Norbert swallowed, his mouth instantly dry, wondering what to say. Knowing that they would need food for their travels, wondering if his coins would even be instantly suspect of being the people that were rescued, Norbert started to panic.
Breathing in deeply, Norbert calmed himself; no matter what happened, they should just be able to bust out of whatever situation they found themselves in. "Just passing through, looking around places and wondering if we can buy some rations for the travel," Norbert said
The man on the other side is nodding, his simple clothes looking with the villager's likely hand made within, Norbert not seeing any gates for a quick trade or for soldiers to apprehend them quickly.
"And that will be for how many mouths and how long?" The desk worker asked.
Norbert thought momentarily, wondering how long they would need to get to the other side of the mountain where he could branch off once more and get food from the town.
"Forty people for fifteen days", Norbert said, quickly doing the maths and hoping that would be enough food for everyone.
Earning a whistle, the clerk responded, "That's a lot of food, sadly we do not have enough spare. Just curious, where are you heading?"
Norbert waved his head to the mountain range. "Heading up there, wanting to see the view", Norbert responded.
The clerk just walked away, mumbling "tourists" to himself. Walking back to the group all sitting around, Norbert leaned over and whispered to Dousan, "Getting food, don't have enough for the entire trip over the mountains, as that's where I'm assuming we are going. Says there will be another village closer."
Dousan nodded in response as Norbert broke away again, walking back to the desk while waiting for the clerk to return. Flipping a silver coin from Morenas, Norbert caught it again before flipping it up, watching as it spun.
Norbert stared at him, knowing he was making a show of the wealth and hoping it would send the message about the coin that had to smooth anything over with the locals.
Waiting, Norbert started to whistle to himself, a tune he did not know where it came from but knew he had heard somewhere.
Norbert looked around at the others in the room, wondering what had taken the clerk so long. Knowing that it was a lot of food but he didn't expect him to bring it all to them now, and he hadn't even paid for it.
Continuing to whistle, Norbert just waited, the minutes going by. Knowing he was now receiving stares but not wanting to drop the act, now wanting to see how far it would go. Swapping the coin around to his usual one, looking down and seeing the queen's head etched in the gold, Norbert whispered, "Heads, we get out of here, tails we wait to see what returns."
Flicking the coin in the air, Norbert caught it, palming it to the back of his left hand and looked down at what was shown. The tails side was presented to the world.
Nodding his head, Norbert flicked his wrist, the coin flying into the air as he caught it and put it back in its place, returning the silver coin as he waited, knowing he would have received stares from his blatant display but not caring about it.
Finally returning, the clerk came back again with a final number. "Will cost you twelve silver", the clerk replied.
Norbert just whistled, quickly doing the maths and seeing it would be about two copper a meal per person. Norbert just nodded, not believing it would get that high so quickly with forty people.
"Want the silver now or later, and how long will the provisions take to acquire?" Norbert asked.
"Just need to wait for half a cycle and coinage now", the clerk responded
Norbert just nodded, reaching into his coin pouch in his bag and taking out the silver coins. When the two piles were being made, ten in one and two in the other, Norbert looked up by the look on the clerk's face that a disagreement was about to be had.
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"That price was for Arzatech coin. Morena's coin will cost more," The clerk said. Arms crossed squarely in front of him, not moving at all.
Norbert just nodded, seeing the disagreement was being made. "So, how much for these coins then?" Norbert asked, just wanting to escape the situation as quickly as possible.
"Twenty silvers ", The clerk responded.
Norbert laughed straight in his face, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye as he shook his head. "No way, that's daylight robbery if I've ever seen it. Price is twelve silver, and I'll throw in a handful of copper," Norbert responded, leaning towards the desk, moving his right hand to the dagger at his hip next to his money pouch.
Norbert hoped his intimidation would work but not be pushing it over the edge. The clerk just continued to stare Norbert down. "Fifteen silver", he responded.
Norbert moved his hand off his dagger, bringing it to his chin as he nodded, pretending to have numbers in his head. Reaching into his pouch, Norbert brought out another silver coin. Knowing if the clerk dropped it that much, he still had room to squeeze.
