Edgar swayed in the river boat while Olivia leaned on his arm. Edgar took them back to their old home for the night and they walked Robin in the morning to the dwelling for his lessons. They took the river boat back downstream, Olivia's bakery was on the eastern district, while Edgar had some business on the western outskirt of Melst. Ever larger steam barges traveled upstream bringing goods to the valley, squeezing away smaller passengers ferries dangerously closer to the banks. He wasn't sure if it was his memory failing him or if the city had indeed grown more crowded while he was in a hunt.

"It's been like this since King Eldward announced the festival. You just left for like a week," Olivia told him. "City inns doubled Mister Tombaker's order and the mills are struggling to deliver flours. We are so busy, but everybody looked happy."

"Looks like a lot of people make a lot of money."

"Yeah, travelers come from all over the world. They brought many good things. But I didn't get to buy one before city guards sent them to outskirts of town. I heard the merchants raised a complaint and the guards made a move."

"Hmm..." Edgar pondered.

Olivia was quiet for a bit, and played with her fingers. Edgar wasn't paying attention for a while, but overtime he realized it was not the boat that made Olivia's feet shoving his.

"What?" he asked, one brow raised.

"Uhm... it's my friends... she wanted to find this trader that have a nice necklace, and, uh, she wanted me to accompany her after work..."

"Your friend?"

Olivia nodded shyly. Edgar snorted. He then pulled out his pouch and gave his sister eight small silvers. Not too much, not too little for her to buy a silly necklace for herself. He rustled her hair while Olivia palmed her coins, grinning ever widely. She was already twelve, all grown up, but still a little girl sometimes.

The boat eventually arrived and moored on the eastern banks. They leapt off the boat and parted ways on a square. He warned her not to spend all of the money at once and buy some food for herself. Olivia then hopped her way to the bakery and Edgar continued on his way, carrying a heavy sack of items on his back.

The streets on the east weren't as crowded. It was wider without as many people or carriages on the street. The buildings were also further apart from each other. It was the servants who conduct businesses for their employers and goods were taken to the residences not with carriages, but canals that directed boats directly to the hills. Edgar was to make a stop at one store who posted a request he took up at the guild before he sailed.

The shop was one of many square buildings in second north district. The facade was a white marble with tall stained glass windows depicting a curly haired child plucking a fruit from a tree. Edgar squeezed himself into the side alley between the buildings and faced the backdoor. The moldy wooden door was a contrast to the pristine face and he slammed the rusty door knocker and the rusty door creaked and a skinny man emerged.

"Captain," he said, sounding annoyed.

"Mister Loumark," Edgar replied with a smile. He always reminded himself to smile to people. They had coins he wanted.

Mister Loumark's eyes darted around Edgar and landed on a sack hanging from his shoulder. Edgar saw a brief spark coming from those hollow eyes before the man blinked and return to indifference.

"You are late," he lied.

"Hopefully the good is still useful to you, Mister."

"Humph," he snorted before disappearing. A chain was unlatched and the door swung open. Mister Loumark made his way behind a small table and waited for the captain. The back of the shop were shelves full of drawers holding mysterious things. Mister Loumark was a restorer who sold curious antiques from all over the world, things like bowls and tools from kingdoms of the past. He was friends to many ruins scavengers and the nobles loved his craft. Mister Loumark however was very picky with what he liked and stingy with coins. But Edgar had something that would surely filled his pouch heftily.

He dropped his sack and rummaged for a silk wrapped item, placed it on Mister Loumark's table and unwrapped it, revealing a glowing crystal orb the size of a fist, halfway cracked.

"It's a rock..."

"A glowing rock," Edgar corrected.

"...and broken."

"Yes, but glowing. And no, I didn't break it, found it like that, lodged in the insides of a sea beast. Who knew how long it has been there, might be a thousand years old, ten thousands years old?"

Mister Loumark lifted the orb with care and turned it around under the light, perhaps looking for tricks that might cause the glow.

"Twenty gold coins," he said.

Edgar raised an eyebrow. It was lower than he expected.

"One hundred," the captain bargained.

"I'd give you that much if it's not cracked."

"Oh, please, if it's not cracked I'm walking to Starascend and gift it to the king myself."

Mister Loumark gave him a side eye and muttered, "Fine. Eighty coins."

"Ninety five," Edgar countered. He knew full well what a man with Loumark's skill could make even with broken crystals. He could split it and make a pendant worth a thousand gold.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

The skinny man kept turning the orb in his slender fingers, thinking. After a while he stored the orb in a drawer and opened another full of gold coins. He counted and placed ninety coins, palming the rest, and glanced at Edgar before dropping the next five coins.

"Pleasure doing business with you, Mister Loumark," the captain said while scooping the coins into his own pouch. It became heavy and made him happy.

"You don't have anything else?" the craftsman queried.

"I have eight claws and two hundred tooth. Want any?"

"No. You can leave."

"Well, if you say so. See you later, Mister Loumark," Edgar said and left with his sack.

His next stop was an apothecary closer to the riverbank. Madam Thomston had been requesting a peculiar object for a while and only now could the request be fulfilled. Edgar pulled a jar out of his sack, and floating inside the jar was a beast organ tied up on both end.

