5 Dinner Invitation

Chapter 5: Dinner Invitation

Clara left the room to retrieve the gold to purchase the product from him. In the meantime, Satria was just chilling and happily slurping his tea while fiddling on his phone, taking a note on some things that may sell in this world with quaint technological development.

'Let's see ..., the things I can think of that will sell aside from paper and stationery products are something like fabric, perhaps some steel tools? What about home appliances? Nah ... those would be useless unless this world has developed generators for electricity. But hmmm ..., come to think of it. Maybe I can put on commission on this to Dahlia. If there's a way to convert magic stone into electricity, then it would be revolutionary.'

He just assumed those things, to know what kind of product that will have value in this place he must do some survey and ask the people himself.

'Let's do that after I found someplace to live ... if I recall from the story, Dahlia and her ex-fiancé want to buy a house for 100 gold. Well, I'll just rent some room or apartment for the time being.'

As he thought of random things, the door opened revealing a middle-aged woman in revealing deep blue robe and a brunette woman in a plain dress. Satria took notice of them and instantly he recognized who she is. He spurted out the tea that he hasn't yet swallowed to the side and at that moment he also stored his phone inside the inventory.

'That's the protagonist of this world? There's no way, right? But who else in the story has that shy and meek vibe aside from the reincarnated Japanese? Though, isn't she supposed to have red hair?' Satria's mind spun as he observed the brunette.

"I am sorry for suddenly barging in, I thought this room was unused because as I remember there's no prior reservation for the room."

"Yeah ..., I don't mind." Satria just nodded at the middle-aged woman's words.

But at that very moment, they suddenly leaped forward and grabbed the paper and other things that were placed on the table. She looked at them intently and then gasped and widened her eyes.

"Where did you get these?" she looked straight into Satria's eyes with her emerald pair.

"I ..." but before Satria come up with his 'character setting', Dahlia interrupted with questions one after another.

"No, there's no way such a thing exists in this world, how did you get it? And was the thing in your hand just now a smartphone? Hey, who are you really?" she pulled his collar with her shaking hand.

"Calm down miss ..."

"Answer me!" she shouted with a desperate voice as a stream of water flow down from her eyes.

"... Dahlia, is everything alright dear?" Gabrielle called from behind seeing the anomaly in their short interaction.

She approached her and then looked at the bizarre objects scattered on the table. She has seen a lot from the years served as a guild member, however, it was her first time seeing those things. This, in fact already intrigued her.

"Uhmmm ..., Deputy Chief Guild, just wha- err, what happened here?" Clara entered the room with a tray and stack of coins and a leather pouch.

"Just please, tell me ..." Satria flinched hearing the anguished pleading from Dahlia. She tightens the hold on his collar as if trying to hold on to the last straw.

"Miss ..., my name is Dimas Satria Purnama. I am a traveling merchant from the kingdom of Atlantis. As for these, these are the products unique to my homeland that I'm trying to sell in this part of the world. If you have other inquiries, it will be my pleasure to satiate your curiosity regarding my hometown. However, I have still unfinished business with Ms. Clara. Now, may I ask you to release me?"

"Hai? Atlantis?" Dahlia looked up and finally stared at the face of the person she just grabbed the collar.

To be honest, he's not that good-looking. His complexion is healthy brown, he has this unremarkable face that you would likely forget after the first meeting. But she felt a warm and pleasant vibe going on from him for some reason.

'Ato de~' the man mouthed those words silently. Words from a language that she hasn't heard for a long time. Japanese.

She took a deep breath and released the hold on his collar and straightened it back to how it was.

"I'm sorry for my outburst, that's very unsightly of me. I'm Dahlia Rosetti. Nice to meet you Mr. Purnama."

"Just call me Satria. In my culture, there's no family name or given name. So just call me that."

"I see, then Mr. Satria ..., would you mind if I invite you for a dinner?"

"Sure, when?"

"Tonight!" she exclaimed almost instantly, but then she realized something and added. "That is obviously if you're free this night."

"Cool, I don't have prior arrangement after this. Where then?"

"Umm ... do you like steak?"

"As long as it's not pork." Satria shrugged his shoulder.

"Okay, there's a restaurant that served delicious beef steak just across the street. We can have our dinner there."

"Alright, I'll see you there tonight."

"Great!" Dahlia clapped her hand with a wide smile on her face.

Satria and Dahlia both smiled widely because they have made an appointment. Dahlia was glad he agreed with her invitation because she really want to know how in the world he got those goods. While Satria on the other hand wants to discuss about some possible renewable energy with her.

