“Oh!? This is Vice-Captain Sera. Welcome.”

The shopkeeper, noticing us, greeted us.

In the town, my title is called in quite a casual manner.

The children call me “Captain,” while regular shopkeepers call me “Sera-san” or “Sera-chan.” Since these people have no connection to the lord, it’s relatively free.

However, this old man calls me Vice-Captain. In such cases, it’s often people involved with commercial guilds, adventurer guilds, or knights. Could this old man be one of them?

“Shopkeeper, what are these things lined up here? They look like monsters…”

“Ah… These are monsters that were defeated within this territory. They’re like good luck charms…”

The shopkeeper answered the guard’s question. Monsters that were defeated here… Indeed, I’ve also fought妖魔種 (yōmajū) and魔獣 (majū) in the First Forest. However, I haven’t yet fought monsters from dungeons.

(Translator note: Imma change these in the future but imma leave it as this for now)

I suppose you could think of them as trophies, right? To show that we’ve defeated these monsters.

All the monsters are made more impressive than their real-life counterparts, which is part of the charm, I guess? Even if they’re well-made, they wouldn’t sell if they were ugly.

“…Hmm?”

While listening to the explanation, I was picking up and admiring the carvings. That’s when something covered with cloth caught my eye at the back of the display shelf. There are two… are these products too?

“Hey, what’s that?”

“Hm? …Ah, that’s…”

The old man, laughing awkwardly, took the cloth off.

Under the cloth were a bear and… what is this?

“These were carved by our boss and the guild’s head craftsman…”

He started explaining with a troubled look.

The defeated monsters within the territory… I guess, you could call the weaker ones the work of the workshop’s craftsmen. Wolves, boars, deer, goblins, orcs… I haven’t encountered an ogre yet, but I hear there’s one too. They all look well-made.

However, within the territory, two big monsters were defeated.

One is the bear that once led a group of monsters to attack the capital. Despite not being a demon lord type, Zighart had to go all out to finish it off.

Then the other one. A real demon lord species, a hybrid. The lord himself led an elite team to defeat it, and it was successfully killed. This monster is a giant beast named Riana, after the name of the territory.

These two big ones were made with great enthusiasm by the craftsmen, so they worked on them to the point of neglecting their other jobs. The result is truly impressive, but that also means the price had to match.

They placed them in the most prominent spot in the shop for the past two days to attract customers. But instead of buying, those who saw them praised them but then walked away upon seeing the price.

It had the opposite effect, so today, on the final day, they decided to move them away.

Then, yesterday’s customers were surprised to see that they hadn’t sold, and decided to buy the more reasonably priced smaller ones—regular monster carvings.

Sales improved after that. Apparently, the wolf carving was the most popular. …It’s really cool.

Anyway, that was great, but…

“The problem is, those two pieces haven’t sold…”

“Oh dear…”

That’s troubling.

The commercial guild has every workshop as a member, and there are heads of craftsman guilds in charge of different categories. The craftsman who made these sculptures is considered one of the top woodworking craftsmen in this territory, but despite that, these pieces haven’t sold. I can understand why that would weigh on him, even if other products were selling.

“Can I take a look?”

When I asked, he smiled and replied.

“Ah, sure, go ahead. The craftsmanship is flawless.”

First, the bear.

When you think of a carved bear, it probably brings to mind the souvenir carvings from Hokkaido in my previous life, where the bear was posed as if catching salmon. This one, however, shows the bear standing tall with its arms wide open, glaring forward with its mouth wide open. It looks like it’s about to attack—this one was carved by the head craftsman, and it’s an impressive piece.

Then… the giant beast Riana.

I call it a Cymodoki, and honestly, that’s the most accurate way to describe its appearance. It had large horns on both sides of its forehead and a long tail, looking like a rhinoceros.

The truth is, very few people have seen this creature. It wasn’t that I wanted to hide it, but because of its massive size, we covered it with special cloth to prevent decay, and it wasn’t exposed to the public. After it was brought into the capital, work began immediately. Not even the corpse was shown to civilians. Only the dissection professionals from the adventurer guild might have seen it.

This means the craftsman who carved it must have never seen the actual beast. He probably relied on information like “three horns, snake tail, and a body so massive it could shake the earth” to create it.

The sculpture, however, looks like a wingless dragon… This is definitely the more impressive of the two.

So, this is what the villagers imagine a Cymodoki looks like…

“By the way, Vice-Captain Sera, did you participate in the hunt?”

“Yeah… just a little. This sculpture is well made.”

Though it may not resemble the real thing exactly, well, the image is what matters.

“Anyway, it’s really well done, but how much did you price it for?”

Considering the quality, I’d say it’s fine if it’s a bit pricey. But just how much would make customers turn away?

“Ugh… five gold coins…”

The old man scratched his head and answered apologetically.

“Are you kidding me…?”

Five gold coins at a festival stall… no wonder the customers ran off.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Seria・【Hideout】+1【Prayer】【Mira’s Blessing】【Wind’s Robe】・【Floating Orb】+1【Shadow Sword】【Scarlet Bee Needle】【Fairy’s Eye】【Dragon’s Lung】【Amber Sword】【Danrem’s Thread】【Snake’s Tail】【Ankle Bracelet】【Amber Shield】【Purple Wings】・7 cards

Seriana・【Range Identification】・【】・28 cards
Elena・【】・【Green Fang】【Amber Sword】・3 cards
Alec・【Strong Strike】・【Red Shield】【Fierce Horned Trumpet】・7 cards