Chapter 9: A Difficult Beginning (Second Update)

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  Lucien looked at the strange scene in front of the tavern with a smile, and walked towards the door with doubt. It was early morning, when the tavern was usually quietest.

  At the entrance of the tavern, a slender girl was secretly peeking inside, her light golden long hair slightly swaying with each turn of her head. When she let out a sigh and turned around, she jumped in fright: "Lucien?"

  Another person who knows me but I don't know? Lucien was already used to this situation and smiled, "So early at the tavern?"

  The girl's wheat-colored skin suddenly flushed red: "I just heard that a new minstrel had arrived at the Copper Crown Tavern, I was curious and thought to take a look before helping mom with things, well, time is limited, I'll leave first."

  Watching the girl rush away, Lucien let out a soft "oh", it seemed that the appearance or voice of the traveling poet was extraordinary.

  But this had nothing to do with Lucien himself, so he gently pushed open the half-ajar tavern door and walked in.

  A dimly lit space, the strong smell of alcohol, the creaking of wooden floorboards, and tables and chairs scattered about in disarray - this was Lucien's first impression of the Copper Crown Tavern, a world away from the bright and refreshing morning outside.

  Lucien adapted for a while before seeing where the bar was.

  There were several men in the tavern who had been sleeping off their hangovers, and they were awakened by Lucien's footsteps on the floor. They muttered a few curses, still half asleep, before putting their heads back down on the table and continuing to sleep.

  There was only one man in his thirties with a hawk nose, wearing a black tight-fitting long coat, sitting quietly on the chair at the bar, slowly drinking a cup of amber-colored wine, giving Lucien a gloomy feeling.

  As Lucien approached, the somber man merely glanced at him briefly before continuing to savor his drink.

  Lucien looked around and soon spotted the dwarf sleeping soundly behind the bar, sitting on a high stool with his head against the counter, snoring loudly, and drooling onto his golden braids.

  Without any external force, the dwarf seemed to be asleep for half a day. Lucien had no choice but to bend his fingers and knock on the counter with a "thud thud thud".

  In the midst of the muffled curses from the drunkards behind, the old dwarf swayed back and forth, slowly lifting his head, his eyes blurry as he said: "Hey, Lucien, you've finally grown up, and understood the significance of fine wine in life. Come on, let's have a drink, to welcome our new guest!"

  "Uncle Cohen, it's dawn." Lucien said cautiously.

  Kane rubbed his eyes and looked at the dim light around him: "I'm not drunk, don't try to fool me, it's obviously night, what a wonderful night."

  After a meaningless conversation, Koen finally woke up thoroughly: "Lucien, there aren't many things that suit you to do, and there isn't any long-term work for the time being. As for other things, one is at 9 o'clock in the morning, Guchi's small shop in the market district needs someone to transport a batch of goods from the warehouse to the city gate district, but they are short-handed. Three copper ferls will be paid, but you also know that this kind of thing is controlled by Aaron's gang, and finally one copper ferl has to be given to them, leaving only enough to buy the worst black bread."

  "There's another thing, the Musicians' Association is doing a big cleanup today and there's a lot of trash that needs to be taken out to the river Beren outside the city. You can rent a four-wheeled pushcart, go over at one o'clock in the afternoon, and after deducting the rental fee for the cart, you can make eight copper ferls on the round trip, which is not bad. Of course, you'll have to give three copper ferls to Aaron's gang."

  "It's past one in the afternoon, and there are a few more things like that, but unless you're a knight, you won't be able to make it back from outside the castle."

  Lucien nodded, the musician's association thing was probably the best job, and he secretly wondered: "The seven coins on me should be copper Ferre."

  "Uncle Cohen, isn't there something with a higher reward?" Lucien asked curiously.

  Kane burst out laughing: "Haha, of course there are, but none of them suit you. Those are for real men who fight with their lives and strength. Lucien, you're still a kid who doesn't even dare to drink beer."

  Then he pointed to the empty space in the center of the tavern, becoming a bit serious: "The Dark Mountains are the greatest treasure, every year there are three, five, six, seven... I've lost count, anyway many, many mercenaries and adventurers enter the Dark Mountains, but only a very small part can come out..." Koen let out a belch, "Of course, they all got rich."

  "Don't underestimate these mercenaries and adventurers, for among them are quite a few genuine knights, even grand knights." A soft and magnetic voice sounded from behind Lucien, with each sentence ending in an unusual upward inflection, presenting a unique rhythmic beauty that gave off a sense of temptation and elegance.

  Lucien turned back hastily, and saw a silver-haired man walking out of the tavern's converted inn. He wore thin-legged pants, a red vest, and a high-collared black coat, which seemed very formal but appeared casual on him. His facial features were deep and delicate, with silver pupils, a straight nose bridge, and thin lips. Coupled with his smooth silver hair, he looked enchanting and handsome. Seeing him was like seeing the beauty of a silver moon at night.

  The young man walked over slowly with a harp similar to Joel's in his hand.

  "Is he the new minstrel?" Lucien wondered to himself, then asked in puzzlement: "The knights are true nobles, why would they go adventuring for wealth in the Dark Mountains?"

  "Hey, Laine, how about a drink?"

