It took two days to come down from the mountain.
The western mountain range where the dragon's lair had been was high. When Yoon-seul had climbed up a year ago, Arkesia had cleared the way ahead of her. On the way down, she was alone. But she wasn't the same Yoon-seul she had been a year ago. The Spirit King's blessing showed her the way. Branches moved aside, and rocks made room for her feet. This time, she had shoes, too.
On the evening of the second day, the forest ended.
She stood on top of a hill. The wind blew, tossing her hair. What spread out before her was—
A city.
There was a wall. It was tall. A stone wall encircled the city. Buildings filled the space inside, packed tightly together. She could see spires. Smoke was rising. Smoke from people preparing dinner. The smell of people living their lives.
She had seen it in the dragon's memories. Bellat, a trading city in eastern Ersia.
A city built along the trade route connecting the east and west of the continent. A place where merchants, adventurers, mercenaries, mages, and travelers gathered. Population: thirty thousand. It was on an entirely different level from the village of Roen where Yoon-seul had lived.
Yoon-seul stood on the hill and stared at the city for a long while.
It was the first civilization she had seen in a year and a half.
“...There’s got to be a bathhouse, right?”
She was stopped at the city gate.
“Pass.”
The gatekeeper held out his hand. Two soldiers in armor stood on either side of the gate. They carried spears. Their eyes were sharp.
Yoon-seul paused. A pass. There was such a thing. She had learned about it from the dragon's memories. To enter the cities of Ersia, you needed a pass proving your identity. Guild membership papers or a merchant's license would work, too.
Yoon-seul had none of those.
“...I don’t have one.”
The gatekeeper narrowed his eyes. He looked her up and down. An Asian woman. An unusual appearance on this continent. Her clothes were made of leather, but the cut was strange. That was because Yoon-seul had sewn them herself from leather the dragon had brought her. She wore a backpack. She had no weapons.
“If you don’t have a pass, the entrance fee is five silver coins.”
That was expensive. According to the dragon's memories, five silver coins could get her ten nights at an inn.
Yoon-seul opened her backpack and took out a gold coin.
The gatekeeper's eyes widened.
It was gold. Not silver, but gold. And an ancient-minted gold coin at that. Its engraving was different from the gold coins currently in circulation. The gold coins in the dragon's lair were hundreds of years old, after all.
“...Will this do?”
The gatekeeper took the coin and examined it for a long while. He exchanged glances with the soldier beside him. They whispered about something.
“Go on in.”
There was no change. Yoon-seul didn't argue. One gold coin was nothing. She had hundreds in her backpack.
The moment she passed through the gate, a flood of sound washed over her.
People talking. Carts rolling. Horses' hooves clopping. Hammers ringing. Laughter. Shouting. Sounds she hadn't heard in a year and a half all came rushing at her at once.
Yoon-seul stood just inside the gate and stared blankly at the street.
There were so many people. How long had it been since she'd seen this many? Roen was a village of twenty households. The dragon's lair had held two dragons. Now hundreds of people were moving back and forth before her eyes.
“...Wow.”
Her mouth fell open. She had been a chaebol heiress. She'd lived in the middle of Seoul. She should have been used to crowds. But a crowd seen after a year and a half was different. It was overwhelming.
First, she looked for a currency exchange.
The dragon's memories told her that every trading city had one. She needed to exchange the ancient gold coins for currency currently in use.
The exchange office was near the central square. It was a small building, with a fat man sitting behind the counter. He wore pince-nez glasses.
Yoon-seul held out ten gold coins.
The fat man's glasses slid down his nose.
“T-These are...”
He picked up a coin and held it up to the light. He bit it. He weighed it. His hands were trembling.
“Ancient-minted pure gold coins. Where did you get these...?”
“Can you exchange them?”
The man swallowed. Then he started calculating. The beads on his abacus moved like mad.
“One gold coin is equivalent to three current gold coins and twenty silver coins. Ten would be...”
He named the amount. Yoon-seul converted it into Korean currency in her head. Even by a rough estimate, it was enough to buy an apartment in Gangnam, Seoul.
“...Okay. Exchange them.”
The fat man began counting out the gold and silver coins. His hands kept trembling.
As Yoon-seul left the exchange office, she thought about the hundreds of gold coins still left in her backpack.
‘...Am I rich enough to be a chaebol in another world, too?’
She had been a chaebol in Korea, and now she was one in another world, too. It was ridiculous.
She got a room at an inn. The best room they had. It had a bed. A bed, for the first time in a year. At the dragon's lair, she'd slept on leather spread over rocks. Were beds always this wonderful?
She took a bath. There was a bathhouse attached to the inn. Hot water. Hot water, for the first time in a year and a half. It was on an entirely different level from washing in stream water. Yoon-seul sank into the water and let out a cry.
“...I’m alive.”
She didn't come out for an hour.
She bought clothes, too. At a clothing store near the inn. Clothes worn by women in this world. A tunic, pants, and boots. After taking off the leather clothes the dragon had brought her and putting on new ones, she felt human again.
She looked in the mirror. A proper mirror, for the first time in a year and a half. At the dragon's lair, the only reflection she'd had was her face reflected in a stream.
She had changed.
