Chapter 38: The Market
Leon eventually caught up to Erik, who was strolling through the building towards the entrance/exit.
"I never knew you were friends with the governor of Orsini."
Erik gave a laugh.
"Haha, there's a lot of things you don't know about me, Leon."
Looking puzzled, Leon inquired.
"Why don't you tell me these things?"
Erik continued walking down the stairs, with Leon trying to keep beside him.
"Well you were too young and I just felt that there was no point for me to tell you these things. I mean you haven't even turned 16 yet."
'Also you are too naive and weak, Leon. It's for your own good.'
However, Leon was stubborn on the subject and gave a little pout with some puppy eyes.
"Can't you tell me anything I don't know?"
Erik pondered as they finally reached the bottom of the stairs and decided.
"I guess I can tell you one thing. Guess my age, Leon."
At first, Leon was confused, then he realized he actually didn't know how old Erik was exactly because he always assumed Erik was in his late 20's due to his looks.
"Aren't you in your late 20's?"
Erik almost dropped to his knees in laughter.
"Hahaha! I forgot you didn't know this, not many low-tiered adventurers know this because it isn't relevant until around my level. But at a certain point of power, your aging slows down, I'm actually closing in on 70 years even though I look like I'm still in my young adult."
Leon stopped in his tracks and it looked like his heart skipped a beat.
"HUH?! You are 70 years old?"
Giving a hearty laugh, Erik nodded.
"Yes, although I don't like to let people know my true age. Even though I look like this, it's embarrassing to actually be so old sometimes. Anyways, I'll leave you to explore. Let's try to convene back here at around sundown. Don't be late or I'll think you are in some sort of trouble and I'll have to go through the troublesome process of looking for you."
Erik immediately left the still astonished Leon in the square as he walked away.
'Let's hope, I didn't just fry his brain with that surprise, haha.'
After almost a minute of standing there, Ensis finally spoke to Leon.
「Weak one, are you okay? You have been standing there with a blank face for a minute. People are going to start staring soon.」
Ensis's words snapped Leon out of his thoughts.
'Ah, sorry for worrying you. I was just trying to process everything. Anyways, let's go explore shall we?'
「Alright.」
The first thing Leon did was go to the rows of shops in the middle layer of Orsini. The rows of shops were like a farmers market that occupied a good chunk of space and hordes of people were walking, buying, selling, and more.
Walking near the middle of the cluster of shops that ranged from small wooden stalls to full-on little shops, Leon sniffed the air and his mouth immediately started to water. The way the market was set up in this particular place was that the more popular stalls, usually restaurants or food stands, we're in the middle while the other stalls surrounded the more popular stalls. This made the center of the market look like a wave of people pushing and crowding around each other. However what Leon noticed first was the smell the middle of the market gave off, the smell in the middle of the market smelled like the kitchen of a famous restaurant with dozens of food items giving off tantalizing smells to whoever walked by.
With his stomach making an appeal to his brain, Leon forced himself into a line. The line was so long, that it took almost twenty minutes for Leon to even get to order.
With the huge amount of people clustered up next to each other and the sun still in the sky just starting to slowly descend, Leon was sweating due to the heat.
"Two beef kebabs please."
The stall owner who was two heads shorter than Leon gave a smile.
"Wise choice young man. I can tell you are not from around here. Would you be interested in our specialty of horned rabbits? It's one of the many famous local delicacies of Orsini."
Leon merely nodded and the shop owner put 3 fingers.
"Three silvers, please. One for the beef kebabs and two for the horned rabbit."
A look of slight sadness appeared on Leon's face.
'Damn it! I almost died back then and only got fifteen silvers for killing all those goblins and now a good chunk of it is gone. Orsini truly is expensive.'
Although Leon was quite easygoing, he still was used to living off of barely anything, and the sight of three silvers going pained him. However, Leon gladly regained his pep in his step when the shop owner presented him with three sizzling kebabs.
Leon quickly took his kebabs to one of the many sitting areas scattered throughout the market and sat down. Without hesitating, Leon picked up one of the brown beef kebabs and bit off a chunk of fatty meat. With his mouth overflowing from the tasty juices from the meat, Leon gave a wide grin as he tasted the meat.
'Ensis if you had a mouth, you would have wanted to eat this.'
「Truly a shame, may you choke on the meat.」
'Haha'
Spending an ample amount of time eating, Leon enjoyed his time bathing in the sun as he overloaded his taste buds with the juicy meat. He even noted that the horned rabbit was even more delicious with the easy to chew but full of flavor white meat.
After that glorious experience, Leon spent the rest of his day wandering the huge sea of stalls. He eventually did not buy much except food but eventually nearing the end of his time as the sun started to set he bought something else.
As Leon started to walk out of the marketplace, he neared a mostly vacant stall with a bunch of jewelry and other items.
A woman wearing a really revealing one piece that exposed most of her stomach and back looked bored as she leaned against a part of her stall.
Her black hair glistened as the sun's golden sunset, but she suddenly no longer looked bored as she detected Leon passing by.
"Hey, you. Kid with the sword and blonde, but kind of goldish hair."
Leon stopped in his track as the description resembled him. He looked towards the lady who was directly staring at him with a small grin on her face and he puzzledly pointed his finger at himself as if he was saying 'Me?'.
The lady was no longer leaning on the stall and stood up straight which revealed even more of her body.
"Yeah, you. Stop pointing to yourself and come here for a second."
Although Leon didn't know her, Orsini was a pleasant experience for Leon, so he didn't mind as he walked over.
"Yes?"
As Leon walked closer, he could not see it nor notice it, but the lady's shadow moved towards Leon's own shadow and attached itself like a parasite.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone