Faces from the Old Days

Less than a month had gone by since Shui visited Rinto City, and he had since crossed the eastern border of the five cities region. Heavenly Territory, which was his upcoming final destination, was located in the northern area of the kingdom, but he was going to Seastar Region first because they had a mode of transportation that would take him directly to Heavenly Territory in a short amount of time. Seastar Region was two regions away to the southeast and he calculated that it would take him about a month and a half in total at a leisurely pace.

Shui intended on being as productive as he could during this trip, but he hadn't managed to fulfil that goal for the first few days because of Alia. Even though it was her fault for being asleep, she was upset with Shui for not letting her see his 'old flames'. The way she described them alone made him confident that it was good that she didn't meet them, but arguing with her wouldn't give him any benefits so he just endured her complaints.

Midway through his journey, Shui stopped at a small town to obtain intelligence from the underground guild. The town had no walls, but it wasn't in danger from evolved beasts because the nearby land was quite barren. Unfortunately, this desolate area was a gathering spot for vagrants and lawbreakers, so danger still existed inside the town.

Shui was experienced in concealing his presence so he didn't run into trouble even on his way to the underground guild, which was located in the most troublesome section. After getting the information he wanted, Shui left the bar that the guild was in and was considering if he should stay at an inn or camp outdoors. Both options would likely result in him having to battle, but it was important to choose where the battle would happen.

While he was still pondering this decision, Shui passed by a commotion. He had even walked by a group of men killing each other, so this shouldn't have been any different, but he had a feeling that this was connected to him somehow. As he always trusted his gut, Shui checked to see what the commotion was about.

"Eh, so these are the new products they got?"

"Look pretty good, but they'll probably be expensive."

"Who knows, maybe it'll be a two for one special."

As this was the red-light district, it was easy to guess what these men were discussing with vulgar smiles. In front of a three story shop with bright lights and scantily dressed women bulging out, there was a man holding ropes connected to nooses that were worn around the necks of two identical women, who were likely twins. The women's eyes were dull with despair, but many here would take pleasure in drawing the light of fear from their eyes.

Once he had attracted a sizable crowd, the man began introducing his merchandise.

"As you can all see, these two are twin sisters so although you can be satisfied with one, I promise that taking both will provide a much more euphoric experience."

Shui believed that the two women were the reason behind his gut feeling, so he paid attention to the man's speech. However, this interest gave Alia reason to trouble him.

"Wow, all men really are dogs."

As he knew there would be no benefits to letting her have leverage like this, Shui was quick to defend himself.

"Please don't jump to conclusions without knowing the full story. I'm not here for that sort of stuff."

"Oh? Then please tell me, why are you staring at those two poor girls?"

"..."

"Silent, are we? Looks like I'll have much to report to your little girlfriend."

Shui wanted to refute her accusations, but he also didn't know why these two were special, not yet at least. Their cultivations were crippled, but they didn't seem to have cultivated past the Earth Realm, and while they were pretty, their faces didn't leave strong impressions. Furthermore, they had obviously gone through a lot so their auras were likely different from what he remembered.

"Boss, where did you get these two?" asked one customer.

"Well, I don't like spreading my trade secrets, but these two came from a small clan in the five cities region."

"You mean the one with the chimera lord?"

"Could be."

It was rare for managers of this type of business to divulge the origins of their goods, as that generally came with annoying complications, but this one did it to attract more attention. Thankfully, this provided a crucial hint to Shui.

'Then do I know them? I'm sure it wasn't recent, but my childhood memories aren't very clear. Hmm....?!?!'

As he tried to find one more hint to solve this puzzle, Shui finally noticed the marks on their ear lobes. Having holes for earrings wasn't odd for women, but it brought back the memory of the first time he made a custom earring artifact. The dots then rapidly connected, and once he guessed the circumstances that led these two here, his eyes narrowed in a calm rage.

"Alia, I don't care what you want to call me later, but for now please be quiet."

Without waiting for a response, Shui stepped forward and asked, "How much for the two of them?"

"Wow, what an impatient customer! As these two are new goods, if you want to get a full night-"

"No, you misunderstand me. I'm asking you how much for me to redeem them?"

Shui's words inspired many gasps. Redeeming a courtesan was usually only done by those who favoured one in bed, but since Shui hadn't even had a chance to taste them, the bystanders wondered if he knew the two personally.

The manager also had this idea, so he tried to see how deep his customer's pockets were.

"Well, normally I wouldn't consider anything lower than three black gold coins, but for you-"

Instead of wasting time negotiating, Shui handed the man a normal quality spirit gem and went towards the twins. A single normal quality spirit gem sold for ten black gold coins on average, so this was more like an investment than a purchase, but Shui wasn't doing this on purpose. He would have handed over three black gold coins if he could, but he didn't have any with him and neither did he have enough low quality spirit gems to make up the amount. Even so, the pain of overspending was minimal as he looked at the state the two were in.

Shui squatted and briefly exposed his true face, but it drew no reaction from either of them. He could count the times they had met on one hand, but none of those times were recent and they never spoke with them being aware of his identity, so it wasn't surprising. Still, he sighed and lifted them with mental control. They finally showed a response to being levitated off the ground, but returned to gloom soon after. Shui used to worry about where he would sleep, but now that he had the two of them with him, the answer was clear.