Chapter 11:

Markus walked north on the road and out of the village. He wanted to finally visit the town in the northern area. Markus only had one set of clothes and while it had been dirty before already, he had managed to get horse droppings on it today, so he was in dire need of a replacement. The bandits’ clothes were even filthier than his own, so they weren’t an option.

He managed to get to the town, [Vrosa], in less than an hour. It was still bright and probably would stay that way for some time.

The main part of the town was surrounded by a low wall. Outside the wall he saw several dozen sheds and tents on both sides of the road, forming a small shanty town. Passing through, Markus noticed that many of the dwellings had been around for some time, judging from the different states of weathered materials and repairs, and some even had vegetables growing in small yards. The inhabitants were haggard, slightly sickly looking people with dirty rags for clothes. Some looked at Markus like they wanted to approach him, but none of them did, so he quickly passed through the slum.

The gate itself was guarded by two soldiers, but they did not stop Markus from walking through after eyeing him curiously. Their uniforms were different from the ones the soldiers stationed in Springkeep were wearing. They were mostly made of leather and only reinforced with metal on the shoulders and chest.

Behind the main gate Markus saw a wooden tower, about a dozen meters high. A large ballista, basically an oversized crossbow, was sitting on top. Walking on the main street, he asked a passing woman where he could find a store or merchant to buy some clothes. She pointed him to the market square, which was near the town centre.

The houses he passed by were mostly of simple design, with some having a stone foundation and utilizing bricks for construction. In contrast to the villages, destroyed and intact, he had seen so far the buildings here were rather densely placed and mostly two-storey houses. From what he remembered from history lessons, medieval towns were dirty, smelly places, but at least the air was mostly clean and he couldn’t see any refuse on the streets.

He passed by at least two small fountains that were constantly spitting out seemingly clean water. Markus figured that in this world people found ways to utilize magic to solve some of the problems medieval Earth was struggling to cope with.

Not everything was rosy though. He could see some trash in the alleys and chimneys produced smoke, both sending wafting smells around the place. The painting on some of the houses was fading and cracking, and the people on the street did not look overly healthy. Their bodies and faces were clean, in contrast to the people living outside the walls, but many clothes had obviously been repaired after long use.

Arriving at the place the woman had pointed him to, he found a fairly large square with market stands. There were a lot of empty spaces and several stands were empty and deserted, so he was probably already a bit late. A few merchants were still present, offering their wares.

The first stall offered different accessories and a few female customers were looking at the wares. A quick glance revealed that the items were of considerably low value, so Markus wasn’t interested. The next merchant had household tools on sale. Markus couldn’t make out anything magic like the cooking plate, but some items caught his interest.

Before he went on to the next stall, he bought a pair of scissors, a small washboard with a bucket that was wide enough to fit the board inside, a small metal pan and some basic cutlery. He also bought a sewing kit.

The only other merchant of interest sold textiles, but no ready-made clothes. The sheets were about 1 meter wide and could be cut to any length. Markus bought about 10 meters of a simple, undyed linen cloth. The quality was a bit uneven, but the texture was reasonably soft. He had a few crates of cloth of higher quality, but he wanted something simple as well. Markus then asked the sales-woman if there was a place where he could get tailored clothing. She pointed at a place at the other side of the square and told him that a tailor had a shop there.

Carrying the bucket in one hand and the cloth in the other, he made a detour through an alley to stash everything into his inventory before entering the store. So far he had only spent 2 large silver coins, with the cloth being the most expensive item.

Inside the store it became apparent that this store was not exactly meant for regular villagers. The clothes on display were all of high quality and some were outright gaudy.

On the other hand, there were also very practical clothes with a large amount of pockets and reinforcements, but still somewhat stylish. Markus approached the old man behind the counter, who was watching him with some suspicion.

After telling him of his intention to buy one or two full sets of clothes and casually showing a small stack of large silver coins, the man’s expression softened and he called a female employee from the back of the shop, who presented a selection of outfits to Markus.

She brought colourful and flashy clothes, which were aimed at merchants and the occasional noble, and practical clothes that were made for adventurers, mercenaries and wealthier travellers. The owner also took custom orders, but those would take a few days to complete.

