Rayne moved through the narrow streets, boots clicking against uneven cobblestone. The afternoon sun caught on shuttered windows and crooked signs, while the air still smelled of ale and sweat. He guessed part of it was simply the people running through the streets and the hawkers calling out prices while driving a cart.

  Despite the smell, Bricksall was busy.

  It reminded Rayne of a town in Europe, but that was more or less a guess. He'd hardly ever left his country, but it did make him curious about how one of the bigger cities in Valeria would look.

  The original Rayne had hardly left the farm he'd grown up on, and he had no memories to help him get a picture of the other cities.

  All of his party had left the garrison building after a breakfast of bread and eggs, deciding to visit different places and verify their information in the evening. Jason had decided to visit the local church with Kesh while Nate had simply left without telling where he would go. The same was true for Welix and Quinn.

  Surprisingly, John and Heins had headed towards the brothel. He certainly hadn't taken the latter as someone who would spend his money on prostitutes.

  As for him, he was looking for a bookstore.

  His eyes swept over faces and doorways, searching as he walked. Somewhere in this town, there had to be a place that kept books. Even if it was just scraps of stories or manuals, it was better than nothing.

  After circling past a butcher’s shop and a quiet alley where washerwomen hung clothes, he simply decided to ask a hawker who sold him roasted nuts in a paper cone for one copper in exchange for directions.

  Apparently, there was one in the town deeper around the affluent houses. Rayne headed there while chewing on the nuts, only briefly halting when he saw a patrol from the garrison. He wondered if they were keeping an eye on him, but it soon left, not even giving him a glance.

  He decided he was thinking too much and increased his pace until he finally spotted a faded sign that read “Bricksall Books for All.”

  Rayne pushed inside.

  The bell above the door gave a soft chime. The air inside was cool, thick with the smell of dust, ink, and the unmistakable scent of books. Even in this world, books gave off a similar scent.

  The store was emptier than his expectations. Three tall shelves leaned against the walls, crammed with volumes stacked next to each other. Some spines were cracked and split, others wrapped in faded leather, and he noticed that parts of the shelves were completely empty.

  Behind a counter sat a young woman, her brown hair tied back loosely, a few strands slipping free to frame her face. She looked up from the book in her lap and gave him a once-over, her lips curling in a faint smile.

  Rayne approached her. “Hello, I'm looking for some specific books on mana. Mostly theoretical. Do you keep something like that?”

  Her smile faltered, replaced by something apologetic. She leaned on the counter, chin resting on her hand. “That's asking a lot for Bricksall. Only noble houses will have books like that other than Astra Academy. If you are lucky, you might find it in some obscure store in the capital.”

  He already expected such an answer, but couldn't help feeling disappointed. “What about books on mana skills? Or skills in general. And sword styles?”

  The woman didn't reply at once, eyes pausing on his face. “You aren't a local, right? A merchant?”

  “A soldier,” he replied. “Here on a supply quest.”

  Her eyes twinkled. “I never met one who could read. The ones here at the garrison only know their numbers because of gambling. Are you fighting the dungeon outbreaks? What's your name?”

  Rayne didn't understand the line of questioning, but didn't hate it either. He simply replied. “My name’s Rayne and I haven't faced the outbreaks yet. But going to. My warband is moving towards the frontlines as we speak.”

  “Mona,” she immediately replied. “You must be good at fighting. Have you handled a monster yet? You don't seem to be carrying weapons.”

  “I left my gear at the garrison,” he said. “And yes, quite a few. We had a lot of problems with goblins and trolls.”

  “Trolls? Aren't they really strong and scary? Tell me about them.”

  Mona leaned forward, her dress sliding just enough for him to take a peek at her chest. He flushed, realising he barely had any contact with a woman since coming to this world, and noticed her smile widening. She was clearly interested in him, and he was half a mind to move back to talking about books.

  But he didn't. Partly because Mona was cute and he guessed that he could get more information from her with a rapport.

  So, he gave her tidbits from the battles he had been in, talking about burning the goblin nests and doing scouting quests to look for the troll warlord. Nothing she wouldn't hear in a few months with more soldiers coming back to Bricksall after ending the campaign.

  She seemed to get more interested with each word and halfway through it, she was sitting on the counter, brushing her body against his. But before it could go any further, Rayne paused his war stories and brought the conversation back to books.

  “So, do you have the books I'm looking for?”

  Mona straightened a bit, her eyes widening as if realising she had completely forgotten about that before she nodded. “I don't think there's books on mana skills. They are elusive, same as the ones on mana theory, but I have one on sword styles. You might like them. If you are so interested in mana, we have story books on famous mages.”

  “Will they be accurate or fictional?” he asked as she jumped from the counter, heading towards the shelves.

  “Both. They are mostly written by bards, but you know how they exaggerate everything. Do you still want them?”

  Rayne thought about it for a bit before nodding. “If they are cheap, yes.”

  Mona chuckled. “No books are cheap. I don't even sell them often since copies are hard to come by. Simply rent them out. It gives me a steady flow of income. But I will make an exception for you.”

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  She smiled while pulling out three books from the shelves. One of them had a cover that hung from the side, but Rayne didn't complain. The fact that he was even getting books in such a small town was good enough for him.

  He quietly read the titles as she put them on the counter. The first one was titled “Swords and Styles,” the second one was “The Sanctum of Sage,” and the third was “Mage Reborn.”

  Flipping through them, he found them good enough to buy and when he raised his head, he saw Mona staring at him.

  She flushed a bit. “Will you be buying all three?”

  “They seem interesting,” he said. “How much for all three of them?”

  “25 silvers.”

  Rayne almost frowned. “That's a lot. One of them even has a broken cover.”

