A small inn located in downtown Sellenberg.
There, Yuria and Isolda were in the middle of having a chat while taking a break in a room.
“Thank you, Miss Isera. Thanks to you, I was able to close the deal at a good price.”
Yuria bowed her head deeply while expressing her gratitude.
Regarding her show of gratitude, Isolda let out a small sigh and spoke in an annoyed voice.
“You don’t have to do this. I owe you… so I was just trying to repay the favor for saving me…”
“But… if I had been alone, I wouldn’t have been able to raise the price that much. Thank you very much!”
“Um… ”
Seeing Yuria bowing her head again, Isolda thought back to the reason why she went out of her way to help her.
A corner of her heart had softened, and she seemed to be able to see her own younger self in Yuria.Since she had to start everything from scratch, she thought that the appearance of this girl would be a good stimulus for her to regain her past mindset.
‘I was also like this in the past… there was a time when I was naive, and at the same time I was immature and useless. But not now.’
Measure the opponent with the weapon called doubt, build a light trust if the opponent’s level is below the standard, and build a steady connection to dispel doubt if the opponent’s level is high, then use these as resources to obtain what you want.
Then, once the opponent become useless take everything and resolutely trample on them, leaving no room for resilience!
That was how the woman, Isolda, had lived her life as a merchant. And in that sense, this girl, Yuria, was just a hatchling by her standards.
‘In the future, if she learns to doubt a little more… and learns how to use trust as a weapon, this girl will be able to grow wonderfully. Well, it’s a story that has nothing to do with me now.’
While thinking about that, Isolda thought it was time to part ways with the girl.
Suddenly, realizing that she would never see this girl again, she began to feel a strange sense of regret for some reason, but she soon erased that feeling and began to calmly consider the future.
Although she had come a little farther east, the place she was aiming for was still far away from this place.
There was no need to be in too much of a hurry, but she had to get there before her travel expenses ran out.
‘I have to get on a carriage again and go to Munic… no, is there a need for that? Taking a break here and going straight to my destination without stopping in Munic is also an alternative…’
While Isolda was pondering on her travel plan, Yuria asked,
“Um…then, where will Miss Isera go now?”
“Yes? I…”
Since she had already come this far, there would be less fear of being pursued, and considering that she had a rough understanding of this girl, Isolda told Yuria where she was going.
“Wow! What a coincidence? I wanted to go there too!”
“What? Do you even know how far it is?”
“Yes, I know. It’s about 600 km along the road east of here… it takes about 15 days to reach it.”
“You know better than I thought.”
Unexpectedly, Yuria’s words were not just empty words.
Isolda calculated it in her mind, and it seemed that it would take about that much time at the speed of that small carriage.
“I used to live there with my mom and dad, so I roughly know the way… and I’m finally able to go back because I’ve prepared travel expenses through today’s deal.”
“Really? But why are you going somewhere that far away? It’ll just bring back some old memories.”
“It’s something like that, and… it’s also because my parents are buried there…”
“…”
Yuria brought up a reason that was much heavier than expected.
Due to that, Isolda also felt her heart turn heavy and remained silent for a while.
‘Ever since I was young, I have been doing this alone, I never got the change to think about it…’
For some reason, when Yuria talked about her deceased parents, Isolda’s chest began to strongly resonate as well.
“Me too… my parents also passed away… they are now buried in Schwyz but…”
“Ah…”
Isolda spoke in a quiet voice.
As a result, Yuria began to feel that the atmosphere, which had been a bit gloomy, had become even gloomier.
‘It’s strange… I’m just listening to other people’s words, but I feel so sad… I’ve never felt anything like this in my life..’
‘Perhaps, it’s due to the fact that I had been picturing myself in Yuria all along.’
Isolda could only speculate that might be the case.
Even so, to her, emotions were something that were akin to ‘tools’ that could be discarded at any time depending on the situation. So this was quite unfamiliar to her, and it gave her a strange feeling.
The two girls remained silent for a while, recalling the faces of the people they couldn’t see anymore.
In the Isolda’s case, the impression her parents had left in her heart was not very clear, but it was inevitable that she would miss them a little after what she had been through.
‘If the two of you were still alive, it might not have been as difficult as it is now.’
As Isolda was lost in her thoughts, Yuria spoke to her in the brightest voice possible, as if she was trying to change the atmosphere.
“Ah… that… then, since our destination is the same, would you like to travel with me Miss Isera? I will feel a bit lonely to go that far alone…”
“Um… can I think about it for a moment?”
To be honest, from Isolda’s point of view, it wasn’t a bad offer.
It would be a relatively safe choice to accompany Yuria, who was moving with the dogs, as the possibility of bandits attacking the carriage couldn’t be ruled out.
In addition, they could shorten the travel time by a considerable amount if two people take turns in driving the carriage during both day and night.
Moreover, it was also true that traveling long distances would be a little less boring if she had a companion.
‘Above all… it wouldn’t be right to think that I paid off my life-saving debt by only helping her sell some iron ore.’
Isolda managed to convince herself even if she thought it a little forced.
‘As a repayment… I will teach this girl how to be a good merchant. It’s up to her if she can digest it well, but…’
Suddenly, Isolda began to think that it might be fun to teach this young merchant, who didn’t feel like a stranger, and make the girl become like her.
‘It’s my first time feeling like this, but I don’t think it’s bad. The more I look at her, the more I naturally project myself on her. Maybe this is why people like children, right?’
Thinking like that, for the first time in her life, Isolda showed a smile on her lips that contained a little warmth.
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