Chapter 5
A meal at the inn cost around five thousand cils. The cil was the Empire’s unit of currency, meaning that it was practically accepted pretty much anywhere on the continent. It showed how powerful and secure the reign of the Empire was.
“Come one, come all! Ten thousand cils if you win an arm wrestle match. Only two thousand to play! A more-than-amazing chance to quintuple your money!” Donau gathered a crowd on one side of the square. Next to him sat Urich.
Tap, tap.
Urich tapped his finger on their makeshift table as he yawned in boredom.
‘A street arm wrestling gig.’
It was a plan that took Urich and Donau the whole night to come up with. To be more precise, half of that time was spent on trying to communicate with only drawings as neither of them had a clue of what the other was saying.
“Isn’t that the scammer Donau?”
“Isn’t he supposed to be dead?”
A few people in the crowd recognized Donau.
‘Crap, I was supposed to be in a different city by now.’
Donau was a wandering conman who went from city to city looking for the next victims of his scams. If it weren’t for Urich, he’d be long gone by now to a different city.
“Even that lowlife scum couldn’t rig an arm wrestle match. Watch this, drinks are on me tonight!” A miner stepped forward as he rolled up his sleeve, exuding confidence. Ankaira was built on the copper mining industry. There were plenty of hard-working miners who had pride in their brute strength.
“Ah, finally, our first customer!” Urich grinned so big that his teeth showed.
“Alright, I got your entrance fee,” Donau assured the miner as he took the two thousand cils.
“If you run off with my money, I will kill you myself,” the miner warned Donau with a murderous glare. Donau just smiled as he counted the coins.
‘Urich’s grip strength and arm strength are out of the ordinary.’
Donau gave himself the role of judge and counted down to start the first match.
“Three, two, one, wrestle!”
As soon as the match started, the miner’s face turned bright red as he contracted his arm with all his might.
“Wait, what is this?” The miner was stunned by Urich’s expressionless face. There was absolutely no sign of exertion in the latter, and neither did his arm budge. The miner felt as if he was pushing on an immovable boulder.
“It should be okay to end it now, right?” Urich murmured to himself, knowing that no one could understand what he was saying anyway.
The plan was simple. Don’t beat them too easily, make it look like they’d have a chance so people would want to give it a shot. Occasionally pretend like they’re winning, only to “just” beat them last minute.
Thud.
The miner’s hand hit the table.
“Ahem,” the miner hung his head in embarrassment and cleared his throat.
“Alright, alright! Next challenger! Do we have anyone who’s actually strong here? I thought this was Ankaira, the city of miners! Where are all the brave men who mined copper in the treacherous mines day in and day out? Are they all dead?”
Donau knew how to read the room and rile up a crowd. His derisive words pushed the buttons of the miners in the crowd.
“Don’t blame me if I break your arm, Mr. Foreigner!” The next miner warned Urich. He was known as one of the strongest of the miners.
“Look at you, acting big and all,” Urich mocked the miner as the two men locked hands. He said everything with a smile, so no one knew that he was, in fact, insulting them right to their faces.
Thump!
It only took a second for Urich to smash his opponent’s hand into the table. The miner stared at Urich in disbelief.
“What are you looking at? Get lost.” If anyone were to translate what Urich was saying to the miners, a massive brawl would have broken out by now.
On top of the miners, many men who took pride in their strength joined the crowd. Urich decided to take a quick break after breezing through ten challengers.
“W-we beat all of them! That’s twenty thousand cils, just like that! We’re definitely eating good tonight!” Donau saw the big pile of hundred- and thousand-cil coins and couldn’t contain his excitement.
“This is easy money!” Urich chuckled as he shook his pumped-up arm to cool it down a bit. The crowd had grown into quite a big mass.
‘I’ll pretend to be tired.’
Urich massaged his arm as if it was going limp from the fatigue.
“Look, he’s getting tired!”
“It’s about time, he has already gone through ten men!”
“I’m next.”
The miners who have been lurking for an opportunity slowly came forward.
