Nick felt his heart speeding up, but took a deeper breath and instantly calmed down.

“Is there anything I can help you with?” He turned back and said.

“Hahaha!” Another round of laughter filled the tavern, albeit only the three men laughed.

“There is!” Said the one that didn’t want to let them go earlier when calmed down a little, “Come! Drink with us, brothers! We haven’t seen such a brave kid in a long time!”

Seeing that there won’t be any brawl, other patrons returned to their own conversations while Nick and YunYun heaved silent sigh of relief. The three guys were obviously not easy opponents and this was the best turn of events they could hope for, at least for now.

Nick nodded to YunYun and sat at the table while she went back to order drinks for the two of them. This was another thing they learned during the past weeks. Barbarians were very sensitive about drinking alcohol and despised anyone who didn’t. Thus the two started to play a short act when YunYun just ordered some water, then brought to Nick and then they pretended to drink something strong. Everyone was happy this way.

Now, when YunYun left, one of the men put his large hand around Nick’s shoulder and asked, “What is wrong with you? How could you bring such a beauty to a place like this?”

Nick felt the terrible stench of alcohol assaulting his face, tried to move a bit further and said, “There is no reason for a woman to hide her beauty.”

Only now he realized that the three were totally wasted. It was obvious this was not the first day in a row they drank here and it was a wonder they could still sit straight. To Nick’s surprise their speech was almost clear as well and only the glassy eyes gave away the huge amount of alcohol they had consumed lately.

“Hahaha! Well said!” The man said while laughing and patted Nick’s shoulder so heavy Nick felt it could break.

“Oscar! Don’t kill the kid! He bought us drinks after all!” Other one said.

“Hmpf! He can take it, right? Nick, was it?” Oscar patted Nick’s shoulder again and asked.

“Your hand is a bit heavy, probably because you play with that little thing of yours too much, but it’s fine.” Nick said while pointing at the huge double axe at the side.

“Hahaha!” The three started to laugh hysterically at the ambiguous joke and calmed down only when YunYun came back.

She sat down at Nick’s side without saying anything. Females in the north were not as influential as in the Lethe kingdom, but they were more regarded than in Sun or Nola kingdoms. Historically they were givers of birth and keepers of fire at homes and, in addition, in the north they were physically quite strong therefore they were generally respected. But men were men and had their animalistic instincts and there was no reason to test their limits. She knew very well her looks alone were already a bit more than many could take.

The three looked at her behavior and inwardly nodded – a good girl! That’s how one should behave! And then turned back to Nick.

“I’m Oscar.” The one that was hammering Nick’s shoulder earlier introduced himself, “Those are my two brothers, Oliver and Otto.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Nick, this is my fiancee, YunYun.” Nick nodded.

“So she is from the eastern continent!” The one called Oliver said, “We just discussed that”.

“That should not matter, right?” Nick smiled back, “Since we are new to Falun, I was wondering if you could help us with some information?”

“What’s the rush? The two you won’t leave till the spring anyway. Let’s drink!” Oscar shouted the last part and the whole tavern resonated.

“Drink! Drink! Drink!” Everyone else around shouted as well and emptied the beer jugs in front of them.

At this moment bartender came over and put two glass cups in front of Nick and YunYun, “Your water, Sir.”

‘F*ck! Why? Did I sleep with his sister or mother? Why did he do this to us?’ Nick cursed to himself.

He was confident that YunYun definitely asked for two jugs of water so they could pretend to be drinking beer. But apparently ordering water and paying for it the price of the alcohol this bartender took as a personal insult and now ‘paid back’ fully. The damned guy even try to infuse Qi in his voice so the all patrons in the tavern would hear him.

Instantly the silence filled the tavern once again, except this time everyone was already standing and staring at Nick with burning anger in their eyes.

Nick sighed, slowly stood up and barely audibly said, “Let’s go!”

Before anyone could react, everyone heard sound of the door closing and stared at it with stupefied expressions. The two disappeared almost like two ghosts.

“That little motherf*cker! I’ll f*cking kill him!” Oscar roared, grabbed his axe and charged through the door. His two brothers and few more men followed him.

Bartender looked at the broken pieces of wood that were once his tavern’s door and sighed. But then snickered to himself, ‘That’s what you get for ordering water in “The Wolf’s heart”! Try to deal with those three now!’

But currently Nick and YunYun were already several blocks away. They dashed soundlessly through the snowy streets without leaving any footprints and only small swirls of snow were the proof the two just passed by.

“The bartender set us up.” YunYun apologetically said.

“I know! Don’t worry, it’s not the first time and probably not the last.” Nick said. “Let’s find a decent inn to stay for the night and continue tomorrow.”

YunYun nodded and few minutes later they entered an inconspicuous inn already far from the Falun’s center. This was similar log house to the others and the owner, a big middle age lady welcomed them with a wide smile.

While the wintertime for taverns was the busiest, inns were quite deserted. Travelers and merchants would only arrive in spring, therefore the duo found they would be the only customers. Luckily for them, it also meant a preferential treatment.

