Chapter 28: You’d Get Scammed

If the merchant had really died simply because he was connected to me, a Hero, then there would be no way to find someone else to trade with again.

In that case, it would be better for me to step in personally.

Someone dying because of me? That was a horrifying thought.

‘…I hope Inas is wrong.’

Inas was convinced that the merchant was dead, but I believed there was a chance he was just being overly pessimistic.

After all, I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes…

‘Should I just go shopping myself?’

Either way, there was no longer any need to resume trading.

Thanks to Inas’s spite, I had learned a rather useful piece of magic.

‘There really are all kinds of strange spells out there.’

The clone magic Inas used when sending me to the snowy mountain.

Even if I kept training, struggling just to survive against yetis, my growth would be slow.

I’d probably starve to death first.

Even knowing that, I had thought it was my only option for the time being.

But what if I used a clone?

Even if I got caught by Idel or the imperial palace bastards, it wouldn’t matter.

Even if they killed me, I wouldn’t actually die.

And I wouldn’t even have to walk out of Enns.

There was the convenient spell called warp.

In other words, the perfect setup for me to go shopping myself had been created.

Of course, there was still one problem.

‘Thank goodness there’s money.’

There’d be no point going into the city empty-handed.

Breaking through Idel’s surveillance was far less efficient than using clone magic.

But since I had no money, I had even considered asking Inas to warp my clone somewhere within Enns.

Still, finding something edible in Enns was only a temporary fix.

In the long run, I needed to earn money.

The first idea that came to mind was selling potions, but I dismissed it immediately.

The problem would be if I got caught while selling them.

I could just run away, but it would be troublesome if the buyers got dragged into it.

They’d start spouting nonsense about how they had helped a Hero.

But now that we had a mountain of money, it was no longer something I needed to worry about.

“I wish I had known sooner…”

If I had, that merchant wouldn’t have gotten involved with me… and Inas wouldn’t have had to struggle making potions.

…Was it even a struggle?

He seemed to enjoy it a bit when making them.

“…”

I glanced to the side.

Inas stood there, clearly sulking.

Right now, we were out shopping in the market of Simiga.

And the reason he looked sulky… was probably because he wanted to go alone, but I had stubbornly insisted on coming along.

“You can stop sulking now, you know? You lost the bet, Inas.”

“…”

For some reason, Inas had opposed the idea of me going out myself.

He kept insisting he would go alone, which was completely unrealistic.

Since he refused to listen, I had resorted to a stronger measure.

I declared that if he could go shopping alone and return safely within the time limit, I’d acknowledge it.

‘It’s absolutely impossible.’

I was certain.

‘Do I have any way to observe you from here? I trust you won’t cheat, but for fairness…’

Absurdly enough, Inas seemed confident he would win.

He handed over a crystal orb, saying I could use it to monitor what he was doing.

“The time limit is one hour, and you need to buy three ingredients.”

“Okay.”

Since Simiga itself was a small city, I had heard it wouldn’t take even thirty minutes to go around the entire market.

So under normal circumstances, it would have been an easy mission.

Of course, Inas was far from normal.

He couldn’t even properly distinguish ingredients.

“Pfft…”

A laugh slipped out unconsciously.

I remembered how he had wandered slowly around the market long after an hour had passed.

“How do you fail to buy even one thing?”

I had at least expected him to manage one out of three.

If he had just approached any merchant and asked where to find what he needed, it would have been over quickly.

But Inas didn’t ask anyone.

As if he needed to confirm everything with his own eyes, he checked every single stall one by one.

“Did you forget about the bet because you got too absorbed sightseeing?”

At one point, he had even stood perfectly still for a long time.

I was so curious about what he had been looking at that I asked him as soon as he came back…

‘I don’t remember.’

That was the only answer I got.

“Stop it.”

Inas sighed and shook his head.

After that bet, I kept bringing it up whenever I got the chance, so he must’ve gotten tired of it.

I shrugged with a casual grin.

“I can’t help it, it’s just so fascinating.”

