New Member

After he had seen all of the slaves that would be his gift from Goswind, he finally decided on the best one for him.

An 11-year-old boy, with the natural black hair and eyes. He looked like a strong person but didn't want to stay in this city filled with slaves anymore.

And... surprise surprise, the owner of the boy is actually one of the mutual friends of Arden. The gentlemen he had met earlier before.

"Hey, you. Come here" Arden said bluntly, pointing at the boy in front of the crowds. As he demands the boy to come to him.

The boy is actually scared, tremble by his feet, but with all his courage, he came to Arden.

"S... s... si... sir, w.... wh...what can.... what can I do to help you?" While stuttering and with all his effort to produce that sentence from his mouth.

The boy, still filled with fears and still trembling are faced with a smiling person. Arden pats him on his head to calm him down.

For some reason, with a gentle pat. He calmed down almost instantly and not in fear anymore. More like relaxed and liked the feeling of it.

"Okay gentlemen that came here today, thank you for doing so. The money will be transferred to you as soon as possible" Goswind stood up from his seat and start leaving the room.

The other just gave a confused look on why they brought all of their slaves and waste time here, one by one started leaving and then Arden's mutual and the previous owner of the boy came to him.

The overweight woman was the first one to left the room, for whatever reason she has, she looked agitated and angry.

Inviting Arden to celebrate at the local pub in the afternoon, they also told him that he could bring the boy he saw yesterday, his page and his new member of the party.

He accepted the invitation and then they left the keep. Arden did the same while holding the 11 years old boy's hand.

He made his way back to his room and then saw Maverick exiting his own room. Maverick's room and Arden's room is facing each other so it gave a clear point of view.

Then he saw the boy with Arden, he is shocked, surprised.

"Who is this sir?" He asked with a little curiosity at his voice.

"This is a new member of our party and perhaps could be your friend" Answering Maverick's question as best as he could.

"Woah" Happiness painted on his face as he wanders around the little boy to examine him with an excited gesture.

Well, the story is... Theo, Maverick's father is not really a rich noble, Even though they could sustain their self and live a happy and simple life.

They couldn't really buy a really expensive, luxurious thing that has no use for them nor attention from this family of 2. Because of this, they got bullied in the weaker's noble community.

Maverick got the same treatment by the other kids from the community that could just ask their parents to buy a full plate knight's armour like asking for some toys.

Even without any friends, he grew up becoming a 13 years old boy that is humble and respect others, from whatever class they are.

But seeing a new friend like this, he soon became interested in his new friend and asked him so many kinds of questions with a big smile on his face.

At first, The 11-year-old boy is not comfortable being asked so many questions but he answered almost all of them.

"I will let you continue later, we will go shopping for him in about 15 minutes, prepare yourself, we have many things to do" Maverick wanted to bombard him with many more questions before getting stopped.

He then proceeds to enter his room with the boy and Maverick just waited for them outside.

Valen is actually already woken up and is shocked when she saw the boy Arden just got.

"Who is he?" Still shocked and a little confused

"He is the gift I got from Goswind, I will go to buy him some things with Maverick later, you want to come?" The shocked expression on her face slowly gone. Instead, becoming excited.

"What is his name?" She asked still excited about the 11 years old boy.

Silent followed, Arden just stood there like a stone, not knowing what to answer. He never asked the boy before nor he ever thought about it.

"Don't tell me you don't know his name," She said while slowly turning and faced Arden right at the eyes.

"Hey hey, don't make that kind of conclusion! But in this case... you are right" She just sighed upon hearing this response.

"Let's make one right now" She came up with the idea.

"Wait, let's ask him first" Arden came up with a different idea that Valen agrees to.

They both sat down on a chair, while the boy sat in front of them.

"Do you have a name?" Arden said bluntly and stupidly, Valen hit him gently for this.

"N... no" The boy stuttered some words from its mouth that showed the answer.

"Time to make a name then," Both of them said at the same time and sighed.

"What is a good name for him?" Thinking for a bit between their self, they are actually confused too.

