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  Akeru finally stopped running after he was sure he was at least dozens of kilometers away from the pce.

  'That granny was so suspicious; I'm gd I escaped.' He didn’t realize how right his decision was.

  He might have died already if he hadn’t run at that time.

  'Let’s see, what was I thinking? Yeah, not going to Vermillion House straight away. First, I need to gather knowledge about this world. I don’t want to appear like a transmigrator. I also need to understand the political situation here, as this is real life, not anime.' Akeru mentally made up his mind.

  'But first, there is the most important thing to do.' In the next instant, he made a very serious face.

  People nearby, upon seeing his face, took a few steps back in terror.

  He quickly made his way to a nearby shop, which had gss walls.

  'Won’t those be the first to break if someone starts a fight here? Then again, these guys probably trust the magic knights a lot,' he thought, shaking off random thoughts and focusing on his reflection in the gss.

  He saw a face in the mirror, which then twisted into shock and terror.

  "Aahhhh!"

  "kyaaaa!"

  Akeru finally calmed his heart when he realized the person in the reflection wasn’t him.

  "Ahem, sir, what do you want?" The other person, the salesperson, also calmed down and asked.

  "Nothing, my bad," Akeru muttered, quickly leaving the shop.

  'What a useless shop; it doesn’t even have proper reflective gss on the outside. I’d never buy anything from there.' He cursed, ignoring how absurd his words were.

  If a clothing shop like that doesn’t put transparent gss, how are they supposed to attract customers and show off their products?

  He finally found a shop that sold mirrors and had one outside for dispy.

  'What kind of days are these? To look at my own reflection, I need to go to a mirror shop.' He internally joked about his circumstances and finally looked at himself.

  "No way!... I look average," Akeru was so shocked that he said this out loud.

  'Where’s my unparalleled charm that even people of the same gender favor?' He realized he didn’t receive the package a transmigrated person was supposed to get.

  People around him gnced at him weirdly.

  "Mommy, what’s that guy doing?"

  "Don’t look," the kid's mother said in a hushed tone, pulling the child away.

  Akeru heard both conversations due to enhancing his ears with mana since he had ditched the granny.

  "Ahem," he quickly left the scene, keeping his expression unchanged.

  His poker face didn’t crack even then.

  'My appearance doesn’t matter, after all. Under the flesh, everyone is bones only. It’s pointless to care about looks,' he recalled the statement he used to tell himself before and repeated it.

  He bumped into someone.

  "Kid, look where you’re going!"

  "My bad, handsome nii-chan, please forgive me," he said cheekily.

  "Ahem, I will forgive you," the guy said. From his appearance, he seemed to come from a wealthy household, though his looks were even more average than Akeru’s.

  'Hehe, typical rich people who are said to have good appearances.' Akeru moved away from the pce steadily.

  After 20 minutes, he entered an alleyway.

  'Good thing I’m wearing gloves. Let’s ditch them completely.' He said, throwing away the purse he had stolen and then the gloves.

  He stuffed the money into a pstic bag and moved away, fearing someone might track him through the purse.

  He had chosen his target by observing a guy who wasn’t too rich but well-off enough that stealing from him wouldn’t harm his finances too much, and he didn’t seem to have any background research on him.

  'Just in case, let’s move to another corner of the city. I’ll need to change my clothes ter too.' Akeru finally blessed himself for having an average face.

  It was easier to blend into the crowd.

  He took out new gloves so he could hold the money while paying for something and then started heading toward a restaurant.

  'It’s almost evening. I’ll need to find an inn ter too, or maybe I should find an inn that offers food three times a day.' He made up his mind and started searching for an inn.

  Soon, he found one and entered.

  A burly man was behind the reception desk.

  "I would like a room for the night and dinner too."

  "Dinner depends on what you eat, so the payment will be done during your meal. For the room, it’ll be 4000 Yuls for the night," the man said.

  'He definitely is scamming me, but whatever. It’s not like it’s my money,' Akeru thought and proceeded to pay the amount before going to have dinner.

  He then exited the inn and disposed of the gloves far away from the pce, as he hadn’t used them for any transactions.

  'It would all be for nothing if someone has an advanced tracking spell, but I can only do this much at a reasonable level of caution. Anything more would take too much time, and that would harm me.' He thought, covering himself with a bnket.

  'Woah, this is soft.' He thought while melting into the bed.

  Thirty minutes ter.

  'I can’t sleep on this soft thing,' he grimaced and proceeded to sleep on the ground.

  The next morning, he woke up with a few goals in mind. 'I need to gather some information about this world. Better to find a library or something. Let’s first have breakfast.'

  He looked at the receptionist, who had changed from a burly man to a stunning dy.

  'Is it his wife or daughter, or someone completely unreted?' He couldn’t really deduce the retionship between the woman and the man.

  She looked at him and smiled.

  Akeru felt something in his body when he saw her smile.

  He had to do his best not to show any reaction outwardly.

  "Do you want to extend your stay, sir?"

  "No, I want to check out," Akeru said, maintaining his stoic face.

  He did so and, without wasting any time, headed out of the inn.

  'Fuck, that dy’s smile was so scary. I bet she has some malicious intentions. The way she looks at me is creepy.' Akeru shivered while running away from the pce discreetly.

  Since he hadn’t made any transactions, he didn’t need to dispose of the gloves.

  He then proceeded to get some breakfast and, after asking the shopkeeper, received the location of the library.

  'Both magic and common knowledge require you to pay money. These guys really like to monopolize information.' He internally cursed, missing his previous life's internet, where information was mostly free.

  He arrived at the reception of the library.

  Nearby, a board detailed the price for reading.

  Akeru’s eyes widened internally. 'Woah, 3000 Yuls for an hour? And magic stuff requires 9000 Yuls per hour? What kind of inftion is this?' He proceeded to pay for one hour and decided to extend it if the library had useful material.

  First, he examined all the magic-reted stuff, but only a few topics caught his attention.

  'If I were to steal this book, how many guards are there nearby?' He discreetly decided to scout out the people guarding it.

  'Not worth the risk.' After some time, he concluded and moved to general-looking information.

  Hours passed, and he finally exited the library.

  'This world is really big. Plus, the ws are ridiculous. There's nothing called the value of human—specifically, commoner life. No wonder they are so unrestrained.'

  'Anyway, time to get some money.'

  ***

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