything, keeping her expression flat and cool, putting real thought into how she dressed, all of it calculated so no one would take her lightly.

It had been the same in her old world, come to think of it.

But this was the result of genuine effort. If she could still be written off as a little girl after all that, then what exactly had any of it been for?

Banxia said nothing. He took a longer look.

Dark hair left loose, draping along the line of her shoulders, the ends catching a faint gleam in the light from the window. Those red eyes were cold, and the expression beneath them was composed to the point of being rigid, it all added up to a certain presence, the kind that kept people at a careful distance. An ice beauty, if you were being generous.

Add in the elaborate dress, the kind that read as expensive at a single glance, and his first impression had been that she was some minor noblewoman with real authority behind her name.

But some things couldn't be hidden. Just as an older woman trying to pass as young left a certain wrong feeling, a young girl who had styled her hair like an adult's didn't become one for it.

And the longer Banxia looked, the more something nagged at him.

Something felt...

"You look familiar. Have we met somewhere before?"

"..."

"Hey — what's that face for? I don't use lines that stale when I'm talking to a woman."

"No, I just thought perhaps Mr. Banxia had a short memory. We've run into each other at least a few times, once outside the city in the forest, and again on the commercial street in the inner city."

"...I didn't mean in this world. I meant before."

"Is that so?" The dark-haired girl had no particular urge to deny it anymore. She studied him for a moment in turn.

"In that case, I'm sorry to disappoint you. If I had crossed paths with Mr. Banxia in a previous life, I don't think I would have forgotten."

"So I'm misremembering?" Banxia sounded genuinely uncertain. Human memory was a strange thing. The occasional glitch wasn't out of the question.

Still, something felt off. He looked at her again.

The dark-haired girl didn't flinch. She held his gaze steadily, the two of them facing each other in the small room without looking away.

➤ Next: I'm Not a Bad Person