The next day, I had Victor and Arwan patrol around the city, I wanted them to report back to me if they saw someone resembling the king or anything unusual. And while I didn't know what the king looked like myself, due to it not being mentioned in the novel, I too went patrolling around to see if I could find him.
Farren city was rather large, considering that it was a city for traders, merchants, and basically anything that could bring the kingdom more money. I was currently in a section of the city known as the "Food District." Which, as the name suggests, was full of Bars, Restaurants, food stalls, and grocery stores.
Looking around, there were mostly human tourists and a few elementals and elves here or there. I was getting rather hungry so I stopped by a food stall that was selling meat kebabs.
Once I got closer to the stall, I heard the stall manager and who I presumed to be an adventurer in a one-sided argument. It was something about payment but i couldn't tell from my distance, so I kept on walking closer since everyone was trying to avoid the two.
"I said I'm selling one to you, now scram! You're scaring off the rest of the customers!" The stall manager yelled at the man.
"Please!" the man pleaded, "my party and I have been on the road for days, all we have is a few copper coins, can't you at least take these, and then I'll pay you the rest when I get more coins!"
"NO! Now get! I don't want to ever see your crummy ass near my stall again!" The manager said, swatting his towel toward the man as he turned around and started to walk away.
"Excuse me, Sir," I said in my nicest and politest tone, "Could I get 5 beef kebabs, and could you please pack them all individually?"
"Why of course! That will be two silver!" he said rubbing his hands together before accepting the change and packing the food, handing it to me he said, "Thank you for your patronage!"
I hurriedly rushed after the adventurer who was at the stall, I felt bad for him so I decided to give three of the kebabs to him and whoever was in his party. Luckily, i spotted him rather quickly, he was only a few feet away from me, walking down the street.
"Hey! Mr. Adventurer!" I caught up to him and he turned around to see me.
"Um, are you okay?" he asked and I nodded my head, "alright, but what is it that you need?"
"Earlier, you said that you and your party haven't gotten to rest yet, and you only have a few copper coins right?" he nodded in return, "Well here, these are for you and the rest of your party."
"HAH!? Thank you so much! I can't thank you enough!" the adventurer said with gratitude shown on his face and in his voice.
"Don't mention it, you can just think of it as my good deed for the day! Ah right, i should probably introduce myself, my name is Raegan, and you are?" I asked, making up a fake name in case somebody recognized me here.
"Its Lance, Lance Stewart! I'm an adventurer from the adventurers guild in the Wade kingdom, its a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr. Reagan," Lance responded in a polite tone.
"..."
'Ah shit…I should have realized earlier! Not only does he look like the vice-captain for the protagonist's party, but he is the vice-captain!'
Lance had purple hair that faded to black at the ends and pearl-colored eyes, he also had pointed elf-like ears and honey-colored skin and was quite tall and muscular. He was about an inch taller than me. He was wearing a purple uniform with a tight black turtle neck underneath and armor on his shoulders, elbows, knees, and a breastplate. He was wearing black fingerless gloves and black combat boots, I also recognized the sword at his side as the obsidian sword he had earned from helping the Wade kingdom.
"Like wise, Sir Lance. Um, do you and your party perhaps have an inn yet?" i asked, hoping he would say yes so that i could get as far away from that inn as possible.
"Yes, thats actually why we're so low on money…oh! And if you're worried about what the inn is its XXX in down on XX street!" he paused with his mouth open before continuing in an embarrassed tone with, "Wait! Please pretend like you didn't hear that!"
"Haha! Of course, but be more careful next time, you never know what kind of malicious intent others might have," I lectured.
'YESSSS! I don't have to move inns!'
Lance and his parties inn were across the city from Victor, Arwans, and mine. We chatted for a while before he realized the food was getting cold and excused himself before he ran off.
Fortunately, I remembered to ask him if he knew any quiet places around the city where someone might go to take a break from a busy life. And, he just so happened to know a place!
The place was a small public garden owned by a nice old couple who used to be adventurers, they grew the garden with all of their favorite flowers from across the continent. I had to compliment them on their green thumbs, they had quite some talent!
The other end of the garden opened up into a windy path that led to a small secluded beach with a small port, i wanted to have a few moments to appreciate it, but it was interrupted by the sound of a yelp.
Looking over in the direction where the sound came from, I could see a man on the ground being surrounded by what seemed to be a gang of thieves, or I could be mercenaries. You never know when it comes to fantasy worlds.
It looked as if they were trying to put the other man's life at risk, so I quickly ran down there and tried to intervene.
"Excuse, gentlemen, is there a problem over here?" i jested, trying to get them to direct their full attention to me so that the other could get away.
