Pretending to sleep was becoming irritating, but at least I didn't have to do it the entire night since I heard Warfarin leaving for a night walk.
It was difficult to find anything good in the capital, so we settled for the least worse option, in this case, an old inn whose owner probably overcharged us because I was a foreigner accompanied by a vampire.
I'm almost certain of it; her mean glare and sharp words were clear, softening only when I paid the demanded amount in gold coins. However, the fake smile that followed confirmed that she would try to milk as much of our money as possible.
Acquiring a house would be ideal, preferably spacious for my experiments and close to the castle where the less dangerous districts were located; after all, money wasn't a problem at the moment.
Putting those thoughts aside, I approached the desk in the room and returned to my current project, removing the Originium Slug from my bag, along with shards of titanite, my journal, a pencil, a piece of fruit, and a dagger.
The animal seemed to have grown accustomed to my presence, judging by its lack of attempts to flee or attack. I believe that feeding it over the days also contributed to building trust.
I sliced the fruit with my dagger and crushed a shard of titanite in my hand, turning it into powder, then sprinkled the powder over the slices and on the slug's back.
I offered food to the animal and noted the progress as it ate. The slug's biology was interesting, possessing a powerful adaptation to minerals.
I've encountered beings with minerals growing on their bodies, but according to the stories from the lands I've visited, this occurred over centuries. However, the small creature before me already had brown titanite spikes sprouting from its shell.
I wonder if these new characteristics could be passed on to its descendants or if it was necessary to infect them with Originium and then apply titanite consumption.
I will need more specimens for selective breeding and dissection in order to better understand their functioning and adaptation. If everything goes as expected, I can move on to experiments with elemental titanite and its effects.
Would it be possible to create slugs of fire, lightning, magic, and abyss? And Originium? Would it be possible to apply elements to the mysterious mineral?
"SCREEE!"
SNAP!
I jumped in my chair, breaking the pencil in two from the fright. Approaching the window with cautious steps, I analyzed the nocturnal environment of the capital, searching for the source of the noise.
"SCREEE!"
It sounded like a woman screaming, but not exactly. It continued in short intervals, the shrill noise tearing through the night.
I saw lights turning on in the houses and the sounds of residents echoing in the distance, mostly frightened. Then, I squinted as I saw something moving in the distance.
Using my binoculars, I spotted a dark shape leaping from rooftop to rooftop, pausing occasionally before making the noise I heard and continuing on its way.
Whatever that thing was doing, I chose not to get involved. I closed the window and the curtain immediately afterward, taking a second pencil from my bag and continuing my notes.
The sounds continued for quite a while until they suddenly ceased, making me sigh with relief, as I was getting tired of so much noise.
-XXXXXX-
"Warfarin, wake up, don't sleep in the middle of the street."
"But I'm so tired~"
"What fault do I have if you decided to stay out the entire night? You should have returned earlier and gotten some sleep. I need your help, remember?"
According to her, my slow speech, pronunciation, and accent clearly revealed that I was a foreigner, which made our interactions with the local population difficult, because although I had improved, I still hadn't mastered the language.
"And what fault do I have if a Banshee decided to blow her whistle all night? How am I supposed to sleep with that making my ears hurt?"
Banshee, nicknamed guardians of the dead, are a predominantly female subrace of Sarkaz with Arts that can be conjured by voice, small wings on their heads that cause them to be confused with another race called Liberi, and a connection to the dead.
One of them was responsible for yesterday's cries, blowing her bone whistle to celebrate the death of someone prominent. According to the inhabitants of the capital, no one important had died recently, so what was the reason for her lamentation?
I shook Warfarin by the shoulder again, keeping her awake as soon as I heard her yawn. She staggered down the street, leaning on my arm, her face sleepy and her eyes almost closed.
However, her help was needed to furnish our new house, a large two-story building made of wood, stone, and metal, whose previous owner had overcharged us an arm and a leg.
He must have expected us to negotiate for a lower price, however, I paid the first offer right away, and he almost fainted at the amount of gold and silver in his hands.
Unlike the greedy innkeeper, he thanked us profusely for the payment before quickly leaving with a smile on his face. I guess not everyone is greedy out of pure greed, but also for survival.
Our walk continued until we entered the commercial district where we began our shopping.
First, we visited a carpenter to get furniture. He already had some pieces ready, but Warfarin insisted on ordering some custom pieces because the appearance of the current ones didn't suit her personal taste.