Placing both hands on the counter, Norbert just looked up, not making any moves. The two stare off at each other until the clerk relents and swipes up the coins; Norbert loses them in his hand.
"Just wait here, have some of the boys go around and collect it all for you. Enough food for forty people for five days of travel." He replied.
Norbert just nodded as he walked back, thinking he didn't know how much food that was for. When he turned on his feet, Norbert shouted, "Oh, how far to the next place?" Norbert asked
The clerk smiled. "Six days away on foot; just continue to follow the road and take the left path on the first intersection."
Norbert just nodded and waved his thanks, sitting and spinning the coin on the table, feeling much lighter than before, still nervous about the situation being in unknown territory. Holding up a hand when the others tried to talk, Norbert ran through the conversation repeatedly in his head.
No matter how many times he replayed it, Norbert could not see anything that would out him other than the type of coin he was using, but still, the restlessness wouldn't leave him.
Waiting nervously, Norbert heard the doors open, looking up from the coin, someone pointing and shouting, "Come on, what you want is outside" Norbert looked at the person seeing their basic clothes, dirty from a hard day's travel, wearing no shoes and a straw hat. Believing it to be a farmer of some kind, Norbert stood up, waving for the others to follow as he went outside.
Norbert covered his eyes with his hand, stopping the sun going into his eyes, seeing a cart on the side of the road filled with food. Norbert nodding his thanks, walked forward, looking at it all. Believing he had the right amount and happy he hadn't been tricked as no exact amount was given, the rest of his party quickly went through, taking everything from it and stuffing it into their bags.
With everything taken, Norbert just waved, walking down the village's main road and out onto the road again, making way for a cart to be pulled so it could pass them.
Norbert, happy that they had made it out continued down the road, nobody running so as not to alarm about it, not a word being uttered to each other. Only the shuffling of feet on the ground as one they walked away, all ears peeled to hear something out of the ordinary.
Norbert saw Dousan turn around; Norbert could not see anything in the distance. With his nod, everyone began jogging, nobody riding on the other's shoulders.
Dousan came forward, talking to Norbert, "Anything suspicious?" Dousan asked Norbert.
Norbert just shrugged. "Not anything peculiar; I was a bit calmer than I thought. I saw a wanted poster hanging up with my masked face; I didn't want to ask about that, so could you be after us?" Norbert said, shrugging his shoulders.
Dousan nodded as he shouted, "Partner up!" to the group.
Slowing down, people started scrambling onto others' backs, Norbert flipping around his backpack and taking Azalea as usual. The group started to jog into the distance, Norbert clicking through the compass and confirming they were going in the right direction, not wanting to be on the other side of the ravine with his navigation.
***
The clerk, Jeffery, returned to his position in the adventurers guild, looking at the quests listed and seeing the piece of paper with the man in the mask describing his attire and the others of his group of forty.
Shaking his head at Morena's people's stupidity, thinking that it would trick them at all. Jeffery looked up, seeing the officer of the army come in. Jeffery nodded in respect at the large man that had to duck slightly to get through the door.
His shoulders were massive and broad, steel hanging off him and a cleaver strapped to his back, Jeffery not wanting to get to the other side.
"Did as instructed?", The gravelly voice came out of the commander. Jeffery just nodded in return, not wanting to say a word before the man snapped him with his pinkie if someone that prominent could even be called.
The commander threw a pouch onto the table, sliding the silver coins that Jeffery put there, which Norbert had given him earlier in the afternoon.
Jeffery is not moving as he saw the commander take a coin to his nose and sniff it. Smiling in return, he left the room. Jeffery opened the small pouch and saw gold inside, shaking his head, not wanting to know what would happen to that group.
As the commander stepped out of the room, shouting to his men spread throughout the town, "Time to clean the mess that Tashen left behind, time for an easy hunt!"
Throughout the town, Arzlan, the commander, heard his men's cries as they banged metal against metal, music to his ears. Bringing the coin back to his nose Arzlan sniffed it again, wondering what someone had to do to get such a peculiar scent.