“So your name was Din, right? I heard the ghost lady yell that out when she was calling for you. Where did she go by the way? I was looking at her one moment and then she just disappeared the next. I thought she’d be back after I woke up, but she was still gone. Did I mention that was my first time sleeping near a guy? That was quite embarrassing actually, I had a hard time falling asleep.”

After Din got up last night, the girl explained everything that had happened in great detail. It was like I was reading the events of yesterday in a book.

The girl’s name was Lilah and she was a travelling merchant. In her big bag, she carried many supplies such as food, medicine, cloth, jewelry, utensils, and various other goods.

From her looks, you wouldn’t expect her to be carrying this many items, but she was somehow managing it.

Din was too tired after listening to her story so without anything else to add, they just went to sleep.

Right as the sun rose, Din decided to set out for Newron and that was when we found out Lilah was heading there as well. Without even the need to invite her, she joined us anyways.

We had been walking the entire way through the forest towards Newron and she had been talking to Din the entire time. Even before asking for his name, she would go on and on about how she had been to so many different places and how her line of job was very dangerous.

“Get this, there was a woman I was trading with once and she gave me this ring for some food. Just look at it, it’s so shiny,” she said as she pulled out a ring with a ruby on it and shoving it near Din’s face. The light from the sun reflected beautifully from the ruby. “Doesn’t it look really valuable? How about it, I can trade you something for it. I’d even put in a discount since you saved my life.”

Din pushed the ring away as he rejected her offer, “I’m not interested.”

Reluctantly putting the ring in one of her bag’s side pockets, she moved to Din’s other side while holding onto some kind of a blue orb. She offered, “Then how about this, this crystal ball will explode when thrown and it’ll leave a huge dust cloud that’ll blind enemies so that you can escape!”

Din stopped walking as a thought occurred to him.

“Of course, it’ll be at a discount as well,” Lilah added.

“How come you didn’t just use that yesterday?”

“I…”

Lilah paused. After a moment’s thought, she answered, “I can’t be using goods that I’m planning on selling. That’s just called being a bad merchant.”

“You were going to die yesterday!”

“I know that! But that’s just the law of being a good travelling merchant. I’d rather die than to lose profit.” She said while folding her arms and facing away.

Din continued walking as he covered his face.

This was one of the few times I had seen Din so frustrated. It was rare seeing someone be more energetic than he was. Before this whole incident, I hadn’t seen anyone that would yell or talk for longer than him.

I enjoyed watching their interaction as I didn’t have to deal with her personally. Din turned to me so I glanced away to hide my grin.

He seemed like he wanted to ask me something, but he only sighed before continuing forward.

We were getting far now. Even the green leaves from the trees were gradually disappearing the more we walked westward. The grassy land was now dry and filled with sand. Even the mountains to our north were visibly different in shape and size.

It wouldn’t be long before we reached Newron.

“Okay then, Din. If you aren’t interested in any goods, then how about this, I can sell you information.”

“Like what?”

Noticing that she piqued his interest, she continued, “You don’t seem the type that travels much so there’s probably a lot of stuff you don’t know about Newron, right? Excuse me if I’m wrong, but you seemed to have quite a sheltered life.”

“You’re not wrong,” Din confirmed.

“Well, if I had to describe Newron in a simple way, it’s a city of criminals. Complete opposite of Ravenwalt. There are guards located in Newron, of course, but they can be easily bought. Money runs everything in Newron.”

I furrowed my brow. Neither Paro, nor Tal had warned us of this yet. Maybe Paro didn’t know, but why didn’t Tal mention this.

“There’re many groups in Newron called packs. They can either be as small as ten people or have more than a hundred. The pack that you should watch out for are the Cubs. Name’s cute, right? Don’t be fooled, they’re ruthless, and anyone not inside their packs are their enemy. The other packs at least don’t attack the non-pack people in Newron, but the Cubs don’t care. They’re a pretty big group too. Last time I heard, they had eighty members, and that was a few months ago.”

With a gulp, Din asked, “How do they know which pack you’re in?”

She lifted her shoulders and shook her head. “It can be anything; some kinda password, tattoos, scars, whistle, who knows what else. I think the Cubs had a special whistle they used whenever they greeted on another.”

“Then how do we avoid them? There has to be safe places, right?” I asked.

Din repeated my question to her.

“The pubs. For some reason, there seems to be an agreement to not attack one another in pubs and inns. I don’t know how that came to be, but that’s what I noticed.”

“Great…” Din muttered.

Din wasn’t someone who could hold his liquor. With just one mug, he’d be drunk and out of control. Ever since he turned 13, he’d tested out multiple times whether he had grown to become more accustomed to alcohol, but each time, he’d get drunk after just one mug.

He had wanted to drink with Katherine and other knights, but since he’d become too drunk after one mug, he wouldn’t be able to remember anything of that night. Katherine would have to carry him back home and that embarrassment would be repeated every time.

Even though he could just stay in a pub and not drink, I’m sure the idea of being in a pub makes him nauseous.

“Oh right!” Lilah suddenly raised her voice. “Make sure you’re not out at night by yourself.”

“I could guess that. The last thing I want is to get mugged in the middle of the night,” Din mentioned as he sighed.

With a shake of her head, she warned, “You’ll have to watch out for that, sure, but there’s something even bigger.”

Din stopped walking and then turned to her. “Like what?” he asked.

Even though no one was around, Lilah whispered, “There’ve been many people that’ve gone missing. An old connection of mine told me that a new pack might’ve formed and unlike the other packs, who want control over Newron, this one focuses more on kidnapping.”

I thought for a moment as to why they think it’s a new pack. I asked, “Aside from kidnapping, is there something else about them that’s different? From the sounds of it, any other packs could’ve started kidnapping so they could have some sort of a bargaining tool. Are the people getting kidnapped anyone important?”

After Din repeated my question, I was surprised to see Lilah shake her head.

She explained, “There’s one thing that everyone knows about the people of Newron; they’re proud people. Even though they normally fight by outnumbering their enemies, they wouldn’t stoop so low as to kidnap them without giving them a fighting chance. They fight out in the open and let other packs out there know who is the strongest. But this new pack… not only do they use shady tactics, they also don’t leave any markings to show they did it. No packs from Newron would leave a fight without taking credit.”

It was all too hard to believe. I couldn’t imagine how the people of Newron would turn out to be. The way Lilah described, they’re ruthless people with a sense of dignity and honor. I wasn’t sure I wanted to visit this city anymore.

I looked over at Din and noticed that he didn’t seem scared at all going into this city. I’m sure he just didn’t think too much about the type of people he’d run into in Newron, but seeing his confidence gave me courage as well.

“So the first thing we’ll need to do when we get to the city is to find a pub, right?” Din asked.

“That’s what I’d recommend, yeah,” Lilah answered. “But I’ll be going somewhere else. I have businesses with a lot of packs so I’ll be moving about. I’m sure you can take care of yourself after I take you to a pub, right?”

Din nodded.

“Great! So by the way…” She showed a big smile on her face as she reached out her hands. “That’ll be 20 silver pieces for all that info.”