What we didn't learn in school II

"Oh my god, I am so glad to be away from that place! So suffocating!" Steve wakes and the whole day he just rests inside of the ship, while also checking what he had with himself.

He was proud of his escape and his job in the castle but the war was too much for him so he rather tried to forget everything. He didn't plan for his side project to explode like that, he was planning on using the gunpowder as a backup, but hey, it worked.

"What now? I should probably get to the Temple, but I don't exactly know where it is, only the country..." Steve decided to fly to a bigger town in a small country. He had to land at night on a small crypt since it was the only place nobody would go to and it was actually pretty accessible from the graves around it. He went to the city first thing in the morning.

The city was filled with working people and looked more lively than the castle city, it was amazing what war does to the population morale. However, he soon felt he was in another country because the coins he got from the Holy man were useless in the market.

"You can go to the Company to exchange the currency," the old man in the market stall advised him.

"Thank you!" Steve entered the building soon enough. There were a lot of people here dealing with the clerks and while his attire wasn't exactly cheap-looking, he felt out of place with all the fancy clothes around him.

"What do you want?" a guard noticed him as well and came to him. Steve automatically stepped back when a man twice his size walked to him.

"E-excuse me, I came to exchange coins from the Knight kingdom,"

"Hmm, are you traveling with your family?"

"Ah...yes,"

"Then bring your parents!" the guard showed the door.

"I can't..."

"Why?"

"I-I just need to change the money, let me in!" the guard looked around to see, he was making a scene.

"Fine, come with me!" he leads Steve upstairs and shows him a door.

"Be quick!" the guard said and Steve knocked and entered.

"Boy?" a man in his early forties, wearing small glasses and a long purple cloak was sitting behind a desk.

"He needs to exchange money," the guard explained and stood behind Steve.

"Very well, come! Put the coins on the scale!" the man pointed at a scale on his table and Steve did so.

"Hmm, let see..." the man searched through a stack of papers.

"I see, yes...some of these coins are not valid...however I can buy it from you as well..." the man said and brought a noticeably smaller bag of coins. Steve had no idea about the exchange rate so he thanked the man and took the purse.

Only after he left the building he could feel the pressure to lessen and came to the market stall to ask about the temple.

"Temple? How should I know? Are you going to buy something?" the elderly man looked down on him.

"Aha! Sorry, I take these apples,"

"Go ahead that is seven coins,"

"S-Seven? Okay...so where is the temple?"

"What are you? Deaf? I don't care about any temples! Move along!" he waved his hand and ignored Steve.

"What the hell! I thought you need more money to tell me!" but the man said nothing.

"Fucking hell!" Steve said annoyed and quickly walked away. Where he could find somebody that knows the temple? He couldn't see any religious building and so in the end, he ended in a pub. Half because of his thirst for wine and half because in movies everybody asked the bartenders.

"Hello, give me a glass of wine," he sits at the bar. The bartender was a handsome dark-haired man in his late thirties.

"Thirty coins!" he already knew that he was scammed by the clerk because the Holy man gave him much more money than this.

"Thanks..."

"So what a young kid like you doing here?" the bartender asked him while preparing beer for other customers.

"I am looking for the Temple!" Steve was happy to go right to the point.

"The Temple? Why?"

"Religious reasons,"

"Religion is not for babes still dreaming about their mother's tit! Go find a job!" the bartender left with the drinks.

"Do you have any idea, where the Temple is?" Steve ignored his last remark and continued when he came back.

"Of course I know, I hear every rumor here!"

"Then please help me,"

"Why?"

"I..." the man blatantly showed his palm and Steve understood. He gave him ten coins and the man left the hand opened.

"Is the temple a secret?"

"Yes," Steve gave him ten more coins.

"If you follow the north route for four days, you will reach a town. There choose the east route and on it is a cross route after about three days. Follow the sign there to the Temple,"

"Thanks,"

"I thank you, you want another glass?"

"Yes, please!" Steve said happy, losing the rest of his wealth.