The guards on either side of the man waited to see what he would say. If he said no, they would throw him out, and if he accepted, they wouldn't do anything.

"Who do you think you are? Asking if you could just sit here. Of course, you can't. Now scram, or do you want to be dragged out forcefully," exclaimed Isla, from the man's side. The voice sound of her voice caused a few heads to turn, and the tavern, once again, grew quiet. People watched, half-hoping to see some action happen.

"Be quiet, Isla. He was asking me, not you," said the man slowly. Even as he said that his kept looking at Xander, and his expression of curiosity didn't change.

"I apologize, sir. I was wrong to say that," said Isla, as she bowed her head and stepped back. When she lifted her head again, she still watched Xander with hostility

"Don't mind my servant. She tends to get a little overprotective whenever we come outside. About your question from before, of course, you can," said the man as he gestured to a chair beside him.

The people in the tavern returned to their conversations realizing that nothing is going to happen.

"Oh god," mumbled Sam.

"What's wrong? It worked, didn't it? All Xander needs to do is ask a few questions, and we're good to go," Laina whispered to Sam.

"Well for one, Xander is somewhat awkward with strangers. I don't know what came over him now, but he has a hard time thinking and talking clearly when he is with new people. Even now, he talks more when he is with me than with you. And secondly, what is he going to ask? 'What do I need to do to overthrow the current Lord and become the ruler of his place?' He'll get thrown in jail, or whatever that equates to in this world." explained Sam in whispers to Laina. While they were talking, Xander sat down, and he and the man stared at each other, awkwardly.

"Can't you go and help him then?" whispered Laina.

"But that will be so [cringy] though," retorted Sam. Laina looked at him confused. She didn't understand what crying was. Sam sighed and got out of his chair. "Fine,"

"I'm Xander," said Xander and put out his hand.

The man started at Xander's hand, unsure of what to do with it. "Brandon Shore," he said, introducing himself.

Xander's hand hung in the air for a few seconds before he brought it down. "[Hypothetically] speaking, if someone wanted to become a dic-'' before Xander was able to finish his question, Sam interrupted him.

"Ahh... Xander, friend, here you are! I was looking for you ... everywhere. You were sitting down with us one moment, and the next, you disappeared!" Sam tried his best to fake the enthusiasm in his voice and face. Sam was going through a mental torcher as he said these words. He didn't think even Stratus, who was still in the bag, believed him. "Is this set taken?" Sam asked Brandon gesturing to a chair to the side of Xander. When he shook his head, Sam sat down and covered his head with his hands.

Sam definitely knew that, in the future, this memory would be brought up and there was nothing that Sam could do to ease the pain that he would have to go through each time. Sam took a deep breath and collected himself. He brought his hands away from his face and forced his face to have a natural expression.

"So anyway, Brandon sir, would you mind answering a few questions for us? You see, we come from a faraway village, and we don't get too many visitors. We wanted to know more about our great Lord and all the other great people in the city, so we came all the way here. But, we don't know anyone in the city, so we don't know who to ask. Would you please give us a bit of your knowledge, sir?" Said Sam. This time his voice and facial expression were a lot more believable, as well as his lies.

Sam looked at Xander, and after a few seconds, Xander said, while nodding his head, "Ah... my friend is right."

Brandon thought for a little bit. His curiosity about Sam and Xander only grew. "I don't mind giving out a bit of information, but what's in it for me. I don't think that I need to remind you that information is a precious thing. If I just told you everything that you wanted to know, the knowledge that I have will lose its value. In this exchange, I would only lose, while you two gain. It's not very fair is it?"

Sam carefully considered what he should say now. He could think of a few offers that he could mention. He could just have had other information, but the issue there was that Brandon would have to believe him. He could mention something about being a Warlord, but that came with a bigger risk. There were restrictions that made it difficult for things like that to spread, but it still came with its own danger.

Sam thought of the money that they had, but he didn't think that Brandon would accept it. Brandon had a lot of money and, even if they gave him everything that they had, it would mean much to him.

After considering all the options, Sam finally said, "You're right, it doesn't seem very fair. So how about this, if you give us good information, we'll show you something that you've never seen before. And if you tell us really good stuff, we'll even let you touch it for a while. But you must promise that you will not say anything to anyone else about what you see and touch."

Brandon thought about what Sam said for a few seconds. "How do you know that I've never seen the thing that you have before and what if it's not as special as you think it is?" asked Bradon.

"You don't. I guess you'll just have to take a risk and trust us. Besides, what's life without a little excitement," said Sam. Before Brandon even replied, Sam knew what he was going to say. It was clear in the small smile that Brandon was trying to cover up.

"Fine, ask whatever you want, but you should know that I can't reveal any secrets," said Brandon.

