Chapter 15. A few days

A few days had gone by with no changes seen upon the two sleeping kids. Every day everyone would walk in to see the two youths asleep with Boss sitting motionless in the center. Boss was offered food and water a few times, but he shook his head as he continued to sit there.

His attitude made Angel angry at first, but she could only relent and sigh. She would instead walk in everyday to make sure the kids were fine, and Boss wasn’t dead from hunger.

Four days had passed since what had occurred at the church. The ever-growing energy within the two youths finally settled down on this day. They were going to wake up soon.

Shelly’s eyes were the first to flutter as she began to wake up. A calm and collected look on her face as she slowly sat up to gauge her surroundings. The recognizable four walls and the snowflake emblem embedded onto the door eased her mind.

She looked down to the kitten purring beside her and began to pet it. It woke up from this, releasing a soft and happy “mew” to see her finally awake. Her attention turned to Boss who was smiling back at her, his face was the same as she had remembered, but the smile felt forced.

Her head finally turned to notice another bed with Arthur sleeping on it. Noticing someone’s gaze Barkie woke up from its sleep and directed its head towards Shelly. Its expression remained aloof as it curled back to sleep. However, its tail softly wagging gave away its true feelings.

She tried to get out of bed, but Boss stopped her, he told her go back to sleep, there’ll be food and water when she wakes back up. Nodding her head in agreement she laid back down with her head rested on the pillow and fell asleep.

Moments later Angel walked in to do her usual check up on the kids and Boss. Everything seemed the same except for the kitten who wasn’t asleep and the curled-up puppy with its tail softly wagging.

Noticing her look, Boss replied “She’s finally awake, Arthur will be awake later tonight too, you should prepare a good dinner for them.”

Angel ignored Boss’ reply and walked towards Shelly. She checked her pulse and then gazed at the sleeping child. She began to softly pet Shelly’s hair and whispered, “I’ve been lonely without my assistant. Hurry up and come back.”

She then got up walked over to Arthur and did the same, checking his pulse. She then inched forward and kissed him on the head. “My baby, mommy will make you the best dinner you’ve ever had. So, wake up soon, okay?”

She left the room with the same expression she’s had every time she entered. However, after walking a short distance away that face couldn’t help but beam a beautiful smile. Walking in on her smiling face Samuel couldn’t but be dazed at how attractive his wife looked at that moment.

“Tell Benjamin to go out and buy more of the meat from the Tillowisk Empire, and if they have any other food from there, get them too.” She ordered Samuel waking him up from his daze. Only to see her departing backside Samuel could only reply “I’ll go get him.”

Knock knock

The sound of knocking can be heard coming from his door. Benjamin went and opened it to see his master’s smiling face. “Quickly, let’s go to the marketplace, Shelly and Arthur will be awake tonight!” Samuel excitedly said, after seeing his wife’s beaming smile he ran into the guest room with the three kids in it. Boss gave the same reply he gave Angel causing Samuel to be ecstatic.

Inwardly sighing to himself as to why it couldn’t have been Angel and him walking around the marketplace Benjamin closed the door on his master’s face and said, “I’ll be out in a minute.”

Exactly a minute passed by before the door was opened. Benjamin in butler garb walked out with an expressionless face. His clean red hair and bright cyan eyes made him appear more noble than just a butler.

“My lord, why do you wish to come to the marketplace with me?” Benjamin questioned; it was one thing to order Benjamin to go to the marketplace and get the food preparations, but he as the Lord of this town, Samuel didn’t need to come along.

“Don’t worry about it, I need to go for a walk once in a while.” Samuel replied. The drool dripping from his mouth gave away his true intentions.

“Shall we go?” Samuel was ready to leave the house instantly. However, Benjamin reminded him, “You’ll need to put on a wig and sunglasses sir.”

“Oh right! One moment!” Samuel said before disappearing and reappearing in a brown wig and sunglasses. As an Exotic and Lord of this town, Samuel’s appearance is highly recognizable and with it comes extreme fanfare. It was one thing for Arthur to walk around with Shelly, but it was another when Samuel steps out.

Both Samuel and Angel are required to wear a wig and cover their eyes for when they leave the home. They normally wouldn’t forget about putting it on when they leave, the last time with purchasing the pets was the same.

“Is my attire okay, is it too eye catching, should I go change it?” Samuel asked one question after another.

“You’re fine my lord” Even Benjamin didn’t need to tell Samuel this, the attire they wore signifies that they are part of the Galafray household, there is nothing on it that tells other he’s the Lord of Rouge. Especially with tons of servants and maids that walk in and out of the household for miscellaneous task all wearing the same attire.

The walk to the marketplace at the center of the town was an effortless walk with a lot of townsfolk stopping Benjamin to tell him how much they loved everything Samuel has been doing. With every passing comment the smile on Samuel’s face grew larger and larger. By the time they made it to the central marketplace he was giddy with joy.

“My lord, what do you do for the townspeople?” Benjamin decided to ask curiously. Normally, a butler’s job is to never question their master, but Benjamin isn’t an ordinary butler.

“I… don’t know, ahaha” Samuel honestly replied, as the governor all he does is sign off papers he thinks would be great for the people and the town. Since becoming the Governor of Rouge after the war he’s been making changes after changes to the town.

