The sunshine began to enter Victor's room as the sun rose. Slowly moving up the wall, eventually helping him wake up with a bit of a yawn. Not wanting to wake up just yet he turned on the bed and soon found himself staring at someone. He wasn't quite sure who it was and after half a second he bolted out of the bed.

A notable clattering was heard as Victor went to the other side of the room. The woman started to sit up with a yawn, rubbing on her eyes just a little bit.

"Morning cutie."

Victor's eyes twitched just a little bit as the woman spoke to him.

"It was nice last night. Thank you for letting me stay over."

"Wh.... uh...."

Victor found himself at a loss for words.

His mind went to last night as he tried to place how the woman was in his bed.

Starting from the end of the day he thought about getting into his room and putting his sword to lean against the chair. As that thought crossed his mind he looked and saw his weapon was not where he had left it. A slight panic was felt as he looked around more, calming down as he noticed the rest of his things were still in the room.

"Not in someone else's room," he thought to himself.

Before going to bed he just ate and drank and relaxed. He thought on his meal and didn't remember anything alcoholic, but at the same time, he wasn't sure if the slightly bitter drink, that reminded him slightly of lemonade lacking enough sugar, had been a little bit hard.

From the time he spent practicing with his spear he went back until the morning and suddenly he realized where he knew this woman from. For the time being, he just took a deep breath and reassured himself that if things went bad, especially in this small of an area, he could use his card if there was a need. He didn't think she looked intimidating, but unlike her, he didn't know enough about this world to know what might be a common warning sign.

Rather than taking out his spear, Victor extended an arm and pointed at Doliy, "Alright I don't know who let you in, but this is my room so take whatever you pocketed out and get out of here before I report you to the guard."

Stretching her arms over her head, Doliy makes a small show of yawning as she pushed out her chest like she had done many times before.

"Sorry I normally leave after we're done, but it felt so cozy I just had to stay."

Victor’s voice was accented with a few loud spikes every several words, "No. I mean why are you here? I know you bumped into me and now you're in my bed. How the... no, I didn't do anything to invite you in at all. I want you out of my room right now. No, not right now. Once you empty any pouches or pockets to make sure you didn't steal anything then you can go. If I see you in here again though, without me specifically inviting you in, I will tell whoever I need to for you to be locked up."

Standing up from the bed the woman purses her lips, "Oh but.."

She saw how Victor was glaring at her, his eyes not drawing away from her face even as she had posed herself to try and distract him.

"Alright, you want honesty? I'll give you honesty. I heard that you killed some guy much larger than you and you didn't get hurt at all and I want to get some help without anything about it being recorded alright? I thought maybe if I put on a show for you like this you might be more pliable. I can still offer what I told the barkeep you were getting if it helps you listen to me."

A single awkward chuckle broke past Victor's lips as he looked more at the woman's body. He didn't see anything that could be hidden on her and tried to not let his eyes lock on any one place.

"So," he started, "Rather than come talk to me, like a normal fucking person, you snuck into my room and slept with me until morning, and even then it seems like you were going to try to mess with my head to try to get what you wanted is that right?"

Doliy smiled softly, "Only because I have something very important and this usually helps. People are more likely to listen when they think they had a nice time... or am I really that ugly to you?"

With another peek around the room, Victor noticed something under the bed, unsure what it was, he left it for the time being and looked back at Doliy.

"I don't care if you're the ugliest person to exist or the most jaw-dropping woman to exist. I don't appreciate random people climbing into my bed."

Both of them began to just stare at each other for a while, neither of them saying a word or looking away for several minutes. Even though she had a slight look of confusion on her face, Doliy was the one to break the silence.

"Can I at least tell you what's going on? If you do that and listen to my offer I'll leave after that if you say no."

The silence was all that could be heard between them for a while before Victor finally responded, "Fine but either way you will empty any pouches or pockets you have and tell me where my sword went."

"It's under the bed. I didn't want you to have it in case you tried to stab me." she responded without a second thought.

Doliy then started to talk about her situation. She had been in charge of taking care of a witness to a crime and part way through the sky opened up and a tunnel of wind started to fall down upon the land. Running with the younger witness her immediate concern was survival.

She didn't elaborate on what the witness had seen, but she did make it seem like it had to be done in a way that as few people as possible would know about it and, in her words, a nobody black rank who at least seemed competent at combat would be a good start.

From there she went on to talk about some locations and people that Victor had no clue about and, based on her tone as she emphasized them all, he assumed it was supposed to be someone important so he tried to remember at least some of what he was hearing. Instead, he ended up thinking why he should care, before reminding himself what he told himself during spear and card practice.

