Any shock Tobias may have experienced at Hana’s revelation that she was an assassin he professionally ignored.

“Well, that’s a first. I don’t think I’ve bumped into any assassins before.”

She nodded. If he did, it would normally be the last thing he would see… if he was lucky enough to see the assassin coming. Tobias gulped once and unconsciously pulled the top button of his jacket.

“Can we assume you would prefer to be light on your feet, not weighed down by heavy armour?”

Hana nodded assertively.

“Then I would recommend light leather chest armour, a set of light arms bracers and leg greaves for you. Let’s try them out and let the gentleman wait to see how it suits you, okay?”

His recommendation made sense and it seemed to make Hana happy, so we went with his suggestion. After Hana tried a few different armour choices, she felt happier with everything she wore. Hana kept asking me what I thought, and I didn’t answer, Tobias offered an opinion. What was it about women and shopping?

Overall, despite all the money Hana received for kitting her out with gear, she only spent five small gold on three armour pieces: three gold for the greaves and the braces and two gold for the light leather chest armour. Since there was nothing else that she needed from the armour department we headed to the footwear department on a lower floor where there was a good selection of boots. For some reason even though we no longer looked at armour, Tobias insisted on assisting us further, not that I complained because I liked his level of customer service. He helped Hana pick out a set of soft leather laced boots with separate rain boot covers and soft shin protectors that covered the greaves. The boots soles were made of durable ogre leather, and started regretting not asking for a piece of that ogre general’s leather when all together the shoes came to four gold. No wonder those woodcutters looked so happy; shoes were bloody expensive! My heart dropped at the thought of how much gold I would need to spend to buy myself some decent shoes like Hana’s. Unfortunately, it was far past my available budget at that moment, perhaps if we happened to cross paths with a small division of goblins, I could get a small bonus to afford a pair. That would equate to over fifteen goblins, I almost started salivating at that point, those goblins best stay away from me.

“Hey Shane. Do you think I should buy this cape?”

Hana decided on a dark cloth cape that covered the shoulders and all the way down the front past her knees and fastened in the front. Over that she wore a removable head and shoulder Capulet, made from soft leather and cloth, that also doubled as weather protectors by keeping the sun and rain off her head and shoulders. She looked the adventurer role particularly well, getting more than a few glances from passing customers since the clothing fitted her sleek but athletic figure. That cost her one small gold and ninety silver. Other than that, the only clothing accessories she purchased were a soft woven cloth scarf to wrap around her neck all for the amazing price of one gold. I nearly coughed uncontrollably when I heard what she paid. At least the scarf hid her slave collar. It dawned on me that perhaps that is why Hana purchased it in the first place. It seemed that she was learning to purchase things faster than I expected. Why did that thought give me chills?

As for other travelling accessories and on Tobias’ advice, she purchased a water bag and a wolf’s fur sleeping bag that included a soft and light cloth inner, lined fur with a softer water-resistant skin outer for when sleeping in wet weather. Although the sleeping bag could resist water, it was still better to sleep under some cover. What I would give for a good old polyethylene bivvy bag. Those items cost thirty silvers for the water bag, a gold for the sleeping bag and thirty silvers for the inner and outer bags.

“All you need now is a personal carry bag to put all your clothing in.”

I chimed, only to get strange looks from Hana and Tobias. I decided in that situation, the best part of valour was to simply shut up. I had to say it was still a good idea. The shoulder carry bag draped across one shoulder and sat just behind the hip. For some reason they didn’t have rucksacks, which I found disappointing. However, thinking about it, a lot of the gear she purchased would work well with a carry frame. That bag cost her a single small gold bringing all the costs to thirteen gold and ninety silvers, and left Hana with six gold and ten silvers. At Hana’s suggestion we tipped Tobias ten silvers as a thank you for his helpful service. It added to a few nights’ accommodation for us, but what we saved in money buy not buying unnecessary items was all due to his advice. Before we left, he bowed to us with a smile.