I, on the other hand, replied that it would take a while for everything to be ready and that we should ready the house as quickly as possible so we wouldn't spend another night in that overpriced inn.
Our discussion paused briefly when we heard the laughter of the carpenter, his assistants, and the other customers of the establishment.
I tilted my head in confusion, but shook it immediately, having thought of a compromise where we would buy the necessary furniture immediately, but the vampire would make her custom orders to replace them in the future.
With that done, I put my bottomless bag on the floor and threw the beds, cabinets, tables, chairs, wardrobes, and more inside.
We left the dumbfounded individuals behind and continued to our next stop, the merchants' street where we bought various items.
Clothes (at Warfarin's insistence, as she was tired of wearing the same thing and seeing me wearing the same thing. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the clothes here offer no defense or resistance whatsoever. This was infuriating, but despite my explanations, the vampire and the merchants stared at me as if I was crazy, as if it wasn't normal to become resistant to poisons, bleeding, curses, and deadly blows.)
Books (because I wanted to learn more about this world and find a way back).
Everyday objects, and most importantly, materials and tools for our respective jobs. We both wanted to earn more money for different reasons, so our house would also serve as our clinic and shop.
Warfarin wanted to improve her healing arts, especially in the blood domain, and I planned to cultivate and sell some of my consumables and other items to support my experiments.
There wasn't much to discuss; we left with enough materials to set up Warfarin's office and my alchemy workshop and forge. However, there was one last item on our list that the vampire wanted to fill: decoration…
I didn't understand the point, so I let her do as she saw fit. However, somehow, we got into a long argument about the color of the curtains, and again, everyone present watched our interaction with amusement.
She was happy when it was all over, skipping and humming along the way as she dragged me through the capital, earning us strange glances and hurried whispers.
The next two days were spent arranging the house to our liking. The ground floor would serve as a shop, and a room next to it as an office, the back room would be my workshop and forge while our bedrooms would be upstairs.
The third day was spent with me working in my workshop. Initially, I planned to sell the consumables as they were, but after explaining their effects to Warfarin, she made me understand how foolish I had been.
Much of what I planned to sell were herbs, mosses, and fruits with special effects, but what prevented someone from buying them as a customer only to plant them elsewhere, creating competition?
With the vampire's help, after agreeing to give some of my products for her own experiments, we planted the herbs, mushrooms, and fruit seeds in various pots and placed the moss in a small aquarium.
On the fourth day, I left the capital while Warfarin slept, heading towards the nearby forest to gather resin from trees, wood, vines, secretions, and stones from the ground to make elemental resins, balms, life gems, and prism stones.
I spent the rest of the day preparing my products, enchanting them or transforming them into potions, tablets, ointments, or pills.
There was a moment when Warfarin entered my workshop to see what I was doing, only to collapse with dilated pupils and a silly grin as she inhaled the fumes generated by my work, which, after some testing, I discovered had mind numbing effect.
Hm… My resistance prevents me from feeling anything, but I think I can produce something from this.
On the fifth day, our mental effort was greater than our physical, as we tried to reach a consensus on what would be a fair price for our services considering the conditions of the capital's inhabitants.
Warfarin had more information on this subject than I did, so we arrived at a price that wasn't too high, but enough to replenish our stock and live relatively well.
Making a list with the names, effects, and prices of what I had to sell (with my friend's help to avoid grammatical errors), and ordering a sign for our establishment (with letters and symbols, since a large part of the population was illiterate), were the final touches, and with that, we were open for business.
I felt a certain joy as I went downstairs the next day, because I was about to see if our work would bear fruit.
I hope that spending so much time in the capital is worthwhile, because the Banshee's shrill whistle sounded every night, to the point that the population demanded action from the local authorities. It's still unknown who died to cause so much commotion.
The small smile I had died immediately when I saw black ink staining the front window. I walked past the counters where the wares were lined up and left the building, seeing the extent of the mess.
Black paint in the worst handwriting my eyes ever had the displeasure of reading stained the facade of our house, with insults of all kinds written on them.
"Stranger, go away… Red eyes, disappear…" These were some of the milder ones.
I returned with a bucket of soapy water and a brush, cleaning the paint while sighing, thinking about what to do. Honestly, I was more worried about this becoming a habit or escalating than any emotional pain.
After finishing my work, I used my deplorable Kazdelian to get information from other local businesses.
The baker seemed more friendly, and I soon discovered that a local gang was responsible, and it wasn't the first time this had happened to someone.
This was just a warning, and if we didn't leave, it could end with our house burning down or someone dead, unless we paid protection money when they eventually asked.