"I can't just run from things...." Victor said softly after Doliy finished her story

"Is that a yes or a no?" Doliy asked as she leaned in, keeping her feet on the floor.

She was biting on the side of her mouth a bit as she waited for a response, her eyes almost glaring at Victor.

Victor took a deep breath and stared back himself before speaking up, "It's a yes..." Doliy tried to speak up but he interrupted her attempt, "But I have some stipulation and such."

Perking up, Doliy smiled just a bit, "Of course. I mean I can pay you some now and when we get there. I don't know how much, but it will not be something...... No, I should have said it will certainly be worth it."

Holding up his fingers as he spoke Victor went over the rules he could think of.

"One, if I find out you lied to me about anything I will leave you behind without a second thought."

"Two, you and this other girl will listen to what I have to say. You can tell me what you think, but if you want my help I have to be the one who makes the choice."

"Three, we aren't leaving until I know if I get a reward for that stupid..... um...... if I get a reward."

"Four, you will know that I am not perfect and not the best at combat so if I say run you run and if I run you follow."

"Five....... I can make more and adjust existing rules as I like. I will tell you what they are though so it's fair."

Doliy nodded her head at each one but seemed a bit hesitant on the third one. She took a deep breath and exhaled as she looked intently at Victor.

"How much money would it take for you to skip rule number three? I would rather get going sooner instead of later if possible. I can't say we can't wait since we have been, but the sooner the better."

Victor stared at the woman a bit, drawing in and letting out a few deep breaths.

"Let me meet this girl. You said her name was something that started with an r right?"

Doliy looked at Victor a bit, turning her head as she looked at him, a touch of confusion on her face.

"I..... don't know what you mean but her name is Ruuz. I can take you to her if you want, but I'd rather wait until later in the day when we're less likely to be noticed."

Nodding once, Victor conceded to Doliys request, "Then I have something to ask and if I think you are lying then I will abandon you and Ruuz this moment. Were you the one who was watching me practice with my spear?"

Doliy seemed hesitant before she nodded her head. She spoke so softly she couldn't be heard until Victor coughed and rolled his hand in the air.

"Yes. I wanted to see what you could do. I won't say you're impressive, but you seem a bit..... I think the best way to explain it is you fight differently and sometimes that is just as important as skill. You don't want to rank up in the guild which means you aren't well known and you killed someone who by all rights looks like he should have ripped you apart. I was curious so I followed you and watched."

Victor pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a small chuckle as he, for some reason, felt glad he wasn't someone who needed to wear glasses.

"No more spying on me. If you want my help you will be upfront from this moment on. You... I get why you don't want soldiers or the like, but come on surely someone orange would work too. That's not very high but it's still someone proven to be able to work."

Doliy stood and, Victor tensed. He knew that he might be overthinking things, letting his worry get the best of him, but the fact she might have some magic was a large concern.

That concern, however, slipped from his grasp as he saw her put a foot under the bed and kick the sword over to him.

"A gesture of good faith?" he asked himself silently as he picked up the blade.

Once he had himself a bit more composed he took a deep breath, "When can I meet this girl? You said it had to be later but when?"

Doliy smiled softly as she dressed a bit, covering the more seductive pink nightwear she had on with something more covering while still showing off a flirtation personality behind it.

"About the late day bell, I'll come here to meet you. I usually wait to go see her until after sundown. It's the safest time to see her right now and it gives me time to gather information and supplies."

Victor looked at her. He didn't think she was being dishonest, but his track record with being able to notice when he was lied to wasn't the best.

"One last thing before you go," Victor said suddenly as he saw Doliy start to leave the room.

"Empty your bags and pockets. I still don't trust you. I want to make sure you didn't use me as a source of supplies."

Taking her one pouch, Doliy poured it out. Inside of it was a variety of items, but nothing that Victor recognized as his. It seemed to be a lot of small vials of something, some metal tools that looked like what he imagined a lockpick would look like, and a couple of small gemstones.

Stepping aside, she let him look over the contents of the pouch until he was satisfied.

"Happy? Or do you want to strip me down and check that I have nothing hidden on my person too?"

Her question was flared with more than a little annoyance as she acted like she was about to start undressing.

Standing up suddenly, Victor grabbed his things and left the room, standing at the doorway before he left for a moment.

"Leave the room when you're ready. I'm going out on the town or something."

With those last words, Victor left, leaving Doliy a bit perplexed about the reaction she had gotten, but she smiled as she saw him leave.

