The next morning I woke up early, due to a very particular reason.

  I was being smothered!

  There was a giant paw covering my face. I probably should have been worried about the claws that seemed larger than my face, but I hastily pushed the paw off.

  “Lily, don’t smother me!” I said, nudging her.

  There was no reaction. She just stretched further, taking up more room on the bed.

  This morning we’d be going to the marketplace, which meant I’d finally be able to get all the supplies I needed! And hopefully, some new stuff. I knew I didn’t really need any meat, but I was excited to try something new.

  As I went toward the door, Crisplet burst from the hearth to follow along. I’d only made it halfway down the stairs when Tony got my attention.

  “Excuse me, Lord Ashmo…” he started to say.

  “Please, just Trevor, or Sir if you must,” I said.

  “Sorry, sir. Could I have a moment of your time?” he asked, seemingly very nervous.

  “Everything okay?” I asked.

  “Well, it’s difficult. I heard you’re seeing my father later today, and, um… I just wanted to warn you, actually. To be careful,” Tony said, clearly struggling to say it.

  I was shocked to hear this, especially from someone I barely knew. “Careful? Will he try to harm me?” I asked.

  “No… not harm you. He’ll try to take advantage of you. He always has a plan, or a scheme, and I want you to be aware of it,” Tony said, still looking very nervous.

  “Thanks for letting me know, but why? He’s family.” I looked at Tony, trying to study what he’d get out of this.

  “Well, truthfully, I just don’t want to see him get hurt or killed. And I don’t think he really realises how well connected you are with beings that are outside of his control. He’s a stubborn old man,” Tony said, hanging his head.

  “Ah, I see. Well, thank you for your honesty, but don’t worry, I won’t be seeing him alone. While I’ve got you, how’s everything going? It must be odd working here now,” I said with a smile.

  “It’s certainly out of my comfort zone. I never thought I’d spend my days cleaning and escorting messengers in and out all day, but it’s fun. Those statues are incredible too, except the one out front that’s moving occasionally has some staff worried. They’ve already begun to say it’s haunted,” he said with a laugh.

  “What statue is moving?” I asked, confused. They were both made of solid stone, and they were incredibly heavy.

  “The Lily one. It changed the direction it was facing, and it felt like every time we saw the statue again it had moved. However, no one saw it actually moving,” Tony said.

  I awkwardly laughed. That was absolutely Lily moving her statue to ensure it faced the moon. I wasn’t sure if I should ask her to stop, or just let it happen.

  I waved to Tony as I continued on my way to the kitchen. I wanted to prepare a quick breakfast before the day, but as I entered the living room that led to the dining room, Jen caught my attention.

  “Don’t make anything. We’re going to go to the markets as soon as Micca and Liane are up, and we’ll get something there!” she called.

  “They have breakfast food?” I asked.

  “Of course. You’re in the capital now, you can find anything! My personal favourite is these cake-like things, a bit like bread but they’re fried, then covered in sugar and spices with a honey coating,” Jen said. I could have sworn there was some drool there.

  “That sounds like a dessert, not breakfast,” I laughed.

  “Sounds like breakfast to me!” Micca’s voice came from behind. “But I probably won’t be joining you this morning. I want to go to the shop and start organising the floor layout. I was up all night making plans, but I need to see it in person,” she said.

  I nodded. I was disappointed that Micca wouldn’t join us, but it made sense.

  “Make sure he haggles and don’t let him get scammed,” she said sternly to Jen.

  “You got it,” Jen said with a laugh.

  It didn’t take long before Liane joined us, though I was not convinced she was actually awake, and we made our way to the foyer where we were met by Archie.

  “Sir, I have prepared a carriage for you,” he said, bowing slightly.

  I looked at Jen and Liane. “Can’t we walk there?”

  They both shook their heads. “We can probably stop halfway so we don’t show up at the markets in the carriage, but it’s best that we leave in one,” Jen said.

  We stopped once we’d passed the inner walls, and the carriage dropped us off. It would still be a fairly long walk from here to the marketplace, but I really didn’t want to arrive in a carriage—certainly not the one we were travelling in, as it was clearly for royalty or high nobles.

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  The driver agreed to wait for us by the gate, so we made our way into the city.

  This was my first time really experiencing it, and it was both overwhelming and incredible. The streets were clean as people moved along, starting their day. The middle of the road seemed to be exclusively for passing wagons, riders, and carriages. This area was clearly mainly residential, but the buildings themselves were tall and well-maintained.

  “This area is for lower nobles and usually merchants. Perhaps a few wealthy adventurers,” Jen explained as we walked down the street.

  What I noticed here, compared to a lot of the other places we had visited, was that there was no water on the roads, and very little stray dirt either, with all the roads here seemingly made out of smooth stone.

  We even had several guards pass by riding on the backs of Drakhal. They didn’t appear to be in a rush at all.

  “We’ll probably want to catch a ride with a regular wagon to the marketplace, or we’ll spend all morning walking instead of shopping,” Liane said.

  “Won’t it draw attention?” I asked, really wanting to avoid that.

  “No. Due to the size of the capital, they run a service where you can rent a carriage or wagon to take you where you need to go, and usually it’ll just cost a couple of coppers. It’s far better than walking, unless you want to spend the day just walking,” Jen added.

