Finding the market wasn’t that hard. It took up an entire small square that seemed to have been built for that express purpose. The simple part of the day ended there. Unlike most of the people who were wandering around, Terry had no idea where he should be looking to buy what. In the halcyon days of Before Chinese Period Drama Hell, comparison shopping had been stupidly easy for him. He either did it all online, or he didn’t do it at all. For things like groceries, he didn’t do it at all. He always shopped at the closest supermarket. That minimized his overall time investment, and he went to their website once a week to look for coupons. He’d look for good prices in that specific store but that was as far as it went. He’d rather pay an extra thirty cents for lettuce or slightly overpay on hamburger than spend hours of his time trying to maximize his savings on shopping. When it came to bigger purchases, like computer equipment or even his last car… Terry came up short. Ha! At least I don’t have to pay off that loan now, he thought. Take that big banking! Finally, a perk to this isekai nightmare. Still, he’d been able to leverage digital omnipresence to do half the work for him in finding good deals.

If there was an equivalent to the internet in this magical world, Terry certainly didn’t have access to it or even know where to find it. Nor did he imagine that these stalls would have websites on the Qi-net or Mana-net or whatever they’d call it. God, what I wouldn’t give for a smartphone right now, he thought. Not that I have anyone to text, but it would be such a psychological comfort. With a sigh, he resigned himself to the idea that there would be no super-helpful algorithm to help him optimize this process. He’d have to do it the hardest way possible. He’d have to go from stall to stall and, shudder, talk to people. He hated having to talk to people. It hadn’t been completely intolerable with Remdell and Mira because they all had a few shared experiences to draw on. He’d done okay at the Adventurers’ Guild because that was purely transactional. This was different. He could see people haggling. That was a skill he did not possess. That was half the reason why he’d bought his last car online. There was no point in going to a dealership if you weren’t going to negotiate. It was also why he hadn’t gotten a real raise in three years.

Standing here and staring isn’t getting the job done, he thought. Put on your big boy boxers and just do it. It was exactly as terrible as he imagined it would be. Every person at every stall was highly motivated to sell their products. Nothing had prices marked, so he had no choice but to ask. It was a great way to suck someone into a high-pressure sales conversation. It took Terry almost two hours of walking between stalls to figure out that letting his hand drop to the hilt of one of the swords was a fantastic way to get someone to stop pushing. Praise be to the threat of naked violence. He had resolved not to buy anything until he’d made at least one pass through the market. That would at least let him get a feel for what passed as standard pricing in this economic microcosm. He wasn’t stupid enough to think that he could extrapolate anything from these prices to the broader world, but he could at least minimize his costs in the here and now. Programmatic thinking at work, thought Terry. I guess not all of my skills are a complete waste here. That process was temporarily derailed when he came across Remdell’s stall, not that he knew he’d found them until he heard a squeal of delight, and Mira was pulling her octopus routine on him again.

“You found us!” she shouted in his ear.

This girl is seriously going to give me hearing loss, thought Terry. He also noticed several unhappy-looking young men in the nearby vicinity. They had the heavy builds of people who did hard manual labor for hours at a time, every single day. He didn’t know if they were all farmers, but they probably were. It seemed like good odds that Mira was going to end up married to one of them if things worked the way he thought they probably did in a world like this. Hell, for all he knew, Remdell had already arranged a marriage for her. Terry dismissed that idea after a moment or two of thought. If she was engaged already, someone would probably have taken a swing at him by now. No, all those glares were from guys who just wanted to be engaged to her, or at least have a good time behind a barn somewhere. Not my monkeys, not my circus, he decided.

“Sure,” he said.

Then, he patted her back three times. In accordance with the prophecy, he snarked internally, remembering some online joke about that. He had been hoping, dimly, that Pavlovian conditioning might make her release him after the back pats, but she just snuggled in a little closer. Maybe she has a personality disorder, he thought.

“Where’s your father?” he asked.

She finally released her death grip on his chest, only to seize his hand with shocking strength and drag him toward a nearby stall. Remdell offered him a bright smile, while Hamera tried to stab him with her eyes. Tovan peered at him over the stall’s wooden counter before the boy pointed at the hand that Mira was still gripping and started to snicker. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the girl’s cheeks start to turn red, but she didn’t let go.

“You get things taken care of at the Adventurers’ Guild?” asked Remdell.

“I did,” said Terry.

“Lucky. I heard that there was some kind of trouble over there. Heard some people got killed.”

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Terry frowned at that. He hoped that was just the usual exaggeration that came with a story being told and retold, rather than the truth. After all, he’d only wanted one person there to die, but it was anyone’s guess what the tabard guys had done on arrival. If they’d taken a stab first, ask questions later approach, it might have gotten ugly. Terry decided that the best approach was to feign ignorance.

“Really? What happened?” he asked, as he fruitlessly tried to pull his hand free.

