In a corner of the dimly lit lounge three men sat at a comfortable sofa. They had faint red blush on their faces and chatted happily while drinking. In contrast to the military uniforms that many men are wearing in the lounge, these three wear somewhat modest outfits. They had casual clothes on, but wore hats with ornaments dangling out of them like a beautiful hair piece woman like to wear. The ornaments had colorful beads that hung down on the left and right side of their faces. The beads shone brightly when light passed on like a beautiful crystal. They also wore golden necklaces with colorful stones and rings on their fingers. Despite the casual outfit, the number of accessories they wore made the normal outfit look expensive as well.
"Here you go, one bowl of fried seaweeds and 3 more bottles of beer" a woman came and delivered their order to the table. The men seemed excited to see more beer, they had finished their last bottle a few minutes ago.
"Oh, if it isn't the famous trio�� a man came by to the table and spoke to the three men sitting there. "Mr. Riley, fancy meeting you here" the man at the center spoke to the man who approached them. "Right back at you, Mr. William. How's business?" the man called Riley spoke back to the man at the center.
"Quite good. We landed a big deal today so here we are celebrating our success! How about you? What's hot in the military these days?" the man called William asked Riley back. "Hahaha! Nothing new worth trading with you, but we might have an interesting intel soon" said Riley. "Looking forward to that then. I'll buy any piece of information that might be good for business" William chuckled and lifted his glass as if prompting the man to have a toast with him. Riley lifted his glass and toasted William's. He drank a bit before excusing himself and going back to his own table.
"Hey hey boss, that Riley dude is no good, always so slow on information" said the man sitting on William's left. "Yes boss, maybe we should look for other informants" added the man on the right.
"He's fine. We got plenty of other informants that could tell us the latest news. His mouth is quite loose even though he's slow" said William while laughing. The two men on his left and right started laughing after hearing William's reply. It is true that Riley had a loose mouth. The other informants are only willing to sell the outline of a news, but Riley could tell them the whole story with the same amount of money. The only downside is that he's quite slow.
"Oh it's William!" a woman spoke with another woman on a table not so far from where William and his two friends are sitting. "I wonder if he's in a good mood these days. I wanted to buy new jewellery but he can be quite mean sometimes" the other woman spoke.
"I know right… the other day I bought an antique plate from him and he asked for 3000 gold! Can you imagine spending 3000 on a piece of plate?!" the first woman spoke angrily. She had a craving for antiques lately and wanted a piece of silver antique plate, but the prize she got is too much.
"3000!? and you actually bought it?" the other woman asked her. "I did… I told my father that I absolutely will bring back a silver antique plate when I come back home that day. He told me I won't ever find one in this kingdom and I wanted to prove him wrong. I can't find any other merchant with a silver antique plate so I gritted my teeth and bought the plate from him" the woman gritted her teeth again while answering her best friend. If only she hadn't said that to her father before leaving, she would never spend 3000 on a plate. She can get 30 pieces of gold jewellery for the same prize.
"William is too unpredictable. The other day he had a beautiful painting on sale for 100 gold, it was lovely. I came home and asked my mother if she would like it. The next day I came to buy the painting and the prize has doubled to 200. I asked William and he only glanced at me and said take it or leave it" the second woman spoke angrily.
"His mood swings are worse than a woman in her period" the first woman sighed. They had both been angered by the man before. If they wanted to buy goods at a reasonable prize they had to come when he's happy. "He seemed quite happy over there so maybe tomorrow's a good day for shopping?" the second woman spoke and went deep in thought. She wondered what she should buy if the prizes are good tomorrow.
William's store is the hottest antique store in the kingdom, but the owner is known to be quite eccentric. He had mood swings and adjusted the price whenever he likes to. He also closed his shop whenever he likes to. You could go out of your way to visit his shop to found the shop is not even open and don't have a date when it will reopen. Sometimes he could go out of the kingdom for a few days and don't care about the shop, but when he came back, the store would usually have unique items added to its list of goods.
The two women are not the only women in the lounge. Purple rose had a number of women customers as well as men. Though the men generally came to relieve their bodies with the massage, they like to hangout here as well to chat in the lounge. The food and drinks are top notch and the women here are all very pretty. The men like to wash their fatigue away by talking with these gorgeous women. The men could call for the women to accompany them in the table as well and they will have a small accompaniment fee to pay. In the private rooms, the women called can accompany them by singing, dancing, and playing musical instruments. Due to the excellent service, many men came here frequently to just hangout and most of the regulars have their favourites to call. The single women came here to target these men. They hang here with the hope of catching some high ranking men's eyes, after all most of the customers here are wealthy people with some nobles and high ranking officials in the kingdom as well.
"Oh that girl there, isn't she new?�� the man sitting on William's left asked the other two. "I think so, I never saw her before" the man on the right answered him while emptying his beer out. These three are also frequent customers of purple rose. They mainly came here to hangout, but some days they came for a massage as well. Today, one of them would like a massage while the other two are just here to drink and hangout.
William looked at the girl sitting behind the bar. She seemed to be taking her break now. "She seemed pretty cold, I'm not sure she's fit to entertain guests here" William said while raising one of his eyebrows. The girl had a mask on but the mouth doesn't hold even a thin smile. While the other girls here all had bright smiles that can lift the fatigue of a man away in an instant, he could feel the girl's gaze that seemed cold. "What's a block of ice cube doing here in purple rose?" William thought silently in his head. He won't call on her to attend to them, he needs warm smiles and sunshine to lift their moods, not ice cubes that will freeze their happy atmosphere.
"Some men swing that way, boss" the man on William's left laughed hearing his answer. "They like ice cubes?" the man on the right laughed as well. "Ice cubes are good for wine but not for me" William shrugged and drank his beer out, the two other men laughed louder hearing his answer. He looked at the girl again and noticed her trembling hands. Is she angry? Is that why her gaze is so cold?