Thanking him, I left our relatively good neighborhood and headed to the less safe areas of the city where I encouraged locals to tell me where the gang's hideout was.
I paid some, others lied, wanting more, and a few tried to rob me, but a small show of power discouraged the rest.
Eventually, I arrived at the gang's large warehouse and approached one of its members who stood guard at the gate, wearing leather clothes and brandishing a machete.
"Excuse me…"
He gave me a curious look, raising an eyebrow before laughing and drawing his weapon.
-XXXXXX-
BAM!
"BOSS, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!"
One of the gangsters slammed a heavy metal door shut behind him, throwing all his weight into keeping it closed.
The leader growled at having his moment with two beautiful women interrupted in his throne room, but his subordinate's desperation and the sounds echoing in the distance revealed the seriousness of the situation.
BOOM!
"AAAHHH!"
"WAIT! WAIT! WAIT!"
CRASH!
"STOP, PLEASE!"
"But what…"
BOOM!
Suddenly, a fiery explosion hurled the door and the subordinate away, and a man entered the room.
Abnormally tall, approximately fifty years old, but difficult to tell without knowing his race, with long red hair and beard, split yellow eyes, and slightly sharp teeth.
He wore a long yellowish-orange shirt followed by a long black trench coat with white embroidery that reached his shins, orange trousers with brown belts, brown boots, black fingerless gloves with silver bracelets, and a black hood with embroidery similar to the coat, but with parts that covered my shoulders.
Over this he wore a dark tunic with long, spacious sleeves that covered his arms, fastened to his body by intricate gold chains, a skirt that extended slightly beyond his knees, made of a pattern of vertical stripes alternating between black and dark yellow with a set of gold medals at the crotch, giving the appearance of a sun spreading its rays, and a set of gold bracelets slightly above the silver ones.
"Who the hell are you?!" The leader demanded, pointing his sword at the man.
He stopped, assuming a thoughtful look as he moved his jaw, then he spoke slowly and deliberately in a strange accent.
"Let's… talk…"
-XXXXXX-
I left the slowly collapsing, flaming warehouse, listening to the metal give way and creak as I carried the last members of the gang, leaving them on the ground next to their unconscious leader.
I didn't cause any serious harm, so I think they will survive, but I hope this serves as a lesson. I rushed home as soon as I heard the city guards approaching, stopping behind the counter and waiting for my first customer.
Time passed, and a few passersby curiously looked at the displayed goods, but none came in to buy anything.
I leaned against the counter, scribbling notes in my journal, mostly recipes for consumables and the forging and enchanting processes for certain artifacts to keep boredom at bay.
Perhaps I should announce what I have to sell or offer free samples, but the ringing of the door chime caught my attention, and I immediately readjusted, offering a smile to whoever entered.
My lips trembled as I watched the individual trying to get through the door, so tall and wide he was, especially due to the horns and heavy equipment he carried.
I didn't know whether to laugh at the situation or fear damage to the walls, but the individual finally entered the room, murmuring an apology as he stumbled slightly.
The man, or at least I thought he was one, wore a helmet (or was it his head?), shaped like the white skull of an animal, with the front extending and ending in sharp points, while deer antlers protruded from the back of his head, pointing in the opposite direction.
His eyes shone a deep red in their dark sockets, and his body was covered by a long black leather coat with a red scarf wrapped around his neck.
His weapons, a trident longer than his body and a dark, smooth tower shield, contributed to making the ground tremble with each step of his boots.
For a moment, he looked around, analyzing his surroundings with sharp eyes before focusing on me, slowly approaching until his shadow covered me.
His heavy breathing exuded power and experience, a warrior with centuries of combat, going from battle to battle.
I prefer not to judge others by appearances; after all, I've met peculiar beings during my unlife, but I was ready to ignite my flame should he wish to cause trouble.
Clearing my throat, I recited the phrase I've been practicing, trying to create a good first impression.
"Welcome to Alden and Warfarin's clinic, pharmacy, forge, and much more! My name is Alden, how can I help you?"
Honestly, I expected everything, except for him coughing in my face like a dying man.
"COUGH! COUGH! COUGH! Excuse me, do you have anything for colds?"
My smile faltered for a moment, but I quickly recovered. It could have been worse. So I used my second line.
"Of course I do! In the meantime, would you like to look at some of my products?"
I cringed every time I spoke in that tone, because I couldn't get the image of Parches laughing at me out of my head.
END OF CHAPTER