“Not sure, honestly. There’s a bunch of stories going around. One story says a man went on a rampage and killed a bunch of kids. Another version said some devil showed up and tricked everyone into killing a man. Who can say for sure what’s true?”

Terry offered a sage nod at that bit of folk wisdom, keenly aware that he could tell them exactly what had happened up to the point that he’d left. He chatted with Remdell for a few more minutes. It wasn’t that they had anything to talk about, so much as Terry was happy to have a conversation that didn’t involve someone trying to sell him something. He was aware of Mira sidling closer and closer to him. It finally got egregious enough that her father directed a stern look at her, and she stepped away a little, even if she didn’t let go of his hand. Hamera, on the other hand, glowered at him like she wished she could set him on fire. Then, Terry made a tactical mistake and mentioned that he wasn’t sure who he should be buying from. The next thing he knew, Mira was dragging him around the market and haggling like it was her money. She did end up talking down the prices like a seasoned professional, but he was rarely so relieved as when Tovan came around to fetch her. He finally got his hand back.

The trip to the market had swallowed the afternoon entirely and evening was prompting people to start closing up for the day. While Terry wasn’t good at haggling, he did know that that was the best time to get a deal. People didn’t want to cart things home that they could sell, even if they did only break even. So, he haunted the stalls and managed to pick up some root vegetables that should hold up for a while, along with a bit of dried meat. Even getting deals, he’d burned through a lot of what little money he had managed to put together. Mira had gotten him a sturdy sack and a small pot for a few silvers. That had hurt. Another big chunk of his dwindling funds had been whittled down with necessities like a flint, blanket, waterskin, a hunk of canvas that he could make into a makeshift tent, a rope, food, a couple of shirts, and another pair of pants. He’d also gotten a map. It wasn’t a great map, but it did at least give him a general idea of where other towns were in the area.

When it became clear he’d probably end up spending at least one night in the town, he’d set aside enough to cover a room at the inn Remdell had mentioned. He’d be terrifyingly broke after that, but he wasn’t going to starve for a while. Getting isekai-ed has simplified my life, thought Terry. I’m at the bottom of that hierarchy of needs. When even the last holdouts at the market were giving up, Terry called it a day. He didn’t have enough money left to buy anything anyway, so might as well see to getting some shelter for the night. Navigating in the descending darkness proved trickier than he’d expected. It was easy to get turned around on the unfamiliar streets, especially with no streetlights. He ending having to backtrack three times before he finally saw the sign for the Farmer’s Rest. He was so focused on the door that he almost missed it. It was only after he’d passed by that something in that other-knowledge stirred. He’d only caught a glimpse. Now that it had been brought to his attention, though, he had to make a decision.

He really, genuinely, honestly wanted to do nothing. He didn’t like Harena, even if it was only in reaction to her obvious dislike of him. But Mira had done him a good turn that afternoon, and Terry liked Remdell. The man was uncomplicated, honest, and had been generous in his way. Leaving the guy’s daughter to fend for herself without even checking to see if there was a problem would be, in short, a dick move. Taking a couple of steps back, Terry peered into the alleyway between the inn and whatever the next building was. At first glance, it appeared normal enough. Harena was leaning back against the wall while some guy was all up in her personal space. Terry felt that telltale surge of warmth in his stomach and his senses sharpened again. The wrongness became more apparent then. The guy was smiling, but it was the kind of smile you expect to see on people who probably liked pulling the wings off of flies as children. It was cruel. As for Harena, she wasn’t leaning against the wall, she was pressed against it. He could see that her hand was closed into a trembling fist. The face that had glowered at him so many times in the last few days wasn’t glowering anymore. She looked angry, but she also looked afraid. The conversation he hadn’t been able to hear before became audible.

“Why are you playing so hard to get?” asked the creepy douchebag.

“I’m not playing at anything. I will never marry you.”

The guy reached out and trailed a finger down her cheek. Terry could almost see Harena’s skin crawl at the touch.

“Oh, but you will, my sweet,” said the extra-creepy douchebag.

Well, I guess that answers that, thought Terry. He considered saying something like, “Didn’t anyone ever tell you no means no?” Except, he didn’t imagine it would do any good. Instead, he just walked into the alley, keeping an eye out for any wingmen the D-bag might have brought along. Terry was almost on top of them before the guy noticed him. That other-knowledge was stirring again and something cold and precise filled Terry’s mind. He was abruptly aware of things like centers of gravity. The D-bag spun toward him, his mouth already opening to say something that never reached the air. Before the words could come, Terry’s hand shot out and grabbed the guy by the face. The man tried to recoil, so Terry helped him along by giving the face in his hand a solid push. The man let out a satisfyingly childish scream as he flopped backward onto the ground. Without a moment’s pause, Terry turned, grabbed Harena’s hand, and started pulling her toward the mouth of the alley. They were about to step out onto the street proper when the creepy asshole started bellowing from behind them.

“You dare! You dare interfere with a priest of the Holy Church!”

Because, of course, there’s a corrupt church in this world, thought Terry.