Teanam
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Chapter 176
🕑 Added 2025-01-04 18:36:45 +0000 UTC--
Chapter 176
The group arrived at Barak, a major trade city in the kingdom, and met with Darci, the city's mayor. From her, they learned that Anna’s brother and his group made their way toward the coast, the same direction they planned to go. Afterward, Sophia told her about the portal plans in her usual brash way by simply creating it, bringing the mayor over to the capital, and letting Menzor deal with the rest.
"I guess we have to explore the city ourselves after all, huh?" The girls were Back in Barak and were currently making their way towards the big plaza in its middle when Sophia scratched her cheek.
“It appears so.” Anna nodded. “I think Darci will be having a meeting with father for quite a bit longer.”
“That’s too bad, but exploring without a guide should be fun, too!”
“True!” The blonde agreed with her fellow tiger.
“I want to find the stall with all the spices I saw from the hill before we arrived.” Maya lightly clapped her hands. “I wonder if they offer anything we don’t have!”
“Do you think there are any spices offered here that aren’t available in the capital?” Ari tilted her head. “That would be amazing!”
“Only one way to find out!”
“Yeah!” The two cooks of their group were getting excited.
“I’d love to get curry more often again because I've been craving it lately!” Sophia immediately had demands. “I don’t think I’ve had anything curry-flavored in this world yet. Which is a travesty!”
“Curry?” Maya tilted her head. “Wait, that’s the yellow powdery spice, right? We had that a couple of times when we ate something during our shopping trips, right? It was quite intense! Very tasty, though!"
“Curry comes in various different forms depending on the region, but yeah, I also meant the yellow powdery form. It’s super versatile and works with nearly everything!”
“It would be great if we could find it here!” The cat-girl liked the idea.
“I’ve never heard about curry, but now I’d love to try it!” Ari immediately got interested in it.
“Let’s search real hard!” Sophia energetically raised her arm. “I need it!”
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“Whoa, so many things!” Arriving at the plaza, Maya’s eyes grew wide. “It’s even bigger than the market in the capital!” She didn’t even know where to look first because there were just way too many stalls selling all kinds of things. Accessories, clothes, cutlery, various food stalls, places for furniture, rugs, fabrics, books, fruits and vegetables, as well as countless other things, some of which she'd never seen before.
“Oh my gosh, there are so many things that aren’t in my storage yet!” Sophia’s eyes were sparkling. "I need to get one of each at the very least so as not to fall behind!"
"Are we developing a hoarding problem?" Ari tilted her head while looking at the blonde.
“Nope!” She shook her head.
“Really?” The jaguar raised an eyebrow.
“I’m not developing one.” Sophia shook her head.
“Ah.”
“I have a limitless amount of available storage as well as perfect organization because I merely need to think about the thing that I want to get it out of storage. Not becoming a hoarder would be the real weird thing here.” She wasn’t feeling the least bit bad about it.
“…” Ari paused for a moment. “Okay, fair. I’m not sure if I would end the same way, but I definitely can’t blame you there.”
“You’re not sure you’d do the same?” The blonde stared back at her. “Do you want me to list the things you made me store for you?”
“I take back everything I said.” She vigorously shook her head in return.
“Hehe.”
Having agreed that Sophia's storage is fantastic and hoarding is not only justified but also encouraged, the girls started exploring the stalls and got basically everything that interested them even a little. Most of the vendors went into shock when they saw their wares disappearing into pink sparkles after they got bought. Still, a tactical ‘Don't worry about it’ by both tigers was more than enough to make them reconsider asking about a million questions about what just happened.
They walked around some more and bought even more before eventually arriving at the food and general produce section of the marketplace, which excited Maya greatly. The cat-girl bought and had Sophia store whatever was eatable and offered for sale. Pasta, seeds, nuts, legumes, as well as dried fruits and vegetables that could be easily transported, were on sale in huge quantities, and found a new home inside her very own limitless pantry the blonde decided to make for Maya.
“There we go!” The cat-girl energetically clapped her hands when they arrived at a stall offering spices en masse.
"Wow!" Ari was just as amazed by the multiple dozens, maybe even hundreds, of different and overly colorful spices in grounded, shredded, or whole variations.
“That’s quite the group." The owner of the stall, a tanned cat-man with long and dark-brown hair in his forties, noticed the girls and energetically greeted them. “Whatever it is, I’m here to spice up your life!”
“…” They just stared at him.
“Get it? I sell spices.” His expression turned awkward.
“Should we go somewhere else?” Sophia looked at the other three. “I bet there are more places where we can get our stuff.”
“Good idea!” The others nodded.
