Chapter 22: Filthy Rich Went Shopping Spree! Finally!

Having a nice and sumptuous lunch, the trio moved to the shopping area to look for the items needed for Little Han.

The shopping district was busy and bustling, with all the travelers and townspeople exploring and looking for items they need. However, Silvertown's marketplace was rather small to Eli's surprise. For instance, there were only one or two boutiques in Silvertown. Not much like Eli's expectation of what she had read in novels and manga regarding shopping in a medieval town, there were limited choices to what she could buy.

She realized how remote and small Silvertown was. The stores and market place have only one or two on each variety of goods due to the fact that Silvertown only has travellers and the townspeople as consumers. This also meant that there were not many luxurious items in the market.

Travellers wouldn't stroll in the market for luxury, they are here to explore the vast greens of the Silver Dew forest. The most expensive items they may have to look for around Silvertown were the forest exploration equipment, ready made potions and magic items.

The townspeople on the other hand, were common folk, not really bothered to own luxurious and high quality items. The most venerated people that would most likely embody luxury in the whole of the town were the merchants permitted by the Emperor to do business with Silvertown, like Grandpa Andi.

Silvertown, unlike the other places in Seirende Empire, was not ruled by any lord or noble from the aristocrats. Instead, Silvertown was directly under the supervision of the Imperial Family through a deputy governor, who took a blood oath for the Imperial Family. This was mainly because of the Exploration Treaty between the Silver Dew Elves and the Seirende Empire. Emperor Valentin couldn't afford to give the jurisdiction of this small town to any other lords of the nobility due to the high stakes of the treaty.

Silver Dew Forest was the number one source of herb and medicine for the empire, and one violation of the treaty would mean that the access of the Seirende citizens to the Silver Dew Forest would disappear. This meant that the empire's capability to develop medicine and magical potions would decrease by forty percent.

It would impact the economy of the empire in exporting magical potions and medicine to other races and domains. The total demand for magic potion for the Seirende Empire alone was large enough that the empire could only self sustain for two years after the loss of access to the Silver Dew Forest.

This would also jeopardize the stability of the empire because they could not keep up with the production of potions and medicine by only relying on their own yield of herbs. When war breaks out, Seirende empire will not have enough supplies to sustain their defenses and soldiers' lives. Due to these high stakes, anyone who violated the treaty would be executed for high treason.

There were three stipulations in the treaty.

First, that the Seirende Empire was only allowed to conduct exploration of the Silver Dew Forest only on the outer territory which was about 40 - 38 thousand square kilometers, as big as the modern earth country Bhutan, with a total of only one hundred twenty explorations each year. The total area of the Silver Dew Forest was about 100 thousand square kilometers, about the size of the country, South Korea, in the modern earth.

To control this, the Seirende Empire only allowed fifteen people to enter the exploration region of the Silver Dew forest every month. They will be issued an empire's emblem symbolizing the clearance from the empire of their identity and capability to enter the regions, which was valid for one year. Elves, on the other hand, had utilized the vast mana in the forest to set an enormous and sentient array that will prevent unauthorized entry to the forest. Once the emblem's authority expires, the array will automatically eject the explorers back to Silvertown.

There was a free exploration zone, however, where everyone was permitted to enter without an emblem. It was the outermost strip of the Silverdew forest, spanning for about 700 square kilometers, about the size of the country Singapore in modern earth.

The second stipulation was that the explorers must prove their vast knowledge and abilities in harvesting the herbs without endangering its reproduction. This was to ensure that the numbers of herbs in the forest could keep up with the exploration and harvesting of both the Seirende citizens and the inhabitants of the forest. The explorer must pass the emblem certification exam facilitated by the Farauld Magic Institute - one of the allied organizations of the Imperial Family.

The third was that no killing must be committed within the Silver Dew Forest for its entire region. Elves are a peaceful race that was protected by the guardian of earth - Sylvain. They abhor bloodshed that was brought by the corrupted minds of humans. They would grieve for the lives that were mercilessly taken away by human hands. That was why they strictly prohibited humans to commit murder within the forest.

Despite this treaty however, the Imperial Family along with the citizens of the empire was committed to fulfil the end of their agreement. Everybody understood the benefits that the Silver Dew Forest gave to the empire.

The Imperial family was also not greedy enough to expand the scope of the exploration area unlike other empires who also tried to secure an exploration right to the forest. For Emperor Valentin, the grace of the elves to allow the citizens of Seirende to step on their territory, was enough. Because it was widely known in Prasinos that the elves do not wish interaction with human beings.

Although there were only fifteen people allowed to enter the forest each month, the number of travelers were still many, as they wanted to take the opportunity to explore the free zone of the Silver Dew Forest.

Most of the herbs present in the free exploration region were the common herbs with higher medicinal efficacy compared to the herb of the same type raised outside the Silver Dew Forest. Even if this zone was not regulated, the explorers still harvest herbs in moderation so as to not completely deplete the herbs in the forest. Everyone understood that if the herbs were depleted, they had no choice but to aim at passing the grueling emblem certification exam by the Farauld Magic Institute.

