Leanne and Ada stood a little off to the side from the peasants a few feet away. Ada hasn't noticed it in the first five seconds of them standing there but a breeze that blew by forced her hand (or rather her feet). The five of them really smelled like a mix of cow dung and human sweat. As a goddess, Ada didn't feel like gagging from the strong odor but the visceral feeling to stay away was still quite strong. Some human inclinations were hard to change. if she was human she probably would have gagged. Most people in this world probably did not bathe regularly and definitely not peasants. She had better tell Leanne to bathe regularly as a necessary part of being her disciple. So far, the girl understood basic hygiene.

Standing a bit away also offered the added advantage of being able to speak without being unheard. Ada doubted that these poor folks could understand the divine language, i.e. English, or even knew that they were speaking the divine language, but she would rather not take the risk. Ada turned to Leanne and asked something that was on her mind, "Leanne, are you able to use your Divine Eye and see any information on anyone?"

"Ada, nothing except the metal rocks that we're carrying and what we're wearing," Leanne replied.

The rocks that Leanne referred to were the metallic osmium in their pockets. Prior to departure, Ada had explained to Leanne that osmium was the densest metal at 22.6 grams per milliliter. Not diving into too much chemistry, she explained that it was 22.6 times heavier than water which she could transmute elements; with one portion of osmium, 26 equivalent portions of water could be generated. Ada has hypothesized that she did not own anything that was not on her cloud or Leanne. She has also suspected that her seer's Divine Eye could not see anything which Ada wasn't the owner of. This answer confirmed her theories.

"Leanne, I know we didn't talk about this and it's not a topic I wanted to bring up but do you know if there are there slaves which we could purchase here?" Ada asked. This was a thought that came up when she saw the peasants. The locals were wretchedly poor but clearly they were still free people. Leanne has shown herself to be quite level-headed and calm which was why Ada was surprised to see a sudden burst of anger from her. She was still maintaining a quiet demeanor to avoid attracting attention from the people in front of them.

"These Anonans are absolute barbarians and Ctizu is among the worst. These people are willing to sell even their own mothers for a pretty profit. When the Azute Empire was still present, slavery was only allowed for debtors and war prisoners. Trade in slavery was limited to a few select trading houses. After the empire collapsed, these laws were completely dropped. From what I hear, on an average week, there are at least a hundred slaves sold in the city's slave market. The lucky ones end up as domestic servants while many of them end up as slave oarsmen from the Anonan galleys, each of which requires several dozen oarsmen. "

"What are these galleys for?"

"Most Anonan ships require oarsmen since they're mostly shallow water ships. The ships are used for anything ranging from war to commerce. The slaves are chained to their seats for the rest of their lives which usually doesn't last very long."

"What a terrible world to live in," Ada said what popped in her mind.

"Tesia may not be the richest nation but every Tesian is considered a freeman."

"Excuse me, Leanne, but I thought you just said that in Tesia, the nobles were and excuse the colloquialism, a bunch of assholes who loves to exploit the poor folks."

"That may be true but at least they're free men. They have the right to marry who they want, can own property and make their own schedules on how to spend their day. It may not sound much better but I know it is. This is because we have the blessings of our gods with us."

"You'll have to explain something to me here. What have the gods done in Tesia which hasn't happened here?" Ada asked. She really didn't feel like the original gods have done anything useful and probably have done a lot of harm.

"Our temples have provided sanctuaries to those who suffer from abuse or near death. My former temple was renowned for healing the sick and offering prayers to the dying or the recently deceased. The temples of healing for Goddess Mara are known for providing medicine to those in need and training healers. The temples of truth dedicated to Goddess Serina have oracles which can guide leaders in making the right decisions..."

Ada was starting to regret asking Leanne this question. It turns out that this was another topic which Leanne was passionate about -- defending the usefulness of the gods. Nonetheless, this was useful information so she just stood there and nodded quietly as Leanne went on about what every type of temple had to offer. Just as she was getting to Yuano, who Leanne clearly did not care for, she was interrupted. Rather, they were both interrupted. One of the younger boys had approached them inconspicuously and was just standing there staring at them.

