When he thought about villages, what first comes to his mind is a little town with wooden borders, huts instead of modern houses, and a deep fresh water well where most of the ladies are found frolicking. There will be cattles in each houses, a little plot of land abundant with either fruit crops or crawling vegetable vines, and a large farmland of wheat and rice. The Town would have only a few people with a village head old enough to guide the little ones and life is easy and simpler than ever.

This is the usual opening themes to those RPG games that he played. The story will continue when a Traveller would come that village, have a girl fall in love with him for a few seconds of meeting, and then comes a rival who will become the protagonist's enemy for the first arc. A duel will be held to fight for the love of the girl, blah blah blah, and Lang Yuan can still say how biased the halo of the male lead for this heroic type of stories.

Well, it's not him and will never be him so probably he can live a simple life in that village with a very large egg to take good care of.

But to disappoint his guesses, not only the Town of Qian is not a rundown village but an exclusive one with iron walls and a huge gate. Flags can be seen dancing on the wind attached in a pole from the highest buildings that is still visible from the outside. Patrolling guards can be seen from both the upper part of the wall and the ground, especially on the huge gate where a line of merchants are carrying their carts.

Lang Yuan was dumbfounded but thinking how expensive looking those merchants whom he met on the way, then the probability of their goods coming from a rich town is high. He just didn't expect that it would be as great as this one. He knows that not only from the history of Earth but also in this world that iron ore is a hard to get metal. To have the entire town covered with one...

As usual, entrance fee is needed to enter the town. This is the SOP, due to reasons of not getting any bad elements coming inside the town and also to profit from those rich merchant bastards that always complain about the toll fee. Lang Yuan, who is unaware of the currency, remained on the sidelines watching the older people paying their fees. He can see that the exchange is in gold coins and in an ample amount too. He looked at the pouch he hid under his clothes and took some pieces from it.

An older person wearing a long shirt and a blue and white silken kilt who is behind Lang Yuan noticed the new face. He has been going in and out from this town for the thousand of times that he's already familiar with the faces of the people inside the town and the migrants. To see Lang Yuan trying to break his neck by anxiously watching over the processes happening to the gate... it seems that this man is an inexperienced Traveller?

Greed overcome his morals and decided to catch this little ones on his net. He wore his kind looking face and approached the little guy.

"Excuse me, mister..." he called out.

Lang Yuan is still sitting on his horse so the old man has too look up. The young man noticed his call and looked down, slowly moving his head towards the other person, his eyes winking slowly to recognize the man. For a while, the old mad was dumbstruck!

Why... why is this person is so good looking! He looks like a fairy ba!

Lang Yuan noticed the man staring at him with a dazed expression. His brows creased, wondering what this person is doing. Maybe Lang Yuan made something wrong and this old man will scold him? But Lang Yuan made sure that this line is going inside the gate and he is the last one to take when nobody arrived after a while. Questions seems to appear one by one on his mind but his face still looks stiff as if there's no problem at all.

The old man quickly regained his composure and muttered a curse under his breath. He tried doing it again hoping that the man will not notice. Lucky for him that Lang Yuan is not from this world that would treat him as a threat. The old man made the palm-rubbing gesture as if asking a favor.

"I may ask, this young master is new to this place?" He asked.

The young master that he called slightly wrinkled his brows with a faint blush to his cheeks. Don't blame Lang Yuan! He's never called as a young master before!

But the old man has reasons of calling Lang Yuan as a young master. He might not had been able to see it when he was standing to the back but seeing Lang Yuan face to face made his eyes turn gold. Lang Yuan's clothes are not the finest of all but can be seen as one of those expensive robes that can only be worn by aristocrats.

The merchants who gave these clothes made sure that Lang Yuan is presentable now that he's carrying the unborn prince. They are generous too with the horse, which is said to be one of those expensive breeds due to their intellect and loyalty to their masters. To have this young man possess these things means that he's rich and maybe pampered by his parents.

Lang Yuan who is the most ignorant person of the world didn't know about this fact so he accidentally keeps flaunting his expensive things without realizing its true value.

But actually, these gifts would be sooner given to him by the Emperor Dragon so giving it beforehand is not a problem at all.

These stuff made the old man more excited and walked closer to Lang Yuan. He showed another face of concern like a practiced actor.

"My name is Lai MingLi and I'm a travelling merchant from this town. As the capital of the Empire of Qian, it's normal to have new guests inside the town. Perhaps, this young master is here to be part of the Grand Wedding?"

