After having a good laugh the tension that had built up inside them disappeared for the moment.

"Okay that's enough. It's now time to get serious about this situation.

Does anyone know where the other side of the wall is?"

Hal asked his companions.

"Yes I know where the other side of the wall is. I know it because I often take a shortcut through there to go home. This road is not frequented much as it's used mostly by the SnakeFang gang to transport their merchandise unseen ."

"The SnakeFang gang is using it as a safe route to transport their stuff without being seen I believe but how in the hell are you still alive. They definitely wouldn't let you pass through there."

"Well, let's say that I'm not anyone suspicious."

"Not anyone suspicious? Do you understand that what you just said doesn't explain anything.

Tell us the truth. We promised that we would lie to each other."

After hesitating for a bit Kal told them the truth.

"I may have delivered something for them a couple of times so they have given me a free pass."

"What?

Have you gone insane to work for them? You know well that they are only bad news."

"I know but I didn't have a choice I had to have money right then and there was only one way to do it."

"You had to borrow money from them.

Why did you do it?"

"I had some accident when I was cutting wood. A green feathered snake bit me. I immediately went to the doctor and got treatment and was able to recover enough in about a week but I went from bad to worse. The antidote for the type of poison was very expensive and not to mention the other medicines I was fed in order to recover rapidly.

In total I had to pay 400 kils."

....

In this place where most of the population was poor and living of the land and where the medicine was not that advanced the only way for some sick who didn't have money was to borrow it. The merchant organization gave loans but you had to have something or give something of equal value as collateral which someone poor obviously didn't have. Their only option was to go to borrow money from the local gangs and then pay them back an incredible amount of money , oftentimes more than five times that the amount borrowed.

As you would expect 99% of the time the borrower couldn't pay on time so he had to pay some other way.

One form of payment was slavery. They would be owned by the the gang for a certain amount of time during which they would do everything they were ordered like a normal slave but they weren't. A normal slave was bound to the master through a slave contract that bound the slave to the master indefinitely but someone who had to pay it's depts would only sigh a somewhat loose blood contract.

The blood contract not only give the slave more freedom but it also cost a lot less for the gang as they did several of these everyday.

Another form of payment was for them to give their children as payment for their dept. These children were then trained to become the gangs footsoldiers by the boss if they were male and if they were female they would be sold to brothels for quite a good amount of money.

.....

" 400 kils? That's just robery.

What kind of medicine did that doctor feed you to have cost so much money. Was it the 'elixir of longevity' because I can't fathom for it to have cost as much a 10 years of our current salary as city guards."

" I know that feeling very well but I didn't have any other choice so I had to join them. After some jobs I found out from some of my seniors that what happened to me was not uncommon. The doctor was someone who works for the gang and he would intentionally overcharge his patients so they had no choice but to borrow money from them and when they couldn't pay...

"They had to join the gang. I don't know if the process the gang recruits it's footsoldiers is ingenious or very cruel but one thing is sure they sure are creative.

*Sigh*"

"Enough with the story time . We have a job to do."