Baltsar face twitched as he followed Vysard around the city, he couldn't believe that they were using him to babysit some superhuman brat. -" Hey! Look where you walk." Baltsar sighed as the boy ran from one store to another.

Vysard eyes shone as observed the items in the stores he passed, Thorin gave him a small pouch filled with coins, but, he was too adamant about buying something.

Vysard continued to go around the market until he sundelly encountered a strange rock. He picked the rock and observed it closely, for some reason he felt a small attraction to it.

-" Huh? Do you want this rock?" Baltsar was confused, the boy had demonstrated interest in various items that held greater value, but, he never paid this much attention to them.

-" I think...."After thinking for a moment, Vysard placed the strange stone on his forehead and the strange stone began to shine as it made contact with his Sun tattoo. " I see!" Vysard opened his eyes and ran to the store counter.

Baltsar was puzzled, he didn't understand what the boy did, but, it looked like he had found something good.

-" Excuse me, how much this stone cost?" Vysard awkwardly asked the man behind the stall.

The merchant looked at Vysard and smiled wryly. " This stone? Let me see it, there are so many items here that sometimes I forgot their price." The merchant grabbed the stone and opened a book to look for the item information.

Vysard waited anxiously, he had a good sense of what the Chruch called Sun energy, and to his surprise, this stone was full of it. If someone cultivated using this stone, the amount of Sun Energy that they could get was several times higher than normal, as it was extremely hard to absorb Sun energy from the natural world.

-" This is quite a rare gemstone, it was found in the faraway lands of the Northern Kingdoms." The merchant's smile widened as he tried to glib the young boy. " 50 pieces of gold." The merchant eyed the boy as he waited for a response, he looked to be well off, so he put quite a high price on the stone.

-" What?!" Baltsar eyes popped in surprise, he expected the merchant to try to swindle the boy, but, paying 50 pieces of gold for such a stone was truly a big scam. " Rare stone my ass! In what part of the North was this stone found? Besides that calling this a gem? I would say that this is a piece of mud!"

The merchant coiled back as Baltsar lashed out at him, he didn't expect the boy's guard to act soo brashly. " Hump! You should discipline your guard better!" The merchant gave Baltsar a furious look before continuing. " A mere guard dares to badmouth a previous stone from the Northern lands, it's truly the end of time!"

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Baltsar smiled as he took out a small insignia from under his armor and showed it to the man. " From what Kingdom is this stone from? I don't remember ever seeing anything like this there."

The merchant's face paled as he instantly recognized the man's insignia, he was born in the north and came to Whitelake City to try his luck selling some local goods. "F-F-F-forgive me, Great Sir, I didn't know you were from the North." The Merchant cursed himself, he thought that the boy was some rich youngster from the mainland of the Sun Lands, but, he never thought that he was accompanied by a member of a noble house from the north.

-" So do you only scam people who aren't for the North? Merchants like you only stain the great reputation of our riches!" Baltsar was upset, he was a proud northerner, and the people from the north were especially proud of their mineral riches.

The North was rich in all types of minerals, from gold to gemstones and even the rarest types of metal in the world were found in abundance in the mines of the Calm Highlands, a chain of mountains that separated the North Lands from the Eastern Plains.

Those riches were the reason that the Sun Lands had invaded the North so many times, and also the reason why the Eastern Empire set them as their first target after they finally unified the Eastern heartlands,

-" Forgive me, Great Sir!" The Merchant dropped to his knees and began to plead, he knew that it would be his end if the man put a complaint against him. " Greed blinded me! I wouldn't dare to swindle Great Sir and his friend!"

Vysard was dumbfounded, he already doubted the stone's price as the Sun Energy was dormant in the stone before it made contact with his tattoo, and without someone to active it, the stone would continue to be useless, however, he never expected Baltsar to caught the man red handed.

Vysard smiled and gave Baltsar a thumbs up, his impression of the man was initially pretty bad as he thought of him only as a road bandit, but, Baltsar proved himself quite knowledgeable and surprisingly useful.

Baltsar returned Vysard's gesture and returned his attention to the merchant. " Are you from the north?"

-" Yes, My family is from the Asherah Kingdom, but I was raised in one of the villagers near the northern border." The merchant looked defeated and answered everything truthfully.

-" Asherah Kingdom? I visited your homeland quite some times." Baltsar played with the rock as he spoke with the man. " I won't report you to the guards, but, I will take this stone with me."

The merchant felt alleviated, if the man made a formal complaint to the city administrator, it was likely that he would be thrown out of the market plaza." Of Course!" The merchant shot up and grabbed a few more items. " Take those items as a show of gratitude, Great Sir!" The Merchant passed a stalk of herbs and two bars of metal to Baltsar.

Baltsar smiled, he never expected that this little tour around the city would be so fruitful. He passed the stone to Vysard and took a sniff at the herb stalk. -" It's been almost two weeks since I made tea with Storm Grass!" Baltsar was especially happy with the stalk of herbs that he gained, they were all from the north and could be used as spices or to make tea.

Vysard was in deep thought as he held the stone, he resented the merchant, but, at the same time he didn't want to take the item for free, so he decided to put fifteen gold coins on the merchant's table before leaving.

The merchant's mood was still quite sour, but, when his eyes gleamed as he noticed the gold coins atop his table. "15?!" The merchant almost didn't believe that they still left this amount of money, the items he gifted Baltsar were only worth 6 gold coins, and he thought that the stone was a useless piece of rock. " Hah! I, Yarikh of Asherah, am the greatest merchant alive!" The merchant puffed his chest with pride, even when all the odds were against him, he still was able to make a profit.

-" Why did you give that man your money?"Baltsar felt bothered, all of his efforts were in vain as Vysard still left quite an enormous amount of coins.

-" It didn't feel right to take his items away and leave his hand empty."

Baltsar sighed, at first he didn't believe that this was the boy's first time in the outside world, but, the boy's naivety and fascination for everything convinced him. " Do you know that he would take all your coins without a single thought right?"

Vysard smiled as he gave a nod. " This doesn't mean that I too should do that, right?"

Baltsar was caught off guard by the boy's sincere smile and let out a heavy sigh. " Right... It's just better for you to be careful, way too many people are looking to take advantage of naive people like you." The optimistic and innocent attitude of the boy was a refreshing breeze in this cruel world, and Baltsar appreciated it. The last few months were rough for him and his future looked bleak, but, for some reason, every time he interacted with the boy, his heart was filled with hope.