Chapter 17 : The Market
T/N: It"s early but here"s your Christmas present~ Merry Christmas and happy holiday everyone!~
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When I was brooding over Dry, I kept on thinking was there anything else I could do for the demon kind.
Even if I kept on breeding the monster, one day the humanity would have another hero and the hero would ended up killing all the monster once again.
I groaned at my own helplessness.
That was right.
I knew nothing.
I didn"t know anything about the human, what kind of thing happening inside their country or anything at all.
They were the enemy of demon kind but I knew nothing about them.
What should I do to gather more intelligence on human..
I consulted my concern with Velke when we were tending to the children in the nursery room.
"Hey, Velke."
"What is it?"
Velke was teaching his newborn child, Lucis a simple magic.
I felt like Velke was going to object my decision so I need to choose my words carefully.
"I..I want to try and go to the human settlement."
"No."
Ugh.
He rejected me outright.
"I don"t know anything about human even though they"re our greatest enemy. That"s why I think I want to try and go to human"s market and observe the situation there."
"It"s dangerous."
"But I"m already LV 59!"
"You"re only LV 59."
Ugh.
Because Velke was LV 120 so for him LV 59 was still too low!
"Look, here! I already developed some muscle too! Look!"
"What muscle? All I can see is your squishy arm."
I tried my best to strain my muscle but when Velke touch it, there was only soft flesh on my arm. The muscle was pretty much nonexistent.
"Don"t you also go to the market to buy supplies too?"
"It"s different for me. I can disguise myself as a human."
"Then you can use the same magic on me. Disguise me as a human too!"
"It"s dangerous."
d.a.m.n it, his defense was too thick! What an impenetrable fortress!
If shyly asking wouldn"t work then I wouldn"t mind begging shamelessly!
"I won"t do anything dangerous."
"Just being inside human settlement is dangerous enough."
"I won"t stay away from you, I promise!"
"It"s dangerous."
"I won"t leave your side! I will stick to you like a glue!"
"…………"
"I will hold you realllll tight!"
Seemed like I only need to push one more time! Velke already grew silent!
"I will stay close to Velke. Velke, you will protect me.. Won"t you?" I said with the best puppy eyes I could muster.
"…….Let"s begin our preparation then."
Yes! As I thought, the sight of a small child begging with their upturned eyes, casted from below had a really big effect on melting Velke"s impenetrable defense!
The lizardman, Chaos volunteered to guard the castle while Velke was away.
"Velluclesis-dono, please leave this castle to me. I saw the red dragon about to return to the castle as well. We will be alright here so you can focus on guarding maou-sama instead."
If there Alex would be guarding the castle then it would be alright.
After all, Alex was a LV 180 dragon.
Velke dressed me in an ordinary civilian clothes and put on a glamour on me so the people wouldn"t be able to know that I wasn"t a human.
I didn"t feel any different to be honest, since my original appearance already resembled a human child.
On the other hand, Velke dressed like an ordinary swordsman (a very beautiful swordsman) and put on a glamour as well so he looked like a human.
We use teleportation magic to the outskirt of the closest human settlement but far enough so the human in the city wouldn"t notice us.
I clasped my right hand with Velke"s as we walked toward the city.
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"So..this is the marketplace!"
The market was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with life!
Noises everywhere, people trading on every corner and there was a lot of stalls as well.
I could hear a seller called out ,"My goods is very cheap, come come!". The old man was selling a white powder, I think it was salt.
On the other side I also saw a group of presumably housewives gossiping together.
There was a lot of people, I got giddy just by standing here.
"Remember, never let my hand go." Velke said, he tightened the hold on my hand to emphasize his words.
There was a line of stalls selling spices with all variety of color, the fragrant smell was so thick it reached my nose.
I"ve never smelt something like this in the castle, it smelt so delicious I found myself salivating.
"Young master, how about this? Do you want to try this sugaret?"
An old man called out to me, he was selling some sort of crepes with plenty of whipped cream. It looked very delicious!
