"Argh! Huff… Huff… Huff…"
I woke up with a shout, my body drenched with cold sweat. It was the same nightmare as usual, featuring one of the worst parts of my training. I didn't dream about it that often anymore, but it was always an unpleasant experience each time it happened.
I heard someone banging on the wall next to mine.
"Shut up! Why are you yelling so early in the morning?"
The banging was followed by some more from the ceiling this time.
"You shut up! Cough, cough! Why are you banging walls like a retard?"
After that, many more started to bang walls and scream at others from their rooms. It seemed my nightmare had woken up most of the inn. I ignored the shouts around me, shivering a bit at the remaining feelings within me.
It was something that happened when I was still rank 2 and hadn't learned the teleportation spell yet. For some reason, the training program switched to torture resistance, which I still thought didn't make any sense. Yet, my crazy instructors didn't care in the least about my protests and I had to endure a full month of the most atrocious torture one could imagine. They also didn't mind destroying my body since they had hired a transcendent life mage to heal me. In the end, I didn't gain immunity to pain since this was impossible but became a lot more resistant to it, whatever good this did to my life.
It was only much later that I realized how much they invested in my training. Thinking about it, paying for the services of a transcendent life mage just to heal a rank 2 during his "training" didn't make any sense. Of course, at that time, I couldn't care less about that. The only thoughts in my mind were the horrible pain and the pure hatred toward them for making me go through all of this.
The worst part was probably how my instructors didn't do any of this by malice. On the contrary, a lot of them adored me. It was distorted love born from their greed, and the belief that they were creating something incredible by training me, someone who would contribute more than anyone else to the Trading Union, the organization they had devoted their whole lives to. Some of them even loved me more than their real family, which said it all. They were all completely crazy. And that was still without taking the psycho Elders into account. I didn't even want to remember those insane geezers.
'Stop thinking about them. No matter what, you'll never see them again. You're on a different planet now.'
I shook my head, clearing up my thoughts. I left my room after using the water basin in the room to clean myself up a little. I was at my usual inn in Geola. Despite being very early in the morning, the inn owner was already in the kitchen preparing breakfast. I called out to him, checking out by giving him the key to the room back.
When I was outside, I breathed the relatively fresh air of the morning. As predicted, the temperature was steadily going up as days passed and it was no wonder that my fans were selling like hotcakes. Or more like, how the weasel merchant was selling them like hotcakes.
Immediately, I sensed the usual gazes on me. I was sensitive to people looking at me due to my training and I instantly noticed it when people started tailing me a few days prior. This forced me to be more careful when I teleported and moved around.
I acted as if I wasn't aware of anything and walked forward. This early in the morning, I didn't have anything to do and just strolled aimlessly. Wandering around Geola was always a great enjoyment. There were curious sights to see no matter where one looked, whether it was a nice building or an interesting-looking species.
The previous week had passed without too much trouble. The only thing that hadn't gone well was trying to meet Ulum after her exams ended. I went to the library many times but never managed to find her. Eventually, I left a message for her to the librarians, in case she ever came to the building. It was simply to tell her that she could find me in the market since I had started working as a merchant.
A while later, I turned corners until I stopped feeling the eyes on me for a moment and went to fetch the daily stock of crops from the bunnies' village before teleporting to Suuru's house. She had just woken up, still looking slightly sleepy.
"Good morning, Tila."
"Good morning, Suuru."
My random appearance didn't surprise her much anymore and she had completely accepted it, even though she still hadn't felt like allowing me back into her bed yet. It shouldn't be long anymore and I thought it would coincide with the moment her vagina was fully healed and she stopped feeling any pain.
Not too long after, we were tackling selling our stock of crops in the market. By now, we were relatively well known in our corner and had many regular clients. I was the one who handled most of the conversations with the customers since this was my forte.
"Hello, Mrs. Saely. How is it that you're looking more resplendent every day?"
"Oh, oh, no need for flattery. Give me the usual."
"Yes, ma'am."
Despite saying that, it was obvious she appreciated my comments, which was the very reason I made them every single time. Combined with our cheap prices and high quality, she was a client who would never buy food from other traders as long as we existed. And we now had many like her.
Time passed quickly as our regular customers came one after the other. Other food merchants were sending us dark looks but we didn't pay any attention to them. Such was the law of the market. Better us than them.