It was time. Not time for something related to the moon project, or to Project Horizon, or anything like that. It was time for something that I had kind of completely forgotten, the whole reason that we were staying in the Capital in the first place. Yes, it was time for the Bazaar.
The streets of the Capital were packed so tightly that it was difficult to move. No matter where I paid attention to, all I was able to see were a constant wall of bodies and a blinding light from the heat they gave off. It got so bad that I ended up needing to redial my vision out of the infrared, and back into the normal vision range, even though it was night, and I usually only turned off the infrared during the day. The moment I did, vivid streaks of blue and purple seemed to show up everywhere around me. Not that the two were in any way prominent colors in my surroundings, but it was slightly comforting to know that if any of the royal family popped up, I’d be able to actually notice them in all their 90’s glory.
As we walked around, I took a look at all the stalls lining the walls. Well, calling them stalls is inaccurate. There weren’t any actual constructed stalls per se, and it was more like a bunch of rugs laid down on the edges of the street next to the buildings, and all kinds of merchants had their wares laid down on these rugs. Due to our proximity to the Traveler’s Station for obvious reasons, we were currently looking at probably the broadest selection of goods found at any part of this town.
According to X, if we had an interest in Foodstuffs, then we’d have to go closer to the center of the Capital, as farmers mostly set up shop there, so that they could sell their harvests to a larger percentage of the locals all at once. Around the edges, where we and the rest of the Travelers were, is where all of the craftsmen generally make the most sales of their wares. Laid down upon the rugs lining the streets, I saw (this Kingdom’s Version of) fine clothing, weapons, armor, hunting equipment, forge equipment, small tools for delicate crafting work, as well as random odd knicknacks, such as what looked like straw dolls and glass baubles.
To be honest, not much of what I saw actually interested me in any way. And the things that did slightly interest me, the associated price tag was enough to push me away. As I’d expected, the pricing was straight up astronomical, and while I had gotten myself rich through bandit kills, I wasn’t trying to get broke again for a useless glass ball. I wondered how these prices even made sense, but as I looked around, I realized…it didn’t. Very few people were actually buying anything, most just casually looking around. But no one was complaining about the prices, meaning they expected it. Did Bazaar prices usually start off high then drop as time passes?
That’s the only explanation that made sense to me, especially considering how the merchants lining the walls seemed to be satisfied despite barely actually making any sales. I guess what they had sold had gone for something like a 500% markup. In a way, I guess the Bazaar kinda functioned like a reverse auction, where prices would gradually lower until all of the supply was gone, or until they reached a point where the merchants would start losing money if they sold.
Considering the Bazaar was supposed to last a month or two, and assuming that the prices would stop around 50% off, then prices would probably drop daily at a rate of about 10% of the original price before the markup every day. Seeing how complicated the setup was, it was no wonder that Liz and the merchant were always seen together talking over the past couple months. Just how much market research, math and planning had they had to do to sell stuff here? Jesus Christ.
Duke had chosen to stay home today, given that he’s already seen the Bazaar before, and really the only reason to come out in the beginning is if you’re looking for something highly specific, that you’re worried someone else will get before you. This meant that it was just me, Ash, X, and Mike walking around, as Liz and the merchant were busy trying to get rich. From what I could tell, I don’t think X liked Mike all that much. I guessed that maybe something had happened with Ash, but neither her nor Sophia have mentioned anything to me, so probably not.
“LEO, LEO, COME HERE, YOU GOTTA SEE THIS!!!” Ash shouted excitedly. While I wasn’t particularly fond of massive hordes of people, it seemed like the energy of the surrounding environment was bleeding into Ash, supercharging her to the point where she was running around like a cat at three in the morning. I couldn’t help but smile warmly at the sight of her having fun, as I replied,
“Cease the Zoomies, you goddamn cat, I’m here.” Ash pouted up at me before breaking into a wide grin, and turning invisible. She knew that my infrared vision was currently offline, and while she may not fully understand what that means, she does know that it’s what lets me see her even through her spell. “Are you taking advantage of a blind man’s inability to see you?” I called out. Next thing I knew, a heavy weight jerked down onto my shoulders, and Ash became visible again on top of me.
“Yep!” She laughed, ruffling up my hair, as I instinctively grabbed onto her legs to keep her from falling. “You bitch! What if you knocked me over dumbass?!” I tried to sound intimidating, though I’m afraid it was slightly undercut by the fact that I was laughing along with her.
She just rolled her eyes and said, “Oh please, we both know that with your body the way it is, you’d barely feel anything even if you did.”
“Oh yeah, that is a thing isn’t it?”
