Slouched in a tavern on a small street attached to the main road, Suran began to regret his choice as he slammed down his seventh drink. The copper hued ale had a biscuity, nutty flavor with a dash of caramel, but Suran did not enjoy a single sip; alcohol had never been his cup of tea. He came here for information, but the publican ignored his requests for having not purchasing anything. Not to mention Natalya was sour after Suran forbid her from drinking. Drinks weren’t cheap at 20 copper a piece, and did not want to imagine how Natalya would act with some drinks in her, especially if he wasn’t sober to control the situation.

“Bartender, over here!” Suran called out, raising his hand.

The bartender shimmied down the bar, serving drinks along the way. “Fancy another drink, lad?” He asked with a warm smile.

“No, I don’t want another drink,” Suran set down his glass with Natalya staring daggers at him, “All I want is to ask you a few questions.”

“You sure you don’t want another drink?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Suran replied irritated.

“Suit yourself,” he shrugged, “So, what do you want to know?”

“How is the grain market?” Suran asked getting straight to business.

“Not good…” He responded with a heavy sigh. “It’s starting to hit us real hard; we are going to have to start raising our prices sooner or later…”

“Any chance of it getting better?”

“Not with Earl Thatch Haywood as Deputy of the Land. After he was appointed, all sorts of taxes and regulations on grain, farming, and transportation came out of the woods. The farmers and common folk get shafted, and since Lord Treasurer sees the coffers filling up, no one is fixing to change a thing.”

“That’s unfortunate. I have a friend who deals in grain, and if things don’t pick up, he is going to have to borrow money to stay afloat.”

“Good luck with that,” the man snorted, “All the major banks have been turning away any small timers away, giving out loans only to the upper class. Even then I heard they were selective.”

“What about smaller banks?”

“Well… It’ll be difficult. The competition for some coin is so high, even the smaller banks are running dry.”

“Then what about a company called Namnoc?”

“Say again?”

“My acquaintance was offered a line of credit from the company Namnoc, but had not heard of them before.”

The publican crossed his arms, “Can’t say I’ve heard of them. If I was you, I would tell my friend to be wary of em”

“So that’s how it is…”

Suran paid the tab and gestured Natalya to leave with him. One bartender not knowing did not mean anything. A worrying trend, perhaps, but Suran decided not to make any judgment until he could verify the situation. The dainty street had other bars and pubs and he would keep searching until his pockets ran dry.

He strolled into the next tavern and went to work. Unlike the other publican, this bartender was willing to share some information without having to buy and down seven drinks. However, when the second bartender also had no knowledge of Namnoc, Suran began to feel this to be a worrying trend.

His next two stops served him no better. In fact, at the mention of the name Namnoc, both bartenders turned him away and didn’t even offer to serve him. At the fourth stop with no results, Suran opted to change gears. Besides, Natalya was moping around behind him like some four-year old child being dragged around town on errands while also being denied in purchasing candy she saw passing by. He could only ignore it for so long before it started to bother him.

“Natalya, we are leaving,” Suran said.

“You done drinking and wasting your money?” She flippantly responded.

“While it is true I don’t want to spend anymore money, it is because we won’t get any more information here.”

Suran began to lead the way out of the side street and back out to the main road.

“Yeah, I got to sit there and watch you drink while you learned absolutely nothing.”

“Make no mistake, I did not enjoy drinking,” he clarified, “Also, I did learn something.”

“What do you mean?” She asked with confusion in her voice as she trotted behind Suran under the evening sun.

“Oh come on, think about it.” Suran asked, wanting to test her.

“Hmmmmmm… I’m guessing the fact they knew nothing at all is important?”

“Exactly. Look at it this way: a lender appears and offers a large line of credit and no one knows about said lender. Possessing large amounts of money to loan out and not being known of it suspicious in its own right. On top of that, the fact that two bartenders actually turned me away after hearing the name makes me suspect that some people do know them but don’t want to talk about them, which is doubly suspicious.”

“Makes sense, but then we still don’t know where they are located or where to find the girl.”

“Unfortunately, that is true. But now I have an idea that this Namnoc might not be a legitimate business. In any case, there is one more thing I wanted to explore.”

Suran had led Natalya back to the massive market entrance. The day was slowly coming to a close, but the streets still teemed with merchants, vendors, and shoppers.

Walking down the streets and scanning the vendors, “My hunch is that the key to all of this is grain,” Suran postulated. “If many grain related business are going under and conventional loans are not available to the vast majority, it allows this unknown group to ease its way in without anyone asking too many questions.”

“So you are here to question the local grain vendors and see if they know anything?”

“Correct,” Suran replied pleased that Natalya was catching on. She seemed like an air-head, so any progress he considered good.

At the back of the market was where the grain lie. With its positioning, it was almost as if all the vendors and their products were forgotten about and cast in the back in hopes people would simply forget about them. Someone had to be specifically looking for this collective to notice them.

