4. Seeking an Escort

Now that the mysterious encounter with the Goddess has ended, let's figure out what to do with the rest of the day.

「My stomach is still in a bit of pain, and I'm not in the mood to fap anymore. Then, let's go test it out for now. How my skill works that is.」

My balls on the floor are released back to the bed, and I was thinking of testing out the teleport skill after rubbing one out.

If I recall, the old man in the armor said that it's a skill that moves things.

Now the loli gave it an additional feature, but I don't have the conditions prepared so I can't try that out for now.

So, let's test out the original feature first.

「Okay, let's see…Like this?」

I tried to activate the teleport skill that's within me.

The process is simple, once you recognize the place, the next step is to picture where you want to go.

「The place I can go to…not the castle…uhm…Oh, I can go to that street…」

In my mind, I have the image of the road I walked from the castle earlier, but it seems that just imagining it half-heartedly won't teleport me, so I continued imagining beyond that point and my consciousness became hazy…

It can't be helped, so for now, as a test, I'll just imagine outside the door of this room.

「Oops. Woah, it's already over when you realize it. It's too short of a moment to be surprised. In essence, this is a short warp. Then, the next one is…wait, that's impossible.」

I was going to try again but I have no image of where I could go right now.

It looks like there's some kind of cooldown before I could use it again.

I don't know the exact time because it's a physical sensation, but I think I can't use it again for 30 minutes.

「Well, I get what this power is now. It's that thing, if you've been there before, you can move there. The problem is the distance and space…this is a usable skill, right?」

I actually tried it out, but honestly, I'm not so sure if it's usable.

After all, the distance is no more than a five-minute walk, and you can't use it continuously. And it's limited to places you've been to.

Now I get why the armored old man was in dismay to see this skill.

「Oh well. If I could use this skill continuously, it would've been quite strong, and I wouldn't have gotten kicked out of that place」

If I could use it continuously, I could easily say "I got your back," in combat for example. But it's not that useful so they just kicked me out.

That was the end of my experiment, so I tried returning to my room, but then I recalled something.

「Speaking of which, the prime minister did mention that I should get an escort. I'm out of the room anyway so I might ask the innkeeper a few questions」

I came down the stairs to the first floor and to the lobby, then I talked to the manager of the inn whom the soldier talked to earlier.

He doesn't have work to do so he answered my questions.

「An escort? I can guide you to some but what kind do you seek?

「Well, I have no idea the market prices for anything, or what kind of person to look for. For now, I'd like someone who can guide me around for a reasonable price」

「A long-time guard. That would require a lot of money. Besides, if you're using our inn, then you're also going to roam in the area. So yes, I'd say that it would cost a gold a day for the best, and two silver coins for the lower」

Let's see, this inn costs five silver a night, right?

So that means one gold coin for the higher end would mean two nights in this room.

I don't really understand the value of gold coins here but that's pretty expensive.

As I listened, the manager continued the conversation.

「Or are you looking to buy a slave? As long as they're well dressed, they're allowed to enter the inn. Speaking of which, there will be an auction tonight」

「Auction? For slaves?」

「Yes. The slave market is just a short walk right after leaving the inn」

I guess that's to be expected from another world.

I mean, they also were a thing on earth back then so it's not that weird.

「Would slaves be more cost-effective?」

「I don't know about the prices since there's an auction today, but I think a person with education and power for escorting could cost you about 50 gold coins. Although, that's the minimum. The quality won't be as high. Oh, speaking of which, there were rumors that the royal family had purchased a large number of slaves recently. If that's true, then the market price could ride up」

「I see. The royal family buys them too」

「Yes, it seems that they have summoned heroes, and so they're allocating money for them. Well, those are the rumors」

He says it's a rumor, but he speaks like he's sure of it.

He may know that I'm one of them too.

His eyes are too sharp for an innkeeper.

He's definitely not a normal guy.

Still, a slave?

That looks intriguing enough so let's go take a look.

The destination is just a short walk away and it seems that I don't have to worry about security in the area.

After asking a few more questions, I was told that the auction would start in about thirty minutes.

I thought that it was earlier than expected, but looking at the foggy glass window, it was bright enough that I think the sun would be setting in another hour.

「When you return, we'll serve you dinner. Take care」

The manager saw me off, I left the inn, and went to the right just as I was told.

I was nervous moving around this other world alone for the first time but the streets are sparsely populated, and the people around me are well dressed, thus I don't sense any danger.

Rather, I was the suspicious one, wearing my T-shirt and Jersey, the ladies on the street were giving me a suspicious look.

I need to buy some clothes from here as soon as possible.

The suspicious man had arrived in front of a stone building, illuminated by torches.

At the entrance are two scary-looking burly men.

I stopped and asked, "Auction?" then surprisingly, they just welcomed me.

The guy led me through two doors to a hall that looked like a couple hundred tatami mats in size.

Perhaps the building tech is still underdeveloped, and the sheer number of pillars is a concern, but the atmosphere is much more disturbing.

Every person has an air of wealth around them and they're sitting around a table with what looks like guards behind them.

I feel out of place.

More than half of the chairs are empty, but I don't dare to walk in that one, so I wait by the wall.

I looked around the hall for otherworld sightseeing and information gathering, then the auction started a while later.

Looking at the spot the audience is drawn to, you see a middle-aged man with a fat toad-like face rising to the podium.