How can you become stronger if you don't build up bonds?

"What is Tina feeling guilty about? She's acting like a thief."

Lin Wei and Luya remained calm when faced with the sheriff's observation.

Lin Wei even prepared a self-consistent explanation in his mind, hoping that the sheriff would come and ask him about it.

Only Tina's expression was particularly stiff, as if she was afraid of being questioned.

"I..." Tina couldn't defend herself; she just clutched the gorgeous cloak that Laura had chosen for her.

"We'll keep an eye out for clothing stores in town later. We need to change all our clothes before we start looking for people."

In short, the three of them were dressed too ostentatiously. People with poor eyesight might mistake them for wealthy travelers, like the sheriff at the South Gate, based on the texture of the fabric.

However, those with a bit more knowledge will prioritize observing the design style and tailoring techniques.

Lin Wei was doing a little better, as he was still wearing the night cloak he wore when he captured Bapf yesterday, but Tina's was far too obvious, a design unique to royalty.

The matter of changing clothes should have been resolved before departure, but the Duke's mansion couldn't find any clothes in a purely commoner style, so Lin Wei had to solve this problem once he arrived at his destination.

Fortunately, the layout of Ska town is very clear, with shops trading goods and services clustered together to form a dedicated commercial district.

As the southernmost administrative region of the kingdom, Ska Town is much larger than a typical small town, approaching the standard of a city.

People from surrounding villages come here to buy high-end daily necessities and enjoy various forms of entertainment that money can't buy in their own villages.

Lin Wei had only taken a few steps when he noticed the GG advertisements for the theater and arena.

Watching theatrical performances is the most common form of entertainment for ordinary people around the world, suitable for all ages.

The arena is a gathering place for passionate young people and middle-aged people who need to replenish their passion.

The kingdom has established strict management systems for arenas throughout the country. The purpose of establishing arenas is to encourage citizens to train and hone their martial arts skills.

The fights in the arena must be stopped short of serious injury or death, and the format is somewhat similar to the martial arts tournament that Lin Wei knew.

In addition, Lin Wei also saw advertisements for another type of entertainment venue in the commercial district of Ska Town, which made Lin Wei subconsciously frown.

This kind of place is called a casino.

Who gave the casino in Scarborough permission to advertise and solicit customers in public?

Although Lin Wei usually stays in the royal city and doesn't go out much, he has taken the initiative to learn about the various new policies and laws promulgated by Wallis over the years.

He was particularly interested in the regulations related to casinos.

Since King Nado had completely taken away territorial and military power from the nobles, he compensated them by providing them with ample economic benefits.

The most basic practice was to allocate funds to the nobles from the kingdom's treasury every month. In addition, he also transferred the operating rights of special venues such as arenas and casinos to the noble class.

The new regulations stipulate that only nobles can operate any special business establishment within Wallis; commoners or foreign merchants are not allowed to participate in this business.

However, there are corresponding thresholds and vetting for nobles to operate these establishments. The higher the administrative level of the town where the establishment is located and the larger the scale of the business, the higher the required rank of nobility.

For industries with a gray area, such as casinos or entertainment venues, the government imposes specific restrictions.

One of the core restrictions on casinos is that they are not allowed to advertise publicly.

The restrictions on brothels are even more stringent; border towns like Scar Town are not allowed to operate them at all.

The rulers of Wallis did not want the vast majority of commoners below the middle class to participate in these gray-area entertainment activities.

With the casino in Scar Town making such a big fuss, what is the governor doing?

Seeing such a loophole in policy implementation as soon as he entered the town, Lin Wei's mood soured.

Without a doubt, before leaving, he would visit the highest-ranking official in Scar Town to see how dare he tolerate such illegal behavior at every meal!

"Over there, I see the big sign for the clothing store!" Tina, who was walking ahead, turned around excitedly.

After a brief period of adjustment, Tina's girlish nature began to awaken.

For young girls, few things are more enjoyable than shopping. And the thought that shopping is for buying clothes and that she won't have to pay for them herself keeps Tina's smile going.

Going out with a demon isn't all bad, is it?

Unfortunately, she turned her head and bumped right into Lin Wei when his face looked its worst.

"? Shock—" Tina was startled.

What... did I do now...?

