It all began some time six months ago.

"Good morning!"

A seemingly cheerful girl came into my shop.

"Oh? Welcome."

While several different intelligent species existed in this world, humans took up the vast majority of the population. As a result, this girl who belonged to the race of cat-people easily stood out and caught my attention.

Her ears and tail were white and had a few grey spots, like those of a snow leopard's. She had silky white long hair and wore a frilly white dress that made her look very youthful. Combined with her pale complexion, one could probably mistake the girl as a ghost. As she was practically colorless from head to toe, any trace of color on her would stand out a great deal.

Indeed, her amber colored eyes were captivating.

She quickly walked up to the counter and introduced herself with a smile.

"My name is Amber. Nice to meet you!"

Of course. A cheerful girl with amber colored eyes named Amber.

"Nice to meet you, Amber. My name is Blaze."

"I've been told you made excellent potions and scrolls."

I knew rumors about me have been spreading around, but I didn't think anyone would have ever described my work as excellent.

"Really? I thought the rumors were about me being a crazy mage that made basic healing potions."

"That's quite modest of you."

She giggled at my response, then looked around the shop for a while. Although she never picked any items up for a close examination, she spent a bit more time looking at the shelves at the back than anywhere else. The girl pointed at one of the shelves.

"I guess the rumors that I heard were right. These are some very advanced potions you have."

I'm surprised she even knew that. Apart from the bottle shapes, the liquids inside each bottle were visually the same as those of cheap minor potions.

"Why do you even keep these in the back, anyways? Wouldn't it be better to put these on the display window so people know how skilled you are?"

"I don't get a lot of business here in the first place, and I'm sure people would be discouraged from coming inside if all they saw were potions they couldn't afford..."

The people here used gold, silver, and bronze coins for trading. Each type had small coins and large coins with a tiny hole in the center, with the large coin being worth ten small coins. A small gold coin was worth one hundred small silver coins, and a small silver coin was worth one hundred small bronze coins.

A veteran adventurer could earn about five small silver coins a week. The potions Amber pointed towards were all priced at one small gold coin or higher. There's no doubt that putting items worth almost half a year's earnings on display would give adventurers a very bad first impression about my shop.

The girl giggled again at my response.

"That's a strange reason. Why craft such powerful items if you don't plan on showing it to the world?"

Come to think of it, why did I make so many expensive advanced potions and scrolls in the first place? They already cost a fortune to craft, and I never expected anyone to purchase them, anyways. Maybe that was why I had so many financial issues…

"It's just in case there's an emergency that requires them, I guess..."

This world has been at war against a powerful entity known as the Demon King for generations. The town I was currently in was only a three hours' distance by horse away from the border with the Demon King's territory. I thought that being so close to the battlefield would mean that the army and militia would mass purchase the potions and scrolls in my shop, but I was horribly wrong about that.

On the battlefield, soldiers would either perish or get wounded enough that they would need to be sent back. There was no point in consuming an advanced healing potion to continue battling since the effect was not instant, as it only accelerated recovery, and wounded soldiers were seen as a liability to a battle's outcome.

My enchantment materials were much more useful to the army, but they were concerned that the Demon King's troops would loot enchanted equipment from the soldiers and use that against them, so they stopped purchasing the materials after a couple days.

As for the single-use scrolls imbued with my magic that allow the user to invoke powerful spells…

There's no doubt that powerful spells like "Inferno" or "Firestorm" would be useful in eliminating a large number of enemies. There was, however, one slight flaw: the area of effect was so large and hard to control that the spells would often cause friendly fire incidents to occur, the user included. Not only that, the force of impact would deform the terrain so badly that it became impassable, and the flames would linger for days, making it impossible for either army to advance.

"Well, this isn't an emergency, but what if I told you I knew someone who would buy your advanced supplies?"

If she hadn't so easily pointed at those expensive items earlier, I probably would have ignored her question.

"I'd be interested in knowing who that someone was."

"I can't tell you that so easily, you know."

I don't know if she's trying to tease me or not. The girl came back to the counter where I was standing and looked straight into my eyes.

"How would you feel if a former enemy came into your shop one day?"

"I might have cared a few months ago when I was still an adventurer. I'm essentially a merchant now, so as long as the person doesn't cause trouble and buys something from me, then I wouldn't mind having a former enemy in my shop."

"And what if other people end up hating you for doing business with the former enemy?"

"I'm sure a lot of people already hate me for destroying a lot of landmarks..."

That was the other reason why other adventurers weren't fond of my fire magic.

"... Besides, as a merchant, it's normal to have enemies."

Be it competition or people who think my prices are outrageous, there will always be people who aren't fond of me.

"Do you feel attached to any of the towns you've ever travelled to?"

"Not really. All the rumors about me made people treat me a bit differently, so I usually felt uncomfortable…"

I wasn't even sure why I was saying all these things. There was something about this girl that made me feel comfortable talking about myself.

The girl kept looking into my eyes. It was as if she was peering into my soul. Yet for some reason, that didn't bother me at all. We looked at each other in silence for a few seconds.

"Would you throw away your dignity if, in return, you could have customers that respected you?"

"I don't think I have much dignity in the first place. My stock of items and poor finances are already the laughing stock of this town…"

She giggled again at my response.

She then gave me a warm smile as her eyes glowed bright.

I suddenly felt drowsy, and my vision started to blur.

My eyelids began feeling heavy, so I briefly closed my eyes.

Then before I knew it, I lost my consciousness.