"Everyone ready?" Alan poked his head out of a bush, a few stray leaves sticking to his hair as he looked back at the group. "Rember, we’re just so rchants."
Lucian raised a hand.
"Yes, Lucian?"
"The plan isn’t bad." Lucian started. "But what group of rchants travels wearing blindfolds?"
"Uh..." Alan scratched the back of his head.
Indeed, the four of them were wearing their blindfolds.
"And what about Sparky?" Iris interjected, pointing at the creature perched on Julia’s shoulder.
Sitting there was a small, vibrant blue cat with bright azure eyes, as a dragon, Sparky possessed the ability of polymorph, allowing him to shift into almost any living form he desired, including a cat.
"Greow." Sparky owed the mont he caught Alan’s gaze, the sound was unnervingly deep, a ow that definitely didn’t suit the tiny vessel.
"Uh." Alan scratched his head again. "We’ll figure it out on the spot."
He stood up, brushed the dirt off his shoulders, and stepped out onto a road that overlooked a complex structure.
It was a trading post, a building made of a collection of wooden buildings, connected to various outbuildings like restaurants and stables.
"Halt!" A voice rang out as they neared the entrance.
A guard stood before the gate. "State your business..." The guard’s voice trailed off as he looked at Sparky weirdly. "A blue cat...?"
"Greow."
"That doesn’t even sound like a cat..."
"Because it’s a dragon!" Julia answered with a proud grin.
"Really now."
"We’re rchants." Alan interjected, ignoring the man’s remarks, continuing his perfect plan.
"You lot... are rchants?" The guard raised a brow. "A rchant band without a carriage?"
"Uh, yeah, we don’t need them." Alan flashed his necklace with a smirk. "Because we got dinsional artifacts."
"...Then how do you advertise your products...?"
"Hmm." Alan rubbed his chin. "Good question."
"...And you call yourselves rchants." The guard looked at the four up and down.
The four of them didn’t even try to make themselves look like rchants, despite the dirt clinging to their bodies, each of them had striking appearances that their blindfolds couldn’t hide.
"Why the blindfolds? All four of you?" The guard asked.
"Eye infection." Lucian lied with a clear, expressionless face. "All of us are infected."
"Whatever you say..." The guard sighed, rubbing his forehead. "You know what? I don’t care enough for this shit."
The guard moved aside, unlatching the gate behind him. "Just go inside, try not to start anything."
"See? What did I tell you guys?" Alan looked back at his friends with a smug grin. "My plans are flawless."
Giggling, Alan led the other through the gates, entering the bustling trading post, the guard watched them for a mont longer, his brows furrowed as a sense of recognition hit him.
"They look familiar..." the man muttered to himself, reaching for a crumpled copy of the newspaper.
...
The inside of the trading post reminded Alan of a mall back on Earth it was a cluster of different buildings packed together, each serving a different purpose.
rchants shouted over their goods while rcenaries wandered around, looking for work or trouble.
Either way, ignoring the noise, the group headed straight for a large tavern.
Jingle
A bell chid as they pushed through the door.
For a split second, the rowdy chatter of the room died down, every rcenary in the tavern looked their way, their eyes sharp and calculating.
They took in the four teenagers and their blindfolds before losing interest and returning to their loud conversations.
"How can I help you?" a waitress asked, approaching them quickly.
"Table for four," Alan said.
"Follow ." She led them to a wooden table with four seats and handed out nus. "Please call once you’ve picked sothing."
As she left, the four of them sat in silence for a mont, surrounded by the clinking of glasses and rough laughter.
"So..." Iris broke the silence. "What now?"
"Let’s just eat." Alan replied.
They hadn’t had breakfast yet, they’d been awake since sunrise and took about two hours to arrive at the trading post, although not extrely hungry, they still had an appetite.
Especially Alan, who still felt a little lightheaded from the blood loss, which kind of surprised him, he seed to have lost more blood in that one mont, than he did fighting hordes of abyssal creatures.
"Purrr." Sparky, still in his blue cat form, let out a deep purr at the ntion of food.
"What about the carriage?" Lucian raised the question. "Didn’t you say we had to get to Kahl by a carriage?"