Figuring that this was an opportunity to ask his question, Xander said, "[Hypothetically] speaking, if someone wanted to become a [dictator]-"

Sam sighed again and interrupted Xander's question again. "As I said before, we would become an [oligarchy], because there are two of us. Unless you wanted to work underneath me," said Sam. He turned to Brandon and said, "Ignore him. Let's start off simple, what language is this?"

The only thing that Laina knew what the language was called was the common tongue, which didn't help them that much.

"Rece," replied Brandon.

"Okay, who are the most influential people in the city?" asked Sam.

"Ah let's see... We have Lord Drogo at the very top, then we have the other nobles, large woodworking families, and merchants who trade between Carthage and the rest of the Red Nation. After that, we have smaller, less influential woodworking families, small merchants, other skilled workers like doctors. Then we have workers, miners, woodcutters, and farmers."

"Who are woodworkers?" asked Sam.

"Well, I guess you don't know, since you live so far away. The trees that grow in Carthage are special, we called them Ironwood trees. They're very strong and durable. Bows and ships made from Ironwood are heavily desired all over the Red Nation as well as a few other countries in Maldor. The reason that Carthage was taken over by Lord Drogo a while ago, was because he discovered the usefulness of the wood." Said Bradon.

Sam nodded his head, understanding everything. The ironwood and the things that were made with it probably sold for a lot in other places. This allowed the families that cut and processed the wood, to have enormous profits and thus, allowed them to be powerful with their money.

"What about the mines that you mentioned earlier?" asked Xander.

"Well, there's nothing special about the mines in Carthage. A bit of iron and a few other things. Transporting ore overseas makes it expensive, and there are other mines in the Red Nation. And, most blacksmiths get great benefits from staying in their original cities, so they don't move that often. With these two things, the mines up north, across the river, are largely unused. There are a few smiths in the city but they are amateurs that don't know how to make proper weapons. They usually just make iron tools." explained Brandon. He didn't find it weird that someone from the village didn't know this. It didn't concern most villagers, so information like this didn't get very far from the city.

"The last question and don't think too much about it: how does one become a lord?" asked Sam. When he asked this question, he lowered his voice and leaned forward so that only Xander and Brandon could hear him. Sure, it looked very suspicious, but it's not like it would be any better to let other people hear that question.

Brandon looked at Sam and narrowed his eyes and for a few seconds before answering. "I'll pretend that you asked me about the king, the lords, and the nobles. When a king dies, one of his sons takes over the throne. All of the other sons, pledge to follow him and become nobles, or die. Nobles can claim unclaimed land and become Lords or go to a Lord and forcefully take his land. When a Lord has kids, one of them potentially can become the next Lord, and the other siblings either pledge themselves to him as knights or stay as nobles. So unless your parents are the king and queen of the Red Nation or a Lord, you can't become a Lord."

Sam thought that it was a bit complicated and figured that he could process everything later. "What happens to kids of nobles?"

"They don't get a title and don't have rights to become knights. They become commoners," said Brandon.

With that, Sam knew all that he wanted to know.

"So what does your family do?" asked Xander, curious about who they were talking to.

"Oh, my father owns the Shore Merchant group. He mainly sells ships that are made here to other Lords in the Red Nation," said Brandon. As he talked about his father, a bit of irritation was seen in his voice and expression. "Now, if you are done with asking your questions, show us what I haven't seen before."

"We can't just show it here. If we take it out, everyone else in the tavern will know about it," said Sam asked looking around the tavern. "Let's go somewhere with a bit more privacy."

"Alright, what do you suggest?" asked Brandon. His curiosity was back as he got close to find out what they had with them.

"Well, it's a tavern, right? So let's find a room, we can show it to you there," said Sam. Brandon nodded his head and went along with Sam's plan.

Sam gestured for a waiter to come over so that they could get a room. The waiter came over and stood in front of their table.

"Can we get a room for the night, actually make that two?" Sam asked the waiter.

"I will have to double-check, but I'm pretty sure that we have two rooms available. It will be six copper, three for each room." said the waiter.

"Alright, take us to our rooms," said Sam as he got up. Everyone that was sitting, including Laina, got up as well. The waiter took them to a different part of the tavern and showed them two rooms.

"Ahem, can they stay outside?" asked Sam, talking about Brandon's servant and his guards.

"What?! Sir, I remained quiet all this time, but I can't stay silent anymore. They are clearly tricking you. What if they threaten you while you are inside and away from your guards? That one even has a sword to his side. Don't trust them, sir!" yelled Isla, the servant girl.

"It's fine, Isla," said Brandon. "Stay outside the room."

The three men stepped into the room and closed the door behind them. Laina chose to stay outside.

"Now what?" asked Xander. Even he couldn't figure out what Sam was going to show Brandon.