Chapter 97 - I Made Them Underestimate Me

I Made Them Underestimate Me
◇
And so I ended up arriving in Boguina while the assassins continued to follow me.
The town was filled with shops with signs that read, ‘Monster Armor,’ just like I had heard.
But…
“Most of them are for horses.”
That’s what I saw when I looked at the storefronts.
There were some that were for cows… But I didn’t see any that were for the kind of monsters that Tamers would have.
But then again, I wasn’t actually sure what kind of monsters normal Tamers had.
…With so many shops, it would be hard just choosing a place to buy stuff in.
I wondered about this as I looked around.
Then I found a stall nearby that was selling skewers of barbecue meat.
Maybe I could ask if there was a place they could recommend.
“I’ll take two of those.”
“Ah! Certainly!”
The owner said as he handed them to me.
I passed him the money and then asked,
“I came here to buy monster armor. Do you know of a good place?”
“For a horse?”
“No. For slimes and a Proud Wolf.”
The man heard this and then he frowned.
It seemed like it would not be easy to acquire those.
“Ahh… So you want monster armor as a Tamer, eh? That will have to be by special order.”
“Oh. Well, which store could I go to for that?”
“For Tamer monster armor… There are not many places that can do it. I would say that Gaiger definitely makes the best pieces, but the prices are not cheap.”
I see.
But it couldn’t be helped if it was expensive since it was of good quality and by special order.
It seemed like there were cheaper places…but it was better not to be stingy when your life was on the line.
Dying over something like that would be so embarrassing
“All right. Could you tell me where Gaiger’s store is?”
“…It’s really expensive, you hear? Even the cheapest ones are about 300,000 cicols.”
“It’s a matter of life and death. I can’t be too cheap with that.”
And if it really was so expensive that I couldn’t buy anything for the slimes and Proud Wolf…well, I would just have to check a different store.
…Well, there were so many slimes, so I was thinking about making a few and only having them equipped when a slime was going on a particularly dangerous mission.
“…Well, if you insist, I will tell you.”
And so the owner of the stall told me how to get to the store.
—It seemed like it was pretty close by.
But…I first needed to do something about my pursuers.
They would surely be suspicious if I suddenly bought armor that cost 300,000 cicols.
“Thank you.”
I said as I walked away.
‘Hey, he looks like he’s going somewhere.’

‘That direction…could it be Gaiger’s store?’
‘What’s that?’
‘…It’s the best store that sells monster armor for Tamers. Even the cheapest one for horses costs 300,000 cicols.’
‘Are you serious? ..This Yuji person much be rich.’
‘It’s no wonder that headquarters put him on the candidate list…’
I could hear this conversation as they maintained a certain distance between us.
It seemed like they had not been able to hear our actual conversation.
I thought about this as I arrived at the front of Gaiger’s store.
And then I looked at the price tags of the horse armor that was in the front—-and made an exaggerated show of being shocked.
‘Hey, he seems to be surprised by the price tags.’
‘I guess he didn’t know that Gaiger was expensive.’
They reacted just as I had wanted.
I continued to check a few more of the products—and then walked away with a sad expression.
‘…He gave up then.’
‘So he can’t even afford to buy 300,000 cicols worth of armor? …This guy clearly isn’t worth killing.’
It appeared that I was successful in fooling them.
And it was with that joy in my heart, that I made my way to the guild.
And then—I grabbed an ordinary E-Rank request sheet, and took it to the counter.
It was to hunt down a monster known as a Rush Bull.
“I’d like to accept this quest.”