Chapter 180: Chapter 163 – Trading Stories

"More than a few people have attempted to maintain a secret identity through the ages. Most of them criminals, a few philanthropists, yet over time their identities always came to light one way or another. The Bounty Hunter, is one of the few whose identity has remained a mystery to this very day." - Sakim Douan, Historian from the Hassid Caliphate.

From the western gate of the large town, Cal led the party eastward, passing through the suburbs - they were nice for suburbs, she would give it that much - and headed for the more affluent mercantile district, where various businesses opened a storefront or kept an office.

 

Further in from there would be the noble district, where the Emir's palace as well as the houses belonging to his lesser nobles - the Assadun Emirate remains one of the largest states in the Caliphate, and divides itself into several districts, each ruled by a minor noble that reported to the Emir - for when they were in town.

 

Kino had agreed to meet them on the first inn they run across in the merchantile district, counted from the west gate, and indeed, even as the party approached the doors of the first inn they encountered in the district, they heard Kino's melodic voice accompanied by strums of her lute from within.

 

For greed will devour, those who kept it fed~

Such is just, the way the cycle goes~

There is no good end~

For those in the throes~

Of greed and avarice~

Just a bloody end, for them~

 

They sat down around a table - Kino was inside the inn as she promised, currently singing on the small stage they have on the corner of the room, to an appreciating audience - and ordered the local specialties from the waitress that came to their table.

 

By the time the waiter returned with their drinks and appetizer, Kino had finished with her song, accepted the applause, then stepped down to let another bard - this one a local man - step up and sing a folk song in the local language Cal didn't understand, but she appreciated the flowing melody nonetheless. She then joined Cal and the rest at their table.

 

The waitress placed three frosted pitchers of some sort of local fruit alcohol, with multiple chunks of ice floating in the pitchers, and wooden glasses with ice cubes in each as well. Apparently cold drinks were much favored in the area due to the arid heat of the region, and most higher end inns would have their own enchanted iceboxes for a steady supply of it.

 

As for the appetizers, they were served a mound of still-warm flatbreads served with a dip of sorts, some sort of whitish paste over which a greenish oil was drizzled. Apparently they were meant to tear off pieces off the flatbread and use it to scoop up the dip, as Kino demonstrated for them.

 

Cal gave it a try as well, scooping up a good amount with a piece of flatbread before munching on the whole thing together. The flavor that hit her tongue was mostly rich and nutty, cut texturally by the chewy, savory flatbread with crisped surfaces, altogether quite a pleasant thing.

 

They washed it down with the local drink, and she had to admit that the chilled, iced drink did feel extra refreshing in the arid heat of the region. It was a sweet, citrusy drink, tangy in flavor, with the alcoholic heat merely an undertone that many would not even notice, not unlike some of the sweeter brews back home, really.

 

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Shortly after, their main dishes arrived. First a salad of diced tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and peppers, drizzled with a sauce that tastes strongly of sesame seeds. Fried balls of mashed chickpeas with a sauce of fermented, curdled milk and garlic were also served.

 

The main dish itself was a long platter piled with several kinds of grilled meats, which she noticed the chef roasting on skewers when she entered, both in larger chunks and minced, on a bed of leafy vegetables.

 

They had the food by wrapping a chunk of the meat or a chickpea fritter with some of its sauces together with some salad in the leafy greens, then munch on the packet as a whole. The combined flavors was a pleasant experience, and matched well with the sweet fruit alcohol served, and they happily ate their fill together.

 

"News sure travels fast, huh?" Dan asked while the group was munching on dessert, some kind of thin pastry wrapped around a filling of cheese, drizzled with honey.

 

"The guild got the new two days after the fact," Kino stated confidently. Cal knew she must have checked on that since she couldn't have reached Assadun that much faster than them. "And you know how we bards are. Always got to keep up with the latest news~"

 

"Yeah, right," Cal said half in jest, since on the table only she and Kino herself were aware that the half therian woman was the very person responsible for the mess currently engulfing the Oajib Sultanate. "So, what's new around here?"

 

"Most of the latest gossip is about the mess in Oajib," said Kino as she drank a whole mug of the fruit alcohol and poured herself a refill. "Other than that? Just some Cùy ranchers complaining about wyverns eating a chunk of their flock at most. Nothing unusual, but then again this is mostly a pretty peaceful place."

 

"Oajib was a shithole, one on its way out," replied Cal although she knew the other woman knew of it as well as she did, playing along with her cover story. "You didn't miss much I guess."

 

"Mm-hmm, I last visited there like a century ago, it was a shithole then too," replied Kino all too nonchalantly. If Cal recalled right, what Kino did back then was little different than what she did just last week, with the only major difference being that the sultan at the time had living heirs who survived the mess by not being in town when it happened. "Can't imagine it had changed that much in the meantime."

 

"Some people just refuse to learn from history, sadly," said Cal as she nodded and refilled her own glass. The iced drink quickly went down her throat, while she chewed on the last bits of the ice cube left behind. "They just keep making the same mistakes their ancestors were killed for."

 

"Such is human nature, sadly. I think they're just a bit too short lived to learn from their own history well."

 

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