Kids and Ada didn't get along very well. She never knew what to say to them and usually just settled for a "hello, how are you doing?". There typically wasn't any sensible reply. The last case was at a Christmas party where one of her aunts asked her to take care of the six-year-old cousin. That turned out to be an unpleasant night for both parties. In this particular case, Ada felt even more awkward since she was sure the kid didn't understand English. She raised her eyebrows subtly hinting for Leanne to step up to the plate.

What followed was a series of rapid exchange of words between the dirty ragged boy and Leanne where Ada understood nothing. Her hour-long lecture in Exicozan has paid no dividends. She didn't recognize a single word uttered though she was sure that she had memorized the word for "my name is " and "we are travelers" during the language lesson. Perhaps there were multiple words to say the same thing or maybe they were just talking too fast. From body language though, she could see that the boy was becoming increasingly agitated. This reminded of her time in Italy as a tourist where her family became hopelessly lost. Not knowing a single word which unfortunately put them in the stereotypical category of the clueless American, the only way they could communicate was through gestures and body language. She was certainly glad that Leanne was around.

"Ada, the boy asked if we have enough food for he and his family. They have lost everything in a bandit attack on their farm about a week ago. They're on their way to the city where they have a distant relative whom they hope can provide temporary refuge until they find themselves back on their feet," Leanne translated.

"Optimism is a good thing. Did you tell them we have no food? That's one reason why we are here -- for food."

"I did but he doesn't believe me. He says we cannot possibly not have food wearing such clothes."

"Yeah, I was afraid of that. This whole thing is a little ridiculous. Can you ask him what he wants to eat and why he's the one asking instead of his parents?"

Leanne fired off a short sentence. The boy replied with a very long one.

"He listed about twenty things he wants to eat including cheesecake, banana pudding, fried chicken, fried potatoes, honey-marinated pork strips, medium-well steak with onions, seared salmon with lemon garlic and ... more. He says that he knows about all this the food from a minstrel who passed through his village and sang a tale of a distant king who gave food away to his subjects," Leanne said. "On the other topic, he said that they don't know how to speak the local tongue. They only speak the mountain variation of Exicozan which is almost a different language."

"Leanne, can you ask him if he asked anyone else for food?"

"I asked him this already. He asked the baker in front of them but the man refused to give them even the crumbs without compensation. He turned to us since he perceived us as kinder people."

"I suppose two young well-dressed gals are pretty easy to approach compared to a crotchety old man," Ada muttered to herself as she peered over Leanne's shoulders and noted the old balding man with a scruffy beard who was most likely the baker.

"Goddess Ada, if you may, I have an idea," Leanne said with some hesitation.

"Go ahead. No need to ask for permission to speak up. And no honorifics needed between just us two."

"What if we purchase some bread from the baker and give the poor family a few pieces? The rest I can eat."

"That sounds like the most sensible plan. We have no 'real' money but maybe this piece of gold would do?"

Ada held out a small flat round piece of gold. It looked like a gold coin which it was. She was sure that no society here could make one so perfectly round or so pure in gold content though. Hopefully, the baker would just take the money and not ask too many questions.

"Ada, that should work. I'll speak to him now."

Leanne said a few words to the boy and he stepped aside in anticipation. Ada saw her approaching the baker. She couldn't hear what they were saying but the message was clear. The man was willing to make a trade though Ada suspected they were being cheated.

Hmm, I can easily turn that gold into 'worthless' copper later, Ada thought. She also wondered if Leanne could use her eye to track the gold's whereabouts. This could prove to be very useful in the future if she needs to follow someone innocuously.

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"Oh wow! Learned a few things here. Buying things or giving things away to mortals means the ownership just passes to the user worldysystem. Buying things means I own the object. But what I want to know is ... does this mean I can make objects of the class bread now? Also, seriously? One gold piece for just seven loaves of bread?"

