"Don't joke with me kid. What is it?" Ragnar said.
"It's white. That is what my mother said and I will have to trust her." Qin replied with a completely serious attitude. Ragnar could tell that for the most part, the kid wasn't lying.
"If that's all, I'll be going now." Qin said before turning around again and walking off. 'This boy, what is up with his aura? Why is it so intimidating? I will have to keep an eye on him for now.' Ragnar thought to himself as he looked at Qin walk away.
'I definitely cannot join any guilds this early on so black markets are the only way to go. The one in this kingdom is quite popular eh? Well, let's see about that.' Qin thought to himself as he arrived at his room. It was already becoming night time and his mother must have been quite worried, so Qin went back to his room.
After a couple of hours, Qin went to thinking. 'If I want to go to a black market, It's better if I go at night. Of course, it will bring its own dangers, but I'm not allowed to leave the castle at all so it's better to sneak out at night time as well." Qin thought to himself as he pretended to go to sleep.
After an hour or so, his mother had fallen asleep next to Qin with her arm over his chest. Qin slowly moved out and under her hand and quickly replaced his body with a pillow. He then made his way to the main living quarters where the exit was located.
The castle didn't have a real door to go in and out, so leaving it was quite simple. However, leaving the gate on the outside of it was going to be quite difficult. As Qin made his way outside, the cool midnight wind hit him. This was his first time ever being outside of the castle, it felt very refreshing.
There was a large metal gate that surrounded the entire castle. At the exit was a gatekeeper. After walking a little bit away from the castle, Qin arrived at the gate. The gate-door was open but one still needed permission from the gatekeeper in order to leave.
Qin looked at the gatekeeper before smiling and waving goodbye. "I'll be leaving now, thank you," Qin said before walking out of the gate, trying to seem as normal as possible. Weirdly, the gatekeeper went on one knee and let Qin pass.
Qin was quite dumbfounded by this. It surely wasn't because he was a part of one of the sub-royal families because he would still need permission to leave the castle gates. Qin had originally thought of an intricate plan to get out of the gate. He was going to dress up as a grown-up and stand on two long sticks as he wore large clothing. It was a genius plan!
Unfortunately, he didn't get to carry it out. 'I'm not going to complain. The easier the better.' Qin thought to himself as he walked away from the gate.
Back at the gate.
"Be sure to let him enter and exit at any time." A man said to the gatekeeper before seemingly disappearing into thin air. This man was Ragnar.
The castle was right in the middle of the most prosperous city in all of Loran! Capital city Han! As Qin made his way through the streets of this crowded city, he couldn't help but feel elated!
The atmosphere was absolutely bustling, with shops lined up along the streets, carriages being driven by large lizard creatures the size of horses, and people talking loudly as they walked along the road.
The light on the street store and on the tops of the medieval buildings made it look like broad daylight. 'Now... how will I get inside of this black market exactly?' Qin thought to himself. For some reason, he hadn't thought that far yet.
'System! Where is this black market?' Qin said in his head. His reasoning for asking the system was simple. The system knew all geographic cities and regions in this world. If this black market was so popular, then it would surely be recognized as a landmark.
'Perfect!' Qin thought to himself. After walking for a little bit, he came across a building with a bent fish logo. It also read "Fried Fish Tavern". Qin entered the establishment. As soon as he entered, he was met by a loud and happy atmosphere of many drunk men laughing.
It was like a normal tavern and there were many men inside. Most of them wore armor as if they were knights and had a plate of a kind of metal on their chest. Most of the plates were bronze while some of them were also silver.
Qin was not even noticed by anyone as he walked inside the bar. He went to sit down on a stool at the front bar and ordered a black marlin steak which was a popular meal in the tavern.
As he waited for the food, he couldn't help but look around and see everyone laughing before him. It reminded him of his nostalgic memories of when he would drink and party with his friends back on earth. The day when even a small battle was on, there would be a grand ceremony, after all, every small victory in battle accumulates an eventual victory in war.
Qin waited for a little while longer as he reviewed his thoughts. Suddenly, the laughter of the entire bar abruptly stopped. Qin looked towards the entrance of the bar. Footsteps could be heard walking into the bar. Everyone could hear the footsteps as the atmosphere was completely erased and there was no noise whatsoever. It was so quiet that even the gulping of some men could be heard as they saw who had entered the tavern.
'Who are these people?' Qin thought to himself as he saw three people walk inside the tavern. Each wore a guild's uniform that was mostly white and blue in color with a crest on their chest saying "Great Han Guild."
All three of them didn't have very intimidating auras, neither did they look very strong physically. The one in the middle had a very long face with beady eyes and a long but slim nose that made him look quite annoying. He was also quite tall and slender-looking. The other two by his side looked like average goons.
The three walked arrogantly as if they owned the place, looking at everyone with smirks on their face. After walking around the bar, they stopped at a table with two men. They looked to be the most scared ones in the entire establishment. This had gotten quite interesting, so Qin looked on to see what would happen.
One of the men at the table seemed around 65 years of age and looked feeble. Having a long beard, old clothes a skinny body. The other one also had very old and torn clothes, but he looked to be in good health. He was around 40 years of age and looked quite physically strong.
However, both of the men looked down at their tables as if death was standing in front of them. "Old man Jian, you dare still come to this establishment? Do you want to die that badly?" The slender-faced man said to the old man at the table, sounding very cocky and brash.
The old man couldn't utter a word, he continued to simply look down at the table beneath him. The slender-faced man spoke again. "My father overtook this tavern long ago due to you committing heinous acts towards the kingdom! How dare you show your face here again?" The young man yelled before kicking the old man in the stomach.
The old man was immediately thrown to the floor. As he exclaimed in pain, the slender-faced man kicked him again and again in the same spot. The old man started to cough blood as the goons next to the slender-faced man started to laugh.
"This is what happens to you if you disrespect the Han guild! Do you all understand?!" The young man then yelled loudly to everyone inside of the tavern. No one could say a single word. The 40-year-old at the same table as the old man seemed to be trying to hold in his anger as he clenched his fist tightly until his palm started to bleed.
The young man saw this and walked back over to the 40-year-old man. "Do you understand?" He said to the 40-year-old man, emphasizing the "You". The man sitting down unclenched his fist as tears could be seen dropping onto the table.
By this point, Qin was simply confused as to what that old man had done for him to get such a heavy beating. He also found the slender-faced man's tone slightly annoying.
"Haha!" The young man laughed. "Hahaha! It seems that you do!" The young man said again before facing everyone inside of the establishment. "Know this, and don't forget it! Always bow your lowly heads in front of the great Han guild! For we are the kings and you are nothing but the peasants!" The young man finally yelled.
Qin had stopped paying attention to the matter, as he had gotten his black marlin steak. But after hearing this, Qin's ears started to tingle. "Huuuuuhh?" Qin said as he turned his head around and faced the three young men.