Chapter 107: Adam’s Shopping 1

"And this?"

"Ores. Some for the Valorian forges, the rest will be shipped west after processing."

Adam was beginning to understand the duchy’s place in the trade networks.

Valoria wasn’t just a territory that bought and sold.

It processed.

Redistributed.

Served as a transit point.

Some goods arrived in their raw state before being processed locally.

Others simply passed through the city before continuing their journey.

Shiora showed him several warehouses as he passed.

"This one belongs directly to the Guild."

Then another.

"That one is private."

A third.

"Reserved for goods requiring magical oversight."

Adam asked many questions.

How were taxes calculated?

Which products did Valoria export the most?

What goods came from the dwarven territories?

The differences between them and elven products.

The most important trade routes.

The seasons that affected prices.

Shiora answered naturally.

She seemed almost incapable of getting bored when he talked about trade.

After much discussion, they arrived at the Merchants’ Guild faster than Adam had anticipated.

Shiora was about to go in when she stopped.

Then she turned around.

"By the way."

"Yes?"

"Are you going to do your shopping now?"

"That’s the plan."

"Do you have any money?"

Adam remained silent for a few seconds.

The question was so natural that he only realized then that they had never actually discussed it.

"Yes."

Shiora waited.

"How much?"

"A thousand gold pieces."

She remained motionless.

Then she looked at him more closely.

"A thousand?"

"Yes."

"Since when?"

"Since I arrived."

"And you’ve hardly used them?"

Adam thought for a moment.

"No."

Shiora slowly raised a hand to her forehead.

"Adam..."

"What?"

"You’ve been walking around with a thousand gold coins all this time and you’ve never thought to put them somewhere?"

He shrugged.

"I didn’t need them."

"That’s no excuse."

"I have an inventory. They’re perfectly safe there."

Shiora stopped.

"Okay. As for safety, I take it back."

She thought for a few seconds.

Then she rummaged through her own storage space.

A card appeared between her fingers.

Black.

Thin.

Almost metallic in appearance.

Purple lines ran across its surface, with the Merchant Guild emblem in the center.

She handed it to Adam.

"Here."

He took it.

"What is it?"

"Your bank card."

Adam immediately looked up.

"My what?"

"Your account already exists. I just gave you primary access."

He examined the card.

Thin runes were engraved around the edges.

"You opened an account for me?"

"Obviously."

"Without telling me?"

Shiora shrugged slightly.

"You live with the Duchess of Valoria, several guild masters, and me. Did you really think we were going to leave you without an official financial structure?"

Presented like that...

"It’s a VIP account," she added. "Under your name."

Adam raised the card slightly.

"And what exactly does that allow me to do?"

"Deposits. Withdrawals. Large payments at institutions linked to our network. Financial identity verification. And several other services."

Then she added with disarming nonchalance:

"Take what you need."

Adam stared at her.

"What do you mean?"

"If your thousand coins aren’t enough for something, use the account."

"Shiora."

"What?"

"How much is on it?"

She looked away slightly.

A bad sign.

"Enough."

"How much?"

"It doesn’t matter."

Adam narrowed his eyes.

"When you say the amount of money isn’t important, it immediately becomes very worrying."

Shiora crossed her arms.

"Just use what you need."

Adam studied the card for a few seconds.

Then his expression softened.

He knew Shiora.

The merchant.

The oni who could negotiate every single coin.

The woman who instinctively calculated the profitability of almost everything she saw.

And yet...

She had just handed him access to her money as if it were nothing.

Adam smiled.

He approached her.

Then he placed a brief kiss on her lips.

Shiora was surprised for a fraction of a second.

Adam stepped back slightly.

"So, my Shiora knows how to give money instead of taking it?"

Her expression changed immediately.

She glared at him.

"Go away."

Adam burst out laughing.

"That’s surprising, though."

"I earn money from foreigners."

She regained a little dignity before continuing:

"Not my family’s."

Adam stopped laughing for a few seconds.

Shiora added, as if she absolutely needed to justify her own generosity:

"And anyway, money that’s never used is useless." "It loses some of its potential economic value."

Adam smiled again.

"Naturally."

"That’s true."

"I didn’t say anything."

"Your face says it all."

He raised his hands.

"Very well."

He carefully put away the black card.

"Anyway... thank you."

Shiora looked at him.

This time, her expression softened as well.

"It’s nothing."

Adam took a few steps back.

"I’m going to do my shopping before you find another economic justification for a gift."

"Go on."

"See you tonight."

"See you tonight."

She was still smiling when she turned around.

Shiora entered the Merchants’ Guild.

Adam stood for a few seconds in front of the building.

