Tale of the Merchant (สมุดบันทึกนักเดินทาง)

ลำดับตอนที่ #2 : Beginning Arc: Anriff, the blessed city behind the wood

The smell of old wood came to greet her as she sniffs the air. It is not a peasant smell, but seeing its location, she could not hope for much. The girl with short messy dark brown hair walk into the ‘Thirsty Maiden’. It is a mixture of run-down bar and poor Inn. Her worn boot makes a disturbing sound on the ground made of old mounded wood. She even feared that due to how old it looks, it would break through if she stepped on too hard.

There are some people in the inn. Even in the middle of the day, the smell of alcohol was in the air. The noises quiet down a bit when they see who have come in. There is some that murmured ‘Human’ and simply grin at her.

Argh… I wished I got more money. I could afford a better place if it isn’t for that sneaky merchant.

Lilin sighed in frustration, while trying to shake off the nervousness from being stared. She could not believe that the goods she brought from Elteran* will drop in price. That sneaky merchant haggard the price so low, she couldn’t even afford a good Inn.

“Welcome to ‘Thirsty Maiden’, traveler! What can I do for you?” Lilin dark colored eyes meet with female dwarf who is slightly over-weighted. Her sharp shark-like teeth is grinning at her. The female dwarf leans slightly over the bar which she stood behind to get a better look at the newcomer as widen her grin. “Oh, look what we have… It is rare to see human around here at Anriff*.”

“Nice to meet you too, kind of?” Lilin crooked her head, flashing the bar owner a friendly smile. The messy hair girl walks up to the bar casually while asking “Do you have a room here?”

“Of course, we have one, especially for cute human like you!” The female dwarf smile in return. She takes one the key hanging behind her, shaking it to make a jingle sound. “Ten titus* per night pleases.”

Lilin can only resign. If the price of the room is so low, she doesn’t want to imagine what it would be like. She could only hope she could sell her goods by tomorrow. “Two night, then”

“Deal!” The dwarf smile. “You could order food here too. Cheap price, best taste!”

“Really? Last time I order yer food, Khainan, it tasted like shit.”

A red flush show on the female dwarf’s face, “Oh, shut up Eadwund. No one asks your opinion! Everyone knows you didn’t have a taste bud.”

The giant dwarf huffed before kicking the chair.

“Hey! What are you standing there for! Get me a beer!”

The mask man startled and weakly left the men side and arrive at the counter. Still refusing to speak, ‘he’ set one bronze coin on the counter. Due to the tall structure, Lilin assume he was a man.

The friendly Inn keeper’s face turns to disgust, and with a cold stare, she passes a beer to him without passing a glance. Lilin glance at the man from the corn of her eyes as he return to the giant dwarf’s side. The sudden curiosity entered her mind.

“Miss Khainan is it?” She rolls the foreign name out carefully. When the messy hair girl didn’t see any negative sign, she continued, “Could you tell me more about Anriff? Is the mask wearing a fashion or something?”

“Oh, so this is your first time in Anriff, isn’t it?” Khainan smiles, “Then it is not surprising if you didn’t know the mask wearing”

“This is my first time. I heard it as stated as ‘The blessed city of Anriff’, though.”

“Yes, we have strong belief in our religion.” The female dwarf smiles, “Actually, it is related to the mask that slave wear.”

Her ear perk up when she pick up the word ‘slave’, “Ho? Is it a symbol of sorts?”

“It is…” At the corner of her eyes, Khainan’s smile drops into a scowl at the obviously under-weight slave “…a symbol of impure”

Lilin sees the twitch of the shoulder from the slave as he lowers his head to face the ground behind his master. She is certain that he could hear how Khainan is talking about him. The picture seems almost hurt. Lilin quickly glances away from the scene. She knows that she couldn’t save anyone from this. Even if she could save one person, it doesn’t prevent others who suffer the same curse.

“Halfling, the people who possess two bloods in one soul, is what we called impure.” Khainan explains some more. “We believe that one individual kind shouldn’t mingle with other kind. Since it is a disrespectful of our bloodline, our God that gives birth to us.”

“Oh, I see. Is there anything I should be aware of by any chance? I don’t want people to think of me being rude when I ask something about their culture.” Lilin force a smile on her face. After all, getting on people good side is her specialty. “It would be quite a shame since I am really interested in Anriffian’s lifestyle”

Khainan shines like a bright light. Of course, she would be happy if there are foreigners interested in her home. She happily explains as Lilin order some food, which is not as bad as she expected. The culture consists of the trait of uniqueness like the other cities have. Because the majority of the population consists of dwarf, they have been a high quality craving and weapons lying around. Lilin is considering about buying it to the next town. It will be good if she could bargain some of it. However, the belief of these people to their religion is strong. The structure of this belief is simple compared to others, but it is still quite believable. Coming at the close-in city like Anriff is a pain in the ass for many merchants, so they often avoid in.

Although Khainan claims that her city is blessed, Anriff is still consisting of slavery. It is also an acceptable ideal of having slaves. Most of them are Halfling that have been sold because they committed a crime.

Lilin’s wonder rise.

If they are really causing crimes, how could those people set these people free, wandering behind them?

Lilin glance away from the talkative female dwarf to the slave who is still standing behind the drunken. His body is covered with ragged cloth. It might be because of a poor treatment of his master. He is skinny, obviously underweight. It is hard to tell what is his facial face is like since it is covered with a mask. The only identical things are the build of men and pointy ears, peeking out of the masks.

Elves? But since Khainan said that most of the slaves are Halfling, He is probably a half Elves.

Just when Lilin was examining his ear, she spots the white collar around the slave neck.

“Hey Miss Khainan, is the collar that the slave wear represent something?”

“Oh. So you are interested in slavery?”

I hate it.

 Lilin thought while closing her eyes for only a second as the flash of memory sneak out, and smile warmly at Khainan, who still doesn’t really paying attention to her. It may seem that slavery is like an ordinary thing to a citizen living here. It is not so surprising if they were born and raise here.

Lilin still manage to force the word out of her mouth. “Well, I guess it is a good trading route for future business”

“If you are curious, that’s called ‘slave collar’,” Khainan explain. “It was enhanced with light magic that bond the person who wear it to the master, so that’s why there is no way a slave can hurt their master…”

“-Little Human girl is interested, huh?” The drunken dwarf cut in, approaching Lilin with a not-so-subtle evil smile.

“Don’t pick on my customer, Eadwund,” Khainan hissed, her eyes leered at the giant dwarf with threatening smile.

“Shad’ up! I’m talking to the newbie here!” He shouts back, baring her sharp yellow teeth. He then looks back at Lilin with an unconcealed evil grin. “ya’want ta play a little betting?”

“…Oh? And what are you betting on mister?” Lilin smile even if the rotten smell of Eadwund’s mouth is almost unbearable.

The pure wickedness shown on the giant dwarf. He lowered his drunken face to meet her eyes and answer with glee. “Ma’ slave with all the money yer have.”