The First Legendary Beast Master novel Chapter 499

Chapter 499 Factions

They stopped at a decently built stone shop near the gates, and the Noble called out a group of servants to collect his purchases. It was only one load for the burly troll, and the well-dressed man vanished inside with one last polite nod towards Karl.

He seemed to be in a hurry to be out of sight, but that might have been because he was overdressed for this part of town, and he wasn't wearing armour.

As strange and run down as this city was, they did need some sort of trade goods to take along the road with them. They could keep just doing donations to the needy, but that was more of a church mission, and it would seem odd for a powerful merchant to go along with it.

The options in the city weren't great, and most of the vendors goods made the ramshackle stalls look like they were decent quality. _{freewebnoveℓ.com}

But as Karl led Thor through the street, they were encountering more of the original stone buildings, which were far too large for the Trolls. It might have been Minotaurs, but Karl suspected that this was actually a Giant built city. The doorways were close to seven metres in most of the buildings, and the Trolls rarely got over four metres. The Minotaurs weren't any taller, if you didn't count their horns, but they seemed to have much more of a fondness for grandeur. That might explain the state that the city was in. If the trolls had recently taken it over, they might have never had the building skills to maintain it, and the majority of the city might have been destroyed during the battle.

It was a long way from the borders that the Giant nations held, but the stone of the surviving buildings held signs of long forgotten battles and showed centuries of wear, to the point that the walls had a line worn in them from pedestrians shoulders rubbing against them.

Once the city was looking more civilized, Karl led Thor towards one of the market areas. With some luck, they would be able to buy enough goods to keep up pretenses as merchants.

None of them were eager to stay any longer than they had to in the city, so they were all keeping their eyes open for anything promising. However, there was nothing worth buying, even if the price was low.

[Why don't we leave, and you can sell what me and Remi make instead?] Rae suggested.

[Remi? What is Remi making?] Karl asked, checking her space, where the Naga Queen was mixing plant products into various clay containers that Hawk was drying with his fire for her.

[She was trying to make new disguise pastes for you, but they're not working out right. She's got a number of moisturizing lotions, some makeup, an anti aging cream of questionable ability, and a painkiller.] Rae joked.

[I'm close to getting another colour right. We're just short on plants, because we picked them based on what was pretty or tasty, not on what had the best compatibility to make stuff.] Remi complained.

Karl turned to talk to the ladies in the wagon.

"How about we get out of here? Rae has agreed to help us with some trade goods for our next stop. I don't think that there will be much here that will be worth buying." He whispered.

Ophelia and Dana both nodded as they watched the crowd out of opposite ends of the wagon.

Karl thought about the flow of traffic in the city and turned Thor north down a main street. That should take them to the north gates, assuming there were north gates. Leaving empty wasn't optimal, but they could claim that they had an arrangement to pick something up a few days down the road.

It would also give them more room to sleep in the wagon.

The trolls were busy at work, ignoring Karl and his team, except to move out of the way of the massive Cerro as Thor pushed through the crowds.

The north gates were only partially open, just a man door, not large enough for Thor or the wagon.

"Pardon, can we get the gate opened? I need to head north." Karl asked the guards.

The pair of Rock Trolls turned to stare at him.

"Taxes are due on exports." The grey skinned creature insisted.

"We didn't buy anything today, Just sold our tool shipment."

The troll stared into the wagon, then smiled. "We will take one of the women instead."

Karl shifted so they could see his trusted merchant token, in case it made a difference.

They didn't seem to care, and Karl took a glance at the wooden gates, which had no visible enchantments on them.