“We take reservations as well! Just pay your fee upfront and you’ll get your chance to take the winning home.” Once again, Donau read the room and encouraged the spectators.
“You’re not gonna let him take more breaks or anything after taking our money, right?”
“No, no, of course not! Starting now, we’ll carry on with the matches with no breaks whatsoever. I promise!” Donau assured the skeptical crowd. The men were satisfied with his plead and threw in their fees. A long line soon formed in front of Urich.
“What a bunch of weaklings,” Urich chuckled as he watched the men line up not knowing they didn’t stand a chance.
“Hey, Mr. Foreigner! Thanks to you, I’m going home with a chicken dinner… argh!”
Thump!
It was over for the challenger before he knew it.
“I’ll show you how strong a tenth-year miner is… argh!”
Thump!
The back of the miner’s hand turned red from being driven into the table.
“Ah, man, be gentle, would you? Eek!”
Thump!
“Shouldn’t you be tired by now? Keugh!”
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
One after another, the challengers dropped to the ground, rolling around and clenching the back of their defeated hands.
‘Oh right, I was supposed to go easy on them.’
Urich got carried away by the competition and stopped holding back his strength for a while. This wasn’t exactly what he and Donau had planned, as the original plan was to trick people into thinking that this was a winnable game.
“This is entertaining; let me give it a shot!”
Regardless, they were still drawing in a crowd of men who wanted to defeat the undefeated man.
“The unstoppable Urich! The unbeatable arm wrestler! Who dares to challenge this man?” Donau continued to instigate the crowd. He wasn’t a con artist for nothing. More men joined the crowd of challengers, but Donau ended the gig for the day.
“That’s all for today, folks! Come find us again tomorrow, right here!”
Urich and Donau walked into an alleyway. Donau looked at the jingling money pouch and raised his voice out of excitement.
“This is crazy, what a business this is! You truly are the best, Urich, the best!”
They had made just over forty thousand cils. It wasn’t a huge amount, but they were planning on raising the entry fee the next day. They would make a fortune just by bringing the fee up to five thousand cils.
Clink.
Urich grabbed a handful of coins from the pouch. It was only about ten thousand cils.
“I’ll take this as my share.”
Urich let Donau keep the rest of their earning. After all, he did need Donau’s help to adjust to the new life here, including finding a place to sleep.
‘Hehe, this guy is a bag of money. And he just fell into my lap.’
Donau had gotten a good idea of who he was working with.
‘A brute traveler who doesn’t know the ways of this world. He’s probably a criminal who was exiled from his hometown.’
It was true. Urich knew nothing about surviving in this world, and that was what piqued Donau’s interest.
‘I could get some good use out of this guy. I just have to be smart with it.’
Donau eagerly assisted Urich. He put in more effort into communicating with him by drawing detailed figures to explain their plan for the next while.
“Hey, can I get my hands on some women with this money?”
Urich pointed at his drawing of a person with breasts.
“Of course, Urich.” Donau nodded aggressively. He guided Urich into the red-light district of Ankaira.
* * *
Urich was only sixteen, but no one saw him as a teenager. Although his face was free of any wrinkles, the several scars and his rough and solid hands made him look like he was at least twenty years old.
“U-ugh, y-you’re killing me,” the woman cried out in pain.
The women of the red-light district often said things they didn’t really mean to keep their customers happy. ‘You’re killing me,’ ‘It’s too big,’ ‘No, please,’ and ‘I’m coming’ were the staples. The newer women also learned some tips and tricks from the more experienced ones.
“Ugh, argh, ahh!”
This was not one of those fake expressions. Not some fake words to please a man, but a genuine scream of pain that came out of the woman’s mouth.
“Nice work, lady! Haha!” Urich said to the hobbling prostitute who helped him with his manly duties as he lightly slapped her behind.
“Animal!” The prostitute blurted out some curses as she took more money from Urich. Urich just let her take the money.
Urich had just traded more than ten thousand cils for a moment’s pleasure. The prostitutes in this city made a decent earning thanks to the large miner population. In the poorer cities, it wasn’t uncommon for women to sell their services for just a single loaf of bread.
