The Erratum-Chapter 39: Commercial Town Lakalan.

Traversing upon the bustling streets filled with people, Cetas, Elishia, and Reid stuck close to each other so as to not lose their direction. Even if someone were to get lost though, Skadi could easily find them by utilizing her winds.

It didn’t matter that much, but it proved to be quite inconvenient.

The first destination of the three was somewhere near the gates of the town. Looking to be the most alluring spot upon entering the town, Cetas could almost feel his mouth water at the sight of their product.

Immediately, the three arrived in front of the stall, gazing towards mushrooms on a stick, pork chops, and an assortment of wild food that can be found in the wild.

"It’ll be 2 Soli for mushrooms, 3 Soli for the-"

Without even letting the vendor finish her words, Elishia brought out a silver coin with a design resembling a half-sunken sun with 3 rays protruding out of it.

Upon further inspection, Cetas remembered Elishia’s words when she explained the system of currency in Helios.

Currently, there are two coins to determine the currency: Solis and Solaris.

Solis are the silver coins that most people have on their pockets, most of them can be used to buy daily necessities such as food, water, wood, charcoal, and much more!

They are distinguished by the number of rays that are coming out of the half sunken sun. Particularly, silver coins with no rays coming out of it is the 1 Soli Coin.

The Soli coins are divided by the amounts of 1, 5, 20, and 50, the rays of the sun corresponding as it gets higher.

Furthermore, Solaris was considered as the rich man’s coin. They could buy luxurious products such as embroidered dresses, silk coats, brimmed hats, fine leather boots, and many more!

As mentioned before, Skadi and the others went to buy a carriage for the sake of their travels.

Carriages themselves are considered to be a luxury for most people, so naturally those would cost greatly in Helios.

People have the ability to buy carriages as it is at lower prices among luxury items, however, the expensive part of it were the horses.

To make traveling easier, horses had to be utilized, of course..

Moving on, the Solaris is depicted as a golden coin with similar designs to the Soli. Correspondingly, these gold coins continue the number of rays coming out of the half-sunken sun.

For example, a 50-Soli Coin would have a symbol with three rays coming out of its sun. However, a 1-Solaris Coin would continue this pattern and have four rays coming out of the sun.

To take note, Solaris are divided into 1, 10, 50, and 100 coins.

Looking back, Cetas figured out that the Solaris that Skadi initially gave him was a 1 Solari coin.

Now, he gazed at the coins in Elishia’s hand, staring to determine what variety they are.

3 rays? That’s a 50-Soli Coin!

As Elishia handed the 20-Soli Coin, she immediately winked her eyes and snapped her fingers at the vendor, "Keep the change!"

"Oh! Much gratitude, young lady.."

With that, the three of them left the stall, holding two sticks per hand - one filled with an assortment of mushroom and pork, and one filled with juicy meat.

Walking along the sidewalk with people busy making their way to their respective destinations, Cetas, Elishia, and Reid took their leisure time.

Then, Reid whispered for only the group to hear.

"Elishia, you can’t be handing out charity like that. We are not priests.."

Elishia shrugged him with her meat-filled stick, and spoke while her mouth was full with food.

"Mmfhmmh mmfghh mffh."

"Ingest your food first, damn it!"

After a second, Elishia chewed the food inside her mouth and gulped it down with satisfaction on her face.

"I said it’s fine! She looked like she needed it more than us anyways.."

Letting out a short breath of disappointment, Reid rubbed his temples.

"Still, you have to consider that doing things like that can put us in danger, especially when there are prying eyes everywhere!"

"You may be right.. But I would never ignore someone with looks of hardship!" Elishia held the sticks in her hand firmly and raised them up in the air.

Cetas, naturally curious, tucked Reid’s merchant garbs and asked:

"Why is it that we are prohibited from doing things like that?"

Reid stared ahead, then shifted his gaze to Cetas.

"You see.. On the surface, people are not what they seem at all, especially humans. People are full of greed and malice, taking kindness for granted and using it as a leverage to satiate their greed!"

"Not all though!" Elishia cut his words and placed the meat-filled stick in between them, "This guy just likes generalizing people because he doesn’t know how to socialize at all!"

With her interference, Reid placed his hand on Elishia’s face, covering it almost immediately, "Damn.. you!"

"H-hey! My food!"

Elishia’s grip loosened, the sticks in her hand falling as Reid pressed her.

However, before it could reach the ground, Cetas ducked down and caught it with his left hand.

Standing up, he offered it to Elishia once more, "Here."

"Hey thanks!"

As Reid let go of Elishia, she continued to feast on the food in her hands.

Cetas took a bite of his own, his face turning mundane as the seconds passed.

What a disappointment!

He gazed at Elishia’s direction, seeing her enjoy the food in her hands despite its inferior taste to her cooking.

