We reached Axel port just shy of midnight. Thick wooden walls had the whole city cradled, nothing fancy; they did have a footpath of sorts on top of the wall though. Some sort of checkpoint at the entrance, guards came out. Pyres were burning atop. As usual, Den paid a fee and we were in the city.

It was basically midnight, so I expected the city to be asleep. Yet, there were quite a lot of people out. “Let’s go find a place to eat first,” Den said.

Inns, restaurants, diners, and even just roadside stalls. This place was bustling with activity. Most wore at least some form of armor, while others wore garbs, fur coats, and stuff. A far cry from what I’d seen in the village where people had dressed so casually. Streetlights were mostly just magical lights like I’d seen back at Zena’s place. But not just that, they also had pyres lit up here and there. Since it was sort of winter, the fire felt good.

Den held my finger and pulled along.

“Once you see me off at the academy, would you go back to Mom, Den?”

A fresh salty smell permeated in the air, along with a familiar sloshing sound. The origins was still quite the ways off, and it was pretty dark to make out anything.

“Yes,” he said. “But I will come back to check on every now and then.”

“Works for me.” Though I would have preferred if Mom was the one who came to see me. But I knew she couldn’t.

“What do you want to eat?” Den said.

“Anything that’s not soup.”

He actually chuckled, and quite loudly too. “I know right.”

He led me to a dinery; Pig’s Steak.

“Pork?”

“They only serve steak. And no, not pork.”

“Say’s Pig though,” I said.

“It does?” Den stared.

But then I realized, wait, it was written in Western tongue. My Western reading was actually pretty shabby. Zena had tried but I still couldn’t bring myself to learn. Guess, I was too caught up with things. I did however have exemplary spoken Western tongue.

“It’s read as Cowpig Steak,” a man said. Alastur. I was not expecting him here, no.

He did remind me that there was a literal pig-cow hybrid thing in this world. Anyway- “Let’s just go in.”

Chatter. They were busy.

We took a seat by the edge. Since there weren’t that many seats available, Alastur also sat with us. He’d saved our lives, and though he was paid handsomely for it, I was still grateful. Precisely why I didn’t tell him to relocate to the free table that just opened up next to ours. Totally not because he was super strong and I was afraid of pissing him off or anything, totally not that.

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“Two steaks,” Den said.

“One steak,” Alastur said.

There was a surprising number of humans here. This was a port city, so I suppose that shouldn’t have been surprising. I did wonder how many of them were jewelless though. wait, could it be that Alastur was also-

“I’m not,” he said.

No, seriously, you can read minds?

He didn’t say a word.

Our steaks arrived roughly ten minutes later. Three plates of steaming loin steak fried in butter. They’d added some rosemary on top and even provided some sort of white sauce with the steak.

My mouth watered. I hadn’t had actual steak in a long, long while. So… so, I couldn’t control myself and just dug in with my fingers. “Ow, ow, ow…” Hot!

Den snickered. “Lin didn’t teach you huh?” He proceeded to show me how to use forks and knives.

Even I felt a little embarrassed… burning my hand was shameful, getting butchered by those gleeful smiles from across the room even more so. No one was mocking me though. Well, technically you look like a child.

Clink! Hard meat, but I was able to cut through it. I punctured it with the fork and put it in my mouth. Dry. Hard. Rubbery. And kind of gamey. A hint of pork.

Yet- my eyes teared. Finally, some damn steak!

I tried the sauce next. Basically, sweet mayonnaise. It worked and somewhat hid the gaminess of the meat. Not bad. Not my first choice as a condiment but not bad.

I ate fast and finished way quicker than I expected and before the other two too. “Want seconds?” Den asked.

“I’m good,” I said. It wasn’t that bad, and I hadn’t had steak in a long while. However, I couldn’t really eat more of that.

“Then how about desert? They have Honeycrisp pies, I think.”

“I’ll have some.”

He ordered some for us. Yup, peach pies. Pretty good. And now I was pretty much full.

Once done, Den paid up. All that cost only five Copper. Apparently, Den had booked our lodgings a few days prior and that cost 3 Silver (a little on the higher side). So, all in all, 1 gold really was a lot of money. Yeah, I’d also be furious Mom…

There were still people outside. Not as much as before but quite a handful. “People get kidnapped often around these parts. Be sure to never leave my sight and wander into the alleyways,” Den said. “And do keep that in mind when-” he paused and didn’t finish.

…

Our lodgings happened to be just next to the dinery; Brown Rice Inn. Two floors, wooden, decent.

The reception was empty, as were the seats on the first floor. “Pretty empty,” I said.

“Reserved for us,” Den said.

I noticed Alastur making his way into the inn following us.

“You paid for him too?”

“No, but since I paid for the whole building, I invited him anyway,” he shrugged.

Well, he did save our lives. Wait, did he just say- “You bought the whole thing!?”

No wonder it cost three frigging silvers!

“Keep your voice down kid,” Den shrugged again. “And yes. There’s like only four rooms, so not that big a deal.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Also comes with complimentary breakfast.”

And for 3 silvers only! Talk about cheap! I mean, I still didn’t know what you needed to earn 3 silvers but still!

“Just for reference, how much were they paying you for your services,” I asked Alastur who had been awfully quiet this whole time.

“7 Silvers.” Seven silvers for all that?

Huh…hmm. Fuck. Den’s habit of spending money frugally was worse than mine.

“Den, next time, let’s be a bit more careful with our money.”

“O-our?”

“Well, you’re going to marry Mom, right?”

His face kind of blanked out. For a second there, he just stood there, dazed. “Huh…”

“You’re seriously not going propose or something?” Okay so, I’d always been passive about the thing. I tried to steer clear of their way and not mess with the whole thing. However, it was getting tedious. This guy never made a move and at this rate…

He blinked a couple of times. “A-are you okay with that?”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s not like they’ve cut off your balls or something,” I mumbled. “It’s her choice, right? So ask her. I’m fine either way.” I made way for the stairs. “I’m really sleepy so,” so I paused and waited for him to get the hint.

“Right, let me show you to your rooms.”

Alastur just silently followed us.