Then he looked at the vast marketplace that stretched around him.

Dozens of shops.

Food stalls.

Merchants from different regions.

Fruits he didn’t recognize.

Spices.

Meats.

Fish.

Flour.

Oils.

Products from other peoples.

Adam smiled.

"Very well."

Today, no Selene.

No blacksmithing.

No trading lessons.

No magic sessions.

Only his mana compression to maintain...

And a surprisingly simple mission.

To find enough ingredients to prepare a proper dinner.

As well as a breakfast the women would likely not soon forget.

He headed towards the market.

Adam truly entered the market.

At this hour, the place was already crowded.

Voices mingled from all sides.

The vendors announced their wares, customers haggled over prices, employees carried crates between shops, while several carts were still unloading their merchandise.

And amidst all this...

Adam tried to maintain his mana compression without constantly thinking about it.

He had managed so far.

Might as well keep going.

His first stop was a large fruit stall.

He approached slowly.

The vendor, a human woman in her forties, immediately gave him a professional smile.

"Hello. Are you looking for anything in particular?"

"For now, I’m just browsing."

Adam examined the produce.

And very quickly, a strange feeling arose.

He recognized much of what he saw.

Or rather...

He recognized their equivalents.

One red fruit looked almost exactly like an apple.

Another like a pear.

Further on, strawberries.

Peaches.

Bananas.

Several varieties of grapes.

Only, none had the name he knew.

The shopkeeper showed him several with their local names.

Adam listened attentively.

But after the third name, he made a decision.

I’ll just keep calling them apple, pear, strawberry, and grape in my head.

Otherwise, he’d end up confusing the names of this world with those of Earth.

And the differences didn’t stop at the names.

Adam picked a purple apple.

Its skin was a deep, almost metallic purple.

"Is this one naturally like that?"

"Yes."

The shopkeeper seemed slightly surprised by the question.

"It’s a common variety in northern regions."

Adam then saw one that was almost black.

Then some silvery-gray grapes.

Some bunches even had a faint blue tint.

"Interesting..."

He bought several familiar fruits.

Not just for dinner.

He also wanted to prepare breakfast for the next day.

Apples.

Pears.

Strawberries.

Peaches.

Bananas.

Several kinds of grapes.

Then he became interested in fruits he didn’t recognize at all.

The vendor cut off a small piece for him.

The fruit looked like a small, light-skinned watermelon.

Adam tasted it.

He remained silent for a second.

"It’s similar to..."

Strawberry.

Grape.

But with a slightly more acidic flavor.

"Do you like it?"

"Yes."

Very much so.

He bought several.

Then he continued.

One orange fruit had an almost creamy flesh.

Another had a hard shell but very sweet pulp.

A third contained several small edible seeds whose taste changed slightly when you bit into them.

Adam obviously didn’t plan to cook immediately with ingredients he didn’t know.

So he bought small quantities of each new variety.

Samples.

He could taste them at his leisure and think later about what he could do with them.

Before leaving the stall, his gaze fell on several tomatoes.

Red.

Yellow.

Purple.

Almost black.

Some were round.

Others were long.

One variety was almost square.

Adam picked one up.

"Even tomatoes have decided to become strange in this world."

The shopkeeper gave him a curious look.

Adam smiled.

"Nothing. I’ll take several varieties."

He paid.

Then everything disappeared from his inventory.

The saleswoman watched the scene with a touch of envy.

The storage items existed.

But not all the inhabitants had access to such a convenient space.

Adam then moved on to vegetables.

Same phenomenon.

Potatoes.

Carrots.

Eggplants.

Onions.

Leeks.

Cabbage.

Squash.

Various leafy greens.

And many others whose function he vaguely recognized without knowing the exact species.

The colors, once again, seemed to have decided to ignore earthly conventions.

White or purple carrots.

Dark blue potatoes.

Reddish eggplants.

Several vegetables even possessed faint traces of mana visible with World Eyes.

Adam bought the vegetables he knew in large quantities.

For the unknown ones, he applied the same method as for the fruits.

Small quantities.

Testing first.

Experimentation later.

His third stop was the spice section.

There...

Adam became much more attentive.

"Salt."

Easy.

"Pepper."

Also easy.

Then came the chilies.

Red.

Green.

Black.

Small.

Long.

Round.

And some that the vendor very seriously advised him never to eat raw.

Adam bought several kinds.

Not a huge amount.

He preferred to understand their potency before accidentally turning dinner into a chemical weapon.

He also found various aromatic seeds and powders.

Some reminded him of cumin.

Others of cinnamon.

A few of paprika.

He bought a little of everything that seemed interesting.