CH 103

After a short walk, I entered a narrow alley, opened the magic bag in my backpack, and put the bottle of liquor I had just bought into it.

“Good. There’s still room.”

It seems that the magic bag can still afford to swallow two large bottles of sake.

I carried the lightened bag on my back and got out of the alley.

“I really wanted to stock up on some more wine, but… this liquor store isn’t going to be an option.”

For some reason, the inside of the bag was a little cooler than the outside. I thought it would be perfect for storing wine. And if I’m going to stock up for an emergency, I’d rather drink than eat. Food is more likely to be found by hunting down the right monsters. That’s why I was planning to come here a few times to buy some wine.

It seems that it was an act that was more conspicuous than I had imagined, like buying a large amount of wine as an adventurer-like person with an unseen face.

First of all, I rarely see adventurers in this market, including the liquor store I just visited. Perhaps this is a wholesaler’s market. Many adventurers who live in inns buy food there, and there is no place to cook it. Even at the liquor store, buying liquor in such large bottles would be too much for them, and they couldn’t carry those bottles around with them.

In other words, most of the people who come here are either vendors or people who live in this town. It would be conspicuous if I, dressed like an adventurer carrying a spear, were doing a lot of shopping in such a place.

“I’ve been thinking about buying a lot of things for the next few days, but I think I need to keep it to a reasonable amount, or I’ll stand out too much. Or am I overthinking it?”

I was going to buy a lot of things, transferring them into magic bags in places where people wouldn’t be looking, as I did with the alcohol earlier, but what would they think?

I’m sure the people in the market here have at least some kind of relationship with their neighbors. There was a possibility that some information would be shared through such horizontal connections. Some of them might notice the unusual amount of shopping I do and come to realize the possibility that I have a magic bag.

Magic bags are valuable. There are many people who would love to have them. I would like to keep the fact that I have a magic bag a secret if at all possible.

At the moment, I can’t think of any advantages of letting someone know that I have a magic bag.

“There are many disadvantages I could think of…”

I glanced at the iron spear in my right hand.

Should I have at least kept this spear in my magic bag?　If I hadn’t been wearing a simple robe, people might not have thought I was an adventurer.

I crossed my arms to hug the spear and shook my head.

Ummm… no, I guess not. I think it would be unnatural for a spear or any other conspicuous object to disappear and reappear since I don’t actually know if anyone is watching where I go. I should keep my spear, even though it’s a bit of a nuisance when shopping.

After that, I bought a bag of salt and some smoked meat and left the market.

Returning to the city center from the east side where the market was, I thought about where to go next.

“Should I go to the west side? No, I don’t remember going to the north side when I think about it… should I go there?”

The town of Elem had a food market on the east side, a dungeon and related facilities on the south side, and many craftsmen stores on the west side. This is not to say that all of the stores are filled with these types of products, of course, it’s just that they tend to be the ones I’ve seen.

The area to the south, where I usually live, has most of the facilities that adventurers need. That’s why most of the adventurers who work in the dungeons live on the south side. The only time they leave the south side is when they have to go to the west side to visit the blacksmiths.

Therefore, they almost never go to the north side, which is the opposite of the south area.

As I walked along, I came to the main street that ran north to south near the center of the town.

When I looked up at the sky to check the sun, it was still at an angle.

I left right after breakfast and spent about two hours exploring the market. In other words, it was not even noon yet.

“I have time, so I should go.”

I decided to go to the north side of the market, so I turned right at the crossroads and walked to the north.

As I walked north, the shops along the main street gradually changed their appearance, and more and more of them had glass windows. The people on the street seemed to be richer and richer, with young people wearing flashy decorated coats and women wearing neat dresses and holding parasols.

“I see… I guess the north side is an area for the upper class.”

In the town of Rankfurt, there is a road that leads to the Royal Capital on the north side of the town, so the lord’s mansions and administrative facilities are concentrated in the northern area, making it look like a high-class residential area, but it seems that this town is the same.

I walked along the street for a while, looking for some interesting stores.

The windows were not very transparent, but they made it easy to see what kind of stores were there. But I couldn’t find any interesting stores. Most of the stores were for clothes and ornaments, more formal wear than casual wear. At any rate, I don’t seem to have any particular need for them at the moment.

I was getting bored with the succession of such ladies and gentlemen’s stores. I began to think, “Is it time for me to leave this area?”, a bustling store that didn’t fit this area appeared in my eyes.