White Tiger City! - Part 1

Sarah bent to pick up the empty bottle that contained the Healing Potion before, but now she found five silver coins placed on top of its stopper.

"Why would this be... Could it be him? But why?" Sarah ran out of the house as she wanted to return it, but she did not find any sight of Ivan and Naina. I should still be able to catch up with them.

... "You want to go out now? Are you sure?" Sam, who had the duty to watch over the gate, asked again.

"Yes, we need to reach the city before sunrise. Can you please open the door?"

Sam could only shrug his shoulders; he couldn't force them to stay against their will. In fact, he wouldn't have shown this much concern if Ivan and Naina had not treated Eva, the daughter of the village chief. Grant had already spread the news of Eva between guards at the night watch.

"Alright, I'll open the door but be careful on the road. Sometimes the wild wolves and other animals may attack lone travelers on the road to the White tiger city."

"We have a wild wolf of our own, so I think it would be safer for us."

"Ah, right, that wolf. Tch, Tch, you're are quite lucky." Sam was really impressed when he heard from Fen about how he saw Ivan and the lady beside him riding to their village on a grey wolf.

"Hear, you can go!" Sam opened the latch of the small door and opened it to let them exit the village.

"Thank you! Give Jerry, Fen, and Grant our regards."

"Hehe, please don't embarrass me. You had saved Eva; it should be us, the Wild wolf village, who should thank you. The village chief would have been devasted if something untoward had happened to Eva." Sam was grateful to these two people. The village chief of the Wild Wolf village was their spiritual pillar. No one would want to see him going through the tragedy of losing a loved one.

Ivan and Naina went through the door, but he stuffed two silver coins in Sam's hand and told him to share them with their village guards.

Anyway, Ivan could easily gain money through missions. Naina had told him that it was hard for the whole village, such as the wild wolf village, to have more than five to ten silver coins in their pockets collectively.

Sam was dumbfounded seeing two shiny pieces of silver coin.

He did not want to take such a large amount of money, but Ivan had closed the gate when he was lost in his own thoughts.

Sam hurriedly opened the gate, but Ivan and Naina had gone more than a hundred meters by then. The Grey wolf that Fen was talking about came running to Ivan shaking his tail. Sam didn't have the guts to go out of the gate because he inherently feared the big wolf.

He could only see Ivan and Naina riding away with the wolf in the White tiger city's direction.

"Sam, Sam, are they gone?" Sarah came running towards Sam when she saw him peeking out of the smaller gate.

"Yes, just now, they went away while riding a big wolf. Look, the boy even gave me two silver coins. Can you believe it! How much bread and grain do you think we can buy with this?"

"What! Why did you take it?" Sarah did not like it.

"I didn't' want to, but Ivan stuffed them in my hands and gone before I could return it," Sam explained his innocence.

"It alright; he also left five silver coins with me," Sarah said while showing the five silvery irregular round coins in her hands to Sam, who once again become dumbfounded.

"What should we do with them?" Sam asked as he handed over the two silver coins to Sarah since he didn't want to take responsibility for keeping it with him.

"I will give it to Torres and let him decide what to do with them," Sarah answered with a sigh. Torres, her husband, should come by morning. Other than telling him about the good news of their daughter being healed, now she also needed to tell him about the money that Ivan had left behind. Seven Silver coins was not a small amount of money, at least in their village.

...

"Ivan, your surname is Jaeger, right? Which Knight family do you belong to?" Naina asked Ivan. Since Fenrir was running on a plain path, the ride wasn't as jerky as before. Therefore, Naina could adjust quickly and talk to Ivan sitting behind her.

'Knight family?... How should I know? Sigh... without the memories of this world; I cannot even answer such a simple question.'

"I... I don't like to talk about my family." Ivan replied.

"Oh, I'm sorry,"

"No, No, it's okay. Why don't you tell me about yourself?... Um, what's your story? How were you caught by the bandits?"

"Me? I was traveling in a merchant carriage when those bandits suddenly attacked us midway."

"You were alone, right? Or was there any family member?" Ivan asked.

"No, I wasn't traveling with my family. But the Marchant who owned the carriage was an acquaintance of my father. I was being escorted..." Naina stopped as if she was hesitating to speak further.

"Escorted?"

"Yes, Hadol was asked by my father to escort me to the Whitetiger City because he was facing some difficulties back in my hometown and feared that something might happen to me. So he wanted me to go and live with my aunt in Whitetiger city till he deals with problems he was facing currently. I didn't want to leave him but. . . (Sob) but he forced me to go. . . and now Hadol is dead because of it. . . " Naina started crying at the end.

Ivan didn't know what to say. He could only rub her back to calm her down.

"So, your aunt, what does she do in the Whitetiger City," Ivan asked, a few minutes later when Naina managed to get control of her situation. It was not known when but Naina was leaning with her back on Ivan's chest.

"My aunt was married to a Merchant family that lived in the White Tiger city when I was fifteen years old. Their business mainly revolves around clothes and some everyday goods. Oh, my aunt's name is Daisy, and she is the younger sister of my father. I also have a little brother Kyle who also stays with her since he was enrolled in the Ribeiro Academy of the Whitetiger City three years ago. He wants to become a knight as soon as possible so that he can go back to help my father and share his burdens." Naina's mood was uplifted when she talked about her little brother, Kyle, younger than her by three years.

Naina was twenty-five years old while her brother was twenty-two.

"You are also going to Rigerio Academy, right, Ivan?" Naina asked when she remembered what Ivan had told her in front of her gate.

In fact, Ivan wasn't planning to do anything until he gets his memory back. Only after that would he decide his future goals, but since he had used the Ribeiro Academy as an excuse, Ivan has to go along with it.

"... Yes, Ribeiro academy is indeed my destination."