Markus then went on a minor shopping spree. He bought a pair of green cargo pants and a dark grey shirt with long sleeves. He also bought five pairs of underpants and woollen socks. He switched into his new outfit and instantly felt like a new person. There weren’t any elastics or other parts like rivets or machine-made buttons, but he wouldn’t stand out in those clothes even if he wore them on modern Earth.

He also bought a green, hooded cape that matched his pants and a black scarf. He wanted some sort of disguise if he needed one and those items would do the job. Markus also added a few plain shirts and regular pants to his purchase, of the cheaper variety. After bringing the merchants price down as low as he could, he still had to pay 4 large silver coins for everything, but felt it was totally worth it.

Leaving the store he checked the map to see where he could safely stash away the bag with his old and additional clothes into his inventory. He saw a pair of red dots on the map, further away at the edge of the shanty-town. Checking more closely, those were named people. Around them were yellow dots, also named.

Markus decided to at least check it out on his way. Making his way through back-alleys, he stashed away all the unneeded items, put on his new cape and scarf and equipped his dagger. Not concealing his face yet, he just looked like an adventurer.

After he went outside the wall, he made a beeline towards the place with the red dots. Now he wrapped the scarf around his face and put on the hood. Passing through the gaps between the irregularly placed shacks and tents, he soon approached the people he had seen on the map and heard voices.

There didn’t seem to be any fighting. Markus decided to confirm what was going on before doing anything.

Getting a little closer, he heard a girl shouting. “Get your filthy hands off her! She doesn’t have anything to do with this!” There was now just one shack between Markus and the group of people.

A man then shouted back “Got nothing to do with it? As I see it, you are both in debt with us. Just because you were the one taking the money and worked it off the last few times, she is still as involved as you are.”

“He’s right. If you want it so badly, we will take care of you later. But this girl is first.” A different man’s voice could be heard.

There was definitely something shady going on. Now curious, Markus decided to take a closer look.

Stepping around the corner he saw a group of dirty men in shabby clothes. There were also two girls, equally dirty and in equally shabby clothes.

Two men were holding back one of the girls, who looked terribly angry and was probably the one shouting. She was a bit smaller than Abigail and in her teens, but it was hard to tell her exact age from the dirty face and her black hair hanging into her face. The other girl was even younger, thirteen at most. She looked frightened and tears were running down her cheeks. Her light brown hair was tied into a ponytail behind her back.

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 A slim but muscular man with a large nose and bad teeth was holding onto the smaller girl. He was one of the men indicated with a red dot.

“Can you tell me what’s going on here?” Markus stepped forward. The group turned around towards him, the girls were looking at him as well. At least he got their attention fast. The other of the two men who were marked with a red dot and was close to Markus immediately stepped forward and tried to grab him.

Markus simply grabbed his outstretched arm, twisted it slightly and then gave the man a kick with his shin into the stomach. He collapsed on the spot. “Please do not touch me. Who will tell me what is going on now? You?” Markus pointed at the next best man.

“Haah? Who do you think you are? Those girls owe us money, this has nothing to do with you!” Before anyone else could say something, the slim man started shouting at Markus. He then forcefully pushed the girl he was holding onto into the arms of the guy standing next to him. She was too frightened to move away anyway.

“Even if you don’t want to explain, I somehow get it. You gave that girl money” Markus pointed at the older girl “then you fucked her in return. And now you want to bang the other girl as well. That’s not OK, you know? She didn’t agree and she’s too young in the first place.”

“I didn’t agree either!!” The older girl was shouting now “I just couldn’t pay them back.”

“You shut up already!” Yelling so to the girl, the thin man started walking towards Markus “And you don’t think that you can just walk in here and cause trouble. You know what will happen? We will beat you up, have fun with both girls and then have you pay off their debt. And maybe we will let all of you go afterwards. Maybe.”

Some of the other yellow dots turned red now as well. It looked like the negotiations had broken down. Thinking so, Markus made a fast dash towards the slim man and just kicked him so hard in the groin that his feet lifted off the ground. He wouldn’t have fun with any girls in the foreseeable future. The man fell onto the ground and balled into a foetal position, whimpering.

“Anyone else? I can do this all day.” No one came forward. Markus walked towards the younger girl, grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the man holding her. He didn’t resist and just let go.

The red dots on the maps had turned yellow again by now.

Half-dragging the girl behind him, he walked to the older girl. The two men holding her quickly pulled their hands away. Markus pulled the girl to the side with his other hand, then turned around to face the group.

