A Dragon’s Curiosity

 

 

While Nisha left the spectator stands and went to look for an acquaintance inside the lower floor that would be able to help her register for a match. 

This figure was entirely unknown to her passed by the impressive building complex and threw a wistful look at the lively atmosphere, faintly registering the shouts of the excited crowd all the way to the street.

Tom was just an ordinary craftsman, the place he worked for mainly dealt with all sorts of leather equipment and their production.

As a matter of fact, he was currently pulling a hand cart behind him, a big unit, which was hoisted on two wooden wheels and had a handle for him to draw.

The tools of his trade and several concoctions stored in jars and small vats were taking up most of the space on the cart, though it was much better to drag them along like this than trying to fit them in a backpack or large sack.

If it was not for the fact that he had no place to store his stuff and an appointment looming in the near future, Tom would not have minded going into the Arena for a quick peek at the upcoming schedule for the next moon.

Matches at higher cultivation levels usually got scheduled in advance to draw in a large crowd and advertise them for higher bets.

Entertainment was usually rather limited, only on certain days did the temple arrange a temple fair or a festival held in the entire kingdom.

Plays and storytellers occasionally set up camp, but Tom did not quite enjoy them as much as a good match in the sand pit, where he could win money if he had a solid grasp on the contender’s strength.

He never gambled much, but it was a different kind of thrill that was hard to find in other places.

Tom decided that he would take some time in the following days to check the schedule and pick a date to bring his family on a trip.

His older daughter did not find much joy from the bloody matches, but the delicious food and time with the family were sure to cheer her up anyways.

On the other hand, his younger son had several favorite fighters and knew their techniques and skills like the back of his hand.

Tom’s wife disliked the boy’s fascination with violence, but she also enjoyed the family time, hence she never said anything about it.

Banishing the thoughts of bloodshed and excitement from his mind, the leatherworker picked a piece of brown mass from the hidden pocket sewn inside his coat and quickly put it in his mouth.

At first, the clump was rather solid and sticky, but after some good chewing and moving it around from the front to the back and in reverse, the chunk softened and Tom pressed it underneath his tongue.

Like a charm, the handcart was no longer quite as heavy as it was before, his head hurt slightly less from the worry about his upcoming engagement and the edges of his vision softened up as the chunk of Bliss worked its magic.

 

Tom was not worried that anyone would see him and report him to the guards, in fact, he would have to be really unlucky to get caught around here.

Most of the people in the Commoner’s District around the Arena were rather fond of the bottle or secretly took Bliss, it was mostly a difference in how often they could afford either of them.

Thirty to forty copper bought around several days’ worth of Bliss, as long as one knew where to find it.

Any bar that had a sign of the [Thieves Guild] distributed the illegal drug, although the man did not know why the kingdom was so vehemently against Bliss and forbid its usage.

You only needed to walk in, draw a secret signal on the counter and pass over the money, then a small bundle with the goods was passed back and the entire transaction did not require any words at all and was over in the blink of an eye.

The prices were fixed too, as the guild was the only supplier and exercised strict control over the sales, none of the bars and other establishments dared to up the price too much in case they incurred the wrath of the guild.

It took a common worker around half a moon to earn that much money with physical labor, and that was without eating and drinking a single thing and sleeping on the streets.

As a result, they either had to reduce their consumption or find other ways to earn a little money on the side.

Fortunately, as a skilled leatherworker, Tom did not have to worry much about the finances, especially since he also had a way to earn some income aside from his job at the leatherworking shop.

With determined steps, he left the area and headed for the gates separating the Noble District and Commoner District.

Due to his cart, Tom wasn’t exactly fast, but he was not slow either and soon arrived while the effect of the Bliss dose fully unfolded, giving him a warm and buzzing experience.

The good thing about the drug was that it did not impede the actions of the user or gave overly excessive hallucinations, it was just a good all-around feeling and a good time.

Even the soldiers guarding the gate did not find anything unusual with the man and only called out to him because the handcart was hard to miss.

“Hey, it’s Tom. You out for business again?”

At times like this, it was a small blessing that he had to enter the Noble District for both of his jobs, making it nothing unusual that he wanted to go through.

While he would not claim to be friends or overly familiar with the city guards, he knew most of them from seeing them from time to time at least, which also applied in reverse.

“Yes, one of our clients wants a custom leather garment and the measurements need to be redone after the materials are done.

It’s not like we can call them to come to our humble shop every time for a fitting, right?

So it’s just old me going for an errand.”

Whenever he had a delivery from his second job stashed away in his cart, Tom would get somewhat nervous and uneasy when he faced the guards.

That he managed to radiate calmness and resignedness from having to cater to their likely noble customer was a testament to his talent for acting, and one of the guards nodded in agreement, they had seen their fair share of unreasonable nobles.

Either they demanded to skip the formalities or tried to flaunt their status for no reason, giving them an idea of what the leatherworking shop had to deal with.

 

Of course, humans tended to forget the good things and only remember the bad ones, there were plenty of low-key nobles that never complained or gave the guards any troubles while they carried out their duties.