“That’s way too much of an overreaction!” The stall owner didn’t appreciate that. “I’m usually pretty popular with that, you know?!”
“With whom?” The blonde didn’t believe him.
“With all the older ladies!” He puffed out his chest. “Many of the gentleman, too!”
“Are you calling us old now?” Sophia liked that even less.
“No.” He shook his head. “Just that I like old ladies better because they enjoy my corny jokes.”
“That’s fair.” The blonde shrugged before smiling at him. “Okay, my life is already spicy enough, so I’m good on that front. I’d love more seasoning for my food, though." She also had five wordplays ready, but she learned enough not to act on them. Especially not after she denied the shop owner his fun.
“You’ve come to the right place, then!” The owner’s place was filled with confidence again. “There’s no seasoning I don’t sell!”
“Alright,” Sophia took a look at the many colorful and fragrant spices lined out in small boxes all over the stall. “I see turmeric, but what about curry?” She pointed at the only yellow powder on sale.
“The what now?” The cat-man tilted his head.
“So much for having everything, huh?”
“I can’t have what I don’t know!”
“It’s a mix of different spices.” The blonde looked at him. “If I remember right, the main ones are coriander, cumin, and turmeric. A bit of cayenne pepper, ginger, cinnamon, and fenugreek is popular, too. Though, there are a myriad of different blends because everyone has their favorite.”
“She barely knows how to cook, but she sure knows her spices.” Maya was somewhat proud of her.
“Ah, there’s the issue.” The vendor looked back at Sophia. “I don’t sell mixes. Mono spices only. I, just like most others here, am a wholesale merchant. The folk who buy my spices are the ones who come up with spice blends.”
“Ah, I see…” The short tiger hung her head in disappointment.
“You won’t be able to get any pre-mixed blends from the other stalls here, either.” The spice vendor shook his head. “Our inventory would become way too big for us to manage if we were to sell a bunch of mixes on top of the pure spices.”
“I guess that makes sense.” Sophia still wasn’t happy about it.
“You’re more than welcome to get all the spices to create your own mix.” He gave the blonde a thumbs up. “The more you get, the higher the discount will be, too.”
“That would be plan B.” She nodded. “As long as the ingredients are from here, I don’t mind getting a recipe from Earth.” She only mumbled the last part to herself. “I still think, from a business perspective, selling some mixes would be beneficial. Two or three of them wouldn't bloat the inventory, either. Still, it would put you ahead of the competition because I’m pretty sure all of you source the spices from the same place, so the only thing that would differentiate from all the spice places would be the prize. If you develop a popular spice mix, you can show everyone just what your spices are capable of.”
“You know, that’s not the worst idea I’ve heard.” The stall owner wasn’t opposed to the idea. “It’s even more appealing when the idea came from a tiger. That’s great from a marketing standpoint!”
“I don’t think that has much to do with me being a tiger.” Sophia shrugged. “More like a selfish girl, who happens to be striped, wanting to get her spice mixes from a wholesale business so she doesn’t have to visit twelve different places. I wouldn’t be upset if the other spice places would start doing the same, and all of you eventually have a huge contest on who comes up with the best mixes so that I, and everyone else, will be able to get the best possible products out of it~.” She smiled at him. “In fact, that’s what I’m going to tell the other stalls once we explore the marketplace some more.” The blonde clearly wasn’t doing it for his benefit.
“It’s certainly true that the tiger family is an honest one, huh?” The cat-man scratched his cheek over her frankness. “Well, I can’t say I dislike that in general.”
The girls chatted with the stall owner for a bit longer, and Sophia ended up buying every single spicy she could remember being in curry powder and then some extra for good measure because she was sure she had forgotten about a couple more. While they were at it, Maya and Ari also used the chance to stock up on some other spices for regular cooking they were starting to run out on, as well.
Afterward, they continued to explore the marketplace while buying all sorts of things that even marginally caught their interest. Eventually, they also reunited with the wolves, who had been on a food spree ever since they split up a few hours ago. Fen then also accidentally guided them to a stall selling a myriad of alcohol and suggested that now that they were there already, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to stock up on some more supplies.
Comments
Teanam
Well, I had to double-check, too xD Issues of non-natives... I think that's how it is (because in my language it is), but natives then go like "wait, what?"
Libery
You are right. But literally have never heard that word before. And Google did put in the France word as source. Which translates to vegetables. So my bad
Teanam
Isn't legumes the name for everything beans-related and stuff?
Libery
Peace for the world! saw their wars disappearing into pink sparkles Probably wares Next would be the question what legumes are? Google does translate them to vegetables, which are mentioned three words later
