Chapter 8: Archarity

"Here, do you want to check it?"

Right as the head of the caravan was passing through the city gates, Fen's carriage stopped. But even before the young man could ask why did this happen, a fat man seated in what looked like a mix of horse and some kind of beast approached them before throwing a fat pouch towards Mark.

"Nah, I trust you know what will happen if the amount if wrong."

Catching the small bag in the air, Fen's saviour only shook it once near his ear, before smiling back at the fat man.

"It's a pleasure doing business with you."

As if the silent threat hidden within Mark's words didn't bother the man at all, he only nodded. Yet, just as he was about to ride back to his usual spot in the line of carriages, Mark pushed his own horse a few steps forward.

"Before you go, would you mind renting a horse for me? I need to bring this guy to the city with me, and I'm not really that interested in either walking or sharing the mount with him."

Reaching with his hand towards his belt, Mark rummaged through the many pouches he attached to it, before pulling out a strangely looking coin and throwing it back to the merchant.

"Sir… With pleasure! Men! Bring a free horse to this generous arcanists!"

To say that Fen was surprised by this quick exchange, would be a gross understatement. From the glimpse he caught of the coin, it didn't seem like it was more expensive than a normal bronze coin he would use on a daily basis in his rundown village! Yet, despite that, this single, nearly worthless coin managed to instantly sway this obviously rich caravan owner!

"Don't look so stunned by this."

It took the young man a long time to recover from this shock, but even after he was finally seated in the horse brought by the merchant's men, awaiting the moment he would finally see how the city looks inside, within those high, thick walls, something had to still show on his face. Turning his head towards his saviour, Fen at least attempted to save grace by trying to hide any resemblance of surprise from his face. Sadly, all this poor young man managed to do, was to push Mark to burst out in open laughter!

"Seriously, I didn't do it intentionally, so don't look at me like that!"

Barely capable of squeezing those words through his teeth tightened by his futile attempts to stop laughing, Mark took his damned time to finally calm down.

"Don't worry, it's not something that I have to hide from you in order to prevent confusing you even further. In short words, the coin that I used is a favour coin. If you were to take it to any random shop, in theory, you wouldn't be able to buy anything. In exchange, if you go to any arcanist association, as long as this coin is marked with the blood of someone without the talent, they will pay the favour back to its owner. For example, if that man's stove will stop working one day, rather than paying shitload to have it checked, he can just use this coin and someone will be surely willing to help him out."

As much as Fen wanted to believe this, it didn't really make any sense. Even all the way back in this village, there was no such thing as trading favours. If someone liked someone else, they would be willing to help them out. On the other hand, just like he acted with his deceased master, if one wanted a service but didn't have any money to pay for it, one would just equal the bill by giving something of value. That's why preparing the meat from the prey Fen and Basil brough from the forest could be done by giving up a part of the haul!

Luckily, the young man didn't really have the opportunity to rack his brains about this, as even despite the entire caravan currently occupying nearly all the space within the gate opening, Mark still managed to get them through it rather quickly.

And then it happened.

For the first time in his life, Fen could see how a real city looked like!

Stretching for as far as the young man could see, mostly due to the buildings blocking his sight, rows of similar constructions were occupying almost the entire space within the walls. To be perfectly honest, just by riding through the middle of the damned street, Fen realised that he was starting to feel claustrophobic!

"I guess it's your first time in the capital, am I right?"

Only hearing this simple sentence coming out of Mark's mouth did manage to calm Fen down a little. Since it was the capital of the entire empire, then it should be as big and crowded. If the young man were to learn that this was just some kind of backwards city somewhere in the country outskirts, he could very well die from the damned seizure!

"Anyway, let's stop talking for now and hurry up. I really want to eat something warm. And recalling how you acted when I fed you back on the road, I can tell you would kill for a proper soup as well!"

Unskillfully hiding his smile as he said those words, Mark grabbed the reins of Fen's horse, before tickling the sides of his mount with his heels. In one instant, what was a calm and relaxing walk, turned into a breakneck gallop!

But to the young man's surprise, rather than instantly ramming into the crowd of people, all those damned citizens who would appear like lords to anyone from the village were obediently moving away like some chickens in the farm!

As surprised as Fen was once again, he didn't have that much time to ponder over this occurrence, as within just a few minutes, Mark finally slowed down our horses and finally came to a stop. Jumping down to the street in front of a huge building, he helped his young guests down, before pushing the gates to the building open and announcing.

"Welcome to the Fireserpent Archarity!"