Dragon King's Harem Chapter 51. Unexpected Meeting I
I walked towards the market alone. My gaze swept across it. The medieval-style shops that lined both sides of the market, sell large or valuable items such as weapons, shields, big pottery, potions and jars of wine. While the stalls between the shops sell smaller items such as accessories, small clay crafts, strange drinks, fruits and local food. Some of them equipped with a mini kitchen as an attraction. The sellers served the buyers in a friendly manner, occasionally they shouted to attract customers. While the buyers, who were mostly local, were seen chatting with them. This was an unusual sight, even for the real Argod himself, so I really enjoyed it.
My feet trod slowly, my eyes swept over the merchandise that lined on the wooden tables around me. I thought I wanted to buy something for Evelina and Sela after seeing this market, or maybe I could find something interesting for Eir and Al as well. Unfortunately, I admitted it was difficult. Well, I owned an empire and lived in a huge Palace with all kinds of treasures and the best items within my reach. Although some of these items looked unique, when I examined them closely, I realized I already had better ones in the Crimson Flame Palace. But since I had been here, I decided to check out some local craft stalls before I headed to the Healer Tower.
Seeing me walking aimlessly with eyes swept on their merchandise, some merchants realized I was not a local and approached me to offer their goods.
"Are you interested in Blood-Eyed Bear's (a monster's name) skin? You can make a nice coat with it."
"With this rare energy drink, I guarantee, you can run for many miles without feeling tired."
"Sir, this rare sacred bracelet will bring good luck for all your life."
I shook my head to refuse them and walked past them to another stall.
Minutes passed, but I didn't find what I was looking for since the craft in that place was mostly antique bowls and teapots, which I had a lot of it at the Palace. Also I didn't find anything interesting after visiting some of the potion shops, herbs shops and magic crystal shops in this market. I stepped my foot out of the last herbs shop as a long sigh left my mouth since I couldn't find anything interesting there either. My eyes looked at the dim sky.
'I think I should go to the Healer Tower now.'
But as I almost moved my foot, a sweet smell tickling my nose, I turned to a small stall that sold transparent lollipops with rainbow glitters and small pieces of colourful fruit in them. I knew the candy's name was pippops, it was a common candy that could be found anywhere in Igixar and had a nice sweet smell. Several little kids from the rabbit tribe stood, staring at the candies not far from the stall. Their ears lay limply in disappointment. It seemed they didn't carry any money despite they were not looking like a bum. I looked around for their parents or guardians, but I couldn't find it. Finally, I walked towards them.
They turned to me and answered like a kindergarten orchestra with pleading faces.
"Yes, sir."
"That grandpa is stingy, he doesn't want to share his candy with us."
"Yes, he doesn't want to give it to us. That grandpa is evil, sir."
They whined as they pointed to the candy seller, an old grumpy Lizard tribe. From what they said, I guessed they didn't know the concept of buying and selling since they were only 3 - 4 years old.
"Come with me, I will buy it for you," I said with a smile.
Their ears immediately stood up in the excitement and their gloomy faces turned cheerful.
"Yayyyyy!" Their happy voices made the passersby turn at us and smile at me, some of them giggled since it made me look like the leader of a gang of brats.
I replied to them with another smile and made my way to the stall. While the kids followed me like ducklings who followed their mother.
"How much does it cost, sir?" I asked the seller who stared at the kids who were hiding behind me. One of the kids even stuck out his tongue to mock the seller.
"1 copper coin, sir," he replied.
"Wait a second." I slipped my hand into my clothes, pretending to take something from there.
'Inventory, small money bag.'
In an instant, a small leather pouch filled with coins appeared in my hand. I had this prepared before I made this trip. I even prepared two bags of money, a small one for things like this since I wanted to avoid other people's suspicions and a big one, in case I needed a large amount of money. I pulled my hand and opened my pouch and tried to find some copper coins but I couldn't find them. The smallest amount I had there were silver coins. I took one of them and placed it on the vendor's table.
"I'll buy all of your candy," I said. Igixar's smallest nominal currency was copper coin, next were silver, titanium, gold, platinum and crystal. With a ratio of 1 silver was equal to 100 copper, but starting from gold, the ratio changed to 1 gold was equal to 1000 titanium. Therefore, it was rare for the commoners to have gold coins except they were rich merchants.
The seller's eyes widened and his hand took the coin quickly. His eyes examined the coin and bit it to check it, since no one bought candy with silver coins. After he confirmed it was genuine, he put it in his pocket.
"Thank you, sir." His grumpy face suddenly turned cheerful. His hand swiftly moved to take some of the candy and give it to the kids.
"Yeeeeyyyyy !!!!" they shouted and took the candy from the seller's hand happily.
"Thank you, sir!" they said. Then they ate it and left with joy.
My gaze stared at the kids who were walking away and finally disappeared into the crowd. A smile appeared on my lips. Somehow it reminded me of my childhood where I didn't have money to buy food like this, so I could only look at the other kids in envy.
"What about the others, sir?" The seller's voice startled me and turned my attention to him. His hand handed the box filled with candies to me.
I tied my money pouch to my belt and took some of it.
"Give the rest to the other kids, sir," I said.
"Okay," he said.
I put my handful of candies to my pocket or rather into my inventory since I couldn't possibly do that in front of the crowd. After all, I was the only one who owned the dimensional ring in this world. As I was about to take my money pouch back into my inventory, a girl with shoulder-length purple hair bumped into me. Reflexively, I held her body to prevent her from falling.
"I-I'm sorry, sir," she said in a stammering voice.
Since her body was shorter than mine, her hands were on my waist, even almost hugging me. From her face and eyes that looked at me, she was filled with regret. Even though she was wearing a cloak, her two fox ears on top of her head were enough to show her status as a fox tribe.
"It's fine," I said in a casual tone, showing I wasn't offended by her.
She released her hands and lowered her head.
"I'll excuse myself," she said with a nod.
After I replied with another nod, she walked away in hurry. My hand returned to the side of my waist and realized that my money pouch was not there. I turned to that fox girl who was trying to blend in with her surroundings.
"How dare she ..." I muttered in annoyance as my feet moved after her.