Not only they received the best room, the owner herself cooked for them a large meal and then, while the two were eating, told the latest gossips oh the capital. Unfortunately the information was not very useful, but the food was decent.

After the late dinner both went to their room, discussed the plan for the next day and prepared for their evening meditation when they heard some distant sounds outside. Looking through the small window that was covered in ice, they could discern dozens of people surrounding the inn and the whole block as well.

“Bartender was right. Those three really are resourceful.” Nick sighed.

YunYun just shrugged and they both sat at the table and waited. They knew what will follow and how to deal with it since something similar happened a week ago in a smaller town.

Soon enough they heard loud voices downstairs and few seconds later their door was kicked in and the three crazed drunkards with the huge double axes in their hands charged in. They were still completely drunk and the stench of alcohol instantly filled the room, but for some reason they didn’t even sway. It was almost as if the state of being totally wasted was normal to them.

From the bloodshot eyes Nick understood that this time it might be a bit trickier, but still decided to bet on the ‘honor’ that the barbarians took even more pride in than in their alcohol.

Before any of the three could say anything, he stood up and infusing Qi in his voice shouted, “Good! I’m accepting your challenge! Tomorrow at noon we will fight for our honor at the city’s arena! The looser will pay for the door you just broke and for the lunch at most expensive place in the capital!”

Indeed. This was the best way to deal with barbarians. They had this weird sense of ‘honor’ they had to defend in battles and normally it happened in arenas with many spectators present. The strange part was that the looser never felt offended or carried a grudge – he had to loose with ‘honor’ as well and that was expected and respected from audience. And these people happily lost like that even in life and death matches.

Nick shamelessly used this to get out of the situation and in addition used another unwritten rule of the empire – confirmed the stakes of the battle. Mentioning the broken door was just to punish these three brutes for his own entertainment, but the lunch part confirmed this was not a life and death battle, since the loosing party had to pay for lunch.

Even though Nick was confident in himself, he was not conceited. These three were not simple peasants and already the way how easily they held their heavy axes showed their prowess. Of course, these three men would not fight him in arena all at the same time, but it was not guaranteed he would win all three fights in a row as well, therefore Nick had to make sure he would still be able to heal his broken bones in case of a failure.

Another important thing he considered was that these three were some local big-shots and if he defeated them, may be he could get some intel on Angel’s whereabouts.

Thus Nick quickly thought of this simple plan and executed it quite easily and, when the three finally understood what just transpired, they could only leave hissing through their teeth phrases like ‘I’ll brake all your bones!’ or ‘You’re dead meat, kid!’. Too many people heard Nick’s shout and they couldn’t really take action right now or at least their ‘honor’ didn’t allow it.

Soon the owner rushed in and saw the damage the three did, but Nick quickly consoled her and generously gave twenty silver as the compensation. Then asked for another room since this one still reeked of alcohol.

The owner quickly complied, but kept sighing and saying ‘that crazed kid’ and ‘tomorrow you must be careful’.

When they were finally alone, YunYun said in a serious voice, “I also feel those three are not simple. She was right, tomorrow you have to be careful!”

“I know.” Nick smiled back, but then winked and said, “In the worse case scenario I have you to heal me up, right?”

“You wish!” She kicked his butt, but soon after they both got serious and meditated trough the most of the night. For them a rest like this was even more effective than sleeping.

In the morning the owner prepared even grander meal than the dinner last night. It was unclear if that was the work of those twenty silver or she felt obligation to prepare a decent ‘last meal’ for Nick, but, while serving it, she constantly kept sighing and shaking her head.

The latter, of course, didn’t care much, but inquired where were the best alchemy shops and if there were any markets open in this cold weather. The poor owner thought he was about to purchase medicine for the injuries he will suffer and even shed a couple of tears.

The atmosphere was too depressing for the two cheery youths and soon they hand in hand left the inn. Even though it was cold, it was already daytime and the city was all covered in fresh bright white snow. Because of it the streets seemed to be especially clean and the atmosphere – romantic. In some ways Nick felt like it was Christmas with all the log houses with hats of snow and horses pulling sleighs rather than carriages.

Suddenly he started to whistle the good old ‘Let it snow!’ and his mood improved even more. YunYun didn’t recognize the melody, but with how long they have been together this was not the first time and she just happily held his hand and the two of them walked down the street towards the center of Falun where according to the innkeeper the arena was.

Other people on the streets, dressed in thick fur coats, were not as detached from reality. They instantly noticed the duo and kept whispering while pointing at the two. Nick and YunYun were way too noticeable and their careless behavior was almost annoying. Especially the youth who was running around half naked! Obviously he had some death wish or simply was sick in the head because no one could survive outside dressed like that for more than few minutes. But he – he even seemed to be enjoying the weather?!

Only after some time Nick and YunYun noticed that most of the people were rushing towards the same direction and only now they payed attention to the hushed whispers ‘it’s them!’, ‘he is so young!’, ‘will they spare him?’ and many other like that.