  “The one on the sword styles is the most expensive out of them, and story books are rented out a lot by parents,” she said in a professional voice, her expression returning to one of neutrality. “Honestly, I have already given you a discount on it.”

  He looked down at the books again. Honestly, money wasn't really a problem for him right now, but he still didn't want to spend too much. But then again, haggling too much might just ruin his relationship with Mona.

  So, he simply said. “Okay, but I would need something else too.”

  “I'm free in the evening,” she said the very next second, then blushed when she realised she had gotten ahead of herself. “Sorry, what do you want?”

  Rayne smiled. “Unfortunately, I won't be in the town for long and have dinner plans already. But I would like some information from you.”

  Mona deflated a bit, but then raised her eyebrow. “What type of information?”

  Rayne took a few seconds before speaking. “Just the information about a family. What do you know about the farms near…”

  ***

  A knock on the door rattled Rayne as he raised his eyes from the ledger he had been going through. He had returned soon after getting the books and an hour later, a soldier had knocked on his door with the ledger of all the supplies.

  He had barely gone through half of it before he was disturbed again. He frowned, moving towards the door, and as he opened it, he saw his party members standing there.

  Nate and Kesh stood next to each other while Jason stood at the back. The others didn't seem to have returned yet.

  “I thought you would take more time exploring the city,” Nate said, looking at him before his eyes moved past him. “Already back to work, huh?”

  “At least he didn't keep wasting his money in the gambling rings,” Kesh said, getting a scornful look from Nate.

  “Gambling rings are great spots for information. You only have to win once, then lose some, and they all treat you like their lost brother. Those stupid bastards.” He chuckled, then looked at Rayne. “Did you find anything?”

  Rayne nodded, moving to the side so the others could step inside before closing the door. Nate flipped through the ledgers while both Jason and Kesh focused on him.

  “What did you find in the church?” he asked.

  Jason snickered. “Not as much as I expected. The head priest was too busy to meet, so I was only able to talk to some nuns that were there, and they only revealed that they haven't barred any family from receiving a funeral.”

  “We tried prying more, but they didn't seem like they wanted to speak about it,” Kesh added. “We also saw some garrison members praying there and left soon to not alarm them.”

  “And what about you, Nate?” Rayne glanced at the fellow forsaken.

  The man raised his eyes up from the ledgers and shrugged. “Actually far less than I expected. The men were either lying or had no idea about the corpses. Though, they did tell me that the garrison has increased the patrols and were even using locals as part of the garrison as if they were looking out for an enemy.”

  “Do you think it can be because they are scared of the monsters spilling out from the frontlines?” Kesh asked.

  Before anyone could reply, Rayne shook his head. Although he had hoped for more information, whatever he heard already confirmed a few theories he had in his mind, and if they were even partially true, then the garrison captain was the biggest idiot he'd come across till now in this world.

  “What did you find?” Jason asked, matching eyes with him. “You look like you got much more than all of us combined.”

  Rayne smiled. “How can you tell?”

  “Your eyes are as if you are calculating everything we told you and trying to match it with what you found. So, tell us, what do you know? Did the garrison kill the family?”

  He shook his head. “No, I thought so at first, but the garrison is simply trying to save the actual killers. Let me explain…”

  For the next half an hour, Rayne explained his theory. What he had found from asking in the city—which was just the information from Mona—and the signs he had seen while they had been marching to Bricksall.

  In his opinion, things didn't just happen coincidentally, especially around a family murder, they were always connected. And he was able to join together a lot of empty threads after going through the ledger till he had a pretty solid idea of what was going on.

  And once he finished his explanation, rage and confusion was in the eyes of all three of them.

  “Why the fuck would they even do that?” Jason scorned. Both Kesh and Nate nodded, agreeing with him.

  “I don't know,” he replied. “There can be a few things, but I’d rather ask Captain Baker about it instead of theorising. We have dinner coming up.”

  At his words, Kesh looked out of the window. The sun had already set and darkness was slowly taking over the city. If Rayne was right, someone was going to knock on their door for dinner soon.

  They simply spent the next two hours in the room. Rayne went through the rest of the ledgers while Kesh and Nate started a game of dice. Jason on the other hand moved to clean up his gear.

  He hadn't taken the brute to be a dedicated soldier, but according to him a good soldier kept his gear clean, and it was one of the first things he learnt in training. The others didn't arrive all this time, and when there was finally a knock on the door, it was Jeff.

  The deputy smiled at them. “Are you still up for dinner with Captain Baker? He mostly eats in his quarters and has already put chairs for you all.”

  Rayne smiled at the man. “Sure, we were getting hungry.”

  “The rest aren't here?”

  “Probably busy in the east side of the town,” Nate said from the back. “What's for dinner?”

  Jeff laughed, leading them back to the first floor and explaining everything that was made for them. It turned out Captain Baker was generous with food as he had prepared steaks for them made from monster meat and quite a lot of other stuff.

  The entire way, Rayne couldn't help but notice how from time to time, Jeff would pause, giving them a concerned glance before continuing his talk about food.

  The others saw it too and when the man finally opened the doors to the captain's quarters, just the wafting smell of all the meat was enough to distract him.

  But his eyes soon moved back to Captain Baker.

  In simple words, the man was… old. He looked like he was well into his 50s with white hair and a clean-shaven face. His eyes were sharp, and there was a glint in them as he assessed each of them with his gaze before getting up and putting out a wide smile.

  “Ah, welcome. I have been waiting for you all. I was busy in the morning or I would have shown you around the garrison myself,” he said, voice light and hearty. “Please come and sit. I have been meaning to talk to you all.”

  Rayne smiled back, giving the man the customary Valerian salute before taking the initiative and sitting down in the chair straight in front of the captain. “Actually, I share the same sentiment.”

  Baker raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?”

  “Yes, after all, I have so much to talk to you.”

  ***