Yamiyo no Hotaru

Chapter 36

...Time goes back a while. After finishing our meal at the restaurant, we started to explore the market for some light exercise. We browsed and browsed the goods in the general stores and street stalls. Then, I luckily or unluckily ran into a sub-character from the original game 'Firefly of the Dark Night (Yamiyo no Hotaru)'.

"Wow... Tomobe-san, look at this! How is it!? Does it suit me?"

Kayo stopped in front of one of the stalls and showed me her honey-colored hair, or more precisely, the hairpin in her hair, through a gap in her Ichimegasa. Her hair was sweet and the sweet scent of Tachibana spread softly around me.

The cuteness that I could recognize even through Ichimegasa, the charm of Tachibana that does not suit her age... but for me, that was not a problem right now. More importantly, there's another thing...

"...Well. First of all, let's take off that hairpin and apologize to the shop clerk, shall we?"

"?"

Kayo tilted her head as if she didn't understand what I was saying. Unfortunately, it is better not to take a hairpin from a row of hairpins and put it in her hair without asking the shop owner. Especially if she is wearing Ichimegasa to cover her head.

(If it is a professional thief, he/she could steal the goods in a very natural manner amid the chaos. There is no need to create suspicion on their own.)

At least, she should say a word to the shop owner. But I guess she is a young lady who is not aware of such a situation. Moreover...

(...of all people, it's that guy. I found a guy with a strong impact.)

I inwardly chuckled. Kayo may have thought it was just an open-air stall, but if one looks closely, one can realize that fact. Yes, I could tell at first glance that many of the items on display were not just for decorative purposes... or rather, I could tell at once. I knew some things about this street peddler before I actually saw him.

"Excuse me, I think my companion put the goods here without my permission. She didn't mean anything by it, but... is it okay?"

"Hmm? No problem, buddy (anii-chan). I wouldn't treat a kid as a thief just because she wears my product and gets excited."

The strong-looking middle-aged street vendor sitting on a chair replies with a smirk on his face.

"No. Your way is one thing, but the curse tool is not so flexible, is it?"

"Hmm? Oh, you mean that. But then, from the looks of it... you're escorting some rich guy, huh?"

The middle-aged peddler tilts his head at my low voice, then frowns uncomfortably when he notices my face... or more precisely, my appearance, which is obscured by my cloak. I knew that he hated exorcists and the like, both as a native and in his line of work.

'A stray curse tool, is it? I wonder what he's doing in the capital marketplace with his stall in broad daylight...?'

A hummingbird shikigami lets out a disappointed exclamation in my ear. Well, this guy is certainly a stray, but it's also true that he is slightly different from those people who sell low-quality goods for a bundle, you know?

This peddler, who appears randomly in some events in the game and at random places with low probability, is a descendant of disgraced and fallen exorcists.

In the game, he is a man with spiritual power who is a common traveling peddler, but in the side business, he is a man who creates and sells magic tools (curse tools) without the approval of the Imperial Court, and in the game, he is a man who sells so-called rare items.