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Prologue: The Shopkeeping Skill

When Amano Yuu hit the ground, the system gave him a single skill: Open a Shop.

No flame. No holy sword. No “+300% damage to the Demon King.” The description of shopkeeping was one line long: You may place a counter anywhere.

He set the counter against the wall in the farthest corner of the royal capital. The first day, no customers. The second day, a cat. On the third day the cat laid a rusted skill card on the table: 【Night Vision (Broken)】.

Yuu bought it. The price was half a fish. From that moment, the continent’s prices carried a tiny, irreversible gap.

Chapter One: The Counter in the Capital’s Corner

Scrap skills piled in a wooden crate, like a winter nobody wanted.

Yuu fitted 【Night Vision (Broken)】 together with 【Tinnitus】 and got 【Hear the Footsteps in the Dark】. The first real customer was a thief. He paid quickly, and as he left he said, “People like you rewrite wars.”

“I only rewrite inventory.” Yuu dropped the copper coins into a jar.

The counter was low. Sunset stretched its shadow long, like a road leading somewhere else. Yuu did not take it. The cooldown on Open a Shop was “never closes.”

Chapter Two: Loyalty, Not for Sale

When the girl on the auction block set 【Loyalty】 on the counter, the whole hall waited for a high bid.

Yuu looked at the card, then at her. “Loyalty isn’t for sale.”

“Then what are you buying?” the auctioneer sneered.

“Her.” Yuu wrote the words clerk wanted on the hiring board. “Pay is three meals a day and a place to sleep behind the counter. Keep your own skill card. Loyalty is worth more on a person than on a shelf.”

The girl’s name was Rin. When she took the card back, her hands were shaking, but her eyes were bright.

Chapter Three: Prices and War

When the war started driving prices up, skill cards rose first.

A general came to buy 【Mass Inspiration】. Yuu shook his head. “Out of stock. All that’s on the shelf is 【Let the Soldiers Go Home to Eat】.”

The general flew into a rage and drew his sword. Rin stood 【Loyalty】 upright in front of the counter. The point skidded off the card’s face, as if it had met some other metal.

“We’re a general store.” Yuu pushed the tea across. “Tea is free. For war, please line up at another window.”

That night there was only the cat. It dragged in a new scrap card: 【Ceasefire (Three-Hour Trial)】. Yuu decided to stock it as the shop’s treasure.

Chapter One: The Skill-Card Set

The skill-card set was Rin’s idea. Arrange five scrap cards by season, and they could play “light every lamp on a street at once.”

They tried it. The corner of the capital blazed like noon. The stall keepers thought sunrise had come early and steamed two pots of buns.

“We could sell this,” Rin said.

“We keep it.” Yuu slid the set into a drawer. “The shop has to stay lit, or customers can’t read the line that says not for sale.”

Chapter Two: The Way Back Is Not for Sale

Someone came to buy a way back. The skill was named 【Return to Before the Summoning】. The price was a city.

Yuu looked at the card for a long time. Rin said nothing.

“The way back isn’t for sale.” He pushed the card across. “I have a shop open. A person with a shop open doesn’t need to go back to a place with no counter.”

After the visitor left, Rin set 【Loyalty】 beside his hand, then took it back. “Just making sure it’s still here,” she said.

Final Chapter: The General Store Is Still Open

The general store was still open. The war had stopped three times, three hours each time. Stacked together, that was enough for a great many people to go home and eat.

Yuu read the description of Open a Shop once more. A line of small print had been added: The counter may be lit by someone you like.

Rin was in the back, counting through the wooden crate. The cat slept on 【Ceasefire】. Sunset drew the shadow out into a road, and this time there were two pairs of feet on it.

“Stock comes in tomorrow,” Yuu said.

“What are we stocking?”

“Things nobody wants, that still let people go on living.”