Sam, Xander, and Laina approached the line for the gate. In front of them were around two dozen people waiting in line to go into the city. As the sun was getting close to setting, the people entering and exiting Carthage slowed down.

Since the line was moving quickly, the group reached the two guards standing on either side of the door fairly quickly. The two guards had an iron plate that fit over their chest and an iron helmet. The chest plates only protected the soldier's chests and shoulders. The back was left open, and so were the arms. They were both simple in design and made to fit the average soldier's bodies.

The guard on the right had a large belly and was overweight, and that made the fitting of the chest plate fit a little awkwardly. The guard on the left didn't share the same body type as his partner, and so his armor fit a lot better. Both of them carried a sword that was sheathed to their side.

The two guards watched the group as they stepped forward. Their eyes examined the group up and down. The guard on the left saw Xander's sword, and his eyes lingered there for a bit before moving on. It wasn't the most uncommon thing to carry blades in the city, so he didn't think too much about it. The guard on the right didn't even bother looking at either Xander or Sam. His eyes just stayed on Laina.

"What's in the bag?" asked the left guard. He was talking about the bag that Sam had over his shoulder.

"Some grain that we brought from our village. It was for the journey so that we didn't have to get any food on the way there. But it seems like we brought too much, and there is a little bit leftover, want to see?" asked Sam in a steady voice. Beside him, Xander and Laina started to get nervous. Their hearts started to beat a little faster as they waited for the guard's reply.

"There is no need. And what is the purpose of your visit?" Questioned the left guard. Since he was watching Sam, he failed to notice the small change in expressions of Xander and Laina. His partner, the guard to the right, was more occupied with looking at Laina's chest than her face.

Sam coughed a few times to himself a few seconds to think. "Coughed, chough. We are visiting a friend in the city," he said. That was the best that he could come up with given that he wasn't expecting the question.

"Who is the person that you are visiting?" asked the guard.

'Could you just not do your job like the other idiot to the side,' thought Sam as he scrambled to think of a name. He wasn't very confident that he could come up with a good name, so he just used some names that he remembered from before.

"It's James Anderson. He is uh... is a merchant." That was his math teacher from when he was still on Earth. Sam was unfortunate enough to fall asleep in his class and that led to everything up until this point.

The guard said it a few times in his head to see if he could remember that name from anywhere. Seeing that he couldn't, he thought that that person must have been a small and poor merchant that didn't have much power.

"You can get thought, but you still have to pay a fee of 3 copper. For each person," said the guard. Sam already saw that people were handing over coins to the guards when he was in line, so this was not a surprise. He reached into his pouch and pulled out a few coins. Counted them up and handed them over to the guard.

The guard nodded his head as he finished counting up all of the coins. He said, "Next," and the group moved forward through the doors.

The inside of the walls wasn't much different from the slums, except for the people. There was still filth covering the streets, and in some places, there was more in the inside of the walls than the slums. The streets were narrow, and they took a lot of turns. The people here wore better clothes here than compared to the people in the slums. In the slums, most people had a bit more than rags, and their bodies were thin from frequent malnutrition. These people had better clothes, and the chance of coming across someone that was only a little more than bones was smaller.

The buildings were all mostly made of a combination of wood and stone. They didn't go higher than three stores, and most houses were two floors high.

Even though the sun was getting dark, people were still moving around on the roads going from one place to another.

The group wandered around the city for a while, a little unsure about where they should go and what they should do. After walking around for half an hour, Laina pointed to a sign to the side of a building and said that it was a tavern. At this point, the group was completely lost in the maze-like roads. So they headed inside the building.

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A few people were walking in and out of the building, and the group waited until no one was coming out, then they headed inside. Unlike the tavern that they had been to before, this place had a lot more people, and it also served food. Around thirty to forty people were sitting around at tables, eating and drinking. A few waiters went around the crowded room taking orders and serving food.

The group, led by Laina, went to an empty table and sat down. Their table was near a corner of the room, away from most of the people. They looked around trying to take everything in and waited for someone to come to take their orders.

A few minutes later a young lady approached their tables and asked in a pleasant voice, "What will your order be?"