Ash looked down at me incredulously as she asked, “Wait, did you seriously forget your own body’s toughness?”
I shrugged my shoulders out of habit, accidentally jostling Ash as she fought to stabilize herself. “Well I mean, how frequently do you really think about the toughness of your own body? It’s not like I just let everyone attack me all the time so I know the exact qualities of my body. If I were a fully dedicated martial artist then I might, but I’m honestly more of a tinkerer than a fighter.” Ash just ruffled my hair and chuckled in agreement, making no moves to get down. “Anyway, what did you call me over to show me?”
Ash enthusiastically guided me over towards one specific merchant, who seemed to be rather amused by Ash’s boundless energy. “Hey Luis, show my buddy Leo that one thing!”
Luis? I guess that’s the merchant’s name. Come to think of it, Ash is kind of a monster at making friends isn’t she? Who the hell learns the name of some random merchant they happen to come across?! Luis laughs jovially, and brings out…a mirror? Curious, I took a look into it and saw…myself. Which, of course, isn’t all that surprising, seeing as that’s the primary function of mirrors in the first place. I flipped it over to see the back, to see if maybe it was some kind of magically enchanted mirror, but couldn’t find anything. Confused, I asked, “Okay, am I missing something? I mean, it’s a mirror, but I don’t see what all the excitement’s about.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Ash and Luis looked at me incredulously, before simultaneously asking, “Wait, you’ve seen one of these before!?”
Wait, does this world not have mirrors? I racked my brains, trying to remember if I’ve seen one, but I haven’t exactly spent a lot of time inside of buildings in this world. After all, I generally go inside then immediately warp myself to the subspace. Wait, if Ash is surprised…Are there any mirrors in the subspace?? Stunned, I realized that there actually wasn’t a single damn mirror in our house. I guess it’s one of those things that you don’t really notice until someone points it out, or you specifically look for it. Huh. Regardless, I answered their question.
“Yeah, where I’m from, these are literally all over the place. Generally there’s one or two of these in every bathroom so that people can check how they look when they get ready for the day. A lot of people also have them in their bedrooms for the same reason, and in our carriages, there are three small ones placed around so that we can see what’s beside and behind us. From a light magic perspective,” I looked up at Ash, “basically what’s happening is that any light that hits the surface of the mirror bounces off, so what you end up seeing is the light that bounced off the mirror from whatever angle is opposite you. For example,”
I tilted the mirror to the left, making it so that all that showed up were the surrounding crowds of people. I then pointed towards them, drawing a line in the air from them, to the mirror, then to us, explaining, “Right now, light is reflecting off of the people around us, then hitting the mirror, which is then bouncing into our eyes. Meanwhile if the mirror happens to be facing us, then when we look straight ahead, light is bouncing off of us, then off of the mirror, then back into our eyes. Do you understand?”
Ash tilted her head and asked, “Wait, so this bounces off all light? Then why isn’t it white? I thought you said when all light is reflected then what you end up seeing is white.”
“You remembered!” I have to say I think I was actually rather proud of her there. Generally, whenever I delve into the science behind things, Ash has a tendency to just kind of tune it out, as it doesn’t particularly interest her. “The difference between the color white and a mirror, is that when light bounces off of a mirror, it bounces in a predictable way. Kind of like if you took something and threw it at a table, it’ll bounce in the same direction that you threw it right? Meanwhile, the color white is more like a bunch of sticks on the ground. If you throw something onto those, it’ll bounce off randomly, right? So in this way, you could say that while white does technically reflect all visible light, a more accurate description is that it ‘scatters’ all visible light. To visualize that, think about the table and the pile of sticks, but instead of throwing just one object, you throw a hundred really small objects. On the table, everything will still bounce in the same direction, whereas on the pile of sticks, everything will just bounce in a random direction, right?”
Ash lifted her hand, using magic to cast a dim light. She then focused it into a beam, then pointed it towards the mirror, and watched as the beam stayed together, bouncing off at an angle and landing on a random member of the crowd surrounding us. I then reached into the subspace and grabbed a piece of paper from my shed, placing it on the ground. When I reached into the subspace, I saw the merchant’s, Luis’s eyes widening and sweat start appearing on his forehead, but I ignored it as I told Ash to point the beam at the paper next. We watched as the light didn’t bounce off of the paper as it had with the mirror, but instead seemed to brighten the ground around it, demonstrating what I meant when I said ‘scatter’.
Ash then took a look at her hand, and said the word, “Scatter”, and the three of us watched as her already pale hand turned into a pure white, like freshly fallen snow. The fact that she actually seemed to be learning the concepts that I was trying to teach her this time gave me an idea.
