The elderly woman laughed softly.

"Trust me or not. I can spare two medium-sized rooms and my private place in the barn. The problem is, those beds are double..."

She added while looking with a meaningful look at the Xyenna.

The girl instantly dyed her whole face in red, unable to even utter a word of complaint. All she managed to do was to shyly put her head down and mutter something too silent to understand it.

"That"s kind of new side to her I have yet to see" surprised by the unusual reaction, Mike could only wonder about it. Nevertheless, his bodyguard felt uncomfortable, so wasn"t this his duty to fix the situation?

"Auntie, stop it. For you, it might be funny teasing, but just look at her!"

Young merchant protested.

"You should understand that every bit of uneasiness that she feels will be unloaded violently on me!"

"Ara ara, isn"t that a good thing? Maybe a bit of violence would help you with giving me grandchildren?"

Yrwa pondered with a thoughtful look. On the other side, Mike started praying to all the G.o.ds he ever heard about. When Xyenna was tightening her fists like that…. Nothing good could happen afterwards!

"Auntie, stop it, please. I won"t survive the night!"

Merchant exclaimed pitifully, barely able to stay straight on his legs.

"Stop deepening the misunderstanding!"

Xyenna finally said something hearable, but her voice was still too feeble for Mike to a.s.sess her mood based on it.

"Ara ara, did I take the situation wrongly?"

Yrwa disconcerted herself while hiding her mouth with her hand in shock. Seeing that the main point finally got conveyed, trader left a sigh of relief, that turned into a gasp when he saw his aunt resting her head on her hand.

"Is she your mistress then?"

Trebuchet fired the stone.

Torch touched the straw.

The blade pierced the flesh.

In that one moment, Mike realised what it means to be betrayed by the closest kin. While imagining all kinds of torture that he would be put through every single day and night of the current month, he slowly turned around to cast a glance at his bodyguard.

Surprisingly, when the merchant saw her expression, his face did the impossible. Already stiffened in fear, facial muscles almost tore through the skin of his cheeks. Eyes started to involuntary wet themselves and his legs gave the word shivering a whole new meaning.

It was the first time that he saw tears dripping down Xyenna"s delicate face. This sight was so stunning and unexpected that Mike didn"t even know what he was supposed to say or how should he act! In the end, it was some warm, strange feeling, that forced his steps towards the sobbing girl. Awkwardly putting her into his light embrace, the young man looked at his aunt with anger.

"While I do appreciate this situation, don"t you think you went a step too far?!"
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"Look at what you did! Don"t you see how even mentioning her real position in your heart makes this poor girl cry her heart out?!"

Angered by the situation and unable to understand that she was the reason behind this escalation, Yrwa lashed out at Mike.

"She is my d.a.m.n bodyguard!"

The man shouted back, unconsciously tightening his embrace around Xyenna arms.

As if something was melting him from the inside, all those moments when she was bullying him were fading away. Soft, balsamic skin, partially hidden under wraps of her leather armour was heating his arms while her sobbing head hid on his chest.

"Guard? Like you would ever need someone to protect you!"

The elder woman exclaimed while sending half angry and half annoyed looks. Out of a sudden, when her eyes meet Mike"s deathly serious stare, she froze on the spot. As if suddenly hit by realisation, her expression softened as she moved closer to embracing pair.

Seeing the development, a young man opened his arms and lightly poked Xyenna"s face.

Pulled out of her silly state of mind, the girl looked around with her wet eyes. Noticing the warm, protective smile on Mike"s face, her defencelessness turned into anger as she whispered through closed teeth.

"Bullies!"

For some reason, this devil of the battlefield got bested to the point of being unable to retaliate! Be it someone who she didn"t know and just an old lady, but against this kind of opponent she couldn"t even protest!

"Look here, I"m sorry!"

Yrwa told while lowering her head and nervously ma.s.saging her left hand.

"Blinded by a happy misunderstanding that I will finally get to see my grandchildren I caused this situation and brought you to tears. I hope you can forgive me!"

Looking at the nervous expression of this previously mighty old woman, Xyenna involuntary giggled softly while wiping out tears from her face.

"It seems that it"s not You who we should blame right now."

She added while glancing deviously at Mike.

"Were it not for his incompetence with handling the maidens, this misunderstanding would never happen!"

"And now all the blame gets pushed on me?"

Merchant lamented, theatrically raising his arms into the air as if asking the Heavens for intervention. But when he did so, he caught a glimpse of Bern wagon! Not wasting any time, he immediately patted Xyenna shoulder.