"Cut cleanly and tied like you told us. The beast was big so my men didn't have to hack their way through the intestines."

"Why is it like that... so small?" Madam Thomston asked, a handkerchief covering her nose from the stink coming out of the jar.

Edgar shrugged.

"It should still make enough medicine..." sighed the madam.

Edgar got five gold coins for the bile.

He unloaded a couple more items from his sack until they were empty, and netted a little over one hundred gold coins. His crew would love the extra coins from their catch. Edgar stopped by the Esther Bank and deposited twenty coins in his name.

"This makes your savings at seventy two gold and forty three silver coins, Mister Larson. Last month's interest was twelve silver coins, in total you now have seventy two gold coins and fifty five silver coins," cited the lady behind the counter, sliding a slip of paper containing his account, asking him to sign his deposit.

Edgar thought for a moment before he realized it. His account was short by a few hundred coins. Did Garland not deposit his earnings from last catch?

"Any problem, Mister Larson?"

He smiled and shook his head.

"No, Ma'am, none at all," he answered, giving a quick scribble and then leaving the bank.

He made a loud tch outside and boarded the nearest crossing boat. There were more workers carving the sea beast now that the sun had risen. Two more boilers had moored to the sides of the beast producing more barrels of oil that was shipped back to the shore. Edgar guessed they would tow the sea beast closer to the shore the next day, or the carcass would begin to sink. Barrels of oil and crates of salted meat waited on the ground waiting for rail carts to carry them to storage. Edgar ignored the chaos and went inside the building looking for the guild master.

The ground floor was a museum. Weapons the hunters began with turned obsolete with time, ripped off old ships, and then preserved to wow visitors. There was a couple ballistas from thirty years ago, bigger than what was in use but much less powerful because of how unwieldy they were. It made quite a conversation peace, the grandiose of their sizes, and Garland had them placed closest to the entrance, and other hand wielded tools were hung on the wall, including the spear Bowlark supposedly wielded, a centerpiece below a giant clock hanging from the furthest end.

Edgar answered his fellow members' greetings but paid no more attention than an acknowledging nod. He was not in a small talk mood before meeting the guild master. Garland's office was on the upper floor, overlooking the anchorage and right behind the saint's statue. The guard outside of the office was none other than Hank.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Edgar asked, glaring at the golden flintlock on his hip. There was more gold plate on that thing than the last time he saw it.

"Earning some coins, sir," grinned the man, flaunting a new gold tooth in his jaw.

Somehow it pissed Edgar off.

"I bet the chief is in," he said.

"Got any appointment?" the guard asked.

Edgar glared at him, golden flintlock be damned.

"Kidding, cap. The chief's in there. He's expecting you, actually," Hank blurted, both hands up in the air.

"Is he now?" said the captain. He pondered kicking down the door, but refrained himself and used his hand to turn the knob. The guild master was on his desk, cigar in mouth, surrounded by two men in thick glasses, going through a thick pile of paper, reciting numbers and accounts, arguing and explaining amongst each other. They were the guild's accountants, and two children around ten years old carried their heavy bags.

"Edgar, I expected you to come sooner," the guild master acknowledged him. "Gentlemen, it's clear there's some discrepancies. Fix it and we'll continue tomorrow."

The four gave Garland a bow and left the office. The old man leaned back on his chair, carved out of a sea beast's bone, sun stained over the years, with a fine leather cushion. They stared at each other, daring the other to start speaking their mind.

"Hank melted some gold into his gun. I guess he got his coins," Edgar commented.

Sir Garland cracked a smile behind his mustache. A smug smirk. He drew an envelope from a pile on the corner of his glass top desk and held it for Edgar to pick.

"What is that?"

"A letter from the palace. An invitation. As you are aware the crown prince is soon to celebrate his coming of age. The palace is throwing a big party, and we are invited."

"Congratulations? You get to meet the king, finally."

Garland laughed. He sucked on his cigar and blew a long train of smoke.

"Men my age shouldn't travel long. My knees are hurting and the king hates smoke."

The horror began to sink in, blood drained from his face.

"No fucking way..." his mouth revealed his dread.

"A young man once promised he'd pay me back for the trouble he caused. And here..." Garland drew another envelope from the pile and offered it to Edgar.

"... that's the letter of complaint from yours truly Lord Harold of Twayne."

"Never heard of him."

"Neither do I, but still a lord, and you gave me your word," said the guild master, one hand coddling his fingers, eyes stuck on Edgar's.

The old fart held his coins hostage to force him to go in his stead.

"Make your deputy go," he countered.

"Busy," Garland refuted in one breath.

Edgar pulled a chair and sat across the guild master, leaned back, arms across his chest, one foot on his knee.

"What's in it for me?"

"Oh, nothing much. All expense paid to Starascend, bring your family, bring your girlfriend, I don't care. Follow Lord Melrose, smile, and if they asked you to tell stories, you tell them just as enthusiastically as you would tell the folks in the tavern. The blue bloods love hero stories, and you are our best captain, aren't you?"

"You're going to need a present, too. Get to the armory and ask for the nicest looking blade. Tell them you delivered the death blow with it."

"What about my coins?"

"Deposited once you give me your word."

Edgar pouted his lips and drowned the urge to spit.