Sitting at a bench in the plaza, Eli let out a sigh.

She was a bit disappointed with her shopping excursion because of the lack of choices for the things she wanted to buy. She wanted to buy Little Han some swaddle blanket and cloth diapers, along with some gender neutral baby outfits, but the ones available in the market were all made of coarse fabric because it was only bought by common folks.

She wanted to buy a nice crib or a bassinet, luckily she was able to buy a simple one she can already take home. She also wanted to buy some baby bottles but to her surprise no one in Silvertown uses baby bottles! Townswomen used breast feeding for their child. Baby bottles were a symbol of luxury.

She worriedly looked at her chest. It seemed like she wasn't very blessed in this area… 'Sigh'

Feeling that Eli's mood was down, Wisey thoughtfully suggested, "Why not explore the flea market? Maybe we can find some goods that may interest you?"

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"Yes! Master, maybe you can also find some new musical instrument! Then I can hear more music from Master!!!" Baobao also tried to cheer up his master by using music, whom his master passionately loves.

Touched that the adorable two tried their best to lift her mood up, she caressed her two companions and gave them a pat on their furry heads. She then took a deep breath and carefully stood up, looking at the direction of the flea market. The entrance of the flea market was also located in the plaza so they soon proceeded to explore it.

They arrived in another bustling location, the flea market was more lively than the shopping district. There were small makeshift stalls displaying all kinds of items that were pre-owned or self produced by small time sellers who just wanted to make some money.

There were also some sellers who only laid a mat on the cobblestone ground and displayed their goods for anyone to see. Even in the intense heat of the afternoon, these sellers were not even bothered by the risk of having heat stroke as long as they could make some money by the end of the day.

Eli was reminded of the time she was in desperate need of making money. She also did some garage sales of anything she could afford to let go. With the feeling of being on the same page, she went to the open area where the sellers sat and shopped in their stores one by one.

She is filthy rich, she could afford it, she thought.

She knew how it feels to be sitting under the sun trying to make some money out of the items she had once cherished, so she tried to help in this way.

She went to each store, asked the seller what was their most cherished item among the items they displayed for sale on the ground and bought it. After completing the transaction she would hand it over to the seller's hands and would gently whisper,

"I'm buying it for you!"

It left the sellers shocked at first, but once they realized her intent, they would tearfully bow on her receding figure, deeply grateful towards her.

However, one store made her stop and seriously considered the item to buy for herself. There was only one item laid on the ground. The seller was a young lady dressed in a coarse peasant blouse and brown pants with a conflicted expression on her face. The young lady looks about eighteen to twenty one years old, with her stunning burgundy hair, messily tied in a bun and weary hazel eyes. She wore an expression of worry at one moment, then a hesitant expression at another.

Eli was curious, it looked to her that the young lady was desperate to sell the item at one moment, then hesitant on another. She then gently approached her area and took a close look towards the only item on sale.

It was a violin.

The violin, neatly laid on its own case, carefully cushioned by layers of cloth and guards. The violin top was made of solid spruce and other parts of the violin such as the finger board, tailpiece and chin rest seemed to be made from ebony or some type of denser wood, while the bridge was made of maple wood.

The craftsmanship of this violin was superb. It was evenly coated with thin varnish and polished so smoothly and beautifully. The shape of the violin itself, the detailed flowery vine carvings on the tailpiece and scroll were smoothly done, making the ones who would check the violin actually visualize how the maker carefully crafted and carved each and every part of it.

"What a beautiful violin!" Eli exclaimed in admiration as she looked at the violin with interest.

Shocked that someone was finally interested in the item she was selling, the young lady stared at Eli with wide eyes. However, she then recovered and replied with great pride, "Yes, Milady, my father crafted this himself!"

But after excitedly replying to her comment, Eli observed that the young lady was again worn with an expression of hesitance. It was an odd reaction, at one moment the lady was full with pride, but on the other she seemed to be hesitating about something. 'Could she be forcing herself to sell the violin?' she thought.

Wanting to know what was on the lady's mind, she politely asked, "Do you know how to play this? Could you play some tunes with it so I could evaluate its sound quality?"

"Sure.." Feeling a bit odd about her customer's request she still carefully took the bow in its case, after gliding it with rosin. She took the violin, expertly attached the shoulder rest, and stood up. Resting the violin on her shoulders, she then played a simple tune of G major scale notes in legato.

The lustrous and vibrant sound echoed through the noisy market. Some of the market goers turned their head towards the source of the vibrant sound. Eli was satisfied with the sound quality of the violin. It had a good tone and it resonated really well even when played outdoors.

Nodding her head, Eli smilingly praised the performance and said , "Good playing! It was a very good violin indeed! I'd like to buy it! How much does it cost?"

But before the young lady replied, a high pitched voice interrupted and said with an arrogant tone,

"Hey peasant! I want that thing, how much is it? I'll pay for it with Shinies!"

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