Flow of Existence

Kes somehow found himself in a merchants tent after going over to ask a couple questions. But this was an opportunity to learn more about the big cities so he decided to make the most of it.

'Just need to make sure to be home for dinner on time.'

The tent was quite spacious on the inside, it was fitted with three mats to sleep on and a small table with two chairs.

Kes imagined this table would usually be used to close deals with more serious or rich customers in bigger deals. He could already imagine the neat looking merchant sitting behind it rubbing his hands as he cornered some unsuspecting seller.

Kes and Linda both took a seat at one side of the table, Boris just laid down on one of the mats seemingly uninteresting in their conversation.

Linda spoke up first. "Before we start talking we should introduce ourselves first, as you already know I am Linda. What's your name?"

"My name is Kes, nice to meet you Linda." Kes replied.

Linda nodded. "Nice to meet you too, Kes. I heard you were interested in the big cities, and I happen to be interested in rural villages. So why don't we exchange some information with each other."

Kes cocked his head. "Alright that's fine by me, just tell me what you want to know."

Inwardly he was suspicious, these people were already strange. Why did they want to know a lot about the village? He seemed like the perfect person to extract information from since he was just a curious kid.

He didn't really know what to do but just decided to assume the worst and hide as much as he possibly could. He also decided to assume that Linda was strong, very strong, and that he likely wouldn't get away with lying.

Linda started with some standard questions. Village customs, what kind of vegetables they grew and other methods of gathering food.

Kes decided it was best to just answer all these questions truthfully and so he did. He wasn't an expert on village customs either so he just told her what he knew.

Linda seemed especially interested in two different things, the academy and the hunting team. She kept asking more questions about them.

This made Kes even more uneasy, at first he thought they were just asking about the village to better earn money, or scam the villagers. But now he started to suspect worse.

He decided to give her a bunch of half truths on these topics, downplaying the strength the village held. 

After the nerve wracking conversation with the female guard ended it was finally Kes' time to ask some questions.

He didn't think he had told her too many things she wasn't supposed to know but he wondered how much she had been able to glean from his Flow.

"So what exactly did you want to know about the big cities?" Linda asked.

Kes thought for a moment. "Are there any important things happening currently in the big cities? Like any type of big news."

Linda nodded. "Yes, there is a lot happening at the moment actually. Paena just got a new king, he should've been crowned about a month ago now. I don't know the specifics either because we were out here travelling and haven't passed by any cities ourselves since then. But I expect the crowning to have been quite the big deal."

'A new king, huh.' Kes thought inwardly. 

He honestly couldn't imagine what a king was like, he didn't expect them to be anything like the old village chief at least. 

In stories kings were always described as regal, honorable and noble but Kes wondered how much of that was actually true. He would one day like to see one for himself but he doubted it would ever happen, a king was on another level than a village chief.

"Anything else? Maybe anything merchant related? You know future money making opportunities." Kes asked.

He didn't really know what he was expecting but since he wanted to move out of the village in the future it seemed like something useful to ask.

Linda pondered for a while before answering. "Well, recently a huge iron vein was discovered in the northern region of the Conia mountain range. I suspect it won't take much longer for people to start earning money there."

'Not something I can really do anything with I guess.' Kes thought.

After learning what was currently going on in the world he decided to just ask about city customs.

Linda was very helpful and patient providing answers for everything he asked.

It almost made Kes feel bad for being so secretive and untrusting earlier when she was the one asking the questions, but he knew it was better to be cautious.

After they talked a bit longer Kes decided it was time to go, he had to go home for dinner.

He had enjoyed his talk with the female guard but he still left the tent with a bad feeling. The group of three was just too suspicious, he just hoped he was overthinking it.

He arrived at home where something was smelling incredibly good. His mouth started watering from the smell alone, his mother clearly hadn't cooked today.

Kes opened the door. "I'm home. What are we eating today?"

Nora stepped out of a nearby room. "I don't know either, I just know it smells incredibly good."