That was just not as memorable as that one time when a Viscount demanded that they should bring out a carpet and some musical instruments to give him a greeting suitable for his elevated standing.

He even had made a fuss, at least until someone with a title much higher than his own appeared and gave him a good dressing down.

“Got anything we should know about? I’m not touching that foul brew again.”

Naturally, they had to control his handcart to make sure that he did not bring anything dangerous or forbidden into the Noble District, as it was related to the security of the nobles and the royal family inside the palace.

Tom was well prepared for such situations, as it was not guaranteed that he would be stopped and searched, sometimes he would just get waved through and some other unfortunate soul got stopped instead.

“Of course not, I still need to rely on this for my living. Feel free to check, I can show you which vats you should avoid if you don’t want to smell what tanning leather smells like.”

As a frequent guest of the inspections, Tom had long since figured out the best way to make it through them.

If he was too friendly, he would seem suspicious and if he looked like he was in a hurry, it would not work either.

Trying to bribe the city guards was a recipe for disaster, it would luckily work once or twice, but the majority of the guards were rather upright and honest and would just arrest him for the attempted bribery.

No, the trick was making the guards think it was their own idea that it was too much trouble to go through all his stuff, especially the packages related to the tannery.

Tom would be lying if he said that he could no longer smell the strong and piercing chemicals used to tan the hides and cure them to get rid of the meat and muscle, the stench was bad enough that the leather workshop itself was not allowed to be built around other residential dwellings.

At most, he got slightly used to it over the turns and no longer noticed it as strongly as at the beginning when he was just an apprentice, about two dozen turns ago.

He just had to show his willingness to get inspected and warn them about the dangers, that was the secret to success.

 

As expected, the guard closer to his cart scrunched up his nose and took two steps back, unwilling to come in contact with the possible hazard.

If they accidentally spilled some of the concoction on themselves, the two guards would have to endure the entire rest of their shift with the smell all over them, and they could not really blame Tom for that either.

Roughly looking through the contents of the handcart from the distance, the first guard quickly gave his clearance and waved him through.

“All right, go ahead and carry on with your business then.

Good luck.”

Tom thanked the two and pushed his cart through the gate, a sense of relief flooding his blood as neither of them was willing to take a closer look.

In truth, he did have a problematic package among the materials and tools for his job.

Hidden between the boring regular stuff was one particular item of interest for the guards, a packet filled with about twenty portions of Bliss.

Of course, this was not for his personal consumption, Tom did not rely heavily on the drug like some of the neighbors he knew.

He liked to enjoy a piece when he needed to calm his nerves or had a particularly bad day, just once in a while.

His head thumped with a bit of dull pain recently, so it was nice to take the edge off and mask his fear in front of the guards, that's why he took a piece earlier.

No, the package was another delivery for the [Thieves Guild] and it was a deliberate action to place it on the cart where it could be easily noticed.

If Tom really got caught by the guards, it would be easier to explain it as having bought a personal supply of Bliss, rather than trying to smuggle goods.

Sure, they would confiscate the goods and he would have to pay a fine, but it was not the end of the world.

Without enough money, the guards would lock him up until his wife brought the money and his name would be recorded in case he got arrested again in the future, but all of that was rather minor in comparison to the other item he had on hand.

For twenty portions of Bliss, the [Thieves Guild] would pay him about 60 copper, perhaps 70 if he was lucky, which was honestly a good price considering that he only needed to bring the package into the city and hand it over to his contact.

It was a short distance and paid well, so he usually picked up a job like that whenever he was contacted for a special delivery inside the Noble District.

Getting a tenth of the sale price was rather good, yet it also made his cart feel that much heavier when he thought about the second package.

 

Without emptying the handcart and carefully studying the design, it was impossible to find the two hidden latches inside the wood.

Only by pressing them at the same time would the hidden compartment on the underside of the cart open up, and that was exactly where the important cargo was stored away.

There was little to no chance that anyone would press them by accident, hence it was a safety feature to expose the Bliss and let it be seized if he had bad luck and underwent strict inspection.

Tom thought that nothing good would come out of knowing what exactly the [Thieves Guild] wanted to move around, he never tried to mess with the packages or open them, it was better to just accept the payment and move on with his life.

Every once in a while they would approach him and ask if he was willing to smuggle something for them, and that he would be appropriately compensated.

He was willing to earn some money on the side since he mostly used it to make his own life and that of his family better.

But at the thought of the hidden package, the throbbing in his temples returned.

It was easy to notice that something was wrong if Tom just made a comparison to the Bliss delivery.

He got 60 to 70 copper just for bringing along some drugs, which was about one-tenth of the retail value.

Then what exactly would the forbidden goods be when the guild was willing to pay him between 60 to 90 silver each time he managed to bring the package through the gates?

He did not even want to think about the one time they gave him two gold for a packet the size of his fist.

It only reaffirmed his belief that Tom never wanted to open any of those goods, it would only shorten his commoner life if he got involved in a fight of giants like that.