  It didn’t take long for Jen to spot what she was looking for and get their attention, and it was perfect. It was just a regular wagon with two benches running in the back, with several people already sitting there. As it turned out, these communal ones were much cheaper and far more common.

  While we rode, I also discovered that Grovul, the much larger version of Buvul—were not permitted in these residential streets due to noise and waste. This discovery came as a shock to me because we exited the smaller streets and seemed to hit a main thoroughfare that had dozens of them, all of which were larger than the wagon. It felt like they were looming over me.

  The smooth ride from before was now long gone, as the roads grew rough. There was also a strong smell in the air now, a mixture of smoke and manure.

  “You get used to it,” Jen said, noticing me scrunch my nose.

  Crisplet never left the brazier, but I could tell he was very curious about the surroundings, watching the tall buildings pass us.

  “Where is the adventurers’ guild here?” I asked curiously.

  Jen chuckled. “There are five buildings in the capital for them. One in the lower noble and merchant district, two near the marketplace and inns, one near the crafters’ quarter, and then a rather rough place in the lower quarter, which I think we’ll be avoiding.”

  “So many…” I muttered.

  “They all serve different purposes and different jobs, so it makes it easier for you to choose what you want. The lower noble and merchant districts are usually your caravan jobs—protection, bodyguard, that sort of thing—while the crafters’ quarter is material collection. The marketplace tends to have your normal kill quests, along with certain bounties from the dungeon,” Jen explained.

  I watched as a Grovul came alongside the wagon, its horns larger than I was.

  “Wait, you didn’t mention the last one,” I said.

  “It’s where the capital orphans and lower-ranked teams start out. They get the jobs no one else wants to do,” Liane said bitterly.

  “Ah, I see,” I said, but I didn’t get to finish that thought as the wagon came to a halt.

  “This is our stop. Let’s go!” Jen said excitedly.

  Jumping off the back of the wagon, we quickly made our way off the road while the wagon pulled away. Crisplet took the opportunity to leave the brazier. We weren’t directly in the market yet, but the smells had already changed, from smoky waste to roast meats, smoke, and still manure.

  But what had changed the most was the surroundings. No longer were there residences and quiet streets. Now it looked to be shops—crafting stores with tailors, cobblers, jewellery stores—and books. So many books.

  There were also ones that surprised me. There looked to be a shop purely dedicated to magic tools, another for magic scrolls. I wished Milo were here to explain it all to me.

  As I was pulled through the streets, I saw a giant stable building that must have been housing Grovul; it was that large, and all along the street were shops selling food and drink, with restaurants, inns, and cafe’s.

  “Come on, Trev, you’ve not even seen the market yet!” Liane said, grabbing me by the wrist and pulling me along.

  Heading down a side street, the bad smells got worse. There was clearly far less cleaning done down here, but when it opened up again, I stopped dead in my tracks.

  The marketplace was massive.

  There were stalls everywhere, and so many people.

  Everything from small tents barely propped up on the ground with someone selling goods off a cloth blanket, to massive semi-permanent structures that had goods lining the walls. Scattered all around were various kinds of food shops, most seeming to use an easily relocatable handcart of sorts.

  The noise, though, was intense. So many people shouting their wares, all the haggling and chatting, with stalls that had livestock still alive in pens. I even saw one in the distance that looked like it was giving kids a ride on the back of a Drakhal.

  “Come on, Trev, let’s get some breakfast,” Jen said as Liane continued to pull me along.

  “Crisplet, stay close!” I called, and Crisplet didn’t question it. He immediately came back into the brazier hanging at my side, looking out over the top, clearly as overwhelmed as I was.

  It didn’t take long for Jen to find the food stall she was after, but I had my eyes on something else. It looked like little pockets of meat between a fried thin bread, with a small amount of spicy sauce and cheese. They looked super greasy, but I didn’t mind. My mind was made up. I didn’t even care what meat that was. It smelt so good.

  Jen and Liane, however, got their sugar-coated waffles with an incredibly sticky honey coating.

  What I wanted was apparently a Draqish taco. The Draqish were part of the lizard family and lived deep below ground in caves, but they had incredibly fatty and tender meat due to their tendency not to move a lot.

  I received three small tacos, and Liane, unsurprisingly, got them as well.

  Taking my first bite convinced me I needed to learn how to make it. The breading was crispy on the outside where it had been shallow-fried, while inside the meat was incredibly juicy with just the right amount of spice. It wasn’t overly fatty, but you could tell from one bite that this wasn’t good for you.

  The cheese bound it all together, and there was something else inside. It was crispy and sweet with a vinegar hit. Altogether, this was a meal worthy of the goddess.

  “Incredible,” I muttered between bites.

  Jen just laughed. “We’ll be eating all morning, so don’t fill up at one place. There are countless options for you—well, especially you, when you don’t need to worry about food poisoning.”

  Liane laughed at that.

  “Just stay close to us, Trev. It’s incredibly easy to get separated here, and even harder to find your way out if you’re not familiar,” Liane said, guiding me away while I ate the tacos with my spare hand.

  Why did I have to have a meeting later? I wanted to explore this place all day.