After dressing up appropriately, Zarba's group rode on the skeleton horses under the illusion enchantment as they went to the town with four Zar-Bros accompanying them. The townguards at the gate didn't even bother them, as they obviously didn't look like a group of bandits, so they just stood around and looked at the group briefly with disinterest.
After they were in town, the group decided to go buy more wagons first to carry the extra supplies, as they obviously can't just carry what they brought around.
Zarba was asking around with the townspeople before they arrived at the store that deals with wagons and carriages. He purchased two large wagons with proper roofs, as they changed to ride on the wagons instead of the skeleton horses before going to the market to buy foodstuffs first.
The market square of Tartaro was sparingly crowded when they arrived, as the economy of the empire was still pretty bad, and most vendors had already packed up for the day, while some stores were still open for business.
Zarba motioned with his hand for the Zar-Bros and the women to split up and go buy what they need, as two Zar-Bros would guard the wagons, while the other two trailed behind him and the women's group as he navigated the thinning stalls. The scent of overripe fruit and fish hung noticeably in the air, mingling with the smell of metal and smoke from a nearby blacksmith's forge.
After looking around for a minute, Zarba spotted a store that sells preserved food and immediately visited it to buy a 2-week supply worth for four people as he spoke to the young man who was the owner.
While buying a large amount of dried meat and salted fish from a young man who was very enthusiastic about the large purchase and getting all that the reincarnated prince ordered, Zarba overheard a whispered exchange between two townspeople passing nearby as he waited for the store owner to gather the ordered items.
"I saw the mercenaries are gathering near the bridge for some reason. Do you know what's going on?" Muttered a woman in a patched shawl, her arms hugging around a loaf of stale bread in a basket. Her companion, a gaunt man with a scarred cheek, leaned in close to her, his hand patting her back. "Aye. Heard from the Samir brothers they're offering one gold coin upfront for anyone who'd show up for the job from the nobles..."
"One gold just for being there?! Must be dangerous work if they offer that much..." The woman exclaimed with a surprised expression, while the man grunted with a disdainful look as they walked past Zarba. "Of course, those damn nobles won't offer that much if it's not dangerous work..."
"Hmph, no wonder why it's so peaceful..." Zarba huffed and murmured under his breath after he heard the two townspeople gossiping as he continued to browse the dwindling selection of goods around the market and told all the store owners that brought him his purchase to deliver them to his wagons.
Zarba's fingers pick an apple from a crate of apples at the fruit store before tossing a few copper coins to the vendor while keeping his ears to the hushed conversations around him in case there's some interesting news or rumors, but to his disappointment, most of the interesting conversations are all about the gathering of the mercenaries at the Paramatta bridge and the imperial army victory at the Baraba Fort, which surprised Zarba since he didn't expect the fort to fall so fast.
'I wonder what happened over there...' Zarba thought as he used the magic wand from the Zar-Bro to wash the apple as the water squirted out from the tip of the wand like a hose.
After the apple felt clean enough, Zarba bit into the slightly sweat apple as his eyes ended up gazing at the distance toward the great bridge's direction that visible pass the far end of the market square of Tartaro where the bridge stretched long in the fading horizon of the Little Root River.
After that, Zarba returned to the wagons with the Zar-Bro and saw the women had already returned as they loaded up their purchases into the wagons, while he still thought about the information he had heard from the townspeople.
The mercenaries gathering at the bridge could only mean a large battle waiting for them ahead, but he doesn't really worry about it too much since, in terms of numbers, he will never lose.
What bothers him is after the battle, he would have to go raid the nobles who were probably involved in this mess to make an example out of them for the others to not have any bright ideas. It'll delay his departure from the empire quite a bit, but he only intends to attack the ones that are nearby, so it won't take much time.
'It has to be done, or otherwise they will think they can just poke me without any consequences...' Zarba first feels annoyed but quickly feels better since he can physically hit his problem this time.