“I will now take those girls with me. The next time you try to rape someone, I will come and give you ten kicks like the one that asshole just got, understood?” The men looked at Markus, but didn’t say anything. “I asked if you understood. Answer me!”

“Yes, no rape!” One man said so, the others nodded. It was good enough for Markus. He left the way he came, dragging the girls behind him. After reaching the main road, Markus let go of the girls’ arms.

“So, now you tell me what I just did there.”

“You kicked a man in the balls?” the older girl said so.

“I know that, smartass. I mean what was going on. I understand you took money from them, and that they are a bunch of perverts. Tell me the details” Markus was acting tough, but he just wanted to somehow solve the whole situation. He could just leave the girls alone now, but he doubted that his thread of kicking groins would help for very long.

“I’m Tessa and this is my friend Liana. We are from the same village, but both our parents are dead or lost. Probably dead. Whatever. We don’t have money most of the time, and no money means no food. That guy with the large nose, Norton, he sometimes gave me money, or food for the two of us. I thought he was just nice. One day he wanted to – well, you know – and I said no. Then he wanted me to pay back the money he gave me, plus ‘interest’.”

The older girl, Tessa, was talking while the younger girl, Liana, was holding onto her hand. Now that she had brushed her hair back, Markus could see that she was rather pretty. There was a thin, long scar on her forehead, but that didn’t really make her look bad. The dirt on her face and slightly oily hair made a negative impact on her beauty scoring though.

“I couldn’t pay and then he made me do it with him anyway. We tried working, but we can only earn so little in the town, but I tried to pay him off. He took it but the debt didn’t get smaller, because of the ‘interest’. Well, then when we had no money anymore he offered me food again, and then his friends, too. That’s what happened.” She was stating it calmly, but her face was showing a mix of desperation and resignation.

“How much do you owe him?” Markus asked her.

“I’m not sure. 12 silver I guess. I don’t really know what that ‘interest’ is.”

Markus pulled out a large silver coin. “You mean twelve of those?”

Both of the girls’ eyes went wide. “No, I mean the small ones. He mostly gave us copper coins and food though. Norton said it was 12 silver coins, but it has to be the small coins.”

What a ridiculously small amount of money. Even for villager standards it couldn’t be that much. 120 beers or a dozen nights at the village’s tavern. Markus pulled out two more large silver coins, making sure no one was watching too closely. He then gave the three coins to Tessa.

“Take those. I don’t care what you do with them. Pay back the asshole with the crushed balls, or don’t. But better don’t take any more money from them if you aren’t prepared to whore yourself out. My advice is to get some clean clothes, a good wash and find a job in town. Perhaps stay a night or two at the inn, but that is your own choice.”

“Thank you! I promise I will take good care of it” Tessa nearly started crying.

“…thank you” the other girl, Liana, said so as well. It was the first time Markus heard her speak. The two girls looked over to the gate with the guards, then Tessa looked at the coins in her hands with a slightly worried look.

“Don’t wave that money around in the open. Is there a problem?” Markus inquired.

“Not really a problem. The guards usually don’t let us into the town, or only for a short while to buy things, if we show them that we have money. They don’t want beggars in town is what they say. I wonder if they just let us in with that much money…”

“Well… it should work, right? I have to go though, so take care. Bye!” He turned around and walked away. Before falling into a full sprint, he observed the girls on the map. After standing at the gate for a short while, they entered the town, so everything seemed fine so far. Markus felt relieved, he had already gotten involved a little too much, and maybe the troublesome men would now behave even worse than before.

Before travelling leaving the area for good, Markus would talk once more to the girls to see if anything came out of this. After entering the forest, Markus put on his old clothes again. He didn’t really want to, but he had no way of explaining how he got the new outfit if anyone asked. A minor flaw in his plan…

By the time he reached Spingkeep village again it was nearly completely dark. Greeting Abigail’s mom, who was standing behind the counter, he quickly went to his room. After sitting down on the bed, he felt very tired. Not only physically, but mentally. He had a wealth of new experiences today, from sparring with Boyd, over smiting and riding to cooking, not to forget some shopping and crotch-kicking. In comparison, just running through the forest for two hours felt like a literal walk in the park.

Deciding that it was more than enough for one day, Marcus tucked himself in and fell asleep almost immediately.