"Psst!"
An aged kind-looking woman turned around after hearing this unusual call. In front of her eyes was Lily, with a cute little smile on her face.
"Auntie, would you like to try some of our food?"
"Food?"
"Yes auntie, we have a food stall, but since we cannot afford to buy the stall at the Food Lane, we had to make it in this small alleyway" Said Lily with some fake tears in her eyes.
"Oh my. Although I really need to deliver this, I do not mind having a little. Lead the way young lady."
Lily did not quite comprehend some of the words this old lady was using, but assumed them to be referring to her, and dragged the old lady into the alley for a few steps, where she saw the tiny stall, which was basically just a fire, a few pots and a seating arrangement for 2 people.
"Lily! You brought a customer!" Daron exclaimed as he rushed forward. Lily had been trying to reel in customers all morning, but not a single one had appeared for the past 3 hours, and noon was now approaching.
Anyway, he had expected this. Noon was lunch time, and naturally more people would want to eat food at this time.
"Hello there, young man!"
Daron was shocked for a moment until he understood something. This lady had at least received some sort of 'proper' education. She did not have the speech of the high-class merchants, or even higher-classed nobles like Sir Zack Bard, but the speech that those who had gone through at least 10 years of 'formal' education at an official school would have.
One should know that this sort of education was really expensive, even most regular citizens would not be able to afford it. Only about 200 families in the entire city would be able to afford such education, even fewer for their female offspring who would naturally be sent over to be married later in life.
"Hello there, ma'am."
Since the day he came here, he had made Sirious analyse the language everyone spoke, and split them into different sections of society. Naturally, while doing his exercise, he spent all his time learning all these different types of languages and how to speak them.
He had next made Sirious store the information in folders within his own mind, so he could switch at will.
He had initially tried to transfer the analysed languages directly from Sirious' unknown data storage to his brain, but this had failed completely. He could however make Sirious sort his memories and put them into folders so that his mind could more efficiently access the information. The increase in efficiency was similar to switching from HDD to SSD.
"Today we only have one item for 15 copper. Although this may seem like a lot, it is truly worth it once you get a taste. Please do trust me!"
Before Daron could continue with his 'bombard-the-enemy-with-enough-facts-to-kill-them' plan, the old lady just gave a smile as though nothing he did bothered her, and took out exactly 15 copper. Daron took the money and threw it towards Mako before eyeing Hans and Greta, who stood to attention at his deep gaze for some unknown reason, and turned to begin making the food.
The old lady's eyes widened as she noticed Joanne looking over at her and then down at her clothes. She them smiled self-deprecatingly and continued with her work in the housework outfit she wore while doing work within the church.
While Joanne was doing most of the work, Daron was instructing her, correcting her, and timing everything.
For some reason, Joanne made him promise not to do cooking until he was at least 10 on their way here. Under her determined face, Daron reluctantly nodded but made sure to get a promise from her to do the cooking herself with his own instructions till that time.
"Now! Add the noodles, a… the strings to the sauce!"
After another 4 minutes of cooking, the dish for a single person was ready. It happened really quickly, since although he would not do any cooking, he could still make the dough and cut them into spaghetti, since he was not cooking anything.
"Here you go!" Said Hans happily as he turned around and stuck his tongue out at Greta, who sulked slightly since she did not get to serve the dish.
The old lady just shook her head and blew at the food for a few seconds before digging in. Due to the temperature, the food would cool down rather quickly, and so you needed to eat it quickly unless you wanted to eat cold food.
However, a single bit into the food, the old lady completely froze, just like the head priestess had.
However, the stun effect lasted barely a few seconds before she completely lost her cool and forgot all the manners she had learnt throughout her life, and began to stuff the food down her throat as though it was going to run away.
A minute later, she was done, and looked over at Daron and Joanne with sparkling eyes.
"Another one?" Daron asked with some amount of caution. He had a strange feeling that things were not going to go according to plan.
"Give me all of it! Can you wrap it up?"
"This…"
Daron hesitated and looked over at Joanne, who just smiled and nodded as she said, "I'll go and guy the materials to wrap things up."
Hearing this, Daron nodded and turned around to the lady as he spoke while Joanne was already dashing out of the alley to buy the materials from the nearest stall at the Food Lane.
"That will cost extra."
The lady just nodded and handed 2 silver and 200 copper coins to Daron, who just stared blankly at the coins. This was a lot more than he had expected. At best, he only wished to get 225 copper coins. However, the lady had cone ahead and given him 400 copper coins!
And that also in Silver coins!
Although the denomination was 100 copper makes a single silver, most people of the lower class of the city would not get to see a silver coin in their lifetime. All transactions they made with even those of higher standing in society than them was in copper coins. It was almost as though those in the higher standings in the city were purposely keeping the higher valued currency out of the hands of the lower cast.
Therefore, many people from this lower level of the society, who were lucky enough to come across a silver coin, would keep silver coins as family heirlooms, only to be used for a transaction when no money was left in the family.
"This enough?" the lady asked in a speech that seemed to have returned to what she used to speech a long time ago, which seemed cruder than even the speech he himself used in the church.
"Yes, YES! Just wait for some time. I will have everything ready as soon as Priestess Joanne returns."
Soon, Joanne returned and they got to cooking with all the ingredients under the expectant gaze of the old lady.
After nearly 10 minutes, Joanne handed a large box made from some unknown materials.
She had already discussed this with Daron as soon as she had returned. The box itself cost only 30 copper, and so this transaction was still too profitable.
"This should be able to keep the food warm in this weather for another 20 minutes. I suggest you rush to deliver it to whomever you are buying this for" Joanne spoke to the lady before winking to her.
Daron simply ignored this and waved the lady goodbye before turning to Joanne, and unleashed his suppressed curiosity.
"Who was she?"
"Who knows?" Joanne shrugged as she expertly avoided the topic and counter-questioned Daron.
"Where did you get the ingredients from?"
"…Agree to disagree?"
Joanne nodded with a satisfied expression as she began cleaning all the utensils along with the other children and returned to the church for the day.
At the church, Daron took the two silver coins, and 160 copper coins from the trade for himself and new ingredients eh would need to buy, and distributed the rest among the children and Joanne, who flat-out refuse him.
Therefore, there was somehow exactly 10 copper for each of the children.
"This is your hard-earned money. Enjoy spending it however you want, as long as Joanne or the head priestess allows it." Daron said as he handed them the money back in the church and went off to buy the ingredients he would need for the next day.