Hearing this question, Xander looked at Sam. Sam, who never ordered anything in this world, looked at Laina. Realizing that everyone was looking at her, Laina said, in a small voice, "What is there to eat?"

The waitress replied, "We have a bowl of hot soup for one copper, a big glass of water for one copper, and a glass of wine for two coppers."

"I guess we will have three, I mean four bowls of soup and two glasses of water," said Laina. The girl nodded her head and went to a different room to get their orders. Less than a minute later she returned with a tray that held their food. She set it on their table, bowed her head slightly, and then left.

They began to eat their food quickly. They got used to quickly eating and then moving with their travel for the last few days. The fourth bowl was untouched until it was cool, and Xander finished eating from his bowl.

Xander lifted up the bag that Sam was carrying from before and left it on his things. His back was against the corner of the room, so when he opened the bag, no one was able to see what was inside of it.

He took the last bowl of food and put it in the bag. A few minutes later, Xander took the bowl out of the bag and it was now licked clean. He also put the rest of the water that they had into the bag and it too disappeared. Thankfully everyone else in the tavern was doing their own thing and no one paid any attention to the mysterious things that were happening in Xander's bag.

Seeing that everyone was done eating, Sam cleared his throat and leaned forward. He waited for Laian and Xander to do the same, and then he softly said, "Pay attention to what people are saying. It doesn't matter if things work or women. But listen in if anyone is talking about the Red Nation or Lord Drogo or anything related to nobles."

They did as Sam suggested and started to listen in on the conversation that was happening around them. But minutes went by, and they didn't really do anything useful. The problem was that the things that they were looking for weren't the sort of things that were loudly said in a crowded place. There was a sort of fear towards the Lord and other powerful people in Carthage, and no one wanted to get punished by mentioning anything about them.

Sam realized that they were just wasting their time and was about to suggest that they go to sleep for the night, but he stopped himself. He noticed that a strange hush fell over the people in the tavern. He looked in the direction that everyone else was looking and saw someone standing there.

A young man, one slightly younger than Sam and Xander, walked into the room. His clothes stood out against everyone else because of their color and their style. While most people's clothes were a shade of gray, his clothes were a light blue. Of the three people that followed him, two seemed to be his guards, and the other was a young girl who could be his servant. He looked around, trying to find an empty table. Once he found one, he headed over to it and sat down.

The empty table that he found was right next to where Laina was sitting.

When the others saw that the man had sat down, the conversation started again, except this time it was much quieter, and so, the group wasn't able to catch anything from listening.

"Sir, why must you always insist on coming to these... dirty places. If you wanted food, you could get much better soup at home. You don't need to bring your image down by eating here," said the servant girl as she stood beside the man.

"Isla, as I already told you before, it's not about the food but the experience. Sure, I could always get food at home, but how boring is that. I would have to either eat alone or with my idiot of a family. Just wait for a few minutes, these people will slowly forget that I'm even here and go back to the way that they were before I got here. The noise and all the action definitely make the meal taste better," said the man as he looked around the room.

Sam was about to do what he was going to before the man walked in, but a sudden idea came to his mind. Sitting right next to them was probably someone from the right family. He most likely knew how everything worked in Carthage. Sam didn't know when they would have the same opportunity in the future.

Sam leaned forward, and the other two, recognizing what he wanted them to do, leaned forwards as well.

When they were all close together, Sam whispered, "Okay, it seems like we got lucky. That guy over there has probably enough knowledge to tell us everything that we need. The only issue is that they wouldn't talk to poor people like us, unless," Sam looked over to Laina. "you seduce him."

Laina started to blush heavily. "But I don't know how to do that," she whispered to Sam.

They heard Xander getting out of his chair, but both of them ignored him.

"So if I tell you how to do it, will you do it?" asked Sam.

Laina's face got a little bit redder. "Maybe."

"Okay, so all you need to do is drop something in front of his table and bend over and pick it up. And as you come up, look at his direction and make sure to give him a wink," said Sam. Laina's face started to look like a tomato. She hid her face behind her hands and shook her head.

"Hey, do you mind if I sit here?"

Sam and Laina heard a familiar voice coming from their side and turned to look. Xander was standing near the table to the young man, and what was even worse was that he was still holding the bag with Stratus in it.