"Am I allowed to buy this?" Noah asked the trader, gesturing towards the book.
"Huh? Oh, sure. Anything that I haven't put away is still for sale." The trader responded, a bit shocked. He turned around to see what book Noah was talking about.
The trader sighed and then said, "It's not my job to judge what people buy, but I'm sure if you're found with this book you will be in grave danger."
"I am well aware of that and I am willing to take the risk." Noah responded. Their eyes met for a moment with understanding.
"Alright," The trader said, "The book costs twelve silver." Noah pulled out twelve silver and placed them on the table. As Noah reached for the book, the trader grabbed it. Noah looked up at him and saw that he had a piece of cloth in his hand. The trader began to wrap the book up, occasionally grabbing some more cloth out of underneath his stall. When he was done he handed the now concealed book, Noah took it and nodded his thanks.
Noah began to walk over to the group of guards that had formed with his father in it. As he got closer he noticed that none of the apprentices were there. He looked around and saw the other two apprentices a bit aways from the group. He looked at his father, who seemed to just notice Noah and gestured to join the apprentice group and Noah changed his direction.
"Glad you could make time to join us." William snarkily said. Noah rolled his eyes and sat down on a nearby bench. Even since they became apprentices William always seemed to have a distaste for Noah. Noah was pretty sure it was because of their fathers, which Noah respected.
"Guards need to have integrity, we are supposed to protect the people, not go for personal gain." William began one of his lectures to Noah.
"I have no integrity when I buy things in an open store when my job is over." Noah countered, raising an eyebrow.
"We represent the village of Northspear to the traders." William responded, getting more heated.
"And if we don't do things like buying goods in a store and doing our jobs while not on duty, we make the guard and the village look like a place where people are oppressed." Noah responded while setting his book to his side.
"C-calm down guys." Jacob said, his voice shaky knowing that if William got anymore heated he would be throwing punches.
"What do you even have there?" William said, pointing at the book and ignoring Jacob's plea.
"It's none of your business." Noah responded, standing up and walking in front of the book protectively.
"Oh really?" William said, raising an eyebrow and reached for Noah's book.
"Watch it." Noah said, grabbing William's wrist before he grabbed the book, "You should be more worried about your actions if you really care about the reputation of the village because what you're doing right now is something called thievery." Noah let go of William's wrist and he walked back to his sport, glaring at Noah.
"We should head back to our masters," Jacob said, "The guards are beginning to leave." Noah and William nodded their agreement. Noah picked up his book and headed over to his father who was waiting for him.
"What do you have there?" Sean asked when Noah got to him.
"A book." Noah said, showing the book still wrapped in cloth.
"Alright then, ready to go home?" Sean asked and Noah nodded his agreement and mentally breathed a sigh of relief that his father wouldn't pry into the book.
* * *
The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. There only were a few robberies that happened, Noah and William did work together to capture one.
When Noah woke up he breathed a sigh of relief, he did not have to patrol the square because the closing ceremony was today. Ever since Nightmare came to the area the closing ceremony went from being in the square to being in the town hall. The closing ceremony was a celebration of the traders coming to the town as they were one of the two main ways the village got money. The other way was through trading food with the southern cities and towns of the Northern Kingdoms.
Noah rolled out of bed. He yawned and stretched. He got dressed and put his armor on. He headed downstairs to the living room. When he got down there, his father was already waiting for him.
"Good, you're awake, breakfast is on the table." His father said. Noah nodded in response and headed to the kitchen.
After Noah ate his breakfast, his father and him headed out to the town hall to begin to prepare for the ceremony. When they got there they were greeted by Owen Headspear who seemed to just have gotten there.
"Ah the Blades." Owen said cheerfully, "It's nice to see you here so early. You two look just as fine as ever."
"You look well." Sean responded. "It's not that early, and did you just get here?"
"Ah Sean, you know me too well." Owen responded, putting a hand behind his head.
"I should've expected this. Well you never were a morning person." Sean said, putting a hand to his face and sighing.
"How's your training going?" Owen asked Noah, putting his hand down.
"It's going well, I'm glad to have the captain as my master." Noah responded respectfully.
"I should've expected that, Sean didn't get to be the captain of the guard for nothing. It would make sense that he would be a good master as well." Owen said with a laugh.
"It's not so much that I'm a good master, it's more that Noah's a good student. You say anything important and it will stick, however he is still a bit forgetful of the smaller things and details, but he sure is creative." Sean proudly responded, putting his hand down. Owen laughed in response.
"Anyways, I suppose he should head inside and begin preparations." Owen said, indicating the guards that were approaching. He waited for them to make their way over to them to open the door.
