Holding the leather potion bag, I continued to wander around the city. It lacked significant weight due to it being empty. Thinking that it would be useful to have something like a map or information about the world affairs, I wandered around town until I stumbled across a shop with books.
Entering the establishment, the store seemed to focus more on the business of renting books rather than selling them. Taking a sample book, I noticed that the book is made out of paper. It is not as good as the paper quality in my original world but it was more than enough. Since there was a book for beginners issued by the adventurer guilds and merchant guilds, I decided to borrow this book.
In situations like these, the guild card becomes more convenient. It’s like a license of qualification and a membership card all in one. In addition, if you deposit money into your account, it also acts as a debit card. With the store selling stationery as well, I decided to buy some to jot down the information I have gained into memos for later.
Renting books cost 2 copper coins for every 3 days. 1 Notebook costs 1 copper coin and a fountain pen is 5 copper coins. By the way, 10 copper coins is equal to 1 silver coin. As expected…
I also bought two undergarments, a t-shirt and some boxer shorts along with some socks. Each article of clothing cost me around 1 silver coin.
When I entered a side street, I went into an area with an atmosphere meant for adults. There are a couple of pubs and even a few places like brothels. Even though it was still quite early in the evening, they were already open for business. Walking past the bars and pubs, I observed my surroundings keenly.
(These types of places still exist even in a different world huh?)
Though this may be sudden, I’m actually someone who has only had sex with prostitutes. I’ve never had a girlfriend either. However, in terms of this type of adult experience, I’ve spent plenty of time and money to entertain myself.
(Alright, let’s come back here after my income becomes stable. Let’s make more potions at the inn and sell them at the guild tomorrow. If I can sell the whole lot again tomorrow, I think I will go and celebrate here.)
The future seems to open up to me and this makes me happy. While holding down my smile, I headed towards the inn.
When I returned to the inn, I told them that I will also stay here tomorrow and gave them my payment. They asked me if I wanted to pay with my guild card, so it turns out that I can use it here. I haven’t put money in my account yet so I paid in cash.
Afterwards, I decided to make potions until it was time to eat.
I created 5 Cure: Injury, Cure: Disease and Cure: Status Abnormality Potions at Rank F and E and also Rank D and Rank C potions of each kind for good measure making that a total of 21 potions. I don’t know what ranks are in high demand nor do I know what rank of potions I can create before I raise an alarm in this town about my abilities so, let us confirm this matter tomorrow by seeing the staff’s reaction at the guild.
Rank D potions were darker in colour than its E rank counterparts were. It’s dark enough that it might dye the mouth of the person drinking it with its colour. Rank C potions were about the same in colour as a Rank F Potion but they had a distinct feature of emitting a faint light. If I brought it under the covers of the bed and looked at it in the dark, its faint glow looks really beautiful.
Because I became hungry, I put the potions in my bag and locked it. I place the bag under the bed and left the room. Of course, I didn’t forget to lock the room as well and made my way to the dining room. Although the dining room is a place where many people gather, it may have been early or something so I saw no customers partaking in their food.
I asked whether I can order some food and with them telling me that I can, I told them to serve the dishes. I had bread, salad, soup and boiled sausages. They were tasty. I was prepared to have something similar to food meant for soldiers in the field so I was surprised at how good the food was.
When I told them it was delicious, an old man that worked at the inn laughed out loud. He had a triumphant look and I suppose he must be confident in his ability to make good food. It seems the merchant’s guild knows their inns. The old man didn’t have any other customer but me, so he seemed to be free. That’s why I decided to slide him several copper coins to collect some more information. I wanted to know more about the nightlife and in particular, the red-light district that I went past this afternoon.
When I asked him about this, the old man had this vulgar smile that is very characteristic of a man who is telling a dirty joke. He told me in great detail.
「There are three brothels in this town. The first and most prominent one is called “Sea God” which is mainly aimed towards travellers. The place is elegant; the quality of the women is fantastic but the price is high.」
I immediately take notes in my memo.
