There were no major incident for the rest of their journey to the capital.  One of the employees continued to throw dirty and angry looks their way but Marik chose to just ignore it for the most part.  In areas where he was sure of everyone's safety he would have Sara push herself to run as much as possible while making sure she would still have enough time to rest and mostly recover by the time they would be in any more dangerous area.  The trip took them another eight days until the capital finally came into view, or the edges of it at least.  It was a very large city and as they approached he could see what looked like a large wall surrounding a large area inside the city and a smaller wall both in height and thickness that went around the whole city itself.  It was actually short enough that he felt he could probably clear it in a single jump if he really wanted to, especially while in his beast form as he was even now.

As they approached the entrance to the road they were traveling on he walked up to where Anthony's carriage was and started keeping pace with it as he knocked on the door.  A curtain that covered the window was pulled aside to reveal Anthony's face who, upon noticing that it was Marik wishing to talk to him, clicked a latch and swung the glass window outwards.

"We're coming up on the city soon, here.  I wanted to confirm our plan of action.  Based on our contract that says you can call on our services freely during our stay, I'd like to get our rooms at the same inn that you or your employees will be staying in.  Personally I'd actually like to have at least one of us stick with you the whole time as well but I have the strangest feeling that neither you not the girls want that, so I'll settle for just being prepared for your call as best as I can.  I've also not personally been here before so I'm not sure if I need to pull out our own personal documents for entry or if we'll be counted as part of your crew while under contract."

"You know.  If I had been blind so that I couldn't see how young you actually are or your paperwork that showed your rank, I would have sworn up and down that you're at least fifth rank if not higher.  No matter, I suppose.  Very well, let's see what we can do about making sure you're not just at the same inn we have reserved but I'll try to make sure you have first or second floor rooms so that I can easily reach you if need be.  As for the entrance to the city, I will be required to pay your fees by having you contracted as my guards but it may be wise to have whatever paperwork you think you may need just in case."

"Then I'll make sure we have that in hand by the time we arrive at the gates.  Will we be lining up for the normal entranceway or do you have some voucher or such to skip ahead some?"

"I'm honestly not sure I've ever heard of such a voucher existing so we should be lining up like normal people."

"I see.  Thank you for the information.  We'll make sure we're ready, then.  Sorry to have bothered you."

"Not at all.  It seems there might be some minor oversights in how the current contract is written now that you've brought these things to my attention.  I'll likely do some revisions for next time.  So, thank you as well."

Anthony then closed the window and curtain again as Marik moved back to where the girls were.

"We should be slowing down soon to get in line.  It'll probably be best to get out our paperwork so we can prove our identities and that we're contracted to Anthony right now.  Once we do get in line you should probably rest for a bit, Sara.  If one of the three guards shows up winded while everyone else is fine it might look a little awkward and cause us to get delayed a bit for questioning."

"Okay."

"Before all that happens, though, you should probably transform back and get dressed, Sai.  I don't know the social norms of the city and I'd rather just not have an incident at all than try to avoid one."

"If you say so.  I think it'd be ok to just wait until we get a room, though."

"You might be right.  I just want to be sure, though."

"You're too careful sometimes.  I'll go ahead and change in the back wagon where our stuff is."

Sai fell back and soon disappeared from view as she lightly leapt into the back of the rear wagon.  Marik looked over at his sister and noted that although she was winded, she looked like she was doing a little better than she had a week ago.  Giving her as much time to rest over the next few days as possible would probably be a good idea.  Then again they did heal much faster than normal people so she may only need a day or so.

"Hey.  I know that both of you are probably going to have a bunch of things that you want to run around to see or do but you should make sure you take at least half a day or so to rest and heal up your sore muscles, okay?"

"I'll be fine."

"I'm sure.  Just make sure you don't get too sore or stiff.  I'm going to make a quick last lap to make sure we still have everything and everyone.  Once Sai is back out you can go ahead and jump in whenever you're ready."

Marik sprinted off towards the front of the convoy while eyeing everything to make sure nothing seemed out of place.  He continued his look over as he crossed over the front of the convoy and then slowed down so he could check everything all the way to the back.  The same person who had been giving them glares the whole trip threw another hateful stare his way, which he ignored like normal, as he slowly drifted to the back of the convoy.  He managed to catch Sai just pulling her shirt down as he reached the tail end and gave a slightly lecherous grin as she turned and spotted him.  She held a thoughtful look for a moment before lifting her shirt and flashing him a bit while winking at him which made his grin grow a little wider.  He glanced past the convoy to the side a bit and noticed his sister looking back and giving him a reproachful look so he shrugged and winked at Sai before continuing his final inspection.