The town hall was seven and a half meters wide and thirty six meters long. There were two floors with the bottom floor being used for events and the top for government business. On the opposite side of the door sat a podium and five chairs. Benches sat facing the podium. Noah remembered the last time he was in the town hall, it was for the latest apprenticeship ceremony that happened two months ago.
"Okay, let's get this started." Owen said and began to give plans to the guards that showed up. They began to go around, picking up trash, cleaning the place and setting up decorations. The decorations include streamers and flags with the emblems of the traders and the town.
* * *
It was mid-morning when the preparations for the closing ceremony finished. The rest of the guards that were on patrol showed up along with some of the traders including their leader, Blake and the rest of the government officials.
"Well you can go into your places now." Owen said. The guards would line up on the sides for the ceremony. They all nodded and headed to their places with the traders sitting down on the front rows and the officials, including Sean, went to their seats at the front. Owen went to open the door and let people inside. Noah watched the people take their seats and eventually every seat had a person in it.
"I would sit to welcome everyone to the closing ceremony of the trade week." Owen announced standing at the podium. "I would like to thank the guards that patrolled the square for the week and kept everyone safe without having to fear their new belongings being stolen. And of course this whole event wouldn't have happened without the traders coming to our town." As Owen said this, he gestured to each group. The crowd started clapping as he finished. Owen waved Sean up to the podium once the clapped died down.
"I would also like to thank my guards." Sean said when he got up to the podium. "Each and every one of you has shown me that I made the right choice choosing you for this." He looked at each of the guards when saying this. "You all have shown what a guard of Northspear is supposed to be like and I appreciate it deeply." He stepped down and the crowd began clapping. Noah felt a sense of pride well up in him when he heard his father's words. The guards did their salute which Sean joined in for a moment before sitting back down and the guards returned back to their original stance. Blake got up from his row and headed to the podium.
"It has been an honor trading with you this week." Blake said. "As the leader of this caravan I would like to thank the town for letting us stay here. I would like to thank the guards as well for not only protecting the people trading but also protecting my people." He looked at Sean when he said this. "I would also like to thank the government here for organizing this and allowing us to stay here." He looked at the rest of the officials. "Anyways it is to my understanding that the ceremony's feast has been prepared, is that correct?" Blake asked.
"Yes, that is correct." Owen responded.
"Then this part of the ceremony is over and you all can go eat." Blake announced and the people started clapping and heading out of the town hall.
Once everyone was out, the guards came up to the podium along with the traders that joined Blake to discuss their profits and the next year.
"So we got three hundred fifty gold for selling seven hundred bundles of wheat." Sarah bank announced.
"Yes, that is correct. We will only buy or sell things at the market price." Blake responded with the rest of the traders nodding.
"And that is completely fair." Owen responded with Sarah nodding her agreement.
"Our population is one hundred twenty three people however." A guard chimed in.
"That is correct, however we will get the rest of the required money from trade with the northern kingdoms." Owen responded with a flash of worry crossing his face.
"We got around one hundred eighty four gold from this." Blake said and Owen nodded.
"If you're so worried about the dragon tax, why not just tax your own people more?" A trader asked.
"That is a good question. This event is one of the main ways we get enough money to pay the dragon tax, if we lose this event, we are forced to cut our population even more that the one hundred fifty population cap." Owen responded.
"That makes perfect sense." Blake said. "However, you're going to have to do that because we're not coming back until the dragon goes away." Causing the residents of Northspear to be shocked.
"What!?" Owen exclaimed.
"We do like trading here and as you said this is one of the main ways you get money to pay the dragon tax. However, I am the leader of this caravan and it is my responsibility to protect my people and this event is getting less and less safe each year." Blake explained.
Owen took a deep breath and said, "That is completely fair, after all taking care of your people is a sign that you're a good leader and only natural."
"Thank you for understanding." Blake responded, smiling.
"Thank you for telling me this." Owen grimly said.
"We'll be taking our leave now." Blake said.
"Well, we'll look forward to when you come back." Owen responded.
"As will we." Blake said and then turned around and left, the rest of the traders followed.
When the traders left, everyone looked at Owen to know what was going to happen next. Owen sighed and said, "We now have no other choice, we have to try and kill Nightmare." Everyone was shocked at this, and many gasped. Some of the guards got stone cold faces.
"Sir, who are we going to send to do this?" Philip Wiseman asked with a worried look on his face that many others shared.
"That is a good question Philip, and to be honest I don't know who I'm going to send." Owen responded.
"I'll do it." Noah announced to everyone's surprise.