The days of the fair finally arrived. A miniature, temporary town of tents and stalls had been constructed outside the walls of the city. Dozens of thousands of people were already mingling about early in the morning of the first day. A few were workers, hurrying to finish setting everything up before the rush hours, but most were just folks who had decided to start enjoying what the fair had to offer at an early hour.

As I went to my stall, I too stopped to buy a second breakfast, consisting of a loaf of bread that had been cut and filled with tripe, vegetables, and a spicy sauce. It was definitely not the lightest of breakfasts, but the smell had been just too good to pass on it, and I didn't regret it. The crust of the bread was crunchy but not hard at all, the soft, hot filling paired perfectly with it and the spiciness was just enough to be felt without overwhelming the other tastes.

My booth consisted of a wooden table with a chair on one side for the contestants and a thick cushions on the other side for me, to even the height difference. A small gazebo made of white cloth held up by four wooden poles shielded the table from the sun. The stem of the duke hang high hrom the cloth while a wooden sign facing away from the stall displayed the prices and prizes of the challenge. Behind the sign a small table and a chair had been prepared for Yvonne, who Denzel had once again assigned as my escort, so that she could welcome challengers and manage the money.

Its location was in the martial area of the fair, which was further away from the walls, so that it could attract customers coming from the city through the maze of vendors with its popular attraction. Both Denzel and the duke were supposedly around, the former managing his gladiators and the latter his sponsored knights and the stalls selling products typical of his territories away from the city, but I had yet to see them.

We had just managed to make ourselves comfortable in our seats when the first challengers started to tickle in, one every few minutes. Sometimes, when someone bulky enough to look like they'd have a chance tried their hand at it, a few people would stop to look at the short match, then walk away shaking their heads at the losing challenger.

The gladiator matches were popular with children too, despite, or maybe because of, their violence so we decided to have a reduced challenge for kids too, which had a greatly reduced fee and prize, but was also much easier, as I rested my wrist on the table and the kid could use both hands to try to push my raised index against it. Every time a kid stopped by, Yvonne would also advertise the event in the afternoon tailored just for them.

After a few hours, when it started to look like beating me was impossible for a normal human, a famous gladiator who worked under a sponsor Denzel often dealt with came to challenge me. As we had previously agreed, we made a big show of the match, both of us holding the table for support while blood rushed at our heads, until I finally let him win, so as to attract more customers.

We closed the booth around noon and took a break to eat and tour the stalls a bit. Apart from the festive atmosphere and the higher amount of food stalls, the fair didn't look too different from the normal market held in the city. There were a few booths that sold clothes, fabrics, and novelties from farther regions of the kingdom, but nothing really caught my eye.

As I was eating bits of fried fish out of a skewer, an otherwise rare treat in the capital, I spotted a certain horned red figure strolling through the stalls. Phoebe quickly spotted us too and walked our way waving at us, causing Yvonne to let out an annoyed groan.

"Anya! You're here too?" she said with a wide smile.

"Wait," I said, a bit taken aback, "why can I understand you?"

She raised her hand and showed me her pinky, which now had a new golden ring on it, "I got myself a ring of tongues. No matter the language, I should be able to understand and be understood by anyone."

"That's a thing?!" I shouted, startling a few of the people around us.

She laughed. "Yeah, but they cost a lot, and only the Church of Knowledge sells them. I actually rented this for a month and it still cost me over forty golds."

"Holy shit! Why would you spend so much on it?!"

She shrugged. "It was starting to get annoying to not be able to speak with you properly."

I blinked a few times. "You… You did it for me?"

"Well, yeah," she said, as a matter of fact, "I already know ten languages, and kind of understand a few more. Unless a really interesting lizardman who knows no Common at all pops up out of nowhere, I don't really need something like this."

"I don't know what to say…"

"How about, 'would you like to have lunch with us?'" she said with a wink.

"Ah, yes, right, sorry," I said, a bit embarrassed, "would you like to have lunch with us?"

She smiled and said, "I would love to."