“Please come again. It would be my pleasure to serve you.”

I started to get an idea of the correlation between cost, labour, and materials in that world. What became clear to me was that labour for professionally made items lay on the very expensive side. If the raw materials for those items were rare or expensive then the selling price escalated almost exponentially. There wasn’t a clear middle class that I ever noticed. However, people like adventurers filled that role to some extent because they purchased expensive items and could at odd moments, find items worth a lot of money. I suspected it was that possibility of instant wealth that attracted people to such a dangerous field of work. I’d be willing to bet that people in the industry all had stories of someone they knew who hit the jackpot. Unfortunately, I was certain that unspoken stories of people dying against monsters prevailed just as much, perhaps even more.

“Hana, are you ready to go?”

“Yes, I have everything I need for now.”

“I think we’re going to go to two more places and then we’ll take it easy. I don’t think we’ll get any quests sorted by the afternoon so we might as well chalk this day down to properly equipping ourselves.”

I found Grenfell sitting at the workbench with his head on the table, fast asleep. I guessed some things just never changed, no matter where we were. He made a few snuffling noises before opening his eyes.

“Ah, Hana. Sorry about that. I guess I miss my afternoon naps back home.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

He wiped his mouth and stroked his beard. Why did he apologise to her, I wondered?

“I guess you came here for this…”

He handed her a sword that I instantly recognised.

“That’s Orcrist!”

He laughed at my outburst.

“No, but it’s a very similar one though.”

I then noticed it missed the elvish runes on the blade. Hana pulled out the sword, felt it in her hands as if weighing it then began moving it in the air in exercised moves like a pro.

“I like this one. It suits me well.”

“He, he, he. I knew it would fit you.”

We left the old man smiling as he waved Hana goodbye. I swore that every time she was in my company, I ceased to exist, so pretty much all the time.

I next stopped over at Schneider’s trading office near the eastern gate where most merchants centred their trading businesses. His location wasn’t accidental because transferring large volumes of merchandise around the city cost a lot of money. Since most of the local business transacted with eastern merchants arriving from Entwine it made sense to transfer any goods at the eastern gate, and then to supply the local market from there. That way there was no double handling and unnecessary time delays when delivering goods.

Schneider sat in his small office arranging contracts, the hallmark of a merchant class. His desk overflowed with neatly packed strips of wood making his workplace look like a frozen lolly stick depository. He noticed me coming in and greeted me by shaking my hand which wasn’t uncommon amongst merchants who normally bowed as a curtesy or greeting.

“Hi Satou. Good to see you again, you look well. Grenfell told me you had some troubles with those monsters on the road?”

“Hi Schneider, good to see you made it through from Obon as well. Yes, I had a bit of interaction with an ogre general at the military encampment.”

Schneider already garnered the details from Grenfell, but Hana’s bewilderment at my news was a revelation for her. Talking of Hana…

“Hi Schneider, please meet Hana. Hana, this is Schneider a merchant I traded with while in Obon.”

Schneider greeted Hana with a smile. He never realised she was a slave because she wore her scarf at the time. For all intents and purposes, she looked like an adventurer.

“Excuse me Hana. I didn’t realise that Obon had such beautiful women staying in Shimmerstal.”

Man was he a smooth mover. Hana never seemed to notice; I think she’d already heard enough compliments in her life.

“Thank you, it’s good to meet you.”

Looking to change the uncomfortable subject I pointed to the different sized wooden strips of wood.

“What are all these bundled strips of wood?”

“Oh those. We call them contract slats. Parchment is too expensive for everyday use, so we use thin strips of clean wood to record transactions, mainly between merchants in the guild. Once the details of the transaction are written on the sticks, both sides of the stick are etched with the same details in reverse direction and then the slat is broken in half. One side of the broken slat is each taken by a merchant as evidence of the transaction. Placing the two slats together, with the two jagged edges aligned, becomes the evidence of the transaction etched on the slat.”

“Oh, I get it, like an invoice?”