“Okay, now try to imagine the opposite. Imagine that instead of scattering, all light is absorbed by your hand.” She nodded, thought for a second, and we all watched as the crisp fallen snow dulled, and grayed, darkening until her hand gave off the illusion that it had been badly photoshopped out of reality. As she watched, Ash muttered to herself, “Black objects absorb all visible light, while White objects scatter it. Huh.”
It seems that Ash has no problems with learning, I’ve just been a shitty teacher. While she can’t be taught difficult concepts verbally, or through analogous physical representations, she may be able to learn them if I help her conduct her own experiments. Just, rather than learning science, we’d be ‘practicing magic’. I formed the plan in my head, and started coming up with spells that I could use to teach her about the natural laws of the world.
I turned to Luis and asked, “How much for the mirror?” It would be a nice little souvenir for Ash, as well as a reminder for me that if I’m going to teach someone else, I need to modify my style to match how they learn. Luis looked at me with a somewhat serious expression, before sighing, and saying, “No charge, consider it a gift.” Interesting. My casual use of space magic should have given the impression that I’m a relatively powerful and rich individual, but apparently it worked a little better than I expected, and turned my existence in his mind into a person who should not be cheated or angered in any way. I nodded, but also tossed a few heads worth of Spectral Quartz to him as I said, “Then consider this a gift in return.” As I turned and walked towards where we’d left X and Mike.
The amount of money I’d given the merchant was definitely less than he would have set the asking price, but considering the relative uselessness of a hand mirror, it was definitely more than he would have made selling it anywhere outside of the Bazaar. While I don’t particularly mind deceiving people and taking advantage of their misunderstandings, I felt a certain amount of respect for Luis. This man had, on a small scale, fought his own greed, his own nature, and made the smarter, more cautious choice. That kind of self control and foresight was already rare on my old world, but here, where people tend to be truer to themselves? I couldn’t imagine Ash, Sophia, X, or Mike making the same struggle and letting cold rationality win over their own desires. Not that this is a bad thing, after all, I happen to possess varying degrees of fondness for those four, however, at the end of the day, I can respect the struggle of putting rationality over your own emotion.
As we made our way over to the group, Ash hopped down from my shoulders and went over towards X, showing off the new spells she had learned. She was significantly less bouncy and energetic in her interactions with him than she was with me, but she was still clearly enjoying herself. Whenever she talked to X, it was almost like…she was relaxed on the deepest, most fundamental level. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was feeling as I observed this, because it seemed like I was fluctuating between experiencing several different emotions.
Was I happy that she met someone she could really relax around?
Was I cautious that she was so unguarded against someone I knew practically nothing about?
Was I jealous that one of the two most important people in my life was getting so close to someone else?
Was I proud of her for finally taking the first steps towards moving on from Mike?
Was I ashamed that I apparently haven’t provided a home for her with the correct atmosphere where she could relax to this same degree?
I couldn’t tell. I can barely diagnose even just one emotion at a time, much less this chaotic maelstrom of vague and unknowable feelings. And so, I did what I was best at. The only thing I really could do. I ignored them. After all, emotions are already unreliable sources of information, and mine especially are even more unreliable than the average, seeing as how I can’t even tell what they are. So rather than attempt to decipher the impossibly complex code of my emotions, I instead looked at the situation calmly and rationally.
Ash was happy getting close to X, but I don’t know anything about him. The best thing for me to do in this scenario is exactly what I’ve been doing this entire time. Support her, make sure she stays happy, but keep an eye on him, and be prepared for the eventuality that he betrays or hurts her in any way. Trust no one and nothing, but accept everyone and everything. This way, no matter what happens, I will always have a way to respond, a way to protect myself and the two people I care about. This way, no matter what, I won’t get hurt or feel the pain of betrayal again.
A part of me wanted to try to share this philosophy with the girls, especially Ash, since she has a particular habit of bonding fast with anyone as long as her innate magic doesn’t tell her that they’re bad, but… I think if I did that… I think if I taught Ash to always be jaded, to always be mistrusting… wouldn’t I just be hurting her in the long run? After all, even I hate living in my own mind sometimes, so wouldn’t I just be turning Ash’s mind into something she hates too? No, it’s better to let her be innocent, to let her be carefree and happy. If something happens, I’ll deal with it.
I’m already broken, so any additional cracks won’t change anything for me. Ash doesn’t need to break the same way that I have. Anything that happens that can threaten her mental wellbeing, and I’ll shoulder the burden for her. This may not be a particularly healthy mindset, but it’s all I know. I guess it’s just my nature as a guardian.