Unwillingly Summoned: Chapter 10 – Visiting the Market

Despite James’s brain trying very had to convince him that the city would be some kind of post-apocalyptic hellscape, it turned out that it was just a city. There were a lot of people moving back and forth. Most of them looked to be doing work or on their way to do some work. He noticed a few shady-looking individuals, but they chose not to bother him. He had, however, left his bag of holding in his room, so that might have helped. Then again, the short swords he had chosen to belt on might have been discouraging them as well. He just took the win. He hadn’t brought much money because he wasn’t planning some kind of shopping spree. He figured a handful of coins in a small pouch would be enough to get him something to eat and pick up a few trinkets if he saw something he liked. Plus, if he lost the money or it got stolen, it wouldn’t be some crippling blow.

The capital city of the Kingdom of Kollstein, which was also named Kollstein in what had surely been a massive failure of imagination on someone’s part early in the kingdom’s history, was also cleaner than James had expected. He hadn’t recalled seeing anything on the way to the inn to make him think the place was filthy. It was just one of those preconceived notions he’d brought with him. It wasn’t a big thing in most history classes, but reading just a tiny bit between the lines was enough to inform most students that medieval and renaissance-era cities had smelled terrible. There wasn’t much in the way of formal garbage collection and the sewers had been primitive things that were likely to overflow in a heavy rain. In short, dirty, stinky places with trash everywhere.

Of course, Kollstein didn’t smell like perfume. There were some odors of old food and a more pronounced smell of human sweat than he was used to, but even that wasn’t as bad as he’d expected. It seemed that regular bathing was, in fact, part of the culture. There just wasn’t anything like deodorant available. If only I’d studied chemistry, he bemoaned mentally, I could have become richer than God with that one product. He’d also worried that moving through the streets would become a nightmare maze of social missteps. Yet, it turned out that when you put lots of people together in a fairly confined space, regardless of the world, people mostly just tried to avoid bumping into each other. When that failed and it was clearly accidental, most of them shrugged it off, shot a dirty look, or issued a harsh word or two. Exactly like every other city James had ever been in.

All of those swift observations reassured him that simply being on the street wasn’t going to end with him immediately getting into a death match for not knowing some local custom. He had asked Lysnia about what was nearby and decided to visit a market that wasn’t too far away. It like seemed a safe bet since he could wander around and look at things without standing out too much. Seeing what kinds of goods were for sale ought to help him gain a more accurate sense of the world around him. He did make a real effort to avoid bumping into people on his way there. That became easier when he figured out that people tended to walk or drive their carts on one side of the street or the other depending on which direction they were going. It wasn’t a sure thing, and some people seemed to walk the opposite direction as everyone else just to be jerks, but it did speed things along.

When he finally reached the market, he was both underwhelmed and overwhelmed. He was underwhelmed by the stalls themselves. Many of them were little more than a table with goods stacked on them, although a few were a bit more sophisticated with a canvas covering to keep the sun away. He was overwhelmed by the sheer number of bodies. The vague politeness of the street was abandoned as people milled around, battered, haggled, and occasionally shouted at each other. This would be a pickpocket’s paradise, thought James as he pulled his pouch off his belt, gripped it, and shoved that hand into a pocket. No reason to make it easy on them. That basic precaution out of the way, he pushed into the mass of humanity around him.

Many of the tables seemed to be farmers or people representing farmers selling their most recent harvests. He didn’t see much of interest on those tables. Most of the food was familiar to him, and he wasn’t in a mood to go experimenting with fruits and vegetables he didn’t recognize. Just because he hadn’t had any allergies back on Earth, that was no guarantee that the same would hold true here. Dying because he ate something that wasn’t good for him seemed like a crappy way to end his life. There were some people selling weapons, armor, and potions that may or may not do something. He spent a little more time at those stalls, but the work all seemed kind of shoddy to him compared to what he’d seen in the armory.

He’d just walked away from a disappointed vendor when a familiar, square-jawed visage stepped in front of him. Oh fantastic, thought James. That’s just what I need. A showdown with the prince of frat boys in a market full of bystanders. Not that the guy looked particularly hostile. He was giving James a big, toothy grin that made him look, well, happy. That left James confused. He’d expected any future meetings with this guy to end with another fight.

“I’m glad I ran into you,” said the guy.

“That makes one of us,” said James.

