A few days later, the peddlers finally took off from Neo Orcus and began their journey to the Queens region. Their rucksacks had been emptied out and replaced with Reborn products such as soap, shampoo, and most of all, chocolates and cookies.
Their targeted destination would be the capital city of Angora, with a population of about a hundred thousand humans and demi-humans alike.
The cookies would only last for two to three weeks, which was good since their trip would last about a week at the most.
It would have taken only a few days if they were traveling through the old Golden Road, but because there was still a large crack in the middle of the path, they had to go through the long way, trekking mountains and all that stuff.
As experienced travelers, they were already used to these long trips, so the days went by in a flash.
In the blink of an eye, they stood on top of a cliff overlooking the capital city Angora just on the horizon.
They saw horse carriages coming in and out of the city even from a distance, which only showed how bustling the market was over there.
It remained as busy as they remembered.
The Magic Tower in the distance still towered over everything, with almost invisible magic particles emanating off of the very structure itself and protecting the city from unwanted weather effects.
The castle on the side was as grand as ever, with a moat surrounding the housing for the Lord of the City,
Beside it was a large academic court, meant for the training of squires and knights from the Order of the Heavenly Knights. Their very presence in the city gave a sense of peace and security to the citizens.
Those three institutions were vital for a territory to be called a capital city. It enticed people to settle down and be part of their community, with families moving there to have a chance at enrolling at the Order or the Guild of Arcana.
The peddlers entered the city and began to unload their products in their designated stalls in the market.
They were surrounded by more established businesses with their permanent stores in the best locations in the City, so they were met with a lot of competition.
Most customers already knew what they wanted to buy, so they just walked along and ignored the 'new' and 'unknown' chocolate products from the peddlers. It took them a few hours before someone finally took notice of the strange purple and gold wrappers stacked in their stalls.
"Oooh, mommy…what's that?" a child wearing leather armor tugged on his mother's skirt.
The mother looked back at her son and tried to hurry him forward. But as she looked at the products stacked on the table, she was intrigued by their unique design and enticing wrappers. It looked luxurious compared to the other products in the market which only used a simple leaf or paper as a wrapper.
"Excuse me, what is this?" the mother asked the veteran peddler.
"Madame! You have made the right choice in asking. This is none other than the newest exotic product we found as we traveled the whole region.
It is called chocolate, which is famed to be even sweeter than sugar itself! We will give you a little sampler to taste for free. Do you want to try it out, madame?"
The son looked up at his mother, performing his best pity eyes.
"Please, mom! I want it to be my good luck charm for when I pass the test to become a trainee for the Order! Please, mom!"
The peddler took out two pieces of chocolates and two pieces of cookies and gave it out to them.
Even though it was no longer freshly baked, the rich and warm scent coming off of the chocolates was enough to make the mother and son take a bite out of each.
And as soon the chocolate melted in their mouths, they were sold. Even the mother couldn't believe how much she liked cookies. It was even better than the bread being sold by the largest bakery in the city!
The mother bought a lot of chocolates for her son, and cookies for herself. The best part about it was that the wrapping and presentation of the products were so good that it would be a good gift idea for anyone.
There were a couple more people who bought chocolate throughout the day, but as expected, not a lot of people bought their products on the first day.
However, those who bought one yesterday ended up buying more the next day, which slowly built up their customer base each day.
It was slow at first, but as the days rolled on, more and more people found out about its unique sweet flavor that couldn't be found anywhere else.
Coincidentally, the boy who had bought chocolates on the first day ended up getting accepted into the Order of the Heavenly Knights as a trainee! His mother eventually ended up buying lots of chocolate for her son as a congratulatory gift, which caught the attention of the other parents in her circle of friends.
One such parent approached the mother of the boy and congratulated them for this achievement.
"Hey, my compliments to your son for passing the physical exam. Any tips or secrets I should know about for my son to pass his exam?"
"I'm sure your son will pass it too. They both trained at the same time, right?" the mother assured them.
But, the curious parent was unconvinced. There was something that changed with that boy when he went to take his entrance exam.
"Any advice will help," the parent pleaded.
"Hmm…maybe there is one thing that can help your kid…"
"What is it?"
"There's this thing that my son bought during the day of his exam. When he ate it, he seemed to be a lot more active, a lot more energetic than usual."
"Hoh? What is it? Maybe I'll buy one for my son too…"