Three minutes later guard came back and invited them into the room he was just in.
“Elder will join you in a bit.” He said and left.
There was only a desk and two chairs in the middle of the room as well as few shelves stacked with papers near the wall. There was another door on the far side of the room and probably the employee would enter from there.
Clayton sat on one of the chairs and both Nick and Steven stood at his sides, exactly according to the behavior they agreed upon earlier. After a short moment an older man with a bold head and gray beard, dressed in all white came in, sat in front of Clayton and smiled.
“How can I help you? Mercenary guild has the most up to date information on everything in the empire, but it’s not cheap.”
Clayton, like a boss flicked his fingers and Nick immediately ‘complied’, “We would like to know the best and fastest ways to get to Olava, buy a detailed road map and probably more information depending on your answers.”
“This is not very secretive or special information. Although you could get a better map from me, you could’ve gotten it at the counters.” The old man looked confused and a little annoyed.
“Boss doesn’t like to wait. And, as I said, most likely we’ll need more information.” Nick explained with a plain face.
“Alright. Still, you came to me, therefore this information will cost you five gold including the map.” The old man nodded, got up and walked over to one of the shelves. Then searched the papers there for a bit, found a map and went back to the table, “You are obviously not from around here, did you just arrive to Berin city by ship?”
“Hmpf!” Clayton grunted discontentedly.
“That would be two gold, Sir!” Nick immediately ‘translated’.
“What?” The old man asked in shock, in fact, both Steven and Clayton were shocked as well, but they had to do their best to hide it behind expressionless faces.
“Well, you sell your information and we sell ours.” Nick smiled widely.
“Hahaha! I like you, boy!” The old man laughed, “This is the first time in my life someone tries to gain advantage of me like that! Two gold for a useless piece of information, hahaha!”
After a while, when he calmed down and cleaned up tears from his cheeks, the old man finally passed over the opened map and explained.
“The regular route to the capital takes around a month to complete. First, you’ll have to get to Anula town by crossing a small desert to the east from Berin. It’s not big, but annoying as there’s no oasis on the way and realistically you can move only at night. During the day you’ll have to make a stop and build tents for yourselves and your horses. You will cross the desert in two nights and the whole road to Anula shouldn’t take longer than seven to eight days. From Anula town you’ll have to make a long detour around this mountain range here.” The old man pointed at the map, “And it could take around nine days to reach the Rolum town. From there to the capital it’s a straight route through jungle and later savanna and it should not take longer than ten, maybe twelve days.”
“Thus,” old man looked at Clayton, “you should arrive in Olava within one month and make it in time for the Mercenary tournament.”
Clayton thought for a moment and then poked on the mountain range old man mentioned before.
“Oh, the Heaven mountain range? Few people sometimes cross there, but only groups of strong Qi masters have the bravery to do that. Mountains are high, temperature is low and there is a lot of snow. The icy paths often are impossible to travel and there are flocks of high ranked beasts that might attack.” The old man shook his head, “Some reports say that there are even packs of hundreds of wolves roaming around, it’s too dangerous.”
“Sir, you ask for a hefty sum for your information and we would like to ask to provide us with a real thing, not some old wives tales.” Nick impolitely said. Both Clayton and Steven were shocked once again, but keeping their cool around Nick was starting to become a habit, “If there were flocks of hundreds of wolves, nothing else could live there and they would starve to death themselves after eating each other, of course.”
This was simply the common sense – there was no way for a huge amount of predators to exist in one area. Nick has watched National Geographic enough to know that wolves hunt in packs, but the numbers would never be in hundreds. And the bigger predators even preferred to live and hunt alone. The old man was simply trying to scare them.
“Cough.” The guy got embarrassed, “My apologies, I got carried away. The truth is, there are higher rank predators and even wolf and snow mountain lion packs. Of course, they are not in hundreds, but still very dangerous. It’s not uncommon for a mountain lion to reach rank four. Sometimes hunters give reports about rank five beasts as well and most importantly, it is said that the rank six flame wolf resides in that mountain range – that information is no secret.”
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“Alright.” Nick smiled at the old man, “If we want to get to Olava in the shortest time possible, how should we proceed? Should we buy horses here in Berin and then switch them on the way in the smaller towns Anula and Rolum respectively?”
“Exactly. Although switching horses is not that easy in those places. Everyone wants to get a good steed there and the prices are much higher, even compared to Olava.” The old man agreed.
“But there should be a way, for the right price that is. Am I correct?” Nick asked.
“Indeed. I could recommend a high ranked mercenary group to my friends in those towns, they would definitely help.” The old man smiled and unconsciously rubbed his palms together.
“Fine, we would like to register our group in the Mercenary guild. How does it work and how much would it cost? Do we have to go downstairs or something?” Nick shot out one question after another.
