So after a tour in the market district taking us until lunch, I have taken account of the stalls and stores that interest me, right now me and Sylia are eating. Talking about Sylia she’s like a mother that cares for her children even when she knows they’ll be going to a far away place. Whenever she talks it’s like somebody who looks happy but deep down I feel that she has these worries that she can’t tell. But even so during the trip she has kept this smiling face saying that she doesn’t have these.

“I didn’t know you were such a glutton Prina'' She remarks while I have a mouthful of food going in. The table filled with a mountain of food consisting mostly of meat of all kinds like beef from cows, quepon from the creature Gripo and some other creatures I don’t know that much. Most of these foods are on my side of the table. After clearing my throat of food still having my hood on I answered her.

“Well Sylia these are like the best food I have ever eaten since coming to town”. As I put a large chunk of unknown meat into my mouth chewing it with greasy oil oozing out. I can swear that this is the best kind of meat that I’ve tasted in my entire life yet.

“Are you sure you won’t get any weight from that?” She stares at me trying to figure it out if the fats are going to my stomach or my chest that isn’t even in the hills category.

I can’t say the reason why I’m doing this in the first place, maybe one day she’ll know but not today. I don’t trust her that much yet so I could say it. I gulped my food and replied back to her.

“Well it seems that lately no matter how much food I eat, I don’t gain weight. It’s kind of a drawback for me really”. Taking another piece of chicken leg after talking.

“I’m envious of that really, as a woman you just had to take note while eating, next thing you know you got flabby all of a sudden.” She pokes her slab of small meat with a wooden fork like a person listening to a story.

“Just asking who exactly is going to pay for our food here?” I throw a question because it’s bothering me when I see plates piling up in front me. I prepared my money for these kinds of meals anyway. I'm just wondering if the Guild will pay for this meal or something, maybe that’s presumptuous of me.

“Sir Veron didn’t specifically state that the Guild will be providing us the funds for food but don’t worry I’ll pay for your food as well.” I waved my hands and hastily replied.

“No Sylia, let me pay for our food. It's the least I can do for being my guide today.” I’m sure the bill for this lunch must be pricey seeing this table full of plates. I proceeded to chow down some more meat. I wish this isn't a drawback of withdrawing that diet. Gulping down that chunk of meat I ask her.

“By the way where are we going next Sylia? I’m starting to get full already.” A walk is always nice after a meal right?” I put the last piece of meat on the table to my mouth and chew it.

“Have you ever done your daily prayers to your god Prina? You know just asking if you do.” She kind of smiles weakly after saying that as I gulp my meat down my throat.

“I actually do although I have a feeling you don’t know this particular god and chances are this god won’t even have a temple anywhere.” I rub my stomach as I lean my back on the chair so I could get comfortable after that meal.

“Prina you got no idea how many temples we have here for various gods, there’s a variety of Von living here we got like Yarini, Arani, Prish, Basrila, Ranzilen, Shaarolun, Karinma, Metanlio, Fairun, Quapar and probably more I don’t know all gods that have their temples here in the first place.” After saying that she takes a sip of water from her cup while staring at me.

“Well too bad none of those gods are the ones that I pray to. I think she’s a rare kind of god that only a certain Von would worship to like Defari, since there aren’t many Deshars that openly pray to him.” I give her a shrug afterwards.

“Either way you want to take a trip to the Temples district? You might want to pray to another god if you desire to have another type of magic. It might be useful to you in the long run.”

“That’s true……” I ponder for a while, it might be useful for me in the future and I could just use incantation for magic in the first place but who knows I might need to know about other gods properly if I’m going to be in this town, besides it’s great for learning for maybe a few centuries or so. “It might be a good idea to do, besides we still have the afternoon.” I motion for the waiter to come so I could pay. I get my money bag so it’d be a smooth transaction.

“Great maybe we could go to this temple I’ve always been to. The people are nice there” She also prepares her money for the tedious amount of food that she ate.