“I guess that’s a close enough description although it’s probably more of a contract of intent. It can also stand as evidence in a merchant’s guild arbitration case.”

“But how would others know that the other buyer or seller was party to that transaction if they don’t produce the other half of the slat?”

He picked up a half-slat and showed me two burnt marks on it, at the bottom end opposite the break.

“Those two marks are the standards or signatures of each person. Here, look at this.”

He showed me a small, metal cylinder connected to a gold chain around his neck.

“It’s a metal stamp unique to my company, when the end is heated it’s used to burn a mark onto the slat. It’s a unique design, no one else but me has one like this, nor can anyone else legally have one like it.”

It was simple but ingenious technology for the time. To counterfeit the opposite party’s signature and slat would not be impossible, but it would be difficult to copy it exactly. If the other person could produce their side of the slat, then they could defend their position in the transaction.

“But that’s enough of what I do, I assume you came here to follow up on those fifty razors you sent me?”

“Yes, that’s right. How have they sold?”

“They’re all sold, went in the first day.”

“What, how did you manage that?”

“Well, I’d love to say it was all my doing but when I took your demonstration model to the dwarves to look at, they nearly fell over themselves and snapped up all fifty razors.”

“Really? That worked far better than I anticipated.”

“Better? That’s nothing. They’ve asked me to get the manufacturing rights off you.”

“Again, that better than I thought. What are their terms?”

He explained that the Dwarves would take thirty percent of the sales as payment for material purchase and manufacturing, he already had a fifty percent share as agreed in Obon, which left me with a twenty percent share. Of course, I needed to pay Schneider back for his twenty-five small gold loan I borrowed.

“In that case, take all my share to pay your loan off until it’s finished.”

He readily agreed, seemingly satisfied that I was eager to pay off the loan he gave me. Eventually the razors would pay themselves off and then all the profit owed to me would be mine. We left a very satisfied looking Schneider that late afternoon and walked back to the inn, arriving there about an hour before dinner.

“Mr. Karosaki.”

Came the firm voice of Mrs. Violet as we walked past her desk in the reception hall.

“Evening Mrs. Violet. How can I help?”

“We need to sort out the issue of your…slave’s accommodation.”

I didn’t look forward to that conversation. From Hana’s commotion the previous night she probably wanted to give me a run through of all the rules of the inn. It wasn’t my fault she dumped Hana in my room in the middle of the night.

“I…I just wanted to say that we’ve moved another bed into your room for…her to stay in, and we won’t be charging you anything extra. Also, I wanted to apologise for the commotion I made about the noise.”

That genuinely floored me. From the acidic looks I got from Mrs. Violet in the morning compared to the person that stood in front of me, were worlds apart. Why did she move Hana into my room?

“You say you moved us together?”

Mrs. Violet’s faced flushed as it transformed through the tones of the red spectrum. She seemed very uneasy, as if suddenly disposing a dead rat she found in the garden. She leaned over the counter and in a hushed voice said,

“Well…you see Mr. Karosaki. All the rooms are fully booked for a while and how do I put this…some men purchase slave women to fulfil certain…requirements.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. Was that what she thought? I looked at Hana, who looked back at me wordlessly. Just what did they think of me? Whatever that might be, I realised I was walking on a thin edge for a future accommodation at that inn, which costed me nothing pretty much at the king’s kindness. I wasn’t going to stir anymore trouble and decided to keep the status quo as it was, while keeping everything intact.

“I don’t agree with your insinuation, but I have no problem with the accommodation arrangements.”

Hana looked like she was going to spit fire. I wasn’t sure why; it was her fault for putting me in that situation in the first place. Mrs. Violet’s face made a thought-as-much look as she commented on something else.

“There’s a gentleman called Karato here to see you. He’s waiting in the dining room for you.”

“Karato, why would he be here to see me?”

No one answered because nobody could answer the question. I sighed as we headed for the dining room. I hoped he wasn’t looking to continue those god-awful sparring sessions.