"Uncle Johan, the young master of the gray family bought a southern kingdom slave from us today." Ivar was standing in front of Johan looking him in the eye.
"Oh? That's great. Linda notified me of that already." Johan cleaned the sweat off of his face with a towel.
"But the problem is that that guy said his friend in Alverton already has 15 southern kingdom slaves. We only have 4 of them. Oraburg is near the borders and we still can't get them here fast enough. What might be the problem?" Ivar looked seriously at Johan.
"Oh that… I have noticed it too. Looks like the slave capturers and the traders in Alverton might have allied and decided to keep the monopoly of the Southern Kingdom Slaves."
"We should do something about this! I can go to Alverton." Ivar replied.
"Yes. I was already planning on sending someone there. My weapon dealer friend is also heading there in a week. Why don't you and Aiden go there? I will look for other cheaper sources here. You and Aiden should try to convince the slave capturers there to make an alliance with us."
"Yes, Uncle! I will try my best!" Ivar complied.
Johan looked at the sword tied to Ivar's waist and remarked, "You are still the same huh, Ivar. Training ever since you arrived here every night. Even though you are supposed to be a merchant."
"About that uncle-"
"But you don't need to worry much. Although every city and village has a messenger, the culture of checking fate is actually of the eastern countries that our village is quite near to. Apparently, those eastern countries are mostly under the control of the shield. I guess you can say that the influence of checking fate rubbed off."
"Does that mean?!" Ivar's eyes widened.
"Yes, most of the world doesn't check their fate when they turn 15…." Johan paused for a while looking at Ivar and continued again, "But, Basically all of the people who do get it checked, live on to follow it. Even the royal families of the eastern countries follow it and everything is going normally for them.
"Ivar, your fate of being a merchant might be hard for you to accept but you should learn to accept it. I have regretted it and don't want you to be like me…"
Ivar's eyes widened, "What do you mean uncle?"
Johan lightly smiled, " You see Ivar, when I got my fate checked at 15, my first half of life was to be a farmer and hunter, but in the second half more specifically after my son was born I was supposed to go to other cities and become a merchant."
Johan stood up and looked out of the window, " But how could I leave my newborn son and my wife? So I wanted to extend that time… You know what happened after that because of my greed…"
Johan didn't want Ivar to end up like him but he also didn't want to crush the hopes and dreams of Ivar. But little did he know, Ivar had already gone against the fate recited by the messenger!
"Yes… I understand Uncle." Ivar stood up and left the room. He closed the door looking at Johan one more time. A distant memory of his friend played in his mind.
"Ugh-!" Suddenly in front of the closed door, Ivar clutched his chest as he felt a sharp pain in his heart.
'I have been training for all of my life. Why is this happening again? Is this a disease? Is this the consequence of running from my fate?' Ivar gritted his teeth and slowly walked to his room, making sure to make as little noise as possible.
Ivar, his head now red and full of sweat, opened the door to his room and sat on the ground, still clutching his chest. After a while his complexion returned to normal, he took a few heavy breaths as he thought, 'It has been 15 days since this started happening, What is the problem with my body?'
The only person knowledgeable and inexpensive enough about issues like diseases and injury in this town was the messenger but Ivar didn't feel comfortable going there to get this checked.
***
"Alright, Ivar. Aiden. Be sure to get us some products!" Johan waved the duo goodbye as they walked.
Ivar and Aiden continued walking across the city till they reached one of the gates. There was a long caravan arranged just waiting to head out. Ivar noticed that it wasn't as long as the one that he arrived on.
"Where is that guy now? Ivar tell me if you see a slightly chubby old man." Aiden said.
Ivar nodded as he kept looking here and there and finally saw a slightly chubby old man in luxurious clothing.
"Sir Aiden, Look he is there! But there is someone else with him." Ivar showed the old man to Aiden.
"Hmm? Someone else? Did he bring his daughter?" Aiden questioned himself.
"Ah, Ivar you know his name right?"
"Yes. His name is Thomas Gilmore." Ivar replied.
"Correct! Now let's go meet him! After that we will go to our own carriage we rented." Aiden and Ivar walked toward Thomas.
"Okay."
As they were getting closer to Thomas, Ivar got a close look at his daughter. The girl made him feel like his breath was stuck in his throat. Her crimson eyes shined with the light of determination and kindness. Similarly, Her light red hair flowed down to her waist like a river of blood.
"Nice to meet you, Mr Thomas. My name is Aiden, and I am the manager of the Oraburg branch of Liberation Slave Traders. Sir Johan sent me to meet you." Aiden politely hooked up a conversation with Thomas.
"Ho ho, Nice to meet you too, Mr Aiden. And who this young man might be?" Thomas turned to Ivar. Ivar had already gotten out of his stupor.
"Nice to meet you, Sir. My name is Ivar. I am Uncle Johan's friend's son. Uncle Johan took me under his wing!"
The old man laughed lightly and said, "Is that so? My daughter here is also learning from me. Introduce yourself, sweetheart"
"Nice to meet you. My name is Aria Gilmore." She then looked at Ivar and continued "Let's have a nice journey together!"
***
In a clearing in a forest, A long caravan had stopped. People could be seen eating food and sitting around a campfire in the area. In one such campfire, Ivar and Aria were sitting and eating food along with other mercenaries. Thomas and Aiden had gone somewhere else to talk to business partners.
"We are almost halfway there, right? Aira." Ivar casually asked Aira. Throughout the last five days, the two had met a lot of times while eating and had become close enough to be addressed casually.
"Yes, I can't wait to reach Alverton, I heard it has quite the beautiful places," Aira replied softly.
"Is that so? Then why don't we take a look at them after we finish our business in Alverton?" Ivar said.
Aira smiled lightly and said, "I will be looking forward to it!"
Ivar saw a mercenary his age standing near the campfire, looking carefully at the forest and trees.
"Hey, friend! Have you eaten food yet? I see you have been standing there for a while now."
The silver-haired and silver-eyed young mercenary looked strangely at Ivar, who called him a friend.
"Do I know you? Also thanks for the offer. I guess I should eat now." The mercenary went away and got food for himself.
He then sat close to Ivar and started eating.
Ivar didn't care if the guy ate or not but what he did care about was the fact that someone this young was a mercenary.
"So what's your name?"
"I am Cohen! What's your name?" Cohen talked while chewing his food.
"My name is Ivar. Now you see, I was curious how you became a mercenary at such an age. So what is the process of becoming one? How long have you been one for? If you don't mind me asking." Ivar quickly got to the point.
Cohen looked excited as he started shouting in a campfire surrounded by about 10 people eating food, "Well I started in Oraburg. So all you have to do is-"
"AARRGHH!"
Cohen was quickly cut off by a painful screaming sound of an old man who was hit on the head by a throwing knife.
"Well well well, What do we have here? A merchant caravan. It sure is a pleasant surprise." A man wearing a black cloth mask connected to inner clothing and a robe with red edges spoke in a rough voice.
Cohen and Ivar quickly unsheathed their swords as someone screamed "The demon sect members have attacked!"
Chaos ensued.