the Smart and the fools

In a corner of a tavern, three people were sitting around the table, two of them was young.

"Your meal, Sir."

"Thank you a lot, appreciate that, "Vaterian replied while the waiter passed the meal to Vaterian, the waiter felt something weird between these people, he looked at the elder man, who gave him a thumb down.

The waiter left quickly, Igor noticed the action the man had made. However, as he just wanted to stand up, he was pressed down by a hand.

"So, what do you know about that ring, Mister?" Asked Vaterian to the man.

"My name is…"

"Shut up, I'm not interested in your name, just told me about the ring." Vaterian interrupted the man, he was not willing to spend unnecessary time on him.

"Bring me some drink before I talk, my throat is dry as the desert." Shouted the man while he looked aside.

"Give me some cider! Squeeze some citrus in it, I didn't want it to be too sweet!" Vaterian ordered the drink by yelling at the waiter, he started to get used to how it worked.

Igor looked at the man who used every opportunity he had to communicate with the waiter. Igor couldn't understand why Vaterian keep ignoring their actions.

"Went deeper into the ocean great you a better catch," Vaterian whispered beside Igor's ear.

The man drank a full mug of cider into his stomach and opened his lips.

"The right ring was made by a famous person downtown, he was the only one who able to crave the name on a ring so perfectly."

"Hmmm, interesting information. I would like to have a friendly meeting with him, maybe you might want us to meet him?" Vaterian looked at the man and said. His body lean leftward and his head was supported by his left hand.

"But before all of that, I might inform you that nothing would change if you only change the number of people." Looking at the people around them started to increase in number, Vaterian warned the man about it.

"But the changes in our weapon will make a difference, Sir." Followed by a sound of a man, Vaterian felt an iron barrel behind his head.

"No, it won't. As long as your fuse wasn't lit up." The man quickly looked at the fuse. It was lit up unlike the boy had said.

The man realized he was being fooled but it was too late, the boy unsheathed his dagger and sliced through the finger on the trigger and pushed the gun upward, flying away from the man.

Vaterian quickly stood up and looked around him, this corner of the tavern was filled with people, the other customer was already getting used to all these things and ignored what happened here.

Igor was also standing, he threw a man on the ground. The scratch on his hands told Vaterian that Igor wasn't threatened by a gun like him.

"What a heartful welcome, may I know who planned this? Was that the man in front of me with his gun off his hand?" Vaterian sneered and stared at the man.

"As a man living within this city, I must tell you how stupid it is to humiliate our authority. My name is bluthunde, you can call me bloodhound, a captain under the guild." The man gave Vaterian his 'name', although it was just a nickname those mercenaries like to use.

"When did the mercenary guild start to take care of the safety of the city? I thought you are the one who was supposed to bring chaos?"

"Don't put us in the same level as you southerner, we being granted the right to govern in the mainland by the city council."

"Tharcian cocklicker, huh?"

"At least they will clean it before we suck it, not like the people in Helland."

The man didn't care about the insult, he was checking his finger, it was injured but not chopped.

"Nice skill, if you join our company you will be an excellent soldier."

"But what happened if I wanted to be the commander?" Vaterian laughed and said.

"Then you might need to kill me before you do that, to prove how potent you are." The man pulled out his axe, he stunned for a while and put back the axe, pulled out a club.

"How about no bloodshed today, I don't see the point of this fight?" Igor stepped between bloodhound and Vaterian, he just wanted to have a place to sleep after a long ride.

"Sometimes you don't need a point to fight, Miseur," Bloodhound told Igor with a smile, he could feel his blood was boiling.

"Furthermore, this seller might be very stupid to find you as his target, but he still contributes to a large part of my income."

"What a fancy way to say he is your underling, Miseur? Let me guess, he was a smuggler and the apples actually came from Helland? I suspect he bring goods that were more than apples and took a long time to avoid the custom." Said Vaterian.

Igor finally remember why the apples taste familiar, it had a similar taste to the apples he had back in Karlsburg.

"You are smart enough to guess the answer, but not smart enough to keep it as a secret. Maybe I could help you to close your mouth?" The face of the man changed, he again pulled out the axe and prepared.

"Or I'm just smarter than you, so you cant understand why I doing all of these?" Vaterian grinned.