>>5750407I would love to stick around and talk to Nara, but I still have to meet Toht and his mom’s colleagues. I help her into the house and mention the whereabouts of utilities.
‘..and here’s the bread. You can have it if you want. The water jars are in the basement. Outhouse is...’
‘Uh.. right… there.. left of those patch of trees.’
Isabelle seems to have taken a liking to the bamboo stilts. It was a little amusing to watch her nuzzle against it.
After taking one last counting of breads and eggs, I write down the numbers on a note. No way I’m carrying some two dozen eggs across town unless I really need to.
“See you, Emi. It’ll be done in an hour or so.”
[…]
Almost two in the afternoon.
Vendors, especially ones selling desserts continue to be as busy as ever despite the waning population on the streets. I don’t bother with caramelized bananas this time, no, I go straight and look straight. My pace is steady, but quick. Even made the scabbard rattle a little more than I wanted, but I doubt most would mind.
I caught Toht at a good time — barely any customers are visiting the meat vendors right, and he is mostly relegated to carving up meat. Perfect. Too bad his mom isn’t here, though. Probably transporting the carcasses.
“Ah, Hi Ma’am.”
I ask him right away about his mom’s friends and their current whereabouts, along with presenting him a note of my currently stock.
“Oh! Err. My mom’s already talked to mister DeBoer [pronunciation: du-boar] about it. They said they want to buy your bread and eggs in bulk for their chickeneaters. I don’t remember exactly what but my mom wrote it down. Be back in a minute…”
He returns with a large piece of paper. It has both the address and the conversion rate for rice.
…Wow. South west. All the way across town. It’s gonna be a damn trek, but rate is perfect. Two dozen eggs or three loaves for a bag of rice… wait.. If I trade all of my stock, I’m pretty much set for the rest of this year! Only problem would be hauling all THAT to the farm. I ask where I could find the DeBoer family — I’m sure they have a wheelbarrow or a farmhand.
“Last I heard they was in.. er.. center of town. At an apothecary’s shop. Their son was struck on the face. I think he got into a fight again…”
“I just saw them not that long ago. You might catch them there.”
