FFF-Tier System, SSS-Rank Wife

"I want you to cash me in."

My eyebrows moved up a little bit.

It was but the smallest of details, but also right what I needed to finally take note of a seemingly small detail that changed everything. A change born from but the smallest observation that made me realize just how wrong I was about the very way I thought and observed the world around me.

The gesture Selia… No, the gesture Saintess used to indicate her intention at the shop was the same gesture I would use back in my world to get a drink at a bar.

Pick out a coin, ignore its actual value, tap it against the counter.

It was the more direct version of asking for a beer than just a gentleman's nod after meeting the barman's eye. And the coin? Long gone were the times when a single coin could get you any sort of drink.

No, tapping the coin on the counter was just a gesture loaded with clear intention and message. Paying for the stuff would be done with actual money.

But that's all beside the point.

This world was different, even when it came to the smallest of details that made it work. A gesture that meant one thing back home clearly meant something entirely else here. And while that alone was exactly the tiny discrepancy I'd noticed, it served as an indicator of how I couldn't take anything that I'd learned from my original world for granted.

After all, who knew if raising my hand in a greeting wouldn't be an equivalent to slapping someone across their face with a dueling glove?

'Curious,' I thought, allowing a small smile to appear on my lips right as Greg, the smithy's dwarf, squinted his eyes and gave Saintess a weirded-out look.

"You?" he asked, putting his left elbow down on the counter before leaning over it with the weight of his entire body that made his already massive, honed muscles even more pronounced. "You lost a bet or something? Because I don't believe you could ever run out of the temple's stipend," he claimed before shaking his head. "Not here, not in this town at the very least. And not with that frugal way of living of yours."

Saintess threw the dwarf a mildly annoyed look.

"There are times when I would rather not dip into the temple's funds, you know?"

Greg stared at the Saintess's face for a moment. And the longer he did, the tips of her ears took on a brighter and brighter hue of red.

Then, his eyes moved to my face, only for the dwarf's lips to twist in an ugly, somewhat perverted smile.

"Oooh…" he stretched the word while his smile grew deeper and deeper. Then, with a quick swipe of his hand, he plucked the monster's core from Saintess's hand only to add as he jumped down from his pedestal, "I see."

"What was that?" Saintess, already on the edge, almost snapped.

"Nothing, nothing," Greg, now with his back towards the counter, didn't even bother trying to hide his smile, "absolutely nothing!"

For a moment, he rummaged through a stack of chests cleverly hidden behind the actual wall to the side of the counter before quickly returning to the counter, climbing onto his podium and then slamming a heavy pouch down on the table.

"That should be just the right price for a guardian's core," Greg stated. Before lifting his hand from the money pouch, though, he raised his eyes and locked them on the Saintess's face. "Why did you bother facing it, though?"

This time there was no amusement, no sense of teasing in the dwarf's eyes.

Only a cold, steeled look of someone determined to expose the Saintess, even if it ultimately meant opposing her.

'This man has guts,' I thought, taking a mental note for the future.

Taken aback by the sudden turn of the mood in the air, I couldn't help but notice Greg's other hand reaching for something below the counter, stopping only an inch away from what looked like… a switch?

Or maybe a handle of some sort of mechanism?

"I've told you, I need money," Saintess said, caring not for the change in the mood.

She also refused to match the change in the other party, staying as relaxed and, at most, slightly annoyed by the excessive questioning as she was before the dwarf's sudden change.

The silent confrontation lasted for but a few more seconds, leaving me to pray in my thoughts it wouldn't lead to anything else.

Stuck in the same building as Greg and Selia, I would be akin to a poor mouse finding herself right in the middle of a fight between a lion and… someone confident enough in their own abilities to actually face the enraged beast.

"I guess it's not my business to ask if you are not willing to divulge anything," Greg shook his head before raising his hands both from the pouch on the counter and whatever it was that he grasped underneath the counter.

For just one more moment, Saintess stared at the man before rolling her eyes and reaching out, grabbing the purse… Only to then toss it my way.

'Whoa!'

Stuck between trying to stay still enough to make both of them forget I was still here and then the unexpected mission to grab the pouch, I rushed my body to move—

Only to miscalculate the distance, leading to the heavy pouch landing squarely on my face and only then bouncing off it and falling into my extended arms.

"Auch!"

Despite my desperation not to draw attention to myself, I've managed to do just that. And when adding the sudden spike of pain from having a heavy pouch filled with metal strike me squarely in the face, I actually had to stumble a bit not to let this pouch actually slip out of my hands!

All in all, it took me several seconds to recover from the unexpected attack enough to realize what had actually happened. And as I realized the implications of this pouch landing in my hands…

"I cannot…" I started to speak, only to cut my words short.

In this foreign world, with no ability, connection or money, I was as useless as one could get. Even if my modern knowledge, as limited and shallow as it was, could be of some use, I lacked pretty much everything that was necessary to actually prove its worth.

Which is why, despite my initial desire to just reject this money as something I've never earned nor had any right to…

I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath, pushing all of those thoughts to the very bottom of my soul.

"I will consider this a loan. And to the best of my ability," I opened up my eyes and looked at the Saintess, "I will try to pay it off as soon as possible."

"Ho-oh?" Greg whistled from behind his counter, his eyes slightly squinted as he locked them on my face. And while the small smile lingering on his lips indicated that the weird mood from before was starting to dissipate, for some reason it only made me feel all the more on edge.

"I know this won't be enough, but for now…" Having nothing better to offer, I pulled the bag from my back over to my chest and, after quickly sifting through its messy insides, I fished out a small bag of candies that somehow managed to survive all the shaking and crushing up until this point.

It was the one and only sweet snack I had. In other words, the last chemically improved sweet I could ever taste.

But with the Saintess already going the extra length to guarantee my security in this city and now even providing me with some sort of seed money I could use to try to settle in this place, it was the least I could offer.

"It might not be much, but that's the best I can offer," I said as I offered up the pack of cheap candy. "All you need to do is tear this package open, grab one piece, remove the wrapper and enjoy the taste."

This, however, led to two things.

On one hand, Greg merely glanced over at the pack in my hand before his eyes instantly widened to their limits. And on the other hand, Saintess wasted absolutely no time moving over and snatching the pack from my hand, her eyes sparking with curiosity.

"So that's what it is…" Greg muttered as Saintess hurriedly pulled the pack open and then picked out one of the cheap candies, grabbing it by the end of its wrapper only to then raise it up to her eyes and study it for a bit.

'Wait, now that I think about it,' ignoring both the Saintess and the dwarf, I first looked at the money pouch in my hand before turning my eyes over to my backpack, where I could easily find my box of experimental coffee.

'With this money… wouldn't it be possible to try to get it to grow here?' I thought.

Sure, it would take time to get it to grow, to make it popular, and then running several growth cycles to go from the few seeds I had into a proper plantation…

But putting all of those potential problems aside…

'If I'm the only one in this world capable of cultivating coffee, wouldn't that make for quite the good reason for locals to keep me alive?'