“Well, you are honored guests, I myself could register your group as a high ranking member. To register the highest rank squad costs twenty gold and for twenty more I’d write the proper recommendations.” The old man happily called out the prices.
In the Sun kingdom this was a fortune and most likely here as well, but the old man was trying to earn extra based on the impatience the three showed. In his life he had seen many rich people disguised in simple attires, therefore from Clayton’s attitude he figured that he most likely was a rich aristocrat from the Sand or Lori kingdom.
After a moment of silence Nick said, “Alright, please register us, then write those letters. We also want you to help us to acquire six excellent horses in Berin, already tonight. In addition, I want a detailed written report on the emperor, including his habits, likes and dislikes and a detailed map of Olava. You definitely have such thing ready, but please add your personal opinions as well. Then we want the written information on the Mercenary tournament and its participants, of course, those you have the intelligence on. We would also require a letter of recommendation to your colleague in the capital as well so we would have an easier time of settling there.”
Then he put a sack of gold on the table, “For all of this we will pay you two hundred gold. In addition, I would like to express my master’s gratitude and add fifty more gold for you as his personal appreciation. From my experience I would like to add that master especially likes those who show their own initiative and, if you would add more relevant information that could help us on our trip, he would definitely notice and remember.”
Everyone in the room was so shocked, they couldn’t speak. Thankfully Clayton and Steven didn’t have to, but once again in their minds a question popped up: ‘How is this still a young teenager?’.
“We will be back in two hours and I hope our horses will be ready by then.” Nick’s last sentence woke up the old man from stupor.
“Of course, of course!” The old man nodded repeatedly with a silly smile that stretched from ear to ear, “One question though – what is the name of your mercenary group?”
“Southern mercenaries and our leader is called Clay.” Nick gave a slight bow after picking a random name, “As I said, we will be back in two hours.”
The group went out the door while the old man was already calling over his assistants – he had a lot of work to do.
“Why?” Clayton asked while thy were going down the stairs.
“Later.” Nick whispered back.
When they got out on the street, they saw the boy, patiently waiting.
“Lead us to the market now.” Nick ordered, “No need to run, just walk fast this time.”
Following the boy’s lead, ‘Southern mercenary group’ walked towards the market.
“I am pretty sure we’ll be followed.” Nick said.
“We already are, most likely since we left the room.” Clayton quietly replied.
“Let’s buy three common bags that we can fill with our supplies.” Nick nodded, “We’ll prioritize dried fruits, nuts and honey. That’s the most energy we can get per kilogram of luggage. What about weapons? Do you need to buy something? I need to get a good dagger, this sword is really impeding my movement.”
In a perfect situation Nick would rely on his Wakizashi, but unfortunately he had to carry a weapon that others could see. Thus, a decent dagger was his first choice.
“Although I’m fine, when we get to a weapon shop we can still look around.” Steven suggested. Clayton nodded and they proceeded to purchase supplies.
They got three sturdy bags and filled them with provisions. Afterwards the kid brought them to a large weapon shop and Nick bought a good steel dagger. Steven chose another sword as well – something more similar to what he was used to, but Clayton didn’t care much. His own sword was lost somewhere in the Paradise city – maybe a pirate used it or maybe it was stashed in a warehouse, but they didn’t have time to look for it back then.
Steven suggested for them to change their attire again. At the moment they were dressed like other common sailors and in the city even regular mercenaries had better clothing. What he wanted to wear was something similar to what the middle-eastern men wore on Earth – trousers, long light robes and a head cover that could cover ones face as well. The suggestion was immediately accepted and fifteen minutes later the three of them already looked like successful merchants. There were quite a few people like that on the streets therefore they didn’t stand out too much.
They would’ve liked to wander around a bit and stack up on more supplies, but after they entered the part of the marked where the slaves were traded, their mood instantly hit the rock bottom and without saying any word all three of them left. The sight of shackled people or even some who were held in cages and traded like a livestock was simply too suffocating. If not for Nick, Steven and Clayton might’ve found themselves here in few days in a similar status and the girls were now in even more precarious situation. None of them were in the mood for more shopping.
As soon the slave market was in sight their little guide also tried to hide behind them, obviously afraid to get caught. Apparently poorer locals were often captured as well and, even though he was basically a beggar, he didn’t want to loose his freedom by running into the hands of the slave traders on his own.
Nick figured that there had to be official or unofficial rules governing the slave trade, because even though they saw many enslaved people on the streets following their masters, carrying goods or pulling small carriages, no regular passerby was afraid to suddenly get captured and then become a slave. Unfortunately Nick didn’t have much time to dwell on this since he had more important matters to think of.