The pair eventually entered a stable that was located near an inn. They were charged with having the horse handed over and taken care of, though it wasn't much. The fence gate to the stable opened after Father handed the payment over to the farmer, and then Father led the horse into the stable after setting the carriage down in an open area. Father petted the horse's mane one time and then left, walking towards the carriage.
Anemone was already attaching leather straps to the Moonwine, which allowed it to be carried, and then Anemone did the same thing as Father, petted the steed, and waved her goodbyes.
"Goodbye, Dash! Thank you for your hard work," She said. 'I'm gonna miss him, except when we were on this stone road, that wasn't his fault though.'
She walked towards the fence and began to wait for Father as he also grabbed a few boxes. She looked around at all the large buildings made of brick and stone. Every building was decorated with vines, plants, or decorations of some sort. The bustling city stood in front of her, and she couldn't wait to begin to explore.
Anemone looked back to see Father beginning to approach her, so she began to walk, looking at the busy stalls that she passed on the way here. Everyone was smiling and had a drink or food in their hands, the city radiating glee, causing her to smile. She turned around once more and then saw Father right before her.
"Boo!"
"Ahh!" She jumped jokingly to raise his spirits, not acknowledging that she already knew he was there. "You got me, Father." She smiled.
The cheerfulness that fell upon the elderly man's face was enough to raise the spirits of an entire city.
"Are you ready to go, young one? We have quite a lot to do and not much time to get started. We need to set up a shop, return to the carriage and receive the rest of our supplies, and go shopping for items that would sell quickly, such as bread. We can't sell moldy bread."
"We also need to eat, Father. Pleassseeee!" She curled her bottom lip and made her eyes sparkle.
"I know, young one, we will. We currently have about sixty silver, which will cover our minor expenses until we leave this city. No big purchases though! Now, let's go shopping."
"Yayyy! Okay, Father!" She responded excitedly, though her mood would soon flip as she saw the prices.
***
The pair were currently inside a store filled with accessories, sets of armor, weapons for both mages and warriors alike, but also had simple items such as books, quills, or clothes.
"Young one, come here." She heard from the other side of the store.
Anemone stood up, glancing towards to see Father calling for her. She walked slowly, looking at displays that had staves, grimoires, greatswords, shortswords, rapiers, maces, and many other weapons. She then walked around the store and saw many containers that sat on wooden shelves, one had the words 'OLD ITEMS, SELL QUICK' which interested Anemone. She then grabbed the container and brought it down, setting it on the ground.
Inside were many things: a journal with ink and a quill, with the quill attached to the journal with a piece of string, and the ink was inside a glass vial. A simple wooden tag was attached to it, and it read '8 COPPER.'
'Where I am from, that would only be five copper, but whatever.'
The last thing she looked at were simple gloves, they were made of leather and fit perfectly on her hand. Though they were overpriced.
"Two SILVER?" Anemone yelled, quickly covering her mouth, and muttered, "This should be six copper at most."
She dismissed the gloves, returning the container to its home, and then finally walked over to the Father, who had been waiting patiently. On the way over, she had the bright idea to scare him, so as she turned the final corner, where he should be waiting, she began to sneak, walking much slower and low to the ground.
As she turned the corner, she just saw the elderly man looking down at her, his arms crossed, and he was already scowling at her.
"Took you a while," He said with an ill-mannered expression.
"Oops. Sorry, Father."
"Whatever, you wanna be an adventurer, right?"
"Yes, Father! Very much so!"
"Okay, well, listen. We only have sixty silver, or six gold. Forty-two of them will be for food, drinks, and lodging. Another ten is for bribing the guard so that we may set up a stall and sell products, though it will only last a week. That is already fifty-two silver! Lastly, since you want to join the Adventurers Guild of this town, it will cost five silver to register and one silver to rank, unless you want to start at F-Rank for free. And then it will cost a monthly expense of three silver to continue being an adventurer. That is already fifty-eight silver now and three more at the end of the month, totaling sixty-one silver. Remember, we only have sixty."
Before she knew it, her brain had already turned to mush, and her eyes seemed to roll back into her skull, all because of the rambling of Father. What brought her back was him grasping her shoulders and shaking her out of her trance as he began to speak again.
"Long story short, fifty-two silver if you don't want to join the Adventurers Guild, or sixty-two if you do want to join with all the benefits."
"Okay! You could have put it simply from the beginning!" she said, her head shaking.
'So if we do not pay for the test, I would start as an F-Rank Adventurer, and I would only make a few copper a day. But, if I did rank and got at least C-Rank, I could make at least one gold every day, or at least a few silvers. Okay! D-Rank minimum, I would make at least one silver daily, I could explore the surrounding area, get used to it, then push myself and maybe rank up, or grow my core.'
"I'm going to join and get ranked!" She declared.
"Alright, young one, in three days' time, you may go. For now, we must set up the shop and bribe the knight who guards the stands and makes sure everyone has a license."
'I thought we had a license, but oh well.'
