Chapter 39

“Boar meat skewers! Just one farthing apiece! If you buy ten, then it will be only two pennies!”

“Bracelets made by a master artisan from Wessex! Just one look and you know they’re the real deal! Just today, you can have them for only three pennies!”

The market was bustling with people, merchants and street vendors trying to get the attention of potential buyers, men and women walking around browsing the goods, and a young boy locked in an intense haggling match with an accessories vendor.

In the middle of such a busy place, a group of six well-dressed people comprising two adults who clearly looked like guards and one elderly man who looked like a servant accompanied two young boys and one little girl.

“Waaah!! There are a lot of people!!” Luna was beaming, so excited that she could walk around London that both her eyes and mouth were wide open. Aaron was standing beside her, holding his sister’s hand to make sure she would not start running around out of excitement.

“London is the capital of Britain, after all. It’s also the biggest and safest city, and it’s where the Royal Family resides,” explained Aaron to his sister. I was standing on Luna’s other side, glancing at the little girl standing between Aaron and me with a smirk. “Look at you, vibrating that much just from seeing a market.”

“I’m not vibrating!” she said while hitting my side and pouting.

“Heh, keep telling yourself that.”

Aaron was watching me tease Luna with amusement before turning his head back towards Mr. Hans, who was accompanying us together with two guards. The guards were not wearing armor and were dressed in their civilian clothes, but the swords hanging on their hips and their gait clearly showed that they were guards.

“Thank you for accompanying us, Mr. Hans. I’m sorry to bother you even though you’re busy,” Aaron said apologetically. Hearing that, a gentle smile appeared on Mr. Hans’s face. “Think nothing of it, young master.”

After thanking Mr. Hans, Aaron turned his head towards the two guards accompanying us. “Mr. Clinton and Mr. Brad, I thank both of you too for sparing your time to guard us even though today is your day off.”

“Eyy, stop being so formal, young master,” said the guard with short red hair. He looked like he was in his early thirties, with a thick red beard covering his face. He was tall, and his body was very muscular, even more so than Sir Cedric’s.

“Clinton is right, young master. In the first place, even though today is our day off, we really have nothing to do besides walking around the city and getting drunk anyway.” The other guard, Mr. Brad, supported what his co-worker said with a wry smile. Mr. Brad was also quite tall, just not as tall as Mr. Clinton. His hair was black, short, and well-kept. He wasn’t as muscular as Mr. Clinton, but by no means was he any weaker than him.

I could tell that both of the guards were strong, even stronger than the three Church knights accompanying the Saintess whom I met in that cave. The enigma was Mr. Hans. No matter how I looked at him, he just looked like an ordinary old man. Sir Cedric said that as long as Mr. Hans was with us, we would be fine, but honestly, he looked even weaker than Aaron.

Of course, there was no reason to underestimate him either. My father said that some masters often hid their true strength, and many of them looked just like any ordinary person. If I took what Sir Cedric said and what my father said into consideration, then Mr. Hans was probably quite a monster himself.

All six of us were walking through the busy market street. The smell of boar meat skewers was wafting through my nostrils, triggering an involuntary “Grrrlll…” sound from my stomach. The sound my stomach made should have been masked by the noise of the busy market, but Luna, who was standing beside me, heard it and eyed me.

“Really? We just ate breakfast not even two hours ago, and you’re already hungry again, Big Bro?”

“There’s always space for meat, right, Aaron?”

“That’s right!”

Luna was watching both me and her brother supporting each other with a serious face and took off towards the street vendor selling boar meat skewers. Not long after, both Aaron and I came back with a paper bag in each of our arms, containing ten meat skewers each.

Luna could only shake her head seeing us happily eating the meat skewers even though we had just had breakfast not that long ago. “I really don’t understand how both of you can eat that much.”

“Haha, it’s normal for growing boys to eat that much!” Mr. Clinton said while laughing loudly. “Boys their age grow very quickly, so their bodies need to get more nutrients to keep up with their growth!”

“Is that how it is?” Luna was not convinced by Mr. Clinton’s explanation. In her mind, both Aaron and I were just gluttons.

“That is true,” Mr. Brad joined in. “Their age is a very important time for growth, both physically and mentally. It’s inevitable for them to eat a lot.”

“I remember that when I was their age, my mother was furious because I ate a whole pot of stew that she had cooked for my whole family!” Mr. Clinton was laughing while recalling the memory of when he was our age.

“My parents also had a hard time feeding me and my brothers when we were their age. We’re not a very well-off family, you see, so my father always had to go out and hunt more game to feed us. My brothers and I also helped our parents with their work to bring food home.” Mr. Brad was smiling while reminiscing.

Luna still wore a doubtful expression and looked at Mr. Hans, who merely nodded at her, seemingly agreeing with what Mr. Clinton and Mr. Brad had said. Seeing that she was the only girl in our group and that all the adult men agreed that our appetites were normal for our age, Luna could only agree.

“Actually, now that I think about it, Brother grew a lot taller in just three months after Sir Cedric took him in,” Luna said after that.

It’s true. Aaron was around my height when we first met in the slums, but now he’s a little bit taller than me. “I guess now that Brother gets to eat properly, his body has started growing quickly too.”

“That’s right, that’s right.” Looking over at Aaron with my mouth full of meat, I glared at him. “How dare you grow taller than me, you bastard?”