Together they stepped into the dining room where Yosen had placed three plates of food.

Kes was surprised to see potatoes and meat again, but the potatoes didn't seem dry at all and were covered with some sort of sauce.

Yosen smiled. "Let's all just eat together."

The three of them sat down together at the table and started eating.

Kes' eyes lit up as he greedily forked the potatoes with sauce into his mouth. It tasted really really good.

He decided to just focus on eating first before asking about his weird encounter with the merchant and his guards afterwards.

It didn't take very long for the meal to be finished.

After the meal was finished Kes recounted his experiences with the weird merchant. How he first had asked the two questions and how afterwards the two guards had come outside. And how he then had a whole conversation with the female guard about both the village and the big cities.

"So do you guys think it is anything to worry about?" Kes finally concluded.

Nora stroked her chin. "It is definitely worrying to say the least, but I am more so interested in the talk about the new king being crowned. You might not know how big a deal that actually is, but it is in fact a huge deal. I just hope the new king doesn't change too many policies. I'm especially worried about my home region of Zoecia, the previous king didn't ransack it completely and was quite neutral with the place, but who knows how the new king compares."

Yosen nodded in agreement. "A new king of Paena means a change in the one who holds the most power in the entire continent, it could even affect us here all the way in our rural village. The information you learned, assuming it is not a lie, is a bigger deal than you could imagine."

Nora stood up. "I'll go and discuss it with some other merchants to verify this information before they leave. And I'll also discuss it a little with the village chief. I hope you guys don't mind me suddenly leaving."

Yosen shook his head. "I understand how serious this must be for you, you still have some family living in Zoecia right?"

Nora nodded. "I have to admit I am a little worried for them, but it all depends on if the king is actually a tyrant or not. Who knows, he might be a very nice guy. I just think it's important to get a quick idea of what he is like."

With that the nice mood that was set by the nice dinner had quickly turned a little sour.

While Nora left to go talk to some merchants Kes decided to just go to his room and meditate.

Today made him realize just how little he understood about the world. He hoped there wouldn't be any problems in the future, but nothing could be guaranteed.

And the only thing he could do to prevent problems from occurring in the future was to become stronger himself. If one was strong enough, one didn't need to fear problems. 

…

Meanwhile in the merchant's tent the neat looking merchant, Boris and Linda were sitting on top of their mats.

Boris let out an annoyed grunt. "Are you sure it was smart to tell that little kid so much, it felt like he was holding back information himself too. You didn't need to take so much time to explain stuff to him."

Linda shook her head. "I must admit I underestimated the kid, just because he looks young doesn't mean he is ignorant I guess. But we still learned a lot of valuable information from him, I could more or less tell when he was lying too."

"That still doesn't explain why you had to tell him about all the other stuff in such detail. It took up a lot of our time we could've otherwise spent exploring this village. Maybe we could've learned more about their combat power that way." The neat merchant said in a nervous voice.

Linda let out a raspy, but somehow pleasant, chuckle. "Trust me, it was definitely worth our time, that kid has a lot of potential. You might want to call this an investment for the future."

Boris shook his head. "You are nasty as always Linda. I'm glad we are on the same team. But you should really quell your perverted tendencies in the future. We are on an important mission after all, we can't mess this up because you had your eyes on some promising boys."

Linda sighed. "I know, I know. But this one was just too interesting to let go. I won't do anything in the future that could possibly compromise us. But what the kid said was very true too, we do look extremely suspicious. I think we should do something about that for the next couple villages we visit."

She turned around to look at the neat merchant. "And you are the biggest problem, stop being so vain all the time, we are traveling merchants not nobles here. You will definitely need to change your look before we reach our next destination."

The neat merchant let out a deep sigh. "Alright, I'll do what you say Linda, but I expect to get a bigger cut from the money when this is all over."

Linda licked her lips. "Don't worry, I've already decided what I want as a reward once we finish this mission."