"Take care for the carriage and I will organise the rooms. You don"t want to show this kind of cute face to the others, aren"t you?"

Mike ordered his bodyguard so she could pretend to just do those annoying ch.o.r.es. As if understanding the whole situation, Yrwa didn"t dwindle either and swiftly guided the young man into the building.

A few moments later, Bern carriage got escorted to the barn by the old merchant himself, while Veil took some of their private belongings to the room landlady showed him. Apparently, Mike"s room had one single bed…

That luckily was made up just by linking two single ones! As the burning problem of sleeping place got resolved and they safely stored their wares in the private barn chamber, there was nothing left for them to do at this place.

I took them only a moment to get ready to depart. While for some it might sound easy, changing one"s look from typical traveller to the proper merchant wasn"t as easy as it sounded.

Plain and a comfortable shirt and pants had to be changed into a white tunic, fluffy and colourful jacket and covered with an oversized coat, exposing only the right side of the wearer.

But why give so much attention into formal traders dressing? While no one cared about such minuscule details back in the empire, people conducted business in a slightly different way in the Altarcia.

Most of the merchants were used to judging their counterparts by how well did they look. The kingdom didn"t reach the point, when a smart middle cla.s.s could overcome great n.o.bles financial status, making one"s clothing the best way to a.s.sess the opposing party in the negotiating battle.

When they were finally done, the whole party comprising Mike, Bern, Veil and Xyenna went to the main Inn chamber as to use the front exit. Riding the carriage through the back alleys might be fast, but doing so on the foot would take too much time.

Even though the sun has still a long way to go before setting, a hall was already filled to the brim. Various parties were cheering their members finding out who can chug the beer down faster. Others were trying to ignore the commotion and talk over the meals. Multiple maids were rushing between tables, trying to deliver ordered food and drinks in the fastest way, yet none of them showed even a hint of losing balance! This lively sight inside belied the situation of the Altarcia outside of the city borders.

After finally getting through the crowd, Mike hoped that they would swiftly reach their destination, but after making just one step through the opened doors, made him lose all his faith. If one thought the Inn was busy, then the street would have to be a d.a.m.n world trade centre!

"Just relax, keep it calm" Mike suppressed the feeling to order Xyenna to cut and burn them a path. After all, there were too many guards around to get away with something like that! But looking at the annoyed look on Bern and Veil faces, he could comfort himself that he wasn"t the only one considering that option! What was surprising though, was how the only girl in the party could nimbly shift between people, utilising every gap between them that appeared.

The road that was supposed to take them just a few moments, turned out to be a harsh, hour-long voyage through the storm of people. At the time that whole party was close to giving up, stone arch appeared in their sight, with a grand "City Market" letters sculptured in it.

If they dared to consider the situation of the streets as crowded, then sight that met them after they crossed the Arch leading to the market would easily force them to redefine their dictionaries.

What was a busy street before, became a tight ma.s.s of people, slowly moving along with the current. Even if one saw a good price tag on one of the wares he was looking for, it was highly doubtful that he would ever reach the seller.

Even stalls were over-staffed, with every bit of the room inside taken by attendants busy with pa.s.sing coins, bills, deeds and wares to those lucky few that managed to emerge from the human ma.s.s.

After a short hesitation, they still joined the mindless crowd. At first, Mike managed to keep himself on the edge, for the sake of being able to scan several nearby stalls he pa.s.sed.

"Aren"t those fronts rather… empty?" Mike noticed that in most of the shop fronts he spotted, there were only a few products of the same kind, with prices written in two colours.

The meaning of the different ink was obvious; the black one probably meant buying price while the green one explained the selling price.

Sooner than he thought that this would happen, Mike, at last, got pushed into the central layer of the crowd, barely catching Xyenna hand. After forcefully tearing between the people with the great help of his bodyguard strength, he slipped away from the ma.s.ses only to hide in some remote valley. As escaping from the grasp of the horde required a lot of power, when he suddenly broke free, he fell on his companion chest.

"I see that you took your Aunt remarks to the heart!"

Hearing cold, distant girl"s voice, he immediately jumped out from the heavenly sensation that surrounded him for a short moment. Looking Xyenna in the eyes, Mike realised that he accidentally opened the floodgates, making his bodyguard remember everything that happened today once again.

Involuntarily raising his hands in the defensible pose, young Merchant made a pleading face.

"I"m really sorry, I swear that I didn"t intend for something as disrespectful to happen!"

Just as he saw the incoming doom in the Xyenna eyes, Mike heard a silent voice from behind him.

"What did you want to discuss in such a covertly way?"