“The tribute consisted of five young girls and a large chest, and was escorted by twenty two warriors.” Old man continued and woke Nick up from his thoughts, “My guess is that those were pirates, most likely king Red’s subordinates and seven, may be eight were Qi masters. This is atypical, because normally king Black is responsible for escorting ‘goods’ to the capital. Regarding the chest, I don’t know what was in it, but the rush they were in and the amount and quality of the guards was definitely because of that, not the girls.”

Nick stared at the old man with open mouth. If this was some 21st century intelligence report, it could be understandable, but Yakub looked just like any other elderly person.

“Sir!” Nick pulled himself together and put another gold coin on the table, “Where could we urgently buy few good horses?”

“No one will sell you any horses here if you approach them with the half dead animals your companions are holding to.” Old man was staring again at the crossroads, but the short glance around he made earlier was enough for him to know most of Nick’s troubles, “At the exit of the village on the way towards the capital you will find a merchant that could sell you few horses, just leave these ones you have back here.”

“Thank you, sir Yakub!” Nick slightly bowed and darted out of the tavern.

“We’re late!” He said to his friends while speedily passing buy, “Wait here, I’ll get the horses.”

And then sprinted towards the further end of the village.

When he ran back fifteen minutes later with three horses in tow, he saw Steven with a lifeless eyes helplessly staring towards the capital while being supported by Clayton who didn’t look much better.

“Get on these horses and let’s go. No one is giving up!” Nick shouted at them.

A minute and a couple of face slaps later all three of them were galloping towards Olava.

“Apparently there was something important that pirates were delivering to the capital, therefore they had unreasonably large escort force and traveled extremely fast.” Nick explained while riding, “They managed to reach the capital in twenty three days and that is the best one can do without taking our route.”

“But if they are in Olava, there is no more hope!” Steven shouted angrily in the sky.

“First, they are alive, therefore nothing is lost yet. Second, remember your oath – you will remain calm till we get back to Aurora.” Nick calmly looked at his friend, “Do you think you can help like this?”

“The whole way I was just an anchor on your necks! We were late because of me!” Steven was almost in tears. To his defense he was trying to remain as calm as he could, but all the stress that was accumulated during the journey was coming out at this moment. Both his companions understood it, but couldn’t help much.

“Not true, according to my calculations in case if it was two of us, we could have been faster for about three, may be four hours.” Clayton shook his head, “And that is if we peed as we ran. There was no way for us to make up one and a half days.”

“Exactly.” Nick agreed, “Let’s do it like this: we will enter the capital and make ourselves familiar with the situation first. Then decide on how to proceed. The only thing that we have to figure out now is to how pass the message to the girls to not give up.”

Then he turned to Steven, “Remember, that old freak does not need them immediately. He might even perform his replenishment after a month, two or even three.”

Steven finally calmed down a bit and nodded.

“Alright, let’s continue till dark and then rest for the night.” Clayton suggested, “There is no more use in blindly rushing anymore.”

The road to Olava was well built and wide despite the jungle on the both sides. After leaving Sutana, jungle replaced the seemingly endless savanna from before and for a while the air become humid and hot once again. Then, after fifty or so kilometers they started to feel they were going up the hill, but not because of some steep visible climb, on contrary, the road looked flat. Only horses seemed to get more tired than normal.

When the group made a camp to stop for the night around five hours after leaving Sutana, they managed to enjoy a cool evening breeze and the tropical jungle already had been replaced with a beautiful lush green forest.

They knew the capital was located on an elevated plateau on the north east of the Nestri continent and the citizens there enjoyed much more moderate climate compared to the rest of the northern part of the continent that sometimes turned in a boiling hell, especially during the summer season.

This was the first time they really slept during the last five days. Still, Steven was the one who mostly guarded them and also just because he couldn’t sleep.

After sunrise, the trio continued on their way without any stops, except for the one just before entering capital, where they washed themselves and changed their clothes. After over twenty days without bath, they were not only dirty, their smell was unbearable as well. Thus, they soaked for a good hour in the river before finally were clean enough to act according to their status of a highest rank mercenary group.

Nick was prepared to enter a big city when they neared the capital, but this one seemed to be even bigger than Aurora. After another hour of riding, he understood why – all the people they saw here so far lived in very poor conditions and occupied one story wooden houses, or rather – shacks, on both sides of the streets. The two and three storey housing as well as the developed sewage system in Aurora allowed to house much larger quantity of people on smaller stretches of land.

There were quite a few food stalls and shops, but most of the customers were inhabitants of the nearby neighborhoods. Still, the dirty streets looked quite busy, especially the one they had to take when entering the city.

