The Smiling Merchant

Akai also stopped practicing and walked over to the other two.

The three of them soon left the courtyard to have some fun outside. They had not played to their hearts' content in a long time.

Although they no longer had to go hungry like before, they still were not quite used to it.

"Where are we going?" Akai strode down the street with his hands clasped behind his head.

"I want to look at paper and pens first." Mel Carlo walked slowly behind them.

"Mel wants to buy paper and pens? Does that mean you've been learning to read and write lately?" Lily was instantly interested, staring at Mel with an exceptionally serious expression.

"Yeah. Master Anke teaches me some, but his literacy skills don't seem very good either..."

"Mel, you're so sly! You've been learning to read and write without telling me. I want to learn too!" Lily flapped her hands like a pair of wings, looking rather adorable.

Akai, on the other hand, did not react much. He merely stared blankly at the street in the distance. "There seem to be more beggars lately. They aren't gang members, are they?"

"Did something happen?" Mel Carlo looked at the beggars scattered all over the street. There really were more of them. The different bosses of the Imperial City Gang each had their own territory. The people managed by one boss should not casually enter another boss's territory.

"The Demon King's Army invaded again, probably because there's fighting at the border." Lily's voice grew extremely subdued, and she lowered her head.

"The Demon King's Army?" Mel Carlo looked confused. This was the first time he had learned of it. No one had mentioned it during the past three months. There were demons and the Demon King's Army in the game too, but they had been monsters for grinding levels. Aside from bosses, which had storylines, everything else was just background scenery.

Weren't slimes considered part of the Demon race too?

"Mel, do you really not know? Lily and I both came from the lands beyond the border. The Demon King's Army occupied that place."

"Tell me properly. I was sick before, so maybe I forgot that part of my memories." Mel Carlo stopped walking. Naturally, he had to get to the bottom of something that concerned his life.

The three stopped and sat on some steps. The other two began carefully explaining the Demon King's Army to Mel.

They were a race inherently hostile to humanity. They had started a war and killed many people. The lands beyond the border had originally been under the Gard Empire's jurisdiction, but now they had become a place of pure warfare.

Mel had seen it when looking at the map before. It was west of the Gard Empire, a region known as the lands beyond the border. That region was nearly as large as a duchy.

From their words, Mel picked up another implication. Humanity was currently at a disadvantage. That region seemed more like it had been directly abandoned by the empire, because Gal's Empire had sufficient strategic depth, and its defensive line had basically retreated to the mountains.

These were matters children would never consider. To Akai and Lily, the Demon race was simply evil. They had never considered the empire's problems.

Still, there was nothing wrong with thinking that way. He did not know enough about this world, and the information he had was too limited for him to make a judgment.

It was enough to know that the Demon race killed humans.

"One day, I'll drive out every last member of the Demon race!" Akai suddenly stood as he spoke, his gaze fixed resolutely on the sky.

His family had all died during an attack by the Demon King's Army. He had wandered all the way to the Imperial City, barely managing to save his own life and avoid starving to death.

"Mel, where are you from?" Lily looked at Mel, her mood returning to normal. She should not bring her pain to others. After all, Mel had done nothing wrong.

"I don't know. I forgot." Mel Carlo shook his head.

He would not say it, and he could not say it. Otherwise, the church would treat him as a devil, nail him to a cross, and burn him alive. His soul did not belong to this world.

This world was very similar to the one in the game, yet not quite the same. Mel had lost count of how many times he had thought that.

"Alright, let's buy paper and pens first. When we get back, we can learn to read and write together." Mel Carlo changed the subject. These children had not been born orphans. They had once had families, but they were all dead now.

The three found a bookstore and walked inside.

When the shopkeeper saw three poorly dressed children enter, his expression immediately soured. In his experience, little brats like them were dirt poor. They could not afford books or anything else. They had only come to delay him from doing business.

"If you're here to beg, get out! Don't dirty the books in my store. You can't afford to compensate me!" A curly-haired man shouted at them in a shrill voice.

Mel raised an eyebrow, but he did not leave immediately. Instead, he showed the proper courtesy. "Hello, sir. I'm here to buy paper and pens."

"Do you know how expensive paper and pens are?"

"Name your price. I'll see whether I can afford them."

If he took out all the money from the stolen wallet, it would definitely be enough. He currently had eighty-three Oren available for himself, and buying things from a fixed shop like this was a little too risky.

"A quill and this notebook cost two silver coins in total. I can throw in some paper if you can afford it." The curly-haired man moderated his attitude slightly, though he still looked down at them from the corner of his eyes.

"Two silver coins! Why don't you just rob us?" Akai was shocked. They usually could not even beg for a few copper coins, and most of the time, they would be whipped when they returned.

That was two hundred copper coins!

"Mel..." Lily tugged at Mel's sleeve. Beneath her lowered gaze, it was impossible to tell what she was thinking.

"Too expensive." Mel merely said that before leading the other two back outside.

Although he did not know exactly how much the paper, pens, and notebook should cost together, the shopkeeper was definitely trying to fleece them because they were children.

"Just as I thought—you can't afford it!" The curly-haired man spat, then viciously slammed the bookstore door shut.

Mel Carlo glanced back. It was not as though this was the only place in the city where they could buy them. What a snob.

Before the three had gone very far, a peddler in a cart called out to them. The merchant smiled brightly, and a child about their age sat beside him, probably the merchant's own child.

"Are you looking to buy paper and pens? I sell those."

"Hm?" Mel turned around and saw a cart pulled by an Earth Dragon, piled high with all kinds of goods.

"The prices are absolutely fair. The quality might be a little worse, though. Want to take a look?" The man smiled as he took out a stitched booklet of paper, which was probably also a type of notebook.

Then he spread out a row of quills from a cloth bag.

"If you buy more, I'll only charge thirty-five Oren per book. For three books, I can charge just one silver coin. The quills are priced the same way."

Mel Carlo had wanted to say that he only had eighty-three Oren, but upon seeing the merchant, he decided to ask about other cities first.

"Are you a traveling merchant?" Mel Carlo looked seriously at the smiling man before him. If he was not a local merchant, then buying from him would be much safer. He could also ask about a way to leave the city and figure out how to get to Oak City.

Oak City was far from the Imperial City. There was no way he could walk there.

"Yes, I also sell some other goods. It's absolutely safe to buy from me, though someone your age probably wouldn't need those sorts of goods." The man continued smiling with narrowed eyes.