"Centre core, Food district and the hero's temple. This centibus will now turn back."

Now that I thought about it, couldn't I return to the inn first before going here?

Hmmmmmm.... It can't be helped, I'll buy a few things first as rations for the return travel.

I ate all the things I bought with the saint when I got home last night, so I need to restock.

Let's see what they got here. The easiest and most convenient would be barbecue since it comes with a handle. It's less messy too but even I would get bored eating meat all the time.

"Hey mister, how about I be your guide. It's only a couple of copper coins. I can show you all the great stores, unlike the tourist traps near the road you see here."
"Are you new here kid? You do know that we have rules here on the island. The basis of a proper trade is the equality of the value. Even if there are allowances for the value, I doubt someone new with no knowledge is equal to a couple of copper coins. Your zero knowledge doesn't amount to anything, meaning your service has no value."

Looks like this is his way of getting into contact with me without raising suspicion about the 'organization'. I'm impressed you took on a 'sunny' disposition but you need to work on your acting a bit more. No one would suspect you of being the broken kid you were outside the gate but it is outright suspicious for someone new like you to take on a tour guide job.

Others might attribute it to you not knowing the rules but picking someone like me a dwarf, who is sure about himself, is weird. I don't look like someone who would fall for a con, not to mention the well known trait of stubbornness in dwarfs.

I need to create a way for him to interact with me normally or the human group will grow suspicious ans keep an eye on him. Being a guide is out of the questions, carrying my luggage is out too since they bought me a storage equipment,.. I can't think of anything.

"Well, If you really want to earn your coin then how about be my assistant for the afternoon. You will take care of the choosing, haggling and buying. For every good choice you make, you will earn your pay, and for every wrong decision you make, I will deduct you. If you are in the negative by the time we finish, then I will have you run around the outer wall until you worked it off."
"Eh? Ah, Yes!"
"Don't misunderstand it as me being mean. This is a proper exchange, you don't have anything to offer so I will decide your worth as the day goes on. If you can't bring anything good then you need to offer the only thing you can, which is labour. I don't have anything I need you to do, so instead, you can run around for my amusement. Do you accept?"
"Yes, I accept."
"Good, then let's start with meat. Go!"

I wonder if this would pass as a natural thing from the view of the human continent royalty. I won't ask them to completely ignore it but I hope they pass this as something like a whim of mine.

"..Eh? Meat, meat, every store here sells meat."

At least keep up your enthusiastic guide persona. You should have noticed that I was being watched. You are here at the inner core despite our rendezvous being 2 days later. I didn't notice you among the crowd but from how you ambush me almost after I got off the centibus means that you were monitoring the centibus coming from the dwarf district.

The princess got off a station away but since the inner core is elevated, you should have seen us coming up here. I am sure you saw the suspicious group beside me. I was even looking at them when we were talking, so you should have figured out that I have a need to keep my little trip outside a secret.

You entered using money and you are a kid, so you should have already garnered a couple of watchful eyes. They can't do anything to you here in the city but merchants are crafty, especially the human princess. However, they could blockade your business so you won't be able to buy things cheaply. They can't bankrupt you since it might be against island rule but it would slow your income so you can only barely make a living.

"Calm down, you're losing your eager attitude that you showed at the beginning. If you aren't sure what to choose, don't blindly pick the nearest one. Do a bit of research and narrow the list. The first thing is to ask me what my preference for meat is, how much I need, and what do I need it for. After all of that, you need to ask for my budge, so you can plan accordingly and find the sweetspot between quantity and quality. Understand?"
"Yes! Thank you for the lesson."
"Alright, since I had to guide you this is one negative. If you don't show your worth soon, be prepared to be exhausted running around."

Looks like he caught on now. Now, while he is running around, I can relax and watch the mini show around the hero's temple.

"Hey, isn't that brill! What are you doing here?"

Victor? What are you doing here at this time? I thought chatterbox invited us to go shopping later? What are you doing here with food in your hand and meat in your mouth? Don't expect us to treat you to a meal later because I am sure among the three of us, you will be the most excited at a title match. I won't let you steal my food at that moment of glee.

"I had business here a moment ago. What are you doing here? I thought we were supposed to meet up with chatterbox at the inn before we go snack shopping?"
"I got tired of waiting until you woke up, so I told chatterbox to meet me here when you're ready. Where is he?"

Ah, I guess he is still waiting for me to return.

"He must still be at the inn, do you have anyway to contact him? I don't want to return all the way to the inn just to come back here."
"Hmmmm,,,,Oh!! I remember that the hero made a pigeon messaging team."

They have pigeon here? There are no small birds at the dwarf kingdom and even though the human kingdom has a lot of birds, they are more aggressive than normal since there are also monsters flying at the sky. There is no way their species would survive.

