Walking along the road, the town center was in sight.

The town mostly consisted of far out houses with farmland. But the town center was the exception. It contained a small marketplace where the farm goods were sold, as well as other stores. But nothing in the stores interested Alaric. He just wanted to get out of this town and start fishing.

He suddenly realized, his eyes were extremely irregular. As far as he knew, having fish shaped pupils would out him for something, and he would get investigated. This wasn't preferable. Once he got to the city he could pass it off as either a genetic defect, or some kind of magic blessing he had obtained. But in the town, too many people knew him.

"Actually, everybody avoids me because i'm so boring, so it really shouldn't be an issue." Alaric happily thought. Being unpopular and avoided was usually crushingly depressing, but in this instance it was useful to cover up his predicament.

After walking for a while, he ended up in the town square. It was midday on the weekend, so there were a decent amount of people walking about, purchasing and selling goods.

The town square was structured as rows of shops with a wide central road in the middle. This road was paved with stones, albeit roughly. It would tear up somebodies feet if they were to walk on it unprotected by a shoe.

Alaric pitied the horses and livestock moving about along the rough rocks.

The weekend was the prime time for commerce in the town, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to find a carriage.

Alaric scanned the town, most of the contents could be seen from a single sweep around.

He saw what he was looking for. On the far end of the town center there were a couple carriages stationed. He walked over to see where they were going, and what the prices were.

On all of the sides of the carriage, there was an insignia. The insignia was of the head of a falcon surrounded by a corona of wheat.

It seemed that all of the carriages belonged to the same service. That would mean that the prices would likely just be based on where they were heading.

“Where do you guys take people?” Alaric asked.

”I’m going to take some people to the town over.” Said the first carriage driver. He was a skinny and tall man, with white hair and a beard. He was wearing a simple black uniform.

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“Anybody going to the Merchant Coast?” Alaric asked, getting straight to the point.

“I’m taking people there.” Said another one of the drivers. This one had short, jet black hair, and he was wearing a top hat along with the black uniform the other drivers were wearing.

”Perfect. How much?” Alaric asked the second driver. The third driver looked gloomy, he was likely going to somewhere where nobody cared about. His carriage was further away from the other two, clearly an outcast of the carriage rider trade.

”Thirty charred one way. You get a piece of bread to satiate hunger along the way too.” The carriage driver responded.

”Ok, I like the bread, but can we bring the price down a little??? Like maybe ten, fifteen???” Alaric tried to convince the driver.

“It’s a fixed price.” The driver responded definitively.

”Let’s do like twenty. Does that work? I’m a little short on cash right now.” Alaric was not a great negotiator.

The driver eyed the sack clearly filled up with a lot of money that was in Alarics hand.

”twenty five and you don’t get the bread.” The driver responded.

“Twenty six and I get the snack?” Alaric countered. He was slightly hungry.

”Sure. Get in.” The driver was a little annoyed at the whole ordeal, but at the end of the day, a four charred difference didn’t really matter.

Alaric reached into the sack and took out the right amount of money. He didn’t feel like scamming people quite yet.

Alaric got into the carriage, and looked around. The carriage had a covering, and there were two benches on either side of it, which could fit about four people per side, but could likely go up.

At the front of the carriage he could see where the driver would control the two horses to move it.

“We leave in thirty minutes.” The driver said from outside. Right now, Alaric was the only one inside of the carriage.

He waited a while, thinking about what he would do when he would get to Merchant Coast.

Another passenger than entered the carriage. It was one of his classmates, Melisandre. She never talked to him, mostly nobody did, but she greeted him to make the interaction less awkward.

”Hi Alaric.” She said dismissively before sitting down on the opposite side of the bench on the side furthest away. She tried not to look at him, lest a conversation start between them.

Despite this, she briefly glanced at him. And she saw his eyes. Suddenly, her eyes lit up. “He’s not completely boring now!! Now he’s just weird and has freaky fish eyes!” She thought internally. She, along with many of the other classmates were somewhat skeptical of the exorcist that deemed him as having a soul that wasn’t depleted by a demon. She was happy for him, this confirmed he had a soul.

”What’s with the eyes!?” She said excited. If his eyes were so different, maybe his personality had changed too.

”Fuck what do I say….” Alaric thought internally.

”I ate a lot of fish yesterday, and I guess my eyes absorbed the nutrients from them.” Alaric came up with a middling reason. He didn’t want to say the exact truth, as if he was exposed as having something obtained from Esoteric Fishing, he would be put at the center of attention to early. His time to shine as an Esoteric Fishing celebrity would have to come in the future.

Melisandre was happy, he was just stupid now. That was more interesting to talk to than someone who was completely boring.

There were about five minutes before they would go, but before they went, one final member would join the carriage.