"Dahlia, if you're finished then we shouldn't disturb this gentleman any more than this. Let's go." Gabriella was amused by their interaction despite how short it was. However, she has been rude and didn't want to linger in this room anymore as it would disturb the ongoing transaction.

"Ahh-, yes ..., then I'll be going, Mr. Satria."

"Yeah, see you later." Satria waved his hand seeing her off.

---=---=---

After concluding the deal with Clara, which grant him a bit of Merchant Rank Exp, Satria left the room and browsed the guild's product catalog. He could only look at the illustration and skipped the whole text and product description. The written letters feel oddly like Japanese Hiragana, but well, it's isekai-kana. Even if he got a system, seems like it's not powerful enough that he could ignore the language barrier.

'Pity though. If I can do that, maybe I can get the highest score in TOEFL.' as he thinks of that, Satria realized something was off. 'Wait a minute, I could speak with them without problem even though my language and theirs are different. Does that mean the system can auto-translate spoken language but not written ones?'

"Hmm ..., I need to learn how to read isekai language." Satria spilled out his thought.

He shook off the unnecessary thought from his head and continue browsing the catalog. But then suddenly ...,

"Please change the name after the payment." he heard the female MC voice from inside the room.

"That will be a problem for me! I promised Emilia we'll live there right away!"

Followed by a shout from a young man. Satria remembered he has read those in the novel. But to think that it would be this noisy. He turned to the blonde man behind the receptionist counter.

"Urm ..., excuse me. Did the meeting rooms in this guild don't have a silencer installed?"

"Ah, you mean eavesdropping prevention magic tool. Yes, indeed, we have installed some of the meeting rooms. However, while privacy is needed for the sake of safety, that can be discarded."

"Hmmm ..., I'm sorry, can you tell me more about the safety aspect, why is that not installing the silencer device can be related to safety?"

"Well ..., this is between us, uhm ..., what's your name again, Mister?"

"I'm Dimas, nice to meet you by the way."

"Okay, Mr. Dimas, I'm Ivano ..., nice too." he beckoned him to come closer before explaining. "Sometimes, nah oftentimes, businessmen especially the one with a larger network or maybe has a special connection with certain nobles did some underhanded trick like threatening our staff. Making them agree to a deal that will incur losses for our guild. Such cases happened before, and so for the sake of safety, there's some meeting room without eavesdropping prevention tool."

"Ahhh ..., I see. So that's the case." Satria nodded finally getting the context. "So, the guild also handles some private matters such as marriage and divorce, that kind of stuff?"

"Actually, the Town Hall is the one who should be dealing with such matters. The guild only acts as the intercessor for the messy bureaucracy."

"Hmmm ..., something like a middleman." "What about monster subjugation then, did the guild also accept a commission or something like that?"

"Well that's Adventurer Guild, and maybe the Order of Knights who'll handle it. However, if you need a specific monster part and materials, you can commission it to us directly. After all, the Adventurer Guild and Knight Order sell it to us in the end."

"I see ..., that's neat." Satria nodded and from his peripheral vision, he saw a blonde young man who ran passed the hallway with a flustered face.

'So that's the simp, huh?' he thought, but then he shook his head and then sighed. 'I wonder, would I do some stupid things like what he did just to make Ty- a woman happy? Even if that would hurt or inconvenience other people.'

He thought about it for a while and realized that he would definitely do that. There's no doubt about it. After all, he did all those things before the relationship even started.

'Alright, there's no use thinking about that right now ..., I'm done in this place, let's explore the town. Oh yeah, I also need to find a hotel.'

"Right, I haven't got the time to look around the town and I need someplace to stay the night. Mr. Ivano, do you have any advice on some affordable hotels?"

"Hotel, do you mean inn? Well, there's that Broken Hull Inn near the gate, or if you want some more comfortable resting place, there's Stargate Inn near the town square."

"Hmmm ..., while we're at it, what is the housing price in this town?"

"Obviously, it still depends on the plot's size and location. But you can get decent house downtown with 100 gold coins, around that price."

"Do you know whether I can buy the land outside the wall?"

"Outside the wall? Well, that's quite difficult. You need to discuss with City Lord that."

Satria pondered for a bit and asked again. "Did you know what's the price of buying a plot of land outside the wall?"

"I don't know. No one ever bought one before, at least, not in this city. So I can only say that I don't know."

"I see. Well, it's definitely nice talking with you, Mr. Ivano. Here's a little trinket from my hometown." took out a glass ashtray.

"Oh wow, thank you ... but what's this?" the brown-haired man asked with a knitted eyebrow.

"It's an ashtray."

"How do you know that I smoke?"

"Well, I figured it out because of your scent. Anyway, I'll explore the town for a bit, goodbye."