Sara started falling back as Marik sped forward again and he caught her giving him one last disapproving glance before she fell all the back to the end and grabbed the last wagon to hop on board.  At the same time as she was jumping in, Sai flew out and landed softly on the ground before running to try and catch up to Marik.  Once she had caught up she ran next to him for a while, occasionally throwing a smile his way which he continued to find attractive.  Soon the convoy began slowing as it approached a line of people and wheeled vehicles waiting to be checked for entry to the city.  Marik and Sai slowed with it until they were walking at a normal pace and once the convoy had finally stopped Marik turned around and went to the back wagon where his sister was.

"Yo.  Mind pulling out both my shoes and our papers while you're there?"

"Umm.  Sure.  Give me just a bit.  Uh.  Here's your shoes, at least.  Give me a bit more to find all the papers.  I don't remember which bag we put them in."

"That's okay.  It's been over a week since we had to know where they were and we should have a little time before we need them.  As long as all three of us have them in hand by the time we reach the gate we should be fine."

"Alright."

Marik transformed back out of his beast form and noted how he felt a little weird after being that way for over a week.  He quickly put his socks and shoes back on then leaned against the wagon as he rested and waited.  When the line began to move forward he would stand up straight and then rest again when they stopped.  Sai seemed to enjoy running around and looking at the sights she could pick out without straying too far from the convoy.  When Marik saw that they were about to to have their turn to be checked he knocked on the back of the wagon and called out to Sara who jumped off and stretched a bit with papers in her hand.

Marik called out to Sai as he led Sara up to near where Anthony's carriage was.  As their turn finally came, Anthony opened his carriage door and stepped out to meet the guards.  A few of the guards walked around the convoy and did light checks along with the paperwork that Anthony had handed over while he was talking.  One of the guards gave the three mercs a scrutinizing gaze but nothing was said to them and before long the papers were handed back to Anthony and all of them were allowed to pass into the city.

As they walked through the city, Sai and Sara kept swiveling their heads around to look all over the place in excitement and Marik smiled at them.  He was sure that without the memories of his past life that he would likely be doing something similar while being equally impressed.  The convoy finally stopped at an inn and Marik told the girls to wait for a bit while he followed Anthony inside and paid to have a two person room set up for him and the two girls while making sure that everything was fine with three of them occupying said room.  Once everything was settled he went back outside to call the girls and grab their bags so they could drop them off in their rooms.

Sara wasn't too happy that she would be stuck in the same room that he and Sai would be sleeping together in again but Marik tried to assure her that it wouldn't be as bad as last time.  Once they had settled all their things in their new room they went back out and watched as everyone else moved around to park the wagons and carriages or bring stuff to the various rooms they had on the third and fourth floors.  Finally Anthony came down and noticed Marik and the girls standing there.  Marik waved at him and Anthony walked up.

"Well hell there.  So we should be here for only three days and I'd say you're all free for those three days, but..."

"Hmm.  I've been thinking about it and I think we should be in our room at night but we may take this first night to check out the nightlife in the city.  Other than that I'll try to make sure we check in at the front desk to see if you've left any messages for us at least twice a day."

"That seems fine.  I hope you three enjoy your time in the city.  Take care if you should find yourself too near the inner wall, though.  That's typically considered more of the nobles' area and there are definitely some of the typical types who feel they have the right to mistreat those of the lower class."

"We'll be careful about that then.  Thank you for the warning.  Barring any emergency, we'll meet you here in the morning in three days.  We will be leaving in the morning, I assume?"

"Yes.  That's the plan.  Now, if you three will excuse me, I will attend to my own business.  Have a good day and try to have some fun."

"Thank you and you too."

Marik watched as Anthony walked away and then turned to the girls.

"So, should we go out and just see what's out there or should we set some goal?  Personally I'm fine either way but I'd like to keep an eye open for any shop that might have some spell tomes or magic items for sell."

"I think we should just go and look around and have fun!  Sara?"

"I don't really know, so I guess just walking round and seeing what's there is fine?"

"Great.  Let's do that then."

Marik cast his detection arcanistry as discreetly as he could while they walked outside and began to aimlessly walk around the city.  He meant to have his detection arcanistry up just as a kind of habit of cautiousness that he wanted to have but became legitimately surprised when he occasionally heard the buzzing of spells and sorceries being used here or there.  As they traveled around and looked at various sights he began to reason out his surprise with the fact that there were more than just beast races in this city and that even if there had been nothing but beast races that with a population this large there were bound to be some few who could use mystical arts.

