The tavern was quiet and peaceful. The owner of the institution and the headman were sitting at a secludedtable nearest to the entrance. There were no other people in the room.

I had to leave the dogs on the street, after attaching their leashes to some hooks onthe wall.

Garlon waved his hand eagerly, inviting Cleto to the table with food and some sortof drinks. I remained standing next to the table. It was clear that there was no place for an employee at the same table with the owners. Cleto could eat with me from the same cauldron, but Garlon ... he was the headman! That meant he was above all farm laborers and other hired hands there.

"Cleto," I turned to the manager, "Can I run to the nearest shop to buy new clothes? My own are already…" I pointed to my clothes. "Well, you cansee for yourself in what condition they are."

"Do you have money? Or do I need to give you some coins in advance?" The old man asked.

"No, I have some coins in my pocket. My parents gave me a little. I paid for my seat on the ship, and still have some of it left."

"OK, but be quick!" Cleto said. "We'll stay here for half an hour more."

I quickly left the tavern and ran to the center of the city, since it wasn't far away.

"Excuse me, can you please tell me," I turned to the first guard Icame across, "where I can find a good," I emphasizedtheword, "seller of light armor?"

The guard looked at me very suspiciously, although it was understandable; I looked far from well off. Therefore, I took out a dozen coins and handed them to him with a smile: "My master sent me to buy the armor, but I don't know the city very well."

"Well," the guard checked around before accepting the coins, "There's Elkhran's shop nearby. Go straight, then turn left at the small yellow house, and then go straight again. You'll see a large sign with a bright gold inscription 'Elkhran's Armor and Weapons'... Although…" he hesitated for a moment, "you probably don't know how to read. Well, there's still a shield and a sword painted abovethe inscription, they're just like real ones. You can't miss it."

"Thank you," I said to the guard and ran in the indicated direction.

When I located the sign, I went to the door and knocked.

"Come in," someone's voice invited me in.

A short, heavysetman was standingnext to the entrance and tryingto fix a large, shining sword tothe wall. The placecould easily be called a shop, as it was big enough.

"Can I help…" and then he, having noticed how I was dressed, immediately changed his tone. "What do you want? I don't sell knives and shovels. You've come to the wrong place."

"No, I wasn't mistaken," I grinned, pulling out a bag of local currency from my inventory.

"Oh!" A greedy little light flashed in the man's eyes. "How may I help you... sir?"

"I need light leather armor, preferably by dark elven production," I said.

"Hmm, giveme some more details. You know, the drowmakea lot of things, it will be difficult to knowfrom what you've indicated."

I decided to pull out my damaged jacket from the set in the inventory. "Is there something similar?"

"Wow!" the seller's eyes widened in surprise, and he tookit from my hands and examined itcarefully. "If I'm not mistaken ... it ... was created in the Guild 'Elghinn Dal Veldrin.'"

"I don't know," I shrugged. "It's just that I was lucky to get it on the mainland from one of the second-hand dealers, but, alas, in one of the clashes with the beasts in the forest, it was severely damaged." That was as close to the truth as possible, and the meeting with the beasts was true!

"I sympathize with you, young man." The seller sighed. "If you decide to sell it, I'll give you a very good price for it. Do you have any other parts of the kit?"

"No!" Having taken the jacket, I replied.

I had no intention of letting him know that I had a complete set, and, of course, I wasn'tplanning on selling it.

"A pity. Such armor, alas, is unlikely to befound, especially of such a quality …" the trader wondered, "I can offer you the armor of light elven work. Its protective properties, of course, aren't so good, and it's less convenient. However,you're unlikely to find anything better in Fadlas. Would you like to take a look?"

"Sure," I agreed with the proposal.

The man left the front store, opening the door to some additional room and soon returned with a small chest.

"Here it is," he opened the lid. "Would you like to try it on?"

Of course, the parameters were lower than those of the Shadows' student armor, but it wasn't toobad either. Though I didn't really like the dark brown color, I decided to buy the armor.

"I'll take it! How much is it?"

"Six hundred irens." The merchant namedthe price, and, judging by the cunning spark in his eyes, he overestimated it by an order of magnitude when compared with the market.

However, I didn't know the real prices on the market, and even if he had said a thousand, I would have paid a thousand. I didn't have time to haggle.

While the owner silently counted the amount, I took the armor with the strange name 'Foggy Leaf' and hid it in an inventory bag.

"By the way, do you sell regularclothes, something like this?" I pointed towhat I was wearing at that moment. "With a high collar, made of strong fabric, but one that is not a pity to get dirty and discard."

"I do."

"I need two sets," I said tothe back ofthe retreating seller.

Having handed me two bundles, the man told methe price waseighty irens, and it seemed that he hadraised the price once more, without batting an eye.

Without saying goodbye, I left the shop and ran back to the tavern.

"Have you bought everything you need?" Cleto asked me right away, standing at the entrance to the tavern and feeding his dogs with large chunks of fresh raw meat.

"Yes," I replied.

"There's still a little food left," he nodded at the tavern door, "Have a quick bite and go and hire some workers."