“I’m out of money, Donau,” Urich told Donau as he dusted himself off. Donau had also just finished doing the deed and was pulling up his pants.
“You had a noisy one, huh? I knew she’d get more money out of you. She probably made her average day’s earning from just you alone tonight. Hey, you wanna go somewhere even better?” Donau suggested with a creepy smile.
They had about twenty thousand cils left in their money pouch. It wasn’t enough to keep them going for the rest of the night.
‘Hmm… well, if you think about how much we’re going to make tomorrow...’
Donau took out a gold coin worth a hundred thousand cils from his own pocket.
The two of them headed to a higher-class establishment where the courtesans could sing and dance. There, they ate, drank, and fucked as much as their heart desired.
These women sent Urich over the moon. It was a different kind of festivity than what he knew from his tribe. The women dressed in colorful garments were breathtaking and their skin was unbelievably soft. Even their breaths held a sweet scent. They went so far as to bathe his fatigued body in a warm tub.
The women hummed and seducingly swayed their hips to the sound of the instruments. They were as bewitching as goddesses in Urich’s eyes.
“Who needs those dirt-smelling tribe girls? Tell them to get lost!” Urich belched as the memories of the rather natural tribeswomen quickly faded from his mind.
“Teehee, tell them to get lost!” The courtesans mimicked Urich’s words, even though they had no idea what he meant. Urich and Donau were as drunk as they could be—not just on alcohol, but also on the vibe. They continued to order more and more drinks and downed them like water, not that they could remember in the morning, anyway.
When the morning dawned, Donau and Urich found themselves with their faces planted in a sticky mess of alcohol.
“Ugh…”
Donau groaned as he wrapped his hands around his head. He was severely hung over.
“That was amazing, haha! Last night alone was worth the hassle of climbing over the mountains,” Urich remarked as he stretched his chiseled body. He was surrounded by the naked women from last night who had yet to awaken.
‘Next time, I’ll have to bring my brothers,’ Urich noted as he looked at the women. He couldn’t keep a heavenly place like this to himself. He knew of a ton of idiots from his tribe who would risk their lives in a second to climb over the Sky Mountains if they were told about this heaven.
“My head is killing me, Urich, I feel like I’m gonna die, blegh!”
Donau ran to a corner and vomited.
“Let’s go get some more of those cils. Those things are incredible!” Urich said in excitement, but his words made Donau remember something from last night.
“Oh, fuck,” Donau stammered as he jogged his memory from the night. “A… million… cils…” A depressed sob leaked out of Donau’s lips. The women who were now awake left the room after kissing their two customers on their cheeks.
“Thanks for last night, sweetie!”
“I love big spenders like you two.”
“You guys were so cool!”
“Come again, Mr. Foreigner!”
The women threw on some clothes without much care and left. Urich watched their behinds with a grin of satisfaction.
Meanwhile, Donau’s hands were shaking in despair.
“I spent a million cils in one night!”
He had practically thrown his money around, drunk with excitement. He paid fifty thousand cils for every bottle of cheap watered-down wine and tucked gold coins between his legs, and had those women take them with their mouths.
“I was crazy, insane, oh shit, a million for a single night of women!”
Donau was jumping around from the intense self-loathe.
‘That’s it. I have to get as much as I can out of this guy, god dammit.’
Donau’s eyes grew fierce.
Urich cluelessly stood there naked, finishing off the leftover wine. His rugged body was a warrior’s body in anyone’s eyes. He was covered in tattoo-like scars from his head to toe, and his back still bore the raw wounds that hadn’t healed yet. Donau deduced that Urich was a high-level warrior.
“Hey, Urich,” Donau called Urich over. Urich tilted his head in response.
“What do you want?”
The two still couldn’t communicate in their different languages, but they still exchanged words as if they could.
“How do you feel about making some big bucks?”
Money was a good thing. The more one had, the better off they were.
Urich had quickly learned this simple truth.
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