"Yeah, I did." Alan nodded. "Don’t worry, I’ll handle it."
Alan looked across the table and noticed Julia acting weird, she was constantly looking around, staring at the other tables with her mouth slightly open.
"What’s wrong?" Alan asked.
"Ah! " Startled, Julia looked away, picking up the nu she muttered. "Nothing."
Alan scoffed. "Just say it, what’s wrong?"
"You won’t get mad?"
"Why would I get mad? Just tell ."
"Really?"
"Yes, really."
"I want what they’re having!" Julia pointed to a group of rcenaries.
"What they’re having..." Alan raised a brow and looked over to where she gestured.
There were about five n loudly chattering with one another, making wild movents, in their hands were large mugs of... alcohol?
"Do you want to have beer?" Alan asked, sowhat surprised.
Who could have expected the princess to have such a preference? As he himself quite disliked alcohol, he didn’t exactly expect it.
Seeing Julia vigorously nod her head nearly made him laugh. "Have you never had alcohol before?"
Julia shook her head, pouting at Iris. "Iris never lets ..."
"Oh?" Alan turned to Iris.
"Listen." Iris glared hard at Alan from behind her blindfold. "Juli must never be allowed to touch alcohol."
"Why’s that?"
"Just listen to here." Iris didn’t back away from her opinion.
"I’d say she’s old enough to make her choices, she literally had her age of coming ceremony a week ago." Alan shrugged. "So Julia, go do what you want."
"Really?!" Julia bead.
"Yes, really."
"Thank you, Alan!" Julia instantly raised her hand to call over the waitress.
"Don’t say I didn’t warn you..." Iris whispered cryptic words, making Alan chuckle, really what could possibly go wrong?
Alan stood up from his seat, looking in a certain direction.
Just before he left, Lucian asked. "Where are you going?"
"To find us a carriage." Alan said, stepping away from the table and heading into the crowd of rcenaries.
Normally, Alan would leave these kinds of tasks to Lucian, the man was a lot smarter than he looked, but he was also incredibly socially awkward usually, whenever Lucian tried to negotiate, things ended in total chaos
So Alan decided to just take the task upon himself, very quickly he approached the bar section of the tavern, seated on a corner stool was a man.
The man wore an oversized, luxurious coat and was covered in expensive-looking accessories, he looked every bit like a wealthy rchant.
Very naturally, Alan took a seat on the stool next to him and tapped the counter, the bartender ca over imdiately.
What can I get you, sir?" The bartender asked.
"A lemonade."
"Lemonade... sir?"
"Yup."
"Haha, understood." The bartender walked away with a small laugh.
Alan placed his elbow against the counter, leaning his chin in his palm, waiting for his plan to go as intended.
"Quite the unusual order for a place like this." The rchant chuckled.
And sure enough, the bait worked.
Don’t misunderstand, half the reason Alan ordered a lemonade was simply because he didn’t like alcohol and really liked sour juices, the other half was to bait the rchant into starting a conversation.
"What can I say?" Alan shrugged. "Alcohol just isn’t my thing."
"You’re a funny kid." the rchant laughed, gripping his glass. "But I’m not stupid, you’re obviously not here for just a conversation."
"Oh, how’d you figure it out?"
"Well..." The rchant looked at his surroundings, there was literally no one near the two of them. "Do I even need to explain? Who would co here if they didn’t have business with ?"
"So I’d appreciate it if you got straight to the point." The rchant looked Alan in the eye.
"I need a carriage to Kahl." Alan got straight to the point.
"Rejected." Only to be instantly denied. "Do you take for an idiot? Why would I ever—"
Thump
But Alan already expected such results, therefore he placed a heavy pouch of coins on the table and slid it over to the rchant.
The rchant stopped talking, he stared at the pouch of coins for a second, before grabbing it and taking a quick peek inside, then very slowly closed the pouch.
"Have I ever told you about the ti I escorted a mber of the grand duke’s family?" The rchant instantly switched his attitude into a servile smile.
"Oh really?" Alan chuckled lightly. "My na’s Alan."
"And my na is Jack," the rchant said, sticking his hand out with a wide smile. "It is an absolute pleasure to et you, sir."
Alan shook his hand, knowing he had his ride.
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