Can Someone (Anyone!) Please Turn Off the Auto-Skill Setting?! - Chapter 19
But come to think of it, he had promised to visit the shop.
Aaron only remembered after leaving the captain’s office. He figured he’d have to visit the kind “bell pepper” at her shop again after the Hero Selection.
On the day of the Hero Selection, Aaron was truly surprised to run into her among the waiting participants. He was glad to see that she wasn’t standing among the Holy Order. His expression was hidden behind his helm, but he was relieved.
At first, he didn’t recognize her and ended up making her feel forgotten.
It wasn’t intentional—he never deliberately forgot her. To him, all women looked like bell peppers, so he couldn’t tell them apart by appearance alone. However, the moment he heard her lively voice, he knew it was her.
“Do you really plan on selling all that popcorn?”
“Of course! Look at all these people! I was actually going to pop two sacks, but it was so much work I just made one.”
She still had that knack for chatter, a unique and interesting person. Even though she was about to take on the challenge for the hero’s sword, she didn’t seem to care about becoming the hero.
Her focus was on promoting her shop, a testament to her strong survival skills.
Had he known they’d meet here again, Aaron would’ve brought some money. He regretted having to turn her down once more when she offered to sell him some popcorn.
“I think you’re more than worthy to be a hero.”
Even though he had nothing to offer her in return, she once again gave him kind words.
He wished he could buy her entire bag of popcorn. Maybe she hadn’t meant anything by it, but it still gave him some courage.
Regardless, he was grateful. Since he couldn’t repay her, the least he could do was protect the popcorn while she participated in the challenge. He noticed people glancing at the sack of popcorn he was guarding.
They seemed curious as to why the paladin, Sir Aaron, was holding it so protectively and what his connection was to that woman.
Aaron, however, misinterpreted their glances, thinking they were eyeing the popcorn. He grew more alert, wary of potential thieves, while waiting for Nancy to return.
But then, something happened that no one had anticipated—not the announcer, and certainly not Nancy.
“So, uh… Can I put this back in and cancel it…?”
Having drawn—no, pulled the sword, she seemed utterly baffled. But soon enough, she calmly accepted the sack from him and attempted to start selling popcorn.
Aaron was impressed. Now that all eyes were on her, the hero’s popcorn was going to sell like crazy.
Yet, the attention proved too much. The crowd swarmed her like a horde of bees, desperate to get their hands on the popcorn.
“Nancy!”
How was he supposed to find her among the crowd of bell pepper-faced people? It was a difficult task, but he couldn’t just stand by. He couldn’t let the person who had saved him be crushed by a mob eager to buy her popcorn.
***
Nancy stood at her shop door, pinning a piece of paper to it with a frustrated expression.
Luckily, no one was seriously hurt during the popcorn incident, but Nancy had been summoned by the Council of Five. The council, made up of the five most powerful families in Verus, ruled in the absence of a king.
Nancy was dragged before the intimidating rulers, berated for her foolish actions.
‘How could a mere lowly merchant become the hero? This must be some sort of mistake!’
David, one of the council members, was especially vocal in his disgust. Nancy knew she had made mistakes, but being looked down on because of her profession really rubbed her the wrong way.
In Verus, there were those who looked down on merchants, considering them too greedy for material goods. David was exactly that type.
‘Well, clearly God was so desperate to find someone to make a hero that they picked someone as lowly as me!’
Unable to just sit and listen, she snapped back. David’s face turned bright red in fury, and he almost ordered her shop to be permanently shut down. If he couldn’t win with words, he’d resort to such pettiness.
Nancy quickly backpedaled, pleading for her shop not to be closed down. She tearfully explained that without the shop, she would starve. After much begging, David begrudgingly retracted the order, realizing he was being a little too petty.
Instead, he gave a new decree: her shop would be temporarily closed until she returned from preventing the Demon King’s resurrection.
And so, Nancy posted the notice and sat waiting at her now-closed shop, forced to hold interviews.
【 Required party strength for the journey: 30,000 】
She wanted to get this over with quickly so she could reopen her shop, but even leaving had conditions attached. It wasn’t based on how many people she could recruit, but rather on overall strength, making it hard to gauge how many people she’d need to hire.
“Well, let’s see how much strength I have…”
“…What the hell?”
