After a few minutes of riding in the carriage, Anemone and Father pulled up to a small stable near a tavern used to keep horses. They entered through the large wooden fence gate as it slid open for them, courtesy of the man who took care of it. They went to the right to an open area and set the carriage down. As Anemone climbed out, she saw Father undoing the horse to lead it to the stall as she gathered the most precious thing of their cargo, the Moonwine. She applied a leather strap to it so it could be carried on their backs, and put both of the large clay containers over her shoulders.
Anemone then went up to the steed, petted his head, and said her goodbyes.
"Goodbye, Dash! Thank you for your hard work," she said.
She looked at Father, who decided to take a few moments to brush the mane of the horse, returning care to the horse as a favor for it taking such good care of them. Minus the most recent travel, the stone road made Anemone's head shake consistently.
'That wasn't his fault, it was the road!' she thought.
As Anemone stood by the wooden gate waiting for Father, she looked around, gazing at all the buildings, the bustling city, and the stalls they passed on the way here, crowded with people. Everyone was smiling with food, a drink, or both in their hands. They radiated cheerfulness, causing Anemone to smile. She then turned around and saw Father sneaking up on her.
"Boo!"
"Ahh!" Anemone jumped jokingly to raise his spirits, not letting on that she knew he was there.
She smiled and said back to him, "You got me, Father!"
The cheerfulness on his face at this moment could fill an entire city.
"Are you ready to go, young one? We have quite a lot to do: go to the tavern and get a room, set up a shop, go shopping ourselves, and we need to eat!" Father said.
"I would like to eat, please! Wait, how much money do we have?" Anemone asked.
"We have about sixty silver pieces, enough money for about a week. Lodging, food, and a few extras. So, you'd better help me get the carriage set up later so we can work," Father replied.
"Okay! Let us go shopping!" Anemone said excitedly, unbeknownst to her, the prices were a lot higher than she imagined.
***
"Young one," Anemone heard from across the store filled with accessories, sets of armor, and weapons for both mages and warriors alike, "Come over here when you have a second."
She walked past each glass display filled with various staves, grimoires, greatswords, shortswords, rapiers, and everything else. Anemone decided to go toward the back of the store before heading to Father. She looked up at the wooden shelves, which had different containers on them. One had the words 'old items on sale,' so she grabbed it from the shelf, dropped it to the floor, and looked inside.
Inside were many things: a journal with ink and quill, 8 copper pieces, the quill was attached to the journal with a string of leather, while the ink was in a glass vial. A wool coat that was pure black with a hood attached was worth one silver piece.
'Where I am from, that would only be five copper,' Anemone thought.
The last thing she looked at were gloves as she needed some, they were leather gloves that looked the right size, so Anemone slid them over her hands and they fit perfectly, like they were made for her.
'Two silver pieces? It should be six copper at most,' she thought.
Anemone then put the gloves back in the brown container and put it back up, deciding it was time to finally walk over to Father. She intended to sneak up on him and scare him, but before she turned the corner, he was already scowling at her.
"Took you a while," he said with an ill-mannered expression.
"I'm sorry, Father!" Anemone replied.
"Whatever. Remember, we have sixty silver pieces or six gold pieces. That is forty-two silver pieces for food, drinks, and lodging. Then another 10 pieces for bribing the guard so that we can set up a stall and sell products, but it will only work for a week. That is already fifty-two silver pieces. Lastly, if you want to join the Adventurers Guild, it will cost five silver to register, one silver to rank, unless you want to start at f-rank, and then three silver at the end of the month to always have access to the quest board. That is fifty-eight silver now, and then three more silver at the end of the month. Totaling sixty-one silver. Remember, we only have sixty."
Before Anemone knew it, her brain turned to mush, her eyes seemed to roll back in her head, as she could not keep up with the words coming out of his mouth. She then felt his hands grasp her shoulders and shake her out of her trance as he began to speak again.
"Long story short, fifty-two silver if you don't join the Adventurers Guild, fifty-eight silver total spent in the first week if you do join, and then another three silver by the end of the month. OKAY?"
"Okay! You could have put it in simple terms from the beginning!" Anemone said.
As he began to shake his head, Anemone began to think about it.
'If we do not pay for the test, I would start as an F-Rank adventurer, and I would only make a few copper a day. But, if I did rank and got at least C-Rank, I could make at least one gold every day, or at least a few silvers. Okay! D-Rank minimum, I would make at least one silver daily, I could explore the surrounding area, get used to it, then push myself,' she thought.
"I will take the test to rank myself!" Anemone declared.
"Okay, young one, in three days' time, you may go take it. For now, on the other hand, we must go to a knight and pay him," Father said.
As they began to walk around the large city, Anemone and Father stumbled upon a busy but out-of-the-way street. It was adorned with many beautiful buildings, clothing lines hung between buildings, potted plants set outside the windows, lovely red roses, luscious Liliums, beautiful Blue Orchids, and many other plants. Some windows were slightly open to let in the cool surrounding air. Anemone could hear the whistling of a teapot from one building. Lastly, there were hanging lanterns in most buildings.