So this place is the capital of the Empire Qian? No wonder the walls are made from iron and there are high-rise buildings. If it's a remote town then Lang Yuan's ideal village would be true. Must be luck to come in an advance town to settle.

"Grand Wedding?" Now his attention was caught by these words.

"Yes, the Grand Wedding. It was said that the World Emperor, Emperor Yu XueQin found his bride a few weeks ago. The wedding will be held inside the Great Hall of the YingLan Sect and everyone is coming to attend it," the old man looked at him suspiciously. "Is the young master unaware of this event?"

Lang Yuan kept his stoic face and said: "I was travelling together with my companions a month ago when a group of bandits attacked us. I got separated and only saved a few of my things. I've been wandering for weeks on the mountains until I found this place."

"Oh, that was horrible!" The merchant muttered. Bandits are really bad news for merchants.

But our family jade made a hidden fist pump after successfully sending another lie. All right! Lang Yuan is very good in making stories, maybe he can use this talent and start writing novels? He can earn some money from it. (๑•̀ㅁ•́๑)✧

"Then where is the bride from?" Lang Yuan asked again. Information like this can be used as a conversation starter, according to his sisters who like to gossip. Nobody might like a chatty man but Lang Yuan can wisely use it if ever he wanted to lighten the mood when asking for information. And it's not that he'll be killed if he will know some gossip or two.

"The bride is said to be from across the country. They are still to meet so nobody knows the image of the princess." Lai MingLi answered.

Lang Yuan just shrugged. He remembered some stories from his history class about how women are sent to become brides of some prominent men. Despite the discrimination towards the roles of the said genders, the women living on this life are quite comfortable that they only need to serve their husbands at night and can almost freely do anything by themselves. Even if the man will take more brides, as long as they can get whatever riches the man have, is enough to share it with other woman. After all, polygamy is allowed to nurture and continue the lineage.

The emperor has no exception. He will need at least two wives to secure an heir for the crown.

Lang Yuan was caught with the talk that he didn't notice his turn to pay is coming. The horse neighed when three guards blocked their way. Lang Yuan quickly calmed the horse before facing the guards.

"Three gold coins for the horse and one gold coin per baggage. Two gold coins for every passenger, and another good coin for the permit... if you can show your permit then that is one less gold coin..."

Lang Yuan is not from this world but he knows that just by counting that it is too much for an entrance fee! Who do they think they are? This is clearly daylight stealing.

But before Lang Yuan can get the money to pay (well, he's actually rich so there's nothing wrong with it) the merchant Lai MingLi stepped forward. The guards already knows this man so he let him join the conversation.

"Can't you see that he's a young master? What do you think you are doing?" The old man said.

"A noble or not, everyone is oblidge to pay. That is a total of seven gold coins for you," the guard said unwavering.

Lang Yuan think that it's alright to pay so he prepared a few coins already. But the old man insisted of telling the guards that he's a distinguished man so he must have the royal access with the gate. The invited guests to the wedding are free of charge, the YingLan Sect paying for the expenses. After all, everything is still a business and one should adhere to the price.

He climb down from the horse and caressed the side of the horse before walking upfront. The egg was hidden well on his back so there's nothing to worry about it. He approached the guard and gave his payment, looking back to the old man with his things and paid twenty gold coins. Lai MingLi was shocked to see this amount from Lang Yuan. Indeed, he's a rich brat!

"I would like to ask where I can get the permit?" Lang Yuan asked.

The guard called another person over. This person is young, maybe twelve to thirteen, wearing only a brown tunic and black pants. He has a scholarly aura and seems to be reliable. Lang Yuan felt his appearance is kind of a pampered school boy from his previous life.

"This is Shen Qi. He will help you with processing the permit. He can also be a tour guide but that would be a separate expense from here."

Lang Yuan accepted the deal and paid another gold coin for the tour. The merchant Lai MingLi thanked Lang Yuan for paying him but Lang Yuan just shrugged his shoulder while saying that it's thanks for telling him some useful information.

The group entered the gate and the guards watched them go. One guard who just arrived noticed the clothes the young man is wearing. Maybe it's from a memory of a complicated crest that made him remember about a certain special person that will still about to arrive to their place. It only took him that one reason to glare at the guards on the gate to know who is this person they just provoked. 

UPDATES: Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays