“What? The price rose again?”

Alice and Mr. Skelly turned their heads. A woman was standing in front of a cart of fruit and other miscellaneous food goods. Across from her, there was a fat, bald man with a jet-black goatee and nearly closed eyes that looked like mini crescents. Behind him, there was a convoy of wagons with two horses per wagon. Alice wrinkled her nose at the smell of horse manure lingering in the air.

The merchant smiled at the woman and rubbed his hands together. “Yes, I do apologize. The empress has raised our taxes, taking nearly half of our earnings. The other half is spent on hiring an armed escort to traverse these lands. With the rising taxes, bandits are more abundant, and it really is quite dangerous to make a trip this deep into the wilderness. If we’re not careful, we can even be assaulted by dragons. I hope you understand our plight; we really can’t afford to sell these for any less. Truly, our empress is a demon lord.”

Alice’s head snapped towards the merchant. “Did he just say demon lord?” she whispered to Mr. Skelly.

“I’m pretty sure he did,” Mr. Skelly said and nodded. He nodded again, slowly this time. “Yes, he did. That’s the kind of lead we need.” He grabbed Alice’s wrist and pulled her along, marching towards the merchant with his chest puffed out.

The merchant’s eyes widened at the sight, and he took several steps backwards, stumbling and hitting the wagon behind him with his back as he fell over. He pointed at Mr. Skelly with a trembling hand. “S-skeleton! G-guards!”

Mr. Skelly grinned and waved at the man as armored men poured out of the wagon. “Hi.”

“This is a guest,” the woman, who was speaking with the merchant, said as she held out her arms, stopping the guards in their tracks. “He won’t hurt you.” She paused and added in a mutter, “I think.”

Alice pointed at the armor that one of the guards was wearing. “Can I purchase a suit of armor like that?” she asked, glancing at Mr. Skelly. It was a perfect fit for his frame, well, as perfect as a suit of armor meant for a fleshy human could fit on a skeleton.

The merchant wiped away a bead of sweat from his brow with a handkerchief he pulled out of his front pocket. He dabbed at his pale cheeks before taking in a deep breath, his upper body shying away from Mr. Skelly as he stood up. “Armor, yes, armor can be sold,” he said as he folded his damp handkerchief and stuffed it away. “One set for seventy shillings.”

“A what?” Alice asked. She reached into the pouch by her waist and pulled out a gold coin. “How about this?”

The merchant’s crescent eyes lit up, but before he could take the coin away, the fruit-buying woman stopped him. “Can I see that?” the woman asked Alice. She received the coin in her palm and grasped it while closing her eyes. A moment passed as she moved her arm up and down. “It’s worth about a hundred shillings,” she said, opening her eyes and handing the coin back to Alice.

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“Oh,” Alice said, nodding at the lady. “Thanks.” She held the coin out to the merchant. “I’d like to buy a full set of armor; you can keep the change as long as you answer some of my questions.”

The gold coin disappeared as the merchant’s hand flashed. He beamed at Alice and Mr. Skelly. “I’ll answer any question to the best of my ability.” He pointed at the guard standing next to him. “You, strip and hand over your armor to her.”

“B-but, sir, I—”

“Nonsense! Are you disobeying your employer?”

The guard’s hands trembled for a moment before he lowered them, sighing as he used his eyes to ask the other guard for help. While they worked on freeing him from his gear, Alice crossed her arms and tapped her elbow as her forehead scrunched up. “Hmm, what should I ask first? I’ve been hearing a lot about the rising taxes; what’s that about?”

The merchant sighed. “Judging from the markings on this coin, you’re not from around these parts,” he said. “The empress is the ruler of the lands. With a single stroke of her brush, she can sentence thousands of people to death. With a simple glance from her eyes, a guard will come forth to execute a man. She’s a demon who cares not for her people, treating them as disposable resources to be exploited. Her financial advisors are beheaded when they disagree with her ideals, and she knows nothing about running an economy. Taxes, taxes, more taxes. She’s trying to amass all the wealth in the land at the cost of her people’s lives. It’s terrible. At this rate, the dukes will rebel and a civil war will break out.”

Mr. Skelly nudged Alice’s side with his elbow. “Did you hear that? There’s going to be a war starting soon.” He smiled at the merchant. “Are any of the forces recruiting mercenaries?”

“That’s … hard to say,” the merchant said, a sheen of sweat appearing on his forehead. “Mercenaries will certainly be executed if they’re hired by dukes to rebel against the empress. But there’s no doubt that they’ll be drafted by the empress to fight against the dukes. It’s a matter of picking a side that you think is going to win. I imagine many mercenaries would stay out of a rebellion until the winner becomes clear.”

“I think it’s clear what we have to do,” Mr. Skelly said, wrapping his arm around Alice’s shoulder. “The empress is evil. She’s nicknamed the demon lord. We have to stand on the righteous side and help overthrow her.”

“Do you think we can do it with just the two of us?” Alice asked. “I mean, without Vur and Tafel. I feel like it’d be cheating if we asked for their help.”

“Cheating?” a clear voice asked from behind Alice and Mr. Skelly. Tafel placed her hand on Alice’s shoulder, causing her to turn around. “We finally found you two. Sorry about the delay. We, err, got a little sidetracked.”

“You forgot about us, didn’t you?” Alice asked. Tafel bit her lower lip while Vur looked to the side. Alora was standing behind Vur with her eyes closed, her head drooping to one side as a line of drool ran down from the corner of her mouth to her chin. Apparently, she had inherited her father’s ability to sleep in any position. Alice rolled her eyes. “It’s whatever. Who’s the lady with blue hair?”

“That’s Vur’s cousin, Alora,” Tafel said. “For reasons, she’ll be accompanying us as a party member”—Tafel’s voice lowered to a whisper—“for the next fifty years.” She cleared her throat as her eyes glistened. “Anyway, I couldn’t help but overhear something about a demon lord?”