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Prologue
The pawnshop was bustling, packed with customers.
Among them, some voices were especially loud.
“Dad, just let’s go! How can you appraise a single coin like it’s worth anything?”
“You never know, kiddo.”
“I don’t even have to go to college, so just—!”
The daughter looked upset, and the father looked even more distressed.
They were a father and daughter who seemed to have a story, even without asking.
“Looks like they came because the daughter’s college tuition isn’t enough.”
I smiled and greeted them.
“Hello, customer. I’m Alicia, the appraiser. May I see your item?”
“Oh, yes, please take a look at this coin. I got it when I was young, during a bet while sailing! It’s like my lucky charm.”
“Dad…”
“Don’t say anything, Inseok. Even if it’s only 100,000 gold, wouldn’t it be good to get something for it?”
Glancing at the daughter’s sulky face,
“She must be upset that her dad is trying to sell his lucky charm because of her tuition.”
If the appraisal value came out low, she’d probably be even more upset.
Though I wanted to give a high price, principles are principles.
I took out my loupe and examined the coin, smiling slightly.
“Hmm, it really is a lucky charm.”
I smiled at the worried father and asked,
“You said you got this coin from a bet?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Was the bet at the Calico Strait by any chance?”
“W-How did you—?”
“You can tell just by looking.”
The father was dumbfounded, so I opened a newspaper I had saved and showed it to him.
There, it said:
[…The so-called ‘Calico Gold Coin’ auctioned off for 10 million gold…]
“Wha—?!”
“Ten million gold?!”
I handed the stunned father and daughter a card.
“The preservation is good, it’s pure gold. It’s actually my first time seeing a Calico Gold Coin, and I want to buy it myself.”
This was a card that granted entry to the auction house.
The pair looked at me blankly as they took it.
“You should sell it directly at the auction house to get more money. If you say you came through my introduction, they’ll treat you well. Try going.”
“T-Thank you! Really, thank you, appraiser!”
In a way, it was truly a lucky charm.
The daughter’s tuition problem was solved all at once.
I waved to the excited father and daughter as they left.
The next customer, watching this, whispered to me.
“I heard the rumors, and wow… the appraiser really is an honest person. Glad I came here.”
“Ha ha, you flatter me.”
“So, is that why Her Highness the Princess also uses this place?”
Ahem.
When did that rumor spread?
Coughing unexpectedly, I heard the customer whisper discreetly.
“I heard the Royal Knights’ Commander and the Archpriest of the temple also visit? Is that true?”
“Well, about that, sir—”
“And that’s not all.”
Looking around, the customer’s eyes sparkled.
“I even heard the Duke of the neighboring Moro Duchy comes here?”
“Well… um.”
“Right? Right?! Wow, it’s amazing that such people also use a pawnshop!”
“What kind of information network does this customer have?”
I thought, while the customer asked curiously,
“What do those kinds of people usually buy? I’m really curious.”
“They don’t really buy anything.”
“Huh? Then do they come to sell?”
“Not exactly selling either.”
“Huh? So if they neither buy nor sell, do they just hang around being nuisances?”
“They say troublesome customers don’t even realize they’re troublesome.”
This inquisitive customer didn’t seem very pleasant either.
I held back from speaking bluntly inside and thought:
Yes, those people.
“They are troublesome.”
But on the other hand?
“Not really troublesome, or something like that.”
If I were to investigate how those seemingly troublesome yet not-troublesome people became our pawnshop’s customers,
I’d have to go back a little in time.
That is,
“Back to when I just came back.”
I, Alicia Lionet,
am living my second life.
0. First Life
The end of my first life was miserable.
I was beaten to death.
“Hey, that girl just spat blood!”
“D-Does she have to die? I told you to go easy! I was just trying to steal her necklace!”
“Run before the duchy guards arrive!”
More precisely, I was in the process of dying from the beating.
Snow was falling gently, and the newspaper was fluttering in the wind.
Under the wanted poster, the article read:
[…Unidentified body found at a fire in the slums near the imperial capital identified as Michele Piokedad Lionet, former duke, shocking news…]
“Grandfather is dead.”
Having seen the article confirming my grandfather’s death, I had no reason to live anymore.
I felt no pain.
“Grandpa…”
I had lived alone with my grandfather in a small house but was kicked out three years ago.
