Rainfall City

It was a place completely unlike Lorne village.

Just like the huge ancient cities that May had only seen in movies, tall city walls stretched from end to end of the horizon, continuing until it was out of her sight.

The stone walls were originally painted white, but had been greyed as a testament to the passing of time. Soldiers were stationed at regular intervals atop the city walls, acting as sentries as they alternated their gazes regularly between the line of people below and the far off horizon.

The flag of the Great Manta Empire flew proudly above the city gate, which had a long line of people queuing to enter.

The gate itself was large enough for everyone to pass by comfortably without causing such a holdup, but it was blocked up by the soldiers who were checking everyone group by group.

It was just like the borders of a country back in her old world, where customs officers would diligently check on everyone who was entering or exiting.

The only difference was that the guards here did not check for personal documentation, which was natural since it was something that the people of this world did not possess.

What they did was mainly asking for the reason for entry, as well as doing a cursory check on goods that were being brought in or out.

Every soldier donned a light chainmail over their shirts, which served to protect their torso, and were armed had a spear in hand. It was merely basic gear for a soldier, but that was all they needed to give off an air of intimidation.

As May's group approached Rainfall City, they dismounted from their horses and joined the line stretching out from the city gate, letting the horses graze freely as they patiently awaited their turn.

"Is the queue to enter always this long?" May couldn't help but ask after some time.

They had already been queuing for an hour, and they were still nowhere near the front.

"Haha! Is our little May already regretting coming along?" Shimalt teased immediately.

"No! I'm just asking!" May retorted with a pout and everyone in the group laughed.

"It usually isn't this bad," Renton was the only one nice enough to actually answer her question. "But ever since Lord Benedict succeeded his father as the city lord, he had introduced stricter personnel and goods control."

"City lord eh…" May's words trailed off as she imagined an obese man who feasted daily at the expense of his people.

Growing up in Lorne Village, she never had the chance to eat a truly sumptuous meal. Even the best of meals only had one type of meat accompanied by vegetables and fruits. While it was definitely filling, it was lacking in variety.

So just imagining the city lord and his riches made her go green with envy.

"I know you must be feeling vexed about the wait, but don't blame the city lord for this. This is only for the better. At least the security is slightly better now," someone from Lorne Village added. "Robbers and thieves used to be able to leave the city easily after they are done with their deed. But now less of such cases are happening since there is a risk of them getting caught when their wares are checked by the soldiers on the way out.

"I guess that's a good thing then…" May nodded blankly in response.

Looking at how the soldiers were simply doing cursory checks as though they could not be bothered, May could hardly imagine how thieves and robbers would be caught. But if the villager said so then May had no reason to rebut.

They queued for almost 3 hours before they finally reached the gate.

Instead of the usual inspections and questioning, the soldiers were surprisingly extremely respectful when they saw Renton's group accompanying them, and easily let them through without doing any checks.

Apparently Renton's group of adventurers were quite well known.

"Is that really okay?" May muttered under her breath as they stepped past the gate and onto the cobbled streets of Rainfall City, but she did not speak loud enough for her companions to hear her, nor did she mean to speak loud enough.

The streets were busy, and everyone with horses were leading them around by the halter instead of riding on them, perhaps afraid they would not be able to control their horses well in the crowd.

Shops lined up at both sides, and sounds of chattering could be heard everywhere.

The streets of Rainfall City were bustling with activity, completely different from the peaceful environment back in Lorne Village.

"Now then, shall we part ways here? We would have to head over to the Adventurers' Guild as well," Renton was the first to suggest separation.

"Thank you for bringing us here," the villagers thanked with a smile, but both parties knew that the accompaniment did nothing this trip.

"See you around, little May!" Shimalt ruffled her hair as he bid her goodbye.

"Stop, doing, that!" May pulled away from his hand before tidying her hair with her hands.

The groups laughed as they parted, and May naturally followed the villagers towards the marketplace.

The villagers had already decided on exactly where to go and what to do while at Rainfall City. Even though they were not locals, they visited often enough to know the ins and outs of the city. This allowed them to plan their route well.

This time, they were here to sell some beast hides and medicinal herbs.

For that, they had two places to visit – namely the Tanner Hall and the Medicine Hall.

The plan was to be done with their business by nightfall, so they could spend some time exploring the city before leaving the following day.

When the villagers entered the Tanner Hall, the attendant gave them a good once-over before leading the way to one of the back rooms. The front of the Tanner Hall was for sales of products, not for purchasing of materials.

This wasn't their first time here, so they were naturally familiar with the procedure.

It was a room that was decently furnished, with a large table placed at the far end, behind which a plump and well-dressed man was seated.

The man looked up to see the villagers entering along with the attendant, and his face lit up with a smile.

"I see it is my friends from Lorne Village once again! How have you been? Please, take a seat!"

The man lightly gestured to the four chairs placed in front of the desk.

The chairs were not especially exquisite, but the seats were cushioned, something that did not exist in Lorne Village.

Seeing this, along with the other items along the street, May was starting to understand the general technological level of this world.

While she lamented the absence of electronics, May was still relieved that Lorne Village was not a full representative of this world's technological level.

Still, there were not enough seats for all the villagers, so she as a child naturally did not get the chance to experience sitting on a cushioned chair.