‘Excuse me,” Suran called out, walking up the first vendor lined up.

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“What do you want?” A seated man gruffly called out with his arms crossed. “Here to buy some grain?”

“Er, no. I wanted to ask you a few questions.”

“Pfft? Questions? Does it look like I got time for that sort of thing?”

Suran looked left and right. No one was even remotely close.

“Sir, no one is here.”

“Fine, fine,” the man lumbered out of his chair, “Don’t go rubbin’ it in, mate.”

“Have you heard of a company called Namnoc?”

“Namnoc? Who the fuck is that?”

“It’s a group that has been loaning to a friend of mine due to the grain business. Needless to say, things aren’t going so well between him and that company.”

“Well I’ll be damned! Another one of us folk getting turned upside down by some bloke,” he shook his head in frustration. “Henry, Roland, Jacob, boys get over here,” the man shouted out to the area. Moments later, several vendors started gathering around. “This lad’s friend is getting demolished by a shark named Namnoc. Anyone head of em?”

Murmurs rippled through the crowd as individuals conferred with one another, but there was no affirmative response to the question.

The man sighed at Suran, “See lad, this is what the world has come to. We are simple people. Work off the land, take the grain to market, and sell our wheat and barley. But noooooo, we can’t have that now can we?”

In response, shouts arouse from the crowd in agreement.

“We sit here and toil away, and all we get is a steaming pile of crap named taxes dumped on us by the so-called ‘Deputy of the Land’,” he continued, his voice increasing in volume.

“Yeah, the government understand nothing!

“Our lives are ruined!”

“We need to make them listen!”

Anonymous members of the crowd replied back to the man leading the dialogue. Energy was boiling in the crowd as it became restless.

“And look what we have here: A poor lad’s friend getting devoured by those sharks and you know why? Because the government could care less about us!”

The crowd roared back in response. More and more vendors began to join into the fray, becoming a huge crowd of people, blocking the street. Suran grew uneasy. He did not like where this was going.

“You know what I say?!” The ringleader man shouted to the crowd at the top of his lungs.

“What?” A unison response from the crowd came back.

“We show them what we are made of! Show them that we, the people, are not to be messed with!”

“YEAH!”

With that, the man left his post at his stand and began marching down the street towards the main portion of the market. The swelling crowd filed in behind him, shouting anti-government chants and viscous insults towards banks and creditors.

In attempt to appease the crowd, Suran tried to wad through the surging crowd to the makeshift leader he just created, but it was no use; every step was met with resistance that jostled him around. A push to the back made him lose his footing, and he toppled to the ground.

A raging mob was walking right on top of him, so he curled up in a defensive ball, wondering how in the hell some simple questions sparked a riot in the middle of the market. People stomped on his back and every exposed portion of his body. Dying by sword sounds pretty heroic, but to die being trampled by a riot he accidentally created? Suran was not so happy about that.

Just as when he thought all hope was lose, some tiny little hands came down and began pulling him up from the ground. Somehow in the mess of people Natalya got to him and was saving his life. A few heaves later, and Suran was on his feet. Still in a daze from being trampled on, Natalya stringed him along and out of the rampaging crowd.

Suran doubled over, catching his breath and easing out his strained body. He was no particularly fond of having Natalya tag along, but in this instance it paid off. The crowd in front of him surged past, passersby joining as it moved along. Down the market road, he could hear the clamor of the rioting mob and screams. It sounded like things were getting violent, and he had no intention of sticking around.

“Natalya, we got to get out of here!” He gasped out.

She pointed down an alley way, “Follow me; I think this should take us out.”

Natalya hustled down the alley and Suran followed. To his surprise, her words were true and at the pathway connected to a larger road in the city.

“So what’s the plan now, Suran?”

“No one seems to know of this company. I think out only option is to go back to the Baron and question him so more.”

“Right now?” She asked. The sun was setting and dusk was creeping into the sky.

“It can wait till tomorrow. Lets head back to the inn, grab some food, and rest up.” Suran really wanted to rest. His body was screaming in pain from being stomped on by a swarm of people.

The pair headed off down the road in search for their inn. It took some time as they were on an unfamiliar road, but eventually, it took them to the main city road which led them back to their inn.

When he walked in to the inn, he was, for once, greeted by the inn keeper.

“What happened to you?” Jerin questioned with an amused face

Suran began, “Well–”

“He got drunk and started a riot at the market place,” Natalya nonchalantly answered, cutting him off.

Suran turned to her in bewilderment, “No, that’s not what-”

“Ahahahahahahahahah!” This time Jerin cut him off with a full-bodied laugh, slapping his leg. This was the most emotion he had shown in the last few days, but Suran was not so pleased at the circumstances.

With no one wanting to listen to what he had to say, he gave up on trying to clear up the situation and dragged himself to the lounge to grab some food and then go to sleep. Tomorrow he had to go back to the Baron and see if there were any other leads since everything he had in mind led to a dead-end. Natalya followed behind him, giggling all the way.