“Heh, don’t blame me for your own lack of height.” Aaron, this fucker, was sneering at me while chewing the boar meat. Unforgivable.

“I’m still growing!” I shouted at him. “I will be taller than you by the time we stop growing!”

“Yeah, right.” With a smug smile plastered on his face, Aaron looked at me. “You always got proper food, unlike me, who was living in the slums and couldn’t eat all I wanted, yet I still ended up taller than you after I got fed properly.”

“Gnununu!” was the only sound coming out of my mouth. I had no rebuttal.

…

“Here we are,” Aaron said after we finished our meat skewers and arrived at a shop Aaron recommended. The shop looked like a bourgeois place, a place where nobles would go to look for gifts while going, “Hohoho, I would buy the whole store!”

A “ring” sound from a bell could be heard when Aaron pushed the door open and we made our way inside. There were a lot of display cases containing necklaces, rings, and earrings embedded with expensive-looking gems. I honestly didn’t care much about jewelry and gems, but I could tell the quality of craftsmanship of each item in the display cases was high.

I was about to ask him why he had brought Luna and me to this shop. Well, Luna might be interested in jewelry, so maybe he wanted to buy something for his sister. That was possible. But then I noticed something.

“Holy shit… Are these all…?”

“Oh? You noticed it pretty fast,” Aaron said, turning his head towards me. “That’s right, they’re all magic items. This is a magic item shop.”

Did he think that I wouldn’t realize it? I’m a mage, for fuck’s sake. Of course I noticed. Well, my attention was already on the items displayed inside the cases, so I didn’t pay what he said any mind.

My eyes were on the silver ring adorned with four small red gems. The ring itself was adorned with very intricate patterns that could catch the attention of anyone who saw it. To be clear, the patterns carved on it had nothing to do with the effect the ring would have on its wearer. They were only there purely for aesthetic reasons. But the amount of mana contained in that ring wasn’t something a low-grade magic item would have. It was probably around middle-grade, just as good as the magic items Veynes Magic Items produced and sold, on top of the design of the ring itself.

After the ring, my attention turned to the bracelet nearby. The quality of the craftsmanship was no less impressive than the ring's, maybe even better. Luna was standing in front of another display case, looking over a silver hairpin. The hairpin was designed to look like a butterfly, adorned with various small gems. I glanced at it for a bit and thought that maybe I should buy it for her, but then shook my head. The price of middle-grade magic items made by Veynes Magic Tower was already expensive, so expensive that normal households wouldn’t be able to afford them. These items, on the other hand, were also middle-grade magic items, but they had beautiful designs on top of that.

It wasn’t like the magic items produced by the Magic Tower, which pursued functionality above all else. These magic items were also meant to be used as accessories, so their prices must be at least two to three times higher. It wasn’t like I didn’t have the money. Master Elara gave Luna and me ample allowances, but that didn’t mean we could just spend that much money so easily. Besides, I also wanted to buy a magic staff or at least a wand, along with other supporting magic items for things like defense and recovery.

“Good morning, young master Aaron. How can I help you?” A clerk approached our group with a salesman’s smile.

“Ah, I just wanted to introduce them to this shop,” Aaron said while looking at us. “Those two are the direct disciples of the Archmage, Lady Elara Veynes from Veynes Magic Tower, so I thought they would be very interested in your items.”

Hearing what Aaron said, the clerk’s eyes turned towards Luna and me. I could see the gears in his head turning, calculating the profit he could get from making connections with us. After he finished his calculation, he immediately walked up to Luna and me, full salesman mode.

“Oh my! So you two are the rumored disciples of Lady Archmage!” said the clerk while rubbing his hands. “My name is Clark, the owner of this humble magic item shop, Clark Atelier,” he introduced himself as he bowed.

So the clerk’s name was Clark… Heh. Clerk, Clark. What a fitting name.

“Hm? Clark Atelier?” I asked him. “You made these items yourself?”

“Yes, that’s right.” He nodded. “I was a member of the Blue Magic Tower. I quit working there because I couldn’t see eye to eye with my superior and decided to open up a shop myself.”

I see. No wonder the items were very well-made. The Blue Magic Tower was one of the seven Magic Towers directly under the management of the Mage Association. It was known as the place where many expert magic craftsmen gathered and was famous for its magic items. The quality of their work was so good that it would be rude to compare it to the magic items created in Veynes Magic Tower. Not that the magic items created by Veynes Magic Tower were bad. It was just that the Blue Magic Tower pursued not only functionality but also aesthetics.

Well, strictly speaking, the techniques the Blue Magic Tower used for its craftsmanship were also on another level. Their enchantments were far more effective than those made by Veynes Magic Tower.

“Well, enough about me,” Mr. Clark said, returning to his salesman persona. “What kind of items do you need, young master and lady? Do you have anything in mind?”

“Hmm… I want something to help with both physical and magical defense, as well as something to protect my mind from mental magic. I also want something that can help with injury recovery and mana recovery.”

“I see.” Mr. Clark nodded his head, then turned towards Luna. “How about you, young lady?”

Luna shook her head. “I just started my coating process, so I don’t need any for now.”

“I see. I understand. So, only the young master, right?”

“Hwi. My name is Hwi.”

Mr. Clark smiled and nodded. “Nice to meet you, young master Hwi. Then, I have several items that I think will be suitable for your needs.”

Mr. Clark said that and told me to follow him.

Somehow, I really feel like I’m going to have all my money taken in this shop.