Can't I even speak a little louder...?

Luya, who was standing to the side, knew what Lin Wei was thinking. Seeing that Tina had misunderstood, she kept gesturing with her hands in front of her chest.

Lin Wei was already used to Tina's sudden outbursts and didn't think too much about it. He proceeded directly to the next step:

"I'll go buy the clothes. Luya, take Tina to find the inns in town. After you've confirmed the locations of all the inns in town, go to the clothing store and meet me there."

If Lillian were in Scar Town, she would definitely stay at one of the hotels, but Lin Wei didn't trust Tina's ability to handle things alone.

Having the meticulous Luya act alongside her is the best option.

"ah..."

Upon hearing Lin Wei's arrangement, Tina's face revealed undisguised disappointment.

Why...

The real essence of shopping in a clothing store is actually picking out and trying on clothes...

This demon, I really shouldn't have had any expectations of you—

It's one thing to be inwardly furious and condemning something, but it's quite another to outwardly express it.

Tina dared not provoke Lin Wei, who was in a bad mood, so she forced a smile, hiding her disappointment.

"I see..."

What does that expression mean? Does it mean you don't trust my taste in clothes or your knowledge of women's clothing sizes?

Tina's height is almost exactly the same as Luya's, both at 168cm. Luya is a bit more voluptuous, but Tina's bust and hips are also quite impressive.

Most of the clothes in this world are loose-fitting, so if Luya can wear them, Tina can definitely wear them too. It's an incredibly easy task to choose clothes.

"Let's go then." Lin Wei tucked Luya's hair behind her ear, then gently tugged at her small, cute earlobe, his mood returning to its best state.

Luya carefully took out several large gold coins from her pocket and handed them to Lin Wei.

Lin Wei chuckled; he had truly forgotten all about the money.

You're just putting on an act again... Only someone as naive as Lucia could fall for your tricks...

Tina's inner grumbling never stopped.

……

The operation began with Lin Wei splitting up and walking to the front of the large clothing store.

The clothing store owner was a very capable-looking middle-aged woman. She was wearing a somewhat flashy knitted sweater and could tell at a glance that Lin Wei wanted to buy clothes.

"Handsome customer, come in and take a look at our clothes! We have a wide variety, and the prices are very reasonable. Buy two items and we'll even include laundry and drying services!"

"What kind of laundry and drying service do you offer? Do you have a drying oven in your store?" Lin Wei asked, showing a little interest.

"Hehe, of course we have a dryer, since we offer laundry services. But if you're in a hurry to wear your new clothes, I can make an exception and dry them for you right here!"

"Magic?" This was an unexpected turn of events for Lin Wei.

Does this woman selling clothes also possess the qualities of a spellcaster?

Lin Wei hadn't had time to learn the skills related to [Magic Perception], so he couldn't sense the unique magical fluctuations emanating from the spellcaster.

The shop owner noticed Lin Wei's confusion and smiled as he offered an explanation:

"Blessed by the supreme goddess, I, this old woman, awakened a little bit of magical talent when I was young."

"How about it, buddy? Want to see for yourself?"

The shop owner's face clearly says "attract and entice".

Lin Wei roughly understood why her family's store was able to grow so large; there were indeed some tricks involved.

"Let's take a look."

Lin Wei pretended not to be in a hurry. Even though he was not short of money, he did not want to be ripped off by unscrupulous merchants.

"Young man, are you looking at girls' clothes, planning to buy them as a gift?"

When the shop owner saw that Lin Wei wanted to buy more than one person's worth of clothes, her eyes lit up.

I guess so.

Lin Wei's ambiguous answer still received enthusiastic feedback from the shop owner, who kept promoting the latest and trendiest styles in the store to Lin Wei, and assured him that no other clothing store in Scar Town would have clothes of higher quality.

The shop owner didn't deliberately avoid the topic of prices; she gave Lin Wei the price of whichever item he asked about.

To be honest, the clothes here are really good value for money. The most expensive outfit Lin Wei asked about so far only costs close to 1 gold coin.

The more clothes Lin Wei picked out, the brighter the shop owner's smile became.

In the end, Lin Wei chose four sets of women's clothing and one set of men's clothing, which would cost about 4 gold coins in total.

