21. The Capitol

Novum was surprised at the size of the capitol. He knew that it would be big but this was huge. It was the size of a small metropolis in his old life. That was saving something. But then he thought about it and realized that one of his NPC characters from his book was from here and had described the capitol as a metropolis. The system took his words to heart and made this. It was a humbling feeling to know that was created for you but it fed his ego even more to knew that he was the one that designed all of this.

All three of them were pretty excited to be here and they were up well before the sun. When the traveled towards the gate they realized that despite their excitement they were third in line. It was not that far back and it was still early. When the sun came up and the bells rung the gates opened. Novum looked over his shoulder and saw a line of wagons as far into the distance as he could see. Suddenly he was glad that the men were as excited as he was.

The stayed close the wagon in front of them. The guard walked over to Dan, the guy driving the first cart. Dan immediately pointed towards Novum. "Sorry about that sir. Most people don't ride guard on their own stuff. They drive and have someone guard them. Purpose in city?"

"Selling furniture and art."

"Length of stay?"

"Less than a week."

"Can you read?"

"Yes I can."

"Great." He pulled out a paper. "Are you carrying any items on that list no matter how small the amount?"

Novum read down the list quickly and did not see anything concerning to him. "No sir."

"Okay then. Please mover orderly to the merchant area and obey the guards at all times. Gold per wagon for the fee."

Novum thought that was a little high but to keep the guard happy he simply handed him the gold. The guard was a little surprised the man didn't yell and complain about the prices and just handed him over the gold. As they started to ride away the man in charge gave him a smirk and a wink. The man knew he was being scammed and he just went with it. What an interesting fellow.

Novum followed the wagon in front of him as he was not sure where to go. He assumed that he would be able to find a merchant and sell everything as one big thing and then the vendor would bust it up how he wanted and probably triple the price. He knew that the price that they system gave him was what he would expect to pay for the item from a shop and most shop are there to make money and would try to lowball him. He assumed that he would get about half of what stuff was worth but that was still a lot of money.

They were several streets into the passing a restaurant that smelled amazing when a slender man came running up to him. "Good sir are both of these wagons yours?"

"Yes they are. Is there a problem?"

The slender man ignored his question. "Are you selling?"

"Yes I am here to sell everything but the wagons."

"My master fell in love with a few items and would like to look at everything right now if possible."

"I don't mind waiting for a few."

"Outstanding I will be right back." He moved quickly down the street to the restaurant and spoke with a short heavy man at an outside table. The man clapped quickly and got up from the table and left without paying. The waitress started to say something and an older man put his hand on her arm and shook his head. He leaned over and whispered in her ear and she thanked him.

The man came up and started looking over everything in the cart and smiled from ear to ear. He seemed to love everything that was here. When Novum looked at him a little closer he realized that had the man sat on the furniture he would have been perfectly camouflaged. He held his smile in check though. He had the number in the system for everything that was left and he hoped the man wanted everything. The man motioned to his butler and whispered to him. The butler pointed at Novum.

The round man came over to him. "Good morning."

"Good morning to you as well sir. Did you see anything that might please your refined taste?"

"Oh you are a smooth one. I will take everything. How much?"

"Sir I feel rude sitting up here would you mind if I climbed down so that I do not feel like I am yelling?"

"That is very mannerly of you. Of course come on down."

Novum stepped down and the man was shocked at the size of him. He had not realized his size because he looked so at home on Noctis who was a huge warhorse. "Sir one of the main reasons that I wanted down is that I am carrying a expanded bag and I have several more pieces of art that are part of this set. One of them is solid gold. Not a hollowed out statue but solid gold." The system valued everything at just over 35,000 gold but given the situation he hoped that he would get 18,000 or so but that was through a vendor. "I think that 40 will cover everything, including the delivery and art in my bag."

"Without seeing the art I could never go more than 20 based on what I see on the cart."

Novum pulled off his pack and sat it on the ground and checked the area. He pulled out the solid gold statue and a few other pieces. "How about 35?"

