Testing My Luck in the New World

Volume 2 - Chapter 16

"Revenge? Miss Bellenfort, I swear, I didn't..."

"Liar!" she yelled, her voice cracking. "What ever it was, I-I must have been a little tipsy. I didn't mean it. And yet... And yet you did this to me!"

Unable to move the axe any closer without cutting into me, she instead slammed me against the wall again. Pain ripped through my spine, almost making me wish for the instant knock-out Tama gave me.

But, gritting my teeth, I endured.

"Stop it," Yua yelled. "I said let him go!"

Yua tried to launch another attack, but I stopped her again. If that first hit was anything to go by, a fight between these two likely wouldn't go in her favor.

Besides, something about this wasn't right. After Yua's past showed me how easily a life can be ruined by a simple mistake, I started being extra careful with all my transactions. Overly cautious. I even went out of my way to be mindful of how I paid back her maids, who were already slaves. There should be no way I did this to her.

"Out with it," she barked. "What did I do to you? I know it was you. I remember enough about yesterday to know you're the last person I spoke with. I remember you coming to me. I remember my maid's misunderstanding. I remember you wanted a map to Guerraway. That's why I'm here! I thought I'd find you on the road, but somehow you got here first.

"Fess up," she demanded again. "Whatever it is, whatever I did, you could have just asked for an apology. I would have apologized. We could have shared a drink and laughed it off. But to go this far is just..."

"A drink...?"

Wait... The map? No, it must have been...

"It's the silver trays."

"What the hell are you talking about? Do you think this is a game?!"

She lifted my back off the wall, ready to slam me again, but I took my hands off her wrist to plead my case.

"Wait, wait, wait! I'm serious!"

After the mess I got into with Alphonse, I learned that the world's thievery system forced the people adapt by exchanging money by setting them on trays first so neither the seller or buyer turned Thief. It was a simple and easy solution to the problem. The trays didn't necessarily have to be silver, but every trade I've been a part of since coming to this world involved one.

Every single one... but the trade I made with her.

"It was when I bought your map. I took out some coin to pay you, but you grabbed them out of my hand before I could."

Something must have gone wrong in the trade. In her drunken stupor, she must have grabbed the coins in a way that counted as stealing. Possibly because I'd forced myself to become accustomed to trading via these trays, I still subconsciously considered the coins as my own since she didn't have one ready.

As a business owner and natural resident of this world herself, a mistake like this should have been had she been of exceedingly difficult to make. If she was sober, anyways. It was her own fault this happened.

No, I suppose it was on both of us. Not only did I not consider her actions at the time either, but I was too distracted to notice.

Distracted by what, you ask?

Well, even now, in the periphery of my vision, for I dared not look at them directly, I could tell the only thing covering her torso was the same captain's long coat she wore when we first met. Just like last time, she kept it wrapped around her overly-abundant bosom in place of a shirt, confining it just enough to show off the scar she had running down her cleavage. From what I could see, she wore nothing beneath it.