One such example is the central marketplace, he made it easier for people to receive a license to sell their product, however made the punishment more severe if they used it to negatively affect others.

From signing this he made people provide honest work and enjoy the ease in which they’re able to join the marketplace. Being able to obtain a license to sell made most of the townspeople burst with creative ideas allowing for a variety of things no other town would have. The only downside is that the central marketplace has grown extremely large and requires constant upgrades to the surrounding areas to accommodate.

“Alright, let’s get to the guy who sold you the Tillowisk Empire’s produce.” Benjamin nodded in response leading Samuel towards the spot where he saw the guy. However, he decided to squeeze through every person possible, this made it impossible for Samuel who was larger to follow the same exact route. Every time Benjamin squeezed through; Samuel had to find another path around due to the overcrowded marketplace.

“Freaking, this marketplace is too damn overcrowded, once I go back, I’ll divide the marketplace in half, the central will be food only, the northern part of town will be everything else.” Samuel grumbled about his plans after he caught up to Benjamin.

“Are we close?” Benjamin nodded his head and pointed at a familiar guy ahead. It was the same vendor that sold the goods. Samuel vanished in place and appeared directly in front of the vendor, startling him.

“You got Tillowisk Empire meat?” Samuel asked, he practically drooling thinking about it. The vendor nodded his head, however the price he asked for it was ridiculous.

“H-how much?! Say that again!” Samuel blurted, even as a governor the price of the meat would make him feel the pinch.

“300 silver coins per kilogram.” The vendor bluntly replied. The cost of regular meat was 30 copper coins per kilogram. With 10 copper equal to 1 silver coin, 300 silver coins is 100 times the price of regular meat per kilogram. (1 kilogram/kg is roughly 2.2 pounds/lb, so just assume 1kg is 2 pounds to make it easier)

Benjamin made it over and seeing the familiar butler the vendor shouted “Oh, Benjamin! How was the Tillowisk meat from last time? Did the Governor enjoy it?” Benjamin glanced at the person beside him and nodded his head in response.

“How much is it for the meat this time?” Benjamin asked it seemed like the prices had changed.

“It’s 300 silver coins a kilogram, you know last time when I told you about my friend mentioning it being good for your physical and mental energy? It was freaking true!” The vendor exclaimed he was excited and regretful.

“Is that why it’s 50 times the price compared to before?” Benjamin continued to ask. He bought it before for only 60 copper coins.

“That’s one of the reason, the other reason is that these freaking creatures are actually harder to obtain than I thought, my friend said he’s finding it more difficult to supply me with these guys so I had to make it more expensive.”

“How’re you going to sell the meat if it is so expensive?” Benjamin continued to ask.

“People would come by and I’ll tell them about the benefits it can do for your physical and mental energy that they’ll give me a silver or two for a thin slice.” He continued saying “Since then, I have regulars who’ll come back with more silvers for bigger slices of meat.”

“How long does the meat last? You surely can’t be selling more than a kilogram with that ridiculous price.” Benjamin continued asking.

“Sorry Benjamin, even I don’t know how long it lasts, this meat right here has been like this for a week so far, and it’s still as fresh as the day I got it.”

Listening in on their conversation Samuel tapped on Benjamin’s shoulder and whispered. “I want it.” Benjamin whispered back, “you want all of it?” That whole 25 kilograms (55 pounds) Benjamin thought that Samuel was crazy.

“Yes” The slurping of the drool coming from Samuel’s mouth could be heard, he couldn’t help himself.

Benjamin remained calm and controlled himself, “Do you have any vegetation from the Tillowisk Empire too?”

“Only this one, a giant mushroom” The vendor replied pointing at the mushroom that was almost a meter tall behind him.

“How much is it?”

“500 silver coins”

“For the whole thing?”

“Yeah, I’m not sure if there’s any energetic effects from the vegetations since everyone prefers the meat. So, it’s a steal right now Benjamin, Whaddya say?”

“25kg of meat is 7,500 silver coins and the mushroom are another 500. Hm...”

“I’ll buy all the meat and that mushroom for 5,000 silver coins and I’ll put a good word in with the Governor.”

“Y-you want all the meat?” The vendor asked in disbelief. That was twenty-five kilograms of meat.

“Yes, I’ll take all of it right now.”

“Fine but do put in the good word with the Governor, if ya do I’ll give you a discount every time.” The vendor agreed to Benjamin’s proposal.

“Sure thing” Benjamin tossed a small bag of coins to the vendor, within it was 50 gold coins. 10 copper makes a silver, 100 silver makes a gold, and 1,000 gold coins make 1 gold bar.

Most people don’t carry gold bars, and nothing ever sold is worth that amount. If there are items worth an exorbitant amount, it’ll normally be traded for what the seller desires.

Benjamin grabbed the meat and the mushroom and tossed it to Samuel to carry. Samuel was a little irked that Benjamin made him carry the food, but he couldn’t do anything to Benjamin in public because he was in disguise and looked like a regular servant.

As they were walking away from the marketplace, the vendor shouted, “Don’t forget to mention my name, it’s Tea Rex! Ya hear me? Tea Rex!”