Chapter 3: 2. Ruins of Genesis – 2

I explored the city of Garnet. It is a huge city divided into 3 areas, the inner city, the lower city, and the farmlands just outside the walls. The tiny inner city is beautiful, with towering buildings presenting their colorful grandeur. There is a huge gate between the inner city and the lower city, limiting access to commoners and strangers like me. The huge lower city is just one step away from the slums. The dirty streets, ugly colorless plain houses, and terrible waste management just showcases the poverty of its residents which is a direct opposite of the inner city.

The farmlands are self-explanatory. There are some people who refuse to live in the lower city and chose to live outside the safety of the walls.

As the inner city is off-limits to me, I decided to find a spot at the marketplace of the lower city. With some questions to random people, I'm directed to a civil servant who manages the marketplace.

"Welcome, welcome! Please sit here."

I'm inside his office. It's a simple table with two chairs. There are some designs on the wall and an open mirror. The civil servant is always smiling, his eyes focusing on the crossbow I'm holding...

"Greetings. I intend to rent a spot."

"Okay. What are you selling?"

"Unique items."

"Unique items?"

The person in front of me closed his eyes, tilt a little bit and tapped on his table repeatedly.

"Give me an example."

I showed him one of my items, the miracle pill. I explained to him the effects of it and its price. His reaction fell into doubt and that reaction turned into one of confirmation when he hear its price.

"You should have built a store at the city with that ridiculous price. Anyways, you are a stranger and cannot be given a permit to enter for the first 2 years, so..."

His tone is one of sarcasm and I couldn't care about it. What matters the most is that I find a spot to finally begin as a merchant.

"There was a small house just right at the border. It was a old pharmacist's store until..."

"That pharmacist died of old age?"

"No. That person was killed and robbed. There are rumors of it being a ghost house now and to be honest, I don't believe in ghosts."

He then tapped his table, then asked a simple question.

"Are you interested in buying this house? While it is located at the side of the marketplace, it is still a good spot thanks to its near distance from the entrance. However, its bad supernatural reputation earned vacancy instead. Just one gold and it's yours. If you decided to buy it, instead of paying 2 gold per month for renting a spot, we will only collect half a gold a month. What about it?"

His eyes showed a tint of brilliance.

"Treat this as a warm welcome from us."

The deal sounds very good and I didn't hesitate to close the deal.

"Hahaha, you won't regret this. Here's the land title proving that it's yours."

He is all smiles, handing me a scroll. I gave a usual farewell greeting and left. For some reason, I decided to take a glimpse of him for one last time just at the doorway. His expression consists of a distrust, anger, and a demeaning smile.

With a few questions of directions to the people of marketplace, I found my new home. It needed a lot work since it was abandoned a long time ago. It will also need a brand new... renovation. Fixing this old house is both time-consuming and costly.

I need to prioritize.

I decided to renovate the storefront for now. It took two whole days to fix it, which consists of pest control, fixing the floorboards, repairing that door, et cetera. At the same time, I decided to summon few more unique items as stocks for the store. I also found out that there is a maximum number of items I can summon using my unique ability.

---

 

It's been 5 days since I bought this spot and not a single customer appeared. I observed the street where this house is located and found few people instead. The majority of people with intentions of shopping always go to the center of the marketplace and such, will never go here despite the distance. Or maybe this house is still scary for them. Anyways, I built a sign that notifies them of the existence of my store. And a bell at the door rang in the middle of my monologue.

I stared at the old ugly woman in front of me. Her eyes are menacing and her smile is tad creepy.

"Hi, young man."

"Hello."

She walked slowly with one of her hand at a stick that acts as her third leg. She then explored the entire store.

"What's this?" She pointed at a white plate with some design.

"It's a glass plate that is easier to wash. It's... chin-aware." I was thinking of introducing its name but decided not to. It's a long name after all. Its unique qualities are that it is indeed easier to wash and 'basic magic insulation' or whatever lingo it is. Its minimum price is 1 gold.

"Amazing!"

