"How about 2 gold and 5 silvers? The carriage is new and has only been used for a week. The horses aren't anything special but they are healthy and can be put to work well." A young man was haggling with a merchant. The discussion had already been going on for a good while. The merchant kept on pointing out the flaws in the goods and decreased the price while the young man highlighted the good points and raised it.

The merchant seemed to be satisfied with the price and nodded, "That seems reasonable. But you have to know that there are no people who will buy or sell carriages or horses over here. When another merchant comes here, it will be well over a week and he might not even offer as much as I am. Besides, feeding the horses and taking care of them will cost money as well. So how about 2 gold and 4 silvers instead? A silver extra to bear the cost of me transporting the carriage and horse before selling it?"

Vincent nodded and finalized the deal while the merchant thought that he could have probably shot the price down a little more seeing the young man's eager consent. Vincent had just arrived at this rural village. He had joined the merchant on the nearest town. The merchant had promised to introduce the village chief to Vincent and guide him here for the price of 2 silvers. Now that he had reached his destination, the carriage and horses were nothing but burdens for him. It was convenient to sell it off to the merchant.

The merchant did as he had promised and introduced Vincent to the village chief. The chief was a kind old man with a limp leg. A man at arm who had lost his leg during a battle. The feudal lord had stationed him as an official in his home village to reward him for his service. He lived with his pregnant daughter and her husband.

"This is master Vincent. He is a doctor and wants to move here. Although young, he is very skilled. I got to see him in action some days ago and was surprised. Old Morsen, you can't haggle too much this time. I even brought a doctor to you village." The merchant seemed well acquainted with the chief as he spoke in a very casual manner, completely unlike how he spoke with Vincent when he was discussing business.

"You know I can't do that Hubert. Cecilia is going to give birth soon and I will have to spend a lot of money for the child as well. As an old friend, how could you even think of such a thing? You should be trying to hand me goods for free considering our relationship and my circumstances. But I am grateful to you for bringing master Vincent here." The village chief, Morsen displayed his eloquence and made some small talk with the merchant before turning to Vincent.

"Master Vincent, might I ask why you are moving to Trenni village? I am sure you could have easily made a living in any town or city."

"To be honest, I ran into a bit of trouble with some thugs on my previous town. I am hoping to settle here so I can stay away from those thugs as well as to learn more about medicine. The Trenni forest has got a good reserve of magical beasts and plants, so it's a very suitable place for me since I can get materials from the forest."

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"And who might your companion be?" Morsen asked while staring at Alba who was standing behind Vincent obediently. She had a hood over her face to hide the bruises.

"She is my servant."

"I see. But why is she covering her face?"

"The thugs I got into trouble with hurt her, so her face is bruised right now. I hope you understand." Vincent told them the excuse he had prepared alongside Alba. Morsen didn't dig any further and nodded. Women were conscious about their appearance. Showing a face that was bruised would probably be difficult for her.

Morsen led Vincent to a house and told him he could use it. The house was incredibly dusty and spiders could be found hanging off their webs here and there. He took his leave together with Hubert and left the two new occupants of the house alone.

Alba had grown a lot less scared of Vincent the past week. Though she had not overcome her phobia, he could at least approach and stay near her. She still reacted strongly if any other man approached her. He didn't know what to do with her. She didn't have anywhere to go and she could not make it on her own if left alone. He had indeed developed a soft spot for her because of what she meant for him.

The room was cleaned up and Vincent stared at the now clean but still empty space. The room was completely devoid of furniture or anything of similar nature. The house didn't have even a single bed and it seemed like they had to make do with the floor for the night. Vincent took note of everything they lacked and sighed as he sat down on the cold hard floor.

'My butt hurts. I need to get furniture as soon as possible. Why are villages so inconvenient to live in? Where do I even buy the things I need? I don't see any shops around here. Guess I will talk with Hubert.'

Alba watched as Vincent was uneasily shifting his sitting posture to feel more comfortable. She found his current actions to be somewhat unbefitting of the strong image she had in her mind but she didn't hate it. In fact, she found them to be adorable and sweet.

"Let's have some food Alba. What do we have left?"

"Bread and some dried meat is all that's left. We ate everything we had bought."

"Guess we will have to buy food too. I hate this already. I hope the war starts and ends quickly. I don't want to stay here for too long."

Alba hesitated for a while and finally asked, "Master Vincent, you are already so strong. Why won't you join the war? I am sure earning merit will be easy for someone like you."

"I might be strong but there will be many warriors and wizards in the army. I don't want to join a war where even a stray arrow could kill me. Besides the truly elite forces are made up of individuals much stronger than me."

Alba couldn't really fathom how much stronger the elite forces had to be if even Vincent said he was weak in comparison. In her mind, he was already a very strong person. He had saved her twice and displayed incredible strength and mysterious means.

'I need to advance to second circle magician as soon as possible. If I focus entirely on it, I will probably advance within a month. The war will probably continue for a few more years. I hope I can become a silver ranked wizard before the flames of war reaches the southern part of Esterin Kingdom.'