Suddenly, relatives barged in, saying my grandfather was a disgraced duke.
“W-What? Our grandfather is a duke?”
Before I could even react to this first-time news, they forced me to sign documents.
《Renunciation of Status》
《Renunciation of Property》
《Transfer of Rights Contract》
Clearly documents I should never have signed.
But I had no time to investigate and had to sign.
“If you sign, they’ll heal our grandfather, right?”
“Yes, of course! How could we abandon our duke whom we just found?”
The promise to cure my grandfather’s rare disease—
I couldn’t refuse that condition.
“But there’s one condition. Never set foot in this empire again. Ever.”
So overnight, I left the empire.
I barely made it to the Duchy of Moro.
I lived hand to mouth, exhausted and worn down.
“But I could endure it. As long as my beloved grandfather was safe, I was fine. But…”
[…The Lionet family has begun selling off the former duke’s pawnshop and other assets; inheritance proceeding smoothly…]
Grandfather was dead.
Not peacefully in bed, but caught in a fire.
And the unidentified body found in the slums?
All the expensive medicine and first-class care had been lies.
“How… how could this happen…”
On top of that, they sold the pawnshop.
Grandfather always said, no matter what happened, he would never close or sell the pawnshop.
The Lionet family had abandoned him to die and didn’t even honor his final wish.
“They didn’t take the necklace, but they took everything else.”
I looked sadly at the red necklace I had fiercely protected despite the beatings.
The only thing I could take when I was kicked out, my only connection to my grandfather.
The red blood spread on the floor like the necklace.
I felt wronged and sad.
At the moment I sensed the end, though I did not believe in gods, I prayed without realizing it.
“World Tree, please. Just once, if you could give me one chance…”
Suddenly, my strength left my hand before I finished the prayer.
My eyes closed.
The last thing I saw was snow quietly piling on the necklace, and
“Poor thing.”
A shadow that muttered that stopped before me.
When I closed my eyes, it was a dark midwinter night…
But when I opened them, the scene was bright.
I stared blankly at the window—more precisely, at the curtain hanging on it.
“No way.”
No mistake.
That was the curtain my grandfather had made with his own hands.
Hurriedly, I got up and looked at myself in the mirror.
No swollen purplish eyes.
My favorite checkered pajamas.
Long, smooth light pink hair.
And the necklace I’d worn since childhood, which I didn’t even remember.
“I’m back…”
Back home.
Back to the time before I died on the streets of the Duchy of Moro.
If so, that meant…
“Grandpa, grandpa.”
I hurried down the stairs.
There, he was…
“Grandpa!”
“Look at that voice. You think I’m going anywhere?”
Grandpa was there.
He was drinking dark tea.
When I ran to hug him, he grumbled but stroked my face.
When his wrinkled large hand touched my face, it finally felt real that I was back.
“Why do you look like that? Did you have a nightmare? Huh?”
“Yes. A really, really bad one. A terrible dream.”
“Did a monster appear or something?”
“…Yeah, something like that. Grandpa, you still remember I can’t eat carrots?”
“Even if I forget everything, I won’t forget that, you kid!”
I was so happy Grandpa was still the same that tears almost came.
But there was no time.
I checked the calendar and jumped up.
“It’s three days ago.”
It was three days before the relatives suddenly barged in and kicked me out.
“Three days. That’s how much time I have left.”
I looked around the house full of notes, blew my nose once, and approached Grandpa.
“Grandpa.”
“What is it, kid?”
“You know I really love you a lot, right?”
“…Huh, what flattery is this?”
He snorted but smiled faintly, secretly pleased.
“Are you asking for something tasty? Or maybe a new ribbon or dress?”
No, I don’t want any of those.
Grandpa raised me for 20 years in place of my early deceased parents.
He was my reason for living, my only family.
I looked at him tenderly for a moment, then cleared my throat casually.
“You’re sharp as ever, Grandpa. But that’s not what I want.”
“What is it then?”
“Hmm. Well, it’s nothing much…”
I put my hands together like I was praying.
And finished the prayer I hadn’t completed in my previous life.
“This life, I will never lose it again.”
“Grandpa’s seal, give it to me.”
Grandpa, the pawnshop, and my life—
I will never lose them again.
I smiled.