As the pair began to walk around the large, bustling city, they stumbled upon a busy, but out-of-the-way street. It was adorned with many beautiful buildings, clothing lines hung between buildings, potted plants set outside the windows, including lovely red roses, luscious Liliums, beautiful Blue Orchids, and many others. Some windows were hung open to let the cool breeze fill the rooms. The pair could hear the whistling of a teapot from a building. Lastly, lanterns hung from the sides of most of the brick buildings or hung above a door with a candle burning inside.
The pair continued to walk while Anemone looked to her sides. She slowly steered off from Father, and above her stood an arch. A luscious arch with vines growing on it and hanging down. She continued walking, which turned out to be down an alleyway, and the lights that hung on the sides of each building slowly began to fade in color. The panes that surrounded each candle made the light go from a soft white to a solid yellow, to a rich pink. And after a few more minutes of walking, they were a dark crimson red. It seemed like she had entered a different world, and she could tell what she was walking into.
'The Red-Light District,' she thought.
She turned around, wanting to escape the place she had yet to enter, and before her stood two women, who were tall with dark skin. She looked down to see them wearing purple heels that probably added fifteen centimeters (~6 inches) to their height. And as she tilted her head back up, she caught a glimpse of the hanging, purple loincloth that barely covered the important bits; each woman had a large chest, and their eyes, which locked with Anemones', turned into the shape of a crescent moon. Their tongue stuck out to wet their lips, circling from the bottom lip to the top, making their red lips shine. Their expression slowly transformed into a smirk, and they opened their eyes to reveal fiery red eyes that seemed to draw in Anemone.
Her eyes quickly darted down, embarrassed to be where she was, and she began to run off. Her eyes slowly fell to her own chest as she ran.
'I hope a man likes me,' she thought.
She then shook her head, erasing those thoughts from her mind as she made her way out of the alleyway, past the arch, and back to where she and Father had just been. He had noticed that she was missing and was currently talking to a knight who was on patrol in the area. She knew not to butt in, so she just stood there, with a large distance between them.
She then saw Father hand over a single gold coin while muttering something to the knight. They did the exchange in a simple way to make it look as though it was a handshake. And when he retrieved his hand, he no longer had the gold coin, while something within the knight's hand shone brilliantly.
Assuming the bribery went well, she became excited, knowing that this was a prerequisite that must be met to allow her to join the Adventurers Guild.
'Hurry, I wanna go to the guild! So let's sell all the stuff already.' she told herself.
She sat against the wall, waiting, and as their eye met, she became excited, expecting to hear fantastic news, but it was quite the opposite.
"We can't use our carriage as a stall."
She didn't understand at first, but it quickly dawned on her as she looked toward his bitter expression.
'So we need to use more money.'
"Wait, Father. Didn't we have the rights in the carriage?"
"We did, it must have fallen out at some point. Now, we need to sell everything as quickly as possible, or else we may have no funds for this journey."
She put on a fake smile and looked toward the elderly man, "I believe in us!"
"You're right, young one. Thank you." He smiled bitterly
"So, how much is a cart?"
"We could use one gold to own one, or one silver daily to rent it."
In the end, the pair decided to rent one from a shop just down the road. It was a twenty-minute walk, and the cart they chose had two wooden wheels, which reached up to Anemone's waist. It had two large pegs in the front, allowing it to stand still, and it also had a roof attached on top to prevent the rain from dripping onto the products.
The pair pulled the heavy cart to where they planned to set up, and Father once again looked up.
"We have about eight hours of daylight left, let's make the most of it."
The cart was set off the side of the road, facing toward the road, and they began to set it up. On the right side of the cart was a crate of apples and grapes. The price was set to five copper for a pair of each, or three copper per apple or bundle of grapes when bought. Next was fine wheat bread, which was the most common food; despite this, they decided to sell it at one copper per slice.
Next were the herbs, each was in a small pouch, laid on a small blanket in small portions. Garlic was two copper a pouch, lavender was three, basil was three, ginger was four, and the Purple Sage that Anemone had acquired was priced at five copper. Alongside this was the Blue Oyster Mushroom at six copper per mushroom.
"Father, if we go out again, can we make sure to get the red and white-capped mushrooms? Each store we have visited sold it."
"Yes, young one, if we remember."
They then continued to set up while Father slowly retrieved items left in the original carriage they had used to travel. The milk was eight copper for two liters (1/2 gallon), while the Moonwine, the gift from the elves, had yet to be priced.
Over the next two hours, she visited many stores, whether it be a shady area, a populated one, a random stall, a popular tavern, or what, but she specifically made sure to visit barmen.
Most said, "Authentic Moonwine is impossible to get your hands on. Most people fake it."
"But how much would you pay for it?" Anemone asked this one barmaid.
She then leaned over the counter, whispering to Anemone so as not to arouse anyone who might be hoping for some. "Three gold per liter." (~4 cups, or a quarter gallon)
Anemone's ears instantly perked up, her hands got excited, and her cheeks turned red from excitement.
'Now I know why they say it's rare, that's one hundred and twenty gold,' she thought.