Anemone continued walking and took the next upcoming right turn. Above her was a wide, but beautiful arch with vines hanging from it. She was now in the alleyway, which seemed weird at first, but the minute she stepped under the arch, she could see lights hanging from building to building. The hanging lights glowed from white to yellow, to pink, and then, after about five minutes of walking, they were red. It seemed like a different world, and Anemone could tell what she was walking into.
'The Red-Light District,' she thought.
Anemone quickly turned around and saw two women, tall, with dark skin. She looked down to see them wearing purple heels that were probably adding fifteen centimeters to their height. As she tilted her head up, the hanging loincloth barely covered the important bits; each of them had a large chest, and then her eyes finally landed on theirs. Their eyes were in the shape of a crescent moon, a smirk on their face, and rosy cheeks, and as they opened their eyes, the fiery red eyes seemed to try to draw her in. Anemone then looked away, knowing she had to get back to Father.
She quickly stepped around them, trying to forget about them as she got into her own head, and she looked at her own chest.
'I hope a man likes me,' Anemone thought.
She then shook her head to erase the thought as she made it out of the alleyway, past the arch, and back to where Father and she were together. Anemone saw him talking to a nearby knight, thinking it would be better for her not to butt in, she stood there, with about a ten-meter distance spanning between them.
Anemone gazed at them, trying to scope her vision in, and as she did, she saw Father put one gold coin, equal to ten silver coins, in his hand and then shake hands with the knight. When he retrieved his hand, it was empty. Assuming the bribery went well, Anemone got excited, knowing this was a prerequisite to his allowing her to apply to the Adventurers Guild.
'Yayyyy, the first step is down, now I just need to help him, then in three days, I can go!' she thought.
Anemone stood against a wall, waiting for him as their eyes met. She thought he would be happy, but his expression told her otherwise. The distance narrowed as she walked to him, and her expression turned sorrowful due to his.
"We can't use our carriage as a stall..." Father said.
As soon as he said this, Anemone understood why he had a bitter expression.
'Now we must use even more money,' she thought.
"Wait! I thought we already bought the rights, and it was in the carriage!" Anemone said.
"It must have fallen off on the trip here. Now, we will have to sell quickly to make this work, or else we may have to restart this journey," he said with a grim expression.
Anemone looked at him, turning her frown into a smile, trying to brighten the mood, "I believe in us!"
"You're right, young one. Thank you," Father said.
She could see him trying to force a smile.
"How much is it for a cart?" Anemone asked.
"We could buy one for one gold, or rent it daily for one silver."
Anemone and Father decided to rent one and went to a store about a twenty-minute walk from there. When they arrived, they chose a cart with two wooden wheels up to Anemone's waist, with two pegs in the front so that the cart could stand when not pulling it. It came with a small roof made from shingles to prevent items under it from getting wet. When standing behind the cart, two wooden beams were not covered and could be used for hanging items. They quickly rented it and gave away five silver so they could use it for the remaining days of the week.
They then pulled the cart to where they planned to set up shop. They now had about eight hours left of daylight, so Anemone and Father planned to make the most of it.
They set the cart down and began to set up their products. On the right side was the crate of apples with grapes mixed in. The price at five copper for one bunch of grapes and one apple. Or two copper for one apple and three copper for one bunch of grapes. Next to that were the fine white bread, which was the most common food; they decided to sell it regardless. The bread would be one copper per slice, with about sixteen slices worth in its entirety. Next were the herbs, each in a plastic bag, laid on a small blanket in small portions. Garlic was two copper per bag, lavender was three copper, basil was three, ginger was four, and the purple sage Anemone picked earlier was five.
Anemone then asked around about unknown herbs, plants, and other stuff. The Blue Oyster Mushroom they got earlier was worth at least six per single mushroom. She then found out the red and white capped mushroom she saw earlier was worth just as much.
"Father! If we go out of the city again, we can get buttloads of red-capped mushrooms! They seem to be sold often in a powdered form, and especially to magic stores!" Anemone said excitedly.
"We can get some then, but later, young one," Father replied.
Anemone continued to set up the shop, the last two things being the milk and Moonwine. Milk was eight copper for two liters, while the Moonwine had yet to be gauged. So, they asked around. For the next two hours, Anemone went to shady areas, stores, stalls, popular taverns, and especially barmen.
Most said, "Authentic Moonwine is impossible to get your hands on. Most people fake it."
"But how much would you pay for it?" Anemone asked this one barmaid.
She then leaned over the counter, whispering to Anemone so as not to arouse anyone who might be hoping for some. "Three gold per liter."
Anemone's ears instantly perked up, her hands got excited, and her cheeks turned red from excitement.
'Now I know why they say it's rare, that's one hundred and twenty gold,' she thought.