The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 72

I decided to stay home one more day before heading back to school. I was going to come back next week for the Aurora Constellate, but I guess Mother and Ellie had developed some sort of trauma, that I was going to somehow get hurt every time I left home.

I knew that I had people to inform but I owed it to them to be there.

As a change of pace, I was determined to spend time with my family, namely my mother and sister. Father left at dawn for work after checking up on me so it would just be myself and the girls. Tabitha decided to tag along and after a rather brief discussion; they wanted to go shopping. It was fairly apparent to me that they wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Sigh...

I could at least use that chance to take a detour, after, to Xyrus Academy. I knew that everyone was safe according to what my parents heard from Professor Glory, but I shouldn’t keep them in the dark about what happened to me for an extra day. I was also a bit worried about the condition of Tess’s assimilation.

I lost count of the many places we visited after the umpteenth store but I didn’t dare show my displeasure in front of the girls. While browsing through the stores, I realized how ignorant I was. The fact that the only time I’d visited the shops was a bit after I was first reborn into this world, struck me; this, coupled with the fact that I had no noteworthy equipment besides my sword, made me contemplate getting new equipment. I still remembered the time when I was slung on Mother’s back and got to see all of the small tents filled with merchandise back up in the tiny town of Ashber.

Most of my childhood was spent in the Kingdom of Elenoir, more specifically, inside the castle. Even the previous time I went shopping with the ladies, we went directly to the fashion district so nothing appealed to me. There were some items with protective capabilities from either their material or from runes etched into the inside, but nothing powerful enough to catch my interest.

"Aunt Helstea, are there stores where they sell something that can help me train faster?" I asked while we headed inside a store that exclusively sold scarves.

"Hmm? You mean elixirs? Of course." Tabitha gave me a confused look as if I had asked some sort of trick question.

I’d never used the elixirs here, but if they were anything like the drugs some practitioners used in my old world, then I didn’t want to go anywhere near them.

"There’s actually a small elixir and medicine shop around the corner if you want to go take a look while we shop for some scarves..."

That was all I needed to hear before strategically bolting out the store.

"Thank you! I’ll meet you in front of the store!" I shouted while running out after carefully dropping the bags I was assigned to carry.

"Kyuu!" ’Don’t leave me!’

I saw Sylvie extend a paw out towards me in a desperate attempt to escape Ellie’s firm hold on her but I just gave her a look of condolence before running off.

Your sacrifice will not be in vain, I saluted.

After turning the corner as per instructions, my face crumpled up in bewilderment.

This was a store?!

The corner I turned at led me into a narrow alleyway thugs probably used to mug unsuspecting passersby. At the end of the narrow alleyway was a dingy shack that even rats would find too revolting to live in. The wooden planks that made up the store looked like they had been painted with moss and fungus as a musty, stale air emanated out, drifting towards me. At least it complemented the sickly green weeds creeping out from the bottom of the store as if even they didn’t want to be stuck there.

WINDSOM’S POTIONS AND MEDICINES

I had to tilt my head to read the etched title on the angled sign, which had been barely dangling on a single nail.

Did they really sell potions and medicines there? I would be less surprised if they sold bottled diseases and poisons.

"Spare some change, young lad?" A haggard voice startled me out of my stupefied state.

Beside me sat a pale old man with a hand reached out towards me, palms up.

I immediately took a step back in surprise, instinctively layering my body with mana.

How did I not sense this old man that was almost right next to me?

"You look like you’ve seen a ghost, young lad. I’m but a mere aged man asking for some change." The old man’s face wrinkled as he revealed a pearly white smile that didn’t match his ragged state.

"Ah yeah, sure." I reached in my pocket for a copper coin, using the opportunity to take a closer look at him.

With a thick, uncombed bed of pepper-tinted hair that fell down to his slightly hunched shoulders, he looked up at me with milky eyes. The old man’s wizened face, though, didn’t come off to me as weak and weary, but intelligent and bright, for some reason. I could tell that this man was probably very handsome in his youth, which all the more made me feel a bit disheartened seeing him end up like this.

"Many thanks, young lad." His gnarled hands nimbly grabbed the coin out of my hand with a speed that surprised me.

Between his middle and index fingers was a coin that was silver instead of copper.

Shit! I gave him a silver coin by mistake! That was a hundred copper coins!

"Wait... I meant to give you this..." I reached into my pocket again and when I made sure that this time, the coin in my hand was indeed copper, I looked back up to see that the old man was gone.

"What the f..." I stood there, bewildered for the third time in the last 5 minutes.

My money...

After letting a helpless sigh escape my lips, I took a step forward towards Windsom’s potion shack. I reached for the handle of the wooden door that seemed like it would break upon mere contact when I felt a concentration of mana from the copper doorknob.

Coating my hand in mana, I wrapped my fingers around the knob, preparing to turn it, when a stiff jolt coursed through my hand and up my arm. Thankfully, the mana protecting my hand helped me from pulling away so I forcefully twisted the knob, opening the door.

As soon as the door unlocked, the shock stopped as well. Pushing open the creaking door, I’m welcomed by a breeze of something indescribably horrendous. The stench was so strong that it immediately triggered a stream of coughs from me.

"Oh, a customer! What can I do for you?" a familiar voice welcomed me.

"You!" I couldn’t help but point my finger at him in both anger and confusion. It was the same homeless old man that disappeared after taking my silver coin!

"What brings you in here?" He looked at me with an innocent expression.

I sighed in frustration. "Can I just have my coin back? I need that money to buy some stuff I need... and besides, you said you were homeless." I stuck my hand out towards him.

"No, no... I said I was but a mere aged man. Based on the environment where you met me and by my appearance and demeanor, you assumed I was homeless." He wagged his finger at me in a scolding manner, as if I was the one in the wrong. "How about this, you can pick one item here for free as a thank you for the present," he continued in a magnanimous manner as he twiddled my silver coin between his fingers, mockingly.

My brows twitched in annoyance but I calmed myself down and quickly took a scan around the sorry excuse of a store.

"Are you sure there are even items here worth a silver coin?" My voice came out with a twinge of frustration in it.

"Of course! I don’t give this chance to just anyone, you know. You just have to choose carefully." The old man’s eyes gave off the excited twinkle of a second-rate gambler with a winning hand.

I rubbed my temples to try and calm the boiling rage stirring up inside of me.

The elderly should be respected, Arthur.

You survived, comrade! I smiled, rubbing her tiny head. _{freēwēbηovel.c૦m}