The waiter comes to us showing us the bill of the food we just ate. My bill goes as high as the clouds like 10 gold that’s worth like a good quality plate armor. I take out 10 gold coins from my pouch and put those on the table with a clunking noise ringing. Sylia looked shocked for a moment, put a smile on her face anyway and paid hers with a measly silver coin. The waiter gets our coins and goes back to what I presume is the kitchen probably.

“I didn’t know you had that much money on you Prina that amount of money would’ve been useful for you for your contracts.” Sylia remarks.

“That’s almost all my money actually, don’t mind it I can find other ways to satisfy myself without using a whole lot of money.” I lied about my actual money. There’d be a target at my back if I said I had probably a thousand gold coins on me in value. I thank Master Riquert for leaving this fortune to me. It gives me a whole lot of good rather than his other gifts to me.

“Either way Sylia do you know any taverns that have low prices on food? So that next time I won’t have to spend that much next time we go out.” I inquire her

“I know a few places that fit that description. I’ll take you to those places next time. Anyway we’re prolonging our stay here we should get going to the temples.” Sylia stands up from her seat. I do the same as her and we proceed to go outside of the tavern. Before we got outside the tavern I whispered a chant to cast my protection from the sun.

“Oh goddess Larin protects me from my eternal nemesis, Shield of Night.” Magic envelops me while taking care to make sure it goes unnoticed by people around me. The sun is above us almost burning me to death if it weren’t from my magic.

Being inside the tavern made me regain some of my stamina for the next usage of “shield of night” . I'm just glad the spot we were in isn’t near the windows. Right now we are still inside of the market district.

Sylia leads the way to that temple district, along the way I notice the uniqueness of each building, some are focused on their masonry, some are more on the woodworking and i think some have more aura of magic into them, my magic sensing isn’t experienced enough to tell for now. After some walking I notice immediately the changes on what separates the market district from the others. On the other side of the street there’s like temples of all sizes and different colors. There's like this one building that is painted like what you see on the soil with a little bit of green. I think that’s Basrila’s temple, the god of earth.

Meanwhile across it is a temple painted with designs of lightnings with yellow and white color having a background of a storm, this must be Ranzilen’s temple, the goddess of lightning. Sylia stops in front me, halting my movement at the same time she said.

“Welcome to the Temple district of Winstow Prina. The gods welcome you here.” She waves her arms like a merchant showing off his goods.

“I doubt most gods would want me here.” I chuckle a bit with that statement.

“You do know all gods respect one’s nature except for the Zokun. Although they are made by other gods, their whole purpose is to create chaos, you remember those teachings right?” Sylia looks at me with a worried look.

I try giving her my best smile “Of course i know that, my parents always tell that to me everyday. Still you never know what the gods might be thinking.”

“I won’t ask why you say that. So let’s start the tour shall we?” With her hand posing like how a lady would.

“That we shall”.

As we tour around the district I have seen the temple of Arani, the god of the skies, with its decor mostly sky blue and clouds, then there’s Yarini the god that inhabits power. His temple has decorations of his children, the Yemokan, it shows that all of them stand proud with their size and scaly skin and make use of various breaths each of them have. They have poison, fire, ice, wind , the dangerous kind, curses and other such things.

Roaming around the grandish district we have found other temples and most of them belonged to the well known gods. While walking around I see some rundown temples probably those belong to gods that are hated or the unknown ones like my goddess.

Daylight is already breaking when we finished our tour of the temple Sylia decided that we should head back to the guild. On our way there Sylia suddenly asks me.

"That reminds me, do you have a place to stay in Prina?" I answered her

"Well there is this place called "Resting seeds" it charges 5 silver per night from what I could remember." Sylia has a shocked look on her face and immediately said to me

"The rent shouldn't be like that! It should be like around 1 silver at least." She then ponders to herself, probably thinking what I should do or something.

I speak up to her

"It's okay Sylia I could handle the rent as it is." She then proceeds to scold me like a mother

"Look Prina 5 silver a day for rent isn't an ideal wage for a rookie like you even if Santi is gonna be your mentor. Right now you should get your stuff there and checkout. JUST come back to the guild afterwards and I'll hook you up a place I know." Then she proceeds to shoo me away saying.

