Lucy was thinking about something, and he asked what her plans were.
She told him that for a start she would visit Count Katanat. He was her uncle on her mother's side, and if she explained the situation to him, he should help her.
"So your mother was close with the count?"
She looked away and answered evasively that they were not particularly hostile.
Since she could not say with any certainty that they had been close, Ian thought, that was not very reassuring. He asked whether, besides her uncle, she really had no one else to trust.
She was indignant that he suspected her uncle. There was no one more reliable in the whole world.
He was even surprised. But if she was so sure of it, then the man really must be decent.
She said that he was still much better than someone she did not know at all. Everyone else was only trying to marry her. Of course, if an impressive magician like him proposed to her, she would be happy.
Then she caught herself, thinking that she had said too much again, and said that their contract expired as soon as they met Count Katanat. Wasn't that cruel? And by the way — a noblewoman was proposing to him.
He told her in response that there were plenty of women in the world besides her, and this greatly offended her. Puffing out her cheeks, she walked off ahead of him, stomping loudly.
"Where are you going?" he asked. "The hotel is the other way."
They went into the hotel. Ian gave the owner some money and asked her to prepare a room and a bath, and asked whether that would be enough.
She smirked, checked the bag of money, and told him that there was enough. She would prepare their rooms right away. "By the way, will the young lady be taking a bath as well?"
Lucy became embarrassed and refused at once.
Ian asked irritably whether she also thought the water was dirty.
She told him that this was one of the reasons, and asked sheepishly why she even had to say such a thing out loud.
He did not understand what she was talking about, and went to see where the bathroom was.
A huge vat of water stood in the backyard of the hotel, in full view of everyone.
He immediately understood what was going on, and told the owner that only he would be bathing.
With an irritated sigh, Lucy pushed back her hood and began fanning herself with her palms, and every man's eyes in the room turned to her at once.
Noticing this, Ian told Lucy to put her cloak on, and she reminded him that he should call her Cassie in public.
He pulled the hood over her head himself and told her to just do it, right now. Everyone was watching.
She did not understand what was going on, and started whining that the cloak was so stuffy.
But those men already had a bad plan. They all left the hotel together to talk it over. They were simply delighted with her beauty. She was like an angel.
One of them said with a smirk that she was only with one man, and a weakling at that. Maybe they should drag her off and have some fun. His friends agreed with the idea, and one of them remarked that it seemed like they were not planning to stay here long.
In that case, the man said, they had no choice. They would do it today.
Meanwhile, Leek was meeting with the local ruler, Baron Cars, to ask for permission to trade. The baron waved a hand, telling them to work hard and not to cause any problems, for which the old man thanked him.
They say that if he could gain the baron's favour, Leek thought, he might even be able to settle in this castle. Maybe he should mention the great mage.
He told the baron that he would like to tell him something. In fact it was a secret. But his respect for him was so great that he simply could not keep it to himself any longer.
The flattery made the baron smile, and he told him to speak.
"The thing is," Leek said, "during our journey we met a mage."
He told him a short version of the story of how the mage who tamed the drake had saved him, and the baron was surprised. But that was not all — because this great mage was now staying at an inn right here in the city.
Hearing this, the baron became very nervous. This was bad. If this unpredictable mage suddenly lost his temper and unleashed the drake on his lands, the entire city would be set on fire.
No — things could get even worse, because right now a group of psychopaths had already settled in this territory. The Holy Knights of Santiago. Driven by devotion to the god of war, they had taken up arms. They were both monks and martial artists, and instead of war they scoured the lands in search of demons and monsters, self-proclaimed defenders of humanity.
But what if this order of the Knights of Santiago crossed paths with the mage who had tamed the drake? If they clashed somewhere on his lands, everything would collapse.
The very thought of it made him sick, and he immediately ordered his manager to prepare a room for this merchant and to summon the Knights of Santiago at once. Let him bring them here before trouble started. He decided that it would be easier to negotiate with the knights than with this crazy mage.
Meanwhile, Ian and Lucy had only just started eating. The innkeeper was so busy that she could not cook and fill the bath at the same time, so Ian volunteered to heat the bath himself, and the innkeeper apologised to him for interrupting his meal.
Before he left, Ian told Lucy to go up to the second floor when she was finished. Then he left her there, which was nothing but a joy to those men.
After finishing her meal she went up towards the second floor. But suddenly a man grabbed her hand and asked whether she was by any chance the companion of the black-haired young man who had gone outside.
She pulled her hand away from him and asked with displeasure who he was.
He answered that he was only a messenger the young man had hired. He had been hired to take her to the pier immediately. As proof he showed her the coin he had supposedly been given.
She said doubtfully that he ought to be in the bath house.
He did not let her finish, and said worriedly that it seemed something had happened when he went out to the bath house in the backyard.
She became nervous, thinking that those bandits had finally tracked them down, and followed the man.
They ran quickly out into the yard — and Lucy saw Ian heating up the tub, and realised that she had been deceived. She turned to the man, probably to ask what this was about, and then he threw a bag over her head, and she screamed Ian's name at the top of her voice.