She rubbed her finger onto the plate and is impressed by its shine.

"How much?"

"2 gold coins."

She took it. Rather than immediately paying it, she first explored other items at the store. I patiently explained each item. Sometimes, she's just nods, completely uninterested. Sometimes, she's interested but after hearing the price, her emotion turned into one of agent of poverty. Until a certain item caught her attention.

"It's a bottle of venom of box jellyfish. Lethal..." It was initially 5 gold but seeing the excitement in her face, "20 gold coins."

"20? Young man, with the same price, I can buy a known lethal poison for half the price. Best I can offer is 8 gold coins for it."

"Deal."

She paid me 10 gold coins for purchasing two items and is in a great mood. She then asked, "What is a box jellyfish?"

"I do not know."

She then left in a slow pace with a normal-looking bottle of poison and a plate.

---

 

Somewhere at the lower city, an old woman is carrying a plate and a small bottle home.

"Grandma!"

A man of similar age from the previous shopkeeper hugged her grandma.

"Isaac! When did you returned?"

"Just an hour ago."

Isaac loved her grandma as she is the only one who took care of her. His mother died at childbirth. His father is a soldier and died at the battlefield. His grandfather is a soldier as well and died the same way.

"What a beautiful plate, grandma. Where did you took that?"

"This? I bought it for 2 gold."

"2 gold?"

"I know, hahaha. It would normally cost 10 gold for this beautiful plate but I got it for cheap."

"Impressive! I can resell that for at least 8 gold coins and they will think they're lucky to get such an offer."

The grandma then felt like this treasure that she wanted for a long time will disappear in front of her gambler grandson. She took the plate back from a money-hungry monster.

"You still don't trust me?"

"Ha? Tell me what happened to your money! Where did your 30 gold coins go?"

"I'm telling you! It disappeared!"

"Disappear my idiot! You spent it on booze! I'll keep this plate until you become a responsible father!"

"Grandma! I'm not marrying anyone! I want to be free!"

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She's planning to gift this plate to the bride of her grandson. While his grandson is young, his tired and lazy looks becomes one of a middle-aged man.

"What about this, grandma?" Isaac pointed the bottle.

"You needed lethal poison, right? I got this for 8 gold coins."

"What? Ho-how? How did you knew I would need poison?"

Isaac was dumbfounded. He made sure the entire business of finding a lethal poison is kept secret.

"I... I heard it from my many friends. They saw you finding one."

He was panicking, but he realized there's no point doing that.

"You know smuggling poison inside the city is near impossible, and if there is one, it would always cost tens of gold coins. Whoever sold this must be lying to you. Tell me what he looks like and where he is."

Grandma then described his looks and where he is selling it.

"He reminds me of someone who claimed to be a travelling merchant... That place... The location of the store... mentor..."

Isaac is emotional for two reasons. The travelling merchant reminded him of ridiculous power. His magical weapon once tempted him to steal it but was reminded of its victims. Although the entire journey is completely forgettable since nothing special happened, the place they explored is your typical forests, and they rarely talked, his mysterious aura remained in his mind. There was no instance of travelling merchants. The second one is his mentor. He is known as the old pharmacist but was killed. His place was then bought by another person and died for unknown reason. That originated the 'ghost house story'.

"Thanks, grandma." Isaac kissed his grandma in her forehead and is planning to visit this travelling merchant.

---

 

I profitted a lot from that old woman. It's been 3 days since she came here. There are also two people who came here previously and only purchased cheap items that costs only silver coins. While there is a limit of how many unique items I can spawn, some items are in bulk, just like this candy jar. It costs 2 gold coins. However, it is gigantic with its contents all have seperate wrappings, which is great for selling one by one.

When I sold the plate and the bottle, the said items disappeared from the list and the same minimum amount of gold coins disappeared from my hands. The supposed 10 gold coins from her became 4 gold coins since the minimum amount is 6 gold coins. It looks like the entire thing is automatic.

On the other hand, the conversion between gold to silver is 1 to 100, at least here in Garnet City.

"5 silver for that candy."