"Now go get your stuff we don't have any time left before the sun is out."

As I'm walking away, I grumble to myself

"I actually prefer if there is no sun in the first place." I look back at Sylia and see that she is already walking in another direction.

I walked back to Resting seeds and when I got there I recognized the 5 story building I reside in. A lavish design that attracts the eyes. Seeds growing out of trees in a mural style. I go inside of the building. I see the innkeeper sweeping the floor. He stopped sweeping and bowed to me.

"Ah miss prina I didn't you would come back, is there anything you need right now?"

"It's just that I need to check out right now." He looks at me with a worries face

"Are you sure about that Miss Prina, I wouldn't suggest going out right now especially that the sun is already setting."

"Yep don't worry about I'll even pay for the rent tonight."

"Very well miss Prina." He bows to me like a butler would.

Now I proceeded to go upstairs in my room on the 2nd floor and in this hallway I see 3 doors on the right side with every one of them identical to each other. I walked to the 2nd door and opened it. First thing I see is the sun setting truly a beauty for others. The bed with its cover's pretty designs, the walls finely decorated and the sizzling of my face. I can still hear the bustling streets from outside the window. Closing the curtains I think to myself.

Am I already that tired? I know that I've been casting protection for myself for the whole day but I still gotta get a move on. I don’t want to worry Sylia that much. Getting to the dresser I get my clothes, some books left by my master, a black hooded cape, an orb for casting shenanigans, and lastly a vial of master’s blood. I secure all of them in my bag and go outside of my room and back to the reception.

“Thank you for accommodating me”.

I placed the coins to the desk

“Thank you for choosing this establishment Miss Prina”

After he thanks I chant an almost silent incantation for “shield of night”, put my hood back on and go outside the door.

When I got to the guild I found Sylia waiting for me at the entrance and waves at me. I wave back to her and move closer to her and she speaks to me.

“Let’s get it on shall we’re going to an inn where the guild sponsors for new mercenaries like you. Besides at least this way we can just go to you in that inn instead of having the trouble of travelling to another inn in order to find you.”

“Fine as long as it has lower rent I could go for it”

Me and Sylia walked for around 15 minutes and arrived at a large establishment. It looks like a mansion from the outside to be honest it even has fences around it and I think it conquers like its whole block.

There are guards at the gate wearing leather armor. But lastly I can see the name of this place at the top of the gate, it says “Mara”. I just feel that all it’s lacking is the feel of the high class like probably no proper garden or just maybe that’s just me it doesn’t show that vibe whenever I see Master.

“This will be your new place for now.” Sylia shows me. “ Let’s go inside. I already made preparations for your stay here.”

Sylia opens the gate and I followed her inside the “mansion” upon getting inside the lobby decoration makes it feel like it should belong to a noble with all the fancy decorations I see, the fancy chandelier with the lights being magic everywhere the way the walls are painted even the furniture inside could be called fancy but I could tell pretty much that it is still an inn and maybe a tavern now that I think about it, it might be both. So I asked Sylia

“Is this some new type of tavern I haven’t seen?” Sylia immediately replies

“Actually it’s kind more of a barracks for mercs that are starting out like you”

“So essentially this is just a fancy barracks?”

“Yep that’s right, if you want I could give you a tour tomorrow to get you acquainted to the place.”

I should try doing it tonight to be honest it’s going to be hassle for me if we’re going to do it tomorrow morning

“Don’t you have time for tonight?”

“Is there a reason why? I assume you’re already tired at this point since we walked all over town and I made you get your stuff already.”

“Worry not Sylia, I still have a lot of energy and besides I’m curious about the place”.

“If that's what you want then Prina.” She shrugs but she continues “But first we need to get your stuff to your room first wouldn’t do you much good carrying that around while touring this place”.

“Lead the way Sylia”

Walking towards the stairs in the lobby I followed Sylia as she takes a left once we get on the 2nd floor and once my eyes get settled with the darkness i notice that the hallways don’t have much that lighting, in turn Sylia picked up a lamp on a desk near us and proceeded to light it up with some form of magic and I must have looked surprised from that.

