Madwa was a small run down town with a population of barely couple of hundreds of people, the street appeared completely empty as if no has been passing through this place for quite a while now. Looking at this lifeless desolate town which has nothing going for it, Karn couldn't help but ask.
"Just why the hell are we here, this place is even more isolated that our village." Karn asked.
"Just Follow me for now, and remember not to utter a word from your mouth,once you enter that place."
Saying so, Ian started walking towards a particular creepy looking multiple storeyed house, situated right in the extreme corner of the town, as if the whole purpose of that place is to be in solitude.Despite its vindictive appearance it, the backyard of the house gave a peaceful and resonating aura, which might seem a little bit too disorienting, if we were compare it with the state that said house is currently in.
"Listen once we enter inside, don't look anywhere else, just walk right in, pick any one random plant that's planted in there, and remember when I say one, I mean just One." Ian made sure to give special emphasis on only 'taking just one' as it might bring too much trouble for them, if they were to offend the person living in there by being too greedy.
Although he highly doubt, the owner will show himself for a mere spiritual herbs he planted out
boredom but he wouldn't gamble Karn's life over it.
"Don't tell me your ingenious master plan is to steal from someone else, if that's the case I am going back home right now." Karn immediately refuted.
"Don't worry, it's just a plant, given his stature, I highly doubt he is going to confront you over that." Ian argued.
"I have seen noblemen, executing an entire family just for stealing an apple from there garden,I am not crazy enough to take such a gamble. Karn said with a fumbling tone, as those horrible scenes, were still fresh in his memories.
"Do you really think a nobleman would be living in a house like this " Ian responded.
Hearing this, Karn dropped his vigilance, as he felt what Ian said makes sense.
"Right, there's no way a noble would agree to live in place like this, but still I don't feel comfortable about stealing from someone else."
"Just trust me this once, I'll never wrong any of my children's, I have a way of paying him back later on." Ian said with an assuring tone.
"Your Children's ?" Karn questioned with a confused look on his face.
"Ahem!, Ahem!" Ian coughed slightly, as it seems he completely forgot that he is no longer an almighty creator of this world anymore, but just an ordinary black cat.
"It was a slip of tongue, don't go so much into the details, just walk right into that gate grab any random plant you see, and get out." Ian immediately reminded Karn.
"Wait!,Wait!, shouldn't we sneak in from behind, to make sure not to alert the owner the house" Karn questioned.
"It doesn't matter how you go in, the owner will notice you no matter what," Ian gave a thought before continuing "Isn't much better not to act like a thief if you don't want to be treated like one. Ian said condescendingly.
"Alright then I am going in" Karn murmured, while still being unsure this plan, before taking a leap, and walking right inside the entrance of the house.
After entering the house, the first thing Karn noticed were Myriads of different plants growing in the backyard of this seemingly abandoned house.
Hundreds of different plants, of various size shapes and colours were right infront of Karn's eyes.Some even being multi coloured, with tremendous amount of thick blue hue leaking from it. As those excess amount of Mana,leaking out from those plants giving them a very sacred look.
Karn got completely overwhelmed by the scene in front of him, before sharp pain in his legs jolted him and woke him back from his trance.
As he glanced towards the location, where he felt the pain, he noticed a light claw marks on his legs, and a black cat glaring towards him.
He could tell, Ian's telling him to snap out of it with and follow the plan without speaking it out loud.
Karn gulped, while walking towards the most ordinary looking plant, uprooting it and placing it in his cotton bag he brought from home, before immediately hurrying his steps and barging out of that place, as fast as he possibly could.
As all this incident took place, there was another pair of eyes looking thought this scene from deep chamber's located inside that house, without a tinge of expression on his face, Before he went back to his meditating stance not bothering about this incident at all.
"Huff Huff Huff, I swear I am never doing something like this again." Karn swore to himself while taking deep breathes, as he kept running for a while to get as far as he possibly could from that darn place.
Karn would be considered an idiot he still couldn't figure out those plants were far from ordinary after witnessing that scene in front of him.
He already knew it was too late to turn back after barging inside the gate.
"Y..You lied to me, you told me..." Before Karn could finish his sentence, Ian instantly interrupted him.
"I told you he is not a noble, that's not a lie." Ian said with a monotic tone.
"Then what the hell were those plants, even an idiot could tell those things were precious, and might even worth a fortune."
"It was just some middle and high grade spiritual herbs, while the one you grabbed is a low grade one, all those herbs were completely useless for that owner of that house, look he didn't even bother to confront us."
"A spiritual Herb!" Karn exclaimed before clenching and bringing that cotton bag containing the herb near his chest.
"Aren't those extremely expensive that only rich Martial artists practioners can afford." karn whispered as quietly as he possibly could.
Ian lightly nodded his head, affirming Karn's questions.
"Just who in the world is the owner of that house" Karn questioned with suspicious tone.
Possessing such precious herbs while living in such a desolate place, and what astonished karn the most was the owner's nonchalant attitude, as he didn't even seem to bother showing himself, despite someone barging in and taking this precious herbs from his backyard.
"We will officially greet him someday, but before that there's tons of things we need to do" Ian said with a serious tone.
Although we were lucky that person decided not to confront us, or else he would had choice but to use the information he had on this said individual, which would have been a quite a waste to use for a mere low grade spiritual herb.
As Ian decided not to alter the past, as much as he possibly could, or else the few important historical moments he knew from the future might cease to exist, taking away a huge chunk of advantage that he has over his opponents.
"So what now?, am I supposed to eat this herb or something." karn questioned, while carefully fickiling around the bad containing the herb.
Ian immediately shook his little head before responding
"Those herbs are for Martial artists to consume and then refine inside their body using qi, they are completely useless for you."
"Then what exactly are you planning to with it." Karn questioned.
Ian threw an enthusiastic look towards Karn before replying "What do you think?, we are going to sell it ofcourse."
....
Karn still had a dazed expression on his face as he felt the weight of the pouch filled with money on his hand.
The herb they picked just fetched them a total of 180 gold coins, Karn knew this is considered a decent amount even for those loafty nobles, let alone him a mere son of a serf.
An average Commoner household earns roughly around 2-3 gold coins annually, while a serf household like Karn are paid by measly amount of monthly rations, despite toiling in the fields for day and night.
This amount is almost equivalent to 60 years worth of salary of an ordinary commoner, This much is more than enough for him and his family to live a stable life for quite a long time.
"Are you sure I can keep them." Karn asked begrudgingly.
Karn still had to process all the crazy stuffs he witnessed and went through in just a span of a day.
"I guess we can afford a carriage now, let's hurry back, the sun is about to set at any moment now" Ian murmured before walking.
"Wait for me" Karn replied before hurridely sprinting his legs, matching the strides of his cat,while both of them walked towards a carriage parked right around the corner of the street, to experience their first of many carriage rides together.