  "I only drink at night." Rein sat down beside the bar, "In many countries in the East, there have been no wars for two or three hundred years, so the need for knights is not that urgent. After all, conferring knighthood requires granting fiefs and land, so even if a commoner awakens their bloodline power, they can at most become a knight but not a true noble. Some of them went to other countries to become knights of another country, while others came to the Principality of Vauloreit, which is closest to heretics, heathens, dark creatures, and magical beasts, to establish their merits and seek wealth."

  "In addition, there are also many bankrupt and impoverished knights, guilty fugitive knights, noble knights who follow family precepts and travel the continent, as well as dark knights who have awakened their blood power but are not recognized by the church due to their dark nature, and are even hunted down."

  Korvus grumbled a few words, somewhat displeased that Lirien didn't join him for a drink: "Lucien, this is the new minstrel Lirien, Lirien of Cairnwall, he's been all over, seen it all, just escaped the ardent attentions of the noblewomen of Tryria, from the kingdom of Syragus."

  "Syragus Kingdom?" Lucien smiled and nodded at Laine, the Dark Mountains were so dangerous that even real knights died inside, so Lucien temporarily gave up on the idea of adventuring for wealth. No matter what time it was, having a clear understanding of one's own strength was extremely important.

  Khoren burst out laughing, his long golden beard shaking violently, and the wrinkled dwarf face spoke with a sly tone that all men understood: "Right, it's that passionate, unrestrained, love-above-all Syracuse Kingdom."

  A drunkard who appeared at the Rhine suddenly sobered up, stumbled to the bar, belched and asked with longing and envy: "Rhine, ladies of Treia, are they as beautiful, passionate as the legend says?"

  "With a faint smile, Rhein said in his unique, elegant and rhythmic tone: 'Ah, they have eyes as bright as morning stars, hair as smooth as silk, lips as tender as roses, skin as soft as milk, and their bodies are filled with the scent of perfume that is full of temptation. Several countesses and viscountesses even whispered warm, moist breaths in my ear, inviting me to visit their secret gardens.'"

  "The drunkard asked expectantly: 'Then where did you go? What was it like?' His breathing became rapid."

  Lucien was no stranger to such scenes, a group of men gathered together, always discussing women, while listening with great interest, thinking about how to ask Korn about learning the script.

  Rein's expression didn't change, still smiling faintly as he replied: "I told them I don't like using dirty things that have been used by others. I only love beautiful, pure and clean lives, whether they are male or female, they are the most delicious things in this world."

  "Pffft, Laine, you're really good at bragging, will the noblewomen and young ladies accept such insults?"

  "Haha, if you really said that to the noblewomen of the court, you'd probably have been thrown into the famous prison in Triana by now."

  "Those noble ladies, many of whom have knight-level strength, if you dare to answer like that, Lain, you'll be torn to shreds."

  For Cohen's and the drunkard's loud laughter, Laine didn't mind, lightly shrugging her shoulders: "So, I escaped from the Kingdom of Syracuse to Alto."

  Korn laughed uncontrollably, pounding on the bar and waking up all the drunks. Amidst the curses, he shouted loudly: "Thanks to Rhein's great story, let's cheerfully welcome a new day, bottoms up!"

  These three or four drunkards were extremely sensitive to the phrase "bottoms up", and immediately came over laughing and staggering, taking the beer from Korn's hand and holding it high:

  "A toast to Rhein, down in one!"

  After the commotion died down, Cohen saw that Lucien was still there and asked in surprise, "Lucien, do you have something else?"

  Lucien organized his words carefully and said: "Uncle Korn, after these past few days, I've had a new idea. I want to learn how to read and write."

  "Hey, studying writing? Has our little Xian also been infected by Lain and started bragging?"

  "Words, oh, those are lofty and extraordinary ideals!"

  "Lucien, don't mind them, a real man has no dreams, or else he's better off dead!"

  Kane laughed for a while, then looked at Lucien: "Do you really want to learn the text? You have no foundation. It is said that it takes at least two years to learn the basics of the text. Do you have so much money and time?"

  "No matter how many thorns lie ahead, if we don't take this step, we'll never be able to move forward," Lucien replied seriously. And for an adult who has gone through years of learning, knows the methods of learning, and most importantly, can speak fluently in the language of this world, it's likely that learning to read and write would only take one or two months.

  Koen saw Lucien's seriousness and replied solemnly, "If you were younger, you could have been selected by the church to study letters and knowledge in a monastery. Now, you either become someone's apprentice, signing a ten-year contract, or spend your own money to learn from a scholar. Of course, becoming an apprentice doesn't necessarily mean you'll learn letters; many blacksmiths in the ironworkers' guild can't read. And if you pay out of pocket, it's standard price throughout Altor: five silver nails per month. There are over ten scholars willing to teach."

  Lucien instinctively ruled out the method of becoming an apprentice to someone else, which wasn't a problem with a ten-year contract. Once he decided to learn magic, the contract didn't need to be followed at all. Becoming an apprentice would mean following his master every day, eating and living together, making it easy to expose his secret, and also inconvenient for learning magic. So Lucien seemed to ask himself, "Five silver nails?"

  Korn nodded: "Yes, five silver nails, unless you work from dawn till dusk every day and only eat the worst black bread, it will take more than half a year to save up. And how much can you learn in a month? Do you really want to go study literacy?"

  "Yes." Lucien replied firmly, which works out to one hundred copper fells being equivalent to a single silver nall.

  This is indeed a difficult start.