"Pigeons?"
"It's some bird from the hero's world. I hear they are gallant birds over 3 metre in size that deliver crates of letters to other continents."
"That sounds amazing, does the central island have those things here?"

Seriously amazing, how could the hero describe it like that? Is the hero a pigeon lover or was the normal pigeon sound too weak that it needed to be spiced up like that?

"Sadly, it was deemed too strong to be allowed to live here in this world. It would take over the skies and kill other flying creatures. The hero had to send them back. However, we have an alternative here on the island. The hero called it komodooo! It's this lizard creatures that send your message to a designated location anywhere on the island. Every house here has a mail box where the komodoo can drop your message to, except the arena since there are too many people to actually deliver a specific mail. They only accept mails addressed to them or authorized by them, you know VIP and stuff."
"Send them back? You mean the hero brought that horrific sounding creature to this world?"
"The hero was in our continent at that time, so the elders offered to recreate them using golem-craft and automatons. The hero only needs to input the proper behavior and they will live properly in this world but the hero refused because it could cause a shift in nature's balance."

Nature's balance my arse, considering how the heroes divided this continent, sent nautical monster to guard the sea's and progressed society forward by a couple hundred years, I'm surprised such a thing could come out of that hero's mouth. The very impact that the heroes caused has basically shifted the culture of every race in this world.

"I see, then go ahead and send a message to chatterbox. Tell him to meet us here so we can finish buying food for the title match later."
"Why don't you do it?"
"I sent someone on an errand, so I have to wait here until they return."
"Then why don't we just wait for that person and send them to send the message."
"It's because I don't know how long he will take to return that I have to stay at this spot. If we keep waiting until later, we might not have much time to buy our snacks. Do you want to watch the title match without food or drinks?"
"Alright, alright, I'll go and send him a message."

Now that I think about it, this should be the first time I am shopping with these guys. I will have an expert on anything related to combat and an expert anything related to buying and selling. They would have been useful when I have a portable wallet but having them would have made the negotiation tricky.

"I found all the good places to buy meat products. There is a supplier store a bit of a walk from here that sells them raw but there are stores here that offers cook the ingredients you brought. I calculated the price and it's considerably cheaper than what the others are selling here, with the exception of barbecue stalls."

He did better than I thought. If I thought about it, it should be obvious. It's not like everyone here are merchants from their respective continents. Like the kid here that came from outside, there are also descendants of those who chose to live here in the island. Those that can be sure of their lineage can return to their continent but those mixed can't.

That means they have their way of obtaining meat in this place other than outside trade. I guess they would need something like that or they won't be able to survive if they got cut off by the continents.

Everything is still functioning clearly thanks to the hero's influence but since he died, it's only a matter of time before this world will start to decay.

Everything is in order as long as the hero takes charge but since I am the current hero. I don't want to involve myself with those. It makes me wonder how the previous heroes got to that position, I mean they are stripped off their starting equipment by those descendants, but somehow they end up in a position of power that changes this world.

Is their cheats that much better than what I have? Do I have lower than normal hero luck or something? The first known record of the hero is the one who actually stopped the war by splitting the world. After that hero was gone, the second known hero protected the divide by calling upon sea monsters. Finally, the last accurately recorded hero is the one who created this island along with that temple, along with the descendants who collect the starting gear.

After those three, all other heroes just pop up and take over the flow of the world. Since the world is divided into continents, the only way they would know a hero appeared is when those heroes travel to the other continent or news reach the central island.

"..Teacher?"
"Hmm?"

*Glare*

Don't call me teacher.

"I mean, sir customer. Should I continue searching or should I guide you to the location?"
"My bad, I was thinking about this temple here. Well, none of that matters for now. Me and my friends are the ones that are going shopping so for now, we have to wait here until they arrive."

I got distracted there for a few minutes. I need to watch out for that, since I am now a business partner with the princess.

"Don't just stand there and sit down. We will do a lot of walking around later. Rest when you can. I understand that you are new to this. Being an employee, you must show that you are always ready but it's foolish to waste your energy doing something that doesn't amount to anything. It's alright to show you are a professional but this isn't the palace, we aren't in front of the hero. You can relax  for a bit and sit with us. There is no meaning for you to stand there like a tree for no reason. The only people that care about those things are narcissistic arrogant egomaniac that only care about what other people think about them."
"I....see..."

*Sits down*

Hahaha, I didn't really curse the princess and swore eternal vengeance to her when I died. I tricked her to almost be burned to death with her own skill, so in my mind I settled the score with her. I took the head knight with me when I died so that grudge was also settled.

The problem is the head maid. For now, I am taking my time grinding her gears but that isn't nearly enough for what she did to me. I can't and won't forget the time I spent in that academy only feeling pain and agony. Soon, I shall settle the score soon, for now I will take my time as I push your buttons.