"I'll buy 10 candies."

The candies are unique that when consumed, they feel... in love. How strong is that love? I do not know.

"I heard from my friend that they are a great gift for women. He recommended me this place. I thought he's joking but it turns out there's someone here." A smiling man took 10 candies. He then paid 50 silver. The candy jar only contains 50 candies and the container is wooden, nothing special."

It continued for a month. There are lots of new customers who are always curious about my items for sale but their mood shifts when then hear the price. With the money I earned, I renovated the remaining parts of this house, most importantly my bedroom.

"Good morning."

A certain civil servant appeared before me.

"I paid half a gold coin this month."

"Hahaha, no, not that. I wish to apologize."

"Apologize?"

The civil servant smiles as always, but this time, his tone is mixed with pangs of guilt.

"I heard about this sweets of love from my cousin. I tried it and it actually works. An accident also happened. You see, my cousin is female, and... Why am I telling you this? Anyways, you're a real deal and I thought you're a fraud who preys on ignorant people, so I intentionally put you here, on this ghost house."

"I thought you don't believe in ghosts."

"I do, especially to vengeful ones."

He then stared into the floor, breaking eye contact. He then looked at my eye again.

"Listen, as a civil servant, I can help you enter the inner city and find a spot in their seperate marketplace. Your items are immensely expensive but I believe they can afford it."

He twiddled his fingers which is odd for a serious looking person.

Opportunity! I'm deciding whether to do it or not... No, this major decisions must not be rushed.

"I'll consider it, but this place isn't worthy for such discussions. I'll visit you at your office if I finally decided."

"You better be! I don't want someone innocent to die because of me... Ah right, do you still have those candies?"

"It sold out three weeks ago. Someone bought all the remaining candies."

"As I expected..."

He then waved back at me and said his goodbyes. Just as he left, someone familiar entered.

"Isaac?"

"You remember me?"

He then offered me a hand. Intuitively, I clapped it. His eyes are one of awkwardness.

"You're supposed to hold my hand and grip it as sign of manhood. Anyways, what's with empty store?"

"Empty? I have few items in store."

"That's the point. Few. Stock them with goods. How did you manage to survive with these few items by the way? Hmm, say, what are you planning to sell?"

"Anything unique." I can only have unique items.

"How about opening a pawn shop. From time to time, someone will offer a weird item or entrust you their family heirloom in exchange of money."

"Entrusting item to me and paying them?"

"Ah, let me fully explain. Ever heard of borrowing money? It's scary to lend money but if you hold their item of importance, that will give you assurance they will pay it on time. And if they won't pay, that item is now yours. Of course, there is another way which is to act as a middleman, let them entrust their item to you, wait for a buyer of that item, and you give the money back to the one who originally owned it, with some money as a cut to the middleman."

Pawnshop? Interesting.

"Of course, be careful. Some are fraudulent. You might want to hire an apprentice of identification or become a skilled one instead."

Despite being a peddler, he knows a lot about business.

"Ah, you might also want to purchase charms, trinkets, and cheap items to fill your store. This store just looks creepy from outside, and some bored young nobility might be attracted 'to enter the 'darkness'."

Isaac laughed a lot when he uttered the last phrase.

"Anyways, as a peddler, I am offered with odd items. I hope you check them yourself."

His smile is one like the civil servant, pure business.

"Ah sorry, I haven't carried them yet. Perhaps next time..."

He was thinking deeply. I do not know what is he thinking but pawnshops? Let's see... Should I do it? What about the offer to enter the inner city? It's an opportunity, and with my unique ability, surely nothing goes wrong.

"Yeah, next time."

Just as he left, someone arrived. The guest who arrived is wearing a cape. She then removed her cape and presented herself. She wears a noble outfit which is ironic as it removes the purpose of wearing a cape- hiding oneself.

She is also wearing jewelry which is a mystery as to how she didn't get robbed halfway... well, I also didn't get robbed for the entire time.

"Hello. I'm Tanisha, daughter of the Marquess Garnet."

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