“I’ll let you sit and eat if you accept a job offer that I have,” said Kamaria.

“Humph, I don’t work for anyone. I won’t break my rule for some food I’ll have digested in two hours.”

“Little girl, our Boss is giving you an option where you can keep your entire earnings, then you won’t have to worry about getting chased and roughed up for wanting some food,” Raisa stated quite matter-of-factly.

No One thought about it.

“It’s nothing illegal, is it?”

“If it was outside the law, would it matter?” asked Lili.

“Barely but I still want to know.”

“It’s nothing illegal No One, don’t worry. Sit and rinse your hands before eating. I’ll take you somewhere after this. I have an errand for you two days from now.”

Usually No One was more than confident about herself and abilities, but she suddenly felt a little conscious when being asked to sit at the table. She would have been chased away by now simply due to her looks without even begging for anything.

The young women hadn’t commented on how dirty she looked but the girl knew it better than anyone else. She tried to keep her clothes tidy enough but washing too often would ruin the already ragged clothes and sleeping in odd places was bound to leave permanent stains.

Her face was only dirty since she had a run in with someone earlier but at least the river offered free water for her to get clean so even though she didn’t think she had much of an odour, among people that looked so clean she had to reconsider.

Trying to survive the male dominated space was the most important thing so pretty things like makeup and perfume were only things she could watch from afar.

She knew looking like a typical girl would get her harassed, so she eventually held a certain ridicule at the young dressed up girls who were always continuously giggling while buying pointless trinkets at the market.

Their cute little purses were merely easy targets for her to get her fill for the day.

Yet, here were young women who wore makeup and accessories but also carried weapons and were highly regarded without being at a man’s side. She wasn’t such fool that she couldn’t see that it was better to be on good terms with them since they had extended an olive branch.

Maybe she could learn a thing or two from them, nothing more. People were not to be trusted.

After a while, Kamaria noticed that the girl stopped nervously fidgeting and cautiously took a seat at the table where more cutlery and crockery had been added. It wasn’t that she really trusted them, but it was free food after all.

As for whether she would do anything for her after that was another matter, adding another bowl wasn’t much and besides they had ordered that much food for a reason.

“Eat slowly, have some porridge and soup first otherwise you’ll a have serious stomach-ache later,” commented Kamaria as she pushed the porridge bowl in front of her.

The girl calling herself No One ate cautiously at first but after noticing that everyone else was focused on eating and drinking, she slightly relaxed even smiled a little as she ate.

From the corner of her eye, Kamaria noticed how she handled the cutlery but didn’t try to correct her. It was likely the first full meal she eaten in ages. Who cared about things like cutlery etiquette?

When they were done with their meal, they walked to a different district. The shops seemed slightly older in this district, and it was less busy than the central market but there were still customers in all the stores of the street they were visiting.

The girl looked around as she didn’t explore this neighbourhood often. If she tried pulling any tricks with anyone here, she’d likely have her hand chopped off before anything else, even she knew that. The shops were older, so waters ran deeper. No small timers dared to make trouble here.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

They stopped outside a small tired looking shop. Without even stepping in or reading the sign, the smell of medicine and herbs wafted towards them and No One realised what the faint scent of the young woman in charge was.

At the corner of the shop, right next to the entrance of the alley sat a man on a small low bench with wooden staff casually rested between his legs and a wooden bowl in front of him.

He wasn’t old but his hair was slightly messy under the hat and not tied in a ponytail. His clothes weren’t too shabby either, just dull and a bit disorganised.

Although he was seemingly a beggar, he wasn’t proactive enough to even pick up the bowl. The man leaned on the staff with his eyes closed so at least he wasn’t causing trouble for anyone. Kamaria then turned to the girl.

“In two days, you’ll go to the main farmer’s market and collect a batch of fruit for me and bring it to this shop, they’ll know who sent you once you deliver it. You’ll collect the fruit from an old man who usually wears a bamboo hat and smokes a pipe. If you ask around, you should find him. He’ll be waiting for me to send someone.”

“What if I decide to sell the fruit?”

“You could but I guarantee you’ll make more money if I pay you for the delivery,” answered Kamaria.

The girl seemed to be thinking it over.

“I don’t know, it feels as if I might be too hungry to come back in two days,” she insisted while rubbing her stomach and scratching the back of her neck.

This only made the young women amused and finally Lili flicked one silver coin into the air and the girl caught it with a huge smile. She bit into it before turning it in her hands in excitement. Then Lili handed her a little pouch. She had thought the coin was enough but there was still more.

The girl unceremoniously opened the pouch and counted the coins right there, counting four more while a little wide eyed.

“An incentive, you’ll get the rest after running the errand,” said Lili.

The young girl stiffly nodded as she hid away the purse. Where had she ever had this much silver belonging to her?

By the standard of her peers, she was now rich. She couldn’t afford to be flashing her wealth everywhere in case she found herself injured and lying in a lonely backstreet without money again. Over five siglos for just delivering some fruit, no one sane would turn down the offer.

The average manual labour worker earned about one hundred siglos a month or lower and that was only because it was the imperial capital where there was more wealth floating around. As for what the fruit was for or what else would be in the cart, that wasn’t important to her.

“Also, my name is Naila. You don’t need tell me your names, the less I know the better. If I don’t run the errand in two days, then I’m probably busy with something so don’t try to look for me. This incentive in non-refundable.”

“Nice doing business with you Naila,” replied Kamaria with tiny smile.

Naila nodded and then vanished into one of the alleys like the little thief that she was. Of course, she meant that if she didn’t run such an easy errand then something had happened to her preventing her from doing so.

Kamaria didn’t mind giving away a bit of silver since it made a world of difference to Naila.

The trio spent some time in the shop and after stepping out, they threw some money into the beggar’s bowl. As they walked into the shop alley, he lazily opened one eye to check the bowl and saw a few silver and gold coins.

He collected them and left the bronze and copper dinars then closed his eyes again and continued leaning on the staff.

“Young Master, wait,” suddenly said the attendant.

“What’s wrong?”

“Beyond that alley of shops should be the district known as the Night Market. Honestly, we’re dressed too conspicuously to have any sort of business there.”

The young master nodded in understanding but still stood thinking about the situation. He had never gone as far as trying to find out where it was but from the information he had collected, the Night Market was not actually an event held at night.

It was a part of town where multiple groups of people gathered, questionable or not and one could find the rarest of rare items from all the seven kingdoms and even kingdoms beyond if they knew where to look.

The auctions were exclusive even more so than upmarket pawn house and black-market auctions.

The weapons, armours, furs, textiles, jewels, plants and medicines, traded and sold were among the most interesting. Even the livestock and exotic pets were of their own class. One could enquire about people with all sorts of unique skills and any hard-to-find information as well.

In daily life, information was bought and sold even in other places other than the Night Market otherwise how would “upstanding” members of society that operated during the day be so informed.

But the information sold there was more detailed and varied than anyone could find but also just as pricey depending on who sold it and the detail that came with it.

However, this was not a part of the city where anyone could just stroll. The people who operated in the Night Market were already immune to the rather dubious environment but for sunlit outsiders who unwisely found themselves in its alleys, if they showed any weakness, they would be eaten alive by all the tigers around them.

Ultimately, these were all things that the young man had only heard but it didn’t seem too far-fetched. There were places where the power and money of aristocrats and rich families meant nothing.

Neither the city guard nor the usual menaces could start a situation there. It was just interesting that the young women walked in without showing any hesitation as if this was something they were used to and they knew exactly where they were going.