The old man, despite all the persuasion and controversy he employed when speaking with Garlon, didn't waste time on trifles. Almost without bargaining, he rented (if one could call it that way) six burly men in a certain office for cargo transfers (yes, that was exactly what their line of workwas called!) for a period of four days. He promised complete safety for the workers or full reparation in the event of their death.

Hmm, I would never agree to such a job.

Cleto gave clear instructions to the six cargo carriers to wait near the wagon, which we'd left at the city gates.

"Well, where's that monk staying?" The old man turned to Garlon.

"In the 'Entiar' hotel."

"Then you will show the way, because I don't remember such an institution in this city."

"It's been recently opened," the headman began to explain on our way to the hotel. "Mostly young people from the mainland stay there."

"Everything's clear," Cletodismissed him with a wave of his hand. "Please, do not continue. But do you know what we've forgotten?"

"No."

"We only have about fifty bolts for the crossbows, it seems. Maybe even less. We need to buy more on the way back."

Garlon grimaced as if he was spat in the face and hissed something through clenched teeth.

"So what? Those workers that I've hired for protection have swords, we ourselves will use ranged weapons. Therefore, we need to buy a pair of crossbows and more bolts. We just have towait until we start making a profit!"

The headman didn't answer, he turned right and went between two houses into the courtyard; he decided, apparently, to take a shortcut.

"We've arrived," Garlon pointed to a completely new four-story building in the shape of the letter 'n', it was built in the style of the buildings of the Nazhar Kingdom.

It was a really nice hotel.

Garlon and Cleto went inside together, leaving me outside. I had no place in such a decent, stylish institution. I'dhaveliked to have taken a look at that monk.

Butlady luck was smiling on meand my hopes came true. In less than an hour, three people left the hotel. They were my current owner, his manager and ... someone dressed in a simple, gold-trimmed scarlet robe. He moved like a snake, gliding across the sidewalk, despite hisapparent excess weight and bulging belly. These were the movements of a professional killer, similar to the Masters of Shadows and their senior students. However, I didn't notice any weapons on him, including the hidden ones. He was a formidableadversary. I wished I could know his approximate level. I assumed it was above three hundred.

"Goodbye," Garlon said.

"No need to say goodbye. I'll comewith you," the monk said. "How much time do you need?"

"One day, not counting today," Cleto responded instead of the headman, throwing a short cautionary look at Garlon. He'd just opened his mouth to say something, probably thoughtlessly, as always. "We'll be ready in a day."

"Very good," the monk nodded. Then I'll come to you the morningafter tomorrow. Let's sign a contract upon arrival at the monastery." Without saying goodbye he turned around and went back to the hotel.

"We don't have enough time to organize everything," the headman said distractedly.

"We've got plenty of time!" The old man said with satisfaction, almost rubbing his hands joyfully. "Unlike you, I think about everything in advance. In addition, before we left the village, I met with Tarkal and arrangedwith him an urgent purchase of all free grain, hides and frozen fish. Moreover, I rented a warehouse."

"But why does he want to comewith us?!" Garlon asked crossly. "I don't like this!"

"Does it matter? If he wants to, then let him come. The main thing is that now everything suits them. We'll sign a contract, approve monthly deliveries and overshadow Lanwan."

On the way back to the city gates, Cleto and Garlon entered one of the weaponshops and bought two crossbows and three bundles of bolts, totaling about a hundred. They carried the crossbows themselves, but I had to drag the sack with bolts. The good news was that the old man took the dogs, reasonably thinking that I couldn't be a porter and a dog keeper at the same time. I completely agreed with him.

I wondered why I haven't seen any hired warriors when we reached the cart, where the six hired workers had already been waiting for us.

I threw the bolts inside the wagon while the old man harnessed the horses himself. He didn't forget to thank the stable boy and give him a couple more coins.

"Climb inside," Cleto ordered me and the workers when I'd closed the dogs back in their cages. Then he climbed onto the bench with the headman and picked up the reins.

The trip to the village passed without a stop, as the old man was in a hurry. Of course, we had time, since the whole day was in reserve, but the rush was not without reason. The faster we got back, the faster the shipments would begin. After all, one wagon couldn't fit all the goods. Garlon had to rent another one; I gathered as much from the quiet conversation between the headman and the manager. I was able to hear some of it since I had overpowered my fear and, making my way between the cages, sat closer to the front part of the cart. I also learned that the warriors hired by the old man were going to arrive by tomorrow evening.

"Kraven, watch the workers, but don't be lazy yourself, too," Cleto warned me when we arrived at the village, and instead of returning to the house, stopped near a huge barn.

The headman left somewhere, and Cleto, after giving us instructions for the proper loading of goods, took the dogs and went to negotiate renting the second wagon.

First, we pulled the cages off the wagonand dragged them into the barn, and then we began to carefully load the goodsinto the wagon. The employed workers implicitly obeyed my commands, and the work was donepretty quickly. But we did not have time to loadeverything. It was dark and the old man, who had arrived withanother wagon in the meantime, allowed the workers to rest. At the same time, he brought food and mattresses stuffed with rags. We had to sleep in that very barn.