Victor, after getting away from the inn, started wandering around the town without a real purpose thinking about his situation. He had told himself he wouldn't go out of his way to help people, but this isn't how he expected to find someone who needed help. Especially someone who chose him.

Stretching his hands he thought about many things.

The way his spear and sword felt in his hands and the different motions he could make when he tried to fight with them suddenly appearing became even more important. He thought about how he had practiced and what he had done when he had actually had to fight properly.

Looking back he stopped in his tracks thinking about the man he had seen killed, and how if things had been just a little different he might have been another corpse beside some trees.

From there, his train of thought began to think about how much help a map would be for him. He even started to wonder if they had the same north south east and west like he was used to or if they had a different setup.

"Not like I'll recognize the words anyway," he said to himself with a slight chuckle wondering if the guild sold maps or if he should look for some sort of a book shop or something else.

As he started around the town he noticed a few traveling merchants setting up stalls on one of the larger roads. If he counted right he was noticing four different shops being set up, based on the different merchandise.

"I got time to kill," Victor said to himself as he looked at the stalls that were starting up.

Looking at the stalls gave Victor some ideas of what he might want to get at some point. One stall sold different salves and medical potions to order, keeping a traveling set of herbs growing on the side of the cart. He imagined some of the people who bought those sorts of things back home and wondered if it was something more common here since some herbs likely had some magic infusion. At least he assumed that to be the case.

The next stall was selling some slice of life magical items. A frying pan that wouldn't ever heat the handle as long as the item held its charge, a few lighting tools, and some something that reminded him of a litter box that would turn the messes left behind by a pet into something usable for fertilizer.

There were many others, but after seeing the pet fertilizer box, Victor decided to move on as he shook his head.

Moving on to the next stall showed what looked to be a variety of spices and other more mundane items. Apparently, the selling point was that these were from far away so unless you wanted to travel a third of a season to get them this was your only real chance.

Besides the items that only had how far they traveled as their selling point, he noticed that there were a lot of basic kitchen tools like knives and stirring spoons.

The last stall didn't actually have any merchandise, just a worker up front talking to people and someone who would take them towards some carts. Figuring it can't hurt to see what they sold, Victor got in line to talk to the merchant.

His time in line was fairly long, so Victor took to talking to the man beside him. Apparently, the man, who he learned was named Kont, was looking for something to help him around the house since he retired recently from adventuring and never took the time to get a family.

Thinking about an automatic vacuum, Victor imagined that this place must have some interesting magical tools that are more specialized. That is until the man made one comment.

"Personally I'm hoping to find an elven slave. They cost a good amount of gold, and they aren't that strong, but they can sing pretty good and don't age and lose their use as easily either."

Swallowing hard Victor looked as much as he could at the carts. This stall had more carts than the other three together and they were organized a lot more compared to the others.

Wanting to do something, Victor barely kept himself from making a scene. Before he could even start to leave the line, one of the workers started to lead him towards the carts.

"Aaaah wait no I just realized I don't have the money for owning a person. I should just go."

The man seemed a bit like a car salesman from an older tv show that Victor once saw as he was lead towards the supposed merchandise.

"Hey don't worry we got many good products. And if the price is a concern we have some older products that aren't top quality, but still good enough for day to day use. We also got some with only a short while before they are freed based on their crime. I got one who will be free I think a little bit before the day of the moon this year. I know it's not a long time, but he is a good product for the time you would have him."

Looking left to right, Victor noticed how there was a mix of ages, races, and genders for sale. While they weren't wearing anything over the top they did seem to have some fairly nice clothing compared to his expectations. Some of them even wearing clothes that showed off their muscles or curves.

The only thing that looked like it was consistent was the fact that all of them had an earring on their left ear of the same basic type.

"Can you.... tell me about the earrings? I haven't had much dealing like this so....."

"Ah, first time slave shopping?" the man asked as he patted Victor on the shoulder, "It's honestly impressive you're looking to buy one at your age even if you're worried about the price. The ring shows why they are a slave and, if it matters, how long they have until they are free. That's mostly for criminals who weren't deemed dangerous enough to punish worse. Take a look around. I'll be here for three days if you need time to decide. As long as you got half a large gold I'm sure I can find you at least something."

Victor wanted to hit this man. To unlock the cages and free everyone.

The main problem was that he heard criminals who weren't a danger could be slaves and he pictured himself within the cart.

Forcing a smile he pretended to look at his money, "I'll think about it. Thanks for showing me your wares...... I'll think about it, but I think unless you got a reject I'll have to say no for now."

As he turned to leave the man tapped on the bar of one of the carts, "Well we do kind of have one."