「A little deeper in the district, you can find a place called “Shrimp Field”. This place is cheaper than Sea God and there are many young women working there. However, their techniques make them seem like total amateurs compared to others.」
Oh ho.
「The one located in the interior of the place is called “Loquat”. The place is popular with the locals. The women there are cheap and they can be older in age, however, Loquat have many skilled women working there. Nevertheless, the place is a bit of a hit and miss, you may get an old granny or just someone really clumsy and unskilled at times.」
Oh man, I’ll pass on that…Even so, as expected of the main city, there are plenty of shops around.
「The price is roughly the same, but it’s 9 silver coins for Sea God, 3 silver coins for Loquat and 6 for Shrimp Field.」
Hmm? Silver coins? Staying at the hotel costs 4 silver coins including the meals. One girl is from 3 to 9 silver coins?
Comparing it to my former world, this place is considerably cheaper. I wanted to confirm it.
「You mentioned silver coins? Not gold coins, right?」
「Of course, if it’s gold coins, nobody would ever go.」
What is this guy saying? That’s the kind of face the old man was looking at me with. Is that how it is? My standard to measure how expensive or cheap anything is in this world is based on the prices of staying at this inn, so I ‘m not really getting the big picture.
「The amount I said earlier is the part that needs to be paid to the store, okay? In addition to that, after customers are done playing with the girls, it is necessary to give them a tip. Depending on their service, it’s the norm to give between 3 to 6 copper coins.」
I wrote all the details down on a memo. The old man asks me a question with a big vulgar smile on his face.
「So, tell me, are you going there right after?」
「Well, I want to go more and more after hearing your story, but today it’s impossible, I still have many things I need to prepare for tomorrow.」
Hearing this, the old man seemed disappointed. While we were conversing, A customer came in so I decided to end the conversation and go back to my own room.
「Then if you go tomorrow, be sure to let me know what your impression is.」
The old man winked as he smiled at me. He headed towards the next customer while waving me goodbye.
「I understand. Thank you very much for sharing.」
I thank the old man who gave me much of the needed valuable information and climb up the stairs. I am looking forward to tomorrow more and more but today is my first day in this new world so I need to take the necessary steps to succeed.
When I returned to the room, I immediately started working on my agendas. The first thing I thought was necessary to do is to read the book I borrowed, the one for beginning adventurers and merchants.
For adventurers, it details the tasks that are available in the guild, general knowledge beginners may need to know and general information about monsters. Naturally, it had information written about guild cards and accounts. The information about the merchant’s guild was relatively the same.
I can’t really read the whole book, but I feel like I understood most of the main details. Well, today has been a long day since I died from falling in my previous work place and was reincarnated to this new world. I’m getting sleepy now, but I have to do one more thing before I go to bed.
I need to try S class magic…Because I can only use it once a day, it’s a waste to just not use it.
I want to use the Cure Disease spell. Even if I don’t seem to be suffering from any illness or diseases, but perhaps I just haven’t noticed it. After all, I don’t really know what illnesses may exist in this new world. Therefore, let’s try using magic. I place my hand on my chest and chant the spell in my own mind.
(Cure: Disease Rank S.)
I felt the same sensation akin to a trigger being pulled within my body as the spell activates. My body glowed strongly for an instant but my body feels the same as it has always been. I dare say that if I did have some sort of disease, it would have been cured together with anything else that I was afflicted with.
Magic is truly amazing, it’s the exactly like god’s power, this wouldn’t be possible in my original world. Furthermore, I also tried casting Cure: Injury Rank A and Cure: Status Abnormality Rank A. I left the remaining Rank A spell as insurance in case of emergency.
Just after entering my bed, I realized that I hadn’t taken a bath today.
To begin with, I haven’t asked around in terms of the bathing circumstances in this world. It could be that the inn only has a shower or it may perhaps have a bath, but I need to ask about it…It’s already quite late and I’m really sleepy so, I decided to not take a bath and just head to bed for today.