The prince of frat boys faltered a little at that, but swiftly regained his jovial spirit.

“I wanted to talk to you.”

“About what?” asked James, already feeling tired from the unwanted conversation.

“I want you to join my adventurer’s party,” said the guy with shining, happy eyes.

James’s mind had what he could only later describe as a hiccup where nothing seemed to make sense. Of all the possible iterations of this conversation he’d imagined, the guy asking him to join an adventuring party had never even occurred to him. It was absurd. It was beyond absurd. It was stupid. The transmission in James’s head slammed back into gear, and the answer was out of his mouth before he had time to think it through.

“No chance in hell,” said James.

Then, he walked past the prince of frat boys, who looked like a puppy that had just been repeatedly kicked. James wondered if the guy was about to cry, and then decided that he didn’t care if the guy did cry. Standing nearby, staring at him with slack-jawed expressions of shock, there was a burly, tattooed dude with a staff and a slim, blonde woman who just looked like she was really good at stealing stuff. James didn’t know why he got the impression from her, but it felt true. I guess they’re the rest of the party, thought James as he walked past them as well. He figured his best bet was to just head back to the inn. He’d enough human interaction for one day. He hadn’t even made it out of the market before Mister Square Jaw caught up with him.

“Don’t be hasty, friend,” said the guy. “My name is Chrosan, and I’m the leader of the Black Scales.”

“How nice for you,” said James without even slowing his walk.

“Aren’t you going to introduce yourself?” asked Chrosan.

“Hadn’t planned on it,” answered James.

“This is a waste of time,” said the blonde woman, coming up alongside Chrosan.

“She’s right,” agreed James.

“You saw how strong he was, Seiran,” Chrosan told the blonde woman. “We could use someone like that.”

“Sure, if he actually wanted to do it. This guy isn’t interested.”

“I’ve got a feeling about him,” insisted Chrosan.

“Is this a conversation I need to be here for?” asked an irritated James. “Because it really doesn’t seem like I do.”

“Oh, it definitely is,” said Chrosan.

The burly guy finally joined them, taking a position on James’s other side. It left him feeling boxed in, which he didn’t like one little bit. He gave the man a hard look.

“Easy friend, I’m not looking for a fight,” said the burly guy before looking at Chrosan. “Maybe you should ask him why he’s not interested.”

James could almost see the light bulb burst into light over the head of the square-jawed leader of this little tribe of misfits. He looked at James.

“That is a good question. We’re one of the best D-ranked parties in the city. Why wouldn’t you want to join us?”

James came to an abrupt stop. The other three took a few more steps before they call turned curious eyes on him. James just stared at the square-jawed dunce for a second before he finally spoke.

“Are you kidding me? Why in the world would ever want to do anything with someone like you?” he asked, putting as much venom into the last word as he could manage.

Chrosan took a step back at the clear hostility in James’s words. He also looked very confused.

“Someone like me? What did I do?”

“Don’t you remember what happened?” asked James before he looked at the other two. “Didn’t you tell him?”

“We had a little scuffle. That’s all,” said a bewildered Chrosan.

The man clearly missed the awkward, vaguely shamed expressions on his friends’ faces.

“They really didn’t tell you,” said James. “Do you remember what happened before our little scuffle?”

Chrosan’s face creased as he tried to dredge some recollection from alcohol-soaked experiences the other day. James just waited him out. The man’s face cleared.

“Oh, yeah, I was flirting with Lysnia.”

The other two refused to meet James’s eyes as he took a step toward Chrosan.

“Flirting? Flirting?! That was not flirting, you unbelievable asshole. You cornered her. You scared her! Then, you weren’t even enough of man to come back and apologize!”

James had expected the guy to come back at him with denials and outrage. Part of him even hoped it would go down that way because it would give him an excuse to punch the guy again. Instead, Chrosan’s cheery confidence had evaporated and he looked… He looked lost, confused, ashamed, and very, very young. For the first time, James wondered exactly how old Chrosan actually was. The young man looked to the burly guy and the blonde woman, Seiran. There was a question in his eyes, and they both nodded. The confusion disappeared and was replaced with pure guilt. James almost wanted to feel bad for the guy, but his blood was up. He didn’t want to empathize with this jerk.

“Fix what you screwed up,” hissed James. “At least then I might respect you enough to have a conversation.”

Not willing to further entertain the kid, and he clearly was still a kid, James stormed away.