"Um... Umm...!"
The child with the long fringe stopped crying and seemed to want to say something but was too shy to actually ask.
"Boss, is this mister, you know...? Our mister...?!"
"...?!"
The other child gasped and asked for them, making the resolute girl who seemed to be the only one to not realize the same thing flinch.
"What are you talking about...? Pffft! I... I see – you have never seen him clean! Pffft... Yes, this is the person that hunted the mole-rabbits that you were carrying."
Bossac furrowed his brows and grumbled, before glancing at the grumpy young man – and snorting while waving his hand dismissively once he got it.
"Stop right there."
"...?"
Viria flinched at the explanation and put his hand out, as if literally wanting Bossac to stop, despite the man not moving to begin with.
"The scary mister you were threatening me with..."
Viria turned to the resolute girl and leaned forward to get a better look at her face.
"It... it... it... it... it..."
"It?"
The girl's face turned bright red and she started stuttering, lowering her head lower and lower in extreme embarrassment, making Viria lean down too and ask.
"...it... it... was... it was you, mister..."
The girl finally managed to say although it must have been one of the most embarrassing moments of her life.
She threatened a person with themselves...
Still, it was a different situation for Viria.
He straightened his back in relief and nodded.
It turned out that he wasn't naive, and the kids weren't actually trying to scam him – they literally didn't recognize him without him being drenched in blood!
Having his hair tied up in a bun wasn't probably helping either...
"Alright. Here you go. There are still a lot of things so I must go."
Back in a good mood, Viria took out six yellow bills and handed them to the children for two each.
"!!!"
"!!!"
"!!!"
The trio flinched, completely stunned, staring at the bills in their hands.
"We will talk later."
Viria called out to them and left, entering the building of the trading post while Bossac followed.
"Say, do you think that...?"
"Yes, you definitely paid them way too much, but instead of taking it back, you can just make them help you for free the next time you will need them."
The young man stopped a few steps in and turned to the guard to make sure, and was taken aback by the unexpected answer.
The truth was, Viria was about to ask – Say, do you think that I should have divided the bills right then and given everyone their whole share back then? - but Bossac's reaction let him know that his way of doing things wasn't the norm around that place.
"Y-yeah... I'll do just that."
The young man gulped down his saliva and nodded, turning right back around and beginning to check out the place...
...that turned out to be rather boring...
There were no items on display, and the people lining up to the counter at the opposite end of the room were the ones who came with materials.
After examining the goods and carrying them to the back, the guard at the counter would either return with another material or bills of various colors – mostly yellow and numbering a single one.
"So you can't get medical herbs for the bills?"
Viria asked curiously.
Up until seeing the exchange happen at the trading post, he believed that there would be an apothecary or something of the sort, that would exchange blue bills for the plants that could aid in cultivation.
"You are spot on – no incoming bills. People who don't hunt monsters and earn the currency differently can always talk it out with the ones who do, and exchange the bills for materials on their own before showing up here."
Bossac confirmed the young man's suspicion.
"And about those herbs then... if someone wants a specific herb but doesn't know the name...?"
Viria asked curiously, immediately thinking of some of the rare herbs that he read about when he was younger.
"We don't have any fancy luxuries here, remember? Look, the available stock is written down next to the counter."
Bossac shook his head and pointed forward.
Viria had to step to the side because the people waiting in line were blocking his view, and as he did, he saw a big blackboard with around twenty things written on it – next to the second blackboard with – mole-rabbit skin storage full, lower worth – written in large letters for everyone to see.
Just as the young man started reading the list, the guard in charge of the trading post who returned and handed a herb to a sickly-looking female prisoner, walked out from behind the counter and erased the middle position. That of course caused more than a few prisoners to call out in disbelief and annoyance, but the guard didn't react to any of it even in the slightest and returned to his spot.
Despite the complaints they were voicing, not a single person left the line.
"I've seen enough, for now, let's go to the next place."
Viria nodded at Bossac and the two of them left the building.
The three children were nowhere to be seen, so maybe just like Bossac they thought that they received too much compensation for their work and decided it was better to evacuate before their employer could change his mind.
Bossac and Viria checked out two other workshops dealing with normal household items – but of much lower quality than the workshops on the sixth street.
Then they simply passed by another building with people waiting in front of the closed door.
"This one is my usual workplace, if something happens, you can find me here during the day."
Bossac pointed out dismissively as if it wasn't anything important.
"Your workplace? Like, one besides the whole guarding duty? By that you mean?"
"A clinic."
Viria asked curiously and Bossac simply shrugged his shoulders.
"You see, I got paid normally, with the money I can use in the outside world, but here you can't buy anything with them."
The helpful guard added, not even sparing a single glance at queueing prisoners.