Anastasia's Kararagi Merchant Path

Anastasia's Kararagi Merchant Path (アナスタシアのカララギ商人道) is a Melon Books shop exclusive limited edition short story that came with Volume 6. This was later adapted and included in the Re:Zero Ootsuka Shinichirou Art Works Re:BOX with multiple changes in the story.

Summary
Ricardo was sat at the bar-room which Anastasia was working at, drinking a glass of cold ale, and chatting to Anastasia. Ricardo liked to check up on Anastasia every so often to make sure she was getting on well. The two of them chatted about the way Kararagi worked in its politics.

After their talk, Anastasia went back to work serving the customers of the bar. The proprietress of the bar came over to Ricardo, who was a regular of the bar, and they chatted a little about how Anastasia was doing. At the end of their conversation, Ricardo reflexively touched his collar, which had been left as a reminder of his days as a slave. He felt that some day Anastasia would be the one to remove his collar.

Around a month later, Ricardo returned to the bar, but to his dismay, he did not find Anastasia there. Worried out of his mind, he asked the proprietress where she had gone. He learned that she had joined a company called the Chuden Company in the east side of Banan. Ricardo knew that he had to check on Anastasia at once, worried that the company could be a pretext for one that dealt with slaves.

Ricardo immediately headed to the Chuden Company, where he met Chuden at the reception, as well as Anastasia who had been working for Chuden. Ricardo demanded to know what he wanted with Anastasia, suspecting foul play, but Chuden assuaged his fears and told Ricardo he had hired the girl because he had been astonished at how talented she was. At one point during the conversation, Chuden felt like Ricardo had an unnatural interest in Anastasia, even going as far as to suggest that Ricardo was smitten by her. Ricardo denied this, mentioning that he was not a "lolicon", which was a word that had been used by Hoshin himself.

After Ricardo accepted Anastasia working for Chuden, he offered his services as a mercenary to him. Chuden accepted and hired Ricardo to work at the company.

Characters

 * Anastasia Hoshin
 * Chuden Agri
 * Ricardo Welkin
 * Hoshin of the Wilderness (mentioned)

Re:Box Changes

 * Anastasia and Ricardo's conversation and the deal with Chuden was moved to Chuden's office instead of an open area.
 * In the Store Story, Anastasia uses her money to pay of her debt and free Ricardo. In the Re:Box version, she doesn't pay off her debt and she doesn't free Ricardo. Instead, both Anastasia and Ricardo decided to work with Chuden.