...

...

"Pause systemhelper," Ada quickly said.

Leanne walked back with a bag of the seven loaves of bread and Ada could see that she looked a little startled. This was no doubt due to her Divine Eye giving her some new information on the objects they just acquired. To avoid anything obviously off, they quickly gave the boy three loaves of bread for him and his family. With a bow of sincere gratitude, the boy walked off to rejoin his family. Though the dings of systemhelper informing her that she has given away three objects annoyed her, this small gesture of kindness fulfilled her inside.

"Man does not live on bread alone," she surprised herself by quoting a bible verse.

"Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God," Leanne answered.

"Leanne, where did you hear that?" Ada cried out in surprise. There was the thought in her mind that the Bible definitely should not exist in this world.

"Ada, this a verse from the Holy Book which as a book of faith has been mostly displaced in modern times by the Book of Truth," Leanne explained and then added. "It's true that we gave the boy and his family bread but more than that, I wonder if they have any gods which watch over them. Maybe you can do something?"

"Leanne, not to sound like a complete jerk since I just said that I want to change this world for the better. But I also realize that right now I'm still trying to get my bearing in this world and unfortunately I have to be selective on who my next followers should be. I don't have enough bandwidth to add subsistence farmers to my entourage at the moment," Ada replied and sighed with frustration. She also filed away in the back of her mind to look up these holy books as soon as she has some time. If they're holy words written by the God, they could possibly exist as files in the system.

Leanne looked a bit crestfallen and reluctantly nodded. "Ada, I understand. There is something puzzling me about this bread. Do you want to know what I see?"

"Definitely tell me what you see," Ada anticipated eagerly.

"Ada, the bag is quite uninteresting and I have already seen it at your palace but what I see on the bread is new to me. Besides the usual volume and mass information and that it is made of wheat with a certain percentage of water content, I also see strange words I do not recognize. Calories: 820, Fat: 5 grams, Sodium: 1440 milligrams, Carboyhydrates: 138 grams, Fiber: 19 grams, Sugars: 1.8 grams, and Protein: 40 grams."

"Leanne, that sounds exactly like the nutrition facts on bread at the grocery store," Ada said.

Leanne looked confused and Ada waved her hand with the remark that it's another god thing she won't understand. The God clearly has a sense of humor here.

"Leanne, you can go ahead and eat since I know you're hungry. I'm also curious to see if the object is destroyed once your digestive system does its thing. In the meantime, I want to see if I can make some bread in the future now that I actually have an object of the class bread," Ada said.

The girl looked skeptical since earlier on the journey here they have tried repeatedly to try to make any kind of food for Leanne with no success. With a mild shrug, she took out the loaves of bread and started wolfing them down in a voracious manner that was quite unlike Leanne's typical bearing. Ada both pitied the girl and thought the sight amusing.

"Unpause systemhelper! Create bread"

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"Pause systemhelper."

Ada looked around and saw that Leanne has just finished eating the last loaf of bread. She seemed no longer famished and was wiping crumbs off of her face in embarrassment.

"I have seen worse table manners so don't worry about it. More importantly, I found out that I can't make food for you unless I get the blessings of the farmer god. I'm sorry, Leanne. We're just going to have to buy more food for you," Ada looked down with disappointment.

"That is fine, Ada. Look! We are almost at the gates."

Ada raised her head and saw that Leanne was right. While they have been talking, they have been steadily moving forward. Now, there were only half a dozen more people in front of them. If Ada was still human, she would have heard her heart pump in excitement as the tall stone city walls loomed ever closer. She would want to go to the market first to buy more food for Leanne, especially fruits and meat. As her mom has always emphasized to her, a healthy diet leads to a healthy brain and body. The other place she wanted to see was the slave market. Lastly, she wanted to learn about the temples in this city. She wondered if there would be a force field that would naturally keep her out of those other gods' temples. That would be interesting to find out. They would need to do all of this today if possible since Ada wanted to minimize the risk of their cloud palace being discovered.