They managed to make their way back to the inn after they had eaten lunch to make sure there were no messages for them and then continued looking around the city some more.  They found several interesting shops that had several interesting things but Marik was slightly disappointed that they hadn't seemed to find anything enchanted or that dealt with magic by the time evening came.  They headed back to the inn once more and decided to eat their dinner there.  After dinner they walked around a bit more when Sai finally looked off in a certain direction and noticed that there were some scantily clad people beginning to come out of some of the buildings and call out to people who walked nearby.

"What's over there?"

"That...is probably where all the brothels and nightclubs are."

"Hmm?  So, like that's where the prostitutes and stuff are?  Do you think any of them have male whores?"

"Umm.  I'm fairly certain that there would be one or two somewhere, yes."

"Really?  Hmm..."

Sai suddenly grabbed both his and Sara's wrists and started trudging off into that direction while shouting 'let's go'.

Marik thought about breaking free and pointing out that there's no way that he would allow himself or her to have sex with a prostitute for various reasons and Sara would definitely not accept one either.  However, he thought about it a bit and knew that Sai wasn't stupid enough to actually try and do something like that, even is she was crazy enough to think up some weird plan that only included the use of prostitutes.  Figuring that he might as well just let her have her fun instead of trying to head off whatever she might think up to make up for not being able to do what she wanted this time around was the best option, he quietly let himself be pulled along without complaint.

Sara, on the other hand, seemed to be much less happy about the situation and began to grumble and try to pull away as Sai pulled her forward.

"Just let her do whatever, sis.  She's not going to try and make us sleep with anybody.  She most likely came up with some crazy idea and at this point it's best to just let it happen and make her happy rather than let her come up with something worse."

"But...fine."

Sara tried to think up an excuse but gave up as she considered his words before just letting Sai pull them along.  She approached any of the scantily clad women that called out to them to ask if they had any men whores working at their place until one of them finally blinked in surprise before telling her yes.  With a huge smile on her face she dragged her two captives into that building and nearly ran up to the front desk.

"Hello.  How much to hire two people, one male and one female, with some interesting skills?"

"Sai, honey, they get paid by the time.  Usually by the minute or hour."

"Oh, right.  So how much for that for one hour?"

The receptionist looked at her with slight confusion on her face but tried her best to still act professional as if she wasn't bothered by a strange yet beautiful foxkin woman suddenly barging in with two people in tow while asking for two prostitutes.

"Uh...with interesting skills, you say?  I think we may have a few that could fulfill that condition but each of our workers has their own prices, so..."

"Oh, okay.  So how do I find and ask them?"

"Um, right.  If you'd like to take a seat over there we can call some of them out in a moment."

"Okay!  Thanks!"

Sai led them over to a couch where she happily sat down and waited while that sparkling gleam of excitement played around in her eyes.  Marik sighed and sat down next to her while indicating to his sister that she should do the same.

"So, I'll tell you now that neither I nor Sara will likely pay for any of whatever you're planning to do tonight."

"I know.  This just seems like such a great opportunity!"

Marik sighed again but kept his mouth shut as a bunch of women and a few men began filing in to line up in front of them.  Sai looked them all over and then began explaining herself for the benefit of all the confused people around.

"So I want to hire one man and one woman with skills that they can show off while we watch.  This poor girl has no experience and almost no knowledge and needs to see how much fun she's missing while maybe learning a thing or two for when the time comes.  Meanwhile I want me and my husband to to try and find some exciting new things we haven't tried yet or thought of yet.  Anyone who isn't confident in their skills or that they can actually have fun is out."

Several of the women and one of the men looked at her like she was a freak and then turned to leave again.  One of the men stepped forward towards her while blatantly trying to promote the bulge in his tightened pants.

"I can probably show you a few things but you may take to liking just how huge I am and leaving your husband to give me a try."

"Good confidence but don't care.  I'm looking for skills, not dick size."

"You say that now, but once-"

"Nope.  More skills, not more dick!  If your only skill is a large penis then please go away because that's not what I'm looking for."

The man gave her a frustrated look but finally turned and left.  One of the women who seemed a little older finally came forward and pointed at one of the men while she began talking to Sai.

"Well, I've been around and picked up a thing or two and he isn't particularly well endowed but he's never received even the smallest complaint about his performance so I'd say he knows a thing or two about what he's doing.  That said, we're some of the more expensive ones, so..."

"I have some money saved up.  How much for an hour for now with maybe longer if you can actually teach us some stuff?"