Chapter 38: Chapter 36

Their approach of course didn’t go unnoticed by the stall owner, who smiled and waved at them. “Ah, another customer lured in by the smell of the best meatballs in Newport I see.”

The middle aged guy wearing a colorful apron bowed theatrically to them. “What can I do for you dear customers?”

Argul wasn’t quite sure what the weird greeting was for, but Mia got a lot more excited so it was likely meant for her.

Mia let go of Argul’s hand and ran towards the counter she could barely look over. “I want some meatballs!”

She turned to Argul. “Can I have two? Pretty please?”

Argul looked at the meatballs that were larger than her own fist, but couldn’t deny Mia a second one. She sighed and caught up to the little girl. “Sure, why not.”

She turned to face the vendor who smiled sweetly at them. “I would like to have two of them too please.”

Argul glanced at Alyra and Arthur who were slowly walking towards them. “And another four for the rest of our group.”

She could swear that the vendor's smile grew with every meatball she ordered. “That would be 5 small bullets for every meatball.”

So they were using ammunition as currency here, that was interesting, but also a smart move by whoever had decided to do this. Paper money had lost all its worth without the backing of a serious power, but bullets had a material worth that spoke for itself.

Now Argul only had the problem of not knowing how much you could get for a bullet, so she couldn’t tell if the guy was trying to screw them over. She also had no idea how much small bullets were worth a larger one and which gradation of bullets there were.

Argul turned towards Arthur again and raised her voice. “They use ammunition as currency.”

She patted her sports bag. “Can I use yours?”

Arthur visibly sighed at that. “Sure, but make sure to leave one pack as keepsake.”

That was fine by Argul, there were more than enough ammunition packs in the bag anyways.

She turned back towards the vendor and just barely noticed how his smile had slipped a bit at the sight of Alyra. Argul grinned, so that was the game he was playing. “Say, could I not get them for 2 small bullets each.” 

She motioned towards Alyra, who licked her lips in response and bared her teeth in the process. “You see, my daughter is very~ hungry right now.”

The guy swallowed and wiped away some sweat from his forehead. “I- uhm… S- sure. 2 bullets for one meatball.”

Argul was a bit disappointed, that had been easy, though she hadn’t expected much from the guy that had been obviously overpricing them. They were new here and the dude had likely noticed that.

She rummaged a bit through the bag on her side, trying not to throw anything out of it, until she found a pack of bullets for one of Arthur’s pistols.

She took out 8 of them and handed them over to the vendor. “Here you go.”

The guy took them a bit awkwardly and then put 2 meatballs each on four sticks before he handed them to Argul and Mia. 

Argul thanked the guy and turned towards the others. “Let’s go and search for a nice place to sit before we eat.”

Mia handed over one of her sticks to Arthur. Then they walked towards a bench that was a bit further down the road. 

Once they sat down Alyra tore her meatballs off of the stick that Argul was holding and swallowed them whole. Argul immediately took a defensive stance to shield her own meatballs. “Don’t even think about it.”

Then she began to warily nibble on her meatballs without letting Alyra out of her view. After having eaten the first one she had to admit that it was too much meat for her. With a sigh she held out the stick and let Alyra have her second meatball. Her daughter gave her a smug look and Argul flicked the gem in her forehead.

Mia also didn’t manage to eat her second one and fed it to Aina who was sitting on her backpack. Aina only reacted enough to let the meatball enter herself, the stick included.

After that they just sat there and watched the activities on the market for a few minutes.

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It looked a lot like Argul would imagine a medieval market. Wooden stalls were standing to the side of the road, presenting their wares. A lot of the vendors were shouting out their products, but they did so a bit awkwardly. It was something that people didn’t have to do before the incident, so it was understandable that they weren’t skilled at it yet.

The further one got inside the market the more people were walking around, haggling, arguing or just talking to each other. There was even a guard patrol wearing police armor and clubs. People were showing their weapons openly so Argul’s sniper shouldn’t be a problem.

Argul spotted a few people that hadn’t been integrated, but most of those were left alone by the others so they were likely a known problem.

After their small break they journeyed the marketplace themselves. Argul wasn’t interested in most of the things and would have forgotten to buy some soap and shampoo without Mia. It was more for the good smell and soft hair than cleaning, but some luxury should be okay now and then.

A bit later they came across a stall that sold wooden crochet sets and wool. Mia seemed to be really interested in that, so Argul took her to the stall. “Do you know how to crochet?”

Mia nodded and her ears drooped a bit. “My mom showed me how to do it when I was seven. Since then I do it every now and then.”

Argul crouched down beside her to look at her face to face and smiled. “Do you want to have a set? You could even try to teach me.”

Mia brightened up at the possibility of being the one to teach. “Yes I want one, but you choose the wool.”

The woman behind the counter smiled at Mia. “My, if you aren’t a sweet little girl.”

She took a box from behind her and took out six pairs of crochet needles of different size and length. “I will give you two extra needles if you buy four of these needle pairs.” The woman was smart, now there was no going back for Argul anymore.

Argul nodded and looked at the wool. She was pretty sure that colored wool would get really expensive in a bit of time, so it would be better to buy some of that now. She pointed at the ones she wanted. “I would like to have three of the white string rolls and one each of blue, violet and red please.”

The vendor collected them and laid them on the counter. “I see, there is somebody who thinks a bit about the possible future. That would make 5 medium bullets please.”

Argul had learned that the bullets were 10 of the smaller ones for one of the next bigger ones. The size thing was a bit weird, but she herself had no idea about calibers of firearms so it made sense to make it easier for the general folk.

She had to be careful with haggling too much here as she had already been offered more than other people. “How about 4 medium and 8 small ones? Mia hasn’t crocheted in a while so we will surely come back in need of more wool.”

The woman put her hand on her hips. “I am already giving you more. 4 medium and 9 smaller ones, I won’t go any lower.”

Argul searched for the right bullets and then handed them over. “4 medium ones and 9 small bullets. It was a pleasure doing business with you.”

The woman pocketed the bullets. “The pleasure was mine.” Then her smile became genuine. “Do show me what you are going to create, okay sweetie.”

Argul carefully pressed the wool and crochet set into her already full bag and Mia waved at the woman. “I will, thanks for the wool.”

Argul looked up at the vendor again. “You wouldn’t know a good inn where we could stay?”

The woman thought about it for a moment. “When you enter the city the first street to the left has a few inns. I would recommend the wooly sheep, the decoration there is a bit special, but their service is the best for children in my opinion.”

Argul laid another small bullet on the counter. “Thanks for the info miss.”

The woman let the bullet disappear. “Call me Tania please and I wouldn’t deny help to such polite newcomers.”

Argul waved at her and turned around. “Alright Tania, my name is Argul. Have a nice day!”

After that the group entered the city and followed Tania’s instructions.

The wooly sheep was the third inn on the left side of the street and a bit further away than most of the others. It didn’t look that special from the outside except for the cartoon sign that had a sheep on it.

Argul took a deep breath to make herself ready for a bit more social interaction and opened the door only to be suprised by the sight. “I knew Tania said it is special, but wow.”

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