🎀 Wisteria 🎀

Tired from the exhausting trek, Raphael collapsed onto the nearest seat. "Kaechka, please..." he gasped, sweating profusely and breathing heavily, gesturing for the girl to fan him with a fan. "It's so hot... For an old, sick man... Ugh... Imrud save me, Anfrag bless me, Goddess help me..." After catching his breath, he called out to the boy: "Zakhar! Go check out what they have on the menu." After sending Eyma to the dining hall, the merchant unfolded the local newspaper. "Thirty-five percent?..." He reread the headline several times, disbelieving what he saw. "Well, what can I say? Rest in peace to the foreign investor. Today you exchange gold for trinkets, and tomorrow trinkets for bronze, and they might even ban the reverse exchange altogether. Hmm..." He quickly skimmed through the remaining articles, nodding approvingly, although more out of indifference, at two other initiatives, which no longer interested him much.

Added 10 minutes later

-- Well, guys, let's think about how we can handle the pass. It's pointless for all of us to go together, that's true. Raf, of course, will pass through on his own... And Rogdan with Mir and those who look more presentable could also pass through openly, but it will be difficult with all sorts of bandit faces, sorcerers, and, hmm, personally unfree individuals. Of course, we have three units of valuable living capital that can guarantee success with any soldier, but, as you understand...

- We just go and pass through, what's the problem? We all came here for the same purpose as always - to make money. All my goods are described, we are all clean before the law - I remind you that our security service conducted a thorough check of each employee when hiring. The only thing is that Mr. Bernhard will have to be registered additionally; they might have some kind of fee for that. Standard formalities.