I Own A Brothel In Another World (Ch. 1-196)

Chapter 17 - A Jog Through the Market

It's around an hour or two after noon. Without pointless stalling, I walk towards the main market in the mercantile district. It will be the best place to look for all the ingredients.

As usual, there's a huge crowd here. It's not that loud, but you'd need to slightly raise your voice when speaking with someone. Walking from stall to stall, I pick up most of the things from the list I was given by Sirgia quite fast. I decide to check some stationery shops in the area too.

As I'm advancing towards one and placing my foot on the few steps in front of its door, someone bursts out through them and crashes into me while looking behind.

"Nguh!"

We both fall to the ground. I raise myself on my elbows and look at the other person.

"Come on, dude! What's the rush—"

Our eyes meet. And that's the only part of his face I can see. The man lying on my side has most of his face covered by a bandana. I glance down and spot a small sack in his hand and a knife lying between us, also most likely belonging to him.

"I'll get you, you bastard!"

Someone shouts from inside the store with a manly tone. The man frantically grabs the knife and stands up while pointing it my way. The owner of the previous voice appears at the door. It's a tall man with short black hair and beard, which covers most of his chin and face. He leans over the door frame while clutching his chest. A fresh cut can be spotted in his shirt, slightly red from blood.

The man lunges forward at the guy with the knife, but he dodges and starts running away. Already crouching, I catch the wounded man before he slams to the ground. He looks at me surprised.

"I want a discount."

I pat him twice on the shoulder and break into a dash after the thief before he merges into the crowd. His wound isn't life-threatening.

「Time for some exercise. Hopefully, he doesn't have any movement skills.」

Fortunately, it doesn't seem like he is of a high Tier because I can quite easily match his running speed. Nothing unexpected. The majority of the population doesn't develop their Classes due to the risk of getting hurt. And I had quite decent stamina even before arriving here.

He charges through, pushing many people off his path. Thanks to that, I'm able to slightly close the distance between us. He notices that I'm after him and shoves some woman towards stacked barrels. They start falling and rolling my way.

"You wish!"

I quickly jump over someone's stand to switch paths. "Sorry!"

The barrels start hitting unaware people and crashing into other stalls while I safely continue my pursuit, running through the backstages and manoeuvring between surprised merchants. After the barrels crisis is no more, I jump back to the street, still having the suspect in my line of sight. Others start noticing the ruckus and moving away from his path.

「Oh, come on! Just fucking trip him with a leg or something!」

We are almost reaching the end of this big square. After he escapes into one of the alleyways, I will have no way of tracking him down in that web of passages.

「Fuck! Not a single useful skill!」

While I'm considering my options, he spins around and throws his knife at me. I barely react in time and it grazes my cheek, leaving a hot, red line over it. He stumbles during that motion and I'm able to shorten our distance to something like six meters.