"Velke, Velke.. I want to eat that." I pointed at the old man"s stall.
"I understand."
Velke took out two copper coins from his bag and the old man gave me the sugaret.
I took a bite of the treat and instantly, my mouth was filled with the sweetness of cream.
"Delicious!"
It was even more delicious than I expected.
To think that the human in this world could eat this kind of food.. Ah I was really jealous! How envious!
We continued to walk around the market and there was this delicious looking meat skewer and there was also this interesting fruit.
I used my puppy eyes and pointed the food to Velke, pleading him to buy it for me.
Velke didn"t look discouraged at all, he bought me everything that I asked him to.
Ah that was right, the money…
"Umm Velke.. About the money.."
"It"s okay, don"t worry. This kind of thing is not that expensive, it"s okay to indulge in some foods once in a while."
The money came from Velke"s savings.
"But.. We need the money to buy the children"s necessities.. I ended up decreasing the money for the children.."
It was a serious crime for a leader to splurge the people"s precious money.
Even though Velke said it was alright, I still felt bad.
"Nowadays, there"s not much monster in this world. So the materials gathered from the monster could fetch for a high price in the market."
"Materials?"
"I sold the scales of that leecher residing in the castle."
The monster with scales would shed their scales, the fallen scales would scatter around the castle if no one cleaned it.
So Velke sold those scales to the humans, no wonder I never saw the scales piled up in the castle.
"Furthermore, there"s a high demand of magic gems. I only need to soak the gems in Velluclesis fountain and voila. I can ma.s.s produce those magic gems so money is of no problem."
I see.
So Velke could buy cheap, ordinary gems and sold it in high price as magic gems.
Meeting Velke really was a saving grace for me.
He was so reliable, he supported my whole life.
Without him.. I didn"t know where I would be right now.
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We went to the shop that Velke frequented and bought our daily supply like wheat and meats.
Thanks to Velke"s beautiful appearance, we got a lot of freebies from the shop keeper.
I also received an a.s.sortment of candies because of my child-like body (even though I"m not.)
While Velke was busy negotiating with the merchant, I went around to find any useful information.
"It looks like the Rod country is going to declare a war against the neighboring country."
"I also heard that Garond Empire already launched an attack. Our country already requested the hero to aid during the war. The war could come any moment now."
"No wonder the prices spiked up like this.. Ah.. Good grief, even though we already eliminated most of the monsters.. To think our peaceful life is so short lived like this.. What"s more the reason behind our pain is from our own species."
"It can"t be helped, the relations.h.i.+p between our country and Garond Empire is not that good since ages ago."
"Ah… And we have to force our hero to fight in the war.."
"I don"t think it will be possible since the temple prohibited the hero to get involved in human affair."
As I thought, no matter where we are, a human is a human after all.
What a pathetic being.
If there was no common enemy, they would end up fighting against each other.
It was a cycle of hatred and killing.
I wonder if there was a place where monster could live peacefully..
Up until now, I never heard of war waging between monsters.
I ended up thinking real hard if there was anything I could do for the monster.
Ah.
Eh?
My right hand was empty?
Since when?
Eh?
I was alone..?
Where was Velke!?
Oh..This is bad..
I tried to run back to the place I previously went but I ended up in an unknown road instead.
Wait. Calm down me.
First, I need to find a very beautiful person with sparkly hair. It shouldn"t be that hard..
d.a.m.n! Since Velke put on a glamour, his silky blue hair couldn"t be seen!
Okay, maybe I could try to search for a 2 meters tall young man.
Not here.
Umm.. Maybe here..?
Nope.
Where am I exactly?!
I ran frantically around the market, I was close to tears, my eyes felt hot when I reached the plaza.
The crossroad was filled with people, I didn"t recognize any of my surroundings.
What should I do!?
I"ve become a lost child!!
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T/N: Wow this author could write a longer chapter if there"s no s.e.x scene huh. Well next chapter is the appearance of the hero (yuusha) that everyone"s been waiting for!
Chapter 18 (not yet)