Sylia leads the way through the hallway to the left and we pass by a couple of doors with ornate designs on them and at one point we stop in front of one and sylia brings out a keyring and picks a crimson key and opens the door. Once I see the room it feels like a room I’ll only see in the city or something along those lines. Sylia lights the room using the lamps hanging around the room.

The room is just filled with a bed, a dresser, a chest, a table and some chairs in it they’re simple enough to say.

“I like this room, it feels comfortable for me.”

“I’m glad you say that Prina if you want to drop off your stuff here you’re glad to do so.” Sylia replies. I drop off my bag and ask her

“Can we go on the tour? I’m curious what this place offers.”

“Sure Prina let’s start heading to the training ground.”

We step out of the room, go back to the lobby, then Sylia proceeds to go to what looked like a backdoor to the courtyard. Once she opens the door I see lights surrounding the courtyard outside and I think some people are sparring in the middle of those lights.

“So as you can see this is where rookies mercs like you train here and improve for a few weeks or so.”

As we moved in closely I see that there are kids maybe around 8-14 years old training

“And how about those kids? It seems weird to me that kids are training at that age.”

“From time to time since we have a abundance of orphans in this city, the governor offered the mercenary guild to take in the orphans and train them at young age so that they can have another path to take if they’re interested to do so and of course the kids are told them the many risks and made sure they understand it.”

“It’s not forced is it?”

“Don’t worry Prina it isn’t.”

That reassures me a bit at least, moving around the courtyard I can see some people, they’re probably supervising these kids. Sylia asks.

“Do you want to go to the next place?”

“Sure Sylia i think i just needed to take this scene a bit.”

“Take your time Prina.”

After taking a few breaths I tell her that I want to see the next place.

We go into the left side of the mansion and when we entered inside, it’s filled with bookshelves

“As you can see here this is the library, it houses many bestiaries, history books if you are interested about that, and some other things here and there to help rookies to familiarize themselves with the different Zokun one can encounter.”

“Do the kids even know how to read in the first place”

“That’s a part of their training actually. They won’t be able to handle business if they can't read what they are doing in the first place.”

“Makes sense, do you also have books on legends?”

“I think we have some but if you want more you could always go to the bookstore.”

I’ll take that into consideration if I want more info on Master

“So can we check out the next place I’m excited at what this place can offer.”

“Sure sure then we’ll check out the bath then.”

After several rows of bookshelves we got out of the library and into a lit hallway and walked for a while then we arrived at a turn to the left and pressed on until we got into a large door.

“Behind this door is the bath it’s separated between genders so you don’t have to worry about being mixed with men.”

“Is the bath that large in the first place?”

“It accommodates everyone who lives here, if you have no further questions we can go to the canteen if you don’t mind”

“There’s a canteen here?”

“As you said it’s a fancy barracks there’s bound to be a canteen in a barracks right?”

I didn’t expect that, I thought I would be eating outside all the time here maybe I can make my own meals at least

We continue on to the canteen that’s located at the right side of the barracks and I see a large room filled with tables and a kitchen at the side with some people inside cooking. I ask Sylia

“Is it possible to make my own meals here?”

“Yes it is possible you can just ask the people over there to give you a space and they’ll know. We want the people living here to get some freedom while staying here.”

“That’s nice to know I don’t want to bother the cooks to create large amounts of food for me anyway.” Sylia smiles at me then proceeds to say.

“There’s one last place before we finish the tour it’s near the entrance so let’s go there shall we?”

“Sure sure.” I replied back to her.

Once we got back to the entrance we proceeded to go down into the basement then I saw a room filled with dummies and targets being hit.

“And this room is another training ground but it focuses on practicing your swings and other such things especially if you want to focus on getting better by yourself. The upstairs is really more focused on having sparring with each other although you can test any magic you want to try up there as well.”

“So to make sure upstairs is sparring and testing magic and downstairs is training with dummies?”

“Pretty much yeah. You wanna go grab a bite outside? I don’t think our cooks can provide that much for you today since you just came in.”

“Sure why not I kinda like this place.”