She wasn't the Yoon-seul who had left Korea. Her face had grown sharper. Her cheeks had thinned. Her eyes had deepened. Her skin was tanned by the sun. The pale, soft skin of a chaebol heiress was gone.
But there was something different in her eyes. The Yoon-seul in Korea had had a strange, eerie look in hers. Now there was something more in them. Strength. The eyes of someone who had passed through dragons, monsters, bandits, and forests.
“...Mom would cry if she saw me.”
She tore her eyes from the mirror and went outside.
She was hungry.
Truly, desperately hungry. For a year, she'd eaten nothing but the deer and rabbits the dragon brought her. There had been no such thing as seasoning. Not even salt. She'd simply roasted everything and eaten it. At first, she was grateful. By the third month, she thought she was going crazy.
The streets were filled with the smell of food. Stalls lined the road. The smell of grilling meat. The smell of bread. The smell of spices. Yoon-seul's nose reacted like crazy.
She bought a meat skewer from the first stall and took a bite.
Tears filled her eyes.
Seasoning. Salt. Pepper. Some spice she couldn't identify. It had flavor. It was the first flavorful food she'd had in a year.
“...What is this? The seasoning?”
The stall owner answered with a bewildered look.
“Just salt and red pepper.”
“Give me another one.”
“...Sure.”
She bought soup from the second stall. Bread from the third. Fruit from the fourth. Another meat skewer from the fifth.
Yoon-seul sat on a bench in the square, eating with food in both hands. People passing by stared at her. An Asian woman was holding skewers in both hands and eating through her tears, after all.
“...It’s not kimchi stew, but this is good enough.”
That was when it happened.
“Excuse me.”
The voice came from beside her. Yoon-seul turned her head with a skewer in her mouth.
It was a girl. She looked a little younger than Yoon-seul, around nineteen. Red hair fell to her shoulders. She had freckles and green eyes. She wore leather armor. Two daggers hung at her waist. An adventurer.
“Where did you get that skewer? I wanted to buy one, too, but I got lost...”
With the skewer still in her mouth, Yoon-seul pointed to the left. The third alley.
“Thank you!”
The girl ran off. She was bursting with energy, her red hair flying behind her.
Yoon-seul went back to eating her skewer.
Three minutes later, the girl returned. She had skewers in both hands. She plopped down beside Yoon-seul.
“Is it okay if I sit here?”
She was already sitting. Yoon-seul nodded.
“I’m Lina. Lina Belford. I’m with the adventurer guild. I just got to Bellat today.”
She spoke quickly. Even while eating her skewer, she never stopped talking.
“And you? Are you a traveler? Where are you from? Are you alone?”
Yoon-seul finished her skewer and wiped her hands.
“I’m Yoon-seul. Just a traveler.”
“Yoon-seul? That’s an unusual name. Where are you from?”
“...Somewhere far away.”
“Oh. East? West?”
“Very far away.”
Lina tilted her head, but she didn't press any further. Instead, she asked another question.
“Have you registered with the adventurer guild yet?”
“No.”
“I’m going to register today, too! Want to come with me?”
Yoon-seul looked at Lina. It might have seemed strange to ask a complete stranger to go with her. But there was no wariness in Lina's eyes. She was simply bright. Purely bright.
Yoon-seul had been like that in Korea, too. She'd talk to strangers, ask them to eat with her, and become friends with them in no time. After she became a shaman, people had started keeping their distance, but that was how Yoon-seul naturally was.
“...Sure.”
Lina's face lit up.
“Really? Yay! I was a little scared to go alone. I heard the adventurer guild is really intimidating. That there are lots of rough people.”
“If you’re scared, why become an adventurer?”
Lina took a bite of her skewer and said,
“Because I need to make money.”
She said it with a smile. But there was something behind that smile. Her shaman's senses picked it up. A small shadow in Lina's emotions. Worry. Responsibility. The weight of someone who had to provide for another person.
Yoon-seul didn't ask anything else. Instead, she stood up.
“Let’s go.”
Lina sprang to her feet, a skewer still in her mouth.
The two of them walked side by side through Bellat's evening streets. The sunset was sinking beyond the city wall. Streetlamps were flickering on one by one.
Lina talked nonstop as they walked. About her hometown. Why she'd wanted to become an adventurer. How it had taken her two weeks to reach Bellat. How she'd run into wolves along the way and spent a night in a tree.
Yoon-seul listened. Sometimes she nodded. Sometimes she laughed.
For the first time in a year and a half, she was walking with a girl her own age. She'd wished she'd had a friend like this in Korea, too. Whenever people heard she was a shaman, they all took a step back. Here, it was different. Lina didn't know what Yoon-seul was, and she didn't need to. All Yoon-seul had needed was someone to walk beside her.
Lina needed that, too.
“Lina.”
“Yes?”
“It’s my first time in Bellat, too.”
“Really? Then we’re both beginners!”
Lina laughed. Yoon-seul laughed, too.
The adventurer guild's sign came into view. A crossed sword and shield. Noisy sounds spilled out from inside.
The two of them stopped in front of the door.
“...Should we go in?”
“Let’s go!”
Lina pushed the door open first. Yoon-seul followed.
Kang Yoon-seul, shaman. Twenty-one years old. A year and a half of life in another world.
She had made her first friend.