"What currency do you accept, sir? Silver or gold coins? If it's copper coins, then I might be in a bit of a bind."

The shop owner's business acumen is all too real.

So when she saw Lin Wei pull a shiny gold coin out of his pocket, her eyes widened in disbelief.

"That's a big gold coin—!"

The monetary system on the continent of Alama is uniformly controlled by the Holy Church. The materials and minting techniques of the currencies of various countries are similar, so their purchasing power is also almost the same.

Under the existing monetary system, Wallis had four types of circulating currencies: copper coins, silver coins, gold coins, and large gold coins.

In principle, 1 large gold coin = 10 gold coins = 100 silver coins = 1000 copper coins.

However, not every country has coins of this caliber; they are generally only issued by the Holy Church and prosperous and powerful nations.

The reason is simple: the large gold coin contains precious magical material adamantite, and many countries are short of adamantite resources and are unwilling to use it to mint currency.

It's worth noting that even countries capable of issuing large gold coins cannot necessarily maintain their purity in the long run.

For example, corruption in the mint could result in large gold coins lacking sufficient purity, causing irreparable damage to the nation's credit.

Astute international businessmen naturally gravitate towards countries with good credit, or head directly to the Holy Kingdom, the headquarters of the Western Holy Church.

Currently, Wallis is the country with the best credit in the East, and the large gold coins minted by Wallis have never had any purity issues in the past few centuries.

Therefore, businessmen from the central and eastern parts of mainland China are willing to do business in Wallis.

In such a market environment, the actual value of Wallis Gold Coins and Church Gold Coins will be slightly higher than their face value on the mainland.

Although this phenomenon cannot be directly reflected in currency conversion, the fact that "those who use Wallis's Big Gold Coin and Church's Big Gold Coin have higher transaction priority" has long been a common understanding in the East.

"Hmm, this is all I have." Lin Wei handed over the large gold coin directly.

The shopkeeper, an older woman, took the coin so quickly that Lin Wei didn't even see it. She carefully examined each side of the large gold coin, her expression becoming even more captivated.

"My God, this gold coin is so beautiful! It looks like... it hasn't been handled much, it's practically a collector's item!"

Of course, the Duke's large gold coins are all obtained directly from the mint.

When the shop owner looked up again, her eyes were clearly fixed on a VIP:

"Please wait a moment, sir. I'll go wash your clothes right now, and my daughter will do it herself! Then I'll dry and iron them carefully for you!"

"Okay, let's do it as soon as possible."

Perhaps because there were few opportunities for trade with foreign countries on the southern border, large gold coins were significantly rarer here than on other borders.

While waiting to do his laundry, Lin Wei chatted with the shop owner.

"Haha, I could tell at a glance that you're a traveler from out of town. If I'm not mistaken, you probably have two female companions, right?"

Seeing that the shop owner had excellent observation and deductive reasoning skills, Lin Wei took the opportunity to ask her some questions about things he was interested in.

"As for hotels, there are only two in town, and the quality would be a bit rough for someone like you. As for the little girl you described, I really don't remember her."

……

"Young man, are you going to the casino?" The shop owner, an older woman, glanced around to make sure no one was eavesdropping, then leaned closer and whispered:

"I don't recommend you go there. There's something fishy about it. No ordinary person can go in and not lose money."

I can't explain the specifics, but I know that recently many villagers went there to gamble, and in the end, they all lost everything.

In short, whenever my son wants to join in the fun, I just use magic to burn him.

As she spoke, the aunt demonstrated for Lin Wei. She activated her magic, made her right hand hot, and slapped it hard against the air a few times.

You're very good at taking care of children.

The more Lin Wei talked to the aunt, the more interesting he found her to be.

It's a well-established fact that the casino has problems, but the woman didn't know that casinos don't allow advertising about gambling.

Finally, Lin Wei took out the wild strawberries he had picked earlier from his pocket and told the aunt that they were picked from the woods to the south.

He was just about to make up a story about traveling to the south when the aunt's expression changed drastically after hearing about the origin of the wild strawberry. Without saying a word, she snatched the wild strawberry from Lin Wei's hand, conjured a tangible flame in her right hand, and burned the wild strawberry to ashes.

Oh my god—

"Hey buddy, are you trying to scare this old woman to death?!"