“Why do you have so many fruits?” Tim asked, his voice filled with incredulity. “When you said that you would buy the supplies while also scouting alone, I was worried. But to think you managed to buy these…”

“I had help,” Eldric said, the corner of his lips lifted and formed an ambiguous smile.

When his assistant saw Eldric’s expression, Tim shuddered. “You didn’t– bash some heads or bed some women, did you?

Eldric’s smile turned to a full smirk. “I would be the one who’d get his head bashed if I tried to bed her.”

“So you did think about it,” Tim shook his head in exasperation then turned serious when he noticed the general to do the same.

Eldric began narrating what he observed in the town. He was supposed to go here for the festival as he was invited by the mayor. But there was another reason why he went to this place days before the actual festival.

He received news that the underground organization he had been investigating and pursuing for years now, had made this small town their center for commerce. All kinds of merchants passed here to do business in their country or to other nearby countries. With the constant stream of people coming to and fro, this was the perfect place for the underground market and dealings.

This group had been terrorizing towns in the outskirts of the city and causing problems to the country. The Emperor, while worried about him, gave him a go signal.

So he brought his right-hand man Tim along with the rest of his trusted officials to go down this town early and check out the accuracy of the reports. They had checked in at a local inn instead of the mayor’s house so as not to alert their enemies.

Aside from the organization, who would have thought that he would meet an interesting person on his first day? He only wanted to buy fruits but he was bad at bartering. He knew how difficult it was to earn through an honest day’s work.

Then this young man, or young woman, cut in for him and decided to help him. He knew that she knew that he knew about her little secret. Why she crossdressed was only something he could imagine.

“I should have gotten her name.”

Tim almost choked on his apples. “What, a woman ran away from you or something?”

“She helped me,” Eldric went on to tell him what happened at the market place and how she changed her attitude when they were alone.

Tim’s shoulder shook with laughter. Once the laughter subsided, he gave Eldric a meaningful stare. “Do you think she’s related to what we were investigating?”

Eldric grimaced. That crossed his mind too but a tiny part of him was hoping that there was another reason for her cross-dressing. “Maybe. Maybe not. I think I need to meet her more.”

Tim could only shrug and shook his head at his friend as the general happily munches the apples, lost in the memories back at the market.