After another hour the group of three reached the richer part of Olava and further in the distance they could already see the towers of the emperor’s castle. At first they expected it to be palace similar to the Sun kingdom’s king’s residence, but obviously emperor had a different taste. The houses closer to the city center were build from some dark stone, probably a common building material around here and from what they could tell, the castle seemed to be built from the same stone as well. The whole city center was radiating oppressive, almost tyrannical atmosphere, or at lest that was how Nick felt.

The three of them already earlier made plans on how to proceed.

First, they would find the contact person recommended by the old man in Berin and then find an inn to stay in as close to castle as possible. There was only one question Nick intended to ask the contact – when emperor is estimated to enter his next retreat. They didn’t know if such information was public and if they could get it on the streets, but judging by the competence of the people they met so far based on the recommendation letters, there was only one logical choice.

Thus, when they approached the center of the city, they asked a random bystander the way to the Mercenary guild. The surprised person pointed towards the castle and explained that the mercenary guild has always been located right in front of it, next to the big fighting arena.

Only now friends remembered that there was supposed to be a mercenary fighting competition in few days and, if they payed closer attention to their surroundings, they would've noticed the large amount of mercenaries on the streets.

There was a wide river dividing the city in two and the emperor's castle was located on a large island in the middle of it. It was a huge castle with two high, may be even fifteen storey high, towers build from dark stone. The two bridges connecting it with both riverbanks were strictly guarded by well trained guard squads and one could not see past the high walls that were constructed right on the cliffs on the island. The whole view was very impressive, but it was the exact opposite to the openness and friendliness of the Sun kingdom’s ruler. The fabled immortality of their emperor caused local people to fear him already and this castle amplified that feeling even more.

Despite all that the most prestigious spots in the city were directly in front of the castle and directly near the river and the famous Mercenary guild occupied one of these premium places. In front of it was the wide river and the castle, and behind it was the famous Olava’s arena – the biggest fighting arena in the Nestri empire.

When the three arrived, the Mercenary guild was bustling with activity. Apparently the sign-ups for the competition were taking place and long rows of potential participants were formed outside the Mercenary guild stretching along the street and then further towards the arena. To not disrupt the normal work, sign-up was performed right at the gates and, in fact, acted as an additional advertisement for the Mercenary guild and competition as well.

The trio were not willing to risk and expose their connection to the emperor’s tribute by asking random questions, therefore decided to sign up for competition as a simple cover. For now they didn’t plan to take part in it, but they figured that the participant status might become useful later.

While Steven was left to keep their spot in the long line, Nick and Clayton went to meet a person called Nazir. To their great surprise it turned out not to be a manager like the old man in Berin, but a low level servant who was idling on a staircase leading to the third floor. Nazir looked at the recommendation letter, carefully read it few times, then nodded and waved for them to follow.

And the next moment Nick noticed to his great shock, how the letter burst in powder that scattered on the stairs. This man who looked like simple servant was a high level Qi master! None of the people he was recommended to on this trip, already starting from Berin, were normal – in fact, every next person they came in contact with was more mysterious than the last one.

‘Is this the real power of the Mercenary guild? And the small groups that fulfill the tasks offered on those boards on the first floor are here just to make some pocket change? The Qi masters on Nestri continent are really scary.’ Nick thought.

Nazir led them outside and after walking for two blocks entered a luxurious inn that, similar to the Mercenary guild, was located on the riverbank with a view at the emperor’s castle. In addition, there was a long bridge nearby which connected both sides of the river.

Inn’s name – “Riverside” – wasn’t as luxurious as the inn itself, but at least it fully represented it’s geographical location. After entering Nazir called over a servant girl, whispered something to her and she brought them to a room, that looked to be designed to receive important guests.

After sitting in silence for few minutes, they heard a knock on the door and an old man in elegant white robe entered the room.

“This is Nazir you are looking for.” The ‘Nazir’ from mercenary guild stood up, nodded to the old man who just entered and left without saying anything else.

This whole situation was more than bizarre and only when Nazir sat in front of them, made a wide smile and said, “How can I help you?” Nick woke up from stupor.

‘Even if we got introduced in a weird way, it only means that the old man from Berin is letting his other friends to earn some easy gold. There is nothing more to it, for example, this old man can’t know about us encountering the rank six beast or emperor’s tribute. That means – we are simply moneybags!’

Nick quickly assessed the situation, greeted the elder and introduced them formally as the ‘Southern mercenary group’. They wanted to find a good place to stay in capital for a month, may be two and looked to purchase more detailed information on the top participants of the upcoming competition.