Chapter 38

Chapter 38: Chapter 38

"Yes," Ingrid replied calmly. "I want five sacks of twenty kilograms each, and I want the other things in the quantities I mentioned as well."

The shopkeeper looked behind Ingrid at Lysander before looking back at her. "Miss, if you don’t mind me asking, are you buying food for an entire family?"

"No, just the two of us."

The man’s eyes widened. "The two of you?"

Ingrid nodded as though there was nothing strange about her request. "We’re going on a long journey, and I don’t know when we’ll have access to another proper market. I’d rather buy enough now than regret it later."

The shopkeeper glanced toward the growing crowd around the stall, and several people who had been pretending not to listen were now openly staring at Ingrid.

"That is an enormous amount of food for two people," an older woman nearby commented.

Ingrid looked at her and gave a small shrug. "I know, but I’d rather have too much food than run out of it." Then she turned to the shopkeeper, "If you don’t want to sell to me, I can go somewhere else..." She made a move to move away to another store when the shopkeeper stepped right in front of her with a huge smile on his face.

"No no! Of course I want to sell!" The shopkeeper yelled, quickly beckoning all his workers over. "Quickly! Get the rice first, then the flour and the other grains. Be careful with everything!"

One of the workers looked shocked. "All of it?"

"Yes, all of it, now be quick! Stop wasting time."

As the workers started moving the sacks, Ingrid looked toward another shelf. "Do you sell cooking oil?"

"We do," the shopkeeper replied, rubbing his hands together. He has finally seen someone who was willing to splurge a huge amount of money just to buy food. If she could spend more, it’s possible that he’ll be able to leave the village today along with the other merchants. His smile got wider as he stared at Ingrid, "We have several kinds of oil. Sunflower Oil, Groundnut Oil and Canola Oil."

"Hm... We’ll take thirty bottles of Groundnut Oil, twenty of sunflower and ten of Canola oil."

By now the shopkeeper wasn’t surprised anymore, he gladly brought out everything she wanted. The workers worked very quickly, carefully laying out everything Ingrid asked for right in front of her.

Before Ingrid could ask for anything else, a man somewhere in the crowd let out a quiet laugh.

"Can she even pay for all that?" he murmured to the person beside him. "Or is she just window shopping and pretending she has money?" His voice carried farther than he probably intended, and several people nearby turned to look at Ingrid.

"Come to think of it, she is buying a lot of stuff. Can she really pay for it?"

"What if she’s trying to scam the boss. What will he do?"

Ingrid did not even bother looking at the man. She simply turned to Lysander and held out her hand. "Give me one of the pouches."

Lysander looked at her, then at the crowd, before reaching into his clothes and handing her one of the gold pouches. Ingrid tossed it into the air and caught it neatly, and the loud jingling of the coins immediately caught everyone’s attention. The conversations around the stall slowly died down as people stared at the pouch in her hand, while the man who had questioned her suddenly became very quiet.

Ingrid smiled at the shopkeeper and held up the pouch. "Are you still selling?"

The shopkeeper stared at her for a second before breaking into a wide smile. "Yes, of course I’m still selling!" he said quickly. "Miss, you don’t need to worry about that. If you have the money, I have the goods."

After everything was brought out, it all amounted to a hundred going coins. Cheaper than Ingrid expected. Without further ado, she took out a hundred and fifty coins from the pouch and placed it on the table.

"Keep the change." Ingrid winked at the shopkeeper, "Can you help me load these goods onto the cart?"

"Yes, yes. Of course!"

A few moments later, all the goods had been loaded onto the cart. Lysander picked up the cart handles without any complaints and pushed it behind Ingrid. They got to a spice shop.

At the spice stall, Ingrid bought five kilograms each of black pepper, dried chili, ginger, garlic, turmeric, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, coriander, and several other cooking spices the merchant had available. The spice seller initially thought she was joking when she gave him the quantities, but when Ingrid repeated the order without changing her expression, his shock quickly turned into concern.

"Are you preparing for some kind of expedition?" he asked.

Ingrid stared at him, "Something like that."

The merchant looked at the crowd surrounding his stall. "You know, there have been rumors that people are leaving soon."

"I’ve heard about it, yeah."

"Then you’re not worried?"

Ingrid looked toward the distant wall. "I am worried, which is exactly why I’m buying all this."

The merchant stared at her for a moment before slowly nodding. "Fair enough."

The medicine shop caused an even bigger reaction. When Ingrid told the shopkeeper she wanted thirty boxes of painkillers, twenty boxes of antibiotics, twenty boxes of fever medicine, fifty rolls of bandages, twenty bottles of disinfectant, twenty bottles of antiseptic, and every healing herb he was willing to sell, the man actually stopped writing.

"Miss, did you say fifty rolls of bandages?" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Yes."

"And twenty bottles of antiseptic?"

"Yes."

"And every healing herb?"

"Yes."

The shopkeeper looked genuinely troubled. "That’s enough medicine to treat a small army."

Ingrid looked at him seriously. "I know."

"Then why are you buying so much?"

"Just because." Ingrid shrugged. Why were they asking so many questions?! If she decided to buy out the whole market, they should just sell obediently and leave as quickly as they can! Why are they being so nosy?