"Let's go with 32."

"You have a deal. My man here will show you the way and I will be along shortly with the funds. I need to finished my breakfast and go by the bank." He put out his hand and Novum took it. The short man headed back to his breakfast and the girl was topping off his coffee to make sure it was hot.

The man moved towards the first wagon and Dan. Dan slid over and handed the reigns to the man. With a sure and steady hand, the man guided the horses through the merchant area and to the residential area of the city. The man stopped in front of a house that was bigger than any three houses in Three Mines. When he stopped it looked almost like and army of ants leaving a hive as people started coming out and grabbing things left and right. Novum pulled the rest of the art out of his bag and handed it to the butler who passed it off to various people.

Once it was all unloaded the man gave Novum a large smile. "Sir, I appreciate your taking the time to let my master have a look at your stuff. He was supposed to get a set like this a few years ago but the vendor backed out when a third party got involved. He was devastated."

"Honestly that makes me even happier. Given that I assumed I would have to sell to a merchant to get rid of that much I was honestly not expecting that much. But given that he got what he wanted and I got a better price I think that it worked out for both of us." Novum was not sure how but the short man came out of the house and up to them. He mast have some type of magical travel. It was amazing.

"I had to put it in a small bag. Consider the bag a bonus for your timely arrival. Now to get everything set up. Have a great day gentlemen." The man turned and headed back into the house.

"If you will excuse me. He is going to get carried away and I am going to have to work twice as hard to fix it." He gave them a bow of his head and started towards the house at a trot.

"Well that takes care of half of the trip. Now we need to figure out how to get back the merchant area and pick up some of the things that I need."

One of the young workers was close by and head this. "Sir go one street up and take the next right and then go two streets and turn right again it will take you to the marketplace. This also puts you in the area of the marketplace where you can safely park your wagons for a fee. That might help you while you are looking around. They also have a system that a vendor will send you stuff to your carriage if it is small enough."

Novum tossed him a gold coin. "Thanks. Well you heard the lad, let's go." The residential streets were not near as busy as the market streets they were on earlier and they made really good time back. Sure enough as they got closer and the noise got louder they saw the area the kid told them about for wagons.

There was a bored looking man sitting in a booth with the prices written on the front. Novum was a little excited to see that they offered overnight services that included security as well. The prices were a little high but he felt that it would be worth it. "Sir I would like to put up two wagons for the rest of the day and the night. With the security option as well."

The man barely looked at him. "Do you have enough money?"

Novum pulled out two platinum pieces and tapped then on the little shelf in front of the man. The man immediately sat up straighter and fixed his wrinkled shirt. "I apologize for my lackluster greeting sir. Most people from out of the capitol don't agree with our prices and try to haggle."

"Given what you are offering and the people necessary for that I do not think you prices are unreasonable."

"Thank you very much sir. Just so you know the care and feeding of the animals is included in the cost of the overnight package. I assume you are going shopping so tell any vendor that you are in stall nineteen and twenty and they will have it brought straight here. If it is small enough that they can move it."

"If I purchase any livestock is their care and feeding in this price." Novum did not think it would be but he should at least ask.

"No sir that is separate. It ranges from one to five silver depending on the animal. Though I have not seen any of the predatory pets in the market lately so more than likely it will be one to three silver depending."

"That is not bad at all. Go ahead and put all of that on my account so that it covers them and I will settle up anything else in the morning when we pick up."

"Of course sir. I am glad to be of service."

"Guys let his men have the wagons and go fine a room for the night. Then you are free for the rest of the day to do what you would like. I will be in the marketplace for most if not all of the day. I want to finish the shopping and get you guys out of here first thing in the morning." He did not mention he would not be with them but that was a concern for in the morning.

"Sir we will stick close by you for a while. Just in case you need something." Novum could tell that they were both intimidated by the sheer size of the city. He hoped that they did not get taken advantage of.

With that the trio stepped out of the relative quite of the wagon area to the bustling insanity of the marketplace.