In the end, Elwin, who wasn't happy for the job, had assigned Kim, himself, and Heather to sell the flower's teeth for cash, Jonas, Elin, Patricia, and Owen to acquire food supplies, and everyone else to make sure their campsite doesn't get ransacked and that Blot wouldn't disappear on them.
At least that's the way Elwin had put it, but for Kim, that wasn't the biggest problem. Why she had been chosen with Elwin and Heather she couldn't say. Just that as Jonas had suggested that Elwin decide who was in which group had seemed like a good idea at the time.
Now, it hardly seemed like it would have been the best choice. Not only did he separate everyone who was in a relationship, of sorts, with each other, but he seemed pleased with himself about it as well. As if he accomplished something difficult.
However, Kim couldn't find anything wrong with the groups that Elwin had made, aside from the fact that she was in the same group as him. Not that she could think of how to complain against that fact, she just wondered if maybe they'd have other issues while trying to see what they could get for the teeth.
Owen might have been a better choice on this task, given he'd have been able to get the bets value of the teeth, with his mind-reading ability, but Kim was sure others had thought that themselves but didn't say anything about it. So, she couldn't think of how she'd be able to succeed if she was the only one bringing it up.
As they entered the city, Kim couldn't help but feel like she'd returned home from a long journey. Not that she considered this city 'home' but rather it was the most familiar place that she'd encountered for a while, and so it felt like it was the closest to home she probably would be able to get in this world.
Not only did she somehow recognize where the streets were, even though she'd hardly spent any time in the city, but she even felt like she somehow knew what the signs handing outside the various businesses meant. Like the 'Singing Needle' was in fact a tailor's shop where the business next to it was called the 'Bent Needle' which was a brothel.
It certainly felt weird, but she wasn't sure if she should say anything about it. Especially since Jonas, Elin, and Elmo weren't there. Maybe if Elwin wasn't present, she'd say something to Heather, but with Elwin, she felt like she'd be admitting to a weakness if she did.
Heather, however, was looking at everything with wide eyes. Like she hadn't seen so much at once. Though, given what Kim could remember about what had happened in her life before she got pulled into this competition. Which meant that even if Heather had lived in a city, she probably hadn't gone out much beyond going to school. As such, places like this would probably be places she wasn't used to being at all.
However, Kim was at least certain of which shops Heather needed to avoid, like the brothel. Maybe she'd be fine on her own, but Kim had serious reservations about that idea given how Heather currently looked.
"That place looks promising," Elwin said, pointing towards what felt like a random shop.
Kim looked at the shop he indicated. It was a weapon shop, which Kim suspected would be the best place to try and sell them, but she wasn't sure about the name of the shop: The Pig Sticker. It felt like it might not be the higher end of shops that would probably pay the best for the teeth.
However, Elwin had already decided he was the leader of the group, so it wasn't so much of a suggestion, but rather where Elwin had decided to go. Which meant they were going, regardless of if it turned out to be a good idea or not.
Although, Heather didn't look like she was in much of a condition to follow them if Kim didn't help shepherd her towards that shop as Elwin was already heading there with a purposeful stride.
With how he was walking, Kim couldn't help but wonder if Elwin had chosen to put her in the same group as himself just to do something like this. Where she'd need to keep up with him while she was left trying to figure out what he was going to do next.
Although, she doubted that he anticipated her needing to help usher Heather so she didn't get lost. As if she got lost, Kim could imagine that she might not last if she entered the wrong part of the city on her own.
When she caught up with Elwin, they found him talking with the smith as he was pounding away at something on his anvil. What the hunk of metal was going to be, it was too soon to see, as it was still in the process of taking shape and wasn't yet at the point where it could be identified. Though, the piece of metal was glowing cherry red from being heated so much at that moment.
"…found some items that we thought someone such as yourself might be interested in," Elwin was saying as Kim entered. "If you have a moment we'd like to see if you're interested."
"No time," the smith answered without taking his attention from pounding the metal, each strike flattening the hunk of metal a little more. "Find someone else to talk to. I'm too busy to be interested."
As Kim watched the pounding of the metal, she started to suspect that the smith was working on an axe, hatchet, or any other kind of weapon like that, simply based on how one end of the metal was taking on the shape that would be where the blade would eventually be.
Elwin opened his mouth to protest, but then closed it a moment later, his eyes blazing with holding back his annoyance. Kim figured he could have handled it better, but didn't say so. If she did she was certain that she'd receive the brunt of Elwin's hostility. Which she really would rather avoid at the moment.
Besides, it was fun to watch him sabotage his own efforts without anyone else's help.
They moved from one location to another, each smith, or armorer busy with their own work. On the fifth weapon shop, they encountered a smith who had an apprentice who was the one working while the smith instead was touching up other materials for whatever orders he had.
After Elwin explained what they were doing there, the smith shook his head. "No matter if I'd like to, you'd need the permission from the king to work with things like that," the smith replied. "So, unless you're looking to deal with the black market, you'll have to sell them to the king first. He'd be the one who would either give you permission to sell them to whoever or buy them himself," the smith informed them. "Though, if you do get permission to sell them, feel free to look me up again. I'd definitely be interested in those teeth you mentioned. I haven't heard of anything like that before."
Elwin tried talking the smith into at least looking at the teeth, but his efforts were clearly wasted. The smith refused them and even had to threaten to call the guards to get Elwin to leave.
As they left, Elwin sighed, shook his head and turned to Kim and Heather. "I think we might as well head to talk to the king," he said, as if he just came up with the idea out of the blue. "We've tried several weapon and armor shops, but all of them were too busy to take a look. So, I'm starting to wonder if we take them to the king, that he might be interested in them and we won't need to worry about the smiths being too busy to look at them or not."
Kim wanted to say something about that, but held her tongue. If letting Elwin pretend that it was his idea to salvage of what he could of his own ego, she couldn't see the problem with that. Especially since she knew that it would end this much faster by not having him turn the whole situation into something that was unworkable.
She just hoped that there wouldn't be any more complications to the issue. As not only would that make it take longer than needed, but she couldn't say what else might become involved with the whole situation. Such as if the king held her for the whole kidnapping thing that she was confident wasn't anything more than controlling parents taking issue with their children making a choice they didn't make for them.
Also, keeping an eye on Heather almost felt like a babysitting job in a different way. Since Heather was pretty much 18, at least. However, the way Heather acted a little at times made her almost seem like she had the mental capacity of a five year-old. Which would make it easy getting her lost, but Kim knew that would only add to the length of time they'd have to spend in this city, which would also increase the chance of something happening to make this more of a headache than it already was.
In all, Kim hoped this would go smoother than she was expecting right then.