"My husband, did you hear?" Xin, with a black cloak concealing her petite body, said to Zarba as she walked to his side before placing her hand on his arm, as she wanted to talk to him about the rumors she heard around the market.
"The townspeople said there's a gathering of mercenaries and anyone who can swing a sword near the Paramatta bridge. They're probably waiting for us, I'm sure..." Her voice was low, as her breath carried the scent of honeyed almonds from the sweets she'd been sampling from her purchase.
"Yeah, I heard..." Zarba replied to his slave-wife as he wondered if the women actually brought what they needed and not what they wanted. He would be very displeased if there were a couple of new dresses in the wagons.
"That's probably why no one showed up in our way here." Nadia snorted as she joined in the conversation while she casually tossed a sack of grain onto the back of the wagon with a thud. The muscular woman is now feeling pretty excited for a big battle that is waiting for them at the bridge. She hopes that the Great Warrior will show up too, as fighting with only weaker people can be pretty dull.
"You can expect at least thousands of mercenaries to be there since no sane man would pass up what they thought was easy coin unless they're already rich." Nadia warned while she wiped her hands on the rag, her purple eyes flicking toward the bridge's silhouette as the sunset painted the river red.
"Guess we have to prepare more for a long fight then..." Zarba muttered, tossing the apple core into the trash pile between the building, where it landed with a wet splat among the rotten vegetables. The battle of this scale couldn't be finished in just one or two days, so they needed more supplies in case it somehow dragged on longer than expected.
"Should I produce some potions for the battle?" Mormon poked her head out from the wagon as she asked with expectation. The chance to show her excellence is here after all.
"Oh? And what kind of potions can you make?" Xin turns to the goblin girl and inquires with interest.
"Health potion, mana potion, stamina potion, and some basic strengthening potion—I can make it all if there are ingredients, of course~!" Mormon makes a proud face as she lists up the potions that she could make without specialized alchemy equipment or exotic ingredients.
"Then I'll leave it to you to make them as much as you can, Mormon." Zarba smirks at the goblin girl as she also nods her head with a smirk. "Mmh! Leave it to me~!"
As Mormon excitedly climbs back into the wagon to begin writing down the list of ingredients, Zarba then turns to Xin next to him to warn her not to buy random things.
"See if you can find any stores with useful items still open. Buy whatever we might need and within reason, alright?" He said to the half-elf, who was pouting a bit as she nodded, before his gaze shifted to Nadia, who was already cracking a grin with anticipation. "Let's go see if there's some smithy still running. I want you properly armored for this battle."
"Fine by me." Nadia hummed as she scanned the street for signs of a blacksmith's forge. The scent of burning coal and hot iron still lingered faintly beneath the stench of fish even in the evening, as she headed toward a building near the riverbank after she located where the rhythmic clang of hammer on anvil echoed with Zarba behind her.
"Well, what do you need for those potions?" Seeing Zarba going to the smithy with Nadia, Xin turned to the wagon as she asked Mormon while stepping closer to the wagon, where the goblin girl rummaged through her newly purchased satchel for a paper.
"Hmm?" Mormon fingers paused mid-search as she tilted her head, her big pointy ears twitching in thought.
"Mmm... mostly common herbs—bloodroot, moonleaf, maybe some bone meal too if you can find them. Oh, and a lot of alcohol. Cheap is fine—it's just to dissolve the grit." She grinned before she continued to search for the paper until she found it and began to write the list of ingredients for Xin.
"Oh my, these shouldn't be difficult to find." Xin nodded, mentally cataloging the market stalls she'd passed earlier. She could still see the apothecary's faded green banner flapping listlessly three streets over with the symbol of the cracked mortar and pestle while haggling over saffron.
"I'll check the herbalist too, then I'll go to the brewers. Meet you back here in a while." With a flick of her cloak, Xin melted into the thinning crowd with the Zar-Bro, their steps silent against the cobblestones...