The circus caravan was led by Hamil inside the second wall in an encampment that was already prepared for them by somebody. The encampment was beside a three-story large inn and the caravan leader mentioned that they’d used this inn regularly whenever they stayed in the city of Argent. The name of the inn was the Lion Inn which was so cliché in fantasy novels that Mark was surprised that this was the first Lion Inn he saw. The inns in the villages didn’t have a name which was expected since there was usually just one inn in a small village and the inn would inevitably be named after the village itself.

The innkeeper was a fat man wearing an apron and Mark didn’t catch his name. Nedertu told him that the innkeeper was wearing an apron as an identity token since he didn’t actually know how to cook. According to the cat-man, most of the circus caravan people would stay at the inn itself but a lot of people would stay on the caravan to guard them.

Of course, people would prefer to stay in the inn since during winter, the inside of a caravan would be cold. Mark said to Nedertu that he would stay in his caravan since his caravan was comfortable enough and he did have a heater and if he needed more, he could replicate it. His generator was powerful enough to power up more heaters if needed, and he could refill the fuel of the generators from the inside of the caravan when needed. The fuel would never be a problem since he could always replicate more using his skill and he would never experience the generator being broken since he could always fix it using his Material Inventory Restoration skill or replicate the original one that was stored in his inventory in case of breakage.

Mark was also impressed with how the dwarves made the caravan since the compartment where the generator was located was air-tight on his side and he couldn’t even get a whiff of any gasoline smell once he closed the door that led to the generator compartment. The generator was silent enough, but he did ask Solinae for a Silence Rune on the generator compartment to avoid disturbing his neighbors and the elven woman was nice enough to accept gold coins this time.

The evening was upon them when everything was settled. Mark joined Hamil and his family for dinner at the inn. He was pleasantly surprised that there was a bard on a mini stage inside the inn and the bard’s voice was truly pleasant.

The bard was singing something about a soldier who died in a war somewhere and that the soldier’s mother went to his grave to grieve for her only son. The story of the song was so sad that Mark went a bit teary-eyed listening to the whole story of the song. He didn’t expect the song to hit him hard and Hamil mentioned that there was a mild charm magic on the bard’s voice, but the magic was benevolent enough that it would not trigger any action on a defensive spell a wizard might have.

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After the sad song, the bard played some lively songs that Mark thoroughly enjoyed. When their food arrived, Mark was expecting something good but to his surprise, it was mediocre bordering on bad. He questioned Hamil about the quality of the food and the caravan leader said that what they were eating was actually the standard of most city inn that caters to average people. Of course, the high-quality inn that served the nobles had their own chef and the food was great.

Mark mentioned that the food that he had eaten from the villages that they’d pass through was great and Hamil told him that, that was the norm as well since it was expected that the caravan people would be served the best a simple village could offer.

After dinner, a lot of people stayed to listen to the bard’s songs. There was one time that a lively famous song was sung by the bard, and everybody joined in singing. The song was so simple and repetitive that after a couple of verses, anybody could join, and Mark did join.

After a couple of hours, Mark got drunk so he told Hamil that he would retire, and he went back to his own caravan to sleep. After he closed his caravan, he immediately went to his house on the eleventh floor of his dungeon to bathe which he’d been doing ever since he stayed in his caravan. He couldn’t not shower every day because he loathed feeling dirty and he only stayed in his house for bathing and bathroom purposes, so it wasn’t that long. It was a good thing that the temperature and season in his house on the eleventh floor were constant, so he didn’t have to battle the cold while bathing or showering.

After cleaning himself up, he went outside the dungeon so he could sleep on his bed in the caravan since it was comfortable enough and he could respond immediately if somebody called him from outside. He would have stayed in his house inside the dungeon if there was some sort of magical doorbell that could reach him from outside but unfortunately, there was none so far, and it wasn’t that important.

The next day, Mark went to Hamil to check with him about what the circus caravan would do while they were staying in the city. He went after he gave Nedertu his breakfast. Hamil told him that during their winter stay, they would rent a hall where different shows would be shown, and the caravan leader would advertise through leaflets and posters. Their first show would be after three days since they would need to rest first after the rigors of travel.

After talking with Hamil, Mark went to the elven sister’s caravan, and he saw that they were waiting for him. Solinae said to him that they usually stayed in the house of a friend when they were in the city of Argent so they would do their business there. Their friend would be staying in another city because of his own business. Monterra mentioned that the friend they were talking about was also an elf and a previous squeeze of Solinae a million years ago then she laughed.

Mark joined them in their caravan and the elven sisters drove until they reached a somewhat big manor inside the second wall. Solinae mentioned that this part of the city was the home of citizens who had money and were able to afford better homes. Usually, they’re merchants or fallen nobles.