บท 25: White Tiger City! - Part 4

"Naina. . . your little brother.. . . is he famous in the White Tiger City. Is he a strong person?" Ivan asked.

Naina shook her head and said, "I don't know; we have not met each other for over three years now. Do you think they ran away because you mentioned my brother's name? Maybe, they just didn't want to mess with people related to the academy. You should also know that Ribeiro Academy has many powerhouses. Rarely there are people around this region who would want to mess with its students or people that are related to them."

"Hm, you are right... Fenrir, let's go there" Ivan pointed at the stall where people were eating something. Ivan was feeling a little hungry.

"You want to eat there? But isn't that..." Naina asked in surprise but stopped midway.

"What? Is there a problem if we eat from the stall?" Ivan looked at the food stall again, but he couldn't find any problem himself. He even saw many people lining in front of it.

"That's where the peasants and slaves eat," Naina explained.

"Oh," Now that Ivan looked closely, the people that lined in front of that stall were wearing ragged clothes; some even had a red tattoo on their forehead. Ivan could guess which one of them was a Slave or a peasant.

'It must be the class thing. This is a medieval and feudal society after all.' thought Ivan. He did not like it. When Fenrir passed by the stall, he inadvertently saw the bowl's content in the hand of a slave.

It was something like a soup, but Ivan could see under the blazing light of the torches that the soup was mostly warm water and a few black bread crumbs with a little bit of green vegetable. . . or was it grass? To be sure, Ivan tried to use the appraise ability on it.

Food for the Slaves - Sixty Percent water, Twenty percent expired black bread, and Ten percent common black seeds with few leaves of the common grass mixed to fill the stomach. (System advice Host not to eat the above. It may cause Diarrhea or Jaundice if people with a weak stomach like Host eat it. Nutritional content is direly lacking.)

Ivan: "!!"

'Fuck! Is it this bad?' Ivan looked around and saw a small boy drinking the same soup. Just by looking at his small and weak body, Ivan felt sad. But even then, his situation was never this bad. The food he got from the orphanage was at least better than what the slaves were eating now.

Naina was sitting in the front, so she could not see Ivan's saddened expression. She pointed at the Inn like a three-storey building and said, "Ivan, let's go there. No one will trouble us there."

"Alright," Ivan turned his eyes away from the little slave boy. He was powerless to do anything for them right now. Before he gets his memories back, doing a simple thing such as charity for slaves could also backfire on him.

They came in front of the inn, but now Ivan didn't know where he should keep Fenrir. He can't take the risk of leaving him outside.

"Sir, you need to bring your pet to the back of the inn. That is where the tamed beasts are made to stay." At the age of eleven or twelve, a boy came forward when he was Ivan looking around after coming down from his mount.

"The wolf might attack others If I left him alone." Ivan was right. Fenrir's loyalty wasn't high enough. It may listen to Ivan, but the possibility of it attacking others on its own and in the absence of Ivan is high.

"Sir, don't worry. There is a beast tamer at the back who looks after the wild and magic beast. Also, there are some magic beasts currently in the back of the inn so that no wild beast would make trouble in front of them."

The boy took them back by taking them around the inn. Ivan saw that there were already many animals like horses, bulls parked in a stable, and wild beasts like wolves, a tiger, etc. were put behind an enclosed area secured by iron bars and a lock. The ones left out in the open were the two-headed dog and a skinny Yak with big antlers on its head.

The boy showed Ivan where to put his mount and asked for five copper coins as that was the fee to look after Ivan's pet for two hours.

Ivan gave the boy six copper coins from the pouch that he had tied to his waist. Taking out the money directly from the inventory was not feasible and a little inconvenient in front of others.

"Sir, you gave me one extra coin." The boy came running after Ivan after he counted the money in his hand.

"Keep it; it's a tip," Ivan said, smiling. The boy also beamed when he heard that. He immediately stuffed the extra copper coin in a pocket to the inside of his old shirt. Ivan could have given him more, but his experience back in the orphanage taught him how dangerous it was for a child to be given a large amount of money. Just seeing the boy hiding the coin in his secret pocket, Ivan knew he did the right thing.

"Why do you keep giving money to others without any reason?" Naina couldn't help but ask.

'When do I keep giving money to others?... Sigh, It's all because of Daniel. I must have caught his habit.' Ivan couldn't tell her that his dear rich friend back on earth was a charity king who would empty his wallet whenever he walked past a needy person on the streets. Ivan caught his habit after living with him for some time. Not to mention his own experience made him want to help poor people and starving kids.

"It feels good, that's why," Ivan replied. Ivan pushed open the back door of the Inn and let Naina enter first.

Ivan did not want to be seen as the kind of person who lacks common sense. It's better to talk less and let Naina lead.

The inn was already filled with people dressed in various clothes or leather armor.

"Do you want to eat or rent a room?" asked one of the buxom waitresses as she came walking to Ivan and Naina.

"We want to eat. Can you guide us to an empty table?" Naina immediately replied, her cheeks were red, but only the waitress saw it as Ivan was standing behind her.

"Hihi, Sure, follow me." The waitress giggled, seeing Naina's reaction. It seemed she was mistaken about the couple. They didn't come to their inn for that stuff.

Ivan didn't hear their conversation at all since he had a hard time keeping his eyes from roaming onto those half-exposed jugs of the waitress.

'Damn, she's blessed!' Ivan thought in his mind as he saw the assets of the waitress.

He only moved when Naina started walking ahead.

The waitress guided them to an empty table for four people.

Ivan and Naina sat side by side.

"Now tell me, what do you want to eat." The waitress asked for an order before she bent a little to sweep the table with a rag while facing Ivan.

Boing!

Ivan couldn't help but gulp, seeing the deep ravine appearing before his eyes.

'Are those two on the menu?' Ivan wanted to ask her, but he stopped himself with great difficulty since Naina was also sitting by her side.

"Naina, um, Why don't you order?" Ivan said.