The gatekeeper Beat was on duty at the gate. He must have noticed me, because he bowed deeply before I could even speak.

"Thank you for your hard work, Sahal-san."

I thought gatekeepers only watched the outside of the gate, but it seems they also pay attention to the inside. Apparently it’s because of the free-roaming pigs that might escape.

His attitude was also extremely humble. It was probably because of the high scores I got in yesterday’s status examination.

"Hello, Beat-san. Um... Is E here?"

"E is no longer assigned to guard duty at the castle gate."

"Eh? Why?"

"Her previous achievements in subjugating the earth dragon and her excellent results in yesterday’s status examination were recognized. She has been promoted to Captain of the Monvan Defense Force."

Come to think of it, she also got promoted to centurion in the knight order. Her duties must have changed too.

"I brought some wine as thanks for lending me the clothes..."

"If you wish to meet her, she is at the Deputy Governor’s Tower."

The "Deputy" in Deputy Governor means the king’s representative. He is the person who governs the fortress city of Monvan on behalf of the king. In other words, she’s working at the house of the most important person in the city.

Hmm. The place where an important person lives... I don’t really want to go there.

"Um, where is the Deputy Governor’s Tower located?"

"It’s the tower in the northeast part of the city. From here, just follow the wall straight ahead."

Beat pointed to the right. Even though the city is rectangular, there are defensive round towers protruding from the walls, so I couldn’t see all the way to the end.

The status examination was on the south side and the slave trader’s mansion was on the west side, so I really haven’t been to the northeast yet.

Whether I actually stop by the Deputy Governor’s Tower or not, I figured I’d wander around that area anyway.

"Thank you very much."

I parted ways with Beat and walked east.

Clothing store, clothing store, clothing store... It was a whole street of clothing stores.

This must be what they call a guild street where people in the same trade gather. In medieval European cities, merchants of the same trade apparently lined up their shops together, but I wonder if they don’t end up stealing customers from each other.

Ahh...

I want some normal clothes too.

My long robe is basically a rectangular piece of cloth with a hole in it, folded in half, so the sides are open and drafty. If I’m not careful, I’ll end up exposing my dick.

If I go into Mejed Mode Fighting Style (which is just leaning forward), my dick would probably be fully visible from the side.

I want money... How do you even earn money in this world?

Hm?

There are a lot of people here.

Oh. It’s the market.

In front of what looked like the lord’s tower was a small plaza, with goods laid out on stalls and spread-out cloths.

I see. So this is where they buy fish, vegetables, and wine.

Until now, the only place I’d seen selling food inside the city was the bakery, so I’d been wondering where everyone got ingredients other than bread. There were some street stalls selling skewered food during the status examination, but those were temporary.

There were things that looked like melons, red lemon-sized fruits or vegetables, and many other things I’d never seen before. I had no idea whether they were unique to this world or just things that existed on Earth that I simply didn’t know about.

Either way, they were all things you wouldn’t see in the vegetable section of a Japanese supermarket.

They were also selling buckets and pots.

Come to think of it, in medieval European-style RPGs, the hero casually breaks pots inside people’s houses, but that would be a disaster in real life.

After living here, I understand that breaking a pot is probably equivalent to destroying an entire shelf of a refrigerator in modern Japan.

If you break a pot containing wine or beer, you lose your drinks.

If you break a water storage pot, every time you want a drink you’d have to go fetch water from the well.

In a world without proper running water, water is dirty, so people mix it with wine or beer expecting the alcohol to kill bacteria. That’s why you want a water jar next to your wine or beer pots.

Barter trade is still more common than money-based commerce, so even acquiring a pot is difficult.

I’ve never even seen a place selling them. Where do they sell them anyway?

They’re probably passed down from parent to child and used for generations within families.

I bet pots are even listed in medieval inheritance tax records.

In any case, they’re extremely valuable.

This is an era where people usually only own one set of clothes and goods are scarce and expensive.

Monvan is relatively wealthy, but the houses in the first village I visited had dirt floors with no floorboards, walls made of stacked stones with mud packed in the gaps or just uneven planks, letting wind blow through like crazy. They had woven baskets inside, but not even a single pot.

In a world like this, if someone broke a pot, I’d punch that "hero" in the face.

I would never forgive them.

If this world’s hero is the type who casually breaks into people’s houses and smashes pots like in games, then while his level is still low, I’ll secretly tip off the Demon King’s army about his location. Let the Demon King execute the hero, and I’ll make the female warrior and female mage my personal sex slaves.

Well, putting that aside, walking around the market is pretty interesting.

( Big subject ) I heard that in the Middle Ages, virgin menstrual blood was sold as medicine, but I don’t see any of that here.

Ah.

It makes sense now. Medical knowledge was so poor that people believed virgin menstrual blood could be used as medicine. That’s probably why everyone accepted so readily that my semen was an elixir.