"Hah!" a man who seemed to be their leader scoffed, "mind your own damn business, a little sissy like you should know not to get involved!"
'Siss…y?...Oh I know they did not just call ME and fucking sissy!?'
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry to have to say this to a dizzy-eyed mongrel such as yourself, but you see…This man here is a companion of mine, and I'd appreciate it if you left him alone," I insisted, quickly coming up with a lie to try and get the man on the ground to trust me a bit.
"Why you!...Hah! Then i suppose we'll just have to take you down along with this companion of yours!" He said, obviously meaning for his men and the guy on the ground to hear it.
All of his men burst out laughing while i looked down at the man on the ground and nodded my head at him, then i looked up and gave the rest of the crowd a dead pan look.
"Well then, bring it on ya cockereds!" I exclaimed before getting into a fighting stance.
'Ahhhhhh, this reminds me of my middle school and early high school years!' back in middle and the first two years of high school, i often got into fistfights, which always gave me bruises all over.
Eventually, I learned martial arts and quickly earned my black belt, but then my mother passed and I got transferred to another high school. The next school ended up being a private school, which was also a school full of military families, so even the school ended up being pretty strict on rules. So i never really got the chance to use the abilities I had honed, that was until my military days, but even then i used them rarely.
'Hopefully, I'm not too rusty…'
The first guy came running at me, but i grabbed his arm and threw him aside, making trip and stubble over his own legs. The next guy threw a punch toward my face, but i caught it and kneed him it the gut, therefore immobilizing him.
The next two seemed to learn a lesson from the first two, they came at me at the same time, one with a knife and the other using his fists. I dodged the punch and twisted the dude's arm that was holding the knife around to his backside and grabbed his other arm to put it above his head and disarm him, thus pushing him aside.
The fifth guy had brass knuckles on, he first tried to uppercut me, which I dodged with grace, then he tried to axe kick me, and I also blocked it. I returned his efforts by grabbing his leg then spinning him around and throwing him across the beach.
Then there was the sixth, he came at me with a dagger in each hand, thinking that it would make a difference if he increased the danger level. But in the end even his efforts failed, i grabbed both of his wrists and squeezed making him drop his weapons, and then I kicked his chest.
He stumbled back and i took the opportunity to hit him with a roundhouse kick, resulting in knocking him out. The rest of the leader's minions recovered and we continued this little struggle for a bit, but eventually, their leader interrupted.
"Alright, thats enough every one!" he said once all of his men were on the ground, either out of breath, groaning in pain, or knocked out like the sixth guy.
"What, you finally realized how pointless this whole thing is and have decided to give up this farce and run away?" i jested, trying to provoke him.
"I would say that exactly, but something similar…I'm simply done with seeing my men get their asses handed to them! So…i guess if you want something done properly, you better do it yourself," He said, taking his jacket off and cracking his knuckles.
"Hey! Thats the spirit! I'm glad you've finally realized it, though i doubt your going to be much of a challenge, considering how bloody week you're men were," I responded with some tiredness in my voice.
"We'll see whether you still think the same after this," He replied.
He ran at me while throwing a punch, which i dodged and got behind him to push his back. He stumbled forward and tried to kick me while turning all the way around, but i caught his leg and twisted it, then threw him to the side.
"Come on! Put some more effort into it! I'd like to have some fun with this, so do try your hardest for me!" I joked, then i jumped and spun my body around to kick him, but he was fast enough to block it with his fore arm.
After that he ran towards me and tackled me, but i jumped and flipped him underneath me, and when he was on the ground trying to get up i kicked him in the gut. He ended up flying half-way across the beach.
'...I think there might have been too much force it that…'
"Urgh," the leader groaned while getting up, "Damn it! You win this time!" He said while running away, the rest of his men ran after him with their unconscious comrades.
"..." I stayed silent for a while, trying to remember why the fight even started.
"Um…Excuse me," I heard a dry but slightly deep voice coming from behind me.
'...i completely forgot about him…'
"Ah! Right, are you alright!?" I asked, running toward him and offering him my hand to help him up, which he eagerly accepted.
"Yes, I am, thank you for the help, I am very grateful! If you weren't here who knows what would have happened haha!" He laughed embarrassedly, his face was rather flushed and he was holding both of my hands in his, i tried to take my hands from his but he wouldn't let go.
The man was tall, around 6'5, with teal hair and sea-green eyes. He was wearing an off-the-shoulder top that had the sleeves rolled up he was wearing it with a brown vest and black pants with, surprisingly, no shoes. On his sun-kissed skin, there was also shiny scale-like skin, I could also see it on his arms.
"..." He looked at me with a blank look in his eyes, he was also blushing and holding my hands rather tight, then he said, "Excuse me but, would you honor me with being my bride?"