Fifty units of blood had netted us quite a bit of gold, twenty thousand to be exact, but for what we had planned there wasn't enough gold in the world. We needed a sustainable income, and spending my days exhausted from draining what blood I could was not the way to do it.

Cal and I walked briskly, having many stops planned today. One more walking closely behind us energetically, a particularly upbeat catkin who was swinging her tail happily after being told that we needed her help.

"Belle be useful to master, Belle remember all the prices. Master praise Belle."

"Yes, yes. Prices and the names of the product. Descriptions also if you can, they should have those listed too."

We soon came up upon a row of alchemical shops, all marked with the same family's seal. "The Noroma family, I know of them from being in the same business, influential and closely allied with the king. When we left the capital they were already rising fast, it seems now that the years have been kind to them." Cal explained to satisfy my look of curiosity.

Hearing that they were tied with the king, 'Bael', I suddenly felt a lot better about our objective. We were going to chart the prices for every single alchemical good in circulation, all in order to find the most profitable markets to cut into. We may not have their recipes, but with my identification skill and Cal's expertise we had a good shot at replicating anything we saw.

Entering the first alchemy shop, we turned Belle loose, much to the attendent's dismay as she hopped excitedly from one display to the next like a wild animal.

"Terribly sorry sirs, no beastkin are allowed inside. I'm afraid you'll have to leave your girl outside if you'd like to shop here."

Seeing the store manager approach us unhappily I decided to act first, walking up to meet him with a swagger in my step, "It's fine, we won't be long." I said while flashing the black coin that everyone seemed to either love or fear in this country.

"Er- my apologies, I didn't realize you were agents of the king." The man said while shrinking back abruptly, afraid he had offended us.

"Let her do her thing while we go about our business, what we really need is some help for my friend here. He has..." Thinking for a second before a grin came to my face. "Spent too much time in the brothels across the river if you catch my meaning, do you have anything that can help for that?"

Cal's face souring at the implication that he was suffering from some sort of sexual disease while the attendant's eyes lit up in understanding. "Ah! Yes, why in fact we do. No need to be embarassed, it's a common issue really. You don't know how many nobles suffer after giving those beastkin strumpets a tussle, but I suppose I don't have to tell you that." The attendant suddenly becoming a whole lot more talkative now that he knew Cal shared his love for beastkin brothels.

Leaving a few minutes later after spending ten gold on some overpriced cure-all for syphilitic symptoms, tossing it into my inventory before letting out a hearty laugh.

"Couldn't you think up a better excuse?" Cal eyed me with daggers.

"Come now Cal, everyone knows you love the ladies, this one is perfectly believable as far as excuses go."

Cal only grimaced more after hearing my words. "That's precisely the issue... it's too believable. What's going to happen with my reputation?" Letting out a resigned sigh before turning his attention. "So did your pet succeed in what we set out to do?" Focusing onto Belle who was humming happily to herself with quite a smug attitude.

"Come now, Belle. Can you remember everything you saw?" I asked to her, to which she nodded enthusiastically. Beginning to list each in turn before I cut her off, knowing she would really list off everything she saw in the shop if I didn't do so.

"Well... there you go Cal. Perfectly memorized. Where's the next shop to visit?" Asking our resident expert on alchemy to guide us to our next destination. Eliciting another sigh when he realized I would probably be using the same excuse there too. His reputation would undoubtedly be taking a hit today.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

At the end of the day we had a leather binder full of every shop's inventory and list prices. Having manually transcribed each from Belle's description. It was now just a matter of replicating their wares.

Cal claimed he had enough knowledge to make a recipe if we could just find him the raw ingredients to use for it. Something that my identification ability was supremely suited for. Unlike actual alchemists who had to devise up clever tests for a myriad of possible effects and painstakingly test every single possible herb or ingredient, I could simply tell by looking at something what it would be useful for.

Seeing as we were going to be tracking down every herbalist shop and monster market in town tomorrow, I felt like heading home, but one person in our party seemed to be very vocally against that.

Pointing in the direction of the slave auction we had passed yesterday, Belle pleaded with me. "Please master, can we go see. Go see. Belle wants to go see." Looking at me with the sweetest kitty-cat eyes she could muster.

"The slave market? Why would a slave want to go there of all places?" Cal asked with a confused look.

I just rubbed my temple, contemplating my choices. "I did make some promises to her Cal, she's even helped us out today. You can go back for the day if you'd like, I'll hire a cab for you."

"It's fine, even I have some curiosity about these places. I've never bought slaves before, you know? Our family was never fond of beastkin."

His comment reminding me somewhat of Marcella, both of the siblings showing something of an honest curiosity towards beastkin that most people lacked. 

"Well, I suppose that decides it then. To the slave blocks it is."