Satoru was following the Warrior Captain through the streets of the capital; it was really different from what he saw before he met Renner.
There were no poor people on the border of the street and no shady figures walking in the alleys.
This was probably one of the rich districts of the city where guards patrolled 24/7. To reinforce his deduction, there was the quality of the buildings that weren't even comparable to what he saw before.
"I'm grateful for what you have done."
It was the Warrior Captain that broke the silence.
"If I knew that would happen, I would have teleported away after returning the princess to her guards."
Satoru answered with a sincere tone, which brought a little smile on the man's face.
"Not a man of politics, are you?"
He asked with sarcasm. Satoru chuckled before replying.
"Yes indeed."
They continued to walk in silence for a few more minutes before stopping in front of a building. It was of good quality.
It was, in majority, composed of red bricks and had two floors. It was one of the many buildings on the side of a great square.
"Here we are sir. This is the high district of the city and the square you see is the Great Square of Rampossa I, the first king of the kingdom. This square is the major main market of the city."
The Warrior Captain explained. Satoru nodded as he noticed that many buildings around the square were shops of various luxurious goods.
"Thank you for your services, Captain."
He said and bowed his head in respect. The man seemed taken aback by his gesture.
"To think there were humble magic casters… where have you been all this time, Sir? By the way, there is no need to thank me. And please, call me Gazef."
The Warrior Captain said, prompting a nod from Satoru.
"Ah, then please call me Satoru, Sir Gazef. And remember if you are ever in need of any magic items or enchantments, please visit my shop."
Satoru said. Gazef took a key from his pocket and passed it to Satoru.
"I will trouble you when the time comes. Take care, Sir Satoru."
He said before walking away. Satoru turned toward the building and used the key to open the door and entered.
The inside of the building was pretty bland. It surely was large for a medieval building but nothing impressive.
There were only a few shelves here and there. A lamp illuminated th meter room. There were some stairs that brought one to the second floor.
He went upstairs and found out that the second floor was divided into several rooms.
One was a bedroom with a window and a desk, another was a storeroom, another was a small living room and the last one had a few cleaning tools in it.
He returned to the first floor and sighed. There was much to be done.
{Time skip 9 hours}
As the first lights illuminated the Great Square, the merchants opened their shops and the sellers arrived with their stalls.
Everyone noticed the new shop. No one commented about it, but the eyes of the merchants were fixed on the decorated window that allowed them to look inside.
The building was ownerless until yesterday, so whoever bought it had done the job during the night.
There was no signboard, so no one knew if the new shop was going to be a new competitor.
The only visible thing were the shop counter and various shelves, almost all of them empty, with few objects exposed.
Unknown to them, the owner of the shop was watching them from the second floor.
'Why the hell are they all watching my shop? Now even showing myself, while knowing that they all are looking, would feel embarrassing! Shit!' As he thought that, Satoru was having an internal battle to force himself to go down and introduce himself.
In the end, he decided it could wait for another day since it felt really awkward.
He spent the day analyzing his inventory and choosing the various items he could sell without screaming Yggdrasil to every possible player in this world.
He also spent some time selecting a list of enchantments he was going to sell.
When he finished it, the sun had almost disappeared and the majority of the people had left.
Finally, he felt like descending wasn't a problem anymore. He went out in the street and only a few curious people laid eyes on him.
He simply ignored them and decided to explore the city a little more. He couldn't even walk for a few seconds, before he heard a shout come from behind him.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T HAVE IT?"
He turned to see two men arguing next to his shop. One had brown hair and seemed to be in his mid-thirties.
He was the one shouting at the other, who was a blond man with a bushy mustache.
"You are not the only one losing something here! Do you know how many gold coins I lost! The carriage was assaulted by fucking bandits! There is nothing left! If it was a group of goblins there could still be something, but they were fucking bandits!"
The blond man shouted back and stormed away. Satoru wasn't sure if ignoring the event would be the right choice.
The brown-haired man's expression morphed from one of rage to one of despair. Satoru sighed and moved toward the man. He would at least hear what the problem was.
"Excuse me, sir."
He said to attract the attention of the man. Said man turned toward him and his expression morphed once more but this time, into one of fear.
"M-my apologize my lord! I didn't mean to disturb you! Please don't remove me from here! This is the only place I can sell my work!"
The man cried out. 'Does he think I'm a noble? And do nobles have the power to do such a thing in the first place?'. Satoru wondered.
Apparently, the man took his silence as a negation of his plea and lowered his head even more, probably in more despair.
"Ah, no. You misunderstood, sir. I'm not here to remove you. You see, I'm the new owner of this shop and from what I understood, the one next to mine belongs to you right?"
He tried to sound as casual as possible. The man's head rose in surprise. Satoru noticed he had tears in his eyes.
His expression seemed confused as he observed Satoru for some seconds before opening his mouth.
"I-I apologize sir… I made the wrong assumption and made a fool out of myself in front of a new merchant. And to answer your question, no. While I work in this structure, I don't own it. I pay a monthly rent to be able to sell my products here."
The man explained as his eyes wandered toward Satoru's new shop.
"I see… Oh, excuse my rudeness. My name is Satoru, a pleasure to meet you."
Satoru extended his hand to greet the man properly. The man took his gloved hand before answering.
"You must come from a really far away land. I never heard that kind of name before. I'm Randel Bollen. I'm a wood carver. My works are usually appreciated by the nobility, a pleasure."
He introduced himself with a small smile. He seemed to be proud of his job. Satoru nodded. It was indeed a good thing to be proud of one's job.
"If I may ask, what was your problem with that man?"
As he asked his question, Satoru noticed the small smile disappear from the man's face. He seemed to hesitate before speaking.
"You see, sir, my son is afflicted by a rare, but deadly illness. Every two months I have to buy a very expensive medicine only produced in the empire. This month the carriage that transported the medicine was attacked by bandits. The next carriage will arrive in a month's time, but I don't know if my boy can survive a whole month without that medicine."
The man explained his situation. Satoru wasn't particularly taken aback by the story. In his world, those kinds of stories were common.
That didn't mean he didn't feel any pity for the man. 'Helping someone in need is always the right thing to do' Touch-san's words came back to his mind. Yes, he had decided.
"I'm a magic caster. If it can help, I could try to take a look at the boy and see if there is something that I can do."
He said. The man shook his head.
"I appreciate the offer, sir. I don't know how these kinds of things work in your country, but here the temples fix the prices for the use of healing magic. They could heal my son, but the price they ask is too high and for the time it would take me to reach that sum my son would already be dead."
The man explained. Satoru took in that new information and made a mental note to ask more about it later.
"Then it's a good thing I'm an arcane magic caster and not a divine one."
He said. The man watched him confused.
"The only magic I will use will be to understand what illness your son has. The means to heal it would be totally different from healing magic."
Satoru explained. The man didn't seem to be entirely convinced, but he didn't have much of a choice and refusing such a free offer would be rude.
"Ok. Please follow me then."
Randel said as he walked down the street.
****
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