Ellis, Michael and Ameena were heading towards what looked like the biggest event Ellis had never heard of. There were hundreds of people walking together toward the distant lights, despite their raggedy appearances and bad hygiene. Ellis had to shove a few people to the side since he kept getting jostled around by the crowd, until he hid behind Michael. He found Ameena walking there already, striding forward without a care as the bastard cut through the crowd. Loud shouts and laughter cut through the hundreds of conversations surrounding them, a few arguments and loud protests popping up throughout the mass of people, a testament to the alcohol flowing freely.

  Ellis glanced at Ameena, who had her nose in the air and a sour look on her face. She had warned him the night before not to reveal her stats to Michael, which Ellis thought was interesting. She too was hiding things from the brute, and yet seemed like the entire reason why he and Michael were in the city in the first place. He still wanted to use Ameena to kill him but while he had secrets on her that might make Michael angry, he doubted that would be enough to convince the monster to try and kill her. But the secrets were piling up, and Ellis was taking note of each and every single one of them.

  The most important secret, which he was not sure of since she had only hinted at it, was that either being close or around Michael helped with leveling.

  He had felt hopeless laying on the brick floor in the alley, but when he was going over the events of the previous day to memorize his lies, he had kept replaying the moment he leveled in his head, and the very next words out of her mouth. Why she kept it a secret, he didn’t know. He didn’t care.

  It was the only way he could kill the bastard.

  Michael’s strength and constitution were the biggest hurdles. Ellis never saw him take off his clothes, even while washing himself, the disgusting pig, so he had to assume Michael’s constitution would be 14 when he tried to kill him, and that his 19 in strength would stay a permanent fixture as well. He could probably rip Ellis’s head off the same way he had with the Rass.

  The leveling would never make Ellis catch up. He was not entirely sure whether his idea that leveling because of Michael was even correct. The fact the monster was level 7 gave Ellis hope, but that meant Michael benefited from it too, maybe more so than he would.

  But Ellis didn’t need to catch up. If he just kept pace with the man, his chances would increase. The difference between 6 and 19 was insurmountable. The difference between 87 and 100 was negligible. All Ellis had to do to kill Michael was level.

  I’m going mad, relying on leveling to solve all my problems.

  A passerby bumped into Ellis, who put his hand over the two coins he received from the guard, feeling them through the front pocket of the leather jerkin Ameena had thrown at him yesterday. He thought back to that alley, feeling bad for the men Michael had slaughtered and left to rot in it, but shook his head at how stupid they had been in staying there.

  He had brought up the need to move that morning, the sunrise a long way away with Michael still slumped in the corner, asking why they hadn’t moved away from the bodies. There were guards patrolling, looking for the people who had made the guards go missing, and if they were discovered they would die. Ameena had rolled her eyes like he was a fool, and explained that the bodies wouldn’t be found since either he or she were always there, keeping watch. And if the guards did discover the bodies, they could satiate Michael’s bloodlust for the day. Like that was a good thing.

  She had still packed up her stuff and ‘suggested’ they move somewhere else after Michael woke, though. That’s the last time he brings up his issues with her. She would just take the credit.

  Arriving at the festival had taken Ellis’s breath away. It was held along the silk road, the stalls lining both roads during the day seemed to have tripled for this night, people having to share the booths now to sell things, while vendors with carts ran up and down shouting out about random trinkets and food. Ellis wanted to buy everything. He patted the two copper again, and doubted he could buy a piece of bread.

  Along with the extra merchants and stalls were hundreds of games set up in the middle of the road at regular intervals. One game was occupied by at least a dozen teenagers, all trying to throw hoops around a ring, each of them somehow missing. A northerner with his charcoal skin and Rass eyes was trying to fish in a small bucket, the lady he was trying to woo watching on with feigned disinterest as an old couple watched both of them with a gleam in their eye as they haggled at the next stall.

  Ellis thought of Ada when he saw that. He looked away to focus on the road.

  “Stick close to me Ellis, don’t wanna lose you in the crowd,” Michael said, grabbing Ellis by his collar and shoving him forward. Ellis didn’t see how he could lose Michael’s tall head towering over everyone they passed, but he didn’t complain. Out loud.

  Michael bounced his finger along a line of stalls, pretending to be interested by flashing a bright smile at some of the ladies we walked past. Almost all swooned at his flash of teeth, like he wouldn’t slaughter them wearing that smile. Ellis wanted to grab them by the shoulders and tell them exactly what that thing is. He just kept walking, Ameena falling into step beside him.

  “Do you have any money on you?” she asked.

  “Enough to buy some bread and an ale, at most.”

  She gritted her teeth, before fishing out an entire silver from the coin pouch hanging at her hip and handing it to him. While that was enough to buy him the smallest room at an inn with no food for two nights, a weapon was a different story entirely. He thanked her regardless, not understanding the gesture until she ordered him to get a traveling pack with it.

  All the extra gear they were going to sell was shoved into Michael’s pack before they left, which he was carrying now. Ellis had taken a peek inside before stuffing a sword into it, and saw random herbs and plants, a few empty glass bottles and all the gear they had decided was of no use from those dead guards.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  They approached a stall with half the counter covered in pristine weapons, two men sitting behind them. One of the men had a thick beard and thicker arms, the other wore a long brown robe that stretched down to his ankles hiding the cow hooves he called feet, glasses sitting on his long nose. Above their half of the stall had a sign that read, “The jackson’s weapons!” in bold colouring.