"Now, what do we have here?" the plump man took out his magnifying glass and started examining all the beast hides that the villagers placed on the table.

It took a long while for him to carefully examine every piece, but he did not slack on the process, meticulously looking through every inch of the skins.

"How is it? How much can this batch of hides be sold for?" the oldest of the group, and thus the de facto leader, asked after the plump man sat back down.

"This isn't too bad, but as usual the hides are all slightly damaged during the process of skinning the beasts, so even if you are a regular seller, I can't give you too high a price for this," the plump man shook his head sadly as he mentioned this.

The villagers promptly sighed in disappointment.

If only they had someone skilled in skinning beasts in the village, then they would not have to always sell their beast hides at a lower price.

"Don't worry about it. We know that we are not skilled enough in this aspect. We already appreciate you always trying to give us as high a price as possible," the leader of the villagers gave a wry smile as he responded.

"As I said, you are a regular seller, so I naturally would want the best for you as well. For this batch, I can quote you 50 copper coins. I'm sorry but this is already the maximum I can go."

50 copper coins was the highest price that they had ever been quoted! As expected of the beasts hunted by the adventurers, they were worth more than expected.

So upon hearing the offer, the eyes of all the villagers lit up in surprise.

Well, all except for one.

In contrast to the looks of pleasant surprise that appeared on everyone's faces, May's face contorted in disbelief.

"Hah?" an unhappy voice escaped from her small frame.

It was not as though she shouted it out, but since the room was quiet, it sounded extremely clearly to everyone present.

Back at Lorne Village, the villagers practised barter trading, so she was not too sensitive to the concept of money in this world.

However, upon entering Rainfall City, May had been curious about the shops and their wares. Thus she had also been paying attention to the shops along the way, and at the same time she did not miss the prices tagged to items being sold.

Before being led to this room, May had also been observing the people at the storefront of the Tanner Hall while waiting, so she knew that even the cheapest of processed hides was sold for at least a silver coin.

Albeit she did not have any knowledge on how much the processing of the beast hides would cost, but considering that they were selling more than twenty pieces of beast hides, wasn't 50 copper coins far too little?

"Be quiet, May! We adults are discussing something important here!" the leader of the villagers noticed the frown that appeared on the plump man's face, and immediately turned around to reprimand May.

To him, May was just an ignorant little girl who was seeing the world outside of Lorne Village for the first time. He had to make sure she did not anger the representative from the Tanner Hall, or he might end up offering a lower price out of anger.

"But isn't this guy trying to rip us off? Even a normal piece of beast hide is sold for at least a silver coin at their storefront. But here he is charging us so much!"

"What did you say? Is this what you truly think as well?" the plump man's face had turned extremely ugly upon hearing May's words, but the one he questioned was still the leader of the villagers.

He was angered that this group of country bumpkins dared to denounce him, but he could not stoop so low as to argue with a kid.

In fact, he truly was undercutting them, but so what if he did?

How dare they act this rudely towards him?

They were just a bunch of villagers from who knows where. He did not even know where this Lorne Village was located.

On top of that, they did not supply much beast hides anyway. If he managed to buy them at a low price, he could take a bit for his own pockets before recording it in the accounts, but if he could not, then he wasn't losing much either.

What's most important was that they had always stupidly accepted the low price for the past few transactions, so he had already gotten used to earning extra from them. This sudden challenge from the little girl challenged his feeling of superiority, and he could not help but get angry.

He even suspected that the little girl was told to act this way by the older members of the group as a way to bargain. Therefore the first one he confronted was the leader of the group.

"It definitely is not what we think! That I can assure you! I'm terribly sorry if she displeased you!" the leader of the group could only anxiously apologise. "Hurry up and apologise as well, May!"

"Apologise? To that crook?" May was indignant.

Truthfully, May was starting to doubt herself after seeing everyone's reactions.

Could it be that the tanning process was really able to provide this much value-add to the beast hides?

After staying in the village for a while, she had some superficial knowledge about tanning, but it was nothing specific.

However, she had already grown used to being showered with praises in the village. After she started displaying her incredible skills, especially in hunting, the villagers had started spoiling her and went along with her every whim.

That was also why she dared to challenge the adventurer Shimalt to a competition without caring about the consequences previously. If things had gone badly at that time, the adventurers might have felt insulted and the villagers would have had a hard time trying to appease them.

Thus, she stubbornly retorted despite thinking that she might be the one at fault. Of course, she had no idea that she was right all along.

"What?" the plump man was livid as he raised his voice.

"I did not bring you here to spout nonsense!"

With that, the leader of the group had finally exceeded his tolerance threshold. He slammed the table and stood up to face May who was standing right behind him.

Smack-!

The sound of skin hitting skin echoed within the room as the other villagers' mouths all hung agape in shock. They, too, were flustered by May's repeated taunting towards the plump man, but they would never have thought that the leader of the group would suddenly slap her on the cheek.

And in no way had he held back his strength.

May stumbled a few steps due to the impact, then turned to face the leader of the group in disbelief while holding her hands to her cheek.

Facing the small frame that was looking up at him, the leader of the group still did not feel his anger subside.

"Take her outside!"