After a good 5 minutes or so, they decided on Austin which meant venerable or something. This meant they hoped their relationship with him will be good forever.

He is quite happy after this, even cried out some tears. A slave rarely got named and it's uncommon to get one. If they got one, that meant their owner liked them.

After some time, they got out of the room and Maverick is still waiting there, his back against the wall and is bored. Once he saw Austin, he changed his face once more.

Then, Valen remembered that she must go and do something. So she left the 3 people to go.

They said their goodbye and Arden began introducing Austin to Maverick. Maverick listened on every word, every detail, basically everything about Austin.

"Let's list the item we need for him," Arden said while thinking about what they needed to buy.

"Well, the first thing would be clothes, we need to change his look" Arden examined Austin and thought for a bit. Then nodded in agreement.

So they set out for a hunt of the things. They wandered through many places, shop and more place! with a budget of 30 Aurens.

They stroke many deals, bargaining every possible item, end up with more items than they first thought would get.

But then, when they were walking down the street. Austin gently pulls Arden's cloth to get his attention.

Arden turns his attention to Austin and smiled asking him what things he wants to buy.

He pointed at the stable and the blacksmith, Arden quite surprised. Both of the things that came from that kind of store sure is not on the list.

Them, with the 9 Aurens left, ended up getting inside the store. First the blacksmith.

There is a middle-aged person, probably at his late 30 at the counter. cleaning an odd-looking sword, It has a kind of curve.

Interested in this kind of things, Arden approached him and making a kind of starting conversation.

While Maverick helped Austin on what kind of thing he is gonna buy here. In the middle of the conversation, he asked...

"Nice sword you got there, what is it? seems kinda good" Arden asked with curiosity over him.

"Yea, this is a nice sword indeed, it's called a katana. I got it in my trip to Tadashima shogunate" The man at the counter said while still admiring his own sword.

"Tadashima shogunate? I planned to go there, perhaps you know a way to go there?" He asked a little surprised upon hearing the name of the kingdom.

"Oh, you could go from the port-city of Gillam and take a ship from there to Tadashima Shogunate" And he began telling Arden what he knew from his journey.

Arden listened whatever things he said and then proceed to pay for the things Austin chose to buy.

With Maverick's help, Austin chose a small short sword for his self and then Arden chose a leather armour for him.

They quickly bought a horse for Maverick and then proceed to go to the local pub since there is an invitation to celebrate his new member by his mutual friend.

But first, prepare the boy with whatever they bought today. Better clothes to be worn by Austin. After this, they proceed to the bar.

Once they got inside the bar, looks from the other customers. Most of them just stared for a second and then continue whatever their business they were doing.

They saw the 2 people already sitting at a big table and are giving their order to the waitress. The same waitress as yesterday.

Seeing Arden coming, she changed her face from the "meh, ok" to the more and better face to serve a rich customer.

After she took the order from them, which is some normal food and some normal drinks since they didn't want to attract any attention.

Arden's mutual friend turned to him and started the conversation.

"He has changed much from the morning. You took good care of your people" One of them given a statement to Arden.

"Yea, call him Austin from now on please" With a smile he responded.

They are shocked seeing someone name their slave after less than a day of meeting them.

"Let's not call him a slave from now, he is my new party member" Arden gave a statement to his mutual friends.

Upon hearing this, Austin began shedding his tear in happiness. That night, they celebrated about Arden's new party member.

The adults drink beer and the kids drink some very light beer, not easy to become drunk by drinking that.

One of the person than start telling a story about the encounter at the hallway. After Arden left them and the woman alone, the woman starts being cocky.

Saying she has the best slave ever and the person that would get the gift from Goswind would choose her slave.

But the 2 gentlemen disagree and start making a bet. On the end, she lost like 40 Aurens and for that incident, the 2 gentlemen would pay for this celebration.

Arden ended up drunk by the end of the night and the boys helped him to go back to his room by guiding him to not knock over things.

Austin will be sleeping at Maverick's room since there is one extra bed there, that would probably be the happiest day Austin ever has since his birth.