It took a while for people to start coming in, but eventually they did.
Ring!
Graham glanced up at the first adult-looking person apart from Grant who entered his little store.
The woman who walked in looked to be in her 20s or 30s and had abnormally large ears and short purple hair that framed her face like a poof.
Her slight frame was dressed similarly to Grant's. She wore black leather pants and a greyish shirt made of rough material. She also had a short sword strapped to one thigh and a small leather pouch strapped to the other.
Unlike the people he had seen so far, she didn't have the moon and stars symbol on any of her belongings, nor did she have the black and grey rags like the kids he had just scared away.
There was no special symbol at all, just her clothing.
Her eyes were a paler purple than her hair, and her unnaturally large pupils grew smaller as they looked around before meeting Graham's eyes.
"Hello, human shopkeeper. I mean no harm to you or your beast." She greeted Graham politely, and he nodded politely in return, not correcting her assumption about his illusion being his beast.
It would be better if everybody thought this way.
"Hello, customer. Welcome to the Interstellar Merchant Shop. Are you here to buy or just browse?"
"I'd like to buy. I want 20 of those waters and 5 flurs? I heard that it's like tishi powder but better."
Her tongue twisted weirdly around the strange word, and she gazed at Graham expectantly.
"Flow-er." Graham enunciated the word slowly before nodding, "Yes, I think you'll find it quite similar to tishi powder, although the taste will be different, and you might have to experiment. Your total is 45 Mirystals."
"I also heard that if I provide the source of my information, you'll throw in an extra water bottle?"
As Graham glanced at her abnormally large ears, she winked at him before transforming them from the human adjacent ears into plate-sized, purple-black fur-covered ears and wiggling them around.
"I hear everything around here. Everything."
Graham couldn't help but laugh at her shamelessness.
"Very cool. I'd love to hear what you have to tell me. I'm new to the neighborhood, so if you have any other news to share, I'll throw in an extra container of flour."
"Deal."
The woman grabbed an extra container of flour and piled it on the counter before leaning on it as she spoke, "Word on the street is that there's a cheap shop run by a human at the border of Mistress Selene's territory. Expect further visitors. And as for other news…what would you like to know?"
"I'd appreciate any advice that you could give to somebody new to the area."
The woman tapped her purple colored lips for a moment before whispering, "I suggest you have your paperwork in order and know how to protect yourself. Word on the street is that the humans are planning a raid. Apparently, we beast-folk are looking a little too leisurely for their liking. You didn't hear that from me, though."
"What do you mean by that?" Graham wanted to know more, but the purple-haired woman pretended he hadn't asked.
"You said my total is 45 crystals, right?" She placed a large, green, glass-like crystal on the countertop.
When Graham placed it into the retro-style cash register, it spat out 5 small glass chips, which he handed back to her.
"That is an interesting magic tool you have there. Make sure it's hidden when the humans come to raid." She warned him again.
Graham nodded at her words, then watched in amazement as she removed the leather pouch strapped to her leg, whispered some words, and then the pouch turned into a large sack.
All the things she bought were thrown inside, and once she whispered another set of words, the sack shrank back down into a small pouch which she strapped to her leg.
At Graham's open-mouthed stare, she winked again, "Bag of holding. Never seen one before?"
He had not.
At least not in person.
They were coveted on Earth, and extremely difficult to make, needing lots of materials that could only be found in other worlds at high prices.
The people on Earth who had them were the top corporations and those with an unthinkable amount of wealth.
Even with his previous allowance, he hadn't been able to get close to one.
Graham immediately calmed himself down so she wouldn't think he was a villager who hadn't seen the world.
"I have. I just didn't think that anyone would have one in this…environment."
"In this shithole you mean. No need to sugar coat it." She laughed before tapping her pouch. "I got it through special circumstances. If I tell you how, I'd have to kill you."
The cold glint in her eyes made it clear that she wasn't joking.
"I wasn't going to ask. Like I tell all the customers, this is how you open and close them and if you give me 4 bottles back, I'll give you 1 free. Same with the flour containers." Graham demonstrated how to open his water bottle before placing it down.
The woman looked at it curiously before nodding.
"Understood. Goodbye to you, shopkeeper, and to your beast."
As she turned away, Graham called back to her,
"Wait, I never got your name."
"I didn't give it, human shopkeeper. I'll return another time. Look forward to it." With a jaunty wave with both her hands and ears as they returned to normal, the purple-haired woman left, leaving Graham deep in thought.
He really needed to gather more information.
On how to get himself a bag of holding and other magical items.
And more information about the current state of the slums.
Although IMES had given him a history lesson on Planet Onia, the information wasn't exactly current, and he didn't know all the players.
And his only avenue of getting that information was slowly wheedling it out of the customers that were trickling in with the bribes of extra items.
Ring!
As another customer came in, Graham put on his best customer service smile as he began to go through his whole spiel.
"Welcome to the Interstellar Merchant Company. Will you be buying anything today, or are you just looking around?"