Naturally curious, Cetas asked Elishia regarding this, "Hey, how could you enjoy the food in your hands even with the bad taste? Couldn’t you make something better than this?"

Ingesting the food in her mouth, Elishia cleared her throat, "First of all, Cetas.. You shouldn’t be saying things like that, be nice!"

"Secondly, I enjoy eating as much as I enjoy cooking! To taste wonders of the world and imitate their savory is one of the dreams that I have!

"And lastly.. The main reason that I enjoy this is because it has feelings. The moment it touched my taste buds, I could already tell that the food was made from the struggle to maintain a proper income, desire to provide for her children, and the longing for people to appreciate her food."

"Sure, it may not taste as good as my cooking, but... the meaning behind the food is something that I will always treasure."

After her words, Reid leaned closer to Cetas and whispered:

"She’s the only one who can do that in the entire world, truly a weird trait to have.."

"I can hear you! Hmph."

The two bantered for a while as Cetas inwardly absorbed her words.

Even eating could be considered to have feelings? Are humans naturally emotional to such things?

After a few minutes of walking, the three found themselves in front of a blacksmith.

Cetas’ eyes gleamed as he gazed upon the variety of weapons displayed on the windows in front. There were sharp blades similar to Reid’s, humongous axes that he couldn’t visualize to be carried by his flimsy arms, and much more!

Noticing his awe-struck face, Elishia’s smile went ear-to-ear. Then, she shifted her gaze to Reid, who looked to be quite appealed by the store.

"Oh well then!"

Slowly, the three of them entered the blacksmith.

Finding no one inside, each of them went in their own directions to admire the fine craftsmanship that shop has.

However, after a minute or two, Elishia immediately became stupefied.

"Hey.. Cetas, do something fun. Oh! I just came across a great idea!"

She grabbed a dagger in front of him, showcasing it with numerous slashes in the air, "Do you want to try these weapons to see which would suit you best?"

*

In an isolated room with straw replicas of humans, stacks of iron metals, and a rack filled with diverse metal weapons.

Elishia stood near Cetas, facing towards the rack filled with metal weapons. Then she turned around and pointed at the straw replica of humans.

"Those are called dummies! We use them to test out weapons and see if their durability is proper or not! Mostly though, they are utilized as mere practice to enhance one’s skill."

"Now, choose a weapon to your liking!"

Cetas studied the metal weapons for a while but ultimately chose to go for a simple dull blade.

Holding it up to a meter in size, Cetas tried to raise the blade up but he was surprised by its heavy weight.

Hands shaking due to the weight, Cetas tried to hold it with two hands.

Still, his arms were too lanky for this! It could not bear the weight of an iron blade!

"Yeah, maybe not that one.." Elishia uttered, her fingers massaging her chiseled jaw, "Try that!"

Seeing as she pointed at a silver stiletto, Cetas grabbed the weapon with his one hand. It too, proved to be quite heavy, however, it was much better than that iron blade from before.

"Try swinging it around!"

Listening to her, Cetas imitated the red-assassin’s way of fighting. From the footwork, to the handling and the body language, Cetas moved like air.

Or so he thought..

His body did not possess the same strength as that red assassin! However, his was of the contrast.

Cetas looked like a crazed drunkard swinging a knife around and threatening people with his blade.

Elishia couldn’t help but burst out in laughter, "Hahaha! You’re totally new to this! Next!"

Cetas tried an assortment of weapons next. In his mind, he imitated those that have utilized them and copied their styles of movement.

However, his body couldn’t keep up with his imagination. So, in the end, the two didn’t find anything suitable for him to wield.

Cetas felt a weird disassociation to the blades too.

It was as if he didn’t want anything to do with them nor make an effort to wield them.

In simple terms, it felt.. uncomfortable.

After several minutes of their time, the three came out of the blacksmith empty-handed.

Except for Reid, of course..

"Hey, what’s with that?" Elishia stared at Reid with a critical gaze.

Surprisingly, Reid held a numerous amount of weapons inside of a sack. There were blades, daggers, spears, and much more.

Reid didn’t answer Elishia’s question but pondered one of his own, "Shall we head to purchase our rations now?"

"Not yet! The day is still young! Sun down doesn’t come until two more hours! Also, we can’t be doing any grocery with that," Elishia fiercely gazed at the sack on Reid’s arms, "I will need you to carry most of the stuff that we buy, of course, you are not exempted from this Cetas."

Tilting her head towards Cetas, she waited for him to acknowledge her words. However, the boy gazed at the far distance, clearly engrossed in something that bewildered him.

Elishia followed his gaze, looking towards the direction that his eyes pertained to.

Reid, too, gazed in the direction that Cetas was looking.

The three were kept silent until Elishia opened her mouth:

"Are those.. members of the Helios Church?"

In the distance, three individuals with gold-rimmed pristine white coats walked along with the crowd. The three of them had splatters of red in their coats, looking as if they had just drowned in blood.