Duality - 15 Greenflower town

John woke up the next day with the sunrise. He stared at the wooden roof for a few seconds, before a question came to his mind.

‘Where the hell am I?’

It took him a few seconds to recall everything that happened.

‘Oh yeah, I died and came to another world. It will take some time to get used to this.’

He thought while raising his hand in front of his face, the former illuminated by the sunlight that came through the glass window.

The hand was small and without any hairs on its back, clearly belonging to a child, but its palm was full of calluses from the daily training with the shortswords. The other hand was the same, except for a small wound between the knuckles where Tom’s tooth got lodged.

Checking his arms next, there weren’t any of his old tattoos, nor any scars, save for the wound at his shoulder. Although it opened again during the fight against the brothers, it was already closing. At this rate, it should be fully healed in just a few days, but this was still too long for him.

‘Yesterday when I arrived it was late already. Today, I will ask my Mother to take me to a healer.’

Getting up from the bed, John got dressed and then left the room. Entering the kitchen, he saw his Mother was already awake.

“Good morning.”

“Morning. Eat up and let’s start the day.” Dene ordered.

“Yes.”

John sat down and ate his food. When done, he brought up the issue of his wound.

“Oh, right. We will go to the town and visit the healer. Also, what do you want to do with the trophies from the hunt?” Dene asked.

In her tribe, the trophies from the trial were only used as proof. Some kept them as souvenirs, while others would simply sell them.

“Let’s just sell them.” John answered without having to think about it. In his eyes, although the trophies were nice, they also occupied too much space. He had even thrown away the snake leather, from before recovering his memories, and only kept the fangs.

“Good, I’ll get my weapons, and we shall go.”

After a few minutes, they both left the cottage and were going down the trail. The walk to town went silently, as Dene herself wasn’t much of a talker, and John was still taking in the environment.

Greenflower was a small town with less than 2 thousand people, situated close to the edge of the dukedom. Being such a small town, there wasn’t a wall to protect it, with the only fortified location being the castle where the baron lived.

The houses were tiny and cluttered together, with second stories projected over the streets. The streets were a bit narrow and unpaved, including the main street and the marketplace. Furthermore, it all smelled. A lot.

To John, it was exactly how he expected a medieval, European town to look like. He followed his mother through the main street towards the marketplace, where they headed to the healer.

As with most other buildings, the healer’s shop was quite small. Entering, one could feel the aroma of herbs, though it was a mystery if they had any medicinal value or if they were there just to disguise the smell of the streets.

Sitting behind the counter was an old man smoking a pipe. He saw the two southerners entering his shop, and was ready to kick them out when he sensed the woman’s level. More specifically, he didn’t.

The old man was a level 9 Mage. That meant that the woman in front of him was, at least, both a Crusader AND an Archmage.

Knowing that he couldn’t afford to offend her, the healer quickly got up from his chair.

“Welcome to my humble shop, how may I help you?”

“You’re a healer, right?”

“Yes miss, b-but I don’t think I’d be able to heal you…”

The higher the body level of the wounded one, the harder it is to heal them. As a Mage, it would take him hours to heal a single knife wound on someone at the Crusader realm.

“I know that. It’s for him.” Dene pointed at her son. “His shoulder is wounded.”

“Oh, right.”

“John, show it to him.”

With that, John took off his shirt and the healer began to inspect the wound.

“Hmm, not too deep, but it would be best to give it some stitches first.”

‘Damn it.’ Thought John. He didn’t like getting stitches, or needles in general for that matter.

“Make it fast. And heal his hand too.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” Not daring to make her wait, the healer took a needle and thread from behind the counter and began to stitch the wound. When finished he opened a jar filled with water, mixed it with some herbs and then cast a spell.

Suddenly, the water in the jar started floating towards the wound, remaining there and causing it to fully heal in a matter of minutes instead of days.

He did the same for John’s hand, then canceled the spell, removed the stitches, and it was done.

As John was only a level 4 Fighter, healing him wasn’t too hard for the old man.

“All done Ma’am.”

“Good.” Dene said before throwing the man a pouch with 20 silver coins in it. “Let’s go, John.”

“Thank you, Ma’an.” Only after Dene left, was the old man able to heave a sigh of relief.

Leaving the healers shop, they then headed towards the general goods store.

——

“Here you go, Sir.” Spoke a middle-aged merchant as he placed two bags over the counter. “Everything which you requested.”

Besides the middle-aged merchant, there was also a noble couple followed by a slave.

The nobleman was of average size, had short, black hair and brown eyes. His clothes were made of bright blue velvet, the same as his wife. She was a little bit shorter, with a red hair that reached her shoulders and bright green eyes.

As nobles, they were used to wearing fancy clothing that symbolized their status.

The southern slave, on the other hand, was dressed in rags that barely covered his tall body.

“Good.” The nobleman aloofly spoke. “Slave, pick it up and let’s go.”

It was at this moment that Dene and John entered the store.

Noticing the duo come in, the nobleman kept his aloof attitude, though he said nothing. Although he was weaker than the woman, he was still the Baron’s son.

The noble couple left the store followed by the slave carrying the bags, after which Dene placed the trophies over the counter and addressed the store owner. “I want to sell these.”

“Miss Ellie, talkative as always I see, haha. Let’s see what we have here.”

The middle-aged man was called Edmund and he owned the store. He appeared to be in the early-forties, with his black hair and mustache already showing signs of white.

He knew Dene, though she said her name was Ellie, since years ago when she moved into her isolated cottage. She would come to the store once in a while to sell Magical Beast’s trophies or to buy any items she needed.

In fact, it was from him that she bought John’s armor and weapons.

She herself disliked the northerners, though she did grow accustomed to the store owner over the years.

“A pair of Wind Deer antlers and Great Boar tusks.” Edmund was surprised and couldn’t help but ask. “What happened, you are hunting these weak Beasts now?”

“I hunted them.” John spoke for the first time since they left the cottage.

“Oh?” Edmund looked towards John. “A level 4 Fighter, not bad. Is he your son miss Ellie?”

“Yes, how much for the trophies?”

“So it was for him that you bought that leather armor and the small swords. Right, the trophies. Let me see, how about 7 silver coins for everything? 3 from the tusks and 4 from the antlers.”

Dene was about to agree but John spoke first.

“Wait, I want to buy some things first.” He walked around the store, picking up some items and then placed them over the counter.

“A roll of bandages, a mirror, and three books… It all comes to 2 silver and 40 copper coins. Subtracting it from the 7 silver coins, you’ll still receive 4 silver and 60 copper coins.”

“I’ll take it.” John stored the items and coins in his bag and then left alongside his Mother.

“Let’s go home, it’s time for you to cast your first spell.”

John’s eyes shone when he heard that.

“Yes, Mother.”