Nile took the cold metal out of the pocket.
'Is it a badge?'
It had a medieval shield with two swords and a coat of arms, symbolising chivalry and strength. And a pair of wings around the sides.
Nile held the badge in his hand; he examined it for a moment.
'Hmm.. It looks cool, but what does it signify?'
Nile wondered, turning it over in his palm. Deciding it wasn't worth it, he tossed the badge back onto Aegis's chest pocket and resumed his search.
He searched for what more he could find. His hand travelled lower, eventually brushing against a soft leather pouch tucked near the waistband. The pouch produced metals hittng each other sound. The moment his fingers gripped it, the pouch gave off the distinct, heavy clink of coins shifting against one another.
"Eureka."
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips. He pulled the pouch free, bringing it close to his chest as he loosened the leather drawstring to peer inside.
"Let's see how much he has."
Nile picked the coins one by one while counting them.
"One, Two, Three..."
"24 copper coins. And there are six other coins which look different from the rest."
He tipped the pouch over his open palm, emptying the remaining six pieces. A handful of dull, silver metal discs spilled out. Unlike the rough, uneven copper pieces, these silver coins had a nearly perfect round cut—as if they had been punched out precisely by a modern machine. Decades of heavy circulation had stripped the silver of its original, blinding luster, leaving the discs a faded, matte pewter grey.
'Silver coins!'
Nile's eyes narrowed as he held a copper and a silver piece side-by-side to compare them.
"The edge of copper coins is rough and lacks a clean cut, whereas the silver coins have a clean cut. One more detail I find weird is that the image on the copper coins has an image of a woman with a crown on her head; maybe she is royalty. But on the silver coins, the image is not that of a person but a snake with horns biting its tail."
Nile contemplated the metal in his hand, a cold feeling settling in his stomach.
'Weird, so weird.'
He put all the coins into a pouch and tied the drawstring tight, and patted it securely into the deep inner pocket near his chest.
Nile leaned closer and muttered, "I promise your men that I will send you to them. As a fee, I will be taking your money. Also, please carry some food next time with you; I can't find anything."
The young master called out to Nile while holding some beef jerky in his hand.
"Hey, bro, see, I got some food."
"Did you find only food?"
"No, also got some water. See", the young master took out a water bag, with his chest high as if feeling proud of himself.
"Did you find some money?"
"Yes, I did."
"Did you take it?"
"Why should I?"
"Why?? Because it is money."
'Is he stupid, or does he just not understand the value of money? Nile thought, shaking his head. I need to hoard every single resource I can get my hands on, because in this unknown world, having lots of money can also be a weapon.'
Nile left the young master and went towards Guiteng's corpse. He knelt, his hands running through the dead man's clothes.
The young master called out to Nile, "Wait, don't tell me you're poor? If you need money, I can give you some."
Nile took the money pouch and counted it, "One, two, three... Thirty-five copper coins". He opened his pouch and transferred the coins into it.
The young master walked up to Nile while chewing some beef jerky, "Do you want some?"
"Keep it to yourself."
"Wait, I haven't introduced myself. My name is Yaichenba, son of the famous Golden Merchant."
The young master waited for Niles's expression of shock and astonishment, but instead he got a nonchalant expression.
"Cool, you can call me Nile."
"Wait, is that all? No shock? Nothing? You heard right? I am the son of the Golden Merchant."
"Yeah, whatever."
"People usually get shocked when I say this, and they become closer to me."
"Do you know where we are, and do you know where we can get to the nearest human settlement area?"
"I think I know; we should be in Silver City, and the nearest should be Renzhong."
"Can you lead the way?"
"Leave it to me," the young master said, his hand hitting his chest. He pointed towards the road "If we follow this road, we should reach Renzhong."
"Good, let's go." Nile started his march towards Renzhong.
"What? Are we not taking rest and sleeping for the night?"
"If you want a monster like before to jump you and eat you while you're sleeping, you are free to do so." Nile continued his steps without looking back at the Young master.
"Mon.. Monster like Before? Hey, wait up, I am also coming."
The two people continued their march in the night. They stopped at some spots to rest. They didn't stay for long, fearing some creature might launch at them.
"Nile, wait up! You are walking too fast. We have been walking all day. Can't we rest already?" The young master's breathing was ragged. He bent over with his hands on his knees, panting heavily.
Nile took out his pocket watch; he pressed the crown.
Click!
With a sharp, metallic sound, the spring-loaded lid snapped open.
'One: forty-five.'
They had been going for about 3 hours and 15 minutes, not to mention the bandits made them walk all day with their hands tied to their backs. And they didn't even get any meals. The only time they could have gotten rest and food was during dinner time, but that was also destroyed by the wolves' attack and the anomaly creature.
Nile looked back at the way they came, "This should be far enough; we should rest here for the night."
"Yeahh."
"Yaichenba, you take the first watch for two hours," Nile commanded evenly. "Then wake me up and I'll take over."
"Why do I have to be first to watch?"
"Or you can sleep first? Your call."
"I'll sleep first," Yaichenba said in a cheerful tone. He lay down on the cold ground, his arm acting as a pillow and his head resting on it.
Nile sat as he leaned against a rock.
'We could try walking the whole night, but if we encounter any danger, we would be too tired to escape from it or fight it. I think it's better to at least have some strength when faced with something so that we might have some glimmer of survival. If I assume the sun rises around 5:30, then I have about 3 hours and 45 minutes to rest, nearly four hours. We can sleep for two hours each.'
'Man... I am so damn tired.'