  The other half read, “Amazing stuff!” and was run by children, a little girl that must have gone through the same amount of Summer’s Delilah had manned the counter. Ellis knew where he was going to spend his coin, and it wasn’t with the man scratching his crotch.

  Michael addressed them with a big smile. “Hello there! May I take a look at your stock?”

  The bearded man grunted, and gestured at the counter that lay between them. Every item had a label of their price beneath it, with the cheapest one being three gold. Ameena handed Michael the coin pouch without a word, almost standing behind the man like she was hiding from something, while Michael haggled.

  “May I offer you a trade, gentleman?”

  “No,” they said in unison.

  “Aha! But you have not even seen what I have to offer. Make a judgement after laying your eyes on these, boys!” he said, unhooking the pack from his shoulder and emptying it in front of them with a dramatic flair. Swords, old clothes and the items Ellis had seen all came tumbling out onto the counter.

  The brown robed one leaned forward and inspected the items with a quick glance. He wrinkled his nose at our offer before he leaned back and gestured at the bearded one.

  The bearded one spoke with a more dangerous tone now. “Sorry, but no.”

  Michael’s smile started dimming, so Ellis went to the kids' side of the stall in the hope his absence would ease Michael’s temper while the man continued to argue the price down.

  “Hey, how’s it going?” Elllis asked, giving the little girl a wave. “What do you have on offer?”

  “It is going very well and I have amazing stuff on offer!” she said with a wide smile, like she could not believe someone had actually approached her side of the stall. She stepped down from the large box Ellis hadn’t been able to see her standing on, and all the other children rushed forward to place it on the table.

  Inside were some painted pinecones, which Ellis thought looked pretty if he were honest. Next to that was a small leather bag, along with three kitchen knives he assumed she had probably stolen off her kitchen counter.

  He felt a smile spread on his lips. It felt like Delilah was bringing him another odd item she had found outside. Then her destroyed face flashed through his mind, and his smile tried to die. But he kept a fake one plastered on regardless. Fishing out the two coppers from his jerkin, he flashed it at the children whose eyes grew wide at the sight of coin.

  “What can I get for this, my lady?” Ellis asked, bowing as he presented his coppers like they weren’t worthless.

  She snatched them from his hand, inspecting them closely before fishing out the worst pinecone. Huh, old enough to realize he was poor. She presented it to him like it was a gift from the gods themselves.

  “Mr first customer sir! You can have our finest pinecone!” A flash of a white light erupted behind his eye, the gentlest of weight pushing against the back of it. The girl stood tall with her nose in the air, pride radiating out from her like she was the sun.

  Still bowing, Ellis reached forward and picked up the pinecone, inspecting it with as much care as he could before saying, “Indeed! This is a mighty fine pinecone. Thank you, my lady!”

  “Your welcome peasant sir!” she said, before showing the coin to her friends. They all started arguing about it, which caused Ellis to laugh as he put the pinecone in the pocket of his leather jerkin, before turning back to see Ameena, standing next to him.

  “What a valuable way to spend our limited coin,” she whispered with a sneer. But if that was her only complaint, Ellis guessed it was her way of showing agreement.

  Ellis turned towards the bearded man as he barked at Michael, who had long since lost his smile. “Be gone with you! Take your stupid wares somewhere else!”

  Ellis and Ameena glanced at each other, then the long line standing behind them grumbling at with impatience, and then the children who had frozen at the shout from their neighbours. Ameena acted first, grabbing Michael’s hand and pulling him aside.

  “It’s alright, we’ll find someplace else,” she said, placing a placating hand on his shoulder.

  “Already found one! Say, kids. How much can I get for that bag?” Michael asked, turning away from her and approaching the children.

  Ellis would not let Michael touch those kids. He looked around for the nearest guards instantly, picking them out of the crowd before turning to Ameena. She looked uncomfortable, fidgeting with the knife at her belt with panic in her eyes.

  He couldn’t rely on her, not for this. But as quickly as it began, it ended. Michael patted the girl on her head, flashing a bright smile before bowing to her, which had all the children giggling before he walked back to Ellis and Ameena.

  “What did you get?” Ameena asked, almost as bewildered as Ellis was.

  “This little bag,” he said, holding up a sturdy leather pouch with a string wrapped around it to keep it closed. “She probably stole it, since it says it shall ‘accommodate whatever the user can hold’. But let’s keep that hush hush and go somewhere else for now. I need to find a better sword.”

  As they were about to walk away, a man Michael’s height with square shoulders separated himself from the crowd. He was balding, wearing expensive clothes that put him above an average guard, but there was no mistaking his profession with the sword at his hip and the steel in his eyes. Ellis thought he knew him from somewhere, but couldn’t quite place it.

  He approached Ellis first, sniffed like he smelt something foul before glancing at the pinecone in his hand, and a small smile broke out on his lips. “You bought something from my daughter?”

  “Oh, well, uh, yes sir?” Ellis stumbled over the words, and the man barked a laugh in response.

  “You're a good lad. Thank you,” he said, clapping Ellis on the shoulder before wagging his finger at Michael. “Are you causing a ruckus?”

  Michael put a hand on his chest in mock offense, a wide smile spreading across his face. “Me? No, never! My companions and I are just looking for a good place to trade my things for some coin!”

  The stranger's eyes narrowed, and his mouth spread in a thin line, and Ellis’s stomach dropped. He went white as a sheet, hope and dread warring inside of him as he realized why the man looked familiar. This was the same man who had worn purple, riding at the head of all those soldiers on that day.

  “I’ll let this go since you bought some of my kids stuff, but behave while you're in my city,” the noble said, before walking towards his daughter who happily showed off her new coin.