Zack arrived at the gates of the village with the potion in his pocket, feeling a bit nervous. If he is right, his life of poverty might disappear. After hastily greeting the guards, he entered the village without any issues.
He walked through the main street with determined steps, clearly having a destination in mind. It was getting a bit late, and people were returning ho from work. Along the way, so workers stopped to greet him before continuing on their way.
Everyone in the village knew the doctor who lived on the outskirts. While not everyone seed to like him, it would be foolish to ignore the only doctor in the village, at least in front of him.
On another occasion, Zack might have stopped to talk to people, but now he was too nervous; he just wanted to confirm his hunch. After walking for a few minutes, Zack reached his destination.
In front of him was a large store, with people coming in and out intermittently. A symbol of a bag with coins was engraved at the entrance, indicating that the store owner was a mber of the rchants' guild.
The rchants' guild held a special status in the kingdom. Nobles could ignore or even disdain mbers of other guilds due to their status, but no one dared to underestimate the rchants' guild. This was because they controlled the money. Most nobles couldn't maintain their lifestyle if they offended the guild leaders.
Unlike other guilds, such as the blacksmiths' guild or the carpenters' guild, the rchants' guild didn't produce any products but acted as interdiaries. Most luxury goods ca directly from the rchants' guild. For example, the sale of salt in the kingdom. If nobles in areas not connected to the sea offended the rchants' guild, the supply of salt to their territory could be cut off.
Of course, not all guild mbers enjoyed such privileges. If a small rchant offended a significant noble, the guild would usually ignore the problem. It all depended on who they were dealing with.
The store in front of Zack was just a small business, but still, no one was willing to offend it. That showed the influence of the rchants' guild.
Just as he was about to enter, Zack stopped. His experience in his world told him that it wasn't appropriate to enter like this; he was too nervous. One thing his mother taught him was never to put yourself in a weak position when dealing with soone in business. They should always see you as strong and determined. Otherwise, they would do their best to take advantage of you. At best, the money he would receive would be much less than expected.
Finally, Zack decided to take a walk around the city. Although he had been here several tis before, there were still many places he hadn't explored. Seeing that he had ti, he decided to go to a place he hadn't been before, the town's residential area.
The village is divided into different sections, depending on the daily activities in the village. Zack had already been to the industrial and comrcial areas, so this ti he decided to go to the residential area. In all the ti he had been in this world, he hadn't seen how ordinary people lived.
The residential area wasn't far from the comrcial area where he was. After a couple of minutes of walking, Zack reached his goal.
He could feel the contrast imdiately. In the rest of the village, the streets seed to have been hastily constructed, trying to make use of every possible space to place another store. However, it seed like people took their ti thinking about how they wanted to design their houses.
The streets were wide, and on both sides, trees were growing. Children from the surroundings were running through the streets without a care in the world, playing among themselves. In the center of the residential area, there was a small square with a statue in the middle and benches surrounding it for people to sit.
If the other areas of the village represented progress, this place represented tranquility.
The residential area was not as he had imagined. Unlike the other areas he had visited before, the residential area was eerily quiet. Most adults were working in other areas or at ho, and the number of people here was less than expected. Except for so elderly people and children strolling around, there weren't many people.
Zack sat on one of the benches to admire the landscape. Since the day started, things had been happening non-stop. It wasn't until he started to relax that he realized how tense he was. The sound of children playing and the clouds drifting in the sky had a hypnotic effect. Before he knew it, he had fallen asleep.
...
..
.
"…ter"
M..ster"
"MISTER"
"AAHHHHhhhh"
Zack woke up startled by the screams he had heard. When he looked up to locate the source of the sound, he saw one of the children who had been playing before, looking at him with so fear for startling him.
While the child tried to explain himself, the first thing Zack did was check his pockets to see if anything was missing. Seeing that everything was still in place, he sighed in relief and focused on the child again.
"I'm sorry, mister. I didn't an to make you angry. It's not safe to sleep here; one could catch a cold," the child said with a trembling voice. Seeing the crying child in front of him and noting that nothing was missing, Zack's anger for being awakened disappeared completely.
"It's okay. I know you had good intentions. Just be a bit more careful next ti, understood?" Zack said, patting the child gently. At that mont, he noticed that the child seed strangely familiar.
"Have we t sowhere before?" he asked, sowhat curious. It's not normal for a child playing to co to soone they don't know and wake them up, even if it's in the middle of the street.
"Mister, don't you rember ? I showed you around the city the other day," the child replied sowhat anxiously, trying to make him recognize.
(Ah. It's that kid.)
At that mont, he rembered: on the first day he ca here, he paid a few coins to a child to show him around the village. Who would have imagined they would et again in this situation?
"What are you doing here?" Zack asked.
The child looked at the ground for a mont, thinking about what to say. Seeing this, Zack began to suspect that the encounter between them and the help he had received might not have been entirely selfless. But that's normal; there are very few people who help others without expecting anything in return, and they don't expect to run into them while they're sleeping.
Just as he was about to offer him so coins as a gesture of gratitude for waking him up, the child looked up and with a determined look asked him, "Mister, are you a doctor?"
"Please help . My sister is very sick, and I don't know what to do."
Faced with the unexpected request from the child, already gearing up to ask for help, only one thought ca to Zack's mind:
(I can't rest in peace.)
To be honest, today has been an exhausting day, and all he wants now is to go to the rchant to get a price for his potion. It was also obvious that he didn't have enough money. If his sister was truly ill, he couldn't afford the necessary dicine, not to ntion that he couldn't manufacture it either.
The harsh truth is that he is not a doctor. Although he has so knowledge, it's not enough to cure serious illnesses. The best thing he can do in this situation is to ignore the child. If the villagers find out that he went to see a doctor and couldn't cure her, they will start doubting him. In the worst case, they will demand proof of his abilities.
That could be a real problem. He couldn't risk being discovered by a stranger.
A silence fell between the two, and with each passing second, the child beca a little more nervous. Just when he thought he wouldn't answer him and that he had rejected him, a shadow covered his figure, and a voice sounded above him.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Aren't you going to show the way?"
Monts later, a scream echoed throughout the square, making everyone turn towards the source of the sound.
There stood a child in shabby clothes and a refined-looking adult. The child was grabbing the man's pants while crying, despite the man's attempts to push him away, trying not to hurt him.
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