"Whoooa!"
Nolan stopped the horse in the middle of the busy street, a few meters from a stall selling flour.
The stall was large. Obviously, it belonged to either a rich merchant or a noble family. Because except for selling flour, they also sold all kinds of cereals.
Behind the stall was a large building. One did not need to be e genius to guess the building was a warehouse.
"Move your horse away!" A man screamed from the crowd.
"Don't block the way!" Another man screamed.
The crowd was angry at Nolan, but the thing is, he did not care.
Nolan just ignored them. After all, they were on the road, blocking the way of the carriages and the horses, so they were at fault, not him.
Nolan took the horse by the reins and forcing his way through the crowd, walked over to the stall.
"Young man, what are you looking for," The salesman asked.
The salesman was a little old man with white shoulder-length hair and was a little hunchback.
"I wish to buy flour and some cereals. How much is a bag of flour?" Nolan asked.
"A bag of flour is 5 taels of silver." The old man replied.
'Too expensive,' Nolan thought.
"Is there a discount if you buy flour in bulk?"
"Young man, if you intend to buy, just buy. There is no discount." The
old man spoke in a rude tone. "If not, please get away from my stall. Your horse is covering my stall from the view of people."
Nolan clenched his fists in anger. Under normal circumstances, he definitely would not swallow this insult, but now he had no choice.
He was running out of time and could not afford to waste his time arguing with an old man who knows no better than to look down on people.
"I want 10 bags of flour," Nolan said. "And how much is the wheat?"
A smile spread on the old man's face. "Oh-ho? Young man, you are not all talk after all. One bag of wheat is 3 taels of silver."
"What about the rice?"
"All the cereals are the same price."
"Alright then, I want 35 bags of wheat and 35 bags of rice," Nolan said. "How much is all that?"
The old man took out an abacus from below the stall and started calculating.
A/N: Abacus - a simple device for calculating, consisting of a frame with rows of wires or grooves along which beads are slid.
"Together with the flour, 260 taels of silver," The old man said after a few minutes. "But since you wanted a little discount, I will round it up to 250 taels of silver."
"WALLY!" The old man screamed.
The scream startled Nolan. 'How could he scream so loud at his age?' He thought.
A few seconds after the old man screamed, a young boy, with brown hair came running from the warehouse. The boy was at most in his early seventeens, but still, for his age, he had a muscular build.
"What happened, Grandpa?" The boy asked as he stood to the old man, towering over him.
Smack!
The old man jumped from the ground and smacked the boy on the head.
"Hmph! What took you so long?" The old man asked angrily.
Rubbing his head in an attempt to ease the pain, the boy replied, or at least tried: "I..."
"Enough!" The old man instantly cut him. "Look over the stall for a while."
"Yes, Grandpa," The boy obediently lowered his head.
"You!" The old man pointed at Nolan. "Follow me,"
Nolan gulped hard and followed the old man who led the way toward the warehouse.
'Such a scary old man," Nolan thought as he walked behind the old man.
They passed through the open door of the warehouse and entered inside.
Nolan's eyes widened at the sight of how many bags were inside the warehouse.
At least, there were thousands of bags of cereal and hundreds of bags of flour.
"Ahh!" Nolan exclaimed. "I forgot to take the money from the horse. I will be right back."
"I am waiting here," The old man said.
Nolan quickly got out of the warehouse and moved aside from the door, away from the old man's sight.
"System, give me the remaining four wooden boxes," Nolan muttered quietly. The four wooden boxes instantly appeared in his hands.
'Four wooden boxes are 240 taels of silver.' Nolan thought. 'Inventory.'
He took out the inventory additional 10 taels of silver and headed back inside the warehouse.
The old man was turned with his back to the door, preparing the bags for Nolan.
"Sir," Nolan spoke.
The old man turned back.
"Here is the money," Nolan passed him the boxes of money and the ten silver taels.
"Glad doing business with you," The old man said. "Wait for me here. I am going to bring the money to a safe place."
After saying this, the old man left the warehouse.
"What do I do now?" Nolan muttered. "Sighh! There is no other way."
Nolan walked over to the bags of flour. "Store 10 bags," He muttered, and ten bags of flour instantly disappeared.
'This is the only way,' He thought as he walked over to the bags of cereal.
"System, store 35 bags of rice," He muttered again, and 35 bags of rice instantly disappeared. "Store 35 bags of wheat," Again, 35 bags of wheat disappeared.
After storing his things, Nolan turned and started walking toward the exit.
'There is so much cereal here. Will he notice it if I steal some?' He stopped. 'With the system, even If I take everything in the warehouse, he would have no proof that I took it.'
'NO, no, no.' He shook his head. 'I bought enough food for a month. When we finish the food, Harley would have enough money to give me to buy new, so there is no need to steal.'
Feeling that his last thought was reasonable, Nolan left the warehouse.
Secretly, as not to be noticed by the young boy selling on the stall, Nolan took his horse by the reins and melded in the crowd.
After getting far enough from the stall, he got on his horse and continued on his way toward the restaurant.
...
Meanwhile in the warehouse.
"Where is he?" The old man looked around.
After failing to find Nolan, the old man muttered: "Did he only take the few bags I prepared for him?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I will not refuse If he wants to give me 250 taels of silver without not getting anything." The old man muttered with a tone of a winner.
Little did he know that Nolan took what was his, and he failed to notice it because there were too many bags in the warehouse.
And little did he know, he almost lost everything in the warehouse.
...
"Whoaa!"
Nolan stopped the horse in front of a two-story blacksmith shop.
He got off the horse and led it to the entrance of the blacksmith shop where there were a few wooden poles strongly stuck in the ground.
The wooden poles were most likely for the customers of the blacksmith shop to tie their horses there, so Nolan did just that and tied his horse to one of the wooden poles.
He entered the blacksmith shop.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
As usual, the blacksmith shop was super hot.
The blacksmiths tirelessly struck the hot iron.
In all the blacksmith shops Nolan had been to, he noticed one thing similar to all of them. They had almost the same design.
A two-story building, where on the first floor the blacksmiths created the items and on the second floor, the items were sold.
Thus, without wasting any time, Nolan headed straight to the second floor.
Same as in the other blacksmith shops Nolan had been in, on the second floor, on the walls were placed all kinds of weapons, armor, and shields.
"Sir, how can I help you?" The salesman asked.
He stood behind a table, and behind him was a door, a room where the items were stored.
"I want 100 arrows, 10 bows, and 10 spears," Nolan said. And the reason he wanted to buy so few weapons was because he did not know whether the money he had would be enough for more.
"I understand. Please wait a moment." The man turned back and opened the door behind him, entering the room.
A few minutes later, he came out, dragging a large leather bag containing all the items Nolan wanted.
He dragged the bag to Nolan's feet.
"Sir, that would be 30 taels of silver."
'So expensive,' Nolan thought. 'All my money is gone." He did not expect there to be such a big difference in price between, ordinary tools and war weapons.
He had no choice but to pay, so he used his old, good trick of taking the money out of his sleeve.
One by one, he placed the thirty taels of silver on the table.
'How many did he fit in there,' The salesman thought, looking at Nolan taking the silver taels out of his sleeve.
"Thank you for your purchase," The salesman said as Nolan put the last silver tael on the table. "Do you need any help with moving the bag?"
"No need," Nolan said, taking the heavy bag.
He headed downstairs.
But when he was on the stairs, right between the first floor and the second floor, he stored the heavy bag in the inventory and continued walking downstairs.
After he got out of the blacksmith shop, he got on his horse and headed toward the restaurant.