If getting that distracted by something pointless was a talent, then it was certainly a remarkable one.

Well, if I kept teasing him, even I’d get annoyed, so I decided to stop there…

“Anyway, it feels nice to be out like this.”

It was almost funny to find it so amazing, considering how vividly I remembered the pain of dying, but it was still incredible that a clone’s senses were indistinguishable from my real body.

My actual body was currently in the library, said to be the safest place in Inas’s house.

“But why don’t you use clone magic, Inas?”

“I don’t need it.”

“Hmm…”

On the other hand, Inas was here in person.

Honestly, it didn’t feel like he was in a particularly safe situation either…

“Worry about yourself.”

“Why would you worry about me? This isn’t even my real body.”

No matter what I said, it didn’t seem like Inas would use a clone, so I decided not to press further.

From experience, I knew that when he was this firm, nothing I said would get through.

“I suddenly got curious about something.”

Something about this had been bothering me.

“Why do you live in Enns, Inas?”

It’s not like you’re poor… so why live in that dump and starve?

“Because my house is there.”

“…You said it’s not your house.”

“Yeah.”

It wasn’t even his house, yet he said it was because his house was there.

When would I ever get used to the way he spoke?

“You could just use warp magic to buy food. Why did you live starving like that…?”

Even if he had always lived there, there was no need to go without proper meals.

‘He’ll say it’s because it’s a hassle.’

I could already predict it.

No matter how hard I tried, he was impossible to understand.

“Inas.”

“…”

His eyebrow twitched.

He clearly found my constant talking annoying.

Was I just excited to be out with him?

I gave an awkward smile but didn’t stop talking.

“This clone magic… now that I think about it, isn’t it incredibly useful even outside situations like this? With this, your life’s never really in danger, right? Like when fighting monsters…”

Of course, this clone magic had its flaws.

Calling it a flaw might not be entirely accurate, but still.

The clone could feel everything.

However, its condition had no effect on the original body.

Just as the original didn’t die when the clone died, the original didn’t feel full when the clone ate.

Likewise, no matter how much the clone exercised, the original wouldn’t gain any muscle.

What did that mean?

It meant that when Inas sent me to the snowy mountain using this magic and called it “training”… it was nothing more than pure torment.

No matter how much I ran there, it had no effect on my real body.

It was completely pointless.

Well, maybe it helped mentally, facing monsters directly and suppressing fear…

And maybe I learned how to move faster in snow that swallowed me up to my knees.

‘But compared to the physical and mental pain, the gains are pretty minimal.’

So naturally, I never wanted to go through that kind of training again.

But… in real combat, wouldn’t using a clone be effective?

The real body trains, while the clone handles actual battles.

It sounded incredibly efficient…

“Not everyone can use it.”

“Then?”

“…”

“Is it something only you can do, Inas?”

“…”

His silence was answer enough.

“Wow.”

A spell only he could use.

I had heard that just like Allegros developed the Hero Summoning spell, mages could create their own magic in their own ways.

But even to someone like me, who knew nothing about magic, this seemed incredibly useful.

“As expected of a genius mage.”

“…Don’t.”

“Why? It’s true.”

“You don’t actually think that, Seongyeon.”

“Ah-”

How did he know?

I did acknowledge that Inas was impressive.

But after seeing so many of his lacking sides… it was hard to fully accept people calling him a genius.

It wasn’t like this at first.

But the more I saw him, the more flaws I noticed.

“Still, I do think you’re amazing. Thanks to you, I even get to look around the market like this.”

I shrugged with a light smile.

There was no need to lie and say I thought of him as a genius mage.

He probably wouldn’t believe it anyway.

“Go this way.”

Inas didn’t press the topic.

He didn’t seem particularly interested in what I thought.

“Huh? We just came from this way.”

“Turn back.”

“Why? It looks like there’s more over there…”

“No. Turn.”

“Ah! Inas! Don’t use force!”

…He’s not holding a grudge, right?

Grabbing my arm and dragging me back the way we came.

Surely that wasn’t his petty revenge.

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