I walk towards the little girl that's currently extorting me.

"Hey, I don't have any money with me right now, could I pay with food perhaps?"

As soon as I mentioned food her eyes lit up.

"Mmm! Ye-"

But turned back normal again. I say normal, but she is looking quite wary of me.

"...If it isn't rotten"

Oi, who gave this girl rotten food?!

"I-It's not rotten!"

I take out one of the tomatoes of my farm along with a knife of the 'daily necessity' set. I call them 'daily necessity' set but these things have pretty fancy names. This one is called [Goblins Chefs Kitchen Knife of Everlasting Freshness], basically, it stops oxidation at the parts where you cut, therefore stopping the browning of certain foods. Not exactly everlasting freshness. Also, what is a goblin chef? Pretty sure I didn't meet something like that, but it's also not like I appraise everything and everyone I see.

I cut the tomato in half and eat one half.

"Here you try it too"

And give the other as a taste test for the girl. Since she saw me eat one half, she tries eating it after making sure I swallowed it all Either that or my Social Mastery took this long to convince her. Or both.

"Delicious!"

Her eyes light up again. What a colorful child.

I take out another potato sack and put a few of my ingredients inside, enough for 2 days for up to 3 people.

"Here you go, now keep what you saw today a secret ok?"

"YES!"

She bows vigorously after seeing the food in the sack. Taking it, she runs somewhere.

...I still wanted to ask if she knows Silvia's Alchemy shop maybe.

 

*       *        *

 

Asking a few pedestrians I found my way to Silvia's shop, it has a really good position. While the shop isn't too large it has a good position, it is near the main road leading to the castle, central in the middle of the city. She seems to be doing quite well considering how much this place must cost.

"Welcome, sir!"

I am greeted by a young man as I enter.

"Hello, I am looking for Silvia, is she perhaps not here?"

"The boss? No, umm, what would your name be, sir?"

"My name is Hiro Fukuda."

"Eh? F-fukuda-sama?"

He quickly takes out a paper from behind the counter. Silvia seems to have told him something about me?

"C-certainly, umu!"

Looking at how he alternates between looking at me and the paper it seems to be a description of how I look? Luckily, I am wearing the same armor as last time. Mainly because I didn't have any clothing fitting for this world and I didn't want to stand out too much. I do have the Heavenly set but as expected walking around in that is a bit too much. Even this over-the-top armor fits in more than that!

"I'm sorry for my disrespectful behavior!"

The man bows deeply and

"I will call the boss right now, please excuse me for a moment!"

hurriedly enters the door on the back. I didn't really find his behavior disrespectful though? I found his demeanor to be pretty professional actually. Is being a noble that much of a deal? Or maybe Silvia told him something weird.

As I wait for the attendant to return, I notice that he left the paper on the counter, but that doesn't look like a description of me at all? Isn't that a drawing?! And it's so detailed too!

As I was looking at the drawing the door open and a seemingly very happy Silvia enters with the boy.

"Hiro-sama! You finally came! I was wa----?!"

Turning red she dashes towards me, grabs the drawing in a jump, and falls to the floor. Is she okay? She is not moving anymore.

"..."

Ah, she is standing up again smiling at me.

"I am so happy you could make it here Hiro-sama."

"Yes, I had some extra time so I wanted to visit you first."

Are we ignoring what just happened? You know I can see ashes falling from your hands, right? Did she burn it with magic?! I'm envious...

"So, what was that dra---"

"LET'S GO TO THE BREAK ROOM!!"

Seems like we really are going to ignore what just happened.

"Ok, let's do that"

I follow her steps with a wry smile on my face.

 

*       *        *

 

The building apparently is much deeper than it looked from the outside, she doesn't just have the shop's entry room but also a small break room and a workspace-cum-laboratory.

We are currently sitting in the break room and drinking some herb tea.

"You said you came here because you had some free time, right?"

"Yes."

"So, you didn't visit because you're leaving the area? You promised me you would visit me before leaving."

"No worries, I really just came because I was free and wanted to spend some time with you, Silvia"

She seems really happy. How nice.

"Say, do you have any plans for today? No, it's already quite late, d-do you have a place to stay for the night?"

"About that, you see I, umm, I didn't bring any money with me? I also may not have any identification.... and obviously no inn..."

"EEH? EEHH?! B-but how?!"

"Ahaha, well I somehow lost my identification, I didn't bring any money to begin with as I didn't plan on entering cities too much and I couldn't book an inn since I have neither of them, I also visited you first thing after coming."

"..."

First, she was happy, then shocked, full of concern and now I can see resignation. I feel like I'm making her suffer, all I can do is give empty laughter at the situation.

"hahah--"

"THIS ISN'T A LAUGHING MATTER!"

"U-uh"

"Waa, we have to quickly get you an identification, I can give you some money but it will be problematic if you can't identify yourself when asked to!"

"Ah, I don't need your money, I have drops from the monsters I hunted I can sell at a shop later.

"U-umu, then we have to hurry and get you a temporary ID from the guards at the gate, it may not be too late to still do that. With the temporary ID, we can get you a permanent one at one of the guilds, there should also be an office where you can apply for a long-term stay which grants you an ID but that probably isn't what you want."

"Yeah, I'll try going with one of the guilds, I'm not sure which one to apply to though."

"Wouldn't it be the Adventurers Guild for you? I mean you're great at fighting and survival, you can even fight monsters in the Black Devil Forest alone!"

That’s true... but I feel like I'll have to do work if I join them, even if it's only every now and then.

"As you know I don't really visit the city too often, so I think I'm actually fine with not hurrying to get an ID. I also still have to think about which guild I want to join."

"Hmm, but what are going to do about the inn? You can't get a room without showing some kind of ID, you know?"

"I'm sure I can find a solution for that too, if it doesn't work out, I plan on sleeping outside for tonight, I mean sleeping outside isn't anything unusual during travels anyway."

I lied, I never slept outside before. I also don't like sleeping outside at all, but I can't say that I planned on just sneaking into an empty inn room now, can I?

"N-no! I'll do something about the inn! I won't let you sleep outside!"

"No really, it's fine"

She closed her eyes with a slight frown, probably thinking about a solution to my problem.

"It's already evening... we only have a few hours until most shops close... hmm..."

"Silvia, how about we first go shopping? I still need some clothes to wear. I also want to sell my items"

I say as I point at the potato sack. I wish I had a backpack ready, I didn't think about it first but walking around with this is really awkward.

"Ugh, ok then let's hurry, first we can visit a general store to sell everything, that should be fine right?"

"Yes, sound good."

I smile and get ready to leave with Silvia.