Stroll

Shu had originally expected to be physically harmed, but instead, Edrick had wounded his psyche and feelings, an injury so deep that it would take at least a month to even begin healing, but there was no time to rest, as Edrick dragged him out of the sect.

"Say, you wouldn't happen to know a gang of loan sharks whose boss is some guy with a bunch of gold teeth?" as they stopped in the middle of the street, in the afternoon, travel was a bit weaker, as the locals woke up earlier and shopped around well before noon, after that, mostly travellers and the like would be looking to buy anything.

During that time, most of the people living here were working out in the fields out of town or in the many restaurants and other establishments.

"Gold teeth? Huh… I don't remember what he's called, but I see who you're talking about, why do you ask?" loan sharks weren't criminals, and those in that business tended to also be employed as tax collectors for whoever was in charge locally.

The crown had its own service of collectors who were much scarier and intimidating.

"Ah, would you mind showing me where they operate?" Shu had a bad feeling about this but did as he was told and brought Edrick to a small, one-storey building tightly tucked in between a restaurant and small herb shop.

"Does gold teeth own any other business?"

"Of course he does, he is no noble or merchant, but he has quite the deep pockets, though, none of his businesses are doing especially great… He's not that great as a businessman… Aherm, the one that has the most traffic is his bar, but that's mostly because there are no standards, and prostitutes find clients there"

Shu looked left and right.

"If I may add, many of the girls offering services are, huh, 'exotic' you might say, they tend to be travellers, explorers or adventurers in need of some quick bucks and can be from all over the continents… Beastfolks, monsterfolks, demons and the likes… The lord of Oie prohibits actual brothels, so that's basically the center for such activities in town…"

"You seem to be very well informed about this place, huh?"

"Heh… I heard it all from friends, of course! I wouldn't visit such a place… It's probably full of diseases!"

"Anyways! He also runs a bit of gambling in there, I think they play some sort of poker there…"

"Poker? As in royal flush and all?"

"Huh, yes? I think that's what it is"

"Great to hear, when do they play games?"

Shu's expression fell.

"Ed-Edrick… It's very easy to lose money gambling you know and-"

"That does not answer my question"

"...I am pretty, the guys who play don't have jobs, so they probably have games all day… You can't miss them, they have their games in the middle of the bar for everyone to see"

"Heh, so you already went inside before?" Anoteros slapped the back of Shu's head, making the inner disciple take an involuntary step forward.

"I- I was just curious alright?! I didn't pay for anything, I got scared and left immediately after!"

"Urgh, you don't even have enough balls to pay a girl to pop your cherry? Hold on, at least you've done it with some cute outer disciples that couldn't pay you, right?"

"Huh… I let them pay me later?"

"May whatever gods are up there have pity on your soul, Shu, do you have no concept of initiative or opportunism? When a woman owes you something and says 'I can't pay', you respond : 'I know another way!' grab her head and-"

"I get it! I get it!"

"I doubt you do, but anyways, where is that bar? It's been a while since I last played a game of poker… You know Shu, they used to call me the 'Devil Of Stripping' back in the way, that's because those who gambled with me always ended up without anything left to bet"

Shu nodded but didn't believe a word of it, gambling was majorly a game of luck and nothing else, so unless you somehow had a way to increase your luck, you wouldn't be any better than anyone else, Shu remembered how his mother would tell him to keep out of such businesses since his father had caused the household's ruin by gambling endlessly and without any sort of restraint.

"I heard that you decided to marry a librarian- Is it really wise to gamble with three wives to take care of?"

"Of course, since I won't lose"

The inner disciple couldn't say anything back against such an argument, Anoteros was awfully confident.

The bar was in rather public space and contrary to how Shu had made it seem with its prostitute population, gambling and being owned by a guy with no sense for money-making, the bar looked clean, in fact, it looked pretty pleasant.

Some of the patrons certainly looked like the type you would expect to be robbing people on the streets, but Oie being a satellite city of the royal capital, it was well-watched by trained and equipped guards, especially since many were trying to be symbols of exemplarity as guards of such cities could have a shot at being promoted to guard of the royal capital itself, or even to the royal castle.

This made for a rather safe environment in which the guards could aspire to something that made them much more reluctant to be bribed than elsewhere.

All in all, a difficult place for the likes of Edrick to thrive in.

Pushing over the doors to the bar, despite his large stature, Anteros went mostly unnoticed as the place was already pretty packed considering that it wasn't even the evening yet, and some were already getting drunk or hooking up with harlots.

'How lively…'

Anoteros went to sit at the counter, Shu forced to come along, the inner disciple waving his hand in front of his face whilst coughing as smoke coming from pipes and other such utensils assaulted him, few were smoking the same kinds of herbs too, so it was all mixed up, making more a most unpleasant gaseous cocktail.

"What can I serve ya, big Sir?" emerging from behind the counter was a very cute, and small, halfling barmaid with some rather impressive bodily proportions.

'I guess they aren't half of everything…' thought Shu as he took a seat beside Edrick.

"Mmh, how about some of that homebrew?"

"Very good choice!"

The ambiance was far from being bad, it was rather joyous in fact, and the service was cordial even.

Being very polite and a person of great manners, Edrick waited for his chance, making discussion with the halfling barmaid in the meantime, Shu giving him a side glare the entire time, finding it unbelievable that the guy with three wives, all of which were gorgeous, Shu knew that they were, would still find it necessary to try and finesse more women, and a halfling at that, it simply looked wrong.

But the inner disciple could only bury his face into the counter to escape the smoke-ridden air whilst listening to Anoteros beginning to engage in a three-way conversation with another woman who had just arrived.

'What is this power?'